Merry Christmas!

The day we took these pictures Hailey really wasnt in the mood to have her pictures done so we took what we could get. She's still adorable even if the pictures weren't all that great!

What a great Christmas! We woke up around 3am to feed our little princess and looked out the window to see a beautiful white blanket on the ground. Yep, we had a beautiful snow that is still going as I'm writing. There's nothing like snow on Christmas day and today was absolutly perfect. It snowed all day today and Hailey was the best Christmas gift we could get!

We opened presents but Hailey decided she was too tired so she took a quick nap while Joel opened her present.

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and for those we weren't able to see, hopefully we'll see you soon!

Cuddle bug!

This was her first bath and we survived but barely. It took her a moment to get used to it and then she started sucking on her hand that had been in the bath water. Good Stuff!

Could you resist cuddling with a little face like this one? We can't! I love to cuddle with Hailey- she likes to stick her little tushy up in the air and cuddles under my chin which in turn makes my heart melt and I'd give her anything she asked for if she could talk :)

Tomorrow Hailey will be 3 weeks old! AHHHH where has the time gone. I'm still trying to get over that this weekend will be Christmas.

Good sleepin!

5 Hours of sleep at one time!!! Boy did we need it. Hailey decided that she was going to give us a little extra sleep time, so last night she slept for about 5 hours the first stretch and then a little over 3 for the second!

Hailey is for sure the best Christmas gift we could ever get, so can you blame me for fixing a little photo session under the tree. I thought it was a great idea, Hailey wasn't too sure she liked the stocking, it was a little itchy.

What's sleep?

It's hard to believe that Hailey is already over a week old. She is doing great and growing fast!

She is such a good sleeper! Her big wake time is of course right before we go to bed. Once she gets that out of her system she's out and only wakes up 2x's during the night. We are blessed but a little sleep deprived :)

Joel and I had gone to the outlets quite a while ago and saw this little winter coat that we couldnt resist. It's so soft and snuggly, I knew she'd love it. The day we went home it was super cold so we got to put this coat on a trial run. It was a little big but she'll grow into it.

Lil princess!

Hailey is quite the little cutie and has won the hearts of everyone that sees her. We were able to go home Friday afternoon and Hailey got to be out in her first snow today. We now have a good 2-3 inches outside, so it made our early Christmas complete!

She's Here!!!

Hailey Rebecca Sloan was born on Nov 30 at 5:50 pm! She's 8 lbs, 1 oz, and 20 in. long.

What a cutie!!!

She likes her burrito roll.

The nurse gave her a spike hairdo after her bath.

Ever seen a 2-hour old kid smile before? Neither had we!

We know she's going to be a smart girl--she was pondering the meaning of life before she left the delivery room! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!
For those of you patiently waiting to hear some good news, NOPE there is none
:( Lil Sloaner has decided she's quite content where she is but is happy to provide contractions here and there just to get our hopes up. This Friday will be week 39 for me and I plan to do some Black Friday shopping after a relaxing Thanksgiving day of the Macy's parade, dog show and a good nap!

Diaper shower!

A diaper shower was thrown for lil sloaner and I this past Sat. Tyla made this absolutely adorable cake and it was melt in your mouth delicious!!!
Tyla on the right and Sonya her sister on the left were the host of this great shower!

We started with mingling and getting a great opportunity to talk with everyone there. Then we had a wonderful brunch. After we finished we had yummy cake and then a devotional unique to something I've never done. The silver tree you see in some of the pictures was called a blessing tree. The ladies were asked to put down a one word blessing on a star and hang it on a tree. Once it was time to start I picked a star and said what it was and the person that had written it explained why she chose that blessing. It was really good and a wonderful memory for our little girl.

After the blessing tree it was present time. I was blessed with wonderful gifts ranging from diapers, wipes, adorable outfits and unique gifts.

Once we finished, we just talked as a group, shared stories and had a great time in laughter. I couldn't have asked for a better ending to a great memory.

One extra that Sonya and Tyla did which I just adore was everyone painting little onesies at any point during the shower.

Here is auntie Tyla with Sonya's little boy painting one of the onsies.

Once we got home Joel and dad checked out the gifts!

Joel and I are so thankful for the friends and family that are around us that have and are making these moments so special. We can hardly wait to see our little princess.

last cake for a while

At our church there are 3 of us that are expecting one towards the end of this month, another the last week of November and then me the first week of Dec. Charis is the one right before me and her shower was this past weekend. I was asked if I could do just a topper for a display on the table. Her colors were brown, tan and purple so I thought it would be cute to do a decorative gift box with streamers coming out of it.
Can I just say those cake shows make it look sooooo easy!!! I enjoyed doing it until my streamers decided to fall.

I put it in this pan to keep it steady for the drive, which by the way is more nerve wracking than making it! Surpisingly I made it all the way to the party without anything falling apart. The funny part was about an hour or so into the party I went up to the table and some pieces had fallen and sure enough it will survive a bumpy car ride but not a bump of a table go figure! The shower was fun and we had some great games and the pressure was off once I had delivered it :)

Now I will just focus on some rest and relaxing and getting my scrapbooking done before this little one comes! For those of you wondering her room is all ready with accents of pink and baby lambs with a few other animals that we have. Once she's born we will put her name on the wall and I'll take a picture and post it but you'll have to be patient until then.

Mini vaca

Joel and I had been talking about getting away but with his project it just wasn't looking too good to go anywhere for longer than the weekend. This past weekend was just about our only option so we took it.
We decided to go to Staunton- no phones, no computer just some peace and quiet.
Joel was able to get home a little early on Friday so we hit the road and headed off to some fun.

Saturday was going to be a beautiful day so we headed for the Luray Caverns. I knew it was going to be cooler in the caverns so I was pretty excited. It turned out to be such a hot day! Sure enough the caverns were not as cool as I had hoped but we sure did have a lot of fun.

We were given head pieces to listen to the history of the caverns which was really neat and unexpected. It was a popular day to go the place was packed which was good for me cause we could take our time or in my case a breather after walking up a few hills.

Here was the favorite fried eggs in the cave. When you looked at it, it really did look like eggs. The kids loved it.

After the caves we went through a car museum.

They also had a garden maze but it was wayyy too hot to stand outside and get lost in some bushes, so we opted out of it. They had little gift shops and a restaurant but Joel and I spotted our favorite which was a local that was making BBQ :)

We headed back to the hotel but decided to take the scenic route which turned out to be a long drive behind people that wanted to look and drive slower than a turtle uhhh pure torture!

Once we got to the hotel we hit the pool and we got it all to ourselves which was perfect!

Dinner was the icing on the cake ~ We went through the restaurant listing and a few caught our eyes but one in particular that had been rated extremely well was the one we went for. The Mill St. Grill was super popular & even though we did have to wait for a while it was well worth it. I had crab stuffed salmon and Joel had a rib platter that he raved over.

Sunday morning I really didn't want to go. The emphasis on a short vacation was true, so after a lot of prodding :) Joel and I headed back home.