Christmas in Paradise

We were able to spend 10 day's in California at my parent's house over Christmas and New Year's. It has been year's since we have been able to stay for so long. One of the few perk's of the student life again :-)

I sure do miss the ease of traveling from Provo to Paradise. Now we have to drive an hour and a half to Spokane, fly to Portland, catch a 2nd flight to Sacramento, and then drive another hour and a half to Paradise. It was definitely worth it. Hannah made it easier on us by traveling like a champ coming and going, thanks princess. She LOVES having her own seat on the airplane, so I guess something good comes out of having to pay for her to fly now.

We got into town 2 day's before Christmas and spent that time getting some last minute Christmas shopping done. 3 of my 4 siblings were able to be there for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, which was wonderful. On Christmas Eve we had a yummy Prime Rib dinner and went for a drive to look at Christmas lights. When we woke up on Christmas Day we found that Santa came and left Hannah a sweet ride along with some goodies in her stocking.

We waited for David and his wife Alaina to go open presents with her family before we opened ours. Which actually worked out perfect because we were able to shower and eat a scrumptious breakfast of aebleskiver's (a Danish pancake and Ainsworth tradition) and egg's before we all opened our gifts. We got so many great things and basically made out like bandits. Even baby boy got spoiled with gifts from Grandma and Grandpa. We spent the rest of the day lounging out, playing basketball outside, eating a ham dinner and going to the movies. It was a wonderful Christmas.

The remainder of the trip we ate and ate and ate....good thing I'm pregnant and supposed to be gaining weight, otherwise I would have been in trouble. My parents sure know how to host. We went to the movies again, this time taking Hannah to see Tangled for the 3rd time :-) She loves that movie. Especially the horse in it named Max. Whenever he was on screen she would make horse sounds, yell horsey, or talk about the apples he was eating. I guess I owe an apology to the other people in the theater....but at least they were happy sounds right? We also played a lot of Playstation 3, watched football, went out to lunch/dinner, and just had fun spending time with family.

New Year's Eve was pretty low key, which is just the way we like it. We stayed up to watch the ball drop, toasted with sparkling cider, and kissed our spouses goodnight. Can you believe that it is 2011????

On New Year's Day my brother Justin and his friend took Jake shooting while we were there. It worked out great because Hannah and I hung out with my sister-in-law Deena and her 2 adorable little girl's while the guy's were out shooting stuff. Thanks for bringing my husband home in one piece Justy :-) That evening we helped my parents make our traditional dinner of tamales. Yum.

We flew home the day after New Year's. When we got off the plane in Spokane Hannah started asking if we were going to see Grandma Geri. And when we got to the parking lot she was talking about Geri's Car. It is fair to say Hannah loves her Grandma Geri and all the family she got to see over Christmas. Thank you for a wonderful Christmas and New Year's Grandma Geri and Grandpa Ron! On our way home Jake and I talked about how relaxing and perfect our trip to Paradise was. We look forward to seeing you again in a few weeks for the birth of baby boy :-)

Now for some pictures from the trip:

We have a 2 year old

Hannah girl turned 2 on Friday. We had a little party with Jake's family while we were there for Thanksgiving. She got some fun present's and we sang Happy Birthday to her. To celebrate on her Birthday we went out to dinner at a local thai restaurant. Turn's out Hannah loves thai food. Especially chicken satay and pad thai. She ate like a champ.

On Saturday was her birthday party. We combined with another family in our ward whose girl also turned 2 the same week. It was a Fancy Nancy themed party. The birthday girl's dressed up in Fancy Nancy dresses with necklaces and crown's. It was adorable. We ate food, played a couple of games, opened presents, and had some yummy cupcakes. It was perfect.

Hannah's big birthday present from us was a brand new kitchen. Which I put together myself. Jake was busy studying for final's, and I couldn't wait for Hannah to start playing with it. We found it on Amazon for a great deal. It is the pertiest little kitchen I've ever seen. But I am never putting anything together again. It took me 4 hours. Certainly at least twice as long as it would have taken Jake. And when I was "finished" there were 3 pieces that were left unused. Turn's out I missed a crucial step. I forgot to put the back board's on before I built the rest. Obviously I delegated Jake to fix my mistake :-) Thanks babe.

Hannah's brand new kitchen

Hannah at 2

Our absolute favorite new thing that Hannah does is she thanks us for everything. If you hand her something, or help her with something, or basically do anything for her she will say "ank you mama" or "ank you dada" (aka "thank you"). It is he cutest thing in the world. She looks you in the eyes when she say's it and it makes you feel like you just did the most important thing that's ever been done for her.

She loves food. Chicken, ham, cheese, crackers, pasta, bread, pea's, corn (especially corn on the cob), apples, oranges, bananas, fruit snacks, cookies, egg's, waffles, cream of wheat...are all among her favorites. She is a very independent eater and is very skilled with fork's and spoons. Which makes it much easier on me at meal-times.

She has a sleeping schedule. We put her down at 9:30pm and she wakes up around 8am. She takes a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Man do I love those nap's. I hope she keep's it up.

She loves being "priey" (aka pretty). She is constantly getting into my makeup and she trys to put thing's on while saying "priey". When I am putting makeup on she will come in and ask to be "priey" too. She also loves to wear crown's and necklaces.

Loves to help clean. Give her a rag and she will wipe down anything for you.

Loves to color, play with blocks, and puzzles. And she enjoy's having someone play with her. I can't count the # of times in a day where she grab's my hand and drag's me over to join her in play.

Say's new word's and phrases all the time. She is doing less and less jibberish and more talking.

LOVES her baby dolls. She is constantly kissing and hugging her babies. Yesterday she sat baby in the high chair and brought over a container and spoon and stood there feeding the baby.

She does not like nursery. It is mostly our fault for accompanying her into nursery because she would cry when we would try to leave. She has gone the past 2 Sunday's staying in nursery the whole time without us. Of course she cries at first, but within 10 minutes she is playing and eating snack's like nothing is wrong. We need a better method with the next one.

She like's to go "bye bye in da car". She will first ask if we are going to get dada. And if I say no she assumes we are going to see "Jaaa" (aka Jack, her best baby boy bud). She adores Jack and is so sweet with him. She will tickle him, pat him, and bring him toy's. The way she treat's him makes me less worried for the transition when the little man join's us in a couple of month's.

If her eyes were open this would be the perfect representation of our joyful little 2 year old

Happy Birthday pumpkin!
Playing pin the crown on the princess at her birthday party
The 2 Birthday Girls
She did such a great job blowing out her candle!
Chowing down on her cupcake
Opening presents
She loves wearing her crown and necklaces around the house. She really is such a princess.

Happy Birthday to our sweet little angel!!

Thanksgiving in Boise

We drove to Boise this year for Thanksgiving. The drive there wasn't bad at all. Hannah was content to watch her movies and it only took us about 6 hours. We had a ton of fun with Jake's family. Jake had a week off for Thanksgiving, but unfortunately his final exam's started right after break, so he spent quite a bit of time studying. That didn't stop the rest of us from having fun :-) I managed to get almost all my Christmas shopping for Jake's family while we were there. We ate TONS of excellent food. We also took Hannah to see Tangled. Such a cute movie!! And Hannah loved it. She sat there and watched the entire thing. I guess we can officially start taking her to movies again, haha.

On Monday night I watched Dancing With The Stars with some highly unlikely viewers: Papa and my brother-in-law Mike. They didn't just watch it with me, they critiqued the performances, predicted scores, reacted when the scores didn't match up with what they saw, and I loved every second of it :-) So fun! Toward's the end of the program the kid's came out of the play room and noticed the music. They all started dancing and even Papa joined in on the fun. Here is a short clip of them getting their groove on.

Dance Party from Gretchen Pollard on Vimeo.

On Tuesday night we drove to Nampa to visit our good friend's the Bower's. It was so good to see them! They fixed us up a fabulous dinner and we had a wonderful time. They have a 1 year old son named Samuel, and they are expecting a baby girl next month. Hannah and Samuel played so well together! Hannah is not big on hugging, but when we said by to them she gave Samuel multiple hugs with pat's on the back. It was adorable, and fitting since they have a prearranged marriage :-)

Illnesses plagued part of our trip. On Weds Jake's sister Aubrey was in so much pain that she had to go to the ER. They weren't able to pin-point the exact cause, but the doctor thinks it was a ruptured cyst. Scary. She recovered quickly and we are sooo glad. On Sat Hannah came down with a high fever. Fortunately it went away by morning, but it was a rough 12 hours for her.

Sunday afternoon we said goodbye to family and headed home. The drive was 8 hours instead of 6 due to snowy road condition's and accident's that blocked traffic. It felt so good to finally get home. It is gorgeous here in Moscow. It became a winter wonderland while we were gone.

Time for pictures!!

Macy, Katelyn, and Hannah played so well together. Hannah and Macy (4 yrs old) just adore each other. I love that even though we are separated by distance, there is still an undeniable love and connection between Hannah and her cousin's.

Above is Hannah with her Mimi, Papa, and Uncle B. She loves them all so much. We truly are blessed with wonderful families, on both sides. We love and miss you guy's already!

Another Reason We Love Shutterfly

Hello blogging friend's.

Guess what folks? Shutterfly.com is doing a special promotion where you get 50 free holiday card's for writing up a blog post about Shutterfly and the amazingness that is this company/website. I have used Shutterfly a lot over the years.

I made Jake this photo book last year as a Father's Day Present. I have also made photo books as present's for my parent's and Jake's parent's. Last year I made a Christmas card on their site that I just loved. This year I am working on another one, here is the sneak peak.

With Love Chartreuse Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

They have so many beautiful Christmas Card designs. Go here to check them out and make one of your own! Photo Calender's and Personalized Card's also make great gifts. Shutterfly.com is very user friendly and always has special discounts and promotion's to make your creation's even more affordable. Now go to Shutterfly.com and get started on your own masterpiece!

Hello 3rd Trimester

On Saturday I was officially 28 week's pregnant. Which mean's I am in the 3rd and final trimester of this pregnancy. Wowzer's. I felt the little guy hiccup for the first time a couple of day's ago. So precious. According to the ultrasound he weigh's about 3 lbs, has chubby cheeks, big lips, big eyes, and an attachment to his hand being right by his face. We are so excited to meet him. And now we just have to weight 2.5 months.

Baby bump at 28 weeks

Trip Home to the Paradise City

Hannah and I spent last week with my parent's in good ol Paradise. We had a lot of fun with them. Hannah just loves her "Gama Geriii" and "Papa". She loved all the attention she got from them. And if Grandma wasn't paying attention to Hannah, she new exactly how to get it back. She was constantly yelling "Geeeerrrriiiii!!!" if she didn't know where she went. It was pretty precious. We mostly just hung out at home. But on Tues night we had BIG plan's :-)

We went to the So You Think You Can Dance Live Tour at the ARCO Arena. It was awesome!!! Hannah went with us and did remarkably well. The show was 2.5 hours long and she clapped and danced right along with them. A man sitting near us commented on Hannah's rhythm and thought that she was taking dance classes. But when we informed him she wasn't even 2 yet he was even more impressed. The show was amazing. Our seat's could have been better, but next time we'll know to get stadium seat's and not ones on the floor. Otherwise it was a perfect night.

On Thursday Hannah got her flu shot. She only cried for about 10 second's and never complained since. She is such a trooper. Right after her shot I had a 3D Ultrasound appointment (Thanks Padre!!). Since my dad refer's so many patient's to this Ultrasound office they did it free of charge! Usually it would cost about $200. One of the many privileges of having an OBGYN for a dad.

On Thursday night we drove up to Lake Tahoe. Which is one of the most gorgeous places on earth. We ate yummy food, hung out in the condo with the fire place going, played, and just enjoyed being together. Thanks so much for an incredible weekend mom and dad! Not to mention a great week. We love you guy's and can't wait to be together again for Christmas!

We visited Justin and his family on Sunday. Hannah had a lot of fun riding this rocking horse.

Hannah with her adorable cousin's


I love getting them together

Grandma and Grandpa bought Hannah this beautiful Belle costume at Disneyland a couple of week's ago. Hannah LOVED wearing it.

She loved admiring herself in the mirror too.

Our beautiful baby boy! Check out those chubby cheek's and big lips!

He was yawning :-) He also kept his hand up by his face almost the entire ultrasound.

Hannah playing on Grandma Geri

It looks like Hannah had a lot more fun doing this than Grandma did...

Proof that we went to the SYTYCD Live Tour :-) Pretty good shot for no flash eh?
2 of my favorite dancer's. Allison and Kent. Love them!
Check out this action shot!! I caught the boy's mid air. That is pure photographic genius right there, haha.
A cute shot of part of the cast. Robert was looking gooooooooooooooood
Russell after his krumping solo. He is intense.
Ade and Billy dancing one of my favorite all time dances. Mad World by Stacey Tookey. Look it up on Youtube, it is amazing.

And that was our week in a nut shell!

Christmas Family Photos 2010

Last year my sister in law Rashell took our family pictures. Go here to reminisce with me how much our little Hannah has grown in a year. Since we moved far away from Rashell and her fabulous photography skills I had to find someone else to take our pictures this year. Kassy Whetten of Whetten Photography is in our ward and she took our pictures last weekend. They turned out great! I posted some of my favorites but you can go to her blog and check out more of them.