Happy Easter or Happy Resurrection 2013

I saw someone post on facebook that they will begin saying Happy Resurrection, 

instead of Happy Easter. I love that. Just thought I'd share. 

Hannah and I are here in CA for Easter. 

Dan is home and we sure do miss him.

35 Months

I can't believe I have been blogging every month for the past 3 years, that seems like a lot. 

I am so glad that I have done that for Hannah. I have thoroughly enjoyed tracking every new word, action, and stage Hannah has been in. I may not be blogging about her as monthly as I have been, but you can be sure that I will update how she is doing with regular blogging.

Hannah is a girl, I know she is 3, but she has become a little girl.

She has attitude, opinion, and begun to really understand cause and reaction.

She has her own extrovert personality, style--clothing, shoes, hair, etc. 

She is so much FUN!

Family Vacation Seattle-Forks-LaPush-Victoria-Vancouver

Every year or every other year, we try to get together with some friends of ours. 

We all went to Harding together and we all live in different parts of the country. 

We try to visit where each couple lives. 

So far, we've been to Denver and Castle Rock, CO twice, to visit Stephen and Kira. 

Most recently last month, we headed to Seattle, WA to visit Mike and Sarah.

We stayed in Seattle for 4 days. We went on a sleigh ride, visited Leavenworth (a German town), saw some beautiful waterfalls, and tried to catch up after being apart for so long. 

It was a ton of fun and we really enjoyed out time with everyone. 

It was a little challenging for me since Hannah was the only child, and her schedule was thrown for a couple days. So, we had a cranky toddler at times, but for the most part, she was great. 

After the weekend, our friends from CO went home and we headed off on our adventure. 

While we were there, we decided to extend out stay and take a family vacation, just the three of us.

Since we were in WA, and Dan and I both read the Twilight books together, we decided to visit the cities and places that book was based on. 

From Seattle, we took a Ferry (30 min.) to Bainbridge Island. We captured so many beautiful pictures of the Seattle skyline. There is nothing like traveling via boat with the entire city at your back.

We then drove 2 1/2 hours to Sequim (pronounced Skwim where we stayed in a hotel. We then headed out to Port Angeles to "Bella Italia", an Italian restaurant that was used in the book. 

The next day, we headed to Forks and La Push, about an hour drive. Can we say gorgeous?? 

We stopped along the way several times to capture breathtaking beauty. We saw random waterfalls coming down off the mountain near the side of the road, crystal clear lake water--beautiful colors (we even saved some of the water, it was tasteless and pure), snow covered mountain tops and we even got to take some family pictures at some of those places. 

When we arrived in Forks, we began snapping pictures like crazy because this small little town of about 3,000 people was covered in "Twilight". We headed to a store called, Dazzled By Twilight. It had all sorts of things about the movie, books, character lockers and clothes, even license plates. We couldn't resist, we bought a plate for our license plate wall in the garage, "Bite Me!". We drove by the visitors center where Bellas truck was parked, the one actually filmed in the movie. We just enjoyed seeing all the places that were named in the book and just having fun together on this journey. 

We then headed to La Push, another breathtaking place, an Indian Reservation. It is a beach, and it was freezing! It was cold and rainy, but we still loved being on the beach, Hannah picked up some neat looking rocks and we got some amazing photos, especially with the sunset. 

The next day, we headed to catch the ferry to Victoria, Canada, our next stop.

The ferry was 2 hours and it was beautiful as well. When we landed, we headed to the docks where different vendors were and several houseboats sat on the water. Hannah was able to feed the Sea Otters with small fish, she LOVED that. The birds were all around, trying to sneak in and steel the fish too. 

We enjoyed the best ever fresh fish and chips at a little place called, "Red Fish Blue Fish". Apparently, it is a small place that is overlooked, unless you are looking for it specifically. If it were in America, I know ti would be on the shows, "Diners, Drive ins and Dives". We had fresh Salmon and Cod. They were full half filets, so delicious! Hannah loves fish and chips too.

We sure took advantage of the swimming pools in all the hotels we stayed in. Daniel made sure that each hotel had a pool that was up and running. He also tracked down swimming floaties for Hannah at Toys R Us in Victoria. He called around each place we were to find them, he finally had success and they had 2 left over from summer. Hannah LOVES to swim, so he was determined to find some and he did. 

The next day, we visited the Butterfly Gardens. It was pretty neat. There, they had all the caccoons and 85 degree humid indoor area with tons of exotic plants and butterflys everywhere. Some even landed on Hannah and my camera lens. Appartnely, they loves the bright color red--they kept landing on Hannah and this man who were both in red. After that, we headed to the ferry that would take us to Vancouver, Canada (about 2 hours).

James Norman's 3rd Birthday

Today was James Ryan Normans birthday. 

He turned 3!

We celebrated with his family and friends at his Dinosaur party.

Hannah was very excited to be there. 

Movie Night

On Thursday, we headed to our friends house for a Pizza and movie night. 

We watched HOP. 

It's a cute little story about the Easter bunny and involves some great "beats"!

 

Hannah's Big Girl Bed

We found an awesome deal on a big girl bed for Hannah. 

I was really wanting to get her one because there are so many nights when I would love to just lay with her, humming and singing. Her chair in her room was not as comfortable and if she fell asleep, she would wake up when I would transfer her. Hannah also kept asking for a big, big bed. 

We went and bought her mattress and box spring for a great deal at a mattress place. 

Her bed frame, footboard and headboard we got from an overstock place we found on craigslist. 

It's a Home Elegance Marianne Twin Bed,
it retails for $300.00 new and we got it New in the box for $175.00

2 Years 10 Months (34 Months)

Hannah has hit several milestones in the past several weeks.
She was 34 months on Feb. 22

She weighs 31 pounds

She is 36.5 inches tall

She wears size 8 shoes

She wears 3T Pants and Shirts

Dr. Seuss' Birthday Party!

My friend Lauren is awesome. 

She decided to put together a birthday party for "Dr.Seuss". 

It was just perfect. Such a great way to gather friends together and have fun!

Hannah was ready to par-tay!

Makeover

When we moved into our house, we inherited a beautiful landscape. 

We always have done our best to keep up with the yard. 

This year, we decided to have a company come and trim all our trees, bushes and huge overgrown cypress trees. They also ripped out our huge overbearing bush in the front...we actually already ripped out the one neat the left post below, they took out the one to the right.
They also did a TON of weeding and mulching in the front and back.
While they were working, Dan and I were too. 

I weeded out the garden beds and got them ready for the Spring garden. planted a new flowering bush and flowers around. Dan and I also laid a brick pattern of stepping stones near the back hose.

Surgery

As some of you know Hannah had her tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday.

She has previously had trouble breathing at night and had sleep apnea.

Her appointment was scheduled for 1:00 p.m. But didn't get in till 2:00 p.m.

She didn't seem to have a problem with the fact that she could not eat or drink all day. 

The only time she was mad, was if she saw any food or her cup, then she was mad. 

Texas Children's had a great pre-op waiting room where there was a lot of great entertainment and distractions, she had a ball. There were trucks,cars and wagons to ride along with many other push toys and mind stimulating toys.