ABC TAG

While I was catching up on my blogs I noticed that someone tagged me. This is one I haven't done so here it goes:

A-Attached or Single?- Attached, in more ways than one at the moment (baby due in 7 weeks)

B-Best Friend?- Damon

C-Cake or Pie?- probably pie, Apple or Lemon Meringue

D-Day of Choice?- Probably Saturday because that is when Damon is home.

E-Essential Item?- I've gotten pretty used to having the Internet and I don't know if I would do without it any more.

F- Favorite color?- blue

G-Gummy Bears or Worms?- Worms, but I also love cinnamon bears!

H-Hometown?- Rexburg, Idaho

I-Favorite Indulgence?- Ice cream I guess

J-January or July?- Probably July...except in 90 degree weather with 90 % humidity

K-Kids?- Hannah, 19 months, Myah (probably) -7 weeks.

L-Life isn't complete without?- Family

M-Marriage Date?- April 26, 2003

N-Number of brothers and sisters? 2 brothers, 3 sisters

O-Oranges or Apples?- I really like them both

P-Phobia and Fears? It used to be spiders, but I'm trying to be a big girl and outgrow that. I am kind of claustrophobic though.

Q-Quote?- Men take care not to make women weep, for God count's their tears. This is supposed to be attributed to Thomas S. Monson but I don't know if he really said it or not.

R-Reason to smile?- I have a wonderful life! My second baby is due in 7 weeks!

S-Season of choice?- Spring or Fall in Cleveland. They are beautiful here.

T-Tag ten people?- Do ten people read this? Carissa, Elise, Summer A., Misty, Cara, Emily, Jordan, Rachel R., Chelsea, & Kim.

U-Unknown fact about me?- I am really accident prone when it comes to winter sports. I broke my leg while skiing and broke my collar bone (left clavicle for all of you doctors out there) snowboarding.

V-Vegetable?- I like most of them, green beans, corn, salad...etc.

W-Worst habit?- procrastination

Y-Your favorite food?- Mexican food

Z-Zodiac Sign?- Aries

Idaho update

After a week in Oregon we headed to Idaho for a week. We got to see all of my family except my dad and sister Rachel who were in Europe. It wasn't the greatest timing for my mom since she was leaving for Europe the day we flew home but you do what you can, right? We mostly just hung out and tried to help my mom get things ready to go before her trip.

One of the chores on the to do list was to plant the garden. The weather was beautiful so even Hannah wanted to help. Damon and my 2 brothers got an additional chore and spent 2 days roofing 1/2 of my parent's house...so maybe I should say it was a lot of hanging out for me and a lot of work for Damon. In all fairness to my mom she did not assign this chore. My brother, Paul, volunteered to do it on his day off and Damon and Greg kind of got roped into it as well. To be honest I think Damon was just happy to have something to do. Since my brothers were gone during the day I think he got really tired of hanging out with all of the girls. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the guys working (or the mess they made in the process). They worked really hard in the heat and it turned out really nice. Damon isn't used to manual labor these days so he was pretty sore for about a week. I guess that's what he gets for sitting in a chair all day long with his soft dentist hands. :) I love ya honey!

Hannah helping to plant the corn. Sorry the rows aren't very straight, Dad. Hannah was just too much of a helper I think.

Farmers Damon and Lara.

One of Hannah's favorite things about Grammy and Grandpa's house (besides having a big yard to run around in, the dog, and cat) is the SWING! She loves to swing and would beg anyone who would listen and take pity on her to take her outside and swing. I think she only fell off 3 times. :)

My sister just had a baby on April 19 so we took advantage of having all three grandchildren (all girls) together to take pictures. The photo shoot didn't go very well though. Anna was fussy and started crying which then made Rya cry. Hannah tried to cheer her up but she wasn't the most cheerful thing herself. Oh well, it was funny trying and I'm glad we got the whole thing on video. This is what memories are made of.

Hannah, Rya, and Anna (before all of the tears started...Hannah looks very happy to be doing this doesn't she?)

Hannah trying to cheer Rya up. Hannah loved Rya. Rya is so good natured that she put up with Hannah trying to hold her, pick her up, and give her her pluggy (pacifier). We loved being able to spend time with Paul, Kim and Rya who were also visiting while we were there.

Uncle Greg and Hannah on the lawn mower. Hannah had so many people to play with and entertain her while we were there. She loved all of the attention....so did I!

We had a great time seeing everyone and were sad to leave. We love you all and wish we could see you more often!

We're Back!

Yes, I know I have been slacking in the blogging world. We went on vacation for 2 weeks and I didn't so much as look at a blog while I was gone. Needless to say I had a lot to catch up on when I got back. We're back now and Damon starts school again tomorrow so it's back to the grind.

We had a great trip visiting both Damon's family in Oregon and my family in Idaho. Hannah was a trooper and did really well considering what we put her through. Our flight to Oregon left at 6:20 am which meant that we had to be at the airport by 5:00 am. Despite this Hannah did pretty well. We traveled for 13 hours including layovers and driving from Portland to Damon's folks. She was pretty tired but still such a good little thing.

She fit so I guess she's a carryon....until October when she turns 2. Then she has to get her own seat.

One of the most fun things about going to Oregon was the fact that NOBODY knew we were coming! We had been thinking about going back West to visit our families but hadn't decided if we were going to or not so we didn't want to say anything to Damon's mom (Lisa) to get her hopes up. We finally decided we were going to go on Tuesday, May 6. Lisa's birthday is on May 3 so we thought it would be really fun to surprise her and just tell her that her birthday present was going to be a little bit late. She had NO idea. We didn't even tell Damon's dad so he couldn't somehow let it slip. We showed up outside Lisa's work on Tuesday. She happened to be outside so we just drove up and rolled down the window and asked for directions to the Costco. It took her a few seconds to register who we were and a few min. more to get over the shock. It was so fun! Then she had to think of something to get Damon's dad (Wade) to come home without spilling the beans. We had a really good visit with Damon's folks and 2 of his brothers. Damon even got to go with his dad and brothers on the annual Father and Son's outing. Lisa and I got to enjoy a nice relaxing evening at home watching chick flicks (a rarity for her in a house full of boys!) It was nice to be able to spend Mother's Day there too. Wade made a delicious prime rib and the boys cleaned up the kitchen. We had a really good time and were so happy we could spend some time with them.

Hannah had so much fun playing with her Uncle Austin.

Hannah with Nana

Grandpa (or Papa, as she calls him) and Hannah getting ready for bed.

Trying to escape from Great Grandma Pope.

Lisa with her boys on Mother's Day...except Anthony. Anthony and Janet we missed you!

Random Hannah Pictures

I know it seems like all I ever post about is Hannah, but she's my life so this is what you get. Spring has come to Cleveland so we've been able to get out and enjoy the nice weather. Can I just say how much I have missed the sun? The last couple of weeks we have had several days in the high 60's and up to mid 70's! I have been in heaven! Hannah has really enjoyed being able to go outside too. I think I may have created a monster with this because now she expects to go to the park or as she calls it see-see (meaning swing-swing, obviously she loves to swing) every day. We have made it most days and the days we don't go outside for a little while are tough. How did we survive staying home all winter? And what is she going to do when we have our new baby and we don't go out much for a little bit? It is going to be lots of fun! Anyway, here are the pictures:

See-See

Going down the "si"

After we went to the park on Friday it was really hot! The park doesn't have any shade so Hannah and I were roasting. Hannah is a pretty warm kid and I am 7 months pregnant which makes me VERY warm so I thought we'd better invest in some popsicles. I think this may have been Hannah's first popsicle as is obvious by the following picture:

Which end am I supposed to be eating?

Yum!

We have a little babysitting group that we do. We have 4 couples and each take 1 Friday a month to watch the kiddies (3 boys and Hannah, all around the same age) for 2 hours and then we get to go out the other 3 Fridays-It's awesome! So while Hannah was at babysitting group a couple of weeks ago she got....HER FIRST KISS! Apparently Stetson kisses on the second wagon date.

The love birds

Oh, on a side note: My little sister, Andrea, and her husband, Barrett, had their first baby yesterday morning. Anna Kay Gibson was born at 3:30 am and weighed 8 lbs 4 oz (almost 2 lbs heaver than Hannah!) and was 19 1/2 inches long. She has the cutest chubby cheeks! Congratulations you guys! We are so happy for you.

The proud Mama

Look at the chubby cheeks! Don't you just want to kiss them?

Spring Break 2008

Damon had Spring Break this week and I compiled quite a list for us to accomplish during this week. Unfortunately or fortunately it seems that with a few exceptions only the fun things got accomplished. That's okay. I guess the most important thing was that we got to spend some quality time together as a family. Hannah has sure enjoyed spending time with Damon. She follows him all around the house and asks for him first thing in the morning or waking up from naps. I'm afraid it is going to be a long day for both of us when he goes back to school tomorrow.
Some highlights from this week are going to the Zoo and the Kalahari Indoor Water Park. On Monday's our Zoo has free admission for county residents. It was kind of overcast and the forecast was calling for rain so we weren't sure if we were going to go or not. We decided to go and met some friends there and had a really great time with no rain at all. Hannah is at the age where she really enjoyed seeing the animals, especially the monkeys. She made all of the noises for the animals that she knows and seemed to really enjoy it.

Checking out some of the monkeys.

Eating lunch at the Zoo. It was chilly enough that I had Hannah wear her hood because she's been sick. She didn't seem to mind at all and wore it the whole time. She's such a good little thing

There is a little petting zoo with goats in it and Damon took Hannah in to check them out. I wasn't sure how she was going to react but she loved them! She kept baaa-ing and didn't hesitate petting them at all.

Hannah enjoying her first sucker. Thanks Carissa! She enjoyed it so much she didn't want to even give the stick up!

Our next adventure was the indoor water park. We went with our friends the Lees and had a good time. It is the biggest indoor water park in North America and there was lots to do...if you aren't pregnant! Hannah didn't like the water at first and took over 1/2 hour to warm up to it. I finally convinced her it was like the bathtub and it was fun. She even went down some of the slides and had a good time. She found a little geyser by the wave pool that shot water out of the ground a few feet and had a really good time playing with that. She probably enjoyed that more than the kiddie pool or slides. I didn't get very good pictures of her though because she wouldn't look at me or would turn her back to me just as I was going to take the picture. Another problem we had was that the camera lens kept fogging up so some of the pictures aren't very clear. Oh well, we had 2 fun days of swimming and spending time together as a family and with the Lees - Thanks for inviting us!

We had a really good time and are sad that our week with Daddy is over. Luckily he'll get 3 weeks off in May. We can't wait!

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.