Thanksgiving Break

The City of Gahanna found it in their budget to bring back the Holiday Lights parade this year. We met up with The Hague clan at the normal parade watching location and had a great time. Even though it was cool outside it was not freezing like it has been in the past. Samantha really enjoyed the band's (she loves cymbals) and also the dance groups.

Jeff and I also took off a day of work to take Samantha to COSI while they still had the Dora and Diego exhibit. Since she loves Dora we knew she would really enjoy this...and we were so right.

(Above: She was driving the pirate piggies ship!)

Here she is planting flowers in Isa's butterfly garden!

Posing with Dora and Boots.

Posing with Diego and Baby Jaguar.

Driving Tico's car where she also got to collect acorns.

Here she was sitting at the Anchor's desk in the Old Town exhibit. This was Jeff's favorite exhibit when he was a kid.

Looking thru the telescope on the Pirate Piggie's ship.

In the Kid Zone area, she got to play in a huge water area that she just loved.

Jeff and I loved getting to watch Samantha's imagination run wild as she explored. She is becoming more and more animated the older she get's and what ever she is feeling it written right across her face.

We went and had dinner at Pa's the night before Thanksgiving. Samantha really like her Pa and it was nice getting to spend some time at his house with him. For Pa, I am sure it was really hard spending his first Thanksgiving without Granny, but we all tried to surround him with as much love as we could.

On Thanksgiving day we went and dropped off some food to Nick and Mandy's, then went to Jim and Lib's to eat. We got there a bit late due to Samantha's nap, but we got to at least sat Hi to everyone and fill our bellies with yummy food. Then we went back to Nick and Mandy's to play games and have dessert. Samantha really like playing with her cousins and it is always nice when they get to hang out together.

I love all the excitement of the Holiday's but what I am most thankful for this year is my growing family. Not just my husband, but my beautiful little girl and the one I have growing inside of me.

I am blessed.

Samantha and Dora

These are from this morning...

2 really cute Good Morning Mommy pics from this morning

Samantha's First night in her big girl bed

Saturday evening we returned home and Samantha was able to see and explore her new room. She was extremely excited and very eager to explore and try her new bed out.

While I was a nervous wreck, she actually slept really good Saturday night. Lauren tells me to relax but I don't like her having full access to everything.

Last night, we put her to bed at 8pm and at 10:30 I went to check on her and she was wide awake sitting up in her bed. I asked her if she wanted me to stay with her a while and she said "No Daddy, go away". I left and struggled to fall asleep myself as I was worried about her. She was much happier this morning than I thought she would be after getting less sleep than usual.

We are hoping this is just another transition she will welcome and her Daddy can cope as well without driving himself crazy with worry...

Samantha's room has been Dora-i-fied.

Last night, Jim and Lib picked up Samantha for a sleepover at their house. Meanwhile, Jeff and I painted Samantha's room purple...her favorite color. Then this morning we put up all her new Dora stuff. She got new Dora sheets and a Dora blanket.

She got a new pair of Dora P.J's and we put up Dora decals on the walls.

These decals are so neat. They are peel and stick but do not harm the walls when they come off!

This one is Jeff's favorite: 1.) B/C he is the one that put it up. & 2.) It had a Boot's sticker too.

This one is above her changing table.

One of my favorites!

Photo collage.

Jeff got a new app on his iPhone that makes collages with his "Good Morning Mommy" pictures. How cool is that?

Samantha is already sharing with her sister.

The other day Samantha was playing with her Dora stickers and decided to share some with her baby sister. It was the cutest thing.

Libby's 60th Birthday Party

This morning, when I woke up, Samantha asked me what we were going to cook. (I think she got Jeff and I confused there for a second.) But I came up with making cinnamon rolls and Samantha was stoked. She went straight to the pantry to get her step stool and we got to "cooking". She knows that when the timer goes off we have to use the "gloves" to get the cinnamon rolls out of the oven. It it actually really cute!

Once we got the rolls on the cooling rack she has to watch them until the are cool enough to eat.

And during this waiting period, she as us like a hundred times if it is time yet. I am going to have to start coming up with some better / healthier options for our Saturday morning baking lessons.

After Samantha's nap, we headed off to Plain City for Mawmaw's surprise 60th birthday party. There were about 50 of us in all at the Dutch Kitchen waiting for Mawmaw to arrive. Samantha had been singing "Happy Birthday to Mawmaw" all morning so she was really excited to see her and say "Surprise!"

When Mawmaw got there we all got to eating and socializing. It was really fun to get to see all the Hauser family. And Mawmaw was actually surprised! Then Mawmaw thought it would be a great idea for Samantha to get her very own Red Velvet cupcake. I promptly came over and snatched half that icing right off but Samantha still had plenty to enjoy!

We bought Libby a Pandora bracelet for her gift. We picked out a Rose bead to commemorate her Mom and then Samantha got her a "S" bead too. I actually tried to get Samantha a bracelet too but the smallest one was still a little too big so I told her she has to wait till her arm get's a little bigger.

We had a really great day. Unfortunately we had to miss Chase's 2nd birthday party, but I am sure he has so much fun he didn't even realize we were not there.