Halfway, um excuse me??!!!

Since I'm basically caught up on current posts with the blog (I seriously haven't been able to say that in OVER a year!!!), I thought I'd do some flashback posts about Hailey's first two years since I didn't start the blog until she was almost 2 1/2.  So much happened her first few months of life in addition to everyday fun once we finally settled into our new home in Makakilo when she was 7 months old.  I read a blog post this week about a women's daughter turning 9 and that child reaching the halfway point of her childhood under her parent's roof....HALFWAY...WAIT, WHAT???!!!??  Hailey turns nine this week and that thought NEVER entered my mind...burning tears instantly hit my eyes!!!!  HALFWAY?????  How is that possible??!!!  I always had the number 10 or 13 or 16 as the 'biggies', but N-I-N-E being the halfway mark of raising Hailey brings tears to my eyes again now as I type. 

 

We were here in Missouri on post at Fort Leonard Wood for Leevi's Captain Career Course when I was pregnant with Hailey.  It made it nice because we were only minutes from the hospital. 

 

Our first ultrasound photo around 9 weeks

This was the best picture we got at 20 weeks.

We took the parenting class on post and in one of the sessions the guys had to wear an empathy belly!

Comparing bellies...

I had horrible back labor with Hailey and thankfully the epidural helped for a bit...until it wore off on one side! :(  I was fully dialated, but Hailey hadn't dropped, so we just waited and waited!!!

Monday morning on President's Day at 7am our world changed when we became parents! 

Never in a million years could we have imagined the joy and love our kids would bring!

Daddy's first hold!

Checking each other out! 

She made joining the mom-club so easy!

The nurses put this little bow on Hailey and Leevi now keeps it in his wallet! :)

 

Ironically, her first car ride was only 5 minutes home, but little did she know the travels that awaited in her first 4 months of life!!!



We were discharged from the hospital the following day and we had movers at our house when she was 4 days old.  We moved into lodging and then stayed with friends until she was cleared at her 2 week check up.  We left the doctor's office and started our journey!  My grandfather in Florida passed away so we changed our plans slightly and Leevi and Leila made the drive west to Washington and Hailey and I flew out of Kansas City and detoured to Florida for a few days and then met them in Washington.  Leevi was being sent to Korea for a few months and then being stationed in Hawaii.  We flew as a family to Hawaii when Hailey was 3 weeks old and Leevi left for Korea when she was a month old.  Hailey and I traveled to Washington, Korea, and Virginia before moving finally to Hawaii when Leila cleared the quarantine laws when Hailey was 4 months old...to be continued!

Such a little fuzzy head!!!

Daddy and his girls!

This was the picture I used on her birth announcement that I printed at Walmart...with the help of Pinterest and Etsy, we've come a long way!!!!!