Baby Interrogation!

An investigation took place in the Fanning household Saturday morning. A warrant was out for a certain little girl and Deputy Sheriff Larry the Lizard hunted her down to grill her...all that was missing was the dim room with a spotlight in her face. As you will see, Hallie knew that the deputy wasn't kidding around....

I seriously get a legitimate ab workout while watching Riley and Hallie play together. Never a dull moment!!!

A Helping Hand

Dear Baby girl,

While it would be a thousand times easier to run errands without you I much prefer to have you join me. First of all, you make it a lot more entertaining. Second of all, you make it a lot more entertaining. ;) Like the other day you joined me to get my oil changed. I loved watching you get the hang of sitting in a big girl chair in the waiting area. I thought you might enjoy kicking back with a book while I read a magazine. Well the idea went over for about two seconds.....

Until you spotted your snacks in your bag....

"It's never too early for a snack!"

You also like to lend a hand during therapy sessions. Great grandma has a lot more fun watching your demonstrations of how to perform band exercises. You make momma so proud....

"See Grandma, you grab the band with both hands like this...."

"....and then you stretch it just like this."

You also helped your daddy unpack his new carburetor the other night. He was pretty pumped when you didn't protest about wearing his new JEGS hat....that's my boy, er, I mean girl....

"I promise I'm not a tomboy mom...I like pink WAAAYYYYYYY too much!"

"Think it's gonna run good now dad?"

Oh and the helping doesn't stop there...you went on your first "mission trip" this week with Nanny. It was no trip to South America but you did make your way to Alva to drop food off at the Methodist Student Union for the college students. We are so proud of you little missionary!

We spent this afternoon baking and getting other goodies ready for Easter lunch tomorrow. Thanks to all of your help I now can manage baking a cake with one hand....you really wanted to help every step of the way. Especially using the mixer. And you can't spend time in the kitchen without having a lot of dishes to do...I really hope you still enjoy helping me with dishes in about ten years.....

"Don't get your hopes up mom"

Just a Swingin'

Hallie Grace had a craving Tuesday...and the only cure was more swingin'. I have been enjoying a rather slow week at work and have been taking ful advantage of my extra time with my babe. What a beautiful day it was...and what better place to spend it than at the park. Hallie and I found a nice quiet spot and got to swingin'. She got to try out her very own big girl swing today instead of riding on momma's lap. From the moment I placed her chubby legs in the seat she was ready to go. She started bouncing and held on tight as if to say "let's go mom! I'm ready! Start the ride." I was able to snap some classic faces while she was swingin'....

"So this is what big girls get to do?!?!?"

The excitement in her face and her funny giggle was almost too much cuteness to handle!

She was parched after all the laughing and smiling so what better treat than a drink by the water's edge....

Searching for the lemon inside...she is addicted

"Seriously though, get this lemon out for me"

Sidenote: The girl really is a fan of the tangy yellow citrus juice. When crankiness sets in I just hand her a lemon and she is in heaven. Who would have thought???

Lemons in the stroller

Lemons in the carseat

And yes, my car and stroller are very sticky and messy now...but what makes her happy makes momma happy! Lemons it is then.

I. Love. That. Smile. I think I may just quit my day job and spend everyday this summer outdoors with my lil playmate. A girl can dream.....

Hallie Meets Nature

Sunday was just too beautiful to spend indoors. So we loaded up the babe, the stroller, and some sunscreen. Turns out the stroller wasn't needed because Hallie didn't enjoy "off-roading" so much. But I will get to that later. ;)

It seems as though Sundays are always the day that I beg Riley to do something fun outside. Vampires would never fit in with Hal and I because we crave the sunlight! Luckily it took no convincing today to get the hubs out of the house. My list of wants included: swinging and walking. We decided to spend the afternoon at Boiling Springs. Although I had been there several times before for races or family reunions, I had never actually understood why it was called Boiling Springs. Well today Riley gave me a geology lesson. Oh yeah, and Hallie too. The water actually looks like it's boiling....huh, who would have thunk it? ;0

The sunscreen application is a must before our little Irish-skinned gal can begin any activity outdoors. She doesn't seem to mind so I make sure to take my time and get every last roll and crevice. We headed down the walking trail path with our babe strapped in. After five minutes of bumpy trails she had had enough. I still don't know if it was the fact that the terrain was less than smooth, if she just wanted a better view, or if she simply wanted to be held. I'm leaning toward the latter. Either way, the girl was literally ALL SMILES all afternoon long!

After we took off in the stroller Hallie quickly began questioning her footwear....

"Seriously mom? Jellies for trail walking?"

Since she wanted to be Ms. Independent we made sure to let her guide the way...

"Follow me"

She didn't get us lost because we actually made our way to the river...

Her little self was dying to explore her surroundings so we let her do just that....

I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit (ok, maybe a lot) nervous about her sitting amongst the grass and grabbing trees and sticks, but she had a blast and what better way to learn?!

Ok, so maybe jellies weren't the best choice of shoe for trail walking. The girl proved her point in this walk with dad....

After playing in the fallen tree trunks and gathering sticks, she found that they make pretty good drumsticks....

So her and Riley started a two-man band....

"Try to stay on beat with me dad"

As I snapped photos of my precious little girl I couldn't believe how big she looked. She is definitely conditioned to sit for the camera...but better than that, she is always ready with a huge smile or silly look on her face....

"What do you expect? I have a camera in my face 24/7"

There are no words to describe the fun we had this afternoon. Just a simple place...but it was so much more than that. It was a bunch of firsts for our Hal gal. I love getting to be her mommy!!

No greater love

She had us cracking up with her silly giggles of excitement. Riding on Riley's shoulders was an easy way to get a big grin...

Picture of perfection

As always, Riley got us a bit lost and wanted to keep walking until we found a clearing....so I quickly reminded him of his track record with pathfinding. He actually joked around and threw some pebbles down on the ground to mark our path Hansel and Gretel style. No sign of our pebble path so we decided to turn around and backtrack our way back to the car instead of trekking any further....

"We should have tried some bread crumbs dad"

She was a trooper and put up with us as we strapped her back in her carseat with the promise of more fun to come. Fun at the park that is....

We weren't sure how much fun (if any) she would have sliding and swinging. It turns out she LOVED everything about the park!!!

"BEST DAY EVER!"

Giggles galore on the swings...

She was full of zeal today and even tried out some rock climbing...

"Alllll.....by....myself..."

"Ok, maybe with a little help"

And the huge smiles continued when we introduced her to the slide....

Reached the peak

"Do we haaaavvvveeee to leave?"

Yes sweetheart. We had to stop swinging. I guess it's a sign you are old when you can't swing without feeling like you are going to be sick. Yep, next time we head to the park I guess I'll have to pop some Dramamine. To top off our perfect afternoon we randomly ran into Uncle Luke and Aunt Katie...they were out cruising in the Mustang thanks to the perfect weather. Hallie checked out the duckies with Uncle Luke and did some walking before we were ready to go. By the time we had reached the highway to head back to town our nature girl was passed out in the backseat. :)

Our hearts are so full. Overflowing in fact. Hallie Grace, you love nature and nature loves you back!



The Piglet's Weekend and the Pig Party

What a wonderful weekend with perfect weather. These days perfect weather = winds less than 50 mph. Perfect weather made for a perfect weekend! But we couldn't kick off the weekend without a quick trip to great grandma's house. She shared plenty of smiles as always and cheered up some proud great grandparents. And I think she also made Great Aunt Deedee's evening too! The girl was pretty happy after her Friday evening visit....

"Let's get this weekend started!"

We spent Friday night at Nanny and Papa's house for dinner and relaxation with them and Uncle Luke & Aunt Katie. Hallie stayed fairly content munching on some grapes and squeezing juice EVERYWHERE...she also practiced her walking skills using her new walker toy. The girl's getting the hang of it!

Grape Juice = Baby Wine

Oh blessing of all blessings, Hallie slept well Friday night but must've needed a lil bit more sleep because she was starving for a nap early Saturday morning. But she couldn't cuddle up without her friend Violet. Thank you Violet for singing lovely soothing lullabies to my angel so that she doesn't have to be subjected to my voice....

Angel on earth snuggled up with her buddy Violet

Nap time was over and it was dad time now. There is a huge difference between dad playtime and mom playtime. Dad is probably 1,000 times cooler than mom. He reads her books in silly voices and is a pro at any animal noise. And somehow she seems to sit and actually listen to his reading which is something I just can't seem to get her to do. Daddy's girl she is.....

"Dad, where did you study storytelling?"

"Mom, here is your chance...you better be taking notes."

We decided to have a quick lunch date Saturday afternoon with Riley before us girls left town to head to Enid. Dad got even cooler at lunch when he let his girl try out some new grub....

"Mmmm...pickles!"

She gave daddy plenty of smiles and goodbye kisses before we left on our way to Enid for a big day. Poor girl had a rough time getting comfy in her big girl carseat. We're going to have to make some adjustments there.... 

 That's gotta hurt

Once we made it to Enid, Aunt B and I took our first rides on dad's new bike and then Hallie showed off her growing repertoire of skills to Aunt B and Gman. They were thrilled to see her pulling up to everything and giggling alot. It's no secret that she is terribly missed when she's not around....

"Where ya been all my life Aunt B?"

After my dad showed off his purty bike we made a trip up to my friend Heather's shoe store (inside Posh in Enid). Here's where I ask you to please shop there because it is awesome and I never leave there without a CUTE pair (or pairs) of shoes! It's called LUTHI and it's awesome! How's that for free advertisement!? (If you are reading this, I love you Heather). Hallie had a ball crawling to and fro...

Once she reached her destination, which happened to be on the platform in front of the mirrors, she sat in awe of the baby she was looking at in the mirror....

"Whoa who's that pretty baby?"

Paparrazi!

So it turned out that Aunt Heather didn't have any shoes in Hallie's size (lol) so she settled for kicking back with a magazine while everyone else shopped....

Just catchin' up on some celeb gossip

"Aunt Heather, you need to think about carrying size 2 or 3."

We must have been dilly-dallying too long because Gman was waiting for us at the house ready to go. Where were we going? Well, you see, we were invited to a "pork pulling party" that my mom's home health office was having. The hospital home health office hosts a pig roast each year for the entire hospital and they have a party to get together and prepare the pork after roasting the piggies. Mom would've been there so we went in her place...and it goes without mentioning that we absolutely love all of her coworkers and work family! Mom would've been thrilled this year because they are not doing a choreographed dance and singing for entertainment. Mom could never carry a tune nor dance to a beat to save her soul...it was always a big joke each year while watching her practice for their "performance." Oh mom, you were a funny lady! We were excited for some fun out on the farm, some good food, beautiful weather and fresh country air. That is exactly what we got! We lathered Hallie in sunscreen and plopped a hat on her head...which stayed there for approximately two seconds....

"Hey everybody. My name's Hallie"

Most of my mom's coworkers had already met Hallie bug, but there were a few who had yet to meet her. Not that they needed to because my mom had given them a daily update on her grandbaby everyday in the office. We feel so welcome around all of these great people and it was a great way to spend the evening amongst people who loved my mom.

Hallie and Aunt B just so happened to dress alike for the evening...

Twinks

"Mom, not in front of everybody"

<3

My girl had a chance to get her paws on a bottle-fed calf...

 

I took advantage of having several different hands who wanted to hold (and feed) the munchkin...

Pay no attention to her strange, mismatched outfit...it got chilly unexpectedly and we worked with what I could find in her bag. We spent the evening cooking out, joking around, blowing bubbles with the kids, petting doggies and cows, making smores and playing baseball???

Her random chew toy

Lori, my mom's friend and boss

"Now this is the life"

I hadn't packed for an overnight stay in Enid, but it was getting late and I was exhausted so Hallie and I decided to camp out at Gman's. I tried to warn him about her bedtime shenanigans but he didn't seem afraid to take on the nighttime Hallie monster. Turns out she wasn't so much of a monster for her grandpa....

"We'll show mom, won't we?"

.

It's amazing what a peaceful evening in the fresh country air can do for one's soul. I love you dad and sister.

Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10