Hayley Brooke

I want to have a record of these things for myself and this is really the quickest outlet for me to put it all down.

Hayley is 7 1/2. She is turning into such a beautiful inside and out young lady. She is a HUGE help to me especially with Avery. She loves getting her out of bed in the mornings. (and so does everyone else---the rest of them just get in her bed with her and play for a bit and then Hayley comes in to take her out) She is very concerned about everyone's safety at all times. It's quite humorous. For example, when I push the button on my keys to close the trunk of our car, she pretty much panics every time and says, "GUYS! MOVE!! WATCH YOUR HEADS!!!" And then she'll say, "Mom, next time maybe you should let us know when you're closing it. Someone could really get hurt!" She is NOT shy at all around family or close friends, but she is VERY shy in situations with adults or kids she does not know very well...until she warms up a little. She gets nervous about funny things. Like today I turned on a video of one of the new Gateway Kids cd songs and it started playing and she looked at Jack and said with a giggle, "Are you nervous? I'm so nervous! Why am I so nervous??" She's a crack up. She says out loud whatever is going on in her mind---all the time. Which I love, really. I can get tired head from it occasionally but I love hearing what is going on in that precious head of hers. She went on a trip with Tra by herself to Georgia to this Daddy/Daughter conference last weekend. They had a ball and she was pretty depressed when she got home because she wasn't ready to be home yet. She LOVES her daddy. They were gone Friday morning-Sunday night. She shocks me with her healthy food choices. She is SO responsible. On school mornings at home, she gets upstairs right after breakfast and plows through her workbooks and gets her stuff done most of the time before I even get upstairs with everyone else. She gets up on Wednesday mornings on her "school" days (she does a supplemental school in Fort Worth those days), takes a shower, gets dressed, fixes her hair, makes her lunch, gets all of her school stuff together and is ready to go on time every week. She is really one amazing kid. She loves American Girl dolls and she has developed a love for reading this year. She is very afraid of tornadoes. Like a bizarre unhealthy fear. She dreads the spring because it's tornado season. : ) She gets books on tornadoes and reads them because she feels like it will help her not be afraid of them if she can learn as much as she can about them. I love that still has such a child-like innocence about her. I love that she chooses to watch Curious George or Wild Kratts when she wants to watch a show. She puts her whole heart in everything she does. She has become a really good little dancer. This is her second year doing tap/ballet/jazz and I love watching her practice and perfect her dances. She LOVES performing on stage and she can't wait for her recital in just a couple more months.

Jack is next...