Hannah's Birthday Party

"Block Party" is more like it! For the second year in a row, Hannah's party invitation list has included as many neighbors as it has family and friends. She's such a fun, loveable and social little girl. She just loves our neighbors. Whenever they're out, she finds a reason to go and talk to them. I just love that about her. I love our neighbors too, so I can see why she enjoys them so much and we are SO thankful to have the neighbors that we do.

Hannah's party theme was "Frozen" this year. Surprise, surprise! And much like Abby's "Frozen" Birthday party last summer, it was 90 degrees that day! We set up the kiddy-pool to keep the little people cool and the adults spent more time in the air-conditioned house to stay cool.

 

 

 Neighbors, Kay & Dan. Sandy, next door, had to leave early.

 Other next door, neighbors, Jana & Trent.

Hannah is 4!!

It's been a busy year for this little girl! At the end of last summer, she began getting stubborn, oral-antibiotic resistant urinary tract infections resulting in hospital stays, picc lines and eventually a corrective surgery in February! Whew! It was a lot to take in each time but she was a little champ, enduring through it all. Not always happy about it...especially after many trips to the hospital she knows what having an IV put in entails and although she would cry and say she didn't want one, she complied anyway. That's going to be something she'll need all through life, so I'm thankful to see those life skills being developed so early.

Hannah-Banana...we still call you that. You are the life of the party! ;) You are so cheerful and happy, fearless and social.

You and Caleb are the best buddies. Since Abby and Elijah were in school full-time last year, you spent three days a week playing with Caleb and the afternoons after he came home from preschool. He adores you and you both play really well together.

This picture pretty sums you up: A ballerina with a sword! ;) You are very girly but can play "spies" with your brothers at the same time! We all love that about you! You're just a fun girl!


One of your favorite things to do is to play "the baby game", which is playing babies, mommy and daddy. It's not Caleb's favorite thing to do though so he tolerates it for awhile and then wants to move on to something else. If you could find a way to play it by yourself, I'm certain that you would...but you're just so social that playing by yourself seems like torture!

 

Whenever our neighbors are out...you are out. So many times I turn around to find that you're missing and find you across the street chatting with Kay as she gardens. You usually get a shovel and my big pair of gloves and go join her. For your birthday, Kay gave you two pairs of your own gardening gloves! A perfect gift from your gardening friend. Jana next door, gave you a Princess gardening shovel with a diamond in it! You are set now! 

This spring Abby took a gymnastics class and since then, you've been all about tumbles, cartwheels and the trampoline. You're pretty good at it all and have caught on quickly! Abby has been a good teacher to you.

You have a new friend this year. Her name is Emily Rasmussen and you're always asking to play with Emily! You're both 4th born's so you'll have some things to work through in the years to come. ;) So far, you're developing some good conflict resolution skills because of it though. ;) 

You LOVE taking selfies on my phone! I find so many pictures like this on my phone. Sometimes I don't know if YOU know that you're taking them. There will be 20 in a row...all of the same facial expression! I try to keep one or two just to remember this sweet part of you. Sometimes they're an interesting view into your world.

 

While the kids were in school this year, we were able to go on many coffee dates together! It was fun to have that sweet time with you!

You and Daddy have such a special relationship! I was interviewing you about Daddy for Father's Day and you said you enjoy when Daddy plays with you. I'm pretty sure you mean when he wrestles with you on our bed and throws you into our pillows. You're an adventure girl and we love that about you.

And finally! Would you please just poop and get off the pot already?!! We've been working on getting you to poop in the toilet for about 2 years now and you're still not doing it. Ugh. We're tired of it but we haven't given up and we still love you, despite cleaning out several pairs of underwear a day. It's something I pray for you as silly as that seems. God cares about everything about us, little one.You'll get it one of these days and we will celebrate big time....and go buy some new undies!! ;)

Hannah's Golden Birthday!

Hannah's 3rd Birthday was on June 3rd. We held off celebrating though until today, June 14th, so both sets of Grandparents could join us for the party. Red Grandma & Grandpa (Joel's parents) flew in yesterday for a two-week visit, so we didn't want to pass up the chance to party with them! ;)

I took a cake decorating class back in April and it was fun to test out my newly learned skills for Hannah's birthday cake. I'll have to do a different post about that...I enjoyed learning something new and it's a joy to be able to bake fun cakes for the kids.

Hannah decided on a Sophia the First themed party. She's the newest Disney Jr. Princess, her Mom married the King and she became a Princess overnight! She's a very sweet character! Hannah likes watching her show and enjoyed meeting her in Disneyland back in January. For her birthday, we bought her a Sophia the First dress, which she loves wearing! It's fun to take a little Princess, dressed in purple to the grocery store or the bank! Hannah is ALL-GIRL and we LOVE it! Her favorite color right now is "puuple" and whenever we play "Eye Spy" there is never a time she doesn't spy something "puuple". It's sweet.

 

 

Love this sweet girl...she enjoyed having everyone sing Happy  Birthday to her.

 

 Her best friend, Claire Arnold, came to her party. I have no idea what they're talking about here, but they sure looked cute!

 Making tiaras.

 

 Besides family coming to the party, Hannah also wanted to invite both of our next-door neighbors. Trent disappeared at one point and I found he and Hannah reading books together in the living room. So sweet.

Abby loves her time with Red Grandma!

Love you sweet, dear, little Hannah. I hope you don't grow up too fast...I would love to just keep you this little forever. You're so fun! You are so social and enjoy people. Almost once a day, I realize it's quiet and wonder, "where's Hannah?!" I have found you in the bathroom eating the entire (small) jar of jelly beans that are meant for potty-training, or you're trying to paint your toe nails on your own (spilling it on our bedroom carpet), or hiding in your window seat with a baby and playing "Mommy". Other times, you're no where to be found...and then I receive a text from Sandy, next door, that reads, "I have Hannah." or I look out the front windows and while you were playing in your window seat, you spied Kay and her dog, Buster (across the street) out doing yard work and have run over for a visit or run to the other next door to just say "Hi" to Jana...as she's getting ready for work or trying to get her boys out the door to baseball games or practice. You are just a social-bug. I have considered putting higher locks on our doors to keep you indoors and need to tell our neighbors to please send you home unless they've heard from me, asking "can Hannah come over and play?"

You are pretty fearless, loving and kind. Your favorite movie is Frozen and you ask to watch "Frozen" videos of YouTube whenever you see me sitting at the computer even though we own the movie. A couple weeks ago at the church retreat, all the young girls sang "Let It Go" on stage, you were front and center and sang it from your heart like it was written for you. You were a joy to watch.

You enjoy playing, "Mommy & Daddy" with Caleb. Watching the two of you play together is so fun for me. You have occasional fights, but mostly play really well together. He is a really good imaginative player and he's teaching you that talent.

You have a tricycle that you enjoy riding and can ride it the whole "long walk" that we do that is 1 mile long! I was so impressed the first time you did it! It's very fun to go on walks with you and Caleb. You love to pick flowers and watch animals, take purses and sunglasses with you where ever you go.

We're still working on potty-training. You're a champ about using the toilet for number 1 but still prefer a pull-up or your panties for number 2. Bummer. ;) We'll get there. There have been times where I put you on your potty-chair or the toilet with a basket of books or a movie and encourage you to sit there as long as you have to until you poop. An hour and a half later, it finally happened...but then that was it. We'll get it figured out...hopefully before summer is out. It will be nice to be a diaper-free home. ;)

We adore you Hannah Grace...love that you're in our family. You're a blessed little girl!

Hannah's 2nd Birthday

This is the age where I wish I could just press PAUSE and enjoy every bit of it! It's such a fun age where there's so much learning and exploring and the beginning of talking. It's just so, so fun! It's holding hands, and tottling, talking non-stop and asking questions all day, testing boundaries and learning about life. We're all enjoying this age with Hannah! There's also the training that is ongoing, some days seemingly non-stop, but it's all worth it when you get to the 4th and 5th year and enjoy the benefits! ;) Just hold on, keep goin'!

We had our church's family camp retreat the same weekend as Hannah's birthday. It will most likely be like that every year and I think (hope) she'll love that through the years!  Every year, we'll probably talk about the fact that she was born on a Friday. Dad came with the other three kids the next morning to see Mom and Baby and then they went to the retreat for the entire day, leaving the two of us to rest and rest and rest. I even stayed an extra night in the hospital just to enjoy that peaceful rest! It also let Joel stay the entire day at the retreat with the kids and he had lots of extra hands to help him out with them as well as some free meals for the day! :)

So this year I'd prepared as much as I could ahead of time, even ordered a cake this time! It was a Hello Kitty party and I wanted to make the same cake that I did with Abby's 3rd birthday, but in the end I decided it would be way less stressful if I just ordered one. It ended up being FREE because there was a mix-up and when Joel went to pick it up they'd forgotten about it! They were able to get it ready in 30 minutes and said not to worry about paying for it so not only was it stress-free, it was cost-free! ;) Too bad it wasn't "fat-free!" Ha! It was tasty though!

So Grandma & Grandpa came over for the night and most of the next day. Jon, Erin & the boys came over and we also invited our neighbors and friends, Jeff, Katie & their girls, Lindsey and Kendall. Hannah enjoyed all the kids and understood that she was the center of attention and pretty much enjoyed that too! She squealed with delight at all the clothes Grandma bought for her and especially the shoes! She's got this fourth-born thing down pat! She's learned so much from watching and observing her siblings, when it came time to blow out the candles, she knew exactly what to do! It was a joy and so fun to celebrate our little Hannah Grace!

So Hannah Grace....here's what you're up to these days.

You LOVE your family! You love giving hugs and kisses and hugs and kisses. With Caleb, your hugs often end up being staggered steps that end up as a wrestling pile on the floor, all prompted by you! You adore your brothers one minute but if they get in your face a little bit too much you're not afraid to let them have it! Right in their face or on their head with your hand or whatever happens to be in it at the time. We're working on that! ;)

 You LOVE "tats" and "dogs"! The first thing you say when you get up in the morning is "Where's Tat?" or "Where's 'Hoks'" (Socks) When the neighbor's dog is out in their driveway, you stand at the front window saying, "Mama, Doggy!" and more often than not, we make our way over to have a chat with the neighbor and receive a lick and a jump from "Buster". You're pretty fearless when it comes to little animals and we love that about you! Months ago we fed our other neighbors cat for a weekend and that's when we discovered how much you really like animals, especially cats. Every day you asked to "feeeee taaaat???!" and you'd put your little fingers in the palm of your other hand to show the cat eating. It was so cute! Even after the neighbors returned and we were finished with our job of "fee tat" if you saw them drive home, you would ask to go over and feed their cat! Twice you ran over there by yourself even!!

 

When it comes to toys, you just play with whatever everyone else is playing with! You've always played with the boys and their cars. You also enjoy playing with balls. Right at 18 months you started playing with dolls and carrying them around on your hip and a cell phone at your ear! Sometimes a purse or two hanging off your shoulder too! You are so girly! We love that about you! Grandma got you a baby stroller for your birthday and you have been pushing that around non-stop. Socks even gets a ride! I took a video of it today! : )

While you have this complete girly side, you also LOVE wrestling with your Daddy and brothers! You egg them on and jump in when Daddy comes home from work and takes on the boys. You just run up and jump on the pile! Daddy's often saying, "whoa! Watch out for Hannah!" because you just think you're one of the boys! It's pretty cute! You adore your Daddy! Before you could say the word, "where" you would make this lilting sound twice and then the word, Daddy. It was you asking, "Where's Daddy?" It happened the second he walked out the door for work, when he was recently in Africa for 10 days, when he's down the hall or in the backyard. You always want to know right where he is! Even when we're out running errands, if we're within a couple blocks of his office, you say, "Daddy!" and ask to go visit him. It's pretty sweet.

 

But most of all, you're a Mama's girl and I LOVE that! The first of all the kids to still be clinging to Mama by this time. You're my last baby, so it's all right with me! You've got a healthy distance going, but you're still my sweet little cuddle-bug, bugaboo and Hannah-Banana!