Shake.Rattle.Roll

2010 Daddy/Daughter Date

After a week of sleepless nights (yes, I was that stressed over a YW activity) we pulled off an awesome daddy/daughter date night.  What had me stressed?

Well, the week went a little like this...

Run to Goodwill, the party store, JoAnns.  Decorations done.  Or are they?  Poodle skirts are sooo easy, or so I'd heard.  Hazel and I MUST have one!  They technically are easy, I just wanted them to be perfect.  They weren't.  Hazel ended up with a poodle-mini-skirt, solution?  Make cute bloomers so it looks like the short skirt was planned.   Spend waay too much time working on said skirts.  Two hours before the party started, the brilliance hits.  Race to Target buy all the pastel m&ms I can find, rummage through the garage and find pastel spray paint (yes, it was on hand).  Spray lids to baby food jars.  And sort those m&ms.  Throw everything in the car and hurry out the door.  W A I T.  What is Seth going to wear?  Ugh.  Hmm.  Argh.  Ah ha!  Run back into the house, dive into the coat bin, grab the red coat at the bottom.  Perfect.

Arrive at the church to decorate.

  

My "decoration" pictures are, well, lame! Sorry!  Just use your imagination to see the awesomeness.

  

I wanted to put the dogs on the round tablecloths, so they'd look like poodle skirts, but then I remembered the chairs would be in the way, so the dessert table had to do.  (Don't you love the cupcakes Leslie made? me too!)

 

 Large jar: "Best Moves" and "Best Look" awards, Medium jar: Musical chairs winner/centerpieces

Baby jar: gifts for all those that came.

Hazel and I got all dressed up.

 

She rocked her poodle skirt...

 And, please...who wouldn't want to show off that bum!

Seth took pictures of the girls with their dates, and t h a n k y o u for the last-minute letterman's jacket save! (I know this picture is blurry, but I love it)

Hazel and I danced all over the dance floor snapping pictures.  (I had to add the "belt" to my dress, when I realized how much felt stretches and I suddenly had a skirt that was two sizes too big!...That's what I get for putting in a zipper instead of an elastic waist.)

The night was fun.  Swing-dance lessons, pictures with Dads, costume contest, musical chairs and rootbeer floats!

So, you may ask again, what had me so stressed?  Well... would anyone show up??

Oh, I was so worried.  The girls are so busy, and there are a lot of other places they could be on a Friday night... Would the girls show up?  Would they have fun?  

They d i d show up!  and I t h i n k they even had a good time!  

Hazel Highlights - Month Eleven

• Absolutely no pacifier for me, Mom. I haven't touched that thing in over a month.

• I l o v e to climb up the stairs, I've only slipped twice and thankfully I only slipped down a stair or two.
  

I was really sad when I slipped down. Yes, it really was just one step....but it scared me!

• I still love to dance, I just can't stop...I'll dance to any music, it doesn't matter if it comes from the radio, Dad's phone ringing, a commercial, anything! I love it.
  
• As of a few days ago I can also crawl d o w n the stairs, thanks Grandpa H for teaching me! I don't know why Mom and Dad are so happy about this.
  
• I am so tired of baby food. I love to eat whatever the family is eating. I love avocados, string cheese, corn, black beans, pasta...pretty much anything I can feed myself.

• Well, after trying a million sippy cups, I have found one I love. It doesn't leak (which makes Mom happy) and it's not too hard for me to get the goods out (which I love!)
• I am getting really good at walking around, as long as I'm holding on to something. Mom says I am mobile, that sounds fancy.
• I'm so glad we have lots of windows, I could look out the windows for hours.
• I have a pretty cute laugh, and like to share it. Sometimes I'll just sit by myself and laugh and laugh.
• I am always trying to dig out Mom's sewing machine, she's always sewing stuff for other people, I like to leave little hints that I want something too!

• I am a really good helper in the kitchen, I like to watch Mom cook and I love to help with the dishes. Dad's always telling me I don't need to lick the dishes as they go in the dishwasher. Lame.
• I hate, hate, hate to lay on my changing table. I am a happy person, just don't put me anywhere near that thing!
• There was sooo much snow. It was taller than me, and if that's not cool enough, the snow banks were way taller than Dad!

• Thanks to all of the snow, they closed the base. Dad was able to hang out with us for six days in a row!

• I might not like my pacifier, but I do like a good thumb-suck from time to time. Dad says it's okay because I only do it in my crib when I go to sleep for the night. I'll do my best not to suck on it during the day. They think I suck my thumb funny, don't most people suck their thumbs with their palms up? (Sorry, no pictures, she really only does it when it's bedtime...no camera!)
• When the sun comes out, we go for walks. I love walks, I was so excited on this walk I passed right out! They say I was snoring, I don't believe it!

• I can sing. I definitely didn't get it from Mom and Dad, I sing along to any and all music. I really like to sing to the hymns at church.
  
• I am a big help to my Mom, I follow her all around the house. I love to be near her and I love when Dad plays with me.

Mom was cleaning my room, and I got bored so I started reading all by myself!

She's Snow Crafty

What did this last storm create?A birthday tutu for Hazel's friend! Which of course, Hazel had to try out.

And although church has been canceled two weeks in a row, rumor has it the weather will cooperate this Sunday, time to remind the girls of their "Divine" Nature.

Oh Hi Snow. ...Again.

After somewhat digging ourselves out Sunday and Monday, we got hit with this beauty Tuesday and into Wednesday. It was ugly. The wind was blowing so hard you couldn't tell if the snow was falling down, up or side to side.

Thankfully the house didn't blow over but the storm did and Thursday morning we had a beautiful, sunny day. We're not quite sure how much snow we got with this storm, but we'd guess around 18". Bleh. (Yes, if you do your math right, that is close to 4 feet in less than a week). We thought we should document our snowbanks before they completely disappeared.

(2/14/10 Note: our road is still a one lane. Should be interesting to see the school busses attempt to navigate...there's NOWHERE to turn around!!)

Hazel loves to watch the wind blow and the snow fall...
But I could tell she was starting to get bored with it all...
She was tired of watching me sew...
We needed to go out for a walk!!

Oh, yeah. For the record, Seth didn't have to work on Thursday, so all of that shoveling was in vain!!!

What do YOU do when it snows?

Hazel knows. It snows. I sew.
She does her best to "dig in" and help.
I've been slacking. One nephew's 4th birthday, two nephew's "birth"-days, and one more baby born. Catch up time.

4 years old. Loves Thomas. Done.
Boston. December baby. Technically not a nephew. Close enough. Lions. Roar. Done.
Miles. Almost three weeks old. Choo. Choo. Newest and only nephew on Seth's side. Done.
Wrapped, packed and sent. (Six boxes total, once Valentine's for the nieces and nephews were sent as well).
I love. love. love. to sew. I'm not crafty, or amazing, but I love looking at something and thinking, hmmm, how can I do that!?

So. It snowed. I sewed.

Sorry, cute baby Gavin. Yes, you are older than Miles, and should have received your baby package too, but well...I'm waiting on "special" fabric, so that everything matches the awesome quilt Aunt K and I made for you. :)

Holy Snow!

Another big storm? I didn't believe it.

Weathermen underestimated last week's storm. Figured they were overestimating this new storm to make up for last week.

I apologize. The snow-gods showed me.
Hazel and I ran our errands in the morning, there was a nervous excitement in the air, similar to Christmas Eve shopping. In search of a specialty cheese, for a super bowl cheeseball, we hit three grocery stores. No cheese. No bread. No milk. No TP. I actually found myself considering buying toilet paper, (we have several rolls in the basement), yet I was being sucked into the snow-panic shopping spree. I resisted.

Seth was sent home early from work. What? The base closed? Unheard of!

Cousin Thaidra arrived safely from DC and apparently brought the storm up with her. I think her original plans were to leave Saturday night or Sunday morning. Bah ha ha ha.

The snow began and we hunkered down.

After a few hours, we peeked out and saw there was no escaping...there was also no stopping, it just kept coming.
Seth is a firm believer in shoveling often in an attempt to keep the snow from piling up and becoming even more difficult to shovel.

This was not his first trip out to shovel. Seriously. And he's not kneeling.
We didn't do a whole lot, I worked on some projects, Seth worked on things around the house, Hazel loved all of the attention and I am pretty sure Thaidra did some studying. (Wouldn't you, if you were in medical school?) We also watched some movies, sipped hot chocolate and relaxed.

Side note: Amen for food storage. The only food shortage we suffered was not having cream of chicken soup for gravy. I attempted to make a gravy from scratch (without any form of chicken drippings). It was bad. We settled for a little chicken broth to "moisten" the rice.

Sometime late, Saturday afternoon it finally tapered off, we escaped the cabin fever and took turns holding Hazel and shoveling. We measured over 24"...maybe 30"? Yes. Over 2 feet in 24 hours.
Hazel really loves the snow, it helps that her cousin loaned her his awesome red, snow-suit. She was dry and toasty the entire time! And trust me, she was definitely in the snow....

We took a bunch of fun pictures...you should check the rest out in the album below:

2010-02 Storm #1

(By the way, cream of chicken soup was found three days later, behind the peanut butter.)

(Thaidra ended up staying with us until Monday, her street in DC weren't plowed and she had nowhere to park, we were glad she stuck around)