When two became three

As I sit here cutting out 36 cupcake toppers for Hannah's first birthday party, I started thinking about how we found out we were expecting. I can't stop laughing and I thought I would share our story (Warning, this is probably long and not as funny to anyone else but Mike and I)

So, after three years of dating Mike and I got married September 19, 2009. And now that I look back, I totally jinxed myself. No I did not break any ribbion at any of my bridal showers. I was super careful. I think my "NO CHILDREN" allowed at my wedding reception totally jinxed me. As most of you may know, I was not a fan of children. Sure there were a hand full of kids that I could stand to be around, but when it came to random kids..NO THANKS. They were loud, whinning and most likely had boogers in their noses.

Mike and I had finally settled down from our wedding high and after a week or two of vegging out I took it upon myself to start back working out and being healthy. Well, that was my goal. I only made it to the vitamin aisle at Walgreens and purchased myself a bottle of "Women's One a Day's". I would take the vitamin in the morning and I may have made it for a run maybe once or twice a week. (baby steps) This went on for a few weeks and I just felt "Nausi" (yes, I know that's not a word but I have always used it)in the mornings and I thought it was due to the vitamins. They have always made me a little nausi in the past. I thought nothing of it.
This went on for a few weeks, and by this time it was Thanksgiving and we were at Mike's mom's house and I thought "I don't care if I paid 24.99 for these vitamins I'm not taking them anymore" So I didn't.
So, Black Friday came and as most of you know, Black friday is like another holiday for my mom and I. We get up BRIGHT and EARLY and stand in line just to get a sale. We LOVE IT! I look forward to this every year.
So I get up at 3am with mom and off we go to Old Navy. The sales were just outstanding. We cleaned house. Next stop Wal-Mart. We get into Wal-Mart and this is a feeling I will never forget. OH MY WORD, the air was so thick and smelt of old gym socks. I lasted all of five minutes. I couldn't stand people touching me, people fighting over carts..it was insanity. I looked at my mom and said "I have got to get out of here" and off I went.
I headed back to my parents house and went straight to bed. A few hours later I laid in bed and thought..hmm...could I be... there is no way...But I knew I had plans later that night to booze it up with some girlfriends and I thought it would be nice to enjoy my Vodka & Tonic with a clear mind.
I threw some clothes on and thought I could sneak off to Walgreens to get a pregnancy test without anyone noticing. WRONG, my mom is never one to miss out on a shopping trip, even if it is just to Walgreens. I thought oh great.
Off we go, mom and I to walgreens. I run in way before my mom and buy the pregnancy test without her looking and shove it into my oversized purse(not sure why, I was married and definately over the age of 16, but I just wasnt' ready for anyone to know what I was doing)
I find my mom and she is clipping coupons in Walgreens and trying to figure how many dial soap bars she can get with each coupon. I mean really, mom was totally lolly gagging around..
3 original dial and 3 ocean breeze dail soap bars later we get to the car and head home.
We pull up to the house and my BFF, Marcia is there chatting it up with my dad in the kitchen, I BEE lined it to the upstairs bathroom. I take the test and I swear that line showed up HOT PINK in seconds...I dig down in my phone to call Mike (who is at Neil's watching football) here is how the conversation went:
ME: Hey Babe
Mike: Hey
ME: I love you
Mike: I love you too...in that "what do you want I'm watching football voice"
ME: I'm pregnant
Mike: Congradulations (I mean didn't even skip a beat)
ME: Um congradulations to you too...??

Mike has never been a man of many words, and as you can tell he doesn't write cards for Hallmark, but, I mean really.. who says congradulations?

We had to put on our happy face and finish out or weekend with friends and family without spilling the beans.

This was taken the day we found out we were expecting, can't you just see the fear in our eyes?

I managed to keep my lips locked until we hit the road to come back to Arkansas and boy when I say I talked all 6 hours, I did! AND..I had to keep my lips sealed until after we went to the doctor. With this being the first grandbaby on my side, I wanted to share the news face to face. Keeping our pregnancy a secret was the HARDEST thing I have ever done. And probably the only secret I have ever kept.

This was our first ultrasound. You can see our little peanut.

We waited and shared the news at Christmas with our family.

I told my Sis first

Amber was pretty excited. I gave her a letter that said "Dear TEE-TEE, Please help my mommy. Love Baby Lassen"

My mom was super excited. I gave her a tin that had letters in it and told her to figure out what it said " Mimi 2 Be"

I gave my grandma a coffe mug that read "This grandma has been promoted to Great" She didn't get it...

This was her reaction once we explained it to her.

My mother in law got it right away, we gave her two snow man ornaments one said Mike and the other said Amie with baby written on the belly.

Needless to say, the entire family was more than excited about the news. Hannah has totally changed our life. She is truly one of the greatest blessings to all of us.

Girls Weekend

Hannah and I we're way over due for a STL girls trip and I thought my birthday weekend would be a great time to go. I was REALLY hesitant to fly alone with Hannah. I had a vision of her kicking and screaming all 40 minutes of the entire flight. She is very busy these days and I couldn't imagine her being still in a small cramp place. BUT,Mike insisted that flying was a better idea than driving through the night with a baby...alone. So I did it. I booked our flight and got to know "Gladys", (the very helpful reservationist from SW) very well. I must have asked her a million times "So I don't have to buy Hannah a ticket? She sits on my lap? Is that safe? And does my seat come with unlimtted wine? (lol)

So off we went Thursday night, to the airport.

I'm not a huge fan of flying. I tend to get real chatty to anyone who will make eye contact with me during take off and any turbulance. Flying with Hannah distracted me from any thought of the plane going down.

Hannah did so good on the flight, she was more restless waiting to board the plane, but she did great on the plane. Thankfully I sat between two grandma's who didn't mind Hannah.

Once we landed we headed to my favorite restaurant: RUIZ aka the only place I can see my BFF Rachael.

Friday morning I met up some old High School friends and we took the girls to City Garden. The girls had so much fun playing in the water.

I LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!

These are our "Mini Me's" minus Emma, I guess we didn't realize she was missing, She was too busy playing in the fountain. Taking this picture was so funny to me. The kiddo's we all doing there own thing..but Madison was the cuttest...She kept going "cheese"...

Saturday, Maryann and I road tripped it to Chatham, IL for the "Sweet Corn Festival" Music, Friends, Shopping, Drinks...What more can a girl ask for!

Watch me grow...

I am a total sucker for anything that has to do with Hannah and her milestones. Each month I have diligently marked all of her milestones and then some in her baby book. I am totally guilty of the "It's my first child I don't want to miss a thing" syndrome. Hence the five full photo albums of Hannah that we have already accumulated.

I came across a growing chart and I thought, what a great way to track Hannah's gowth. ( I know, I'm a dork but I LOVE IT) I saw a few online but I was up for the challenge of making it myself.

So off I go to LOWES, to get my supplies. I'm pretty sure I went up and down EVERY isle in that store. Finally I found the wood in the "Lumber" section. Who knew? (yep, I'm a total city girl)

I needed a piece of wood (I don't know the technical term) I just knew it needed to be 1x6x6. Easy enough right? WRONG! Do you have to be 10 feet tall to shop in the lumber section? I had to scale the wall to get this "Fine Piece of wood" but I got it. The other supplies were super easy and I scored a great deal on the five dollar paint.

Supplies

Ta Dah...

Hannah seems to like it.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July!! We had the usual "American" Celebration. Mike fired up the grill and threw on Burgers, Brats, and Hot Dogs. We iced the Bud lights and had ourselves a good 'ole time. God bless America

We didn't to anything too fancy,just had a relaxing day.We had (our soon to be "Non-Arkansas Residence...TEAR..) the Coalter's over and we just sat and do what we do best. Drink and Eat.

Linda whipped up a cherry pie from scratch and it was DELICOUS!! She is spoiling us with these home made pies! They are WONDERFUL.

We ended the night with root beer floats. I'm not a big fan of fireworks. So we watched just a few from the backyard.

11 Months

I know I say this every month, but I just can't believe how fast Hannah is growing. I mean really 11 months old?!

Hannah at 1 Month

Hannah at 11 month

Hannah's personality is showing more and more everyday. Notice her bracelet. She much rather have it in her mouth than around her wrist.

Hannah's 11 Month old Fun Facts:

FOOD: GIRL LIKES TO EAT. She is 23 pounds. She is still taking a bottle in the morning, night and during the day. She has kicked baby food (almost) to the curb. Occasionally, we can sneak in a "Passionate Fruit" but otherwise she wants her table food. I can't say I blame her, that baby food is right up there with "Nursing Home" food....YUCK!She does very well with table food. I'm pretty picky with what she can have. I am still the mom who doesn't dish out "Good Stuff" aka sweets or Juice..YES..no juice. Hannah loves water.Now if I can just convince my mother that she is not being deprived from her lack of Juice.I'll be in good shape.
I give her whatever I cook for dinner. Which is helping me cook more on the healthier side.

Here she is attempting to feed herself guacamole

Ice cream doesn't count as a "sweet" in my book. It's more of a dairy. This was Hannah's first ice cream cone.

SLEEP: it's a beautiful thing. She is still sleeping through the night and napping 2 times a day. I realize she is getting older and going to sleep at 7:00pm is probably not going to happen anymore. Her bedtime is usually between 8:00pm & 8:30pm. Lately she has been protesting against bed time. She does not want to sleep. Putting her to sleep used to be a piece of cake. She have a bath, get our jammies on, read a book, give her a bottle and she would be knocked out in no time. NOW, we give her a bath, "we" have to lasso her down (practically) to get her jammies on, She is still interested in the book, but you better read fast otherwise she will turn the page for you, she takes her bottle and instead of falling asleep while she drinks it, she hands the bottle to you when she is finished. It's pretty cute when she does that, but then I'm like WAIT why aren't you asleep?
We've never been a fan of the "Crying it out method" but we have to get this bedtime under control. The good thing is, once she is asleep she is out for the night.

This is how I found her this morning.

CARSEAT: We've hit another mile stone. Hannah is now forward facing. I know, I know..GASP..she isn't 2 years old...But she is over 20 pounds..so don't go calling DHS on me. She was getting way to long to be rear facing. Her daddy long legs were scrunched up. Plus she LOVE being forward facing.

CUTENESS: So Hannah's new favorite game is "Patty Cake" She doesn't get the "Roll it up" Part, but she has fun clapping at the clapping parts.

This is her "Throwing it in the pan"

I now realize we have a "Lassen version of Patty Cake" at the end we say "Throw it in the Pan" and this is Hannah's reaction