The Pettitt Page

Pump it Up!

2011-10-18T22:55:00.000-05:00

Nate’s sister, Tiff, invited us to come play at Pump It Up!before school started. We always have fun with the cousins, aunts, and uncles!

Racing Miss Hannah

Pump it up was followed by the Incredible Pizza Factory…goodfood and games!

The zoo, again!

2011-10-18T22:39:00.000-05:00

So we enjoy going to the zoo and try to make it when we endup in Des Moines. This time it was Monday, so zoo members get a ticket to ridethe train for free!

My Birthday

2011-10-18T22:34:00.000-05:00

For my birthday I got a ticket to go to Ireland with my momand Grandma! I am super excited!!! In fact as I’m updating the last 6+ monthsof this blog I’m waiting in the airport in Newark for my flight to Shannon,Ireland! On my actual birthday I got a full double rainbow. By the time I got out my camera it wasn’tquite so bright, but it was pretty impressive!

The Swing Set

2011-10-06T15:46:00.002-05:00

Grandma Deb and Grandpa Tom were super generous to us andgot the girlies an amazing swing set for their birthdays. Here we are unloadingthe swing set from the truck with the help of our neighbor Andy and Hannah thephotographer.

BIG truck!

Lots of boxes!

Trying to keep Miss Camille occupied!

The finished product...we LOVE to play outside!!!

Tune in to Main Street

2011-10-06T15:06:00.004-05:00

On Thursday evening in June and July there are free, familyfriendly concerts in downtown Ames. Itis one of our favorite things to do (as long as it isn’t TOO HOT!) Each weekthey have face painting or a balloon artist, free popcorn, a bounce house,bubbles, games, etc. Here are somepictures from throughout the summer at Tune in to Main Street.

My little monkey!

Swim Lessons

2011-10-06T12:26:00.003-05:00

The girls did a session of swim lessons this summer. I was a little nervous to sign Allison upsince I can’t even get her to go to nursery at church lately. BUT she surprised me and did a great job! Hannah thinks she is a fish now and Allisonloves going to the pool, too!

4th of July

2011-10-05T12:23:00.000-05:00

We headed to Carroll for the 4^th of July andpainted Grandma Pat’s house. Here we areenjoying some time with family!

Well, most of us enjoyed our time!

Allison and her typical camera smile:)

My pretty baby!

Cherries!

2011-10-05T12:16:00.002-05:00

What we didn’t know when we moved into our house was that wehave 2 cherry trees in our back yard! They are tart cherries, but they sure turned into a great pie!

And I forgot to get a picture of my very first cherrypie…but it actually looked pretty, too!

Reiman gardens

2011-10-05T12:14:00.001-05:00

Another thing that we have enjoyed this summer is ReimanGardens. This year we got a membershipand the girls and I have been going for story times there. Here are my cutiesenjoying the gardens.

And some photography by Hannah in the butterfly exhibit:

Grandma and grandpa come to visit

2011-10-05T09:21:00.001-05:00

Grandma Deb and Grandpa Tom came to visit for Allison andCamille’s birthdays. We had a great time with them!

I won the most tickets

Camille's version of a s'more

Playing catch with Grandpa

Dorito fingers from our picnic at Ada Hayden lake

Hannah is the photographer here

Grandma, Grandpa and the girls!

Playing by the water

Birthday Party time!

2011-10-05T09:00:00.000-05:00

June 19 Miss Camille turned 1 and June 24 Allison turned3. June 19 also happened to be Father’sDay…so Nate got to share his special day with his girls!

The birthday girl showing off her walking skills...a few weeks before she turned 1 she decided that full-time walking was the way to go!

And her not-super-fancy because mom was trying to make cakes for two girls cake!

She got to her cake before we even got to sing to her.

Can I take this thing off?

Allison's turn!

Her yummy sherbet cake

Camille trying out her cake...

...and deciding that she prefers ice cream to cake...more...now!

Presents

More presents and a little of our yard

Allison got a vacuum cleaner and she LOVES it!

Roasting marshmallows for s'mores! Did I tell you yet how much we love our house?

Hannah and Caleb YUM!

The Cat in the Hat

2011-10-04T17:10:00.002-05:00

The Cat in the Hat came to visit the Blank Park Zoo and weHAD to go! Allison LOVES the Cat in theHat. There were also lot of other activities going on AND it was warm that dayat the zoo. It was a great day!

Silly girls

With Dan Wardell, the host for the kids IPTV

And then Chuck E. Cheese afterwards as a birthday treat forCamille and Allison.

Oh what fun!

"Helping" Camille ride the horse

Allison's turn

Crazy teeth!

Our new toys

2011-10-04T16:55:00.004-05:00

Now that we have a garage, I have to fill it up. So I found a bike trailer on craigslist andgot Camille a seat for her birthday as well. We are really enjoying riding our bikes! There is a lake super close toour house that we ride to all the time! Here they are:

I love my books!

2011-10-04T16:53:00.002-05:00

The girls go through phases where they want to read booksconstantly and I love it! Here is MissHannah after she’s been reading all afternoon!

I am almost 1!

2011-10-04T16:50:00.002-05:00

These pictures we taken in the middle of June, shortlybefore Miss Camille turned 1. She isplaying on our back porch (another thing we LOVE about our house!) and I thinkshe is too cute!

Hannah's last day of school

2011-10-04T16:46:00.003-05:00

Hannah had such a great year at preschool! Miss Suzanne was wonderful and Allison andCamille loved going to visit. On herlast day, there was a party at school…so of course we all came to celebrate!

Alli fit right in!

Miss Robyn and Camille

Giving Miss Megan a hug!

Thanks for a great year Miss Suzanne!

Hannah's class, her teacher, and the other parents saying goodbye!

One last group hug!

Bye Miss Robyn!

Bye Miss Megan!

Party time!

2011-10-04T16:36:00.004-05:00

Nate’s oldest brother Ben got married on Jan. 1, 2011 in LasVegas. We were not able to make the trip because we already had planned to bein CA with my dad and stepmom, but they had a reception here in Iowa on May 28.

With Ben and Emily

Nate's sister, Tiff, and her family

Hannah, pouting? Never!

Cupcakes, yum!

The first dance

Too much dancing for Allison

Our new home!

2011-10-02T22:09:00.000-05:00

On May 23 we closed on a home in Ames. After lots of talking and praying we decidedthat for now Ames is where our home should be. Nate is working for an accounting firm in Boone (a few miles west ofAmes) and is also starting his own business Linked 4 Golf. Which you can check out at www.linked4golf.com. He’s not sure thathe really wants to do accounting work full time as a career, and has greathopes of having his own business succeed. We will see what the future brings, but for now Ames is where we live andwe love it. Unfortunately I don’t have apicture of our house when we first got the keys…how did that happen? Here are thefew pictures I took on the day we actually closed. Our project of the day was not moving ourstuff, or packing our old house, but planting our garden! The girlssupervised. See?

And here is our garden later in the summer. We were glad we spent the time to get it planted right away!

Our house is just perfect for our family! We feel so blessed each day to have a greathome, surrounded by wonderful neighbors, a fabulous yard, and it has a garage!There is a little girls who is 3 next door and a boy who is 7 across the streetand the girls are loving it! Behind our house is a retirement community and aJewish Synagogue (which you see in the pictures) so there is a little (neverbusy) parking lot that the girls love to ride their bikes in. The lot next to us is also owned by theretirement community so our yard feels even bigger than it is. Pretty much we love everything about it!

The front...see, a GARAGE and my van fits INSIDE!

The back porch, which is AMAZING for the girlies. Love it!

And here is Miss Camille at 11 months old J at our old house. She started taking steps at about 10 ½ months, but at this point is still using a combination of walking and crawling. And here are some pictures of our home that I took more recently:

Golfers in training!

2011-10-02T21:55:00.000-05:00

Bringing your whole family to the golf course is normal, right?

Do you see her ball going in!?!?

Camille needed to get in on the action!

Nate's Graduation

2011-10-02T10:41:00.002-05:00

At the beginning of May Nate finished school. Hooray! My mom, Grandma and Jerry were ableto make the trip to Iowa to celebrate. We had a little get-together with some of our Ames friends as well!Congratulations, Nate! We are so proudof your hard work! Now he is officiallyan MBA and CPA! Letters, letters… here are some pictures from our festivities.

The graduate

Daddy's all ready to go to the ceremony!

Now it is time for mommy to get ready!

Look how much fun graduation is!

There's the graduate!

We made it through the ceremony!

Back home and ready to party!!!

Cute girls!

Grandma Deb...thanks for helping with the cake!

Cutting the cake (it is like a wedding, right?)

Nate and his parents

Three generations

Alli being silly and "posing" for the camera

Easter

2011-10-02T09:56:00.001-05:00

Back to Carroll for Easter with the family!

Camille showing off her super-fast crawling skills

Decorating Easter Eggs

COUSINS!

Easter Morning

Getting into trouble!

And Alli finally woke up!

After church

With Nate's Grandmas

Ready for an Easter Egg hunt!

Allison's on the hunt (without shoes, like usual!)

And Hannah picks out her own clothes...can you tell?

A day at the zoo!

2011-10-02T09:38:00.000-05:00

We got a Groupon deal on a membership at the Blank Park Zooin Des Moines and had to start our membership by the end of April. So we went, and it was rainy and chilly. The girls don’t care if it is raining! They still had a blast…especially” driving”the truck and watching the tigers! The one tiger kept pacing and spraying thetrees and the glass. Hannah thought itwas great that the tiger was “splashing” her. Lovely! We also watched the tiger eat lunch. I guess the best part about coming on a rainyday was that we pretty much had the place to ourselves!

Hannah waiting to be "splashed" by her tiger friend

Alli and the tiger

This picture is just a reminder of why I am tired all the time!

Camille's turn to check out the tigers. She's about 10 months old in the picture...and into everything!

Another trip to Carroll

2011-10-02T09:19:00.003-05:00

At the end of March we headed back to Carroll to celebrateGranny Eileen’s birthday and for Gabe and Grace’s baptism. Our sister in law,Emily, put together a memory book/photo album that we all contributed to. Nate’s Grandma loved it!

Some of the family

Hanging out with Aunt Sara

The birthday girl! And I think I'm the official cake maker...now I want some carrot cake!

And the baptism!

Gabe and Grace all ready for their big day!

Allison, Gabe, Caleb

Nate was able to baptize Gabe and his dad baptized Grace

On the Road Again

2011-09-13T21:40:00.000-05:00

My Grandma Stahl (my dad’s mom) passed away unexpectedlyright before Nate’s Spring Break week. At first we thought maybe I would justfly to AZ for the funeral, but then we decided that since Nate didn’t haveclass we would make the DRIVE to AZ. Theonly way we thought we could manage that many hours in the car with the kiddoswas to take our time and make lots of stops! On the way there we stayed thenight in Carroll to visit Nate’s family, then made it to Highlands Ranch, CO tospend another evening and pick up my mom, then to the middle of New Mexico foranother night…and then we made it to Tucson! The girls actually did pretty wellconsidering the number of hours in the car.

I am so glad that we made the trip. With us there it made it so that ALL of hergrandchildren and great-grandchildren made it! Obviously a funeral is a hardtime, especially when nobody was expecting it. I am glad that my grandma was able to meet each of my girls (even if notall together). I am glad that I traveledto AZ with my mom in November with Camille so that she had the chance to meether great-grandma and that I was able to visit with her.

Here are a few pictures of our trip…it was great to be ableto see lots of family that we don’t normally get to see.

Swimming with Grandma Deb at the hotel in NM

At the service...all of the grandkids and great-grandkids (my girls)

The family...everybody is looking, except for those trying to get my children under control (imagine that!)

Camille and Great-grandma Bowen...cuties!!!

Lounging at the pool with Kristi

Hannah playing with Papa

And Alli joining in on the fun!

Yes, we are in the desert! And the ground isn't covered with snow and ice and we can wear shorts...

Posing for the camera

Our family :)

Loving her daddy time

Cute girls enjoying the sun!

Alli's turn with Daddy!

Mommy and her girls

This is more typical of our family pictures. Cammile is trying to escape, Allison is upset that Hannah is on Dad's shoulders and we are ALL having fun!

Our original goal for Spring Break (before the road tripcame up) was to head to Omaha and attend the temple a few times. Instead of theWinter Quarters temple, Nate and I took turns attending the temple along theway.

First up was the Mesa AZ Temple. Nate met up with his brother, Wade, while Itook my turn in the temple. The girlsloved seeing Uncle Wade!

Thanks for breakfast Uncle Wade!

Checking out the visitor's center

I had to take this picture of Camille in the grass at the temple because is was her FIRST time sitting in the grass. That is what happens when it is winter and you live in Iowa!!!

Then we had to make a short detour to visit the GrandCanyon.

CHEESE!

At this point I'm pretty much exhausted! But at least the view is nice!

My girls!

Our family

They are on the top of the world

See...we were really there!

Next up: Monticello, UT and Nate’s turn at the temple!

Hannah's pouting...and daddy is helping!

Hannah's a photographer

Last stop before home…the Great Platte River Road ArchwayMonument! It is the huge bridge thing over I-80 that we drive under EVERY timewe head to CO and we always just talk about stopping. It is about at the half-way point on ourusual drive from IA to CO, but they have weird hours and it has just neverworked out. So, even though we were allsuper tired, we decided to check it out since it was finally open!

The entrance

You can kind of see the arch behind us-bad picture!

Here's the arch with Interstate 80 running right underneath!

Inside the arch is a museum. It is all about American History and the Midwest area. They had a whole big section about the Lincoln highway, which was the first highway from coast to coast. It is kind of neat because Carroll, where we used to live, and Ames, where we are at now are both on Highway 30 (or the old Lincoln highway.) In fact, Nate's dad's carwash is Highway 30 Carwash.

AND THEN WE WERE HOME! And my baby was 9 months old.

School Lunch

2011-09-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

On our way to a Spring Break road trip adventure (back inMarch), we stopped by Carroll for a quick 8^th birthday celebrationwith the Nate’s youngest siblings, Gabe and Grace. They invited us to come eat lunch with themat school, too! Hannah was thrilled!

Mom and Camille

Alli and Grace

Hannah and Gabe

We also got to see their classrooms.

Grace and Camille

Alli "writing her name"

Say "cheese!"

Pretty in Pink!

2011-09-13T20:34:00.001-05:00

These pictures were taken back in February…so Camille is 8months old. Thank you Nana and Papa for these beautiful dresses!!!

My girls!

2011-01-29T16:00:00.004-06:00

And because I love my girls, just a few more pictures! :)

Next stop....DISNEYLAND!!!!

2011-01-29T15:34:00.008-06:00

On the ride to the front gate of Disneyland. Hannah is showing Papa that Minnie Mouse is on her shirt.

Our first "character" picture....Hannah wouldn't get in the picture!

Hannah and Alli's first ride!

The castle! Hannah is still pouting in the family picture...

The carousel...and look everybody can smile! We even got Nana on a horse!

Tea Cups!

Break time!

Riding "It's a Small World"

Look at the hats! Thanks Nana and Papa!

Princesses!!!

Checking out Minnie and Mickey's houses.

It was a busy day!!!

Bye Disneyland!

Bye Nana and Papa! Thank you so much-we had a blast!

And then...the San Diego Zoo!

2011-01-29T15:20:00.005-06:00

Get excited...there is an elephant in the background, but not too excited because that might be the only picture of a zoo animal you see! :)

Our attempt at a family picture in front of an elephant statue.

And my favorite "zoo animals!"

On the tram ride around the zoo. It was a long wait, but we really enjoyed it and got to see a lot of animals!

Allison watching the seal show.

Hannah is nowhere to be found in this picture because she is pouting, but this elf thing was probably her favorite part of the zoo. The big blue thing in the background is a huge trampoline and the "elves" did all sort of tricks, including walking up a wall and a palm tree!

Oh wait, you can almost see a giraffe in this picture! The baby giraffe was running around and Hannah and Allison thought it was GREAT!

Christmas continutes....

2011-01-29T15:11:00.005-06:00

...in California!!!

On the plane to LA!

Look at those super fancy shoes from Nana and Papa!!!

Mommy and Camille :)

Super neat bunk beds in the hotel room!

The Start of Christmas

2011-01-29T14:56:00.005-06:00

We had a super busy Christmas-time! Here's what we were up to... (part 1!)

We made treats for our neighbors and friends.

Opened some presents at home.

Hopped in the car for a LONG drive to CO (by way of Carroll and Waukee, IA)

Pit stop in the middle of NE!

We made it and enjoyed the beautiful CO weather (although Hannah thought there should be SNOW for Christmas until...

Santa brought her a bike and she got to ride it around outside!

Miss Alli with at Grandma's house!

My beautiful girls!

Ward Christmas Party

2010-12-17T16:10:00.005-06:00

We had a great time at our ward Christmas party last week. They had a photo shoot area so that you could get a nice picture with your family....this is what we got. Can you find Hannah? Oh, that's right, SHE was the uncooperative one this time. If nothing else, it is great blackmail for later in life, right?

Big girl Camille

2010-12-10T13:58:00.002-06:00

This past week Miss Camille has been working on a new trick...she is learning how to sit up on her own! She is still practicing, but on Wednesday (Dec. 8) she sat up for a few minutes all by herself! She is getting so big and strong! Here is her new skill in action:

And Nate took this picture of Camille because she has this crazy patch of hair on the top of her head that likes to stick way up! She is such a happy, smiley little girl!

Breakfast with Santa

2010-12-10T13:46:00.003-06:00

Last Saturday was "Breakfast with Santa" at church. The girls had a great time, but when it came time to see Santa they were a little worried! So here are the closest things we have to pictures with Santa. We didn't really get a "good" one, but I think I just need to accept the fact that most of the pictures of the girls will include SOMEBODY not cooperating!

After we were finished Hannah was all upset because she didn't get to tell Santa what she wanted (because she was being silly and pretending to be shy!) So Nate had to go and tell Santa that Hannah would love to have jewelry and a bike w/ no training wheels....we'll have to wait and see what Santa brings!

Big news!

2010-12-03T14:37:00.004-06:00

Nate is officially an Accountant! Well technically not officially official, but he passed all 4 parts of the CPA exam and now it is just final paperwork stuff before he has an actual certificate in his hand. We are so proud of him for all of his hard work....and we are glad that silly test is behind us! We have had more daddy time lately and we are loving it!

Here are a few pictures from one of our adventures with daddy. Nate brought home some free $5 coupons to the arcade at a bowling alley in town, so we decided to check it out. We were there in the middle of the week in the early afternoon, so we had the place to ourselves! We had a blast...and it was FREE!

My cute girls

2010-12-03T14:30:00.002-06:00

Lately Hannah and Allison are either playing great together or they are attacking each other. Here is one of the times that they decided to play nice! They like making "beds" around the house. This one happened to be on top of the washer and dryer. In order to make a bed, you must dress in pajamas, bring pillows, blankets, and your teddy. I keep hoping that one of these days they will both happen to fall asleep in one of their play beds.

And my baby! For a few weeks she was sucking her thumb, so I had to get a picture of it! She hasn't been doing it for the past few days, and that is OK with me. I know how to get rid of a pacifier when we need to be done with it, but a thumb it a bit more challenging!

Decorating our Tree

2010-12-03T14:24:00.002-06:00

This past weekend we had fun decorating our house for Christmas. Daddy put up the lights outside and we all worked together on putting the ornaments on our Christmas tree. I love having the Christmas decorations up, listening to Christmas music, and enjoying the season to celebrate the birth of our Savior!

Another first

2010-12-03T14:16:00.003-06:00

On November 23 Miss Camille tried her first bites of solid food. She is not quite 6 months, but she seemed like she really wanted to eat, so we decided to try it! She actually did a decent job eating her rice cereal. Mostly she was really excited about the spoon and chewing on it. We've only fed her cereal a few times since (because the whole baby food thing is not my favorite), but she still seems to think playing with a spoon is pretty fun!

I am Thankful For...

2010-12-03T13:58:00.003-06:00

Hannah brought this home from school:

It says I am Thankful for...snuggling with my mom.

This is coming from a girl who rarely sits still long enough to even think about snuggling and who is definitely a Daddy's girl. It is hard for me not to think that she didn't just hear the kid next to her say this, but she seemed pretty sincere when she told me about it....I'm going to go with it! So I am thankful for my Hannah Bear and that she might actually think her mom is alright! :)

And I didn't get any pictures of the actual Thanksgiving festivities, but here are the turkey cupcakes that I made!

Arizona

2010-12-03T13:44:00.006-06:00

My mom was super generous and bought me a plane ticket to AZ the weekend before Thanksgiving. She was driving to AZ with my brother for Thanksgiving and decided that all of the family in Arizona would love to see Miss Camille. We were able to see my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandmas on my mom's and dad's sides of the family. I did a terrible job of taking pictures, so I missed lots of the people we visited (including Uncle Greg!), but here is what I got! I will have to get some better ones from my mom!

Camille's first plane ride! It was super early, but she is GREAT on all of our flights.

Playing with Grandma

Meeting Aunt Kathy and Great Grandma Stahl

Playing with Great Grandma Bowen

We made it home! Daddy and the big girls has flowers waiting for us!

Thanks, Mom, for a great trip!

Halloween

2010-11-03T23:40:00.002-05:00

Just a few quick pictures of the girls in their costumes! Allison and Camille were a cute pair of ladybugs...these might have been the best second hand store purchase ever as they keep getting used again and again! And Hannah was a 50s girl, but if you asked her she would have told you she was a poodle skirt! Hannah won the "best poodle skirt" award at our church trunk or treat and she thought that was pretty great. All of our pictures are from the trunk or treat because Camille slept through Trick or Treating...so she maybe never even put her costume on for the real day :)

Primary Program

2010-11-03T23:32:00.003-05:00

October 23 was Hannah's very first chance to participate in the Primary Program at church. She did a great job and was so excited to sing! Her line was "All prophets testify of Jesus Christ" I was a little worried because the one time she was supposed to share a scripture in Primary she got in front of everybody and completely froze, even after lots of practice at home! She did a GREAT job in front of everybody this time. She spoke right into the microphone and spoke clearly. Way to go Hannah Bear! Right after her part the kids sang "I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ" which is her favorite! She was just beaming and super excited!

Here she is, all ready to go to church (minus the dress up shoes!)

And all the girlies!

4 months old!

2010-10-25T11:14:00.004-05:00

Miss Camille is already 4 months old! It really is crazy how fast time goes by! Just for fun, I rounded up some similar pictures of the other girls at about 4 months old and compared their "stats" at 4 months. Who do you think she looks like?

Camille

24 inches, 13 lbs

Allison

26 inches, 15 lbs 14 oz.

Hannah

25.5 inches, 14 lbs

So, she seems to be the peanut of the bunch! Her personality reminds us a lot of Hannah....which could make things interesting! We sure do love having Camille in our family. She is such a good sleeper and she LOVES to smile! Her smile is contagious and her dimple is just adorable. She is a busy little girl. She started rolling over the week before her 4 month "birthday", a trick that the other girls didn't do until their 4th and 5th months. We love to hear her giggle and she thinks her big sisters are just hilarious! We love you Camille!

Birthdays

2010-10-25T11:01:00.003-05:00

Nate recently celebrated a birthday....he's getting really close to being 30! Here is his gift....in a pink polka dot bag and all. That's what you get when you live in a house full of girls!

And the beautiful cake he got from my mom. YUM!

We also celebrated our niece Kiara's birthday with all of the family. Here are all of the kids!

Grace and Camille; Hannah showing off her hula-hoop skills (she is REALLY good!)

While we were at Tiff's house for the birthday get-together, Miss Camille rolled over, and then rolled over, and rolled over again. I think her grand total ended up being like 10 times....every time she was put on the ground! She had rolled once from her tummy to her back the week before, but it was by accident and she wasn't sure what she had done. This time she was rolling from her back to her tummy....and she certainly has it figured out. Seriously, this was the week before she turned 4 months old!

Pumpkin time!

2010-10-25T10:45:00.003-05:00

Like we have done the past few years, we went to Deal's Orchard's Fall Festival. Surprisingly it was almost HOT that day (mid 80s!). Last year there was snow on the ground. So we enjoyed the warm fall weather to pick our pumpkins! Nate's family also went, but somehow I didn't end up with a group photo of everybody :(

Hay ride to pick out our pumpkins and posing with the ones we picked!

I want THAT one!

The hayride back with our perfect pumpkins.

We had to get a family picture in there!

More posing for pictures...

We painted the little pumpkins...we'll see if we get around to carving the big one before this weekend!

Nana and Papa in Iowa!

2010-10-25T10:37:00.002-05:00

The first weekend in October my dad and step mom came to visit us in Iowa! We had lots of fun and the weather was perfect while they were here. Here are some pictures of our adventures with Nana and Papa.

Playing at the ISU campus

Playing at our house!

Summer picture wrap-up!

2010-10-23T08:44:00.004-05:00

Here are a whole bunch of pictures that I didn't blog about while they happened, but are all things that I want to remember...

Family trip to the Winter Quarters temple

Playing at the pool.

We went to pick berries a number of times this summer...the blueberries off the bush were delicious. Allison would not stop eating them!

My little cutie pie!

Some fun times with our friends the Griffiths before they moved! We miss them!

One of our favorite things to do this summer were these free concerts in the park. They had tons of things for the kids to do and it was just fun for us all! Here the girls are showing off their balloon "wings"

Iowa storms...

2010-10-23T08:26:00.006-05:00

So it seems like if you live in Iowa, there will be summer storms. This summer was fairly mild....we hardly ever used the basement because of the tornado warnings, etc (which is good because our basement here is not exactly a place that we can stay for long because the owners have the place PACKED with their stuff) But we did have a few exciting weather happenings this summer...This tree is across the street from our front door, and landed where we often park our van (luckily it was NOT there that evening!) Then there was the whole flooding thing. We were fine where we lived, but a lot of Ames was under water. The flooding pictures were taking just a few blocks from our house. The bigger issue was that the flooding washed away some of the underground water mains, draing two of the water towers and making the water unusable for a number of days. It was an interesting experience, but it made us grateful to have water stored!

The tree in our parking space

Flooded basketball court

These are both pictures of the golf course...it is not normally a lake (you can see the red flag on the bottom picture)

And the road also covered in water

Nauvoo!!!

2010-10-14T14:18:00.004-05:00

I also forgot to post about Camille's very first vacation! The last weekend in July we headed to Nauvoo with Nate's parents and family and his sister Tiff and her family. We went to see the Joseph Smith Pageant and explore some of the church sites there. It was a quick trip, but we had lots of fun. We got to see the Pageant on Pioneer Day which was kind of neat. BUT, it was super rainy that evening...so that made things a bit more challenging. Most of the kids went back to the hotel and I was paranoid about having my 4 week old out in the rain and BUGS! Overall, it was a great trip (minus the crazy bug bites!)

Checking out Old Nauvoo
At Carthage Jail
In Carthage Jail, Allison with cousin Calvin

Cousin Caleb, Sara, and Hannah

Hannah and her baby Camille!

The Nauvoo temple!

Camille's baby blessing

2010-10-14T14:04:00.005-05:00

Big surprise, I forgot a few important things that happened in the past few months....that's what happend when you NEVER update your blog!

SO, on August 1, 2010, Miss Camille was given a blessing at church. Nate gave her the blessing with his dad, our stake president, and our bishop in the cirlce. It was such a nice blessing and a lot of it had to do with Camille gaining a testimony and remembering that she is a daughter of God. It was also a neat experience because there were two other babies blessed that day as well. There are LOTS of babies in our ward!!!

Here's the family all ready for church! With Grandma and Grandpa.

And with all of the Pettitts who were able to make it.

Aunt Grace holding Camille Grace

Big eyes :)

Wearing the same gown that I did and that the other girlies wore as well.

Time with Grandma!

Pictures...just for fun!

2010-10-01T14:27:00.004-05:00

Cy was at Hannah's school on her birthday! Allison wanted nothing to do with him, but Hannah was quick to pose for me!
Cheering on the Cyclones....too bad it didn't help them beat the Hawkeyes!

Cute girls all ready for bed!

Loving her baby!

Hannah's birthday and Grandma's visit

2010-10-01T14:10:00.007-05:00

This year Hannah had a week long birthday celebration. Her birthday is always close to Labor Day, so it usually ends up being a big family get-together. Unlike Aliison's 2nd birthday celebration....I have plenty of pictures from Hannah's!

Decorating her big cupcake!

Time for presents!

The "big" present from mom and dad. Nate got these golf clubs before he left the country club and they have been sitting in the trunk of his car for over a year. Her first reaction when she saw them was, "No way! Those are NOT mine!"

Cousin Caleb helping out!

Cake time!

Blowing out the candles.

Trying out her new clubs...you have to pose for pictures, you know!

Celebration #2 with Grandma Deb.

Dad and Camille!

All dressed up in her new clothes.

Playing at the library with Grandma

We love the library!

Passing out her birthday treat at school!

Allison joined the rest of Hannah's class in eating a cookie!

Reiman Gardens

2010-10-01T13:31:00.005-05:00

Reiman Gardens is a place we have talked about going to since we moved to Ames. It is a garden and butterfly pavillion associated with the University. Students can get in for free and so can kids 3 and under. So a few days before Hannah turned 4 Nate too Hannah and Allison...finally! They had a great time and we should have gone sooner!

Hannah being independent.

Can you see the butterfly?

Fun with daddy!

Hannah's photography skills!

Cute girls!

Great Grandma's Visit

2010-10-01T13:16:00.005-05:00

Great grandma Bowen came to visit the very end of August and the first part of September. She got to meet Miss Camille and see how big the girls have all gotten!

Holding Camille for the first time!

We planned to go the the Aquatic Center, but when we got there we were told that it was "too cold" so they decided to cancel tot time. Sad day! Instead we had a picnic at the park with great grandma!

The monkey children....

Posing like her big sister :)

Hannah and Great grandma!

Hannah's 1st day of School!

2010-10-01T13:05:00.003-05:00

Hannah's first day of preschool was August 30, 2010. So far she LOVES it!!! She goes 4 days a week for 3 hours each day. Miss Suzanne is her teacher and Miss Robin and Miss Megan are her helpers. Here are a few pictures of her headed off to school for the very first time!

Allison is 2 years old!

2010-09-21T13:59:00.007-05:00

So Alli turned 2 only 5 days after Camille was born. It might have been a bit of a crazy kind of time. The picture below is the only picture I have that is halfway decent of the b-day celebration...Emily (holding Camille) will be joining the Pettitt family sometime in the near future!

Yes we did celebrate Allison's birthday...presents, cake, etc. My mom made the cake (no pics), you can see the corner of one of Alli's presents in this pic. My excuse for no presents...we celebrated 4 days after I had a baby and I was not feeling so hot. Which bring me to a tangent of sorts....if you don't want to read, just scroll down to look at some cute pictures of my 2 year old!

So why was I not feeling great you ask? Not really because I just had a baby, but sort of. Nursing was not going so great. You'd think by the 3rd time around I would have things figured out. Luckily the next day we went back to the hospital for a quick check up. As the nurse is asking me how nursing Camille is going, Camille spits up all over the place...and it is bright pink. Yes, that's how it is going...I'm bleeding and hurting and crying and dreading having to feed her! So the nurse watched me feed her for latch issues...looks good. Then she sticks her finger into Camille's mouth and right away tells me what the problem is! Her tongue is more attached than normal so instead of using her tongue to suck, she is using her gums. She is biting me...no wonder I'm not enjoying it! The nurse thought it was probably not so severe that she would need it clipped, but gave me some pointers to help train Camille to use her tongue instead of her gums. I so grateful for the blessing of having somebody who actually knew what she was doing there to talk to me! Her tips helped so much and now we are doing great. In looking back, the nurse thought probably Hannah had the same situation. Nursing Hannah was no fun for about the first month. So, I give myself a pat on the back for A)not actually being crazy and forgetting how to feed a baby and B) sticking it out with Hannah because I LOVE breastfeeding my kiddos. It is such a special thing!

OK back to the fact that Allison turned 2!!!

On her birthday at the park w/ grandpa

Playing the in blow-up pool. Nice hair, huh?

Playing with birthday bubbles!

Wow...so one thing I already forgot and now decided to edit this post to add...Allison is potty-trained! WAHOO! The timing really would not have been my first choice, as she decided to start the adventure 2 weeks after I had Camille. But, because it was her idea, the whole process was relatively easy and I am sure enjoying only having 1 in diapers. I was bracing myself for about a year w/ two in diapers like last time, so this makes mommy happy!!!

So...it had been 3 MONTHS!

2010-09-21T13:43:00.002-05:00

Since I now have a 3 month old, and the last time I posted anything was the day we brought her home from the hospital...I thought it might be time to update this blog!!! I'll give you a quick rundown of what we have been up to here, and then hopefully over the next few days I can find some time to post some pictures of the more exciting things...

So here's what has happened at the Pettitt's in the last 3 months:
~June 24 Alli turned 2
~4th of July/ "Meet Camille" party in Carroll
~Middle of July Nate took the 3rd part of his CPA exam
~July 21 we celebrated my birthday (Nate is excited because I now round up to 30...I keep reminding him that he is 4 years closer to 30 than I am!)
~August 1 Camille's baby blessing
~Mid-August Nate started back to school/work
~Mid-August Nate took 4th part of CPA exam
~Two days later finds out that he didn't pass 3rd part by 1 point! :( Time to study some more!
~Camille had 2 month Dr. appointment and 1st round of shots
~August 31 was Hannah's first day of school!
~1st week in Sept. Great grandma came to visit
~2nd week in Sept. Grandma came to visit
~Sept. 10 Hannah turned 4!

I'm sure there were other things happening...but that's what I can remember off the top of my head. Now lets see if I get around to those pictures any time soon :)

Baby Camille

2010-06-21T15:58:00.009-05:00

Welcome to baby Camille Grace! Born June 19 at 7:56am. 7 lbs 5 oz and 20 inches. She surprised us by coming 9 days early, but I was glad to be done with the whole pregnancy thing! Labor and delivery went great...and FAST! I woke up at 5am, thought maybe I was having contractions, woke Nate up at 6:15 and we called his family right away to come help with the girls. We decided we better not wait for Nate's sister to get her from Carroll, so we knocked on our neighbor's door to come be with the girls for a few minutes and were headed to the hopspital at 7am. 7:15 we were at the hospital and they think I don't look uncomfortable enough to be close to having a baby, so they set me up in a temp room to check me before admitting me. Finally they decide to check me after Nate tells them (repeatedly) that my other labors went fast and I was already 10cm...then they decided to start moving a little more quickly!!! They unplugged my bed and rushed me down the hall to a real room and within about 15 minutes we were holding baby Camille! The doctor was in surgery and didn't make it, so the midwife on call delivered her and it was great!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the last few days... Ready to head to the hospital.

One last belly shot (a little blurry)

Meeting the big sisters!

Our first family photo!

Big sister Hannah and the proud daddy.

Hannah helping nurse Jane (who was wonderful!)

Baby Camille

Her stats

Alli LOVED holding her baby!

Meeting Grandpa Todd on Father's Day

Meeting some of the Pettitts

Big sisters and Aunt Josie.

Loving her baby!

Our growing family

Meeting Grandma Deb...Camilly wasn't patient enough to wait until she was supposed to come later this week!

And meeting Grandpa Tom

Close-up

About to leave the hospital

We made it home!

Meeting Aunt Tiff, Uncle Dan and the cousins!

Trip to CO and Mother's Day

2010-05-24T11:53:00.005-05:00

We made a quick trip to CO to celebrate my brother, Greg's, graduation from CU. We missed the actual graduation because we couldn't leave until Nate finished his classes, but we made it for the party and got to see lots of family. It was great because my dad and step-mom made the trip from CA, my grandma from AZ (who had never met Alli) made it, and my aunt from AZ also made it. Somehow I ended up with no pictures of my brother, or the party, or my mom and step-dad, but here are some that we DID take! :)

Hannah climbed this big rock at a playground in Ft. Morgan. The trip there was REALLY long and we all needed a break from the car! I love everything about Ames, except that it is even farther away from CO!

Nana, Papa, and Great-Grandma!

Swimming at the hotel

Allison and great grandma!

We also spent Mother's Day in CO. After church we headed over to see the temple and they had the gates open. It was a perfect day, but Allison fell asleep in the car. So we have some pictures without her!

A lovely picture that Nate took...I figure I better post it since I don't think I've posted a picture of my growing belly yet. Not too much longer!

My girlies in their adorable new dresses! Thank you, Brenda!

Our family!

Planting flowers with daddy.

Allison is helping...

and helping some more! I'm sure I will have more than enough help from her when the new baby comes!

VEISHEA

2010-05-24T11:36:00.004-05:00

Every year Iowa State has a big celebration. It is called VEISHEA, which stands for the 7 original colleges on campus. It is a week long event with tons of food and activities going on around campus. It all ends on a Saturday with a parade and tons of stuff for the whole family! We had lots of fun. Checking our the calves. Alli loved them, but was super startled when they "mooed"

Allison concentrating on her ice cream before the parade.

Waiting for the parade to start.

Posing with the red and yellow (ISU colors) tulips.

Easter

2010-05-24T11:25:00.004-05:00

Here are a few pictures from our Easter adventures... Our Easter eggs

Visiting Grandma Pat

What a cutie!

Allison, Grace, and puppy Zoe

The Easter egg hunt!

End of Spring Break!

2010-03-21T18:24:00.005-05:00

We had a very nice spring break, but unfortunately it is over! Spring break ended with Hannah and Allison staying overnight at grandma and grandpa's house. It was Allison's first ever sleepover without mommy and daddy. Mommy and daddy went to Omaha and attended the temple and enjoyed some quiet time.

Other highlites from spring break include mommy making rag quilts for the girls and Hannah and Allsion dressing up as princesses.

Spring Break, so far...

2010-03-17T21:09:00.003-05:00

There are some benefits of Nate being a student once again...and breaks from school might be one of the best! We have been really enjoying the nice weather and the fact that the snow is almost completely GONE! Although they are predicting more this weekend :(

So far for spring break Nate has done a lot of school work, so he's actually been a little busy. He did complete a 10 page paper, and two other 3 page papers among a bunch of other little things. He's hoping that the rest of the semester is easier because of his hard work now. Today we did get to have a little fun with dad. We went bowling! Hannah was super excited...she told grandma we went REAL bowling, not on the the TV bowling (on the Wii). Here are a few pictures!

Yes, we are alive!

2010-02-21T10:27:00.006-06:00

Can I nominate myself for the worst blogger award!?!? Although we haven't posted anything for a while, we have been busy! Since October (our last post) we: found out that we are expecting another baby (due June 28), enjoyed Christmas (all 4 of them!), it snowed lots, New Year's, more snow and COLD, found out that baby #3 is a GIRL, tried to enjoy the snow, and lots of stuff in between. Here are a few pictures!

Markers taste so good!

2009-10-21T14:35:00.004-05:00

Allison's 1st boo-boo

2009-10-12T14:38:00.005-05:00

Allison has started to take after her sister these days. I kept hoping she was going to be my quiet, calm child...but now I don't see that happening. I guess I have to remember that my children are half Nate. I also keep telling myself that these wild, crazy, independent, strong-willed, energetic, etc. children will very likely be successful later in life because of these characteristics that most days drive me crazy!

So Allison's latest hobby is climbing. Bookshelves (which she has fallen off of, yet continues to climb), the kitchen table, desks, couches (the backs and arms of the couch), the glass coffee table, pretty much anything dangerous, she climbs! Lovely :) So when we were at grandma's house this weekend, she was climbing the stairs up to their deck and I didn't think much of it (she has pretty much mastered stairs by now). Next thing I know she is on the cement screaming. Luckily she had only fallen 1 step and there wasn't any bleeding...but it sure looked nice for church yesterday! The first of many more to come, I'm sure!

Nate's 1st test!

2009-10-09T13:02:00.002-05:00

Nate took his first exam last week (the rest of everything has been projects) which he was really worried about. It was for his statistics class, and he, along with about half the class, was feeling a little unprepared to take this exam! So he studied and studied and his hard work paid off! Thanks for working so hard for us, Nate! We love you!

Hannah is 3!!! and some other random stuff :)

2009-09-21T15:26:00.011-05:00

I can't believe that we've been parents for 3 years already! Time goes by so fast sometimes! Well I don't know about this last week...our first week and a half of having a three year old has been filled with way too much Hannah drama! I think she saved her tantrums for the terrible 3s! Hopefully it is just a stage :)

Here is my Hannah being silly with the cake that she helped to decorate. She had to have the SAME butterfly on her cake that Alli had on hers. Silly girl. And then a sweet one.

Eating the cake on Labor day. We celebrated Hannah's b-day with all the family on Labor Day along with like 4 other birthdays. Crazy! The family Labor Day softball game...and yes, that is corn surrounding the field! We DO live in Iowa! Lots of fun and lots of people, perfect weather!

Some more of our Labor Day weekend festivities. Hannah and her cousin Caleb doing the limbo at the skating rink. Too cute..I love it!

Blowing out the candles a few days later on her real b-day. Sporting her Iowa State Cyclone gear. Unfortunately they didn't "beat Iowa."

Hannah went to her first gymnastics class on Sat...she loved it! She wouldn't let me help...typical Hannah...but she did a great job and made it all the way across by herself!

And we have to get a few of Miss Allison. This is her face lately, usually combined with folded arms and a big pout session. At least she makes me laugh when she pouts!

What a cutie pie!

Welcome to Ames!

2009-09-02T13:48:00.012-05:00

So we moved, Nate FINALLY finished working in Carroll while we were living in Ames, and now he started school!

Here are some pics of what we've been up to this past month. I didn't take any pictures of the packing, moving, unpacking process...maybe because I was hoping to forget about it!? Craziness. Maybe we will learn eventually, but when your husband works at a golf course, you shouldn't plan major life events during the summer, like having a baby last summer or moving!!!

Our new home for the next two years! We were in a bit of a panic for a while because we needed a place to live ASAP as we only had 30 days before we closed on our house. Ames being a college town, has lot of places to rent, but ALL leases start and end Aug. 1st. Not good when you need a place to live June 25! We finally found this place and ended up having more space than I thought we would. It smells a little like moth balls (yuck) but it is starting to go away, finally! Other than that it is great!!! Nate all ready for his first day of graduate school!

Our new outside toy...thanks to craigslist and living in a place where people actually put stuff on craiglist! I am so excited that we have a yard for the girls!

One of our last rides on the golf cart...at least for a while!

Nate saying his goodbyes at his going away party at the Country Club And Hannah listening, while drinking her Shirley Temple, or course!

We were in Iowa City for a few days while Nate played in a golf tournament and my mom and grandma flew out to visit us while we were there. We had a great time, maybe next time they will get to see where we are living now!

We also headed to Nauvoo for an afternoon!

Daddy pretending to be a fireman at our block party.

The firetruck that came to the block party...we met some great neighbors!

Hannah's 3rd birthday gift...I love craigslist!!!

Already 1!!!

2009-07-17T14:17:00.005-05:00

I can't believe my baby is one! It sure seems like time flew by even faster the second time around!

A few tidbits about Miss Alli...

~She LOVES to smile and laugh...especially at her sister!

~She is soooo snuggly!

~Eating is one of her talents!

~Although she eats anything is sight, and a lot of it, she still think she needs her mommy, a LOT!

~She thinks paper is for shredding...toilet paper is her favorite!

~But she loves books, and doesn't tear them up

~Has become rather opinionated! Which also means she is getting rather loud!!!

~She is getting pretty talkative, although prefers 1 syllable words (mom and dad are the most frequent) Yelling MOM during church seems to be a favorite lately.

~She does a great job using her baby signs (especially MILK)

~She is my laundry helper...take clothes out and put them back

~She is wearing Hannah's clothes that fit her when she turned 2

~She has 8 teeth with two more about to pop through..including 2 molars!

~Started walking just after her birthday and thinks it is great! Her first steps were to get to daddy's cookie!

~Has the cutest curls (finally) starting to grow.

~Is just such a happy baby. We LOVE having her in our home. Happy Birthday baby Alli!

Here are a few pictures of the birthday event...

Before...

During...

and I think she better be done!

And I thought we were busy before...

2009-06-10T16:07:00.017-05:00

2+ months! That's some terrible blogging! So this is my excuse....only like EVERTHING in our lives has changed in the last 2 months.

SO announcement: We are moving!!! Nate is going to graduate school. He'll be attending Iowa State University (in Ames) starting this fall and will be getting his MBA.

This has been our plan all along, but actually deciding to quit a good job and move from a great home to a place that you don't know is SCARY!

So in the last two months we: celebrated Easter (wow, that WAS a while ago!), Hannah got a tricycle, Alli got 4 new teeth, redid a bathroom, Nate put in a retaining wall and landscaping in the front and side yard, Nate notified his work that he will be leaving, we put our house up for sale and then cleaned and recleaned for people to come look at it (not an easy task with little ones!)...and SOLD IT 3 days later, was called as RS Pres (feeling totally overwhelmed and underqualified!), took a trip to CO w/o Nate, gone back and forth to Ames way too many times, stressed out about being homeless (day and night!), finally found a place to live in Ames today, and now it is time to pack and move and celebrate a 1st birthday by the 26th of the month! And ALL of this during Nate's crazy busy time of year at work!!! So here is one big long post, but don't count on another one too soon!

And the more exciting part...some pictures!
Easter

My girls!

My chunky monkey and a blur of her sister in the upper corner...

The Hannimal leaping through the air!

All ready to ride

Trying out her tricycle. She LOVES riding this thing!

And our CO trip. The girls and I went w/o Nate. We had to be there over Memorial Day so that we could see Grandma and Grandpa as well as Uncle Greg, Nana, and Papa who were visiting from CA. Memorial Day is BUSY for Nate at work...the whole summer kickoff thing...but he did fly out to drive back home with us!
We went to the zoo. Hannah and Grandma

Alli's favorite animals at the zoo

Allison and Nana

The girls and Papa

LOVING Chuck E. Cheese!

Enjoying our yard...while it lasts!

Peonies from my yard!

Playing with our neighbor Megan. We are going to miss out neighbors so much!!! :(

Daddy loves barettes! What a great daddy we have!

My little snuggly baby!

I LOVE them!

And...the sign in front of our house! What a blessing that it sold so quickly, but we will miss it! It was a GREAT home and full of LOTS of memories. I'm sure that eventually our new place will feel like home, too, but we might have to find a new hobby! For the last two and a half years we did way too many house projects!!!

Spring is almost here!

2009-03-31T13:35:00.006-05:00

Today is windy and cold, but yesterday we were outside and the grass is starting to get GREEN! I can't wait for spring and being able to spend time outside! That and I'm tired of dealing with everybody being sick and then not sleeping, and being crabby, etc. etc....grr... Anyways, so yesterday Nate was "trimming" our bushes...watch out he likes to chop things down, luckily plants grow quickly in Iowa. Here are the girls "helping."

And Hannah's lovely pose...
This month Jace and Josie (Nate's 8 year old siblings) were baptized. It was great because all of Nate's family was able to come...all 12 kids and families and the grandmas. It was also pretty nice because we have a font in our new building...no driving for and hour and a half!
We spent one evening at a hotel in Sioux City, IA because Nate had some work stuff to do there. We enjoyed the pool and breakfast (twice) and got some "big city" shopping done.
My Chunky Monkey!

Thinking that the water is a little cold!!

Loving it!
Most of us enjoyed family night at the Country Club. It was dance night, which Hannah should love, but instead she pouted the WHOLE night because Daddy wasn't paying enough attention to her!

Last, the Allison update. We went to the Doctor's last week, this time for her 9 month well-baby visit (happy day)...she is just about 22 pounds (90%) and I can't remember what they told me for her length, but it puts in at 60%. So she has slowed down growing one direction at least! And as of last night I think I can say that she is officially CRAWLING!!! It has been a long time coming, and for the last month she has been anything but stationary...it is just that she is finally actually crawling. Although at this point rolling and her sitting scoot get her places more quickly, I'm guessing that it will only be a matter of days before she's zooming around my house!

Not lost, just sick!

2009-03-06T16:58:00.008-06:00

So it seems like our life is about like everybody else's these days. We've all been sick, well everybody except Nate, and then we've been busy trying to catch up on everything that got behind while we were all sick! I've been giving Nate a hard time because he's the only one that never really got sick, I figured that I must just be getting Iowa colds or something. Then we all got some sort of 24ish hour flu, Hannah the worst, and then I had pneumonia like bad enough that the doctor would have gladly admitted me to the hospital. So for about 2-3 weeks I was sure that we weren't having any more kids and I wasn't sure that I'd make it! But after tons of antibiotics and 3 weeks of zero energy, I'm doing much better, so the family is, too!

So in the last two months my mom and step-dad came to visit.

We moved into our new church building on Feb. 1 and it was dedicated Feb. 15. I don't have any pics of the completed building yet...so much for taking pictures every so often to see the progress! Anyways, it is great to feel like I'm going to "real" church, even if we are still a branch! Having a building make a huge difference, and now we actually have classrooms, too!

Nate's parents also turned 50 in the past two months...here they are celebrating at the Country Club.

We've been trying to finish up some projects around the house before Nate gets super busy again. So we now finally have quarter-round installed along our baseboards (after a year w/o). So that makes the floors look finished. We painted our family room. I don't know, it sure seems like we keep finding more things to do! Does laundry, cleaning, picking up cheerios, changing diapers, etc. count as being busy!?

Oh yeah, I also made Allison some shoes...I finally put my sewing machine (Christmas present) to good use. I made her two pairs, and although I really don't have a clue when is comes to sewing, they turned out great! Well, at least they meet my standards! If I think about it I will take a picture to show off my craftiness...if I remember!

Here are a few pics of the girls, being cute as always.

Saying "cheese" I'm sure!

Hannah rooting on the tigers! Go tigers!
Allison wearing a cute outfit from my mom (that she has already outgrown!) It is an alligator for Alli-gator. Although around here she more commonly gets called Alli cat!
Some day she will just start going! You can also kinda see her shoes in this pic. I'm excited about them at least!

Allison is 8 months old ALREADY! She's not crawling, yet. And that is totally FINE with me. She's been up and rocking on her knees for a while now, but just hasn't quite figured it out. I think she's not too concerned because instead she rolls EVERYWHERE! Hannah was never that much of a rolly polly! Alli also says "mama!" Before daddy :) Although it is typically a crying kinda mama thing, it still makes me smile, mostly :) Allison loves to eat! She is hungry, hungry, hungry and thinks she needs grown up food any time she sees us eating. She is a little bossy when it comes to food, but so far she isn't too picky! Because of this she also has a new car seat. She's 22lbs and Hannah was only 19lbs when she turned 1! Watch out Hannah!

Hannah is a great big sister and mom's helper. She loves to play patty-cake with her sister and she still LOVES to dance to the Mamma Mia soundtrack. She also loves to grab her sister (usually by the head) and give her big hugs. It seems like any time Alli is on the floor Hannah has to touch her, and her head seems to be the most common target. Maybe she will grow out of that someday. Either that or I need a whistle like a referee. Luckily babies are tough and Allison is totally in love with her big sister anyways!

Too busy for blogging!?!

2009-01-10T09:33:00.016-06:00

One day shy of a whole month without posting! We've been busy like everybody else around the holidays! Here are some pics of what we have been up to. Watch out, it is long, but mostly just pictures!:)

First a few playing in the snow before Christmas...

Allison trying rice cereal...it wasn't really a hit, but now (after almost a month) she thinks it is OK.

We went to CO, and got to visit the Fairbanks family while there!
Hannah and Kambria, mostly playing nice.

Allison and Weston...two happy babies!
Christmas at grandma and grandpa's house in CO!
Grandma taught Hannah to make snow angels.
Being silly with Aunt Lynn.
The girls sporting new matching outfits-thanks Brenda!
Cutie pie, you can see her teeth in this pic!
Hannah opening a Christmas Eve present.
Allison posing with grandma.
Christmas morning...Hannah's favorite present was chap stick (although she did enjoy others, too) Way to go Santa!!!
Like Allison's Leap Frog table and her toothbrushes!
Hannah showing Alli how her new toy works.
Worn out!
One last picture with Grandma and Grandpa!

The morning after Christmas we got up bight and early to head back to IA for Christmas with Nate's family.
Mom, dad, and Alli.
Hannah with more gifts.
Nate and Gabe being super silly.
Hannah had to join in, too!
Allison's favorite toy.
Grandma, Nate, and the girls.
One more "Christmas" at great-grandma's.
At the pool...we spent New year's day at a hotel w/ and indoor water park for one last Christmas celebration with Nate's mom's side of the family!

We had a great Christmas. Thanks to everybody for all of the great gifts and for the time we got to spend together!
Now we are home and trying to get back into some sort of normal routine! Allison has had a doctor's appointment, and is still about the 85% for her size. So big! She is also sitting up like a pro these days! Maybe I'll take some pics of that soon!

Santa at the Country Club

2008-12-11T12:41:00.005-06:00

Last night was family night at the Country Club and Santa made an appearance! Last year Santa made Hannah cry. She did a little better this year, she sat on his lap, but wouldn't look at him. We had been practicing what she was going to tell him. She decided that she would tell him she wanted a "toy" whatever toy that is, who knows, but she wouldn't talk to him when the time came! Oh well, we got a few pictures anyways!

Decorating cookies!
Eating more frosting than is getting on the cookies!

And....
Hannah being silly...you might recognize the headband from an earlier picture (on Allison's head!) Hannah LOVES her daddy!
If you look really close, Alli's tooth is in there! (on the bottom)
Hannah thought she needed to be in a picture, too, so we posed by the Christmas tree!

Busy, Busy, Busy!!!

2008-12-09T10:11:00.003-06:00

Like everybody else this time of year, we have been so busy. We had a great Thanksgiving. We celebrated at Nate's oldest brother Ben's brand new townhome in Des Moines. I think it would have scared me to have a whole bunch of kids running around, but it worked out well and we had a great time! Hannah loved playing with the aunts uncles and her cousins! Allison also got her first tooth! Thanksgiving day it poked through, I think she must have been hoping for some turkey! I'll get pics when it is a little more visible. Unfortunately, Hannah also came home with pink eye :( which stated our not so very fun past week!

Hannah got pink eye, then the girls and I got a bad cold, then Alli got pink eye (despite crazy hand washing and cleaning of blankets, towels, etc) and then yesterday Alli got another tooth! So our past week has consisted of staying at home (to try and not infect everybody else), not sleeping enough, and listening to lots of whining and crying. Luckily Nate's not so busy at work, so I have been able to stay sane! Yesterday we were finally all feeling better. It is amazing how big a difference that makes!

Here are a few pictures of poor Allison...I do try and wipe her eyes off, but it doesn't help for long!

And here is Hannah wearing her new favorite footwear! These are some boots we picked up at the second hand store and she wants to wear them ALWAYS! She calls them her "winter boots." They light up when she walks and she wants to show everybody!

And last but not least...Hannah and Alli have a brand new cousin! Nate's sister Tiff had a baby boy yesterday morning. Calvin Jay (at least that's what they think they are naming him, but plan on calling him CJ.) Hopefully we can squeeze in a trip to Des Moines to see him before we head to CO next week!

She did it!

2008-11-20T08:59:00.005-06:00

Allison rolled over! Yesterday I put her down on her tummy so that I could change Hannah and when I was done, she was on her back! I think it will still be a while before she actually knows how to roll over, but once is a start!

Here is Miss Allison in her favorite pose...tongue out! Her tongue is always out, sometimes she just likes to stick it out, sometimes she is licking things, as long as it isn't in her mouth she is happy. The other day we were playing in the mirror and she wouldn't put her tongue back in her mouth, it was getting all dry before she finally decided she had tasted the air enough! Anyways, I think she is a cutie with or without her tongue! I also think it is funny because she always has things in he mouth, but she is rarely sucking on them. For example, her fingers are almost always by her mouth, but she is usually either chewing on them (luckily no teeth yet)or just licking them. I was worried about her being a thumb sucker (because it can be a hard habit to break later) but so far she doesn't really "suck" her thumb. It has been so much fun to notice all of the differences between the two girls. They are really so unique, even just as babies!

Here are just a few pics of the girls playing and acting goofy.

One last thing, I need your opinions! We are trying to figure out how we should spell Allison's nickname. Ally, Allie, others!? She has two "Ls" in her name, so I think her nickname should, too, but maybe not. Which spelling do you like best??

The potty and the rec center!

2008-11-13T19:56:00.004-06:00

About two months ago I got really excited about trying to potty train Hannah...and she was excited for about half a day, and then not so much. After that point she got upset any time I asked if she wanted to sit on the potty, use the potty, etc. So today she went pee on the potty, this is technically time number 2, but after a little break. She is excited about the whole potty idea again...so maybe it will last a little longer this time! Hopefully!

Yesterday we went and played at the rec center. They just started "toddler time" on Mondays and Wednesdays. Pretty much it consisted of Hannah running around like a crazy person after basketballs, kids, whatever for a good 45 minutes. Yeah for a good way to get some extra energy out! That afternoon she took a 2 and a half hour nap...probably a record for Hannah. I'm usually lucky with a hour and a half! I've maybe found my winter sanity...the rec center!

Allison is also doing great. I'm still waiting for her to roll over, but I think now she is at least getting close. Up until yesterday she seemed to forget that she had arms while on her tummy, but now she has figured out how to push herself up. Any day I expect to find her not in the same position I left her! She's about 4 1/2 months old, and Hannah had rolled over by this point, but I think I haven't helped encourage her. Mostly the ground isn't a safe place to put her with Miss Hannah around, so she doesn't get extra tummy time, that is for sure!

The good and the bad

2008-11-08T08:10:00.002-06:00

So last week, on Halloween, I learned something about myself that I didn't know before. I apparently have this problem with blood. I guess I never thought I did, I did an internship in high school at a vet's office w/o any problems and I saw plenty of blood there. My guess is that my problem is more with the combination of blood/pain/knowing it is my child hurting, etc. So on Halloween the girls and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up some candy (last minute, yes) I put Hannah in the cart, got Allison in the cart, and turned around to get the diaper bag. Next thing I know as I back turn around, I see Hannah falling face first over the side of the cart. We are in the parking lot, and so plenty of people watch this happen. I picked her up, and of course she is bleeding all over the place and screaming. Luckily one lady came by to help for a few minutes...but how do you really help, I don't know. So Hannah settled down relatively quickly, but I was definitely having a problem! I felt like I was going to pass out and be sick to my stomach. Nice, huh? How in the world am I supposed to take care of my hurt child when I can't even take care of myself? I'm sure these thoughts didn't really help. After many minutes of sitting the car holding Hannah while Allison slept in the cart (luckily), I recovered well enough that I could at least drive home (at first I was worried that I would have to call Nate and have him leave work to come get us) Hannah was fine, she just bit her lip a little and got her tongue pretty good, but this event still scared me because I know there will be other times when my kids are hurt, and there is blood involved, what am I supposed to do? Last night I had another opportunity to find out. Hannah just needs to chill a little and she might not get hurt as often, but good luck telling her that! She was running around her room playing with me, slipped and hit her chin on her bed, which made her bite the inside of her lip REALLY good. I think she is lucky her teeth didn't come through the other side, gross! So there was even more blood than the first time, but I held it together much better this time around. I still had to sit down on the floor with her, but it was a big improvement for me! Heavenly Father must be helping me overcome this weakness of mine! I'm not really sure I am enjoying it, and Hannah probably isn't either, but I was almost relieved that I did better with the\is second injury. Does that make sense? Maybe I can handle being a mom after all! Sorry for the long story, but it was just on my mind.

So the happy thing that happened yesterday was between the girls. Hannah usually loves to give Allison hugs and kisses, to the point that I have to remind her that babies need to breathe and have their space, too. Yesterday Hannah realized that she could make Allison laugh! It was by accident, Hannah sneezed, and Allison thought it was funny, then she sneezed again and Allison thought it was REALLY funny. For the next 15-20 minute (forever in Hannah time) Hannah kept trying all sorts of things to get her little sister to laugh, fake sneezing, fake laughing, etc. It was too cute, and hopefully a glimpse of how they will interact when Allison is a little older. I can't wait until they can really enjoy having each other as sisters, even if that also means they will fight like siblings, too!

Baby updates and Halloween

2008-11-03T20:17:00.007-06:00

So Miss Allison went to the doctor's last week for her 4 month appointment...time sure does fly! So along with shots, we got to see how big she is getting. She is 26 inches(95%) and just about 16 lbs(90%). She is doing great and growing so fast! It is interesting to watch how different Hannah and Allison are. Hannah was always right around the 50%, which makes Allison quite a bit bigger, and Allison also seems so much more laid back. I'm not minding the laid back part, but I was hoping they would be closer in size so that I could at least use SOME of Hannah's clothes for Allison! Allison is fitting into 6-9mo clothes without a problem, and when Hannah was 9 months old it was June. We've got our seasons all wrong! Luckily we have a great second hand store in Carroll, which is also where I got the girls' Halloween costumes. It almost makes up for the fact that I don't have a Kohls or a Target closer than an hour and a half away! So here are some pics of the growing girl!

This one is a pic of me when I was about 8 weeks old, but I still think Allison looks a lot like me (minus the skinny chicken legs)

Then we had Halloween. We never got around to carving a pumpking this year, but we still had a great time. Hannah enjoyed carrying the pumpkins around the house anyways. We had a trunk or treat at church, where Hannah practiced her trick or treating skills. Friday night we visited our neighbors and family here in town. Hannah was so excited about handing the candy out to the kids who came to our door before daddy got home that at first she didn't want to leave her job to go trick or treating. Our house is up on a hill and she was stading on our front porch yelling to all the kids "CANDY, CANDY!" When we went to the neighbors across the street, they told us how cute they thought it was...mom maybe just thinks she is getting loud! Once she realized that she got candy when she went door to door she was all for it!

And last but not least, the Hannah update! She is getting more crazy and wild every day...winter maybe scares me because we can't just go outside and run around as easily. She thinks that it is fun to bite Allison's fingers and toes. I don't really know where she learned this one from. I just have to remember that she is two, and this is normal, right!? She is also like a little parrot! Last night she asked to watch her Diego video, and I told her that is was Sunday and that we didn't need to watch TV. She then tells me "Come on, mom! Right now!" I had to laugh because I know she sounded just like me when I'm trying to get her to hurry up and get ready to leave the house, etc. I better watch what I say, because she's going to say it right back to me! She might challenge me sometimes, but she is still such a good girl (most of the time! :)
Another uncooperative pic.

Show and tell, b-day, and costumes!

2008-10-19T18:08:00.005-05:00

So we are still alive. We just seem to be busy. I don't know where the days go to, but somehow time is just flying by! Allison sure seems to be growing up so much more quickly than Hannah...maybe it is just because I am more busy!?

About a week and a half ago Hannah and Allison had a big adventure. They got to go to school. Nate's youngest sister was student of the week in her kindergarten class, and for show and tell she brought Hannah and Allison to share with her class. She is funny because most of the time she doesn't really get along with Hannah all that well. I think they are both too stubborn and bossy. Anyways, she was still really excited about having them in class. She told her teacher that her favorite thing to do was to hold Allison! Too cute. So here is a picture of Grace doing her favorite thing.

I didn't get a good picture of her with Hannah, but that is mostly because Hannah made herself at home in the classroom and was busy playing with all of their toys. When show and tell was over, it was time to line up to go to music class, and so Hannah lined up with them. I don't anticipate her having much separation anxiety when it comes time to go to school! She is definitely Miss Independent!

Here is another picture of Miss Allison, looking so big! :)

And here is my little ladybug! She is ready to go celebrate daddy's b-day and to go trick or treating!

Nate's b-day was on Wed. and he was working. It was family night at the country club, so we visited and ate dinner sort of with him while he worked. It was their Halloween themed night, so we (the girls) had to get all dressed up in costumes. Here is Hannah helping Aunt Sara make Aunt Josie into a mummy. She thought is was pretty funny and then thought she needed some, but couldn't get it to stay on! At least so far she hasn't had any bright ideas about the TP in our bathroom at home. Hopefully it stays that way!

Lastly, the birthday boy with his two little ladybugs. Happy Birthday Nate the Great!!!

Happy Birthday Erma!

2008-10-02T14:28:00.003-05:00

This past Sunday was Nate's great grandma's 95th birthday, so we celebrated over at grandma Eileen's house. Hannah is all excited about birthday's these days. I think partly because we celebrated hers multiple times, and this year she actually thought the parties were pretty fun. We told her once that daddy's birthday was the next one in our family and now she keeps asking about it! The other morning the first thing she said when she got up was "daddy's birthday coming!" Anyways, his birthday is still a few weeks away, but lately she keeps talking about daddy's yummy birthday cake...so that must really be why she is excited.

So here is a five generation picture. Great grandma Erma, grandma Eileen, Nate's dad, Nate and his sister Tiff, and then Hannah, Allison, Cameron, Kiara, and Caleb (Tiff's kids) Pretty neat, I never had any great great grandparents around when I was growing up!

Lessons from daddy

2008-09-25T15:14:00.003-05:00

Today we stopped by the pro shop to see what daddy was up to. Things have been slowing down around the country club since school has started, so we actually got to visit with daddy while we were there! Nate showed Hannah how to putt...

and she tried it our for herself! Maybe we will get a little more practice in next year!

And this is Hannah's usual entertainment while she is out at the country club. The mirror. She will sit there and make faces, talk to herself, whatever. She thinks it is great. I still can't figure out why this mirror is so much more fun than the ones we have at home!

Scary

2008-09-22T10:20:00.002-05:00

So yesterday we went to church like normal and Allison decided that she was hungry. We only had about 20 minutes left of church and so I decided that I would just go home to feed her...we don't really have a place to nurse a baby in our rented building, and we had two cars in the parking lot. So I get Allison all ready, trying to hurry because she is hungry (although she is very patient compared to how Hannah was). I open the door to the van with the key, so it is still in my hand while I'm trying to get her strapped into the car and I accidentally hit the lock button so the horn beeps. I decide to just put the key up in the front seat so that I don't set off the panic button or something. Then I closed the door and try to get into the car. Of course, you can probably guess that the door is locked...all of them. Um, PANIC...I just locked my hungry 3 month old in the car and I am almost certain that the other set of keys, besides the ones sitting on the front seat are in the diaper bag...also in the car. Anyways, Nate's dad called some guy who coached Nate's sister's basketball team when she was in high school and he came as quickly as he could and got the car unlocked for us. Granted this all still took about 25 minutes of Allison crying in the car, which was warmer than it needed to be, but luckily it wasn't a hot day, and she keeps looking at me through the window like why aren't you helping me mom! So while this is all going on I'm thinking two things 1)guilt, because I did this to her (there was maybe some crying to go along with this) and 2) I wish somehow I could be the one suffering instead of her...it just didn't seem fair! Later yesterday afternoon I was thinking back to an article I had read in the Ensign about a woman who saw her grandson burn his hand on a hot curling iron and how she wished that she could take away the pain and how it ended up teaching her more about the Savior and His suffering for each of us. It got me thinking about how much we learn from being parents! No wonder Adam and Eve were commanded to multiply and replenish the earth and so are we. Without these little ones I know that I would miss out on SOOOO many lessons that Heavenly Father wants to teach me. It is amazing how much children teach you about love...pure, unconditonal love, and so many other lessons, like patience ! :) I am so grateful for Hannah and Allison and all that I have learned from them so far, and all that I know I will continue to learn from them. What a blessing they are to me!