Long g g g g wood.

C c c c cold, but b b b b beautiful!
It appears Hazel has taken over my buddy, Uncle Ryan!
We bundled up and headed up to PA to visit one of my most favorite places, Longwood Gardens.
Windchill may have been around 8 degrees, but we were merry and bright!
Hazel knows how to get around!Pictures really do no justice for A) how beautiful everything was and B) how c o l d it was!

There's nothing extra-special about this picture, I just think Ryan's head is hilarious.

Oh, What Do You Do in the Wintertime...

When all the world is white...(and under two feet of snow)...

We make more Christmas cheer!

This is a little sampling of what we stayed busy with during the giant snowstorm a week ago:
We make stockings for baby... (complete with liner and all!)
to match Mom & Dad's bought at Target many years ago...
We take a nativity that looked like this...
add a little spray paint, kill off a wiseman (fatal fall in the garage) and we get this...
A little more paint and craftiness to make some joy...
Our first year with a "real" (and by real I mean really fake) tall, official Christmas tree, complete with 7 trips to Walmart, Target and JoAnn's (not exaggerating)...
And when all the Christmas is Christmas-ed, you pull out your sewing machine to make skirts, skirts and more skirts! (I think they are a LOT cuter on the cute girls, I'll have to post pictures later!)


And last of all, how do you transport an exhausted, sleepy, passed out little one when you are out in a "record-breaking" snowstorm? Very carefully...

Christmas Morning at Home! ...A Day Late...

We all know it wouldn't be a Halsey Christmas without a picture on the stairs. So, thank you, Hazel for starting it off for us! The anticipation was killing her...Thankfully Santa managed to stop by our house (a day late) on his way back to the North Pole.A quick family picture was needed before we could dive into the gifts...Hazel was a natural at opening the presents, and just as we suspected, she loved the wrapping paper!

Ah, a victorious picture. Some years, I luck out and think of the "perfect gift"...this was the year! Seth was giddy like a school girl to get a polaroid back for his 4x5 camera and polaroid film (in non-photographer terms: stinkin' amazing camera gift!).
(Hopefully it makes up for forgetting to buy him a birthday present..I'm lame.)
We were glad Santa found us, as well as Grandma and Grandpa G, and Karen's family. Thanks so much!!

Ho Ho Halseys!

Christmas! It's amazing! It means my aunts and uncles will do anything to spend time with all of us. Even if that means canceled and delayed flights, being stranded at the Atlanta airport (thanks snowstorm last weekend!) and flying on Christmas Eve.

Mom and Dad are doing their best to teach me about "tradition", first tradition: the stair picture. Lila and I made the front row! The stockings were amazing, there were so many fun goodies inside!Grandma let me play with all of the ornaments on the tree. My goal was to put all of them in my mouth.Mom worked really hard on Lila's family's presents. These are the only pictures she took of them!
A tu-tu for Lila.And a Family Proclamation book for her parents!Mom and Dad gave me my own keys! Now, where is the car they go to?
Well, I thought the keys were awesome, until I opened up my very own Bitty Baby! Grandma and Grandpa are starting my American Girl obsession at an early age!
I can see 2010's Christmas card already!I hope you had a Merry Christmas...I sure did!

Baby...

It's COLD Outside!All week the weather-people were doom and gloom about the gigantic storm headed our way. I refused to believe it, they're usually wrong, right? So, Friday night, as I stood in line (for 45 minutes) at WalMart, I cursed all the frantic people, buying "essential supplies" to make it through the "horrendous snowstorm". All I wanted was a nice, calm grocery shopping experience.

I woke Saturday morning to the most glorious sight, large, white, fluffy snow, wait...look closer, it's POWDER! Sweet Glory, it was wonderful! I am positive that we were the only ones from our neighborhood that "dared" go out in the weather, Hello...do you have any idea who empty Target was? It was awesome! We even witnessed a girl with garbage bags tied over her boots, protecting her hot pink Uggs...wait, aren't they for winter weather? It was hilarious!

We ran our errands and hunkered down. At first we began with sweeping the snow, while at the store we picked up an actual snow shovel (hey, don't mock, we've never needed it before!) And before too long it was time for Hazel to experience the beauty that is powder.

Peach Pit's first big snowstorm went a little like this:

Dad would go out and sweep the snow away every hour.After enough begging, Hazel was allowed to go out in the snow (me begging Seth)...but only after she slipped into her Deadliest Catch Survival Suit, the gumby suit!Hazel quickly realized she was not tall enough to stand in our front yard, yes...she is standing.Not to worry, she still likes her dad, even if he did abandon her in the snow.Seth mentioned his back was aching, in fear of having him throw it out again (we all know how lame it is when that happens!) I generously offered to shovel. Okay, okay...I love to shovel!The snow continued until well after midnight, and Seth was out nice and early taking some pictures around the neighborhood, here's a few of the house (secretly I just want to show off my cute wreath I made) :)
Church was canceled so we relaxed and enojoyed the snow as much as possible!



We ended up with over 2 feet in 24 hours at our house...best early Christmas present!

I was able to work on a ton of Christmas crafty-crap, it was perfect. Pictures of those...well, uh...they're coming :)

Nine Months

17 pounds 12 ounces (25%)

27.5 inches (50%)

Santa! I know him!

Hazel Highlights - Month 9

• Mom, isn't it awesome that I can sit in my crib? I like to just sit and wait for you to come get me in the mornings.
• Hey...I thought turkeys gobbled, not trotted.

• Mmmm, that turkey dinner looked delicious, how come I only got carrots and green beans?
  
• I was pretty popular at the church Christmas party, good thing I don't mind being mauled.

• Brrr! This white stuff is c o l d! But, Mom...you're right, I do love snow!
  

• I'm really good at crawling, huh? If there's something I want...I'll get it!
  
• A tree? In our house? I love it!

• Thanks for doing all you can to keep me warm!

• Lights!
• Three meals a day, that's what I'm talking about!
  
• Mom, remember me? You spent all week sewing for giraffe tails, I was almost worried you'd forgotten me.

• Phew, you didn't.
• Guess what!? Dad taught me how to pull myself up on the side of the tub.
• Why, why, why, Y?? Bleh. GO UTES!

• Speaking of pulling myself up...did you know it's really hard to do on the wood floors?
  
• Seriously, Aunt Joanie is the funniest person! I'm not quite sure what she's doing, but geesh, she's funny.
  

• I'm getting even better at blowing raspberries.
• I think it's really funny how excited you guys get when I wave Hi and Bye.
• Thanks for letting me help decorate the Christmas tree, I thought it was really funny that Dad decorated it while Mom was gone (I think he thought he was being helpful)...little did he know Mom really wanted to decorate it "as a family". Good thing the ornaments were lame and we had to take them all off and buy new ones. My parents are silly.

• I'm not sure if you know, but I'm kind of pretty.
  

• Mom... Dad... I know you try really hard, and worry a lot about me. But I'm doing really well, I like it here!
  

She's Terminal...

Nikkety Nikon was jealous of all the fun we had at the SYTYCD concert in SLC, so she decided to quit working that night.  Not cool.  Seth took her back to Maryland with him and sent her to the Nikon hospital in DC.  We waited and waited, for two weeks for a diagnosis.  After evaluation it was determined it would cost $140 to get her back to normal. *cough* Excuse me?  Seth and I decided not to proceed, and to just let her live out her final "lens error" moments at home.  (After paying $20 in shipping).  She was returned and we decided if she wasn't going to get better, we might as well try some "experimental treatments" (ie- internet tips).  We whacked.  We tugged.  We prayed.  We pried.  We bent a fingernail back.  We...what is this? 

This is the first picture of Nikkety Nikon's new life.