She's THREE!

Here are a few pictures from Hannah's birthday!  

Aunt Alexa made her the awesome cake!

Guess who's 3!

On December 9th we celebrated Hannah's birthday!  When I was downloading the pictures from her party I took a little look back at her last birthday's.

First Birthday!

Second Birthday!

And Number 3!!

 Monkey Mae, you are growing up too fast!  I can't believe you are already 3 years old!

DONE!

Thirteen point one miles!  Today I ran my second half marathon and it was great!  I'm already thinking about which one I want to do next (I may change my mind tomorrow when the soreness really hits).  Here are a few pics:

This was mile 3.2ish

Apparently the only pose I know for half marathons is putting both arms in the air.  

This is around mile 12.

 Alexa and I at the finish line!  We got really cool medals and some nice wraps to keep us warm.  

It was really cold!

We saw some great t-shirts that people had decorate to wear in the race.  Here are a few of my favorite t-shirt slogans that people used:

-  I thought they said this was 1.31 miles.

-  13.1 miles:  Because 13.2 miles would be just crazy!

-  Run like a Kenyan.

-  Run like an angry Kenyan.

-  Slow runner, pass on the left (I'm pretty sure we did pass her:))

- (Printed on the back of the shirt) If you can read this, I'm not last.

- Pretty girls run!

Off I go!

I'm heading out in just a few hours to drive to Savannah.  Tomorrow morning we (Alexa and I) are running the Savannah Rock N Roll Half Marathon!  Say a prayer for us as neither of us feel completely prepared:)

I'm running and raising money for blood cancer research and there is still time to donate!  Just go to www.tinyurl.com/gokimgo to make a tax deductible donation!  Thanks in advance!

Happy Birthday Todd!

Today is Todd's birthday!  Hannah eventually sings in this video if you watch through the crying:)

School pictures

Hannah had school pictures the other day.  I picked out a cute dress for her to wear and told her to go and put it on after breakfast.  She came out wearing the dress... but she also did her own accessorizing.

Traditions...

Every Saturday morning Hannah and I make banana & chocolate chip pancakes.  Hannah likes to help squash up the really ripe bananas.  Here's a tutorial for you:

Step one: Peel & squeeze the banana 

 

Step 2:  Squash with your hands.

 Step 3:  Smile and wait for Mommy to do the rest.

A few more..

Here are a few more...

This is on a T wall in Udairi Kuwait.  All units get to paint one and this is a unit from Massachusetts.

 This is Todd's company with a USC flag that I was able to get signed by Spurrier and Ray Tanner (with the help of Keven Cohen)

 These are all the Citadel grads in Todd's company.  Their unit is being recognized during the halftime show of the USC/Citadel game so a couple of us wives get to go!

Pictures From Iraq

Todd sent me some pictures from his time in Iraq so far.  Most of them are arial b/c that is Todd's view for the most part.  I think it's kind of awesome!  I'll do my best to explain them in captions.

This is looking onto the border of Turkey.  If you look closely you can see the dug in tank positions.  When Iraq is dominant they positioned tanks at Turkey and just left them there as a threat.

 This is a suburb of Baghdad.  You can see the palms near the river but just a couple hundred yards away it is complete barren dessert.

This is ONE of Saddam's palaces.  Notice the "small" house in the bottom left corner.  This would be the size of the White House.  Yikes.

Each company has "nose art".  Todd's is A Company and they are called the Nightmares (which is fitting b/c they always fly night missions)

 This is what the they call the Mega Mosque (many mosques are named like this so that the pilots can use them for orientation when flying).  Ironically this mosque was never finished so it's just a skeleton.  The Syrians came over and stopped the Iraqi's from finishing it b/c no mosque can be bigger than Mecca... and it was.

 My handsome husband holding an insurgent AK47.  He looks a little too happy here:)

 This is right after Todd's last flight with his company in Kirkuk.  He's now back in Taji.

 They like to "decorate" the hellfire missiles that they carry.  They always right funny slogans or pictures on them.  Did I mention how much I love my husband taking pictures while flying... with these on board.

 This is the border of Syria and Iraq.  This part is called the Heider Gate.

I kind of think this shot is really cool!  Helps to see his perspective while flying! 

 This is what his unit calls the Disco mosque.  You can see why!

 It's not as "disco- ey" during the day.

 This is Todd with his company's shield.  The guy in the middle is the artist.

 The Bubble Gum mosque.

 Inside the Apache hanger in Kirkuk.

 These are Uday & Qusay's palaces in Mosul.  Isn't it sweet that they were neighbors?  Now they are probably neighbors somewhere much hotter than Iraq.

 Todd and his buddy Chadd.  The two were roommates in flight school back in 2005.  Ironically they were two of the three company commanders based out of Kirkuk.  We love Chadd and his awesome wife and baby boy back in Alabama.

 These are some insurgent weapons.

 This one is called the water mosque.  There is water in the middle and in all the corners of the property.

Multi Tasking

So, the other day I found Hannah in the potty doing a little "reading".  I think she may have seen Daddy do this once or twice.  It is his old phone by the way.

Undercover

Hannah has discovered a new way to sleep.  She pulls the covers completely over her head.  I really don't know how she is comfortable.

I think her head is under there.

Feet stick out b/c she's so darn long!

First Day of "School" 2011

So Hannah started her new "school" last week!  She'll go 3 mornings a week.  So far she loves it and went right in the first day with no crying!

2011

2010

She's a talkin'

My child's vocabulary has officially surpassed mine.  She is using complete sentences with perfect inflection and she remembers EVERYTHING!  Here are a few of her most recent statements:

-  Pretty much every morning when she wakes up she'll say from her room:  "I would like something to eat Mommy."

-  One time we went and got ice cream after getting her hair cut and so now every time I ask her if she wants to go get ice cream she'll say "I have to go and get my hair cut first though."

-  "because" is pretty much her favorite word and she actually knows how to use it, although sometimes her explanations don't quite add up.  For example "We're going swimming because we eat strawberries."

-  She still hasn't really started naming things, but every time I ask her what something's name is she'll say it's name is "new battery".  The only reason I think she says this is because a few months ago I replaced the batteries on one of her favorite toys and I made a big deal out of it having new batteries.  Lesson learned.

-  She repeat's a lot!  Warning to my family members that have dirty mouths:)  The other day she was acting up and she looked at me and said "I'm killin' you mommy."

-  At night after I give her a goodnight kiss she'll quietly say "goodnight mom."  It literally sounds like she's 18.

Holy cow she's cute.

My friend Karin Curtis took these awesome shots and did an amazing job!  Check out her blog and website at www.rockitblog.com.  Unfortunately for you local folks, she lives in Baltimore and only occasionally comes to town:(