Build a Bear

After Build a Bear, Hannah had to get her 1 year shots- we bribed her with the stuffed animal first, then she got 4 shots, but luckily only cried for a minute. She weighs in at 19 pounds (fully clothed with a full diaper, so probably really closer to 18 1/2). Ethan weighed in at 31 pounds fully clothed with the stuffed animal, so he's not really gaining anything- no booster seat for him and Hannah's still rear facing for a few more months......

Ethan and Hannah got to go with Grandma, Aunt Kim, Nathan and Ben to Build a bear today- here is Hannah's kitty "sleeping" on the couch....

Ethan's black puppy is sleeping in his house, so Ethan thought he needed to decorate the doghouse- the kids had fun although they were ready to leave after the long lines- next time we will not go the week after Christmas when school is still out.....

Birthday Party!!!

Hannah picked up a spoon and started eating her cake- not too much more exciting than Ethan was at his first birthday....
Ethan got all his candles blew out by himself, but after Hannah tried to stick her finger in the fire, we helped her along.....

The heart cake for Hannah

Ethan's "Bob" cake- Bob is the flat-nose semi-truck from the shop and Ethan has been asking for a bob cake since we started talking about his birthday 3 months ago- nothing else would do, so Kevin decorated his cake- and did a great job- look close, Ethan is even driving the semi!!

After the ice storm that took out our internet for a few days, then another ice storm that kept me from coming home right before Christmas (Hannah got to spend 2 days with Uncle Mark (and Grandma far away)- she thinks Uncle Mark is pretty cool now, or at least she's not scared of him anymore!!) but we survived the birthday parties and all the Christmas parties. Ethan has his friend birthday party left next Saturday and then all the parties are over (and Ethan will be disappointed no more presents for a whole year!)

Busy Getting ready for Birthdays!!

Eventually we will have a birthday party and not be rushing to finish a project- we laid the hardwood floor in the sunroom last weekend, the got the new couch and tonight got the new fireplace (a good story that we ended up getting it for a really good deal). All we need now is curtains and moulding (but not before saturday's party!!)
And we got our Christmas tree and tried to get a good picture of 2 squirmy kids

Fire!!

Savannah Photos and home

Sunday morning we got up to drive back home- left at 8:20 AM and got back home around 10pm- we thought we'd see how the kids did in the car to see if we should stop or just keep going- we stopped 2 times the whole drive back, once for gas and to buy sandwiches and once at Walmart to walk around a little bit- the kids were great in the car and Ethan only complained the last 30 minutes or so when he was tired of watching movies and it was dark in the car- we kept hearing "I'm scared of the dark" and our flashlight we had in the car didn't work.... it was a great trip and the kids were great so we may consider taking them on vacation again soon!!

When we got back to Savannah they were having their Christmas parade so we watched a few of the floats- interesting seeing trollies and boats decorated for Christmas

After the Fort we drove on down to the ocean and Ethan collected sea shells- there was almost no one on the beach- all the locals thought the 60 degrees was very cold and were bundled in their winter coats and gloves and hats- next week it's supposed to be back to their normal 70 degrees

We hit the jackpot with this Fort- they were having musket and canon shooting demonstrations- they were really loud and very cool- it got both Ethan and Hannah to stop and look!! Ethan has been shooting everything with his canon now!

waiting for the shooting to start

Then we drove out to the ocean and saw Ft Pulaski on the way- much better than Ft Sumter because it wasn't destroyed during the civil war.

Here is the big Catholic church in downtown savannah

Big fountain in the parkg

Happy Hannah checking out the water

2 silly kids

Fort Sumter- (mom)

Big ocean liner

Going back on the boat to go back to the mainland.

Hannah said something about shoot the canon, but we couldn't find a lighter fast enough :)

Next we took a detour so we could see Fort Sumter- it was and extra 1 hr in the car, but they kids have been so good so far, we though we'd chance it. We got to ride a Ferry out to the island. It was a long ferry ride with 2 kids, but very neat to see! As for the car update- Hannah has been sleeping or awake and happy the whole time. Only time she's cried so far was the last 10 minutes until we got to Ft Sumter- but it's because she was awake in the car the whole 4 hrs before then and was ready for a nap- we spent 2 1/2 hrs taking the Ft tour and she didn't sleep until we got back in the car!! Ethan, as soon as we left Susan's house just wanted to be at the hotel to swim- so we had to break out the DVD player and he was fine then. All day yesterday he was looking for a little boy to be his friend- and everytime he'd see a boy his age he's ask us if he could be his friend and that he'd invite him to his birthday party (after Henry's party, he knows hannah and his party is next)b

Vacation- Part 1 (from Ethan)

And I even got to drive the Corvette- thanks for letting us stay with you Miss Susan- we hope to talk Kristy and her family into coming back down this summer and seeing you again!!

And here's Hannah and I on the Harley- my first biker babe is my sister, how embarassing- I hope no one from school sees this picture.

Then we got to Miss Susan's house (mommy's friend from Medical School). They had 2 big dogs which Hannah and I loved- Hannah would point to them and day "da" and they were great at letting us jump on them and "hug" them. Miss Susan (ok, most likely her husband Mr Jason who was out of town had all the cool toys, but Miss Susan let us play with them!!). Here's Hannah ON the pool table- and mom and dad let her!! I had to stand on a chair- something about her being a baby and me being big- no fair, but it was still a lot of fun!!

Our next stop after Henry and June's was the North Carolina Zoo (we have a Toledo Zoo pass which got us in free, I'm pretty sure that's the only reason mom and dad took us) it was a lot of fun and there was a playground made out of flowers and garden things- very cool. I talked into a bee and daddy heard me in the flower way on the other side. It was a beautiful day and warm (was in the 60's!!).

We first went to Athens and spent the night in a hotel- the roads were bad until Marysville and got even better through Columbus, so we were happy to not drive on bad roads through the mountains. We saw Fr Marty (who married mom and dad) and Wendy (the church secretary who gave me a truck) at the church mommy went to when she was in Athens- it was great to see them again and look at mommy's old school. Hannah and I slept the whole way to Athens, we thought that would be a bad thing for Hannah, but it turns out I was the stinker- Hannah slept all night in the hotel, but I was so excited to see Henry the next day that I stayed up til 4AM wondering around the hotel room- good thing the walls were thin because mom and dad kept saying something about beating- but I'm too fast and too cute for them. To see pictures of Henry's House (we had a great time!!), check out their blog.

Thanksgiving at Grandma's

A long day of playing and eating wears a girl out....
We went to the new playground in Sherwood (where the old elementary school was) to run off some energy- the kids were even more crazy when we got back- we should have done more laps....

Hannah loved riding Grandma's little bike...

Hannah trying to teach Alex a thing or two about standing and walking.

12 Turkeys and She can Walk!!

Daddy stayed home this morning and made cupcakes so Ethan could take them to Preschool tomorrow- it's his turn to bring the treat. Then tonight we decorated them to look like turkeys- Here's the finished product.
Hannah also took her first steps tonight- she repeated it a few times, so we think it's real, but crawling is still much faster (of course we didn't get the walking on video, would we really have the camera in the same room when something exciting happens:)

When we first got home she had a big case of not enough sleep and too much of new places this week- grandma (her usual babysitter) was sick, so she went to Sue's yesterday, then daddy stayed home this morning and she went to Tanya's this afternoon- she was wore out

Not much new around here....

Hannah's ready to eat and is tired of the camera flash- she may be the littlest Fritz, but she rules the house!
Attack Daddy!!!

Ethan showing Charlie instead of himself- he would much rather be the one taking the pictures, evident by the camera being full of random out of focus pictures of nothing.

Hannah's silly face daddy taught her.

They made a house out of pillows and Ethan's train table (which has now been turned into the farming table) Hannah liked crawling inside and Ethan just kept yelling she's messing up my stuff. Sibling love already.

More fall pictures

Ethan wanted to make a leaf pile to jump in this weekend- here's the kids having fun in the pile

We also had to go to the shop to see the brand-new tractor- it's huge!! Ethan was really happy the steps came down low enough he could easily climb up with no help.