The Blevins Family Adventure

Memorial Day

2011-08-17T21:59:00.001-07:00

And we begin our updates....

Memorial Day! We spent a 4 day weekend down in Grants Pass at Chris's grandparents house. Hannah loved playing with her cousins, eating popcorn and junk food, watching boat races and just being someone new. We love Grants Pass for Memorial Day!

Here is Hannah with her cousins jumping on the bed

Watching the parade from Daddy's shoulders

Eating Blind George's Popcorn (honestly the best!)

Playing outside on a rainy day! -first year it had rained on us...such a weird year for weather!

Starting to update, hopefully I will be better

2011-08-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

So I am going to be better, I am going to be better, I am going to be better! There now I will be better at updating my blog! We have been having adventures this summer and a lot has changed for our little family. It all started last Spring when Chris decided what he wants to do! The new plan and direction is to become a Nurse Anesthetist , which means more school, but will only be 2 more years and Chris can take those classes back in Springfield so we were excited to learn we could move home!

So here we are, living with my parents again! Haha! hopefully the last time we will need to do that! We moved in with them to wait and see about an apartment management job we had applied for and yesterday we found out the good news that we did get it!! Hooray! Free rent and utilities!!! of course there is work along with it, but it is a smaller complex and I can do all the work with Hannah by my side! It will save us so much money, especially with Chris going back to school! We will move into those apartments in 2 weeks and begin working on September 1st!!

We have been pretty busy this summer helping my parents remodel the inside of there house. All new floors everywhere, new counter tops, new appliances, new texture on all the ceilings, and the list goes on. So we have been helping with that and trying to stay out of the way at the same time. The major things are done besides repainting all the walls. But everything looks so nice. We have loved living back by family as well. Hannah is able to see her cousins all the time and we have been keeping really busy with so many things to do. We love it and feel very blessed to be back!

I will be updating this net week with pictures and catching up on all our fun events since May!! Then I am making a pact with myself to update at least once a week from here on out!! Wish me luck!!

Things we have been up to

2011-05-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are some things we have been up to the last few weeks. Hannah's birthday post will be coming soon as well.

We were told a few weeks ago, by a nice old lady, that Hannah was going to become a pole dancer! Our dream come true!! We were walking in downtown Bend and Hannah had discovered recently that she can bend backwards and hang upside down when holding on to something. Well she picked the perfect moment to perform on the streets on Bend and was told she would become a pole dancer! We are so proud!

My new love is making homemade bread! They turned out so delicious and it is amazing how much cheaper it is to make your own bread rather than buying it from the store!

While I was straightening my hair last week, Hannah came and asked me to do her hair too, no joke! so I did! I just turned the straightener down and she let me finish the whole thing. Of course she wouldn't sit still for a picture, but you get the point. Her hair grew about 3 inches when it was all done! She looks like a different kid in these pictures!

At my parents house last weekend, Hannah wanted to watch "Woody", which means Toy Story 3. Of course she couldn't watch it without Woody and Buzz sitting next to her!

Hannah has turned into our little artist. She loves to paint now, just like me! Here she is painting in her new book.

And here she is helping me with a craft project!

We love when we get sunny days...even though it is usually only once, every two weeks, but we love to get outside! Hannah is an absolute pro at the big kid swings! She loves it and since that is all we have here, I am glad she caught on so fast!

Here is the first time she realized she could hang upside down.

Climbing a ladder all by herself!

Just a cute picture that I love!

Happy Easter

2011-04-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to everyone! Hannah was so cute today and did so good at church and in Nursery! Such a nice day!

I love Hannah's cheese face! She is so worried about saying cheese that she can't smile!

It was magic! She loved coloring Easter eggs!

Hawaii!!..warning lots of pictures!

2011-04-14T10:22:00.001-07:00

Okay since I have lots of pictures I won't say much besides we had an amazing time! The weather was wonderful, sunny and warm, the food was so good (I now am in love with mango), and it was just so nice to get away!! Here is proof of our fun trip!

On the plane, ready to go!

The living and dining room where we stayed.

The kitchen. It was so nice to have our own place to come back to, instead of a hotel. We were able to buy groceries and make breakfast and lunches instead of always eating out!

The backyard! We really were out in the jungle!

Here is the first beach we stopped at after leaving the airport. It is Kailua beach on the East side of the island.

These are such cool trees. This is an area to a beach that was in the movie Blue Crush, if you have ever seen it!

Turtle Beach

These Turtles were so cool to see. They all had names and all of them were around 30 years old.

Coy fish at the Dole Plantation. They were begging for us to feed them. Very spoiled fish!

Waikiki! This is a statue of Duke, who was a famous Hawaiian surfer.

Lanikai...our favorite beach! the sand was amazing, the water perfect and we loved it!!

My new favorite food! O so good!

These 2 pictures are of Sharks Cove where we went snorkeling. We were able to see lots of fish and Chris was able to see a sea turtle as well.

Laie Point

A nice little hut we found on a beach in Laie...right down from Hukilau beach.

Turtle Bay

We went on a hike to Maunawili Falls. The day before we went rained a bit, so it was pretty muddy and the trail was completely covered with tree roots. It was such a pretty hike and nice to be out in the jungle!

Chris did go and jump off the waterfall, but since we didn't take swimsuits I did not want to hike back to the car completely soaked through!

A block away from where we stayed there was this house blocked off from the street by hedges and trees. It had nice columns and a locked gate to get in. From what we could see it looked amazingly nice and we really wanted to see if we could see the house. So Chris decided to climb a tree and see if he could see anything. Of course he couldn't, there was some building in the way. I think I am going to go and google map it and see what we can find! We loved the neighborhood we stayed in! So nice to be out of the city and in a quiet country area!

Yummy Yummy Matsumoto Shave Ice!! I loved Haleiwa. It was my favorite town to go to!

Here we are at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

So So funny!

Trying to make fire! He did get smoke, but no flame!

I was called up on stage since I had an April birthday and they made us all dance...video to come soon!

Chris in Tonga!

The beautiful temple.

Waimea Bay.

Here is the sand crab I stalked to get video of him!

Pearl Harbor. We didn't pay to go on any of the ships, but we still walked around and saw lots of cool stuff.

This is so creepy. This is a suicide torpedo from Japan. One person would be inside to direct it where it needed to go...ughhh so creepy.

Hanauma Bay...i can't spell! This place cost 13 per person to go so we just took pictures. Beautiful, but we didn't want to pay to go to the beach!

A cool blow hole! I don't remember the name.

This Buddhist temple was amazing.

I loved how Chickens were everywhere!

Ehow and Weight loss

2011-03-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my sister Heather I finally found a job working from home that I feel actually contributes to out finances! It is working for Ehow writing articles. If you have never been to ehow it is a website that tells you how to do different things! Nice huh! I really like it. I feel cool since I can say that I am a freelance writer and have had work published! woowoo! What is also nice is that there are no set hours, so I can work as much or as little as I want and whenever I want! Big plus!! So anyone out there that would like a job go check it out. It was pretty easy to apply and your first 3 articles are your trial period to see if you will do okay. I am just so happy to help make money!

My other exciting news...no not prego.... is that I have been loosing weight! Finally!! I am down 17 pounds since October and am still working hard! It is so nice to see the scale going the other way! I have started doing a modified version of the Atkins diet and since it is actually working I am sticking with it. I cook a lot now, but it feels good to be eating healthy and I feel like I have so much more energy! I still have a ways to go, but loosing has given me the motivation I need to work hard and succeed!

one more piece of good news... Chris and I are going to Hawaii in 15 days!!! Wooowoooowooowoo! i am so excited since I have never been. Hannah will be staying with Heather (thank you, thank you, thank you) so will get to spend 8 days on Oahu by ourselves! We cannot wait! i am also excited to get to fly on a plane again. This will be my second time, the first time Hannah was only 4 months old, so it was a bit stressful. I am glad I will just get to enjoy this flight without worrying about a crying baby! Hawaii here we come!!

7 inches and counting!

2011-02-15T07:31:00.000-08:00

Well we woke up this morning to about 7 inches of snow and it is still coming down! Our power even went our last night! It is really pretty and I thought I would be sick of it, but I am actually excited to go out and play in it with Hannah today!

I looked at the weather for the nest couple days and it isn't supposed to stop! They say there will be a little rain in there somewhere, but it will always go back to snowing! So.... I will let you know if we get snowed in and you all can come and save us!!

A friend and an Enemy!

2011-02-12T17:20:00.001-08:00

The pacifier, or Binky as we call it, is wonderful and awful all at the same time! A few weeks ago we had Hannah down to only using her binky at nap time and bed time and it was so nice. Then of course life happened, she got sick, we went on vacation and we got back into the habit of just letting her have it because it was easier!

So now we are attempting to take it away again, but this time she knows it and asks for it all day long. Which leads to whining and then I just wish I could give it to her so she would stop whining! Haha I know it will be a slow process and right now we are just taking it away throughout the day again, so she still sleeps with it. I don't know what we will do when we try and do that! Anyone have any good ideas for breaking them of the binky? Any ideas would be helpful!

Cheese!

2011-01-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

Just some cute pictures of my baby girl!! The first one was for a birthday poster for Kevin!

She just has the cutest smile!

New years Resolution!

2011-01-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

Well I have finally figured out what I want to work on this year and it is something I know I can accomplish and feel good about!

I am going to work on blogging, journaling and scrap booking. Basically documenting my life. I used to be awesome at writing in a journal, but of course after getting married and having a kid I have pretty much stopped which is sad because these are the best moments of my life. I am glad I started blogging because it is a form of journaling and I was really good about it when Hannah was first born. i want to print it out as well, so I can keep it forever.

So to start off today I have a few random pictures just for fun. (sorry about the quality of the pictures, they were from my phone)

Today Hannah decided her feet were a better place to put stickers! She was so proud of herself, and trying to show me how funny she is! She knows how to make us laugh!

Here is another activity we do pretty much every day. Hannah loves my phone, and knows how to use it! Sometimes better than me! Well she knows where the camera is and how to take pictures, so we have funny photo shoots of ourselves! Here is her kissy face!

Hannah is obsessed with shoes right now! If she sees a pair she has to put them on! Here is one of her cute outfits. No pants and boots!

This is just a flash from the past! I found this when Chris and I were going through boxes and was so excited! I loved my time with these girls! We had an amazing apartment and an amazing time together! I love that we still all keep in touch!! Miss all of you girls! We need a game night!

Family prayer

2011-01-01T21:39:00.000-08:00

Hannah said her first prayer tonight for family prayer. It was so cute and of course we are so proud! Here is how it went.

Kim: "Say Dear."

Hannah: "Dear." (sounded more like De-o)

K: "Heavenly"

H: "Hey"

K: " Father"

H: "Fa"

K: "Thank You"

H: " Your Well" (If we ask Hannah to say thank you, she instead says "Your well", for your welcome!)

K: "I love you"

H: (here hannah decided to make a kissy face and the kiss sound since that her her new thing for I love you!)

K: "Amen."

H: "Amen."

So all together it was " De-o Hey Fa. Your well. (smooch). Amen."

We love our little girl and our so proud she is learning to say her prayers. It made our whole evening to hear that little prayer and I can't wait for many more to come!

Playing in Water and saying families names!

2010-12-17T16:11:00.001-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Yesterday I let Hannah play in the water at the sink. At first it seemed like a good idea, but very quickly my kitchen floor was covered in water as well as Hannah. My trash bag apron did nothing. Oh well my floor needed to be mopped anyway and Hannah had lots of fun throwing the water around.

The video may be hard to hear, but she is good at saying everyone's name in our immediate family. She really tries to pronounce everyones name. I will try to get her to do this at Christmas for family so everyone there can hear. She is getting so good! As you can tell I am a proud Mommy!

Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow!

2010-11-23T11:52:00.001-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Well, I finally got the snow I wanted! Now I am worried we won't be able to get home for Thanksgiving!! We leave tomorrow afternoon, so keep your fingers crossed!

Yesterday it finally started snowing. Hannah loves to watch it and can actually say snow and knows what it is. So after we had about an 1 1/2 on the ground I decided we could go out and play. We got all bundled up which Hannah also thought was fun and headed outside.

She loved it. She loved having the snow fall on her face, she loved eating the snow, she loved that you could make a snow ball and we both loved that we could be outside playing!

I am so glad that she enjoys it because I have plans to go out again today, especially since now we have about 6-8 inches! It will be "snow" fun!!!

Ready to go!! Cheese!

Our cute little snowman!

I can't put my arms down!

The Next AMERICAN IDOL!!

2010-11-09T17:59:00.000-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

She plays piano, she dances and she sings!!

Halloween Fun!

2010-10-31T08:26:00.000-07:00

We have had a fun week getting ready for Halloween! Here we are as the Wizard of Oz family. We went to our ward party last night, which was lots of fun. It was Hannah's first time trick or treating, so it was cute to see her walk around. She loved getting candy!

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

They had a craft table which had these pumpkins. They had this black feltish stuff on them, but when you scrapped it off there was color underneath. It was pretty cool.

Fishing for prizes!

Golfing with Daddy.

This was also Hannah's first time carving pumpkins. Well we let her color a pumpkin and help me with mine.

She didn't like it too much!

Notice her mouth...she decided to eat a marker!

My ugly little pumpkin! The smallest knife we had was a steak knife, which did not work out for a small pumpkin! Next year I will know better!

The Painted Hills

2010-10-12T10:00:00.001-07:00

At work Chris saw a picture of these hills and had to find out more. They are called the Painted Hills and are about an hour outside of Prinville....in the middle of nowhere. Literally! They were beautiful! It was amazing to see these hills just randomly in the middle of the normal central Oregon landscape. How did they get there? and why is it only random hills? I still really don't know, but they were very cool!! Hannah did amazing too. She was in such a good mood yesterday and considering we spent the whole day outside and we were surrounded by rocks, she was in Heaven!

Here is the best view! This was the first place you see. They have a few trails around, so this was the first one we went on.

The colors, just look at the cool colors!

This was the second place we went to. You get to walk right up to the hills and they have a cool trail going through them.

Here they are up close. It is just dry clay/mud all cracked. Sounds silly, but the colors were very cool and from far away they look sorta furry!

It was a very fun day and nice to get out and see some more of Oregon that I have never heard of!!

Funny and Gross!!

2010-10-07T10:34:00.001-07:00

So I will spare you the pictures of my eventful morning, but I just had to share the story. Hannah needed a bath today, so I got it ready and put her in. I was letting her play while I finished my hair and I noticed that she was grunting. So I turned around to check and at first saw nothing, but yes she pooped! This is the first time she has ever pooped in the tub.

So I grabbed her out so I could clean it up, but as I set her down she took off running and escaped out of the bathroom before I could trap her. As she ran down the hall she continued to poop, leaving 2 more piles for me to clean up. Gross. Then as I get her back into the bathroom, before I can stop her she sits down, leaving a nice large smudge.

Wow this is a gross story! Anyway to sum it all up, there was Poop everywhere!! It was gross, but we got it all cleaned up and the best part about it was that it made me laugh pretty hard! So at least I was laughing as I was cleaning up the grossness!! I hope you all have a fun day too!

New title

2010-09-24T16:03:00.001-07:00

Thank you Lindsay S.! I thought you title was very clever!!!!

New title

2010-09-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

So I need a new title since we are no longer in the Beaver Pond. Hallelujah! any ideas??

New words and dream craft/sewing station!

2010-09-10T14:35:00.001-07:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Isn't she cute!!!

I just found this picture as I was looking for organization ideas and I fell in love! I wish I had a room in my house to have such an area! It would be my dream to have a room all to myself where i could make a mess without having to clean it up if i am not done yet! One day I will hopefully get such a thing but for now I guess the kitchen table is fine!

Hannah can fetch!

2010-08-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

This is such a random post, but I thought i would let you all see that Hannah's new favorite game is to play fetch!! The video is pretty bad, but oh well!! it was with my phone. That is my excuse!

Lots of new...keep going down!

2010-08-03T14:54:00.001-07:00

Wow I have a lot to update. Sorry it is such a large post, but bear with me! This is what we have been up to this summer. I hope you enjoy!

#1 Here are pictures of our new apartment finally!

pay no attention to our lovely curtains pinned to the wall, oh wait those are blankets!oh well!

We love our new place! We have twice the amount of room from our last apartment! We have a dishwasher, washer and dryer and air conditioning!!

#2 We were able to go to springfield about 2 weeks ago. We had lots of fun seeing lots of family and my 2 best friends!!

Here is Hannah with her cousins on the Blevins side

We had the chance to go and play with Andrea, Sarah, Lindsay and their kids. It was so fun to see them all together!

Here is Hannah playing with her cousin Cooper. She just loves Cooper and would follow him anywhere.

#3 There are so many beautiful parks to go to around Bend. Here we are at Smith Rock in Redmond. It was so beautiful.

#4 Here we are at Tumalo falls! It was really a pretty area although we were attacked by mosquitos!

#5 Here are just a few random pictures of Hannah.

Hannah loves to wear our shoes. She is always trying to put them on and walk around.

Hannah let me paint her fingernails and toes which i never thought would happen. But it was fun and she liked it!

#6 Heather, Jeff and the girls came to visit last week. We had a lot of fun! Here are pictures from when we went to The High Desert Museum.

There were chipmunks everywhere. This little guy came right up to us, begging for food, I probably could have picked him up.

#7 A few more random of Hannah.

yeah we finally have her hair in pigtails!!

...and hair after pigtails came out!! Scary!

#8 So I am proud of this one. I have really been wanting to get my food storage going. It has been gnawing at me for some time. I just new some disaster would strike and I wouldn't be prepared. So I finally made a list and went shopping. I am far from done, but my goal right now is to have at least 1 month to start and then i will work up from there. It was fun buying all the food and thinking of how I could use it all. I made sure to buy foods that I knew I could use and that we would eat without gaging! So here is my start to feeling prepared!

Dresses and Dinner

2010-07-18T19:36:00.001-07:00

I made my first baby dress this week! I was excited that you can tell what it is and it actually looks cute. I made a large because, according to the pattern, a large was Hannah's measurements. I just finished this morning so I hadn't tried it on Hannah yet, but I wanted her to wear it to church. HA! The dress will fit her until she is at least 2 years old. It is long and a little big, so I pinned the sides so it wouldn't look like a tent. I am glad it will fit her for a while though!

We had to run out the door so I didn't get a better picture of Hannah, but I will get a good one soon!

Tonight I also decided to make Beef Bourguigon, Julia Child's Beef Bourguingon!! It was fun, but a lot of work. I literally slaved all day to make it! There are lots of steps and it is time consuming, but worth it! It was really good. The picture looks crazy, but make it bigger and it looks delicious!

Our little Angel

2010-07-17T19:20:00.001-07:00

I wish I could have filmed the last 5 minutes of our lives! It would have been a perfect memory because it was one of those moments that you just had to be there. So I will attempt to tell you....Chris, Hannah and I went to a few stores tonight, then tried a new restaurant and then came home. All was well until Hannah realized we were walking in the front door. I got her inside, but Chris was still outside so she tried to go back out the door. I grabbed her hand to keep her in, so in response Hannah started yelling, screaming and stomping her feet. It was one of her best little shows. I picked her up set her on our desk to take her shoes off / time out. I stood there and let her scream for a bit. She stopped after a minute, so I say "Hannah are you done?" She replies (in baby voice) "yyaa". So I said "What did you do wrong?" and she said the cutest little sentence " gooobado godobaba boba"( something like that). It was just perfect. She actually answered me. She gave me a hug and was done! Well now it is bedtime so I better go, but I just wanted to share. Pictures to come.

goose egg

2010-07-05T10:59:00.000-07:00

A couple nights ago poor Hannah tripped and fell into the corner of a wall. I watched her hit the wall, which didn't seem like she hit it too hard, but she did hit it just right. She was screaming instantly and when checked her head 3 seconds later this huge goose egg had already appeared. It was so big, I had to call my mom right away, since I panicked a bit and needed moral support. I just felt so bad for her, but I gave her a cold wash cloth and some tylenol and she was happy again. This was our first big bump! Pretty good for a year huh!

Here she is today! Happy, healthy with only a little yellow bruise left!

War Dance

2010-06-30T07:19:00.001-07:00

So last night after Hannah went to bed Chris and I were trying to decide which Netfilx instant movie to watch. At first Chris suggested a movie which was somewhat sad. I said no, i wasn't in the mood for a sad movie. So then he picks a movie called War Dance. We knew it was a documentary and I thought "sure, this will be interesting." Man o man.

We were only able to get through maybe 15 minutes of the movie before I asked Chris to turn it off. I haven't cried that hard in a very long time. The movie is about the Acholi tribe in Uganda who have been victimized, killed, and driven out of their homes by the rebels in Africa. Within the first 15 min we saw, a little girl told her story which is horrific, sad and even now, the next morning, has me tearing up. It was a huge dose of reality last night in how blessed I am. I never have to worry about if we will be attacked that night, if my family will be killed, where I am going to sleep, how I am going to eat, or just get through each day. I have everything and yet I still take it for granted. What a wake up call in just a short 15 min of film. I do want to finish watching the movie because all though it is sad, the whole point of the movie is that even though war has taken just about everything from them, they still have their music. They are an amazing people and I will never stop praying for them.

just a few things

2010-06-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well here are a few things we have been up to lately. Still no apartment pics though..soon!

Here is some of Chris's graduation. We were up high, but we were in the shade which was nice since it was a hot day!

If you look closely and in the middle, you can see Chris pointing at the camera!

This one is a sad story. It is a bad picture, but look at all the little scrapes on Hannah's foot. Well those are all slivers! Nice huh. Poor thing, she had all of those, one on her knee, one in her heel and 2 more on the bottom of her foot! I felt so bad for her.

1. Okay so we start with this adorable picture. Hannah was actually smiling for me as I took pictures.

2. Here is another sweet smile.
3. Here is another one, but at this point she was getting interested in the camera.
4. And this is the picture of when I wouldn't let her hold the camera herself! Oh so sweet!

Updates Coming

2010-06-22T11:57:00.000-07:00

1. Well we live in Bend now! It's crazy to be in a new city and actually feel so far from everyone, even though we are only 2 1/2 hours, but it's over a mountain! I will post pictures soon so you can all see our new apartment, but as for right now it doesn't look pretty. We are still trying to figure out where everything should go so we have piles everywhere. by Friday at the latest I should have it all prettied up! We love it here though. Chris is at work from 10-7:30 now so that is weird, he can come home for lunch though so at least we will see him for a bit there, but for now I feel lonely. I need to meet some new friends so I can get out more and Hannah can have play dates. We do have a pool right across the parking lot from us, so I am thinking about going to try that out this week. Hannah loves the water so she will love it!

2. Chris graduated! On June 12th and I know I haven't posted pis of that either, but I will soon. We don't really have internet here yet, we are just picking up some crapy signal so soon I will be back in business. We are so proud of Chris though! I am so excited that he made it through, and I know he is too! Yes he still has 2 more years of school now, but at least he has a bachelors degree. his classes now will be fun, since most of them are flying anyway! He can't wait to get started.

3. We like our new ward, although it seems more like a branch. Everyone was so nice, so I can't wait to meet new people and make friends.

4. I can't wait for Eclipse to come out. Only 1 more week. The saddest part is that I won't be able to go to the living room theatre with my family again this time. Maybe for the last movie! But the plus side is that there is a theatre literally a block or less from my apartments so I will be going the first chance I get!

Well for now I think that is all. I will post pics soon. I already miss everyone! Please visit. You are all welcome to stay at our apartment!!

2010-06-08T22:06:00.000-07:00

My beautiful little girl! She is growing up way too fast! I tried to do a photo shoot with her, but of course she just wanted to watch me take pictures. I got a few cute ones though!! She even kept the bow in for a few until she realized she was wearing it. Her hair is getting so curly too. I hope it stays so she will have ringlets when it grows out a bit more!

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

2010-06-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

So I finished the book! It was good. A nice Twilight fix and it was fun to see what was going on in Seattle with the newborn coven! I recommend this book to any and all of you Twitards out there! You can finish it in 1 afternoon and although there is only about 5 pages of Edward and 0, well a mention of Jacob, it is good! I hope you all enjoy!

Accomplishments and moving

2010-06-02T20:45:00.000-07:00

So...hurray!! Today was the first full day without nursing Hannah. TMI....I know, but I am so happy that we are done and made it through. I loved my time with her and all, but it is nice to know that we don't have to rely on that any more!

On to other news we are moving to Bend in 2 weeks, June 19th. We found an apartment and we found out we were approved today. So I am packing, trying to find boxes and cleaning as I go. For those of you who don't know, Chris is going to helicopter pilot school. We are excited and he can't wait to get started!!

Hannah's Birthday

2010-05-23T14:00:00.000-07:00

I can't believe my baby is 1 already! this past year has gone by so incredibly fast! We are so blessed to have Hannah be a part of our family. She makes us smile everyday and has brought us so much happiness! Here are a few updates on the big girl:

1. She loves to walk and is now a pro (video to follow soon).

2. She is 20 lbs 7 oz (i think).

3. She talks all day long.

4. She loves to be outside, to swing, to climb stairs on the play structure and be with the kids.

5. She is in love with our neighbor. He is a 9 month old cutie. We approve. Hannah will be sad when he moves away though.

6. She still puts everything in her mouth!

7. She loves to eat.

8. She only says mommy and daddy, randomly, but can sign a little bit.

9. She really is a fun little girl and makes each day amazing!

For Hannah's birthday we went to a park so all the kids could play! Hannah had pretty much her whole family come to celebrate with her! Thank you everyone!

Here are a few kids enjoying the swings. Hannah is in there being pushed by her cousin.

Bad picture I know, but here is Hannah's birthday cake. Heather and my mom helped me a ton.

And here is the cake for Hannah to eat!

She loved it. She would grab a handful squish it a few times then like her fingers.

So these last 2 are random, but Here is Hannah's hair out of the bath. It really is super curly, but if we let it dry like this she would look like a crazy girl. Hopefully soon the ringlets will dry cute!

And here is Hannah wearing Chris's shirt, just for fun!

Car Seat Times

2010-05-11T11:18:00.000-07:00

So we cheated and decided to install Hannah's car seat facing forward a week early! i am such a bad mom! She loved it! She loved looking out the windows and seeing all the cars and trees as we passed them by. I can't believe she turns 1 on Sunday!

Here is Hannah enjoying her car seat before we installed it in the car.

Then here she is in the car!! I love that she actually smiled for the camera!

After we went to the store we stopped for ice cream and then went to the park to play.

Then on the way home she took her first nap in it to test it out.

Of course the old car seat was now inside and she had to test this out again too! She loved crawling in and out of it. Much more fun since she didn't have to be strapped inside!

Fun Fun Fun

2010-05-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hannah is almost 1!! I really can't believe how fast this past year has gone! She really is the joy in our lives! Everyday she learns new things and I can tell she is growing up so fast! She is pretty much walking now. She will just let go of our hands and keep going now! She is also just so funny!

Her new favorite things is to roll over and bury her head into anything on the floor (blankets, pillows). She thinks it is so much fun!

Here is Hannah in her strawberry outfit! She looked so so cute for church!

Here is a funny story. So, of course Hannah wants to touch all the electronic things we have...(we don't have a baby proof tv stand yet!) So the best solution we have or had was to put her toy box in front of the tv. It would, for the most part keep her away, since her toys would distract her before she got there. Well now Hannah is more mobil and learning to climb. Yesterday she learned how to get into her toy box so she could reach the electronics! Now we need a new solution!!

Here she is looking back at me, trying to see what I would do or see if she was in trouble....look at that face. She knows she is about to be told no!

So to distract her I just set her in with her toys and let her have fun!

Lots of New!

2010-04-13T11:33:00.000-07:00

I know it has been awhile since I have updated my blog, but here is an update of things we have been up too!

Hannah is as cute as ever! She is taking steps, but not walking fully yet. She loves Baby Einstein videos and Little Einstein's and we are trying to teach her some words...no luck yet....well besides Mama and Dada. She loves to giggle and make us laugh. Whenever Chris comes in the room she starts laughing and tries to run away! She really is the best thing in our lives!

Chris is still in school although he graduates this year!! Yipppeeee! We will finally get to move out of Corvallis! Haha, we really do like it here, but I am excited for a change. We will be moving to Bend in August where Chris will be going to Helicopter Pilot school. (A big change from Podiatry!!) We are excited for the change and can't wait to get going! Well, here are a few pics of what we have been doing!

Hannah loved playing the piano! She actually does pretty well and love to test out all the little buttons.

This is Hannah's cool pose! She likes wearing Chris's hat, especially to play peek a boo with it!!

Guess what? Hannah can wear hair clips! Yeah yeah! Thank you Sarah for the cute clips!

The other day I decided to be artsy!! So I made abstract art!! Like it?!!

This is Hannah's new best friend! Her cousin Cooper! We were down in Springfield the past 2 weekends and all Hannah would do is follow Cooper around. She loved trying to do all that he did and of course he tried to get away from her! haha No he also tried to play with her, he helped her to wave and they drummed on everything together!

Here is Cooper helping to push Hannah on the Dora car!

Derek came to visit us over Spring Break! We loved having him around. While he was here we went for a hike up Bald Hill.

Of course I had to take a picture of myself!

While we were resting on top Derek found a box with a notebook and some letters in it. I forget what is was called, but apparently they are all over Oregon. It's like a friendship box or something. What you do is add a journal entry or a souvenir to the box when you visit and then put it back! Anyway cheesy, but kinds cool to read back in time!

Hannah had fun, eating whatever she touched. Her choice for this picture was the camera case!

A few weeks ago we went to the Zoo with Heather and her girls! We had lots of fun! This was Hannah's first time!

These birds were cool. I had never been in this area before, but you are in the same cage as them, they can fly right up to you, land on you and you can feed them!! It was cool to be so close!

Again, here is proof of how much Hannah loves to drum!!

Just a random picture of the girls!!!!

Hannah is Walking

2010-04-02T23:14:00.000-07:00

Hannah has been taking steps for a while now and we finally decided to get the camera out to film her. She is growing up so fast and will be walking on her own before we know it. Crazy!

Hannah Walking! from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Walking!

2010-03-10T19:38:00.000-08:00

So Hannah took her first steps tonight!! I wasn't able to get a picture, but we will try tomorrow! So I stood her on the ground to get her jammies on and let go of her hands just to see and she just stood there for about 5 seconds, which is long for her! I thought that was awesome so we kept trying that over and over and she thought it was fun. So then Chris and I were walking her back and forth between us trying to let go and see what she would do. Most of the attempts were her just leaning forward to fall into us, but we had victory. I let go of her hands and she took about 4 really good steps into Chris's arms!! It was so fun to watch!! can't believe she is so old!!!

She is also a pro crawler now! She speed crawls everywhere all day long!!

Crawling!!

2010-03-04T19:59:00.000-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Hannah decided to start crawling today!! She is all grown up!! She still has a little hop in there, but she is crawling!! Yipppee!!

update!

2010-03-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

Last night was awesome! Hannah slept from 7 to 6am! Which was nice! She slept well, was wide awake and ready for the day when she woke up and we had one of the best days yet! She was such a happy, sweet, giggly, funny little girl!! I loved it!! Hopefully tonight will be wonderful again!! ....and maybe she will sleep in a bit more!

Advice!!

2010-03-01T19:35:00.000-08:00

So I need some advice! Hannah now sleeps through the night which is amazing!...but she only sleeps until 5:30 ish sometimes a bit earlier. She goes to bed every night at 7pm and sleeps without waking up until 5:30. If I get up with her I change her diaper and feed her. She is still sleepy and I know she wants to go back to sleep, but if I try to lay her down she will only cry. If I snuggle her she will fall asleep quickly and stay that way for about another hour. On the other hand when she wakes up at 5:30, if I just let her cry herself back to sleep it won't work. She will cry for a whole hour to hour and a half and never go back to sleep. I know this sounds silly, but what would you do? Should I just put her to bed a bit later, so I can sleep in a bit more and she will slowly get used to sleeping longer? any ideas?

Our Trip to Sunriver

2010-02-24T20:35:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun this last weekend in Sunriver! We were able to go with the Blevins family and we stayed in a huge house that Chris's parents rented for us! There wasn't much snow, but we found enough to sled in. We played lots of Beattle's Rock Band, toured the town, went swimming and even ice skating (although I don't have pics of that yet). It was a blast and Hannah especially loved playing with her cousins!

Hannah's cousin Natalie is so good with her! Hannah just loves her!

Here is Hannah with Dane, she loved having someone more her size to play with!

So nice story with this one! Hannah was a little crabby so I gave her a piece of licorice! Well of course she loved it and this s what happened when she finished!!

Hannah was able to sled for the first time!! No crying for her. She didn't really like her snow suit though!

All on her own!!

One happy family!

We were also able to go to a swimming pool in town. I forgot my swimming suit and we didn't have one for Hannah either, but I felt bad making her watch all her cousins play so we let her try out the pool! We just kept her in her onesie! She is hooked. She just loved every minute of swimming!

Aunt Brittany giving Hannah some snacks!

So as I was trying to get Hannah to take a nap, I got a little to comfortable!

4 new posts!

2010-02-17T19:04:00.000-08:00

Keep going down there are 4 new posts!

Baby in the Mirror!

2010-02-17T19:01:00.001-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Hannah loves to see herself in the mirror. The baby is her best friend!!

9 months old!!

2010-02-17T16:02:00.001-08:00

I swear, time keeps going faster!! Well Hannah is already 9 months old!! She is old!! We go to the doctor Tomorrow so I don't know her stats yet, but I know she is at least 18lbs 9 oz! Big girl! At 9 months Hannah is:

Days away from crawling, but can move forward really well.

Loves to try out new sounds. Her new one is "go"!

She is walking along the furniture and always wants to be standing up.

She loves to swing and be outside.

She loves meeting new people, especially other kids! They are her favorite!

She likes to laugh.

She gets extremely excited whenever Chris comes home from school!

All together she is a happy baby! We are so blessed to have her in our lives! Now if she would only sleep through the night she would be perfect!! (We are working on that and should be to perfection in about a week! Pray for us!) We love you Hannah!

Here is Hannah's snow suit! Our neighbors had this suit and it fits Hannah perfectly! We had to try it on her today since we are going to Bend for a long weekend with the Blevins family and will be playing in the snow!! She thought it was great!

The many faces of Hannah!

2010-02-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

Fun times

2010-02-17T15:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the things we have been up to lately!

I made Chris a big sugar cookie sandwich on Valentines Day!! It was yummy!

Hannah loves her bath time!! I realized the other day that I can make her hair stand up with soap! I was so excited! That means it is getting longer!

Rebel girl!

So Hannah thinks she is so funny when she does this!! She now sticks everything in her mouth and then takes her hands away to show us how cool she is!! We are so proud!

This was about two weeks ago! She just started getting into push up position! She is now basically crawling! Yippee for Hannah! I will have videos soon!

Hannah and I (Kim) went up to play with Heather, Janae and Kiera 2 weeks ago! We had lots of fun and Janae had fun dressing up Hannah!! What cute girls!

a few more pictures

2010-02-03T08:28:00.001-08:00

Photo Shoot!

2010-01-29T12:49:00.000-08:00

Hannah had a photo shoot the other day up n Washington. A neighbor of Heathers is a newer photographer who wanted to practice so we got all this for free! Nice, right! Hannah did such a good job and I was excited to get so many good pictures out of it. I haven't even seen them all yet. The lady gave Heather a cd with 72 pictures on it, so I can't wait to see the rest!! I love her eyes!!

Swinging girl

2010-01-27T14:38:00.001-08:00

Hannah found out last week that she loves to swing!! She does so good in the swing and loves to sit in it forever! We live in an area with lots and lots of kids, so they are always outside. Hannah is so jealous that they can all run around and play on the toys. She just sits there and yells at them since she can't walk yet! Soon! I can't wait for it to get warmer outside since now I have a reason to go and play!

8 months old already!

2010-01-19T10:26:00.000-08:00

8 months old already and so darn cute! Hannah loves to stand up and walk around the house holding our fingers. She is trying hard to crawl so within the next month I am sure we will have a mobil child. I don't know if I am ready for that! She has 4 teeth with a 5th coming soon. She also loves to clap and is learning how to say more in sign language. she can eat a few solid foods now so that is nice for snacks, especially when we are eating dinner and she tries to mooch.All together she is the cutest little girl. She loves to giggle and laugh with us and loves unconditionally. She loves her daddy like crazy. All he has to do is walk in the room and Hannah is all smiles, giggles and jumps up and down. She loves spending time with him! I know he loves it too!! Well next month we will have a weight and height update! I am excited to see how much she has grown!

Quick update

2010-01-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

So here is finally a quick update on what we are up to! Our computer is in the process of being fixed, but in the mean time we have Kevin's computer so it is nice to be connected to the world again! I am feeling better about the whole sleeping issue I had so thank you for all of your comments! Now of course Hannah has a bad cold so that isn't helping my new plan, but oh well!!

This is Hannah's favorite activity! She always wants to stand up and can even slowly move along the couch.

Along with standing her bouncer is also a favorite since she can jump around. She has discovered how to rock back and forth and loves it!

The cure girl in the bath. She loves that she can sit up now and play with toys in the water....then hates it when we have to get dressed again!

This was Hannah on Christmas day. she tried a ritz cracker for the first time and did pretty good. Along with that about 2 days ago Hannah finally was able to feed herself one of those fruity puffs for babies and loved it! She is getting to be a pro!

We were able to spend Christmas morning/day up at the Swansons this year so that was really fun! We spent Christmas Eve with the Blevins, but those pictures are on our broken computer!! Hannah loved being with her cousins and getting new noisy toys to play with!

Opening her stocking gifts!

trying to eat tic tacs!

I don't know....

2010-01-11T12:02:00.000-08:00

I am the worst sleep helper to Hannah. I don't have any clue on how to teach her to sleep on her own or sleep through the night. I am a super big wimp and know i couldn't handle her crying it out at night, but I read the no cry sleep solution, with no solutions for me.

I was able to get Hannah out of the habit of being breast fed to sleep, and I came up with a routine for nap times and bedtime, but nothing really works. I have to admit that I started rocking Hannah and singing her songs before bed, but by the time I would lay her down she was pretty much out. So now I keep thinking I should let her learn to fall asleep on her own, but it has now been 45 min of the poor girl crying since she doesn't know why I won't snuggle her.

I really need Hannah to start sleeping better at least through the night. Last week she did really good, only waking up once and we were back in bed within 15 min, but the last few nights have been 4 times awake again. She also still takes 4 30-45 min naps a day. It really is wearing me down and i feel like I am going crazy sometimes!! Anyway I just needed to vent and talk this out. I am out of ideas and I know since i can't let her cry it out at night that I will just have to endure, but can't she at least sleep for longer than 2 hours? Okay I am done complaining! Thanks for letting me get that all out.

Besides sleeping, Hannah is the most beautiful and fun little girl! She smiles at us all day long, giggles and thinks I am funny! She loves her daddy and goes on flirty on him when he walks in the room! She loves to stand up and is starting to try and walk along the couch. She is also trying to move forward, doesn't get crawling yet, but rolls around and stretches to reach what she wants. She is so cute and more of her personality comes out each day!!

Well as I finish this up, Hannah is finally quiet, which gives me more hope. I know it is my own fault that she doesn't know how to sleep on her own since I have never stuck to that, so I wil just have to endure teaching her this again! We will succeed!!! Also does anyone have any ideas of at home work I could do to make some extra money?? Anything i could do with Hannah around!! Thanks again for letting me ramble on!! I feel better now!!

soon!!!

2010-01-09T13:26:00.001-08:00

So our computer decided to die on us! I have been without a computer this whole past week and have felt so out of touch with the whole world. It is amazing what technology offers to us and when we are without it we don't know what to do! So we now are borrowing Kevin's computer until we can fix ours so soon I will get some pictures up here!!!

7 Months!!

2009-12-20T17:43:00.000-08:00

Can you believe she is 7 months already! She is growing so fast and learns so much each day! She can now sit up on her own with only a few unbalanced times. She still talks all day, but her favorite thing to do is growl! She is finally sleeping better through the night which is nice....for those of you who are stronger, I just can't let her cry it out, maybe soon, but for now I am happy and okay with waking up once in the night.

So the picture above is how we found her this morning. She has never been a tummy baby so to find her sleepy deeply there was a first. Chris just had to take a picture and the flash didn't even wake her up (the room was dark). Usually we don't bug her while she is sleeping, but her naps are getting better and she had been asleep for over an hour which is still a little unusual so I just peeked in! She really is getting better at naps which is sooooo nice. She was taking 4 30min naps a day, but for the past week and a half at least once a day she takes an hour and a half nap. So now she is down to about 3 naps a day. Hopefully soon she will just take 2, 2 hour naps!! That would be Heaven!! Hahaha, i know i am dreaming!!!

Coast Trip

2009-12-20T17:39:00.001-08:00

Chris and I have found a new love...camping in a yurt! We have done this a few times over the past 2 years and this last Monday we went again! We picked the stormiest day of the year, but it was still fun and an adventure! Hannah had fun hanging out, she even slept through the rain and wind!

Hannah decided to try and eat the car she was so hungry!!

weight loss blog

2009-12-12T22:09:00.001-08:00

new post on weight loss blog!

A few new things...

2009-12-10T20:11:00.000-08:00

Our angel with the green ball. Grandma has always been the angel on top of our tree!! I think she looks pretty good up there!!

Our cute little tree. Hannah thinks it is a new toy!

Here is the quilt I have been working on and just finished tonight!! I am so excited to be done!!!

Okay so my first one looked better, but here is a new style of bread I learned to make. I was asked to make bread for the Creche display. It had to look like old fashion bread! It actually tastes pretty good!

And of course here is cute Hannah with her chubby little legs. We were watching the Civil War game and she was cheering along with Chris!

GO DUCKS!!!

2009-12-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

For reals this time!!!

2009-11-30T09:22:00.001-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

New Posts

2009-11-25T08:28:00.001-08:00

There are about 4 new posts I have put on within the last 2 days! Keep going down!!

2009-11-25T08:27:00.001-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

This is how Hannah talks all day long!

Lots of Random

2009-11-24T19:49:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the bad picture...It is hard to get a picture of a 6 months old mouth!! Anyway can you see her two little teeth coming through! She just has the bottom two at the moment, but her gums do feel swollen on either side of these teeth so we will see what happens!

Heather made this amazing cake for my uncle Dan's birthday party. She did such a good job and even let me help out a bit!!

The Party was a movie star theme. My aunt did such a good job and we all had so much fun!!

This past weekend we were up staying in Vancouver! Janae worked hard and built a fort for her and Hannah to play in! Hannah loved it!

This is a cake I made for my mom's birthday. Not as good as Heathers, but I had fun and want to start decorating again to get better!

Rolling over

2009-11-24T17:18:00.000-08:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Here is a video of what Hannah has been working on!

6 Months

2009-11-23T20:25:00.001-08:00

Can you believe another month has gone by?! Her 6 month birthday was even a week ago! I am a little late in posting this!

Hannah has grown so much. She can roll from her tummy to her back with no problem now, so close the other way, but not quite yet! She is about 2 weeks away from sitting up all on her own. She laughs, talks, now says dadada, which is fun! She is also improving on her sleeping! She can now fall asleep on her own which is amazing! We still have a few crying moments, but we have improved so so much! Now we need to work on sleeping more throughout the night! I know I should just let her cry, but it is the hardest thing for me! I need the slower approach and I know that it will affect my sleep a little longer, but I am ok with that! She loves to stand up, it's all she ever wants to do. She loves to fake cough and does it all day long! All together she is just the cutest and funnest little girl ever!!!

She weighs 16 lbs 10 oz

She is 26 1/2 inches long...i think!!

craft snowman

2009-11-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

So I made another cheap craft from things I had around the house! I know it may be a little cheesy but it was fast and fun! The base/backing to it is white foam I cut out into the shape. Then I glued cotton balls on for the face, covered a foam triangle with fabric, and glued buttons on for eyes and mouth. I used blue felt for the hat, a ribbon to tie around, then made a small yarn ball and glued it on top. It was fun. I think I might try a santa as well!!

ummmm....

2009-11-16T22:45:00.000-08:00

This is when you know it is late at night, you have had a long day and your hair is way way to long!!!

2 things...

2009-11-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

First thing....last call for Monkeys! I will be taking those not claimed to Goodwill by Wednesday, so let me know if you would like one or more! Just leave me a comment and I will save it!!

2nd thing!

Heather and I have started a weight loss blog. I need to talk about it again so I can re boost my motivation. It' s hard to commit too, but each day is getting better. I admit my exercise the last couple weeks dwindled, but I am back up again and feeling active! From now on I will post all my weight loss info on our blog so please visit and leave comments!

Thank you for all your support and I know that throughout the next year, I will do this and make at least some of my goals! I know I can do it!!!

here is our blog!

werethinkingthin.blogspot.com/

Stuffed Monkeys anyone?

2009-11-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

So.....Most of you know that I grew up in love with Primates! Monkeys, Chimps, Orangoutangs, Gorillas, anything and everything. So growing up I was given many many stuffed animals for birthdays and Christmas. I now realize it may be time to downsize. I have kept a small group for myself to keep and give to Hannah and future kids if they want them, but the majority needs to go. I apologize if an item you gave me did not make the cut for keeps, but I loved them while I have them!

What I really want to know is if any of you would like any of them? I have posted them on Craigslist, but I knew there was really no chance anyone wanted to buy them...so now I would like to see if any of you would like them...for free. I just don't want to have to give them all to Goodwill! Please just let me know if you would like one or all!!!! Thanks again!

This one has lips on the side of his mouth.

On one rear end it says Best and on the other rear it says Friend.

This one does make a little annoying monkey sound.

This one's rear end is colorful like a real Baboon.

Victory!!

2009-11-07T17:40:00.000-08:00

So in regards to my last post.... Hannah fell asleep on her own for each of her naps today! I made sure to feed her when she was awake so she wouldn't fall asleep. Then when we knew she was tired we just wrapped her up and laid her down. There were a few whimpers, but no screaming and as a result a happy baby and very happy parents!!

Last night Chris was my knight in shinning armor. He attempted to get up with Hannah twice, although I did end up feeding her, but he was willing to put her to bed and comfort her when she cried! I felt like I got the best sleep even though I was still up! I love my husband and the help he has been giving me!! Hopefully tomorrow Hannah will still sleep easier, but I am sure we will have a few bad days!! oh well! Life is already easier!!

Sleep Hannah Sleep!

2009-11-06T19:34:00.000-08:00

Back when Hannah would sleep anywhere and all the time!!!

I never realized how hard it would be to let your baby attempt to cry herself to sleep! Lately Hannah has gotten into the habit of falling asleep when I am feeding her. So for me it has been easy and nice to just lay her down right after that and she can take her naps and go right to bed at night.....but now she doesn't know how to fall asleep on her own.

Today I was able to lay her down for one of her naps, she talked and wined for a bit, but fell asleep. Then for her evening nap she screamed!! It was hard we tried at the beginning of the nap to give her the binky, but she didn't want it, so 30 minutes later with her still screaming, me crying and both Chris and I at a loss, I went in calmed her down and put her to sleep. Although when I layed her down she only slept for 5 min tops! So we just let her stay up, got her jammies on and put her to bed early...I let her eat to fall asleep!

I know that it will be hard and challenging for both Hannah and her parents for her to learn to sleep on her own, but I know it is for the best. I know that she needs to learn to not fall asleep with me breast feeding her or she will never know how else to fall asleep.

I am very thankful for my husband and the support he gives me through all of this, especially as I am a wimp and can't let my baby cry! We had a good talk and figured out some things we can try with her, so I am pumped up for a new try tomorrow and hopefully soon we will have a better sleeping happy baby! Thank you for letting me vent about my eventful evening of a first time mom!!

Decorations, Halloween and random!

2009-11-04T18:23:00.000-08:00

So I was thinking the other day of how to make more Christmas decorations for free! We do have decorations, but I thought it would be fun so I looked online and found a cool idea. These Christmas bulbs are made from old Christmas card fronts and some scrapbook paper I had!! I am either going to make them into a garland or hang them around our nasty overhead light in our living room as kind of a chandelier! Anyway kinda cheesy, but fun, easy and FREE!!

Here are a few more Halloween pictures of Hannah and her boy Tucker!! I love this one because they are both sad! Tucker is sad because he only has 2 pieces of candy. Hannah is sad because she is sitting next to a Oregon State Beaver!

This is Hannah's favorite thing to do! She is always sucking on her arm. At least she has not given herself a hickey yet!!

A few days ago I see a leaf hanging from a cob web stuck to our window. (we are on the second story, can't clean the outside of our windows and neither does the apartment complex....ever). Anyway I realize there is this scary spider hanging out there as well!! So i snap a few pictures, then scare it away...Lots of bugs can get through this window so not knowing where it went....I am still scared it is inside our house!!

I bought Hannah her first sippy cup just so she could get used to one. She has no clue what it is except that it is a new toy!!

Cute as always, hanging out on the couch, getting ready for bed!!

Update...

2009-10-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well I believe it has been 3 weeks now since I announced my weight loss plan. I said I would post a picture so here it is!! I always feel so funny just standing by myself, but at least I can watch my body change!

4 POUNDS SO FAR!!!

I am glad that something is working and I know it will only get better! It is really a challenging process because you want so bad for it to go quickly, but it can't and it won't. I know that if I just keep pushing through I will be so happy and feel so good!

Thank you to everyone! You have all been so supportive and helpful! I love all the tips I have been given!!

I will keep you posted!

Halloween Party! #2

2009-10-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

Hannah loved walking along the table with her uncle Derek! We love how she would lift her one knee up so high!!

Halloween Party!

2009-10-28T11:56:00.001-07:00

The cutest lamb you'll ever see!!

I had fun making Hannah's costume this year although she only wore it for about 5 min! She was so cute, just look at those ears!!

Hannah and Chris chillin! Chris is Batman!

Our family photo! How boring was I...just an 80's girl!

The brothers! Chris as Batman, Derek as I think a Flash/Robber Man, and Ryan as the character from Fight Club.

Lu Anne and Gary! Gary had lots of fun scaring all the little Kids!!

Hannah loves her cousins. She just talked and smiled at Natalie the whole time she held her!

Hannah discovered the Piano! Kretha let her pound away on the keys and Hannah smiled and sang along!

Yummy Carrots!

2009-10-21T15:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we decided to let Hannah try some new food! She got to try Carrots for the first time. This face was so funny for the first few bites! She did eat for a bit, but wasn't very enthusiastic about it. Today was a different story! I couldn't feed her fast enough! She just loved her new food!! Hopefully she won't be a picky eater!

Carrots go everywhere!!

5 months already!!

2009-10-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe she is 5 months old!!

She is getting close to rolling over more now.

She is starting to sit up on her own as well. Not completely, but very close!

Always smiling and thinks I am funny!!!

Admitting Defeat

2009-10-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

I have a story and I need help.

Obviously I just had a baby and that is the biggest reason for my issue but I have struggled with self determination my whole life! I am talking about my weight and how it has slowly gotten a little more out of control than I like. What I decided was to just eat as much chocolate as I possibly can and be happy...Just Kidding! I decided that I need help and I think what can help me out is if I blog! In my mind what I need to for others to know that I am trying. I think if I can blog and show my progress it will help me to see what I can do and how much I really am accomplishing. Plus it will give me a really good reason to keep up with it, because if I don't the blogging world will know about it and I will look stupid and lazy! So I am forcing myself to stick to it this time and even if you don't care, this will help me out!

My Plan:

I will post a picture of myself starting out and then once a week or month to show any progress I am making.

I will post the exercises I do each day and any other details to my dieting plan.

I will be on the weight watchers diet, since it has helped me before and I know I can stick to it!

I have never been good at being healthy! I am not a good exercise person, but I long to be. I know this is a life change I need to make and I am willing to begin now! Please let me know if you have any ideas that have worked for you or have any motivation for me! I know I can do this and I know it will take some time! I can do it so watch out...here I come!

Rice Cereal, Quilting and more!

2009-10-07T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hannah has had her first taste of rice cereal! The first feeding as you will see here she didn't really understand what I was doing, but she now loved to eat! In the video you will also get to see Chris's lunch and yes our plant Wilford is on a pizza box! Nice huh? This video was about 2 weeks ago. Sorry it took so long to post...it's kinda long as well.

Rice Cereal from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

See this is proof that Hannah likes her cereal now!

These next 2 pictures are dedicated to Karen K. I don't know if she will see, but I saw the quilt she started making on her blog and I loved it. So i created my own pattern and started one myself. I want to make it a larger quilt so I still have a lot of squares to cut out but it really hasn't taken long. It's been nice to have a project again!

Hannah and I have been walking Chris to school each morning. We only live 2 blocks from his first class so it's only a 10 min walk! It's nice to get out and get a walk in everyday. So here is Hannah in her pink fluffy coat!

Hannah and her daddy!

Arizona

2009-09-24T09:54:00.001-07:00

We went to Arizona last week and had a lot of fun. We were able to go for 10 days, of course it was HOT, and this was my first trip on an airplane! I had tons of fun! (Hannah, on the other hand didn't like it to much!) But we made it through!

Chris served his mission in Mesa and surrounding areas so we got to see old neighborhoods and places he remembered. It was nice to finally see what he talks about.

Our first stop was the Mesa Temple. Very beautiful! We also went and saw the Joseph Smith movie in the visitor center there and loved it!

This is Camel Back Mountain. We tried to climb it...Hahaha! We were only 20 min from the top, but it started getting late and we did not want to climb back down in the dark. There are parts on this mountain you basically rock climb! It was hard! I won't lie! I am way out of shape! But very beautiful and fun! Hannah did very well!

(look how huge my boobs look! Man, i need a reduction!)

So on two parts of the climb they have added these railings for you to hold on to as you go up! I wouldn't have made it without them!

Here is Chris and Hannah feeling hot and taking a rest!

A beautiful view!

The next adventure was seeing the Desert Botanical Gardens. They had many different cactus and desert plants there to see.

It was fun, but hot and as you can see Hannah does not like Hot weather! We had to leave early! Poor girl!

One of our favorite parts was Sedona. It is up in the red rock country and absolutely breathtaking! I was able to get a cool Turquoise ring while we were there!

These rock chairs are about $8,000.00 each!

This was a huge highlight to our little adventure in Sedona!! This is a Tarantula Wasp dragging a paralyzed Tarantula!! Look how HUGE that thing is! I guess what it does is sting and paralyze the Tarantula, then drag it back to it's home, lay it's eggs in the spider, then when the eggs hatch they eat the Tarantula! Gross!!

Chris and our friend Ben got out to take pictures and the wasp actually challenged them. It started flying around the car......me and Hannah safely shut inside!! We left at that point, but crazy wild life huh??

We did have lots of fun! Arizona was great and it was nice to get away! The main thing I noticed about the difference between Oregon heat and dry heat was that in Arizona if you would step into the shade you were instantly cooler! Even if a cloud would cover the sun you would feel cooler!

Hope you enjoyed the pics!

4 months already??

2009-09-23T10:16:00.001-07:00

Can you believe this cutie is 4 months already?

She is 14lbs 91/2 oz

26 3/4 inches long

head 42 cm.

She loves to talk,giggle, stick her tongue out, stand up and grab whatever her hands touch.

She is so much fun and is growing up way to fast!!

2009-09-04T19:33:00.000-07:00

So much has been going on this summer! We have hardly been at home in Corvallis. It has been fun to see family and be able to travel around doing whatever! We have been mostly to Springfield and Portland, with one trip to Grants Pass.

The last exciting trip is coming up in less than a week now!... We will be going to Arizona and this will be my first...yes my ( Kim) first time on an Airplane!

I know! I am super excited!!We will be down there for 10 days visiting Chris's Mission area and friends we have down there!! I can't wait to go! I will have new pics soon of our adventures!!

Hannah the Model

2009-08-12T19:27:00.000-07:00

So Hannah let me have a photo shoot of her today! She did so well as I put new outfits on her and tried to pose her with new props! We had lots of fun and now I have a ton of pictures to photo shop around with! I know they are not professional at all, but hey this was a lot cheaper!! Here are just a few of them!

A little of everything

2009-08-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Hannah had her first swimming experience about 2 weeks ago. Brynne and her boys came to Corvallis and went to the pool with us! We had lots of fun and Hannah even stayed in the water longer than we thought she would. The swimsuit she has on is actually a 12 month swimsuit so hopefully it will fit her next year too!!

Hannah with her cousin Dane.

She still loves those hands!

Hannah with her Grandpa Brannies!

The way her hands are most of the day!

Finding Her Hands!

2009-07-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

2 Months

2009-07-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Weight: 11 lbs 13 oz

Height: 23 3/4 inches

She is growing up so fast!!

She is constantly working on getting her hands in her mouth.

Loves to smile, almost laughing.

Still hates tummy time.

Loves her daddy, gets cute shy smiles every time he says hi!

Spits up all the time.

Loves her swing.

Our little bundle of joy!

Blessing cutie

2009-07-11T21:21:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of Hannah in her adorable blessing dress and bonnet. My mom made them both and they turned out so amazing and very professional looking might I add. Thank you so much mom! I love it!

Hannah did so well during her blessing (slept through it all) and Chris did an amazing job. I am so grateful for to have a worthy priesthood holder for a husband and so blessed to be sealed to him forever. I love you Chris.

Random cute ones

2009-07-07T14:45:00.001-07:00

Here are some cute random pictures for your enjoyment!

Hannah does not like tummy time!

Weekend Fun!!

2009-07-06T12:54:00.001-07:00

This last sunday we had Hannah's blessing. It was so wonderful to have all of our family there and to see the support she has in her life. Thank you to everyone who came! I still need to download the pictures from my camera, so more to come later!

Kevin also surprised us this weekend! The paper he is holding in his hand is his MISSION CALL!! Yippee!!! He will be going to the Czech Prague mission! I am so proud of him! He will be an amazing missionary. He reports to the MTC on October 14th!!

Nap time

2009-06-30T11:49:00.000-07:00

We have made progress!! Hannah is learning to fall asleep on her own! I am so excited! We have been able to lay her down the last few nights and although she would cry a bit after a few min she would fall asleep! Now for more wonderful news- I just laid her down in her crib and with the help of her binky she fell asleep and it has been 20 min so far! I am super excited that she is having a nap time where I don't have to hold her! That is what we originally where having to do. She always wants to be held, but lately she has fun hanging out on her own for a little while!! Baby steps!! I am just glad I can get a few things done!! Yippee!!

Skin problems!

2009-06-22T21:32:00.000-07:00

So for the past 2 weeks Hannah has broken out with baby acne! The poor thing just keeps getting worse. Now she has patches of cradle cap along with the acne. I know it will get better with time, I am just glad she doesn't know! She is still just as cute, I just miss her soft little face...right now it just feels dry and scaly.

Beach Trip

2009-06-19T19:16:00.001-07:00

Hannah had her first trip to the beach! We decided to make a trip over there for the week Chris has for summer vacation!We went to Newport and stayed in a yurt for the night at South Beach! We had a lot of fun and Hannah enjoyed it as well! She was such a good and cute baby the whole time! The beach was very nice as well. No wind and somewhat warm...we even got out feet wet!

Hannah loves this carrier. She falls asleep everytime!!

One Month Old

2009-06-17T18:15:00.001-07:00

Can you believe she is already a month old? It seems like she has always been in our lives, but time has flown by so fast since she arrived!

Hannah is so much fun and more beautiful everyday!

She is 9 lbs 13 oz.

She loves to be held.

She can look and follow us with her eyes.

She has smiled at us and even laughed.

She doesn't like her arms to be wrapped up anymore, which means she wakes herself up when her arms fly around.

She loves to sit up.

She can hold her head up pretty well and loves doing it.

She is such a joy in our lives!!

Hannah looks at us!

2009-06-12T21:43:00.001-07:00

Untitled from Kim Blevins on Vimeo.

The many faces and cute Hannah Moments!

2009-06-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the many faces of Hannah! I love to watch how many faces one little baby can have! She is growing each day and we love to see what new thing is in store for us!

I do have to tell you that she smiled at me!! She is getting so good at focusing and the other day me and Chris both witnessed her watching me talk to her and then she smiled at me! Oh it was amazing!!

She loves to hold her own binky in!!

This is her favorite way to snuggle after she eats!

I love it too!

Chris set her under the mobile on her crib and she was so intrigued by it! I have a video I will post soon!

Our new trick! When she was sleeping today I would just wedge her between the couch cushion and the blanket and she thought we were still cradling her!

Daddy's new hair due for her! She looked so cute all day with her little mohawk!

First Photo Shoot

2009-05-30T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hannah had her first photo shoot this last Monday! A lady I used to work with gave me a free photo shoot for my baby shower gift. We had lots of fun trying to work with Hannah. She did pretty well for only being 9 days old!

The Family

This is Hannah's famous face! Her eyebrows are pretty much always furrowed like this!

So this picture was fun to try! Hannah did not like being naked! After only two shots like this, she decided to get back at us by peeing all over Chris! Well only his hands got hit and the fabric that was under her. It was funny to see!

Her cute feet!

All three of our hands!

Of course there is more!

2009-05-22T17:23:00.001-07:00

She loves the swing!

I love her smiles! She has lots of good dreams that we get to enjoy as well!

Her first bath time!! We love the towel Brynne!

Her Cousins loved hanging out. Janae did a very good job holding her!

More cuteness!!!

2009-05-20T21:02:00.000-07:00

....................Hannah Kristine Blevins

2009-05-18T18:32:00.001-07:00

Here she is!! Hannah Kristine Blevins was born on Saturday May 16, 2009 at 7:37am. She was 8lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long. She has already changed so much since our first look at her! We are all amazed at how much thick dark hair she has. We have been calling her our little Indian girl!

On Friday night me and Chris decided to go out to dinner since it may be a while until we can go again. All throughout dinner I was having Braxton Hicks about every 5 min. We came home to watch a movie and they continued to come. I was trying not to get excited and was sure that when I stood up and moved they would stop. We went to bed about 9:30 which I was able to fall asleep, but woke up 2 or 3 times by the time 12:30 came around, very achy and sore. At about 12:30 when I woke up I realized my lower back was very sore and that the pain came in a contraction. I got up to see what came of them. I was able to time 3 of them about 4 min apart and they were becoming more and more painful.

At this point I tried to lay back down and rest, Chris woke up to help me through because they just continued to get worse. At 3:30am we decided to go to the hospital. We got there about 4am, got checked in and went up to our room. When they first checked me I was still about 3 centimeters. They said they would check me again in an hour to see if I had progressed and then I would be able to get an epidural. When the hour was up they came in to check me and I had already made it to 6 centimeters!! Yippee I instantly asked for the drugs. The anesthesiologist was not at the hospital, but they called him to come in. After about 20 more minutes they came in and checked me again and to everyones surprise I was already at 8 centimeters!! I was excited, but the bad news came that I wouldn't be able to get an Epidural!!! AHHHHH! Thats what I thought! I asked if there was anything that they could give me, which they could so I did get a painkiller into my IV which did take the edge off a bit. Within another 20 minutes they checked me again and I was at 10 centimeters! The doc came in and we basically began pushing. I was very very blessed because Hannah was as anxious to come as I was to push her out. We pushed for about 10-15 minutes and out she came.

She was beautiful and all the pain just went away by seeing her face!! It is so amazing being a mom and having such a precious little girl to hold in my arms!! We are doing well now at home and are looking forward to everything!!

So OSU donated a whole bunch of baby hats to the hospital for newborns...Hannah did not like wearing a Beaver on her head!! We found a new hat for her to wear!

She loves to snuggle!!!

.....................Labor please come

2009-05-14T09:56:00.001-07:00

We had a doctors appointment yesterday and I am 3 centimeters and 50% effaced! Yippeee! Hopefully soon!

..................ummmmm Look------->

2009-05-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

Can you believe what that number says right there!! Only 7 more days.....I think she may come before that! I know I know I shouldn't get my hopes up....but hey soon enough!!!

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