The North Pole and More

First things first, our friends had a baby the week before Thanksgiving named Rylee. While Jon and I have seen Rylee a couple of times, Hannah had not met her yet. I was actually really nervous about the introduction because Hannah gets really jealous of the dog when she sits in my lap. I was not sure how she would react to me holding an actual baby! As it turns out, she loved Rylee and while she did get a little jealous, she was still okay with me holding Rylee...Hannah just had to sit with me too. It was so sweet! Hannah kept asking to hold her and then spent the entire day the next day referring to her baby dolls as "Rylee." So cute! See??

Second random thing...Hannah has been LOVING play dough time at school. I mean, doesn't want to leave when I arrive to pick her up, loving it. So I decided to pick some up, even though I completely hate play dough. She and Jon have been having a lot of fun with it! Hannah's favorite things to do with it are to "make cookies" (using cookie cutters) and "pizzas," although she really loves it when her Daddy makes her jewelry too!

We went to "The North Pole" on Saturday. It's up the mountain a little so since it was actually really nice at home, we figured the weather couldn't get any better. The photo above is our best attempt at a family photo...we were going to try to get one with Santa, but we ended up not getting to see him because he was on break both times that we tried! Nevertheless, we all had a great time!

Hannah had a blast and really enjoyed all of the rides...this is on the train ride that takes you all the way through the park. She really liked the train.

Funny story about the carousel...Hannah was one of the first ones in line. Jon noticed that half of the carousel was a sleigh with reindeer. Naturally, Jon hurried around to get to Rudolph because who wants to ride the other reindeer or the horses on the other side? I was excited to see that Hannah had gotten Rudolph as well...Hannah not so much. I saw her talking to Jon a lot during the ride and I just assumed that she was enjoying herself, but couldn't hear because I was far away snapping pictures. They left the ride and I met up with them to find tears rolling down Hannah's face and sobbing. I asked what was wrong and Jon responded, "she wants to ride the horse." Apparently the conversations they were having that I thought were sweet, were actually Hannah complaining about how she didn't care about Rudolph, but wanted to be on the horseys instead. The whole time! Jon kept saying, yes but you are riding Rudolph which is really cool! She wouldn't have any of it. Since it was such a sweet request and she really was disappointed, I decided to take her on the carousel again to ride the horsey. She was pleased and completely happy to leave the carousel when the ride was over. I guess the girl just knew what she wanted all along!

The gigantic candy cane slide! That might have been MY favorite, although we couldn't get Hannah to commit to a favorite. I think she just liked it all!

"The Ladybug ride!" Sick me out! I had to ride this one with her and it nearly made me sick...it truly was probably Hannah's favorite...she can spin for hours...me, I get sick watching her spin! All it did was spin around and around really fast, but she was really jazzed up about it...oh the things we do for our kids!

Hannah also really loves to drive, so she really loved the cars too...plus around the corner there was a big dinosaur...that made her really happy!

We had a great day, even though we didn't technically get to see Santa (that was kind of the purpose of the trip). I was surprised to hear Jon say that he even had a good time. He's not usually in to Christmas-y type things, but he said it was really fun! I think we have stumbled across a new tradition! My favorite part was when Hannah got in the car...I asked her if she was tired and ready for a nap (since she was about two hours past her nap time). She said, "no, I not taking a nap!" Jon and I laughed and said that she would be out before we got to the bottom of the mountain. She argued with us about it and we just laughed...sure enough, we got to the end of the road (about 60 seconds) and she was out cold...snoring, drooling, and head hanging!

Just found a couple of good ones...

I completely forgot that I took these...they are hilarious so I had to share them too! In our house, everyone participates in the preparation of Thanksgiving dinner, that way it isn't too much for any one person...well Hannah was no exception. She helped her Daddy with the turkey! She was very serious about helping him "mash" the turkey!

Thanksgiving

I don't have very many photos from the month of November...part of that is because Hannah was gone for a week. She went to her grandma and grandpa's house in Texas and had a blast swimming multiple times a day, and taking nice long baths the rest of the time. I hear that she was pretty much in the water 3/4 of the time that she was there! The other part is that I wasn't very good about taking pictures when everyone was here. It's great having holiday festivities at my house, but I tend to get distracted by other things going on and always forget to take pictures. Fortunately, my sister got some good snapshots of Hannah with family. In fact, she got several GREAT ones!

Like this one! I LOVE this picture of Hannah...it's on our way home from the airport!
We stopped at Snooze, a great little breakfast/brunch place in Denver and got some great shots while we were waiting for a table.

This is another fantastic one! Mom and Hannah were completely adorable in this shot!

I have no idea when this was taken because I did not let her drive...so I am assuming this is the result of an auntie or grandpa or grandma!

We went to the zoo even though it was a little chilly. Another great shot of Hannah...this one with grandpa, of course!

Group shot at the zoo. Although Hannah was tired, she loved the zoo this time. It was like she was showing them all of her favorite things...plus she actually got to go into the gift shop this time. Jon and I usually avoid it, but this time since she had two grandparents and her auntie there, the odds of getting a toy were significantly higher...as you can see, she was not disappointed and left with a giant elephant!

We made gingerbread cookies...Hannah was all about it, see?!?

We got to see Santa at the mall, and while she cried like crazy when she was sitting in his lap for a half of a second, she really liked his jingle bells.

Again, another great picture from my sister...they helped us decorate our Christmas tree while they were here...Hannah was and still is, all about wearing the crazy glasses that turn Christmas lights into stars and jingle bells! I think this one is completely adorable of both of them!

Halloween Festivities

We had a week full of Halloween festivities...it is Jon's favorite holiday, after all! So we started the weekend before with pumpkin carving with our neighbors. Hannah was super into it and helped the entire time.

Johnny & Katy carving their pumpkins...it was serious business, can you tell?

Not so serious with Hannah and me!

The finished products...Johnny was trying to do Yoda, but it didn't turn out...the rest of us were very pleased with ours!

Hannah's school had a fall carnival, so I went with her...she had so much fun!

She was a cowgirl for the carnival...loved it!

Hannah made a pumpkin for the pumpkin patch at school. Everyday for a the three weeks before Halloween she would have to stop to look at it on the way out...so I figured why not take a picture...she really liked that and wanted me pose for a photo everyday after that! I think she was very proud of her pumpkin!

We also went to the "Boo at the Zoo" which was a ton of fun! Hannah loved it...there were booths set up all over the place for them to trick-or-treat "safely." Hannah went as a cow...this was the costume that she picked for herself this year.

While she was happy to see the "raffs," she was a little disappointed that the elephants and monkeys were not out!

Love this...love her!

We went to our friends' house Halloween night because they wanted to see our "Toy Story family." They took pictures for us and then we just took Hannah trick-or-treating on their street. I wasn't sure how she would handle trick-or-treating because she's not a big fan of strangers, but she loved it!

First house! She walked right up and rang the doorbell herself. Since she had gotten a little practice over the weekend at the zoo, she knew to say "trick-or-treat" and then "thank you" once they gave her candy.

Hannah did such a good job. She walked the entire time (which is highly unusual for her) and was super polite! She said thank you to each person and would smile at them. She held my hand and walked up and down each driveway. She would wait her turn quietly if there were other kids at the door. She pretty much loved every bit of it, so maybe she's going to be like her ol' Dad and love Halloween!

New Shades=New 'ttude!

i found this picture on my phone from a couple of weeks ago €€and it cracks me up! hannah's face just says it all..."what up homey?! this is my headlight!" i guess it comes with getting a new pair of shades because she does love a good pair of sunglasses!

Finally a Real Update and Finally Up to Date

I have spent so much time just catching up that I haven't really gotten to write a real update as to what's going on in our world! I am finally done playing catch up on the blog, so I can take a little time to update now. Things have just been crazy busy for us, and I don't really know what all I have mentioned on here, so I will just start at the beginning of the school year! Hannah is going to daycare full time now and really likes going. She gets so excited when we pull in and says, "I want to see my friends!" I think she really likes being there and she is learning so many things. Up until recently Hannah is really quite at school and doesn't talk much. The last few weeks they say that she has been talking like crazy and seems to be adjusted. I am not surprised by this at all because Hannah really seems to be more and more like her Dad, personality-wise. She is very social, when she wants to be...but she also needs time alone in the day. Since she talks our ears off when she's at home, we know that she just chooses not to speak at daycare, but I think they didn't believe us for a while. Finally she decided to start using her words at school and they are all shocked to hear how developed her language actually is.

Hannah loves to sing songs and knows a lot words to most of her favorites...if she doesn't have the words correct, she just throws in some other words and goes on with confidence...she gets that from her Daddy! She loves all things "Buzz" aka Toy Story...her favorite characters, in order, are Buzz, Woody, Weezey, Bullseye and Jessie. We hear the request, "I want to watch Buzz, pease!" on a very regular basis. We try not to let her watch too much TV, but she does get to watch every once in a while. Her favorite movies are Toy Story 2 & 3 (we don't have the first one or I am sure she would love that one too), Alvin & the Chipmunks, and Racing Stripes and her favorite TV show is hands down Barney. She loves to "ride" things like the Mommy horsey, the Daddy horsey, Bullseye, Choomi, and her rocking horse to name a few.

She is growing like a weed. I really need to get one of those wall measurement things so I can see how tall she is, but I know that she has gotten taller. She has gotten a couple of hair cuts and her hair is getting so thick. It makes me a little sad because with the thickness her curls are getting weighed down a bit, but that's okay.

Hannah is also VERY independent. She really likes to get herself dressed all on her own, even though she struggles. I usually end up letting her try and waiting until she asks for help, otherwise I get yelled at for offering assistance too early...she's got it! I find myself being so proud of her for accomplishing things on her own, yet I get frustrated too because she doesn't understand there are some things that she just can't do on her own yet.

We are working on potty training, along with daycare. She goes at daycare 3-4 times a day and usually a couple of times at home too. We are trying to be patient, and want to let potty training be her idea. We are not really in any big hurry so we will just let her take her time. I would imagine that she will get really serious about it in the next couple of months though because she really likes to pee on the potty.

In other news, it is fall here in Colorado! Fall is my favorite time of year for so many reasons. I love the colors, I love the changing trees, I love the cool, crisp mornings, and I love pumpkins. It has been a beautiful fall so far and I just cannot get enough of it. We drove up to an area called "Cottonwood Pass" to look at the Aspens last weekend. We read that Cottonwood Pass is one of the best places to go to see fall foliage. It is just a couple hours from home so we went for a drive last weekend and it was completely worth it! It was absolutely gorgeous out and the trees were perfect. It's best to just see the pictures because they speak for themselves...and believe me when I tell you, they do not do the colors justice...I just don't think a picture could truly capture it!

We got a good family picture! We had to set the camera up on top of our car to get it, but it was worth it. Even though it's not the best family photo we've ever had, I think it is pretty cute!

Hannah had so much fun playing in the leaves. Can you tell??

This lake was great! We are going to try to camp out there next year because it is perfect. It is small enough that we can take our canoe out, but big enough to have some good fishing.

Can't beat a little rock throwing! Hannah kept getting into the water despite the fact that it was probably 40 degrees! I kept putting my toes in because she insisted, but I didn't last long. Mountain lakes are way too cold for swimming and/or wading if you ask me!

With fall in Colorado, comes the occasional snowfall. We haven't seen this so much in Colorado Springs, but we saw it a lot when we lived in Wyoming. It will usually start snowing in Wyoming in September, but then it warms back up after a couple of days to have nice fall weather again. Well that was the case this weekend in the Springs. It snowed! Like 3-4 inches! There really weren't that many good snowfalls last winter...until the spring that is and that is not good snow to play in. So when we woke up freezing on Saturday morning because we didn't turn our heater on, we were not surprised to find snow on the ground. It snowed most of the morning and Hannah kept going to the deck door and asking to go outside. She roamed around all morning singing "It's raining, it's snowing!" Finally, I decided that we should just bundled up and go out for a while. It was still snowing, but it was totally worth it. We had so much fun!

Can you tell that Hannah is having a blast?? I was actually really happy to see this because last year we took Hannah to the mountains to play in the snow and she hated it. That's why I was so reluctant to let her go out. I worried for no reason because she loved throwing snowballs at Jon and Choomi and me and really loved building our snowman!

They were getting very serious about their snowball making. Hannah is so competitive already and it cracks me up!

She does not care one bit that she has snow caked all over her hat...she's just gotta throw that snowball!

When Jon threw a snowball at Choomi, Hannah got on board. She really thought it was funny to pelt Choomi...the poor dog!

Rolling up snow for our snowman!

Clearly this was very serious business!

The finished product! All we had for a nose was a baby carrot, so we just opted for a stick instead. Our neighbor Johnny was gracious enough to come outside to take our picture. I had another cute one, but I just deleted it by accident. I can't put it back in the correct order, so this one will just have to do. Hannah loved everything, except for her freezing cold hands towards the end. She refused to put on her warm mittens and instead just had some cheap gloves. She wanted those because they were purple..."I want the purple ones" she said. Maybe next time she will let us put her warm gloves on! By the end of the day the snow was gone and the only evidence of the snow was our melting snowman. It turned out to be a pretty great weekend!