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It's a GIRL!!!!

Emerson Grace finally made her arrival at 2:06 am on Saturday morning, weighing in at 6 lbs 11 oz and 18.5 inches long. Hannah is loving her new role as a sister and is constantly wanting to hold her. We're VERY happy about that - we weren't sure just how she'd respond. I'll be back after Christmas with more pictures. Merry Christmas!

aaahhhh

I've GOT to take down those baby things...they keep adding days.

How depressing!

grrr.....

Nope, no baby yet. =( My doctor, who is now out on maternity leave, has me signed up for a 12/24 induction. I'm thinking that when I go on Friday for my appointment, that by the way, I was CERTAIN I wouldn't need, I'll ask if we can't just wait until after Christmas. I don't really want to spend Christmas in the hospital and we want to try and keep Christmas as normal as possible for Hannah. Her little world is going to change enough as it is. So, we shall see. We'll keep you all posted!

Here's a few pictures from Jacob's birthday party. It was at Pump It Up in Lynnwood and everyone had SO much fun. Well, not everyone, I was pretty bummed that I couldn't participate in the bouncing. But, then again, maybe I should have - it might have encouraged the baby to come. =)

Yes, that's Tom getting joy out of beating my mom through the obstacle course. =)

Ice Breaker

We're still hanging in there. We're also beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, this baby of ours doesn't really want to come out any time soon!!

I don't have anything exciting to post so I'll just share some pictures of Hannah from last Saturday. Her and her daddy were outside hanging Christmas lights and cleaning up the yard (playing) and I snapped these pictures of Hannah hard at work. She's playing with the chunks of ice that came out of her swimming pool that Tom finally decided to get rid of. She was pretty impressed with the fact that the next day the broken pieces of ice were still there, they hadn't melted. Hope you're all having a great week. Hopefully the next post will be about a new baby and not a Christmas re-cap. =)

Decorating

We got our tree put up last weekend. YAY!! I have to say that I think this is my favorite tree ever! It's perfectly plump and smells wonderful. Tom did an excellent job picking it out. Hannah was a big help with the decorating, really she was. Although, you can definitely tell where she put her ornaments - there is a big clump of ornaments right in front, down low. =) I didn't get many pictures of the actual decorating because someone did NOT want her picture taken. So hopefully, I'll be able to get some better tree pictures when she's in a more festive mood.

Holiday Button Trees

Have to share the product of our craft day yesterday...

I was bit unsure how Hannah would do, putting buttons on a Styrofoam cone with push pins, or "pokey things" as she called them, but she did really, really well. I thought I would have to help her with her tree, but she insisted on doing it herself and I was quite proud of how she did. She didn't even poke herself, which is more than I can say for myself. =) Beck, Madi and Jake came over to join in our holiday crafting and I think we all had a good time. Beck and I decided that this wasn't a quick craft - it took some of us almost 2 hours to get one tree done. =) But I do have to say that her tree was by far the prettiest.

Post Thanksgiving

Phew what a busy, long weekend. I think we're still recouperating! Thanksgiving was good. We started our day off at Judy and Kevins for brunch, which, by the way, was quite tasty. After we ate, we finally got around to decorating the cookies we had made the weekend before. Hannah didn't want to partake at first because I was insisting that she take her dress off (we had one more place to go, and I didn't want a dirty dress =) ). After she saw the fun we were having, off went the dress and she got into the decorating. I think we'll be "saving" the cookies she decorated...they were a little heavy on the frosting!

We left there and went to my mom's for dinner with her side of the family. Dad deep fried the turkey again and it was y.u.m.m.y! Probably my favorite way of having turkey. We all ate entirely too much and much to Tom's horror, there wasn't an apple pie for dessert. I think I actually saw a few tears starting to form.

Friday was busy with shopping, a surprise party for Spencer, and then more shopping. Saturday we met up with my parents in Seattle for some holiday cheer. We attempted to do some shopping, but what it really boiled down to was eating, watching the "snow" fall at Pacific Place, and then going back to the hotel for some swimming. Hannah got pretty excited about the snow falling INSIDE, she thought that was pretty funny. If we weren't going swimming at the hotel, I have a feeling she wouldn't have wanted to leave. It was pretty cute.

Back at the hotel she was SO excited to go swimming but a little upset that Papa and Nonnie didn't bring their suits. To get to the pool we had to walk through the lobby to the other tower. She was so cute strutting through the hotel lobby in her swimsuit and boots. People were admiring her and she just kept looking at me like "what's the big deal, mom?", like it's totally normal to walk around in your swimsuit and boots. Sad to say that this was the first time she has been in a swimming pool since she was 6 months old. I think we might have to invest in some swimming lessons for her. She loved swimming. Her and her daddy enjoyed to freezing cold, murky water. I had to get out...I got too grossed out. I should have brought my camera because she really did have a fun time in the pool with her daddy.

No cookie pictures - just the beach...

I thought I would share a couple photos from the Ocean this last weekend. It was our 3rd annual holiday cookie baking day. Quite possibly Tom's most favorite day...a day we dedicate to cookie baking (and testing). I forgot to take my camera out while we were hard at work so I don't have any good action shots to share, so the beach shots will just have to do. =)

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Princesses on Ice

Here are a few pictures from our big date night with Hannah. We wanted to do something fun just for her before the new addition arrives so we got her tickets to Disney's Princesses on Ice. Talk about excitement! It was the talk of the house for weeks. Hannah got to dress up in her Tinkerbell costume (thank you Aunt Leina, Uncle Rich & Jakob) and actually leave the house in it. She was just beside herself!

We let her choose where we went for our fancy dinner date and she chose the always fancy, pizza. But as soon as we ordered the pizza she informed us that it was NOT what she wanted. Go figure. So Tom and I enjoyed a yummy pizza while they cooked her up a hot dog. She was so cute, during dinner all she could talk about was going to the hockey game to see the princesses. We'll have to take her to an actual hockey game so that she knows that hockey players don't skate in quite the same way. =)

We're quite certain she had a good time watching all her favorite princesses...her random squeals and constant waving tipped us off to that. =) Her only complaint was that she wanted more princesses, meaning she wanted them all out at the same time. She could have cared less about their individual stories. So at the end of the show when they all were out there skating with their princes she was practically jumping out of her seat. It was pretty darn cute and I'm really glad we had that night, just the three of us.

Click to enlarge

1. Tinkerbell Hannah 2. Giving me their best Tinkerbell faces 3. Hannah's $20 souvenir
4. Hannah & Mama 5. The show's about to start... 6. Tinkerbell after her opening fall (the performers kept falling...it was quite comical) 7. One of Hannah's favorite - Ariel & Flounder 8. Snow White 9. Hannah's most favorite princess of ALL - Cinderella 10. The big finale - the best part of the show according to Hannah

Halloween Recap

Well here they are...our pictures from "hop-hop-trick-or-treating". Hannah had so much fun going door to door. She would follow Jake and Madi up to each door with the biggest of smiles and as she would leave the house she had the look of "how cool!! - they just gave me candy for dressing up as a kangaroo!". Such a cute trick-or-treater! I wasn't sure if the Kangaroo costume would keep her warm enough and I contemplated putting her little jacket underneath, but I'm glad I didn't because half-way around the cul-de-sac she looked up at me, took her hood off and said, "mama - I'm sweatin" as she wiped her forehead. It was pretty cute. All in all I think her and Tom did pretty good. By the time we went in (we were out for maybe 45 minutes) she was having Tom carry her pumpkin because it was too heavy. I just hope she doesn't think that we can do this anytime throughout the year. =)

No pumpkin carving for us...Aunt Mary Kay got Hannah these cool Mrs Potato Head pumpkin inserts.

Violet, Kangaroo & Dash

Caitlin, Madison, Hannah, Brittany, Jacob & Spencer

Happy November 1st!

Hop - Hop - Trick - or - Treat

Happy Halloween!

Hannah is our little Kangaroo this year. She's very excited about her costume because it has a baby in the pouch. We're ALL about baby's around here these days. =) Her daddy has taught her to say "hop, hop, trick or treat"...I think he's hoping that her cuteness will get him some extra candy. =)

I dropped Hannah off at my moms this morning and told her that Hannah didn't need ANY candy today (she was a bit on the wound up side yesterday after leaving Nonnie's house) and this is the picture that showed up on my phone. =)

Fall Trip...

Well we didn't make it to the pumpkin patch this past weekend like I had hoped to so I don't have any fun "fall pumpkin patch" pictures to share. But...I do have pictures from our fall trip to the zoo the weekend before. I think that fall is my new favorite time to go to the zoo. It's SO so pretty with all the bright colored leaves scattered all over the place. We did have some excitement while we were there...just 30 minutes into our trip. We were visiting the Day/Night exhibit and had just finished looking at the snakes and turtles and were heading out to the Night section, when Hannah took one of her famous falls, right into the big, thick wooden door. Her poor noggin broke the fall - she hit her head square on the metal kick plate and then the rest of her body hit the floor. Talk about a goose egg! Poor girl cried for a little bit and then just sat there in my arms. We took her to the first aid office and got her an ice pack and the EMT on duty wanted to check her out, so he did and she got the OK to continue on AND she got a frog tattoo. Grandma Bonnie and Papa Larry were with us and they got her a little treat at the Zoo Store...a little giraffe and lion cub figurine. Not exactly how we like to start our trips to the zoo. She had a mark on her forehead for a few days, I thought she might get a black eye out of the whole thing but she has a tendency to heal pretty nicely. Just a little bruise is left and if you didn't know the story you probably wouldn't be able to tell it's there. When I ask her how she got the ouchie on her forehead she doesn't remember, probably a good thing. Here are a few pictures from that fun trip. =)

I wish I could have gotten video of Tom getting into the Fox Hole, but I'm afraid it would have been too shaky from my laughing so hard!!!