Hope

our Hope and our Joy

What in the world would we do without her?!

Road trip to Rifle

This past weekend, Scott, Hannah, and I took a road trip to Rifle to visit my sister Jen and her fam. Where is Rifle?, you ask. Well, it's on I-70 in Colorado, 1 hour east of Grand Junction and 3 hours west of Denver. If you blink, you might miss it. :) Although there may not be a lot to do in Rifle, there are wonderful people to visit.

When we arrived in Rifle on Saturday afternoon, we just hung out with everyone and ate pizza. Good times.

And Hannah got her first pony-tail hairdo from her aunt Jen. Super cute!

On Sunday we went to church and hung out some more. We also watched a couple of movies.

Oh, and we took some pics of Hannah with her cute cousins. She sure had fun with them!

Monday morning, Hannah played one last time with her aunt and cousins before we got an early-ish start on the road in order to avoid bad weather.

We had a great weekend and really enjoyed spending time with the Reyelts fam. Thanks for having us!

14 teeth in 14 months

Hannah's 14th tooth broke through yesterday, and today she is 14 months old. I can't believe she has 14 teeth, but I mostly can't believe she is 14 months old!!! That's how far apart my mom had me and each of my 4 sisters (except for the last 2 who were a whopping 20 months apart, with a miscarriage in there too). I can't imagine having a newborn now. Hannah is still my little baby.

I don't know about the rest of you mommies, but it is nearly impossible for me or Scott (or Hannah's pediatrician) to get a good look inside Hannah's mouth. I have tried every trick in the book, but she catches on quickly and is fiercely opposed to having anyone stick anything in her mouth. I'm pretty sure she is making up for all the tubes and scopes that were shoved in her mouth and down her throat during her hospital stays. Anyway, it's just been hard to keep up with Hannah's teeth coming in due to her opposition and also because she doesn't have the normal symptoms (drooling, fever, irritability). Occasionally, there seems to be a correlation between her teething and her not eating or sleeping as well. but it could also be a coincidence since Hannah is fairly inconsistent about eating and napping anyway. Whenever I am actually able to catch a quick glimpse into Hannah's mouth, I usually have to estimate how long a certain tooth has been poking through. Hence, Hannah's teething section in her baby book will not be completely accurate--a fact that my OCD self is trying to get over.

So now Hannah only has 6 molars to go. We've been told that it is unusual for babies to get their cuspids before their molars, but Hannah had all but one of hers before she started getting molars. We've also been told that Hannah is pretty young to have so many teeth, but we're not sure if that's true because we stopped reading books about "normal" development a long time ago. Hannah certainly marches to the beat of her own drum, you know. But we wouldn't want her any other way.

Here's a picture I took a couple days ago of Hannah enjoying some chicken nuggets with Ranch for dipping:

What a cute little messy-face!

Scott and I sure do love our toothy 14-month-old!!!

Lots o' Love

Last year I decided that Valentine's Day would no longer be a romantic day in our family but rather a day to celebrate our love as a family. I've never been a big fan of Valentine's Day anyway, having spent the vast majority of my life without a Valentine. And Scott and I are always totally romanced-out after celebrating our anniversary just 5 days previous. I would really just much rather focus on making Hannah feel loved than contribute to any romantic expectations she might eventually have for this holiday.

So this is how we celebrated this year:

Hannah played and tore apart her room. I just love watching this baby explore. But don't worry--I do set some limits. :)

Hannah played some more while wearing her cute heart shirt.

Then Scott came home from work, and I went to work.

When I got home (after a brief stop to see some friends), we exchanged handmade valentines, and Hannah got a cute ladybug valentine from us with yummy animal cookies inside.

We then ate a delicious meal (cilantro lime chicken tacos) prepared by Scott.

And we also let Hannah enjoy the sucker her Clayson grandparents gave her with her valentine.

It was a great Valentine's Day! I LOVE my little family!!!

Beauty and the Beast

This past Friday, we drove down to St. George to stay with my sister and her fam so that we could see my niece perform in her school play. Saturday morning, I slipped away for a bit to attend a birthday brunch with some fabulous friends. The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the majority of my family.

Silly, posing kids.

Hannah loved hanging out with her closest-in-age, spaghetti-faced cousin, Katelyn.

And she, of course, loved finding new books to read.

Hannah totally loved being with so much family.

Waiting for the play to begin.

Faith patiently read to Hannah, who is scowling because of the flash.

Mikayla did a wonderful job in a very well-done performance of Beauty and the Beast. Hannah even sat fairly still and watched the whole thing.

The fam after the play. Great job, Mikayla!

The drive home on Sunday wasn't very fun, and Hannah only took one short nap. Good times.

Thanks for inviting us to see your play, Mikayla! It was well worth the short trip. :)

4 Years!

Scott and I got married 4 years ago today. Totally crazy, yo! It doesn't seem possible that 4 years have gone by, yet so much life has happened in that time. The 4 best years of my life. For reals.

We celebrated last weekend by leaving Hannah overnight with Scott's sister Diana (our first night away from her) and staying at a hotel in Salt Lake. It was nice to be alone together, but I'm afraid we didn't get in too much relaxing. Ya gotta love life...

Anyway, some pics:

We had a delicious sushi dinner.

Then we took a dip in the hot tub and watched some Veronica Mars. Yes, we stayed at good ol' La Quinta. Go big or go home, you know. We just never found a good deal on a bed and breakfast with a hot tub.

Today we celebrated by working--Scott all day and me all night.

Then I came home to delicious chicken quesadillas for dinner. YUM!

And to beautiful flowers (first time in 3 years!), a sweet card, and Kalamata olives.

Scott got a card and a few treats from me too. I guess we're always about the food.

We watched a little American Idol (I love that Asian kid--hilarious!) and put Hannah to bed. Then we pulled out the photo albums of our wedding day and our honeymoon to reminisce. Total good times. I of course had to end the day with a fabulous self-photo shoot...

I don't know if any of you heard about the tragic accident in which Scott lost his neck and acquired a growth on his cheek. :)

This one's ok, but I thought I could do better.

Yuck! I accidentally put my finger over the flash, and Scott looks a bit, um, sluggish.

Yikes! What IS Scott doing?

I was crying from laughter by this point.

Happy 4th Anniversary to Scottie--the love of my life! I could go on and on about how perfect he is for me, but I'm pretty sure you've already heard it all. Just know that there's no one else I would have rather had by my side through the ups and downs of the past 4 years, and there's certainly no one else with whom I'd rather spend the rest of my life and eternity. Cheesy but true. :)

Pickle time!

A little over a month ago, we offered Hannah her first pickle...

She didn't even want to touch the thing--she was so tired.

Poor, sleepy baby.

We tried again this past Monday...

And she loved it! Although you can't really tell from the look on her face.

She ate half the pickle before we took it away so that she would eat a real dinner.

I'm so proud of my pickle-lovin' baby! YAY!