A little behind....

It hasn't been quite a month yet, but I am still way behind on my blog! I will try to re-cap the past month or so.....

November in a nutshell:
*We celebrated my 25th birthday on the 9th.

*I kicked off the Christmas season with several Sunday school ladies at Advent by Candlelight on the 10th.

*My parents and niece came the following weekend. We had a good time getting pictures made of my niece and Hannah. It was quite an adventure though to get Hannah to pose. Surprisingly the pictures came out a lot better than what I thought we were going to see!

*We decorated our Christmas tree the weekend before Thanksgiving. This year I gave up having a pretty, color-coordinated tree. We bought an artificial tree with colored lights and a whole box of "shatter resistant" ornaments. We decorated the tree after Hannah went to bed and the next day we let her "decorate" the bottom of the tree with her ornaments. She is having tons of fun moving her ornaments all over the tree, and I don't have to worry about constantly saying "No" or worrying about my glass ornaments breaking! I think trees should be kid-friendly and thank goodness for the person who thought to make "shatter resistant" ornaments!

*Thanksgiving found us on the road again. We went to north Louisiana to visit the Woodards. We had a great time visiting with family, but Hannah decided she didn't want to sleep at night while we were there. So, we ended up coming home a night early---we still aren't sure if that was a good idea or not. We thought she would sleep the whole way home, but she screamed for 3 solid hours! We got home around 12:30 a.m. and our neighbor came running outside to make sure everything was okay. Poor Seth said, "Yep, she's just been in the car too long." Needless to say that was quite an adventure!

*We decorated our house with multi-colored icicle lights the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was our first year to decorate the outside of our house. We have said since we were first married that we would buy lights after Christmas on sale, but we never do! So this year I said we had to do it, and Seth did a great job decorating! We don't have much other than lights, but those things get expensive!! So we are going to try to accumulate over the years....

So that takes us into December...

*We took Hannah to "A Night in Bethlehem" at our church. It was a really neat activity for preschoolers. She made several craft items, and I think next year she will really enjoy it alot more since she will be able to actually do the crafts herself. :) Nevertheless, it was a really neat thing, and I am really glad our church has activities like that for our kiddos.

*This past weekend found us traveling once again, but this time through SNOW! Yep, it was snowing a LOT in east Texas last Friday. I thought we were leaving early enough to beat the weather, but I think we ended up driving right through the middle of all the snow. It was really pretty though. Who would have thought Hannah has seen snow twice in her life! (It snowed last December also.) Despite the very FRIGID temperatures we had a good time with my dad's side of the family.

*This week seems to be jam-packed full of Christmas parties! Fun times!

So there you have it....the past month or so of our not-so-exciting lives! I will post pictures soon hopefully!

She is One!

I am a little late in this post....sorry! It has been crazy busy around here, and I am trying to get all of my Christmas shopping done! My goal was to be done on Saturday, but I still have a few left to purchase. Hopefully I will be finished by this Saturday....

Our little sweetie turned the big one the day before Halloween. :) I really can't believe she is already one! It was interesting on her birthday to realize that just one short year before, we didn't even know what she looked like or anything! It is amazing that they can learn and grow so much in twelve months. We have thoroughly enjoyed each and every minute so far, and we are excited to see the new little surprises that each day brings with Hannah! Currently we are realizing that concrete and window sills are not her best friends..... I am beginning to think that bloody noses will be a staple here at our house.

We had 2 little birthday parties to celebrate the big one. One was just a little get together here at home with some friends and family from Houston. Then we went back home for her actual birthday and had a small party with family there. She got lots of neat toys that she is very much enjoying. It is a never ending array of toys that all make noise in my living room now! We are going to put some of them away though and get them back out around Christmas. It is just too many toys for one little girl to play with at one time.

My parents bought her a cozy coupe, which we just put together tonight. Those things come in a million pieces, and whoever made those instructions is nuts! There are 30+ pictures with absolutely no words and 19 arrows pointing this way and that. Those things have come a long way in 30 years. This one has every feature except an option sunroof just about. We finally got it together after about 2 hours, but she was already asleep so she will have to wait until tomorrow to play with it. I have a feeling we are about to spend several hours pushing her around in that thing! :)

In honor of the past 12 months, here are 12 things about our little cutie pie:

1.) She weighs 21 lbs. 8 oz., and she is 31" tall. (Tall and skinny is what the dr. said!)

2.) She gives us hugs, kisses, and pats us on the back---super sweet!

3.) She is still a TERRIFIC sleeper---whew, what a blessing!

4.) She is a great entertainer. Who knew watching a little kiddo could be so much fun?

5.) She always has a huge grin on her face in the mornings. We don't know who she gets this from? Maybe Uncle Mark! :)

6.) She is very independent and wants to do things on her own.

7.) She has the sweetest little giggle when being tickled.

8.) She almost has 2 teeth. I say almost because it has been over 3 weeks, and the first one still isn't all the way in yet! There is another one beside it though, but I think it will be another 3 weeks before we see it also.

9.) She loves eating Nutra-Grain bars. Go figure....but she goes nuts when she sees them!

10.) She loves wrapping clothes around herself like a scarf. Every day she finds something to wrap around herself and prance around the living room.

11.) She loves pushing her baby dolls in the stroller around the living room.

12.) She is the sweetest little Hannah bug ever!

There is a first for everything....

So this morning I was thinking that I should blog about Hannah's first year since her birthday is coming up on Friday. About an hour ago, she gave me another "first" to blog about. This is a first that I had hoped might come a little later on in her toddler years or just maybe never if we were lucky. However, this first decided to arrive at our house none the less and it came in full force.

Here's the story.....I looked out the window and noticed that the bulk garbage on our curb was blowing all over the street. So like any good citizen and neighbor, I decided to go pick up the stray pieces and fix the pile so no other trash was floating down my street. Hannah of course was right behind me walking up and down the driveway. I did realize that this could get dangerous if she fell, but I figured that she has been walking for 2 months so she has somewhat mastered the skill.

I continue fixing the bulk garbage situation, and then I see her fall out of the corner of my eye. I figured she might have caught herself with her hands first, so the worst she would have is scraped hands. However, the immediate shrill screams lead me to conclude that this was more serious than I initially thought. So I rush over and pick her up to discover blood coming from her nose. This is when I got a little panicky and nervous. I immediately took her inside and tried to see where the blood was coming. This of course is almost impossible with her screaming and flailing. I didn't know what to do, so I called good ol' Daddy. He so graciously (after my polite request) came home to help me clean her up and decide what to do. We are pretty sure she just scraped the outside of her nose, but it does look a little swollen. So I did what any first time parent does, I called the nurse, and I am waiting to hear back from her....

The moral of this story---we are staying inside!! Concrete isn't Hannah's friend apparently. Oh, and I feel that I should also mention here that we have her 1 year portraits scheduled for tomorrow. Yep...looks like those will be rescheduled for the 2nd time. I don't think a swollen bloody nose is something we really want to remember in her 1st year pictures. I am glad though that it isn't as bad as I was imagining it could be. At first I really thought she might have broken it or something, but after cleaning her up, it really just looks like she scraped the outside part of her nose.

Item on my afternoon agenda: clean the blood out of my shirt.....

Houston, we have a....

TOOTH!

Hannah finally is teething! She is about 2 weeks shy of turning one and her first little pearly white is starting to break the surface. She was VERY fussy on Wednesday which is unlike her, and Seth discovered the tooth on Thursday night. So we are just assuming that she was so fussy because her first tooth was starting to come in. It looks like it is going to take it a while because hardly any progress has been made in the past two days. :)

It's a good thing that those little teeth haven't decided to come in any earlier! I am still nursing her, and I wondered how that would go once she got teeth. It looks like I won't really have to deal with that whole issue much at all. Not only is she two weeks away from turning one, but she is also two weeks away from getting weaned. Then the fun joys of trying to get her to drink milk. For some reason I am preparing myself for a battle. She doesn't take to kindly to anything other than mommy's milk... We shall see how that goes.

11 months and such...

So little Miss Hannah turned 11 months on September 30th! I know I probably say it every blog, but I just can't believe how fast this year has gone!!! At the end of the month, we will have a one year old! It doesn't seem possible that one year has basically come and gone so quickly. I will admit that I do love all the fun things that we can do together now that she is "older". The baby stage has its share of fun as well, but it is so neat to watch her interact with us and see the different things she is learning every day.

She has FINALLY started saying "ma" sounds. It seems like the past 6 months she was stuck on any sound other than "ma". I still don't think she is associating her "ma ma" sounds with me just quite yet, but it does put a smile on my face when my sweet little darling utters "ma ma" in my direction!

For a while now we have had the following conversation:

Me: Hannah, say "Ma Ma"

Hannah: "Da Da"

Me: Say "Ma Ma"

Hannah: "Da Da" and then she would crawl/run off giggling to herself

She is currently enthralled with this lovely toy that my mom sent home with us....

Things have been pretty routine around here. :) We are trying to keep the sickness away, but I was sick a few weeks ago, and then Hannah has had a cold for a week or so. I just hope that stinkin flu stays away from our house!

On a totally random note....the tv in our bedroom is acting CRAZY! It totally turned itself on 3 times in the middle of the night last night! Finally Seth got up and just unplugged the thing. We plugged it back in tonight, and it turned itself on again.... It is the craziest thing, and we have no idea what is making it turn itself on. Anyway, that is just on my mind, because the silly thing just turned itself on again. I am about to go unplug it and take it to the curb......

Happy Fall!!!

Hannah Update

Hannah is 10.5 months old now---wow, has time flown by or what!?! I am currently trying to plan her 1st birthday party! I can't believe that it has almost been a year since we added our sweet little beautiful girl to the family.

Here are some random facts about Hannah now:

*She can WALK! Yep, that's right! She has been taking a few steps here and there, but yesterday she just took off and hasn't looked back!

*She LOVES playing in her play house. She especially loves this counting song it sings that she presses over and over while she dances along.

*She still is a pretty picky eater, so she pretty much eats the same things over and over and over. (She is def. like her daddy in this regard!)

*She is starting to get more hair! Yay--I can't wait to be able to put some bows in that hair.

*She still doesn't have a single tooth....

*She talks up a storm, and we can't wait to one day know what it is exactly that she is telling us all the time.

*If she is ready to take a nap, she will crawl back to her room and try to get in her bed. :)


Here is a video of her walking today...sorry it is turned the wrong way!

Blog Updates

September 9th--Happy 29th Birthday Seth!

I had big plans for his birthday, but I got sick the day before so things didn't work out like I had planned. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday searching all over this town for an ipod touch--that is what Seth wanted for his birthday. I couldn't find one anywhere! I was trying to be sneaky, so I waited til the day before his birthday to purchase it otherwise he would have seen the charge on the credit card bill. So a little annoyed, I decided to just purchase it online the day of his birthday. What do you know?!? Apple decided to lower the price $100 on his birthday! That made me quite happy despite my earlier frustrations with not finding one. Anyway, I think he had a pretty good birthday. He got the ipod touch (a few days later), an LSU backpack, and lots of money!

Seth's Birthday Lunch at Ninfa's

Enjoying his homemade chocolate meringue pie and a Dr. Pepper