Cookoff Time!

A few weeks ago was Austin's big event of the year, the rodeo cookoff!  I've blogged about this every year since I started the blog and it's always a good time.  It's a little different these days for me now that Hannah comes with me but it's still a lot of fun! 

I headed up to cookoff Friday for lunch and got to hang out with everyone before the CRAZY crowd came that evening!  It is PACKED at night time out there!  One in the tent/one out kind of thing.  One of the local news stations came by both Friday and Saturday and featured a story on the team!  They were on the news 3-4 times over the weekend.  Austin made it on the small screen!

Spam and Cliff being "reporters" 

Saturday morning CiCi, Papa C, Hannah and I headed to the rodeo cookoff!  Hannah was super excited about going as you can see here.

One of the first things Cindy saw when we walked into cookoff was THIS guy!  Phillip!!  You may remember seeing his picture from last years cookoff.  Phillip was wearing the EXACT same outfit this year.  No shirt and all.  We have no idea who this guy knows to get into our tent but he's a trip.  It was icing on the cake that he was pushing around a stroller with his grandson in it all day.  Of course I had to walk straight over to the guy and ask for a picture with him.  He's hilarious.  It would probably seem strange to do that with a normal person but Phillip is anything but normal and I know he was happy for the attention.  ;)

After all the Phillip excitement we were at the tent.  Each year the tent is getting bigger!

Me with my baby in 2012

Her outfit was so cute last year that I bought the same fabric and had my mom make her one for this year too.  :)  I "helped" a little...  Ha.  Look at how much bigger she is now!!

The best family pic I could get

Some of the guys hard at work.  Trust me, when it gets later in the day there is none of this going on!

This little guy is everywhere.

The beer supply for the day arrived while we were there.  This is just for ONE day!  There actually might be more....  They serve thousands of people in the three days of cookoff!

They have a serious smoker set up

Lunchbox with his oh-so-classy shirt on.  Ha!

Little munchkin trying to find all the trouble

She found it, stairs!

Wearing Pops' hat looking cute!

Lainey and Hannah

The guys won 3rd place for their dessert entry!!  That is HUGE because there are over 100 entries!  Their cast iron skillet sopapilla cheesecake is YUUUUMMY!

Hannah exploring the place with Papa C

Cindy and Austin

Me and Austin

Getting sleepy on Papa

Cutie

The best pic I could get of Katie and me with our girls

Aunt Rach and soon-to-be Uncle Dean came to play!

Aunt Rachel is so funny

This girl LOVES her some Dean!  He makes her laugh and laugh.

Smiling for Dean

Too cool for school

My girl Liz and me

After about four hours we had to head out so someone could get a nap.  She was starting to get a little tired from her busy day.  She loves wearing her sunglasses and wore them the whole way back to the car.

On the ride home...  Poor baby.


Another successful cookoff!  It is such a fun time and when it's over it takes about a year to be ready for the next one!  Great job Smokin' Amigos!!

19 Months Old!

My sweet Hannah Lee, you are 19 months old!  Only five months from turning TWO!!!  How is that possible?!  You are just the cutest and sweetest little thing I have ever laid my eyes on.  You make us laugh SO much!  You've become quite the character lately. 

Here's what you've been up to this past month.

You LOVE to put your babies to bed.  You put them face down, cover them up and pat them on their backs.  You are such a sweet mommy to all your babies.  You also love to put Mommy and Daddy to bed.  You point to the ground and say "Daddy nigh nigh" and of course he gets right on the ground and goes night night for his baby girl.

You are becoming so loving!  You give hugs to anyone who asks and give kisses too.  Sometimes when I least expect it you will come up to me with your arms out saying "ugh ugh" and want to give me a big hug.  It melts my heart.  You give good squeeze hugs now. 

You have been a very good girl this month and I don't think you've gone into timeout even once!  Your hitting phase appears to be short lived because you don't do that anymore, you just stomp your feet and start crying when you don't get your way.  We usually just distract you with something else and you're over it pretty quickly. 

We've been having a tough time with your eczema the last few months.  I think it's just because it's been cold and then warm and then cold again this winter and your skin is just really confused.  You sometimes get such bad spots on your body and we have to make sure you're really moisturized a lot.  Your face gets really dry too.  You are unphased by it of course but we are all over it.

Your vocabulary is just off the charts!  You are quite the talker!  A few weeks ago we were reading a book and you pointed and said "bicycle" clear as day.  Your Daddy and I looked at each other and said "did she just say bicycle??".  You are so smart!  You repeat so many things that we say so I can't even think of your normal words right now but we have to be very careful around you because you're a little parrot.  ;)  You are very good at knowing who things belong to.  You will point at my cup and say "mama's wa wa" and then point at your cup and say "Hannah's wa wa".  You brought me Daddy's Kindle (that I didn't even know you could reach at the time) and said "Daddys!".  I was glad you brought it to me and didn't hide it with your toys or drop it on the tile. 

You are so cute when we sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  We will sing the first verse and you will sing the second and so on.   You have it memorized!  Your words are a little unclear at times but you have the tone just right!  You are so smart.  :)

You are very polite which is so sweet.  I sneezed yesterday and you said "bless you mama".  I looked at you surprised and said "thank you Hannah!" and you said "welcome".  I don't know if they taught you to say bless you at school or if you just picked it up from hearing us say it but I was really impressed!  You will say "thank you" without being told a lot of the time now and sometimes you say "thank you welcome" all together which is super cute.  We've also started introducing you to praying at meal times and you are really interested and stare at us and love to say "Amen!" repeatedly after we're done.  You get pretty excited about it.

You've given your teachers a bit of a challenge a handful of times this month with your napping.  You are officially the "problem child" who is separated from the group for naps.  Nice.  They have to put you on the other side of the room because your friends will go to sleep right away and sometimes you don't fall asleep for an hour or more and they can't let you wake everyone up.  Sometimes you don't take a nap at all and are VERY tired on the ride home and usually fall asleep.  Mommy isn't a big fan of those days...  I don't know why you've started this but at home you still take great naps!  Usually between 1.5-3 hours each day.  I think you are just too distracted there and at home you are in your crib alone with your babies so you will quietly play with them until you fall asleep and at school on your cot there is just too much to do around you. 

I have no idea what you weigh right now but I do know you're tall and heavy.  :)  You're still a great eater and seem to like everything but cucumbers and apparently green grapes.  Just green ones.  You don't love chicken as much as you used to but you still eat it often without any problems. 

A few weeks ago you made the big transition to riding front facing in the car seat!  You were very excited about it.  You outgrew sitting rear facing with your long legs so it was time to have you see what's out there on the roads.  You point and says "cars!" a lot. 

You really love "Mickah Mowse" now.  You were SO cute this past weekend at the park, you were walking around just playing and kept yelling "Oh Toodles!" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  It was so funny.

Hannah Lee, your Daddy and I love you SOOOOO much!  You are just the sweetest little thing and entertain us everyday.  You are so loving and are FULL of personality! 

Phone Pics

Well hello!  I'm alive!  It's been a while.  We've been super busy with life stuff and lots of activities so I've neglected the blog a bit.  Sorry.  :(  Anyways, I have lots to share but I don't have the time right now so I'll at least put some of my recent phone pics on here in the meantime.  :)

This is my view every single night.  I love it.  We have quite the routine with the munchkin.  Every night Daddy gives her a bath and gets her ready for bed and we play a little then get in the sleep sack and she lays on Daddy while drinking her bedtime milk.  I'm always on the couch next to them while she's having her milk with Daddy.  After that he takes her to her room to go night night but first she and I tell each other "I love you".  Hers sounds more like "I yuv you mama" and "I yuv you ro ro (Brody)"

Melts my heart.

Here is a pic of one day after picking her up from school and she did NOT nap.  At ALL.  Not good.  So, she took her socks and shoes off and took a nap on the ride home.  We sat in the driveway for about 30 mins once we got home so she could get a short nap. 

Clearly, the nap was not long enough..... Ha!  She was pretty upset with me that night.  Maybe because she was soooo sleepy or maybe because I was taking pics/video of her on my phone to send to Daddy.  ;)  I'm mother of the year.  

Happy girl eating her lasagna! 

Wearing Lainey's shoes one day at their house.  She looks like such a big girl.

Playing at Mallory's birthday party looking so cool in her shades.  She was still in her rodeo outfit from the cookoff (post to come about that). 

Loving the slide at the bday party! 

Fun! 

My fearless girl 

Giving the birthday girl hugs.  So sweet.  They are BFFs and Hannah asks to see Mallory ALL THE TIME and now they are moving.  :(  I'm so sad for when Hannah realizes Mallory isn't next door. 

Looking like SUCH a BIG GIRL sitting by the fire outside!  She looked so cute in her jammies with her hands in the pockets. 

My view one day during nap time.  She had thrown everything out of her crib and had managed to pull her aquarium down and was standing on it.  She was busy.  Not napping.... 

Sweet girl still sleeps like a baby when she does nap. :)  I love her little crossed feet.

We went swimming in a friends heated pool a few weekends ago.  Hannah doesn't have a bathing suit yet for this year but luckily Gracie and Libby had sent her some of their clothes so she wasn't just in her diaper. 

Reading on the way home from school. 

One morning she was particularly fussy about being in the car and threw everything out of reach.  So, I handed her a People magazine and she read that instead. 

She LOVES to put her babies to bed and pat their backs.  She's really into having Mommy and Daddy lying on the ground so she can cover us up and pat us to sleep.  She wanted to go night night with Daddy that night. 

Sometimes she even uses DVD covers as blankets for her dolls. 

Last weekend I thought putting Hannah in her highchair to color was a good semi-unsupervised activity.  When I checked on her I saw this.  She was eating her crayon.... 

Austin picked her up from school one day this week and sent me this pic with the description "Cranky pantaloons".  Ha!  Some days she just does not want to leave school.  We love that she is so happy there but seriously, sometimes it's a little embarassing that she treats us like a kidnapper when we're just trying to go home....  Haha. 

Bath mohawk! 

Valentines Day 2013

Valentines Day started off with this sweet little image.  Hannah is really into putting her babies to bed and does it every morning before she gets out of her crib.  She made sure all her babies were covered up and warm before patting them on their backs and getting started with her day.  :)

Ready to go to school!  Lovin' on her new bear from Mallory. 

Early morning pics by Mommy!  FYI, all of these were taken on my phone so they aren't great quality. 

In the afternoon Hannah's class had a Valentines Day party where they each brought a snack and cards for their friends.  Hannah was so happy to see Mommy there! 

Chowing down on some good grub.  She's a master with her spoon. 

You could easily tell that Hannah is one of the kids that never gets sweets.  She wasted NO time eating her mini cupcake!!  There was not one crumb left.....

Hannah and some of her friends.  Cuteness. 

Signing "all done" but clearly she was still interested in food because she's checking out the table next to her with a cupcake left.  Ha.  I was so surprised by her too, I let her have juice for the 2nd time in her life and she didn't want it, she asked for water instead!  Makes me think our obsessing about her eating healthy foods is paying off.  :)

Wash!  Wash!  Hannah LOVES to wash her hands, it's so cute to watch. 

Aaaaannnnddd.....this was the reaction I got when I said we were going home.  Thanks a lot Hannah....  :(  I asked her if she wanted me to leave and she could stay the night all by herself, she said yes.  Ha!   

Much happier once we got home and played in the backyard! 

Moon Mama!  I looked up and could barely see the moon, but she spotted it right away! 

Her face cracks me up.  She saw the little weed that looks like a flower and was apparently confused by it. 

After Daddy got home we exchanged gifts and cards and by far her most favorite was the Mickey Mouse card her Daddy got her.  It was SOOO cute how excited she was about it!

I hope everyone had a great day!

18 Months Old!

Hannah Lee, you are 1.5 years old!!!  I CAN NOT believe it!  You are SUCH a big girl now!  You are a spunky, sweet, silly little toddler and we love everything about you!

Here's what you've been up to this month:

You have become OBSESSED with all things Elmo and Mickey Mouse!  I don't know where this suddenly came from but you can't get enough!  You know will walk into either your playroom or living room and say "Emmo watch" or "Mickey watch" to watch their shows.  It is adorable to hear you say Mickey Mouse because when you just say Mickey it sounds exactly as it should "Mickey" but when you put it together it sounds like "Mick-AH Mowwse".  It is the cutest sound ever. 

Yeah...you don't look like your Daddy at all....  ;)

You LOVE to say hi and wave to everyone when we're out in public.  When we're at the grocery store you wave at each person who passes whether they see you or not.  Most people are so sweet and talk to you and wave back but some ignore you and Mommy thinks they are mean.  :(

Lovin' on Mr Lamb!

Whenever you want to see Mallory (our neighbor who is six months younger than you) and we can't see her we tell you she's sleeping and you always say "Shhhhh!!!  Mallory seepin" and put your finger over your mouth to hush us.  Now you say that anytime you see someone in books or the tv with their eyes closed.  Shhhh!!!  Baby seepin.  It's so cute. 

Before Daddy takes you to bed each night I say "I love you" and you say "I wuv u" to me.  Melts my heart.

Last night when I went to kiss you good night this is what I saw.  You had put Mr Lamb next to you and covered him with your blanket.  Soooo sweet!

You are such a sweet little Mommy! In the mornings when we come into your room you have to put your babies to sleep before you get out of your crib. You lay them face down and put either your blanket or one of your cloth books over them and pat their backs.

You are still a great sleeper going to sleep around 7-7:30 and waking up around 6am during the week and 7-8am on the weekends.  You usually play in your crib for anywhere from 15-45 mins if you wake up on your own.  You are busy talking to your babies.

About a month ago we had a big milestone, no more pacifier!  You took it like a champ and never even requested it once!  You amaze me with your ability to cope with new situations. 

You've been a bit of a challenge (with Mommy mostly) when you get frustrated with something and you hit.  You will hit whatever is closest to you, it doesn't matter what it is.  If it's the wall then you hit that, if it's Mommy then you hit me.  It doesn't end very well for you little girl.  We've introduced time out and so far it seems to be working.  I say "Do you want to go in time out??" and you will look at me and either A. be sweet and stop hitting or B. look me square in the face and hit again.  Ha!  So, into time out you go!  One minute of us literally holding you into a corner while you cry with your arms out saying "hug!  hug!" because you know that's what you have to do to get out of time out.  As soon as time out is over, you're back to playing like it never happened!

We had an issue this month with your eczema, it was just so bad!  I'm guessing it's because of the cold weather and it's getting a little better each day.  You don't seem to be bothered by it though.

Hugs

We had your 18 month check up this morning and you are doing fantastic!  Your Dr says you are off the charts with your language skills which Mommy and Daddy already knew.  You're a little parrot these days repeating everything we say.  You have 16 teeth and are starting to get some curls on the back of your head!  I can't wait to see how your hair ends up looking, it's been such a long wait.

Height: 32.4" (73%)

Weight: 26lb 1oz (75%)

Head: 19" (91%)

You had to get a finger prick today and you were SO good!  I was beyond impressed because you didn't even flinch when the nurse pricked you or was squeezing your little finger for blood.  But after she left you were upset that you couldn't get the bandaid back on since you pulled it right off.

Digging for some goldfish 

Mama's wa-wa! 

Sweet girl, we love you soooo much!!  You are SO much fun and we love every day that we get to spend with you!  You are the happiest, sweetest, funniest little girl I know and I love you to pieces!