Hannah's a two-year-old now!

If there was ever any question Hannah loved her "meow-meow take" , look no further. ;)

10 words to describe Hannah:

Independent (wants to do everything on her terms and by herself)

Confident (has a self-assured confidence about her/ a magnetism that draws others to her) 

Comedian (loves to make others laugh)

Serious (kind of an intense little one)

Nurturing (very loving and kind to babies and dolls)

Strong (will walk and run, likes to hike and asks for it, and is one tough cookie!)

Quick-minded (figures things out quickly and easily-- quite coordinated) 

Kind (very good at sharing and is so sweet to the whole family)

Cautious (of strangers/others, new situations and heights)

Darling (the best word for me to describe my little two-year-old)

Hannahisms:

Meow-Meow -- what she calls blankets. She has a very very very special meow-meow that Sylvia Height knitted. It's pink and she loves to twist her little fingers in the holes and rub it as she goes to sleep. She has done this since she was 6 months old. 

See-see-- her name for Liesel

May- what she calls milk. She will not add that consonant, even though she can. And she loves her may. 

Hannah has had a personality explosion lately. I can honestly say that she makes me laugh every day-- which she seems to be on her agenda. Not making me laugh, but Liesel. She can be very goofy which sends both her and Liesel into fits of laughter. The other day during bath time, she was putting the washcloth on her head, making silly faces, slipping on purpose and making huge splashes-- all to watch Liesel laugh and then bust up laughing herself. She definitely has a silly side, but reserves it for home it seems.

They tell me in nursery she is very serious. But also openly admit she is everyone's favorite. She definitely has presence and a way of making people like her right away. Sounds easy for a 2 year old, but there is definitely something magnetic about her personality and big bright blue eyes. She's the only girl in there, but apparently can hold her own without a problem (as I've been told).

I would agree that Hannah seems somewhat serious and a little bit mature even (strange to say?) for her age. Mature is maybe the wrong word, but incredibly "with it." Like she really knows what's going on and is aware of her surroundings. I'm sometimes shocked at the questions she responds to. She is incredibly independent which doesn't always manifest in big fits, but in the way she puts on her own shoes, tries to dress herself or put on her own diaper, wants to walk or hike for long distances instead of being carried or riding in the stroller, the way she'll "disappear" into her room for her own quiet play reading books or playing with her baby, the way she could drink from a cup at almost age 1 and feed herself with a spoon. But also in her strong will. I try not to cross her. . . ;) If she wants that book at bedtime, so be it. Or her shoes on, fine. Or if she wanted to get out of the car all by herself and I picked her up-- it's O.V.E.R.

Here are a few more examples from the last few weeks:

-We were hiking Mesa Arch at the Island in the Sky. She did not want to wear shoes for the return part of the hike and I decided to let her. Several times I asked her if she wanted her shoes on, but she insisted "no shoos." She also demanded to walk the entire thing. If I pick her up, she immediately does the noodle-wiggle-impossible-to-hold thing and says, "no! walk!" She walked 2/3 of the way down from Delicate Arch last month and then recognized the arch in a story in the children's friend. She got very excited and pointed to it saying, "mommy, nana, hike!"

-If she wants a "BA-meow-meow" (banana), you better not say no. It's not a pretty sight. If you tell her they are all gone, forget it.

-In sacrament meeting, Hannah frequently decides she's all done. She'll stand up and do the sign for 'all done' by waving both hands and saying, "aww dun mommy, aww dun!" If she then sees the hymnbooks open and another song, she'll frequently just start screaming as loud as she can.

-She wants to go potty. She'll tell me often, "I nee go pee mommy" and will get very angry if I don't take off her diaper and let her try. She is not potty trained and has only once accidentally used the bathroom while sitting on the potty. But she always very thorough at wiping. She knows how to blow her nose and will do that often.

-Every morning when Hannah wakes up, she starts to yell for Brian and I. If I slack off and try to squeeze in a few more minutes of sleep, I've noticed that her speech gets very articulate. "Mama! Daddy! I want out!"over and over. When I bring her into our bed to try and snuggle and again, get a few more minutes of sleep, Hannah will just talk, poke my eyes and tell me over and over "I wan EAAAAT mama. I wan EAAAAT." If I say, "in just a minute" she gets very angry.

Hannah is very nurturing. She carries around her baby, wraps her up, pats her back, helps her go potty and feeds her. When we went overnight on the river last month, she carried around a piece of wood and kept telling me to "shhhhhhh" when I was near so I wouldn't wake her napping baby. When Liesel is sad, she'll come give hugs.

When I ask Hannah to smile, she closes her eyes. Sometimes she gives me a big teethy grin. Kills me.

Hannah is an absolute JOY to have in the family. We all love her. She gives me little snuggles, the sweetest kisses and I love hearing her say "mommy!" which she does all the time. She plops herself on my lap and insists on books. If I'm in the kitchen, 9 times out of 10 she's in there pushing a chair around and saying "mommy help!" She loves to help in the kitchen and WILL NOT let me hold that beater. She only gives it up if I say it's time for Liesel to have a turn.

I don't know what Liesel would do without her. She loves having Hannah pretend she's the monster and chase her around. They play together outside digging and making stews and toast with dirt, rocks and 'juniperries' (juniper berries). When Hannah gets hurt, Liesel is usually the first one there to give her a hug and rub her back. It melts my heart. They really love each other.

So glad we have this dynamo of a girl in our family.

Halloween Night

For preschool Liesel wanted to dress as a Rose Fairy for her Halloween Party. She was also very excited about the "spooky!" pumpkin she carved the night before. She looks so cute!

Our trick-or-treat pals. Sam the grasshopper, Brynlee the cat, Liesel the triceratops (she was NOT just a dinosaur), Rylee as Elsa, Owen the T-rex and Miss Hannah the skeptical Superwoman. 

These girls kill me. That is what Hannah did when I said "smile"-- it took .2 seconds for her to figure out the gist of Trick-or-Treating (Liesel coached her on it all day-- when I was pulling them in the bike trailer to the park, I heard her explaining how and what to do to get candy).  Liesel will definitely be one of those pillowcase-tweens making multiple rounds around the neighborhood. She was pretty insistent on hitting every house and was BEGGING to get out the door as soon as dinner was over. 

I know a lot of moms who don't like trick-or-treating (or Halloween for that matter), but I totally love it. It's a kids dream to get candy from strangers and to walk around at night and hold a flashlight and eat sugar sugar sugar and see the moon when it's really dark and walk around with mom and dad way past their bedtime and all get all dressed up and put their own lipstick on. You better believe that that dinosaur was wearing lipstick. ;) 

Hannah LOVED it. She (as usual) wanted to walk almost the whole time and would run to the doors. They both picked lollipops as their #1 fav candy. Usually followed by fruity tootsie rolls. Gross. I let them eat (almost) whatever they wanted the night of. Then it went into the pot for decorating gingerbread houses in December. . . and of course satisfying my ever so frequent pregnancy induced sugar cravings. 

Liesel

This girl is ALWAYS singing. . .doesn't matter where ;) 

preschool pals. She loves talking about all the friends she has now.

Liesel has turned from a toddler to a little girl this year. Sometimes I look at her and see her face as a teen, and it kind of freaks me out. A visual reminder that my days to snuggle, rub her face, smother her with kisses and hold her close are numbered. And that thought is actually painful to me. What does that feel like as a mom? You cuddle and snuggle and tickle and kiss and love your little ones and then they grow up? At least I still have time. 

And she's in no hurry to push me away now. She loves mommy attention and frequently reminds me that she needs more of it. 

She is a little light. She is good. 

The other day we camped at the Needles. Brian has been working down there still and commuting for months. We camped at the campground with him and he woke up the next day for work. After he left, I started packing the car and left the keys in the upholder. Hannah went in the car and started playing and accidentally pushed the auto-lock. My keys, and Hannah, were in the car. It started out with me calmly trying to explain to Hannah how to open the lock. It didn't work. After 10 minutes, it still wasn't working. I wasn't thinking straight, but Liesel was. I turned around and there she was, kneeling under a hanging tree, praying for help that mommy could open the car and get Hannah out. A few minutes later, another camper drove by and showed me the release for pushing the seats in from the trunk. I was able to get in and unlock the door.

Liesel frequently talks about how Jesus will come again and wants to know when. She loves the primary songs and sings them so often. Which is why I was especially bummed when during the Primary program she was so disruptive that they sent her down to sit with me. She only sang one song and made silly faces or turned around in her seat. She did say her line fabulously: "Mommy helps me brush my teeth and tuck me in bed." Looking back, it makes me laugh. :)

Her prayers are so thoughtful.  She likes to review her day and is thankful for things that happened or specific things that are pertinent to the food, family or personal prayer for that time. It surprises me. 

She is strong and a good hiker, but complains 40% of the time. She's four though, and I hope eventually she looks forward to the hikes and not just the snacks. She loves playing outside and can spend a long time entertaining herself in nature. She loves to dig in the dirt and has absolutely no qualms about getting her hands, face, arms, legs etc completely covered in mud. This weekend we got our lot filled with more dirt and I looked out the window and saw her lying in it. New clothes, hair down and just relaxing in the dirt. 

She has a way with animals. The chickens next door she feeds almost daily. All those little biddy's come running to the fence when they see her, knowing she has a handful of kosha seeds (a weed she collects) or a grasshopper to feed to them.  Bugs don't phase her in the least. I finally decided to try and scare her out of picking up spiders in case she went for a poisonous one. But seriously, she's fearless. 

We actually got a kitten-- and even though it's stay was short-lived, it was amazing to watch how much that kitten loved her. She would wake up (wayyyyy to early-- one of the reasons I wanted to get rid of it) and go to the garage without waking any one up. She would get the kitten and bring it to her room and pet it, play with it and sleep with it. At night, it would fall asleep next to her on the bed. We eventually got rid of it b/c it refused to go outside and would cling to the window screens meowing. It was too much for me. I don't like animals inside and ultimately Brian and I decided to find more of an outside cat for her next year. 

Liesel is quite fearless when it comes to heights, climbing or singing on stage. She's not a particularly cautious child and doesn't want my help scrambling down steep sandstone. It drives me nuts and I find myself in full panic mode when we're close to a cliff. 

She is a wonderful sister to Hannah and they play together so well. She already tries to tickle my belly to get to the new baby. She gives it kisses and is always asking if I can feel it kick. She asks so many questions about what the baby does in there, how the "tube" works to give it food, why it looks so pink (I showed her a photo of a baby in utero to try and help her understand-- big mistake), and how it will get out. . . hmmmmm. 

I'll write more around her birthday in a month, but she's grown so much the past few months that I had to put something down before I lost any more time. 

We sure love our Liesel. She's a gem and a light in our home. 

Overnight on the Daily

East Face of Mt Whitney

The lake where we camped/ Brian below a glowing mount Whitney

Sunrise.

Hiking up the day before-- hot and sweaty!

Climbing shot. I look so tired. :)

Brian climbing-- over that hump was the first traverse and then another 800ft of climbing.

on the summit

Heading down the mountaineers route-- WAY steeper than it looks here. And loose! The Sierra are so gravely!

So the tallest peak in the lower 48 is conveniently located only 1hr north of Allison's (Brian's mom) house in California. I have been wanting to stand on it's summit for several years now, but we always seemed to visit Cali in the winter, which wouldn't work for the route we were hoping to do: the East Face. There is a walking trail up the entire mountain that Brian had hiked in the snow before we met the same month I was playing in Moab on Spring Summit. 

You probably know we're building a house in Moab, which means we need furniture for the house. Move in date is approaching and Allison had a sofa, beds and some other things for us to come pick up. We woke up on Friday morning and decided to make the 10 hour trip. Of course in Vegas we stop for some El Pollo Loco (best food ever) and immediately after gorging on hot mexican food, walk outside in the hot Vegas sunshine and get into our extremely hot SUV. After about 10 minutes of driving around sweating our brains out, we concluded that our AC had in fact broken and we were doomed to cross the mojave desert without it. 

Next day we got the furniture ready and put it in the trailer-- then drove up to get our permit for Whitney. Let me tell you, it was ridiculous. They really know how to create some hype. Every one standing around with their outdoor logos and nalgenes, palms sweaty worrying the person in front of them is going to steal their chance. In short, we got it.

The next day Brian and I hiked up with our packs full of climbing gear, our overnight gear and food. They were not light. 

And climbed up and up and up and up. We passed by the first alpine lake and headed up further to Upper Boyscout lake. A lame name for something so beautiful. The sierra mountains remind me of a drier Tetons. It was fun to hike with Brian. . . I felt like we laughed the whole time and it was good to have a night away from kids and responsibilities. We really don't do that enough. I actually think this was the first time we've spent the night away from the kids together. 

By the time we reached the lake, we were both ready to sit and relax on the rocks. Brian has told me several times that hanging out at an alpine lake above treeline is one of this favorite things. I have to agree. We made dinner, set up camp and crashed. 4am wake up and no other climbers were around. We were surprised and figured we were starting late. I kind of love scrambling over rock that early in the morning. My mind is turned off and I just hear breathing. I'm always a bit anxious anticipating what the climb will be like. I knew that the East Face involved 1,000ft of climbing and a few traverses. 

When we arrived at the base of the climb, I was kind of blown away. The range was bright pink/orange from the rising sun the the clouds to the south looked ominous, but thin. We decided to make a go for it after checking the weather (isn't that insane that we can do that?! this is the first time we've had a smart phone climbing). . . it said stormy weather wouldn't hit until 11am. 

So we started climbing. And climbing. The first traverse we got to- the Tower Traverse-- majorly freaked me out. The moves felt sloped and there was nothing but air below (but I was tied in and if I fell, the pendulum wouldn't be that bad). It made me more apprehensive for the Fresh Air traverse, but that ended up being no biggie-- great hands the whole time. I enjoyed the climbing and the last move we pulled brought us exactly to the summit marker at the highest point in the United States (excluding Alaska). 14,5something. 9:30am

We got back to the car at 3pm and drove back to our girls and grandma who had graciously watched them all day in the heat. 

Kevin & Jana's visit

Kevin and his family came to visit! It always feels like an honor when a sibling/family member come out of their way to visit. Kevin and Jana insisted they didn't come to see Moab, that they just wanted to see us-- but I really wanted them to have a great time and see the area. I loved watching our kids play together-- it's like they know they're family. They got along really well! I loved catching up with them on the details of their life; things that are hard to tell from emails, blogs and phone calls. Kevin & Jana recently moved from DC to San Antonio, TX. We are sort of in the same phase of life with toddlers, buying houses, jobs, church callings and trying to balance it all. 

We made it into Arches and hiked to Double Arch. We let the kids play in the shade. And Kevin of course needed some shirtless flexing shots on the red rock. . . ;)

We also took a trip down the daily section of the Colorado River. I love this section of river-- and especially that we got to take their family and kids down. There is something that is just fun about a river. . .changing scenery, splashy waves, sandy beaches and good lunches. When we got back, I had to shoot a wedding, but Kevin, Brian and Clay went back on the river again! I was a bit jealous, but glad they got to have fun. The next morning we went jogging through Negro Bill Canyon and had a sitter come over for the 1.5hrs then it was time to say goodbye (although I tried my best to convince them to stay another day). . .

The best part was honestly getting to interact with my nieces and nephew (Oliver's smile is to die for) and talking with Kevin and Jana. 

What a treat to have them visit!