Happy Thanksgiving!

We are recovering today from a wonderful Thanksgiving day. We went to Grandy's house on the river to celebrate this year and had a great time! We rotate each year between Jason's family and mine. Its always sad to miss out on one side each year but we are blessed to have so many wonderful, caring, loving members of our family.
Hannah got to spend time with big cousins, little cousins, and let's not forget Uncle Chad, to whom Hannah has recently formed quite an attachment!
William got to hang out with his boys (the twins) again. It was a very fun, festive and filling day! I have not downloaded any pictures yet but here are some from last week.
This is Hannah's new trick! My sweet sister-in-law Laurel posted this on her blog. Check out Hannah's new trick by clicking here!
If everything goes as planed, we will be picking out and decorating our Christmas tree sometime this weekend. Hannah is super excited about that so expect an update soon! =)
I hope you all had a Marvelous Holiday!

No fair weather fans here!

I get that I'm biased...but this is priceless! War Eagle! =)

Hannah's new hairdo!

Ok, so it is nothing drastic but a girl's first hair-cut is a BIG deal!!! I was pleasantly surprised with the way the whole ordeal turned out...

We arrived at the salon (I chickened out and couldn't do it myself). We had been talking about it for a while and I knew she was scared. I got my hair trimmed while we were there 1) because I needed it badly and 2) I was hoping it would prove to her there was nothing to be afraid of.
While I was getting mine cut, Hannah and Jason played with the camera and took lots of pictures of me (Thanks for that...) When it was her turn we tried to get her to sit on my lap. I was trying to pick her up but was arching her back and screaming bloody murder!!! I didn't know what to do! She wouldn't let the girl even put the smock on her. I was about to get up and just leave but I looked at Jason and he said, "just get the thing on her and lets go!". Smart Daddy! The smock had jungle animals on it and seeing as how Madagascar is currently one of her top 3 favorite things, we played that up to our advantage!
I kid you not, mid-scream Hannah looked up at her stylist and said, "I saw Madagascar 2 on the BIG TV!!!" Even the stylist looked at me and said, "well that was random!". From then on, she was fine! She worked on her lollipop, talked up a storm and did a great job!
Don't worry...we didn't take off much and her curls are still very much there, but it was just getting a little too straggly in the back.

Still a bit teary but cooperating...
The First Snip

I just love the way she is looking at me...

Holding still like a BIG girl

"Whoa Lady! Watch where you are spraying that stuff!!!"
The finished product!

I think she likes it!

Here is a little before and after...

BEFORE

AFTER (she wouldn't let me get a good shot from the front. I will soon though!)

Long and Lean!

Wow! This is a record 4 posts in one day!!!

Yesterday William turned 4 months old! We celebrated with three shots... Poor guy! He tried to be brave but the silent sobs came anyways. He was fine as soon as I could snuggle him close.

Now onto his stats. Its official! He is a peanut!!!!
He weighed in at a whopping (for fake) 12lb. 10oz. Thats the 10th percentile in case you were wondering. Here is the funny thing though. He was 26 inches long!!! Thats the 87th percentile. The kid has grown 3 inches in the past 2 months!
His pediatrician was not concerned about his slight stature at all. The important thing is that he is growing. His rate of growth has just slowed down. Hannah actually went through a similar growth pattern (minus the extreme height). After being born in the 95th percentile, Hannah lived in the 11th-15th almost her whole first year. Our pediatrician thinks most of his growth went into his height instead of his weight. (You think?)
So now we hope that he will start packing on the pounds, just not at 3:30am. He was doing great there for a while. He was sleeping 8-9 hours, but now he is back to waking up once during the night. I'm fine with it because he does go right back to sleep but a whole nights worth of (uninterrupted) sleep can go a looong way! Plus, my only other experience was Hannah who was sleeping 12 hours no matter what at this point. SO, its an adjustment but the little guy is so worth it! =)
See what I mean?

William's Special Day

To conclude the busiest weekend EVER, William was baptized last Sunday, November 2nd. It was a beautiful service, William did great and we had MANY family members there to help celebrate this special day! We will call this a sneak peak. I got a few pictures on my camera but Uncle Terry got the good ones! (Thanks for playing paparazzi Uncle Ter!) I will post more pictures when I can but here are a few!
For those of you who don't know, this gown was handmade by Cissie (or Nana), Jason's Mother. Every stitch was sewn by hand including the embroidery. She also embroiders their initials on the slip with their date of birth and christening date. To make the gown even more special, she incorporated some lace my Great-Grandmother tatted throughout the dress and on the bottom hems. Talk about special...and lets talk about how SCARED I was hand washing and pressing the thing! ;)
Our Family!
Nana and William
Four Generations!
A closer look at the gown. Note: These were taken after he had worn it but before I washed and pressed it again.


William, like Uncle Greg said, I hope you had fun because that is the first and last time you will ever get to wear a dress! =)
More to come later...

Steeplechase '08

Another exciting piece of our jam packed weekend (a week and a half ago...sorry for the delay!).
Hannah's third steeplechase and a third consecutive year with gorgeous weather! Hannah had a blast watching the horses! Thanks to our good friend Lindsey, she also looked the part!
She wanted to ride the horses but I'm afraid she doesn't have the skill for high speed racing yet. In fact, she turned down the opportunity for a pony ride, which has never happened before!!!
Here are some pictures of our fun day!
Note the "crazy hair" (as Hannah would call it). Her curls definitely prefer the more humid weather. She is also most definitely due for a trim...first one ever. I'm sad. Expect many pictures and pray for her curls to come back!
Side note: By the time most of these pictures were taken, hair bows, tights and shoes had been shed. Well, Hannah's anyways! =)

My "Smooky" Kids

Halloween was a blast this year! It was fun with Hannah last year, but this year she was really into it! We talked a lot about all of the decorations we saw on people's houses and in shops. I tried explaining to her that people were trying to make things look spooky or scary. She picked up the word spooky very quickly. She loves to tell me when things were spooky except she pronounced it "smooky"! I have to admit, it was pretty cute. I don't know why she couldn't say it right because I know she can pronounce the "sp" sound. We even practiced. I would tell her to say, "sp- sp- spooky" and she would say, "sp- sp- SMOOKY!" Oh well!
We trick-or-treated in our neighborhood and had a good time. We thought we would be sly and pull her in the wagon between houses to speed up the process which was great until she decided she wanted to pull the wagon mid-way through the neighborhood. Why am I complaining? It only added about an hour to the whole ordeal... She had a blast though and it was totally worth it. We just had some pooped kiddos by the time we were finished!
She did a great job saying "trick-or-treat" and even thanked everyone who gave her a treat. Well, we had one little mishap... We got to meet one of our new neighbors. She is a very sweet lady named Miss. Francis. Miss Francis answered the door and talked to us for a little while without her treat bowl in her arms. After a minute of introductions and small talk Hannah looked up at Miss Francis and said, "will you go and get me a treat?". Ahh, talk about embarrassing!!!! Miss Francis was very sweet though and laughed it off!
OK, here are some pictures of our "smooky" night out!
Hannah with our carved pumpkin. (Good job Daddy!) =)
Hannah with a treat bag as big as she is!Have you ever seen a "smookier" dragon?

Polling Results!

Here are the results!
81% of you think that William favors my baby picture
5% of you thinks he looks like Jason's baby picture
and 1 of you thinks he looks like his big sis!

From what people have told me, the majority of you think William looks like my baby picture but looks like Jason now. I agree. I think he has my eyes but I see so much of Jason in him. I think its a pretty good mix! Thanks for your participation!
It has been a very busy week/weekend here at the Simmons House. Look for more posts soon, hopefully later today, although I need to devote nap time to housework...its pretty bad!