Happy Halloween, just a little early!

Last week Nate asked me if I knew what day Halloween was on...umm, yeah, the 31st. No, he was wondering what day we were celebrating on...umm, the 31st. That's always when I went trick or treating when I was little. Sure enough a few days later we find out that trick or treating is happening on Tuesday (tonight) from 5-8. Ok, so I guess when you live in a small place you can change holidays. Good thing we got the memo and have family around to inform us! Apparently both the public and Catholic high schools in town made it to state playoff for football and they have games tomorrow night (Halloween) So tonight was Halloween instead and Hannah's first time actually trick or treating! We had a good time!

Yesterday we carved pumpkins before daddy headed to AZ for the week. We are missing him! He used to be gone all the time, and it was normal, but I'm not used to it any more (and I didn't have Hannah around when he was gone for golf either!)

Hannah had her own pumpkin that we picked a few weeks ago at the orchard. Her daddy carved it for her. If you look closely you can see it has two top "fang" teeth, just like Hannah STILL! We didn't find an toddler vampire costume, so her pumpkin had to do.

Hannah with two of her aunts dressed as beautiful princesses.

Hannah with her youngest 5 aunts and uncles. Can you tell that Hannah wanted her mommy ALL NIGHT!

My little puppy!

Tonight we had our "Trunk or Treat" at church and I wanted to share a few pictures...of Hannah of course! We also got a new camera, so I was excited about taking pictures (nothing fancy, but more than half the size and double the quality of pictures from our old one...welcome to 2007, right?)

I originally bought Hannah a bear costume because we call her Hannah bear, but Nate's sister, Tiff had this one. I thought it was appropriate in memory of my dog Dallas who we had to put to sleep earlier this year :(

She really was trying to sit still and pose for the camera!

Carrying her bucket and ready to get some candy!

My two babies! We got Dallas when I was 8 and he was MY puppy. He didn't really care much for Hannah (mostly he was jealous) but he was so sick at this point that he wasn't bothered.

Happy Birthday to Nate!

So the past few days have been super fun...

On Saturday we went to Deal's Orchard with Nate's family. They had all sorts of food, apples and cider, music, games, horses, hay rides, and PUMPKINS! Hannah had a great time playing with the pumpkins and dancing to the music! I'll see if I can figure out how to post a video clip, but for now, here are some pics...

Hannah with her pumpkin that she picked with daddy, making her face of the day.

Hannah trying to figure out what all of these pumpkins are for!

Time to pose for a family photo!

It was a lot of hard work (and all during her regular nap time)

On Sunday, Nate's family came over for birthday dessert, and they brought a little present for him. Very appropriate!

Yesterday, Nate's birthday, we made a trip to Omaha to go to the zoo! Here's Hannah in the car on the way, trying to keep herself entertained...I had to post this one because you can really see her FANGS on top! :) Still no teeth in the front!

We stopped to eat our picnic near the Winter Quarters Temple, so we went inside the visitor's center. Here Hannah is helping dad out with the hand cart.

We finally made it to the zoo! The weather wasn't the best, but that meant that we about had the place to ourselves. Hannah's favorite parts of the zoo were the underwater tunnel in the aquarium and playing in the "garden of the senses." She probably liked both of these the best because she got to run around!

Here is Hannah in the garden sitting with a big monkey!

And smelling a flower! I love it, I've been trying to teach her this all summer!

Happy Birthday, Nate!!!

Calling all dog trainers!

So a few weeks ago we installed this invisible fence for our dog, Chloe. With it comes this video that makes training your dog seem really easy. Chloe first got really bored with the training, then for a while she was afraid of going anywhere near the edge of the yard, and now she just runs away! The problem is she has this thing about chasing squirrels, and there are tons of them out now collecting their food for the winter. Chloe has figured out that if she runs really fast she can get through without really getting shocked. Either that or she is so crazy about chasing the squirrels that she doesn't care. Where's the Dog Whisperer when I need him!

A Play Day!

So lately Nate has actually been getting two days off of work per week. Amazing! Anyways, so the last few weeks he has had Sunday AND Monday off, and Hannah and I are sure enjoying it! This last Monday we had another play day with dad. We were trying to enjoy the nice weather, so we went to the park. Hannah went down the slide for the first time! She wasn't sure about it at first, but after a few tries, she thought it was very fun! While we were at the park, we also got to play with Chloe. We forgot her ball to play catch, but we found a frisbee that somebody else left. Apparently Chloe will chase anything. She's such a fast dog, and she just wants to run and play!

Yesterday Hannah was helping mom make cookies. She finally realized that this particular cabinet is not locked shut. Cans are very fun to take out of the cabinet, except that she has also recently gotten into throwing everything...not so good for canned foods. She went back to playing quietly on the ground after she dropped a can on her toes. OUCH!Yesterday Hannah also got her first real "boo boo" right between her eyes. Usually in the mornings Hannah wakes up earlier than I am ready to get up (it is still dark out!) and so we typically get her out of her crib and bring her into our room where she runs around like crazy. Her morning routine consists of trying to get into the dog's cage and play in the water, taking any books off our nightstands that she can get her hands on, finding clothes in the closet or folded in a laundry basket to play peek-a-boo with, turning onto the CD player and dancing to the music, and trying to get at the cell phones. She is always SO full of energy as soon as she wakes up! Anyways, while she was trying to get at the cell phones on the nightstand, and acting crazy all at the same time, when she tripped and fell. Falling happens all the time, but she hit her nose on our bed frame (which is really for a full sized bed even though we have a queen...that's the biggest problem) Oh well! She didn't even bruise, which is nice, and although she has a scab now, there was not any bleeding. I'm sure there will be many more scrapes and bruises to come!Imagine that... a whole post about Hannah! One last thing that happened this week, Hannah has finally started using her baby sign language all the time. For a while she's been signing "milk" but mostly only when she thought it was convenient. "All done" she also thought was fun. Just this week she finally figured out "more" and it is so cute! Her version looks more like she is calling a time out-Nate's convinced she's destined to be an athlete! She has been getting so excited that she can tell me what she wants (even if sometimes she gets confused and thinks "milk" is any type of food and that "more" means she is hungry) Can you tell she likes to eat!?

Our Little Vampire

Hannah finally decided to get a few more teeth. At the end of last week she got her second fang in. I had given up on her ever getting any more teeth. She's had the bottom two for 3 months now, with no signs of any more. Last Sunday, Nate's dad thought he spotted a new tooth in her mouth, and sure enough it was! Part of the problem was that I wasn't looking for a tooth on the side of her mouth, normal kids get them in front first, right? So now she has two teeth in on the top finally, one on either side of where her two front teeth would be. We will just have to find her a vampire costume for Halloween to complete the outfit!!! We'll post a picture when her teeth are a little more visible!

A future golfer?

Life at the golf course is finally starting to slow down, and so Hannah had the opportunity to go to the driving range. She's always been a big fan of driving around the course on a golf cart and playing in the pro shop, but she hasn't had very many chances to play golf.


The results...

sorting golf balls is fun

moving them from one basket to the next

carrying the golf balls around

and stealing them from dad

but she wanted nothing to do with hitting a golf ball with a club. Don't worry, dad tried! Hannah decided that picking up the golf balls, throwing them, chasing after them, etc. was much more fun! (I don't know if it blame her :)

Hannah even got her first driving lessons out at the course.

Hannah was also a big helper yesterday when dad and mom were playing in the year planting a new tree and a few bushes. Kids seem to have some sort of magnetic attraction to dirt. I still don't understand why it is to much fun!

Nate also had a fun evening last night. He went bowling as a sub for his uncle's league team and had a good time. He called home to tell me that he didn't bowl very well (only like 139, 141 and 159) which are all scores way above my bowling average, but that he was going to stay and bowl three more games to help him establish an average for when he bowls again next week. When he gets home he tells me that his last game he bowled a 210!! Then he proceeds to tell me that that is not even his best ever, one time he bowled a 224. I guess when you grow up in Carroll, you maybe spend more time at the bowling alley than I did in CO, but still, that is not fair! He is just too coordinated for me...hopefully Hannah inherits some of Nate's talents!