National Geographic Exhibit

I took Hannah to the local kids museum which we love! It has a new exhibit called "National Geographic Maps" which is here for only a short time. It was awesome! Jason had actually taken her there before, but I had not seen it yet. It has tons of interactive things for kids and Hannah could have stayed there for hours playing.
Laura and Amy - we will have to go to this when you guys come...it is great!
The firetruck is actually not apart of the National Geographic exhibit but it is in a fun room on the kids discovery side that Hannah always enjoys.
They have tons of these computer set ups with various map games and activities. Obviously Hannah cannot play the games but she loved rolling the ball and pressing the button randomly. Since there are about 40 of these stations around the room (no joke) she wanted to sit in ALL of them and play them all.
Here she was looking for sunken treasure.

They have these great activity tables for kids to play on and a pyramid for kids to build and climb on.
Oh, and then there was the airplane. This is a HUGE cockpit for kids to play in and Hannah loved playing with all the buttons...
...and steering the plane! We thought of you Papaw while we played with this airplane.

We finished off with Hannah figuring out a weather map. This is one of those cool maps that has a camera on you so you can actually try and be a weatherman while you watch yourself on camera...very fun!
Anyway, we had a blast together at the museum!

We have started to teach Hannah body parts and we have quickly learned which one is her favorite...

Just FYI - the ladder is not a normal toy for Hannah but since we are painting some in her room right now it happened to be in there and she found it fun to play on.

Just loungin' around

I don't have anything really exciting to report today. We are FINALLY beginning to paint the house. We have started in Hannah's room and 3 nights later we are almost done. The funny thing is we were only painting trim, the doors, and the closet. It is just a bunch of detail work though so it has taken awhile.

We went to a Sunday School party tonight and Hannah was wondering all over creation. She normally is clingy to us in situations with a bunch of people, but she was off to the races tonight checking out all the new people, toys, and food.

I snapped this picture the other day as she was rolling on the floor of her room. I think she really is beginning to look so old. She is definitely out of the "baby face" stage and on to looking like quite the little toddler. Cute, cute!!!

At it again

Here are our crazy kids at it again...they can't ever get enough of each other!

Big time reading

Hannah loves to read things, especially "grown up" things like our mail. Any chance she gets to read mail is like a huge treat for her. So, here she is deciphering our insurance statement.

Poll update: I think we have decided to name the baby doll Zoey and the dog Alfredo. Even though Pugs technically won several people suggested that we could compromise by using one of each name. Although I have to say that my husband, *ahem* cheated in the poll! If you read the comments he said that he garnered support from the Italian Embasy and the Pope. Well what that really meant was that he went down to the library on campus, logged onto several computers and voted for himself on each one. Oh yes, he certainly cheated! I am glad that he is not an ethics professor or we might really have a problem. But, I was so pleased to see that even with his "extra support" Zoey and Pugs still won! :)

Anyway, on to much more important things, like our incredibly adorable baby! Here she was the other night enjoying her spaghetti dinner. Man this stuff get messy though!

This is what we affectionately call her "monkey face." She does it all the time and we think it is SO cute. She loves to do this face while she is reading a book so it makes all of her sounds very silly. Anyway, I am glad I finally caught this face on camera.

We need your help...

We have a dilema. Jason and I do not agree on what we should name Hannah's new doll and dog. Can you help us?
Jason has proposed we name the baby Alfonso and the dog Alfredo. No, really, I am being serious. He has called them that so much that Hannah now goes and gets "Alfonso" when Jason asks her where "he" is. You laugh now, but it's the truth!
I propose that we name the baby Zoey and the dog Pugs. I have explained that the baby is a girl, but Jason is not buying it. So, you decide for yourself.
I have put some pictures up of the baby both unclothed (how she is most of the time) and clothed for you to see what she looks like. You can vote on the right.

New baby dolls

Well, after last weekend at Papaw and Granny's house we decided that we did in fact need to buy Hannah a doll of her own. So, we went this past week and bought her a doll at Target. In short, she LOVES it! We made sure to buy her a bit of a smaller doll since Granny's doll was a bit heavy for her to carry around. Now, she carries hers around with ease. Apparently she does not like clothes on the baby since she ripped them off immediately and will not allow me to put them back on. Maybe she thinks the white body of the doll is the outfit.

For some reason she loves to put her doll on her car and drive her around. Evidently the doll likes the car...
Don't worry that Hannah is riding backwards on her car...we're working on that. Apparently she thinks that is how you should ride in the car. Maybe that is because she rode backwards for a year in the car. Just a thought.
We got another doll this week too. My mom brought my cabbage patch doll from when I was a kid when she came out this week. It was funny for me to see that doll since I had not seen it in years. Anyway, Hannah had to get used to it a bit. It is about as big as she is (no joke) and has TONS of hair. But, Hannah has warmed up to it. The funniest thing about this doll are it's feet. I must not have noticed them when I was a kid, but take a closer look at these things. I know about the whole cankle thing (calf and ankle) but what do you call it when the feet are as small or smaller than the calf?!?! YIKES! Anyway, we have gotten some good laughs this week from this old doll of mine. Another one to add to the collection here.

The only problem with dolls in our house can be summed up in one word....Molly! Anyone who has been around her for long knows she loves to rip/tear/shread anything and everything, including baby dolls. So, Hannah is now having to fend Molly off to keep her baby doll intact. It provides some nice comic relief for Jason and I, but Hannah is not always amused. Watch for yourself. P.S. - don't pay attention to Hannah's hair, it has a mind of it's own!

Well, since I promised some pictures of our time in Fort Worth I guess I need to explain myself. It is quite difficult to take any pictures if you DON'T TAKE YOUR CAMERA! I got about 10 minutes away from home when I realized that I forgot it and it was to late for me to want to turn around. So, I have one lone picture that I took today when we returned. Here is Hannah with Gramma (my mom) and my Grandmother.

So, BA, Mom, or Grandmother, if you have any good pics that we taken the past few days will you email them to me? Thanks!

But, we are home and enjoyed the food and fellowship while we were away.

Off Again

I am off for another few days away to visit my mom and grandmother in Fort Worth. I will make sure to take some pictures and post them when I return on Friday. Hopefully Hannah will do OK while we are gone sleeping in a new place. For some reason she has recently not been happy when she has to sleep ANYWHERE other than her own crib. Even when we put her pack and play in our room to do work upstairs at night she does not like it. So, let's hope she does better for the next 2 nights. But, I am sure I will have plenty of stories and pictures to share on Friday.

Here are a few to tide everyone over until then.

Why, might you ask, is there only 1 strip of Hannah's hair that is wet like this?

Because she enjoys sticking her head under the water faucet like this...

Some fun pics

Here are some pictures of our time this weekend. We were able to hang out with Todd, Amy, and cousin Ava too which was great. Somehow I did not get away with a picture of the 2 girls together, but I will have to make sure to do that next time. Ava is only about 3 months younger than Hannah so it will be fun to see the girls grow up together over the years.

Here we were flying to Oklahoma.

Hannah was a trooper and seemed to like the flight. She really didn't think it was much different than a car ride. She just hung out back there with her daddy.
However, since we all had cool headphones on, we didn't want her to feel left out so we gave her a pair of her own. She didn't keep them on for long. She liked playing with them much more.
Here is a view from the sky over North Texas and Oklahoma.
On the way back Jason and I switched places and he was able to *gasp* help fly the plane. It made me 'a bit' nervous in the backseat to know that Jason was at the controls (read: I was VERY nervous!). I only had a few mini screams until my dad took the controls back. But, Jason LOVED it and was glad for the new experience.
Hannah played with this baby doll all weekend. I guess it is time to buy this girl her own baby doll now.
We finished out the weekend with a jump in the bouncehouse. Ava really is the jumper out of the 2 girls. Man, that girl can jump! It was so cute to watch. Hannah enjoyed it but really preferred to be on the outside looking in on Ava.

Back from traveling

We just returned from a great weekend at Papaw and Granny's house. We enjoyed good food and fellowship as well as a plane ride and fun in the bouncehouse. Hannah had a great time exploring up there and especially enjoyed going outside for any reason.
I did take pictures so I will upload them tomorrow and put them up. I hope everyone else had a nice weekend as well.
Thanks for everything Papaw and Granny, it was great to see you guys!

Our crazy kids

Hannah received this pop up tunnel for her birthday from Amy, Michael, and Bryce. She and Molly love to play in it when it is all folded up though...silly kids! They like to cram in it together (well actually Hannah likes it, I am not so sure about Molly).

Poor Molly was just trying to take a little nap all curled up when Hannah showed up to spoil her fun.
Poor Molly has this look like "HELP ME PLEASE!"

So cool!!!

I don't normally put stuff like this up on the blog, but I thought it was to great for me not to. I brought joy and tears all wrapped up together. Enjoy.

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?'. The father who, despite having a heart condition, says 'Yes'. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.' To which, his father said 'Yes' too. For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island. Father and son went on to complete the race together. View the race video here....

Misc. pics and video

Like I was saying the other night Hannah is in an imitation stage now which has been a lot of fun.
She loves to watch us and then try the same things. I guess this means we need to be careful with our actions! Anyway, you can see some of the things she likes to do in this video. And, yes, she can open our bedroom door now!

These were our long lost hospital pictures that were on my camera. Jason had to order another computer piece to get the pics off. So, I found them the other night. Boy, I sure am glad that June is over. It was a ROUGH month for Hannah health wise. So, anyway, here are the long lost pictures.
At least she had a diaper on under the backless gown...
If this is not Jason ALL OVER I don't know what is!
What a difference a night of IV fluids makes. The above picture was taken when we were admitted and the below picture was the next afternoon. She perked right up with some good medicine and fluids.
I sure am glad that sickness is behind us now!