begging and pleading

[PHOTOS TO COME]

I can’t imagine anyone reads our blog anymore. Considering the last time I wrote was last spring. But on the rare chance that anyone reads it…. Well, I’m begging you to forgive me and enjoy the update!

Our little family has been through quite a whirlwind the last couple years. I’m sure you’ve noticed by the lack of posting. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve enjoyed our lives, our time together, the things we’re experiencing. But it is starting to wear on me and I long for the quiet days in Atlanta, when Ella and I used to take long walks, and read for hours a day, and just….be. I feel like Eva and I have really missed out on that type of childhood.

I’m currently working two jobs again; full-time during the day, part-time at night. I also just started this crazy exercise program called CrossFit. And if you’ve heard about it, you know it’s intense. I hurt, but it’s a good hurt. I finished my first marathon in August and I couldn’t figure out why I was gaining weight after running more than 25 miles a week! I guess my body got too used to running, so that’s why I’m onto CrossFit.

Jason is busy but he only has about 7 months to go and residency is done! We have a serious addiction to house hunting right now. We fondly refer to it as looking at house porn. We’re always keeping our eye open for great homes, and as soon as he signs a work contract (within the next couple months….) we’ll be able to look seriously. Just think, 14 years of apartment living is almost over!

And then there are my babies. Of course, they aren’t babies anymore.

Eva just turned three on Halloween. She woke up that morning and had forgotten it was her birthday. When I reminded her, her eyes lit up and she said, “I three! I not one, I not two, I three!” She was so cute. We had her birthday party a couple weeks before her birthday and she wanted to have the theme of Boots the Monkey (Dora the Explorer’s sidekick). Oh, and it was a costume party. So she dressed up as Boots, Ella was Dora, and all the kids came dressed up. It was Eva’s special day and I loved watching her enjoy it. She really has such a fun personality. The words I would use to describe her are: independent, free spirit, snuggly, sensitive, comedic, and sneaky. She’s truly a unique little girl.

Eva started preschool with Ella and she’s so excited! She has been waiting to turn three and join her big sister at the Montessori school (the class for 3-5 year-olds). She’s also at Ballet West and her teacher said she was ready to move into the bigger class starting January. She is just growing up so fast and developing into such a beautiful little girl. We had our fall family photos taken by one of our photographers here at work. I think he took triple the amount of photos of Eva; he just thought she was so beautiful. She really does have such striking blue eyes. I’m terrified of the day when boys start to notice…..

And my dear, sweet Ella. She is growing up way too fast and exerting her way at any possible moment. Kind of like she’s four, going on 14. Since when did my sweet little girl talk back? Oh man, and the whining. Please tell me it ends soon! Regardless, I love her so much. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of my “baby Ella” in her face and it nearly breaks my heart; I miss that stage of her life.

But I love watching who she’s becoming. She is such a sensitive, caring little girl. And she talks to Eva like, “Put the doll over there, sweetie,” or “Come eat some snacks, sweetie.” Always the sweetie. I must say that a lot because she certainly learned it from me! She’s also become afraid of the dark, so we bought some sparkly lamps. She chose pink and Eva chose purple, of course. She likes them a lot and she does much better with them on at night.

And this little Ella is such a smarty pants. She’s way ahead in reading in her class, and writing too. In fact, yesterday she wrote a whole bunch of words on a paper. One of which was “acrobat.” With no assistance. How on earth?!..... It still blows me away. She loves reading books. We finished the first Harry Potter book, and now we’re onto the second. She loves it. She also loves her ballet class and she’s determined to dance on stage with Clara in the Nutcracker when she’s ten years old. I don’t know why that age, but she’s persistent about it. She’s also told me she wants to take gymnastics again, ice skating lessons, and violin lessons. I can’t keep up with her! “But mama,” she says, “It’s only a few things I wanna do.” Ha! It makes me laugh.

We’ve kinda quit the home school thing. They both have lost interest and I always said it would be something we did IF they wanted to. So I’ve had to back off of our curriculum. Bummer. One of the things we were learning this year was bands: Elvis, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, U2, Frank Sinatra, Pink Floyd, Beatles….to name a few. Oh well. Maybe they’ll want to start again in a few months.

We still have our wonderful nanny in our family, Aundi. She continues to write notes about these girls; eventually I’ll write them in this blog. She’s so patient with us, especially since I’ve been working so much, and so late. Our place is always a mess and every day I come home from work and she’s cleaned it up. I can’t even begin to describe how much that means to me. I look forward to the day I can quit work, but I know that means she won’t be coming over anymore and I can’t stand that thought.

Well, I’ve written a whole novel, sorry! I’ll try to post more often (in smaller increments, lol).

the last few months

Everyone is busy. I know. So it seems like such a lame excuse to say we're too busy to write. And now that I've implied it, I'll leave it at that and move on. :)

I just wanted to write a few things about what the Hadley's have been up to the last few months:

Hawaii! Without the kids for 6 days in paradise. Very fun!

Ballet West Academy. The girls finished up this year and are looking forward to taking classes again next fall.

Reading. Ella started reading several months ago. The longest words she has read so far: shower, mountain, virtue...to name a few.

Running. I trained 4 months for my first marathon; then ended up in the hospital the week before and couldn't run it. Now I'm starting training all over again for a marathon in August. Jason will be running the half that day too.

7 years. Jason and I celebrated 7 years together. Cheers!

Work. I love working at Stampin' Up! and Jason has one year left of residency. Hallelujah!

Golfing. Jason bought himself some new golf clubs; then went back and bought some pink ones for the girls. The perfect daddy-daughter activity!

Dress up. Will it ever end?

Diapers. They don't exist in our home anymore! Eva, like Ella, pretty much decided when it was time and although she has the occasional accident, she is done. Hooray!

School. Ella finished her first year at the Montessori school and loved it. Next fall Eva gets to join her class. I still work with both girls on the homeschooling curriculum and we just finished that up for the summer. We'll start up again in the fall.

Camping. Our first Hadley camping trip was so much fun even though it rained pretty much the whole time. The girls can't wait to go again!

Hopefully I'll have time this summer to write, but if not, have a great summer! I know we will.... :)

Aundi's notes

Our nanny is the greatest. We love her and we’re so glad she’s in our lives! Every day she writes me a note about what she did with the girls that day, what activities they did, and, best of all, the funny things the girls said and did. As a working mother, you really cherish those little notes.

The following are excerpts from her notes in the last couple months. Most are about Ella since she talks so much now. I’m sure, as the year goes on, Eva will talk more for Aundi to write about. I know I’m looking forward to it!

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Today Ella asked if she could wash her hands, then have a piece of candy, and then wash her hands again. Then I saw a light go on in her head, and she said, “Hey, it’s a pattern. Wash, eat, wash.” Not only did she figure out that it was a pattern, she found THE pattern of life. Wash, eat, wash. This girl is going places.

Ansel [Eva and Ella’s little friend] met us at the aquarium, so they got to play a little bit. I overheard Ella say to Ansel, “Just trust me on this, okay?” I don’t know what it was about, but it sounded important!

We went to Barnes & Noble this afternoon. Ella had to go potty while we were there, and while she was going she said in a loud voice, “My poop is soft!” Too which I replied, “that’s nice, Ella.” And then she said equally loud, “It is soft because I eat my broccoli.” I’m sure that was very amusing for everyone in the bathroom!

This morning Ella said, “Big bird looks like a big ugly scrambled egg.” I almost died laughing! I never thought about it that way, but she is right!

Today at gymnastics Eva pulled down her pants in the middle of class and said, “potty.” I think she is almost ready to start potty training. [She’s totally potty trained now. And so proud of herself!]

Today Ella got a huge smile on her face and I asked her what she was smiling about. She replied, “Last night I dreamt about Omi and cupcakes!”

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This last one might be a little sketchy. I wasn’t sure if I should put it on this blog, I don’t want to offend anyone, but it was so stinking cute! And you know, having a doctor in the house we don’t use nicknames for particular body parts. So I’ll edit it a bit. Please insert the appropriate words....

(Ella and Eva are in the bathroom having the following conversation):
Ella: Eva, I have a _________, you have a _________, momma has a _________. Girls have a _________. Boys have _________. Daddy has a _________.
Eva: Oooooo!
Ella: I have a _________. Look, see. That’s my _________, Eva.
Eva: Oooooo! Cool Ella!

chocolate snot volcano

Aundi, our nanny, wrote this today about Eva:

"We went to Starbucks today and got hot chocolate. Eva had this huge mouthful of hot chocolate and she decided to sneeze... I've never seen such a magnificent chocolate / snot volcano. It was disgusting and beautiful!"

I can't stop laughing!

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.

a quote from ella this week:

"Big Bird looks like a big ugly scrambled egg."

gone

This is just a post to let you know we're all alive and well but crazy busy right now. I have so much to say but no time to say it, for now anyway. I'll write soon!