So much time, so little to do....

...Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. =)

I feel like I haven't done a family oriented post in a while! But, here I am again, and I've got LOADS of pictures to share of Hannah! =)

She and I have been keeping very busy lately. We joined another playgroup, and we get to that when we can. We'll be hosting a playgroup here in May, too, which will be exciting for us!






These are from when our playgroup met at Rochester Commons last week. Hannah thoroughly enjoyed taking advantage of the playgroup, and we hope to get back there again soon!

We had a nice Easter yesterday, though we didn't get to spend it all as a family as I would have liked. John had a gig in York, Maine, so he spent the day with his family. Hannah and I drove to Hancock to visit my family. We had a nice time! It would have been even better had the weather been warmer - it was bordering on downright cold! But our Easter dinner was delish (great job, Dad!) and Hannah got to try eating ham for the first time. She didn't really care for it though. She did a great job sitting through church on Sunday morning, considering the 1h40m drive it took us to get to Hancock BEFORE going to church! The rest of the day, she had a great time playing at Nana and Grandad's house.







I apologize for the "out of order-ness" of these pictures - it's just how they get uploaded. Anyway, I LOVED Hannah's Easter dress this year, and I'm looking for any excuse to have her wear it again, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know!

That's about it from here, though!

Lots o' pictures!

Photos haven't been scarce in our household, but my time spent uploading them has been! Things have been going well, though busy in our household! Today, though, Hannah and I took some time out to visit Curious George at the Children's Museum of NH. We had a great time, and even got to hang out with Hannah's friend Spencer and his mom and dad, Anne Marie and Ed. It was great to see them, since it had been a while since I got to visit with them.



We've been having fun just getting outside when the weather is nice, and various other things like that. We scoped out a new playgroup, but I'm still not sure if we'll stick with it or not. They are a group that is always on the move, and they have things scheduled a lot of days during the week. The problem is that a lot of things are scheduled for the days I work, so I'm not sure it will be practical for us. Normally, this would be okay, but I would have to pay dues to join, so I don't know if it's worth it. Sometimes, I just think it's easier to go to the children's museum on my schedule.

John has been busy lately with school and concert stuff. He has a concert with the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra tomorrow. He thinks it should be a good show, and with the weather, I would think there would be a good turn out. I debated going, but ultimately decided against it. I thought it would be nicer to let Hannah nap at home and then I can take her outside since the weather is slated to be warmer than today. It's been getting up into the 50's on a really nice day, so we've been taking advantage.

I've been working on another freelance writing assignment that will hopefully be published in Parenting NH this May. Of course, I'm not holding out too much hope, because they accepted another story for publication, and it hasn't been run yet. They accepted it in November, but keep having space issues. I understand, but it's frustrating. I've also taken on a great work at home job that I am enjoying. I basically set up customer accounts for Melaleuca, which is great. The products I really like, and so it's easy to tell people about how great they are, because I use them too! I've been in the process of switching our house over to all of their products. When the story just came out about the toxins in childrens bath products, it was something I was already aware of and had switched Hannah off of, because the Melaleuca products are amazingly better. Ask me if you're interested for more info.

Anyway, I'll leave you with more photos of Hannah!

One whole month???

What the heck? Where has the last month gone, and why is there still snow on the ground?

I am so ready for spring. I can't even begin to tell you how much. Wednesday morning was decently nice out, so Hannah and I went out side for a walk.

We enjoyed the sun and getting out of the house for a while. We didn't get to stay out long, but it sure felt good to get out and walk on the road for a little while!

Hannah fingerpainted a picture for John for Valentines day this year:

John is on vacation this week, which will be nice. If only he and I could stay healthy at the same time, which hasn't been the case at all this winter. I just got over a bout of strep throat a few weeks ago, and now am battling a cold/sinus infection. John came home from school sick yesterday, which is not good, because now neither of us will be able to get healthy this vacation. On the up side, though, Hannah has not been sick yet this winter (knock on wood), and has actually been doing really well. She's cutting her eye teeth, which is good, but it will be even better when it's all over - those are the last teeth we are waiting on for a while! 

I'm still waiting on my first freelance story to be published, every month they say it will be the next month. I'm having a story published in May too, but I haven't even written that one yet. I've got to get it in by April 1st, so I need to get going on it. I have som research to do for this next one!

That's about all the news from here. Hopefully I'll actually post more often again!

Randomness

Wow, I'm SOOOO behind on updates! I guess that's because the more things change, the more things stay the same. There really isn't much to report, but of course, there could be lots to talk about.

Hannah is now 7 months old, which is amazing to me. I feel like she should still only be one month old. She's trying desperately to crawl now, and she's getting really close to doing it. Right now, her favorite pass time is rolling around on the living room floor. Literally. Tummy to back to tummy to back and over again. John thinks that it's because she has finally figured out HOW she does it, and I'm inclined to agree. She's started saying Mama too, though she hasn't put the meaning behind it yet. She's learned to clap her hands. Actually, yesterday at church, she was riveted to the priest's sermon, and when it was over, she clapped. It was hysterical! We told Fr. Damien at the end of mass, and he got a big kick out of it.

Work is still work, and I still live for my 4 day weekends. At least it's only two days a week, but still - sometimes even that is just too much.

Our washing machine broke last week, so now we're trying to decide if we should buy a new one or get the old one repaired. I think we're leaning towards a repair, because the cost of a new one would be upwards of $700, including an extended guarantee and delivery of the new one.

That's about it from here... John has his first teacher day of the new school year on Wednesday, and the kids go back on Tuesday of next week. John is one of the latest districts in the state, but his teacher contract doesn't allow the students to be back in school before Sept. 1st. I'm looking forward to getting into more of a routine for the fall, so all around, it should be good to have him back in school.

Wow am I behind...

I can't believe I haven't updated in two weeks! I guess I've just been busy with various other things. We went away to Wells, Maine the weekend of 4th of July, so I've got some pictures to share from that trip.



John and I have been playing tennis a lot more lately, and we both ordered new rackets, which is exciting too. I ordered a Völkl DNX 7. We decided that the grip on my old racket is too big for me, and that is why I've been having some wrist problems lately. Plus, this new racket is lighter, but not by much. I can't wait to get it! It was back ordered, so hopefully I will get it this Friday. If not, I should have it the following Tuesday.

Work is still busy, but at least it's still only 2 days a week. We had two families move out last week so we've got some space again. Hopefully we'll be able to get some new families in that are much more mellow. We had a lot of issues with the families that were there, so hopefully the problems will start settling down now. Two of the families that are there now will be moving out soon too, probably by the end of July/beginning of August.

Hannah is doing well. Believe it or not, she'll be 6 months old tomorrow!!! I can't believe how fast the last six months have gone! It's nuts! I swear she's gone through a growth spurt recently, because I feel like she's just gotten huge! We will be getting her a new carseat soon - probably in the next month or less. She's almost out grown the length restriction on her current one! She can sit up in the front of the grocery carriage now, which is fun. I think she enjoys it more too, because she can look all around. Of course, that also means we need to be much more careful about planning shopping times, so that it doesn't interfere with nap time. Learned that one the hard way this past Friday! =)

Tomorrow we are going to do Hannah's 6 month portraits at the Target in Concord, which will be fun. I'm knitting Hannah a dress and I'm trying really hard to be done in time for her to wear it for the photos tomorrow, but I'm not sure if that will happen or not. I'm hoping... hence why I'm going to finish this post now and post more tomorrow night after the photos!

Long time, no big news!

Well, as you probably saw in my post two days ago, Hannah has FINALLY cut her first tooth. My little baby is getting so big! She has turned 5 months old today! At her check up last Friday, she measured in at 27 inches and 16 pounds! She's almost outgrown her car seat. If she keeps growing at this pace, she'll outgrow it by August. I'm hoping to get some pictures of her posted later today, but we'll see what happens =)

I spent the morning weeding our garden, which is coming along nicely. My cherry tomatoes already have some growing on it, which is really exciting, and the lettuce is almost big enough to start cutting and eating! Something has been eating the leaves of my pepper plants, though, and I'm not really sure what it is. It kind of looks like ants. They're not getting very big, but they do have some buds on them, which is promising. Even if the peppers aren't huge, that is fine. I'd just be excited to get some out of my own garden! The zucchini and summer squash are doing FANTASTIC, and growing like crazy. That's one of the things I'm the MOST excited about! We eat TONS of zucchini and summer squash every summer, so I can't wait to not have to get any from the grocery store! Granted, I usually get it at Fiddleheads down in Dover, it would still be nice to have our own.

So that's about all the excitement our little home can handle at this point =). John's school finished up on Friday, so he's now on vacation. We have a long to-do list this summer though, so we'll see just how much "vacation" he really gets. Tomorrow we are going to a family reunion-thing, so hopefully that will be fun. We're staying overnight at my parents too, which is another good thing about John being on vacation. It makes doing stuff on the weekends SOOO much easier.

Anyway, got to run. Time to go pick up cat litter. Woo hoo. =)

Things around the house

So much to update, so little time... It's amazing how fast the last few days and weeks have been going! Just when I think "Phew, my blog is all updated!" Something happens and BOOM! I need to update it again!

Things around here have been good but busy. Work has been crazy lately, with new families moving in and families moving out. But, it's been a good busy. I've felt efficient and useful the last few weeks, which is a really good thing.

Friday was John's 7th and 8th grade bands trip to the festival they play in every year. It was a long day, but we had fun. This was (we think) my 4th year chaperoning the event, so I've pretty much got it down as well as John and his co-teacher do. We left the house at 6am, got to the school around 7, and had the kids on the bus by 8:15. We were making great time, and got to the school the kids were performing at about 1/2 an hour prior to their warm up time. Unfortunately, the school had just come out of lockdown for a drug arrest (it was a high school), so all of the performances were pushed wayyyy back. John's school was slated to perform at 12:40, and didn't get to go on until about 1:20. The kids handled it really well though. His band got a gold, which was great. The chorus performed, and also got a gold, so things were good. The second part of the day was spent at Six Flags New England, and we couldn't have had a better day for it. We only got 3 hours at the park, which was a bummer, but the kids were awesome about it, and the weather was awesome, so the kids still had a really great time. Most of the rides were running, so none of the kids got disappointed by not getting to go on anything. John and I got Hannah a really cute Wonder Woman onsie, which is super fun. There are some pictures of her in it below.

John and I have pretty much spent the weekend recovering from the trip, and doing things around the house. This year, we planted a vegetable garden, so hopefully it will do well. We have leaf lettuce, sweet peas, cherry tomatos, yellow bell pepper, orange bell pepper, cucumbers, zucchini and summer squash. I'm so excited! I hope my garden does well. I spent a lot of time outside planting and working on it yesterday, so I can't wait to see how it does!

Monday the 19th, Hannah had her 4 month check up. She did great! She had to get 4 shots, which really stunk, but she handled it like a pro - some screaming, and that was it for the day. She measured at 26 inches long and 14 lbs 11oz. I'm sure she's gained weight since then. She loves to eat her rice cereal, and I'm starting to wonder when to add more things to her repitoire of food.

Tomorrow, Hannah is going to see her first parade - we're meeting my parents and grandmother in Concord for the Memorial Day parade. I'm excited to take her. It's supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees - what a way to kick off the unofficial start to summer!

I guess that's about it from here. I posted some recent photos of Hannah. I still can't believe she's 4 months old now! Goodness! Where does the time go...

Mommy, I'm sleepy...

Huh?

Look! I'm playin' video games!

But what does this thing DO?

I'm a playin' baby, mom!

Hannah's secret identy, revealed!