Summer Fun!

Summer is here and full of excitement! As soon as Brandon took his last final we flew off to Florida for a fantastic Furness family reunion! After fun in the sun with cousins in the pool, at the beach, and at Sea World, we managed to get back on the plain just before Hailey turned 2! (Her last free flight . . .)

We went crazy and painted the kitchen/livingroom walls green the second we got home.
The next day I made a beautiful butterfly cake for the Birthday Girl! She had a happy day with her new rubber duckies, purple heart necklace, rings to match, and from Grandpa and Gramma, the Little People Farm, complete with animal noises and a merry-go-round!












If mom and dad are ever invited to play on the farm, we are only allowed to touch the farmer. One of her favorite games to play with the animals is letting them drink from the little watering trough and in the process, "Dey fell in da water!" She then takes a turn pretending to get a drink and, "AAAAH! I fell in da water too!"

Grandpa, Gramma, and Mary came for a visit in June (as stated in Mary's blog). And it's true, Hailey is crazy about Mary! She still makes phone calls to her on her egg-slicing cell phone from time to time.

For the 4th of July we zipped up to Chicago to see some of Brandon's extended family. Hailey and I had never met Brandon's Grandpa and Grandma Goose and realized this would probably be one of our last opportunities to do it. So...we did. It was great to see family and Brandon's cousin showed us around the big city! We went to a museum, visited the top of the Sear's Tower, and ate real Chicago style pizza. (mmm. . . pizza.) Hailey stayed up for her first fireworks show and LOVED it! She used the most logical words she could come up with to descibe it, "Messy fireworks! Messy!" She requested fireworks for the next couple weeks and she now makes a variety of firework noises.

Dan and Jess just left our place today. It was sure fun to see them again! Hailey adores them, not to mention Ebbie! Uncle Dano taught Hailey about the army . . .



















Aunt Jess taught her about talking on cell phones . . .



















and Hailey taught Ebbie how to read.

Are we smiling yet?

A couple weeks ago a friend from the ward told me that she had two coupons for a free 8x10 portrait. She was taking her little girl to get a picture done and invited me to do the same for Hailey. Pictures can be picked up after an hour and there is a play place at the mall so we planned to get the pictures taken, play for an hour and pick the pictures up. Sounds pretty good huh. Well, not so much. We got there and they couldn't see us until 12:40, over an hour and a half away. My friend asked, "But don't you take walk-ins?" I was a little baffled, but thought, "Well, it's just as much my fault for not suggesting making an appointment when it crossed my mind." I just a assumed and we all know what that does.

Since we were there and the girls where in dresses we decided to stay, play first, take pictures and pick them up on a later date. Well, Hailey had stayed up late the night before and after playing at the play place for a few minutes I could tell she was ready for a nap. Needless to say, two hours later, she wanted nothing to do with following the directions of some unknown person in an unknown place, being isolated from her mommy. She liked a little rocking chair and seemed to be okay with that for a second. The funny part was the photographer and the other mom trying to tell Hailey to stop rocking in the rocking chair . . . "Your kidding, right?"

TANGENT: Those directions came from a mom that doesn't need latches on her cupboards.

This same mom asked me, "How do you have anything low at your house?" after watching Hailey play with all of her coffee table decorations.

"I don't."

This same mom asked me, "You buckle Hailey into the cart?" when we went groccery shopping together.

This same mom, when getting her daughter's pictures taken says, "Put your hands here Teya, put your feet together Teya, smile Teya," and Teya complies. TANGENT COMPLETE.

So anyway, we thought we might entice Hailey with a sucker. "Here Hailey, pose for the camera and you can have a taste of the sucker. Now pose again and you can have another taste." Ha! It was like taking candy from a baby. . . have you ever tried taking candy from a baby? So we have some pictures with red eye brows, tear-filled eyes and a green sucker smile.

I was actually pleasently surprised with the results. Now that the experience is over I think the pictures are pretty funny! We picked the first one. It's a mild-mannered depiction of Hailey, but pretty cute.

We've been teaching Hailey to say her name when asked. It's pretty cute to hear her say, "Hay-yee Fuw-ness." She caught onto the concept apparently because she quickly started rambling everything off with a last name. "Mom Fuw-ness. Dad Fuw-ness. Bear Fuw-ness. Blankie Fuw-ness. Milk Fuw-ness."

She learned the "Happy Birthday" song in nursery and she loves to include everone in that as well. "Happy Burfday Dad, Hay-yee, stroller, blankie, carseat, baby, blocks. . ."

Sometimes she forgets what she started off doing.

Things she does that make me grin.

Hailey has been discovering burps lately. If anyone burps she excitedly points it out, "Mama burp! Hailey burp! Dad burp!" (Dad can burp on command so you can imagine how popular that trick is right now.) The other day Hailey was trying hard to burp, "Uuugh. . . uuugh . . ." It wasn't working out very well so she asked for assistance, "Help you?" ("You" of course meaning "me.") She seemed disappointed to learn that there wasn't anything I could do about it.

After giving Hailey a bath one day, I let the water drain out to let her know it was time to get out. She heard the water gurgle down the drain and instinctively pointed and said, "Burp?"

"Yeah, I guess the bath tub is burping."

Hailey was still playing absentmindedly after all the water was gone. I asked her, "Hailey, where's the water?" She looked at me and patted what she expected to be the water only to find the bath tub; looked around and shrugging said, "Water aw gone. B-bye water!"

As part of Hailey's bedtime routine we read to her from The Book of Mormon while she drinks her milk. We were heading to bead tonight with blankie, bear, and a sippy of milk when Hailey kept telling me "Good morning." I kept replying, "No, it's night time. Good night." I didn't realize where the mix up came from until I pulled out The Book of Mormon and she called it "Good morning!" I guess well work on that one.

It has warmed up around here so we are already driving around with our windows down. Hailey loves it "windy!" Last week we were stopped at a light and the guy next to us happened to have his windows down too. He was lined up with Hailey's open window so she leaned over and yelled, "HI!" She turned to me and said, "Makin' friends," then turned back to her new friend to say, "HI! HI! HI!"

"Break it."

This year was Hailey's first Easter egg dying experience and she chose two simple words to describe it, "Break it." Every time her little hands touched an egg she said, "Break it. Break it." Whether dropping her egg into the dye or using her bare hands to pull it out, her motives were the same, "Break it." She helped us discover that mom hadn't cooked the eggs long enough. Thanks Hailey.