Happy 1st Birthday Hannah!

Well, today my baby turns one. I am amazed at how just in the last few days, Hannah is looking more like a little toddler than a baby. I know one day I will blink and my baby will be completely gone and a toddle will be looking back at me. One thing that is keeping Hannah as a baby is that she isn't walking yet. She loves to cruise around the furniture and has mastered pulling up on anything and everything, but the steps aren't there yet. Everyone says I should be thankful -- I know it won't be long! She continues to babble up a storm and sometimes real words are starting to come out. For instance, she signs "all done" everytime we are finished with a meal. Every now and then, I'll hear "aa duh" as she signs it. She also loves her daddy very much and is always saying "dadadada." She loves going to the sitter's in the afternoon while both Tim and I are at work and is interacting with the kids more and more. I love picking her up because as soon as she sees me, she starts smiling/laughing and crawls as quickly as possible over to me -- it is so sweet! Although she is still small (somewhere around 18 lbs -- check up a the end of the month) she stuffs her face at every meal and loves to eat! Her personality is really starting to come through. When she gets mad, she sits down and squeezes her eyes tight so she can force out one little tear -- it's those moments that she turns into our little drama queen. Even with those moments, she continues to be a happy, go-lucky baby. We are blessed beyond immagination at our baby girl and can not wait to see what this next year holds for her! Happy Birthday, Hannah -- we love you very much!

Christmas with the Casey's

Christmas was so much fun this year! It was fun to think back to last Christmas -- I was very pregnant but still thought I had over four weeks until Hannah came. Then just five short days later, she was here. What a difference a year makes...

Like many family's, we did Christmas in shifts this year so it extended for over a week. Before Christmas, my dad came over and ate with him and exchanged a few gifts. It was Hannah's first taste of opening presents.

We spent Christmas Eve at our own home, just the three of us! Neither of us have ever been at our own "home" on Christmas Eve and it was fabulous! After church, we put Hannah to bed and just hung out. Tim and I watched a movie and worked on a puzzle and relaxed. It was so wondeful! The next morning, Hannah opened her presents from us and Santa and we had a relaxing day at home, just the three of us. I could really get use to that! That evening, my mom came over for dinner and we again opened presents. It was one of the best Christmas's ever!

Hannah's gifts from us and Santa -- she loves her new kitchen!
Family Photo Op - Christmas 09

A few days later, Ken, Delaine, Kyle and Nikki made their way to STL and we yet again did Christmas. By this point, Hannah was an old pro at opening and playing with her gifts. It was so much fun watching Hannah interact with all of our family and enjoying this holiday.Throughout all the food, gifts, and family, we also remember the true reason for Christmas. God has blessed us immensly this year and we thank Him daily for these blessings. We can not wait to see what is in store for the Casey's in the coming year!

Family Get-a-way

Without going into too much detail, it is easy to say that this fall has been quite challenging on our family. While the situation is really out of our (Tim and I's) control, the last few months have been quite taxing on us. I don't think I realized how much until we got back to school after Thanksgiving break. I think I probably could have skipped the last three weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas break and been just fine! It didn't take too long into this three week stretch that I realized our nuculear family needed to get away! I asked Tim about trying to get away for a few days as soon as break started and he agreed whole-heartedly. When we started talking about where to go, we both were thinking about Indianapolis! We have never been there before and we knew it wasn't a very long drive. So, this past Saturday we loaded up the car and headed to Indy. Thanks to Tim's mom, we were able to stay at the Residence Inn right downtown and just enjoy each other and some well deserved family time with Hannah. We didn't really have a plan or schedule, so we just took in the sights. We pretty much stayed downtown going to the mall, the Indiana State Museum (where Santa and Mrs. Claus were visiting) and eating at a few different places. We also just enjoyed some downtime at our hotel. I've never really been anywhere before Christmas, so it was nice to enjoy some Christmas decor somewhere else besides St. Louis This is the beautiful huge tree at Monument Cirlce in the center of Indy. Each street off of the circle was lined with lighted trees - it was so awesome!Hannah's first visit with Santa! Although she looks a little dazed in this picture (this is usually nap time), she did great with Santa. It was a fun first experience!
Our attempt at a family picture -- at least we captured the moment of our family time!

We're almost there!

Hannah is eleven months old today. In four short weeks, we will be celebrating Hannah's first birthday. It continues to amaze me how much she grows and learns each day and how much fun it is to be around her. Hannah continues to be a happy baby who loves to play and laugh. She still only has two teeth, but it seems like she is working on more all the time. She pulls up on anything and everything she can, and is working on standing alone for a few seconds at a time. She continues to love to clap and also can do "high-five," "sooo big" (as demonstrated in the picture) and has started a little bit of "bye-bye." She still babbles a lot and her favorite thing to say is "Dada." The other night we were in the car waiting for the basketball game to be over and Hannah stood against the window and was saying "Dada" over and over again. It was pretty cute! Hannah also loves to eat! She eats all table food and shovels it in like it's going out of style! You may never guess it because she is still quite petite, but she doesn't miss too many meals. She absolutely loved Thanksgiving and all the yummy things to eat! It's the time of year that seems to go by quickly, and before I know it, Hannah will be one! In the mean time, I am excited to take some time to spend as a family and enjoy Hannah's first Christmas season. Thanks for an amazing eleven months, Hannah! We can't wait to see what is next!

My Little Pony

No, not that kind of pony - my first pony tail (sorta)! Hannah's hair is finally long enough to be put up with a rubber band. I thought she looked pretty cute tonight and wanted to share this pic!

Halloween is Here

We had a busy weekend celebrating Hannah's first Halloween. On Friday, Nana and Papa brought Hannah to my school for the parade. Sadly the rain kept us inside, but it was fun to show off Hannah to my kids and my friends at school. Before I left for school, Delaine painted on my nose and whiskers. Once Hannah looked at me and saw it, she started laughing and pointing - it was like she was thinking, "Hey Mommy, your face looks funny!" It was too cute!! Here is Hannah and I dressed up. This is costume #1 - a lady bug (and the cutest one ever if you ask me!). Saturday morning we were up and at'em early so I could run in the OTHS tennis team's Halloween 5K. Tim and Hannah "trick or treated" along the course and cheered me on. After a quick nap, we headed to downtown O'Fallon for trick or treating. We came home in time for Hannah's afternoon nap so she could be ready to go for a busy trick or treating night! After first seeing Gwannie and Gampy, we made our way around town visiting with friends. It was a lot of fun and Hannah was a trooper! Here she is in costume #2 - a beautiful butterfly!
I can't believe that next year she will be walking around from door to door trick-or-treating for real!

10 Months with Teeth (Finally!)

Hannah turned 10 months old today and had an exciting week! First, Nana and Papa Casey came on Monday and spent the week with us. They loved hanging out and playing all kinds of fun things with Hannah. On Tuesday, as we were eating dinner Nana fed something to Hannah and all of a sudden she could feel some teeth! Finally! Hannah popped both bottom teeth sometime on Tuesday -- I have a feeling a few more will come in over the next few days or weeks. She has pretty much stayed true to her nature and hasn't even really been that fussy. Hopefully that will continue with the other teeth. Hannah has also mastered the "correct" way to crawl, although she does resort back to her "dragging one leg" crawl if she wants to get somewhere quickly. She also has completely mastered pulling up and will do it with any object or piece of furniture she can find. She has not started cruising yet, but I have a feeling it won't be long. She continues to LOVE to eat and pretty much eats everything we eat. When the food isn't getting in fast enough is really the only time she gets fussy. Fall is flying by and I have a feeling the holiday's will be arriving sooner than later. What a fun month we have had! Her personality shines through every day and she is a joy to be around. What an awesome blessing to be called her mommy!

Eckert's Orchard

One of the things I was most excited about for the fall was taking Hannah to Eckert's in Belleville. It is a local orchard that is open all year round because of the variety of produce they grow and sell. Of course, now is prime time for fall fun with pumpkins galore. Every weekend there is a huge fall festival where you can pick your own while on a hayride, but we opted to just hang out at the main area this year. We'll do the hayride next year when Hannah can help pick out her pumpkin. The main reason for going this year was to take some cute fall photos of Hannah. I am excited to go back every year for Hannah to enjoy this fun fall activity. Here I am -- sittin' on a really big pumpkin (Daddy had to spot me just in case)! Hannah really liked standing on the hay-bale looking at the HUGE stack of pumpkins. Family shot at Eckert's -- October 2009.
This isn't at Eckert's, but a cute shot of Hannah on our front porch. I really love fall!

My Loves

Today is Tim and I's 4th anniversary. It has been a whirlwind of a week that I won't go into. But in the midst of chaos, Tim and I took a moment to simply love each other today. What an amazing four years of marriage we have shared. Last night before we went to bed, we were reading some old emails I sent when we first met 7 years ago at Western. We had some good laughs and I'm glad to know he hung in there through the crazy "beginnings" of our relationship. One thing we realized is how God has truly been there from the start. As we look back, we can see how God grew us individually as well as together and it is so exciting to see where He will take us in the future. It has been an awesome ride so far, and I can't wait to see what will happen next! We are celebrating next weekend, so I don't have a picture of us, but I do want to share this fun shot of my two loves --

Alma Mater

Earlier this fall Tim and I decided to try and make it to a WIU football game at least once each year if possible. During the fall, we have very few weekends, especially Saturdays, to be able to get away. We have to plan it during a weekend that we play football at home on Friday so the underclassmen are away on Saturday and no other fall sport is doing anything on Saturday - doesn't happen often. Then, of course, Western has to be playing at home. Yikes! However, this year we realized that this first weekend of October was actually going to work! We really wanted to be able to do this with some friends, so we called the Gorsch's and Knopp's and met them in Macomb for a fun day! We got there by lunch on Saturday and ate at Buffalo Wild Wings (what?? still can't believe it's in Macomb) and then drove around town for a bit. Next, we put Hannah in the Bjorn and walked around campus showing her where Mommy and Daddy met and, I know it's corny, fell in love. Marc and Kristina were sans kids and arrived in the early afternoon for a quick browse through the University Book Store before dinner. We all headed to Aurelio's (seriously, where else would we go??) and the Knopp's joined us just in time. It was fabulous and maybe the best part of the whole day! :-) We left there and headed to the football game to cheer on the Leathernecks. The girls only lasted a half, but that was better than expected, I think. Kristina, Lindsey, Hannah and I headed to the rec room at the CSC house, hot chocolate in tow, to just hang out and talk -- it was fabulous! I love these girls and the time we get to hang out together! It really felt like we were in college again! The boys arrived when the game was over (we lost, unfortunately) and Tim and I headed towards Springfield to stay with my cousin's family for the night. It was such a wonderful day and I can't wait to do it again! We didn't get any family shots, but at least we got a couple of each of us with our future Leatherneck!

One Adventurous Nine Month Old

Hannah has become quite the adventurous little one! She never stays in one place for very long, which is why getting a picture this month was not easy - as you can see, Mr. Bear didn't make it for the picture. :-) I have so loved watching Hannah over the past few days learn so much! She is loving to crawl and is getting quicker every day. She becomes frustrated when she isn't getting where she wants fast enough! She also loves to babble away working on her new vocabulary of "baba" and "mama." She is also getting her first taste in the word "no" when she starts working her way towards the dog toys (yes, she has put one or two in her mouth - yuck!) or their food and water bowls. Other than that, she continues to be a fun-loving happy little girl! She has such a great personality and we love to just hang out with her and spend time with her. She loves to play but still finds time to snuggle up with us, too. Thank you, Hannah, for making these past nine months the best of our lives! We love watching you grow and change right before our eyes. We can't wait to see what God has in store for you over the next few months. Mommy and Daddy love you very much!

Hannah's newest sleeping arrangement...

So, with Hannah's newfound movement and the fact that she is getting stronger every day, I knew we needed to lower her mattress very soon. Yesterday, I went in to get her from her nap and she was sitting up looking at me, so as soon as Tim got home, we lowered the mattress. Later that night, our friends Travis and Trissa came over for dinner and to play with Hannah. We put her to bed and then I realized that she didn't take her last milk feeding. I went into the bedroom to try and feed her a little and this is what I found...

I went out to get Tim, Travis and Trissa so they could witness Hannah and her newest sleeping arrangement. I fed her and laid her back down and to my knowledge she stayed that way all night, but who knows -- maybe this is just more comfortable!

Crawling and Clapping and Talking Oh My!!

This has been an eventful week for Hannah. Although she still doesn't have any teeth, she has been very busy learning many new things. First, in the middle of the week I came home from school and saw the video camera was out. While Hannah was playing, I started watching some new videos that Tim taped. Much to my amazement, Hannah was crawling and scooting all over the place! I looked up just in time to see her showing off to me as well. For months now she has been quite content to just sit in one place -- not any more! She is moving all over the place! Here are some pictures of her working hard to crawl. I really want this red ring....

I've almost got it....just a little closer.... Yes! I finally got the red ring and it tastes so good!

The next day, I came home from school and was playing with Hannah and out of the blue she looks up at me and started clapping. It is so cute! She get's the biggest toothless grin on her face and starts clapping away, like she's been doing it her whole life. Whenever we say "Yay Hannah!" she claps and smiles and laughs. I love watching her happy personality shine through. Here is our little clapper -- To finish off her week of new accomplishments, Hannah started saying real sounds this week. She has been babbling for a while now making all kind of squealing noises and screeching and blowing raspberries, but now she is babbling in real sounds. She mainly say's "baba" and has had a few "mama" moments and is pretty darn close to "dada." We love to just sit and listen to her talk to us. This has been such a fun week and I can't wait to see what things Hannah learns next!

Lil Shorty

Just wanted to share this cute pic of Hannah. I love this shirt - it says "Lil Shorty" and has a pink wiener dog on it! She wears it in honor of her fur brother Bosley. We love both of our Little Shorty's (and Homer, too!)

Like a Fish

Today we started our first try at swim lessons and I have to say they were quite successful! I have always enjoyed swimming from the time I can remember. I have spent many summers at the pool and continue to do so even as an adult. This summer, I attempted to put Hannah in the pool a few times, but she screamed and cried every time we even tried. So, as I was looking at the YMCA schedule for the fall, I found a class and evening for us to try swimming lessons. I was really nervous because our previous attempts failed. However, I was very pleasantly surprised that Hannah LOVED IT!!! From the first moment we stepped into the pool until we got out she had a blast! We sang songs, splashed with our hands, reached out for toys and even kicked like a little froggy. I was amazed that babies naturally just know to start moving/kicking their legs in the water. Hannah absolutely loved swimming and I can't wait to see how much she improves over the next 8 weeks. I think we have a future fish on our hands! This will definitely not be our last set of swimming lessons!Hannah and Emma (my friend Emily's litle girl) before their first swimming lesson!Mommy and Hannah at the end of the lesson - we can't wait for next week!

(Fast forward: The second week was even better than the first! Hannah loves to kick in the water! At the end of the lesson, she also took her first "dunk" under water -- it didn't seem to phase her a bit. When we were rinsing off in the shower, Hannah even got to get sprayed by the shower and laughed the whole time! I think it's safe to say she likes it!!)

Are you ready for some football?!?

The Casey's are! We started our Labor Day weekend off by taking Hannah to her first OTHS football game! It was the first home game of the season, the weather was great, so what better way to spend a Friday night than at a high school football game? We only stayed until half time, but it was fun to at least be there for some of it. One of the reasons I love Tim's job at OTHS is because Hannah will get to experience some of the same things I did when I was a little girl. I spent most every weekend of my childhood at some sort of OTHS event including football games, basketball games, baseball games, and other school-sponsered events. I have many fond memories of this and I hope Hannah will too! Before the game started, we found Daddy and took a quick family picture before the action started. (By the way, the Panthers won! Hopefully, this will be a fun year of OTHS Football!)The week continued with football...today is one of Tim's favorite days - it's the first day of the college football season! While I never had a strong allegiance to any college team (I do root for the Illini whenever they are playing), Tim is a Wisconsin Badger fan inside and out. When he left to go up to the high school this morning, he had his Wisconsin jacket ready to wear for the rest of the day. I told him I would meet him after the freshman soccer game and I said I had a surprise for him. When we got there, he was greeted with this...Hannah was all decked out in her Badger gear today! Although we didn't get to watch the game tonight (we don't get the Big 10 network), Bucky and his Badgers were in our hearts! Go Wisconsin!

Eight Great Months

Yesterday, Hannah celebrated her eighth month of life. This has been a fabulous month! Things she was not doing just a few days or week ago, she now acts like a pro! Last week we were sitting at Tim's baseball game and I had to hand her cereal puffs for her to be able to make it to her mouth. This week, she picks up her finger foods using her pincer grip and feeds herself. Crazy! Speaking of food, she is LOVING table food! I think we are on the downward slide to pureeing all of her food for her. Each meal now conisists of something she can feed herself. These new foods include toast, waffles, biscuits, mac and cheese, ravioli and anything else that seems yummy! She is also getting stronger every day. She loves to stand up and has a new toy to play with that goes from the floor to a little table. Recently, she also loves to be in her jumper. Although she has been able to play in this for a few months, she just recently has enjoyed jumping up and down to the music it plays. We also had a big milestone today -- we slept with out our swaddling blanket! For some this seems like no big deal, or even asking them selves why it took us so long. While most babies are done with this months earlier, Hannah loved being swaddled and slept so well that we decided to let her tell us when she was ready. This morning, she was flipped over with only one arm out so we moved on to no blanket and she had two great naps today! We'll see how tonight goes. She is also adjusting more and more every day with the new routine of Daddy in the morning, sippy cup of milk for lunch (whew! this sure has been interesting!) and a new sitter in the afternoon while Mommy and Daddy are at work. We have been going through a little bit of seperation anxiety, but I hope it passes soon. Overall, this month I have seen so much growth in Hannah. This may have been one of my favorite months so far! Can't wait to see what next month brings!

Summer Fun

Wow! This summer has been so awesome! I am writing this on the eve of the first day back to school and reflecting on how much fun we've had this summer. I have loved every minute of being home, being a mommy and truly being present with Tim and Hannah. It has been a great time of rejuvination as well as making memories of Hannah's first summer of her lifetime (she is seriously changing all the time!). I really do think of my job as my ministry that God has called me too, but I also praise Him for blessing me with the job of a mommy! I cherish every minute I have with Hannah and I know that will be even more important with school starting tomorrow. I pray that God will help me balance these parts of my life...that of a wife, mother and teacher.

I want to share some of my favorite pictures from our summer. Thank you, God for gifts that you have given us the last three months!

Vacation!

At the end of July, we headed to North Carolina for our first "family of three" vacation! This year we decided to go to Raleigh, North Carolina area to visit some of our very dear friends from college, Erin and Mical. They got to meet Hannah for the first time and experience her first beach trip as well we got to visit with them just a few months before they are expecting their first daughter! It was a fantastic trip!

We knew it would take a day and a half to get there so we left right after Tim got done with work on a Thursday and made it to the Kentucky/West Virginia border that evening. After getting some much needed rest, we left early the next morning and made it to Raliegh by that afternoon. We started our trip with a wonderful dinner at Bahama Breeze.

Our lunch stop on our first full day of driving...Hannah loves to eat, but she also loves to be nosy and look around. The result: a very messy face!

Saturday morning we got up early and headed to Surf City beach which was 2 1/2 hours away. Sadly, Hannah was not super fond of her first trip to the beach. It was pretty much par for course with the other experiences we had this summer with water. It probably didn't help that she accidentily got tackled by a wave, and not once but twice! Oops! Even though that part was not so much fun, we loved being on the beach for the day! Tim even enjoyed it for probably the first time in his life!

Family photo at the beach! We hope for some better beach trips as Hannah gets bigger!

Sunday we had a nice morning at church and afternoon at home before heading toward the Durham area. First we went to Duke University to walk the campus a little and visit the Duke Gardens. It was very hot, but a fun afternoon. I really enjoyed playing "photographer" with the scenery. We finished our day by going to a Durham Bulls Triple A Minor League baseball game. It doesn't take much convincing for either of us to watch some sort of baseball when we take trips.

The chapel at Duke University - absolutely gorgeous!
At the Durham Bulls game - very fun, but definitely the end of a very long, hot day!

Monday morning, Tim went to play golf (at a really sweet course) and Erin and I spent some time shopping and just enjoying each other's company. That evening we stayed in, enjoyed dinner and some quality time together. Our visit with Mical and Erin was fantastic!

Tuesday morning we left early to head to Louisville, Kentucky. Before leaving NC, we found the UNC campus and drove around for a few minutes. Then we spent the rest of a really long day in the car to make to Louisville by Hannah's bedtime. This was sort of a last minute decision to extend our trip, but it was a lot of fun!

We spent Wednesday exploring Louisville including taking a tour of the bat factory, walking around downtown and seeing Churchill Downs. We did a little shopping in the afternoon and finished our vacation with a fantastic dinner with a view of Louisville across the river (we were in Jeffersonville, IN).

Outside the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum - a perfect tour for this baseball family!

I am so glad that we were able to take this trip this summer! It was (hopefully) the first of many family vacations! Thank you Mical and Erin for being such gracious hosts and making our first family vacation so memorable!

Seven Month Sweetie

I really don't know how it is even possible to be writing about Hannah's seventh month! Sadly that means summer is dwindling down and the school year is about to gear up. But enough about that and onto Miss Hannah. We returned from our first family vacation (which I will post more about later) just in time to celebrate Hannah's "month" birthday. I know I've said it before, but I love watching Hannah's personality develop throughout the month. Just recently she developed her "cheesy" smile which makes her look like an old lady who forgot to put her teeth in, but it is so cute! (It is even cuter when she has a little drool coming out of her mouth!) Besides her blossoming new personality she is also developing physically. She can completly sit up by herself (just in case you can't tell in the picture) and loves to explore her world from this new angle. She is also starting to stand up holding on our hands and maybe when holding onto something. She still does not want to roll from her front to the back, but I really think she is close! Because she loves being on her back she is not making much of an effort to crawl yet. From what I've been told, I should cherish this time because once they figure out how to get mobile, it doesn't stop! The most important thing is that she is a healthy and very happy little girl! Thank you, Hannah for bringing joy to our lives every day!

All-Star Fan Fest

It's always fun being a Cardinal fan, but it has been especially fun this year. St. Louis is the host city for this years MLB All-Star game and the city has been hopping all this past week. It is an All-Star tradition to have an interactive Fan-Fest with booths about baseball history and tons of fun games for the kids to particpate in. My mom and dad had tickets with their Cardinal package but they were on vacation, so we were able to use them. It was a very fun day! We decided to avoid traffic and parking prices and take the MetroLink from the Shiloh station. This was Hannah's first trip on the Metro and she did very good! We then headed to America's Center for the festivities. We knew we wouldn't be doing much or any of the interactive part, but we loved seeing the exhibits of both the Cardinal's history as well as MLB history as well. It's even more fun for a Cardinal fan with three players in the All-Star Game, including our family favorite, Albert Pujols! Since it was also home run derby day, we decided to walk down to Busch Stadium to take in the sights and sounds of this historic event. We even hung around for a few minutes while batting practice started. Here are some pictures of us enjoying our "Monday Excursion" downtown! Hannah and Daddy waiting for the Metro Link train on our way to Fan Fest.This was a really cool picture - an employee for the Pujols Foundation saw that Hannah had her Pujols shirt on and asked if we wanted to get her picture with one of Albert's game worn batting gloves! How awesome is that?!?! Hannah and Mommy before Hannah took a little snooze during Fan Fest.

Timmy watching batting practice, and wishing we were inside for the Home Run Derby.
Hannah and her new sippy cup - we are slowly starting to learn how to drink from a sippy cup.