~ The Healds ~

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

January and February Fun

The months of January and February were filled with many fun memories. We stuck with our New Year's goal of traveling less.....I know it's hard to believe, but we still haven't traveled out of town (overnight) since Christmas break. Hannah has enjoyed lazy days at home with mom and dad, Saturdays at gymnastics, taking her first soccer class, making Valentines for her friends and family, cooking with Nonnie, riding her first horse and of course having it all captured on camera along the way! :) The following pictures summarize some of what we've been up to during the past two months.

Ready for our underground tour of the Winchester Mystery House

In front of the Winchester Mystery House with Sean and Nicole

Lunch and drinks before heading to a San Jose Sharks hockey game

Ready to go on a hike at Alliance Redwoods

showing off Valentines cookies she baked with Nonnie

Enjoying a cookie with Nonne

watering her new blueberry plant

It amazes me that March is already here and that Hannah will be 2 in less than a month. She is saying so much more these days and it is so much fun to have conversations with her. She continues to love to dance (I need to make a point of catching her on the video camera), she's still a great eater and sleeper, hasn't hit the terrible two's yet ("knock on wood"!), is working on counting to 20, loves singing along to the radio, enjoys giving hugs and kisses to her friends, gives me enthusiastic "Cheeeeese!" when taking a picture, loves to help mom and dad cook in the kitchen and then try to recreate it in her own little kitchen, is excited about her 2nd birthday and told us she wants a Hello Kitty party. :)

First time riding a horse at Howarth Park....not so sure at first

started loving it about 30 seconds later

carousel ride with dad

train ride with mom

baking Valentines cupcakes for her friends

"Cheeeeese!!!"

showing off her new pillow (part of her Valentine from mom and dad)

ready to head to Ian and Zoe's birthday party....looks so much older to me here!

This is her "Can we please stop taking pictures" face :)

was so excited to hold her friend Carter (8 months old)

bath time fun!

Ready for her first soccer class

listening to her coach :)

taking a break with her BFF Kenzie

also loved running with the ball and telling us she was playing football

Having fun at daycare with Kenzie

with her friends at Daycare

Friday, February 18, 2011

A look back at 2010

2011 has gotten off to such a busy start that I haven't had time to sit down and catch up on our blog in almost two months now! I usually start the new year off taking a look back at the previous year's highlights. 2010 was a wonderful year filled with many firsts for Hannah and wonderful memories created with our family and friends. I made a New Years resolution to make of point of not always filling up our weekends with plans & traveling and to focus on spending more time at home relaxing and enjoying the little things we take for granted. It seems like we always have so many fun opportunities of places to travel to, and outings with friends & family. In past years we've rarely turned down an invitation and tend to create plans for the weekends we have free. We've started off the new year implementing our "less traveling/less crazy schedule" plan and have successfully stayed in town for a total of 6 straight weekends in a row (a record for us!). It has been so much fun spending more time doing things at home or in the Sonoma county area (a good reminder of why we love where we live so much!) I'll have to save catching up on the past 6 weeks for my next blog post because I want to focus this post on the highlights of 2010.

Hannah's Highlights

Turning 1 year old :)

Ready for her first birthday party

enjoying her party

1st steps on April 4th (Easter Sunday) the day of her actual birthday

First plane flight (14 months old) Traveled to North Caroline with mom and Nonnie

Enjoyed many sunny days on our boat...she's definitely a lake girl!

First time tubing with mom :) (15 months old)

Walking down the aisle in Auntie Cole and Uncle Sean's wedding (her first time as a flower girl) She did great!!!

So proud of the first pumpkin she carved with mom and dad

Loved being able to feed the animals this year

Was happy as long as Santa wasn't in the picture :)

We have such an amazing group of friends and always have a blast with them. Below are a handful of pictures capturing fun moments with friends from 2010

2010 Barrel Tasting Group (photo taken at Unti winery) Last year was probably our 5th or 6th year going as a group. Can't wait for this year's trip!

One of many girls dance parties at Ramona's house....love my girls!

First annual Harvest Fair grape stomp with my good friend and partner Kara

Nicole's bachelorette party in Las Vegas....what a blast!!!

Daily I think about how fortunate I am to have such an amazing husband. Josh is such a loving father to Hannah. He has been such a natural father from day one. It feels so good to know that we are on the same page when it comes to raising our daughter, pitching in around the house and making decisions about the little and big things that come our way. I love Josh's passion for teaching history and coaching; his students are so fortunate to have him in the classroom.

This year we celebrated 5 years of marriage on Aug. 12th

family picture (Hannah 14 months old)

Father's Day at Lake Philsbury

Supporting our team the Oakland A's last summer

Annual Family/Friends camping trip to Union Valley

Annual trip to Reno for the rib cookoff

Multnoma Falls
(Road trip to Oregon this fall to site see and wine taste with good friends)

Family day sledding in Nevada

Celebrating my 2nd mother's day at Benbow Inn....such special memories

At Nicole and Sean's wedding reception...what an incredible day!!!

Thursday, January 6, 2011

More Christmases and New Years

Over the second half of our Winter break we enjoyed spending more time with family. On our way home from Reno we stopped in Lincoln so that Hannah could spend some time with her Nana and Papa Heald, Aunt Cassie, cousin Camryn, Aunt Mel and cousin Mazzie. The girls were too cute together playing dress up, coloring, reading books, etc... Hannah loved her cousin Camryn's new easel and reading book's in Camryn's big girl bed. In between trips we spent a few days at home. It was so nice having time just the three of us. Hannah is so fun and interactive right now. She's such a little jabberbox and gets excited about the littlest things. It's pretty cute. On the Thursday just before New Years we traveled to Humboldt to have a second Christmas with my family and ring in the New Year. Hannah enjoyed round two of spending time with her family and getting to open yet more gifts. :)

The girls showing off their new Christmas books from Nana and Papa Heald

Camryn posing for a pic with her Doll :)

Love these sweet girls

Nana and her girls (as you can see Hannah did not want to have her picture taken!)

Loungin' with cousin Brody after arriving in Humboldt

patiently covering her eyes while waiting for a surprise from Nonnie

For New Years eve this year my parents offered to keep Hannah overnight so that Josh, Nicole, Sean and I could have a night out together. After much debate we decided to head to the Scotia Inn for appetizers, drinks and dancing. Before heading to the Inn we enjoyed a nice dinner with my parents at Curleys and then went back to my parent's house for a drink before heading to Scotia. We had such a great time at the Scotia Inn. It was fun running into people I hadn't seen in awhile. The four of us also had a fun time in the photo booth they had at the Inn and getting down on the dance floor. :)