Monday, January 31, 2011

“hole wide wold in Him hands”

These as the lyrics that is Hannah Gray’s favorite new song. This morning as she was finishing breakfast, I handed her her vitamins which she immediately ate. She noticed some of Tenley’s and came into the kitchen to show me what I thought was Tenley’s vitamin that I asked her not to touch (she has been “feeding” Tenley things that are not hers lately). She had her hands cupped and I totally thought she was holding the vitamin like she knew she wasn’t supposed to. I squatted down after beginning to scold her with the “Hannah Gray, mommy told you…” and I realized she was signing to her mp3 player, “He has the whole world in His hands” and she was doing the hand motion of holding the world in her hands that I had shown her a couple days before. I felt like a jerk, quickly apologized and joined in. Then tonight at bed, I think we all sang about 10 choruses of it much to her delight.

Friday, January 21, 2011

gross.

So Tuk is a good boy, but he is still a puppy. He’s busy and needs to chew. So we pulled Tanner’s Kong out and put some peanut butter in it. We always have almond butter so Hannah Gray saw the PB and really wanted it. We explained that it was for the dog (and it’s the nasty, cheap, whitish colored PB at that). The next day or so, HG disappeared and I couldn’t find her anywhere. I noticed our pantry doors were not entirely closed so I opened them and found Hannah Gray standing there with her head down, eyes up with a sheepish “oh no” look on her face. Her one hand held Tuk’s kong and her hand was covered in peanut butter and had peanut butter smears all over her face! She was totally eating the PB out of Tuk’s toy! How gross is that? And sad too… I gave her some apple slices with pb to dip it in and told her to just ask next time…

Welcome Tuk!

If you guys have been reading since the summer, you would have seen that we have been praying for “anuder big doggie” as HG would say for months. We prayed, we researched, we saved, and prayed some more. Then over Christmas break we got in touch with a wonderful breeder of Chesapeake Bay Retrievers that had a litter born in September and wanted them placed as soon as possible in good homes. What a tremendous blessing in timing, price, temperament, in every way that we had asked. So the weekend after we got back from Ohio, we drove to southern Washington to pick up our new addition, Tuk, a deadgrass brown Chesapeake Retriever. This picture says it all…

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This was immediately after we got home and Tuk had been SO carsick and just nervous that he had tummy issues both ways… so he was a nasty mess and we were waiting for Daddy to come back from the store with some doggie shampoo. Hannah Gray was SO excited!

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At the farm

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After his bath…

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And you may be asking, what happened to “Scout”. Well, I have always wanted a dog named Scout and thought it was SO creative… then we moved out west and then we decided to get a Chessie instead of a lab. I had never met a Scout before moving out here and never met a lab named Scout. Well, combine being out west with Chessies (which are rare out here) and you find a lot of Scouts! So we tried to come up with something different and that’s what we came up with! But if you ask Hannah Gray about her “baby doggie”, she may tell you his name is “tout” our Tuk…. :)

We are blessed.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Christmas in the O-H part 2

New Year’s Day morning, we headed up north to Findlay to see the Petro side of the family. Annie, Gary, Katie and the kids joined us that day and we had a fun trip to ride the local train. The kids had a great time despite how cold it was! There’s something about kids and trains! :) A couple days later, Ben, Jaime and Bear joined us too. We had our big family Christmas exchange, white elephant for the adults, a family photo and lots of fun times together. We played games, had great food and treats and just had a really relaxing time together.

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Train ride with Norah and Nana

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making Nana and Papa’s present

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Trying on the robe Nana made (which she now sleeps in too)

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Tenley doing the beached seal wiggle on the floor

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eating Uncle Ben’s bday boston creme pie cupcakes. they were messy, so she did no hands!

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Aunt Jaime did the “bump it” in HG’s hair! :)

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Christmas In the O-H

We arrived Christmas Eve night in time to make it to my cousin’s house for the extended family celebration. We missed Santa and dinner but were so thankful we were able to see everyone before we all took off our separate ways for the evening. Once we got back to my parent’s house, we got the kids in their Christmas pj’s and Hannah Gray put out cookies for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.

All of my siblings and their kids spent the night at my parent’s house so it was fun to all do Christmas morning together. Santa left the kids stockings which was fun to experience together. Hannah Gray was a bit excited and a little scared that Santa ate her cookies and the reindeer took a bite of carrot. You could see her wheels turning on that one.

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IMG_2060 “where’d they go Daddy?!”

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My parents took everyone to the Conservatory for a fun Christmas tradition. We went through the entire garden, saw the live manger scene (well, the animals at least were real) and then all of the grandkids got to pick out a Christmas ornament. It was really fun and everyone really enjoyed it! They then took us out for lunch at Skyline!!! MMMmm, I was really craving that one! :)

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IMG_2203 New Year’s Eve, my dad took Ethan, Hannah Gray and me to the Airforce Museum. Hannah Gray had a blast looking at all the “airpanes” and pushing her “hannah doggie” in the stroller.

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We then celebrated my dad’s bday with dinner that nightIMG_2239

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Aunt Sarah even took HG’s stitches out!!! :)

IMG_2249 Then we went to see my college girlfriends for a New  Year’s Eve Party, our annual tradition

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Monday, January 10, 2011

Random

Here are some fun random photos from around Christmas time…

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Daddy Date

Ethan took HG out shopping to pick out a little Christmas outfit for their special Christmas Daddy date. Hannah Gray had so much fun picking out her outfit for the evening. I got her all ready and even dried her hair before she went out for the evening. They tried to go to a big event at a local Church that included lots of signing, but they were too packed to get in. So they ended up going to this Christmas festival that another neighboring town does. They saw Christmas drummers, carolers, snow and Christmas candy. She had a blast and asked for another Daddy date constantly for the next several days!

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Getting ready for Christmas!

Hannah Gray and I had a lot of fun making cookies this year. We halved the recipes so we could make more varieties and not have a ton around the house, but let’s be honest. I should have done the regular size b/c by the time we ate (yes, we) the dough and icing, it would have been half a batch anyway! :). Nana sent HG some train cookie cutters that she was WAY excited about and Daddy went and picked out some candies to decorate them with. She had a blast and I did too! We then took our cookies to our great neighbors that we have! I think Hannah Gray enjoyed giving away something she had so much fun doing and was proud of also.

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