Birthday Party!

Although her birthday isn't until Wednesday, we had Hannah's birthday party this afternoon. We thought it would be nice to have it on a longer weekend, so our extended family would be able to make it. Unfortunately, only Jon's side of our family was able to come to the party, so even though it was planned as a small party, it ended up being even smaller than planned...But we still had a good time!

Hannah LOVED her cake, as you'll see from the pictures. It didn't take her long to figure out what to do. She picked up the butterfly decoration, tried it but wasn't thrilled with the taste, so I took it and pointed to the icing, and away she went...

Mom, I don't know why I'm wearing this hat, but I'm ready
Mmmmm...this is pretty good.
Yep, likin' it a lot. Why have I not been given sugar before?

Yes, the icing is up my nose and is dangerously

close to my eye. What's it to you?

This cake is SO GOOD, I can't help myself.

In case you're wondering, Hannah didn't eat the whole cake that was sitting on her highchair. But, she did pick at part of it for the better part of 30 minutes and probably ate 1/4 of the cake. She MAY have had a bigger piece than me!

Prior to the cake eating extravaganza, we opened a few presents and played with some new toys. We had the party right after Hannah woke up from her afternoon nap, so she was ready to play AND get a snack, so the timing ended up being perfect.

In case you're wondering, the cake was made by "Cake Dot" - the same lady that made our wedding cake, and the cake we used to announce/celebrate being pregnant (See the Oct. '07 post for the picture). We really like her cakes - the adult one was chocolate - and she actually designed the cake herself. The only instruction I gave her was that I didn't want the cake covered in pink, because having a little girl there is PLENTY of pink in my life, and I suggested butterflies or flowers as a decoration, since Hannah isn't really into a "character" or anything. The butterflies are all fondant, and because she'd already made some for a wedding cake, I wasn't charged extra! As my sister-in-law told me, the sign of a good cake is no leftovers, and there were only 10 adults at the house to have cake (and they finished off the rest of Hannah's smash cake too!).

Snowy Afternoon Fun

This afternoon Jon's school had an early dismissal, and our firm closed early because of the weather. I actually left work shortly before we closed and came home to play in the snow with Hannah. I'd seen the weather reports that it was going to get really cold later in the week and wanted the chance to play outside before the temperature went below zero.

Daddy loves his little girl.
Hannah loved to watch the snow coming down.
Mommy introduces Hannah to snow...

Even Abby joined in the fun. Abby loves to play outside in the snow. Hannah loved to watch Abby & Mommy run in circles, chasing each other in the snow. She thought it was really funny. Ultimately we were only outside for about 5 minutes....after taking about 10 minutes (or more) to get everyone dressed and ready to go outside.

Happy Birthday Liam

Today is my nephew Liam's first birthday. It's hard to believe he is already one year old. Last year at this time when I got the news that he was born I told all of my nurses about him, and as soon as I had pictures I made just about every person that came in my room look at them. Of course, I never thought I'd be giving Liam a cousin that same month....

Liam is growing up so quickly. I hate that we live so far away from him and can't see him very often. Here is his birthday update, with some recent pictures!

http://thecassidyclan.blogspot.com/2009/01/liams-1st-birthday.html

Brushing Teeth

Now that Hannah has teeth (so far 4 of them), she gets her teeth brushed every night after her bath before bedtime. It's actually something that she really enjoys!

Hannah always tries to hold the toothbrush herself. She really likes to take her sips of water to rinse afterwards too - but there is usually a decent amount of water from the cup spilled on her, so we've learned to wait before putting the PJ's on.

Happy New Year!

Well, this New Year's Eve was certainly different from last year!!

Last year at this time, I was in the hospital... our friends Curtis & Sheri came over to my room, and we played cards, watched TV, and one of my nurses (who can remain nameless) showed the boys how to work the bed pan sprayer in my bathroom, how the big giant scale that they used to weigh us worked, and other "fun" hospital things. We had a good visit and toasted with French lemonade to having a better 2008.

This year, Sheri & I fixed dinner for the guys....we made steak, twice-baked potatoes, spinach & strawberry salad, and had molten lava cakes for dessert. Quite the feast! It was nice to have such a good dinner and be able to hang out. Since we both now have kids, it's just easier to stay in than trying to go somewhere. While we were hanging out we took more pictures of the kids and dressed up the dogs in Christmas antlers that we had laying around.

Jacob & Hannah enjoy their first New Year's Eve

Joey

Abby