This Week

Our neighbor, who introduces herself as "Squeaky" (her nickname is very fitting), gave us some of her old Christmas decorations. Daniel and I decorated his bed with some blinking/singing Christmas lights. We refer to his bed right now as his sleigh. James loves them.

A couple other moms and I do a little joyschool twice a week for our boys. It is basically a glorified play group. On Thursday, we went to visit and sing Christmas songs to a bunch of Grandmas. I was so nervous to walk into the rest home with five 3 year old boys and 3 younger kids. One of the Christmas trees was decorated in porcelain tea cups...yikes. But we made it in and out without breaking anything.

Just in the time it has taken to write this post, I have

1. Been asked "Where do babies come from?"
2. Cut a piece of gum out of Daniel's hair
3. Changed a diaper that has scented my house with the most unChristmas-like scent

James is not even awake. Is there no rest for the weary? I'm off to light a scented candle.

Fun Series of Photos

Merry Christmas to Me

Christmas came early this year. Our heater was installed yesterday and was up and running today. Timing wise, this heater should have been a "Christmas in July" present. We started the whole switching heater process this summer. However (I'm going to be a little sarcastic), in Massachusetts you can't even paint the walls in your house without getting a government permit and having it inspected. So needless to say, the whole process took four months, but we are glad it is over. Just look at this beauty.


After two days with no heat and hot water (one day without water at all), I was READY to have both. I was so happy when everything started working I could have kissed the plumber who started the system...but I didn't. Instead I kissed Christian when he came home from work. He is the one responsible for our new heater, house, clothes, food...I kissed him a lot!

Circumstance created the "perfect storm" for wanting a luxuriously long hot shower. I hadn't showered or been warm in two days. James was napping and I put in a movie for Daniel to watch (which is a special treat because he only gets to watch movies when I clean the house or we have a family movie night). Needless to say, my shower was so hot and so long I had to swim through the steam to find my towel. My skin was as pink as a cooked lobster and my toes were swollen. I think I used 39.8 gallons...and we have a 40 gallon tank. Ahhhh.....

Then, I drew a nice warm bath for the boys and let them play in the water until their fingers and toes were wrinkled. The bath was so long I had to turn the hot water back on for a while. I pulled them out, moisturized their skin, and put them in clean jammies. Now they are both snug little bugs tucked in warm, cozy beds.

I hope your Christmas is as warm and cozy as ours.

PS- I think this picture is so funny...That James, what a character.

I Am Thankful For My Family

For Thanksgiving we had a 36 hour visit from this guy.

Poor little Daniel was REALLY sick on Thanksgiving. He didn't even eat pie. He did help himself to the whole bowl of whip cream the next morning.

Friday we saw some of the sites in Boston. Including this one...

While in the Public Garden, my brother enticed some squirrels and ducks over to his hand with a Mike's Pastry cannoli (who wouldn't be enticed?!?!?) and caught them bare handed. Iowa boys know a lot more than just corn. Alright, this Iowa boy is an engineer, so he knows a lot more than corn.

That evening, after tucking the boys in bed, we made an escape to Boston Common's Frog Pond to ice skate outside among the city lights. A great ending to a perfect day!

Christmas Arrived Last Weekend

Saturday night we went to Quincy market for the tree lighting ceremony. The festivities included a couple of bands, lights, and confetti snow.

It was freezing!

On Sunday, we Christmasfied our house. I love how my mantle turned out. I wish you could see it in real life because it is cute!

The Scenter of the Universe

The boys and I went to "The Scenter of the Universe" aka The Yankee Candle Flagship store on Wednesday. Besides having every warm candle scent you could imagine, they had the most magical Christmas shop. The Christmas Shop included a room where snow falls, a fudge shoppe with the most delicious flavors of fresh fudge, Mrs. Claus bakery with a hot chocolate stand, model trains and Christmas villages, Santa's workshop/toy store, etc. The place captured all the wonder and magic of the cultural Christmas. We were all like "tiny tots, with our eyes all aglow".

One tiny tot with delicious rosy cheeks
James' cheeks were so rosy, the picture does not do them justice

Daniel in the snow

Santa's workshop with the countdown-to-Christmas clock

I bought 4 tea light candles, two that smell like a pine wreath (we have a fake tree, but now our house will smell like we have a real one) and two cinnamon. I put them on my mantle and now I smell Christmas every time I walk past them...mmmmm.

Daniel got to dip his own candles

While we were perussing the European Christmas shoppe, I found a Christmas tree covered in green pickle ornaments. I thought they looked so ugly and wondered who would ever buy one of those and actually put it on their tree. Then I read the sign. Apparently it is a German tradition to have the parents hide a green pickle ornament on the Christmas tree after the children go to bed on Christmas Eve. The child who finds the pickle on Christmas morning gets a special treat. I thought that was a fun idea, and since our last name is Hahn (German for rooster), I thought that would be a fun family tradition. So, I bought one of those ugly pickles and I'm going to put in on my tree this year...hidden of coarse.

Finally, as I was leaving with two tired children (the place was a two hour drive for us and we stayed a while), a man approached me and asked if he could interview me for a company commercial. I looked at him a little puzzled because I had two whiny kids and one had snot running from nose to mouth, but consented. I mean, everyone dreams about being on TV right? I had a mic and everything. They thought it would be cute to have the two kids with me. I held James and Daniel hugged my leg. The interview went something like this

Take One

Interviewer: "Why do you buy Yankee Candles?"

Crash, bang, clang (Daniel was not hugging my leg anymore, he was playing with the display)

Videographer: "Besides the products being so durable"

Take Two

Interviewer: "Why do you buy Yankee Candles?"

Me: "The scents of Yankee Candles help bring back warm memories from my childhood and hopefully will be a part of my children's childhood memories."

At this point I am lieing through my teeth. I have never bought a Yankee Candle ever (I hadn't checked out yet with my four puny candles). I own one because someone gave it to me, but it is the "cranberry chutney" scent. I have no cranberry chutney memories from my childhood. I lied and embellished on the other three questions as well. I said what the interviewer wanted to hear (maybe I should be a politician). At least we looked cute on the video...the boys that is...runny nose and all.

Sorry this is such a long post. I need to write it down so we can all remember it...fragrance free.

And One More Thing

I forgot to add one thing to my last post's list

• FHE

There you go, I really do add things to my list I've already done just so I can cross them off.

Smokin' Hot

Date nights for the Hahns are of the usual sort for the most part. You know, we do things like go out to dinner, go for a walk, watch a movie, shop, etc. Well, Saturday night that husband of mine really mixed things up. I put on my tight jeans and dancin' shoes and we went down to the Boot Scootin' Boogie.
It was so fun! You'd never know this engineer of mine was a pretzel pro. Both of us were completely lost in all the line dances. I say "all" the line dances because they didn't repeat one line dance the whole time we were there. Just as we were beginning to catch on, the song ended and it was time to learn another one. Texas would be ashamed I claim it as home...but then again who wouldn't claim Texas!

Maybe we should go salsa dancing next.

Hot diggity dog! I got a lot done today. I'm going to list everything because I am the type who writes something down on my to-do list that I've already completed just so I can cross it off!

• Ran 5 miles
• Racked and bagged 10 bags of leaves
• Mowed half the yard (then James woke up)
• Ran two errands
• Made and cleaned up 3 warm meals...they were simple, they always are when Christian is out of town.
  
• Played astronaut
• Played tractor
• Played playdough
• Washed, folded, and put away all the laundry
• Tiddied the house
• Did the whole bedtime routine alone (Christian is in NY)
• Scripture study
  
• 3 blog posts

Whew, I'm tired and off to bed to read a paragraph before I fall asleep. I love days like today!

Outing With The Boys

Last week the boys and I went to the Children's Museum. It turns out to be quite the little boy adventure. We take the bus to the subway station. We have to take two lines to get close enough to walk to the museum, and then repeat all the transportation in reverse to get home. Daniel loves riding the bus and train though, so it is all part of the day's outings.

The subway surfing pro.
Doesn't he really look like a regular subway rider...long face, lost in thought look, holding onto the pole?

As we were walking to the museum, several fire trucks and ambulances raced past. There was a fire in a building close to the museum. Unfortunately others misfortune resulted in our fortune. Daniel was excited to see the hook and ladder truck extended and all the fire fighters working. No one was injured.

After the fire fighting scene, we stopped for lunch at a cafe where they supposedly make the best PB&J sandwiches. I was sick to my stomach looking at all the PB&J that goes on the "best" sandwich.We ended up scrapping most of it off. It was even too much for Daniel who loves to eat PB by the spoonful. I think the sandwich weighed 1/2 lb.

In raising my children, I have lost my mind but found my soul.
-Lisa Shepherd

True dat!

Daniel's Photography

You know how you could never get away with anything as a kid? Somehow your mom always found out. She had super powers or something. Now I'm the mom. I have no super powers. Kids are just sloppy at hiding the evidence. I just downloaded the pictures from my camera and found these gems. Daniel figured out where we keep the camera...busted!

Family Update

I don't feel the blogging juices flowing, but all the kids are in bed and now is my chance, so a mere family update will have to suffice.

James


Just graduated from the infant carrier to the lazy boy car seat. I can't believe how much space the two car seats take up in the back of our car. He has three chompers and is getting a fourth. He loves ALL food, and snorts when he wants to eat something he can see. He is going to be a tough guy if he makes it through infanthood and all the "love" a 3 year old brother gives.

Daniel

Besides trucks, Daniel's favorite pretend play scenarios are scuba divers and bear hunts.

I busted out my old scuba gear for him to play with, but he is afraid to put it on. He loves it when I wear the gear though. He pretends he is an alligator and I chase him. We "swim" the circle in our house with me nipping at his toes and he giggles at that. My mask gets all fogged up so I can't even see where I'm going, but he insists I wear it.

Photos courtesy of Daniel

Bear hunts include going through the mud, swimming through the lake, climbing up a tree, walking through the grass, and tip toeing through the cave. Once we are in the cave, we are chased by the bear back through all those things and finally up to my bed where we hide under the blanket for safety...before we hunt bears again

and again

and again

and again!

Christian

Work is taking him all sorts of interesting places. Just this week he was in NY, CT, and VT. We are excited to have him home for the weekend. I'm thinking of calling up National Instruments and setting up some sort of appointment to have Christian stop by so he can automate my laundry. Then I would at least get to see him for an hour before he tried to sell me a $20,000 system. But, if it could do my laundry for me, it would be worth it.

Tara

I decided I'm going to run the Boston Marathon. I'm going to have to run it unofficially this year because I am 20 minutes off from qualifying for it, but I'm going to run it anyways. Hopefully I'll be able to run a marathon in the fall of 2009 and officially qualify for the Boston Marathon. 20 minutes is a lot of time to drop, but I did drop 20 minutes between my 2nd and 3rd marathon, so I'm hoping I can do that again. The race is April 20th...which means training starts real soon. I don't know how I'm going to train through a winter. I usually train in the summer.

So Cute

Hahn Happenings

James was in a cuddling mood last night. I love kidlet cuddles!

This is what we've been doing this afternoon.

Look what showed up at our house Friday morning. We watched the backhoe ALL day. Now we are one step closer to having heat.

Daniel and I made these paper chains to count down the days until we get to visit with our blood. Tim is coming for Thanksgiving (16 days) and then we are going skiing for Christmas (36 days).

Visitors from Dixie

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after."
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Happiness is time spent with a friend and looking forward to sharing time with them again."
- Lee Wilkinson

We'll see you in NYC!!!

Warm Weather

We have had some beautiful, warm days recently. We've been trying to take advantage of them. We've mostly enjoyed playing in our fall "sandbox". We've got all the construction trucks out working.

The other day I wanted to make the biggest leaf pile ever. I'm sure there have been bigger piles, but this one was HUGE! I'm not even half way done bagging it and I've already bagged 5 bags jammed full. I raked almost my whole back yard into one pile...just for fun. And the leaves smell so good.

What We've Been Up To

We're in between visitors. My family left last week, and our bestest friends from Virginia are going to visit this weekend. We are so excited to have them. Meanwhile, here are some pictures of what we've been up to.

Daniel's Halloween costume is "under construction"
Daniel is going to be a backhoe loader driver.

Spray Painting the Backhoe Loader

We visited the aquarium

The turtle is getting a "bath" from the scuba diver.
Daniel was fascinated by the scuba divers.
Bedtime stories now include scuba divers.

We started to rake leaves.
Our "piles" aren't so much piles anymore.
We had a fun afternoon running and jumping in the piles.

It rains leaves under this tree!

Family Visit

I had such a hard time deciding which pictures to post of my family's visit. We took tons of pictures! Hopefully this small sampling will help us remember all the good times. We saw so many neat things while they were here, but my favorite part was just hanging out with the whole gang.

Old North Church

Head of the Charles Regatta

Mrs. Mallard with J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q...ack

All of us inside one of the Holocaust memorials

Lunch at the oldest restaurant in the United States...The Union Oyster House.
We had clam chowder and baked beans...very Bostonish

Old North Church...imagine what sorts of things you could get away with at church nowadays if the pews were really that closed in!

When Grandpa Pickett comes to visit, Daniel gets to eat Lucky Charms for breakfast and hot dogs for lunch. When Grandpa Hahn comes, we have super nutri-packed smoothies for breakfast and fresh tomatoes on rye bread for lunch. Normally, Daniel has oatmeal for breakfast and peanut butter and jelly for lunch.

James is thinking "Ah....Mom..."

That is it...Plymouth rock...the real McCoy...kind of small.

On the "Mayflower"
Daniel was convinced it was a real pirate ship.


Captain Jack

This little guy was by far the cutest thing we saw on the Boston Duck tour.

Old North Bridge. Joan is totally modelish and Daniel is wondering where he can get some rocks to throw into the river.

This picture was just too cute to not put up.
Although our boys are sitting on what is the representative animal for the Democratic party, we are not voting that way.
I can't say much for people who pick a donkey to represent them.
And we all know a synonym for donkey!

Climbing up the Bunker Hill Monument.
Joan took this picture.
That is half of my husbands patootie.
Hmmmmmm.

Mmmmmmm, pastries in the Public Garden


"Mom, are we done yet?!?!?!"

The End