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!