Here's One I Forgot

Look! Haley did pretty good on this spelling test. She only missed one...



This is funny on so many levels, not the least is the fact that Haley is the naughty word police in our house...

Haley Is a Gem...Plus Anniversaring in NY

This post is a hodge podge of items, but they are all interesting. Really. Just ask me.

BTW, can you pick out the made up word in the title of this post? Winner gets to eat dinner tonight.

Moving on... The clever narratives below apply to the picture immediately following them.
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The funniest thing about this picture is Haley's tooth. You know the one. You can't miss it. The tooth that used to occupy the hole on the right moved out and the tooth on the left tried to move in. Needless to say, Haley wasn't the only one grateful when the offending tooth fell out, even if it did happen at 4:00 in the morning.


Haley's photographic talent on display again in this beautifully framed shot. This is a view from one of the examining rooms at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. I think she was going for a visual representation of the depressed inner city economy.

And we see why seven-year-olds shouldn't be allowed to wear makeup! Seriously though, Haley and Kelsee decided to go for a spa day, complete with mud mask. Notice no picture of Kelsee? Curious...

Another of Haley's famous photographs. This one was either going for the motion blur (she was swinging in her indoor therapy swing at the time) or was just trying to embarrass Cameron.

The effect of all the Christmas specials on network television. (Ignore the hole in the ceiling, please. Leaking pipes in the kitchen above; it was not a failed attempt at decorating.)

It's obvious this picture is fake. The clothes are too fancy and there's too much hair. Just so's you know, this was taken inside the Albany Visitor's Center during our 15th anniversary trip this past weekend. A miracle, huh, that Kelsee would stick with me for that long, you know, considering I apparently have no neck.

The final stop before we boarded the plan to return home was at the first Shaker site in the United States. This location is the burial site of the founder of Shakerism, which is a dying movement. Once there were 300 believers at this site alone. Now, the only active Shaker site in the US (in Pennsylvania) has only seven believers.

Hung outside the gift shop was this Shaker recruitment poster.

Fashionista Extraordinaire

I have nothing of value to add to this post, unlike all my other posts which are full of wit, humor and intelligence. Right.

Anyway, these pictures speak for themselves. What a kid...

Love Me Tender...

I have Haley-isms! I do. Just bear with me while I get there...

You know, you haven't lived unless you've seen and heard an Elvis impersonator live. I'm not kidding. Actually, you haven't lived until you watch your seven-year-old music nut of a daughter watching an Elvis impersonator live.

My stepdad, TC, used to be an Elvis impersonator, back in the day. He's still a HUGE Elvis fan. I've heard some recordings of him singing Elvis, and it was pretty impressive. Anyway, his 70th birthday bash was last weekend. It was a surprise party, but the biggest surprise came just after the meal. His kids planted him in a chair in front of the whole group, turned down the lights, turned on some disco strobe and out comes Elvis!!! He lives!!!

Actually, Mom said it was an in-law of TC's or something (I met a lot of folks that day; it's hard to remember who belongs to whom). I have to admit, I found myself smiling. A lot. It was funnier than... well, it was funny. However, Haley's reaction was the best. She was leaning forward, her elbow on the table, her chin resting on her hand, with a huge grin and wide eyes as she watched it unfold. At one point she leaned over and asked:

"Do you think Papaw knows that's not the real Elvis? We should tell Papaw that it IS the real Elvis."

Her expression was priceless. Unfortunately, the room was dark and I have no flash on my camera phone, so I couldn't capture Haley. However, here are a few pictures. The brightened circle-looking spot is highlighting my stepdad.

Good times.





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Speaking of my camera phone, when I'm uploading pictures from that device to my computer, I often come across a random series of pictures, like below. Wonder how those got there...





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Haley-ism time...

So, we visited Bowling Green and Mammoth Cave National Park a couple of weekends ago. As we were driving the curvy roads through the park towards the visitors center, we hear the curly-headed wonder pipe up from the backseat.

"This road is soooo curvy, I'm getting sick. I think I'm going to hurdle."

Dang, I love that kid.

Yes. Even more.

Random Haley cuteness

Amber, Grandma Dee and Haley

Kennedy and Haley

Celebrating with the Morehead State Eagles at the NCAA basketball tournament!

Haley with Brody.

Sami, Zach, Haley, Kennedy, Hannah.

The whole rowdy group. Fun times!!

Hensley family reunion fun

Cameron carried Haley back after she got too tired on the hike.

He's a great cousin and she loves him so much!

And even more pictures!

At Cave Run Lake (our favorite summer hangout spot):

Haley and Zach fishing off the boat.

Our little fish - Haley loves swimming and jumping off the boat.

Happy times!

2009 Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma's house:

(Harper, Kennedy, Brady, Blake, Haley, Zach)

Camp Kappes - art day at Aunt Hanna's house:

Fourth of July at Aunt Kristin's house:
Above are all Kappes cousins. Back row: Sami (10) holding Brody (5 months), Haley (6), Hannah (8), Graydon (4). Front row: Alexandria (3), Savannah (7), Kennedy (5), Blake (2), Harper (3), Brady (4), Zach (4) and Scout (1).

More pictures because I neglected the blog for far too long

Cameron, first day of school:

Haley, first day of school:

Haley at the lake with our family:

Vacation in St. Louis:

More pictures from Spring/Summer 2009

Granny Hensley, Cameron, Jason and Haley. Granny died in April and we'll always treasure the pictures from our trip to see her in February.


Haley welcomed a new cousin to the family in February - Brody Barnett.

We found Haley like this one night - her blanket is falling apart and she was asleep with her face sticking out one of the holes.

These next pictures are from a trip to the local children's museum over spring break:

Easter Egg Hunt at church:

Updates on the kiddos

Some pictures from spring/summer:

Haley and mommy at Fort Fisher, NC. Spring break trip to the NC coast.

Haley and Daddy on the ferry.

Atlantic Ocean. Near Fort Fisher, NC.

On the ferry at Fort Fisher.

At Fort Fisher.

At the aquarium.

With daddy at the aquarium.

CAMERON

School started here three weeks ago and it's been a great start for Cameron (16, a junior). He seems to like most of his classes (he says he's bored so that means everything is fine) and FINALLY got into a special class he wanted to take - small animal technology. There is some girl at school that's chasing after him and with the unlimited texting on his phone, he's been especially busy lately. :)

Cameron made a big decision this week - he was ordained to the priesthood. In our church that can happen at 12. Cameron hadn't attended church regularly since he was pretty young. He's struggled with figuring out his beliefs. He has always been respectful of our beliefs and participated in our prayers, family nights and church attendance. He's been attending youth activities and seminary (a scripture-based course offered to high school students in our church). That said, he didn't seem to be particularly interested. Seemingly out of the blue he asked what he needed to do to receive the priesthood so that he could assist in the duties the other teenage boys have at church. He's been working with our bishop and Sunday was the big day. Jason ordained him and it was wonderful - many of his family members attended church with us to support him. What a great day!

Cameron is like a different kid than the one that moved in with us 18 months ago. He's made such huge strides. We're so proud of him - he's a great kid and has really grown up a lot lately.

HALEY

Haley is my sweetie pie. Every morning she climbs in bed with me for some snuggles. If we didn't have our snuggle time each day, I'm not sure how I'd get through the rest of the day. I love it!

Haley just started first grade. She's very close-lipped about school. As far as I can tell, she seems to be struggling more this year. I think her teacher is a lot more experienced and doesn't gloss over things as much. She definitely has a clearer picture of Haley's abilities. In one way, I prefer that. I want to deal with things head-on. But it hurts. A lot. I hate that she struggles.

We won't rewrite her IEP until late September so she's receiving the same services this year as she did last year (consultative services for OT, a tiny bit of PT, 15 minutes of SPED a day). I'm betting that she'll get more support this year. The positive is that it does sound like the special education teacher really is working with her this year (Haley talks about her). Haley also talks about the people that come into her class to watch her every day. We can't figure out who they are. One might be the remedial reading teacher (we did just sign papers to approve her having remedial reading). I'll be anxious to see what they report. We told Haley to ask them or her teacher who they are and why they are "watching" her. LOL She does like being a detective. ;)

Haley isn't doing well, health-wise, other than her eyes. Her eyes are doing better! We might even be abe to stop the eyedrops by Christmas. Other than her eyes, things were going okay until late spring/early summer. She had headaches almost daily this summer. Developed acid reflux this summer (her docs say it's common for kids with hydrocephalus). Lately she's also seemed more confused and slower at processing things. She's even been struggling with buttoning her clothes, putting clothing on backward - stuff she's been able to do for years. Plus she had two more seizure-like episodes in June and had to stop her horseback riding lessons. It's just been a tough summer in that way.

She's seen her neurologist, ophthalmologist and pediatrician in the past two weeks. She had an EEG and MRI last week. We see her neurosurgeon on Wednesday. Acid reflux drugs seem to be helping the reflux. We increased her headache meds but we're not sure that's helping. Her neurologist doesn't feel that the headaches she's having are related to her migraines. Hopefully the neurosurgeon will have some ideas. If not, we'll be back to the pediatrician. *sigh*

On a better note, we had a great summer together! We did so many fun things. We spent a lot of time at the lake and went on some fun trips. Plus we had Camp Kappes - with all 13 cousins for a week. The best part about the summer was that we had no schedule - Haley even got to stay up until 8 pm! *gasp* She really thought she was a big girl. :) Having a six year old has been fun!

Hey, We've Got Pictures of That!

Real quick, and then I'll get on to the pictures...another Haley-ism!

When we go to the lake, according to Haley, there is something we ALWAYS have to do to keep us safe...Mom makes us put on sunscream. Which is fitting, since if Haley is in a bad mood, she screams at us about having to put it on.

On to the pictures...


Haley watching fireflies. You can't really see them; they are the little white lights all around the grass. She was absolutely fascinated.


Hey! Haley stole my phone and decided to do some self-portraits...


Bet you can't guess whose hair this is.


Here we are at the neurologist's office a little more than a week ago. Kelsee decided that we hadn't taken pictures of Haley recently, so here we go. Nothing like going for the random.


Is that a real smile? Almost. Haley is notorious for refusing to give us real smiles during pictures. She gives us the Kourtney-patented, Kally-improved posing smile.


This one was taken like 350 pictures into this photoshoot. I call it Dazed & Confused.


Our next photoshoot was actually taken for Haley's benefit. She had an EEG and MRI done a couple of days ago. She was VERY curious about what the EEG tech was doing, so we took pictures. Here she is trying to put an electrode somewhere in Haley's curls.


Haley was a great sport. Her face here shows an interesting mix of emotions. She was fascinated being "wrapped like a mummy", but was also a little anxious about the whole thing. Towards the end of the EEG, she started complaining about tummy aches and afterwards, as we were walking to the MRI, she just burst into tears. Adrenaline letdown?


Of course I'm right there with her! Kelsee and I held her hands or her arms or legs the entire time. That was partly because she was a wiggle worm, but it was mostly because we just wanted to reassure her. BTW, she loved the fountain of curly hair pouring from the top of her new headwear.


Gotta love the hair. This is right after the EEG was over. Haley is pouting because Mom's taking ANOTHER picture. We're good for at least one of these every shoot.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed! More to come...