"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empites today of its strength." ~Corrie ten Boom
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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. 
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.
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!
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.
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.
