Haylee Nichole Godefroid

Her GPA Steve always acted like he wasn't that excited to have a baby in the house. The moment we got home he said let me see her and he laid her beside him on the couch all snuggled up. That's all it took. From that moment on she was Gpa's little girl always and forever. She was Gma's girl too. She spent so much of her life with her grandparents and great grandparents. When she was learning to talk she couldn't say GMA Virginia it would come out as GMA Ginger. So from then on GMA Virginia would forever be GMA Ginger thanks to Haylee. GMA Ginger called her Hay Girl, GMA Tammy called her Schnuckems, I called her Hay Bug. Chad had many names for her over the years. It went from varmint to freckle face and then stinky. We even put stinky on a birthday cake one year.

Haylee was a water baby from the time she was in the womb. The summer before she was born. I was at Lake of the Ozarks on water skis for most of it. By the time she was 5 months old she had her first bikini and we spent her first summer in GMA Ginger's pool. She loved the water from day 1 and that never changed.

She would eventually learn to water ski, go tubing, enjoy float trips, loved jumping from bridges, and bluffs into the Meramec River. She got it faithfully. She comes from a family of water lovers.

As a little girl Haylee loved being on the go. She loved trips to Wal-Mart. Whenever she'd see a Wal-Mart she'd start screaming MA-Mart MA- mart while kicking her little legs in her carseat. She also loved the TV show Blossom. She could be in a deep sleep but the second she heard the theme song start she'd come running down the hallway and start dancing in front of the TV in nothing but a diaper.

Around 4 or 5 years old, Chad was cooking some burger one day and Haylee looked up at him and said Why you gotta be so rough with it, my papa Steve don't do it like that. So observant :)

She learned to ride her bike at 7 while camping at frogs landing campground. It was an exciting day for her.

Haylee spent a tremendous amount of time with her grandparents. We are a close knit family. They weren't just grandparents to her. They were a huge part of her everyday life. They had many adventures and memories made together.

She had a special relationship with her Great GPA Lee too. We were at their house all the time swimming, eating dinners, celebrating holidays, or just hanging out. He adored her. When she was old enough to drive he'd help her with maintaining her car and secretly slip her money for gas and such.

When she was little she wouldn't sleep alone. We would have to lay with her until she'd fall asleep. Or she'd fix a pallet in the floor in our bedroom. One night while on our floor we were talking about roosters and chickens because she was learning about them in 4H. Chad said I'm the rooster of this family and Haylee said yeah you are a cock. We laughed so hard and she had no idea why :) She was 13 years old when she finally would sleep alone. Even as she got older she would still crawl into my bed and sleep beside me. Some weekends we'd be lazy and lay in bed all day and binge watch Snapped. For a long time after she passed I swear I could feel her next to me in the bed.

Chad and I would take her hiking at Sullivan state park when she was young. I remember chad putting her on his shoulders sometimes and she'd just laugh being up there. It was also their tradition to put up the Christmas tree at our house. It was their thing.

Haylee was a very outgoing child. Her kindergarten teacher once told us that Haylee was doing very well with her school work, but that she talked too much. Her whole life she could walk into a place and walkout with friends. She attracted people to her. She was also the child who would defend others if they were being bullied or wronged by someone. She never wanted anyone to feel left out. One time she punched a guy for being mean to his girlfriend. That was her personality. She knew what she wanted and was going to do it. We definitely butted heads at times and we didn't always agree. At the end of the day there was never any question about how much we loved each other. That was the red head in her. She was never afraid to stand her ground. She was always a bit of a WILD ANGEL.

When she was 8 years old GMA Tammy got her horseback riding lessons. She\we were hooked. We ended up buying her lesson horse Arly. From there it just grew. Eventually she wanted to barrel race like her mom and Uncle Jerad used to when they were young. She always had a knack for riding. What stood out the most was her fearlessness. When she was about 10 she rode a pony named whitey at a fun show at the St Clair saddle club. Whitey was ornery and always tried to be the boss and bucked her off. Instead of being embarrassed and giving up, she got up and said I'm ok!! Caught her pony and jumped back on him.

As she got older she rode more and more horses. Different styles,different attitudes. Her confidence was solid. People would ask her to ride their horses. She'd throw a leg over a horse she didn't know, take it to the arena and figure it out. Like I said she was a fearless wild angel. I truly thought she'd make a career of doing something with horses. She even helped train her horse Dollie to run barrels and the 2 of them did really well together. Haylee qualified her and another horse Lucky Raider to compete in Jackson Mississippi at the youth NBHA World Championships In 2009. It was such an accomplishment. Haylee, GMA Tammy , GMA Ginger,and myself loaded up the Ford and went to Mississippi.

We both rode and competed. It was our thing. We were weekend warriors chasing the barrel races and rodeos down the road. We had so much fun. Sometimes she would enter my horses and run them, only to beat me on my own horse. I loved it!

We also enjoyed trail riding with GMA Tammy and her horse shadow. We'd ride for hours through the woods and then ride them down to the creek to play in the water. Sometimes Haylee would bring a friend along to ride with us. We all looked forward to trail riding. Trail riding became a family tradition.

Most New Years Days we would go riding with a big group of some family and friends and sometimes it was cold but we'd bundle up and go. One NYD in particular it was freezing. Haylee had on so many layers of clothes she could barley move. It took gma Tammy and uncle Bill to lift her onto her horse. She looked like the Michelin man trying to get on that horse.

Horses had become such a huge part of who she was and all the while she was a member of the Maverick 4H club, playing basketball, in band, dabbling in volleyball, track, and even cheerleading for a season. This girl was busy.