Belmont Tree Lighting

Last night was the Christmas tree lighting in our town center. Our town center is a small street full of shops, restaurants, banks...it is terribly cute and is a combination of small town America with a European feel, especially since we live walking distance. The street was blocked off and along with the big Christmas tree was Santa Claus (coming in on a fire truck), a reindeer (the costumed kind), a snowman, carolers, and vendors with free samples of cupcakes, Indian yumminess, hot apple cider, etc. Hannah loved the decorate your own cupcake booth!

But was not too happy about the reindeer. We didn't wait in line to see Santa as her reaction to the reindeer lead us to believe it wasn't a good idea. She preferred to sit on her Daddy's shoulders and collect the loot from above (inc. a glow necklace and a bell necklace).

Happy Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in New Hampshire at Aunt Polly's house. Aunt Polly made a delicious feast of all the usual fixings! Hannah loved everything!! especially the squash. She kept asking for more. After eating, she went around the table to play with everyone. Uncle Paul was making her laugh by making turkey noises.
And Uncle Bill was good for a little cuddle!

But back to Daddy for some dessert. Bread pudding with lemon sauce. It is Joe's great-grandma's recipe and is supposedly an acquired taste, but Hannah loved it all the same.
After dessert, it was time to clear the tables and chairs and put up Aunt Polly's Christmas tree. Aunt Polly likes the way Uncle Paul puts the lights on the tree which is I guess why it is done this way each year.
Christmas tree done. Check. Apparently it is time for arts and crafts. This is how I found Hannah under Uncle Bill's supervision. : ) He assured me it is washable. And to be honest, she was quiet and happy (without a nap really all day) for almost an hour finger painting, so I was happy!
While Hannah was finger painting, Mikayla was making a wooden reindeer. After cutting the shape out of the wood, she was now onto sanding.


All done! And quite proud of her work of art!

New baby stroller

Thank you Uncle Rob and Aunt Danielle for the new baby stroller. Hannah just loved taking her baby for a stroll this afternoon! (ok, so it was just in our driveway, but still!)

It's nice and chilly out (and for some reason toddlers don't like wearing gloves the entire time while outside) so when Hannah came in, she was treated to her first cup of hot cocoa (which she loved, of course).

Ready to go

I helped her into her jacket but the necklace, hat, and headband were all her....

Fall = Leaves

After Joe and Hannah finished raking the leaves in the front yard, Hannah had a lot of fun jumping into the pile!

Week 27 - Finally Done!!!

Done!!!! I kicked the last worker out last Friday and gave our contractor the final payment yesterday! Joe and I spent all weekend cleaning, organizing, repairing walls, etc. and while we still have a few tasks left to tackle, they are done! Needless to say, we are very excited and already using the space and LOVING it! It truly is amazing what adding 8 ft. can do! So just for fun I've included pictures of the before too! The difference is crazy! And I have to give props to my amazing husband who was able to picture this all in his head and have the contractor carry it out! Now that is not to say there haven't been a few choice words to both him and the contractor and a few (to say it lightly) meltdowns during the process, but it is all worth it!

Here's the kitchen alley before...
And after...
Inside of kitchen before....
And after....
From both views...
What used to be Hannah's playroom....

is now our family room...
And "mud room"
Everything turned out so great and now we can move onto the fun stuff....furnishing and decorating!!

Happy Halloween - quack quack

We started the day off by picking up Nana in New Hampshire. And then onto pumpkin carving.
Here's Hannah getting ready. Notice Nana's purse on her back and her wooden clogs. Nice.

Since she's a bit young to handle the knife yet, we left that to Nana while Hannah spread out the pumpkin seeds to bake. She was concentrating very hard on her efforts.


Finished pumpkin. Thank you Nana. and I thought it was too small to carve.
Our little duckie.

Quack Quack.

With her prized pumpkin.
Out trick or treating. Daddy didn't think he would get home in time, but he did and we were all excited. He took Hannah up to each door. Oddly, our few neighbors around us just put baskets of candy on their doorsteps so you didn't even have to ring the bell. Odd? I was starting to wonder, but once we got to the street behind us, all felt normal again. Hannah had been working on saying "trick or treat" for a while but was often too intimidated to actually say it at the houses. But boy oh boy did she love trick or treating. After each house, she'd run to the next one, pulling along her Daddy.

The aftermath....