Weekly round-up!

Last week with music class was crazy! Every day we were fortunate to spend time with our friend Jackson. On Wednesday, before music class, we picked blueberries. Local readers: If you get a chance, check out Bush Neck Farms in Williamsburg. It is a beautiful farm and the price is right. Just bring cash (Katie, I owe you $1.75)

Anyways, this is the first year that Audrey actually picked blueberries. She did a wonderful job! Jackson....not so much. At first, he tried to run away and then just ate the blueberries in his bucket! I just know that our excursion next year will DEFINITELY yield better results and he will be a blueberry PRO!

Katie, Audrey and Jackson

Buckets are attached...we are ready to pick!

I love how serious she was about her task!

"The car is THIS way mom!"

My handsome fella enjoyed the blueberries as well!

I have truly loved the summer with these two!


So this happened. At music class, Audrey apparently fell and got a rug burn on her forehead. I happened to peek in on her after the incident and saw her on the teacher's lap. My first thought is, "oh, man. Audrey was being too friendly and is nicely being put in time out." Totally teacher-mom moment of "what did my kid do?!" Well, I felt like a real heel when I found out she had been injured. Mother. Of. The. Year.

While we played this afternoon, Audrey pulled Brown Bear, Brown Bear off the shelf and began to read. It made my teacher heart pitter-patter! She would turn the page and say, "blue horse! blue horse! I see a green frog!" Like I said before, genius!

Speaking of amazing, Mr. Micah loves to drink out of cups! Look at those killer baby blues!

Audrey enjoyed Colonial Williamsburg with my parents, who came into to town to watch the kids while Matt and I attended a wedding. They took the kids to Busch Gardens while Matt and I were supposed to get ready for the wedding. Here is an example of waaay different priorities! We have 4 hours to ourselves; Matt chooses to nap like a boss and I go for a mani/pedi! We clearly decompress in very different ways :)




























My dad bought Audrey a power wheel at a yard sale this week. She was so surprised and the smile on her face was priceless! I couldn't catch it in time, which was a total bummer. She loved to roll around the cul de sac and even shared with our neighbor's daughter. I love how well she shares!

On Sunday, my parents, the kids, Matt and I went to brunch and a farmer's market. Audrey wanted to buy a flower. She immediately goes up to my dad, opens his pocket, looks in and says, "I need some money, Poppy." The girl knows how to wrap a man around her finger!

And last but not least! Pinterest!! We made a jump pad and Audrey can call out different shapes and colors and then jumps on that shape. She loved it and Micah drooled on it (as you can see on the green circle :) ).

All in all, a fun week! I really do NOT want to go back to work! It has been so nice to be able to enjoy my kids!

Picture a girl

I have been meaning to write this post for a while now and am just not sure how to word it all. This weekend, Matt and I attended a wedding with two very dear friends, Callie and Matt (it is a popular name in our circle!) We had a blast DOMINATING the dance floor and it made me appreciate all over again what a wonderful friend I have in Callie. Now don't get me wrong!! Matt and I have been so blessed with so many wonderful friends that if I were to write about all of them, I would max out the limit on word count :) 

Callie reminds me of a phoenix. She has risen from the ashes of sorrow this year and I am amazed and love to call her my sister and friend.  In the last year, Callie built a house, planned a wedding to the second most awkward dancer I know, and had to go through the most traumatic event a child can face, losing her mother to cancer. Never once did she complain (OK,  maybe once but NO ONE is a saint!). She still kept tabs on my life and my family, even through that trauma, which was above and beyond the usual stress of getting married. Never have I met a person who more emulates the verse in John, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." 

I wanted to write something that praised her awesomeness and to show how much in awe that I am of her resilience, faith and joy and I am speechless. Thank you for being a friend, sister, roommate, and inspiration. I am proud to know you. 

Music makes us lose control!

The kiddos are going to Music Camp this week in the 'Burg. Audrey is in an hour long toddler fest that teaches intro to music and Micah is in a baby melee class. The age range is 6-15 months. Its crazy. They are both having a ball and its awesome to see the two of them apply the activities they are learning to the their daily play.

For example, this was the child drum circle that they both thoroughly enjoyed which ALSO helped me get dinner ready! I was excited to see Micah holding his spoons like drumsticks. Clearly Audrey is the lead singer in THIS band. (Side note: the blue painter tape was our way of keeping Audrey away from the stove. It is the grown-up line and she knows she can't cross it. Judge if you want, but yesterday Micah crossed the line and she was on him like white on rice. "Micah! You can't cross the blue liiine! Mommy, Micah crossed the blue line!" Such a sister.)

Today, Micah was playing with a maraca and was hitting it on the floor, himself and the padding to see what kinds of different sounds he could come up with. The kid is a genius!

We had a special treat today! Daddy came with us to the library! Audrey freaked out and had to show him all of the books. She already completed their summer reading program, which the two young men working the desk were shocked to discover. She is doing a SECOND reading program sheet. Genius. 

Lastly, I continue to with my endeavor to at least attempt to try what I pin. Two nights ago, I tried a 30 day AB challenge. I did 1 day...the key word is i am attempting to try. I digress. Here is an example of a successful pin! This is the upstairs hall bath. The baskets are from TJ Maxx (favorite place, remember!) and I just used really big nails and nailed the baskets to the wall. I don't know how long that will hold them, but they look FABULOUS in the meantime :)

Faith like a child and Smurf Hair

Today the kids and I were at the local TJ Maxx (my favorite haunt!). For those of you aren't in Virginia, it was cookin' out today! Like fry an egg and bake some cookies outside H-O-T! There was an older man outside playing a guitar. Now, I am not normally one for panhandling, I tend to be pretty jaded. Matt always tells me to look at the shoes to tell whether or not the panhandlers are in dire straits or not. Well these shoes were struggling.

 I was all set to go in and geek out over the newest baskets when I noticed Audrey. She was watching the man play intently. I asked her if she wanted to go over and give him a dollar, to which she said, "of course!" We rolled over and Audrey gave him the dollar and then said, "cool guitar!" The man then thanked her and opened his bag. I, of course, freak out (jaded...remember?). He pulls out a bag of dollar store toys and says to me, "most of the people who stop and give me money are children. I just wanted to have a way to thank them." Well, I then felt like a total heel. We thanked him for the lovely music and then went about our day.


This got me to thinking though. Why can't we all a little more like Audrey, taking time to stop and appreciate something beautiful...even if that beauty comes in the form of an older, down on his luck gentleman? The simplicity with which children see the world is amazing. The whole experience reminded me of Yeshua (Jesus for you non-Yid folk :)). He said in Matthew, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." After today, I can see why. I hope that I can start to see things like Audrey and Micah see them and less like a jaded grouch. 


And in other news! I Smurfed my hair! Parts of it are blue. Had a touch of a quarter life crisis and told my hairstylist (who is AMAZING! Olivia Johnson at Shane's Salon in Yorktown. Use her. Love her) to go for it. And she did!

Crashin' the Poo' Party

My dear friend Debbie invited us to come swim in her pool, along with Katie and Jackson. Little did Debbie and her kind, patient, long-suffering daughter Jamie realize that Audrey has a "poo'" addiction. She went to get into the car, holding her floatie chanting, "Poo! Poo! Let's go to the poo!" She looked like a viking on her  way to pillage a local village. We arrive at Debbie's lovely home (PS- Deb...I love your home. Seriously. I will take it off your hands ANY time :)) and all Audrey does is stare at the pool. She yells about how its time to go in. She reminds us every few seconds that the pool still exists. She waves her floatie in a threatening manner to try and bully her way into the cool, blue water. Well, we had an absolute blast! Micah enjoyed the water, he enjoyed Debbie, he enjoyed his godmother....he enjoyed everything (no surprises there!). Audrey bossed Jamie around the pool, which I hope Jamie enjoyed :) It was a wonderful way to spend time with friends and a local mini-viking.

We also had a surprise visit from our neighbor whose mommy had to run an errand. We played with the busy bags and watched Mickey and played with the dollhouse. I was quickly running out of ideas and then remembered the shaving cream party from Saturday. Well...I once again did not think this through. Now I was outnumbered by a 2 year old AND a 3 year old (which essentially makes the ratio 2,345 to 1). What started out as innocent fun turned into...

this....

At one point I gave up the clothes and just let them go in diaper/underwear. Nothing says class like hosing down two little girls in the front yard. I hope our little friend will come back and play soon because as you can see, we had a BLAST!

Library Monday

Monday has become Library Monday. The Newport News Public Library System has a summer book program that we are taking full advantage of. For every five books Audrey reads, she gets a prize. So we proudly brought our sheet it and Audrey received a rubber ducky and a McDonalds coupon (ch-CHING!). She was so excited to be rewarded for reading that she asked if she could get more books. The teacher in me nearly fainted dead away at her enthusiasm. I told her she could get seven....we checked out nine books...It is just so hard to choose!!!

After we came home, I was feeding Micah and Audrey got into her stickers. Here is her "art"....I guess I should just be glad that it is not crayon and that the stickers easily come off!

Micah is very into "shiny objects" right now. He is like a bird! He saw that Matt's controller lights up and he just had to see for himself. With everything else, he promptly put it in his mouth.

Tonight at dinner, Audrey declared, "I am going to feed and take care of Micah!" I thought it was precious but I could only think of Elmira from Tiny Toons..."I am going to love him and squeeze him and care for him." Micah is a pretty lucky kid :)

Before I sign off on this post I want to say WELCOME to my two new followers! Woo hoo! Anytime you want to join our shenanigans, do not hesitate to join in :)

Rainy day fun

Yesterday was just crummy. It was raining, again (didn't realize we moved to Seattle overnight...I am feeling very Tom Hanks in Sleepless in Seattle) and the kiddos and I had cabin fever something fierce. So I thought we might do a fun art project. It's called shaving cream art and I quickly learned that the allure of cream and dye and too much for a three old to handle with any semblance of maturity! Audrey and I cut out some paper and quickly did the proscribed project. I then let her go nuts with just plan old shaving cream, which made her smell like a 75 year old for the rest of the day. She had an absolute blast! It ended up in her hair, under her arms, on the dog....literally everywhere! Micah just sat there and start at her, like, "what's your problem?" I should probably add that Audrey was laughing rather manically.

Potty training is still a work in progress. We have tried to explain that the potty is like a trash can. In all seriousness as she was sitting on the potty, she said, "my poop needs to eat breakfast before it goes in the trash can." What, what, what?

Micah is still working on crawling. He now goes backwards and rolls. He is pretty proud of himself. As you can see below, he is sitting in his walker...not going anywhere but he totally DIGS the horn.

Popsicle busy bags

Continuing with the Pinterest initiative, here is another busy bag activity. Audrey has to match the Popsicle stick to the felt "Popsicle." Please try not to envy my superior hand stitching skills. 

Pool noodle and ribbon fun!

Busy bags

Thanks to Pinterest, I have pinned an abundance of "busy bag" activities. These women on these sites are super moms!!! Like make their own jams, cloth diaper, home school rock stars. Meanwhile, I feel successful if my kids say excuse me when they burp. Ah well! 

My goal this summer is to stop pinning and start actually creating. So far I have made 5 or 6 activities that Audrey thinks are awesome!! It may not be homemade jelly, but I'll take it :)

Wowza, wowza!

Hello to all three of our followers :)

It has certainly been a while since I have posted anything! Whew, where does the time go? Since the last time I posted the following things have happened: Matt broke his hand, Audrey turned 1...then 2, we expanded the family by 1 (welcome Micah Aedan!), Audrey turned 3, I have changed schools AND grade levels...time flies when you are having fun, huh?

Well, as the world keeps spinning on its axis, I have decided to try and pick up this blog again. Facebook has become one complaint machine and I really just want to talk about how wonderful my little family is :) So my goal is to try and update this thing more regularly (I can't be any worse at updating....) and to use this as a way for family and friends to see the two cutest kiddos on the block :)


We are currently trying to potty train little Miss Sass. We are on Day 2. She still is very excited about the Potty Prize Bucket! Basically, I am taking my advanced knowledge in the classroom and applying to this potty situation. It boils down to this, prize boxes are AWESOME. It could be a prize box filled with erasers and Tootsie Rolls and it would still be epic if you were granted the supreme honor of prize box selection. That principle is being applied here at the Haselton Household. I made a big deal of all the dollar store treasures I placed in the bucket and told her she could exchange 5 potty stickers for a prize. Well, game on my friends, game on. She is on ADAMANT to place stickers on the chart. Let's hope this bribe will stick.

Micah continues to live up to his nickname of Moose 2.0: The Bullwinkle Chronicles. He is currently snoozing 12 month jammies (he just hit the 8 month mark) and is a bottomless pit when it comes to food. He does not understand why if Mom is enjoying a banana, that Micah should be left out of the fun. The kid is an absolute hoot and a joy to be around. If he was in a yearbook, his quote would read, "Happy to be here, guys!" He is attempting crawling but ends up just going in circles.

We recently took pictures with the one and only Callie Hardman Photography. Seriously threee followers, you need to check this gal out. She is absolutely amazing.

Gorgeous, right?

Keep checking in us and keep me accountable for more frequent posts :) Maybe I will some day figure out how to format this thing as well!