Pictures of our babies

Hannah at 16 months Our newest bundle of joy at -12 weeks (Remember to click on the pictures to see more - If the ultrasound pictures don't flip, try pressing the Refresh button to download the newest javascript)

We made it!

I figured I should let everybody know that we did successfully move to Calgary. The place we found is in a great neighborhood close to pretty much everything. Dan has been enjoying his walk to work this last week, and me and Hannah are enjoying all the many birds and squirrels.

The move here was pulled off with relatively little mishap, I think the biggest oops may have been that our electronic cooler full of food from our fridge accidently got set to heat instead of cool. Hannah was pretty sick with the flu the week before we moved and of course she was teething so she was pretty miserable, and then of course this last week she has had some kind of chest cold. But it seems to have pretty much cleared up and she is in a much better mood now.

Our new place has quite a few more stairs then our last so Hannah has had to learn how to navigate stairs. She fell a few times in the first couple of days so was a little wary of them last week but over the weekend she decided to give them another chance and now she is going up and down them so quick it scares me just watching her. She has also decided that walking isn't so bad after all and it wont be long before she is walking all time.

We had to buy a new washer and dryer for this place and I am defiantly liking this new set, you can barely hear it running and it is absolutely huge so I can do all of our laundry in two loads instead of 4. And of course it has a million settings that I am sure I will never use, and because their front load the energy savings our supposed to pay for the set in 5 years. I don't know if I believe that but, it helps to justify the cost so I wont argue too much.

We also bought a new bedroom set, but it hasn't arrived yet so I don't have much to say about it. I am however looking forward to finally having some drawers to put my clothes in. Dan is kind of a drawer hog, so I have been forced to fold my clothes on shelves for the last 2 years, and before that I had a hideous blue and yellow dresser, which I painted myself when I was 15.

Well I guess that is all there is say, so feel free to comment lots.

We're Moving!

Yup, you guessed it! We're moving to Calgary. Starting April 3rd, I am an employee of CGI

As I'm sure most of you can imagine, we're crazy busy trying to get everything organized for our big move. Our biggest stress point at the moment is what in the world to do with our house here in the city. Should we sell it or rent it out? We're looking for all the pros and cons of both options, so please share your thoughts...

In case anybody is wondering about why the sudden move, the company that I am currently working for is suffering some financial difficulties and it doesn't look like I'm going to have a job much longer. When this particular opportunity popped up, it was simply too hard to pass up.

We spent yesterday looking for (And thankfully found) a nice place to live. It's within walking distance of my first consulting position at SAIT, so I won't have many opportunities to ride their super-cool version of the LRT, the C-Train (At least I think that's what they call it...).

The people there all seem really friendly, and it sounds like I may have a lot of opportunities to improve my existing skills as well as developing a lot of new ones...

Pictures!

Yes, we know these are old. Perhaps in a few weeks we'll post some newer ones, but for now, these are professional photos taken when Hannah was 11 months old:

And here is our first picture of Hannah's new little brother or sister:

Ultrasound and then some

Well I guess seeing how my ultrasound was a week and a half ago, it is about time I posted some details. It was exciting to actually get to see this baby, while I have been feeling it kick for quite a while now, this was Dan's first opportunity to come to grips that yes there is a baby growing in my stomach. The baby seemed quite content to stay curled in a ball on one side of my stomach so we didn't get too many action shots, but it did suck on it's hand at one point. Exactly like it's sister, Hannah has never been a thumb sucker, she has always preferred all of her fingers if she was going to suck on anything. We do have a picture which has been scanned into our computer so if anybody wants to see it just email me, and I will send you a copy.

In other news, Hannah has decided she isn't interested in walking. I think she may have figured out that walking means she will lose her free ride everywhere. We're hoping seeing some other kids her age will prompt her to give it another shot. Her current new word is "baby". She calls all of her stuffed animals and several other things baby all the time now. She may have also started saying "Give me" or "Gimmmee", but I don't think this is actually a new word for her just a better pronouncement that is actually understandable as anything more then "Geh".

I learned the other day that letting a toddler feed themselves red jello is not necessarily a good idea. Apparently red jello stains skin, who knew? So that is my relevation for the week, be prepared to have a red baby if you wish give them red jello. Hannah has also developed rather picky eating habits, the other day I gave her a stir fry of broccoli and chicken over spaghetti, and she actually picked out every piece of spaghetti and left the chicken and broccoli. If any broccoli did end up in her mouth it promptly came back out. Oh well I guess every kid goes through a picky stage, at least she will still eat cucumber.

Well I guess it is about time I post. I am sure after six weeks I can come up with a few interesting things to write about. Well I guess I will start with the news about Hannah, seeing how that is all anybody really wants to hear anyways.

In January we went back to her allergist and he decided to challenge her milk allergy. That was a disaster and a waste of time, if you phone me and ask I will have a nice long rant about this particular allergist, but for now we will stick with the facts. She is still allergic to milk and eggs and must avoid all consumption, or physical contact with either, until she is at least two, at which point we will probly challenge them again.

Hannah has begun the process of learning how to walk, she pulls herself up to standing using the furniture and then makes her way around the room. Recently she has gotten braver and has starting letting go of the furniture and standing stationary until she inevitably falls over. Her periods of standing are getting longer though and it wont be long before she takes her first steps. She moved into the imitation phase and enjoys doing the things that me and Daddy do. She talks on the phone, brushes her hair, hugs her teddy bears, and my personal favorite she will sit in her chair and read her books. It is cute though because she keeps a constant monologue going while pointing at the pictures in the book. One day I plan on recording this, and showing it off to anybody who will watch my home videos. Her talking is also getting better, I have heard and am pretty sure she understands the words Mommy, Daddy, Thankyou, gently, go, see, yeah, wow and perhaps okay. She may not understand the exact meaning of these words but she seems to sort of understand them, I suspect that she may think "go" has anything to do with outside as she will often point out the window and say "go". And she has a word that seems to mean "get me that" because she will point at things and say "geeeay" and then "thankyou" if you oblige her. hmmmm other things Hannah has started doing, Some not so nice things are her recent decision to not eat green vegetables, standing up in her crib instead of napping, and the realization that she can throw things like new toilet paper rolls into the toilet.

Okay but moving on, I had an appointment with my OB early this weeks and of course I got to hear the heartbeat again. It was quit fun this time, because the Dr. would just locate the heartbeat and start counting and there would be a bunch of static, and no more heartbeat. So she would find it again and then the same thing would happen. The doctor was getting rather frustrated as it took her 4 or 5 times before she was able to determine the rate of the babies heartbeat. I however was quit amused by these antics. Our ultrasound is Tuesday, so I imagine we will have more fun stories to tell after that.

It seems like nothing exciting ever happens to me or Dan. We are the same as before. This weekend we are planning a trip to Jasper. We will be leaving Hannah in Edson for one night. We needed to start slow with leaving her behind, I couldn't imagine doing more then one night at this point. And the only other exciting thing that has happened to me and Dan is that we bought a new set of phones. So no more phones dyeing every time we're talking to people. They were quit expensive so hopefully they last a looooong time.

Okay well I think that sums up all the news for the last six weeks, feel free to leave lots of comments or suggestions on things I may have missed mentioning.

What a month!

First of all, to our faithful readers (if there's any of you left), our apologies for our month long absence... As with most people during this season, our lives have been hectic.

So anyways, here's what's been happening:

Survived first round of lay-offs at work - Phew!
The 16th was Carmen's Birthday - Happy Birthday Carmen
The following week we were both knocked out by the flu.
Hannah started crawling (Thankfully we were recovered by the time this started)
Picked up additional responsibilities after substantial lay-offs
traveled to Edson to visit my family for Christmas Did our standard marathon through Choiceland, Snowden (Too small for a website of their own), and Prince Albert to visit Carmen's family

Now for some of the details...

The flu was actually pretty scary. For those that don't already know (we tried to tell as much family as possible in person before posting here), Carmen is pregnant. Pregnancy and the flu are not very compatible and we wound up spending the better part of the night in the Royal Alexandra Hospital's emergency room. They pumped Carmen full of anti-nauseants and fluids and sent us back on our way.

Hannah's crawling was pretty exciting, she seems to be getting pretty good at following people around the house. The crawling, however was almost immediately followed by climbing. Not too high (yet), but she can get onto her knees and reach stuff that was previously out reach. She quickly learned that climbing wasn't restricted to the living room floor and started climbing everywhere - Out of Mom and Dad's bed (no more leaving her alone after she falls asleep for her naps), up against the rails of her crib (Amazing how cute she looked sobbing with her chin on the top rail / Time to drop the mattress down to the lowest setting...)

Christmas vacation was pretty fun, Hannah got to spend a lot of time with her Grandparents and Great-Grandparents, Mom and Dad got a little bit of R&R time, and got to catch up with family that we don't talk too nearly enough...

I'm sure I've missed lots, so there will probably be more updates to come...

Happy Birthday Hannah

Well I know it is a little late but I guess late is better then never. Hannah's birthday was on December 10th, and we hosted a small party for her. Everybody had a great time, and Hannah enjoyed opening her presents and eating chocolate cake.

This last month has been an exciting one for Hannah, she has learned how to crawl, clap her hands, wave hello and goodbye, and my favorite. She can stack her blocks four high. She is sleeping her own bed without a peep until 6:00am most nights. She would sleep straight until 8:00 if Dan getting up for work didn't wake her up. She is weaned off of the bottle other then at bedtime. I think that pretty much sums up everything she has started doing in the last month. We're still arguing over whether she actually knows the words momma and Dadda or if she just likes the sound of those words.

In other news, not a whole lot has been happening in my and Dan's world. I feel like we've been supper busy lately, mostly because we've been helping Dan's sister get settled into her new home. And of course in between everything else there is Christmas shopping. I was so proud of my myself last month I was so organized and I wasn't going to leave anything to the last minute. Well that was a joke I still haven't bought for half of the people on my list, and stocking stuffers could really use a boost. But there is still one weekend before Christmas, and I know what I will be doing.

Well to get back to my original post, Happy birthday Hannah, I can hardly believe it has been a year.

Dan's Christmas Carol: All I want for Christmas

You Are "All I Want for Christmas Is You"

I just want you for my own More than you could ever know Make my wish come true... All I want for Christmas is You You only want one thing for Christmas Love from one special person - and you've got it!

What Christmas Carol Are You?

Well I guess it is about time I post. I can't even use the excuse that nothing exciting has happened. My sister Angela came and visited me last week. We had a productive week of shopping and getting the transmission flushed on the van. (which is a story in itself) Over the weekend we went to Saskatchewan, to celebrate my Dad's birthday. (Happy Birthday Dad), And now we're back home, and it has been a pretty boring week. But perhaps I will pad this post with two amusing stories from last week.

1. After meeting Dan for lunch downtown one day last week, Angela and I decided to wonder through the mall in hopes of finding Christmas gifts. We discovered a brand new dollarama and walked excitedly through, finding great stocking stuffer ideas. Well I was parked in spot that turns into a tow away at 3:30pm. I checked my watch at 3:20 and realized we had just enough time to pay for our stuff and get back to the van. We head to the check out and discover to our amazement, this wonderful place that was the answer to all our stocking stuffer woes, only takes cash. As I am not to keen on having my car towed we had to abandon our finds, and rescue my van. A whole afternoon of shopping completely wasted.

2. Back to the transmission flush story. My husband phones me early Friday morning and says go take the van to a Mr. Lube it needs a transmission flush before we go to Saskatchewan. So that afternoon we head to Mr. Lube, and begin what should only be a one hour service. Well an hour goes by, and the mechanic explains to me some problems he is having and how he is going to fix it, (free of charge) and then he can start part two of the transmission flush. Half an hour later another guy approaches us and asks us our opinion on the engagement ring he is going to present to his girlfriend. Yes at this point we have all become the best of buds seeing how we have held captive by them for what seems like forever. Finally 2 and half hours into this adventure we are instructed to pull outside and they will begin the last stage. We pull outside wait patiently for 15 min. Only to discover that some hose has broken and all of our transmission fluid has burst all over their parking lot. Well now they need to push the van back into the garage, fix the hose and refill the transmission. As you can imagine Hannah who has been in the van for just about 3 hours is getting a little impatient. So we abandon our post and head over to another dollar store. (Which was a waste of our time, nothing can compare to a dollarama). Finally after 3 and half hours we get back into the van and drive away, only to make it home just in time to cook supper and head out to look at houses with our real estate agent. Perhaps this story only seems funny to me, as you had to be there. I did however forget to mention the fun of discovering that our cell phone was broken. At some point in the middle of this, I phoned Dan only to discover the speaker on our phone was dead, after several rounds of "hello" "HELLO" I gave up calling him and settled back into my long wait. But of course Dan was curios now and begins phoning me, but needless to say the speaker still doesn't work. He continued to phone us periodically right up until we drove into the driveway at 5:15pm.

well I think of have padded this post enough with my long winded stories.

Happy Halloween

Yeah, it's been a long time since we posted any pictures of Hannah, so here are some of the better ones of her in her Halloween costume:

Remember to click on the image to see more pictures

How very interesting...

You fit in with: Humanism Your ideals mostly resemble that of a Humanist. Although you do not have a lot of faith, you are devoted to making this world better, in the short time that you have to live. Humanists do not generally believe in an afterlife, and therefore, are committed to making the world a better place for themselves and future generations. 20% scientific. 80% reason-oriented.

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

She's teasing me

When I went to pick Hannah up this morning, she reached out her arms and proudly proclaimed "Momma". My heart skipped a beat and I couldn't help but want to jump for joy, but then she dashed my hopes when she continued with a whole stream of "Momma"s. All morning every time I looked at her she was saying "Momma", to her toys, her food, her soother. I think perhaps she knows that I am Mom, but hasn't decided to grace me with that title yet. Oh well I guess it will happen soon enough.

Quack!

You Are A: Duck!
	Found in many lakes and ponds, ducks are a common site the world over. Known for their famous quack, ducks tend to congregate in flocks or go off on their own in pairs. As a duck, you may seem friendly at times but will not hesitate to bite if someone is bothering you. Your love for travel and your ability to swim are some reasons why you are a duck.
You were almost a: Monkey or a Bear Cub You are least like a: Bunny or a Chipmunk Cute Animals Quiz

Thanksgiving stories

Well it appears on our trip to Saskatchewan for thanksgiving we traded up on Hannah's cold. We went there with Hannah recovering from a pretty minor cold, and came home with the beginning of a horrific cold. She has been pretty miserable since Tuesday evening. She is in a little bit better mood right now, but I know it can't last. We had a great time over thanksgiving, the food was terrific, and it was great to see everyone again. The first year me and Dan buy a bigger house we will host thanksgiving and hopefully it will be as big a success. I played my very first game of poker over the weekend, and of course I used my beginners luck to my advantage and walked away with lots of money. Unfortunately I can never play again, as my beginners luck will have abandoned me. Oh well I may have to rely on my intellect next time.

Trivia Tournament

I just had to creat my own trivia tournament. The rules are pretty simple, play once a day and after 20 days the person with the highest score wins. Carmen's Quiz! Make sure you play daily! Good luck!

Time to Retire

I think it is time for me to retire from the midnight diaper changes. When I went to change Hannah this morning, I discovered that she was wearing not one but two diapers. Apparently in the middle of the night I forgot to pull the old diaper out from inside her sleeper. But it gets better on the one side I used the tab from the new diaper and did it up correctly, but on the other I grabbed the tab from the outside (the dirty diaper) and attached it to the new diaper. And just incase anybody is worried neither diaper contained any poop. Hannah didn't seem to care she slept through the night wearing two diapers, and neither one on correctly. Of course she may have just been happy because she was sleeping in our bed, and thought she shouldn't push her luck.

tagged?

Thanks Angela, and I noticed you took all the easy people. Here is the deal: 1. Go into your archive. 2. Find your 23rd post. 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. 5. Tag five other people to do the same. Okay, from November 22 2004 "When the previous owners laid tile in the kitchen, the thickness of the new sub-floor plus the thickness of the tile and grout reduced the height of the door from the bottom." We finally put in the door at the end of August that we discussing almost a year ago. Talk about procrastionating. and I guess we will tag .... Kelly and Kara, Mike, and Tim and Holly,

Blogging Hiatus

As many of you have probably noticed, I have been somewhat absent from the blogosphere for the last few weeks... Rest assured I am still alive. I have undertaken some web-design work one of my mother-in-law's businesses which has snowballed to the point where I am in the process of building/configuring an OpenBSD web-server. This has been largely successful which means that I should be back to web-design soon, and after that hopefully I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis, although perhaps I'll have to move to my own domain... I guess we'll just have to wait and see...

Crossword mania

Well, I certainly can't complain about not being busy enough. Last weekend was a quick trip down to Edson, to go to a bowling reunion, and then this weekend a wedding. (Congratulations to Kerri and Jay). And the fun doesn't end, next weekend is Thanksgiving so we're off to Saskatoon. I have had a cold for about a week now, and now it seems that Hannah may have finally caught it. So I am hoping everybody is healthy by Friday.

It is funny how things can seem to change so quickly, when I was pregnant with Hannah, it seems I knew very few people who were, either pregnant, trying, or had recently had a baby. Now everybody I talk to is in one of those stages. It is like the world has gone baby crazy. Even our neighbor is pregnant.

I wish I had more exciting things to write about, but I don't. I have become a crossword fanatic lately, so that is all I do all day. I do about half a puzzle get mad look at the answers, and then start the next one. I am finding that having a vocabulary that has lots of big words in it, doesn't help when all of the answers are three or four letters. Except of course for a few, in which I think they make up most of the words.

Hmm well that is all I can think of for now, I am off to have a bath in hopes of encouraging my cold to go away.