Crazy...

Things here have been a little crazy lately! Now that Hannah is more mobile and not taking very long naps, it really cuts down on my time to get on here to update! I am hoping to do better in weeks to come! It seems like we have had something going on every day. Part of that is that Michael and I are trying to work out at least three times a week together and by the time he gets home, we work out, eat dinner, and shower, it is bedtime! Makes those 4 hours that he is home before we go to bed FLY by really fast! We have been doing a "biggest loser" contest and we weigh in on Saturday mornings. So far, we have both managed to win a week (of course Michael has won two) so we are both making some progress toward our "get healthy for Hannah" goals!

We have a few things going on that we are excited about. First, Starla is coming to visit! It is finally booked and I can't wait! I haven't seen her since December of 2006, so she hasn't even gotten to see Hannah yet! Plus, when I go to pick her up I will be able to hear their group, Kevin Spencer and Friends, perform for the first time which I am excited about too!


One of the other things is, Hannah is getting a new cousin! My sister, Carla (and her husband Heath), are expecting their first at the beginning of May. Since she is diabetic and has some other health concerns, they will schedule her for a c-section sometime in late April! Here is the little one's first picture!
Another thing I am excited about is that Hannah is finally (still slowly) starting to get some hair! It isn't much, but at least, it is progress in the right direction! The pics really don't show it very well, but it is there!
And here is a quick video of her crawling and walking along all the furniture. This past week there were alot of birthdays, so Happy Birthday to all of you!

Fun for Free!

Ok, so in our home we have a new obsession...geocaching. I heard about this in a Family Fun magazine a while back, but learned more about it from Amy Lovelace last time I was back in OK. She and her family have been doing it for a while. Now what is geocaching you ask? Well, basically there are people all over the world that hide little boxes (and some very creative containers) with paper of some sort in them and you can go online and get the coordinates and go and find them. Once you find it, you sign the paper and re-hide it where you found and log in on your computer that you did sucessfully find it. I didn't think it sounded like much fun, but then I pulled up our address and there are over 100 within 10 miles of where we live and three within 400 feet of our townhouse! We of course had to try to find the ones close to us and once we did, we were hooked! The best part about this new hobby, as long as you have GPS capability on your phone or a GPS system (we have a Garmin), it cost you $0. In fact, since there are so many close to us, we have walked to most of our finds! Now since this is new to us, we had no idea how BIG this really is! You can go to http://www.geocaching.com/ and pull up your address and look at how many you walk past or drive by every single day (you will have to create a log-in, but it only takes a second, no hard questions or personal info). I pulled up our old address in UT and looked to see if maybe we could go and find a few with Yo and Glenn at Thanksgiving, and it is even bigger there than it is here! I couldn't believe it. There are over 200 at Temple Square alone (not that we will go that far north since there are 10 within two blocks of their house)! This has been great family fun for us and hopefully it will be for some of you too! These pictures were taken while we were out yesterday at one of the more crazy finds! I was pretty impressed with the picture I snapped of Michael and I since I didn't cut off either of our heads! We also took one of Hannah holding the cache to prove she was there with us, even if she wasn't awake! The third is Michael putting it back where we found it!Now, on to Hannah news (since lets face it, that is what most of you check this blog for)! She (early this week) finally mastered crawling on all fours, so she is a "traditional crawler" now. She has gotten better at pulling up and now is standing most of the time when I go to get her out of her crib. She has also figured out a few methods of getting down from her standing position, some very controlled, others not-so-much. At least she seems to have less bumps and bruises than she did last week! She also is able to walk along all of the furniture holding on. It seems like it took her forever to roll over and then forever to crawl and I was so worried that she was always going to be behind for her age, but once she got it, she jumped through the next stages in days and is now caught up and a little ahead of where she should be, and I am so thankful!

Pictures Link- 8 months

Here is the link to the pictures...as always, type kim wallace as customer name.

https://www.smilesbywire.com/home.asp?AC=LTPP0258106620JCP

Our week...

Michael was excited that Hannah is now big enough to play ball, so he decided to go to Wal-Mart to buy one! Of course, being a man, he had to get the biggest ball he could find and it isn't quite the best size to "play ball" with, so I went and got tennis balls that are a little closer to size! Also on Wednesday I took Hannah for her 8 month pictures and the outfit that I REALLY wanted her to wear was still too big, so we had to go to plan B. Luckily for us, Hannah has some cute clothes in her wardrobe and some on loan from our dear friends, the Gosnell's! So, to decide what to wear in her pictures, I took a few of her in three different outfits and let Michael and my mom help me decide which was the cutest. So, here are the two that won, except Michael vetoed the flower headband, so there is no bow with the second outfit. As usual, when they send me the link to the proofs, I will share it with you!

And as promised, I finally caught the action on video and have it to share with you! She is getting much better at pulling up, but still has some balance problems when she gets up!

Here is a cute video of her being the knucklehead that she is, she is blowing raspberries in the air and on the ottoman (that is before she grabs my camera string and tries to eat the camera)...

We are in SO much trouble!

Ok, so in previous posts you have seen her sitting up- all by herself! She is getting better at her control and is getting better at catching herself instead of just plopping over! Now for the photographic proof...
Well, the last two days she has been trying to pull up on things, mostly unsuccessfully. In fact, yesterday, she had three boo-boos by bedtime from her failed attempts (one from the chair she hit at church, one from busting her lip trying to pull up on my leg, and one from hitting her head on the side table trying to pull up on her diaper basket)! Well, today, she finally did it! She pulled up on the chair ALL BY HERSELF!! Can you believe it? I was sitting here at the computer (you can see it behind her head) and instead of just getting part of the way up, she was standing there smiling all proud of herself for figuring it out! I can't believe that at 8 months we are going to have to be careful of not only what is on the floor, but now what she can pull up to! If only all of our furniture was fully padded and there were extra cushions on the floor to help with all of her new adventures!


Once I get the chance I will capture the action on video to share with you! Kim

You have to see it...

So a few of you have been confused by my description of how Hannah attempts to crawl, so I decided to post a video so that you get a better idea. She is very mobile and I think that it works really well. As far as I am concerned, this IS crawling, just not the traditional way!
(Just an FYI: I kept the camera rolling because it captured her 'trucker voice' since she has had some congestion lately. I think it is due to teething, but you never know. Also, the toy she is playing with is an empty crystal light container with cheerios-one of her favorites! And yes, that is the dog doing her best to get in the picture! I love how she looks at me in both videos and smiles, makes me feel cool-one of the best things of motherhood!)

And, this just shows the happier side of Hannah and Lizzie's relationship, which is not always the case! Hannah likes to grab handfuls of Lizzie or crawl to where she is and torture her. Luckily, Lizzie is a really good sport!

OSU Football

Last week was the first official OSU football game and we were lucky enough to get it on TV. Being the supporters that we are, we all dressed in our orange and black and watched the game. We tried to get a family picture and the best we could do with our camera timer is the one on the header! GO POKES!Now in other news, Hannah has been on the verge of crawling for weeks now. She has been able to roll herself anywhere that she wanted to go, so she tended to use that as her main method of mobility! She has been able to get on all fours and rock and move her legs, but she still hasn't figured out how to move her arms while she is up there, so then she will just face plant and move forward. This week she has now adapted to more of an Army style crawl, but it works and she gets to what she wants!
One night she and her Daddy were playing airplane in the floor and I thought it was cute and snapped these pictures! She loves playing with her Daddy!

Tagged!

Ok, so I have been tagged by my cousin, Beth, to do a random things post. I am pretty sure that most of you know all of the random things about me since most of my posts have been pretty random! However, I will do my best!

The tagging rules:
1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Write 6 random things about yourself
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post
4. If you’re tagged, DO IT and pass on the tag

1) I am finally learning how to like vegetables! I know that I am 28 and should have been eating them all along, but lets face it, I haven't ever liked them! Becoming a mom has made me want to eat right so that I can teach her (eventually) to eat right too, so I am having to suck it up and deal! (And to be honest, some of them are pretty good!)

2) I hate to clean showers/tubs! I don't mind cleaning the sinks or even the toilet, but I hate to scrub the walls and all the soap nooks in the shower! Because of this we have a Scrubbing Bubbles Maid for Shower in our tub, but still, it isn't as efficient as I am so I still have to do it, even if it is only monthly...

3) The older I get, the more detail oriented I become. I want to know the exact specifics on things and becoming a mother has only heightened my detail issues!

4) I get irritated with people who think that your life is open to them and ask questions like, "so, are you going to have more kids and when?", "being a stay at home mom you should have all the time in the world to help with _______ (like we don't do anything during the day)," etc. I mean, if a close friend or family member asks, it is one thing, but people that I don't even know, it is a little much!

5) I would love to go on What Not to Wear, or another makeover show, just to hear what they have to say (and get $5000 worth of clothes), but I wouldn't want to watch myself on TV! No one should have to see themselves on the secret footage or in the 360 mirror!

6) I wish that I kept better in touch with people. I am terrible at letter writing or sending cards. I also am getting to the point where I am not even good at calling people. Basically, it has come down to the point that email communication is the only thing that I am good at, and even then sometimes it is a few days later. There are so many people that I wish that I still talked to and kept up with, but they don't make the first move and I don't either, so I have lost touch with so many people that I still really care about!

I tag Janene Day, Carla Keller, Jeana Lipscomb, Jodi Spiva, Crystal Harper, and Paula Mora!

Huntington Beach

Well, we had the great privilege of spending the weekend in Huntington Beach with Yolonda and Glenn at her sister's house. She and Glenn were house/dog sitting for her sister while they are on vacation and invited us down to spend a few nights hanging out with them. We went down to the pier and ate at Rubies (awesome Chocolate Turtle shake by the way) and drove along the beach a little. We were able to go to, as Glenn put it, the "Cadillac of swap meets" and walk around. I ended up with a new wallet, but mostly it was fun just to look! Yolonda and I got the chance to talk and catch up, which I always enjoy, and we just hung out and played with Hannah! Michael and I both talked about how nice to just get away for the weekend. Her sister's house is amazing and only a few miles from the ocean! We felt blessed to be able to just go and hang out with Glenn and Yo! Once again, I was a slacker with the pics and hope to get copies of Yolonda's pictures to fill in the gaps! I really have to start getting my camera out more...

Since we are talking about how much we love our time with the Poret's, I wanted to get it out that Michael, Hannah and I will be spending Thanksgiving in Utah with them. We are hoping to arrive in Utah early Wednesday morning and leave on Sunday morning. I doubt that we will make it to church on Sunday, but maybe we can squeeze in some time with the people that will be in town for the holiday!

Oklahoma-Part 2

Well, it took me a little longer to get this post up than I had planned, but since having Hannah, most things do! This trip "home" I decided that I was going to quit running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to see everyone and just catch people if and when their schedule coincided with mine. It was great for Hannah because she was able to get in her naps and be in a good mood which is SO much different than our last trip home where she hardly napped at all and at night (when we were at my parents or Michael's parents) she was so cranky and unpleasant to be around. I decided that wasn't fair to Hannah or our families (since after all they were the ones we were coming home to see) to get her cranky so that we could see all of our friends. So, I didn't get to spend much time with friends and there were lots of people that I would have loved to see, that I didn't get to, but there were a few that I did get to see. I unfortunately don't have many pictures to share, but I do have a few.

First, Hannah and I were able to meet up with Janna and Jodi and their kids at the park. Hannah and Joslyn are only about 6 weeks apart. They were so cute together! I couldn't believe how big Janna's kids are now! It was a really good visit. After we left the park, we went straight to Carrie's house to hang out with her, Rylee, and Parker (and don't forget Joey!). It was great getting to hold their new addition, Parker! She is so cute and little! Rylee was cute too with all her new words and tricks that she can do!
Once again, since I don't have many pics from Oklahoma, I stole a few from Kristen's camera. Here is one of Hannah with my mom (GG). She loved mom's necklace!
Also, here is one of the ones she took of Hannah at PaPa's office. We went and visited him and Kristen thought it was cute how little she looked in his big leather chair.

Back Home...

Back home has come to have two meanings in my life and I have done both this past week! To me, home is where your family is. At this point, Michael and I have our families in OK and we have our home where we live. This past week, Hannah and I went "back home" to Oklahoma for a visit and now we are "back home" with her Daddy!

So, lets go through some of the events and photos of the past week. First of all, our layover was in SLC both directions, so we were in all three states that I have lived as we traveled. On the way out, we had a long layover and we were able to see Cindi! We haven't gotten to see her since we moved and it was SO great getting to spend some time with her, even though it wasn't near long enough! She and I split the best sundae ever and we were able to talk a little and she got her snuggles in with Hannah! It was hard saying goodbye again, but we had a plane to catch. I have learned with living far away from loved ones that it is always hard saying goodbye when you don't know when the next time you will see each other will be.

On this trip, Hannah finally started to figure out how to hold her own bottle! It started with the baby food feeder (show in the picture on the airplane) and has gradually moved to her milk bottles! She still wants you to hold it for her and I am more than happy to do it because I love our time snuggling while she eats, but it is nice to know that she will if she has to!

We flew into OKC airport instead of DFW this time. Since our flight was so late, we were able to stay at my Aunt Glenda's house. She has this fabulous house about 10 minutes from the airport. She hadn't gotten to meet Hannah yet, so it was great getting to spend some time with her. We also stayed at her house the night before we flew back to California and got to see my cousin John and his wife, Ashley. They are expecting their first child, Paisley, next month. For some reason, I didn't get any pictures of them with Hannah, but here is one of her with Aunt Glenda!

On Saturday when we got to Durant, we went to Michael's parents house. It was funny seeing Hannah and Jacob interact with each other. She is so mobile and he isn't, so she would go and steal his toys or his pacifier and roll away! She would try to grab his ears or pat his back, it was hilarious! Here is a pic of each of Michael's parents holding both of their grandkids!We got to see Carla and Heath on Saturday before they headed back to Dallas. I was glad they were able to come up and see us, even if it was just for a few hours! Once again, I don't have pictures with them to show you. I seem to not take as many pictures as I think I have when I go back to Oklahoma and so when I go to download them and make a post, I am always disappointed that I don't have the pictures that I thought I did...

I did get some pictures of Hannah posing in one of her new outfits! Only the few of us that were there know why she was such a good poser in these pictures...

I have a ton of pictures of the day that Hannah and I spend with Grandma, Jacki, and Jacob. We went and had some pictures made of the two of them together in their semi-matching outfits. Jacki bought Hannah a onesie that says "sugar and spice and everything nice" and Jacob's says "frogs, snails and puppy dog tails". We couldn't ever get them both looking and smiling at the same time!
Ok, I have more pictures and stuff to post, but I don't have time right now, so I will stop here and make another post later...