Friday, January 30, 2009

Christmas Report

Since February starts Sunday, I figure it's time to finally post a bit about Christmas...better late than never.

Paul had a midterm on Wednesday and a final on Friday. Of course, he got the stomach flu on Wednesday night and was barely able to take his final on Friday. I made it through the week without getting the flu, but Hattie got a touch of it and vomited in the car on the drive to Dallas after his final. I'm just grateful that we happened to be in one of the very few towns along the drive when it happened. Saturday we woke up in Dallas, glad to be on vacation. But of course, now I was sick...with strep throat. It was also our third anniversary so instead of celebrated, we went to an Instacare for some medicine. How romantic.

Gratefully, it cleared up quickly and by the time all the rest of the family arrived, we were all on the mend. It was good to be together with all of Paul's family and to meet baby Nora who was born in September. Hattie played great with her cousins and would chase three-year old Keira all through the house.



Highlights were:
- going to the zoo
- singing Christmas carols around the piano
- having homemade root beer on tap
- playing the Wii for the first time
- having family to play games with
- a house full of babysitters when Paul and I wanted to go out
- finally going out for our anniversary on New Year's Day
- painting pottery at Color Me Mine
- way too much good food

Hattie loved to open presents, although she certainly didn't understand the concept that some were hers while others were Keira's.



Sadly, I didn't take too many pictures. I'll need to do better next Christmas. It was so nice to have two weeks to relax and have essentially no schedule. It's been hard getting back into the swing of things here at home. I feel like we needed another week of vacation before starting school again.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

A day at the zoo

After going to Africa 3 years ago, I thought I had seen enough animals to satisfy me for the rest of my life. But I knew that because of kids, I would be destined to go to the zoo someday. Over Christmas break we went to the Forth Worth Zoo. It was a lot of fun and I even enjoyed seeing the animals. But Hattie's reactions were the most fun.



Here are all the Iverson girl cousins: Keira, Nora, and Hattie with their dads, Steven, Aaron, and Paul.


We never actually saw a rhino in Africa (well, we did see one, but even through binoculars it was pretty blurry) so this was neat.


This tiger is a performer, it appears.




Another performer:


We bought a stick with bird feed on it thinking that Hattie would love it. But even though she constantly signs 'bird', she got nervous when she was that close to them.


Since I added the tiger and lion video mostly for Lisa's kids' benefit, I had to include a snake picture for Laura's little ones.


And these two were just funny.


Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Announcing a Giveaway


No, I have nothing to give away, but my friend Jessica does....so check out her jewelry blog if you are interested before January 26th.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Hattie's cuteness

I get a kick out of watching Hattie play. Hopefully you do too, because I seem to always post videos of her playtime. Paul hopes she turns into a soccer player.





Just now, I asked Hattie to choose which parent she wanted to have put her in bed. Paul and I were standing next to each other, facing the kitchen. She walked over to us, and, instead of hugging the parent of choice, got in line next to us facing the kitchen, waiting for something to happen and joining the crowd. She is starting to talk more and more. Some words include mom, dad, cat, dog, ball, nose, go, and Hattie. She also loves to watch Paul tinker around with his soccer ball...we'll have to catch it on video one of these days.

She has also become obsessed with a blanket my sister Lisa knitted for her. She takes it everywhere.



And she randomly started playing on her belly like this one day. What a kid.


Thursday, January 15, 2009

Hattie and her playmates

After nearly a month of not blogging, I think I'm ready to start catching up. It has taken me a while to get back into the swing of things after two weeks vacation...I guess I just needed an extra week or two of vacation.

On Tuesday we had some friends over for a little play group and lunch. Here we have Hattie, Juliet, and Callie enjoying a ride on Hattie's giant caterpillar. Hattie and Juliet are the same age, and Callie is just a few months older. They are fun playmates.



Hopefully I can play catch up a little over the next few days and post some Christmas/New Year's stuff.