{ ta-da! }

The tree is up. :)

{ gearing up for the holidays }

In preparation for a busy baking season, Hannah got some quick lessons in the kitchen tonight. I think she's a natural!

{ it's time }

{ another rainy day }

It's raining cats & dogs here. Good thing Hannah really likes her umbrella & boots!Got a new lens for the camera - I love it! Here are some of the first shots...I took our little pachyderm up to school to visit with Brian & some of the staff. Here she is working it down the hall...notice the tail swaying with her step....so darn cute.

{ fall fun }

{ kurz caravan 2009 }

To celebrate our 30th birthdays, Brian and I asked some of our good friends to come along with us on a weekend trip to St. Louis. We had a great time! Here are some of my favorite memories from the weekend, in no particular order: Hannah & Reese are so kind to indulge their mommies' photography practice sessions.

The girls loved the light in the sidewalk at the Daniel Boone statue in St. Charles.

At the Magic House in Kirkwood. It was also the 30th Birthday for the Magic House, so it was PACKED!

Clearly this comment is "off the record".

Obama who?

Pajama party!
Who turned out the lights?

Hannah & Daddy

Hannah confessed her true feelings to Joel.

Hannah inspects a gourd on the front porch of a St. Charles shop. Brian is shocked to see a camera as Hannah eyes the birthday cheesecake....at Rigazzi's on the Hill.

Hannah loved riding on the luggage carts. So safe.

On Sunday, we took the girls to the St. Louis Zoo and it was a gorgeous day! Hannah was not at all afraid of the goats in the Children's Zoo.

Look at the size of that Hippo next to my baby girl!

We finally did get a picture of the girls & their mommies.


Thanks to the Myers and Winns for spending a memorable weekend with us.

We love you guys and are blessed to have you in our lives.

{ so happy }

I am so happy to be spending my birthday with this bright-eyed, bed-headed, white-blonde princess.

{ tanners 2009 }

Some pictures from our trip to Tanner's Orchard. We went for the first time last year and decided it was worth an annual trip. It was a COLD day to be outside, but we still had a lot of fun. My parents are visiting this weekend, so it was great to have them with us.
Can you believe how much she's changed in a year?

{ no more green box }

Shortly after Hannah was born, we bought a digital SLR camera so that we could get a quicker shutter speed and "catch" more of what Hannah was doing. I've really enjoyed using it, but until recently have only shot in the automatic mode...where the camera chooses all the settings for you. It's easy and the pictures are generally pretty good. However, since Hannah is almost 2 and I still hadn't figured out how to really get the most from my camera, I signed up to take a class at the local community college. Let me tell you, I didn't know how much I didn't know. ISO, aperture, shutter speed, balance....whoa.

So I am working on moving away from the "green box" setting on my camera and slowly but surely I think I'm getting the hang of it. (Did I mention slowly?)

Here's a shot from this morning...all manual settings. Hannah thinks I'm nuts & refuses to look at the camera.

{ fall family wedding }

We had a great time this weekend at a family wedding in Missouri. All the brothers were there with their families. Hannah loved seeing her cousins!

We're not sure where she got them, but Hannah had some wild dance moves! Here are all the cousins...

Hannah and Kendall

I think Tim & Kathy were pretty happy to have all their girls around them.

{ feel the burn! }

{ in cahoots }

Doesn't it look like these two are cooking something up?

{ it's true! }

So apparently Hannah was more right than I knew! They really ARE "awfuls"!

When I tried to buy a box of cinnamon toast waffles tonight, the cashier CONFISCATED them and told me they were being recalled. A quick Google search revealed that there was a Listeria finding at the processing center where these are made. Sounds pretty AWFUL to me!

There will be no awful mornings at the Kurz house this week.

{ awful mornings }

One of Hannah's favorite breakfasts is cinnamon toast waffles. She devours them! But when she asks for them, it sounds like she wants AWFULS, which makes me think of this:
I'm glad she still likes them no matter what they're called!

{ doorknob girl, part II }

This picture is for my mom, who had a little blonde doorknob girl of her own about 28 years ago.

It might take another 28 years for this dress to come back in style, though. Yikes!

{ hannah's first day }

Today's was Hannah's first day of "school" in Bloomington. She LOVED it! No tears were shed, (except by her mom), until the end of the day when it was time to leave. She didn't want to go home!

{ roastin' ears }

Tonight was Hannah's first experience with corn on the cob. She kept calling it popcorn. (??) Kind of amazing that it took until August, but I guess we got a late start on summer. She loved it! Papa-d-Kurz would be proud of her & her roastin' ears.

{ saturday morning }

{ one more of the new driver }

Just one more picture of Hannah behind the wheel.

{ new ride }

When Hannah fell in love with a Cozy Coupe at a friend's house this week, I thought it would be a nice treat to get one for our house since we have very few outside toys. I found one on clearance for a great price and spent the better part of the afternoon piecing it all together. It was not an easy task, especially given my deficiencies in spatial reasoning. After about 3 hours, it was finally together, and I woke Hannah up from her nap to examine the new ride. Needless to say, she was thrilled!