10 Years Together

Troy and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on October 12.  It's amazing that 10 years have past already.  In some ways it seems like just yesterday and in some it seems like it's been longer.  We've had our good and bad times but also some incredible times.  We have a beautiful family and so many things to be thankful for in our lives.  What an incredible life we get to share together!  The above pics are from our wedding album so they are pictures of pictures but you get the idea.  We look at our album every anniversary.  The two black and whites are some of my favorites from the day.

I got a beautiful bouquet on the 12th but we actually celebrated on October 13.  We went out to dinner and then got to spend the night at a nice hotel (away from the kiddos).  Troy surprised me with a limo for the evening as well.  We had an unbelievable dinner (probably one of the best of my life) at Rococo.  It was a five course meal--I forgot to take a pic of the first course, an amazing crab cake.  We sat at the chef's table in the kitchen--it was so fun!  We plan to go back the next time we have something to celebrate.  And yes, we were beyond stuffed!

Warm kale salad with bacon vinaigrette

 Risotto with truffles, lobster and crab

 Filet with 2 fried shrimp and sweet potato mash

 Strawberry shortcake with balsamic reduction

10 Months Old

Hannah is 10 months old as of Monday!  It's such a cliche but time really does go by so fast.  In just 2 months we'll be celebrating her first birthday--I can hardly believe it!  We've had lots of changes this past month.

*Schedule: One of the changes during the past month has been a more concrete schedule for Hannah.  No one is happier about this than I am!  During the week I wake her up about 8 and on the weekends she is up by 9 at the latest.  She eats breakfast right after getting up and then nurses about 15-30 minutes after breakfast.  If we are home, she'll take a nap around 10-10:30 for about an hour or slightly longer.  Then she'll sometimes nurse again before lunch although that feeding is fading.  If we are out running errands she usually takes a nap in the car.  Hannah nurses again about an hour after eating lunch and then takes her second nap of the day.  This has been the best change to her schedule this month because she's napping for at least two hours or longer.  Depending on when she wakes up from this nap she may or may not nurse once before dinner.  We try to eat dinner around 6:15.  She nurses again around 7:45 and sometimes takes a quick nap at this point--this nap is still working it's way out of the schedule.  Another big change is bedtime-- Hannah is  ready for her final feeding somewhere between 9:45 and 10:15 and then it's off to bed.

*Stats: She was 19 lb 15.5 oz and 29 inches long at her 9 month check-up.  This put her in the 90-95% for height and 75% for weight.  She is now wearing all 12 month clothes and some of them are getting tight.  Pajamas are 12 or 18  month size.  Her hair is continuing to get longer.  It is still very light in color and sometimes there is a hint of red.  Her eyes are still blue and she has been getting lots of comments lately about how 'electric' they are in color.  Hannah now has 7 teeth.  Her top right lateral incisor came in last week on the 17th.  Her top left incisor came in October 4th.  And since I'm late in getting this post up I'll go ahead and include that Hannah's top left lateral incisor came in this morning, October 24.

*Food: Hannah is still really enjoying solid food and she eats pretty much all table food now.  She actually gets mad at me if she sees baby food--I've got a few more vegetable containers I'm trying to use up but I'm not sure that she's going to eat them all.  This past month we have tried so many new things.  They included chicken, turkey, pork, tilapia, sweet potatoes, potatoes, tomatoes, avocado, corn, peas, carrots, squash, mushrooms, pasta, bread, blueberries, mandrin oranges, applesauce, pears and other things I'm sure I'm forgetting.  I am thrilled to have such a good eater!  Hannah is also very good with her sippy cup and demands (yes, believe me it is a demand) water at every meal.

*Activities: Hannah is still into whatever she can get her hands on.  She really likes to see balls bounce and figured out that she can throw them through the gates and watch them bounce on the tile or hardwood.  Hannah also enjoys pushing things along the floor and crawling after them.  One activity that has continued is Hannah chasing after Luke.  It is so fun to watch and listen to them interact and laugh together.  We have been working on waving the last few weeks and last week Hannah figured it out.  

*Mobility:  Hannah is getting closer to walking every day.  She is walking along anything she can hold onto and just last week started letting go and standing for a few seconds on her own.  I've also seen her pick up a toy while standing and hold it in both hands for a few seconds before sitting down.  Hannah has the cutest crawl (something I don't think I've mentioned before).  She slaps her hands on the floor like she's giving it a high five all the time.  I'm thinking she likes the slapping sound she can make when she does it.  It's hilarious to watch her go for long distances.

*Favorites: Hannah is a big time momma's girl--so I'm still the favorite person although I would argue Luke is a close second.  Clapping has been a big favorite and she loves clapping with anyone who is willing.  Other favorites:  eating, feeding herself, playing peek-a-boo, bath time and just moving in general.  One thing that is not a favorite that I wish was--reading stories.  Hannah moves so much that she won't hold still for even short books.  I'm hoping to work on that in the next few weeks.  

*Noises/Talking:  Hannah is saying momma :)  She also continues to say dadadada and we're working on associating that with Troy.  Hannah also has a double syllable "d" sound for dogs.  It's similar to dadada but there is a difference I'm just not sure how to describe it.  Hannah will have sound conversations with us on occassion.  It's really fun.  Hannah also knows how to nod her head yes or shake her head no.  She is very good at imitating but she will also understands just the words.

*Events: Hannah had her first night away from us when we celebrated our 10 year anniversary.  It went really well--at least according to everyone who watched her.  Hannah also started eating dinner with the family this past month.  I have to say it is so nice not having to fix 2 different meals.  We didn't go anywhere or have any visitors during the last month although Grammy is here with us this week. 

Karate and Gymnastics

Luke has been taking a class called Kick-n-Gym for the last nine weeks.  It's a combination of karate and gymnastics.  He loves it!  This is our first extra-curricular activity and because he likes it so much and is learning a bunch we have signed up for a second session.  Monday was the last class in the first session.  The kids all got to have sparing matches with each other to practice all the different karate moves they have learned.  Although they learned all the moves actually using them in a sparing match is a bit different so it was more like a fun punching/kicking match with helmets and gloves.  Below is Luke's match.  He was thrilled that Coach Cory picked him to go first.  Megan, the girl that Luke is sparing with, is also 4.  The two of them had fun all through the class giggling and talking (mostly when they weren't supposed to be) and Luke is going to miss seeing her each week.  The video is a bit long but there was no good point to stop it and it's pretty funny to watch anyway :)

And some pictures as well--stretching, back bridge, push-ups, jumping and hand stand.

Pumpkin Patch

Last Thursday was part of fall break so we went to the pumpkin patch with Grandma and Wesley.  It was a patch that we've never been to before but when there was a groupon for it I thought we would try it out.  It wasn't quite what I was expecting but we still had a great time.  The pumpkin patch itself was very small and had no pumpkins in it--the pumpkins were just placed out in a field with sort of dead pumpkin plants.  Luke didn't really know the difference so it wasn't an issue.  There was also a hay maze, slides, hay ride and a bunch of baby animals to see and pet.  And of course lots of great photo ops! :)

Hannah thought she needed some extra fiber :)

Fall Party

Sunday morning we had a fall party with a few of our neighbors.  Leslie, Susannah and I planned it because we are all addicted to Pinterest and we wanted an excuse to do some fall projects and recipes from Pinterest.  Susannah hosted all of us and we all had tons of fun.  The kids had just as much fun doing the crafts as running around playing.  Sawyer even said at one point it wasn't a very good party because we weren't letting them play enough--ha, ha.  Our projects included painting rocks to look like pumpkins, decorating pumpkins with sticker faces and making bean mosaic leaves.  Our lunch menu was mummy dogs, ghosty cheese, monster fingers, a veggie pumpkin and a caramel apple slice bar.  

 Luke's is the second from the right.

 Now it's the second from the left.

Leslie, Susannah and I decided it was such a success that we were going to plan to do something similar every season.  Our current plan for the next one is sometime in January.