the pretzel game

Matt is constantly creating new games to play with Hannah. Here are some shots of his most recent.

It doesn't have a name so I'll just call it "the pretzel game". He puts stick pretzels between his fingers

and Hannah tries to pull them out and eat them.

Okay, so obviously there is no "competition" here it's on the more politically correct side of "cooperative" games - but Hannah is delighted nonetheless.

applegate zoo

On Saturday we took Hannah to Applegate Zoo in Merced. You really cannot beat the $1.75 admission price. And it is the perfect zoo for toddlers - just enough walking and the animals are really close to you.

Armed with her fancy sunglasses and Cheerios, Hannah was ready to see some animals (even though she doesn't look very enthusiastic right here).

The birds were definitely the highlight for Hannah. Here's Matt explaining to Hannah that an owl is a type of bird (he's showing her the baby sign for bird).

The bears were the highlight for Matt & I. We came in the morning when it was still cool and these two black bears were very playful with eachother. It was great to watch.

We are trying to teach Hannah to say cheese and smile when we take pictures - I'm pretty sure she gets her cheesey fake smile from her dad.

Hannah and I took a snack break to watch more birds (a magpie and an albino scrubjay) play...

....while Matt went around the zoo a second time to enjoy the gigantic mountain lion.


This picture captures well what we thought of the zoo!

1st Day of School

Today was Hannah's 1st day of school! (well, sort of...) We took Hannah to visit Grandma's preschool!

She sat in circle time with Daddy!

Ate artsy cookies at snack time.

watched the kids play on the new play equipment outside.

and was absolutely delighted to spend time at the sand table.

We hope her first day of preschool in August 2011 goes as smoothly as today did!

monkey business

This past weekend Hannah went to her first birthday party. (Well, at least the first that she could actually participate in.)

Her cousin, Reagan, turned two!

It was a monkey theme and the kids all went out hunting for mini bananas. It was pretty awesome. It took very little coaxing to get Hannah to look for bananas - her love of fruit led her to quickly fill up her bucket.

Here she is all dressed up for the party:

hunting for bananas

the birthday girl

enjoying a chocolate monkey cupcake

the biggest surprise of the party was Grandpa showing up with a beard! (i think it looks pretty refined, matt disagrees with me).

Baby Caleb was super smiley with GG when he woke up from his nap.

A great time was had by ALL!

our valentine's getaway

With Valentine's Day and another baby coming in just a couple of months, Matt & I decided it was time for another baby-free getaway. My mom came up to watch Hannah and the two of us stole away to Historic Placerville for the weekend.


Placerville may not ignite the same images of romance in your mind as Napa does - but it has plenty of romance & charm for us. We stayed at the historic Carry Hotel on Main Street and dined (multiple times) at one of our favorite restaurants in the world (which says a lot) - The Heyday Cafe. It has only 9 tables and a wine bar to sit at. The menu changes slightly every 6 weeks, but we have yet to try anything there we didn't absolutely love. Just to make your mouth water - on Saturday evening we had an appetizer of baked brie, served with warm raspberry marmalade and toasted bread - awesome!

For those of you who haven't seen me in awhile, you are probably wondering what I look like now at 7 months pregnant - well, I'm very prego.

And here's Matt's new look too!

Before the weekend was over we drove a couple of miles up the road to Apple Hill to see if any of the apple stands were still open. And amazingly, we discovered that Boa Vista Orchards was still open and sells their apples all year long, except for during summer when they bring in apples from Washington. I was delighted to get a couple pounds of their Fuji apples (they are my favorite) to take home.

We also walked around the grounds and enjoyed views of not just the apple orchards, christmas tree farms, and vineyards, but also the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas. It was beautiful!

A happy couple ready to return home!

21 months and counting...

Today Hannah turned 21 months old. She is pretty sick (fever, coughing, etc.) so I'm not sure it was her best day ever. But as each day goes by more of her personality emerges. She loves making faces and giving daddy tackle hugs. She is learning new words and signs all the time. Her newest words are "white" (which sounds more like "whiii") and "cereal". The most recent signs she's learned are chicken

and airplane.

(Both of which she got to practice a week ago when we visited our friends, the Keanes, in Arizona; they have chickens.)
She's also becoming quite a little girl who loves walking alongside us and holding hands. She can't wait to help with tasks around the house, like unloading the dryer and surprisingly, she likes picking up her toys and putting them away.
Bellybuttons are fascinating to her and although she hasn't yet grasped that a little brother is coming to join us in 3 months, she has noticed that mommy's bellybutton sticks out a lot.

Excited Face!!

This is Hannah's excited face!!

I had the same look on my face tonight when Hannah actually used the potty as more than a seat! Yea, for our growing girl!