December Update

We kicked off the month of December with "Movie Night" at preschool. Hannah had a blast eating hot dogs and watching "Santa Paws" with her friends.













The next day we went to a local farm to pick out and cut down our Christmas tree. This was a special treat because normally we are traveling for Christmas and don't even bother putting up a tree. It was a fun experience with Hannah. She loved marching around the "forest" in search of the perfect tree.













The finished product!

















Hannah even got to decorate a tree for her bedroom with ornaments that she has been given as well as our annual family-made ornament and some that I've picked up along the way with her name on them.

















One very cold and icy morning we headed to the mall for our annual picture with Santa with all of our close friends from church. They did surprisingly well this year and Santa was so sweet. Hannah was excited to share with him that she wanted a purple butterfly for Christmas.

















Playing in the snow with daddy is so much fun!



























Daddy taught Hannah how to sled at a local school. They had the place to themselves and the hill was the perfect size for Hannah.

I managed to waddle around the Toledo Zoo for the Christmas Lights display mid-December. I think this is the last picture we had taken as a family of three!













We went with our friends, the Kerns, and Hannah had so much fun with her "boy" friends.













Grandma and Grandpa Deibel came with Aunt Lauren to celebrate Christmas with us this year. There was no way I was going to travel 10 hours in a car with a 3-yr-old at 8 months pregnant. We were thankful that we could still spend time with family and Hannah ate up ever morsel of attention!

















Making a gingerbread house with Aunt Lauren!













Playing dress-ups with Grandpa Pete.













Thank you for the princess clothes, Aunt Lauren. I wear them all the time!













Last, but not least, we spent New Year's Eve at the Kerns celebrating kid-style.

November Update

November was a busy month. Hannah did lots of playing, singing, swimming, and visiting with JuJu and PaPa.





























Hannah loved her swim lessons at the Hartland Pool with daddy. The kids got to play in all of the fountains on the last day of class.

















JuJu and PaPa came for a visit this month, too. On Saturday, the 20th, we went downtown to the Brighton Holiday Glow. We sang Christmas carols, watched the lights turn on, and even saw Santa Clause and his reindeer.































At preschool, we celebrated Thanksgiving with a feast. Hannah's class participated as Indians and the other class as Pilgrims. She did a good job singing her song with all of the motions.



























On the 26th, we went to Huckleberry Railroad to see the lights and ride the train with JuJu and PaPa. Hannah had so much fun on the train, and especially loved riding over the lake. She wasn't too keen on the loud fireworks, though.

The Iceman Cometh

Caleb, Hannah, and I traveled up to Traverse City, Michigan, again this year for the Iceman Cometh mountain biking race. This is Caleb's 2nd year entering the race and I'm sure there will be a 3rd.

Here are the guys at the starting line. Aren't they handsome?














Hannah is wishing daddy luck. She loved riding the buses to the different areas.


















He did it! Caleb was able to shave about 2 minutes off of his time from last year and the trail was a bit longer.


















Having fun in the hotel pool. What a fun weekend!

Apple Picking

At the end of September, Hannah's preschool class visited Erwin's apple orchard. It was fun to see her interacting with her new buddies and I enjoyed getting to know the other moms. Three out of 8 of us are expecting babies between November and January!

Little Red Riding Hood

Our friends, the Houtmans, invited us to a play in Northville at the Historic Theatre downtown. We couldn't resist the invite and had so much fun watching Little Red Riding Hood. I thought Hannah might be afraid of the wolf but they made it very comical and she squealed with delight every time he entered the stage.































We topped off the afternoon with a scoop of ice cream. Thank you Nan and Ashlyn! We had so much fun!

Fall Camping

Our family looks forward to camping each fall. The temperatures are a little cooler, the leaves start changing colors, and the campgrounds are generally less busy. Unfortunately, both weekends we chose to camp this year resulted in pouring rain 90% of the time.

Don't be fooled by the picture below. This was taken at Hoffmaster State Park, about 2 hours before we had to leave on Sunday. It rained ALL day on Saturday. We were so bummed because this is one of our favorite campgrounds.

















We did, however, explore Muskegon a bit and ended up touring a LST ship that was almost identical to the one Caleb's grandpa served on. We also enjoyed excellent burgers at a local restaurant.

Our next fall camping trip was planned for the first weekend in October at Sleeper State Park. Again...rain, rain, and more rain. Thankfully, it cleared up for a few hours on Saturday night for the kids to go trick-or treating. Hannah didn't mind the wet, cold weather. She was all bundled up in this cozy monkey costume!

















She also got to take a pony ride which she loved! A few of the other campers really went all out on decorations this year. We thought it was a bit over the top and also very scary for the kids!

Swimming Lessons

Over the summer, I took Hannah to some toddler dance classes. Although she seemed to enjoy them, you could say that I was under-impressed with many different aspects of the program. I won't get in to it here, but let's just say we won't be going back.

So, even though Hannah's in preschool I still wanted to do something fun with her that daddy could enjoy, too. She loved swimming in the lakes this summer, but had never really been in a pool, so we decided that it would be beneficial for her to take some swimming lessons.

We heard about a program in Hartland at the high school (where I used to teach ESL) that has a gradual entry pool and warmer water (Brighton's is apparently freezing!). When we got there we were very impressed! It was like a little splash park but also had some deeper areas for the children to practice swimming basics.

Today they worked on blowing bubbles through their noses (not pretty considering Hannah has a mild cold), getting out of the pool on their own, jumping in to an adult, kicking, floating, making "angels" in the shallow part as well as walking and rolling like alligators. Hannah thoroughly enjoyed it (and I think daddy did, too!).