Christmas with the Ocedeks

Christmas morning we woke up at my parents' house and emptied our stockings. My mom does a great job of filling them with fun stuff, including gift cards, candy, etc. Hannah even got baby food! We headed out that morning and stopped at my Grandma and Grandpa's house and also made a visit to Aunt Tina and family. Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I didn't get any pictures there.

We left Birch Run in time to arrive for Christmas lunch at Jason's Grandma and Grandpa Ocedek's house in Owosso. We spent the day with Jason's aunt, uncle, cousins, grandparents, and parents. After eating, the kids all opened their presents. Hannah got a couple of really cute outfits, but truthfully I think she enjoyed playing with the wrapping paper even more than the clothes :-)


Opening presents with Daddy


Hannah's newest face


Having fun the paper

After a long day at Great-Grandma and Grandpa Ocedek's, Hannah was spent, so we put her to bed when we got back to Grandma and Grandpa Davis' house. The next morning, Hannah awoke to another morning of gift opening. She got a couple of cute outfits, bath toys, a pop-up book along with a few more things - again, a nice mix of gifts, not too overwhelming.


Getting ready to open another present


Opening presents with Grandma Davis

Christmas Eve with the Oberholtzers

With the awful winter weather that we were hit with on Tuesday night, we weren't certain that we were going to make it across the state to celebrate Christmas. Thankfully, we caught a break on Wednesday morning and were able to make it by mid-afternoon. As is tradition, we spent Christmas Eve with the Oberholtzer crew (my mom's side of the family).

Before my aunt, uncle, cousins, and grandparents came to my mom's house for dinner, we opened presents from my parents and took a quick family picture. After dinner, we took Hannah up to my grandparents house to lay her down to sleep. Then we joined the rest of our family at my parents' church for their Christmas Eve service. After church, we went back to my grandparents to open more presents and have dessert.

As for presents, we were pleasantly surprised that Hannah didn't get totally spoiled. She got some learning toys from Aunt Courtney and Uncle Todd (of course!), a play cube from Great-Grandma and pa O, a baby CD player, some CD's and DVD's and clothes from Grandma and Grandpa Cramer. Overall, it was a good mix. Speaking of presents, one of the highlight presents of the evening was the gift that my grandpa gave my grandma. Her job when they got married was running an adding machine at Buick, so he had my brother find an old original online. She totally lit up when she opened it. Then, of course, she had to explain to all of us youngsters how to operate it. Very neat.


The Cramer family


Hannah can't wait for her presents!


The beautiful stocking that my mom made for Hannah


Opening presents with Mumma



The Oberholtzer family


Merry Christmas Eve!

Snowy Weekend

It has been one snowy weekend here in West Michigan. Starting Friday morning, we got socked with about 11" of snow. Jason and I both decided with the road conditions that it was too bad to attempt the drives to Holland and Muskegon for work. Thankfully, both of our bosses were very understanding. Instead, we spent the day hunkered down in the house all day. By late afternoon, the snow stopped and I was even able to bundle Hannah up and take her out for a few minutes to get her first experience in the snow.

Saturday ended up being a beautiful, sunny day. I even got out for a little while to do some Christmas shopping around town. I was pretty amazed at how much snow was piled up everywhere.

This morning we woke up for church only to see even more snow and unfortunately lots of wind. It's so bad that our church, along with about 650 other West MI churches, was cancelled this morning. So, we've been bundled up inside once again. Below is a comparison of the snow that we had after the storm on Friday compared with what's out there right now. Crazy!

To ensure that plow drivers see him, Jason sported his hunter orange snow suit to attempt to blow out the driveway.

You can see that snow in the backyard is up to Jason's knees and JJ's chin.

9 month stats

Hannah had her 9 month appointment today, and I'm happy to report she's back on the charts! She weighed in at 15 lbs. 13 oz (5th percentile), 26 1/2" long (approx. 20th percentile) and has a head circumference of 17 1/4" (50th percentile!). Does big head = smart girl?? We shall see :-) It was so good to see the progress that she's made in the last 3 months.

On the shot front, she only had to get 2 today, and I'm proud to say that she didn't even flinch. No tears. Nothing. Super easy.

We've now also been given the green light to let her eat pretty much whatever we eat (with the exception of nuts), granted that it's soft and cut to size. I'm sure we'll have fun exploring new tastes and textures.

9 Months Old

Hannah is busy, busy, busy these days. It seems so strange to me that she's been here with us for as long as I was pregnant. The days go by so quickly. I truly value being able to be home with her part-time during the week. She's so much fun to watch and interact with. Some of the things she's up to:

• She likes to stand up while holding onto her play table, the couch, end tables, or anything else that will support her
• She's starting to pull herself up to her knees, although she hasn't quite figured out how to get onto her feet
• She loves playing with JJ - "petting" his ears, pulling his tags, catching his tail. Thankfully, he's pretty mild mannered and puts up with it very well.
• She's still rocking on her knees.
• She's miss independent and likes to hold her own bottle when she eats now. She's actually been able to do this for awhile, but has only recently been interested in doing it.
• She has 2 bottom teeth and now working on the top two.
• She's babbling dadadada, although I don't think she's quite connected it to any meaning
• She has a fascination with the Christmas tree. I think this is the first thing we've had to tell her "no" to, but I know it won't be the last :-)

We really are so blessed to have Hannah as our daughter. We couldn't ask for a happier, easier-going baby. She truly is the joy of our home.

So much for the bear pictures...

Big girl

Saturday night we headed out to attempt some Christmas shopping. However, we only got as close as the mall parking lot and decided that it wasn't worth battling the crowds. We got a big hint as to how bad it would be when we saw security directing traffic around the perimeter of the parking lots. Instead, we did an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Normally, we keep Hannah in her carrier, but as she's gotten bigger and more steady at sitting up, we decided that we'd try a high chair instead. We figured that since there are peanuts all over the floor there anyway, they wouldn't notice if she threw some other items on the floor as well. She thought she was really something special sitting at the table with Mumma and Daddy. She was having a great time trying to grab everything on the table. Family dinners out are not going to be the same...

Davis Christmas

Yesterday, we traveled to Jason's Uncle Mike's house in the Fenton area to celebrate Christmas with the Davis side of the family. Jason's grandparents passed away shortly before we got married. Since then, Davis family gatherings are fewer and farther between, so we were happy for the opportunity to get to see most of his aunts and uncles. Hannah is the newest addition to the clan, and this was her first appearance at a Davis family function. Needless to say, she got lots of attention. So much so, that she stayed up the entire afternoon without a nap. After all of the excitement of the day, it was a very quiet ride home from the backseat.


Uncle Ken, Grandpa and Grandma Davis, and Hannah


Hannah showing Grandpa Davis how she can hold her own bottle



Aunt Debbie, cousin Scott with Hannah, and Aunt Millie



Uncle Dick, Grandpa, and Uncle Mike


Merry Christmas from the Davis Family!

Friends

Yesterday morning, we had our friends Morgan and Conner over, along with their mom Juleen. Although this was a play date for the kids, I think JJ was the most excited. He definitely found a new best friend, following Conner all around the house. I think Conner got a pretty big kick out of him, too. Morgan, on the other hand, was not so sure. Every time he'd walk by, she'd cry. By the end of their visit she warmed up a little bit.

Right before they left, Conner discovered Jason's train around our Christmas tree. He was totally captivated. Proof that men really never outgrow their little boy fascinations :-)

Rockin'

Hannah's getting closer and closer to taking off. She's finally getting the concept of getting her legs up underneath her. It's just the arm/leg coordination that gets her. I'm sure it's only a matter of time.

Keeping busy

This past summer, we scored a leap frog play table at a garage sale for a great deal. Since then it's been in the basement. Now that Hannah's standing up pretty well, we finally pulled it out. It's been a huge hit! Granted, she's not quite walking around it just yet, but I'm sure it won't be long.

Christmas dress

Boy is it tough to get a nicely posed picture of Hannah these days. It's really a 2-person job. Unfortunately, it was just me today, so here's the best I got:

Busy weekend

It was a snowy weekend here in GR. The snow started last Thursday night and didn't let up until Saturday night. We didn't let that keep us in, though. I (not so) patiently waited all week to see what surprise date Jason had arranged for the two of us on Saturday night. Hannah had fun with a babysitter while Jason treated me to a dinner at Leo's downtown. I had a warm goat cheese salad and stuffed shrimp. Oh so good!!

After dinner, we then walked to my next surprise - attending the GR Symphony Holiday Pops! Jason scored us third row tickets, right in the center of the aisle. It was somewhat "lucky" that we got those seats, I guess. As we made our way to our seats, the lady next to Jason had her coat draped over his seat. We politely informed her that we were sitting there, and she asked if we knew the people who held those seats. "No. We got them through ticketmaster." She then made a comment that we must have JUST gotten them b/c the man who held the season tickets for those seats had just passed away the week before! We then started tuning in to the conversations around us, where we picked up a lot of "heading down to Florida" chatter. Looking around, we realized that we were by far about the youngest in the audience. Oh well. I guess we're really "old people" at heart anyway - just look at Jason's boat :-) We had a great view and the music was phenominal. Totally got me into the holiday spirit.

Sunday was very busy. Early church as usual and then I stayed for Sunday school as I've been for the past several weeks to lead the 4th graders with their portion of the Sunday school Christmas program rehearsal. They had to learn the "common" Christmas carol One Small Child (yeah, I didn't know it either!). I was a bit unsure how the program would go after a shaky rehearsal, but they did a great job. The whole program was nicely done. It will be fun to someday see Hannah up front. The little 3 and 4 year olds were adorable. Inevitably, one little girl had to put on a show by pulling her dress up over her head once in front of the congregation. I would loved to have seen her proud parents' faces :-)

As for Hannah, she is a busy girl. She is particularly fascinated by the Christmas tree. She inconspicuously rolls right up underneath it and then very carefully touches the bottom branches. I've caught her more than once. I'm definitely having to keep a much closer eye on her. She's not quite crawling but getting closer. She's also into making this "f f f" sound and even crinkling up her nose and sticking out her lips as she does it. I have no idea what it means but she looks very serious as she does it. She also now gets very excited when we get her bottle ready or bring her food to the table. There really is nothing that she won't eat. We're working on mastering puffs. She's good at grabbing them but not so great at getting them into her mouth. Hand-eye coordination gets her every time. No pics tonight. Hopefully soon.

Staying warm inside

Today I was pulling out some of the clothes that I had packed away for Hannah to grow into and found a sweater and hat that Jason's mom had given us that Jason had worn as a baby. Hannah didn't even notice that I put the hat on her head, so I left it on for awhile. It was just too cute!

Bundled up

We got Hannah a hat and mittens just in time for our first snow storm of the season. Bring on the snow!

On her feet

Because Hannah could do this...


...Daddy did this today.


Yes, Jason lowered Hannah's bed today. She's not yet pulling herself up, but she's getting closer and closer every day. Just another sign that our baby is growing up.

Oh Christmas tree

When we got home on Saturday, the first thing we did was set-up our new Christmas tree. Oh, it was so much easier than our real tree from last year!! Once we got the sections figured out, it went up very quickly. It fits perfectly in our living room. We're looking forward to enjoying it for many years.


Hmmm.... something doesn't look quite right...



Our nice, new tree


Santa's little helper


I can already see that this is going to be an issue


Trying to catch the Polar Express