Gearing up for Christmas

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas we were super busy. We had my mom and Jon's parents in town at different times, a couple of Christmas parties, my best friend Lindy & her family in Denver, more friends visiting, and packing for Louisiana. All the while I was busy trying to put the finishing touches on my application for school, financial aid, registering, etc and quitting my job! Yes, I did say school and quitting my job...I am starting back in January, and while I am super excited, there's just a ton of stuff going on with that right now. It has been nuts! I don't expect it to slow down all that much until February-ish. Currently, I am visiting my Dad and friends in Oklahoma for a long weekend before heading home and jumping into school stuff!

"Sleeping" in the laundry basket...she has a pillow in there along with a blanket and a stuffed animal!

Anytime it's remotely "warm" out, we have to go to the park or for a walk. As you can tell, I'm not the only one that loves to be outside.

Huge fan of the slide...and that's always the big slide, not the dumb baby ones!

First set of pigtails...are they amazing or what?!?
"Driving" my car...she even wants to put the seatbelt like us...too cute!

Also, is there anything cuter than baby flannel??

Hannah was a huge fan of this guy...he sings "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" and dances!

Playing out back with some sidewalk chalk. It's been a really mild winter so far and we are trying to take advantage of that!

We went for a little hike one afternoon after work...it's amazing what a little vitamin D can do for our moods!

First full ponytail! I guess I have been inspired to try new things with Hannah's hair lately...my friend is even going to teach me how to french braid soon!

Waiting with Grandpa at Snooze...the BEST breakfast/brunch joint in Denver! It is always worth the ridiculously long wait!Grandpa and Grandma took her to the Aquarium...she loves all things fish/water/bubbles!

Checking out the fish with Grandma!

BUBBLES, BUBBLES, BUBBLES!!!!!
She loved the sting rays until one of them practically licked her in the face!

Hannah, Cindy, and I went to the North Pole to see Santa...this was the second attempt for the year and well, the guy just creeps her out...maybe next year!

This was HER popcorn and she really wasn't interested in sharing any with us!

And finally, I'll leave you with a picture of the cutest reindeer in town!

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!