Electric Blanket

So Caleb got me an electric blanket for Christmas. Eventhough I was skeptical at first (remembering the bright pink electric blankets that we owned when I was a kid), this has easily become one of my favorite gifts. For those that don't know, our bed room has heating issues and thus is about 10 degrees cooler than the rest of the house. So now before I brush my teeth, I "pre heat" my bed, and then when I'm ready to actually hop in, my bed is warm! It is also very handy for when I have to get up in the middle of the night (like for small crying children). When I get up I turn the heat back on and then I when I return my bed is still warm. How cool is that!!

(Don't worry, this wasn't my only Christmas present from Caleb :-D)

Can I hear an Amen!

This last Sunday I helped out with the 2 year old child care, so I downloaded the sermon. I was in the kitchen making dinner with Peter and Hannah was playing with Legos in the living room, so I started listening to it. And when the pastor said, "Can I hear an amen?" Low and behold, I heard an amen ring out from my living room. And sure enough when he said it again, Hannah again shouted out amen. Who knew she could say amen? It's not a very hard word, but she doesn't say it after we pray for our food, or after we pray before bedtime, so I just never knew.

It makes me wonder how much she understands. I know she understands everything I say and all the conversation that goes on in our house, but I guess it just never occurred to me that she understands the sermons that I listen too, or the lyrics of the music I listen to. Huh...good thing I listen to good stuff!

Hannah's new word

Can you figure out what she's saying?



I'll give you a hint: it's a spice.

OK, so most of her words are more understandable, but this one is so cute. And just the fact that she's trying is great. :)

Our Christmas Tree

Last weekend we went out and cut down our Christmas tree. We went up with Kim and Ben and found some really nice trees. The weather was sunny and roads were clear. The only bummer was that Hannah was afraid of the snow. She didn't even want to stand on it...so we had to carry her the whole time. But besides that, we had a great time. Here are some pic's.

Here's Kim and Hannah in the Truck.

Here's a scenery shot of our views from the day.

Here's Kim and Ben cutting down their tree.

Hannah and Caleb on the way up to find our tree.

Caleb, Kim and Ben after successfully loading up our trees.

After returning home, we promptly put up our tree and started decorating. Actually, Caleb and Hannah did all the decorating - Peter and I watched.


Hannah decided that it was easiest to hang the ornaments on the lights. She also figured that once she found a good spot, she should hang at least 3 or 4 there. Luckily Caleb was helping to balance out our tree.

Here's the finished product.

This picture is without flash so you can see the lights.

Hannah's moving out

Today Hannah told me she was going home. "To mommy and daddy's home?" I asked. "No, MY home," was the reply. And then she said bye-bye and gave me a hug and went to her home. Here's a picture of her in her home.

Here she is coming out of her home.

Hannah has just recently started using her imagination more. She loved to bring me over "toast" or "meat" in the form of a coaster, which I eat graciously, of course. She will also go over to the wall and pick "beebas." And she shares too. She'll give me some beebas and then go and pick some for baby Pete. She also shares with Ug. And then when we are outside she'll cook up some "hot juice" on her little outdoor kitchen and then she'll bring over a plate of "treats." They are so good I always ask for seconds, which she gladly serves. It's fun living with a 2 year old.

39 lbs of Thanksgiving

That's right folks. Caleb and I brined and cooked up 39 pounds of Turkey on Thanksgiving day and we have no left overs. Can you believe it? We will obviously have to do something different next year. Maybe we'll buy a third turkey and cook it the day after thanksgiving just for the 4 of us. That's worked in the past.

You are probably wondering what kind of folks we had over that would eat so much turkey. Well, that's my family. On Thanksgiving day we had 16 adults, 3 toddlers, and 2 babies converge on our place and fill our house with laughter and fun. Caleb and I set up 3 tables in our living room so that everyone would have a place to dine. Here's a picture of our mega table.



We had a great time hanging out and eating tasty food. And thanks to Lauren's great recipes, the turkey turned out fabulous, as well as the homemade cranberry sauce. (Honestly, I've never really enjoyed cranberry sauce until I had the homemade stuff. Thanks Lauren for the great recipe!)

Here's a picture of Caleb and my self grabbing a breather.

Here's my aunt Christin with Peter.

Here's my dad with Hannah.

And here's Uncle Do, the guy who took most of these pictures. (altho, technically he's my great Uncle Do...which means he's Hannah's great, great Uncle Do. Uncle Do, if you're reading this, we think you are great, great!)


All in All, Thursday was a grand success. But these folks only ate 21 lbs of Turkey. On Friday we took our second Turkey (the 18 pounder) and drove down to the Oregon Coast to get together with some of Caleb's extended family. Here's a picture of that crew.

We had a great time down there catching up with family (or in my case meeting family) and just hanging out. One of the highlights from that trip was our view on Saturday morning. When we looked out our window in the morning, we were surround by about a herd of about 100 Elk. (Caleb and gang must have scared them across the state. :-p) Unfortunately our Camera was in the car, but after they passed by our place we took some pictures. It was pretty darn cool.









And because of that Hannah learned a new phrase, "Elk poop" and "Elk poos." (the second one being the plural of the first) She is a really good spotter...and a loud one too. :-D

Hannah Reading

So just this week Hannah not only wants to be read to, but she also wants to read to you. Here she is reading one of her favorite books. I came in when she was already mostly done, so you only get to hear the last quarter of the book.

You probably didn't understand what she was saying...that is because the book is in Spanish. :-)

Here she reading another book. It happens to be a personal favorite of mine. The book is called, "My Mom is Excellent." And if you listen to Hannah carefully, you can sorta pick out the phrase "my mom is excellent". She says it at the beginning.