The Babysitters

Darlene and I went out together for the first time since Hailey was born! We were a little bit nervous about leaving, but this was our 4th year we were to go to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra. If you have never seen them before, go and see them if they're ever in your area. To best describe their music, it's basically one part Christmas Music, one part Rock and Roll, and one part Orchestra all mixed into one that also includes a phenomenal light show. 4th row seats doesn't hurt the cause either!! ;-)

So, we recruited some of the best and brightest baby sitters around! Here they are!

Grandma Jane


Cousin Mason


Cousin Maggie

Happy Baby

Hailey and Dad sitting around the table playing games. I was thankful she was on my team because she has an extremely good game face that I am just not ready to face yet at the dinner table.

Asleep at the Wheel

When we all have too much fun. Sooner or later, we all must sleep! That is why we're always thankful to be on the nice comfy couch!!!

Hailey and Jemma

Hailey went over to Jemma's today to visit. Judging by this picture, Hailey was doing all the talking and shouting. Apparently Hailey was totally enamored by Jemma, who wouldn't be! Look at that baby!

Hailey then proceeded to talk and talk and talk and talk until...

...Jemma finally had enough and loosed the universal sound that makes the parent know that they want to be picked up. Hailey did tell me she couldn't wait to see her again!

Texas Get-up

Hailey in her pink outfit that came all the way from Abilene, Texas. Thank you Great Aunt Karen for sending the outfit! It was actually perfect timing when the package arrived. We were just sitting down to start opening gifts when they dropped it off!

Christmas Cheer, Part 3

Hailey and her first gift from Santa Clause! As her little onesy reads, this is her first Christmas! We had a fairly un-eventful day. We've been tackling the better part of the 10 pound ham we had with my family is in town. It's amazing the different things you can do with ham. If anyone has any new ideas for ham, please let us know!

I realized today that I've never had a picture of our birds on the blog! Everyone has their pets mentioned in their family history, and I didn't want ours to miss out. Here are Winky (green) and Nod (yellow), our parakeets! They are the bravest birds in the world as you can obviously see. They are patiently perched on this red and yellow tree branch in the middle of the ocean while the waves are crashing around them in the background.

Christmas Cheer, Part 2

Continuing from yesterdays theme. Here are some good ones that also include Mason and Maggie holding Hailey. They were both really sweet about it and always were asking "Can I hold Hailey?" We are sooo thankful you all could come up! We can't wait to see you again already!

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas! And we love you all!!

Cousin Maggie and Hailey. They're both appear equally intrigued with each other!

Cousin Mason and Hailey. Hailey is concentrating very hard on working the nook.

Grandma Jane, Maggie and Uncle Earl examining Hailey's hand.

When the fun settled. Maggie and Hailey were exhausted after all the excitement!!

Christmas Cheer, Part 1

Before I get to the pictures. I have to announce that for the first time, I have been victorious in our quasi-annual Christmas and/or New Year Monopoly game. For 15 years, I have frequented the loser lounge shortly after the game is thoroughly under way. I got pretty lucky tonight, but that's what games are all about :) You win some, you lose some, and once every 15 years, I can pull a rabbit out of the hat in Monopoly.

Without further adieu... Hailey and various people of my side of the family.

Uncle Steph


Aunt Holly


Uncle Earl


Hailey with Mom and Dad including a pretty good haul. I started to wish my name was Hailey after a while! Thanks to everyone for everything, including Hailey's Great Aunt Karen with a present sent from Abilene, TX! As you can see, Hailey was extremely exhausted with all the commotion. I'm fairly certain she has no idea she got the coolest stacking rings in the world.


Fenner Christmas 2006

Thanks again so much for everyone traveling at least 2 and 1/2 hours to join in Hailey's first Christmas. I hope you all had a safe trip home and most definitely have a Merry Christmas!

Visit from Grandma

Hailey sleeping on Grandma Jane!

Grandma came up a day early to avoid the weather. We're all eagerly awaiting the rest of our company for the weekend. Hopefully the weather doesn't keep anyone from coming!

Meet Jemima Quickert

Here is Hailey and Jemima Quickert. Jemima is now almost 2 weeks old! We really wanted to say congratulations again to Maren and Karl and show off Hailey and her brand new best friend (even though they probably don't know it... yet...)

Here I am holding Jemima even though you can't see her. That smile on my face is simply because I am in such close proximity to the one and only Brett Favre! Ok, so it's only our friend Jon, but that smile does mean I am holding the second cutest newborn baby in the world! I do apologize Jemma, because I am obviously showing some paternal preference!! I surely hope you understand! :o)

Panda vs. Hailey

Hailey and this Panda are going nose to nose in a staring contest.

Interesting point to note, babies at this age are supposed to be intrigued by black and white things. I'm going to assume that this means that this Panda is doing the trick. Some day we are going to take Hailey to San Diego to see this real Live Panda!

I also want to deliver some Thank you's to three people for items in this picture! Thanks to Aunt Donna again for sending this mini-Panda from Japan. Thanks to Karen (one of Darlene's co-workers) for the nice flowered sleeper. And lastly, but not leastly, thanks to Mary (another one of Darlene's co-workers) for the wooden Hailey name plaque!

Auntie Donna's Hat

Here is an awesome video of Hailey wearing (or at least attempting to wear) the hat she got all the way from Japan! This is her first attempt at impersonations, but this is the best darned bobble-head impersonation ever!!!

Before pressing play please select one of the following options as the video is rotated 90 degrees left of vertical (mainly to keep you on your toes):

Option #1: Lay your left ear on the keyboard in a position so you can still cast your eyes upon the monitor.

Option #2: You may also tip you monitor onto its right side.

Option #3: Just play the video and pretend that the video was in the positioned accordingly.

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Recovery is Sweet

When we're all pretty tired from the weekend still. We sure enjoy Hailey when she's happily snoozing away like this!

Potentially funny. Seriously weird. Pretty much, just plain wrong. I'm really hoping this picture doesn't make it out if Hailey or I ever run for president!

Survived!

We made it home from our weekend excursion. 49 hours away from home for the first time which included 12 hours of driving time covering 680 total miles round trip!! Maplewood, MN to Neillsville, WI to Reedsburg, WI (for refueling the baby) to Lena, IL and back again! Who would be up for this daunting task you might ask? I could name names about who would be brave/crazy enough to try this, but since you're reading this post, I'm thinking you already know.

Before we dive into the pictures, here is a multiple choice question... How much of the 12 hours driving time do you think that Hailey did this?

A. ) 0-3 hours
B. ) 3-7 hours
C. ) 7-11 hours
D.) 11 hours and 50 minutes
E. ) I don't have a guess, but I can't wait to see the answer at the bottom of the post.

While you ponder that, lets see some pictures!!!

Thank you Aunt Donna!!! This fine hat was sent all the way from Japan! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!!! As you expected, the hat probably won't fit until Hailey is in high school, but she was pretty darned funny balancing it on her head!


Great Grandma Zier with Hailey. What a cute pair!
Hailey actually slept through most of the party while being passed from baby admirer to baby admirer! Good thing there were enough other baby cousins to go around!


Hailey and Aunt Barb. I'm Pretty sure Hailey told her joke about the one where the baby who wore pink that couldn't get down the fire escape.


Four Generations. Great Grandma Irma, Grandpa Daryl, Mommy Darlene and Cutest-baby-this-side-of-the-Mississippi Hailey.


Everyone! Grandma Jo and Daddy added to this picture.

Answer to the trivia question is D. She slept for 99% of our trip believe it or not! Her worst crying came during the length of the Grandparents driveway on the drive home. A grand total of two miles!!

To tell you the truth, we had a great weekend, traveling and all. Even though we're tired and exhausted, we had so much fun seeing everyone! Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma for taking a chance with Hailey and driving down there together! Thanks to Aunt Deb and Uncle Bill for hosting and dinner! Thanks to Cousin Tabitha and Ryan for letting us bed down at your place. And last, but definitely not least, thanks to Aunt Donna for calling to visit with everyone during the party. We can't wait to see you!

The title of this post should really have been 'Success', because it really was more than we were expecting. To tell you the truth, we couldn't have imagined Hailey being so good on the way down and back!

No Post Tomorrow!

We're traveling to Lena, Illinois this weekend to be with Darlene's family. We're excited to see everyone there. However, to the rest of those who frequent this site, there won't be any new pictures until late Sunday night.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

~Tony, Darlene and Hailey

We're really hoping she does this all the way there and back!

We're pretty sure Grandpa and Grandma Zier are hoping this too because we're all riding down together. (4 1/2 hours)

Bottle Video

Here is a quick video of the bottle Santa was feeding Hailey the other day. :)

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Ready to Roll

Here's Hailey on her way out to see some friends. Nice Hat!

First Bottle!

Here's Santa feeding Hailey her first bottle. Ok, Ok. If you read the post yesterday, you'd know that this was the second one. We forgot to take a picture yesterday of the first one so we'll just have to pretend a little bit!

Obviously, we're all done having fun. Santa hat is in my eye, and Hailey thinks I'm embarrassing her.

PhotoOp with Dad

Cute.

Cuter.

Cutest.

We all actually had a couple big milestones today!! First, Darlene and Hailey both went to the grocery store for the first time together! Then this evening, I fed Hailey her very first bottle! Granted, she just drooled a lot getting used to the new stemware, but she did very well. She gave a good burp after words and fell fast asleep on my chest! I say that's a good thing!

Caseys Taco Pizza

Thank you Tim, Jen and Addie for bringing one of Darlene's most favorite foods of all time! The legendary Casey's Taco Pizza! Once thought to only be found in Iowa and Southern Wisconsin, Tim found a location in Blaine which is actually not too far to travel to pick up this fancy feast. Thanks again! You really made our day!

Now Darlene can no longer say "Man, the last time I had one of those was when I was my junior in high school..."

And I no longer have to image what one would taste like. I have tried the taco pizza first hand, and it was well worth the 9 years*** of hype!

Addie giving smooches to Hailey. (Collective awwwwww)

Once she started smooching everyone, even our Guard Pig got in on the action.

***Note: I just wanted to add proof that Darlene and I have known each other for 9 years. Here we are our senior year of high school. Image taken from our senior yearbook!

Yes. Yes. And Yes. Are the answers to the following questions:
Is that a mohawk?
Aren't we cute?
Is that a sticker on my shoulder?

Trifecta of Cleanliness

Here we all are! I am fairly certain this is the first time since Hailey was born that all three of us have had a shower or bath and been seen together! So we thought we'd share this moment. Although, we do need to work on Hailey's picture taking skills. As you can see, Mom and Dad are sporting the photogenic smiles. While all Hailey can muster is about a 10% smile while the other 90% is her feed-me face.

Mr. & Mrs. Lutsey

Here is Hailey with her latest additions to the list of our friends she has slept on. Thank you so much Jon and Pam for visiting with us and bringing such a yummy dinner! Pork will always be the only white meat around here!

Goodbye to N's

Cashed out.

Hailey used her last N diaper last night. For those keeping score, N stands for 'newborn' and indicates that the size is for babies 10 lbs or less. So now we have her in the 1's which supposedly fit 8-14 pounders. What that means is that she had to spend double time filling those suckers up today. Hence, she's out like a light. Nice work sweetie!

Pacification, Part Deux

Proof she knows how to use the nook. Only noticed if you can take your eyes off her eyes!

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Pacification

Ahhhh. The wondrous pacifier. How thankful we are to own thee.

Second Picture Set Uploaded

See link on the right to view and order pictures online. If there is a picture you don't see that you want to order, let me know and I can make it available!!

All pictures that were uploaded were posted on the blog, so there's nothing new :)

Thanks for stopping by to see our baby!!

~Tony & Darlene

Happy Original-Due-Date Day

Just ate. One word? Satisfied.

I can't believe today was when we were originally expecting her to be born! Hailey is already almost 4 weeks old! We had her in at the doctor today because she was spitting up seemingly more than usual (a.k.a. excessively fertilizing mom and dad's clothes)

Apparently she has been keeping her fare share down. She weighed in at 9 lbs 9 ounces!!! So in just under 4 weeks, she went from being in the 25th percentile for babies weight at her age to the 90th percentile!!! She has also grown 2 inches and is now 22 inches tall.

See What Happens

When Hailey needs to eat every two hours overnight, this is what we tend to discover in the morning!

The Touchets

Thank you Joe and Meghan for bringing over dinner! It was soooooo good!

We really enjoyed your company! Also thanks for playing some games with us. Bohnanza is still really fun. Also, the new Power Grid game I really really enjoyed as well!! It's funny that the previous name was Funkenschlag. Everyone should have a game that started out with a name that cool.

Tea Time

All dressed up with no place to go.

Born to Sleep

So we made it out again today. We weren't sure if we wanted to go out. I checked the temperature on weather.com and it said the temp 'felt' like 1 degree out! We then decided to be brave and we met Maren & Karl and Joe & Meghan for Mrs. Kelly's Tea! I'm not a huge tea drinker, but gosh darn she makes some good tea! We bought tin's of Soothing Pear, Holiday Tea (one of my favs) and Cozy Chamomile.