The Hanna Family Blog: December 2010

Happy holidays everyone! I know Sam and I are in disbelief that 2010 is coming to an end. This has by far been the fastest year of our lives. Friday is Cooper's 1st birthday. He came surprisingly early but we were so thrilled to have him with us for Christmas 2009. Now one year later it is amazing to look at the changes that have happened. We became the parents of two, Sam took a new job with PwC, potty trained Mia, sold our Charlotte home, moved to northern VA, bought a new house, Cooper went through 3 cranial bands, went on vacations, and hosted many, many visitors. I will be the first to admit that I pray 2011 is a bit more relaxed. :-)

In the age of Facebook and blogs, I have strayed from traditional Christmas cards as I see them as redundant. So this is the last 6 months of our lives in review.

Mid July we moved to our new home in Vienna, VA. It was about 100 degrees that week and we were all thankful for the movers and our temporary apartment in McLean which allowed us to escape the chaos and use the pool until things were unpacked.

For those in our family, we all know where the green piano below lives. We have really enjoyed living so close to my great grandmother. It is great to have the ability to just pop over on a Sunday afternoon and spend and hour together. I love that Mia is at an age where she will have memories of spending time at her great great grandmother's house.

In August, we took a "family trip" (parental words for what others might call a "vacation") to Holden Beach, NC. This was Cooper's first time to the beach and although he has always loved water the ocean was a different story. By the end of the week he would walk in the sand without crying but still did not enjoy the ocean water. Maybe next year will be better!

Mia saw her first rainbow outside our rental house which was a real treat.

Mia loved every moment of our vacation and all we heard about on the drive home were questions about why we couldn't live at the beach and when were we going to go back again.

Shortly after returning from vacation our front yard looked like the below. Less than 1 month after moving into our house we had a water main break. Oh the joys of home ownership and the unexpected expenses that come with it!

In September, Mia started her new preschool. She was so excited to go back to school and meet new friends.

We celebrated many, many birthdays this summer/fall and Mia is beginning to get impatient for March to roll around so she can have her turn again.

In between visitors (we had 15 weekends between July and December with visitors or us visiting someone), we tried to do our best to enjoy living in the DC area. Below is a park the kids love near National airport where the planes fly very close overhead onto the runway.

As I said before....we had many visitors and birthdays.....

My one and only consignment sale steal this fall was Mia's UT cheerleader outfit which we promptly put on her to send a message to uncle Meelad who is in his senior year at UT.

We visited many national parks and monuments. And did you know it is illegal to feed ducks in a national park?????

By October, Cooper was cruising around and we visited a local pumpkin patch twice because it was so much fun.

We visited many, many parks. Northern VA has so many public playgrounds/parks that are so unique it's hard to pick which one to go to.

As the year went on, Mia grew more in love with Cooper than she already was. As he started to crawl around and do some talking we think she realized that he would soon be a playmate instead of "just a baby."

Halloween in our new neighborhood was so much fun. We attended a trick or treat kick off party and then Mia went trick or treating for the first time. We had so many kids that we ran out of candy in 35 minutes. Below is one of my favorite pictures from Halloween....Mia's Elmo trick or treat bag on Cooper. ;-)

After a month of wanting to be a ghost or a monster, Mia fell in love with an elephant costume we ran into which went great with Cooper's lion costume. Cooper was not sure of what to make of the dress up thing but he went with it!

One of Mia's favorite sights in DC so far as been the Natural History Museum where she enjoys visiting the dinosaurs.

The Friday before Thanksgiving Cooper graduated from 9 months worth of wearing a cranial band. His head looks fabulous and we are so thankful to be done but also so thankful for the difference it made for him. We celebrated by getting him his first big boy haircut.

For the first time since we moved away from MA, we drove back to MA for Thanksgiving. It was nice to be so close that we had the choice to drive.

One of the highlights of our Thanksgiving visit was Mia going to Auntie Erin's classroom. Mia was so excited she could hardly stand it.

Erin and Melissa gave Mia a tour of the school.

But really the best part of the visit were the child height sinks in the girls room.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving hosted for the first time at my mom's house. Jamie made table assignments with Mia which was a lot of fun.

It was also the first time I had cooked the turkey for Thanksgiving which thanks to Kristin Barry and her recipe was fabulous.

Mia loved sitting the table with everyone for Thanksgiving and used her best manners.

Cooper is becoming cuter by the day. We are biased I know but isn't he cute??????

Mia had her first school concert. And I have to admit after this experience I have a real appreciation for all of the hours that family members spent of their lives watching me "perform" in different capacities.

Last weekend, we had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate my great grandmother's birthday. Over 100 people attended the party at the University of Maryland and a good time was had by all.

Mia was my "date" for the party as Cooper had 103 temp and stayed home with Sam. We had a great time and Mia did a great job.

The next day we celebrated Cooper's birthday one week early as his grandparents and great grandparents were still in town. Thankfully Cooper was in better spirits and we had a great time.