Skipping Girls

We were trying to teach Hailey to skip the other day... Have you ever tried? I haven't... So this was new to me. Honestly though, it started out quite well. Look at them go!

After a bit though, it turned into more of a running party than anything. Running girls!

Finally, we just gave up. Yes Hailey, you can log roll if you want to!

Bo's Jumperoo

We got Bo a new jumperoo! After last weekend when Bo was able to spend time in his friend Ainsley's exer-saucer, we thought he would be quite interested! Lo and behold! He is! That is, after he survived his first go-round as Hailey pretended it was a sling shot with him in it... That time ended with Bo crying and being held by Momma while Hailey climbed on it.

Now he's quite content to hang out in it! Which is nice that he can be contained, yet see everything that's going on. Especially when the birdies fly by and catch his eye!

Bo Can

Hailey and I had a friendly disagreement today. She said that Bo wouldn't fit in the laundry basket. I said he would. There's only one way to find out. . .

I WIN!!!

After we got Bo in there Hailey just HAD to see if Ducky would fit too. He fit, with room to spare. Poor Bo just looked around trying to figure out why he was in a laundry basket and why Hailey and I were so excited about it.

Daddy and Bo

Just the boys... Nothing more, nothing less! :)

Bo's Education

It seems like every day Hailey and Bo are able to interact a little bit more. Lately I've been encouraging Hailey to "teach" Bo how to do things that she enjoys. Its still pretty hit or miss, but every now and then she'll bring a toy over for him to watch. Bo is absolutely fascinated by the things his big sister can do.

Firefigher Elmo

We went over to Hailey's friend Belle's house today to pick up a few things from the garage sale we had together yesterday. Belle asked Hailey if she wanted to play in the Elmo sprinkler. When we got there, Hailey wasn't sure what to do. She kinda watched it and kept her eye on Belle flying around and through the sprinkler. Then Amber told Hailey to spread her arms out and run around and pretend to be an airplane. So Hailey started flying around getting closer and closer to the water. As you can see, she eventually took to the sprinkler real nice. Thank you Belle for inviting me over!!!

Bedtime Books

Once in a while, Bo gets involved in our books before bed program. He already seems to like reading, which is a really good thing since we have a lot of books!

Projects R Us

Birdhouse: $0.60
Paint: $1.50
Listening to Hailey talk about how an eagle
is going to lay eggs in this little house...
Priceless.

Illinois Adventures

After the return to Neillsville from camping, I was excited to find that Bo had learned/enjoyed the baby swing! It seems the last few years that Hailey has learned something new during the week. The first year, she learned how to crawl and I missed it!

When we got back to Neillsville we then started the trek to Lena, Illinois for the weekend. We had a great time visiting and eating and visiting with the Zier side of the family! It's been too long since we've seen you guys!!!

Bo and his this-is-awesome face in the fancy dancy swing! :)

Hailey swinging with her cousins Ava, Eden and Henry from left to right (the picture, not the swing)

After dinner, the girls had to reconvene for some ice cream cone eating... Notice Hailey digging in her cone wondering where the rest of her ice cream went... I know it's in there somewhere!

The newest 4 generation picture! Great Grandma Zier, Grandpa Zier, Mommy, Hailey and Bo!

And last but not least, another one of Grandpa and Bo. They were having such a good time hanging out, it was hard to pry them apart!

Well, this concludes another year of summer vacation travels. We really have nothing planned for the rest of the summer, so if you want to come visit! You are more than welcome!!!

Camp Minocqua '09 - 3 of 3

As I think I mentioned before, the weather for the last couple days wasn't the greatest... So we had to make due with what we had.

Uncle Stephy bought Hailey a fishing pole last year so we figured we'd give it a go. After quite a few training seminars, Grandma took Hailey down to the beach for a few casts... She couldn't quite get the casting down, but she sure could real in the "bait"!

Alright Hailey, just watch how Daddy does this... Be sure to stick that tongue out!

This is probably one of my favorite pictures from the week! We finally decided Hailey was ready to go fishing in the boat... Hat? check. Papa coat? check. Tackle box? check. I think she's ready folks!

That is, until I spotted Hailey looking over the edge of the boat... staring down at something... Next thing I knew, she was crying that she wanted her pole! She was empty handed! OH NO! So after a spin around in the boat, thank goodness the part of the lake we were at was only 5 feet deep! I was able to fish that pole straight out of the lake!

Shortly after that one of the more humorous stories emerged... We were probably a 10 minute boat ride away from the campsite when Hailey declared she had to go potty... I prepped her for the experience of hanging her back side over the edge of the boat. She got done tinkling and said, "This thing has no flusher!" Right you are Hailey, the lake will take care of the rest of the action!

After the whole ordeal, Grandma and Hailey had a little snuggly time in the front of the boat. Awwwwwwwww!

It was still pretty rainy on Friday when we were leaving, but there was enough time during the rain storm for Hailey and Cousin Mason to do some wheeling around!

Sadly, as quickly as the trip came, we had to go! I can't wait until next year! I think my bet will be that I'll be posting pictures of Hailey's first fish... Does anyone have any other bets as to what we'll be doing???

Camp Minocqua '09 - 2 of 3

One thing about the weather is that we definitely packed in quite a few activities on Tuesday that revolved around being in the water. After the storms on Tuesday night we had Wednesday morning to enjoy some sun before the clouds and cold took over.

We couldn't let the weather get us down thought! We still had loads of fun!!!

We started out the morning with flop cake, flap jacks and flip sides! After partaking in a real Swedish flop cake, Hailey decided to make her own, in the dirt, on this fancy table. As for the flip sides, they are a new Ritz cracker/pretzel thing that were actually pretty good too!

After waiting the mandatory 5 minutes after eating rule, we headed down to the beach for a little swimming. Hailey is doing her Yoga "crab walk" in the water while Daddy is sporting his I-sunburn-really-easy t-shirt!

One of the items purchased on the trip was a pack of beach toys from Sam Walton's place... I think Hailey is panning for gold hoping we can make another trip to get some more toys!

Hailey being happy about her Elmo suit and blue bucket! Additionally, this picture kindly reminds me that this lake is one of the most beautiful places we visit in Wisconsin and for as fun and exciting as the trip is, I can never handle the fact that the trip just flies right by and we have to talk about NEXT year's trip already! **collective sigh**

As promised... S'MORES!!!!!!!!!


Dancing with Grandma Jane! And one of the cuter parts of the weekend is the cat she is holding onto. She got it from Grandma Zier and on our trip to Illinois at the end of the week, named it after Uncle Willie's dog Gretchen!


What a cutie huh???


We had to stop for a quick Daddy/Hailey picture!


And one more good one of Uncle Stephy and Grandma Jane!

Camp Minocqua '09 - 1 of 3

We had such a great time camping last week! Every time I think about it, I can't believe how nervous I was about how it would go. I said I would have Hailey up there from Monday and we'd probably leave about noon on Friday... That is, if things didn't go haywire inbetween in which case we'd just have to make the 2 hour haul back to Neillsville.

On the flip side, it was really quite the opposite! Everyone had a great time hanging out with Hailey and we did so many things... Boat rides, fishing, swimming, playing in the sand, s'mores, sleeping in the tent, staying up late, getting up early, extra long naps and much much more! I have so many memories that the 260+ pictures from the last week can't even explain!

Thank you everyone so much who was camping as well as Mommy and Bo for letting us be away for 4 days and Grandma and Grandpa Zier for hosting Mommy and Bo for the time we were away.

That said, here are the first round of pictures! I hope you enjoy them!!!

Here we are after we made the 2.5 hour journey to Minocqua. Everyone was happy to see us, especially Grandma Jane!

Here is Hailey having a little fun after we woke up from our first night in the tent. It was a cold night and Hailey kept sneaking out of her sleeping bag. I had to stuff her back into the bag at least 3 times... After a while, I couldn't keep track and I'm sure Hailey couldn't either. None of the times when I moved her did she wake up!

The first full day started with breakfast (cereal), second breakfast (doughnuts) and third breakfast (bread with jelly) shown here. Uncle Stephy and Uncle Will were also enjoying Hailey's company around the fire... I'm really sure all she was saying was "Mmmmm... Mmmmm... Mmmmmm...."

We took our first boat ride of the year with Grandma Jane (taking the picture) and Cousin Mason. Hailey brought her new bunny "Fu-Fu" along for the ride too!

We stopped for some fishing and Mason caught a fish! Hailey was quite excited about that! I couldn't believe she was brave enough to reach out and touch the bass right away!

She was even checking out his tongue a bit... :)

Congratulations to Grandma Jane on her first keeper bass! I wasn't aware that over the years, she hadn't caught a keeper bass... I've been along for a lot of the little guys, and here she roped in this nice one! Way to go Grandma!

Nothing about Hailey, but everything about her uncles! Earl, Daddy, Will and Steph! This is really the best time of the year where we all can get together and have nothing else to care about except hanging out and having fun... Sometimes a little too much fun, but that's ok!

Hailey also had her first taste of marshmallows thank to Uncle Will! She really really liked it!! You'll have to check back tomorrow to see what she thought when we made S'mores!

We're Back!

And tired... We have had a wonderful week. Over 260 pictures, 18 hours of driving and 5 days camping in all! I'll be going through pictures tomorrow when I'm a little less tired.

'Til then! Have a great Monday!

~Tony, Darlene, Hailey & Bo!

Summer Hiatus

We are on our summer hiatus! We'll be seeing most of our family this week! We currently have made our first leg of the journey to Neillsville today. Mommy and Bo will be staying with Grandpa and Grandma Zier for the week while Daddy and Hailey go up to Minocqua, Wisconsin where we'll see Grandma Jane, Grandpa Tom, Uncle Will, Uncle Steph and Uncle Earl and the rest of their families.

On Friday, we'll be back in Neillsville and then on our way to Lena, Illinois to see Great Grandma Zier, Cousin Sara, Cousin Tabitha and their kids.

I can't promise any new pictures, but Mommy might post one or two. I will make only one promise and there will be new pictures by next Monday the 20th at the latest!!

Hope you all have a good week and I can't wait to see you (or if I see you before you read this, I couldn't wait to see you!)

Ambidextrous

I would like to thank Target and Hailey's friend Jemima for this idea! We had seen a picture that they were using a dry erase alphabet poster and while shopping today, we found one! Hailey thought it was really neat! She was even asking while she was laying in bed if she could go, "play with the board for a couple minutes and then go to bed."

One thing I do think is interesting is that she really hasn't chosen a dominant hand... She'll still flip back and forth and here are the pictures to prove it!

Righty...

Lefty!

Attitude Adjuster

No matter how you're feeling, this little guy will change your day! Sometimes, whether you like it or not... :)

It's Thursday!!!

That means it's bathtime!!!!!!!! Do you think he's happy? Or no?

Creativity

I know I've posted about this before, but every day I am still amazed at Hailey's creativity. She used to just "play" with the peg board and put in the colors, stack them up and then take it apart. Well, now she's moved on to putting the pegs in, holding it up and saying, "What do you think this picture is?"

She just gets so into making things up I think it's very fun to just sit back and watch her play! From birthday parties to pictures to picnics around the house on blankets with food toys, she doesn't let anything stop her!

Then tonight, just to melt my heart... I was laying by her in bed and she put her hand on the side of my face, looked at me and said, "Daddy, you are my special boy!" Awwwwwwww!

Like Momma Like Son

Bo looks a little bit like his Mommy too!

Oh, and on the Hailey front, I think she's nearly potty trained! We're just not sure how/when we can ditch the night time diapers... I'm thinking when she wakes up and she's in a dry diaper? We're in uncharted territory here folks!

Coffee Care

Here is Hailey taking care of our new coffee plant. Some day we'll have to figure out how to pollinate that guy and start gathering coffee beans... Just imagine home grown fresh coffee beans!! That sounds yummy!

The King of Cute

Look who's already flashing some leather! Thanks to Hailey for letting Bo borrow her glove for a hat!

4th of July Fun

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July! We surely did!!! We had Joe and Meghan over for a cookout and then we were fortunate enough to be able to walk down to the park for the fireworks show.

The show started super late, and we headed down there around 6:30. So we had plenty of time for fun and games! They had some log-rolling things going on as well as 3 different inflatable jumping/bouncing toys. Hailey had a riot and I think it really tuckered her out.

Here she is with Joe and Meghan a little bit before the fireworks... Notice her face? Notice the hand on Ducky's tag?? Can anyone guess what she's doing???

Yes! The ducky tag noise.
(Click here for YouTube version)

Last but not least, here we are. I think the most amazing part of the show was that Bo thoroughly enjoyed them too! We covered him up at the start, and a few minutes in I peeked at him and he was still wide awake. I was thinking, "Could anyone really sleep through this??" So I turned him around and took off the blanket and he watched the rest of the show. Right after the the big finale, I peeked in there and he was smiling! I really couldn't believe it!