Happy Halloween 2010

This Halloween was so much fun. Hannah Claire (and Mommy & Daddy) had a blast! We left on Saturday morning and headed up to the pumpkin patch. We had never done this but had been wanting to. We went to the one in Hayden and it was so much fun. There was about two kids there other than HC so we pretty much had our run of the place. We loaded up on the covered wagon and headed out to the patch first thing. Hannah Claire was pretty excited.

We were the only people in the patch and as soon as we got out of the wagon HC took off.

She did slow down long enough to shed her coat and then she took off again.

She finally turned around for a quick picture. Apparently there is a memo that goes out to kids that says the best pumpkin is at the far corner. She went as far as she could go and picked out that pumpkin.

Sweet smiles for good times.

On our journey back through the patch Hannah Claire took her time to smell the roses, or the rotten pumpkins. She was very concerned about the smashed ones.

Poor Dad had to carry the pumpkin all the way through the patch. I must say Hannah Claire has great taste, she picked out a pretty pumpkin.

She was very excited about her selection on the way back to the barn.

We also did the "train" ride. All this was was a Gator pulling some wooden boxes around the grounds. We got to see the animals in the petting zoo and the horses. The covered wagon was was more cool.

We also checked out the old country store. It definitely has some old country stuff. Hannah Claire was not too sure about the scarecrow.

We enjoyed the cutouts for our photo ops before we were leaving.

Now this place had two dogs hanging around. We thought it was the family dogs. They were super sweet and very loving. One particular dog took a liking to HC. She loved him too.

After we were petting and playing with the "family" dog, they were getting shooed off by the workers. Whoops. Guess we shouldn't have been loving on the random dogs. Oh well. We also took advantage of the tractor sitting by the exit. I'm not so sure this was part of the experience but it was for us. I think Hannah Claire has a little country girl in her. She looks like a natural on that John Deere.

After a trip to meet Mawmaw & Pawpaw for lunch we headed home for some rest before our big night of trick-or-treating. Hannah Claire was very opinionated about who she wanted to dress up as. Since she was loving her some Minnie Mouse, that is what we went with. I must say she is an adorable Minnie.

HC had no qualms about heading up to the door and asking for some candy. Her standard was "trick-or-treat me". I'm not sure where the me came from but she stuck with it all night. She did get a little scared at one door. They had a mummy and a cat. She was not scared of their weimaraner but freaked out by their little cat. I guess having big dogs can result in this. No worries, she overcame her fear for the sake of some candy.

She was very adamant about putting the candy in her pumpkin herself. This poor guy kept trying to put in the pumpkin himself. She would turn her whole body to block it and take it from his hand. I have no idea where this kid got her stubborn independence. HA!

No pictures but she did get freaked out by a ghoulish skeleton. The scream I heard from my child was hilarious. She saw him at the last house we were at. We went home after that so that we could have some dinner and hand out some candy too. The first time the doorbell rang HC rand to the front door and guess who was there. She screamed and broke out in a dead sprint. She then leapt into my arms. Poor girl. I thought we might have trouble at bedtime but she got over it and was fine. She did love handing out the candy too.

On Sunday we went to Hannah Claire's school's trunk-or-treat. She was a little unsure of all the loudness at first but we found her friend Samantha from school (who was also dressed up as Minnie) and they had a blast. I wish I had pictures but we forgot our camera. They were so sweet going to all the cars holding hands. They also got to jump in the bouncy together. It ended up being a lot of fun.

Oh Girl, That Hair!

To say that Hannah Claire doesn't have that much hair would be an understatement. We have finally gotten enough to start experimenting. Hannah Claire is all about it since she is such a girly girl. We tried pig tails for the first time. I think the look on her face tells you exactly how she felt about them.

She loved them so much that she requested them for school the next day.

Some mornings we have to throw in the towel and wet the madness and start from scratch. I guess she had a rough night of sleep.

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated yet another birthday. We had the traditional meal at PF Chang's. It was yummo and Hannah Claire loved it! She ate some of everything we had. When I got home from work, Shane had gotten my other favorite....Edgar's strawberry cake!

Hannah Claire was very excited about the cake.

I taught her a few bad habits, like doing the finger swipe around the bottom of the icing.

She is a natural. I love that girl!

I had a perfect birthday. It was real low key and got to spend it with my loves! Who could ask for anything more?

Getting Ready for School

Mornings can be absolute craziness with a 2 year old. Some mornings go more smoothly than others. One morning I couldn't resist getting my camera. I found Hannah Claire after she ran away from me here...

This is the attitude I get when I tell her to come on and finish getting dressed.

How dare I interrupt her coloring.

Homecoming at the Capstone 2010 - Gameday

Saturday morning we had our traditional gameday biscuit from Jacks and started getting ready for the day. We peeked outside and found a meeting of the minds. I'm still not real sure what they were looking at but it must have been very interesting.

Nana, Hannah Claire and Mommy did some shopping before all of the festivities kicked off. Since the game was so late, the parade didn't start until 12:00. We headed over to see the parade. It was good but I'm disappointed that the sororities don't do floats anymore. That is the main reason to go see the parade and now they just walk. FYI ladies, we don't really care to see you walk. I need to see some effort put forth in decorating a huge 18 wheeler flatbed truck with lots of chicken wire, pomp and spray paint, like we did when we were in college. Okay, I'm off my soapbox. Hannah Claire was excited none-the-less.

After the parade we went to the quad to meet up with some friends. Alicia works in an office Shane calls on and it was great to see her, her huband Ray and their buddy Scott. We usually see them at least once every football season. Morgan Leigh who works with me is an Ole Miss alum and was in town for the game. HC loves her some Morgan Leigh, although she was getting fussy and sleepy.

We then headed over to sorority row to check out the lawn decorations. This is my favorite thing about homecoming (maybe because I was on the lawn decorations committee while I was in college). I must say, I did not think the best one won this year. Zeta got 3rd. They should have at least been 2nd. Poor HC never saw the decorations this year. She was too busy snoozing and there was no chance we were waking her up.

The Pi Phi house had some cool statues to get your picture made with. Check out the white Mark Ingram!

After a pretty good nap, Hannah Claire needed a little snack. There may have been more cheese puffs on her face and hands than actually got in her mouth.

She created a new way to play cornhole. She won, I guess!

Nana got all of us matching shirts from a super cute shop in Tuscaloosa. It is owned by a sorority sister of mine and she has the cutest stuff. We didn't all wear our shirts to the game but we did put them on to take a picture.

Now, we may not win parents of the year for taking our two year old to a game that kicked off at 8 p.m. However, we did it and she had a blast! I guess we passed the cranky phase and got to pure delirium. Prior to kickoff we got a family shot.

Hannah Claire was cutting up throughout the game. She and Nana did some serious cheering (and laughing).

"HOLD EM!!!"

Of course we brought some things to keep her happy including ol' crazy suckers and gummies. Gummies make her giddy.

Pappy shared his binoculars with HC. I'm pretty sure her eyes were closed the entire time she looked through them.

As the night went on the temperature started dropping some. We had to pull out the hat. This provided lots of great entertainment too.

Mr. Bob who sits on the other side of Pappy didn't make it to the game because it was so late. The people who came left at halftime to go sit with someone else they knew. It worked out perfect so HC could have her own chair. She kicked back and enjoyed the game.

In true Cochran form, Hannah Claire has mastered the "4".

Apparently she had enough and was giving Nana the hand. Diva!

This picture explains itself. I'm not sure who did it but HC didn't mind letting them know it was "stanky".

She started hitting her breaking point late in the 4th quarter. Some folks in front of us had left so HC & Daddy got down on the rail to watch some football. What a sweet picture!

Sweetness didn't last long and craziness quickly returned.

I was very nervous about how the game would go. Hannah Claire did better than we could have ever predicted. She even did good the following days with very minimal crankiness. We said when we had her that we would not drastically alter our life because we have a child and that she would have to learn to go with us and do as we do. Well, she did and she did great! We don't make a habit of keeping our kid up until midnight but I am so thankful for her ability to go with the flow and enjoy herself wherever she is.

Homecoming at the Capstone 2010

We planned early on during football season to take Hannah Claire to homecoming. Well, who knew that kickoff would be at 8pm! Seriously? That is too late for me. We decided to push forward with our plan and make the most of homecoming weekend. We headed down Friday evening so that we could hit the pep rally. We got there a little before Nana and Pappy so we waited on them at the Coliseum. Hannah Claire was ready to go.

She was even passing out kisses.

Was that Big Al!?! I think it was!

Once Nana and Pappy arrived we headed over to the quad. Hannah Claire was not very excited about the pep rally so we visited the mega Big Al!

Since the pep rally wasn't such a huge hit, we headed back to the motor home for some dinner. Of course HC suckered someone out of a sucker before dinner.

The table in the motor home only seats four so we created HC her very own table inside. She LOVED it!

This kid was fired up about getting to spend the night in the motor home. She flopped all over that bed. Mommy & Daddy were not quite as excited, but we survived! It is always nice to have some Nana help. It is amazing how kids will do things for people who are not their parents.

We got a somewhat decent night of sleep before a LONG day of tailgating.