The many hats of Hannah

Unlike a lot of kids I know, Hannah really likes hats. Even as a baby she kept them on pretty well. I have some fun pictures of her in her different hats that I just wanted to post since nothing else is going on here. I don't have any of the pictures from when she was really little on my computer, but there are plenty of them to fill this post!

Now for the hats of past and present:

July 2007 at the Strawberry Festival in Kirtland, OH.

At our Halloween (2007) play group.

She wore this for over 2 hours at the play group without bothering it once! I used this at church last week and she found it and wanted to wear it around the house all the while roaring like a lion. It is such a cute little roar but not very ferocious I'm afraid.

My little yogurt elf! December 2007


Her winter hat I got at Target with the mittens still attached to the top. She frequently brings me this one and wants to wear it around the house and doesn't usually complain when I make her wear it when we go out.


At my parents' house wearing Grandpa's hat. January 2008

Wearing the St. Patrick's Day hat. She thought it was so funny to walk around the house with the hat like this. She'd get so upset if we took it off. It was pretty entertaining watching her walk into walls, etc. because she couldn't see, but she wanted to wear the hat like this on several occasions.

Gangsta Hannah wearing Dad's Indians hat.

She's pretty funny. We sure love her and she keeps us laughing every day. Sorry I don't have anything more exciting to post about. Damon and I did narrow our names for girl #2 down last night. Feel free to vote for your fav on our poll but please note that despite which name is winning we will ultimately decide which we like best. :) Oh, my food storage is supposed to be arriving on Friday so expect an update on that in the near future. Spring break is next week so hopefully I'll have something more exciting to post about. Until then, TTFN.

Food Storage

With gas prices going up and the economy going down Damon and I have been a little concerned about our food storage (or lack thereof). We decided that we probably can't live for very long on wheat, rice, and flour. I wasn't so concerned about food storage when it was just Damon and I, but now that we have Hannah it has become something that I worry about and keeps me up at night. It would just break my heart to see Hannah crying because she was so hungry and I had nothing to give her. So today I spent a few hours online (and talking with my mom) checking out 72 hour kits and various food storage items. I found one website that I thought I would pass along. The site is http://store.honeyvillegrain.com/ The prices seemed decent (but I don't know a lot about prices for these types of things) and the best thing is that shipping for your ENTIRE order is only $4.49!!!! Most of the things I was looking at had at least a 3 year shelf life and some of them up to 10 or 15 years! I decided to get 1 can of a few different things to try them out before I make a larger purchase. These are the things I've ordered and I'll let you know how they turn out.

Powdered Dried Whole Eggs (can be used in anything you use eggs in, including scrambled eggs. The shelf life for an OPEN can is 12 months!!! Makes the equivilant of 80-91 large whole eggs.)

Instant Milk substitute (makes 24 quarts or 6 gallons per can)

Chocolate Milk substitute (same as above)

Banana Chips

Freeze Dried Apples

Dehydrated Carrots

Beef flavored TVP (Texturized Vegetable Protein, used in school lunches and also fast food industry quite often. I've had it before, not too bad)

Chicken flavored TVP

Tropical Monsoon Fruit Smoothie (only $3.19 for 15 1oz servings made with real fruit, just add ice and water. Can't wait to try it out!)

All in all it is a good start and I feel a little better about our food storage situation. At least now I'll be able to make some somewhat good and nutritious meals that don't consist of...flour and water cakes? I'll let you know how it all tastes and how easy it is to incorporate it into what I make now (the key to food storage is rotation!). I hope that all of you will take a little time to get started on your food storage, even if it is just buying a few extra cans of beans while you're at the store this week. Our 7 years of famine may be just around the corner and we need to be prepared.

Happy Birthday Damon!

Today is Damon's 29th birthday! I can't believe it! We met when he was 22, started dating when he was 23, and got married when he was 24. Last night we reminisced for over an hour (does anyone else get chatty at bedtime or is it just me?) about the fun times we've had together. I love doing this. I love hearing what he thought about an experience and it is usually way different than what I thought he was thinking at the time. So this is my honey's last year in the 20's. I guess we'd better make it a good one!

Pictures of my birthday boy!

Eating his green eggs for breakfast (he looks a little sleepy huh?) Being born on St. Patrick's Day with a last name like Pope it seems that he should have been destined to be Catholic.

With Hannah as he's getting ready to go to school this morning

At the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, HI last May. He got to be a drummer at the Tongan Village and got that fancy headpiece for his sweet skills.

Getting ready to go down to the Cave of the Winds at Niagara Falls last July.

With Hannah at Niagara Falls, July 2007

Indian's game, August 2007

As the Scarecrow with Dorthy and the (not so cowardly, but grumpy) lion. October 2007

The Student Dr. side of Damon in the Dominican Republic. (For more about his trip see previous posts.)

Damon, I love you so much and am so grateful to be your wife. You are such a great husband and father. Thanks for all that you do for our little family. You've worked so hard to get where you are now and I couldn't be prouder of you. You complete me and I love you with all of my heart. Luv, your girls.

What's in a name?

I saw this post on a friend's blog and thought it would be comical to do, so here it is:

Damon's answers first, mine second.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet, current car)
Cat Mazda / Turtle Mazda

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (favorite ice cream, favorite cookie)
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Oreo / Mint Chocolate Chip Peanut butter

3. YOUR FLY “GUY/GIRL” NAME: (first initial first name, first 3 letters last name)
D-Pop / M-Pop

4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Green Cheetah / Blue Dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Joshua Cottage Grove / Nothing Fresno (I don't have a middle name, but I guess since I got married I took my first initial of my maiden name as my middle name. So I guess the answer could be "A Fresno" but Nothing sounds more dramatic!)

6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters last name, first 2 letters first name)
Pop-Da / Pop-Mi

7. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink and add "the”)
The Red Fruit Punch / The Purple Water

8. NASCAR NAME:(first names of your grandfathers)
Jack William / Lloyd Merrill

9. AUTHOR NAME: (favorite perfume or cologne, favorite candy)
Swiss Army Twix / Secret Garden Twizlers

10. WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s and father’s middle names)
Dale William/ Lyn Dean

That was kinda silly but I'm sure you guys will have some more exciting answers so consider yourself tagged if you want to do this post.

I'm a little snowball...

Hannah has been going crazy being in the house lately. That is my fault because we just haven't gone anywhere. (I can't wait for some warmer weather!) On Thursday she was just being naughty and I knew it was because she was bored and just going crazy. Well it was a little warmer (40 degrees or so) and the snow was starting to melt so we went outside to play. Hannah doesn't have boots or snow pants so I thought we'd just run around on the covered porch for a little bit. That lasted about 10 min and Hannah wanted to get down and run around. So, I let her. She had a great time walking around in the snow. The snow wasn't very deep because it had been melting all day so she had no trouble walking around. We stayed out for at least 1/2 hour until her nose was red and my ears were cold. When I brought her back in she screamed because she wanted to go back outside (I fixed that with a little hot chocolate!)

Damon loves playing in the snow so when I told him that Hannah and I had been out, he really wanted to take her out and play too. So yesterday after he got home from school Damon bundled Hannah up and took her out. The only problem is that we had gotten quite a bit more snow (it is still snowing by the way. Yuck!) and she had a really hard time walking in it.

This is right after she biffed it. She looks like she's having fun huh?

She looks so cold, but she still screamed when Damon brought her in.

Hannah and her baby

Hannah has become really attached to her baby that she got from Grammy and Grandpa for Christmas. It is so fun to see her play with her and she takes her with her everywhere. I love seeing her little imagination developing as she realized she can put baby down for night-night and give her her blanket and hat. Poor baby gets dropped, stepped on, and run over a lot.

Hannah and her two favorite things: books and baby!

Should I be worried for Hannah's little sister?!?