Haylenisms

“Daddy, you need to mow our grass.  It’s getting taller and taller like a mountain.”

“Mommy, may I have a sip of your water?  I’m thirsty!  I just gotta stay hydrated.”  Seriously!?!  Hydrated!?!  What two year old uses the word hydrated?  Oh yeah, ours!  She uses the word quite frequently and correctly.

“Mommy, I hiked up my pants.  I look like Urkel”                                                       The kid has no idea who Urkel is.  All she knows is that I had made a comment once, a while back, when she pulled up her pants a bit too high that she looked like Urkel.  Apparently, she took that comment, stored it away, and decided to pull it back out at that football game.  It blows my mind what this child remembers.


Haylen – “Mommy, did you say awesome???”
Me – “Yes”
Haylen – “ I say that all the time!!!”
(My Goodness!  Two going on teenager!)

“Mom, the sun is coming up over my favorite planet!  EARTH!!!”

Haylen – “Daddy what’s your buddy’s name?”
Daddy – “Charlie Matzig
Haylen – “That’s a funny name.  Let’s name him something else.” 
(Sorry Charlie!!!  The new name she came up with was “Boobie Chachi Aggie.”  Not sure that’s much better…)

While looking in the mirror while brushing her teeth, she stops, points to one of her perfect spiral curls, and says, “Mommy, my hair is round like tornado!”

“Look Mommy!  I made a circle out of my okras!”                                                  When your mom is a teacher, you don’t get in trouble for playing with your food for educational purposes.


In her very best exhausted and weary voice with an expression to match, she proceeds to tell us, (insert dramatic sigh here) “I need a holiday!”                                             Oh my!  Is she British!?!  She needs a holiday! (Thanks Peppa Pig)  Her dad and I then had to break it to her that she’s pretty much on holiday every day. Ha!  She is now referring to Santa as Father Christmas, as well.  Before we know it she’ll be speaking with an accent! 


While driving out to gymnastics…
Haylen - “Daddy, watch out for hawks. My Daddy hits hawks all the time.” 
Daddy – I do not.  I only hit one!
Haylen – No (shaking her head with quite a convincing look on her face)
Daddy – (insert sarcasm here) Well how many have I hit?
Haylen – (counting on her little fingers)  “One, two, three, four.  You hit four!!!”
A little back story… On the way back from eating at M. Beaux’s one night, we hit a hawk.  Well, more accurately that hawk hit us.  That sucker flew right into the front of our Tahoe and there wasn’t a darn thing we could do about it.  We even have a little dint on the front our hood to prove it.  Ever since then, Haylen swears her dad hits hawks all the time, and she reminds him of it every chance she gets. LOL!



Anytime baby Hollyn starts to fuss Haylen will tell us:  “Mommy, we’ve got a feisty britches on our hands!” 

Here’s another one for you.  As I’m typing this post, Haylen points to the picture above and says, “Hey, that’s me and feisty britches!” Yup, it sure is!


We had just left Cane’s with our lunch and were driving away when I hear this from the backseat:
Haylen – “Mommy, I want to go to the little devil place.”
Me – Did you just say you want to go to the little devil place???
Haylen – Yeah!  They have beans, and tacos, and rice, and chips!!!
Oh, Torchy’s, apparently you’ve won our daughter’s heart.  For a split second I was a little curious about where exactly she wanted to go…

Clean-up on Aisle 6

Last Tuesday, the girls and I ventured out to the grocery store to pick up some much needed supplies for dinner.  It was just your everyday run of the mill shopping trip until we hit the dairy aisle.  It was there that my sweet, laid back, I don’t just cry for the heck of crying, youngest child started to fuss.  As I leaned over the edge of the shopping cart to grab her binky, I smelled it.  Yup.  She pooped her pants. 

Now for those of you who know, or have met, our sweet baby Hollyn, you’re probably cracking up right about now because you know exactly where this story is headed.  For those of you who are not familiar with our child, please let me explain.  You see, Hollyn really dislikes…okay, dislikes doesn’t even do it justice…hates…well, hates may not even be a strong enough word…the child despises a dirty diaper.  Ha!  I wish I could call every diaper I change dirty!  By the way she lets you know about it, you’d think that diaper couldn’t possibly hold anymore.  Nope.  Wrong.  The slightest smear or smidgen of poo will send her over the edge.  Now as soon as you change her she’s happy as a clam…that is until she decides she really wasn’t finished, she just needed a clean diaper to dirty up again. 

Now back to the story at hand.  By the whiff I smelled, I knew that there was more than a smidge of poo in that diaper and knowing my child we could very well reach a nuclear meltdown of epic proportions if the situation was not handled carefully and soon.  I tried to quiet her with her binky to buy a little more time but to no avail.  As I’m trying to steer the cart, attempting to hold her binky in her mouth and weigh my options all at the same time, I realize that I can’t go to the restroom to change her with my basket full, and there was no way she was gonna make it through checking out without causing quite the scene, not to mention I wasn’t done shopping yet!  So I made the executive decision to go ahead and change her on the least busy aisle I could possibly find.  Don’t judge.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Well, the makeup aisle was pretty deserted so I figured that was about as good a spot as any.  (A quick little side story here:  Before going to the grocery store, I told Haylen that we could look for some Christmas nail polish.  Looking back now, I probably shouldn’t have done that.)  So, while I’m attempting to change the diaper of a wiggling and wailing child who is about as feisty as feisty comes, Haylen is picking up nail polishes at breakneck speed trying to show me each of them and excitedly saying, “Is this a good Christmas color?  What about this one?  Mommy. MOMMY!  What about this one???”  So, as I’m trying not to get poop everywhere or have little bit decide that maybe she wasn’t done yet and blast me with another round (I say this from experience), I’m also praying that our oldest doesn’t drop the cherry red GLASS nail polish bottles she keeps picking up at breakneck speed to show me.  Trust me, I had quite the three ring circus going on.  In the middle of our little escapade, a college aged girl walks down the aisle.  Once she realizes the crazyness she just walked up on, I notice she tries her best not to look and makes her way through the aisle pretty darn quickly (I’m like 90% sure she decided to forego whatever it was she needed on this aisle).  But honestly, who could blame her!  We must have looked like quite the spectacle! 

Now I have to say that in the moment, I was a little mortified to be changing my baby girl in the middle of the makeup aisle, but I got over it pretty quickly.  As a mom, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do, and if that means changing your daughter in a carseat that is sitting in a shopping cart in the middle of the makeup aisle, so be it.  By the way, let me tell you that is no easy feat, those changing conditions were less than ideal.


But for this face, who could say no!?!

Halloween 2014

Well, Halloween 2014 is in the books.  It was our first holiday as a family of 4!  We spent a fun filled evening trick-or-treating with all of our sweet neighborhood friends.  Haylen had a blast running from house to house getting candy, while Baby Sis snoozed in my arms, all while I was trying to capture every moment on my camera (talk about a little juggling going on! Ha!)  Here are a few pictures from our evening.  Okay, “a few” might be a little bit of an understatement.  Either way, enjoy the picture overload!

 

Before heading out to trick-or-treat, I had to have a little photo session with my little Audrey Hepburn; however, this proved to be quite the challenge.  Haylen was so excited that she just kept running and skipping around.  Either way, I thought she looked quite adorable as Holly Golightly. 

 

A little side note here, CJ and I were curious as to how she was going to “like” her costume because up until about 2 days before Halloween, the child was dead set on the fact that she was going to be Captain Barnacles from the Octonauts.  Not only did she have her costume planned out, she planned out costumes for our entire family, including the dog.  She was going to be Captain Barnacles, Daddy was going to be Kwazii, Mommy was going to be Peso, Baby Sis was going to be Tunip, and Zoe, our dog, was going to be Dashi.  The kid had her little heart set on those costumes, and was quite adamant about them.  Anytime you asked her what she was going to be for Halloween or talked about trick-or-treating she would give you the rundown of everyone’s costume.  Then the day before Halloween it changed, and she was determined she was going to be a robot.  Either way, neither of the costumes she had deemed worthy were anywhere near what I had picked out and already bought for her.  Needless to say, I might have been a little worried that we would have a little meltdown come costume time.  However, Halloween morning while she was watching her shows on the Disney Channel, Special Agent Oso saved the day.  It was a Halloween episode and Special Agent Oso’s mission was to help a little girl find a princess costume to go trick-or-treating.  Haylen then turns to me and says, “Mommy, I want to be a princess!”  To which I quickly replied, “Absolutely!!! I have the perfect princess costume for you to wear tonight!”  Thank you Oso!  You saved the day!  Thank goodness for the Disney Channel!  That evening she was so excited to get dressed that she even told her Daddy to close his eyes until she was completely dressed so he would be surprised by her costume!

 

She had a little Marilyn Monroe moment while we were taking pictures.  A cool front had just come in that day, and needless to say, it was a little windy. 

After our front yard photo shoot, it was time to go trick-or-treating!  We headed out with a big group of our neighborhood friends.  All the kids had so much fun! 

Haylen came running back from almost every house telling us, “Mom! Dad!  My bag’s almost full!!!”

Our last stop of the night was at Mrs. G’s house.  Haylen loves Mrs. G. and that was the perfect stop to end our evening.  Haylen even invaded her house to get a drink of water.  Apparently, trick-or-treating can work up quite the thirst!  Thank goodness Mrs. G. loves Haylen too, so she didn’t seem to mind the home invasion too much! 

After leaving Mrs. G’s, we headed back to our house because by this time Hollyn, who had been quite the little trooper all night, was getting hungry.  Of course, the minute we got home, Haylen (and Zoe), had to check out all her treats from the night.

Here’s a picture of our littlest pumpkin.  Due to the fact that she was in one arm and my camera was in the other, I have no pictures of her while we were out and about, so this one was taken when we got home.

All in all, the evening was a big success!  Happy Halloween from the Havlik’s!

Family of Four

On October 16th, our life forever changed again.  We were no longer a family of 3.  We were now a family of 4!  Hollyn Sabine Havlik entered the world bright and early and utterly perfect in every way. 

 

We headed to the hospital super early Thursday morning.  Dr. Gayle wanted me in labor and delivery by 5:15am.  While we were both filled with anticipation and excitement heading to the hospital, I have to say I didn’t feel as nervous as I felt when we headed to the hospital to have Haylen.  Maybe its because this time we at least had an idea of how things were gonna go down.  We’re weren’t flying blind anymore.  We had been through this once before.  Either way, we checked in through the ER and headed up to Labor and Delivery.  When we had Haylen, before my c-section we were put in a little prep/recovery room that was partitioned off by a curtain.  Not exactly the best accommodations.   It was super small and you could only have a few visitors come back at a time.  They got me all set and ready, and when it was time for me to go to the O.R. for my spinal, they left C.J. in that tiny partitioned room to wait…alone…until he could join me in the operating room for the birth.  Talking to C.J., that was the longest, most nerve racking time of his life.  Just sitting alone with his thoughts, in a little room, all by himself, waiting for the biggest event of life.  It might have been a little stressful for him. However, fast forward to Hollyn’s birthday, this time instead of the little prep room, we got our very own labor and delivery suite.  I have to say that this made things much more laid back and comfortable.  We were allowed to have family in the room with us while we waited for my c-section.  And this time, when I was taken back, C.J. wasn’t alone, he had both sets of our parents and our 2 and a half year old to keep him busy.  Here are a few pictures from before Hollyn’s big arrival.

 

My last picture with baby sis still in my tummy.

Who knew this little IV would give us so much trouble.  It took only 3 attempts and 2 nurses to get it in. 

Daddy all dressed and ready to go. 

Mommy and Daddy patiently waiting to meet our sweet baby girl.

Big Sis was passing the time playing photographer.

Before long, it was time to go meet our new baby girl.  I was taken back to the O.R. first to get my spinal, and C.J. came shortly after.  At 7:30 on the dot, Dr. Gayle pulled out our sweet little Hollyn Sabine.  She was absolutely perfect!  7 pounds 9 ounces and 20 inches long. 

Our hearts melted the minute we saw our sweet baby girl.

While she looked very similar, she was definitely much smaller than her big sis.

 

Our very first picture with our brand new baby girl. 

After she was born, she was taken back to my labor and delivery suite where she and Daddy waited for me to get sewn back up.  The other awesome thing about my L&D room was that everything that used to be done in the nursery (first bath, footprints, etc.) was now done in the room.  So we didn’t miss a moment with our precious baby girl.  Now, as for me, I was pretty tired after my c-section, and I really don’t remember too much other than trying my best to stay awake afterwards.  I honestly don’t remember too too much about going back to the labor and delivery suite to recover.  But what I do remember is that I liked this room MUCH better than the little recovery room I had with Haylen.  It was a much more intimate experience just knowing my sweet baby girl was in her bed right next to me instead of in the nursery. 

After my recovery time, we made it to the room where we would spend the rest of our stay in the hospital.  Take a look at Haylen that evening.  Apparently, the first day of being a big sis will WEAR. YOU. OUT!!!

Baby Hollyn just snoozing in Mommy’s arms that first night.

Of course Mommy had a nice big bow ready. 

Sweet little footprint.  So tiny!

Haylen is so in love with her baby sis!  The joy you see in her face when she holds Hollyn just melts my heart.

All dressed and ready to go home. 

We were discharged Saturday afternoon from the hospital and headed home to begin our life as a family of 4!  Well…

technically, family of 5 if you count her furry big sister who was super excited to meet her too! 

Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Last Saturday was the perfect morning to just get in the kitchen and start baking.  A cool (I hesitate to use the word cold…I mean, seriously, it’s still September in Texas) front had just rolled in, it was overcast, and to me, it really felt like a fall morning.  I just couldn’t resist the urge to fill the house with the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg and further reinforce that fall feeling I had.  Recently, I’ve been pinning a million and one dessert recipes, so I decided to flip through them to see what sounded good.  When I came across a recipe for iced oatmeal cookies, I couldn’t pass it up.  They looked and sounded so good, not to mention I had all the ingredients to make them (that might have had a little something to do with me picking them).  So Haylen and I went to work…

 

Waiting patiently for our cookies to come out of the oven.  She loved checking on our cookies.

“Hey Mommy!  Look at my hat!”  What’s baking without a few shenanigans from my silly girl! 

These iced oatmeal cookies turned out amazing! 

They were such a big hit in our house, I’ll share the recipe so that you all can try them too!

 

Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Original recipe found here at Mother Thyme

 

Ingredients:

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon balking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon gound nutmeg

1 cup butter (softened)

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

-Pulse rolled oats in a food processor for about 10 seconds or until coarse

-Mix oats, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl.  I like to whisk all these ingredients together.

-Cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy.

-Add in eggs (one at a time) and vanilla.

-Gradually add in the flour mixture and mix until combined.

-Roll dough into balls (I used a tablespoon to measure out the dough) and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Make sure they are about 2 inches apart. 

-Bake for 10-12 minutes

-Cool on baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a wire baking rack to cool.

 

Glaze

Ingredients:

2 cups confectioners sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I added this for a little extra flavor)

 

-Using a whisk, mix confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.  Taste the icing to see if you need to add the full 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla…this is simply based on your taste. 

-Once cookies are cooled, dip the tops of the cookies into the glaze.

-Put cookies back on drying rack until icing sets.

 

Enjoy!

Back to School

I feel like my poor little blog always gets neglected this time of year.  With school starting back up, focus seems to shift to getting everything ready for the new school year.  I’m sure any of you teachers out there would understand this.  So for now, my posts about our summer zoo trip and our awesome beach vacation are going to have wait just a little bit longer.  But in the meantime, here’s what’s been going on in the Havlik household as of late…

 

School started back up, kiddos and all, last Monday… 

I didn’t take any pictures until Thursday.  It was Aggie Game Day!!!  First game of the season called for new Aggie clothes for our whole family (Haylen and I went shopping Wednesday night.  I went to the mall needing make up and came back with new Aggie gear for everyone.  It just seemed like the right thing to do!).  Here’s Haylen modeling her new Aggie dress.  Gig’em!

We had a busy evening Friday.  I had a check-up and Haylen had gymnastics.  We quickly changed into her leo and put her hair up in a ponytail right after school and headed straight to the doctor’s office.  When we got out of the car, Haylen found this tree and sweetly requested, “Mommy take a picture of me in front of this tree.”  Who was I to deny her a few pictures!?!  By the time we finished snapping these, CJ drove up and we all headed in to the office together.  Baby sister had a great check-up and we ended our evening with some awesome Mexican food. 

This about sums up our Saturday.  Sometimes you just need a lazy Saturday to recover from your first week back at work.  There’s no tired like teacher tired after that first week of school.  Not sure what Zoe’s excuse was, but as you can see, she was lounging just as much as we were. 

I was totally productive on Sunday.  Guess I had to make up for the lack of motivation I had on Saturday.  We woke up early and hit the floor running.  Haylen and I made homemade pancakes, whole wheat pancakes to be exact.  Yummy AND healthy!  I may just have to post the recipe on here sometime.  Haylen loves to eat them and loves to help me make them.  I remember spending weekends in the kitchen with my Gran and I remember how special those moments were to me.  So, I can’t help but smile when Haylen is so eager to grab the stool, pull it up to the countertop, and be my little helper.  Just making memories! 

We had lunch at Carter’s Burger.  Nothing like a little ice cream after lunch.  From there we went to run all of our errands…, grocery store, Petsmart, Sam’s…all to get ready for the week ahead.  CJ’s mom came in later that afternoon while Haylen and I were snoozing.  Apparently, all those errands wore us out because we took a nice little, okay I’ll be honest here, nice long nap.  We finished the evening with a little Texas Roadhouse takeout.

 

Monday was a hard day.  One of our sweet second graders at school unexpectedly passed away over the weekend.  Death is never easy, but the passing of a child…words cannot express that feeling.  As a Mommy, it made me just want to snuggle my girl a little closer and make the most of every moment.  

On a happier note, I found out Monday afternoon that Haylen’s picture had won the Instagram contest at her gym.  I never win anything, like ever, so this was quite exciting!  We won back our fall registration fee. Woohoo!!!  Speaking of the gym, Haylen had class that evening and then we all went to eat dinner at Sodolak’s. 

While eating dinner Haylen informs me, “Mommy, I’m eating my orcas.”  Oh my!  That was supposed to be okra, but I couldn’t help but picture her trying to take a bite out of Shamu! 

 

Well, it’s now Wednesday, and we’ve made it halfway through the second week of school.  My goal is to do a better job updating this little blog, but we’ll see how that goes.  Baby sister will make her debut in about 6 weeks and we have lots to get ready before then.  So until next time…

Haylenisms

Haylen came busting out of the bathroom full speed holding her little stool.  I asked her, “What are you doing?”  She stopped for a brief second and quickly said, “I gotta see what’s going on,” and continued to run with her stool to the front door.


I was looking on Facebook one morning and made a comment to CJ about something I had read.  “Looks like we won’t be seeing the Scotts when we go to The Woodlands today.  They’re going to Haiti.”  Haylen, who I didn’t think was even paying attention to the conversation pipes up, “Haiti?”  CJ says, “Yes, Haiti.  Haiti is a country.”  To which Little Bit replies, “Dad.  I already know that.”

Haylen:  “Mommy you’re beautiful!”
Me:  “I think you’re beautiful too!”
Haylen:  “Yeah!  Beautiful like a princess!” (as she spins around in a circle like she is twirling in a big ball gown)

While riding in the car to gymnastics…
Haylen:  “We need to build a barn for the cowies.”
CJ:  “Cowies???”
Haylen:  “Yeah!  Cowies!  I just made that up! (giggling hysterically)

Haylen brings me a paper she had been drawing on and said:  “Mommy I made you a heart ‘cause I love you!”


While playing outside with Daddy, she fell down face first. 
Daddy:  “Whoa!  You ate it!
Haylen:  I ate it????  (picking herself up with a puzzled look)
Daddy:  “Yeah, ‘you ate it.’  You fell down.  (trying to explain that phrase to a two year old)
Haylen (without skipping a beat):  “Yeah.  I took a big bite!!!”

Haylen has recently decided that she likes discussing the weather.  Her favorite phrase is:  “Oh my.  It sure is a hot day today.”  She also changes the phrase based on the changing conditions:  “It sure is a windy day today.” 

At dinner the other night the following conversation occurs…
Haylen:  “Maybe we should buy baby sister her own high chair.” 
Me:  “She needs her own high chair?” 
Haylen:  “Yeah.  Not mine.  One that matches.”

At the beach Haylen was telling her Daddy about the treasure she had found in the sand… “I found treasure!!!  It’s GORGEOUS!!!” 

While on vacation this week, Haylen and I were sitting on the couch in the condo and out of the blue she turns to me and says, “Mommy, maybe we should buy a condo like this one.”  It took me by surprise so I repeated what she said just to make sure, “Did you just say we should buy a condo like this one???”  She looks a me with a huge smile and says, “Yeah! I like it!”  Boy how I wish we could have bought that condo. 

Speaking of that same condo, when Haylen first went in she kept running from room to room telling us, “This is AWESOME!!!  Mom!  Dad!  This is AWESOME!!!”  She was right.  It really was, but hearing it from a two year old was hilarious!  I mean, seriously, check out this kitchen.  It’s nicer than ours!