Greatest Hits

When we were up north for Grandma Hannold's funeral a few weeks ago, we got to catch up with a lot of family and old friends, lots of whom are blog readers. We love to hear that the blog is read and appreciated! Oh, and those comments are like GOLD! Seriously, we love them. A lot.

Anyway, I was chatting with Grammy's friend, Mary Ann, who reported that she loves the videos and that her daughter, Kelly, quotes from an old one all the time! Ok, that's funny. But, it got me thinking that I need to repost some of our greatest hits videos.

Colin and Gillian really like to watch their videos and request to see them all the time. Over and over, in true toddler fashion. So, here are some of our favorites, from oldest to newest!

This one is for Kelly. Although, it's one of my favorites too! Look at those babies! They are so little! I just want to squeeze them!


This is my absolute, number one, all time favorite Colin video. Ever. Just try to NOT laugh.


This one is great because Gillian is barely nine months old, weighs about 12 pounds, and is WALKING. She was a crazy-girl.


This is a fine example of Daddy love and "poke and giggle."


Gillian jigging last St. Patrick's Day. Skinny girl, in a diaper, with a mullet and a cat tail. Just classic.


Princess Gillian on her yacht on the Riveria. Please pardon my SUPER annoying voice in this one.


And, this instantly classic "Running Like a Deer!"


Anyway, hope you enjoyed those! We certainly giggle over them!

Here We Go, Steelers!!!

It shouldn't be news to anyone that the Pittsburgh Steelers are headed to the Super Bowl in about 10 days! Wait, what? Not everyone is obsessed with the Steelers, like me?

Actually, Michael is not a fan. At all. I might actually call him an anti-fan, but that might require too much effort for his liking. Luckily, he humors me a lot of the time, and took some great pictures of the kiddos wearing their Steeler gear last Sunday.

It's still pretty difficult to get both kids to look good in the same picture, but they were cute anyway!

Things started out pretty calm:


Then got a little sillier:

Oh, and yes, Gillian is wearing a tutu with her Steeler shirt. Don't you?

Then we totally lost control. Not that we ever HAD control.








Oh, and my favorite picture of the day...Gillian has a booboo on her foot and she made Colin kiss it. And he was happy to do it!

Now, that's LOVE.

What funny kids. We're practicing our Steeler cheers and song. We'll be ready for the BIG day!!

Lovin' our Dada!

Can you tell Colin and Gillian are partial to their Dada?

Pretty much the best part of their day is when the garage door goes up and they yell "DADDY'S HOME!" They have taken to running to the top of the basement stairs and yelling down to him before he's even in the garage. They love to tell him what they did that day and sing him songs and tell him jokes. I think he's pretty excited about it too!

St. MoMo

This is Schmo. He's our fat, bossy, complain-y, 10 year old cat, who is currently undergoing the process to officially be named a saint.

In that picture, Colin is actually driving a train on MoMo's back. Poor cat. He puts up with so much.

First it was two screaming crying lumps that invaded his house about two years ago. He adjusted pretty quickly to their arrival though, once he figured out that baby night-time feedings equaled Schmo night-time feedings. Then those lumps started to CHASE him. The nerve. He adjusted well to that after a while. C&G starting to walk was just another bump in the road for Schmo.

But now? Well, now Colin and Gillian think Schmo is their friend. Their BEST friend (besides each other). When we pull into the garage from our morning outings, they both shout, "MoMo! We home!" And once they get upstairs they run like the crazy people they are to find the poor cat, get in his face, and shout at him that they are HOME. I think he figured that out on his own.

MoMo also helps with bath sometimes. Like most toddlers, Colin and Gillian can get kind of rowdy and let out quite a few squeals in the tub. This causes Schmo to think they are in danger. He comes running and puts his feet up on the edge of the tub and squawks at them until they quiet down and Daddy reassures MoMo that "his kids" are ok.

Gillian has taken the special responsibility of brushing the saintly feline. Unfortunately she likes to brush UP his fur and pretty much just teases Schmo, who really likes to be brushed!!!

All in all, MoMo has it pretty good. He's still pretty spoiled in this house, but he would tell you he puts up with a lot of stuff. Especially from "his kids."

A Passing

We are behind on our blogging, mostly due to a sad event. Last week, Michael's Grandma Hannold passed away. She was 89, nearly 90, and healthy until Christmas time. Then her tiny body just wore out on her. She was quite an amazing woman. She was a widow for over 50 years, raised her two daughters on her own, and managed to get them both through college too! She saw her two grandsons grow up and be married, and took so much joy and pleasure in Colin and Gillian! She was a spunky and stubborn lady and was full of gumption. Quite a lady the whole way around. I know we will miss her much and remember her fondly and often.

A picture from C&G's first Christmas and of four generations of "Hannold" family.

A-B-C!

Colin has been working on his ABC song for a few weeks. He's very interested letters, both as a song and in print. We caught him singing at the dinner table (where a lot of our videos are made!):


In case you need a translator, Gillian is saying, "ME BELLY FULL!" She wanted down from the dinner table!

Ice Skater Extradorinaire

Gillian is showing quite an interest in ice skating this winter. Every weekday morning we watch the Today Show (hard hitting journalism, I know) and they have quite a few ice skaters on there in the winter. Plus, she loved the ice rink at PPG Place when we were there in December.

This week she took her admiration from watching to PRETENDING! After taking off her pajamas and adding in some red sparkle shoes...


Of course, Colin had to jump in and TALK.

I think next winter, we'll try her out on real skates and real ice! And a helmet.

Some More Snow Fun!

Last weekend we got a couple of inches of snow and we were ready to GO! This time we actually put our snowsuits on and stayed out for a while!

First Michael and I did a quick shovel of the driveway and the kids seemed to enjoy trying to help with the snow shovels!

What's gonna work? TEAMWORK!



Although, I will say, if they actually wore the mittens CORRECTLY, lifting the snow shovel would be a lot easier! They just cannot seem to steer their thumbs into the thumb hole!

After our quick shovel, we got the sled out! Go, Daddy, GO!


Colin soon bailed out of the sled though; he preferred to just roll around in the snow! He loved it! I tried tossing some snow up in the air and it landed all over his face, and he even loved that! Soon though, he incorporated his favorite crashing game into his snow play!


The best part of that video is that you get a small taste of Colin's "stream of consciousness" talk. He just talks incessantly, about anything, and everything. He thinks it, he says it. Daddy thinks he's going to be a color commentator for a sports show.


Gillian preferred to stay on the sled with Daddy. She rode for a while, then took a turn trying to pull the sled up the hill.

She had fun, but she got cold pretty fast (it was only about 20 degrees), so she and I went inside to warm up. Daddy and Colin stayed out for more snow fun, but the camera went in with me!

Colin wants to make a snowman in the WORST way, but so far, no packing snow. We'll keep trying!

Favorite

GraGra and Papa Greg got the kids (well, and Michael and me) this glitter snow globe for Christmas:


When I put away all the Christmas stuff on January 2nd, we left out this snowman. The kids really like him, and I just wasn't quite ready for ALL of the sparkle to be put away. Well, since then, we've changed his batteries three times, called him "My Favorite!", turned him on the instant, and I mean THE INSTANT we come downstairs, and, well, pretended to feed him bologna and pears from our pretend food stash.

Colin also has a couple of conversations a day with him. "How you doin', Snowman?" Colin says.

Guess Mr. Snowman is here to stay for a while.

Our Annual New Year's Day Family Photo

It seems we are building an Uhl Family Tradition of New Year's Day family photos. That will work for me. We are just too busy on Christmas or Thanksgiving to grab them, and New Year's Day is much quieter and slower for us. We got one in 2009 and (kinda sorta) got one in 2010.

Well, here's the 2011 version!


I love Gillian's crazy post-nap hair and Colin clutching Thomas. I want it known that we had a series of these taken in the morning, with combed hair and no Thomas, but someone who will not be named (ahem....DADDY!) thought he looked goony, so we needed a retake.

New Year's Eve at the PLAYGROUND!

Wait, WHAT? Yes, playground. It was oddly nearly 60 degrees in Pittsburgh on Friday. We just could not pass up the opportunity for some outdoor play. Off to the park!

Ahhh, feels good to be out and swinging again!


Bean still loves her sticks....


Colin still loves his leaves....


Some nice late afternoon, winter light to show off those eyelashes!


So nice to "get the stink blown off," as Papa Frank would say. We miss our outdoor time!

Impromtu Sledding!

Daddy has been home with us this whole week between Christmas and New Years! We took the opportunity to clean out some un-needed clothes and toys, take them to Goodwill, and generally try to organize our house a bit! Daddy has also been enjoying his extra playtime with Colin and Gillian. On Thursday morning we tried to head out to our favorite play center, but after we got dressed, our coats on, and buckled in we discovered our driveway was a SHEET of ice. It was very, very slippery.

So, um, no play center for us.

Well....we needed SOMETHING to do, the kids were restless and had some energy to burn. Daddy suggested playing in our measly 2 inches of snow (since it was definitely going to melt by the weekend). So, we got our new boots on and off we went! It was drizzling a bit, but it wasn't too bad. After throwing snow balls for a bit and running through the yard, I pulled our sled out of the garage.

Sledding was MUCH more fun than it was last year...at least in the Colin and Gillian's opinion!


Daddy pulled them up and down our "hill" for quite a while, then we tried to put them to work!

Mostly, they tried to go ACROSS the hill, not up! I'm sure we'll have more opportunity to practice this winter!

Christmas: Rounds 2-6 CONTINUED....

So, now it was the Sunday after Christmas...Boxing Day, I guess. We were off to Dickiedoo and Noonie's house for, yep, more presents and some lunch!

The kids knew exactly what do to by now!




Oooo, new snow boots! YAY!


We had a nice visit with Dickiedoo and Noonie and the kids had fun playing. We were so lucky to see all (five) of the great-grandparents this Christmas too! The kids were getting pretty tired at this point though; as we were getting into the car to go back to GraGra's house to nap, Gillian kept crying "No, no GraGra house! OWN house! OWN house!" Oh, honey, we all feel that way after the holidays! (She did feel better after a good nap though)

We had arranged our festivities to have a break on Sunday night and so we were all settled into GraGra and Papa Greg's house for the evening. The kids were snacking and watching a movie and just hanging out.

Colin and Papa Greg were just chillin' and Papa was "meeping" Colin's nose.


After Gillian was sufficiently awake after nap, it was time to open some presents from GraGra and Papa Greg. Gillian was quite helpful in handing out the gifts!



Most excitingly, Colin and Gillian got new towels! We were still using their hooded baby towels and they are just not big enough anymore! GraGra solved that with some new, bigger towels. Gillian modeled them for us!



Sunday night we all took it easy and got a good night's sleep. Monday morning we lazed about and then tried out our new snow boots by taking a walk down over the hill to Great-Grandma's house.

Grandma was happy to see us and the kids enjoyed checking out her computer and running around her living room!

On Monday night we headed back over to Grammy and Papa Frank's house for Christmas with the Keisters! Daddy, sadly, reports that there are not any "decent" pictures from that celebration! But, rest assured, the kids had fun playing with Joe and chatting with Jess! Gillian also enjoyed devouring her pizza!

The next morning, we got up bright and early, pack our (very, very, very) full car and headed for home! I think we were all very happy to be home, sleep in our OWN beds, and pet our Momo and WeeWee! It was a fantastic, fun holiday! Full of magic, family, and memories!