Hailey's first Christmas

Hailey, Anthony and I had a wonderful first Christmas together as a little family. Of course Hailey is too little to really understand or enjoy the holiday yet, but we had fun watching her see all her new toys and play with all the family that was around for the holidays. And of course it was an excuse for her to wear lots of cute clothes!

Here is Hailey's first Christmas in pictures:




And finally, Hailey showing us how she is the best Christmas present ever:

Next up, time to say "so long" to 2009 and "hello" to 2010!

Getting ready for Christmas

We are so excited to celebrate Hailey's first Christmas! Even though she won't remember any of it, we are enjoying the holiday season and the amazing blessing we've been given this year.

Since she won't remember this Christmas, I'm doing my best to capture it in pictures so we can show her later how wonderful her first Christmas was.

Here is a picture of the Coulter Christmas tree. Note that almost all of the presents are for Hailey, and no they are not wrapped because mommy is lazy and refuses to wrap presents when Hailey can't even unwrap them yet! Next Christmas will be so much fun with Hailey running around and tearing through wrapping paper!

And here is a picture of the Coulter family in front of Grandma & Grandpa Hefley's Christmas tree on mommy's 27th birthday.

And here are pictures of the silly girl showing us how excited she is for Christmas!

And finally, here is a picture of Hailey showing us how she will sleep peacefully on Christmas Eve so that Santa Claus will come to visit her!


Lots more pictures to come after Christmas!

Hailey's friends

At just 2 months old Hailey is lucky to already have 2 good friends. My best friend Krissy had baby girl Riley on July 4, 2009, so they are almost exactly 3 months apart in age. Here is a picture from when Hailey and Riley first met, when Hailey was about a week old. It's amazing how different they are even though just 3 months apart in age!

And here is a more recent picture of the two girls, who are sure to be best friends and grow up together!


About a week after I found out I was pregnant, my good friend at work, Tiffany, found out she was also pregnant, so it was very exciting for us to go through pregnancy together, to find out we were both having girls, and to know that they would end up being so close in age! Tiffany's baby girl Willow was born exactly one day after Hailey, on Oct. 6, so it will be so fun to see them both grow up since they are basically the same age.

Here is a picture of Hailey and Willow from a recent playdate:

I'm so grateful to have good friends that are in the same stage (baby, family) of life, and I'm just so excited to see all the girls grow up together. Little Hailey is already so popular and lucky to have good friends!

2 months old!

Hailey turned 2 months old a couple days ago, I can hardly believe the time is passing so quickly! She is getting so big and changing so much, definitely not a newborn anymore.

Today we had Hailey's 2 month check up with the pediatrician. She weighs 10 pounds 8 ounces and is 23.75 inches long. The pediatrician was so impressed by how alert, interactive and smily she is, she said if she didn't know better she would have thought Hailey was 4 months old! Mommy's little over-achiever already! Along with the check-up came her first round of shots. She got one in each thigh; she gave a pretty good wail after getting stuck, but calmed down pretty quickly and then promptly passed out for a nice long nap.

Hailey is starting to "talk" a bunch and make so many cute noises. Anthony says sometimes she sounds like a cat! My favorite thing is to sit her facing me on my lap, she loves to smile at me and talk away, cracks me up!

Here is a comparison pic of Hailey at 1 month and 2 months, you can definitely see how much she is changing!


Christmas is quickly approaching and we've already got the house and tree decorated. I feel like I've already got the best Christmas present imaginable, my sweet little daughter! But we are very much looking forward to Hailey's first Christmas, even if she won't remember much of it! She's going to get very spoiled of course, and Santa is getting her a high chair, a Laugh & Learn puppy, a jumperoo, and her very first Barbie!

Our Christmas photo shoot at JC Penney went very well, here is Hailey in her Christmas dress and another cute family picture we took!

Along with Christmas and the New Year comes the end of my maternity leave quickly approaching. I'm scheduled to return to work on Jan. 4, and my heart aches just thinking about leaving my little baby girl. But I think this subject calls for a whole other post...

So much to be thankful for

On Thursday we celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Hailey. After experiencing a pregnancy loss prior to having Hailey, it has made me that much more thankful for this beautiful blessing in our lives. She truly is such a miracle; every time I look at her I just can't believe that Anthony and I created such an amazing little being.

Hailey is almost 2 months old, and she has changed our lives in so many wonderful ways. As I type this blog, she is curled up in Anthony's arms with a pink fuzzy blanket wrapped around them both. Hailey turned Anthony into a daddy, and for that I am so thankful because it has made me love him even more than I already did, if that is even possible.

I just love my little monkey baby so much that I can't even put it into words. I love being a mommy and I love the happy little family we have all become.

I am also so very thankful for all the love and support in my life. I have an amazing, loving family that has helped turn me into the person I am today.

Well, this has turned into one big random, rambling mess but what I am trying to say is that I have so many blessings in my life and I am thankful today and every day for them.

So much to look forward to

The first few weeks after Hailey was born I found myself very emotional and often crying about the fact that she would never be so little again and that she was growing so much right before my very eyes. I wanted my tiny little baby to stay tiny forever and never grow up! Of course the first few weeks were also very rough with the lack of sleep and lots of crying and trying to figure each other out, so then I started to think maybe it wouldn't be so bad if she didn't stay in the newborn phase forever.

Within the last few weeks Hailey has been changing so much and doing new things and its made me realize how much I have to look forward to. Every day I get excited to see her smile at new things, recognize me and make faces at me, and "talk" more and more every day.

Hailey has completely outgrown her newborn clothes and diapers, and at just over 6 weeks old I think I have to officially say that she is no longer a "newborn." But I enjoyed every moment (even the sleepless ones!) of her being a newborn, and now I'm so excited about all that's to come: more cooing and jabbering, seeing her try new foods and watching the funny faces she'll make as she discovers all the flavors, watching her learn to crawl and then walk, hearing her say "mommy" and "daddy" and "I love you" for the first time, and the little girl giggles and smiles.

She is growing and changing so much every day that I can already sort of picture how she will look as a little girl. I can't wait for her to interact with me, to hold my hand and kiss me back. It brings tears to my eyes to imagine her as a little girl holding her newborn brother or sister one day.

Today I laid Hailey down to try and get her to take a nap in her crib. Thus far she's been sleeping in a bassinet in our room, but I realize before I know it she will no longer fit in there and will have to start sleeping in her own room. As I tried to soothe her to sleep I told her how she's getting to be a big girl and will have to start sleeping in her big girl bed in the next few months. I told her mommy would be sad about it, but she would learn to like her crib and promised that Mr. Glow Seahorse would help her fall asleep every night. Just one of the many big changes we have ahead of us in the next few months.

While it's hard to realize that she will never be a tiny little newborn again, I'm trying to enjoy every day with her and what it brings, because it's true that it all does pass by in the blink of an eye and I don't want to forget any of it.

Photo shoot success!

Hailey was in a very happy mood today, so after a bottle and diaper change I decided to try another photo shoot I've been meaning to get to for a while. Today we had much better success and no screaming!

"What am I wearing mom?!"

"Well, I guess I do look pretty cute!"

Pretty, pretty princess