Weekend Wrap-Up

What a weekend adventure I had!

Friday I had my last final for school and then I went over to one of my best girlfriends house to bake Christmas cookies all day!

Who knew baking cookies would take 8 hours!? It was so much fun though. I had never actually baked Christmas cookies to that proportion before. Michael stayed home with Hanley all day so she wouldn't be in our way. It's nice to have a little bit of time without her every now and then.

We baked snickerdoodles, chocolate chip, gingerbread and sour cream sugar cookies! Snickerdoodles are an all time favorite for me and she wanted to try the upside down gingerbread man turned reindeer cookies.

Saturday I went to my moms annual work Christmas party with her. Originally, I was supposed to go watch my brother and sister-in-laws 5 kids but my gracious husband offered to watch them all, including Hanley so I could go with her.

 

 

Sunday, my great uncle had special plans for me and my mother-in-law. We've known for a couple weeks that he was doing something for us but we didn't know what. For the 3rd day in a row, Michael watched Hanley all.day.long! My uncle picked us up around noon and we headed for Cleveland.

We went to Severance Hall, which is named "America's Most Beautiful Concert Hall" to see the Cleveland Orchestra. It was magical and with the first song, I already had tears in my eyes! The lights were so pretty and I love listening to any choir! In high school I was in Ensemble, which was the elite, traveling choir; I miss singing in a choir!

After the concert we went out to dinner at a little fancy spot, NightTown, which was previously voted "best fine dining" but truthfully, the hostess was rude, took 45 minutes to get our food after ordering and the food was cold and not very good... I don't suggest it and will never return.

Overall, it was a fantastic and much needed weekend!

Christmas Decorations

My Christmas tree this year just looks pitiful. I like my petite tree but the bottom 3 rows of branches are completely bare. I tried to leave some of the ornaments that aren't breakable down there but I just didn't really want Hanley playing with ANY of them because they all have sentimental value to me. 

This is also the first year that I didn't have to put any of the plain colored balls on our tree because we now have so many special ornaments. 

Since the year we started dating, Michael and I have had a tradition of getting each other a special Christmas ornament each year. I thought it would be a great idea to build up some ornaments and also, it's fun to see what we each come up with every year. 

Hanley was mesmerized when she first saw the tree for the first time

 I have no tree skirt on because I don't like the one we currently have.

That bright window doesn't make for very good pictures... also, notice the bare rows at the bottom...

 I made some festive garland for the windows, I didn't have any room on my mantel

Michael's so sweet, in 2009 he got me this birdhouse ornament and asked me to write that stuff on it.

This ESPN ornament is very fitting for Michael, found that one a few years back.

This ornament still makes me giggle. Before Hanley, our dogs were our pride and joy!

The first year we dated, Michael took me ice skating on Valentines Day and it was so much fun, that same year for Christmas we BOTH got each other a pair of ice skates ornaments! 

I got this one last Christmas from Michael, he said he knew instantly it was the one. I have a thing for penguins ;-)

My mom got us this ornament for Christmas the year we got married =)

Hanleys First Night Away

Hanley had her first sleep over at her grandparents house last weekend. I still can't believe it. She did so good, way better than I expected her to do. Michaels mom came over to get her Friday and they left here around 3 or so. She bought a car seat for her car specifically for this occasion!

I put a bag together of Hanleys favorite blanket and a few outfits and sent her on her way. I was most worried about bedtime and how she was going to do once she started to get tired and didn't have her Mama there. Her Papa (Grandpa) is her favorite person and I hoped he would be sufficient enough for her! She eventually fell asleep in their Pack and Play and slept all night (the other thing I was worried about).

I got updated periodically with texts and pictures which was much appreciated. She did so good and it was nice to feel like she missed us when we went to pick her up the next day.

While she was gone, Michael and I went to dinner. We have only been on 2 dinner dates ALONE since the little rugrat was born. Honestly, I love that time with my husband and we probably could benefit from more time like that but I am just so obsessed with her that I don't really mind all that much. Before we went to dinner, we got to go to the gym and spend as much time there as we wanted, which was nice to not have to worry if she was losing her mind in the Child Care. After dinner we got a little bit of shopping done. I was up kind of late, working on some crafts and woke up super early and took a long shower waiting for Michael to wake up. We then went and picked her up and carried on with our day!

She will probably stay the night again with them after the New Year sometime.

Side note: The only other time I have ever been away from Hanley all night was a good 6+ months ago for one of my best friends bachelorette party and I stayed at her house all night.

14 Month Update

Hanley Hanley Hanley

Getting so big!

Hanley and I went over to our friend Angelas house today which is always nice. I love getting Hanley together with her son Ethan, who is only 11 days older than she is. And obviously it's always nice to have a conversation with another adult. lol While we were there I put Hanley on her scale and it said she was 23 pounds, which seems about right. I meant to verify again later on my own scale but I forgot.

I haven't taught Hanley any more sign language, she is saying so many words that I don't even really need to. I was curious on the number of words Hanley can actually say so I started a list. She is almost to 40 words, holy crap! Such a smarty pants! Also, let me add, some of her words aren't fully pronounced but I know exactly what she is saying... for example: milk is said "mil" and she clearly says "ball" but when she says "book" you would swear she was saying ball but there is a difference that I can tell but of course I am with her constantly.
Apple = balbal
Bath = bah
Snack = nak

She is starting to move a little faster, not quite running, but she is trying. She makes me laugh, if she gets excited she wants to run but her body tries to go faster then her little feet can take her and she either has to slow down or falls.

She is wearing 12 month and some 12-18 month clothing. I'm still nursing once a day; bedtime. Eats like a champion, mandarin oranges still the only thing I can find that she isn't a fan of. She knows her eyes, nose, hair/head, toes, belly and loves pointing them out on herself as well as other people (as she sticks her finger up your nose and says "noe" or pokes you in the eye and says "eye") lol. She has started to pucker her lips when she kisses and it seriously makes my heart explode each and every time she does it! Still only 4 teeth; 2 front top and 2 front bottom.

Her sleeping schedule is the exact same, I feel lucky that she sleeps through the night and takes stellar naps. The only difference is I just lay her down for naps now and she falls asleep on her own. When it's getting around nap time, I ask her if she is ready to go night night and she will say nigh nigh and go straight to the gate at the stairs. I will be honest and say it was a big fear of mine that I would never be able to just lay her down and let her self soothe so sometimes it still amazes me when I walk out of the room and she doesn't stand up screaming for me. Another thing that brings a smile to my face is when she wakes up from a nap, or in the morning, she will just lay'sit there and entertain herself until I go get her.

Her favorite toys right now are keys; which I had to make a special set just for her to carry around so she would stop pressing random buttons on our key chains. She also loves jewelry, books and anything that isn't intended for babies. She will get engrossed in this hungry hippo toy that my sister got her for her birthday. She loves opening and closing the belly and putting the shapes in the mouth.

She loves the show, Daniel Tigers Neighborhood and if you ask her what Daniel Tiger says she will go roooaarrrr, so cute! And of course our go to, the Disney Jr channel!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm only a couple days late but better than never...

I'm most thankful for my family. All of them. My daughter and husband especially. It's hard to remember life without Hanley. She is so magical to me, I can't get enough of her! I'm also thankful for how hard Michael works so that I get to spend all my time with our girl. Also thankful for each and every day of our 7 years together and knowing we have a lifetime more!

We had an all around great day. We started out going to Michaels parents house first, around 11am. We ate around 1 and then headed to my grandmothers house to see my family. I am the exact opposite of a gluttonous person on Thanksgiving, it's hard for me to eat a lot when the day is busy or there are a lot of people and commotion for some reason. I will always choose ham over turkey, stuffing over potatoes and the relish tray over everything I already mentioned! It was nice seeing Hanley actually get to enjoy some of the food this year, and if we're lucky, Hanley will actually have some teeth next year so she can enjoy all of the food!

Every year I have high aspirations for making something festive for Thanksgiving but it's just not the easiest when you have multiple houses to go to and the day usually creeps up on me and I'm ill prepared so I just forget about it....one of these years, maybe...

My oldest brother and his family are in from Chicago for just a few short days. Hanley is in the stage where she steers clear of "strangers". They've only seen Hanley last year around Christmas time and obviously she was just barely a mere 3 months old. When my niece met Hanley last year, she was 2 at the time and called Hanley "her baby Hanley". It was the cutest thing!

Thanksgiving day for Hanley was rough near the end. She is used to taking a nap every single day, usually around the same time (depending on the day) and for 2-3 hours. She got to sleep in the car for maybe 20 minutes. So the last few hours of the day she spent clinging onto me, being a little fussy and not going to anyone else.

We aren't Black Friday shoppers, never have been. But since my niece and nephew were in from Chicago, we took all 5 cousins to get their pictures taken. A few of them turned out really nice and my mom just wanted one good one of them all together so ultimately that goal was accomplished.  After pictures we all went to lunch then to visit my other grandmother who is still in the hospital with her brain cancer. 

What are some of your favorite Thanksgiving dishes??