Thankful for Snow!

I know of at least one person who was excited about the snow. As for all of the adults who needed to travel had other 4 letter words running through heads! I bet they were not yelling SNOW SNOW SNOW like Addie.

This week in preparation for Thanksgiving and the invasions of Hannants I cleaned and learned how to bake homemade rolls. After a round of roll making I had even more cleaning to do. Addie not only loved to eat the rolls she also loved helping me make the rolls. Too bad she isn't so great at washing dishes.

Dad and Addie cleaned off our driveway and sidewalks. Addie was definitely a huge help. MoMo certainly wished that the Idaho Department of Transportation was better at clearing the roads instead of closing the roads. While we played in the snow MoMo was stuck in Snowville UT.

Luckily her amazing sister was able to get her the last of 8 rooms in the town. After waiting hours in her car stuck at the flying J truck stop. She was able to spend the night in a warm and mostly clean room.

Wednesday Morning the road was opened and she was able to continue her trek to our house.

Thursday afternoon we all headed to Dave and Jody's and enjoyed an amazing feast fit for Kings. Since the Utah Hannants decided not to make the drive due to the weather. There was even more food to be enjoyed. We had an incredible meal and an amazing time with the Quist cousins.

As for the rest of the weekend we lounged around and enjoyed leftovers and watched movies by the fire.

Sunday was bittersweet at our house. The end of a long lazy weekend had finally come to an end. As we got up and readied ourselves for church we learned that we got to have our sweet MoMo one more day. Thank You Idaho Department of Transportation!

Hello Winter

Sweet snuggles with Daddy.

We LOVE our gas fireplace. being able to flip the switch and have instant heat has been heavenly. In Oregon we enjoyed our wood burning stove, but dry wood was sometimes hard to come by. With this arctic blast we have blowing thru we have been running our fire almost nonstop.

Lucky for us we have a little dusting of snow. We get to go out and play until we are frozen and then we get to come inside and snuggle in a blanket with a cup of hot chocolate, enjoy a good fire and watch a show.

A yard can never have enough snow angles. Whenever Addie noticed a patch of untouched snow, she would say "oh my goodness, nook Mommy" then drop and make a "no angle."

"No Mommy still not cold! No Mommy lots of No (snow)."

Ellie even loves the snow, not so much the cold part but she loved eating it and playing with Addie, well for a few minutes.

While Addie played in the freezing coldness of our backyard, Avery was sound asleep bundled in blankets of warmth. Avery will have her turn, but until that day may she stay bundled up and inside.

While we have been fortunate enough to have all the luxuries of our warm home with all the warmth and goodness we could imagine. Whereas our favorite Auntie MoMo was stranded in her car parked a Flying J in Snowville UT. She was on her way to come visit us and a blizzard struck and closed down a small 5 mile stretch of I 84, before MoMo could get through. Luckily her fantastic sister managed to get her the last available in Snowville. There were only 8 so she is one lucky duck. At least sshe isn't back tracking to Tremonton or spending the night in her car at the flying J. We will keep our fingers crossed and hopefully she makes here tomorrow!

The Calm before the Storm

I can't say that a lot has happened this week, but I can say that we are ready for next week, well almost. These past couple of weeks we have really enjoyed being lazy.

Surprise, we slept, snuggled, and enjoyed not doing much. Its true I skipped most of my chores knowing that I was going to have to do them before everyone came into town. I made the executive decision that I was going to let the house get dirty, before it got clean!

In lue of cleaning we turned our house into a roller derby! Team Captain Roxy Nocksy, also known as Cinderella, Addie and even Addie June. The kid has lots of aliases we are just training her for a career as a spy.

We also played a little hide and seek. Avery won! One way to get out of folding all the baby blankets is to put them all in a pile, put baby on the pile and then get distracted. If your lucky the kid will be asleep!

During our uneventful week of roller derby and spy training we took some time out to play with our "tute, Baby Vavery."

We are so excited for Thanksgiving week! Auntie MoMo, lots of cousins, and Grandma are all coming to town! Good thing we took the week off to rest up before the chaos begins!

The Small Things

This week was pretty uneventful, with respect to the fact that we didn't go or do anything out of the ordinary. This week was filled with little reminders of why I love being a Mom.

Waking up every morning with a sweet little Avery smiling at me. She really is a smily happy little person. We love her lots. We also had lots of 'nuggles" in bed, "nuggles on the couch in front of the fire, we like to "nuggle" what can we say we love each other.

As much as Addie can frustrate me she can also be completely sweet and lovable. Especially when she runs up to me and asks "what you doin?" or "Tiss Momma Tiss" and "Nook at Me Nook a Me!" A little diva just about sums it up for Addie.

This week was the beginning of many chilly morning to come. We aren't exactly fond of morning here at the Hannant house and especially not fond of chilly ones. This week we (not Paul) pretty much enjoyed long slow mornings snuggled in the bed watching PBS and reading books.

This week helped keep thing in perspective for me. I love being a Mom, I love having Avery smile back at me, and I love watching the girls grow and learn. Just now Addie realized that light reflects off a mirror and she is chasing the reflection around the house saying "Nook Mommy Nook". These small moments I wouldn't trade for anything, they bring joy to my day and make all the frustrating moments fade away. I hope that I can alway nook and be there for my family. I may not always be on top of the cooking or the cleaning, but I hope that they can say that I was always there when they needed me!

Momma Said!

There would be days like this and 3rd times the charm seem to be the clichés of my week. I am not going to lie, this week was a tuff one, I think all of us shed tears at least once this week. Okay Paul didn't but the rest of us did. Dehalloweening, potty training and swapping the girls room with the guest room makes for lots of tears.

Yes those would be Dora panties. Now Addie loves her panties she has to sleep with them when she is back in a diap for bed time! Gross I know, but kinda cute.

Some might think, ahh that cute face, how could you want to beat her! I have never wanted to beat her so much in my life (but I refrained) as I did during day 2 attempt 3 of potty training. Yes attempt 3, the 2 prior attempts failled because A) I ran out of panties or B) I ran out of will, I couldn't fight the tears and pleading for a diap.

After loads and loads of laundry and a few tears I was thinking that Avery was making more progress than Addie. I had tried praise, candy, surprises, and it all seemed to make it worse. Seriously who would have thought that keeping it low key was the answer. The end of day two I was in tears, Paul was gone and Addie was begging for a diap, I was ready to cave again, but then I was haunted by the thought of buying more diapers. Paul came home to a frustrated mom a grumpy baby and a really grumpy Addie. I had just made her sit on the potty for 25 min. and not even 2 minutes after I let her off she peed. Paul said "she just might not be ready" but I resisted the urge to give up and started day 3 with determination to be patient and work with Addie and try my hardest not to beat her! Luckily by the end of day 3 it clicked and Addie is mostly potty trained. So far it has been a few days and we have even gone on a few errands and we are accident free. Lets just hope and pray that she continues to pee in the big girl potty, I am tired of cleaning and doing laundry. Mom needs a break after this week!