The greatest compliment ever

This picture below needs no description.  As her mother, I take it as the greatest compliment I will ever receive.  

In other news, here's out ballerina.  

Following her teacher's lead.  

Recital soon!

5 Months

5 months and a little more than a month after surgery.  Her cheeks are filling out and she's finally more than 10 lbs.  She was 10.2 two weeks ago.  In BIG news, she started rolling over.  Hannah witnessed it first.  The first time I saw it was on the 9th.  She doesn't need to be swaddled to sleep anymore and she seems more comfortable overall.  If you spent anytime around her, you were aware that she was very particular about her sleeping routine.  It seemed like she had a hard time getting comfortable.  Not anymore!  You can see this in the picture of her asleep, under the tree below.  She snoozes anywhere now!  She's grabbing toys and can get them in her mouth.  She's also laughing out loud.  Matter, I was singing to her last week and she started laughing out loud.  Great timing kiddo.  Next week, we're moving her out of our room.  We're going to put her in the playroom during transition.  When we get back from Chicago, we'll probably make the move to Hannah's room.  

Hannah is still an amazing big sister.  

Past Due..Decorating for Christmas

We decorated our house and tree with tradition, at least the tradition I had growing up, the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I absolutely LOVE decorating for christmas.  It was probably my favorite tradition surrounding christmas.  It puts me in such a good mood.

Our tree.  

Spreading out the lights.  We learned that Christmas have a 10 year life span.  At least ours did.  We know this because every single light strand we owned went out this year and we've had them since our first Christmas together.  However, they will all go out over the course of 5 hours, causing you to make multiple trips to the store.  

Hannah really got in to it this year.  

She liked putting many ornaments on the same branch.  

We have a smaller tree in the kitchen, in front of the back doors.  I let Hannah have carte blanche with that tree.  

This is the prettiest tree we've had.  It's full and even.  I love Christmas trees. 

Pottery picked up!

Remember when we went and painted pottery, here.  Well we finally picked it up.  Here's the finished stuff.  

I really like Amy's buddha and Hannah's egg.  

Start Your Day Out the Right Way

Not all breakfast's are created alike!  

Starting your day with this much cereal will only cause a sugar crash hours later.  

10 Worst Children’s Cereals Based on percent sugar by weight
1.) Kellogg’s Honey Smacks	55.6%
2.) Post Golden Crisp	51.9%
3.) Kellogg’s Froot Loops Marshmallow	48.3%
4.) Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s OOPS! All Berries	46.9%
5.) Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch Original	44.4%
6.) Quaker Oats Oh!s	44.4%
7.) Kellogg’s Smorz	43.3%
8.) Kellogg’s Apple Jacks	42.9%
9.) Quaker Oats Cap’n Crunch’s Crunch Berries	42.3%
10.) Kellogg’s Froot Loops Original	41.4%

Some cereals are better than others. Nutrition expert Marion Nestle recommends:

1. Cereals with a short ingredient list (added vitamins and minerals are okay).
2. Cereals high in fiber.
3. Cereals with little or no added sugars (added sugars are ingredients such as honey, molasses, fruit juice concentrate, brown sugar, corn sweetener, sucrose, lactose, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup and malt syrup).

Among the best simple-to-prepare breakfasts for children are fresh fruit and high-fiber, lower-sugar cereals. Better yet, pair fruit with homemade oatmeal.

Borrowed from :http://www.ewg.org/release/kids-cereals-pack-more-sugar-twinkies-and-cookies

Hoo Are You #1

Trying a new thing, I saw over here: Night Owl Crafting.  

Is all of your christmas shopping done?
   Pretty much.  We always do a lot of hand made stuff, and we still have to make some of those gifts but everything has been purchased for them.  I still have a couple things to pick up for Miss Banana.

Do you decorate for christmas?  If so, when?
    YES!!  Christmas is my favorite holiday to decorate for.  Every year, we add something new to our outside collection.  This year it was four small lighted trees.  I stick with my childhood tradition for putting things out: the weekend after Thanksgiving. We NEVER put things out before Thanksgiving.

Our tree this year

Do you bake during the holiday season?
    I do.  It's a new thing for me, I've only been doing it the last few years.  I really enjoy and typically give gifts to Hannah's teachers, the mail man, trash collectors and more of homemade goodies.

Baking with Hannah

What are your favorite smells this time of year?
    The sweet smell of goodies baking.  I'm a big food scent person.  I love the smell of vanilla, and sugar cookies baking.

What are your favorite things to do during the holiday season?
    Decorate.  And I really like trying to find gifts that the people I love, will love.  I've fallen in love with handmade and homemade gifts.  And I really enjoy putting these gifts together and imagining how the person I give it to will feel about my gifts.  I love "playing" with Hannah.  Every year, she gets a little more into the holiday season.

Hannah gets a haircut

Hannah does not want to cut her hair.  She wants to "grow it long like Rapunzel."  About a week ago, I finally talked her in to trimming the dead ends off of her hair.  You see, the length of her hair is something I am trying to let her have control over.  It's something little and it helps her feel like she has a say so.  Truthfully, I don't have an opinion one way or the other about the length of her hair.  I explained that trimming the ends would help it grow faster and healthier.  So she agreed and we headed off, just the two of us.  Once there, she asked if she could have her hair washed.  Once I found out it was included in the price, I told her to go for it.  She LOVED that part.

She was a champ and held very still.  She didn't get nervous or jumpy while

they were cutting her hair.  She just smiled and chatted a lot.

She really liked the hair washing.  

The end results.  She has "side bangs', her choice!