A Special Project

Last week, Hannah and I worked on a special project. Aunt Jess came over to help us with the painting part, so I could have an extra set of hands. It worked out well that she was also able to take pictures! I couldn't post about this earlier this week, as the project turned out to be gifts, and we didn't want to ruin any surprises. Each year, we make these snowmen ornaments with the second graders. I decided to attempt it with Hannah's little hand. She was totally intrigued with the paint on her hand! We had several ornaments that were thrown away, but ended up with just the right amount of "good ones". Hannah has lots of Mommy's special projects to look forward to in the future, with Nana too apparently, because Hannah surprised Mommy and Daddy with some special ornaments that she and Nana made together.

First Christmas

Whew! It's hard to believe that Christmas is over! We were so busy that it seemed like a whirlwind. I also woke up at 3am Christmas Eve with a terrible case of vertigo. I didn't sleep the rest of the night and then wasn't able to look down or side to side the rest of the day. At least the nausea went away after I took some Dramamine. It still isn't back to normal, but it is SO much better. Luckily Hannah was too young to really know what was going on, but I still felt terrible that I wasn't able to do everything I wanted to. I didn't even take all the pictures I wanted too. Justin was a great sport and did just about everything. Here are a few pictures from our Christmas adventures. Christmas Eve, Justin made it home in time to go to the Christmas Eve service. Afterwards, the grandparents (all 4), Uncle Jeff and Aunt Jaime and the Connors came over for cookies. The two girls were hamming it up together.



















Christmas day we started with a few Santa gifts and a stocking at home and then went to the Miller's for brunch and presents. Santa came there too! Hannah had a blast with her stocking.

After trying to get a nap in (haha) we headed over to the Vitters' for Christmas dinner and more gifts. By then, Hannah was getting into the idea of opening up presents. She really liked to big boxes that she could climb on top of!

We had a very busy day! It was great to be with our families and be able to give them some of the things they wanted. We were very blessed with some wonderful gifts, but mostly we were blessed by our families. Thank you for everything.

8 months old

It seems like I just posted Hannah's 7 month pictures! She turned 8 months old yesterday. We had a great day together. We took our monthly pictures (very difficult now!) and then Aunt Jess came over to help with a project (will post pictures after Christmas, so we don't give away any surprises) and watch Hannah while Mommy got some shopping done (spent $28 at Publix and saved $45 Woohoo!). Then we ate dinner at the Connors while Daddy worked hard. After dinner, Miss Heather, Madeline, Hannah and Mommy piled into the car and headed to Picture People. The girls took separate pictures and then some pictures together. We'll post soon! Santa Claus was a hit with Hannah, but not so much with Madeline. Maybe next year will be better.

Here are a few highlights from this month:

• sleeps 11 hours a night with 2 naps during the day

• crawls everywhere now - still mixed with some army crawling, depending on how fast she needs to go

• pulls up on everything - whether or not it's stable!
• is finally free of the terrible diaper rash - bananas were the problem
• is behind on introducing food, thanks to the fruit troubles
• does not like to sit still to get her diaper changed
• LOVES to be read to (and will actually sit still to listen)
  
• LOVES music (cute real piano pictures to come soon)
• LOVES Kodak
• LOVES to laugh and smile
• can be louder than a smoke detector
• eats Puffs - started feeding them to herself right away
• is kind of starting to get the hang of the sippy cup
• will play in her crib for a while after waking up
• never stops moving (even in her sleep!)
  
• 

She's a Mess!

This is my new response when people ask me how that sweet little baby is doing? "She's a mess!". She is so much fun now, but whew - she's a mess.

For several weeks now, she has been actually crawling (right after she turned 7 mos.) but it wasn't until this week that she started doing it more than the army crawl. She's still faster with the army method, and will sometimes drop back into it, just to "get there" faster.
Hannah has started pulling herself up. She pulled herself to her knees for oh about a week. Now she's moved on to standing. This is a picture that Nana took after naptime today. Nana found her like this after the am nap so decided to take the camera up with her after the pm nap, and she wasn't disappointed. She loves to pull up on the piano at the Connor's house. I watched her do it yesterday, and she's quick! Heather took a cute picture for me, and I'll share once I get it from Heather :).


A good bit of Hannah's toys are in the coffee table cabinet. She's been able to open the doors for a while, if they aren't latched well. NOW...she can pull them open, without even falling over. She loves to pull everything out.

Thanksgiving Part 2

It won't be a first holiday without a photo shoot. Here's our Little Turkey's first Thanksgiving picture.
Hannah helped Granddaddy choose what card to play. We're getting her started early.

Uncle Trip took Hannah for a walk around the yard, stopping to chat for a while on the hammock.

Aunt Jess (and Mr. Grayson too) enjoyed some time with her "glow worm".

A Favorite

I couldn't resist sharing. It wouldn't fit (and look good) as my header, so I will just have to post it.

Cute Video

There is a cute video of Hannah and Madeline playing on Adam and Heather's blog. Adam took the video this past week while the girls were playing. They are too cute together!

Some Thanksgiving Pictures

This will have to be a 2 part post because I used my mom's camera to take pictures at the Miller Thanksgiving Day and don't have the pictures yet (get on that Mom!). Here are a few pictures from the Vitters' Family annual Thanksgiving weekend in Hilton Head.



Sunday was beautiful so Justin, Hannah and I stuck around HHI to ride bikes and play. The beach was still cool, but not cold like it was Saturday.
Finally on Sunday we got to take Hannah to the playground in Harbor Town. It's a great playground and she will LOVE it more each year.
Hannah has started standing up by herself (with furniture as support of course). Here she was examining the suitcase before we left.

The beach was beautiful, but pretty chilly! Aunt Jaime was sick during the weekend, so she stayed home and rested while we biked on the beach.Clemson scored a touchdown. Haha.

7 Months Old

Wow! Hannah is 7 months old. I can hardly believe how quickly time has passed. It's amazing to think she's closer to a one year old than a newborn. Taking our same pictures is getting harder and harder, as you can see. We still got some cute ones, but only because Daddy was there as a distraction. She wanted to hold the sign herself and then we we took it away she scrambled right over the Boppy to reclaim it (see picture). It was also hard to keep the bow in her hair, because she was reaching out to grab it. Crazy girl. Here are a few highlights from the month:

• moves all over by herself
• expert at the army crawl
• prefers to sit (by herself) or stand (still needs help)
• wants to be able to see whatever is going on
• is fascinated by Kodak's tail
• will sleep around 12 hours a night (I hope this doesn't jinx it!)
• takes 2 naps a day
• takes 4 bottles a day
• has had at least 1 breast milk bottle every single day of her life (this will stop by this weekend though :(
• eats three solid meals a day
• LOVES fruit
• has had a horrible diaper rash for a month that won't go away - we are currently off of all fruits with a steroid cream
• is trying very hard to crawl - she gets up on her hands and knees and rocks all the time - she has tried moving forward but topples over
• knows what to do with the camera
• Has been Baptized!
  

Baptism Continued

Okay, here is the rest of the Baptism post. Hannah was baptized on Sunday. It went so well. We couldn't have asked for better. For those that know Hannah, you know she has a temper and can as ill as a hornet if she hasn't had enough sleep or if she's in big crowds. I was worried about her being in front of the congregation on a Sunday morning, when she typically doesn't take her morning nap on Sundays. Justin was up all of last week and Hannah slept in each morning. She slept between 12 and 13 hours each night. Woohoo! Lucky Daddy. Unfortunately on Sunday morning she broke that trend and woke us all up at 7 :15. She did take a short nap before church, but we though, uhoh...here we go. Not so. Hannah was precious. She never made peep when she wasn't supposed to (whew) and she charmed the entire congregation. She smiled and laughed and had a grand old time. She was so sweet and disgustingly cute the whole time. We were quite excited. She even managed to continue it for the rest of the day while we celebrated with our family and a few close friends. All in all it was a wonderful day. Thank you to those who came and helped us celebrate. We love you guys.

God Is Good

Hannah was baptized today! We were so proud of her and thankful to have the opportunity to share our faith with her as she starts her own relationship with our loving God.

This is just a teaser. More pictures and information to come later.

Our Almost Crawler

This was supposed to be a video, and it won't work. I tried downloading it again for several hours yesterday and it didn't work. I will keep trying though. It's a cute video. If you have any tips on how to upload a video, please share!!!