Sledding

Daddy took Hannah out to give her new sled a try this afternoon. She absolutely loved it!


Waving as she gets ready to head up the hill.


Daddy got in a good workout carrying both the sled and Hannah up the hill.


1-2-3 GO!!


Hannah didn't even mind getting a face wash at the bottom of the hill when she fell out of the sled.

Jason even took a spin with Hannah. I have the feeling that we'll be outside a lot this winter.

It's a...

Can you guess....


How about now...


Definitely a boy!!!

Christmas at Home

Since we were out of town for Christmas, Santa was gracious enough to make a delayed stop at our house tonight. After Hannah came upstairs from her bath, she was delighted to see the toys that he had dropped off for her while we were downstairs.


She immediately jumped into her sled with her new microphone.


She then unwrapped her new boots, put them on, and jumped back into her sled with her microphone. Go figure that her favorite gifts were the $8 sled and the $2 microphone!





A future rocker??

Christmas

Christmas morning we awoke to stockings stuffed to the brim with goodies. Hannah was a bit confused by this tradition, but as she began pulling her treasures out of her stocking, she quickly caught on.


Wondering what's next...


Fish soap!

Later in the morning we packed up and headed over to spend the rest of the day with Jason's family in Owosso. Of course, Jason's mom did a beautiful job wrapping all of the gifts but that didn't stop Hannah from tearing away at them.

A gift opening pro.

Checking out her fun new toys with Daddy - puzzles, stacking blocks, and another favorite a baby doll.

As I had mentioned in a previous post, looming over the joy of the Christmas celebrations this year was the sadness of the unexpected passing of Jason's grandma on Christmas Eve. She was a wonderful lady with a huge heart. Unfortunately, that's what gave out on her early that morning. Thankfully, though, she had been in relatively good health and had a sound mind right till the end. Although our hearts ached for her and a large void was felt all through the holidays, we rejoiced as we knew that she got to celebrate Christmas with Jesus face to face.

Christmas with the Oberholtzers

On Christmas Eve night, the entire Oberholtzer clan got together at my aunt's house for dinner before heading to my parents' church for Christmas Eve service.


The Cramer family. Don't you just love the girls in their matching dresses, thanks to Grandma?


Hannah was a bit of a handful during church. Thankfully, little Trevor kept her somewhat occupied.


After church, we went back to my Grandma and Grandpa Oberholtzer's house for desserts and presents. Once again, Hannah delivered the gifts. This time, she not only delivered them, but she unwrapped them all as well. What a big helper!


Again, helping unwrap more gifts.

Amazingly, Hannah stayed awake the entire evening. By the time we left, we had one tired little girl, but you'd never know it. She was in a great mood the entire evening. Needless to say, she was dreaming of Santa before we were a block down the road.

Christmas Eve

Every year we celebrate Christmas Eve with my family. We open gifts with my immediate family in the afternoon and then celebrate with extended family later on in the evening. Now that we have 2 little ones in the family, our Christmas celebrations have become even more fun. Plus, we finally got to hand off the always unwanted job of playing Santa and delivering gifts to each person to Hannah, who absolutely loved handing out the presents. By default, though, every present that she took from under the tree went to Grandpa. He then redirected her and eventually the gifts all ended up with the right recipient.


Giving Grandpa his Noodle golf balls. We got them for a great deal. Apparently my mom did the same thing last year and later learned that they "hit like rocks". Hopefully the new and improved version that we got him will play better than last year's balls, since we got him 2 full boxes!


A huge hit for Hannah was the purse that Aunt Courtney, Uncle Todd, and Kara got for her. She's been carrying it with her ever since.


Grandma loved her new Snuggie!

Another great gift was the rocking chair from Grandma and Grandpa. Hannah's really been into sitting in chairs her size, so this was right up her alley.


I had to post this one as I think I finally got a picture where she resembles me, at least a little bit (in my old dress riding the horse that my grandpa made when we were little). Yes, I know she's Daddy's girl, but every once in awhile I think I catch a glimpse of myself.

Christmas visit with Great-Grandma

On Christmas Eve day, my brother Todd, his wife Courtney, their daughter Kara, Hannah, my dad, and I all went up to visit my Grandma Cramer. (Sadly, Jason's grandma had passed away early that morning, so he went to be with his family during that day.)


Kara and Great-Grandma had a great time watching the Price is Right together.


Hannah was a little more unsure, so she preferred to stay on her own 2 feet.


However, she found that Aunt Courntey was willing to give her a lift.


Love - that's what Christmas is all about.

The dress of Christmas past

As I was going through my old closet at my mom's house last week to find where Jason had hung Hannah's Christmas dress, I came across an old Christmas dress that I had worn when I was about Hannah's age. It was in surprisingly good shape, so I couldn't resist having Hannah model it for us.


Not bad for a 30 year old dress


Grandpa with his 2 girls.


Amazing how some things come back around.

21 months old

For a minute I thought I was wrong on her age and had to actually count to make sure that Hannah really is 21 months old. How can she really be that close to 2?!? She definitely is keeping us busy these days. Here's what she's up to:

*Right before we put her into the bathtub, we count 1, 2, 3. On 3 she jumps and we then lift her way up where she lands in the tub. She's now caught on to this and is jumping all around the house, counting 1, 2, AHHHH and jumping about 1/2" off the ground. I really have to try to catch this on video b/c it's just too funny!

*She loves trains. She definitely gets this from Daddy. Once in awhile he sets up Grandpa Davis' toy train set to run around the Christmas tree. She loves to watch the "choo choo" with Daddy.

*Along those same lines, we've now watched The Polar Express twice all the way through. The second time she watched it, she was much more interactive, pointing out the "choo choo" throughout the movie, clapping when Santa made his entrance, and waving and saying "bye bye" to Santa as he headed out to deliver gifts.

*She is answering our yes and no questions with head nods and shakes.

*She is starting to pose for pictures and say "cheese." Too bad she doesn't stay still long enough for me to snap a good pic!

*When asked her age, she tells us "one" and shows us by raising one finger.

*She's tall enough now to pull herself up onto most of our furniture. Whatever she can't pull herself up on, she finds whatever she can to use as a stool to climb up. I've noticed that lately she's started reaching for the door handles. Thankfully, she's still too short to get a grasp and turn them.

*She seems to be starting to catch onto what we've been trying to teach her about God. At dinner time and bedtime, she folds her hands while we pray (initially, anyway) and says amen. She has a prayer book, and folds her hands when she looks through it. She likes to point out Jesus on the cover as well. One of her favorite activies is doing "Here are the doors. Here is the steeple. Open the doors and see all the people." over and over again.

I know I say this all the time, but we are so blessed to have this special little girl in our lives.

Imitating me trying to get her attention.

Saying "cheese" for the camera.


Our big girl.

Hannah and Jacob

Last week, we watched our friend's little boy Jacob. Everything went relatively well, but we quickly learned that Hannah is a bit super sensitive. Jacob fussed a little bit when we put him down for a nap, which Hannah found very disturbing and started crying herself! She's in for a big shock in about 5 months!

First snow

Living in West Michigan, when we get snow, we get SNOW! This morning, we woke up to about a foot of snow. Thankfully, today is my day off, so Jason took my car into work and Hannah and I got to stay at home to enjoy the snowy day. Last year, Hannah was really too little to play in the snow, but I had a feeling that this year she'd love it. So, we bundled ourselves up and headed out to brave the cold, white stuff.


Bundled up and ready to go



At first, she was a little overwhelmed. Plus, it's hard to walk when you're in a snowsuit and in snow up to your thighs!



The girl still can't go anywhere without her purse!




Snow baby



Once she got acclimated, she had a ball!



A redneck snowstorm