Happy Halloween!!

Well it's late and I'm tired but I wanted to write just a tiny bit about Halloween. We went out to Hollie's house and went trick-or-treating with them. I got some pictures of her kids but I figured I would let her post the pictures if she wanted to. Hannah was a fairy. Her outfit was mostly homemade, as you can tell. We had a lot of fun with her.

We found out tonight that she loves suckers.

Kissing Sienna.....what cuties.

These are some cupcakes and cookies that we made for some friends

Kisses!!

Anyway, so there's a short blog about our Halloween! I am extremely excited for next year when Hannah will be able to walk up to the doors and say, "Trick or treat!"

Advice Column

This week has not been too exciting for us, so I thought I would make it an advice blog. Sometimes I like to ask for advice from ya'll because it helps me make decisions in life. I only have two months left of school, which means that I have to start looking for some kind of job. Scott needs to focus more on school which means that I need to start making money for our family. I could go back to work full time at Staples.......but hey.....I'd rather chop off both my arms and legs and claim disability (okay, not a very funny joke because there really are people like that and it is sad). The reason I wouldn't do this is because (1. I hated working at Staples and (2. I refuse to put Hannah in daycare. There is nothing wrong with parents who decide to do this, but I personally don't think I could ever leave Hannah with someone else all day. It would make me very unhappy. So, I have tried to think of some "mother friendly" jobs: managing apartments, a mystery shopper, giving plasma, and an ebay seller. The two I am thinking of doing are managing apartments and selling stuff on ebay. Some people make a good living selling things off ebay, but you have to know what to sell and where to get it cheap. I'd have to do a lot of research for that one, but it would be ideal because I wouldn't ever have to leave Hannah. Managing apartments would be okay as well, but then I would have to focus a lot of my time on the apartments. Anyone have any advice on these jobs or on any other jobs they can think of? Let me know, because time is quickly running out.

And the A+ goes to.........

Kerrie!!!! The doctor said that he thinks Hannah has eczema. I have to admit I was was a bit surprised by this. I thought for sure she either had a food allergy or a rash from her pacifier. The reason I didn't think it was because of her teeth is because she doesn't drool. The only time I see wetness around her mouth is right after she has sucked on a pacifier. So, sorry Jed, Hannah will be sent to North Carolina, not New York. Maybe next time. Anyway, I'm not so sure that eczema is what she has. We've been using ointment for the past couple of days and her rash is looking worse to me. Sorry you couldn't see the rash in the picture I posted. It's a lot more noticeable in real life. I hope we can get rid of it soon.

One Year Appointment

Hannah had her 1 year old appointment today. She's had this nasty rash around her mouth for a little over a month now. Some days it looks worse than others. I asked the doctor what he thought it was and he either said......

A. Pacifier Rash,
B. Allergic Reaction to milk products,
C. Eczema, or
D. Getting new teeth causes more drool, which causes a rash around the mouth

Quiz time for ya'll....what do you think he said??? You can see the rash in this picture posted. I feel bad for her and hope it goes away soon. Here are her other stats:

weight: 18 lbs 13 oz which is 13%
heighth (ha ha, mom)...... I mean height: 28.5 inches which is 23%
and her iron levels are back to normal.

She had 5 shots today....and absolutely hated it. Poor little thing. Also, as suspected she is has gotten 4 new teeth in the past two weeks. It's been a very fussy couple of weeks, but she is still an excellent little girl.

This week has been full of fun!!! Scott's mom arrived at our apartment on Tuesday night to stay with us for Hannah's birthday. On Wednesday, we celebrated Hannah's birthday by going shopping and eating at Red Lobster for dinner. I have a lot of photos of this week so I made them small (just click to make big). This photo was taken on her birthday. Everyday she is getting better and better at standing on her own. I still think it will be a month or two before she is walking (which is okay with me), but she enjoys trying to stand on her own. If you're wondering why her legs look so short it's because her shirt is long and her pants are short. It kind of looks funny in this picture.

Forgot to turn this picture vertical, but here she is (grumpy) at Red Lobster

Playing with a new toy she got from Grandma and Grandpa "D"

On Thursday we went to the zoo again, this time with Grandma Julia. She bought us a family pass that lasts for a year. It will be nice to be able to go again next spring and summer when Hannah can really enjoy the animals (plus they are putting in a merry-go-round, which I'm sure she will love). Above is us on the train (and yes I have no makeup on and look very tired) and below is Scott's mom, Scott, and Hannah in front of the elephants.


On Friday we went to the Hee Haw Farms pumpkin patch. Tis the season for pumpkin patches, as I have seen on a few of your blogs. I haven't been to a true pumpkin patch like this since I was in elementary school (well, as noted in a previous blog, I have a terrible memory so it's possible I've been to one more recent than that). This place was kind of small and the actual pumpkins growing were hidden in between a bunch of dead sunflowers, but it was actually a really fun place for little kids and wasn't very crowded.
We found out recently that Hannah has become terrified of getting too close to animals. She screams when they come within two feet of her. I hope she outgrows this phase soon.

This pig weighs 1200 pounds. It's the biggest big I've ever seen.

Here she is enjoying the hay ride with dad (actually we took almost 100 pictures and got only a handful of her smiling). If you look closely, she has this piece of hay in her right hand in almost every picture. She became attached to it.

Buried in a box full of corn

Riding the horse.....she actually wasn't afraid of this animal and enjoyed riding on him....maybe because she couldn't see his face

Hannah and Grandma

Scott thinks my head looks Photoshopped on to this picture. What do you think?

The only ones riding the animal train (kind of embarrassing)

Sliding down the slide with Grandma

Two feet tall and growing (actually she's closer to 28 inches tall but oh well). We hope to come back to this place for the next couple of years and get more pictures of her standing next to these measurements.

Like I said, this week was a lot of fun. Hannah is turning into a toddler. She seems to enjoy doing things like this, and we enjoy taking her to do things like this. She has also (within the past week) become a "Mama's girl" and is getting worse everyday. We hoped she wouldn't go through this stage....but she is. Luckily, so far it's not that bad. She just wants me to hold her if she sees me when someone else is holding her, but she's okay if I'm not around. She also occasionally gets extremely fussy, especially if she doesn't get what she wants. I'm waiting any day now for tantrums to start (hopefully not this soon). Part of her fussiness could be the fact that she's getting teeth. Her top one came through and it looks to me like three more are on their way. Anyway, Scott's mom left this morning, and we will miss her. We love having grandparents come to visit and are sad when they have to leave. For now, it's back to doing homework and spending all day with Hannah alone.

Birthday Party!!

I know you are all dying to see pictures of Hannah's birthday party (JK). Well, we had a bit of a change of plans. We were supposed to have Hannah's birthday party on Friday night in the park, but unfortunately there was a big storm and we couldn't fit everyone in our apartment, so we had to cancel. Instead, we had her party tonight at Hollie's house with only family. It was still a lot of fun! Little did I know, she is terrified of watching the air let out of balloons. Poor thing. Here are a few pictures......Playing with a few toys she got!

Here's the cake I made. My sisters have all made beautiful cakes for their kids so I tried to make one, but it didn't turn out quite so beautiful. It was still fun to make.

She didn't shove the cake down her throat like I thought she would. I think she was full from dinner. She seemed to like it, though.

These past couple of days we've had my mom and Dave here visiting. It was really nice having them here. They are always fun to be with, and they were able to watch Hannah for us while we went to General Conference (our first time....it was a neat experience). Wednesday is Hannah's actual birthday. We'll have to do something fun to celebrate! I can't believe how fast our little girl is growing up.

My New Toy!

So I told Scott that I desperately wanted a keyboard/piano for Christmas, and he surprised me with one last week. I have really been wanting to play the piano again, and I am so happy that I will get the chance. I quit piano lessons when I was 11 or 12 and have regret it for some time now. After Scott surprised me, we had to move a lot of furniture around in our apartment in order to fit this in the corner. Every wall has something on it in every room. It is cluttered in here, so you grandmas coming to visit this week will have to give me some advice on how to arrange our furniture. So, after an hour or two of arranging furniture and setting up the keyboard, I dug my old piano books out of the storage room. To my surprise, getting back into piano has not been as hard as I thought it would be. After practicing a little, I learned that I can still play a few songs from my last piano book. This gave me a lot of confidence, so I told Scott that I would have Fur Elise ( a song by Beethoven that I know you would all recognize) down by the end of this week. After practicing it over and over, I realized that I'm not that good yet and will probably not have this song down for awhile (and I realized that the songs I have down from my piano book are pretty easy). I can not just read music if a piece is placed in front of me, but probably could play almost anything if I practice it long enough. Anyway, I'm excited to have a hobby again, even if it's hard to get practicing time in.

Here's a Hannah update as well:

She has recently gone down to taking just one half hour nap a day. The good thing about this is that she is sleeping almost two hours longer at night. She has been going to bed around 7pm and waking up between 8am and 9am. I can definitely handle sleeping in a little bit more. I hope it stays this way. If not, I would be extremely happy if her nap were a little longer and her night sleep were shorter. This Friday we are having her birthday party. We only invited a few friends and family members, but it should be fun! Stay tuned for some cute birthday pictures.