Top 8 of 2008

Out with the old, in with the new, right?! It's been a wonderful year in the Hannam household. I've been doing some reflecting and here are the top 8 things that have happened in my life this year, in no particular order. I'd love to know yours!

1. Falling more in love with Matt...I no this sounds cheezy but we've made some changes and I am loving him more b/c of it.
2. I started seeing a counselor...more to come on this one, but it has rocked my world in a great way!
3. Blogging...this creative outlet has been so fun for me this year (please note there will not be this many posts when I go back to work next week.)
4. Completing my first 5K!
5. Learning how to parent a toddler...all I've got to say is...consistency, consistency, consistency!
6. Planning all of our meals for the week on Sundays, then shopping for all of them on one day, love it!!!
7. More planning...I haven't had to bring home my lesson plans at all this year, it has paid to work hard after school to get them done, makes for a more happy Hannam on the weekend.
8. Working at Bravo Signs this past summer...learned so much, learned to appreciate my man even more!

We are truly a blessed family, what's to come in 2009, who knows...stay tuned to find out!

Nikon of the day...

Check this out, this is what I'm talking about people!!!! No, I'm not going to put up a photo of the day because you would probably get bored of seeing this sweet face. But believe me I am snapping away and loving my new camera. Ollie likes it too because after I shoot, he says "see" and then he looks and usually says cool! I know the lighting wasn't that great, we were outside, and it was cloudy but the shot is a good start I think!

R and R at the Rhett House Inn

So part of Matt and our Christmas present to each other every year, per the tradition that started last year is to leave Olls with the grand ole parents and head on a mini adventure. This year since we were in Charleston we headed south to Beaufort, SC. We stayed at this delightful bed and breakfast right smack dab in the heart of old Beaufort. It was a sweet time for us as we mainly took pictures of everything around us with our new camera _______. (?) As seen above we were trying to be somewhat creative in some of these. Ollie had the best time at Camp Cloudmont (street my parents live on,) the whole ride home he said, " I want Ganpa, I want Ganpa." Ganpa is kind of the generic name for all the grandparents. We love to stay in bed and breakfasts and the Rhett House Inn was definately one of the nicest ones we've stayed in. While we were there I started thinking about ways our "hobby" could become free or cheaper at least. But those thoughts are still jumbled and will be saved for another post.

Ah-hemm...

Excuse me...I have an announcement to make. I am the proud new owner of a BRAND NEW NIKON D40!!! Holla, I sure must have been good this year. I can't tell you how excited I am about our new "family member." Seriously, I am thinking of even naming her! We had a fun filled few days in South Carolina, Christmas #2 was a day of joy for our little Ollie!

Here are some of the highlights from Christmas day from the matching mother daughter jammies and slippers, the water fountain, re-naming my parents little dog, all the casseroles, dancing without a diaper on, to a first radio flyer tricycle. More to come later on the fun filled adventure my sweetie and I took to Beaufort, SC. Seriously, let me know if you have any good camera name ideas!!

From Us...

Merry Christmas

From our home to yours!

And what to my wondering eyes may appear...

My super handy, creative and thoughtful husband made this table for Ollie last week. Isn't it a beaut? We had to go out and buy our very first coloring book so that Ollie would have something fun to do at his new studio. It fits snug in the corner right next to his crib.

Ollie's best bud John came over yesterday, he enjoyed coloring at the table as well, so cute!

Well, we slightly underestimated our toddler last night. You see we all got up this morning sent Matt off to work and then when I went in Ollie's room to get him dressed...what to my wondering eyes did appear hidden perfectly under his blue blankey...a small plastic bag with filled with crayola gear! If you look closely you can see his artistic rendering on his yellow sheet, nice, Olls, nice! Don't worry we made sure he couldn't reach them tonight.

Picture of the Week

I call it: Merry Christmas from Trailer 28

Nicholas, David, Henry, Diego, Yaneth, Jordan, Susana, Edith, Kathryn, Katie, Zoey, Kathy, Ana and Mrs. Hannam wish you and yours all the merriest of days!

Whit's Holiday Recipe #3

More sweets for my sweeties this week.

Coconut Macaroons...Ta Da!!

This is one of my favorite recipes to whip up at Christmas time. It is simple, low fat and D-lish-us! I have to confess that I've only begun to appreciate the coconut in the past few years of my life. Everyone around me always loved that white little flake but for many years I could not get my mouth around the weird texture that greeted me. Thankfully, my tastebuds have matured.

Here' what you need: 2 egg whites, 1/2 tsp. of vanilla, 2/3 cup sugar and 1 and 1/3 cups of flaked coconut.

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees, lightly grease cookie sheet or line your baking sheet with parchment paper...LOVE IT, no need to do dishes when you are done! In your mixer, mix the egg whites and vanilla on high until you can pull up a little mountain with a spoon that tips over slightly. Gradually add the sugar about 1 tablespoon at a time. Then you beat all this until you can pull up a stiff mountain, it will stand up by itself. Then fold in all of the coconut. Then you drop the yumminess onto your sheet in a rounded fashion about 2 inches a part. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the edges turn brown (as seen above.) Put them on a wire rack and let cool for a few minutes. This recipe will yield about 30 cookies. Santa would love these cookies set out for him on a plate just 7 quick nights from tonight!

Wordless Wednesday!

*Holiday recipe later today, I promise no more raw meat loaf.

Not me!!!

Ok, so I've been wanting to do this for a while...one of the blogs I stog (stalk/check, but don't know) is MckMama...I have a side button for her on the left...you totally should check her out! She is this super hip mom to 4 kids under the age of 3, yeah, get that! Well, every Monday she bares her soul in her "not me, Monday segment." I am going to try it out and we'll see how it goes:

I am not taking a sick day today because I have the worse case of strep throat even known to this Hannam, nope not me!! It does not feel like an electric eel is buzzing in my throat every time I swallow, nope it doesn't.

I am not excited the least that on this aformentioned sick day I will indeed finish addressing all of our Christmas cards and wrap all of our presents, nope not pumped at all!

I did not contemplate asking the man at Harris Teeter earlier this week if he knew where all the "beet beet's" were. You know beet beets the carts, that look like cars, that's what Olls calls them. Nope not me!

I really did not drive off yesterday after retrieving the delicious strawberry (throat aiding) milkshake from Steak N Shake without getting my $2 in change, nope not me! Thankfully the check out girl was screaming, hey lady, hey lady and thankfully there was no one behind me for me to rear end, that would have been fun!

And last but certainly not least, Matt and I did not get in the car last night around 8pm to drive around the block to see the luminaries in our neighborhood for 60 seconds while our toddler slept soundly in his crib, nope we did NOT!!!

Whew that was fun, you should try it! Just copy the pic above and ramble away!

Pic of the week

I call it: This IS our son!!!

Our babysitter, Taylor, snapped a few pics of Ollie last week and this one was my fave. When I saw this picture I laughed so hard I teared up. Our little Ollie has just really started to "be his own little person" lately. And I am here to tell you that little person is soooo funny and full of spark. Ollie loves to make us laugh and is often looking for things to do to "entertain." Oh and he seems to love Christmas, we ride around in the car at night and all he says over and over: "tree, lights." And his daddy introduced him to Eggnog last weekend. He has woken up almost every morning since asking for, "Noggy." What a fun time, we are so blessed!

Whit's Holiday Recipe #2

Take two: Greek Meatloaf...uncooked

Hello friends, if you missed the first installment of Whit's Holiday recipes go back about 3 posts. Today I am bringing you a twist on a timeless classic meatloaf. Now, I have to admit BH (before Hannam) I wasn't into meatloaf, but my man loves him some meatloaf. So throughout the years I have tried to mix mine up a bit. This is the current winner at our house. It's festive because it has red and green ingredients. So here goes:

Greek Meatloaf:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Ingredients: 1 lb of ground sirloin, small onion chopped, handful of feta cheese, handful of raw spinach: chopped, 1 small roma tomato, chopped, 1 tablespoon of minced garlic, couple of pinches of salt, 1 tsp. of parsley, 1 egg, 2/3 cup of bread crumbs, couple of shakes of worcestershire sauce and ketchup.

Ok, in a bowl put the sirloin in and make a well, add all ingredients minus bread and egg, mix together. Note you will get your hands dirty. Then make a well again and add the bread crumbs and egg, mix together again. Then I line a cookie sheet with foil, dump the meatloaf on the pan and form it into a rectangle shaped loaf. Then top with ketchup for an added yum.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to 1 hour and serve with homemade red-skin mashed potatoes. We love this hearty and warm meal, I hope you will too!

Please note...I actually created this recipe myself based on a sample I had last Christmas. As with any recipes you can add to it or delete any item you do not like. Enjoy!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

17 more days until Santa comes to town, whew, are you ready? This picture is a Christmas card out-take. It's my year for our card, we take turns, you see. I've been trying for 2 weeks now to get THE perfect picture of Ollie, of our family, of Ollie and Marzi, etc. I'm not gonna lie, I think maybe I need to lower my expectations a bit and accept the fact that it is really difficult to get a 21 month old to cooperate. I couldn't ever get him to smile that cute smile while soaking in the suds, in fact, about 3 seconds after this shot, the hat was getting a bath itself. So, here's a shout out to all the baby's mommas who are working hard right now trying to finish their "perfect" Christmas cards, I feel your pain!

Picture of the week

I call it: Yes, we still have a cat!

Hello, my name is Marzipan, aka Marzi and I also live at 1810 Efland Dr. You however do not hear much about me because I've kinda taken to the back burner if you will since that little blonde thing moved into town. I think he's pretty cool though, he pets me more than the big people do and he likes to make sure that I have food, yeah, we're pretty tight. His bed is the most comfy spot in this joint, but I'm not really allowed in there, but every once in a while I'll make a run for it. Ok, that's all I know how to type.

Whit's Holiday Recipe #1

It's that time of year time to eat, drink and be merry! I'd love to share a few of my favorite holiday recipes with you. If your life is anything like mine your always looking for an easy yet unbelievable dessert that you can fix with only a few ingredients.

I bring you...The Chocolate Chip Pound Cake!

Here's what you need to gather: 1 box of plain yellow (yes yellow) cake mix, 1 small box of chocolate pudding, 4 eggs, 1 small sour cream, 3/4 c. oil, 3/4 cup of water and 6 oz (1/2 bag) of chocolate chips. You pre-heat to 350, grease your bunt pan (my tip use the spray with flour and I finally splurged and bought a silicone pan, LOVE IT.) Mix all ingredients minus chips in your mixer, until the mixture is fluffy and the color of the middle of a 3 Musketeers. Then you simply fold in your chocolate chips, then pour into your bunt pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes, YUM-O!

This cake is so incredibly moist because of the sour cream and it isn't too chocolaty because you start with a yellow cake mix. We love it and I hope that you will too, let me know if you try it out.

Picture of the week

I call it: (well Olls calls it) LEAFS!!!
All 4 billion of our leaves made it to the curb this week, thanks to the Loflin Family Yard Service. Ollie has had THE most fun playing, jumping, swimming, probably eating those leaves. I told him he was going to get full of red bugs, and Matt said, "Whit, how many times do I have to tell you, there's no such things as red bugs." All my life I grew up with a fear of that red little bug, my mom would say, don't play in that, you'll get red bugs, have you ever heard of this alledged bug?? Holiday recipes by Whit on Wednesdays...stay tuned!

The Highlights!

Thanksgiving with the Hannams was super fun, especially the fried turkey, it was oh so delicious! We had family from Minnesota, North Carolina and Pennsylvania come visit in good ole VA! Ollie is learning to love and appreciate his grandmas and grandpas so much, it is really sweet.

This morning we went to pick our Christmas tree from this small family farm. We got a 7 foot Norwegian Spruce for $28, beat that Bruce Wagoner!!! We may or may not have even sealed the deal on our family Christmas card photo, it's my year you know!

Then all the cuteness wore off, I am almost always the one behind the camera, so I wanted a few shots with my boy, but this unfortunately was as good as it gets...he was asleep in the car pretty soon after! Stay tuned for a really cute pic of the week and a new blog feature...holiday recipes by Whit! Happy Sunday...oh wait, it's only Friday, yahoo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Parental Advisory: EP (This video contains a very cute toddler, who does at one point, eat paint, EP.)

Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours, I'm thankful for non-toxic items!

Picture of the Week

I call it: brrr beet beet. (beet beet is what Ollie calls "driving" a car, for practice you know.)

The OCH update!

We finally got to check in today with Dr. Kieffer for Ollie's 20 month check-up. He's been so healthy (praise the Lord) that we haven't even been over to Carolina Pediatrics since June, which is very different from last year. Anyways, Olls got a clean bill of health. He is 28.5 lbs, 36 inches tall, which still keeps him in the 97th percentile, and his head was average I think, I'm sure. She was impressed by his left-handedness and those beautiful green eyes...recessive he is (neither Matt nor I are left handed.) We've been super blown away lately by his language skills (okay here goes the mommy bragging session, please feel free to stop reading and try and figure out what is stuck on his face in the picture above.) Ollie talks all the time and even says 3 and 4 word sentences. Like today when we sat down on the counter at the dr's he said, "don't want it, " how clever, he figured out where we were and he didn't want it. He did have to get 2 shots and a rather lengthy finger prick. He will hide in one of our closets and then jump out and say, "I see you." Oh and my personal new favorite, when he has a preference for something, like me moving his toy shelf to a new spot in his room he responded, "I like it."

It's crazy to think that it's been almost 2 years since we so joyfully brought our little Ollie into the world. He is such a joy to us and all around. Tonight when I was putting him to bed, we sang Jesus Loves Me, it's part of the routine. Then I said Ollie you have so many friends, let's pray for your friends. I started naming all of his friends, he would say their names after me. There were a few at school that I forgot and he said their names. And then as I laid him in his bed he said "Taylor", she keeps Ollie for us on Wednesday nights so we can have a date night. What a sweet little guy...I luz you, Ollie!

Picture of the Week!

I call it: Hooray!!!

This is Run/ Walker # 199 checking in. That's right, today I officially finished my first 5K. Overall, I'd say it was a huge success. I was greeted Friday morning with my bag o goodies for participating in the race. It had so much "swag" (stuff we all get) that I was just so excited I could hardly stand it. My kids in 2nd grade especially enjoyed me teaching math with my relaxation mask on, :). Then we got to the race this morning there was even more stuff, Starbucks coffee (not sure who drinks coffee b4 running,) donuts, oranges, apples, granola bars, I love seizing the value of free stuff. I did the whole race 3.1 miles in about 45 minutes. I admit I could have run more than I did, but I just wanted to take in every moment, as mentioned earlier, exercising is not my thing. But maybe it just might become my thing...who knows what's next for this gal...maybe golf, ha, probably not!

You're Invited!!!

Hello friends...if you are in or near the G-Boro area this Sunday you should stop by my house at 4:00 pm. I'm hosting a Tastefully Simple party. If you've never experienced Tastefully Simple products you should come and check it out. This stuff is so delicious and so easy. Most of the mixes are under $10 and they make great gifts for a great start to a fun gift basket or such. We'll be tasting 15 things on Sunday, so come hungry! You can check out the website here for product description, prices and recipes. And if you don't live nearby or can't make it but would still like to order some stuff from my friend Lucy, leave a comment and I can get your info to her. It'll be fun...it'll be yummy!

Hair!!!

Today I cheated... on my hair dresser! I have pretty normal, straight, easily managable hair. I get my hair cut normally at a pretty shi-shi salon and pay roughly $45 with a tip and all out the door. Well today I wanted to get a trim, while still keeping to our new, trim and slim budget. So I cheated on Lynette by going to Great Clips, and getting a $13 hair cut for, get this...$7.99 thanks to the coupon from my attractions book. Not too bad do you think??

Speaking of hair, this is what happens when the lovely blonde locks of this cute little fella wake up a little too early from his nap, whoa!!! He's probably thinking get that camera out of my face, woman!!

Whew, that's better!

Picture of the week

I call it: Bounce U Rocks!!

Ollie and I celebrated Asher's 2nd Birthday this morning by going down this slide a bunch of times. In other news I just ate an entire Zagnut (old time classic) candy bar, I really do have big feet and I'm off to take a nap. I love Saturdays!

Making my list...

...checking it twice. Ollie wants to know if anyone has Santa's number.

Stogging

Hello my name is Whitney and I am a stogger! This is a phrase I have coined for stalking the blogs of people I don't know in real life, you know instead of blogging it's stogging. Tonight I added a couple sidebars of two blogs that I frequent a couple of times a week. Both are written by women who worship and serve the same Lord I do, both are moms, both have IN-CRED-I-BLE stories and both are strangers to me except when they open up their hearts to let little old people like me get a glimpse into their worlds. So now I am inviting you, grab a cup of coffee, get a cozy blanket and be inspired, I sure have been!