"The older you get...The faster time goes by"

"The older you get, the faster time goes by" that is one of the famous qoutes of Dave Washington.Boy he wasn't lying The older I get..I realize how fast time really goes. Adding Hannah to the mix, and I REALLY realize how fast time goes.
2011 was a good year for the Lassen's.

1. Our sweet Hannah turned one...gasp...and...Celebration we all survived the first year. She's growing by leaps and bounds
2. Hannah gave up the bottle and the binky...HAPPY DANCE

3. Devin turned 15 and... STARTED DRIVING
Devin was 10 years old when Mike and I started dating. He was and still is Mike's Mini Me. It's incredible how much they are alike. It's amazing how fast he is maturing into a nice young man. Yep I said it..my grandma qoute of the day.
4. We LOVE when he is here, we were fortunate to have lots of Devin visits this past year.

5. Mike and I celebrated our 5th year together and 2 years of wedding bliss. After draging me kicking and crying to Arkansas...I wouldn't change it for the world.This is now home and home is were ever we are together. Mike is truly my best friend and he keeps me lauging ALL the time. He amazes me everyday. I am so thankful to have a hard working husband who truly cares for his family. I think he's great...just saying.
Mike surprised us with our newest Lassen addition. Manny.

We have so much to be thankful for! 2011 was a great year!
Happy New Year!!

It really is the BEST time of the year.

Christmas IS the best time of the year. I thoroughly enjoyed myself shopping for gifts for my family.

This was the first year that Hannah actually understood unwrapping gifts and that they were for her to keep AND play with. It's really funny. We got her a few "big" gifts that I thought she would just play with for hours and shock shock she threw those to the side and played with the dollar store gifts. NOTE TO SELF.
Mike and I were firm on our decision to start our own Christmas traditions and both agreed that Hannah will always wake up Christmas morning in her home. Saying that I would do anything in my power to convince my family that they also needed to wake up Christmas morning in our home and participate in our Christmas traditions. It only took a few pictures of Hannah with Santa before mom was on www.southwest.com booking her flight to Little Rock and then it was all down hill from there. We had Leslei, My mom, My Sis and Devin here for Christmas.

I was so excited to pick them up from the airport! We were able to save some gift for Hannah to open with her Mimi and Tee-Tee.

And when we picked Devin up from the airport everything seemed so complete. We love it when he's here.

Christmas to us is so much more than gifts that are under the tree. It's about the gift of Jesus Christ and the gift of good health, happiness, family and much more. I am truly blessed and I never want to take that for granted. Thanks to all my family who made this a WONDERFUL Christmas.

Every Girl needs a Puppy

I was really torn with this post title. "Every Girl needs a pupppy" goes without saying but I think in all honesty the title should read "No man should be left in a house with three women, for the love of God, GET HIM A DOG"
So, one thing that attracted me to Mike, was his egarness. When the boy wants something he gets it. One quality that we both share. The last few weeks, I've seen a lot of google searches for boxer puppies. Boxer is the only dog that Mike and I can agree on. We were both raised with a dog. We actually had a deposit put on a dog when we moved to Arkansas. Once we found out that we were expecting Hannah, I called the dog breader and told her she could keep the dog and the money. So I could keep my sanity.
Mike and I always talked about getting a puppy once Hannah was old enough to ask for one. Boy was I fooled. I thought the words "Daddy, can I have a puppy?" needed to come out of her mouth, apparently all she needed to say was the word "Doggie" and Daddy was on it.
Friday, Mike said "Babe, let's go look at these puppies in Des Arc..aka..EAST BUDDHA/COUNTRY/I'm pretty sure the movie DELIVERANCE was shot here"

I was totally out of my element, but I put a smile on my face and off we went.
I was thinking here we go, we're going to get out there and "just look" at a puppy and not come home with one? Yeah Right, I knew we were coming home with a dog when I saw the hidden bags of dog toy's and a bag of puppy chow in the back seat of Mike's truck.

How can you say no to this sweet face...
It was really sweet to see how happy and excited Mike was to give his little girl a puppy. He had it all planned out. We were going to sneak the puppy in, give him a bath *My physco germaphobe self suggested that* and then surprise Hannah when we opened our Christmas stockings.
well we couldn't wait for the stocking to be opened so, immediately after the bath, we set the scene.

This is Hannah looking at pictures of puppies on the computer. She is saying "puppy"over and over.

Here is Daddy, with Hannah's new puppy "Manny"

This is Hannah's "if you get closer, I'm gonna act a fool look.."

This is her warming up to the idea of Manny.

They're still getting use to each other...
I think her biggest problem is he doesn't exactly do what she wants him to do when she wants him to do it.. for instant..she couldn't understand why he wouldn't take this bottle like her babies do..and cried

I am totally in love with this little puppy. He is so sweet.
Then I thought of all the time and training that we'll have to put into this puppy and I poured myself one of these...

Tis the season! Merry Christmas

Cookies With Santa

Hannah was invited to "Cookies with Santa" a few weekends ago. I was a little worried about how she would do with Santa being so closed to her. She did ok with Santa at the Benton Christmas parade, only because she had no clue what was going on, and he had candy.
Not that this Santa was any less "Friendly Santa-ish" I just wished and hoped that Hannah wouldn't the the kid that freaked out.
It was held at my friend Samantha's house, her adorable daugther Elleigh is one day older than Hannah. They are long lost buddies from Ms.Shelly's house.

Look at them sporting their oh so cute Christmas outfits...and RED BOWS

So we walk in and Santa was sitting in a chair just a "Ho-Ho-Hoing" it was so cute. Samantha had a bowl of Jingle Bells and the kids were giving Santa the bells as they took turns sitting in his lap.

This was pretty much her face when she walked in. If I could only read her mind. I'm sure she was thinking "whoa.whoa.whoa...Somebody promised me cookies!"
She was way more interested in the bowl of jingle bells and the babies..

She warmed up just a little to Santa

It was all about the baby...
We had a ball and we are so thankful to have great friends like Samantha and Elleigh

Cookies and Pinterest Projects

This weekend, Hannah and I gear up to face the Holiday Shoppers. We had some projects on our list. So off we went to Micheals and Hobbby Lobby aka..the JUNGLE

Hannah does pretty well in the stores. I think she finds "people watching" very entertaining. She also had an endless supply to the sucker stash in my purse. Yep, I'm one of those mom's.
I had some "Pointerest Projects" to make this weekend...
First up, the "it's ok to play with Christmas Tree for Hannah"
She loved it. She played with this tree all weekend. Please excuse her outfit. Her daddy dressed her.

This is probably my favorite project. I made it for a friend at work. She's going to love it.

What's Christmas without a salt dough handprint ornament? This project turned out just ok. It was way to bulky for me.

This is my favorite. I love this! It was super cheap to make. Which makes me love it even more. I wish I would have made one for my mom.

This isn't the best picture. These are wisk's filled with hersey kisses. And they say "We wisk you a merry kissmas" lol...cheesy and adorable.

Every year Mike ask's me to make cookies for his guys at work, and every year I wait until the very last minute to make them. I love baking and totally enjoy it.(the glass of wine helps me focus) But it was a sight to see last night, Yo Gabba Gabba was blarring on the T.V. because Hannah now know's how to work the remote. Oatmeal spilled all over the kitchen floor, and Hannah was practically making "snow angels" in it. I really should have taken a picture. The house was a totally disaster BUT we had our cookies made and I loved every minute of it.

What did we ever do before pinterest?

It's the best time of the year...

Last night we took Hannah to the Saline County Christmas parade. Who knew there were parades for Christmas? Not this girl. Hannah loved the parade. granted she was barried in the stroller with blankets. It was pretty cold last night.

I did manage to let her out of the stroller for a bit, so she could wave at all the people. She loved it!

Next stop was Santa's Shack (or whatever you call it. I'm really trying with this whole Santa thing).
Let me just tell you, There were kids EVERYWHERE...CRYING...and WHINNING..oh man...But thankfully Hannah was fully entertained with all the chaos.

She did really well with Santa, she wasn't scared at all. She had the look of "What are you?...and what's on your face?...look"

I do have to tell you, we are having so much fun this year with Christmas.

This is her new tongue trick. Isn't she so dainty..