Ah it's friday! But as Ryan reminded me last night..does it really matter what day of the week it is when you stay at home. Which I guess is true, but there's still something about Friday that's exciting. We are heading up to Columbus on Saturday and then Ryan leaves for Las Vegas for a conference on Sunday. :( I'm so bummed that I can't go, but I'm sure I would worry about Hannah the whole time being that far away and for so long. I'm hoping Ryan will strike it rich and we can both retire! I'm going to stay up in Columbus for the week. So that should be fun. I am hoping to catch up with some high school friends that I haven't seen in a while.

I just have to say that yesterday was one of those days that you wish you could capture and replay it over and over. It was a gorgeous day out..70 and sunny. I actually exercised and got some productive stuff done which felt good. But the best part was going to the dog park with Hannah and Reeces and watching Hannah flap around in the baby carrier watching the dogs and then that evening before her early evening nap I was just sitting in the recliner with her and usually she's so squirmy that she doesn't want to sit still for too long, but she just held on to my finger while I rocked her and sang to her. I actually started tearing up and realizing that I won't get to do this forever, but I cherished every second of it then. And then I decided to try and nap with her on the couch and she was so cute. She would flap around and then arch over and grab my face with both hands and smile at me. It was like she was so excited to be sleeping with mommy. And then I closed my eyes and she finally nestled in and fell asleep. It was just a picture perfect day. Thank you Lord for such an amazing and precious miracle!

Well I better get some stuff ready for next week. Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Another fun weekend. Joe and his girlfriend Meredith came down to visit. I was sad to see them leave. I wish he would move closer so I could hang out with him more. We ate, played and relaxed a lot. I don't think Meredith was into Catan though. And she doesn't like Euchre much either, so she's lucky we really like her or she might not make it in this family. :)

Ryan and I are starting Weight Watchers today. I have not done a whole lot about getting this baby fat off of me and it's starting to depress me a little especially with the beach looming about. And it's been a vicious cycle, because I know I need to exercise so I won't be so tired, but I've been so tired lately that i haven't had the energy to exercise. But today I'm feeling it so hopefully I will get a good workout in.

Hannah's still being a sweetie. She has decided not sleep on her stomach anymore, but she was having a hard sleeping long on her back so it's like we had to start all over again, but the past couple of days she has taken good naps on her back, so hopefully we are back on track. She's also been doing this thing where she shakes her head back and forth. Hopefully she's not getting an early start on saying no or I could be in for it. But it is cute. I think she just likes the feel of it. Next week she'll be 6 months old! It will be fun to start trying new foods with her.

Well that's all I really have. Have a good week!

Mare I just wanted to say that I am with you sister on your asst coach craziness. I was feeling choice words creeping up in my head just as i was reading it. talk about a test of a christian..yuck! sorry you have to deal with that...that kind of person is probably one of my hardest to deal with. good luck with that!

and trace i am also with you on the house work. i absolutely love my house, but there's so much more to clean now! but i am thankful Lord that I have more to clean so i'll try not to complain too much. :) and i would love to do a race or something this summer with ya..let me know what you find out. i need the motivation to get my butt moving.

that's all i really have..just wanted to comment on the blogs. is anyone else watching american idol this season? except for a few (Leah and the cocky football player who has to remind us that he won the rose bowl everytime he talks), I think it's better than last season. of course no one can compare to clay! alright i'll stop. but i do like John the pen salesman. i think he could have done the song he sang last night a little better though. everytime i heard that song on the radio i thought that he should sing it and he listened to me!

well i have to go clean up dog poo poo in the back yard because our fence guy is coming today. yay!! i can't wait until reeces can finally have a yard to run around in.

later!

Just sitting here listening to my sweet daughter make little squealing sounds as she puts herself to sleep. so cute. so the concert was a hit i have to admit. Actually I thought Kelly Clarkson's show was a little better. She actually has some really good songs. I may even have to get her cd. and Clay was good as well. He really knows how to engage the crowd. At one point he took someone's cell phone and started talking to the person on the other end. I know he isn't all that, but he and Kelly must be doing something right. Almost every concert has been nearly sold out and they are playing in venues that seat about 15,000. Anyhoo, I'm sure the more I talk about it, the more i'll get made of fun of, so i'll end there. and yes Trace, it probably is up there with Hootie, except i guess it's worse because I actually enjoyed it. :) My sister who as you all know is obessesed with Clay Aiken and her new obsessed friend who I might add is 31 years old, waited for the buses after the concert and followed them to detroit and went to that concert. She has now been to 4 concerts and hopes to make it to some more. wow...that's all i can say to that.

we had a fun weekend. definitely much more relaxing than Matt and Tracey's it sounds like. What a funny picture it was imagining that Uhaul! We had our friends Tracey and John from Cincinnati down for the night on Saturday. Their little girl Siara is 2 weeks older than Hannah. Neither of us had seen each other's daughter's yet so it was fun to finally meet her. She was so cute and so tall! Either Hannah hasn't grown much since her 97th percentile status or Siara is in the 100th percentile bracket. She was about a whole head taller than Hannah. They were so cute together. Siara would be all sweet and try to touch Hannah and I guess Hannah was the bully because she got so excited and pushed siara over one time and another time grabbed her by the bib and yanked on it. It was funny to watch.

On Friday night we went to Jamie and Donny's house and had dinner with some friends and just hung out. Nothing too exciting, but always fun to hang out with friends. They had a johnny jumper there that attaches to a door frame and your baby can bounce around in. We put hannah in it to see if she would like it and she LOVED it! She was even laughing as she moved around. So we'll definitely be getting one of those. I now see why parents go crazy and get their kids tons of toys, because they do seem to get bored more quickly with them and it's all about keeping them happy. i'm going to have to start being creative and make some toys up. they usually like those kind better anyways.

we are getting a fence finally installed this week and we had someone come out and mark our property line. well we found out that we have about 15 more feet than we thought. there is a horse fence along our yard that we assumed was the edge of our property, but apparently it goes beyond that. so now that means we have to battle the builder to come and remove the fence and sod the rest of our yard. hopefully it won't be a huge battle. but that is exciting to know we have a bigger yard!

welp it's now day 3 without a shower so i better go get cleaned up. my friend Angela is coming over for lunch. i didn't get a chance to go to the store so hopefully she doesn't mind mac and cheese.

it was good reading everyone's blogs. except of course for ryan's, the slacker!

have a great week!

Welp just another quick blog...i'm sure I will get made fun of yet again for this one, but I am heading up to Columbus tonight and tomorrow I am going to the Kelly Clarkson/Clay Aiken concert. Wow I feel like a dork just writing it, but I'm excited to see Clay have his own concert. Of course my sister is going and my mom and hopefully meredith and joe. Ryan gets the shaft and has to stay home, but I don't think he'll be too upset.

It's been so nice not having to work this week. I've been able to keep the house pretty clean and even get some naps in. Hannah and I have taken 2 naps together the past 2 days and that's always fun. I have to enjoy them before she gets too big and doesn't want to anymore.

enjoy your last week of freedom matt! i'm sure it's bitter sweet. we just need to all stop working and live off the government. work is way too overrated i've decided. especially if i lived in SD right now with that weather. it would be hard to work that's for sure. welp that's all for me..gotta finish packing. don't worry..i'll give the full report of the concert when i get back! :)

Tracey you just made my day! I was thinking today how sad it will be to not see you until August and then I come back and read that you are going to the wedding! Yippee!!!

welp that's all i really had to say. :)

congrats on the new job Matt! that is so awesome. the office sounds perfect for you too. hopefully it will turn into something permanent or the other interviews will pan out too.

and i love the canoe mare! that will be fun to take out. will bo go with you in the canoe? i bet he would love it unless he's like our freak of a dog and is afraid of water. reeces will only go in if he sees other dogs in the water.

not a whole lot going on. took hannah to another research assignment today. they inject her with these different drugs to see how she reacts and i get $5! can't beat that deal. .......ok folks hopefully you know that i am kidding. all they do is show some pictures to her on a screen to test her memory and see which ones she responds too. but i do get $5 which usually buys me mcdonalds afterwards. they say that she's one of the best babies they have, of course they probably say that to all the babies. :)

i just got done cleaning our downstairs bathroom which was quite nasty. we haven't been able to use our bathroom since we moved in back in december because it wouldn't flush. well the builder finally came yesterday to fix it and he had a heck of a time with it. it's never a good sign when the plumber has to bust out a drill. but finally in the end what was causing it were cleaning rags that the cleaning folks had flushed down the toilet. can you say idiots? well i won't go into much detail, but let's just say that in the process of unclogging the toilet some "stuff" went flying everywhere and he just left it for me to clean. i would have made someone else clean it, but i didn't think it was too bad until i really saw it and they were already gone and i wasn't about to wait until someone came. so that's been my fun day so far.

this weekend was a good one for us. we got a lot accomplished and had a lot of fun. friday night we went to donny and jamie's to play catan the cities and knights version. it was a close game all around, but in the end I pulled off yet another victory! i'm quickly losing my reputation as a bad catan player. :) so matt and trace, have you played it yet? i hope you get people hooked like we have. i know this sounds weird, but I actually think it's more fun to lose in this game, because it always makes you want to play again, especially when you were so close to winning too. but of course a victory to rub in to everyone is fun too.

we also got some cleaning and organizing done. we got some pictures hung up which was fun. it feels even more like a home now. saturday was our monthly potluck in our couple's class which is always yummy and then the guys had an improtu poker night and the girls watched uptown girl. cute movie. i love that dakota fanning girl. she is so talented. i can't believe she's only 8 years old. sunday was fun...i got to watch my friend's baby, Lila. she's a month older than hannah. she's going thru this separation anxiety phase and spent the first half of the evening screaming which was not fun, but she eventually got used to me and would play with me. then sunday night ryan went up new carlisle and i worked and watched the oscars until midnight. so there's our weekend glance.

this week is pretty relaxing since i won't have to work much. i've had to work a ton lately because of a deadline, but we made it and now there's not much to do. it will be good to caught up on some paper shuffling and other little stuff.

hannah is still sweet as ever. she's really getting into us which has been so much fun. she's laughing a lot more and follows us with her head and eyes a lot. she can roll from her back to tummy now. i have a video to send folks here shortly.

so has anyone seen passion yet? i wanted to get your take on it. i've heard it's pretty powerful. i really want to see it with my family, but we also have friends down here that i would like to see it with too, because i would like to be there to answer any questions they might have. but i don't know if i can take it more than once.

well i think hear hannah stirring about. have a great week everyone!