Longing for Lyla

In May this year, our family went to my parents' house in Washington to bless Hailey. We took Lyla with us. It wasn't because we are crazy dog people (which we actually probably are), but it was because we were leaving her there with my parents. 

It was hard and really sad. I already noticed a special connection between Hailey nd Lyla. 

We had a choice to make which led to us getting rid of Lyla for a few years. We were accepted into income-based housing that was not pet friendly. Either we could go live there and I could stay home with Hailey, or we could live in an expensive apartment that was pet friendly and I would work so we could keep Lyla. Travis said it was an easy decision to make, and logically it was. But it was hard for me to accept that we had to get rid of Lyla. I picked her out of a box full of puppies. She's my fur baby.

I called my mom up and told her our situation (probably in tears). She said they would take Lyla until we were done with school and moved into pet friendly housing again with Travis working. I'm so grateful every single day that Lyla is with my parents. I know it's temporary and that we'll have her with us again. If my parents didn't take her, we would have given her away and never been able to see her again. We are greatly appreciative of what they are doing for us. It's a major sacrifice. Especially yesterday when Lyla had to go to the vet and get antibiotics for a scratched cornea (ouch!). 

Thank you thank you thank you Mom and Dad! I don't think we can ever repay you for all that you do and continue to do for us! Thanks for giving Lyla a great life while she's away from us. I've been missing her a lot lately. Some people aren't animal people, and they probably won't understand. But I miss my puppy. There's a little piece of my heart left in Washington.

She's a little spoiled.

She even got a Halloween costume!

I'm excited to see Lyla this Christmas. We get to see her a few times a year, which I'm grateful for.

Enjoy some pictures from our last visit.

Photobomb!

 

Hailey in Action

It's taken me a while to figure out how to get videos from my phone onto my computer. I figured out I need to save them to YouTube and then I can open them on my computer. So enjoy some videos of Hailey. It may be a little bit of an overload, but her personality is so fun. I want to share a little bit of what I get to experience everyday. She keeps me laughing.
Enjoy!

She thinks the louder she grunts the easier it is to poop. haha.

Baby Kisses

Travis was trying to keep her awake so he could give her a bottle. Love this one! (Thanks Matt for recording this!)

Travis and Hailey are constantly growling. I have a house full of animals.

 And here's some more growling.

 Travis loves the rare baby cuddles that he gets.

Hailey is turning into a walking machine! (with her little walker of course.)

I just love that girl. When I was uploading these videos to YouTube I was reminded of the videos I posted when she was so little. If you want to see some videos of when she was littler go here.

Ocho

Has anyone seen the old Herbie movie? I always imagine "ocho" being pronounced by that young kid in that movie. Random thought. haha. 

Hailey is 8 months old! I can't believe it. She's growing and changing so fast. It's super exciting, but how do I make it slow down? Her personality is so fun. Every month it comes out even more. She's so silly. But I guess that makes sense having Travis and I as her parents. 

 

Her favorite thing to do is dance. We can't get her to stop. 

 

She learned to wave and clap this month.

She started standing up in the bathtub. Ahhh!

 

She's always busy busy standing up next to everything around her. 

 

She walks along furniture and stuff now. Slow down Hailey Rae!

 

 She started putting food in her mouth this month. She hasn't done that up till now, but started to this month. My big girl!

She crawls around at the speed of light. She's so fast. Sometimes I'll turn around for one second, and she crawls over to the basket of diapers and empties it so fast. She loves making messes and getting into things. Miss Mischief.

Her favorite time of the day is bath time. She squeals with delight when we go into the bathroom.

She still gets scared of strangers. She's been that way since she was 3 months old. She warms up to people, but it takes a while. She's definitely a mama's girl.

She's finally getting some hair! Not much, but it's thickening up and getting longer. 

Speaking of hair, she's found her bows. She's constantly pulling them off. But I'm persistent with putting them back on. haha. 

I may or may not have given her a sucker. Only a few licks, but she loved it!

We upgraded to a big girl carseat (still rear-facing) this last month. She loves it! And she looks so small in it.

 She especially loved the box the carseat came in.

 She's growing so fast and we love her so much.

Sickies and Movies

First, shout out to my beautiful sister, Ashley! She redesigned my blog and I love it. THANK YOU ASHLEY!!!

This weekend, our whole family was hit with the sick bug. Fevers, head colds, snotty noses, sore throats, coughs-the whole nine yards. Basically, we were sick as dogs. On Wednesday night, when Hailey first got sick, we ended up taking her to the Urgent Care (doctor's orders) because we thought she was grabbing at her ears. We were worried about ear infections.

Such a big girl!

She wanted to stand and wait for the doctor.

Pretty unsure about the anklet they gave her.

Snot bubble! You're welcome.

I love that cute face.

Luckily, we were in the clear. No ear infections. 

So then later in the weekend, Travis and I got sick too. We realized it was hard being sick and having a sick baby. We all felt like babies that needed care. But we had to put our needs aside and take care of the little one. At one point, Travis and I were taking turns taking care of Hailey and taking naps. It was great teamwork. I'm grateful for my wonderful husband, who helps me even when he's sick. 

We ended up watching a TON of movies. I don't know how many, but I'm going to list them so you see how many we truly did watch. 

Tangled

Toy Story 3

Emperors New Groove (it's on Netflix people!)

The Croods 

Up

World War Z (surprisingly pretty good)

42-the Jackie Robinson movie (soooooo good!!)

After Earth

A random Netflix Christmas movie (Travis is crazy)

Dorfman in Love (a Netflix movie)

Marley and Me
Jack the Giant Slayer

That's all I  can remember. But we watched all those during the weekend. Crazy stuff. 

We're all feeling tons better now and life is good.