Monday, January 30, 2012

In The News

Last week we happened to be at the new house when a local news crew showed up.  They were doing a segment on the growth in downtown Bentonville and asked if they could film in our house and if they could interview us.  It was kind of exciting and fun.  They interviewed myself and Dave and asked us a lot of questions about why we chose to build downtown and how we feel about the new Crystal Bridges museum.  If I would have known I was going to be on TV I probably would have done something with my hair :).

As soon as we got home we made sure to record the news! 

Here is a link to the segment: http://nwahomepage.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=302912

It was really exciting to see our house on TV.  I am happy that Dave's comment about a "fronch port society" made it on TV.  I have heard him say this more than once :).  My favorite part was the end when he called Bentonville little "germantown" Ha!  We have watch this segment at least once a day!

Here are a few more updated pictures of the house.  They painted it last week.....the color does not look like I thought it would, but I like it.  Why are paint colors so hard to pick?
We love the wood floor
Tile in the Master Bath
Laundry Room Tile
Guest Bath Tile
Playroom
 The railing on the porch is going up


Sunday, January 29, 2012

This And That

I wanted to write down a few more things Hannah has been saying lately  This girl makes me laugh every day.  Hannah was doing something funny and Scott said "Oh Hannah" and she just responded "Oh Scott" and added a big sigh. She also said "No sweetheart" to Scott.  I think her teacher at school calls her sweetheart (neither one of us calls her that) and she must say "no" a lot to Hannah :).  "Holy cow" and "That's cool" are new favorite.
Our little dancing queen
Chicken dance is always a favorite
  I had another interesting conversation with her yesterday (it was a mixture of english and german).  She packed her backpack full of essentials and said she was going to visit Volker (my brother).  I asked her how she was getting there and she said by car.  I told her that would be a long drive to Germany and she said "no mama to the airport". Ha!  Then she told me it is going to be a long flight.

Here she is all packed up.  She brought me my shoes so I could drive her to the airport.
When asking her what she is going to do with Volker she says "play with the cash register". My parents have a little grocery store for Hannah to play with when we are over there and my brother is always a good customer.  She has a couple of baby dolls and every time we ask her what their names are she says "baby Volker". Ha!

This week she also told me that she loves Simon and Bennett.  She talks about those two boys a lot!

We tested out her Easy Bake Oven that she got from Simon for her birthday yesterday.  She was really excited about baking a cake in her own oven.
She did not want to sit down to eat her lunch while the cake was baking (did you know the oven operates with a 100 watt light bulb......who knew a light bulb can bake a cake), so she stood there watching the oven while eating.
The finished product

We have been potty training at our house and it is going really well.  I am glad we waited until she was ready, because it has been pretty easy.  I haven't had to do much "training", she just decided she was ready for underwear and we went for it.  We have a few accidents here and there, but overall it is going great.  She is still in a diaper at night, but I am sure that will come with time. 
 Such a big girl!
Next up is taking the paci away (she only has it at night time). I am dreading that, but I know it is time.  I have waited this long, because Hannah has been such a terrible sleeper and the paci has always helped a lot.  She has been sleeping a lot better lately.  I  have not said that out loud yet, but I hope typing it will no jinx it.


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Conversations

I love that I can have full conversations with Hannah now.  Sometimes they get very interesting and I would love to know what goes on in her mind.  She is still in the "why?" phase and I hear that about 500 times a day.  We can have a 10min conversation that started with "Daddy has to go to work" or "Let's go to the store" followed by "Why?"and so on...... It can be quite exhausting to answer all her questions. 
I am also realizing a lot of things I must say a lot, because Hannah repeats it.  She says "you are kidding me", "oh my gosh", "good job mama", "oh man" ect.  I really need to pay more attention to what I say.  Some of her other favorite things to say are: "Bye bye.  Have a good day.  See you tomorrow" or "Thanks for coming".
Here is an example of one of our recent conversations:
Hannah: Be quiet Mama.  Ashley is sleeping. 
Me: Where?
Hannah: Over there. Be really quiet.
Me: OK. 
Hannah: Ashley awake.  I go see Ashley.
Me: You are going to London?
Hannah: Yes. Megan's car go to London.
Me: That will be a long drive
Hannah: Grandma Jeannie come too.  Eat chocolate in Iowa
It is a little bit of a random conversation, but it just makes me smile.
I also love her imagination.  She is very good at pretend play and turns everything into a store.  She likes to sell ice cream, chocolate and cheese.  Her fruits and veggies are sold out a lot (at least the ones she doesn't like).  She makes a lot of dinners in her kitchen and we always have to make sure we blow on our food, because it is hot. Or she tells me "Be careful, it is spicy".

The other day Hannah prayed: "Dear God.  Send snow.  Amen"

Thursday, January 12, 2012

More House Pictures......Inside and Out

I can't believe how much progress they have made on the house in the last few weeks. I think I say this every time, but it is just going so fast and I love this phase of building a house, becasue everything is just coming together (and my fingers are crossed hoping I like it).   The stone on the outside is up and I really like it.
We are having a hard time picking a paint color.  Here are the 5 samples we have tried.
The kitchen

Dining Room
Wine Cellar

Living Room
Stained glass in the hallway.  I love how this turned out.
Entryway
Guest Room Ceiling
Office
Master Bedroom
Wall in Hannah's Room
Playroom!!!!  This is still my favorite. 
We only have a few big decisions left to make......granite, paint colors, carpet, backsplashes and landscaping!  We are getting very excited for this house.  We go by there every day to check out the progress.  Hannah is really tired of going to the new house.  She just wants to stay in the car now and play puzzles on my phone.