She makes people smile

One of the million things I love about Hailey is the way her hair makes people smile. I think it's a combination of the crazy curls and the color (and probably some of the silly facial expressions that often cross her face). People don't always say anything (though a good many do), but everyone that looks at her walks by with a smile.

Check out this curliness (even if there's not much of it :)). It's been especially curly that last week or so. I think our "best soap in the world" that we use at home, which makes your skin so soft, also relaxes the curls in her hair. The days after swimming (see below) when her hair is a little left over Chlorine and swimming shampoo (no luxury soap), it just crazy curly.

You have to smile at this, right?....even if you are not a biased parent.

Tummy Aches

My poor Hailey has been getting a lot of tummy aches over the past couple of months. Sometimes it starts instantly after eating (though I haven't been able to pinpoint a specific food). Sometimes it starts randomly when we aren't eating. And occasionally she's just being dramatic (hard to believe, I know). They last anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes and then she seems to go back about her business. It's hard when they are so young to know what's really going on and how much it really hurts (and sometimes IF it really hurts) but she definitely seems to be in some pain. She either wants to be held or goes and curls up on the couch until it passes (or she gets bored).

Christmas Countdown

We have several Christmas count down activities going this year. I'd like to call them advent calendars but I think of advent calendars as involving some giving and consideration of others.....we'll work on that next year :). This year we are just counting down. Our first addition is Mr. Snowman. Each morning the kids get to change the number of days. It's proving to be a good math lesson (or at least a lesson in counting backwards).

We've also started the nightly Christmas book tradition. Well, we've always read Christmas books but this year I wrapped up 24 Christmas/winter books. Each night the kids get to open one book "present" and that's are book for the night and then we can also read any of the other already opened Christmas books if they want. This is proving to be my favorite tradition yet. The kids loving picking a "present" and since Dave gets home right about bed time these days, we all (the whole family) pile on to Tyler's bed and read our Christmas book.

Tyler's favorite count down (hands down) is the Lego Calendar. They each have one and the minute Tyler gets downstairs in the morning he finds that days treasure. Each day is just a little thing...a figure, or small creation. The theme of the calendar is "Kingdoms" which goes right a long with some of his birthday presents.

It comes with a fold out flap that you can use to set up all your creations on.

The 1st days gift. Sorry for the sideways photo but it's to difficult to change it now.

Tyler spent a long time the first morning just looking over and memorizing the box. He was totally enthralled.

Then when he got home from school, he built a walls around his Kingdom calendar.

Yes, it's a fun count down to Christmas this year (for everyone).

Swimming and Basketball

Outside of all the holiday cheer and excursions going on around the Quiggle household we have some new extra curricular activities this month. Last week Hailey started up swimming lessons two days a week. I was a little worried she'd have forgotten a bunch since it's been a while (August maybe) since we've been swimming. But, turns out fish don't forget. She's pretty much swimming independently (minus side breathing...she hasn't mastered that yet). And she's working on "pretty" arms for her backstroke. Her teacher even has her working on the breaststroke (?), we call it chicken airplane soldier and even a dolphin kick. These are debatably (probably not a word) a bit advanced for a 3 year old (in my opinion) but Hailey doesn't seems to mind so we are going with it. As important of a skill as I think swimming is, it's always hard to pay the monthly fees (they're not cheap). December it turns out is a great month for swimming. Hailey is the only one in the pool and is getting private lessons which makes me feel better about the whole money thing.

Tyler has started a basketball clinic (for lack of a better word). It's a six week (once a week) practice where they work on skills and play around. It's not through the YMCA and there are no games. It's actually right next door to where Hailey swims (and the are both going simultaneously on Thursdays). Its great to have some "real" coaches. They clearly know what they are doing and make it a lot of fun for the kids. Tyler had a blast last week.

It's beginning to look a lot

like Christmas. Actually, this post was meant for the beginning of last week. Now we are full fledge into the holiday season. A few glimpses of Christmas around that house. This is another of those posts that's meant to document Quiggle history more than entertain any readers that might be out there.

Daddy's helpers

Best Magazine Ever

Tyler received the Lego Holiday Catalog in the mail a few weeks ago. He gets completely engrossed in it daily. He goes through page by page, often asking me to read descriptions to me. I can only imagine what goes on in his brain through the whole process. And every time he looks at it, it's like it's the first time.

Catch up

So very behind on blogs...once again. We've been having crazy Christmas spirit here at our house. Our last week has been so filled with Holiday activities I'm now totally behind on work, house stuff, and blogging. Lots of pictures and blogs to share. Here's a peek at our last few days and a hint of blogs to come:

The Christmas season started around here the day after Thanksgiving when we broke out the Christmas music (one of Ty's favorites). Both of th kida re very into Christmas music and decor this year. It has been very fun. Our lights are up and the house is mostly decorated. We have several fun count down to Christmas activities going on.

Thursday night we went to see the lights of Christmas.
Friday we had picutres with Santa
Saturday morning we had Santa breakfast at Tyler's school
Saturday night we visited Mill Creek town center for a tree lighting and parade
Today we went to the tree farm and picked out our Christmas tree.