Introducing Little Jane

Jane Hackett was born April 28th - right on her due date - and weighed 7 pounds 2 ounces, 19 inches 1/4 inches. She is a great nurser and gained her birth weight back and then some in 6 days. In fact, her belly got so big that her umbilical cord just popped right out.

She is doing great and we have included a picture of Helen when she was born so that you can decide for yourselves if they look alike. Jane is in the first picture and Helen is in the second. Some people (like Ryan) might argue that nearly all newborns look the same - purple/pink, wrinkly and upset when on the scale.

Mom came and was a huge help for a week. Then Amber and Levi came to keep us company for a few days. It was a little like having twin toddlers. Mostly Helen tried to boss Levi around and Levi just ignored her unless Helen suggested something particularly naughty to do.

Here are the Hackett sisters relaxing on Jane's new quilt that Linda made for her.

New Tote

This week I found some fabulous fabric at the thrift store that I was compelled to purchase. Then I found a pattern on the Internet to make a tote http://mamaspocketbook.com/freebies.htm. I have to admit that a better seamstress than I could have finished this project in a day, but I went ahead and took 5 days. That gave me time to read the instructions 100 times and unstitch half of the seams.

You will note that it is reversible with a pocket on the inside and outside. My plan is to get as many miles on this tote before the new baby comes and I have to carry the baby's weight around in supplies.

Family Fun

We have had a full couple of weeks. While Ryan went to Texas to play soldier, Helen and I went to Iowa to visit Mom and Dad. Helen took it upon herself to organize some of the rocks found in Mom and Dad's backyard. Mom decided that she needed someone to lick the batter for her cake and found a ready helper as you can see below.

Grandma Bee and Nate came for Easter and everyone had a great time reading books, building towers, destroying towers and playing with pretend food. Now it is just Helen and I -- she has made it abundantly clear that I am not as fun as grandparents and uncles.

Jungle Fun

Ryan and Helen started pretending they were elephants marching around the house a few weeks ago. Helen used to ride on Ryan and then she decided that she would rather march with her own teddy bear on her back and let Ryan put her doll on his back so that he wouldn't feel lonely.

Helen also has a unique dance style, looking something like fire ants biting her toes, that was captured in film. Sadly you can't see her dad who is egging her on.

Happy February

We have the smartest teddy bear living at our house. Helen has him on a strict schedule now that Hannah isn't around to boss anymore. The bear colors, does puzzles, stacks blocks, plays the piano, says prayers and sings "The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock." On Ryan's day off we decided to can some pulses. I had purchased 75 pounds of black beans, lentils and red lentils that were just laying on the floor of our basement waiting for a flood to come along and ruin them. Luckily the Omaha Home Storage Center had a canner that we could borrow. The work went really fast and I no longer wake up at night afraid that our food storage is going to swim away.

More Snow

Here are a few pictures to brighten your day! In this picture Ryan and Helen are relaxing before church. Well, at least Ryan is relaxing, Helen appears to be working on her flexibility. This weekend we got some more snow, but luckily it has been around 30*F - perfect for making snowmen. In fact Helen can stay outside for a long time when it is this warm. It's practically tropical if we are being totally honest. We decided to make a couple of snowpeople since we had the time and the snow. In case you can't tell, Helen is holding the snowman's hand. That is the only way that we could get her to stand still for the picture. FYI Since we made these snowpeople yesterday they have melted to 1/4 of their size, lost all their features and are leaning precariously to one side. Just a reminder that snow never lasts, even though it feels like it around this time of year.

Once there was a snowman tall, tall, tall

Actually the snowman that Ryan and Helen made never actually got to be that tall. Ryan blames it on poor quality snow. I don't think that mattered much to Helen. She was just happy to get outside now that enough snow has melted that I no longer worry about loosing her in a snow drift.

Here is Helen with Hannah's friend Captain Special (yellow) and her own bunny, Commodore Cuddly. Helen would sneak Captain Special out of Hannah's bed when she was showering and snuggle with him until Hannah swooped down to snatch him away.

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Happy Thanksgiving

We hope that all of you had a happy Thanksgiving holiday. It was great for Ryan to have time off so that we could play hard. We went to the Durham Train Museum and let Helen run wild climbing all over the trains, but drew the line when she tried to jump out the window. Here is Helen working on her stacking skills. Who knew that food storage could also double as a toy? It's a beautiful thing.

My visiting "teachee" and I made this gingerbread house. The best feature of this house was obviously the window treatment. :)

This week I went down to the 15th Annual Latin American Nutrition Society Congress, in Santiago, Chile, while Ryan took care of Helen. I figure that if you have to get continuing education hours, it might as well be about something you are interested in. It is even better if those hours can be procured outside of the country. I had a great time learning cutting-edge nutrition and made lots of friends from all over the world.

Here is one of the typical fast foods that I tested out while I was down there. This 6" hamburger bun is filled with shaved beef, tomato, mayonnaise (of the bright yellow variety) and avocado. It is very similar to a "completo," which is a hot dog slathered in avocado, mayonnaise and tomato. I have never eaten so much meat as I did this last week in Santiago. Vegetables and fruit were in scarce to say the least.

Now we come to the most exciting part of my trip. On Wednewday, I went to the metro station as usual when I saw a bunch of people milling around and all sorts of police officers. I asked someone what was going on and they said that there was a bomb threat in the metro. Luckily for me, the police were just taking the bomb-finder robot down and I got this great picture. Ryan seems to think that I add instability to the countries I visit . . . The last time I was in Colombia, Venezuela almost attacked. I am sure that it has nothing to do with me. Perhaps some butterfly had beat its' wings somewhere. Click on any of the pictures to see more in Picasa.

Leaves & Gingerbread

Yesterday, our friend took our family picture for our Christmas card. She also caught Helen doing what she really wanted to do the whole time we were trying to keep her sitting still - play with the leaves. Here she is in action - -

Every Christmas the church congregation makes hundreds of gingerbread creations to display at the Kanesville Tabernacle and Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters. The theme this year is "A Christmas to Remember". Ryan and I had different interpretations of this theme. His brilliant idea was to make a gingerbread brain. As he put it, "That is where memories are made." He never actually told me 'how' were could create such a concept in gingerbread, but he still acts like I didn't take his idea seriously. My favorite idea was to make a "blizzard", because what is more memorable than spending your Christmas frozen at home under 8 feet of snow? It would have been really easy to make, too: nothing but royal frosting on a flat board and a rooftop peaking through. In the end, we compromised and created an old-fashioned gingerbread sleigh full of presents. Simple, yet elegant, is what the reviews are going to say. Ryan's favorite part of the project was buying (and sampling) many different candies and chocolates as we tried to find appropriate 'presents'. And if you look closely, you'll see that actually, none of the 3lbs of chocolate we bought made it into the sleigh. Very sneaky, Ryan.

Happy Veteran's Day Parade

Yesterday we enjoyed ~70* weather and a lovely parade down town. They threw a ton of candy out for us. I took it upon myself to teach the kids around me that to get candy you have to wave and then how to dodge out into the street to scoop it all up. Some things are best learned by example. Helen liked the dogs, horses and people dressed up as animals best.Here are some obvious differences to the parades I used to enjoy in Iowa. 1. Although there were John Deere tractors, they weren't the main event. 2. There were a whole slew of soldiers in uniform who got to march the route. (They even had the JROTC kids out, their formations weren't the tightest, but they sure took their part seriously.) 3. We got to see the St. Bernard Rescue society with their rescuees - one of which practically adopted me, or at least slobbered all over me. 4. The most exciting group was the Remote Control Car Club which also brought a remote control jump ramp for said cars and trucks to do tricks off of for the crowds viewing pleasure. 5. There was not a semi truck included at all!