3 months

Haley is 3 months old and we're loving watching her practice new skills!

Sitting with support

Standing with support

Pooping with support

Riley's 3rd birthday

Riley's birthday was earlier this month and we had a great time celebrating. We had her birthday party a week before her actual birthday. Family and friends came over to our house for a backyard bash, where we led the kids in games like "Red Light Green Light" and "Simon Says" for prizes.

Grammi (Robb's mom) was here for the weekend. She gave Riley an amazing sandbox for her birthday. It's huge and so much fun! We play in it every day.

Then the day she turned 3, we did all of Riley's favorite things. Coincidentally, they also happen to be Daddy's favorite things. :) We went on a hike, went swimming, and had dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's (my parents.) The only thing we didn't have time for was a bike ride.

 

We're so proud of our big girl!

Anne's wedding

My friend Anne (from dance) got married last night, so Robb and I got to go out on a date to her wedding! It was our first time out since Haley was born. We had a great time and it was so much fun seeing all my friends too.

The members of CORE Dance Collective, my old dance company.

Easter

I love how holidays now are week-long occasions. We celebrated this year by going to four different events, which was great because Riley got to wear her dress a number of times. That's what she liked best about Easter.

The first event was the "Grand Egg Roll" for grandparents/grandkids, which I went to with my grandparents growing up.

Haley's first Easter! She was 5 weeks old here.

Riley was SOOO excited to see the Easter bunny. She told me all morning how she wanted to show him her basket, and sure enough, that's what she did.

Checking out the live animals

Grandpa (my dad) and Riley finding eggs

My mom also had all her grandkids over to decorate cupcakes and paint spring pictures. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera--but it was super cute!

The next event we attended was a neighborhood Easter egg hunt. I found out about it from flyers and Facebook; turns out we were the only ones who didn't live on their street (we came from a few blocks away) so that was embarrassing. But they welcomed us warmly and we had a fun time looking for eggs and eating a pizza lunch.

Riley does not like having her picture taken in general, and especially dislikes group shots. So this was amazing that she finally joined the group for a photo.

On Easter we went to my brother and sister-in-law's new house for the first time. They made us a delicious lunch and the cousins got to play.

My mom with Haley

SIL Amber with Haley

My brother Zach with Haley

Goofy shot!

The cousins

2 weeks old already!

Here are some updated pics of the fam!

Riley was soooo excited to put Haley in her ballerina outfit so that they could match.

 I went on a quest to find a picture of Riley at two weeks old so that I could show everyone how dark her hair was. Turns out it was lighter than I remember! Came across these two pics: Riley on the left, Haley on the right. All yawning babies probably look alike, but we do think there's a resemblance.

And, had to share this one: Riley comes up with the funniest costumes, and this one takes the cake. My old leotard (from when I was 13!), tap shoes, headband, purse ... very Jane Fonda-esque.

Haley is born!

Our beautiful new addition surprised us by making her appearance on Valentine's Day. The backstory:

Haley's due date was Feb. 25. Robb was making his first business trip ever to Orlando from Feb. 10-13. While he was gone, I started feeling more frequent but painless contractions. Luckily, Robb returned home without event and we made plans for the weekend to pack for the hospital and do last-minute prep for baby.

I had my last day of work on Feb. 14. (I hadn't worked earlier that week since I'm part-time.) I began to wonder whether I would be okay working that day, but decided to do it since my long-term sub would be there with me. It became clear as I was teaching that day that I should probably head home early; my contractions didn't hurt but were getting stronger. 

I left work at 2:00 and called Robb to come home from work also. We both quickly packed for the hospital and had a quick Valentine's celebration with Riley. My parents came over to watch her, and we headed to the hospital.

As my doctor predicted, the labor progressed quickly. We checked in at 4:30 pm. The epidural only worked from the pelvis down, and the anesthesiologist couldn't figure out why. Rather than have him reposition it, I decided to labor through the rest of the contractions (I could tell I was close.) That part wasn't fun, but luckily I couldn't feel the pain once it was time to push. Haley May Holmstrom was born at 8:22 pm, 11 days early.

And now, the pics ...