Hailey is TWELVE!!

It's so hard to believe that Hailey has turned 12! She seems so grown up, overnight!
I love many things about Hailey. She has always been very responsible about things - even from a YOUNG age she would set her own alarm clock so she could get up & ready in the morning. She is the craftiest girl I know! Her mind is constantly conjuring up things she can create or invent. Her room is living proof of her creativity :) I'm pretty sure I've heard that the creative type are not the clean & orderly type :). She LOVES music, and is a very talented singer. She also has an amazing ear for music, and has taken up the Ukulele this year, and continues to play the piano by ear well too. She is such a great big sis, and loves to love on her brother & sister. She is sweet (literally) -- because of all the treats she likes to eat! She is a determined gymnast, and has improved so much -- and has been invited to join the competition team! Yay!
Hailey's dislikes are: chores (especially dishes or vacuuming), bedtimes, dinner w/o dessert, being woken up by siblings on weekends.
Likes: Music, treats, playing games, baking, crafting, creating, computer games, hanging with friends, jumping on tramp, and family.

I love having Hailey as my daughter! She has been so wonderful, and it makes me sad to realize that she is growing up, and will be around less and less.
Here's Hailey's friend party :)

The Birthday girl!

Hailey w/ her 2 BFFs, Ashlynn & Megyn

The group -- candying up :)

They spraypainted their hair & did makeup to look like rockers! Then they had a just dance competition. It was VERY funny to watch.

SO terribly behind!! Derek turns 5!

Well, to keep current with only being a couple months behind, I have to start doing September's post... yes, I'm a slacker.

SO - DEREK TURNED FIVE!!! I can hardly believe my little guy is so big! He is such a joy in my life. Some thing I love about Derek are:
Him cracking jokes, only not knowing for sure if what he says is funny, so he'll say it, then chuckle and ask "is that funny?" hehe
The "I love you infinity" game we play... whoever says it first each day wins.
Singing & dancing in the car
Watching him geek out to any & all of the Lego games on the Wii
Snuggling with him
Him being my baking buddy -- he's always the one wanting to put in the ingredients and and turn on the mixer
Reading books together
Playing games
Holding his little hand (this is one of my favorite things with my kids, and I know it's going to be gone before I know it -- sniff, sniff)
His smile
His face when he gets sad or disappointed, his eyes get big and tear up immediately and he has a big frown, like his heart has broken
Watching him play with his sisters -- especially when he entertains Jenna
His crane kick & round house
How he always wants to have a friend to play with (talk about social butterfly)

I really could go on and on, but these are just some of the things I love about my Derek, aka: little D, smooshie, shmunkins, Derico Consuelos Gonzolez

Now - onto the pictures.... Every year Dave shoves the cakes in the kids faces. This year, he must have gotten the perfect angle, because it went straight up his nose. I must have captured the incident at the perfect timing, but look how sad the poor guy is!

Pre- cake in the face

Derek was EXTRA excited that he got the two-sided General Grievous light saber for his birthday

D's birthday party w/ friends this year was a star wars theme. They did Jedi training -- so of course, they had to practice with their sabers (swords), and what better way to practice than to have a target (Dave) to go after.

They also did balloon tosses to work on their Jedi coordination... this wasn't quite so successful, but very fun to watch. Derek is so lucky to have so many great buddies so close by to play with!