November Recap

Since it is the last day of the year, I guess it's time to finally get my act together and post some of our happenings for the last two months.

Back up to the end of October... Hannah was a ballerina for halloween. We went to Cora and Marie's house to carve pumpkins, play games and pass out candy. As you can see, Hannah loved scooping out the seeds.

Ali, Hannah, Annabella, Cora and Marie

We celebrated Hannah's 3rd birthday on November 8th. Nono and Nona came down for a visit, Daddy got donuts for breakfast (Hannah's favorite), and we took her to the Santa Barbara Zoo.

Nona helping Hannah try on her new princess dress-up clothes.

Hannah had so much fun at the zoo, can't you tell?

The Nemo birthday cake. My first time playing with fondant. I'm not so sure I like it yet.

Hannah's preschool has chapel once a month where they get all the kids together to sing songs, hear a Bible story, and celebrate the birthdays of the month. Here is Hannah up on stage for her birthday, and each kid gets a cross necklace.

So now you're updated on November, hopefully I'll post some December pics this afternoon.

Hummmm Baby!

Translation:

"When the Giants come to town,

It's bye, bye baby!"

Welcome Fall

Lots of fun things happening this fall. We started it off with Daddy's birthday last month (yes, I'm still playing catch up). Chris got a kayaking trip and reciprocating saw from me, and he used his birthday money to buy a battery powered nail gun. Oh the excitement of new tools.

Hannah was very eager to help Daddy open his present...

And she was also very eager to eat his cake...

Pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting...yum!

With our CSA box we've been getting more interesting veggies. Can you name this one?

A Kabocha squash. It's basically a green pumpkin. With the inspiration of my friend Holly, I made a pie with it using my pumpkin pie recipe. The inside is orange like a regular pumpkin, although the puree seemed a little more sticky and less watery than a sugar pumpkin. It tasted really good, and I had so much puree left I made Rachel Ray's Sausage and Pumpkin Lasagna for dinner tonight. Another excellent dish.

We also got an acorn squash the other week. I know, that's not so unusual but I had never cooked one. So, once again I pulled out my trusty Taste of Home cookbook and found this recipe for Honey-Spice Acorn Squash. It was good, but a little bitter because I didn't cook it long enough. And in case you're wondering, I served it with chicken with an apple cream sauce.

Catch Up

It's been a while since I've posted our happenings. Here's what we did in September. Chris took a whole week off and we escaped to Cayucos. We also spent some time with his family and attending his 10 year high school reunion. It was a much needed vacation and we were able to come home very refreshed.

Beach Baby

"Just resting with Daddy"

We ate breakfast at our favorite place in Cayucos, The Sea Shanty. They even made Hannah a Mickey Mouse pancake, without us asking for it.

We spent some time in SLO visiting with friends and going to Farmer's Market.

First, we rode the trolley. Hannah waited very patiently for it.

Then we had dinner at Firestone

Hannah got to meet the bear at Farmer's

While we were up in Soledad, we took a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium with Hannah's cousins, aunts and uncles and Nona

Hannah loved being a Nemo fish

Preston and Jenna. Kinley was with us too, but unfortunately I don't have a pic of her, or the adults for that matter. I need to get better at that.

On the way back home we stopped in SLO again to eat lunch at Franks Famous Hot Dogs. During all our years living in SLO we had never eaten there but always heard good things. All around a good lunch.

Another favorite on the Central Coast is the Avila Valley Barn. They have yummy baked goods and fresh fruits and vegetables. Hannah enjoyed feeding the animals and even made a new friend while running around on the lawn.

This is the face Hannah makes when you tell her to smile and say cheese. Does it look a little forced?

Why?

This is the question I hear most often from Hannah now. "Why?" "Ok, why?" "Mommy why?" At first, I was excited about this stage. I knew we would enter it at some point, and it's important for her to learn and understand the why behind (most) things. And it's been challenging me to figure out how to describe things so a 2-year-old will understand it, and not ask why again. But I will be honest, sometimes it wears me down. Sometimes she asks why to something I have no explanation for. And I have actually said the line I was trying so hard not to say, "Because I said so." 

But how many times do we ask God, "Why?" and then demand an answer. Or think it's not fair if He doesn't give us one. "But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, 'Why have you made me like this?'" (Romans 9:20) Thank God He is infinitely more patient with me than I am with Hannah! Sometimes all we need to hear from him is, "Because I said so." And sometimes we do get the answer to our questions, right then or maybe months or years later. 

I want Hannah to trust me that I am giving her truthful answers to her questions, and to know that she can always come to me with her questions. In the same way, I need to trust God and His Word, and know that if He doesn't tell me the why behind a situation, it's for my best and maybe I couldn't wrap my head around it anyways. And unlike me, he does have all the answers, even if He chooses not to tell me all of them. But no matter what, He is good.

So with that, I leave you with some fun pictures of Miss Curiosity.

Preschool

My little girl is growing up! She started preschool last week, and absolutely loves it. I didn't have as hard of a time as I thought I might. It's still hard to believe we've officially entered the school phase. Even though it's only preschool two days a week, we have new activities in our schedule. I'm signed up to bring snacks for her class next week. Hannah had a coloring project to do before her first day (which, to my shame, we completed in 5 minutes in the morning before going to school). We had to think about how much school she would be missing while planning our vacation. And...fundraisers, which we haven't taken part in yet but I know they're coming. Anyone want some See's Candy?

As I mentioned, Hannah loves her school and asks to go back. She has a great teacher and we feel blessed to have the opportunity to give our social butterfly this experience.

Hannah with her coloring project. It's hard to tell in this picture but she really did color it.

This is the best picture I could get with my wiggle worm, blurry but at least there's a smile.

Hannah ran right in to her class and made a bee line for the play-dough.

Summer Fun

In college, Summer Fun meant getting super cheap soft serve ice cream at AM/PM. Now, Summer Fun has turned in to this...

New Recipe #3

So what do you do when you have a bunch of radishes? I wasn't sure, and then I found this Radish Dip recipe on allrecipes.com. So yummy! I followed the suggestions of some reviewers and added some more radishes. It's good with crackers and carrots.

Now if only I could figure out what to do with a bunch of beets...

David + Kristl

My brother married a wonderful girl earlier this month, we are happy to welcome Kristl into the family. Their wedding was absolutely beautiful! Hannah did a superb job as the flower girl, until her ball of flowers fell apart about three rows from the front. So sad! But then she got some M & M's and all was forgotten. She spent the whole night dancing away with some cousins. You can see some more wedding pics at the photographer's website here.

Hannah practicing for her big role

With the bride before the ceremony

sweet bride and groom

And this is what Hannah did all evening...

And this is how she looked at the end of the night