Hannah's Blessing Day

Last Sunday was Hannah's blessing day. As always, it was stressful getting out the door. Grandma Ro helped me get Hannah's dress on her once we got to church. She was lucky enough to wear the dress that her cousin, aunt, Grandma, Great Grandma, and I think Great Great Grandma wore on their blessing days. It was 99 years old and soooo beautiful! I took a couple pictures of her in the bathroom before we headed into sacrament meeting as the opening song was being sung. Barrett was up at the organ, so when it was time for Hannah to be blessed, Quinn carried her up there. It was then that I realized I forgot her socks. Her little feet were sticking out of her dress:) Barrett gave our little girl a beautiful blessing and she cooperated nicely. It is always a special time and we were grateful to be able to share it with some family and other good people. Barrett's boss and his wife even came. Later that afternoon, Rolayne and I tried to get some photos of Hannah in her beautiful dress. They weren't perfect, but still cute:) We love this little girl and are so grateful she is in our home!

Thanksgiving Break

We had a pretty enjoyable Thanksgiving week. We kicked it off with Oreo turkeys...Double Stuffed is the way to go (remember that for next year!). Barrett and I finished getting the house ready for his parents and Quinn to come. 

Barrett and I were able to have babysitters so we could go out to dinner for our 8th Anniversary!! We were pretty exhausted so ended up just eating at a steak house. We didn't even get a dessert! I did get some beautiful roses though:)

 The boys loved having visitors and ipads/ipods. Many tears were the result of them.

 On Wednesday, we took the crew to Cape Henlopen. We climbed one of the look out towers. Tommy kept calling it the Eiffel Tower. We also went on a little walk/hike.

 Turkey day was awesome. The food was amazing...thanks to my husband! Damon helped grandma with the rolls...delicious! We discovered Damon loves Grandma's pecan pie! Barrett's pumpkin pie was pretty tasty too.

 We headed to the park for some post turkey-eating fun. Tommy loved flying his kite next to Quinny.

 Quinn was a good sport with all the chaos at our house that comes with kids. The boys never left him alone and he took his turn trying to quiet a screaming baby and he wasn't feeling well. It was nice to have so many helpers around!

 The boys went on a fun adventure one afternoon to Killens Pond. They loved hiking and eating their hot dog lunch.

 We celebrated Quinn's birthday while he was here. He picked a billion things to do...Chuck E Cheese, Chick-fil-A, Air Force Museum, Bowling, short rest, Waffle House, and a Coldstone Cake! Grandma, Hannah, and I only made it for the first two activities.

I didn't do a very good job at taking photos of everyone or everything, but we sure loved having grandparents and Quinn here! We always miss them when they leave. 

One Direction

Tommy has discovered his new favorite song and yes, it is from a boy band. He loves this One Direction song. He used to sing the words wrong which totally changed the meaning of the song...you just think you're beautiful! He would sing it throughout the store while shopping with me. On Roku, there is another version of it on Radio Disney, so he's learned the song a little better. He loves to dance too. He is hilarious!

The boys were building with Legos on Sunday. Tommy was just singing away...then Damon joined in...then they got silly:) Too funny!

Adorable

Little Miss Hannah is getting even more adorable. She is smiling now and we love it! We've been trying to take more pictures of her and she's cooperating nicely:) Plus, it is so fun to dress her up each day. Sadly, I packed up all the newborn clothes...such a hard thing to do! At the beginning of the week she FINALLY slept in her bed! I woke up one morning and realized everyone went to bed in their own beds and woke up in their own beds!! Such a major deal since we've been playing musical beds every night. The magic wore off after 3 days then Hannah was fussy for a few days and wouldn't sleep in her bed again. But there's hope!

No School

Damon had the day after Veteran's Day off (since it was on a Sunday). The weather was beautiful so I thought we needed to spend some time outside. We headed to the park and enjoyed the fresh air. We also collected some leaves to make a turkey craft at home later.

 The boys were playing pirates and Tommy went to be on the look-out.

 Damon didn't want to be left out.

After the park, we went to Fifer's to get some apples. We also enjoyed some free samples of donuts and apple cider. We went home and had lunch, then made our leaf turkeys, then the boys played outside with the neighbors. It was a pretty nice day:) Oh, and Hannah has been sleeping in her bed at night!!

And, here is the story that won Damon first place in his school's writing contest. It says...This is the electricity. The house is on fire. I called 911.

 Also, a few days this week, Damon has set the dinner table and writes cute little notes to everyone on their napkins. One morning, he wrote a note to Tommy. It says...Tommy's awesome. Tommy's my friend. Tommy's fun to play with. Look on the back (which had a note to mom about being cute). I love the pictures he drew for Tommy...can you spot the angry bird? So creative!

Sunday

Just a few pictures from our Sunday afternoon. Cute kids!

Silly Boys

Our boys are pretty funny and cute. Tommy has LOVED crafts and coloring lately. He'll sit down and just color in his Scooby-Doo coloring book until he finishes a page. His skills have really improved. In October, he knew each day what craft he wanted to do. He made the ghosts all by himself...I drew the outline though. The cat is my favorite. I drew shapes for him on paper and he cut them out. At times it was kind of annoying that he was so opinionated about his daily crafts, but at the same time, it was cute to see his creativity (he would tell me how we were going to make the craft).

The other day, the boys pulled out the wigs and scary old Halloween stuff in the garage. Barrett went out and snapped some pictures. They crack me up!

This one's my favorite!! 

-One morning Tommy said he wanted oatmeal and Cheeto Puffs for breakfast! He only got the oatmeal. 

-Barrett was drawing with Tommy in church one day. He asked his dad to draw him a cougar then said, "make sure it has a Y on it, all cougars have Y's."

-Tommy was a skeleton for Halloween. His costume was kind of like sweats/pajamas so we let him sleep in them. The next day he didn't want to take them off. Oh well. We went to Target that day and more than one person noticed his outfit and laughed (thinking he was cute). As we were checking out, Tommy was checking himself out in mirror and dancing. He would not leave. He finally started coming over to me, but then ran back to check himself out in the mirror again!!

-Damon was sick the night before Halloween, so we kept him home (because of the hurricane, there was a 2 hour delay anyway). When he went back to school, his teacher asked him why he wasn't at school and he replied, "I was struck by lightening!"  We tease him about it all the time...too funny!

I came downstairs one day and saw these two snuggled up watching tv. I had to take a picture because it is so rare:)

Election Day

Every other year, Barrett gets Election Day off. We voted, then were planning on going up to Winterthur like we did a few years ago. We were just passing our old apartments when we questioned the weather and our decision to spend a small fortune to play outside. We quickly changed plans and went to our old favorite park. The boys were so excited to play outside and eat their lunch. Barrett and I were glad we didn't spend the money on Winterthur because we were freezing! Hannah and I lasted 30-45 minutes and spent the rest of the time in the warm car. The boys had a fabulous time playing at the park with their dad.

We headed over to the mall afterwards and walked around Barnes and Noble. Just as Barrett and I were making plans to swap off running into stores without children, Hannah decided she didn't like the mall anymore and screamed until we left. I fed her in the car while the boys went into Costco, then I joined them. Then we all went over to Panera Bread...we sure love that place! We got "out" of Dover for a few hours and enjoyed being together. 

One Month with Hannah

We can't believe our little Hannah is already one month old! At her doctor's appointment we discovered she is 8 pounds 15 ounces...finally above her birth weight  (but still smaller than Tommy was when he was born!!).  She has definitely woken up to the world. She's a semi-fussy baby. She basically wants to be held all the time...which we're working on. She goes from content to hysterically screaming in 5 seconds. She's smiling now..which we love:) One day she even did a half coo. She has some serious baby acne...which is kind of embarrassing. Her head is definitely growing because you can see her little bald line in the front. The boys love her to pieces. Barrett and I love her to pieces also. We are continuing to get generous gifts from various people and feel so loved by the gestures. 

 I put her in a dress for the first time this Sunday. She was adorable, but spent most of church wrapped in a blanket in Barrett's arms.

See, she smiles!