My little monkey, Hannah, turns TWO today! I can't believe that I became a mom two years ago. She has been such a blessing in our lives and continues to be an AWESOME big sister to Gryffyn. Here is a picture from this morning. She is wearing her birthday crown and her Funky Monkey shirt....very appropriate.

Oliver has been really awesome with the girls lately. He has always had a soft spot for Hannah, but I think he really likes Gryffyn now that she is eating REAL food. This means that she is now dropping REAL food from her highchair that Oliver can enjoy.
I am really loving the fact that we got Hannah a kitchen for her birthday this year. I have said it before and I will say it again...If the girls are awake, they are at the Pink Polka Dot Kitchen cooking up a storm!
We had to head to the storage unit today and everyone seemed to be in a good mood even though that is not something someone WANTS to plan on doing on a Saturday.

Gryffyn laughing at me being silly...

Hannah riding her tricycle that is in the storage unit...

Hannah also got to ride her rocking horse...also you might have seen this outfit on Hannah a few times before, but today was the first time she dressed herself. Yay Hannah!

And in the last bit of news, Gryffyn is really enjoying Hannah's Princess Patio Chair. It might be time for her Dearie and Papa to buy another one.

We decided to go ahead and give Hannah her birthday present from us. Since her birthday falls on the 22nd of December (so close to Christmas), we didn't want her birthday to be "lost" in the celebration of Christmas. I think celebrating her birthday earlier in December is the right way to go. First, I will say that putting this kitchen set together was not as easy as the directions said it would be. I remember a time when birthdays were all about the fun and magic. I had a picture in my head about Hannah waking up from her nap and her kitchen would be waiting for her, like it had appeared out of nowhere. Completely forgot that I would be the one assembling it during that nap! It was so worth it seeing her play and pretend to be making stuff. If she is not asleep, then she can be found at her kitchen.
Hannah likes having her assistant around to help, but I think Gryffyn "the assistant" needs to be cut off from the bar. She is a little too young.
Seriously, her eye is starting to squint like the guy on the Captain Morgan Rum bottle.

Gryffyn is starting to try more "not mashed" food. She had watermelon about a week ago and wasn't a huge fan, but she seems to really like bananas.

We had an extremely relaxing weekend! We got to hang out at the apartment in our PJs a lot of the time. We went on Saturday and Sunday for a little bit to look at houses with our realtor. We are concentrating on two different areas, either Boynton Beach or Jupiter. Both great areas and both have LOTS of positives, but we just got to see if either house has the RIGHT house for all of us. We didn't find that house this weekend, but got to know a little more options that are out there.

Gryffyn says GOOD MORNING!

Hannah helping Daniel feed Oliver on the back patio

After looking at houses, we came back to the apartment (and got back in PJs) and watched the SEC Championship Game (Auburn vs. South Carolina). It was a great game to watch and the girls were awesome by acting mildly entertained by the game. All I have to say is that on the 4th day of December, Santa gave to me a 13th VICTORY!!! Auburn is going on to the BCS Championship game on January 10th and I am so excited!

Gryffyn is STANDING!

Hannah says WAR EAGLE!

While Daniel and I were a little distracted by the game, Hannah got in the tubberware container that had birthday presents in it...what did she find?

DOLLY....a present from her Aunt Na, Uncle Dustin, Hunter and Colton

Gryffyn Sunday morning happy as can be

There are times when I get annoyed at Hannah for pushing Gryffyn down (it's happened a few times), but I really am pretty proud of her for how patient she is with Gryffyn at other times. If Hannah has slept through the night, or has had a good nap, then she will happily play with Gryffyn. Here they are playing with Legos Uncle Joshua (my brother) bought them.


Gryffyn trying watermelon for the first time...
...not too interested.
For Thanksgiving we went to visit Daniel's Aunt Ginger and Uncle Waybe. Ginger is Daniel's dad's younger sister. They live right outside of Tampa, which is about 4 hours from where we live. So we drove up Thursday morning and stayed until Saturday. We had so much fun hanging out with them. Got to eat some great turkey on Thanksgiving, go to the Manatee Estuary on Friday, and watch an awesome Iron Bowl...War Damn Eagle!!!

Here are some pictures from our trip...

Moving in and working on getting organized with a 23 month old and 8 month old is rather difficult! Thankfully at this age they do not realize what toys are around, what toys are in storage, and can't remember that the toys that are out are not new! So they are enjoying those toys while I unpack and try to remember why we had these items in the first place and try to reason why not to throw something away.
A few new interesting developments are that Gryffyn is now crawling, and Hannah likes hairbows. Hannah now likes hairbows because Gryffyn now has enough hair to wear bows. So if Gryffyn has a bow, Hannah needs a bow!
The first full weekend down here we went to Kristin's house to watch the Auburn game with Kristin and Bink. Bink has been friends with Daniel for over 10 years (since Auburn) and friends with me for over 5 years (Auburn Water Polo Alum game) and we were all roommates when I first moved to FL (the first time) in 2005. Kristin is Bink's fiancee and is a really awesome woman (Hannah LOVES her!).



Hannah has also become really interested in the camera lately. She automatically smiles when I get the camera out, nevermind turning it on and LOVES to take pictures!

Hannah took this picture!

Gryffyn didn't make it through storytime--passed out!

Closing Day and the Beginning of the Move

As I mentioned in the last post, Daniel took a job down in Boynton Beach, FL. On November 4th, he flew up from FL and we started loading up the truck we rented. Turns out we had accumulated A LOT of stuff in the three years we had been in TN and needed more than one truck! We thankfully found a moving company available to help us move that night with a bunch of help from our friends Brandy and David Calhoun, Todd and Georgia Martin, and Kandi Ward. I don't think we could have done it without everyone's help!

On November 5th, we met with our realtor, Vicki Blackwell to sign all the paperwork and started our move. It takes 18 hours (supposedly) to get from Oakland, TN to Boynton Beach, FL so we decided to break it into 3 days to make it easier for the girls. On the first day we drove to Auburn, AL and stayed with my brother. On the second day we drove to Jacksonville, FL. And on the third day, we arrived! Our friend Shannon Falzone watched the girls while we unloaded the trucks...wow, were we tired! Here are our cute travelers...they were awesome!

Halloween Weekend

My parents came to visit us (Hannah, Gryffyn, and me) the weekend of Halloween. The reason they did not visit Daniel is that he had already moved. After much talking and decision making, we decided it would be a good opportunity for Daniel to take a job with Peachtree Financial down in Boynton Beach, FL. He began working for them September 27th and we decided the girls and I would follow after the house sold. We were extremely thankful that that process only took 6 weeks! More on that in the next post...back to Halloween weekend.

My parents met us at Fair in the Square on Friday in Collierville, TN. It was packed!!! But a great place to go for trick or treating door to door of shops and very family-oriented. The girls got to wear their costumes and we took tons of pictures!

Here are the girls getting ready for our debut to Fair in the Square...

Hannah had to make sure her hat was right, and Gryffyn was STARVING!

My parents with the cutest butterfly and ladybug!

Hannah and me

Gryffyn and me

Afterwards, my parents treated us to Chili's...yum yum!

the coloring queens!

Papa willingly sharing his corn on the cob

The next day my parents helped me out a ton while I debuted Lainey Bell Designs at Germanfest Oakland Fair/Festival. Lainey Bell Designs is named after the girls' middle names (Hannah Laine and Gryffyn Bell) and sells nursery decor type items (canvas, height charts, blankets, hairbow holders, baby wipe containers). I think I did pretty good for my first fair/festival, but I don't think I paid my dad enough in S&P coffee for all the work he did helping me set up/ take down of all the equipment.

On Sunday, my parents said a tearful goodbye since we would be moving the next week and the girls and I prepared for Halloween night at the Barkers' house. Kyle and Holly, and their twins, Grayden and Eva, invited us over for chili and trick or treating! It was so much fun and I don't think I could have trick or treated with the girls without Kyle and Holly's help!

Here are a few pictures from that night...