Saint Valentine. Just a little early!

We surprised the dad's with a plate of decorated heart cookies at work.  One of the perks of living where you work is surprising them with love notes and sugar cookies! I know it's still January, but Jan and I have always had a rocky history. . . hands down the most difficult month and I find I'm always anxious by the time it's drawing to a close. 

Love that L is picking her nose here. 

 I would have to disagree that Valentine's Day was designed for couples. It was hands-down created for little girls to plaster the world in pink hearts and consume insane amounts of sugar. And I mean insane. Frosting, lemonade, cookie, cupcake, jelly, lollipop, candy heart insane. 

But look at photo #3. And let me ask you a question: does that look like the face of a happy child? Yeah. And parties like this give me collateral for good behavior for days. One mention of a cupcake to miss L and she'll be doing _______ with new found determination. 

Heidi planned a Valentine party for the kids in our group of friends. Surprisingly, just about everyone made the 150m roundtrip drive. Always fun to get together with friends!

sematiya!

Liesel has a word she uses often when she is angry at someone (which is almost always Hannah or I). She makes her best angry face and yells: SEMA-TIYA! 

Once I said it to her to see what she would do. She looked at me in surprise and said, "mom! Don't say that. That's a mean word."

Another one she likes to yell is "SIYOTE!" Apparently S's and Y's make great fake swear words. 

And right now as I type this she's singing the song from Daniel Tiger: "When you feel so mad that you wanna roar! Take a deep breath, and count to four. 1. . . 2.  . .3. . . 4" (complete with descending hand). 

Toddler rage cracks me up. In ten years or so, I may not be laughing anymore. ;)

And since I'm on the subject of sass. . . Miss Liesee frequently gives me a smile that makes me do a double-take. I've seen Gone With the Wind enough to see a little bit of Miss Scarlet O'hara in that mischievous-sweet-girl grin. All Liesel needs to add is a "fiddle-dee-dee" and I'm pretty sure she'd be cast. And her look of defiance/indifference? Spot on. ;)

Bo-Bannah, Hannah-Banana, Hanny, H-factor, Hannah.

15 months. Miss Hannah has been in our life for 15 months. It seems so short and long at the same time. If I could bottle her little personality and shelve it for when I need a good laugh, I would. Everything she does makes me laugh.

It is so hard to capture just what Hannah is like. From the onset she seems fairly chill. Maybe even a little quiet. She doesn't crack an open-mouth smile easily (to bare her 11 adorable teeth). But there is a fierceness and intensity in this little gal. She knows what she wants. She struts around the house. She'll be eating a snack in her chair and the next thing I know she doesn't have a shirt on. Brian went in to get her the other morning and she was in her crib in only a diaper. Pjs off and out of the crib, blankets and teddy on the ground. 

I genuinely think Hannah believes she can talk. A-jimmi-ja-mama? Translation: scrape out the last bit of yogurt here for me. Jaaa mama jiu. (while holding out her empty bowl and spoon). Translation: more now. If she doesn't like something on her tray, she MUST throw it on the ground. When her milk is gone, she gets angry and rips the sippy cup out of her mouth repeatedly (there are gaping holes in the rubber now). Sometimes she speaks in entire paragraphs. 

Hannah is excellent at letting me know exactly what she wants or doesn't want. For example: tried to put on a pair of red overalls the other day. She was kicking and screaming and twisting. I thought, there is no way this child is angry b/c she doesn't want to wear these. But I got a new pair of pants and she was totally chill and let me put them right on. Her treat radar is impeccable and she WILL see that cookie you're secretly trying to eat. 

Hannah is really nurturing with her little baby. She takes care of her, gives her bottles and hugs. Although I did see her sitting on her and bouncing on her belly the other day to activate the laughing button in her belly. 

She understands simple commands. Today I found her socks in the fridge (?) and asked her to put them away. She grabbed them and strutted off to her room. I can ask her to get her shoes, pick up a few toys or find something and she'll generally do it. She doesn't listen at all when I tell her to stop eating dirt and sand, but I know she understands me completely. 

She loves walking around and blowing her nose into toilet paper. And she really does blow correctly. I'm pretty sure everyone in RS las week at church was laughing as she walked around the room with a wipe repeatedly blowing her nose. 

She is incredibly coordinated. Her motor skills are great and she rides her trike pretty darn well. I feel like she'll be sporty, but who knows? 

And her blankie. Hannah has a pink knitted blankie she received from a family friend named Sylvia Height when she was born. She LOVES this blankie. She likes to stick her fingers in the holes and rub her blanket as she falls asleep. If she sees it, she has to hold it. Sometimes I'll adjust my rear-view mirror in the car so I can watch her chubby hand pet her blankie as she falls asleep in the car. Her saggy cheeks and grumpy expression KILL me. 

Every night after I wrap her up, I pick her up to say her prayer and she'll rest her head on my shoulder. I'll stay there for as long as she'll leave it. 

We love Hannah and are so glad she's part of our family. 

Liesee, L, L-chop, L-bop, shoog, Liesel.

Dr. Liesel (the name tag  and her photo on the kit are her favorite parts)/ eating snow. If we're outside, she's eating snow, or ice or an m&m she found in the corner of a dusty tire store. . .

Yesterday was Brian's day off. Hannah took an unusually massive nap. Brian was working on stripping the stain from the table. So Liesel and I took a walk. We played on the rocks just she and I. And believe it or not, that is more rare than it should be. Not playing on the rocks, that happens multiple times a day-- but the one-on-one play. We broke the ice on the potholes, threw rocks on them, ate the ice from the potholes (I know, gross.), she biked over the slickrock and fell. We rode her pretend horse.

And she talked the entire time.

She always does, but with Hannah around there is definitely more frustration. 

She decided to ride her bike home (even down the big hill), and she made it no problem. While she was talking to me, probably telling me about her princess crown that we found in the middle of the road or that a car was coming (which was 9x out of 10 an airplane or nothing), I looked at her and fell in love all over again. 

I wish I could have recorded that whole afternoon with her. She was so happy and cheerful, talkative and kind. I'm slowly learning who Liesel is as a person, and I pray every night to be able to get to know her; her personality, her talents & skills, her weaknesses, her strengths-- so that I can help build her, teach her and give her all that I can. I subbed in primary today and she didn't see me come in, so I just watched her sitting on sister Maughn's lap, watching her mouth move slightly off while singing I am a Child of God. She is getting so big. And smart. 

The other day we were out on a walk to look at the cave:

"The cave makes me feel jealous, so I need to sit on this wood and think." (proceeds to sit on a log next to a campfire ring). "Okay, I feel better now. Let's go."

She has an unusual fear/obsession with sharks. They intrigue and terrify her. When playing with her animal figurines, she always specifies that the dinos, alligator and big cats are nice. 

Whenever she sees a horse (which is often since they're next to the road when we drive to town), she says:

"I really really wish that I would have a horse just like that." 

me too, honey.

She likes picking out her own clothes. Her favorites right now are a hot pink glitter skirt and a hot pink shirt with shoes on it (they have bows on the toes and a jeweled bow on a little pocket). 

Imitates Hannah's noises, screams and babbles. This drives me nuts. 

Makes up words all the time. My favorites: Grieg & Loopis. She told me what it meant once, but I can't remember. She told me I was a luna-leah yesterday. ? 

Got her first haircut New Years Day. She thought it was going to hurt despite my reassurances. Only a trim to get rid of the long, wispy baby hairs. 

new day, new year!

Amazing ice rink. B and I are coming back here to skate and play broom hockey. 

How many bread dough treats did I make growing up? At least one a week until I was 5. 

My monarch.

I love New Years. I love the chance to start fresh and think what exciting things will happen in the upcoming year. 2013 was spent entirely at the Needles. . . which is kind of remarkable to me. We started out the year here and Brian and I said goodbye to 2013 last night eating cinnamon rolls, watching Sharktank and looking at his latest River management paper (for his master's degree). I walked outside to grab a screwdriver from the garage and I had to stop the second I shut the door. Dark. So dark. 

I looked up at the blackness and thought about the parties all over the world-- and how I was here in this insanely quiet place with no party, light or person in sight. I liked it. It feels empowering to feel like you own a place-- I know the ins and outs (like the amazing ice rink above!), I have my favorite spots to soak my feet, play in sand, see Datura, run or watch the sunrise. 

I have some big plans and ideas for 2014-- but if there's one thing I've learned growing up, it's that there is really no way to know!

Christmas vacation.

I can't believe they're not terrified of 15 braying donkeys trying to steal one carrot. Look at that one above Liesel! Yikes!

The wild horses were a hit. 

Ridgecrest is one of the corral areas for wild horses. Did you know our tax dollars are used to round up wild horses and then feed them for the rest of their lives? They are. At least L & H got to enjoy feeding them!

Ski day at Mammoth!!

We didn't have a high chair until the last day. Hannah broke one plate, tried to crawl on the table every meal and ate every meal standing up in her captain's chair. 

Merry Christmas!

We met up with Ryan (my bro) and his awesome family north of LA. We almost snuck in a trip surfing at the beach in Santa Monica where they live, but they wanted to see the kids. . . our selfish plan was foiled! :)

 Ridgecrest, California is warm. I'm pretty sure we went to the park and played every day. And I mean we. Brian, Matt and I found his old baseball mitts and ball and played catch, basketball and frisbee almost every time. We had contests to see who could jump out of the swing farthest (it got a little crazy guys). We played hide and seek on a hill covered in boulders and tried to one-up B on the monkey bars (turns out he can hang by his toes ;) ). 

Playing with B at the park is yet another sign he I were made for each other. We really are so much alike.

Brian, Matt and I woke up one morning at 5:30 am and arrived at Mammoth mountain in time for the lifts to open. It was an entire day (we stopped for 25 minutes to eat lunch-- and that was it) of skiing-- my legs were on fire. I had driven by the Sierra's once, but totally forgot how massive and impressive they are. The bare rock and huge summits completely rival the Teton skyline. We have to back in summer and climb! Anyway-- skiing was a dream. I had no idea how good Brian was. He was rippin' down double blacks. Meanwhile I was slowly carving my way down the blues. Still, it was phenomenal. And thanks to a free one week pass at the new gym, I snuck in a few mile swims and lots of workouts. 

Christmas Eve was great-- we stuffed ourselves full of ham, rolls, salad and chocolate cake with ganache and blackberries-- then had a program we followed from the Friend, which turned out fantastic and sang a bunch of carols. After the kids went to bed we finished stockings and wrapping presents while watching It's a Wonderful Life. 

Morning was magical.

We got to Skype with Sarah in Denmark! The kids LOVED opening their gifts and I didn't regulate candy consumption one bit. Hannah was in heaven. Neither one of them like Vienna sausages, which was always the #1 highlight for my childhood Christmas mornings. Who doesn't like a combination of animal fat/strange meats in a tube, raw out of the can? Common! :)

And! We got to see Ryan, Kiyomi and the kids! It was so great to see them-- we ran around the park, played and laughed. And I shopped. A stressful 3 hrs at the mall without a cell phone and lots of confusion, but I spent every dime of my Christmas money in those three hours. 

What a wonderful Christmas!