Big Girl & Little Baby Boys

Hannah and I have begun a new adventure this week--taking care of Hannah's two little cousins separately for 1 day each week or two. It has been fun but exhausting. Watching both Hannah and a baby is somewhat like having a sick newborn again--in the way that I barely have time to use the bathroom and/or grab a bite to eat. But I'm pretty sure I'll adjust. I'll admit that I was a bit worried about what Hannah's reaction would be to having the babies around. She has sometimes become upset or clingy when I have held these babies in the past. But Hannah has absolutely loved having them around. She loves to watch them, show them toys, wipe their spitty mouths with a cloth, and try to comfort them when they cry. She hasn't seemed jealous at all when I hold them (although she is jealous that they get to use bottles). She just snuggles up next me and alternates between kissing me and kissing the babies, usually on their bellies or legs (don't worry, Di and Megan--I don't let her touch their faces). It is absolutely adorable. It makes Scott and me think that Hannah would do well with a sibling. I guess only time will tell if she will ever get that opportunity. Logan and Brinton seem to really like Hannah too and are often mesmerized by her antics. However, they have both startled when she suddenly grunts as she goes in for an intense kiss or hug. Silly Hannah. Oh, and for the record, Logan out-ate and out-fussed Brinton this week. A bit surprising. :)

Seeing Hannah with the babies has also made it even more apparent how grown up she is getting. It's so fun to see her walking around like a big girl, and I love that I can ask her to do something and she will understand me and do it. This week her language has exploded again. These past couple of months, I had been able to coach her into saying complete sentences, a couple of words at a time--"I want, _______, please." But this week she is suddenly saying complete sentences on her own--"I want that, Ma." "I want show, please." "I don't want to." "I go with Dad." It's sometimes surprising and always super adorable.

 Hannah playing with baby Logan.

Logan enjoyed watching a little Baby Einstein with Hannah.

Hannah sure thinks her baby cousins are funny. :)

I must admit that shortly after this pic was taken, Hannah accidentally bonked Brinton on the head with her baby doll as she was trying to get him to kiss the doll.

We are so in love with our big girl! And her little cousins are pretty dang cute too! :)

Summer's end

With Summer quickly coming to an end, we are trying to enjoy as many Summer activities as we can...

Today we had a quick swim.

 Hannah was way too busy happily splashing her daddy to look at me. Today is Jen's actual birthday, and she spent the afternoon and evening with us. Fun!

Hannah loved doing the chicken dance at the Owlz game tonight. She also enjoyed sharing her daddy's otter pop.

 Silly Jen!

I'm really going to miss baseball--the best part of Summer.

Hannah tried cotton candy for the first time...and LOVED it.

 Hannah couldn't quit giving Jen kisses and then laughing. Don't mind her mouthful of chewed up Goldfish crackers.

This time of year is always sad to me. I absolutely hate to see Summer end. Fortunately, we have a fabulous end-of-Summer trip coming up in a couple of days. I'm sure it will help make the transition to Fall way better.

Happy rest of Summer to you all!

party weekend

This past weekend we had a couple of fun parties with friends.

On Friday night, Scott and I spent the evening at Boondocks (thanks to Scott's fam watching Hannah) to celebrate our good friend Jen's birthday...

We sure do love Jen! Happy Birthday!

We had a blast hanging out with Jen and other friends. And the activities were fun too, especially the hilarious bumper boats!

Saturday evening, we had a Fox Hall reunion with friends from my freshman year at BYU...

 It was way fun to see everyone and their cute kids. Hannah and Scott came too but left before this pic was taken.

What a bunch of silly Suki Lakis!

We're party animals, yo. :)

The big 2-0!

Hannah turned 20 months old yesterday, and it's hard for me to believe what a big girl she is turning into!

In honor of her 20 months of life, I will share 10 things she loves and 10 things I love about her. That equals 20, you know. :)

What I LOVE:
1- Hannah still smothers me (and her baby doll and sometimes her daddy) with kisses several times a day.
2- She thinks she is so funny and laughs at herself when she is silly, and then she laughs even more hysterically when we laugh at her silly-ness.
3- Her cheeks--after all this time, I still can't get enough of them.
4- Her imaginative play is awesome. A couple weeks ago, I heard her smacking her lips. I looked over and she was using a toy spoon to pretend to feed all the people in the picture slide show on my laptop. Adorable!
5- She is getting more and more independent, but she is still a total mommy's girl. :)
6- Hannah adores her daddy and wants to talk to him on the phone multiple times a day.
7- Her voice is kind of deep and a little scruffy. I love to hear her talk and sing.
8- Her beautiful blond hair is getting longer and thicker and less easily tangled.
9- Her face is so expressive, and she gives sassy looks that I recognize from my childhood photos.
10- Hannah usually loves to takes naps and to go "night night," and she loves to rock and snuggle beforehand. I absolutely love holding her cute head in the crook of my arm.

What Hannah LOVES:
1- Singing & finger plays continue to be some of Hannah's very favorite past times, and she is super adorable doing all the actions.
2- Puzzles. She has a stack of them that she dumps on the floor several times a day and loves matching the pieces. She also loves her aunt Jana's Russian nesting dolls, and she pulls them apart and puts them back together many times a day.
3- She still loves books and is currently obsessed with two of her library books, "Five Little Pumpkins" and "I Love My Daddy Because." I'm less-than-obsessed with them at this point. :)
4- Climbing. A few weeks ago (before deciding she wanted to walk), Hannah decided that she wanted to climb more than just stairs, and now she is becoming a pro and recently mastered climbing onto our high couches.
5- Talking. Hannah talks all day, and I'm understanding more and more of what she says. Her language exploded after spending a week with all her Clayson cousins last month. Now she will mimic and repeat just about anything we say or do. She even loves to mimic our old-people grunts when we get up off the floor, etc. So funny! But I'm a little sad to report that she rarely says "Ga-pa-ga" anymore. Now it's just "Ga-pa."
6- Hannah's favorite toys are her dollhouse and dolls. Yup, she's an imaginative girl.
7- Doing everything herself. Tonight she repeated "I do" over and over as Scott changed her diaper.
8- People. Hannah is still super social and waves, smiles, and talks to everyone when we're in public. And she's also still a total flirt with the boys.
9- Being outside. It just plain makes her happy.
10- WALKING! Yup, Hannah has apparently decided that she loves to walk and has continued to want to walk virtually all the time (minus a couple of days when she was super sick this past week and crawled occasionally).

And now a few pics of the cutie pie:

Hannah really wants to get in her baby doll's crib.

This was the first time Hannah climbed onto the dishwasher. She was so proud. :)

The one and only time Hannah has ever fallen asleep in her feeding chair.

Hannah loves to dump out most containers and climb inside them.

And this is the most exciting thing Hannah did yesterday to celebrate her 20 months of life. She's a party animal. :)

Scott and I absolutely love our adorable 20-month-old toddler!!!

Just when I think Hannah couldn't possibly get any cuter...

...I go and put her hair in pony tails. :)

I literally giggled every time I looked at her super cute pony-tailed head (for the 2 hours it lasted before getting totally messed up during a car ride to Salem). So stinkin' cute!

The sad thing was that the only reason I was able to get Hannah to hold still long enough to do pony tails was because she was so lethargic on Tuesday at the beginning of a few days of suffering from an enterovirus similar to Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (including fever, vomiting, runny/stuffy nose, cough, sores/blisters in her mouth, and diarrhea). Poor baby, I mean toddler. She is finally on the mend but is still super contagious for another week or so.

more fake camping, a great parade, & Temple Square

Last weekend we did some more fake camping with Scott's fam so that we could make it to the Salem Days parade with my fam the next morning. Good times...

We "camped" at Lost Creek on the Mirror Lake Highway. It was gorgeous up there!

 Hannah enjoyed spending time with her extended family members.

 And she really loved just being outdoors.

 Just chillin' with Ga-pa-ga.

 Our traditionally massive tin-foil dinners were especially good this year, thanks to Scott using fajita-seasoned chicken rather than ground beef. Yum!

 We enjoyed quality time around the campfire, chatting and making s'mores.

 Hannah loves her chair. We left just as the rain was starting. Phew!

After a comfortable night's sleep at home, we headed to Salem for the best parade ever. It's short, and you get tons of candy as well as otter pops, bottled water, frisbees, t-shirts, pens, and sometimes even plants.

 Hannah enjoyed a sucker on Cole's lap.

 What a cool baby! Too bad I didn't get any pics of Hannah later trying out her first play place at Carl's Jr with her cousin, Faith.

 That night, after a delicious meal at Thai Siam in SLC, we headed to City Creek for Scott and Hannah's first time.

 Then we took Hannah to Temple Square for her first time.

We love our forever family! :)

last 2 weekends

We've had a busy couple of weekends.

Two weekends ago, we were able to spend more time with some of my family...

Faith had her tonsils out and was feeling well enough to play princess with her girl cousins (and Rylan). Hannah sure makes a cute diva. :)

Many of us were able to attend my cousin April's concert. Love her!

This is Hannah's first bath and picture with a cousin. Cute!

We had a sleepover with Melissa's fam on Friday night. The girls insisted on sleeping on the floor instead of air mattresses. Sillies.

We all got up early Saturday morning to watch Braydon finish his half marathon. Rylan and Katelyn joined him for the last stretch.

 These cute, cowbell-ringing kids were proud of their dad.

Hannah with the Nielsen fam. It sure was fun to spend so much time with them last month!

 

 Last weekend was fun and busy too...

We went fake-camping up at Nunn's Park. Hannah sure loves the cute camp chair her Clayson grandparents gave her.

 We roasted hot dogs and made s'mores.

 Hannah really enjoyed the view from my chair. We decided not to spend the night because we couldn't figure out sleeping arrangements in our too-small tent. Oh well.

 We were going to go back up the canyon in the morning to cook breakfast, but we ended up just cooking our mountain man breakfast at home.

And we also watched the Olympics. It's basically all we've done in our spare time these past 2 weeks. Hannah loves cheering the athletes on. Rah!

I had a wonderful visit with some great friends who are former co-workers.

And Hannah just looked super cute all dressed up on Sunday.

AND NOW SOME FUN NEWS!

As of yesterday, Hannah has finally decided that she wants to walk a lot more. She will purposely let go and walk across the room with no persuasion (and with great stability). And she seems pretty darn happy about it. I guess we'll see if it continues...