The Many Faces of Hannah

These were taken awhile ago and I don't really remember what I was taking them for, but man, she is a cutie! I love her little smiles and faces! She is a great little girl and I am glad I am her mom!

Putting our Gifts to Good Use

Chad got a pull up bar for Christmas. He and Hannah have been putting it to good use. Hannah loves it almost more than Chad. Chad can do about 10 pull ups, Hannah can do 1 or 2, and me....0!! Yeah, pretty sad I know! I will just stick to taking pictures!

Mani/Pedi Day

What do you do on a Sunday morning when your church doesn't start until 3p.m.? Paint your fingernails and toenails a pretty sparkly pink, what else!?! I did an excellent job, if I do say so myself! Maybe I should start a business. Only hands though, feet are gross! The only feet I touch besides my own are Hannah's feet!

Hannah's 1st Modeling Gig

A couple of girls from the child care at my gym are starting a business where they dress up as princesses and come to parties for little girls (I don't know if it is exactly legal to dress up as Disney Princesses and make money from it, but not my business!). They asked me if they could take some pictures with Hannah for their advertising. Hannah was so excited! I was impressed with their costumes. I don't know if I would pay to have them come to a party, but it was fun for free!

My Big Helper

Hannah is always wanting to help me with household chores. Most of the time her "help" makes it take longer, so I sometimes try to distract her with other things. But I started thinking about it and I realized that it probably won't be too much longer until she doesn't want to help me at all. I better appreciate it while I have it, so I had her help me with the garbages and she did great! I sometimes forget how big and helpful she is really getting!

One Year Older and Wiser Too

I had a birthday on the 13th. Thanks to all of you who called, texted, and wished me a "Happy Birthday." To those of you who didn't-don't feel bad because I probably won't call or text on your birthday either! Just teasing (kind of)!

Chad, Hannah, and I celebrated my birthday with an impromptu trip to Boise. We went shopping, out to eat, and swimming at our hotel. It was fun just to get away and spend time with our little family.

One other fun thing that we did was go to The Discovery Center of Idaho. It was really fun and I would recommend it to you if you go to Boise. We spent 2 hours there and still didn't get to see all the cool things they had to offer.

It was a great birthday!

The Way We Roll

For F.H.E. we went rollerskating. Chad couldn't remember the last time he went and was afraid of falling. Hannah had never been and thought she would be a pro. I am an expert and was ready to show them my moves (not really, but we can pretend).

Chad found out it was like riding a bike and did better than he thought he would.

Hannah went around about 6 times and was ready to go.

I had fun and was surprised by how well the other two did (I didn't do too bad myself)!

We had lots of fun. We spent about 45 minutes there and that was enough for all of us. It was fun, but I think it will be a while before we go again!

Her Own Private Get-Away

One day I came out of the shower and found this...

made by this one....

She amazes me everyday! She is getting so big and smart!

This is the Best Day Ever!

Or so says Hannah several times throughout the day(and I agree). When we first moved to this town my sister introduced us to a great thing called Cabin Fever Day. This is an annual event where local businesses allow you to do activites for free. It is wonderful! It is perfect to get out of the house in the winter and do tons of fun things with your kids.

Hannah and I started our day with a dance class. Hannah of course loved it!

Next we went to a paint-your-own-pottery business. Hannah chose to paint a penguin. After about 30 layers of paint she was finished. You couldn't tell that the blob of paint was a penguin, but she had fun and that is what counts, right?!?!?

By this time we were both famished and took a break for lunch at a local diner. Hannah ordered a drink called a volcano. You drop a metal egg (containing dry ice) into a soda and it bubbles and steams. It is a fun drink and it makes me laugh to watch Hannah try to suck down the soda!

Once we had refuled we headed out for some more fun! Our next stop was a arts and crafts store were we made a tie-dye snowflake from a coffee filter.

We finished out our day at a museum and planetarium. We saw this huge mammoth and watched a video in the planetarium about planets.

It was a fun day! We are thinking that we will have to make a trip back here next year just for this day!

You've Had a Birthday! Shout Hooray!

Happy Belated Birthday to my husband. You are a great husband and father. Thanks for all you do! I hope you had a great day and wish you a great year ahead!

Fondue is Fun-To-Do!

On New Year's Eve we had our own little family celebration that included:

Yummy home-made fondue:

Cheese with veggies and bread

Orange/Chocolate with fruit and cake

If you dropped your food off the stick you have to give a kiss to the person on your left. Messy!

Fun games,

What is New Years without a little Hi-Ho Cherry-o!

Silly hats and noise-makers,

And of course a count down to midnight (or at least 8:50p.m.)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

My parents were giving me a hard time about still posting Christmas in the middle of January, but as I always tell Hannah, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were different this year with only three little kids around. Different, but very enjoyable. On Christmas Eve we did the classics put out the stockings, milk and cookies for Santa, feed the reindeer, and read a christmas story.

Christmas morning it was so fun. Hannah really understood Christmas this year (well, except for the fact that she thought that every morning that she woke up and it was snowing meant it was Christmas day). She was excited to open her presents and see people open the presents she bought for them. We had a great Christmas. It was especially fun, because Hannah had both of her grandmas there on Christmas morning (my mother-in-law, Shauna, stayed at my mom's house). It was a fun, relaxing, and enjoyable Christmas!

One of My Favorites!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the Annual Burton Community Walk Around the Christmas Tree. I am not sure when this tradition started or why, but I love it! I enjoyed it when I was little and am glad that Hannah and Chad can enjoy it now too (well at least Hannah)!
You all dress up in festive Christmas attire, listen to a live band, and dance/walk/run around a Christmas tree. What part of that doesn't sound enjoyable!?!?!

Excuse the blurry pictures, but everyone was having too much fun to stop!

My favorite part is spending time with my sisters and other family members.
The afternoon ends with a visit from who else, but Old Saint Nick!

Hannah says this was "the real Santa"!

Christmas Eve Eve!

We held the 1st Annual (except for next year of course) Wade Christmas Eve Eve party. It was fun with good food, funny games, opening presents, and it wouldn't be Christmas without the reinactment of the Nativity by the kids! Hannah was a wiseman and only agreed to it once she saw the purple crown!

We had a really fun time spending time with everyone and got some great gifts. One gift Hannah got was from her cousin Makayla, a Chicken Dance Elmo. Tell me what you think of her moves!

She looks like a chicken to me!

Frost, Frost, as Fast as You Can....I'm the Gingerbread Man!

One day of our Christmas celebration was making, baking, and decorating gingerbread cookies. It was the first time that I had ever made the recipe and they weren't great, but definitely good enough to frost! My cute nieces came over to help Hannah and I decorate.

I think that more frosting ended up in Livvy and Hannah's bellies than ever made it on their cookies!


Hannah was a little sprinkle crazy! Have a little cookie with your sprinkles, right!?!

Alex and Preslee were so creative with their decorating! What cute girls! Thanks for the help!

My beautiful contribution.



The cookies may have been a little dry, but they put a smile on this little monkey's face! I guess anything tastes good covered in a pound of frosting and sprinkles!