Catching you up!

First things first. I am so sorry that we have been neglecting our blog site. We do have a couple of readers so this is for you! Since September we have been quite the busy family.

OCTOBER

In October we celebrated Jackson and Ellie turning 6. They had a big bowling party which was tons of fun. Kind of the first drop your kid off party. Whew!

For Halloween my mom came in to help us get the kids out to go trick-or-treating. We were out for more than 2.5 hrs. Cooper had a ball going up to the house just staring at people as they put candy in his bag. May the force be with you!

NOVEMBER
November was a big month for the Haught household. Jackson, Ellie, Chad, & I took off for Disney World. Cooper stayed with grandparents. We missed him BUT it was tons of fun to be able to just hang out with the big kids. They were the best to travel and experience Disney with. We went for 7 days and completed every park and every ride. Jackson was quite the hilarious one. Our first ride when we arrived to Disney was at Hollywood Studios - Tower of Terror. The kids looked like ghost when they got off. Jackson even cried a bit BUT that was the last tear we saw the entire trip. He rode every ride with awe and excitement. His favorite was at Animal Kingdom - Everest. It was a really big scarey ride. Ellie's favorite was thunder mountain. One morning at Magic Kingdom we got there right when it opened and I think we rode it 3 times in row. Yahoo. We had lunch with the Disney Princesses and breakfast with Pooh's crew and Mickey's. What a neat experience to watch your kids see these guys as movie stars! I think Chad even drooled a bit over Ariel. Jackson has now said that when he is 18 he is going to work at Disney during the summer. I asked him where he would like to work and he said space mountain (their other favorite ride) b/c he could ride it whenever he wanted. We had a truly magical experience. I would do it a million times again with them. Enjoy the scrolling pic!

DECEMBER
Now onto December. December was a bit slower month for us. Cooper is a busy little boy. He loves to play with balls galore. You name it he does it. He is quite the player of golf. Chad says he is our key to having a lush retirement. He kicks with both his left and right foot, we are hoping he bats the same as well. Ha! He is a cutie pie and J&E love him to death. He loves to blow kisses, give kisses, and of course what all boys do..head butt. He is talking some (not a ton). He makes the greatest animal sounds -dog, owl, cat, bear, dinosaur, pig, an snake. So fun. My favorite is the kitty cat. He also says car, baball, dada, uhoh, done, and a few more. We are just waiting for the babble to turn into sentences.

Christmas was fun. We stayed in Dallas until a couple days after Christmas. We had Chad's family in for a couple days and the kids had a blast. We went ice skating. Ellie was still a bit wobbly (just didn't want to get wet if she fell) when we finished up but Jackson had increased his skill level of skating while accomplishing being soaking wet!

The week after Christmas we headed to my dads and moms to visit their nonna/papa & Marmie/Papaw. They got to see their great grandmother who they were so sweet with. Just made me so happy to see them love on her!

We feel so blessed with the family that God has given us. We hope that your 08 was a blessing an that 09 will bring you more joy.

Whew!

Barber Shop

Our surfer boy got a haircut. I am a bit sad but there is no one to blame but myself. We were out the other day at a birthday party and his hair was all in his face so I thought....his bangs could use a trimming. Well, lets just say my trimming was a bit crooked and shorter than Chad would have done (he is our barber in the house). So he decided to fix it up and trim all over. He looks sweet but not so babyish. Makes me sad. For those wondering...we will be growing out his hair again but keeping his bangs and sides a bit shorter.

A couple other fun things he is doing is throwing fits, throwing everything that fits between the stair railing down below, saying uhuhuh...oh wait...those are all the annoying things he does. Now seriously tho...he is cute and fun but definitely has an attitude. His recent word is DONE. I like that b/c he hands things to me vs throwing them across the room. Also, he knows his eyes, tongue, nose and ears! So much fun to see him stick his fingers up his nose when you ask him to show you his nose. One other fun thing is 'where did it go?' -with hands up looking around. Very fun. He is a ball of energy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives!

Ellie & Jackson are getting thier Edamacashun

It was official, Jackson and Ellie are officially kindergartener's! We are so excited for them. I honestly cannot believe my sweet babies who weighed less than 4 pounds each are big enough to start school. WOW!

They have both transitioned so well. The school is in our neighborhood so it is easy breezy to get them to and from school. We have walked once and chad rode bike with them once as well. Fun stuff!

Ellie has Mrs. Archer for her teacher. She is gushy lovin'! Made for that age. She is so sweet. Ellie came home after a couple days and said, Mom - i love her, really i love her. AWE!!! I am so proud of her b/c she has made tons of friends already. Although I am finding she loves to play chase daily at recess with the boys. Oh boy!



Jackson likes school. His teacher is Mrs. Braxton. She is brand new to the school. She seems really nice and knows computers really well. Jackson will be a big fan! His biggest complaint at first was that it was eating into his PS3 and tv watching time. Ha! Such a boy. He is trying hard but like his mom his conduct will probably always be a problem.



They talk about a couple different things....their specials (PE, Library, Drama, Music & Art), when can they buy lunch, and why can't they ride the school bus....Ahhh the important questions of little ones.

Let's Ride. And do Flips.

"Mount up! It means...get on your horses." It was those words uttered by Lucky Day in Three Amigos that I recall each time we go for the family ride. I bought one of those seats that goes on the back of my bike (now Kiley's bike - i'm not getting on that silly thing) so we can take Cooper on a ride. Now the entire Haught clan runs the neighborhood as part of our new bicycle gang - The Fantastic Four and a Quarter.

And Ellie finally got a new bike (not pictured). I ran over her other one. A valuable lesson is being learned thru all of this - check your mirrors. And if you want a new bike you have to do chores and earn money so that you can afford a new bike.

Riding as a family is so much fun.

We went to the pool today with our neighborhood pals, The Violi's. Our community pool has this cool area with slides and water shooter gun turrets attached to forts. So awesome. And there's this huge tank that fills up with water and then dumps a large amount of water all over this one area and scares Cooper. He runs away as if he were being chased by a wolverine.

So Jackson and Ellie tell me that they want to go swim in the deep pool. I mean what's more fun that leaving the adventure area of the pool than going to the big square of water that doesn't do anything. But on our way there we see the diving boards and I say to Jackson, "There's no way you'd jump off the high dive." Minutes later he's on top of the thing doing a cannonball. He's crazy.

Then just to top things off he does some tricks off of the regular diving board...

Another Weekend at the Lake

It is now a major tradition with the Haught family to return on the 4th of July to the Haught House on Possum Kingdom Lake. It is so much fun I must say. This last trip we had 3 boats and a couple jet skis out there so needless to say the kids were loving it. A couple new things that happened this round....

• Cooper rode on a boat for the first time. LOVED IT!

• Jackson and cousin Cade attempted to knee board and succeeded with GREATNESS. Or as Cade said it...WICKED AWESOME

• Ellie remained outside for the firework show without getting scared and actually enjoyed it.

• Cooper learned to eat sunflower seeds with Honey. mmmm good!

These weekends truly are precious to Chad and I. We really enjoy watching our kids experience life with such fullness and be surrounded with family. The memories being made are priceless! We can't wait for the next trip out to Possum Kingdom.

The Flower Girl & The Ring Bearer

My sweet little ones were asked to be in their 'Aunt' Sarah's wedding on June 21st. There were so precious. Ellie was so excited that she got to dress like an official princess. Jackson on the other hand was loving his black dress socks and shoes that he begged us to wear to the rehearsal dinner with shorts on. We were a bit worried about Jackson following the rules but when it came down to the day of, Ellie threw her roses and Jackson didn't throw any pillows up in the air. Sarah looked absolutely gorgeous and the wedding went off without a hitch.
CONGRATS SARAH & ANDREW!

What I love about Cooper...

is that he is soooo DANG cute. Seriously. It is so much fun to watch him do life. I thought I would give a bit of an update on him. He is growing so quickly and you forget when you have 5 year olds that they soak up things like little sponges. The following are some fun little updates:

**He has about 4 teeth on top and 4 on bottom - he eats anything and everything
**He grabs my hand and leads me places
**He loves giving kisses - he even is learning to blow kisses
**He can say dada, uh-oh, again, and many other things we don't understand
**He loves to sit and read books
**He has been walking since 9 months and running since 12months
**He is loving the water already. When at the pool I think he thinks he can swim if I let go of him.
**He loves to slide and step up and down on steps.
**He really thinks he can play basketball with his dad outside
**His favorite past time is riding in the escalade with his sister driving him.
**He likes to bat at the ceiling fan chains. It is a routine as you leave his room.
**He is really good at opening and closing doors without hitting his fingers

Most of all he is just pure sweetness. He is such a content happy little one. Enjoy the pics from the summer so far.





Proof that Cooper will eat anything.









Summer fun swimming!