Once again I’m a few weeks behind, but I wanted to let Hailey know how proud I am of her for choosing to be baptized. To be honest, I only remember bits and pieces about my baptism day, but I do remember sitting on the front row in the chapel with my Dad and several other kids in my ward who were being baptized that day. I can’t say that I really remember the event itself, but of all the things that happened in my young life it was definitely one of the most important. I also remember that for several weeks or months afterward that I was much more conscious about making mistakes though. And at this point in my life I can clearly look back on it with the knowledge that I am truly lucky to have the knowledge of the Gospel in my life and the opportunity to join Christ’s church.

I hope that with time Hailey will come to truly appreciate the amazing gift she’s received. I realize that at 8 years old it’s a bit hard to comprehend the true weight of what has taken place, but I pray that Emily and I can help her to learn to appreciate it and to choose to follow the teachings of our Savior. We love you Hailey and we’re so happy for you.

Well… I’m a failure. I meant to post this two weeks ago when it was relevant, but better late than never, right? RIGHT???

Anyway… happy 8th birthday Hailey. I can hardly believe that you’re 8 already. I remember the night we spent up at Alta View hospital when you arrived. We got there in the early evening on the 22nd of June and after a long hard night of labor, the doctor finally decided you needed to come out via an alternative method. So I put my scrubs on and we headed into the operating room. The doctors gave me a little stool to stand on so I could see what was going on and it was pretty crazy to watch them extract you. The next couple days are a bit of a blur, but you spent a lot of time hanging out in the nursery in your own personal incubator bathed in blue lights. Everyone was so excited to come up to the hospital and see you. Just like me, you were the very first grandchild on either side of the family. And the very first great-grandchild on my side. And now its 8 years later and you’re ready to be baptized. That’s halfway to being 16 and ready to drive (oh crap!!!). Time sure flies.

I hope you had a great birthday Hailey and I just want you to know that I love you.

For the past several months Hailey has had a permanent retainer installed in the top of her mouth. We identified pretty early on that her teeth were pretty messed up so we got her started early on the braces. Well, after several months of retainer it was finally time for her to get her headgear. It’s not the facial monstrosity I had pictured in my mind and she luckily only has to wear it in the evenings so she won’t have to worry about having it on at school. The funny part is how excited she was to get it. She asked repeatedly if the next visit to the orthodontist was when she’d get her headgear and when the day finally came you’d have thought it was Christmas in June. I’m pretty sure the “fun-ness” has worn off now that’s she realized it’s kind of a pain in the butt, but she’s been real good about wearing it so far. Guess we’ll have to see how long that lasts.

Hailey went to the dentist last month and apparently he told Emily that Hailey was in for quite an orthodontic experience. We kinda already knew that, but what we didn’t know was that we needed to get started right away in order to help correct the weirdness that’s going on in her mouth. As a result of this announcement, Hailey now has a newly installed apparatus in the roof of her mouth. The purpose of this unit is to widen her mouth a bit for the teeth that still need to come in. Each day we have to crank a little gear built into the little thing which pushes her upper molars apart. I guess it’s doing its job, but it’ll be interesting to see how they plan to correct everything that’s apparently “wrong” with her mouth. Hooray for modern technology and medicine I guess.

Here’s a couple pictures of Hailey’s pre-hardware smile.

Emily snapped this picture of the twins and we’re just wondering who of you out there can tell them apart from behind. You can try your luck and vote below…

UPDATE: I figure most of you have had a chance to vote at this point so I guess it’s time to reveal the answer… the majority of you were correct. Jack is on the left and Annie is on the right. You can tell by Jack’s chunky thunder thighs.