Daddy comes home tomorrow!!

We are so excited!! Daddy gets home tomorrow!!! We've been busy lately getting ready for our Harvest Party this weekend and a birthday party too!! Plus Mommy got really sick on Sunday and was miserable so there haven't been a lot of posts or pictures taken. But just wanted to quick let everyone know what's up...

I leave you with morning bad hair day of a still very sleepy Fiona

A little behind

Ok, I know I am little behind on the postings but I have been snapping photos. Its been pretty busy here, but good. I am in the middle of a fall cleaning/reorganization of parts of the house and I am chipping away little by little.

But here are some pics from the last couple days:

This is Fiona playing dress up - her favorite thing right now is that shiny beaded necklace, she wears it everywhere. The headband and the tank top are mine cleverly styled over the pink striped jammies by the next Rachel Zoe!!

These are of Fiona "reading" her book:

And a little video as well...

She was talking up a storm before I took out the camera, of course...LOL!!

On Sunday, we went to the Palmdale Fall Festival. Now I like Festivals and all, but seriously this one is AWESOME. I always have a great time and they reall do a great job. They have a whole Fairy type theme with stilt walkers and a living garden where the vines and the statues all move. This year they added this Chalk area where local artists made chalk drawings on the park sidewalk - it was phenomenal the pictures seriously don't do them justice though...enjoy:

Busy, Busy, Busy

Just a quick slideshow of pics from thursday, an impromptu, 3 hour trip to our park. What is so funny is that Fiona made friends with the little boy in the photo in the first half hour, but our friends who we were meeting there - I didn't get a single picture of all the kids!! But with now 4 out of the 5 of them running and climbing and sliding, its a little hard to have the camera going too, LOL!!

Also some pics of Fiona and her friend Mason who came to play while his Mommy and Daddy had a nice night out!! those two are so cute together!!

Ever the observer

Today was fun, we went strollercising with our friends Ms. Kirsten, Cooper and Cooper's grandma. Then got to play at the park. Fiona was quite the observer, always watching what everyone was doing, and not a single picture where she was looking at me. LOL!!

I am tired today, so not much else to write but here are two pics from today:

And here is a cute video I caught of her while swinging today, too. The clicking is my camera - its very annoying but I can't help it...

nighty night everyone!!

Headbands and Hope

Hey everyone! Fiona is finally 100% so we had a nice day of playing and errand running. While at Wal-Mart, I found some cute little headbands for Fiona. This girl is the girliest of girls - a trait I doubt she gets from me. I think it is more from her father who combs his hair more times in a day than I do in a week. This is not a knock on him, I actually envy him. I realize this is most likely the reason he always looks put together and so handsome. Me on the otherhand, I comb my hair in the morning and that is it - halfway through the day, it is most likely in a ponytail or a disheveled chignon. Yes, I am trying to embrace my Fancy Nancy with that word - that's a fancy way of saying bun. Brynn and Erin, for sure, will appreciate that last line!! But back to my handsome Hubby and how he has passed his attention to personal details to our daughter. I had picked up headbands from the dollar bin at Target months ago as a toy and Fiona is constantly putting them on, so I thought I would pick up a few "real" ones for her to wear. Plus her hair is getting long in the front and is starting to reach her eyes, and I am putting off cutting her hair cuz I can't decide on bangs or not...ahh the decisions of having a little girl!! I figure the headbands buy me a little time. So below are some pics of her with the headband when I put it on, then of her putting it on, and the funny hairdo with her putting it on.

I hope she remains the independent girly girl that she is!!

On the subject of hope. Mike and I have a pretty heavy situation that we are trying to figure out. We are all quite fine and there is nothing to worry about. It is just about someting that is important and complicated. We would love it if you could pray for us to make the right decisions regarding this.

Have a great night everyone, see you tomorrow!!

Then and Now

Ok, I didn't get out the camera today, shame on Mommy, but seriously you are probably getting Fiona picture overload anyway. But is that going to stop me from posting pics - NOPE!!

I thought that this was pretty interesting...Here is a pic of Fiona this time last year, and a pic of her this year:

She went from Brunette to blonde but that smile is just as cute!!

Nothing too exciting here today, Fiona and I just got some overdue chores done. We made some apple cake which totally rocked!! It's not Moms recipe, but it still was awesome. We made it with the apples we picked at the ranch the other day. I had to cut it into smaller pieces and freeze them so I wouldn't eat it all - seriously!! There is just something about apples and autumn. I love apple cider - and have already been stalking the Caramel Apple Spice at Starbucks - YUMMO!!! I have got to figure out away to make that at home... But the apple cake was just very autumny too. Honestly I think that Fall is my favorite season!! I just wish the fall weather would stick around a little more here. Still in the 80s during the day this week.

Fiona is still not feeling 100% so we are going to take it easy for at least one more day. Which means we will miss playgroup tomorrow, big bummer. We love getting together with all the guys - seriously Fiona is the only girl in her playgroup right now... we have a new member who has a little girl Fiona's age and she will probably be joining our group - finally a little more estrogen to the group, LOL!!!

Well, off to bed here very shortly. don't judge me for my early bedtime...Loves to everyone!!

My heart melted

Fiona finally said Moma and meant it!! Its more like "ahmma" but today she did it pointed at me and also did the sign language sign for it!!! My heart just melted on the spot!! She is learning sign language like crazy now too!! she knows the sign for milk which she pretty much uses anytime she wants a drink; she has been doing the sign for more and that pretty much covers anything food related - the confusing part is when she is all done eating she still does the sign for more, LOL!! she learned the sign for baby, too, today. My little one is just so smart!! Don't we all say that though, LOL!!!

Here is my favorite picture I took this weekend of Fiona!!

Catching up on the Weekend...

Well sorry, I didn't get to post yesterday. Fiona was especially cuddly, and I found out why that night, she has a cold. Poor baby!! She slept awful, so that means I slept awful too. Thank goodness I was scrapping half the night with Adrienne, my ever faithful scrapping friend - If scrapping is going on, I know she will be there!! We had a blast, scrapping and talking, and it helped to be not be sleeping and constantly waking up with Fiona.

Today was yet another lazy day since Fiona was sick, we just hung out here at the house, did make a trip to Target to pick up some baby vicks rub - that stuff does wonders!! What is it about that place though? I go there for like 2 things and I have a cartfull when I check out??? But we did pick up Fiona's halloween costume - I would love to make it again this year, but realistically, not sure if I would have the time and getting her to stand still enough to try things on and such is really a pipe dream. So I am going to have you all guess for a little bit what she will be...I will definitely post pictures on Halloween, but what do you think she will be. I will post hints throughout the month...

so here are pics from the last couple days - BTW Duke is our friend Patty's dog that we are dog sitting:

Lazy Day

Today was one of those nice lazy days. We needed it. Fiona and I just hung out and played and thoroughly enjoyed having absolutely no plans for today. We even got to talk on the webcam with Daddy today. I think that being able to sit in my office and touch everything was more fun for her than actually talking to her Dad, but hey whatchya gonna do?? LOL!! We really miss having Daddy here. Not sure what to do now on the weekends when he isn't here with us.

Getting cooler here, finally felt like a Fall blustery day. Tomorrow will be freezing - well at least by our standards - highs in the upper 60s. I think we will take advantage of the nice sweater weather and take a little walk and go to the park or something. Hopefully it doesn't rain tomorrow like they are predicting.

I did take a few pics of Fiona playing today, but I will post them probably tomorrow. Yes its either feast or famine with me and the posts and pictures!! Enjoy the feast while it lasts :)

Facebook...time sucker!!

Ok, so I had so many plans for this evening of things I was going to accomplish - clean the kitchen, sweep and mop floors vacuum, fold that basket of laundry, maybe even scrapbook for a little while. What did I get done? Nothing!!

Last night, I came across Matt Danner's profile, a guy I went to high school with. Well, he had the "hook up" so to speak on a ton of people from Boyertown which then led me to search all their friends and so on and so on. So today I was becoming "friends" with them all again. Checking their profiles, photos, writing messages, and all that general stuff. Well, then I figured I should update my profile picture, and add a new album of recent photos of Fiona. And needless to say - 2 hours of my life have left and I will never get them back, LOL!!! I swear, I feel like I am 12 or something...Well in all fairness we never did have the internet and such a cool way to spend our time. But still I am 31, I am too old for this, but I am addicted!!! It is really kind of a neat way to just touch base and see what everyone is up to. Some people I have seriously not talked to in nearly 15 years!! I think its really neat that we still even know each other are. Who needs reunions these days - just check out Facebook or MySpace (I am so NOT going there, if I did Fiona may never see her Mommy!!). Technology is great, isn't it?? Well, mostly...

BTW, in updating my photos on Facebook I ran into this picture of Fiona...It is hilarious!!!

Storytime day

Today is Thursday, so that means storytime at the Palmdale Youth Library with Ms. Davis. Fiona LOVES it. They get to read stories, sing songs, dance and bounce, and play with her friends. This a great free program and I love it because it is a fairly structured program, not too much, but just right, and Fiona needed a little bit of that in her day. Today was a great day because we learned about farm animals, and it was fun to make all the animal sounds and see all the animals that are on the farm. Fiona also was super good, I love seeing her begin to learn. She is doing so much better at sitting and standing at the appropriate times and she has always been very good at sharing. She is beginning to anticipate what happens next and it is amazing to see her know that already. I am so proud of her.

Here are some pictures of Storytime today:

October...Days in the lives

Ok, so I am going to attempt to post and take pics everyday this month to document a month of the day in the life of the Hylands. If you don't already know, I am super addicted to scrapbooking and I got this idea from one of the magazines to document your everyday life. Granted this is not the best month to do it, because Mike is out of town for most of it, but I thought I had to start some time and the Holidays were coming up and that really isn't everyday life so here we are.

Today was a fun day - like every day is...Fiona and I got up had some milk (Fiona) and Chai Tea Latte (Mommy), then had breakfast and off to our MOMS Club Membership meeting. It was way cool lots of friends there, a new member and scenes from an upcoming play about Breast Cancer Awareness. Afterwards we napped - seriously Fiona didn't make it out of the parking lot before she fell asleep today!!!

Then we went to a friends house for a meeting of the NO HUSBANDS CLUB - this is a very unofficial club some of us have started to get together when our hubbies are out of town. We all bring a dish for dinenr, the kids play, and Mommies get a nice little break and some adult talking time. It was a blast and will be repeated frequently!!

And then home and bed - very busy day. Hopefully we will take it easy tomorrow. We only have storytime at the library for 45 minutes and I don't think there is any thing else going on or that needs to be done...

Here are some cute photos of Fiona eating her morning snack before our meeting today: