Weekend visit

Yesterday, we went to New Hampshire to visit Hannah's Nana, her Great Nana and Papa, and Aunt Polly and Uncle Bill since we weren't able to spend Christmas with them this year.

We had a nice time visiting and Hannah provided plenty of entertainment for everyone!

Nana never misses an opportunity to spoil Hannah. Hannah got more books and the cutest little hair bands that are in the shape of animals (she's modeling them in the picture).

Let's not leave out Daddy....
Hannah was having a lot of fun eating her banana and looking at herself in the toaster oven (which acted as her mirror). She also filled the toaster oven full of goldfish to 'bake'. It was like her heaven...a room full of adults that let her do whatever she wants (Mommy and Daddy were outnumbered).

Resting with Aunt Polly... Because of our visit, we missed her nap and literally when we left she was asleep within a minute of being in the car.

Christmas

Hannah came down Christmas morning with Joe to find Santa had been here. Just as soon as she saw her new kitchen, she was kicking to get out of Joe's arms and ran right to it. That kept her busy for quite some time before we moved on to other presents.
It was so much fun to see how excited Hannah was for Christmas this year. After opening a few presents, Hannah passed out all of the stockings.


She was so excited to see her little treats that Santa had left in her stocking. Hannah, in turn, helped everyone open their presents, even before she finished opening all of hers. It was super cute! And of course, we couldn't forget our boys. Charlie loved his new bone while Sammy was spazzing out behind the couch on some cat nip.
Hannah with her new kitchen.
And Elmo. She loves Elmo.
After we opened presents, we went to Cheri and Frank's house in NH for Christmas dinner. Hannah loved playing on Owen's new horse.

Owen's turn. He smiles so hard, his eyes close! : )And Addie listening to her Hannah Montana CD on her new CD player while she sings along in the microphone.

Here's our first attempt at a family picture. What I didn't realize is that I had pulled her away from the horse when it was almost her turn. Needless to say, we didn't get a good picture this time around.
Later, we were able to take more family pictures while Hannah cooperated.It was a very fun, long day!

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at our house. Gramma got Hannah dressed in her new preppie outfit (an early Christmas gift) and then taught her how to pose for a picture.We had a big German feast of schnitzel, semmelknoedel, cabbage, and slaw. I used Aunt Polly's recipe and while it was good, it wasn't nearly as good as Aunt Polly's.

Family picture.Before bed, Hannah wrote Santa Claus a note and left him some rice crispy treats and carrots for the reindeer.

Build a Bear

For Christmas, one of Joe's colleagues gave Hannah a gift card to the Build a Bear workshop....

Hannah was so adorable picking out her bear (well, in her case, cat). I thought she could be easily swayed into choosing what Mommy liked, but that was not the case at all. She definitely knew what she liked and once she found THE kitty, it was over.


After choosing, she watched as the kitty was stuffed.

Then after a "bath" and a brushing, we chose an outfit for her new kitty, got her a birth certificate, and took Angel home in her house.

Here's a picture of Hannah and Angel (you can tell Grams helped pick out the outfit).

Grams and Gramps arrive...

Grams and Gramps arrived on the 18th to spend 2 weeks here with us. Hannah and they are in heaven!

We wasted no time in showing them around the city, not even letting the snow stop us! Our first stop (as requested) was lunch at Union Oyster House, the oldest, continuously operating restaurant in America. We were seated at the favorite booth of John F. Kennedy.
Then a picture in front of The Bell in Hand, the oldest bar.
Not even a napping child could slow us down. (Joe wasn't really napping, just blinking) When we went outside we had to tie Hannah's head to Joe with a scarf so that it wouldn't keep falling back (we didn't think she would like the snow falling on her face).
And after a few days of sightseeing, what could be better than having a tea party with your Grandma?

Snow angels

We got about 10" of snow on Thursday and were all set to build a snowman today when we realized it wasn't good snow for making a snowman so onto snow angels...

Hannah all ready for the snow (besides the snow being cold itself, it was about 20 degrees out).
Daddy demonstrating the art of making snow angels.
Hannah's turn to try.
Daddy practicing his football moves on Hannah, a nice tackle in the snow.

Back to angels. All together now.
I've fallen and I can't get up! Literally stuck in the snow, it reminded me of a little beetle on it's back trying to get up.
Hannah had so much fun playing in the snow that she didn't want to come back inside (nothing a little bribery couldn't fix).

Project Wrapping Paper

I thought it was a good idea to make some of our own wrapping paper this Christmas because 1) we could reuse brown paper grocery bags (always on a quest to be more green), 2) we wouldn't have to buy more wrapping paper (always on a quest to save money), and 3) well, who doesn't love a fun art project? : )

We invited over our friends Ann and Julia to join in on our fun....


Both of the girls loved the painting...Hannah more with her hands and Julia with the brush.
A little blurry, but this is what I was dealing with....she loved the feel of the paint on her hands, her face, her arms...lucky for me, it is easily washable and non-toxic.


It didn't turn out quite as I remembered it from when I was little (which means if I remember it, I probably wasn't 2!), but it was a fun afternoon and I'm sure anyone would love Hannah-made wrapping paper on their gift this Christmas!

Nightly Activities

A few pictures from this week's nightly activities....

Within the last few months, Hannah has developed the patience for books. She loves, loves, loves for Joe and I to read to her and will sit there for as long as we are willing. With that also comes a new interest in television. Specifically, Sesame Street (well, only because that is all we will let her watch). Lately, almost every night when we get home and I start making dinner, she asks to watch "Elmo". And while I'd rather her not watch tv every night, I must say making dinner has never been so easy....

Hannah and Charlie all snuggled up on the couch.
She sees me taking a picture and wants to say cheese!

And her favorite activity...watching the train every night with Daddy after dinner. It is the only time we turn it on during the day and she gets very excited.

Decorating

Our new tradition is to decorate for Christmas the weekend of Sinterklaas so with that....here's Joe putting up the lights outside .
Hannah outside to "help", really she just played in the leaves with her doggie.
Hannah was very excited about the Christmas tree and train. The first thing she said when she woke up from her nap was "tree". Decorating it for her was a bit of a challenge...figuring out the ornaments and how they went on the tree, but mommy was there to help.

About halfway through, she said ''all done'' and started taking the ornaments off of the tree and back into the boxes. I quickly put them back up.
All finished with our tree.
And here it is...

We got the train set from Joe's Aunt Polly. It is our first year with it and Joe was very excited to set it up. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture once the village was set up but there's still a lot of time for that...When it was all finished and Joe and Hannah were watching football, she kept saying "hi" to the train as it went around and around the track. It was terribly cute. And to end the whole day, it started snowing outside.

Sinterklaas

Before Hannah went to bed last night , she put out her klompen (wooden shoes) and this morning when she woke up, she found them filled with treats ! Sinterklaas had come and left her kruid nootjes, a chocolate letter, and books (she must have been a good girl this year).
First things first, she loved the kruid nootjes and could care less about the package.
Opening her books.
Still eating.
Cheese!


Joe surprised me with the kruid nootjes, chocolate letters, and stroopwafels. He found them online at a store in Wisconsin of all places. And they are authentic Dutch treats (not like the ones in supermarkets here that are all in English). And now today we are decorating the house for Christmas...