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