Fluffy chick hair - LOVE IT!

My brother Marcus says he never reads the text I write on the blog, just looks at the pictures. Therefore, I am going to limit the "wall-of-text" posts to a minimum and just post pictures.

The Magic of Christmas

Christmas with a large family can be time consuming. This year we started opening presents at 10:30am (Charles was impatient, but we did manage to wait for Kathleen and Peter to arrive) and finished at 12:00pm. It took an hour and a half, not because we had so many gifts, but because we have a tradition of watching each individual gift opening while the giver says nice things about the receiver. The whole "say nice things" tradition came about when Mother and Dad wanted more time to enjoy the Christmas morning gift openings. It was instigated the same year as the Santa Bags (more about that another time).

So, in no particular order, here is Hannah opening her Christmas gifts, some family shots, and my personal favorites: Hannah and Lucy playing with Hannah's dinosaur. Hannah is now sitting up pretty well by herself.

New Trick

Oh, my goodness! This is the cutest trick ever. I'm sure she'll top it next week with something else, but for now I'm in "deep smit" with this cute baby's new ability.

The popping noise in the background is Oma (what we call Grandma Smith) and me behind the camera.

My absolute favorite moment of this video is when Hannah and Ryan are in sync. Nothing is cuter than an adoring daddy playing with his baby.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

The view from Vale's

I may not have gotten any pictures of Vale's place, but I did get some good pictures of the view, which was sumptuous. This is the New York / New Jersey border from the 15th floor of an apartment building. (Incidentally, not only was there no 13th floor, but there was also no 14th floor to the building.)

Audition season - a photostrip approach

We stayed for three weeks in Bronx, NY at a friend's studio while auditioning. I got home and realized I never took pictures of the apartment or of my auditions. However, I got some cute pictures of Ryan doing his studying with Hannah on his lap, Hannah and I in Central Park, Hannah and I in front of the best hot dog stand in NYC, and of course, Hannah on the bus. So, here are a smattering of our pictures from the trip.

First big move

Today Hannah rolled over for the first time unassisted. I was in the other room and Ryan didn't even call me. What's even more tragic, he didn't grab the camera!

Here is a video of Hannah almost rolling over from a month ago, for those of you who, like me, are still waiting to see her roll completely over in person.


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Sad Day

We woke up this morning to more snow, and the roads and airports between Robyn and us have been closed. I'm so disappointed that we won't be able to go. What's even more tragic is that we were going to be traveling with the grandparents AND most of the gifts. My four little nieces and nephews are going to be heartbroken.

We're already brainstorming how to get there in January.

For laughs

The day Hannah discovered her tongue (she was about 2 months old), Ryan and I were out on one of the few "dates" we've had since her birth. We were just sitting down to dinner when I noticed she was doing something unusual with her tongue: sticking it out of her mouth. So, I grabbed the camera, which I am so glad to say I had the foresight to stick in the diaper bag, and began filming. If you have patience to watch the whole 45 seconds, you'll see that she discovers she can point her tongue toward her upper lip too. It's absolutely darling!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

We're still here

So, this year for Christmas, the whole Smith clan was supposed to be gathering at Robyn's. Plans have been in progress since August. We had worked out schedules, mapped flights and car routes, wrapped presents galore, etc. And THEN the weather gave us a wake-up call. We were going to leave this past Friday, but there was snow in Provo. Saturday there was more. Sunday we decided to wait until Monday to see if the snow on the roads would subside and now it looks as if we missed the window of opportunity in the storms. I hope we all wake up tomorrow to find that the blizzards in the Western U.S. have subsided and we can get on the road at last. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

Hannah the Traveler

Did I mention just how lucky I am to be Hannah's mother? In all the flights, car trips, trains, busses, etc. during the whole audition trip, Hannah only cried once. It was because she bumped her head on the tray table in front of her seat. (Even then she was soothed in less than 30 seconds.) My mother-in-law keeps saying Hannah is like a wind-up doll: she giggles and coos and snuggles and plays and then she goes to sleep. And it's 90% true. And that makes me really, really lucky.

Scroll down

For some reason, this blog always posts on the date you originally began writing. Thus, some new posts are way down the page since I'm perpetually beginning posts that I don't finish. This wouldn't be so hard if I would just make enough time to post immediately, but "such is the bread."

I finally found the camera cord. I had tried to pack it, but Ryan in his supreme wisdom left it at home. So now that we are home, there will be a lot of blogging to catch up on. Hannah is growing so fast it seems that every day she's a different person. (Although she's always my cute, patient, smiley girl.)