Merry Christmas!

Between the arrival of baby Michael last week and visiting with Grandma Cindy, our holiday season has been filled with joy. On Christmas Eve we braved the snow covered roads and went to church for the Christmas Eve service. The next morning, Hannah was delighted to see that Santa had come. She pointed to the presents under the tree and said "ho,ho,ho!" We opened some presents in the morning, and then gave Hannah some time to play with her new toys. The rest of the presents waited until after her nap. Hannah received lots of wonderful presents, and has spent the weekend enjoying them all! She told us "cute!" every time she opened something new, from the doll clothes to books to Daddy's socks. . . . . ;) She has been busy cooking up a storm in her kitchen, and feeding us all plate after plate of yummy treats. Hannah has also been doing a great job of taking care of her baby Molly - feeding her and rocking her to sleep in Molly's new bed. She has also mastered the puzzles baby Michael gave her when she came to visit him in the hospital. It has been a wonderful week for us and we hope all of you had a blessed Christmas!

Our first family picture with baby Michael.

Checking out the goodies Santa left in her stocking.

Hannah was so excited about her new kitchen!

She couldn't wait to get on the phone and tell all of her friends about her new toys.

The tent looked like so much fun that she just had to open the box right away to check it out.

Hannah's first bike - this one spin around the house will have to do until there's not so much snow on the ground.

I'm a Big Sister!

A side-by-side comparison of Hannah Christine and Michael Robert - they are most definitely related!!



Grandma Cindy brought a very excited Hannah to the hospital to meet her baby brother - she loved him immediately and couldn't wait to hold him!
She loved him so much that she thought she was the only one who should hold him :)
Hannah was leaning in for a kiss, but got a big yawn in her face instead.

Checking to make sure he has all of his fingers and toes - Hannah showed us his head, ears, mouth, eyes, hands, and feet :) Yup, all accounted for!

Hannah has delighted us all by how loving and affectionate she has been with Michael, both in the hospital and since we've been home. She calls him "my baby" and has been a big help around the house bringing Mommy blankets and nuks, and talking to him when he's upset. So far the only problems that have come up have been because she wanted to carry him around the house. . . . . . Two years ago we were blessed with Hannah, and now we are doubly blessed with Michael and his terrific big sister!

Michael Robert

Baby Michael is here!! He was born at 8:06am on December 19th. He weighed in at 9lb 1oz, and was 21 inches long (he may have had a week less time to grow, but he was still almost as big as Hannah!!) Everything went well, and Mommy and Daddy were SO excited to finally meet their baby boy :)

Michael was not a big fan of his first bath. . . . .

. . . . but he was sure happy to be warm and snug in his blankets again!
Our little delinquent - - Michael gave Daddy a big surprise when his umbilical cord fell off while still at the hospital! Since that is where they put the security tags on newborns, it was time to find a new spot, and Michael got his first (and lets all pray his last) ankle bracelet!

Home at last! We came home from the hospital on Monday morning, and it was so good to be home!!

Then and Now

Two years ago I was waiting impatiently for the end of my pregnancy - - I mean the arrival of Hannah :) This year we may have known when Michael would make his debut, but I was still impatient!

Winter Wonderland. . . .

Hannah wasn't a big fan of the fluffy white stuff last year, but this year we're having trouble keeping her OUT of the snow! She loves playing outside and doesn't care that she's getting cold.

After Daddy showed her how to shovel the driveway, she grabbed her little sand shovel to finish the job :)

Daddy teaching Hannah how to make a Snow Angel.
A little hard to walk in maybe, but so much FUN to play in!

Let it Snow!

Hannah crunched through the small patch of snow in our yard the other evening while Daddy worked on putting up Christmas lights.

Hannah's Animal Sounds

Hannah and Daddy had fun in front of the computer again, this time going through animal sounds.

Lighted Parade

Last night we decided to ignore the drizzling rain and made our way to Lynden for the annual Lighted Parade. Hannah is a big fan of parades, and loved waving at all the cars, trucks, tractors, and horses that passed by. She also got her first taste of Hot Cider (more warm than hot, but she didn't know that!), which she thought was great. After a couple of months of trying to get her to distinguish between "car" and "truck", last night it finally clicked and she was telling us what each vehicle was - she even got "tractor" right most of the time! It was a fun parade, despite the chilly rain.


Cheering on the trucks.

Who needs reindeer when you've got cows to pull your sleigh?

Here Comes Santa Claus. . . . .

We've read books, sung songs, and even practiced "What does Santa say? Ho, Ho, Ho!!", all in preparation for meeting Santa. . . . . .

As you can clearly see, it worked :) Hannah was bouncing around the house all morning saying "Ho, Ho, Ho". She was giggling and laughing all the way through the store after we told her we were on our way to see Santa. She put her arms around my neck and buried her head in my shoulder the minute she she saw Jolly St. Nick. And the look she gave him when I rescued her from his lap was scathing! Although she did condescend to take a couple of candy canes from him. . . . . go figure! :) Shortly after we left Santa's house of horrors, Hannah was back to smiling and saying "Ho, Ho, Ho!", so I'm convinced there was no permanent damage caused by today's traumatic adventure.

Decorating the Tree

Hannah helped Mommy and Daddy decorate the Christmas tree this morning (with some help from her favorite kitty, Jule). She enjoyed telling Daddy where to hang the high ornaments, and it didn't take her long to figure out how to put them up herself. Her favorite ornament (surprise, surprise) is a ceramic Winnie-the-Pooh - it went on and off the tree multiple times as Hannah tried to decide what special place of honor Pooh should get :)

Computer 101

Daddy was helping Hannah practice her computer skills yesterday - - she had a lot of fun waving at herself on the screen :)

Singing in the Rain

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday!! We had a fun and relaxing family day at home, and then met some friends at their house for a Thanksgiving feast (thanks for inviting us over, Janet and Rick - it was terrific!!). Hannah had a blast playing with their 3 kids, eating yummy food (her favorites were the scalloped corn and sweet potatoes), and staying up past her bedtime.
This morning Daddy and Hannah played in the puddles accumulating outside - they splashed around and had a lot of fun getting wet!

Fun With Daddy

With Mommy on "couch-potato" rest these last couple of weeks, Daddy has really stepped up with Hannah-duty when he's not at work (Thank you Honey!!!) Hannah and Daddy have been having all sorts of fun exploring toddlerhood together - from making forts to bathing the cats, there appears to be no limit to what will amuse them :)

Daddy made good use of some of the baby equipment that has reappeared recently - he used the frame of the baby swing to make a fort that Hannah LOVES to play in!

Our pumpkins had Mr. Potato Head-like pieces stuck into them to make a witch and a pirate - Hannah and Daddy worked together to clean off the pieces before packing them away for next year.

It was bath time for the kitties, and Hannah thought it was great that Daddy let her rinse them off (I'm not so sure the kitties agreed. . . . ).

Play-Doh!! We had a few of the little containers lefts from the trick-or-treaters, and Hannah has been carrying them around in her pumpkin-bucket ever since. That might need to change now that Daddy has shown her how to open and close them :) But she sure had fun playing with it!

Halloween Fun

This week has been packed with Halloween fun! We started the week off with our annual OWLY Halloween party with the youth group - The evening was full of messy, somewhat slimy games :)


Yes, that is a pie tin of slime being thrown in that girl's face. . . . . . In my defense, she asked for it- really!!

Hannah got in on some messy fun of her own and painted baby pumpkins for our front step. She was very serious about her artwork, and wanted absolutely no help from Mommy!


Later in the week we had a party with some of her friends - the kids didn't seem to care that they were all adorable looking in their costumes, they just wanted to play!!

But somehow we got them to all sit still long enough to take a group shot! :)

Ready to go Trick-or-Treating! Mommy's plan was to take a few pictures with Hannah by the pumpkins on the front step, but Hannah's plan was to get an early start on the treats by making a beeline for the neighbors. . . . .

Hannah and Daddy out collecting candy - - she went to 5 houses, and by the 3rd had figured out that putting candy in her bucket was fun :)

She liked filling her bucket so much that she kept at it after we got back home!

Hope everyone else had a safe and fun Halloween!

Stoney Ridge Farm

We spent last Saturday at Stoney Ridge Farm enjoying the animals, train, pumpkins, and corn maze. Hannah was a little bummed that she wasn't supposed to feed most of the animals like she can when we visit Hovander, but she got a big kick out of making their "sounds" at them (baaa, moo, doodle-doo) and hearing them reply :)

We met up with a friend while we were there and Hannah had a blast running around with him.

The kiddie train took her for a ride all around the farm, and she was all smiles when the conductor went around in circles.


Becoming one with the pumpkins
Hannah searched the whole patch to find the perfect pumpkin - and boy was she mad when she realized it was too big for her to carry!
Who needs trails in a corn maze? Hannah took a shortcut straight through the stalks, which turned into an entertaining game of come-and-get-me as soon as she figured out that I had a more difficult time maneuvering after her!

As a side note - I've been asked a lot lately if Hannah understands that a new baby is about to join the family and what she thinks of it. I can't say for sure how much she gets, because her language is still largely just her own :) But I can share a cute story from the other night. We were sitting in her room reading stories, and Hannah started patting my tummy and giving it kisses - - when I asked her to "take care" of the baby, she promptly took her special blankies and nuk off of her bed, placed them on my tummy, and continued patting and say "na-night" to her little brother - awwwwww! I think Hannah is in for some big adjustments in the coming months, but I think her sisterly instincts will win out in the end!