Hannah's first foods

It's hard to believe that she is already six months old and ready for food. Maybe it is that I am not ready. Dinner time craziness here we go!! She had her first bite of applesauce. (I decided on a whim to try and feed her one day and didn't have any rice cereal). Wow, something I would've never tried first on Caroline but I knew that it wouldn't cause any harm!! She liked it! We have done the rice cereal and all of the other pureed fruits and veggies and she seems to be doing OK with them. She actually opens her mouth for the food and seems to enjoy eating it. I am very optimistic!

The Pumpkin Patch

While Grandma and Papa and Gaga and Papa were in town, we took the girls to the pumpkin patch. It's always such a great picture opportunity and it was great to have the grandparents to share it with. Enjoy the pictures!

Hannah's baptism

Hannah and her cousin Madeline were baptized together on October 17. We had lots of family come in town for the event -- my parents, Trents' parents and Crispins' parents and his brothers. The girls were both angels at the event and Hannah was even the "example" baby that Father Steve held up as the example of the babies in the world! She wore the baptismal gown that my mom had made out of her wedding dress. She looked adorable! Caroline wanted to be baptized as well so that was interesting -- finally Father Steve did a little blessing on her which made her happy!

Imagination at work

Caroline has really turned on her imagination in the last few months. Everything is an adventure. We really had to turn it on when we had a rainy day a couple of weeks ago (no a rainy day does not happen very often in CA!) So first we played outside in the rain and then proceeded to don our hula costumes and dance the afternoon away. The diaper was a great accent to the grass skirt! But our most recent occupation is that of "Dr. Brown". Caroline wears her stethoscope (or heartbeat thing) as she calls it around the house at all times. It is on when she eats, rides in the car, in the stroller and on her tricycle. Poor Hannah is subject to at least 50 examinations a day and her baby dolls more than that. Everyone has a runny nose and is very sick for about 3 minutes and then they take a nap and they are all better. It is getting to be the running joke around here! Enjoy the videos of her!

Back in the swing of things...

Well, finally we have somewhat of a routine with the two girls. Caroline started a little preschool that my friends from the neighborhood put together. We (each mom) has to teach once every nine weeks so that is great and the kids seem to love it. Caroline gets very excited for school and the possibility to wear her "art smock" -- which she talks about all the time! They only go one morning a week so it is a good introduction. She says such funny things now too. A couple of examples... on one of my crazier days I said, "Caroline, I've lost my mind" and she replied, "Well where do you think it is, I can help you find it" -- so sweet ( on a day she wasn't being so sweet as I was obviously losing my mind!). And the other day I said, "We need to drive Aunt Laurie to go pick up her car" and Caroline looked at me puzzled and said, "Mommy, her car is going to be toooo heavy to pick up"! Hilarious. She seems to pick up on everything and has added words to her vocabulary like actually, eventually, cooperate and organize and uses them all in the right context. Always amazing.... and exhausting at the same time!!

Hannah is our little sweetie so far. You know the kind where, if she was your first, you would think, why does everyone think this is so hard? Well, we had busy and energetic Caroline first so we know! Hannah is mostly sleeping through the night and has a very sweet disposition. She is very smiley when she isn't sucking her two middle fingers and loves to watch all of us in action. She rolls over all over the place and can sit up for 10 to 15 seconds by herself now. She loves giving raspberries as the all time and is still a spitter upper. Can't wait for that to end but otherwise, I don't want her to get big yet!! Hard to believe the time is flying by so fast.

On the Road Again.... part 2

From Florida, I flew with the girls by myself to visit my parents in St. Louis. First time flying by myself with the two of them and I wasn't sure I wanted to step back onto the plane to fly back home. It was a little rough the first time around. Hannah had her own seat and was pretty good. Caroline, well Caroline was her usual energetic self (a jumping bean) except on an airplane which was a little challenging -- but we made it and had a great trip to St. Louis. We visited the Magic House with my friends, went the St. Louis Zoo and got to ride the choo choo train which was VERY exciting!! We saw lots of friends and family including Grandma Julie, Aunt Rita and Uncle Wayne and all my cousins who live there. We even made it to Mount Vernon, IL to meet my friend Kate and her little boy Mack halfway. It was great to see them since it had been 3 years!! The weather was beautiful and we had a great time. Thanks to my sister Katie coming up with the "airplane" game -- we had to pretend we were on an airplane almost every night -- our flight back home went great which I was very thankful for. We are back home safe and sound and happy to have seen everyone and happy to be home!!

On the Road again...

Since Hannah once four months old, we decided it was time to start traveling again. It had been almost 6 months since I had been on a plane (nearly a record for me!) and so we were ready to go. First, we flew to Florida to visit Trent's family. The girls did great on the flight out and Trent was there to help me which was wonderful. We had a great trip visiting Gaga and Papa. We went out on their boat a number of times and Caroline even had her first experience being towed behind the boat with Daddy and a boogie board. We went to the beach, the pool and the Palm Beach Zoo spending as much time outside as possible and in the water as much as possible!! We were able to see our newest nephew Dean and see cousin Abby and Uncle Tye and Aunt Kelly. What a great trip we had!!