Sum, Sum, Summertiiimme!

It is definitely summertime here in The Springs and we are trying to take advantage of it! Jon's been dying to play soccer lately, so he crossed his fingers as we drove across town to the park where he played pick-up games last week...and sure enough the faithful masses were there playing the world's most famous sport (by the way, the World Cup starts tomorrow!). So Hannah and I played together while Jon played soccer. We've also been frequenting the park, going for walks, and enjoying our new deck! I have been loving it and of course Hannah has been eating it up since she loves being outside!

Hannah sporting a crazy messy face this afternoon after thoroughly enjoying a fruit popsicle!
Us at the park...I believe she was eating her snack here!

While she was really sneaky and wouldn't allow me to take a picture or video of her playing with the soccer ball that was next to us, she was really digging it. She even walks and kicks the ball! Maybe we have a "future kicker" on our hands!

Pushing the stroller! She can do this for hours...and it was great for me because just as soon as she started wandering off, or running toward the ball on the field, all I had to do was push her stroller a bit and she would come running back to push it some more!

Does this just scream, "Happy Summer?" Check out her Old Navy flip flops! Who knew they made those for babies?!?

As of Late...

This kid LOVES to be outside. She tries to escape any chance she gets and doesn't even care if it's hot or gross out. Fortunately our new house has lots of room to play outside and we have been taking advantage of that since it's summer here now!
Jon, Hannah, and I went to the park one day after Jon got off work. Hannah enjoys running around way more than playing on the toys right now. So we did that for a while, but Jon or I would hold her for a while when she got tired. I noticed that she had something black in her mouth (not totally unusual because she will also sneak a little dirt every so often). So I put my hand in front of her mouth, like normal, and told her to spit it out. She did and it was a weird foamy something and not a stick like I had suspected. We soon realized that it was the end of the nerf football that Jon had brought with us. See picture above! Hilarious! She just ate the end right off! Silly girl!

I found her napping like this one day...how she hid the golf ball from me while I was putting her to bed is beyond me. Are you catching a trend? She is also crazy about balls right now!

A little crazy hair for your viewing pleasure!

Pretzels...mmm. We went window shopping at the mall the other day and I got a hankering for some pretzel bites. I, of course, had to give Hannah one because she does love bread. She thoroughly enjoyed our little pretzel snack, so I had to make her pose for a photo!

Jon's mom, Cindy came down last weekend so that she could take me out to dinner for my birthday (and to see Hannah, right?). We decided to go to a steak place that Jon and I have been wanting to try. It was delicious, but that's not the point of this story...the point is, Hannah. Topless Hannah, to put it in Jon's words. Hannah LOVED this place. We started her out with some prunes because she was in need. Then came the bread...then the sweet potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes dipped in scampi sauce at her request, little bit of steak, milk, and who knows what other delicious goodness. Hannah's in a stage where she really wants to feed herself and is quite stubborn about it sometimes. So, to save the peace in the restaurant, she feed herself many of the above stated items. Do I even have to say that she was a bloated, sticky mess when we finished?? So Cindy took her to the bathroom to clean her up. Her white shirt was apparently beyond repair so this is how Hannah came out of the bathroom!

"Oh my God she's topless!" said Jon upon seeing her. He ran over, scooped her up, and headed for the door, all the while I am laughing so hard tears are about to start streaming down my face...Cindy joined in when I told her what Jon had to say. Priceless! I guess we were in a nice restaurant, but she's a baby and neither Cindy nor myself thought two cents about it. Jon was embarrassed a little and Hannah was HAPPY! We imagine that in these photos she was thinking, "Thanks for taking off my shirt grandma...it was a little tight and uncomfortable and awfully sticky!"

One more distraction that is not needed for Hannah while climbing the stairs. She found the stuff on top of the bookshelf. Decorations, Nan, not toys! Certainly not toys while you are descending the stairs! Good grief, you have to watch her like a hawk!

Kickin' it Asian Style

Our friends Kyong and Emi came to visit us from Laramie for Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time and they, as usual, spoiled us with delicious Asian food. Kyong made Kimbob (might be Gimbob, according to Wikipedia but I am sticking with my gut on this one) which is Korean style sushi and Emi showed me how to make dumplings! We have had both dishes before (Kimbob and Korean ramen are still my favorite skiing foods) and were thrilled to have them again since they are some of our favorites! They also shared their recipes with us so we can reproduce them later. I've already made another batch of dumplings since we ate all of the originals over the course of the weekend! We played a mean game of Phase 10, watched Japan almost school England in soccer, Jon and Kyong played golf, and Emi helped me shop for and plant some herbs in pots for our deck! Good times were had by all.

Kyong hard at work rolling the Kimbob with a "starving" Jon to the right. Jon had dumplings for an appetizer while the rest of the food was getting finished.
Hannah had a little dumpling appetizer herself. She, of course, loved her dumplings just as much as the rest of us. See, she IS part Japanese!

Emi stuffing dumpling wrappers. I helped also, but I was actually cooking some while she finished up. Dumplings are by far one of my favorite dishes!

The finished product, minus a few dozen dumplings that Jon had already eaten (not really a few dozen, but a lot!). Kimbob on the left and dumplings on the right!

Hannah had a great time with her Asian Aunt Emi and Uncle Kyong. Kyong and Emi love to play with and snuggle with Hannah so that, plus yummy food equals a good time in Hannah land.

I hate that Jon's finger was in this but what can you do? I love this picture though...so happy!

La Junta, Colorado

As I said in the previous blog, Hannah and I went to La Junta with Jon last week. The town was small and slightly ghetto, but I actually really enjoyed myself! There's something charming about a small town! They had roses, peonies, lilacs, and russian sage everywhere! The roses were like hedges in the yards all over town...now the people didn't really take care of the grass in their yards (making it seem a little ghetto), but the gardens were beautiful!

Hannah and I had a rough start though. We couldn't get checked in to our hotel because we had the wrong name for the reservation. So while I waited for Jon to get that for me (he was working already), I decided to get some milk for Hannah out of the car. I put her in the front seat and shut the door so that she would be trapped in while I went to the back to get her milk. I didn't think twice about throwing my keys in the driver's seat...I didn't even think twice about it when she pushed the panic button & the car alarm went off. I didn't think about the fact that if she could push the panic button, more than likely she could push the lock button as well. Honestly did not cross my mind! Well, she could push the lock button and I know this because when I was done filling her sippy cup with milk in the back and shut the door, she had locked herself, with my keys, inside of the car! I had shut the back door and went to open the front door and it was locked and she held the clicker in her hand! After multiple times of pushing the panic and lock buttons, I was somehow able to persuade her to push the unlock button! I heard it unlock and started to run to the other side when I heard it click again unlocking all of the doors! Lessons learned: 1. don't underestimate your one year old 2. never leave your keys, unattended, with a one year old. Fortunately, Hannah had no idea how funny it could have been because she really didn't understand what she was doing...this time!
There was a nice little park in La Junta that Hannah and I spent a good bit of time at. One of the other mom's offered to let Hannah play with a shovel and bucket. It took her a while to get it, but once she did she had a good time...one scoop in the bucket/air, the next in my mouth. It seems like that was the process anyway!

"Ooo! A stick! I love sticks!"

Favorite breakfast item of the week...sausage patties!

We also went swimming because why not?!? We were at a hotel with a pool so my thought was that we should check it out!

She enjoyed being on the stairs, although she HATED her new floaty that I bought for her. She's a bit of a chicken so anything new it a little stressful for her at first.

In and out, in and out. "I've got this thing down mom! It's just like our stairs at home!" Yea, except that there's water and you can't go all the way down without inhaling some serious water!

Love it! This is a hand towel that of course is the perfect size for Hannah to wrap around herself! Did I mention that I love this?!

So my sister got her some super cute jean capris from H&M and I have been dying for her to wear them. Unfortunately, they were way too big when she brought them to us in April and it looks like they are still too big. After watching Hannah's pants hit the floor several times at Subway, I decided we better change her outfit!

So we were walking through the lawn at our hotel and Hannah stopped to look at the rose bushes...maybe she was stopping to smell the rose, I don't know! Anyway, I noticed that the roses matched her dress perfectly so I decided to snap a few pictures and surprisingly some of them came out really well! Not bad for my camera phone! I love this one...doesn't she look a bit ornery and a bit rotten here with her little tough sticking out?

Adorable!

Check out those teeth!

Another ornery face....I just love her! I hope you enjoyed our little tour of La Junta! I know we did!

We Moved!

Boy has it been a crazy couple of weeks! For one, we moved! We are officially in our new house and as I posted on facebook yesterday, I think I unpacked the last of the boxes yesterday. Jon had to work in La Junta, CO last week so Hannah and I decided to go with him. Despite being a little ghetto, we really enjoyed our time there. I will write more about that later. I also got offered a job. I have had some really mixed feelings about it, but most of the time I am very excited. I won't start until July 1st, so Hannah and I will still get to spend a week in Louisiana with our family. Also since I will not be starting until July 1st, I was offered the option to work part time, which is fabulous! So I will be working 30 hours a week for Pikes Peak Community College, which means that I will still be eligible for health insurance, sick leave, vacation, etc! That's the part that I am pumped about! Also, in the midst of all this, Hannah has perfected her walking skills, which really is more like a part run, part walk, part "I'm going too fast so I need to stop abruptly so that I won't fall." It's a pretty successful pattern for her and gets her where she needs to go. She's also been practicing feeding herself with a spoon now that we have hardwood floors in the kitchen/dining room instead of carpet! Oh! And I think that she has gotten four teeth since I last posted something...not sure if that's old news or not but you should be able to see her new pearly whites in a few of the photos. So, like I said, we've been busy! Here are a few of the pictures that I've taken along the way!Wishing she could get past the rocks to go eat some of that yummy looking green grass! Or maybe just wishing that she could go on an adventure!
Standing/walking like a pro all over the Nissan dealership while waiting on our oil change.

"Helping" me unpack the kitchen. I put a can away, she pulls it out & then puts it back.

Apparently pooped out after all the unpacking so she had to pull the cheerios out and have a snack.

Hannah, sporting some sweet hair after a nap!

First attempt at eating cottage cheese by herself. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either! Let's just say that since she starting feeding herself, she gets multiple baths a day!

Sporting the bling! I had taken my rings off to put some lotion on and Hannah stole my ring. I helped her get it onto the right finger for a picture!

She must be exhausted from all of the chaos that moving has brought because she has fallen asleep like this multiple times in the evenings.

I love that she still loves to snuggle!

Driving her car in on our back patio. Since it's been really warm out the last few weeks, we have had to open the windows and doors (our house doesn't have a/c). Hannah has taken this opportunity to escape to the patio, deck, front stairs, etc. whenever possible in order to get outside! Fortunately there are rocks in the back and she's far too much of a chicken to try to cross them...for now anyway!

Hannah has quickly taken a liking to most of the things that we like. I have a hard time with this because I don't want to share everything yummy that I eat, so I've decided it might be time to get Hannah her own stuff every once in a while! This day, she got her very own Jamba Juice. We make smoothies at home every once in a while so I knew that she really liked them. She had a death grip on her drink the whole time we were in Target and even drank about half. Now that's a good lunch!

Hannah's Bling...

We are moving to our new house this week. That means lots of packing, boxes, and packing tape. Hannah was walking around tonight with her new braclet...she was even doing tricks with it like changing it back and forth between her arms! I thought it was cute so I had to take a few pictures of it!

I just found these...

These are a few more pics from around Hannah's birthday that I just found on my camera. They were definitely post worthy, so here they are a few weeks late!

Check out that tongue! This was happy Hannah just before she got licked and turned into really mad Hannah.
Checking out the giraffes with Grandpa.

Family pic and the zoo.

My sister, Hannah, and me...we are all sporting our Keen's.

Matching bags! Aren't they fun??