Happy New Year's!

We had a fantastic new year's in Montana. It was great to spend more time with family. Hannah was an angel on the plane rides and she even showed off some of her new skills. We watched the Gopher-Cyclone football game and had Chinese over at my Great-Grandparents' house. Joe and I enjoyed some time skiing while Grandma Karen had some daycare time with Hannah. Hannah even crawled on all fours for the first time (Jan 2) when mom and dad were away! She also began saying 'mama' which was of course a delight for me :). Hannah continues to grow and learn new skills each day (including sitting up on her own today at daycare - Jan 7). She still has not mastered sleeping through the night, but I'm sure she will get there soon (she has to right?). Meanwhile we are introducing her to new foods each day and I am hopeful that I will get some time to make her some meals from scratch. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Checking out Great Aunt Carol's classroom

Opening a present at Aunt Carol and Uncle Doug's

Go Gophers!Swimming at the hotel poolAunt Jessie and HannahEating dinner at Great-Grandma and Grandpa'sUncle Bob and HannahCrazy Great Uncle BrentSkiing at Red Lodge, MT
Grandma Daycare!
I loved Uncle Bryan's Blackberry!
Crawling!
Enjoying the hot tub after 2 days of skiing

Christmas

We had a great Christmas this year. We have had a year full of great blessings and are very excited for what the new year will bring. Joe is done interviewing! What a relief after 13 interviews across the Midwest and man am I happy to have a husband back! He submitted his rank list and we are excited to find out on January 25th where we will be for his urology residency. I believe that everything will work out the way it is supposed to and hopefully that means I will find a job wherever we end up (cross your fingers).

This year for Christmas we came back to Minnesota. I was lucky enough to take Wednesday off and so we headed up on Tuesday night ahead of the snow and ice! Thank goodness! Hannah slept the entire way up and has been an angel the entire weekend. She still isn't sleeping completely through the night, but it has been hard for me to try any of the sleep 'techniques' because it has been just me a lot while Joe has been interviewing and it is way easier to wake up and nurse her than try to let her cry it out, etc. We have been a little slow on the solid foods thing and are just starting to really introduce baby food as part of Hannah's normal diet. Hannah enjoyed scooting around all over the place and playing with her new toys. Thanks to the Grandparents for spoiling her rotten! She thoroughly enjoyed her rocking horse, million blinking lights and playing song toys, and as of recently the teething toys. Joe and I enjoyed an afternoon out while the grandparents watched Hannah, it was sure nice to be childless for just a couple hours and enjoy each other.

I have a short work week again next week as I took more vacation while we go out and do some skiing in Red Lodge and visit relatives out in Montana. We're excited for Hannah's second plane ride and to see more relatives!

Here are the pictures from our Christmas week:

Denver Visit

Joe had an interview Friday at the University of Colorado hospital and so Hannah and I decided to tag along and it also worked out that Grandma and Grandpa Zabell were also able to come along. We stayed with Joe's aunt, Jean and Maryann and had a great time! Hannah got to spend some quality time with her great-grandma Dorothy as well. We went to the Flatirons mall (where Hannah saw Santa), out to eat at Bonefish Grill, walked around Estes Park, and spent some fun time just hanging out and playing. Hannah was a great traveler and was sure loved by all throughout the whole trip. Here is a collage of some candids from the trip:

Visiting Santa

Hannah visited Santa while daddy went to his interview in Denver. More to come soon...

Hannah Chatter

Here's a cute video of Hannah telling a story about her weekend...

Weekend Fun

Friday Joe had his Nebraska interview and today he flies out to Milwaukee from Minneapolis for his Milwaukee interview tomorrow. Yesterday Hannah and I went and met Joe in Des Moines for the night. We did a little shopping, dinner, swimming, and just having fun as a family. Hannah was a little freaked out in the pool because there were a whole bunch of boys playing football stirring up the water. Hannah discovered she can put her feet in her mouth just today, so that was pretty amusing for us! She did great in our travels and slept most the way. Here are some pictures from our weekend.

Happy Halloween!

This is a little delayed .... but here is a synopsis of our Halloween.

Joe was away all weekend because he had an interview at Loyola on Friday and Michigan on Monday, so Hannah and I ventured up to Minnesota for some company. Hannah did great and she even got a little trick or treating in.

Here are some pictures: