Four months!

Wow! How time flies. I can't believe that Thanksgiving is over and Hannah is 4 months old! She has made some pretty big strides in the last month. The biggest was definitely learning how to roll over. That has taken some getting used to for both of us. She also figured out how to reach for and hold things, and she's gotten really good at it. I get tons of comments about how strong her grip is because her favorite thing to hold is people's fingers, and she won't let go. She really likes to go to sleep while holding someone's hand. Sometimes it's the only way I can get her to sleep. Since she's on her stomach so much more now, she's making a little bit of progress learning how to crawl. We'll have to wait and see if she crawls by Christmas, but I think there's a good chance she will. She loves her Daddy more every day, and will get cranky when he leaves and if he comes home late. She always cheers up as soon as she sees him. Also, when she's really tired and cranky, he's the best at getting her to calm down and fall asleep. That has been the case for a while, but it seems like it's become even more so as she's gotten older. She just learned how to scrunch up her nose. It is SO cute!!! And SO funny! She smiles really big and scrunches up her nose, and it looks like she's plotting something very mischievous to do to you.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was awesome. We went to my sister-in-law's parents' house and had a lot of fun, as usual. They are a crazy bunch, for sure. We played Spoons, Ticket to Ride, and Catch Phrase, and ate a ton of really delicious food. Dinner was all the classic fare; turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potato souffle, homemade rolls, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and we also had what they call their "Broccoli bake" which is a casserole type concoction of broccoli and corn and I don't even know what else, but it's delicious. For dessert we had pumpkin and pecan pies and Apfel strudel, which is my favorite German dessert, and it was amazing. Hannah was really good all day. She was super happy and friendly, well, except for the time we tried to leave her with the men watching football while we played a game. She wanted to be part of the action! I am loving my camera, and I can't stop taking pictures of my gorgeous kid! She's just so stinkin cute! But I was able this time to get some pictures of me with her which I never have since I'm always the one with the camera. 

 The above picture is proof that some behaviors are genetic. My niece Abby sucks her fingers just like this!

                                        I LOVE the look on her face in this picture! It's so funny!

                                     Having a very serious conversation with her Uncle Eric.

                                              Being mischievous with Aunt Trish

 

                                                                Don't ask......

Bouncy chair

We recently got Hannah a bouncy chair, which she loves. She loves the piano side, and will push the buttons herself. There's a sun on the other side that is her favorite. She likes me to sing "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" and make the sun dance. I've tried singing other songs instead, but she only smiles for the sunbeam song. When we first put her in it she was too short, but now, just over a week later, her feet touch the ground and she likes it better. It's crazy that she's grown that much in just a week. She's getting so big!

Baby's first camp out

This last weekend, our ward had a Thanksgiving campout. They camped out Friday night and then had Thanksgiving dinner the next day. We went up Saturday morning to help Dan's dad with cooking the turkeys. He found a neat way to cook turkey at a campout. They put four poles in the ground, wrapped chicken wire around them and filled them with hot coals. Then they wrapped aluminum foil around it and hung the turkeys in the middle. It was a nice day, but it was pretty windy, which made the smoke kind of terrible, but Hannah didn't mind too much. She wanted to walk around and see everything, to the point that she refused to take a nap all morning. Finally, right before the food was ready, she ate and fell asleep and slept until we got home.

Rollin' rollin' rollin'!

Hannah learned to roll over this week. It's been frustrating for me because she doesn't like it, but she does it anyway. So I put her on her back and a few minutes, sometimes seconds later, she rolls over and starts screaming. This happens over and over again until she wears herself out and falls asleep. It's fun... or something. So she's one step closer to learning to crawl. That's a good thing, right??

More kissing cousins

Yesterday we had lunch at my in-laws house, and Hannah's cousins Isabelle, Emery, and Ella were there too. Emery and Ella are twins who are 7 months older than Hannah, and Isabelle is 2. All three of the girls were really interested in Hannah and tried to play with her, but Isabelle especially. She spent a lot of time rubbing Hannah's cheeks, which Hannah loved. She laughed the whole time. It was so cute. Later, we had Hannah on the floor and Isabelle laid down next to her and hugged and kissed and rubbed her cheeks. So cute! I love watching all of the kids together. They are so much fun.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my 26th birthday! And for my birthday, in addition to going to my favorite restaurant with my brother, sister-in-law, and Mom and getting flowers from Dan, my parents got me an amazing new camera and Eric and Trish got me the accessories. It is a serious camera. It is a Nikon D3100. I love it. It took (and is still taking) a lot of work to figure out, but I was able to find an awesome setting for taking pictures of Hannah. Here are some of my favorites so far:

I've always wanted a really good camera because I've always loved taking pictures. I guess I should have taken some photography classes in college. Oh, well. Too late now. But I will still have tons of fun taking awesome pictures with my new camera!!