What?!!!!

My little baby had her first day of pre-school and is potty trained. She's growing up so fast! It's funny because I've been thinking about this a lot lately. When Hannah was only a few days old I remember sitting on my bed, holding her and crying, and thinking "she's growing up so fast!" I can blame this on my crazy hormones at the time, but I've since talked with lots of other moms who've had the same experience. Your baby just changes so fast in those first few months and now I look back 2 1/2 years later and think "wow, she really has grown up so fast!"

Hannah all grown up- what is this look she has? A melancholy ship's captain?

At the Portland zoo

Goonie-face

Hannah right now:

1. has now graduated from saying "Seepy-eye booty" to "Sleeping Beauty"- I think that she held onto that one for a while because it got so many laughs

2. can be bribed to do anything for fruit snacks (not so unusual)

3. when I ask her what she wants to do for the day, she will usually respond "Go to Barnes & Noble or Tattered Cover"- she can't get enough books!

4. she likes to tell me what she dreams about- usually lizards and frogs

A recent conversation:

Me: Hannah, what do you want for breakfast?

Hannah: Cereal, with blueberries.....and some yogurt.....and a vitamin....and some chocolate milk. That's four things and that's enough.

Another one-this time during potty training

Me: Hannah, did you go yet?

Hannah: No Mommy. The poops are not coming.

Me: Where are they?

Hannah: They went to the post office.

Me, thinking: Of course

National Western Stock Show Parade

Yesterday we went outside to catch the parade. This is the first thing that you see coming at you- a bunch of longhorns being driven down the street. It's pretty crazy- kind of reminds you of the running of the bulls in Spain or something, only not nearly as dangerous. There were also lots of tractors, horses, cows, cowboys, and even Santa was riding a horse. Ronald McDonald made an appearance in cowboy boots as well. Hannah enjoyed it, although she kept on burying her face on my shoulder and saying that it was stinky.

These little dogs looked so cute pulling their covered wagon. Hannah thought that they were pulling their toys.

Top Chef: Oregon

Here's a preview of next season's Top Chef, this time filmed in Oregon. It goes to show, who needs all of those fancy restaurants in New York when you've got the Plaid Pantry?

Elimination Challenge: Convenience Store Cook-off

Each cheftestant drew knives to find out which course they would be cooking. Next, they were given a budget of $5 to spend at the local Plaid Pantry gas station, plus whatever was in the pantry. They had to do the shopping in 6 minutes. The first 4 courses had 20 minutes to prepare their dish, while the last two had 45 minutes. At the end of the challenge, each cheftestant had to guess which convenience store items were used in each dish.

Amuse -bouche: Breakfast duo

chocolate brownie ice cream, health bar, beef stick, bbq potato chip

Salad: Snicker Salad

Snickers, Hershey Bar

Side Dish: Lemon Scented Israeli Couscous

Lemon Heads, Lemon Crystal Light

Soup: Prehistoric Bean Soup

Nacho Cheese Chips

Main Dish: Shepherd's Pie

Green Beans

Dessert: Crispy French Toast Sticks with Red-Raspberry Vanilla Cream

Frosted Flakes, Melted Vanilla Ice Cream

You'll have to watch next Fall to see who wins!

Vapors

"Don’t shed another tear over a chopped onion. Sturdy plastic goggles feature comfortable foam seal that protects eyes from onion vapors; with anti-fog lenses for maximum clarity. One size fits most. " From Sur La Table

I saw these goggles when I was out shopping the other day and it reminded me of a story. About 5 years I had to chop tons and tons of onions for some food for a party. I wasn't feeling up to it, so I cajoled a certain someone to do the dirty work for me. I left this person to the task and when I came back to check on the progress he/she was wearing swim goggles and rubber gloves to block the "onion vapors" and keep the smell from being on the hands all day. I had a good laugh about that one. This would be the perfect present for this person. I've always wondered how those tv food show hosts get through chopping onions without tears. I've tried every trick I've ever heard- sticking out my tongue, holding a pencil in my mouth, breathing only through my mouth, chilling the onions first. Nothing works for me. I've shed many a tear over my onions.

Funny Hannah

The other day I was drying Hannah off after her shower and I pointed out that she had wrinkly fingers. She stretched out her hands and said "Mama, do you want some of my wrinkly?" No thanks, I've got enough of my own.


We took Hannah to a park downtown last weekend and she had a lot of fun playing in the leaves. It's a good thing that we got out to the park before the snowstorm hit a few days later.

If you want to make Hannah happy, just take her to a bookstore. She loves this one- Tattered Cover. She'd spend all day there if she could. Almost everyday she asks to go to Tattered Cover or Barnes and Noble, by name.

Here she is decorating her very own Christmas tree.

At the Children's Museum she loves to play in this boat. I caught her putting this fish in with her and saying "Seatbelt so you can be safe. Seatbelt so I can be safe." And she did the motions to buckle them both in. Good job safety girl.

And what did you have?

Our Thanksgiving feast this year turned out pretty well. With some help from my in-laws (thanks Lanny for gutting the turkey) we had quite a spread:

On the menu:

Perfect Roast Turkey (a la Barefoot Contessa) recipe here

Butter, Lemon Zest, and fresh Thyme gravy made from the drippings

Smoked Turkey Gravy (a la Tyler Florence) recipe here

Herbs de Provence stuffing from a La Brea bakery mix

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (another Ina Garten) recipe here

Spinach Salad, Dedra's recipe

Yams, Lanny's recipe

Buttery Bundt Rolls, my mom's recipe (pictured below)

Homemade Cranberry Sauce, recipe here

and for dessert, Pumpkin Cheesecake- recipe here

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Hannah and I flew back to California for a visit with friends. Besides enjoying an afternoon out with my friends and seeing "Twilight" here are some other things we did:

watching The Little Mermaid

Hanging out with friends at Megan's house

Hannah and Sabrina

Watching the surfers on the pier

I missed the ocean!

Weekend Update

We drove up to Fort Collins yesterday to see BYU play Colorado State- we eeked out a win. Lately Hannah has really been into football- probably because we now have cable and we watch all of the BYU games and Ryan loves to play NCAA football on his Xbox. So she has had a lot of it since we moved to Denver. She gets really excited about Cosmo, the BYU mascot, so we had to get a picture with him at the game. She wanted to show him her bear that she calls "Cosmo"- you can see he's holding it in the picture.

Football is so fun! It wasn't too crowded where we were sitting so Hannah enjoying being able to run around and stomp on the benches. She started to cry the first time there was a touchdown because everyone was yelling so loud, but after that everything was fine.

What a devilish little look, like she's thinking "It's mine, it's all mine!"

Waving her glow stick. She kept saying "Hocus Pocus, I'm waving the bats away!"

On a Halloween treasure hunt at a friends house

Happy Halloween!

I'm a butterfly!

Hannah had a great time trick-or-treating. It's the fastest I've ever seen her walk! When she'd get the candy she'd say "The next house" and start off on her way. After about 45 minutes she said "That's enough"- probably because I told her she couldn't eat any of the candy until we got home!