Over a Bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup

Just got an email from Heather that related this story:

Just now, over a bowl of chicken noodle soup, Hannah says to me, "I really wish I could have a baby in my tummy." (random yes) So I said to her, "Well, one day FAR off in the future when YOU are a mommy, you can have a baby in your tummy too."

So she gets this excited, puzzled, intrigued look on her face and says, "Wait... So I can have a baby in MY tummy?" and I said, "Yup that's right. Only mommies and girls can have babies in their tummy...daddies and boys can't."

So she looks at me with a DUH look on her face and goes, "Yeah, they just watch."

Which reminds me I REALLY need to start writing down more of what she says on a daily basis cause it is so hilarious, but sadly my mind is unable to hold onto it for much longer than a day.

Ruh Roh!

Can you tell what I tried to carve in our pumpkin this year? I wasn't too happy with it, I was hoping it would turn out better. Hopefully I can do better next year.

Here's a picture of our pumkin in the light along with Hannah and her new pajamas. This was the first year I cleaned the pumpkin out all by myself and carved it. I let Hannah help me poke some holes as I outlined the stencil. She was a wonderful helper as always.

Represent

When Heather and I found out she was pregnant we made a trip to the mall and stumbled into a Finish Line. We both came across this amazing outfit and immediately purchased it. We both knew it was going to be a boy from the very beginning.

Yesterday we realized that our once little boy who LOVES to eat and won't stop growing will probably fit into it.

(click on the photo to go to my Flickr account and view ALL of the photos we took)

First Month

I can't believe we are already one month into Connor's life. I think we are all finally starting to get to know one another. He has grown to LOVE his mother, and almost always wants to be near her. Heather has finally figured out the secret to getting him to sleep pretty much through the night (we hope). Hannah is really enjoying her role as "Big Sister" and I think I am finally getting back to some sort of a routine. To bad it is all going to start over come October when I turn another year older, move into our first house, a new ward, and a new side of town.

We made a trip to San Antonio last weekend and Connor decided to take a nap on his Uncle Ethan while we all hung out in the family room watching some cheesy Life Time movie with my mom.

New House

So for all of those who don't follow me on Twitter or Facebook, earlier this month Heather decided she wanted to start looking for a house. I was a bit reluctant because of what happened the last time we decided to check it out. Initially we were pre approved for far more then we wanted to spend, we also got a really good percentage rate of 5.6%. Another great selling point was the fact that right now the government has a First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit. So Heather decided to initially look at houses on her own especially since she is home during the day and I'm at work. Then once she found some she really liked she would have me go back and check them out later. So her first day out she found a house she fell in love with, she looked at a couple more the next day, but none of them stood out to her as much as the one from the first day.

So we went out and looked at the house together (on Friday Aug. 21st), and I also loved the house, so we decided to make an offer, and a couple hours later they accepted it!

We had the house inspected today, and the Inspector said the house is in terrific shape! The foundation is good, the air conditioner is 6 years old & in good shape, the water heater is 3 years old & also in good shape, and the roof is less than a year old. We took the opportunity to take some photos of the house to show it off!

4th of July

We made the hop, skip, & jump on down to San Antonio to meet up with Mom (Grandma), Mark, Maile, Marissa, Michaela, Matt, & Ethan for some good ol' family FUN time! I made sure to remember our camera and even better I actually captured some great memories.

Other than Ethan grilling up some killer steaks, making a trip to Walmart, and a bargain hunting trip to Big Lots with Mark it was just good ol family time spent indoors. We did try to make a trip to the park but the girls only lasted about 20 minutes. After 5 minutes they were asking to leave saying, "It's hot & we've been here for FOREVER!"

Enjoy™

Good, Great, Greatest

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what goes into being good, great, or greatest at something. So I came up with a few ideas. The tricky part with this is how the words, "good", "great", & "greatest" are very relative in their definition. What I mean by that is, the definition of all of these will vary dependent on the person and their given experience with whatever they are applying the word to. You also have to apply the element of opposition, you can only know sweet by also knowing bitter, but then your degree of what you consider sweet will vary dependent on the amount of sweetness you have experienced. So yeah, this is a pretty complicated subject as you can see, but let's just take this little journey, and feel free to chime in with your comments and we will see if we can come up with something memorable in the end.

GOOD:

To be good at something I feel that you first need to learn the fundamental aspects of that something. As an example let's use basketball, although this can be applied to almost anything. So to be a good basketball player first you must learn the fundamentals of the game. Once you have a solid comprehension of the fundamentals I feel you are well on your way to being good. The next step is to actually practice, and by practicing you slowly begin to make progress. The more you practice the better you become.

GREAT:

To be considered GREAT, I feel you need to not only have a solid foundation of the fundamental aspects that govern whatever you are striving to be great at, but you also need to have an added degree of focus. This focus involves a higher degree of practice. You also must begin to find people who are already great or even greatest and begin to emulate them. I remember as a kid I began trying to play like my favorite basketball players, as well as my older brother. I would see him (or them) do different moves and then start practicing them. Gatorade didn't chose to use "I Wanna Be Like Mike" as their marketing campaign for no reason you know? Thats also why people wear "WWJD" wristbands as well. Trying to emulate Jesus is never a bad thing.

Even applying this to web design, I am always looking at the people who I feel are great or even greatest and then I try to emulate them not as people, but as designers.

GREATEST:

I think to get to the greatest category it comes down to your level of commitment, focus, and most importantly the details. The majority of guys you see in professional sports or the Olympics eat, sleep, and drink their sport. Just look at how hard Michael Phelps trains for example:

"Bowman actually started training Michael Phelps when the Phelps was still 11 years old. He pushed Phelps to swim at least 50 miles each week. According to him, kids at that age, is able to increase the size of their hearts and lungs in ways that no longer possible later on. The larger the heart and lungs, the bigger the aerobic engine. Phelps has been training almost 5 hours a day and 7 days a week without any rest day. Bowman admitted that he has trained the star to the extent that Phelps has little time or energy left at the end of the day for anything except to eat, sleep or occasionally watch the television. Phelps has to swim on his birthdays and Christmas too. He probably has missed some of the things he should have enjoyed at his age, but he has probably gained much than what he has missed. By the way, Bowman was a college swimmer before he became coach and he has a degree in child psychology. That helps, I guess.

Click here for the full article

The thing to be worried about when you are looking to be in the greatest category to me, is you really need to think about your priorities in life. In all reality the only things I want to be greatest in are being a father, & a husband. When you chose something like a vocation to be greatest in, you really are sacrificing a lot of other aspects of your life in order to become greatest. Most insanely successful individuals go through countless divorces, and have poor relationships with their children and family. It's all due to the amount of focus and commitment you have to have to reach the level of greatest.

If your vocation, sport, or hobby is that important to you, then I suppose it is all worth it. To me I would much rather be considered the GREATEST dad, or the GREATEST husband. So to do so, I believe I have to stay focused on what it is that makes a person the greatest dad, or husband.

CLOSING REMARKS

That is why I am more than happy with simply being great at designing websites, or basketball for that matter (if I can even be considered great that is). I am not saying that ALL people who are in this greatest category don't have great relationships with their families. I'm also just not confident that you can truly be greatest at more than one thing. Perhaps this only applies to me, and my capacities.

I do feel like in regards to web design I am at that stage where I am constantly trying to analyze what makes other web designers great. I have also changed the way I look at the world in general. When I go to the grocery store I am constantly looking at package designs, posters, and displays for different aesthetic aspects, and how effective they are. When I drive down the road I pay close attention to each and every billboard, as I sit in the mall while Hannah is playing I sit and stare at the Dillards logo and get irritated by the poor kerning of the letters. When I watch TV I pay very close attention to most commercials and the little details involved such as the fonts used, colors, music, camera angles, cinematography, and more. Similar things happen to me when I watch a movie, even my basketball watching experience has changed since I now over analyze the graphics on the screen. How they display the score and other statistics throughout the game. I flip through magazines not only to read the articles, but also to enjoy the layout and graphical elements of the magazine in general. I try to figure out what type of grid was used in the design of the magazine. There are countless other ways that my attempts to become a better designer has changed the entire way I see and interact with the world. Like I said, that to me is the only way to become great at it.

I am also constantly looking at web galleries, and almost stalking each and every web designer I feel are some of the best in the world. I visit their blogs on almost a daily basis. I subscribe to different design related magazines and do my best to read them from cover to cover.

I just hope I never allow myself to focus more on design, or basketball than I do my daughter, soon to arrive son, and wife. I think back to my youth, and how I did similar things in regards to basketball. My junior year I began shooting at least 100 three pointers a day, as well as 50 free throws. If I would of known what I know now, I probably would of gone the extreme route of Michael Phelps, because at that time in my life basketball and being successful was almost everything to me. At least I told myself that, I didn't have the focus and work ethic to quite back it up. I think many times people want to be great so bad, but don't want to actually put in the work necessary to obtain it. Mostly because they see someone that is already at that level, and don't pay close enough attention to see what that person actually did to get to that point. They just see their fame, money, & talent and covet it.

What are your thoughts?

Growing Up

Heather took Hannah to get her picture taken. I decided to go back into the archive to see the change from last year to this year. My little girl is getting all growed up on me...

It's just sad as a parent you have to just sit back and slowly watch the innocence and purity of a child slowly get stripped away as they get pulled away into the beautiful struggle that is life and our pursuit to find happiness.

Celebrating Four Years of Life!

Back on Saturday May 23rd we had a swim party for Hannah. I made a website to send out as our invite, which I thought was a good idea. It was a way I could flex my design muscles at the world, and also what I felt was a conveniently simple way to both spread the word and allow people to have a constant reference to go refer to. We placed a "wish list" on their with links to the actual product or examples for the many times we get asked, "What does Hannah want for her birthday?" We also placed a very simple contact form to allow us to get a head count so we knew how much cake and drinks to supply.

The website didn't seem to help with ANY of these things. Perhaps we sent it out too early, and maybe we should of shot out a second email blast as the date got closer, but then we didn't want to seem like we were BEGGING people to come. Some people showed up that didn't email (which we were still VERY happy you came!). Others emailed and didn't show up. Everyone still asked the inevitable question, "What does Hannah want?" Oh well it was alot of fun to design, and I mainly did it for myself anyways.

The party was a HUGE success, not everyone showed up that we had hoped would be there (Grand Dad, Nana, Jacob, Caleb, Matt (Heather's brother), Kari, Mark, Maile, Marrissa, & Michaela, Emily, Seth, & Asher) but everyone that did show up seemed to have a good time, and Hannah had a blast. We appreciated ALL of the presents, and the wonderful conversations and company. Hannah is still talking about her party!

So I know it's late, but I finally got around to uploading ALL of the photos from the party so click on over to check them all out!

Smile!

While I was gone in Dallas to play basketball with my brothers (which I played terrible, but had a good time) Heather & Hannah were invited to a birthday party for one of Hannah's friends (Thanks Lucy Monson for inviting Hannah!). At the party their was a small petting zoo with a pony for all the kids to ride. When I imagined Hannah riding the pony, this is the exact expression I envisioned her having. Which also happens to be my favorite Hannah smile!*

*I think it's better to see it in person, the camera has never seemed to capture it quite so well.

Family Portrait 2008

Saturday we took our family portrait for the year. We are trying to make this a tradition in the Guymon household. Portrait Innovation has a good package for $9.99. We always end up spending more cause they take such good pictures it's hard to chose only one pose. So anyways here's the picture we chose for the 9.99 package. Although Hannah looks happy in the photo, it was not so much the case, she was not too into taking photos, well really she was all the way up until the point that they actually called our name and pulled out the camera. Some how we still managed to get several good pictures to chose from. The best part is you leave with your pictures. They print them off right after you pay.

We walked out of Picture Innovations at 11:00, and Spicy Pickle was calling out names, it's hard to say no to Mesquite Turkey on Ciabatta bread with tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, and swiss cheese. So being that it is right next door, we walked right in the door and partook in the goodness. However we got home and the bread that was holding together the sweet goodness was not ciabatta, and it kind of ruined the experience, and didn't kill the craving...

After the not so fulfilling sandwich Heather was dividing up the pictures and gathered the pictures going to my mom, and my family, and she came into the bedroom and said, "Why don't we go see your mom today."

Of course I was down, so we asked Hannah, and she was excited about the idea, so we threw a few things together jumped in our Kia Sedona, and made the 1.5 hour venture down to good ol' San Antone to sneak attack my mom (I never told her we were coming).

Denim and A Movie

I totally meant to write this post like a month ago. Anyways... So we were at the mall (about a month ago) and we decided to buy a Auntie Anne's pretzel and we sat on a near by bench to decimate it. While enjoying my pretzel I turned to read a poster in the window of American Eagle which in huge sans serif font read, "DENIM AND A MOVIE." It took awhile for me to actually register what i read. So my first thought was oh that's cool, they are giving a way movie tickets if you buy a pair of jeans. However as I continued to sit and partake of my delectable pretzel my curiosity grew, not only because of the intriguing headline but also it seemed to be a decently designed poster, and I was enjoying the design aspect of the poster. So I read on, and the poster made the claim of giving away ONE FREE ticket for simply trying on a pair of their jeans. This heavenly claim seemed to good to be true. I then wanted to take in the entire copy of the poster. I wanted to figure out what the catch is. The mere cliche nature of American Eagle, and the "FAD"ness of it's atmosphere always gave me the vibe to stay away from a store like that. The last thing I need is a pair of strategically torn and faded jeans to make me look cool. However to be awarded a FREE movie ticket just to slide a pair on for a brief moment behind a dressing room door seemed too good to be true. Especially with movie like Pineapple Express showing on the big screen. So I told Heather I couldn't miss out on this offer. So I went into the store and sadly I struggled to find a pair of jeans to fit me. It's not like I'm fat, I was looking for a size 36? I finally found a pair and made my way to the dressing room, still expecting some sort of a catch. I tried the jeans on, I even ventured out the door and showed my strategically ripped and faded jeans to Heather, who was REALLY digging them. I took a look at the price tag which read $30.00. Sadly that is more money than I want to spend on a pair of jeans. So I gave them back to the guy and he handed me a crisp white FREE movie pass. The only catch being that I had to use it at an AMC movie theater. Which ended up being about 20-25 minutes away. So I called up Gabe, which was seriously about the only guy I know who I even thought would be interested in going to the movie with me. He took me up on the offer and we headed to see Pineapple Express that very night. The movie started at 10:30 and we didn't get back until almost 1:00 then had to drag ourselves out of bed early in the morning to make it to church.

Pineapple Express was hilarious! I didn't laugh as much as I did in Step Brothers, but it was still funny. Infact I think the best part about the movie was how well they mixed the action and fight sequences with the stupid humor. The movie went places I never expected it to go, but was very pleased when they did. Now of course the movie is rated R, so it is full of poor language, blood and a lot of weed smoking. So if you are able to get passed all of that the movie is well worth your time. I myself have always enjoyed the pot smoking comedies like Friday (I still can quote more scenes from Friday than any other movie) & Half Baked.

*Me wearing my brand spanking new American Eagle jeans!

The very next weekend the Cohen Brothers (My second favorite movie writer/director) latest movie hit theaters, and I had an overwhelming desire to see it. So I found myself once again at the mall headed to American Eagle. Only this time Heather had 30 bucks and really wanted to see my butt in those strategically faded and torn jeans for some reason. Only this time it took me about four pairs of jeans before I found the pair I tried on the previous week. All the others really seemed to fit awkward. The very first pair of jeans I tried on the guy who unlocked the door handed me a free ticket and I slid it in my pocket. The following three times I entered the dressing room he didn't give me anymore. However once I finally found a pair to buy I went to the register and after the purchase was completed and the debit card was swiped and approved she pulled out two more tickets and handed them to me with my new pair of jeans in a dark blue paper bag with a HUGE white silhouette of an eagle on the front. I walked the rest of the time through the mall feeling like a 16 year old ready to be adored by my other high school colleagues. I could sit in class and show off my strategically torn sections of my jeans. I imagined the different stories i could come up with as to how I might have ACTUALLY ripped them in those sections. Ok so maybe none of the daydreaming actually ever happened, in all reality all I was really excited about was the fact that I made it out of the store with not only two tickets for buying a pair of jeans (because the deal was if you try on a pair of jeans you get one FREE ticket, but if you buy a pair of jeans you get TWO FREE tickets). So now in a two week period I came away with FOUR FREE tickets, I was ecstatic, and got home rushed to the computer to see what the show times were for, "Burn After Reading". I realized it was another late movie, and called up Gabe to see if he was interested, and he wasn't quite as excited even when I told him I also had a free ticket for him as well. So then I invited a friend of ours who lives on the third floor. He however also turned me down (I'm not sure how people turn down a FREE movie but they do). So I decided to wait till the next weekend. The tickets were only good until September 21st (which also happened to be my brother Matt's birthday). So the following weekend would be the last opportunity to use the tickets. So that weekend came, and once again I called my friend Gabe up, who was actually on his way to Houston to help out the hurricane victims. So I once again asked my neighbor on the third floor who once again turned me down. So I called up two other people I know and they didn't answer their phones, and I didn't leave them a message and instead decided to fly solo. I really enjoy going to movies by myself anyways, it allows me to have a more unbiased opinion of the movie.

Burn After Reading was brilliant. The best part about it was all of the unexpected things that happened to each and every character. Right from the opening scene where you are in a CIA office and where three people are demoting a CIA employee and he isn't too happy to hear the news. He begins to blow up, and even his reaction in the office seemed to be unexpected, to me atleast, and humorous. After asking why this was happening the guy sitting beside him quietly said, "You have a drinking problem." To which he replied, "You're a MORMON, next to you EVERYONE has a drinking problem." I don't care who you are THAT'S funny! What proceeded was a well acted movie with a brilliant script that perfectly told the story of several different strangers that in the end all linked together to form key rolls in the clumsy story. I don't really want to ruin any of the movie, it's better when you are just apart of what is going on as it is all happening. The shock value is one of the best parts of the movie. Once again this movie is rated R so it has it's fair share of "F" bombs and other colorful language. It is mildly violent but mostly humorous and brilliant. This movie also has THE PERFECT ending to the story, which made the entire movie THAT much better.

If you followed the story, which as I scroll up has become quite lengthy, so I'm not exactly sure how many of my readers I have kept entertained, anyways if you have kept up you are probably wondering what about the last two tickets? Well I'm glad you were so observant, I came up with a brilliant plan to offer the tickets to my brother Matt who was turning 30 on the 21st. So I called him up and told him, and he didn't find my plan to be as brilliant as I did, rather he accused me of being cheap and trying to sneak my way out of actually buying him a gift (the nerve of some people heh?). Anyways Heather and I had already made plans to meet my Mom and brother Ethan in San Marcos at the outlet malls to hang out. So I told Matt I'd be giving the tickets to them, and for him to stop by my moms house later to pick them up. I called him on his birthday to find out if the tickets were used, and sadly the tickets never made it to him, he said he went to my Mom's house and no one gave them to him. Its sad that such a beautiful thing went to waste...

SUN-day

Here's how the story goes. It's around 7:30 in the morning and we are lounging in bed, I'm trying to soak in as many hours in my 600 thread count sheets as possible. Good Morning America is on TV and Hannah is laying inbetween us but slightly closer to Heather. All of a sudden she says, "I want to go to church!"

Heather and I begin trying to explain to her that it's not Sunday. As we say this she looks out towards the window and pointing her finger she exclaims, "Yeah huh! Look the sun is right there!"

She's a smart little cookie, and it was hard to argue with such wisdom, so as a compromise we decided to let her pick out a dress to wear for the day. While selecting a dress she also grabbed these pink glasses to wear because, "they match!"

Anyways go ahead and click on the picture to see the rest of the pictures we recently uploaded.

4th of July 2008

Click on the photo above to check out our fun day at the park on the 4th of July!

New Photos

I just recently uploaded new photos to my flickr account. Please feel free to click your way over their by clicking on the photo above to see all the new fun and exciting things we have been up to the last couple weeks.

Don't Worry There's A Bunny

On the way home from San Antonio Saturday night I begin to hear small subtle grunts filter through my ear from the backseat of our Kia mini van. We had already exited off 35 and were cruising swiftly up 183 on the home stretch. We were so close I could already feel our 500 thread count sheets softly caressing my skin as I sink down into my bed. I turn around to see what was the cause to all the ruckus and I see Hannah with her left hand tightly gripping her right wrist and violently twisting, turning, and pulling as she grunts and groans.

"I can't get it." she softly mutters in between grunts.

"I can't take my hand off! I can't do it." she softly exclaims.

Then she moves her hand up towards her elbow and begins to twist and pull and grunt and groan.

"I can't take off my elbow!" her voice has now taken on a bit of despair and frustration.

"I want to take off my elbow!"

Then she lets out a deep sigh and softly exclaims, "I can't do it."

On Friday I was stretched out on our beat up maroon pleather couch enjoying the madness that takes place in the month of March on CBS. Hannah was standing in front of me dressed in her PJ's straight out of the shower her hair damp with the smell of the Herbal Essence shampoo still fresh in the air. Subconsciously I reach out and begin to softly fiddle faddle and play with her hair. When my little princess of a daughter turns and loudly exclaims, "STOP IT!"

I briefly stop waiting for her to turn back around with her back to me and I begin to run my fingers through her hair. This time in a giggling voice she says, "Stop playing with my hair!"

Now it has officially turned into a game and I go ahead and play right along with her, and when she turns back around I go straight to touching her hair, and each time my fingers touch her hair she turns and giggles and tells me to stop. After about four or five times of repeating this process Hannah folds her arms and says, "Ugh! (letting out a sigh) this is a BIG problem."

How funny is that?

I looked over at Heather and we both just started to bust out laughing. We are still unsure as to where she learned that expression from.

Click on either image to see all of our easter pictures. We drove down to San Antonio on Saturday to hang out since Kelly was in town. Hannah had a lot of fun and was crying when we left because she didn't want to leave Trevor. They played together almost the entire time, not to mention all the fun Easter activities Kelly had planned out. We started the day out with coloring easter eggs in the back yard until we got forced inside by bees taking over. Ethan went out to kill as many as he could and he finally retreated as well after reporting 40 deaths and several other casualties. We then moved our little party to the front yard where we hooked up a sprinkler and had a little fun in the water. We didn't bring any spare outfits for Hannah so she had to play in her diaper until she decided to take it off and go skinny dipping. Trevor was nice enough to let her wear his bathing suit he wasn't using. While the kids were playing in the water, Kelly and my mom were stuffing plastic eggs with candy. As the kids dried off Ethan fresh out of battle hid all the eggs in the front yard. Then we let the three little rascals lose collecting as many eggs as they could jam into their new furry baskets that Grandma was nice enough to purchase for them all at Target. Matt came through with the Golden Chick for lunch (even though he was late as always) and Kelly finished off our day by cooking up some spiral ham, scalloped potatoes, and asparagus.

My only complaint is that my Mom never has anything to drink in the fridge. Ethan has this like secret stash of sodas in his bedroom, but even to sneak one of those out means you either have to stick it in the freezer and wait for it to get cold or drink it luke warm because they also have no ice in the house.

Sometimes

"There’s a mouse in the cupboard that nibbles your crumbs
And you talk to him every night
You say, “Hey, Mr. Whiskers, I’m bored and I’m numb
You can stay if you just treat me right.”
Just last year you were fortunate baby
And your friends circled around you in groves
Are they thinking of you? Maybe just maybe
But not a one has bothered to phone
Tell me where oh where did they go"

"When your family calls you make nice to them all
And assure them you’re fine and you’re great
Then you cry in the bath, cry so hard that you laugh
Then you watch television til late
Who do you need? Nobody.
You’re lucky nobody’s around
I can pour my own drinks
No thanks, Mister. Go on, and get out of town..."

Sometimes I wonder if this song was written about me, sometimes I wonder if I have any friends, the friends I do have I often wonder if they even really like me, or just tolerate me when I randomly call them, or grace them with my presence. I don't really have anyone I hang out with, and I haven't for quite some time now.

Sometimes I wonder if you really need friends? Perhaps these thoughts are me trying to justify my coolness and convince myself that friends don't define cool (meaning the more friends you have, the cooler you are). Sometimes I can't blame people for not wanting to be around me. Sometimes I think that as long as Hannah wants to kick it with me, then I am good to go.

Sometimes I wonder if anyone even reads my blog. Sometimes I wonder if it even matters if anyone reads my blog.

Sometimes I wonder...

(Song is by Bishop Allen and the title is "The News From Your Bed")

I'm A Pony! I'm A Pony!

Here's a friendly little photo of me and Hannah playing ride the horsey. this was the game Hannah wanted to play with me on Christmas eve. Somehow Heather managed to grab the camera and sneak in a few photos of us in action. Then proceeded to make fun of me for how "into it" I was. What that means is that if sound could be attached to a photo you would hear my weak attempt at mimicking a horse, while Hannah pulled back on my shirt and likewise made horsey sounds.

Anyways the real reason to show the photo is to let you know that this image and many many many many more have recently been uploaded to my Flickr account, so feel free to see exactly how our Christmas went. (Yeah I know I'm a little late with uploading these photos...)

Click the image above or here to see the rest of the Christmas photos.

Hannah

A week or so ago Heather got Colleen Bontrager, one of her friends from church to take a few pictures of Hannah at the park. We had no clue how this was going to go. A month or so ago we tried taking pictures in the same outfit at JCPennies, but Hannah freaked out, and it didn't work out at all. I have to admit that I was doubting these pictures were going to work. I have taken my fair share of pictures of Hannah. I am ALWAYS trying to get her to pose for pictures, and it never works out. So I just have to take them in the flow, and if I try to be quick and catch the cute faces, or the cute actions.

However if you take a few minutes out of your day and click on the photo above and check out the pictures that Colleen Bontrager took of her, you will see what a wonderful job she did. Not only her, but you will see how well Hannah did. Hannah actually posed in multiple photos. Although I seem to enjoy the ones where she wasn't posing, because I see pictures of frozen memories, so it always seems that the real Hannah only comes out in her natural habitat, which has nothing to do with a pose. I believe the photo above was my favorite of the bunch, at the same time they were ALL good, and I really appreciate her taking them for us.

New Photos

Click on the picture to see a whole slew of pictures I added yesterday to my Flickr account. I'll be adding the ones we actually took last night tonight.