Santa Claus

Click here to see last year's Santa pictures.What a difference a year makes! I refused to take Hannah somewhere and wait in a ridiculous line or pay lots of money to see Santa, after what happened last year. My mom found the perfect solution. The Irmo branch library has Santa come do a short story time with the kids and then you can take your picture with him. It was great. Hannah was so excited. She danced and jumped and flipped while she was waiting for Santa to arrive. She enjoyed listening to him read (and he did a great job) and then was like the 10th or so child to sit on his lap. It only took a few minutes for her turn. She immediately sat on his lap, with no hesitation, and let me take a picture. Then she got serious and told him what she wanted (pink kitty, pink toys, pink lollipop). Then she gave him a hug! Unfortunately I missed the first hug. My camera was acting funny (I thought the battery was dead) so luckily my mom had her new camera in her purse. Unlike my camera, it takes time between pictures. I was focused on trying to get it ready for the next picture and missed the original hug. She was a trooper though (and so was Santa) and hugged him again before she climbed down, so Mommy could capture it on film. I was so proud of her. After she was done we put on her jacket and said "are you ready to go?" She got a little upset and said "No! I want my pink toys!" It took a little convincing to get her to understand he would bring her toys on Christmas morning. She was a little reluctant to believe us. However, the whole "you have to be good so you're on Santa's good list" has taken a whole new meaning for her, now that she knows he's got her list!

Christmas Happenings

Now that school is out, maybe some of the craziness is momentarily stopped for me. I am ready to update this here blog!

Hannah is quite into Christmas this year and it's been fun so far. We started the season by heading to the local parade with her BFF Madeline. She was excited to see the parade, but caught on very quickly that she and Maddie kept getting skipped over for the candy. It really was quite unfair, but both girls ended up with a few pieces and were happy anyway.

Our tree decorating happened in several sessions. I got the tree mostly put up during Hannah's nap one Saturday afternoon, but the nap lasted only 30 minutes, and that was certainly not long enough to assemble it. I managed to get it finished, even with a 2 year old under my feet. Then came the lights. Ha. The bottom half of the tree got lit, while the top didn't. Gotta love tree lights, huh? It wasn't until the following Wednesday that I was able to get to the store and buy more. Hannah did put her ornaments on the bottom half of the tree though, so a few days we had a decorated bottom half. After I got the lights up, Hannah decided to help me with the other ornaments as well. She went and got a stool so she could reach up a little higher. Any ornament that was similar had to go on the same branch because they were "friends". Of course, as you see from the pictures, she had to wear her "sparkly dress" to decorate the tree. No matter what the temperature is, the dress has to come on as soon as we get home each day. I wanted to take her picture in front of the tree so she sat herself on the stool, arranged her dress over her legs, put her hands in her lap and cocked her head. Oh my.

Saturday night we went to the Lights at the Zoo. Bad night to go. Usually we go right after Christmas and it's not bad at all. This was the only opportunity we thought we'd get so we went. We sat in line on the interstate to get off at zoo exit for 30 minutes. We had to park away from the zoo and walk down to it (not even the regular overflow parking) and it was crazy crowded. Hannah loved it though and ran around from light to light, and looking for the animals. Luckily her favorites, the lions, were awake and quite active.
We celebrated Christmas yesterday with the Millers since Trip and Llora will be in Massachusetts, and Jessica and Grayson will be traveling in Europe on Christmas Day. I forgot my camera so you'll have to wait for pictures until I can steal them from my mom's camera.

We are visiting Santa at the library tonight (fingers crossed) so hopefully I'll have have a picture two to post tomorrow.

Stationery card

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Apparently Hannah paid attention in Sunday School on Sunday. We were sitting in Moe's eating lunch and Hannah said "I'm thankful for Mommy and Daddy." She's been saying it regularly since then. If I say "I'm thanking for you Hannah." she says, "No, Mommy, I'M thankful for you.". Apparently we can't be thankful for each other at the same time.

Of course it wouldn't be a holiday without a special project. We did another (different) handprint turkey this year, with an added bonus. Instead of using paint, we used spices. Hannah's turkey's spell amazing!I cleaned out my Thanksgiving stuff at school and since I haven't used any of my costumes in years (sad isn't it?) I brought some home for my dress-up queen, Hannah. This is actually a costume that Nana made for Aunt Jess (maybe?) and a headdress from my childhood as well. Hannah of course loves dressing up in them.


Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Trick or Treat Fun

We had another successful year trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. The Connors joined us again along with Mary Scott. The girls had a great time, and poor Ben is patiently waiting to run around with them next year. We have a great neighborhood for Trick-or-treating. We only went partway down our street and up the small street perpendicular to our street, and it was plenty.Here is our group shot before we headed out.Madeline was a little unsure to get started but Hannah turned around and went back (after already getting candy from our neighbor of course) and got her hand and led her to the door.
That was all it took. Madeline was just fine after that. Even Mary Scott (14 mos.) got right up into things. Madeline and Hannah were very patient and sweet with her.

Hannah and Mary Scott both have no fear. The giant blow-up Frankenstein was a little too much for Madeline, but not for the two fearless ones.
Mary Scott went home before we headed up the little street. Hannah and Madeline were experts by then and we barely had to go up to the doors with them. Notice the candy in Hannah's hand. After a few houses she started hanging onto the ones she liked best. It got too hard to walk, hold her pumpkin bucket and her candy at the same time. Toward the end her feet were hurting (I'm guessing she wasn't used to the boots) and Justin had to carry her between houses. She also started disassembling her costume. Madeline was still going strong though. Just like last year, Hannah's candy of choice was suckers. If she was given the option of choosing her own candy, that's what she chose. Finally, in true Hannah tradition, she got a sucker out and trick-or-treated while sucking. That slowed her down further. She was ready to head home. Madeline was still pumped and was going home to do some walking on her own street.
There are tons of kids in our neighborhood, so Justin (and Hannah - she couldn't stay inside while action was going on) sat on the front steps to hand out candy to the older kids who were still coming around. I was inside cleaning up and could hear Hannah shouting "Come on kids! Come get candy!" I think she enjoyed that part just as much as getting the candy.

Another successful year down. I wonder what next year will bring?

Trunk or Treat at Church

October 30th: Trunk or Treat at Church.

Proud of her hair braids (which held up well, surprisingly):
"Yee Haw!"
Riding out to the car:


Hannah enjoyed seeing her friends (for some reason I don't have a picture of Madeline in her soccer outfit) and getting lots of treats. Some of the decorations really caught her attention. Unfortunately though the horse and the hat didn't last long.
After visiting all the trunks and getting loads of treats, we headed inside to the festivities. Hannah had a blast. The costume didn't last long, but the fun did. She played games and got tons of prizes (thanks to an old student of Mommy's) and then went crazy on the jumpers. She loved the little jumpers but then discovered the giant slide. You couldn't keep her off of it, even when bigger kids were jumping and climbing over it. She loved it. We actually were one of the last families to leave because then Daddy got on the slide and the two of them went crazy. She really does have very little fear of anything.

Fair Friends

On Saturday we went back to the SC State Fair (Yes, it was Hannah's 3rd time this year!) with Aunt Jess in hopes of meeting up with Uncle Grayson's sister Fran and her crew. Hannah was eager to have "friends" to play with at the fair. Unfortunately though the Petrey clan got sick and were unable to make it. Fortunately, there were two little girls eager and willing to be Hannah's "Fair Friends". Eva and Estella's family own multiple food booths at the fair and Uncle Grayson is very good friends with their Uncle Aaron. We met the girls and Grayson and Jessica's wedding in April and Eva (4) and Hannah were fast dance friends. They are now fair friends. The six of us (Uncle Grayson joined us a little later) walked around visiting multiple fun houses and riding fun rides. Hannah has certainly been spoiled by her Uncle Grayson and we appreciate all the fun memories and friendships that have been made. We will look forward to spending more time with our "Fair Friends" next year. (Grayson, I'll send you all the pics so you can forward them onto Aaron's family.)

The Fair (aka Uncle Grayson's Place)

Uncle Grayson's Place (aka The Fair) - videos

Videos courtesy of Uncle Grayson.

Fall Pictures at the Smith House

Last Saturday we went to the Smith's new house out in Pontiac. We had a fabulous time. Ashley of course, went all out with the Halloween themed food (that was all super delicious) and it was a beautiful day outside. Their new house is beyond beautiful. It game me great house envy and I really wish our house would sell!!! They live on their family land in front of a beautiful pond. It was the perfect day for fishing and picture taking. Enjoy!

Go Gamecocks Fight!

Hannah loves the Gamecocks! She got to have a "picnic" of Chick-Fil-A in the family room and watch the first hour of the game. She actually watched it, and of course being the parrot that she is, so shouted out whatever Daddy said at the TV. Daddy has to keep his game watching G-Rated when Hannah is around. She got a little football at the Okra Strut Parade earlier in the morning and had to put on her Go Gamecock dress when she got up from her nap. She spent the afternoon jumping around saying "Go Gamecocks Fight", even while we were shopping in Publix. She asked for an orange balloon at Publix and the lady said "are you sure?" and I said "Hannah that's not a Gamecock color". Hannah said. "I want a red one please". She got a red balloon and was proud that it was a Gamecock color. She made that decision all on her own!

Forgotten Camera & New Game

It's amazing how starting back at school has taken all of my time! I haven't touched the blog in weeks. I'm sorry.

I'm also very sorry that I don't have some great Labor Day Pictures to share with you. I forgot my camera. Can you believe it? The lack of a scrapbook page for our weekend just about makes me sick :(. My camera is usually attached to me, but I was trying to get everyone packed and out of the door and it got left behind. I was quite upset. Mom purposely left hers at home thinking "Katie always has hers, no need to take mine." Aunt Llora and Uncle Trip had their camera and snapped a few photos for me, but I haven't gotten those yet, and Uncle Grayson took a great Picture of Hannah with her hiking backpack on (the one she rides in). If I get pictures from my family, I will certainly post. We had a great time in the mountains with the Miller clan and Hannah had an awesome time tubing down Deep Creek in Bryson City on Daddy's lap. She loved it.

This past week was Belles and Beaus Consignment Sale. One of my favorite times of the year! I get to go shopping for Hannah and look for good deals. I got mostly just clothes this year, but got some great things. I got a great winter coat, some holiday clothes and shirts and pants. I got quite a few Gymboree outfits that will interchange with each other. Love it! I also got Hannah a new game. I didn't save it for Christmas because I knew she'd be into it right now. This summer Stephanie told me about a duckie game her boys used to have, and she thought it would be good for Hannah's age. I found it at the sale! Hannah loves it. The ducks swim around in a circle and have shapes and colors under them. Matching is one of her favorite games right now and since she knows her colors and shapes, this game is perfect for her. We ran the batteries down Friday evening. She glad Daddy has Monday off to go to the dentist, because she wants to play it with him. We'd better get a stash of batteries ready!