More Christmas

Here we are at the Feast of the Seven Fishes again. This year if was much more cold! After the Feast is over they have the Fairmont Christmas Parade then Mass. This is Jean. She is the lovely women who gave us her beautiful tree and bought a gorgous penguin family ornament to hang on it this year. Here is Lydia trying to stay warm during the parade. She loved the bands. After the parade she kept crying (and I mean literally crying) for "more band" "more parade".

Here are Nonni and Lydia in their matching Santa hats. And yes, just because I am not going to teach my child that Santa is a real live person that sneaks into your house while you are sleeping..does not mean we are not going to keep up with some of the Santa traditions or stories...She will just know they are stories and traditions that honor St. Nicholas.

Here was trial one of cooking making. The dough was still too soft after spending all day in the fridge. So after putting it into the freezer...

We got much better results. The only sad thing was I did not get to make cookies with Lydia, I had to make cookies with Cinderella. Lydia is very much into putting her dress on and dancing. Especially after watching the end scene in Sleeping Beauty her new fave princess. And of course, I only have Cinderella, Belle and Snow White play dresses..so there is a birthday gift idea for those of you that were asking.

and now for the big news..everyone needs to head on over to April and Chris Stowers' blog..Max Stewart Stowers has arrived!!!

Christmas with Friends 2008

Miranda and I wanted to get the kids together again for Christmas. This year they came over our house. Here they were from last year. I found this really yummy cookie recipe that Lydia and I tried out earlier (those pics later) so I made up some dough so the kids could play around
Lydia is trying to decide what shape to make first.

The kids were really good at cutting out the shapes. Here is Lydia doing what she did most of the two times we made the cookies..eating the cookie dough..

Braylon looking handsome as always. He is so good with Lydia. I am still so grateful that Drew got a job up here and they were able to move back so that the kids could be close..that also helps out with Miranda and I being able to hang out more.

The first time around I tried to let Lydia shake the sugar from the containers..and that did not work well. So this time I put all the decoration in little cups and gave the kids spoons. This seemed to work out soooo much better.

Here were the final products. Can you tell which two Lydia decorated..needless to say, I ended up eating those two gingerbread b/c they could not cook all the way through with all the sugar!

Now on to the really fun part..presents!


Here are the kids enjoying their presents to each other.

Braylon has such an imagination. He lined up my penguin collection to be Santa's reindeer and the big penguin he is holding was Santa. He was in the process of putting "Santa" in his "sleigh" aka my dining room chair!

and here is my daughter...don't ask me what she is doing..I have no idea!

Early Christmas..

Well one of the good things about not really pushing Santa in our house I can give Lydia her gifts when I want to! Last night I let Mark open one of his gifts early because we will desperately need to use it soon..yep, I bought him a camera. Well after I wrapped it, it dawned on me that I might need a different size memory card (which we do) so I wanted him to open it so that I can buy one and be ready for Christmas. Well Lydia was really excited about it so I let her open one of her gifts..a digital camera. That way she will leave daddy's new one alone. I felt bad letting Mark open that one since it is his "big" gift but he understood and was glad I did have him open it.

Lydia is cutting all four of her "fang" teeth. We have not had good nights in the Hatten house..but Mark has been a trooper and taking care of her for me at night. I am trying my hardest to rest up and kick these dumb shingles.

I am participating in a cookie exchange at one of my schools. I should have 3 cookies of 24 different kinds of cookies so I am not doing any other baking. I did cutout cookies, rollo cookies and I made extra of the gallettes I did for the exchange.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

Annual Christmas Photos

So all of you have heard my rants about Sears. I have no luck with either location around here. So I took a chance with a new professional studio that opened in Fairmont.
Here is our Sears family photo from last year...not horrible but I was not happy with it. She took one shot and was done. I wish she had told me to sit up or something and Mark and I are both in the middle of blinks or something...
and now for this years....
All I could say was wow. I don't know if the different really picks up on the computer screen or not (plus they are scanned in with always makes the quality worse) but when I put them beside each other on the wall.. It was incredible.
Here was Lydia's 21 month photo....

and here is our Christmas Angel.....

Then get this..she asked me if I bought any other outfits! I cannot wait to get some more photo's done this summer outside. I was so happy with her.

Random Snowy Friday

Here is a picture of Lydia fooling around in her room..apparently pulling every book down from the shelf. The reason I put it on here was if you look in the background, you will get a sneak peek of her new wall color. Here is one picture that did survive the camera from Thanksgiving in Kentucky. She loved this horse and would say "whoo-hoo" a line from one of her fave books Elephant and Piggy, My Friend is Sad. If you have never read any of Mo Williams books to you kids you are missing out. It is officially Lydia's first favorite author.

Her is her new robe...(hanging head in shame) I bought it because it matches her room.

I have been home for two days now. I was home yesterday because I had a doctors appointment for a weird painful rash on my hand...that doctor believes it is eczema and carpel tunnel and I just noticed the carpal tunnel more when the rash showed up. I have an appointment for a second opinion Tuesday.

Today was a snow day. We build a huge pillow fort and read books inside. Then we went to lunch with Nonni downtown. Then afternoon of snuggling on the couch and watching Christmas cartoons. This evening we made cut out sugar cookies. It went pretty well, I could not get her to stop eating the cookie dough! (I knew something from me was in her!)

I hope everyone it safe inside out of the snow...

Here is our tree..

Well Mark put up the tree one day last week and here are Lydia and I putting the final touches on it.

This is the most beautiful fake tree I have ever seen. We were so lucky that our family friend Jean gave it to us. She decided to downsize we were the lucky recipients of her old tree. Many folks when it is decorated mistake for a real tree. It reaches to our ceiling. It also is still naked. The three of us have not been home in an evening for about two weeks. I am hoping to decorate it tonight...

Here is my penguin collection..Lydia loves to sit in the middle of them...

Not sure what she did here..she was diving for something...and this picture also shows those wonderful lines I was talking about in the last post...I don't know what is happening to the camera..I loved it so..it took great pictures for a little old point and shoot...

photo's

Well our camera is officially dying a slow painful death..first it was how it read the picture card. Sometimes is would say it was blank, sometimes it would say there was about 50. We did lose a ton of pictures off of it but thankfully Mark had saved them on the computer. Now the LCD screen is fuzzy and having crazy lines in it...so I am sure that is ready to go completely blank soon. I hope to have another camera soon...maybe santa will bring one. So sorry for the lack of picture posts.
Potty training did not go well. She absolutely did not care that she was wet. If I could catch her,she will pee and poop in the potty but she will not/cannot tell us she wants to go. I thought when she felt wet in a panty she would not like it and start coming to tell me but after two days full of accidents..I just don't think she is quite ready. I think it will happen soon...but just not yet. We went to Kentucky to visit Mark's family. Lydia loved playing with her cousins. I wish we could have got some pictures with her playing with them.
I am completely ready for Christmas shopping wise..I got all my deals I was hoping for on Friday. I went shopping with Mark's cousin Jennifer and her daughter Kelci..we had so much fun!
I got the room almost completely painted. Two coats of primer and one coat of color later..it still needs one more coat of color and the wood work needs a new coat of white..but for now it works. I will finish over Christmas. I have the butterfly curtain rods and her curtains up. I am loving it so far..I will post pictures once Kathy finishes the quilt!
I think that is it for now! I hope everyone had a good holiday.

Here it is....

These are not the best pictures..Lydia is not feeling well and was not wanting to take pictures..but someone could not wait any longer....

Isn't it cute? Now I have to take her to the South Flordia game so she can wear this!

10 on Tuesday

1. Sorry about the lack of first Haircut photos. My hairdresser is supposed to send them to me. I will post them when I get them..it was not that dramatic. We could not even get enough hair to save for her book..

2. Today is one of the reasons why I work for the state for crappy pay..SNOW DAY. I love being home with Lydia and I love that when the roads are bad, I don't have to drive with Lydia.

3. Tonight Mark and Lydia were playing the guitars and Lydia was singing..it was really cute.

4. My house is so cold. We need to replace the window in the kitchen, it is so old and drafty, it make the whole bottom floor freezing. I hate putting plastic up in the window but it does help.

5. I dabbled around with potty training today. I have been putting her on the potty for a little while after diaper changes and before baths. But today I pulled out the big girl panties. Yes we are using panties. She hated the word underwear for some reason but got excited when I mentioned big girl panties. It went pretty well. I think we are going to go for it over Thanksgiving. Any advice mommys?

6. I paid more for Lydia's Disney Princess underwear than I have paid for my own underwear in years. What is wrong with me?

7. We are traveling for Thanksgiving to Kentucky. This will be the first time Mark's mom has seen Lydia since she was 6 months old.

8. I am selling my bar/Microwave cart. If anyone is interested let me know. We had a couple of incidents where we have been chasing Lydia trying to pry a bottle of tequila out of her hands..so that stuff has moved to the basement. Plus it is glass and metal..does not match my dining room set. I have pictures if you would like to see them.

9. I am cooking a Thanksgiving dinner of sorts on Saturday for my family since we all will be scattered on the actual day. We are going to eat during the game. I am going to serve food in the first half since we might not have an appetite in the second half.

10. Those those of you that were jealous of Lydia's WVU rocking chair..you are going to wild at what she got today from her Great Uncle Mike and Great Aunt DJ...pictures soon.

Facebook Flashback

So I finally joined the Facebook craze and got onto my brother Mike's facebook page. I was browsing around and found some photos that I had never seen of Lydia. I thought I would share them..especially since I do not have many picture of Mike and Lydia.

This is the day they let her out of NICU. Mark gave her a bath, changed his first poopy diaper and threw her WVU gear on so she could watch her first WVU game.

Here is Mike's wife Kelly with Lydia..although at the time she was his new fiance.

Lydia and Uncle Mike at the Hospital.

God saves the rotten ones by making them this cute.....doesn't she have the sweetest face?

Last Pretty Day

On Friday, Mark took Lydia to the park for what most likely will be the last pretty day.

She was making this frog "clap to the music" I am guessing she got this line from the Wiggles..Kim can help me here.

I cannot believe she is big enough to swing on a tire swing by herself...

She has to get a stick every time we go outside.

I love her smile in this one.

I hope all you locals got to enjoy the day as well. Especially since it rained all day today and snow is on it's way!

Relaxing Weekend

I hope everyone has a relaxing weekend. Here is a picture of Thelma Lou and Lydia to help inspire you.

Serious Case of the Flops.

So is anyone else seeing their child this way more than any other way..

You in a hurry mama..well let me just flop right down and pretend that I do not have a bone in my body..

Here is another funny tee shirt that Mark picked up...the not pick up toys is for sure! She does better when Braylon comes over and she sees him picking up. But she is perfectly happy to sit and read a book and let daddy and mommy pick up all by themselves.

Well we tried out the professional photographers today. I saw a few real quick ones on her camera and I really liked it. I have an appointment to go and see the proofs next Thursday. Lydia did much better. Still not great...but here when she need a "run around to burn energy" break, we could have one. Also this photographer looked at me like I had two heads when I said I only brought a casual outfit for her to wear in our family photo and then her Christmas dress. I guess I have been trained from Sears where you are only allowed one outfit change. That will definitely be different next time! She did not do any really cool poses with Lydia but in her defense, Lydia would barely cooperate with the very simple ones. She did take a bunch of photos of her dancing so I am excited to see how those come out.

Lyd and I have just been chillin with the rest of my day off. I watch some Days while she was snuggled on top of me napping. I ALMOST was lost... there were quiet a few things different from this summer. Well I am off to make brownies for my Junior League meeting..have a good one.

Growing up

So here is my big girl in her big girl bed in her big girl room. The walls are still not painted and her bedding is not completed so bear with me. I just had to talk about how well Lydia is doing with the transition. We read her three stories, snuggle while we say good night then lay her down. She has been coming to the door and when she cannot open it (because her evil mommy is holding the door knob) she sometimes will go sit in front of her bookcase and read for a few minutes but most of the time just crawls back into bed and sleeps! Last two nights she has not even tried the door!
But as with everything, one step forward, one step back...we are still dealing with her big temper. Screaming, hitting, pinching, throwing herself down on the floor and the biting has slowed down but not gone away. She has finally caught on to time out. The last two times I put her there she was able to tell me afterwards WHY she was there. So I am hoping this is a big breakthrough and will help out some...upcoming post...first haircut...

Get off your Bum

I hope everyone went out yesterday and voted. Lydia, Mark and I went yesterday morning. I took Lydia with me to the I Vote machine. With mommy's hand over hand guidance, Lydia voted! Funny note, I noticed this year there was a blue round thing stuck on the side of the machine. Lydia kept trying to grab it but I would not let her. Later on in that day when I went to work (I entered in all the absentee votes) I noticed everyone was using the blue round things to enter the votes on the touch screens. I told my mom (who works for the county clerk's office) how Lydia had been grabbing that but I was afraid to let her take it not knowing what it was. She laughed saying that Lydia has used it several times when my dad would take her to visit my mom before poll workers class. So my daughter again knew more about the technology than I did..I am sure there will be much more of this as the time comes. Like how on Sunday I found some video and pictures on my phone that were obviously taken by Lydia while she was playing around on my phone.

So I guess, after taking part of such a historical vote, Lydia wanted to see the acceptance speech of the candidate she voted for since she woke up crying literally two seconds before he came on. I got her out of bed and let her watch. Something cool to put in her baby book.

Cinderella and her pals Jac and Gus-Gus

So here we were on Thursday night trick or treating. Not many folks knew who we were but not everyone has watched Cinderella 1,254 times.

Here is the big moment, we had practiced Trick or Treat many times and she would say it in the car.

Knock Knock

Oh No....I forget what I am supposed to say

She got her treats anyway from Donna anyway.

Aunt Louise gave her some snacks also.

Uncle Mike and Aunt DJ have her a big bag of treats!

We also stopped to see Whitney and Annabelle.

Our last stop was to Nonni and Poppi's but all of those pictures are on her camera. We were supposed to go to Aunt Wendy and Aunt Kathy's on Friday but we did not make it. First, Lydia would not put her costume on, then while trying to get her to rest, I fell asleep! So I guess one night of trick or treat was enough for us. I hope everyone had a great time!