Christmas

Here's a look at our Christmas in pictures. It was sooooo fun! I love being a mommy at Christmas time.

Saw the temple lights. It was beautiful.

The girls wore matching dresses to church. Aren't they the most beautiful things you've ever seen?

Beautiful thing #1Beautiful thing #2

We made gingerbread houses. The kind with real homemade baked gingerbread. Twas fun.

Mark's mom, sis, and bro showing off their creations.

The annual Hatch party (Mark's side). I was impressed that Natalie was brave enough to be part of the nativity. She is the adorable shepherd in the back.

The annual Kleven party (my side). Natalie and Brooklyn got to hold stars for the "Christmas" song. It's a great song, I don't know why it's not sung more often.

Hannah practicing her walking skills

My two timid girls did NOT want anything to do with Santa.

The girls got to open their ornament on Christmas Eve.

Hannah liked the paper more than the presents, of course.

Cookies and milk for Santa, carrot for the reindeer.

My clean freak husband wanted a Shark steam cleaner this year. He's cleaned three of our tiles so far and boy are they pretty.

Gift opening in full swing.

Natalie got a bike from Santa. She is still working on getting the hang of pedaling.

My two lovelies sitting in the chairs from Grandma Simonson that turned out to be too wobbly so will be making the return trip to the store.

We had a fabulous Christmas. It was our first one just as our family on Christmas morning. We got to talk to my brother Devin who is on a mission in Detroit. It was really awesome and he sounds so grown up and happy. Merry Christmas!

Natalie is 3

Our sweet smart wonderful funny amazing Natalie is 3 today. Here is a recap of her little life so far:

For the sake of journal keeping, here are some things about Natalie:

• She loves to help me bake and is really good at cracking eggs and can use the mixer
• She clears her bowl/plate/silverware off and puts them in the sink after every meal/snack.
• After not really caring about tv for the first 2 years of her life, she now enjoys Dora, Little Einsteins, WorldWorld, Caillou, Diego, Tigger n Pooh, and Disney movies (and fast forwards the scary parts all by herself).
• She loves dress up, trying on my shoes, and anything Princess
• She is quite timid and shy, but lately she seems to be coming out of her shell slightly. She now will wave at people and even say "hi" or "thank you" occasionally when prompted.
• We love her so much and I can't even remember my life without Natalie in it. Happy Birthday sweetie!
  
  
  
  
  
  

Just a couple of things

Hannah looking oh so cute with her new little hairstyle. It was getting a little long for the whale spout.

Hannah walking

I just love her!

By the way, if you can't see this video, I'm very sorry (those of you who recieve these posts via email). I'll put them on facebook too if that helps.

A carrot top who can barely walk

Hannah has decided she will now become a toddler and walk. Overnight she has gone from standing only (once in a while a step or two) to walking all the way across the room. She looks sooooooo big! I have been awaiting this day because one of my favorite country songs has these lyrics:
I'll never beat the view
From my front porch looking in
There's a carrot top who can barely walk
With a sippy cup of milk
A little blue eyed blonde with shoes on wrong
'Cause she likes to dress herself
And the most beautiful girl holding both of them
And the view I love the most
Is my front porch looking in

Except for the blonde having blue eyes, it pretty much describes my little family. And yes, "the most beautiful girl is me!" LOL

Pictures to come soon.

I am still here

Here are some things I'm going to blog about soon. It's been a busy week or two, especially the past few days. But I promise I will get back to my routine and you will see more frequent posts!

• Tiffany's wedding
• my flute being lost and then thankfully found
• Hannah's birthday party and first steps
• Family reunion
• Friend reunion
• Gingerbread houses
• a delicious brownie recipe
• my dear cousin Kari and the loss of her firefighter husband

I have experienced a wide range of emotions this weekend and have been reminded of the blessings of eternal families and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that families can be together forever and I am especially grateful for the atonement of Christ, wherein He experienced ALL we go through in our life and can therefore offer the comfort that is needed the most. How I am grateful for my family, especially my wonderful husband and sweet, innocent children.

We love rainy days

Happy birthday Hannah!

Today is Hannah's birthday. Here is a quick look back at her little life so far.

Just born. Don't you love my labored-all-night-followed-by-a-med-free-delivery look?

one day old

4 days old

3 months

6 months

9 months

11 months

11 months

12 months

Some things about Hannah:

• She crawls like a champ, but is still hesitant to take any steps.
  
• She loves to push the train around the house, especially with Natalie riding


• She loves to swing at the park


• She has 8 teeth and is currently growing molars


• She still fits in her baby car seat, but will probably move up soon (we'll see how much she weighs at the dr on Friday)
• She has never been in a public place without receiving some sort of comment on her red hair or blue eyes


• She loves to nurse and still nurses 4-5 times a day and 1-2 times a night (on a good one)


• Says "mama" and that's it.


• Her mommy is her favorite person (see previous)


• Hannah skipped over purees and went straight to finger food. I don't think she's ever eaten anything I've tried to spoon feed her
• Her name is a palindrome


• She is cuddly and cute and we love her oh so much.

Happy birthday Hannah-banana!

What I'm thankful for

Happy Thanksgiving

What Hannah looks like from 4:30-6pm

Hannah, our pet goat

P-dub

Last week my sisters, BIL, neices, mom, and I wentt to see Pioneer Woman at her book signing. Mom bought us each a copy of her cookbook (which I may or may not cook out of, considering the exhorbent amounts of butter she uses) and got them signed. The line was hours long though so I snapped a quick pic of her and we left our books there for her to sign and picked them up the next day. It was fun though, and she was hilarious, just like her blog. Loved her!

My lovely talented sis Melanie. See if you can spot her on PW's blog.

a healthy dinner

I made quinoa and butternut squash casserole tonight. I had those two ingredients on hand so I googled them to see what recipes were out there and found this. It was SO good. The first few bites were interesting because you have to get used to the quinoa flavor (sorta nutty/brown rice-y) but after that it was delicious. A very healthy dinner choice if you're looking for more.

Oh, I added a sprinkle of garlic powder and threw in some minced fresh basil before baking.

my other blog

Check out my photography blog. I'm going to try to be better at updating it.

Fall and Halloween

Here's a post with a bunch of pictures. They're out of order. Just imagine them in the right order, if you know it.
Bought pumpkins at a pumpkin patch, which was fun. Very fall-ish. We didn't quite get around to carving them before Halloween though. Maybe this next week we will, just for the experience.

Check out what I did with Hannah's hair!

At the Raymond Halloween party.

"Belle" won the cake walk. Well, the lady just called the number she was standing on after she went around a few times. haha

My dad and his neon hair.

My cousin Dan's boy was Bam-bam, so we had to get a pic of him and Pebbles together.

Here's our family. Mark is a bar code, and I am a jellyfish.

My happy little Pebbles girl.

Natalie went as Belle. I even let her wear make up and I curled her hair. She even had a yellow ribbon, like Belle.

It was great fun! Now Mark and I have so much yummy candy to eat! haha. And I guess I'll let Natalie have a couple of peices too. She actually was brave enough this year to say, "Trick-or-treat" and "thank you" to the people at their houses! Amazing.

TTFN.