Monday, August 29, 2011

Monday Randoms

This post is going to be a little random.  I am going through the rest of my pictures from my camera and phone and there are several that don't have a "home" yet, so here you go......
Hannah loves to pick between her toes.  She does this often in the car and she is always very focused on it.  I know it is a little strange, but the funny thing is that I did this as a kid as well.  My mom took this picture and thought it was hilarious, because it reminded her a lot of me.
My moms last night here we went out to eat with some friends.  We were just sitting at the table and Hannah put her arms around me and my mom and said "picture".  So, Kristin was kind enough to take a picture of us and it turned out pretty good.  Thank you Hannah for wanting to take a picture with us.
Here is another example of Hannah asking to have her picture taken.
A few weeks back we attended a wonderful shaving cream art playdate.  Hannah had a great time playing with the shaving cream and creating some "art".
Hannah recently had her first day of dance after the summer break and her first day back at Mother's Day Out.  Hannah now dances without me.  I get to watch her from the waiting room and it is just too cute to watch these little girls dance.  She is doing really well and listens to the teacher.  I am very proud of her!  Hannah loves to watch the video of her recital.  She wants to watch it every day and she gets very excited (I need to figure out how I can upload the video to this blog).

This was the first day of school.  I love that I can do pigtails now (when she lets me).
I also wanted to document a few of the things Hannah is currently doing.  Her favorite songs are Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Happy Birthday, Frere Jacques (she sings this in French and not German or English).  Hannah also has a few German songs she really likes.  Her favorites are Auf der Mauer auf der Lauer and Der Kuckuck und der Esel.
Hannah still loves band aids.  We go through a lot of them and have quite the collection.  Every time she gets hurt or thinks she is hurt she wants a band aid.  Hannah also gets band aids as a reward for sleeping well!
We practice letters in the bath tub every night and she has been doing really well with.  Here is a list of names she can identify: M=Mama, P=Papa, A=Allison, B=Bennett, G=Oma Gisela, J=Grandma Jeannie, I=Grandpa Irv, V=Volker, O=Opa Helmuth, H=Hannah.
The sweetest words Hannah says are "wuv you Mama/Papa".  She knows that I really like to hear it.  She thinks it is funny when I beg her to say it.  I say "bitte, bitte, bitte" (please) and she repeats that and then says "wuv you Mama".
My mom wanted to buy Hannah another dress when we were out shopping and she said "genug Kleidchen Hause", which means enough dresses at home.  Ha!

Saturday, August 27, 2011

One Year Blog Anniversary

I am proud to announce that today is my one year blog anniversary.  I am so glad that I have kept up with it.  This week  I have spent several hours this week  reading my posts from the entire year a picture and I was really surprised at how much I had already forgotten.  I have posted 94 times, which translates into over 300 pages when printing the blog into a book.  I am very excited to keep this up and print a book once a year.
Here is a recent picture of our family.  It is not a great picture, but we don't have many of all three of us together.

Friday, August 26, 2011

More Swimming, Wilderness Safari and First Movie

I am still catching up on blogging.  I have a few more pictures from my moms visit. 
Swim Ranch wrap up
This little girl has no fear of water.  Since completing swim class she does not want me to hold on to her in the water anymore.  She can do it all byherself (she is wearing a Puddle Jumper)!!  She kicks really hard and moves forward pretty good.
Riding on the turtle and going down the slide were favorites!
We have also done some swimming in the lake.......
.......and by the creek
My mom has been to Arkansas to visit us a bunch of times, but we have never taken her to the Gentry Wilderness Safari.  Well, it was about time that we took her! I let Hannah sit with me up front and she loved it.  This place never disappoints.

Hannah had her first movie experience.  We took her to see "The Smurfs".  She did well and enjoyed the popcorn, which is not a surprise.  She did not like the 3D glasses, so the movie was just a little blurry to her :)
Have a great weekend!

Monday, August 22, 2011

Viva Las Vegas.....Again

When we went to Las Vegas last year I told myself that I will not go back for at least a few years.  We had been so many times in the last few years that I was just a little "vegas'd out".  So, when Scott first suggested to go back to Vegas this year I did not jump up and down with joy.  Then he said that there was going to be a concert by the final 8 from "The Voice" show at the end of July during the time my mom was going to be here to visit.  So, we did jump on that opportunity to leave Hannah with my mom and get away to Vegas for the weekend.
We had a long day getting there.  We decided to fly out of Springfield, MO, because the times and prices were better.  It is about a 2 hour drive from Bentonville, so we left at 9am in the morning.  Everything was scheduled to be on time and we boarded the plane.  Then they made an announcement that they were doing repairs on the long runway in Springfield and that our plane would not be able to take off with a full tank on the short runway.  Therefore, we had to stop in Wichita, KS to re-fuel.  Overall this was not supposed to be a long delay.  We took off and were in the air for a while when they made the announcement that the Wichita airport was closed due to thunderstorms and that we were re-directed to.......take a guess?????  Bentonville, AR.  So, we ended up right in our backyard where we started 5 hours earlier.  It took a while to re-fuel and then we finally took off 3 hours later.
When we got to Vegas we spent a little time at the pool at the MGM before it started to rain.  I don't think I have ever seen rain in Vegas before.  We had a nice dinner at Sea Blue at the MGM and then went to bed early. I know I am getting old when I am in bed by 10:30 pm in Vegas, but to be fair that is 12:30am central time :).  We got a nice massage the next morning and then spent the rest of the day by the pool.  It is a great place to people watch.  We enjoyed a great meal at Nobhill Tavern at the MGM before heading to the concert.  I just realized that we never even left the MGM on this trip. Ha!

I really enjoyed the concert, but I was a little sad that it was not sold out.  It did not seem very crowded and they blocked off almost half of the arena with black sheets.  I took a few pictures with my phone, so they are not great.  My favorite three singers are Dia Frampton, Javier Colon and Vicki Martinez.
After the concert I went to bed, because I was on the 7am flight back home.  Scott stayed up and gambled for a while.  He did not have to get up that early, because he had to go on to CA for work.
I had a great time and it was fun to spend some quality time with Scott, but this time I am really going to stay away for a few years.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Eureka Train Ride and Things That Make Me Smile

While my mom was in town we went on a little road trip to Eureka Springs to ride the train.  It was a really hot day out, but we made it there for the 10am train ride and it was still bareable. 
Hannah and Oma at the train depot
The total train ride is about an hour long, which is perfect for little kids
The best part was when we got out of the train, because they had to turn the cabuse around.  We were able to make our own souvenirs by putting a coin on the train tracks and the cabuse rode over it.  First you had to spit on the coin though.....that was Hannah's favorite part.
Waiting patiently.....
I love this white dress on her (but it is very hard to keep clean)
It was getting really hot on the way back, you can see that Hannah's face is really red and my face is really shiny!
We walked around Eureka for a little bit and then had lunch at The Local Flavor.  The food is wonderful!
I stopped doing the monthly posts about what Hannah has been up to (when she turned two).  The entire blog is pretty much about her anyway, so I didn't think I needed to keep up with the monthly posts.  Here are some of my favorite stories from the last few weeks.  Hannah makes me laugh all the time.  I am sure this is boring for most of you, but it helps me keep track of everything.  It is so easy to forget when she did certain things.
You love to play hide and go seek.  You will also play it by yourself.  You go and hide a bunch of objects such as books and then you cover your eyes and count to ten and go look for them.  You get really excited and yell "found one" when you find all of the objects you just hid one minute earlier.  This makes me laugh every time. 
You get very concerned if I hurt myself (or you accidentally hurt me).  You always say "Kiss it Mama" and then after you kiss me you tilt your head and say "OK. Better".  You also want to get a "Pflaster" (band aid) for me and your new thing is that you run into the bathroom get a cotton pad hold it under water in the bathtub and then put it on my "aua". It is so sweet and makes me smile.
You like to count.  You can count from 1-10 in english.  You do like to skip 3-5 sometimes, but you are really good at counting from 6-10.  You also like to count 1-3 in german and you can count 4-10 in german as well, but you need a little help!  I told you to stop doing something the other day (more than once) and I asked you one last time to stop and I counted to three or you would have to go into time out.  Once I counted to three you continued to count from 4-10 and were really proud of yourself.  Of course I had to laugh and forgot about the whole time out thing.
You are not that good at your colors yet, we have to practice a little more.  Everythig is "orange" to you right now. 

We were eating dinner the other night and you were making a big mess, so I let out a big sigh.  You then copied me and let out an even bigger sigh.
You have learned our names and now you call us Scott and Katrin when we don't respond right away.  Scott doesn't like it when you call him by his first name, he wants to be called Papa or Daddy.  I think it is hilarious when you call us by our first name.  You have also learned our last name. 
Every day is differnet with you and you never know what you are going to get.  It is such a fun stage!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Oma's Visit and Day One of Swim Ranch

My mom came to visit for a few weeks and we enjoyed having her here.  We stayed busy during the entire time.  Hannah enjoyed having somebody else to play with and I loved being able to just run a few errands without her.  I could get used to that!
I have over 300 pictures to go through from the last few weeks, so it could take a while.  We completed Swim Ranch, went to the Botanical Garden, went swimming at the pool, took the boat out several times, rode the train in Eureka Springs, went to the Wildlife Safari and Scott and I went to Vegas for a weekend.

This was our second year to go to the Swim Ranch.  We go to swim class every day for one week.  Hannah did great on the first day and then she hated the second and third day and by the fourth day she loved it again.  You just never know what you are going to get with a two year old!  Hannah loves to be around water and is very comfortable in it.  The most important thing we learn at the Swim Ranch is to hang on at the edge of the pool and to climb out.
Hannah finally let me put her hair into a ponytail again for swim class (only for one day, but still)
This was Hannah last year at the Swim Ranch
Back to this year......
Every swimmer deserves some playtime
First day completed
This day was a little overcast, so we took the opportunity to visit the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks after Swim Ranch.  It is a beautiful place.


They have lots of events for kids and adults at the Botanical Garden.  I will have to keep that in mind for some fun things to do.