Crazy or not here we go

Clint and I are in the middle of planning a road trip for this summer. With all the crazy stuff going on when you travel by plane, we decided to avoid it this summer.
Clint is currently unemployed and will probably remain that way until the fall. Classes at South Eastern will end in May and Hannah will be out of school as well.
We will begin out journey by packing up our apartment and putting everything in storage. The Moore family reunion is Memorial weekend and we will begin our road trip there. From there we will go on to the first on many national parks we plan to visit. Our first stop will be the Guadalupe Mountains national park. From there we will head west. The grand canyon, redwoods, crater lake, and yellow stone are just a few of the places we plan to visit. We expect our trip to take at least two months. We will be driving the expedition and camping part of the time, staying in cabins or hotels other times. Jackson is calling me, so I will fill you all in more later.

Christmas 1,2, & 3

Hannah got skates for Christmas


Jackson's first Christmas


Jackson and his stocking at our house

Hannah looking at the doll house


Since our lives seem to stay in such upheaval, I don't know if we will ever be able to get any family traditions started, but we do what we can.
This year we had Christmas with our little family here in Allen on Tuesday morning. Carrie flew in from Portland on Monday and went straight to Glen Rose to see Aunt Judy and Uncle Tom for Christmas. We all drove to Durant on Tuesday night.
This year Hannah asked Santa for a doll house, a baby doll, and a box of candy. ( I took the kids to have their picture made with Santa that Monday and that is exactly what she told him.)
"Christmas morning" she got up and was more excited about the stocking with candy in it than she was the doll house. I guess that is ok, we bought the doll house two years ago at a clearance sale, so we got a good deal at least....
Christmas Eve was spent with Clint's family at his sister's house. We had lunch and opened gifts that afternoon. We headed home sooner than planned because the snow was picking up and we did not want to let the roads get bad.
I sung "Breath of Heaven" at the Christmas Eve service at church that night and my cousin Rachel did a dance to it. When I started singing Hannah said " Listen Mimi, mommy is going to sing dramatically!" I don't know where she gets this stuff.
Santa came to Mimi and Grandad's house also. She got a baby doll and a little piano/keyboard. We opened gifts with my parents and then Mike and Charlene and the kids (not so young now) came over for lunch. We had fun playing Rachel's game Apples to Apples. All in all it was a good holiday time.
I am still in the process of figuring out where all the new stuff is going to go in our small apartment. I had already culled and packed up a bunch of Hannah's old toys, but I still am out of space. Some day we will be in a house and I hope that helps a little.

Siblings

Hannah and her cousin Connor on Thanksgiving

Jackson age 2 months (taken at Thanksgiving)


Well it is no secret that age three is a challenge. Hannah has been quite a handful the last few months. I don't know where my sweet girl goes most of the time but she has decided to take a leave of absence most days.
The other day her teacher told me she was put in "yellow timeout", what ever that is... She was not sitting on the rug singing in music. She had decided to chase another little boy around the room the whole time. I asked her why she did this and she told me she had too much energy and just could not sit still so she had to run.
She is pretty good with Jackson and I try to give her plenty of extra attention these days.
She has had some interesting stories lately. She was telling me the other day about Heaven.

Hannah: Mommy, I know my great grandparents.
Me: You do? How did you meet them?
Hannah: Well, they were my babysitters in Heaven. They babysat me and Jackson for a while, then they had to leave, but they came back, then I had to leave.
They were watching Jackson while I came down here, but now he is here too. I will see them again when I go back to Heaven. I think they can see me down here.
Me: I bet they can, and I bet you make them smile.

Kids say amazing things sometimes.

Halloween

This year Hannah wanted to be a " Rootin Tootin Cowgirl" . Those were her words not mine.
She played the part well. She rode her stick horse from house to house. She would wait until the sidewalk was clear and would run up to the house with her horse "bucking". Then she would take off her hat and say " Whoa horse! Howdy, trick or treat." People were not sure what to think, most of them laughed pretty hard though. We had to cut the night short because she got a stomach ache from eating cookie dough earlier in the day with her grandad.
Jackson went as a horse and I wore my boots to try and go with the theme.

It's a BOY!!

Ok, so I know he is almost a month old now, but hey at least I'm posting something.

Jackson McGee Miller arrived Saturday, September 19, 2009 at 12:33 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 11.6 oz. and was 19 3/4" long.

There are some fun things with numbers in our family. My birthday is December 15th, Hannah's is March 16th, Our anniversary is June 17th, Clint's birthday is January 18th, and Jackson came on the 19th. Hannah was delivered at 12:33 am, and Jackson was delivered at 12:33 pm. He was not due until September 27th, so it has been fun to see it all fall in line.

Hannah has adjusted pretty well to having a brother. The whole breast feeding thing has her attention right now. She made the observation the other night that she drinks cow milk out of a glass, and "Jackson drinks girl milk out of those puffy things." I tried not to smile or laugh hoping to just blow it off and not revisit this conversation in public. So far so good...

Hannah's first day of school

Hannah started preschool today at GEM Express. I chose this school because the church is smaller and they really try to incorporate the Bible into their lessons. There are 12 kids in her class, so it is a good size. She was so excited to start school. It will be nice for her to be around other kids during the week.

Her favorite part of today was singing the B-I-B-L-E and playing in the sand. She learned two words in Spanish and got to play with a doll house at center time. So far that is all I have gotten out of her. I will have to update if any interesting stories come up later in the month.

I surprised myself and did not cry or tear up. I think I am just excited that she will be with kids her own age. It is hard living in an apartment and going to such a big church. It has been difficult to meet families with kids her age. I hope she makes some great friends this year.
The pictures loaded out of order, but I am too tired to figure out how to fix it...




Getting ready for school

In her class room

Outside the school

Outside our apartment.

Latest sewing projects

I have not had much to tell the last few weeks. We are just trying to get things in order before baby arrives. My sewing machine is still in storage, but my mom's is out and ready to use, so I borrowed it.

I had visions of how I thought preschool would be so I made Hannah a nap-mat cover. That sounded more comfortable than just a vinyl nap mat. I found some patterns on line, but they make it more complicated than it should be so I made up my own. Not much cutting and not much sewing, it was very easy. To my disappointment they don't use mat covers at her school. They said I could send it, but Hannah would have to figure out how to put it on and take it off by herself so they could send it home everyday to be washed. I decided to just hang on to it and let her play with it here at home. It may come in handy for travel one day.

My second project was a nursing cover. It looks like a funny apron, but it will do the job. I chose a green toil so the color would be gender neutral. I have seen one in use and it seemed like a cool idea. I was not going to pay $40- $50 for a rectangle of fabric with a strap, so I made my own. It has boning in the top so I can see what is going on with out having to move any fabric. I will post pics later when I am using it.