Our extravagant-glamorous daughter

Hannah lately has been going all-out dressing up. She basically puts on EVERY accessory that she owns, and models it for the family.
She is definitely the princess in the family. She loves anything girly, fancy, and sparkly. Every time we go to a store, she looks for anybody that looks "fancy" and points them out to me. She will say,"Look Mommy, that lady is so pretty. She's wearing high heals." Apparently my frumpy jogging outfit that I usually sport is not fancy enough. :)

Fun in the snow

Travis had last Monday off from work so we thought we would take a trip to the snow. We drove towards Lake Tahoe and just off Highway 50 there was a snow park. We just payed $15 for parking, and had a fun day of sledding down the hills. This was the first time the kiddos had seen the snow and they LOOOVED it. Especially Hannah!

Here are the kiddos and I enjoying the snow.

Andrew didn't like the sledding as much as Hannah, so he mostly stayed with daddy at the bottom of the hill while Hannah and mommy had fun sledding.

This was the first time Hannah and I went down on the sled together. I thought Travis captured this moment perfectly. You can see how much we are enjoying the ride by our "goofy" grins.

Daddy and Andrew going down on the sled.

Hannah eventually got brave enough to go down the hill by herself. Once she did it on her own, there was no turning back! She was awesome!


Hannah couldn't wait to do snow angels. Unfortunately, the snow was kind of hard packed, so they didn't really turn out, but she kept trying!

Our date to Downtown Sacramento

As most of you know who have young children, it's really hard to find time to go on dates as a married couple. So, our New Year's resolution for this year is to go on two date nights a month. Some of you are saying, "WOW, how do you find time for that?" Well...we make time. It is so important for a healthy marriage to be able to spend that quality time together without constantly being interrupted by the kiddos. So, we decided to head to downtown Sacramento and eat lunch at a Cafe, go the the Capitol, and experience for the first time the light rail. The light rail was definitely an "INTERESTING" experience. It was not the romantic train rides of Germany where everybody in the area rides the train. We saw lot's of people who were intoxicated, clothes with holes in them, using foul language, etc. Well, maybe we will use our car next time. :)
The food at the Cafe was amazing. I had a turkey burger, and of course the meat came from a local butcher, the salad was all home-grown out of their garden in the back, etc.
Then we headed over to the Capitol. I had never been on a tour, and we thought we would check it out. It was all very interesting.
At the Capitol they have every tree that is native to California represented. Here are some orange trees bearing their fruit.

A statue in the Capitol building.
Here's Travis in front of Governor Schwarzenegger's office.
We had a great date and we are so blessed to have wonderful friends to watch our kids twice a month. :)

Sprinkles, Sprinkles, EVERYWHERE!

Last weekend, Daddy was in charge of giving Hannah a snack. She decided on yogurt with sprinkles, which is one of her FAVORITE all time snacks. Of course, my husband the creative one couldn't just give her sprinkles, he had to make it pretty. :) I got to say though, that is a LOT of sprinkles.

There's been a lot of dress up time around here...

Brrrr...it sure has been cold and wet in Orangevale. Since the weather has been so horrid, we have had a LOT of dress-up at our house. Poor Andrew. Most days you will find him in some kind of a tu-tu or high heels. Oh, the joys of having an older sister. :)

Hannah picked this outfit all by herself. Nice accessorizing!

Christmas Day

"Christmas is here! Finally!" Hannah yelled at the top of her lungs when I woke her up for a pancake breakfast this morning. It has been a non-stop whirlwind of activities this month, including going to Dovewood Court to watch Christmas lights, shopping for presents, seeing Santa at the mall, shopping for more presents, Christmas parties, MORE shopping for presents, cookie decorating parties, and even MORE shopping for presents. Whew! Who would have known Christmas with kids would be this exhausting! So, by the time we got to Christmas morning, we were all exhausted, and nursing a cold. But, that didn't stop us from having a good time opening presents!

Here's Andrew opening his big boy sippy cup with his name on it.

Hannah waving her Fairy wand around. It's amazing all the cool stuff you can find at the 99 cents store! :)
Andrew opening more presents. For some reason, all the pictures we took of him, he had his tongue sticking out. LOL! :)
Our little princess Hannah looking at herself in her new mirror. Oooh-la-la, what fancy earrings you have on, Princess Hannah.
After Hannah was all done opening her presents, she turns to me and says, "Mommy, I LOOOOVE opening presents." Isn't that the truth? :) Now all I have to teach her is it's better to give than it is to receive.
Here's a content Hannah playing with her new stamp collection--still wearing her new clip-on fancy earrings...I have a feeling she will be taking a nap in these...

Merry Christmas everyone! May you have a good finish to the year 2009!

Christmas Eve

Christmas this year consisted of Christmas Eve-Eve dinner (the 23rd), Christmas Eve church service, and Christmas Day lounging at home opening presents.
For dinner we had 4 guests show up. The new worship leader at our church is newly married, so we invited him and his wife over. They don't have family in the area (just like us!). My friend Rheina, whom I have stayed good friends with from EMF Broadcasting, came over. We had more than enough food prepared, so last minute, the morning of the dinner I invited our across the street neighbor Shaun over who is a massage therapist. We had a fabulous time of good food, and great fellowship!
Our Christmas meal consisted of pomegranate chicken, garlic-herb roasted potatoes, lemon-dijon green beans, herb biscuits, spinach salad with goat cheese and cranberries, and to top it off pecan-date pie with whipped cream. We were STUFFED by the end. It was all SOOO good!
Unfortunately, I was so busy preparing for the occasion, that I TOTALLY forgot to take pictures. But it was all very pretty! :) You can just imagine how it was in your head. Use that imagination!
Here are some pictures of Hannah on Christmas Eve. The funny thing, most of the other little girls around her age at the church were dressed just like her! Velvet black dress with red trim. :) Apparently that was popular this year.
We decided to volunteer on the greeting team for one of the Christmas Eve services at our church this year. It was so much fun! Definitely something we want to do again next year.
Hannah snuggling with the little angel baby that sits on our tree. She loves that thing!
Look at that beautiful smile! :)
At the church there was this cute little elf lady that Hannah loved, so we took a picture of them together. :)