twenty-eight

This was the temperature when I got up to run this morning. Yikes. Let's just say it was an invigorating run. I don't think I'm ready for it, but I believe winter is here.

My Goal

Hannah has been sleeping in a bassinet that she's rapidly outgrowing. We have avoided anything permanent (setting up a crib, decorating, etc..) because we thought we might be moving. Now that we're going to be here for a while it's time to set up the nursery. My goal is to have her room done by her 4 month mark, in three weeks. Here's what the plan is:

* Week 1 = move everything in the room that's not supposed to be there and find a new home for it.

* Week 2 = thoroughly clean the room, pull off wallpaper, and prime the walls.

* Week 3 = paint, move Hannah's stuff in, and put up decorations

Here's hoping it happens!!

Girls Weekend

My three sisters flew in for a girls weekend to do some redecorating in my mom's house. Since I am lacking in the decorating expertise and had Hannah attached to me most of the time I was mostly just there for moral support. My sisters, however did a great job. The re-did above the kitchen counters, the dinning area, re-finished some bedroom furniture, and helped jazz up a plain bathroom. I didn't take any before photos so you can't compare, but here is some of the finished work.

Here's the new red wall. It's not as boring as before. I really like the quote on the wall.

Here they redecorated everything above the cabinets. Ignore the clutter down below. This was taken before everything was cleaned and put away.

I don't have pictures of the bedroom and bathroom that were done. My battery died in the camera, but you get the idea. It was fun to get together with all the girls. I hope we can do it again.

3 Month Photo

So, I've gotten like 5 different coupons in the mail for JCPenny's portrait studio and finally decided that it's time to do a professional photo for Hannah. I never take pictures so it needed to be done. Of course it ended up being expensive when it was supposed to be cheap, so we're done with them for a while. However, I think they turned out pretty cute. Here she is at 3 months.

Isn't she cute? We don't know where she got it from, but we'll take it.

It's Official

As of today James is officially employed with a "real" job. After lots of thought and more thought and some debating we decided to turn down an offer for teaching at a University in Korea. It was a tough decision, but it's made and now time to move on. James will be working here in Cache Valley for a energy efficiency company, Synergy. That means we'll probably be around here for a while. We're just glad that we've finally made a decision. :D Does this mean we've entered into real life?

Hike!

This past week James had a day off of work so we decided to go on a hike. We went up Logan Canyon and hiked the Crimson Trail. This was the view from the top. It's pretty isn't it? We love the outdoors but it seems like we don't take time to enjoy what we have very often. It was a short hike, but it was really nice to get out and do it. Here's a picture of Hannah enjoying the ride. Don't you like the over sized hat?

Not So Snug

OK, this is a picture of Hannah during her nap time. The pink thing is nicknamed the "mummifier" because it mummifies the baby in it. Since she moves around so much we wrap her in this. There's a slot for the feet and then it wraps around the body and velcros shut so she can't move her arms and legs. That is the general idea anyway. She was mummified when I laid her down for the nap, but this is what I found when I checked on her after she was done crying and fell asleep. She's not exactly as snug as a bug in a rug. It kind of defeats the purpose of being mummified, but she fell asleep so I won't complain.

Fried Brain

I think I'm loosing my mind. Actually I think I lost it a while ago but I've blamed it on lack of sleep. I'm now realizing I'm just loony. All of our stuff is packed away into boxes in my parents storage room. There are a few things we have wanted but we've made due without because we don't want to dig through all the boxes. Well, next week I start online classes and I need my financial calculator. Of course it's in a small nicely labeled box among all of our stuff, we just don't know where. Needless to say we spend quite a while looking for it and finally, in the last box in the furthest corner of the room is the one we're looking for. Here's a picture of James sorting through our stuff:

We open the box and tada....there's the calculator. Only one small problem, it's a graphing calculator and I need a financial calculator. Oops. After thinking about it I used the financial calculator in Thailand and left it there. I knew that. My frazzled brain just chose to forget. On the bright side, we're much more familiar with where our stored goods are.

Finicky Family Fun

Last week was our official family reunion. My siblings are spread all through the country and don't get together very often. We hadn't seen some in over 3 years - before Thailand. As always it was fun to get together. My parents house seemed a little to small at times for all 28 of us, but we survived. While everyone was here we took the dreaded family pictures. I don't have one with all of us yet. My sister is the family photographer but wasn't in the picture so she's doing a little photoshopping. However, we do have the individual families. I can't believe how big all my nieces and nephews are.

Jan, Jared and their 5 munchkins

Crazy Clint, Jana and their 4 cute kiddos

Jeromy with his 2 fun kids

Natalie, Jeff and their 4 squirts

Becky and her beautiful self

Adorable Hannah. I guess I should have put a picture of all 3 of us, but this is cuter.

Here are some random pictures of the different activities we did with everyone:

Hannah thoroughly enjoying the 24th of July parade. She slept through the entire thing. However, the other kids really enjoyed the candy and the different people.

Kayla's showing off her new flower hair clip. We did the activity for the 'girls' but it turned out to be more for the moms. Funny how that works sometimes.

Ashley's holding up her flip flops. This was another activity for the 'girls'. They really liked them and they turned out really cute. It seems like there's a predominate female theme.

Just a random shot of two dancing. I don't know why they were dancing, but it's pretty cute.

Here they are making funny faces at Tony's Grove. We spent a fun day hiking and playing in the water.

Don't ask. These three are just goofing off.




Here she's sporting the newly painted t-shirt. This was another kids activity, but it included boys and girls this time!



Here are some of my older nieces. I can't believe how much they've grown. Where does the time go?

It was fun to see everyone. There was a lot of chaos, but that's the way it goes when 28 people are sharing 1 house.

Hannah

A couple of years ago I met Hanna, an extended relative in Germany and fell in love with her. We didn't speak the same language and lead very different lives, but she is wonderful. She's such a sweetheart and so kind, but she's also got some spunk. James and I decided several years that we wanted to name a daughter after her. So, here's Hannah's namesake:

On Sunday, James gave Hannah her name and blessing in church. It was a sweet and very humble blessing. James was nervous about it, but everything went really well (she even kept quiet during the whole thing - hurray)! I love watching James interact with her - it's neat to see how much he loves her. I appreciate all he does. Anyway, here she is all decked out in her blessing dress. You'd never believed I cut about a foot off of the pattern. Oh well, I think she looks pretty darn cute!