Kendyl Brianne....

I am getting SOOO excited! We have a little niece coming next month and I absolutely cannot WAIT to meet her! Jen and Troy will be marvelous parents...I can't wait to be an aunty again! And to have her close enough to smooch regularly!

Oh Hannah...

She's not a baby anymore...she's such a little person. She's so independent and has her own idea of how it should be. She chooses what she wants for breakfeast...she rarely sits in a highchair anymore...she's tackled the big girl bed and won (for now), she makes choices about the clothes she wants to wear every day, she brushes her own teeth, she's got taking the stairs down, she has such a little friendly personalityand she's some one you want to be around...except when she's melting down and needs to be loved and sang to. :)

Women are crazy!

We try to do it all...and it was only after having Hannah I realized how crazy it is!

Eventually we're going to want to add another kiddo or two to the mix but part of me is nervous about that! We have reached such a good point with Hannah and have good routines established... It's good to have one on one time with her and be able to dash out with her to run errands if I need to...the thought of adding another kid on some levels is a scary thought! Some things that are easy now won't be as easy with two! Errands and grocery shopping won't be as easy...appointments will be even harder to keep...getting out the door will be an even bigger task! On some levels there will be sacrifices made. Which is all part of it! But then you think of all we as women do...before we have kids trying to balance everything and then after it steps up to a whole new level! I sat and thought of the amount of things I try to get done in a day or actually do and it's insane! It's a wonder I look even remotely decent when we go out!! We blog...take millions of pictures of every second of our childs lives and try to document it somehow, wipe tears and noses, run interference, take care of husbands...try to take care of ourselves...if we're trying to lose weight or just get a workout routine in that has to find time at some point, running errands paying bills...there's constant clean up...and keeping an eye out or an ear open, running errands (oh wait I said that already!)...sometimes a couple times because you forgot to do or get one of the things you meant to!
We attend book clubs and meetings, rush kids off to school and clubs and sports and practices...we attend cooking classes or whatever sort of hobby we try to have, some of us work during the day as well as balancing a family. For those of us staying home some try to do odd jobs on the side to help financially...we volunteer at our kids schools, we volunteer at our church, we sing in the choir/worship team, we try to have a social life, we try to make going out with our husbands or having a normal conversation with him a priority... We have sleep overs for our kids and host parties for random events...we cook and do mountains of laundry. For those of us who are a little more anal about clean things we scrub! And somewhere in the midst of this we sleep...sorda. :) It's funny because I'm sure I'll look at all this later and wonder how I wore so many hats...and laugh at how crazy it all was! But it sure is worth it. Even on the days I get to the end and wonder if I did any good at all or I feel like going to bed as soon as she does... The gianormous hug I get every morning or the enthusiastic "Hi Mama!" I get when she sees me or the open mouth smooches make ya melt. And yet...we sure are crazy!

Ok...here we go. I don't want to make this too long but it's been awhile. December happened and it was crazy! Was snowed in for about 3 weeks and Hannah was sick for most of that. It seems it started off as the crazy number of teeth she has coming in all at once...we thought there were five at one time but it actually looks like she's trying to grow the rest of them now all at once! Then after several days of her not keeping much in her body and being miserable we found out she most likely had a virus that was going around among kids that lasted about a week or more...poor thing!
Here is where she's at now: She'll be 16 mos. in a few weeks and is really on the go. I am constantly amazed at how fast she picks things up! It seems she goes to bed and wakes up saying a new phrase or word and doing something new. She loves LOVES to dance and has started humming to herself. Usually when she's really tired or not feeling well since I usually hum to her to get her to sleep. (And it works every time!) She is a GREAT hug giver and is SO excited when people come over or home! She definitely has a mind of her own and if given a choice between a few things will either say "No" or pick the one she does want. (As was evidenced by clothes shopping the other day!)
We're trying to spread out the big girl things like potty training and the big girl bed so it's not happening all at once for her but she seems very aware of when she goes to the bathroom and has even gone as far to bring me a diaper after she's gone and needs to be changed. She's sleeping in a big girl bed right now and is doing very well! Our goal is to teach her to stay in bed and wait until Adam or I come get her...thing is we haven't even had to tell her that! This may change but for the past week she stays put and reads books or talks to her stuffed animlas til one of us comes and gets her! We haven't had to put her back in bed at night so...we shall see!
She really loves people. It only gets better. She's so friendly no matter where we go! Sitting and reading books is how she likes to wake up and wind down and she can't get enough of the shower. I am in love with seeing her personality develop. She's showing things like not having a ton of patience in many situations and is very much a "Me Do" kind of girl. She has an incredible sense of humor and is a total ham! She knows what makes people laugh and uses that to her advantage. :) She climbs everything and keeps us busy! She's kind of accident prone...everytime I turn around it seems she's walked into another wall or taken herself out on a table or broken something or is IN to something that seemed harmless but she's made harmful! And we LOVE her so! She is such a loving and joyful little person.
Life has been busy around here and it seems like this year is not going to slow down any! I've managed to lose all the baby weight and then some so now my pants are getting too big...which isn't a horrible problem to have! :) Adam is working a lot of hours right now because they've been so busy and we sure do appreciate how hard he works for us! And are blessed that he has a job and for the first year since we've been married hasn't had to worry about being laid off for several months!
Ok that's the short of it for now...more later.
Argh! I had pictures to post but for whatever reason it didn't happen...so later I suppose.

It's been waaay too long...

Ok I have been REALLY bad lately at putting up new pictures and updates. It's been so busy! You would think with the 3 weeks we were all snowed in up here I could have found time but with a super slow connection and Hannah being sick for 2.5 of that...it just didn't happen. I promise I'll get some new pictures and info up SOON! :) In the meantime Happy 2009!