finally!

Okay, it has been too long! So I apologize if this ends up being really long. But hey, I have lots of photos! It’s obviously been a little crazy busy at the Hadley home. Of course, I suppose I could blame Facebook a little for distracting me. For a while, anyway. Now I’m slacking on that too. But I digress….

Both girls had their birthdays within the last few months. Eva turned two on Halloween and we had such a fun time. This was the first year she went trick-or-treating and got used to the concept pretty quickly! My favorite part was after they put treats in her pumpkin she would say “take-oo” (or, thank you). There was one woman who was so enamored with her, she kept putting treats in her bag just to hear her say it. We're still eating the candy they collected....

Ella’s birthday was a lot of fun too. She turned four and wouldn’t let anyone forget it! She requested a blue princess party and was so excited to dress-up as a princess, except most of her friends are boys. So she let them come dressed-up as spiderman, batman, whatever they wanted. It was so cute!

These girls are such goofballs! Seriously, how do they come up with the silly things they do? They crack me up, and every day I look forward to hearing the goofy things they say. Eva’s personality blossoms more and more every day. This particular day (and many others) she decided to smear peanut butter and jam all over her face. She did again that same night except with butter. She has always used her body as a canvas. Maybe she inherited some of my creative flair.

Then the holidays came. Ella’s dance class performed at the Festival of Trees and oh my goodness, what a stinking cutie! The whole experience was magical. Aside from the fact that she got to wear pink tights and a red tutu, she was mostly excited that she got to wear lipstick, mascara, and blush. She was in high heaven to wear makeup! “But mama,” she said, “I’m not 12 years old yet.” She was squealing in excitement.

I took Ella to the Nutcracker again this year. She was so excited to dress up in the beautiful silk and velvet dress her Aunt Michelle gave her. But she was really mad at me through the entire performance! All year long she has told me she wants to dance with Clara in the Nutcracker and why on earth would I not let her go on stage? Since she’s been bothering me so much about dancing with Clara, I decided to enroll her (and Eva) in the Ballet West Academy. They start next week and they are so excited!

And then Christmas. Ella asked Santa for a “bike with princesses on it”. So of course Santa brought a bike for both girls. Eva woke up Christmas morning before Ella and just giggled and giggled when she saw it. As you can tell from the photo, she couldn’t stop smiling. Unfortunately the tire was a little defective so we had to exchange it at the North Pole. But Ella was able to get out and ride hers (with training wheels, of course). She rode it by herself and was so proud!

Okay, I can move on to Jason and I. We do get out a lot more these days, capitalizing on our fabulous babysitter and our phenomenal nanny. Our girls love Aundi (our nanny) and it makes working so much easier, and comforting. So we were able to get out for New Years Eve. And really, it doesn’t matter where we went, it gave me the opportunity to dress up and get all “sparkly”. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

All right, I’ll wrap this up. But I did want to mention why I’ve been too busy to blog (sorry, I haven’t been to anyone’s blogs forever!). My days start out at 5:15 when I go running, because I’m training for a marathon in April. I go to work all day (and I love my job!), and then I come home and do home schooling with the girls. After they go to bed I work on my second job until about midnight. I’ve also started a new exercise class that is seriously the funnest thing I’ve done in a long time! I thought I’d only go once every couple weeks but it is so much fun I try and fit it in a couple times a week. Jason is just as busy these days, especially since he’s on call this month. Does life every slow down just a little?

I sure wish the girls would slow down from growing up... Here's some images just to make things fun.