We celebrated Daddy and Uncle Cameron's 32nd birthday this year by driving down to Houston to spend some time with family and friends! Even Mom-mo drove down from Abilene for the special occasion! Hadley enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with she, GiGi, & Pops! 

Hadley was also able to attend her very first birthday party to celebrate Reece's 1st Birthday! Reece's mommy, Jill, is one of my DG sorority sisters. So fun to get all of our kiddos together! H was pretty stoked about the ball pit at the party! 

What a cutie! 

Later that evening, Uncle Cameron and Aunt Keisha hosted a get together at their home to kickoff year number 32 for the "Guinn Twins"! 

There was no ball pit, but we all managed to have a pretty good time! ;) 

Last night, we celebrated Daddy's actual birthday! Hadley had fun helping him open presents and blow out candles.

Our little party girl! :) 

After we got her ready for bed, Mom & Dad headed out for an adults-only dinner at Uchi while Aunt Claire held down the fort. Thank you Claire!!! 

We had such fun in Houston and an even better time celebrating a great guy who is an awesome Daddy & a loving husband! We love you! Happy Birthday. Hope this year is your best yet! XOXO!!

I guess once babies hit the 6 month mark they think it's time to give up the whole baby act and start growing up already. In the past few days, Hadley has rapidly been checking the remaining  milestones off of her baby bucket list.

First up on her to do list, she decided she was ready to conquer sitting up on her own. Guess the view of the ceiling fan finally lost it's appeal... She is still a little wobbly, so she has pillows-a-plenty surrounding her to break her fall, but this is a huge step! Mommy daydreams about the day that Hadley can sit and play with her toys on her own.

Then the next day, Daddy said that he thought that she had a tooth coming through. Nonsense! I check almost daily!! But sure enough, during her bath that evening I found a little tooth trying to cut through her bottom gums.

​I cried. I don't know why this milestone hit me harder than any other. I guess because teeth are one big thing that separate babies from little kids. It seems as though it's the beginning of the end of her baby days! :( 

And if that wasn't enough change for this Mama to handle in one weekend, Hadley decided she was ready to talk! 

Makes sense that her first word would be "Hi". We say "Hi Hadley!" at least 100 times a day to her! :) Love our little talker!

One last first... this weekend the temperature dropped into the 40's for the first time in Hadley's life! Let's break out the fur suit! :) 

Alright, well that's enough change for now Hadley! Feel free to just stay your cute baby self for a little longer please! Love you! 

Yesterday, we visited Hadley's pediatrician for her 6 month checkup. I've said it before, but I really enjoy going to these! I hate her having to get shots of course, but I just love finding out how much she has grown.

Hadley's 6 Month Stats: 
Height: 25 3/4 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 13lbs 5 oz (10th percentile)
Head circumference: 42.5cm (50th percentile) 

Pretty average except for her weight. My heart kind of sank when the nurse told us that she was only in the 10th percentile for weight. Am I not feeding her enough? I nurse her probably at least 8 times a day and usually give her solids (fruit and veggie purees) twice a day, as well. I expressed these concerns to our doctor and he said that she is steadily gaining weight. She may be on the low end of the spectrum, but she's doing just fine and is just a petite girl. Our little bitty!

We also talked about continuing to give her new foods. At 6 months, she can pretty much eat anything we want to give her. Just needs to be small enough to not be a choking hazard. Yikes! We'll probably stick with purees for a little longer before upgrading to things that need to be chewed. Still no teeth in sight for now. 

I also asked him if he was okay with us supplementing with formula occasionally if needed, like if we were to go out of town. I have frozen milk stored, but not an over abundance. He was totally fine with that. Even though I know it won't hurt her at all, I am still hesitant to give her formula. She is a pure 100% breast milk fed baby at this point. For some reason it's kind of hard for me to let go of that. I know it's not a big deal at all, but it kind of feels like a personal accomplishment. We'll see... 

Anyway, it was a good visit and the doctor said that she is PERFECT! Ugh, love that word! :) Especially when used to describe the health of our baby! Well, at least I thought it was a good visit! H may have thought otherwise... poor thing was duped again! She had to get one oral vaccine, 3 shot vaccinations, and one flu shot (4 injections total)! :( Poor, sweet baby! She cried, but luckily, was all smiles by the time we hit the parking lot. 

And then was passed out cold within minutes. 

We'll go back to the doctor next month for the second half of her flu shot and then for another checkup at 9 months. As always, we are so very grateful for another good health report. We love our smiley, healthy, tiny bundle of joy! 

Oh my word! I can not believe it is Hadley's Half Birthday!! How is my baby already 6 months old? This past month has been jam packed with new experiences and fun adventures. Exploring the world with our precious tiny is just the best. Everything is new again as we watch the world unfold before her eyes. We absolutely love seeing her reactions to everything new she encounters. Each month with her just gets better and better. 

​Happy 6 Months Hadley! 

Look at our big girl! Crossing her legs in her fancy gold ballet shoes!

But wait, you want to really have your mind blown?!?  Look at this!

Ahhh! Look at the 1 month vs 6 month photo!!! Our baby is growing up so fast! :(

​Here are a few of Hadley's favorites this month...

Clothing/Diapers: 
She is still wearing 3 month clothing and slowly fitting into her 3-6 month clothes too! Also, still wearing size 2 diapers. Our itty bitty with a tiny hiney! :)

Sleeping: 
Sleeping in her crib in her Magic Merlin Sleepsuit. She goes down to bed at about 8pm each night and usually sleeps straight until around 4 or 5AM. Then we bring her upstairs, feed her, and let her go back to sleep in our bed for the remainder of the morning, usually sleeping until around 7AM. Perhaps we might be setting her up for bad habits by letting her come into our bed to sleep when she wakes up, but honestly I don't mind. I just can't stand the thought of her crying alone downstairs by herself in the dark when she is so easily appeased sleeping with Mama and Daddy! Plus, I think we all kind of like having some sleepy early morning cuddle time and it makes for less trips up and down the stairs! Win, win.  Hadley is also a great napper taking one nap in the morning and one in the afternoon (Usually each about 1.5 hours long)! Good girl!

Favorite Toys:
Jumperoo, remote controls, paper towel roll tube - She's pretty easy to please! :)  She also wants Mommy's cell phone, so I always have to hide it from her. She will literally leap to try and grab it!

Things Hadley Hates: 
Loud noises! She bursts into tears when Mommy talks too loudly, when someone dumps ice into an ice chest, when Mommy blow drys her hair, when we blend food in the food processor, when we put away the pots and pans and they clang loudly. She is quite a sensitive little snowflake! Guess Santa will be bringing her some ear muffs for Christmas!

She also HATES having her mouth wiped while eating. She'd prefer to just have her whole face smeared with the veggie du jour. 

Hadley, here are a few things we love best about you this month...

♡♡♡♡ We love... ♡♡♡♡

• How photogenic you are! You are the smiliest baby alive and that means we have 234,990,735,098 amazing photos of you! 
• ​Your tiny talking voice! You talk very softly, but it sounds like you are trying to say, "Hi!" which makes sense because we say " Hi Hadley!" a thousand times a day to you! 
• Your eagerness to eat! You are like a little bird with your mouth opened wide ready to eat whatever we spoon out to you! 
• How warm you always are! Your warm, tiny hands are a perfect match for Mommy's ice cold ones!
• Making you laugh! We will do anything ridiculous over and over again just to be able to listen to your baby  giggles!
• How you have become a little Daddy's Girl just as much as you are a Mama's Girl! 

In case you can't tell we absolutely adore you Hadley! Sometimes after you are asleep in your crib, Mommy and Daddy talk about how much we miss you and wish that you still slept in our room. You are Mommy's little sidekick and Daddy's angel and we love living life with you, our beautiful baby girl! We know these next six months will bring even more joy - which is just impossible to imagine! We love you Hadley and thank God every day for giving us the honor of being your Mommy & Daddy! 

Happy Half Birthday! 

​Here is a slideshow Mommy made to look back on your first six months...

https://vimeo.com/143503950

​XOXO! 

I have always loved Halloween! Dressing up in character, theme parties, candy... what's not to love?! Growing up I used to rent every horror movie on the shelves of Blockbuster and loved getting scared with friends inside a haunted house! But as I've aged and definitely even more so now that I'm a Mom I have a very low tolerance for "scary". Looks like I'll be sticking to Hocus Pocus from now on! :)

This Halloween was sure to be entirely different now that we are parents. We were so very excited to celebrate Hadley's 1st Halloween! Of course we spent many an evening scouring the web for the perfect costume for Miss H. We definitely wanted something cute and snuggly this year and although there were many contenders we decided to go with a Black Kitty Cat theme! Cliche? Perhaps! Adorable? Absolutely!

I'd say we hit it out of the ballpark! The prettiest little kitty cat I ever did see! Unfortunately earlier that day a neighborhood cat came to our back porch. We pressed Hadley up against the window for a good look. 

Scared her to death and she burst out crying! Great....black cats terrify her! Fantastic costume choice, Mom.

Eh, the good thing about this age is that you can dress your kid up in whatever you want without them being any the wiser! Meow! ;) 

Purrr-fect! Happy Meow-lloween! OK, I'll stop... :)

Getting her kitty cat face makeup done was quite the process...

She thought that I was trying to feed her and thus kept trying to eat the paint brush...

After we were all painted and costumed up, we drove out to Plano to our friends, the Butler's, house for a Halloween party! Their neighborhood does extreme trick-or-treating so it is always a fun time!

Hadley loved watching the trick or treaters, but was even more intrigued by the giant bowl of candy! 

We had such a wonderful time! Experiencing these moments through Hadley's eyes as a first timer is truly magical!

We left the party at a pretty reasonably hour, but our little party girl decided she'd stay up until 10:30 last night! This actually worked out purrfectly because she self-adjusted herself for Daylight Savings time! Good Kitty! :) 

Happy 1st Halloween Hadley! Mommy & Daddy sure love our pretty itty bitty kitty!