Happy New Year

Wishing you a happy and blessed New Year!

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas. We were fortunate to spend ours with lots of friends and family. We spent Christmas Eve with our friends Laurence and Sarah. Christmas morning we woke up and opened our stockings and a few presents with Hannah. About noon Grandpa Lee and Grandma Mary showed up and we opened the rest of our presents. Grandma and Grandpa got Hannah, among other things, a xylophone. While I'm interested in developing her music skills early I may go insane while she learns to play it. Right now she's just interested in chewing on the mallet. (Sorry music people if that's not what you call the thing you hit it with.) I'm sure it won't be long before she it tapping out a tune on it.

About 3:00 the rest of the family showed up. Two of my uncles and their families came as well as my Grandma. We had 12 for dinner and had a great time. I smoked up the house cooking prime rib...really I was following the directions and it actually turned out fine. Dinner was topped off with desert and a couple of more presents. Hannah had so much excitement that she napped for a total of 1/2 hour over the whole day. It was early to bed for her while my Mom and I played a new game and Ben and Dad relaxed in the recliners. Now I'm off to clean up the aftermath and put the new goodies away!

Stocking are hung by the chimney with care.

Christmas morning

8 Months Old & Merry Christmas Eve

Hannah is eight months old today! She is doing really well. She is crawling like crazy. She is now pulling herself up on everything. In the mornings when I'm getting ready she likes to pull up on the bathtub and walk along it. I don't think she'll be walking tomorrow but it's not too far away. She's babbling up a storm. The most distinguishable words are "Da Da" and "Ma Ma".

I was asked what her favorite toy was and couldn't really think of one and then I remembered...Mom and Dad's cell phones. Last night she was playing with mine and holding it up to her ear. "Monkey see, Monkey do." That's a lesson to us to make sure we are doing what's right because we have little impressionable eyes watching.

It feels like we have had a week of Christmas already. Saturday night we had Christmas with Grandpa Randy. Last night we had Christmas Grandma Bev, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Two down and two more to go

I don't have any new pictures of Hannah and I thought that a post is kind of boring with out a picture. Here's a little glimpse of what it looks like around here. Some snow but not really enough. Hopefully the New Year will bring some more.

Bubble Bath

Hannah had her first bubble bath last night. She is teething again and has been kind of fussy so I hoped that a bubble bath might soothe her. At first she cried when I put in her. I guess she didn't like me messing with her bath. Eventually she got over it and started to enjoy herself.

Standing

Hannah is actively standing and pulling herself up on things. If it can be stood by it will be. In the bathroom when the bottom picture was taken she saw her Daddy and turned around like she was going to walk to him. She forgot that she hasn't quite mastered that but Mommy was there to catch her. Her friend Garret lent her the green toy that she is standing up with and she loves it. Sometimes she gets stuck standing up and can't figure out how to get down. She just pushes the toy over and problem solved!

Look Mom! One hand!

She really would love to stand up in the bath tub.

I can't seem to convince her that this is a BAD idea.

Little Vacation

It's not very often around here when there aren't wheel lines to be changed, flood water to be watched, cows to be fed, cows calving, or hay trucks to be loaded. This last weekend it was just the cows that needed to be fed so we were able to get out of town for a little while. We went up to the Willamette Valley to see our friends Andy, Katie and Cole. They were down for a visit in August. You can read about it here. Hannah and Cole had fun playing together. Hannah wanted to steal Cole's toys and Cole thought it was neat to pull Hannah's hair. They would yell back and forth across the room at each other and get jealous when the other one was getting fed and they weren't. They really did enjoy each others company.

The Dads got to spend some time together looking at equipment. They also toured a hay press where some of our local hay goes to be processed before going to Japan. The girls were able to get away and do a little bit of shopping while the boys stayed home and watched movies. It was great to see them all again and we had lots of fun!

Helping Mamma Feed

Hannah normally helps feed the cows from inside the pickup with Daddy. They drive me around and I feed the hay off. Today Daddy was working and it was just the girls left to do the feeding. Normally Hannah has to ride in her car seat when I do this but it was pretty nice today and she tends to scream at me from inside the pickup. She had a blast on the feed wagon! She loves the cows and dogs and squeals at the sight of them. I was impressed that she did so well today. I was able to sit her down on the wagon and she actually stayed where I left her. This is unusual for our recently crawling baby.

Notice that her hands are covered. This is an effort to keep her from having hay as a snack.

Hannah & Gus

So serious!

This is our other new little one, Freedom Dawn. She is about 1 1/2 months old. She came in a cow that we bought recently. If you missed our adventure you can check it out here.

EUREKA! She Found It!

Well that didn't take long. Hannah has found the tree! She was quite fascinated one evening with it but hasn't seemed to bother it since.

Christmas Pictures

Here's a sampling of Hannah's Christmas pictures. She loves to touch and play with the evergreen so it was quite a challenge to get her to look at the camera. Enjoy!

The Christmas Tree

Really it's the hidden Christmas tree. We like to have a real tree but thought that Hannah would like it too much and would probably end up eating the needles and ripping the ornaments off. We solved this problem by putting the tree in the corner behind the sofa and love seat. Hannah is on the move and crawling all over. As of right now she has not explored this corner of the room. I'm sure by Christmas I will have at least one present that needs to be re-wrapped.

Help Wrapping

I was wrapping some presents this morning and my little helper was right there with me. Luckily everything was pretty harmless. Hannah was wrapping herself up in the ribbon, throwing the gift bags and boxes around, and trying to pull herself up on the wrapping paper box. Oh yeah, she has pulled herself up to standing at least once so far.

Getting the Tree

Sunday afternoon we went to Medicine Lake to get our Christmas tree. The weather at home was very windy and it looked even worse up on the mountain. It was. We don't show it much in the pictures but it was snowing, windy and cold. We didn't spend any time playing around. We spotted the trees, cut them down, threw them in the pickup and left. We stood outside watching the huge trees sway in the wind. At that point I was ready to go. It was so cold Hannah hung out in the pickup through the whole adventure.

7 Months Old Today

Sorry there's no picture today to celebrate Hannah being 7 months old. I have been busy working on wreath orders and haven't taken the time for a photo shoot.

I don't have any statistics to report on Hannah since we haven't been to the doctor or the post office lately. I'm guessing that she weighs around 16 pounds. More exciting is that she is on the move. There are a few electrical cords in the family room that she is fascinated with. It seems she likes all cords and strings. They must scream "strangulation and shock hazard" to her. I can put her down and turn around she just about has a cord in her mouth. I have been working on baby-proofing them.

Some other things that Hannah is up to are, kissing me or herself in the mirror, yelling and squealing in delight, and sitting up on her own. I'm sure there are others that I can't think of right now. She continues to be a delight daily!

The Teeth as Promised

This was the best that I could do today as far as getting a picture of Hannah's new teeth. They really do look bigger in real life. It is harder than you would think to get a baby and a camera to both cooperate at the very same time. She went through a short phase where she was biting, but as she is learning the word "no" has gotten over that.

She's Crawling

Hannah is definitely crawling now. She can't quite make it all they way across the room without falling down on her belly but she makes good time where ever she goes.

I'm having to get used to this view.

Mommy's Little Helper 2

She wants to be where Mommy is! And the floor doesn't cut it. Hannah helped me make dinner tonight from the kitchen sink. She sat and lounged in it but it won't be too much longer and she will be able to crawl out of it. Now if I could only teacher her to dry the dishes!

Mommy's Little Helper

Here's Hannah sitting in the middle of a stack of wreaths while I was working. She has been a real trooper through all of my wreath making. We have spent what feels like an entire month in a little room in the shop making and decorating wreaths. Hannah needed a new distraction and playing with the wreaths was a great one.

Sled Ride

We went back to Medicine Lake today to cut more boughts for my Christmas wreaths. Here are a few pictures of Hannah being hauled around in the sled.

Rolling Play Pen

I started a small business last year called High Mountain Wreaths. This year another woman and I will make evergreen Christmas wreaths that I sell locally and ship. All of the materials are collected locally. Today we made our trip up to Medicine Lake...well not quite to the lake, to collect the fir. Of course Hannah went along since she enjoys being outside. My Mom (aka Grandma Mary) came along and turned the back of her car into a little play pen. Hannah used to be content to spend most of a day just laying around sleeping or just looking. Not anymore! She wants to be free to move some. So, Grandma Mary and Hannah spent some of the day playing in the car. Hannah also got to spend some time out cutting boughs with Grandma Mary and MaMa, as she says.

Hannah cutting boughs with Grandma.

Hannah playing in the car and sitting up on her own.

These were taken with a cell phone and Hannah loves cell phones. The lights, sound, and vibrations are fascinating.

Hannah had enough adventure for the day and was kicking back and warming up in the car for the rest of the afternoon.

A Horse is a Horse

I was debating whether or not to dress Hannah up for Halloween this year when her Uncle Luke sent her a horse costume. Problem solved! Today Hannah was working hard with us as we cut the accent material for our Christmas wreaths. While cutting the Juniper I thought it might be cute if she was dressed up petting a horse. She normally loves to pet the horses but today I think she new she was dressed up. We could hardly get a smile out of her. So here's Hannah as a horse with a horse...the best we could do.

We made one "trick-or-treating" stop today. We went to see Grandma Bevie. There was a lot of candy consumed but it wasn't Hannah. I think Daddy was enjoying himself more than Hannah. :) Below are the last few pictures taken before the Halloween costume melt down. She looks happy but don't let that deceive you. There were many tears of displeasure this afternoon. Naps are a good thing...if I could only convince Hannah of this!

6 Month Check-up

Hannah had her six month check-up yesterday. Either she can already remember and associate things or it was a coincidence, but the minute I started to take her clothes off on the exam table she started to scream. She was fine when I held her but the minute I laid her down to have her shots she cried again even before they were given. Everything otherwise went well. She weighs 15 pounds 4 ounces and is 25.5 inches long. This puts her in the 50th percentile for those measurements...just an average baby. She is doing well developmentally. Her second bottom tooth has cut through. I will post the evidence when it's more visible in her mouth. We are thankful to have a happy healthy baby!

1/2 Birthday

Last night in honor of Hannah being six months old we celebrated her 1/2 birthday. She didn't get to eat any cake and we didn't really need to eat any but we did. Please ignore the poor cake decorating skills. At one point while I was just about done frosting it, the whole thing jumped off the cake pedestal onto the counter top.

6 Months Old Today

Hannah is six months old today. I guess time flies when you are having fun! She is becoming more vocal all of the time. She can say "ma ma" but we don't know if she knows who or what she's talking about. She can sit on her own if she will stop wiggling long enough to do it. She's always on the go, so stopping to sit in one spot is not on her agenda. Lately she has been rolling across the living room to get to her toys or to tear apart my plants. We will be going to the doctor this week so I will update you later with all of her new statistics. Here are six month pictures for you to enjoy. She is a little girl of many expressions so that's why we have shared so many pictures.

It Won't Be Long

Hannah is going to be crawling before we know it. She practices her push ups all the time when she is on the floor playing. Sometimes she even gets her knees up under her and tries to move. She has become pretty proficient at rolling and is already getting into anything at her level. She moves pretty well backwards on her belly but hasn't mastered going forward...yet.

Hannah went to her first Klamath Basin Potato Festival today. We woke up to snow this morning so I wasn't expecting it to be very warm today. I thought, "We'll go and see how it is." When we got to Merrill this morning it was 41 degrees and the wind was blowing. We did a little bit of shopping and then got bundled up to watch the parade. I lasted for a few floats and then decided it was just a little too chilly so we went into the Civic Center and looked at the booths and exhibits. I didn't even feel like the free lunch was worth standing in line for and I'm a sucker for BBQ. Needless to say we didn't last too long. It could be that I was still frozen from watching Tulelake's homecoming football game last night where it was in the low 40s and windy.

Seeing Black

It has always been my dream to have a herd of registered Black Angus cows. For the past five years we have been running a small herd of commercial Angus cows. Pasture has been getting tight for us and it has been a hassle with a new little one to be moving the cows from place to place. We decided to sell off our herd this coming spring and buy just a few registered cows this fall to keep at the house.

This was the weekend to buy the registered cows. Hannah, my Mom and I spent three long days in the Redmond-Madras area. My best guess is that there were 350 animals for sale over the course of the three days. By the time I was done all that I could see was black. They all started to look the same and it felt like I couldn't tell one end from the other. We went to a sale each day and came home with three new cows. They are a little bit on the old side but we have to start somewhere. It wasn't really in our budget to buy the $40,000 top selling animal. My Mom spent some time watching Hannah while I sat through the auctions. Hannah did really well overall. She is currently on car seat strike so we will probably be hanging close to home for the next few days. We made it home late last night and picked up the cows today from our friends Ty and Brooke who hauled them home for us. They seem to have settled right in with the rest of the herd. We are expecting a calf out of one of them early next month.

All bundled up and ready for the sale on Saturday. She could hardly move in the suit.

We're ready to go look at cows!

Hannah and I trying to find the cows we want to look at and then trying to decide which to buy.

The munchkin clan. Brooke, Cade, Hannah and I.

Hannah and I at the sale on Sunday. It got very rainy and cold shortly after this picture.

Hannah trying to give me a kiss!