Hannah's 3rd Birthday... Mostly in Pictures!

Hannah's birthday started off with pink scrambled eggs and toast with jelly.  She was a fan!

Then, Hannah, Jacob, Grandma Teresa, and mommy went to The Orpheum Children's Museum in Champaign for some fun.  We had never been there before.  Hannah really liked it.  She liked dumping blue sand...

and going down the castle slide...

and playing at the water table.

Then, we met Grandpa Ed for lunch at Monical's-Hannah's favorite.  Grandpa and Grandma let her open one present at lunch.

It was bride and groom "paper dolls" (wood & magnets).  They were a hit!

That night, Josh and I gave her two presents: a Fancy Nancy book and a large floor puzzle.

We had Elmo cupcakes and opened a few other presents she received in the mail!

 Hannah and daddy had fun playing horsey.

The next day, Hannah got some more presents in the mail from Uncle Paul & Aunt Alisa.

Then, we had a party a few days later with lots of family.  Hannah had requested a Dora cake, and I was excited to try and make it.  I was really happy with how it turned out.

 Seeing how much she liked it definitely made it worth it!

 Hannah got all kinds of neat presents, including a princess chair and a real princess crown from Aunt Linda and Uncle Art...

 a princess wand from her friend Tony...

and a picnic table from Grandpa Steve.  

She also got some really cute clothes that mommy was probably more excited about than Hannah, the movie Rio, a princess bowling set, a camping chair, her first My Little Ponies, lots of hairbows made by Aunt Emily, and much, much more!

The present that got the best reaction by far was a Rapunzel dress made by Grandma Teresa.  I hadn't even pulled it all the way out, and she was ripping off her clothes (which actually were pajamas that she had convinced Aunt Emily to change her into at the beginning of the party....). 

It was hysterical.  She stripped off her clothes in 3 seconds flat, and everyone was hysterically laughing and snapping pictures.  She was only worried about getting that dress on.  She just kept saying, "I want to wear that dress, I want to wear it!"

 We got it on her quickly!

 She even had Rapunzel hair to wear with it!

Daddy loves his princess!

 After cake, we had one more surprise for Hannah...

 Josh and I got her a (used) princess car!!!!  It looks brand new!  

 She loved it!

 SOOO EXCITED!!!!!

We love you, Hannah!!!  Happy 3rd Birthday!!!!!

Hannah... my new favorite 3 year old!

My little Hannah just turned 3!  In ways, it's hard to believe, but in other ways, it seems like my old life was so long ago.  The "terrible twos" weren't really terrible, but they were a roller coaster!  I have been learning, right along with Hannah, about how to deal with toddler mood swings. 

I think this picture says a lot about Hannah.  The feisty smile and the neatly sorted blocks both say something about her personality...She is a character!

Over the last year, Hannah's room has somewhat unintentionally become a Disney Princess room.  Her wallpaper border was falling down, so I replaced it with princess paper.  I also got some cool Princess wall stickers and a Princess poster from Shutterfly with her picture in it.  She also has a Princess blanket, chair, pillowcase, table and chairs set, floor puzzle, etc.  It just kind of took over, but she loves it!    

Hannah and Jacob are becoming great playmates, and it's pretty fun to watch.  She begs him to chase after her, and he keeps up with her pretty well.  They are pretty cute together! 

Hannah is a great little helper to me.  She does all sorts of things with me; she puts away dishes, sorts laundry, and retrieves things for me like the telephone, remote, and clean diapers.

 

Hannah has also learned a lot this year.  She can pretty well sing the ABC's on her own.  She has known all of her letters for quite awhile, and she is starting to learn how to write them.  She also knows her colors, shapes, and numbers.  She is sometimes good at counting, but she usually skips some numbers!  

She is quite a talker these days as well.  She surprises me every day with the things she says.  It's fun that we can carry on little conversations now.  She says the funniest things.  She is very particular about things and does not like to be messy.  If she gets anything on her clothes, they immediately have to come off (she is her daddy's daughter!).  After she eats, she always says, "What's this face?" meaning "What is on my face?"  She wants it washed off!  

Hannah, you are your mama's joy.  You keep me busy all day long, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  I love every day I have with you.  You are my precious baby girl.  I pray that I will be a good mother and that you and I will always be close.  I pray every day that you will know and follow God all of your life.  You are so beautiful!  I love you!  Mommy

Family Pictures

My dad came over and took some family pictures for us around our house.  Now I just need to decide which  ones to order!  Most of the proofs had one child smiling and one child frowning.  But, we got a couple of decent ones.

Something for Sadie

In May, the 19 month old daughter of one of my high school classmates was diagnosed with leukemia.  I knew I wanted to do something right away to help.  It's so easy to simply say "I'm praying for you" or "let me know if I can do anything to help."  I saw lots of people saying things like this on Facebook.  And while the comments were nice, and I firmly believe that they needed tons of prayers and support from their friends, I also knew they would need some tangible help.  For some reason, it took me back to a message I once heard, talking about helping people in need.  The speaker had said not just to tell people in difficult situations "let me know how I can help" because they'll never tell you what they need.  She said, instead, offer specific things you would like to do to help so they have an easy way to say yes.  In thinking about this, I really felt called into action.  So, I e-mailed the family and asked what night I could bring dinner.  I also immediately started a Facebook page and asked people to send money through PayPal for me to take to them since I knew they had several immediate expenses.  Within minutes, money starting coming in.  Isn't technology amazing?  The following week, I was able to take them dinner, a large basket of gifts for their daughter, and around $700 to get started with traveling and medical expenses.  

A couple weeks later, a classmate of mine who doesn't live around here any more asked me if I would get together with his dad and help plan a fundraiser for the family.  I really felt like this was something I could and should do, and so I said yes.  We met for eight weeks and planned an event called "Something for Sadie" and held it at The Catlin Park.  We had dinner, a DJ, a cake walk, a bags tournament, face painting, a bounce house, lemon shake-ups, a photo booth, and LOTS of raffles!  We were able to make over $5,000!  I am sure that is a just a start for what this family will need, but I was so glad to be able to help in a tangible way.  The family will be traveling back and forth to Indianapolis for treatments for the next two and a half years, but little Sadie is doing well and is expected to make a full recovery-praise God!  

My mom and dad volunteered to head up the cake walk.  It was a huge success!  We had people waiting in line to join!  We had more people than we had numbers in the circle, and we gave away about 50 cakes!

Hannah got her face painted for the first time!

Jacob got to hang out in his stroller!

Making Messes....

My friend Jennifer always has great stories of her kids making messes.  I knew that I couldn't be far behind on this as her kids are just older than mine, but I was thinking not long ago that I don't have any of those "good stories" yet.  That's the dangerous thing about thinking... it always seems to happen then!  A few days after these thoughts, Hannah decided to make it "snow" in my dining room with powdered sugar.  That was a fun mess to clean up!  Even after sweeping and mopping a few times, the floor was somewhat sticky for a few days.  Jacob was an innocent bystander.  

Not long after that, Hannah decided to color a "mural" all the way down the hallway walls.  We went through two entire Mr. Clean Magic Erasers getting that mess cleaned up.  And her crayons were taken away for a few days.  

And finally, Hannah pulled EVERYTHING out of her fall tub of clothes which was neatly packed away until we needed it, as well as all of her drawers of clothes in her closet.  I had fun sorting that all back out and putting it away.  

You just know that when your kids are quiet, they are up to no good!