"Meiwei" + Park = FUN

My sister Mary is only Hannah's favorite person. In the entire world. Seriously.

So it was a real treat for her to come over and spend the morning with us. We started out with the sidewalk chalk...


...and then made our way to the park. Still can't quite reach it honey. (Aside: We went to the park that we used to live across the street from when my family lived in Mesa. Another aside: Tim proposed to me on the swings at this park).

Getting ready to go down the slide...

...and down she goes - tummy-style!

Thanks for a great day Mary!

I Heart Mass Transit

Okay, I will admit that I did not vote for the lightrail system because of a few things I saw as potential flaws (i.e. the route), but nonetheless, now that it is here we are excited. We hope it succeeds and people take advantage of it.

Of course, we had to check it out (especially since the first station is right down the road). These are the first two trains that pulled out of the station with passengers on them. Don't worry, we were on the VERY first one. (Tim made sure we got there nice and early.)

We all squished together; Tim, me and the pink marshmallow. (It was cold that morning!)

Tim's dad, Bruce, came with us too. As an avid train fan, it was an opportunity he couldn't resist.

The smooth ride lulled Hannah to sleep. (It also might have helped that she was up a bunch last night coughing, but I say it was the magic of the train. It was practically the Polar Express).

She woke up later to check out the station.

It was so fun to check it out. We hope to ride again soon. :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! What a great day we have had! We were SO excited to give Hannah her kitchen, and were thrilled that she seems to like it as much as we hoped.

Hopefully, she will spend many hours playing with it. :)

Not really sure how we ended up playing with the umbrella, but we did. Note all of the play food that we got for the kitchen is strewn about the floor. I fear that my floor will spend many hours looking like this. At Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's, Hannah had a BLAST trying out all of her presents. As you can see, she was so excited about her princess purse (that came with money, lipstick, eyeshadow, a driver's license, a cell phone, a clicker for the car, and sunglasses) that she completely ignored my pleas to smile for the picture. She also spent quite a bit of time hiding in her play hut.

Hannah also scored at Grandma and Grandpa Williams'. My mom made her a mini apron and oven mits. CUTEST!

She also loved reading the new Dr. Seuss books and playing with her beanbags and her bowls.

Thank you so much to our wonderful friends and family for your generosity and kindness. It is the people in our lives that make holidays special. We are filled with gratitude.

Christmas Eve

It is a tradition on my side of the family to have a fancy dinner on Christmas Eve. We get all dressed up and have a formal dinner.

Of course, having a nearly-two-year-old around made things a bit more casual. I wanted to get a picture of her at the beginning of the meal, because I knew she would be messy by the end, but she wasn't exactly compliant. She is looking very intently at the Sparkling Cider...

It was also great fun to see Aunt Laura and Uncle Steve. We miss you Angel!

Chopsticks

It would appear that Hannah has developed a recent affinity for chopsticks.

She was much more interested in the chopsticks than the food at Pei Wei. We did have to take one set for the road too...

We also went to a Taiwanese restaurant where they were equally entertaining.

It is the simple things in life.

No! Off!

It certainly is a good thing we don't live in a cold climate, because apparently Hannah doesn't like long-sleeved shirts. I discovered this this winter, when I bought her a few. She is always pulling on the sleeves. When we were in the today, I hear her saying from the backseat, "No! Off!" over and over again. From my rearview mirror, I can see pulling on her sleeve, and rather successfully undressing herself. By the time we got home, I had a half-naked girl!

Man vs. Tree: Tree Wins.

What is more exciting than putting up the Christmas tree? Nothing. The house smells all piney, it marks the beginning of the Christmas season, et cetera. It is a time of rejoicing and happiness. Alas, not this year. After much wrestling with our tree to get it upright in the first place (it listed to one side very badly from the time that we took it home), we came home a few days later to find it hopelessly horizontal. Tim said he just wanted to get rid of it, but I convinced him to just turn it the other way and lean it against the wall. (Which resulted in all of our decorations facing the wall, and not the family room). Darn tree.

Hiding!

We were doing some last minute Christmas shopping and JCPenney, when all of the sudden I hear a little voice say, "Hiding!" This is what I saw...


I found you!


Who knew there were so many fun places to hide at JCPenney?
Hannah has liked playing hiding games for a long time. Once, when she was about 10 months old (right after she learned to crawl), she gave me quite the scare. She crawled over to a big pile of laundry and pulled a blanket over her (we had been playing peek-a-boo earlier with the same blanket), and just waited. I noticed pretty quickly that I didn't have my little munchkin following me everywhere I went, but I really couldn't find her. I kept calling for her, and I was looking in all of the rooms of our little house, and I couldn't find her. I was nearly frantic by the time I started looking through the laundry pile for my lost baby. When I pulled the blanket off her head, she said, "Boo!" Sometimes it is hard to keep track of a hiding girl!

Gingerbread House Decorating

We had the privilege of decorating expertly hand-crafted "gingerbread" houses (those of the graham cracker and hot glue variety) with the Curry's and company. :) Hannah and Stanton swooned. Hannah also ate approximately half of all the m&m's and other candy decorations. She was truly in heaven.

This very well may have been my fastest and most creative gingerbread house ever. I am very proud. (Tim and Hannah didn't do too much. It was more made in spite of them...) We had a great time.

Turkey Trot

Alright! Another race! What better way to kick off a day of gluttony with a little physical activity? Thanks to Bruce and Starla for keeping an eye on our little monkey so that Tim and I could participate.

We had a great time - we ended up running at a little slower pace this time than the last race, but we weren't too worried about it. Tim's time was 1:06:04 (132/147 males) and mine was 1:05:32 (96/152 females). We felt great because 6.2 miles is the farthest that either of us has ever run. :)
We each got free t-shirts from the event. Hannah looked great it mine. She wore if for a few hours afterward. I guess she wants to be just like her parents! (We thought it was cute!)

Seriously Honey, No More Dr. Pepper in the Freezer

Needless to say, this has happened more than once...


...and it will probably happen again. I still love you honey. :)

Go Devils!

I have come to the conclusion that it is much easier to be school spirited when one is not actually in school; hence, the great draw of alumni organizations. Seriously, when you're in school who has time for extracurricular activities, you are too stressed! Well, not anymore my friends. I have joined the ranks of permanent alumni (translation: I will never go back to school), and therefore thoroughly enjoyed the ASU vs. Washington homecoming football game.

Some friends of Tim's had tickets that they couldn't use, so we jumped at the chance. It turned out to be, drumroll please, a total shut-out (a football term I just learned), with ASU winning 31-0. Of course, I did feel bad for Washington; towards the end secretly wanted them to get a touchdown so they wouldn't be so dejected. Alas, the were no match for the Devils!

One very spiffy thing was that every time we scored they set off fireworks. We also indulged in over-priced pretzels and drinks, but it was totally worth it. We had a fantastic time (forgot to take the camera though).

Who needs fingers when you have toes?

Need I say more? :) Hannah figured out that her toes actually of spaces between them, which can be useful for many things, such as holding crayons.

A Few Tricks

A while ago I taught Hannah to nod her head, "yes" anytime she was asked the question, "are you perfect?" I have been trying to get it on video ever since, with little success. But, I did get a few other tricks recorded for posterity. Enjoy!

Another Race!

Well, you may be getting sick of hearing about my foray into the world of running, but I feel like I have to document my progress because a) I am progressing, b) I am having a lot of fun and c) maybe my goings-on will motivate someone to give it a try!

This time we did an 8k, which is ~5 miles. It was great that Dad agreed to do it too - he is turning into my race buddy. During the race, we realized it had been about five years since he had run that far. Way to go Dad!

It was also Tim's first race. That was also great fun! The more the merrier.

Hannah had a blast playing with Aunt "Meimi" (aka Mary) on the barnyard-themed playground equipment during the race.

Meanwhile, we were working hard. We started out running together...

...but soon Tim had to break away from his sissy wife. He finished the race about 25 seconds before me. I tried to catch him......but didn't. :0)
Time came to the finish line with a respectable time of 46:23.9, which is an average mile of 9.20. Not bad baby!

Dad crossed the finish line without having to walk at all, which is a great accomplishment!

My finish was a bit less picturesque, but hey, our photographer was also our babysitter, so what can I say? I am happy to say that I met my goal of finishing in under an hour and running the whole thing! My final time was 46:9.6, which is averages out to be about a 9.25 mile.

Starting out, Tim and I were the absolute last two people. But, it turns out we didn't end that way. Check out our results here. Even though we passed a few people along the way, we were definitely closer to the pack of the back than the front. So, we just left shortly after finishing and eating our complimentary pancake and sausage breakfast (courtesy of the Peoria Fire Dept.). It was pretty funny to find out a few days later when our results were posted that I came in FIRST in my age group (of two, mind you). Maybe if we had stuck around I would have gotten a prize. :)

The next race I'm planning on doing is the Mesa Mi Amigo's Turkey Trot. It is a 10k race on Thanksgiving Day. What better way to begin a day of gluttony than by running a few miles?