Christmas 2009

We woke up early Christmas morning to find that Santa had visited. Santa left lots of presents under the tree, many in pink princess wrapping as requested by Hannah, filled all of our stockings including one for Uncle Scott and enjoyed his cookies and milk.


Hannah did a great job playing Santa's helper and distributing presents.

We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with Uncle Scott and Hannah loved playing with her new toys.

We spent the rest of Christmas weekend with my family.

My siblings and I do a secret santa gift exchange and here was my brother Dane's gift.

All in all a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve 2009

Visiting the Sacramento Zoo and Fairytale Town on Christmas Eve has been a tradition of my sister Kristin's family for a number and this year Hannah and I decided to join them. Hannah and her cousin Sydney had a blast running around together.

Every time we ask Hannah what she wants for Christmas she always answers pink presents. When we ask her what she wants in her pink presents, her most common response has been a merry-go-round. So when we went to the zoo and she saw the carousel she was ecstatic. She yelled look mommy Santa got me a merry-go-round for Christmas. Hannah got to ride her favorite animal and couldn't have been happier.

Normally we spend Christmas Eve with extended family but this year with Brian's parents being gone we decided to spend Christmas Eve just as a family. I thought that I would miss family (and I did a little) but we had a wonderful evening. We read the Night Before Christmas, told the nativity story, which Hannah was amazingly attentive to, and sang a few carols. Then we went out to dinner (my Christmas present was not having to do dishes).

To top the evening off we went to Dovewood Ct in Orangevale to see Christmas lights. I think this was Hannah's favorite part evening.

Playgroup Party

Hannah is in a playgroup with five other kids from the ward and they had a little Christmas program courtesy of Laura C. They read a book about the nativity and Christmas symbols that remind us of Christ. The kids made the symbols and held them up as their section of the story was read. It was simple and very cute.

They also sang some Christmas Carols with the help of some siblings and jingle bells.

And it was followed by yummy treats.

Hannah's Favorite Christmas Song

Dear Santa

Hannah's first letter to Santa

(with a little help from mom and dad).

Christmas Tree

My sister and her family as well as my parents have started getting tree permits and cutting their own Christmas tree and this year we decided to go with them. Brian ended up having to work but Hannah and I had fun.

We checked the weather before we went and saw that it might be snowing a little. Well as you can see, it was snowing more than a little.

It was beautiful and the snowflakes were huge.

The kids had a wonderful time playing in the snow. Hannah has only been in the snow once almost two years ago and she was nervous at first but eventually started playing and having fun throwing snowballs with her cousins.

The only problem we had was with our suburban. We pulled off onto a side road to cut our tree and tried to put the suburban into 4 wheel drive. Well it didn't work and the suburban slipped around and got stuck. My dad and brother in-law tried (without success) for about 30 minutes or so to get it into 4 wheel drive and unstuck. Finally, everyone but my dad went down the road a little further to pick out trees and play with the kids. Luckily the suburban wasn't too far off the road and my dad (definitely the hero of the day) was able to flag down a passerby and they towed the suburban back onto the side of the road.

I didn't get a picture of cutting the tree (I was too cold and wet to pull out the camera). Here's a picture of it partially decorated.

Thanksgiving 2009

I love being a mom for many reasons but one of my favorites reasons is because it teaches me so much. At Thanksgiving, I always try to be grateful and remember the reason for the holiday but often I get too wrapped up in planning and cooking. This year I wanted to teach Hannah about Thanksgiving and what it really means. Of course, we talked about food, turkeys and football (thanks Brian) but I really tried to focus on being grateful.

We started by talking about what blessings are and making this thankful turkey.

We also talked about how we give thanks to our Heavenly Father because all of our blessings come from him. I don't know how much Hannah learned but I know it made me focus on my blessing and I felt more grateful to my Heavenly Father this year than I have in many previous Thanksgivings.

We spent Thanksgiving at my parent's house and had a great time.

The dinner was great but in my family the dessert has become the big thing. I don't know when it started but I assume it came from the days when we had Thanksgiving with my cousins and grandparents and had over 20 people, but we would have a pie bake-a-thon the night before Thanksgiving and make a ton of pies. The number of people attending Thanksgiving have decreased but the number of pies have not. It's now become tradition that we have about one pie per person. This year we had 14 people (5 of those being kids) and 15 pies. (Don't worry, we don't eat it all in one sitting.)

Thanksgiving just isn't Thanksgiving for me unless I have made some pies. My contributions this year were a blueberry pie (Brian's favorite), apple-blackberry pie, and a raspberry white chocolate cheesecake.

The favorites this year were my sister Kristin's Toffee Pecan pie and my cheesecake. Hannah however liked the chocolate cream pie.

We always top the evening off with games. Here's my brother Michael's reaction to the girls beating the boys at cranium.

We missed my brother Dane (he stayed in Provo for a wedding) and my brother Mark and his wife Jasmine (they were at her family's house) but otherwise it was a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Another Funny Conversation

My parents were visiting a few days ago and my mom had a conversation with Hannah that went like this....
Grandma: Hannah who is nicer, grandma or grandpa?
Hannah: Grandma (keep in mind, grandma is the one asking these questions.)
Grandma: Who is more fun, grandma or grandpa?
Hannah: Grandma
Grandma: Who is smells better, grandma or grandpa?
Hannah:Grandma
Grandma: Who is smarter, grandma or grandpa?
Hannah: Me!!

Halloween Fun

Halloween this year was so fun. Hannah really got it this year and has decided that Halloween is the best day ever. She has already decided that she going to be a giraffe next year.

We started with carving pumpkins. Hannah didn't like the cleaning the guts out because it was "too gross" but she did like helping Brian pick out a face for the pumpkin.

Hannah and I made some crafty decorations. The spider and ghosts are made from Hannah's hand print.

Hannah was a witch this year. I have to admit that I was proud of the costume this year. I saw the spider skirt on Martha Stewart and think my version turned out pretty good.

We had lots of Halloween activities. Hannah's play group had a Halloween party. Here's Hannah with her best friend Sarina all dressed up.

We decorated Halloween cupcakes with our neighbor.

We had a great time at our annual ward carnival and trunk or treat.

And Hannah really, really loved trick or treating. We practiced saying trick or treat and Happy Halloween all month and so when it came to trick or treating, she was a pro. Hannah wasn't shy at all and just ran right up to the doors and knocked and said "trick or treat" followed by "thank you" and multiple "Happy Halloweens". She even learned to say "I put a spell on you" which occasionally came out "I put a smell on you."

Sunday morning Hannah went downstairs while Brian and I were getting ready for church. This is how I found her.