November: Proxy, preschools, Thanksgiving, Christmas decor, and Kronk

November was filled with all kinds of activities.


Proxy

I played "proxy mom" for a friend one night and attended a band banquet with her children (she was out of town taking care of a new grand-baby).  I love J's face she made for the camera.

Preschool

Hannah had some Thanksgiving day preparations at her preschool.  She loved wearing her "crown."

Another one of Hannah's preschools (her co-op) had fun with their Thanksgiving party too.  They made "boats" and ran around the gym.  It was adorable.

Hannah is still getting tuckered out with no naps.

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving this year with a few members of Nathan's family.  It's been a VERY long time since either of us has been with family during Thanksgiving so it was really nice and fun.  It was my first time doing a turkey and it turned out amazing.  Thanks mom for the advice.

It snowed ALL day before Thanksgiving which caused some travel delays for our visitors.

Despite the many inches of snow that came it meant that we had a white Thanksgiving this year, which was beautiful.

Hannah was very excited about family coming to visit because it meant she got to play with Uncle Dale again.

We got to Skype with the rest of Nathan's family.  Technology is so great!

We took the Pikes on a tour of Penn State and took some pictures at the Nittany Shrine.

We also went out to lunch and at the restaurant we noticed this funny picture of a little kitty on the Nittany Shrine.  We thought it was funny.

Christmas Decor

We gave Hannah one of her birthday presents early so that she could enjoy it earlier.  She fell in love with her tree.  She's been asking for a star so we're getting one for her birthday (shh).

Hannah also had fun decorating our big Christmas tree.  Can you tell which parts of the tree she decorated?

Hannah found my childhood Santa doll and started snuggling up to it already.

Kronk

Nathan's family brought Kronk a present -- catnip -- and he enjoyed it for a a while.

He also enjoyed playing in the boxes from getting the Christmas stuff out.

He was also very intrigued about Hannah's new tree.

Since winter is approaching and the temperatures are dropping, Kronk has started to find/take advantage of the space heaters in the house to get nice and cozy despite how uncomfortable it may be for others.

October: Conference, new bed, de-cluttering, travels, Halloween, and family

Here's how October went for us...


Conference weekend
General Conference took place at the beginning of the month, and was wonderful as usual.

We did our usual "song pool," and we did pretty well:

Rachel: 46.67%
Nathan:  40%

A friend of ours gave Hannah a toy laptop a few weeks ago, so when Hannah saw daddy on his computer taking notes she wanted to do the same thing. Hannah LOVES her daddy, and wants to do everything he does.  EVERYTHING!

I, on the other hand, decided to color with Hannah's "special" markers.

During conference weekend we finished a few projects around the house.  In September we bought a daybed for Hannah, but I didn't get it finished until conference weekend.  Nathan and Hannah took apart her crib/bed Saturday morning, with the supervision of Kronk of course.

Hannah has slept in that crib/bed for almost 4 years.  It was a bitter sweet moment taking it apart, but it was kind of funny as we remembered Kronk helped supervise when we initially set it up 4 years ago.

Since the daybed was disassembled when we got it, I couldn't really take some before shots.  So I took some snap shots of a few pieces so that I could show what the original color was (the stained yellow/white in the middle), and also so you could see the many of the tiny holes we needed to fill.  It took a while, but it was well worth it.

And this is the finished result!  It turned out beautifully, and Hannah LOVES her bed.

One of the most adorable things about Hannah's bed is how cute she looks in it.  She looks so little.

I also finished up-cycling a few end tables given to me by a neighbor.  We decided to use them as nightstands in our bedroom seeing that we didn't really have any.  Unfortunately, I think I deleted my before picture of the end table which is a bummer because the compare and contrast is so awesome. Here is what the end table looks like now (it was a a yucky brown color before).

We also finished our bedding in the master bedroom which makes the room feel more complete, furnished, and relaxing.  It took 6 months worth of budgeting, but we did it!

Here's the before shot.  This photo was back in April when we bought the new bed.

And here's the after shot.  Now, we just need a head and foot board.  Maybe next year.

Hershey

We finally went to Hershey.

We didn't go to Hershey Park (which has the roller coaster rides) because it's too pricey and also because Hannah would not have enjoyed that.  So we hung around the Chocolate Factory for a few hours and rode the "how Hershey chocolate is made" ride several times. Hannah enjoyed seeing the singing cows and getting free candy when we got off.

The last time we went on the ride we had to share a cart with another couple.  Hannah did not like that at all, and had a major melt down.

One of my favorite things about Hershey were the lights on the lampposts.

We also went to a local park that had the coolest swing ever!

Halloween

I hosted Hannah's co-op preschool Halloween party.  It was a little crazy, but the kids had fun learning, dressing up in their costumes, and getting their Halloween treats from their friends.

Hannah dressed up as Rainbow Brite again this year.  She still fit into the costume so we went with it (though the costume was snug).  I'm not sure what we are going to do next year.

Because football is such a huge part of life in Central PA (for PSU and local high schools), the city moved Halloween from Friday night, the 31st to Thursday night October 30h.  Even after living here for a few years, we are still surprised at how culturally different things are.  It didn't matter to Hannah though because she still excited to trick-or-treat, she still had a blast, and she needed no coaching on what to do.

Nathan and I went to our annual "grown up" Halloween party.  We decided to go as contestants from The Price is Right.  The costumes were so easy to make as I had everything on hand so it worked out really well, and it was a party favorite.

Family

At the end of the month we went and visited Nathan's family that lives in Virginia and it was a total blast.  We had so much fun, but Hannah I think had the most fun.  She loved all the attention, especially from Uncle D.

Miscellaneous

Hannah no longer takes naps seeing that her pre-school is in the afternoon.  It's been an adjustment for everyone, but I've started to find Hannah sleeping far more by herself now without the help of mommy putting her down for a nap (which pretty much never happened before), and sometimes no matter what we do she just doesn't wake up.

Hannah has continued enjoying playing with her dad.  They play hide-n-seek a lot.  She hasn't fully grasped the concept of the game because she hides in the same spot every time -- under the pillows, and then Nathan goes into another room and counts.  It's actually quite cute.

Lastly, I tried a few new hairdos this month on Hannah with her longer hair, but I only took a picture of one of the new dos.  As Hannah reminds me almost daily "Mommy, I'm growing up."  Indeed she is, and it's way too fast.