Thanksgiving Week-Update 1 of 17

Hello! I am still attempting to recommit myself to the blog-o-sphere, but have not had much luck. My last update was the weekend before Thanksgiving, if I remember correctly, and we have been going non-stopped since then. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year. Jon's parents, sisters, and grandparents all came, along with my mom. I believe that good times were had by all...it's been a long six weeks! Also, for those of you that think that the title of this post is literal, I'm sorry. I am not really planning to write that many blogs, although it seems that I could easily fill that many..."17" is simply a figurative number that really represents a lot...I am sorry to get you all excited, but I will say that you can expect several more in the very near future.

Jon's dad stayed with us for a few days before Thanksgiving and we found some cheap tickets through my work for a Denver Nuggets game, so we went. It was Hannah's first real life basketball game and she loved it. She paced back and forth, cheered, tried to play with the gigantic power ball, ate way too much junk food, and stayed awake longer than her grandpa (to her grandpa's defense, the game wasn't really very exciting & it was at the end of a very long day for him).
Here she is clapping and cheering for the team. I love that her hands are so blurry because you can really tell how enthusiastic she was about it.

What do you at a sporting event when the baby's milk runs out? I clearly didn't plan ahead with additional water or juice, so she got her first taste of soda...pepsi...and yes it was caffeinated. Come to think of it, perhaps THAT is why she lasted longer than her grandpa and was found so enthusiastic at times!

My friend Sally and I did some "pre-Thanksgiving-grown-up-girl-time-shopping" and I got this really awesome apron. In this photo, I believe that I am gearing up for the Thanksgiving feast!

I believe these are starting to get out of order. I actually started this post before some of these things happened, so since I am adding to it now they are out of order...my apologies. This is Hannah doing one of her favorite things these days, reading or being read to. She just cannot seem to get enough of it and I secretly glow with pride at the fact that my 1 1/2 year old is already a little bookworm!

It snowed a few days after Thanksgiving, so it was the perfect time for Hannah to test out her new puffer coat. I am a huge fan of it, and it seems to be pretty warm for the good ol' snowy days that we have been having lately. The best part of playing in the snow for Hannah? It's a delightfully cool and refreshing snack...I helped her out a bit with the "verbage" there!

I just love this one of her. I took this when she was pacing through the house, talking on the phone to her Auntie. I thought it would be fun for my sister to see what she looked like when they were talking, but the picture came out so much better than I expected.

A new hobby of Hannah's is gathering pillows and blankets so that she can sleep on the floor. It's funny because it seems to be her ritual that she put all of her toys/animals to sleep before she herself goes to sleep. The other day Jon put her in her bed to sleep and when he went to check on her, she had moved to the floor right outside of her room. There was a blanket covering two stuffed animals that had previously been on her bed with her, and a blanket covering herself, much like the one here. I guess the girl just knows what she wants!

Hannah got a gigantic frog from Jon's parents and sisters for Thanksgiving. It is actually a gigantic frog that is holding a smaller "baby" frog. Hannah has been learning body parts, so Jon thought that he would teach Hannah to give the frog "the elbow" because what good is a gigantic frog if you can't beat it up? So in traditional WWF style, he would pat his elbow, plant it into the frog's belly, and then encourage Hannah to do the same. Six weeks later, if you ask Hannah where her elbow is, she puts it up in the air and gives it a good 2-3 pats! I am sure in the photo above, someone was asking her where her elbow was, and not asking her to attack her Thanksgiving dinner plate.

Mariana and Marcela (Jon's sisters) needed to "freshen up" before dinner, so I told them that they could go upstairs to my bathroom. Little did I know that they took Hannah with them, or she met them there, or something. Anyway, about thirty minutes later they come down and Hannah is all fluffed up. She has ponytails and bows and bracelets and sunglasses. The girls decided that Hannah needed to "freshen up" also, so they took the liberty of doing it themselves. Apparently when they told Hannah to look in the mirror because they were all done, she smiled and with a sigh said, "Thanks You!" Hannah was pretty happy to be all dressed up.

Jon and his Mom cheesing it up at our end of the Thanksgiving table. Jon fried our turkey again this year and we also tried out a duck. The fried turkey turned out great, although we cannot say the same for the duck. It would not cook so after 2-3 hours (it was supposed to take 45 minutes) and after our dinner was long gone, I took him out, still uncooked and decided that he would go in the trash. For some reason "duck meat enchiladas" just didn't sound so great!

Left to right around the table: Mariana, Marcela, Mike-aka. gampa, Fred-Jon's grandpa, Geneva-Jon's grandma and the hand in the bottom right hand corner is my mom's.

Finally, I leave you with one the best parts of my day...seeing my little girl all "blinged out" and loving it...nevermind that she was very adamant about picking her nose, it's still a great picture!

Update, Saints Gear, and the Park

Hannah had her 18 month doctors appointment a few weeks ago. Do you remember me explaining that her clothes is kind of awkward in the last post? At her doctor's appointment she measured in at 21 lbs. 5 oz. and 33 1/2 inches tall. That puts her in the 8th or 9th for weight and 90-something for height. She is REALLY tall! What the heck?!? I don't' know where she is getting this, but I am happy. I've always hoped that she would be taller than me. Of course it could stop at any point, but I love the idea of her being tall. I guess because I always wanted to be tall, (and since I don't believe I will be growing vertically any time soon) I am happy that my daughter will get the opportunity (at least according to her "stats"). Aside from a nagging cough that has been around for over two months now, Hannah is doing great. She talks all the time, despite that fact that we can't always understand her. For instance, she has been saying something like this: "myoth-ern. Myoth-ern!" for several weeks now. Jon and I discuss what we think she might be saying with no conclusion. Tonight it hit me. She's saying, "My turn!" I was feeding her some yogurt (which she prefers to do on her own, always) when suddenly she reached out, said "Myoth-ern!" My turn, I get it! I just love watching as her little vocabulary explodes. You just never know what's going to come out of her mouth on any given day! Anyway, I better get to the pictures. I have to go to work tomorrow and Hannah needs a bath! We are having Thanksgiving at our house this year so I am sure that I will have lots of new things to blog about soon!Hannah's wearing her Saints t-shirt. Her Dad went to the Bronco game that day, so she felt free to wear her "True colors."

Supporting Drew Brees. Also, check out her super curly hair! I am loving it more and more each day!
Hannah and Jon before the game. I love this picture!

It was beautiful out one day and so I picked Hannah up from daycare and headed straight to the park in our neighborhood. I was trying to get her pumped up on the way over by saying, "Hannah, are you ready to go to the park?!?" She was SO excited when she got out of the car, she might have wet herself (she wears a diaper so if she did it's really no big deal). There was a big yellow lab/mix dog sitting with his owners. She squealed with excitement. I swear the interpretation of her thoughts was, "Oh my goodness Mom! You said we were going to the park but I had no idea I was going to get to pet a dog!!!"

She had a great time for the rest of the afternoon, even after the doggie left. She ran all over, went down the slide a couple of times, and tried to climb the rock climbing wall. All the while, wearing her sweet shades!

"Driving" the car after the day at the park. She had to sit down just like Mom, but she couldn't see very well.

This one cracks me up. She is passed out cold, on the second step up. I guess she was trying to get to her bed, but didn't make it. I thought she was with Jon and Jon thought that she was with me. Really, she was on the stairs. A few days earlier she had fallen asleep on the small portion of carpet at the bottom of the stairs. Silly girl (and maybe silly parents for not keeping better tabs on her!). I hope you like the updates. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families!

Second Annual Halloween Extravaganza

I am truly remiss at my poor blogging the past few months. I am going to try to get caught up this week and will hopefully be able to stay that way through the holidays. I don't get a whole lot of internet time these days since I have been working and sit in front of a computer all day (and can't get online there either). So there are no guarantees, but I am going to try! Someone told me this year that Hannah is either going to love or hate Halloween by the time she's five. I don't really care either way, but I know that Jon hopes that she loves it. It is his favorite holiday. He's really not in to scaring people or anything, he just loves dressing up (and finding cheap costumes). Believe it or not, these are not all of her outfits/costumes. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of her in her lion costume or in either of her Halloween dresses. It's a lot to keep up on! Anyway, here they are. I hope you like them!

Frog...with highwaters...this is how most of her costumes were this year. She is really still wearing 9-12 month sized clothes although they are all too short. Most of her 18 month size clothes way to big in the waist, but even still a little short. Her costumes were all 18 months, but were highwaters or caused baby wedgies! No good, but what can you do?
Hannah as a witch. She was really happy this day, although it was mostly because her Dad let her wear her gloves.

We have a Halloween cat. Hannah loves him. She puts him to sleep often (covers with a blanket and pats his back). She was chit-chatting with him here.

Bumblebee. She did not love the bumblebee outfit the first time I tried to put it on, but begged us to put it on her the day after Halloween.

Cindy's flower outfit. Please notice the purse with the wiener dog in it...she also had a flashlight with it. The accessories might have won the competition between Grandma and Grandpa Haddenham.

I love Hannah's face here. She's like, "Seriously? This is dumb!"

Does this amazing miniature llama need explanation?

Livin it up on top of the hay pyramid at the pumpkin patch!

Hannah's always been a big fan of slides, this giant hay slide was no exception.

The way that Hannah preferred to wear her Grandpa's dragon costume. Do you see her "big girl" bed too?

Dragon! Ooo...scary!

Dragons are hard to catch on camera. They are very fast and don't stand still for very long at all!

Jon and I went out with some of our friends. We were Clue characters. Mr. Green and Ms. Peacock. Afterward, we all came back to our house and played Clue!

Wait! Here's one of the Halloween dresses! We didn't get to go trick-or-treating this year because Jon, Cindy, and I all got food poisoning. At least Hannah doesn't know what she was missing, but I was a little disappointed. I was kind of looking forward to the opportunity to raid Hannah's candy bag after she went to sleep, but since I really didn't need to do that, I can certainly live without it! I hope you enjoyed our Second Annual Halloween Extravaganza. Stay tuned next year for the next one!

Hannah Sings!

These are videos of Hannah singing! We read (aka, sing the words) her Old MacDonald book every night before bed. Lately she has been singing once I stop! I love it...turn up the volume!

Please Pray for Henry Hermon

Jon's cousin, Dana, just delivered her baby, Henry, last week (6th) and they found that he has a lot of health problems. For one he has holes in his heart. From what I can tell that is not the critical problem. It has something to do with the valves in his heart being attached wrong. They will do exploratory surgery on him this Tuesday and then if they find that surgery is going to work then they will do it on Thursday. He had a feeding tube in, but I believe that has been removed now, so that must mean that he is doing a little better. I may have a few of the details wrong, but I would ask you to please be praying for him. His condition is critical right now, although I believe that the doctors have more hope now, so that's good. Please pray that the family would find incredible comfort and peace. And pray that the Lord would give the doctors wisdom as to how to help this little boy most effectively. I will keep you posted on his situation as I hear more. Jon's mom is headed up there tomorrow so I am sure we will get more details soon. Thanks so much for your prayers friends!

"Whoa-la & Ga-pa"

Jon's parents recently moved from Wyoming to Texas. Jon's dad, Mike, was coming through town with the last of their stuff from their house, so he spent the weekend with us in The Springs. He and Jon played some golf, we all watched the Broncos, ate some good food, played with the dogs, and even went to a hockey game.

Here is Hannah playing with the dogs. She wasn't even all that crazy about Whoa-la (aka. Lola) but she couldn't say Bently very well. So, dogs in general are now Whoa-la. Up until very recently Hannah has been very scared of dogs. She has been known to scream as loudly and dramatically as possible and definitely does not want to be licked by them.
As you can see, she really LIKES dogs now! She loved having the dogs around, which made Jon and I kind of wish that we had one around for her. They spent a couple of days with us and when they left, I think Hannah was a little sad. For several days after they left, as soon as she would wake up in the morning she would start looking around on the floor a saying, "Whoa-la, whoa-la!!" Now, if we say, "Hannah where's Lola?" She starts running around looking at the floor. If she keeps this up we may have to do something about our no-dog-situation!

One thing that I really liked about the dogs is that they wore her out! She must have been so tired here that she couldn't even be bothered with putting her butt down! Man, she looks so long here...like a little girl!

Dressed and ready for the hockey game...isn't that a sweet vest that she has on?

Waiting for the restaurant to open up! She was a huge fan of the area because there were big "benches" for people to sit on...aka, for Hannah to run around on...and lots of stairs.

"Mom, I have stuff places to go and stairs to climb!! No time for pictures!"

At the hockey game. Hannah loves watching hockey. I don't know what it is, but she seems to actually watch it! This time she even cheered when the people around her cheered...she was really into it!

Watching the game with "Ga-pa." She doesn't say the "G" very well, but it's just enough to know it's there. Now we are working on Grandma and ho-ho-ho for the holidays.

Still watching the game...except now she is in her very own chair! While she really enjoyed the hockey game, I am not sure whether she enjoyed the hockey game more or the ice cream cones that we got mid-way!

And, saving the best for last...she was "sliding" down the rails on the way out. I LOVE her face in this one!

She's a Funny Girl

This kid is hilarious! She found my scarf in the hall closet and was dragging it all over the house and was trying to wrap it around her neck, so I helped her.
She was walking around proud and feeling stylish, despite the fact that it was something like 80 degrees outside! I think we were headed out to dinner or something and she insisted on wearing it the whole way. Silly girl!

This is one of her favorite things to do right now...she rocks her self in the rocking chair, sometimes while reading a book and others just because!

That's a pretty sweet milk goatee isn't it???

What a face! Our friends from Laramie sent us a book of UW gear, including this awesome UW bow for the Nan. Now she can really support her team!

Super Saturday Morning

We had a fantastic morning this morning. We got up had some breakfast, decided that we were in the mood for lattes so we made some, and then went for a walk. We found out that there is another trail head for the hiking area near our house. It literally took us four minutes to get there from our front door! It was awesome! We actually liked the area way better than the other hike and it is a super bonus that it is only four minutes away. There was a great trail through the grass and trees. I look forward to walking out there in the next couple of weeks as the leaves continue to change colors. It will be beautiful! There are Aspens, Cottonwoods, Oaks, and of course lots of pine trees so I am sure that the fall display will be great. We were gone for about an hour today. Jon had me carry Hannah on the way back because he wanted me to see why he was going so slow on the way in. A thirty pound backpack does make a big difference! I was doing some huffing and puffing on the way out! Anyway, here are a few pictures from our little walk. I hope you like them!

On our way there! Pretty pine tree and cones on our way in.

Hannah and me on our way out! This is before the huffing and puffing started!

I had to include this one also...I know it's kind of dark, but I had to take it. We were in the basement last night and I got up to shut the backdoor because it was getting cold. I was startled to see four deer almost at our backdoor! It was so cool! We have seen deer around on house before, but never that close. I called Jon over and Hannah had joined me by that point to watch too. She watched them and talked to them for a LONG time. We had to go upstairs so I finally pick her up to bring her with us, despite her objections. When I put her down, she ran to the porch, pulled her chair as close to them as possible (the deck isn't on the ground so she could get closer without really getting closer), and sat down to continue watching them! Isn't that cute?