My Bailey Girl

Today my Bailey girl turns 5!  I can't believe it.  Ever since she was born I always thought, "I can't wait until she turns 5!"  I feel like so many things start at 5--school, dance, I guess that's not a lot.  It's now here and I guess we'll see if 5 is everything I ever dreamed of :)

Every time Bailey has a birthday I think back to the day she was born and it blows my mind!  What a crazy day that was!  I can still remember every scary detail; I wonder if it will always be that way.  Some random things I remember: telling the doctors that I could still feel them as they were frantically trying to put me to sleep quickly to get her out of my belly; I remember waking up from the anesthesia and being so thirsty and all they could give me was this weird tiny sponge with a few drops of moisture on them to rub on my mouth.  I remember the first time I saw her I was so out of it that I felt I was floating.  All of the doctors and nurses were trying to explain things to me and make me feel better, but I had no idea what was going on.  I remember what a horrible thing it was to leave the hospital without my tiny baby, but how awesome/scary it was to finally bring her home.

Now fast forward to today, and here are some interesting facts about my Bailey girl:

*She LOVES making any type of craft/art project.  We could do crafts all day together!
*She LOVES Justin Bieber and often talks about how she's in love with him and will marry him someday.  She wants to know where he lives and what he likes to do. (good thing she's only 5 or else she sounds like a scary stalker)
*She started dance class and now likes to dance around the house, but does not like to dance on command or practice her dance steps for me.  I'm not her dance teacher so I don't know anything.  We do have dance parties all the time!
*She loves to learn new things, but is very easily frustrated.  I think she has a bit of perfectionist tendencies combined with some lazy bones :)
*She loves to be in charge and make the plans, but she would do anything to have an older sibling--especially an older brother.
*She is quite the storyteller these days (that's putting a positive spin on it--meaning she likes to tell little lies).  She had convinced her preschool teacher Miss Karen that I was pregnant and having a boy, so Karen sent me an email to check.  She also told me that Justin Beiber visited her class one day :)  I attribute this to her age, her creativity, and the fact that this girls wants what she wants and she thinks if she says it, it will happen.   *She wants a baby brother, but would take a baby sister if she had to :)
*She can be an amazing big sister!  She talks to Brooklynn in this crazy high pitched voice, but it's filled with love.  She performs random acts of kindness for me some days and starts cleaning around the house.  She's not one of those kids who is a people pleaser all of the time, but when she does it's with all of her heart.
*She is a very compassionate kid.  I hear stories from her teachers all the time about how nice she was to someone when they were sad or how she helped another kid in class when they needed help.  If there's a new girl in dance class, she's always the one to stand right next to her and help her out.
*She is the tallest in her class at school and in dance class, which is funny because she was so tiny when she was born.  I never knew if she would be a tiny preemie kiddo her whole life, but she definitely is not.  She gets mistaken for being way older than she is all the time.
*She is super smart and has a great vocabulary.  You feel like you're talking to a much older child when you talk to her.  She also like to argue/reason like an older kid, which is not too fun.  There's no tricking this one; she'll see right through anything.  I think she's going to love learning to read!
*She loves hanging out with her family and will come up with any excuse for a party.  She can be so fun to hang out with, just don't get on her bad side.
*She can make new friends so easily, but is also starting to think she's a little shy sometimes.   For her Christmas dance show, she was too embarrassed and just stood there.  I'm hoping to not have a repeat at her real recital in June.

Here are some picture of Bailey from her first days of life.  Back then I didn't know what her future would hold, but now I know she has the whole world in store for her.  Watch out world, here she comes!

 Her tiny incubator where we just sat and watched her.

 This was the first day we were able to hold her.  I love how tiny she looks next to Brian's hand.

 I've always loved this picture because she looks like a fighter.  Hands up and ready to go!  She's been fighting since the day she was born and I don't think she'll ever stop :)

 My pretty girl all grown up!

 She just loves life and enjoys every moment of it.

I love this girl with all my heart!  She pushes me to the edge and back almost daily.  Four was a rough year for us (nobody ever tells you to look out for 4), but like I said I have high hopes for 5!  I know that someday I'll be grateful for her strong will and feisty attitude.  It will help her stand strong in her convictions and not be swayed easily by others.  She's so much fun to be with and so fun to watch her every day as she grows up.  I'm so glad to be her mom!!

The Holidays in Review

Here are all of the holidays and their festivities from November through December (I'm not done writing, but I'll just finish later):

Thanksgiving--

We spent Thanksgiving day at Dan & Roxann's house.  Half of my family was sick with the flu, so the non pukers came over to celebrate with us.  It was fun to have everyone all together!

Just playing a little harmonica music before dinner.

 Bailey made a beautiful banner for Thanksgiving.  She made enough turkey hand prints for the entire family.  As my future Martha Stewart, she loved it!

 My mom and Toni jumped in on the crafting too by making giant pine cone turkeys.

 Nicely done Toni!

 Adam and Teryn made yummy fried green beans.

 Family shots

 My favorite picture of Brooklynn!  It's her classic crooked smile, tiny pony tail, and her adorable cheeks.

Orlando Vacation:

The week after Thanksgiving, Brian, Bailey, and I were able to take an awesome vacation to Orlando, Florida for a long weekend.  Brian's work had a huge convention out there and it was amazing!  

 We took a non stop flight to Orlando and got in around 4:00.  We got our car and went to check in at our hotel.  We stayed at the Gaylord Resort--it was huge!  Then we loaded back up and went to a special Christmas celebration at Disney World.  It was so fun because there weren't a lot of people so we walked on to everything.

 Plus, it was fun because Brian never gets to come to Disneyland with us, so it was fun for him to be with us. I love how Disney is decorated for Christmas.  The castle is truly beautiful!

 Bailey was one happy girl!

 Hanging out with Zorg from Toy Story.  

 Castle family picture

 They had these fun dance rooms throughout the park where you could go and dance with the characters.  Bailey spent a while dancing with all of the Toy Story friends.  She loved it!

 On the merry-go-round

 Almost strong enough to pull the sword from the stone.

 She finally passed out on our way to the car.  It was perfect timing because we were on California time so she was awake and happy the entire time.  We watched the Christmas parade, ate cookies and hot chocolate all around the park, and watched the fireworks show right underneath the fireworks on the back side of the castle.  It was a great way to start our vacation.

 The hotel/resort we stayed at was amazing!  They had all of the Dreamworks characters (or minor Disney characters as I like to say) so we could walk around and take pictures.  We also visited Santa, listened to a few musical performances in the main area, and hung out at the pool.  Bailey would have been happy just going to the pool everyday--I need to remember that for future vacations.

This was Bailey's mighty jump during the cannon ball competition.  So brave!

 My bathing beauty.  She would just swim up to any girl around her age and make new friends.

 This is Bailey's karate/ballet move.

 My most highly anticipated night of the trip was the night at Harry Potter land--Universal Studios Islands of Adventure.  It was a dream come true!  Mohawk rented out the Harry Potter section of the park for the night for just the people at the convention.  There was free food, no lines, and free butter beer offered at every corner.  I was like a little kid in a candy shop.  I don't have many pictures because it was so dark, but I have all of it captured in my brain :)

 Bailey was too small for the two big rides, but she was able to test out the seats.  The one ride she could go on was the Flight of the Hippogrif.  It was a pretty fast roller coaster and she loved it!  I loved it because at the beginning it told you to bow to the hippogriff as we passed and every time Bailey did it.  We went on it about 5 times in a row and by the end Brian and I were feeling a little sick.

 Bailey got to meet lots of singing wizards and pet the giant toads.

The conductor at Hogwarts Express was really funny and even took a family pic for us.

My favorite part of the night involves butter beer (what Brian is drinking) and wands.  As we were getting closer to Harry Potter land I was getting nervous because the entire park was closed--except for HPland--and I didn't think they would have butter beer.  As we crossed over the bridge and Hogwarts first came into sight, I spotted a butter beer cart.  I literally ran up to it and started ordering one to taste.  It came in a slurpee form and a soda form, both had this buttery foam on top.  I asked how much and the guy told me it was free--even in a cool souvineir mug!!  So I then ordered two more glasses so we could each have our own.  I was thinking this was the greatest night ever.  So coming off of the free butter beer cart, I was even more overjoyed when I rounded the next corner to see a wand cart.  At this point, the logical conclusion for me was that everything sold in a cart was free.  I sprinted up to the carts and the two girls working were so excited about my enthusiasm.  I called for Bailey and Brian to come over so we could start picking out our family collection of magical wands.  My choice, without any hesitation, was Dumbledore's wand.  Bailey wanted the pretty one with the flower on the end--Luna Lovegood.  I told Brian that we had to have Harry's wand because it would make our collection complete.  Once we had all wands, the girl took the boxes around the cart.  I thought she was just going to scan the wands and scan my convention pass and then we'd be on our merry way.  Instead she scanned the wands and then told me the total would be $101!  I quickly realized that not everything was free and decided that we only needed one magical wand in the family :)  But by the end of the night, we did end up with a complete set of 10 butter beer mugs.

We bought Bertie Botts every flavored jelly beans and played a fun guessing game with Bailey.  She was nervous to eat them, but such a good sport when she ate a booger flavored bean :)

Christmas Festivities:

We got really dressed up to go pick out our tree from Home Depot.  Brooklynn looked like a character from The Christmas Story.  And I couldn't say no when she really wanted this baby tree.  I'm a sucker for cute kids!

They were so proud of their finished product and did quite a good job of evenly displaying the ornaments.

Bailey insisted that Brian lift her up to put the star on top...

so of course Brooklynn wanted to do the same thing :)

We then had an impromptu dance party to celebrate decorating the Christmas tree.  My girls really like to boogie!

Our annual Coronado Christmas at the Hotel Del.

Neither of the girls were into taking pictures, so I had to bribe them for each shot.

They loved the big sand sculpture outside, but I was so worried that one of them would just go crazy and start knocking it down.

My cutie!

This is as good as we got :)

Bailey can be such a good big sister and help Brooklynn, when she wants to.

One night to get into the Christmas spirit, we loaded up the girls and drove down to the Del Mar race track and looked at all of the Christmas lights.  They both loved it!  Bailey loved that she could stand up and poke her head out of the sun roof to look at the lights.

Brooklynn was totally deliriously crazy and lost her mind in a good way :)

It was a lot of fun and I think it will be a new family tradition.

While we were up at Grandma's house, we had an early Christmas.  Grandma Mosher and all of her greats--they love her so much!

The older kids got scooters!

Brooklynn discovered that she really liked this whole present thing.

Not their favorite present of the night, but so cute.

Brooklynn loved this vaccum...

but did not love sitting in the box of trash.

We spent Christmas Eve at Dan & Roxann's house.  The girls were, of course, spoiled again.

Brooklynn loved this super soft blanky from Adam & Taryn.

Christmas morning we woke up at our house and had to see what Santa brought for the girls.  They were both so excited.

Bailey got this beautiful Belle doll

Brooklynn got a talking Abby doll and could have been done right then.  She opened a big Abby and a small Abby back to back, so she probably thought that all presents had an Abby doll inside.