Spirit Day

At Haylie's school, Miramonte, all the kids wear orange every Friday. Someone was kind enough to donate t-shirts to Haylie's class so they all got to wear their school shirts just like the big kids! She posed herself in these pics! So cute!




Anna had to get in the shot too!

On an unrelated note, one of Haylie's teachers stopped me today when I picked her up. Let me back up a bit. In morning preschool, the kids all walk in a line to the cafeteria for breakfast. You can either pay $1 for cafeteria breakfast or bring your own. Well, Haylie always wants to eat cereal in the morning when she gets up - so I have just been sending her to school with a small snack. So today the assistant teacher asked me if a granola bar is all I feed her for breakfast. She said she felt bad cuz all the kids are eating a full-on meal and there's Haylie eating her little granola bar (she even made a small rectangle with her hands to show just how small the granola bar is). I was a little embarrassed and assured her that I do indeed feed my child more than a granola bar for breakfast. I know she was not actually accusing me of starving my kid, and that she truly was just looking out for Haylie. They have discount programs and stuff for kids who really can't afford to pay for breakfast etc. so she probably just wanted to make sure I knew that if I couldn't afford more, that I could get help if I needed it. Then on the way home she told me that one of the other teachers gave her juice in the cafeteria today. So that probably made it look even more like I was starving her because I didn't send her with a juice box - I told her she would have to drink from the drinking fountain. So she probably looked pitiful asking for juice and holding her little granola bar. Oh dearie. Who knows what else she tells them??

Haylie's First Day of Preschool Part II

So when I went to pick Haylie up from preschool, she was kinda' quiet. I asked her if she had fun and she shook her head "no". Uh oh. I asked her why she did not have fun and she said "Because the boys were naughty and the girl with the braids hit me". Ok. Not so bad. Once we got in the car, she seemed to have gotten over the trauma and told me she had fun. I certainly didn't get a lot of details, but she wants to go back so it couldn't have been that bad, right?

This afternoon, she got on the Wii and created a Mii to look like her teacher. I thought that was cute!

Tonight, we had Family Home Evening and the lesson was on being a good example to others. I geared it a lot towards her behavior at school and being a good example for her new friends. When she said the closing prayer, she asked Heavenly Father to help her to be a good example. *sigh* She is listening to me!

Haylie's First Day of Preschool!

We have been waiting for this day for so long!

I am so excited for Haylie to begin her "formal education"! I have noticed that, while she is a good listener and has probably learned a lot from me...she listens and learns so much better from others! I cannot wait to see what her teacher does with her!

I also have to admit that I had an emotional moment after I dropped her off. Okay - last Thursday, all of a sudden it dawned on me that I was going to be dropping my little girl off for 3 hours and at that point I would have NO CONTROL! I trust her teachers, I know she is going to be fine, but I had a brief moment of panic that I was not going to be there to witness everything that happened to her! And today, after we left, it was more of a feeling of being so proud of the big girl she has become, and sadness that she is going to be getting more and more independent from now on. Don't get me wrong, I know that is a good thing..I just think it is going to take some time to get used to the idea of my little girl becoming a big girl. She walked right into that classroom with such confidence - and never looked back!

Poor Anna doesn't know what to do with herself. We played for a while together, then I turned on Baby Einstein and she fell asleep! At 9:30am! I guess I'm going to have to come up with some enriching activities for her since she doesn't have big sister to entertain her!

On another note, Haylie has been staying dry through the night for several months now, but she never ever wakes up to go potty in the middle of the night (which does sometimes result in accidents) - last night she got up and went potty! Hooray for my big girl!

I'll post again later to let you know how her first day went!

Medicine Lake 2009

We had a great time at the lake this year. Medicine Lake is a small lake up near Mt. Shasta - probably about an hour from the Oregon border. Eric's family has been going there for years and years - his mom started going there as a child with her parents. Eric's Grandpa has a cabin right on the lake and it is absolutely a gorgeous place. I took over 200 pictures while we were there (who loves digital cameras???) so I just chose a few of my favorites to post here and you can go to my Picasa web album to see the rest...


Each time we go, the men do a "wood project" - usually involves using that nifty wood splitter to make small logs that will fit into the fireplace. Haylie really wanted to help out so she found a {giant} pair of gloves and was SUCH a good helper. She was picking up the little logs that Eric was tossing down behind him and carrying them into the little shed behind her and stacking it! Grandpa Terry was so impressed that his 4-year old granddaughter was helping with the wood project!


One of our favorite things to do at the lake is hunt for little creatures. This is a Southern long-toed salamander. We found quite a few this year - so fun!


This was our attempt at a family photo with Mt. Shasta in the background but the girls weren't feelin' it.

Eric and I went shooting one day - don't I look like one of Charlie's Angels? hahahahaha! We shot a 9 millimeter, a .38 special, and a .22 rifle. FUN STUFF!!!

Here's Eric waterskiing and Haylie holding on to the pole like she's the one responsible for keeping him up!

Haylie went in the tube all by herself! She had so much fun!

This is an adult Sierran tree frog we caught - it didn't want to leave Haylie's thumb. She kept saying "Jump, froggy, jump!" But he stayed on her thumb for quite a long time.

This is actually a wind-surfing board but they had fun floating around on it like it was a raft.

This is the first time I have ever seen Eric sit down and read a book. He is usually too busy at home to read, so I'm glad he had a chance to relax enough at the lake to enjoy a book.

There are so many more fun pictures - click here to see them!

And a big thanks to Eric's parents for hosting our week up there - they do so much to make the week enjoyable for us.

So Much to Post, So Little Time!

We just got back from a week-long vacation at Medicine Lake, but I can't post on that yet because we did a bunch of fun stuff before we left that needs to be posted! See, Haylie was occupied for the entire month of July with swimming lessons. Or, I should say, for a full month, every single day, we had somewhere to go. It was fun for the girls to know that they could get out of the house at least once a day! And I realized it helped Anna a lot to not be so restless and whiney at home! So after swimming lessons were done, I thought I'd better plan some fun stuff so that we're not just sitting around at home all day making each other crazy!

One day, we went to the Oakhurst Children's Museum. Oakhurst is a small town about 45 mins up the road towards Yosemite. This little museum was so fun - very hands-on and the girls loved it!


This shot was taken just before Haylie pushed a button that made the car start moving and Anna just about had a little baby heart attack!


This was a cute pirate ship that you could play in - Haylie was too afraid to go into the dark part, so here she is trying to get Anna to go in first!


Here's Haylie at the top of the fireman's pole...a little nervous to go down...


...but she did it - holding on tightly!! Making Grandpa Garry proud, I'm sure!


The #1 sign that the girls had fun. A quiet, peaceful drive home.

Another day, we went to the zoo with some friends. The weather was PERFECT! It was a fabulous day.

My little monkey - hasn't quite reached "gorilla" status yet.

Must...see...flamingos...

Elora, Haylie, Cami and Anna - I love how Haylie is finally learning how to "pose" for the camera!

Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/kmetler to see more pics! And I'll be posting about Medicine Lake shortly!

Haylie Snailey

A few weeks ago I did a post about Anna, and figured it's Haylie's turn now. I can't believe I have a 4-year old! She is going to be starting pre-school in 22 days and I'm not sure which of us is more excited. She is sooo ready to get out there and start learning.


Our bedtime routine, for the last couple years, has been to read Haylie some stories then sing some songs (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Popcorn Popping, Wheels on the Bus) then she goes to bed. She has always been very good at bedtime - usually not a lot of fuss. So tonight as Eric was pulling out her books, she declared that she is a big girl now, and big girls don't read stories or sing songs. So I asked her, "So, you don't want stories or songs??" and she said "Nope". And she climbed into bed and went to sleep!! Wow!


She loves to play the Wii now - her favorites are MarioKart and Monkeyball. She especially loves when Mommy or Daddy play with her!



I'm pretty sure she is part fish. We just finished a whole month of swimming lessons and she is doing so well! She loves to go underwater and even "dives" for items in the shallow end (with a little help). She jumped off the diving board on the last day of lessons - she has no fear! We don't have a kiddie pool in the yard this year, so we've had to get creative and use the sprinklers a lot - and she loves that too!



She is such a good big sister. Although, now that Anna is getting bigger and more assertive, Haylie is a little more rough with her - but overall, she is really sweet. There are times that she will volunteer to share a treat with Anna without my asking - like the other day with this popsicle:


And the next shot was when Haylie decided she wanted to have a picnic with Anna. Haylie got the blanket and everything:

Here they are making music together - so sweet! Haylie sometimes sits at the piano and says "Mommy, I need to practice" in a very matter-of-fact tone. (I practice a lot these days with my calling as Relief Society pianist!)

Haylie is very expressive and really talks quite a bit (many of you probably do not know that because she is rather shy around anyone but us!) She has entered the lovely "WHY?" phase of life - and I love that she is constantly learning and curious about the world around her. It makes me a little crazy - but I love it.

She is also discovering her artistic side. I did a post a few weeks ago with her artwork - and she is beginning to branch out. Lately, she has been drawing spaceships and ghosts, and her friend even taught her how to make stick figures so her people actually have bodies now! So cute. Oh, and she also likes to cut her pictures out now and tape them to the walls. So if you come to my house and see random pieces of paper taped everywhere, you'll know why!

She loves to get her hands on my camera and take pictures of random things. Pretty much every time I plug it in to the computer, I find something strange. Like today, I found pictures of flowers outside, and of her little stuffed care bear sitting on the couch.

I'm so grateful for Haylie and the sweet spirit she brings to our family. I'm very excited to see what the future has in store for her - but for now - I'm loving watching her learn and grow.