Hannah!!!

My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in December, and while pictures and videos are lots of fun, there is nothing better than the real thing.  Well, they live about eight hours away by car, so we weren't able to be there to meet Hannah.  Reagan, Kate and I were fortunate to have the opportunity to meet up with Karen, Mark, and Hannah in Stockbridge last weekend.  We all stayed at the Red Lion Inn.  The Inn was very nice.

This was the view from our hotel room:

We had this cool light fixture above our bed.

We spent quite a bit of time wandering around the hotel.  There was a very cool gift shop with fun, unique things like:

We found a rocking horse to ride.

An old fashioned elevator was a big highlight for these beautiful girls.  We rode in it five times.  I thought it was funny to see people walking up the stairs faster than the elevator could make the trip.

Each hallway in the Inn had areas with different themes, like the Santa section.

Simon (the cat) is a permanent resident at the Inn.  We saw him twice while we were there, but he wasn't interested in hanging out with us.  Once when Karen and Mark stayed at the Inn, Simon spent the whole night in their room.

Reagan was SUPER excited about the pool.  We arrived around dinner time on Friday, and Reagan asked many times when we could go to the pool.  Well, as you can see, the pool is OUTSIDE!  It is heated, but still, it's OUTSIDE!  The temperature was definitely in the single digits, but I promised to brave the pool.  On Saturday afternoon, we got all ready and headed to the pool.  Reagan went in first and I could tell she was cold.  Mark followed her in, and he said the water was cool.  They were in there for all of three minutes, maybe.  Kate and I never made it into the pool.  

We all decided that the hot tub was a better idea.

Can you believe that I have written this much already without a single picture of Hannah?  Well, I decided to save the best part of our trip for last.  She was definitely the highlight of our trip.  Reagan and Kate are over the moon excited to have a cousin, and they are even more excited that she is a girl. The boys are excited to have a baby cousin too, but this was a girls weekend.  Hopefully, they will meet her this summer.

Reagan did a great job holding Hannah, reading to her, playing with her, and just marveling in the wonder that is "baby Hannah".  The girls call her "baby Hannah" all the time; I assume that will change someday.

It was very sweet to see Kate interacting with Hannah.  She was gentle and loving and totally in love. When Kate finally had a chance to hold her, Hannah started to cry and Kate opened her arms rolling Hannah right out.  Luckily, Karen and I were right there.  It was kind of funny.  Poor Kate; she didn't want any part of the crying.

 

I was amazed by Hannah.  She is beautiful and perfect in every way.  What a good baby too!  She was so content most of the time, and she really seemed to enjoy having the girls entertain her.  Even though we were only with them for a few short days, I loved seeing my sister as a mom.  I knew she would be great, so I wasn't surprised, but seeing her in that role was better than I ever imagined.

B is for Bear

Kate painted a cardboard cave for her bears to hibernate.

They look so cozy in there.

Kate tried to fit in another cardboard cave, but it wasn't big enough for her, so she moved on to an end table covered with a blanket.

She made a bear craft and enjoyed a bear snack.

Reagan felt like hibernating too.  Maybe it's all this cold, snowy weather, or maybe hibernating just sounds like fun.

Chinese New Year

We had a lot of fun celebrating Chinese New Year.  It was nice to have Miranda and Madison join us for the celebration.

We made candy sushi with Swedish fish inside.  Collin and Reagan both said the candy sushi we made last year with Pop Rocks (instead of Swedish fish) tasted better, so we will make that kind when we do this again next year.

The girls made Chinese New Year placemats.

Bright and early the next morning, the girls made lanterns.

Mardi Gras

Last Tuesday, we celebrated Mardi Gras!  

 We started with mask decorating.

Pancakes are a must on Fat Tuesday!

The girls did some bead painting.  I gave them paints in the Mardi Gras colors, paper, and beads, and let them get creative.

 This is Reagan's Mardi Gras bead art:

 Here is one piece of Kate's Mardi Gras bead art: