Hannah's Christmas Haul

I'm amazed at how excited I get about presents for Hannah. I have to really restrain myself from buying her too much stuff, but she gets so many wonderful things from her family. Hannah is one lucky kid!

From Aunt Renee and Micky on Christmas Eve

It was fun to watch her open up her next presents with the mittens on

This is the coolest animal book I've seen in my life!

I let Hannah open the presents from Renee Christmas Eve in case there was a super cute outfit for her to wear to birthday bowling. There was!

"Did you see that, Peyton?"

Christmas Eve we had Devan's family over for dinner. Hannah made quite a spash in her new Christmas dress from Great Grandma Jones

Chad and Ashley spent the night on Christmas Eve and totally spoiled Miss Hannah

Draw...in...the...Tub! I can't even express to you how excited I am!

Kissing a pig

They also gave her a Mrs. Potato head, Christmas pajamas and an animal book. They make her parents look bad.

And because they know my Devan so well, they gave him 63 cups. He hasn't stopped talking about them

Arms raised in triumph!

Hannah enjoyed the cups too

Christmas Eve night we went to a midnight candlelight service at a local Luthren Church. It was a beautiful service and so nice to remember the true meaning of Christmas amid all the presents and fun.

Christmas morning. Hannah's first stocking. Mouth full of chocolate already.

Present from Mom and Dad... Big Girl Underware! (Wishful thinking)

I bought her this doll in October. She catches a glimpse of it in my closet every once in a while and has been pining for it for months.

Renee sent us a keraoke machine. This is definently going to become our new Christmas tradition.

New dress from Nana

I was relieved that the neices knew what to do with their new tutus.

It was a lovely Christmas. We're so grateful to everyone who showed us so much love.

Oh Baby!

I obviously haven't written in a while. The reason is because I've been horribly sick because...I'm pregnant! Whoo hoo! I think I'll be 9 weeks along tomorrow. I've very excited and overwhelmed and scared and exhausted. The week after I found out I was babysitting Xay and I decided to take him and Hannah out to run some errands. It was so hard! I don't like dealing with two car seats and having to carry one baby while I chase Hannah through the store. And how do you get anything done when you have two babies? There aren't enough hands! But I figure lots of women have done this lots of times and I'll figure it out. For now I spend a lot of time in bed waiting for the next month to get over.

I think Hannah will enjoy being a big sister...

I don't know how much the new baby will enjoy having Hannah for a big sister...

I promised myself I wouldn't turn into such a bum this pregnancy, but so far that hasn't happened. I'd forgotten how badly the littlest things would wear me out physically and emotionally. But I do remember that I felt great once I hit about 16 weeks. I can do this for a few more weeks. Hannah and I have enjoyed some nice cuddles while we've layed in bed watching movies for the last month.

In some ways this pregnancy is a lot easier than the first, and in some ways it's a lot harder. It feels like it's going by faster, probably because I know it's going to end eventually and that it will all be worth it. When I was first pregnant with Hannah I wasn't so sure. But I feel like I'm sicker this time than I was last time. For example, yesterday I had a meeting up at the U in the middle of a snow storm. I don't like to drive in the snow so I took the train. On the way home I started feeling really sick and I was afraid I was going to puke. I stood up at my stop and next thing I knew I was on the floor being woken up by some nice strangers. I never passed out on trains when I was pregnant with Hannah! What's up with that?

But this last month hasn't been a total waste. We're getting ready for Christmas the best we can. There is a tree and stockings and there will be presents. Devan is spending the day making fudge. I haven't had the stomach to cook lately, but luckily Devan likes Christmas treats enough to make them himself.

My dad was here visiting with us last week. We so enjoyed having him here, but I'm afraid we weren't great hosts since I'm such a lump these days. We did have fun though. We had our ward Christmas party on Saturday night and got to take a ton of leftovers home. On Monday we went ice skating (minus Hannah) at the Olympic oval. It was a great time and the only time the whole week I felt like myself. And Hannah got to open her presents from Grandpa.

Then she noticed, "Hey, there's another one!"

It's a toss across! I was super excited about it until we discovered Hannah doesn't know how to toss. She walks over and places the bean bags on the board. It will be great to help her learn though and in the meantime, Devan  and I are having a blast with it.

The only other exciting thing that's happened lately is Hannah's cousins, Kylee and Peyton came and spent the night on Saturday night. We had so much fun and I love their energy, but it was a little intense at moments. Hannah loves to play with her cousins. I can't wait until she has a sibling to play with all the time.

Also, Hannah has been learning a lot of signs lately. She knows "more", "shoes", "work", "water", "kitty", "ball", "please", "cookie", "spaghetti", "hamburger", and "pizza" (you can tell how well we've been eating lately). She's not quite there on "Mom" and "Dad", but we're working on it. It's so fun to see how fast she's learning.

And in case you were wondering, this is how I keep Hannah busy while I write in my blog.

Birthday Extravaganza

Ashley turned 25 on Monday. It’s a big birthday and since she’s always doing so much for everyone else we wanted her to have a special surprise birthday party. It took a lot of lying, but we managed to pull it off. The plan was Chad was going to take her out to dinner for her birthday, but have to stop by our house on the way to pick something up. That was ruined when she invited us to come to dinner with them at a restaurant right by their house. I told her we’d go and started freaking out as soon as I was off the phone. I didn’t know how we were going to get out of that one. I texted Chad, “Control your woman!” Our solution was, when she called to tell us what time to meet them I said that we were all pretty tired still from our long drive from Washington the day before. I told her we really didn’t want to drive anymore, but would she come over so I could give her her birthday present. She did not sound happy about that idea, but she came, the great friend that she is. Oh man, she didn’t like us for a while though! She thought she was having the worst birthday of her life! I don’t know what it is that makes me so happy to be mean to my friends sometimes. She got there, and to further add to the surprise, Devan came to the door half dressed and told them to wait just a minute before they came in. The cruelty and deception worked. She was surprised and fun was had by all.

In leu of pin the tale on the donkey, we played "Pin the smile on the Ashley"

And the musical chairs was a little too heated.

Every time the music ended, the girls would squeal and fight for the chair and that always made Becca and Hannah start crying, so we had to pause the game to calm down the babies.

Ashley was very distraught she couldn't blow all her 25 candles out.

I didn't get pictures, but Devan was head of the decorating committee. He chose "fiesta" napkins, because Ashley is always a party, "Over the hill" plates because she's old, cups with roses on them because she's elegant, green streamers because green is her favorite color and red streamers because red should be her favorite color.

Micky's Greenhouse

This deserves a post all to itself. Aunt Mickey has built the most amazing greenhouse in her back yard. Devan and I are going to move into it as soon as she gets some heat and a refridgerator in there.

Up the stairs...

And down the stairs...

Coolest thing I've ever seen in my life. Don't lie, you want one too, huh?

What a week of thanksgiving

This was our year to go to Washington for Thanksgiving and we got to spend an entire week there! (Such is the glamorous life of the unemployed) Some of my favorite images of the week:

Thanksgiving was lovely. My sweet aunt Dena (my dad's sister) was so kind to invite my mom and her siblings to have dinner at her house. It was so nice to only have to go one place for Thanksgiving. The food was amazing and the company was even better. After the meal was over, Hannah got to meet cousin Maddie's dog, Danny. He was all over her and she loved it!

We got to spend part of the day on Friday with my dear Heather and her family.

Hannah likes Nathan. I love how she really goes for it. Totally my daughter.

Nathan is a whole year younger than Hannah, you can't tell, can you?

This is my "hung-over from Thanksgiving food" look.

It was so great to see Heather. I hate her living in Oregon.

Later that night we saw Zoolights with Dad and Grandma. It was spectacular.

Devan made sure the extra blankets stayed nice and warm. Not the least bit ashamed, either.

4 generations of Smiths

Such a great trip. So excited to start thinking about Christmas!