Disneyland

Last week was another week of fun school projects, but I'll blog about that later.  There's something more fun and exciting that has taken place in our family this week!  :)  We've had a pretty large Disney gift card sitting around our house for a while now, just waiting to be used.  We'd been wanting and planning to take Hannah to Disneyland since Christmas, but just never actually did it.  After mulling it over, we finally decided to go!  Thanks to so many of you for helping pay the way (you probably didn't even know you were helping!)!  We took Hannah's birthday money and saved some Christmas money from when we were originally planning on going, along with our gift card, and went!  It was a blast!  Thankfully I have an aunt who lives about 5 miles away from Disneyland who let us crash at her place for a few nights.  It was really great, because we could just go back to the house, eat lunch and even give Hannah a nap (which made for a much more pleasant time all-around).  :)  Instead of me telling you about our trip, let me show you instead - I think it'll be much more enjoyable for you.  :)

On the "train" (tram) to get from the parking garage to the park.  This ended up being a highlight of the trip for Hannah.  She was never sad about leaving the park, because it meant riding the "train."  :)

If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you'll be ale to see Hannah's cute little hand waving.

My cute, crazy husband. :)

Loving the tea cups.

The World of Color show at California Adventure is amazing!!!  It's unbelievable what they can do with water and lights.

We were on the Ferris wheel when Hannah spotted Buzz Lightyear walking through the park and started yelling to him.  "Hey, Buzz!  I'm on a ride!"

You can now purchase life-size Hannah Grace action figures!

A highlight for Hannah.  Before going to Disneyland, the only thing she knew about it is that Buzz, Woody, and Jesse live there.  :)

One of our friends wrote a book called Discovering the Magic Kingdom.  I have yet to read it, but James did and in the book, we found out that we can ride in the wheel house of the Mark Twain Riverboat!!!  Hannah even got to help "steer" the boat!

That's the boat Hannah got to "steer."

It took a few days for her to warm up to the characters.  You'll notice that in all the other pictures, either James or I am holding her.  This was the first time she approached one by herself and gave him a hug.  :)

After 2 1/2 days at Disneyland.  :)

Here's Hannah on the tram with a year's worth of sunscreen on her face.

Translation:
Me: Where are we right now?
Hannah: On a train.
Me: But where's the train?
Hannah: Right here. (Haha...obviously!)  :)
Me: Where's it taking us?
Hannah: Uhhh...this way.
Me: But where are we going?
Hannah: Uhhh...to....
Me: To Disneyland?
Hannah: Disneyland!!!


This one's really cute.  It's Hannah on the tea cups.  Thankfully it's dark and you can't see much so you won't get motion sickness from all the spinning.  BUT you can still hear the cute laughter and squeals (plus get a glimpse of Hannah every once in a while).

Hannah "steering" the boat.

A video of just a small portion of The World of Color.  It's not as impressive, because we were watching it from behind, but if you watch it from the front, you they project images and movies onto the water - it's amazing!

Preschool: Week 2

Last week we embarked on our second week of preschool!  It was a very special week as we learned about the letter "B" and it just happened to be Hannah's Birthday that week!  Here's a sampling of some of our projects this week:

We learned that on day 3 of creation, God separated the land from the water, so we made the world with it's land and water.  Take a coffee filter, color green for land and blue for water.  Lightly spray it with a spray bottle; let dry.  The colors will run together and you'll be left with a world!  Sorry I don't have a picture of the finished product, but you can see what it's supposed to look like here: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/earth/mcoffeefilter.htm

We made a Bird puppet!

We had a birthday celebration with lots of balloons!

"B" objects from around the house: bag, bun, ball, baby, balloon, book, backpack, box, bear, bow, blanky, bunny, Bob the Builder, brush...

Preschool!

This year I've decided I would try to do homeschool preschool!  It's been fun, and Hannah and I are both learning a lot through this endeavor.  Hannah is learning how to have a little bit more of a structured day (doing what activities Mommy says when Mommy says).  She is loving all the activities and projects!  I am learning lots of patience!  :) 

I decided I would try to blog some of our activities each week, mainly for my own records.  You can come along for the ride, too, if you'd like!  We're on our third week, so I'm a little behind, but I figure better late than never!

Week 1

We learned about the letter A!  She did a pretty good job tracing them!

Hannah was practicing her little a's, then decided she'd turn it into a person.

Big A!

Special A snack: Apples!

Apron starts with A!

Working on her fine motor skills!

*Almost* straight lines!  Not bad for a 3-year-old, I guess!

Learning about creation and how God created light.  The Oreo half on the left is what there was before God created light and the Oreo on the right is after God created light (or maybe it's just an excuse to eat Oreos).  :)

We didn't do a whole lot the first week, because we were waiting for a birthday present from Bapa and Mama which contained most of her preschool supplies, but we had fun nonetheless!

Our Baby's THREE!

Ok, I understand that technically a three-year-old isn't a baby anymore, but I think Hannah will always be my baby!  It's hard to believe that she's three!  It feels like we just had her, but that we've known her forever all at the same time!  We named her Hannah (which means grace) Grace, and she really is a gift of grace from God to us.  We have learned so much from Hannah - about her, about ourselves, and about our heavenly Father.

For those of you who weren't around to enjoy her birthday festivities, here are just a few pictures from our fun!

Hannah LOVES firetrucks, so she was thrilled with her cake!  For those of you who are interested, it was chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse, caramel, toasted almonds, and chocolate chunks.

She loved having everyone sing to her!  And I do realize that it's ironic to have flames coming out of the top of a firetruck.  :)

The previous picture is such a nice change from her reaction when we sang to her at her first birthday!  :)

Since her party was on Saturday, but her birthday wasn't until Wednesday, we decorated the house so that when she woke up on her actual birthday, she would realize it was a special day!  She LOVED it and told me it was "beautiful"!

I hung up some baby pictures of her and she really enjoyed looking at baby Hannah!

Birthday pancakes!  She blew out the candles all by herself in one puff!

She is very animated when she opens presents/cards!  :)

We don't normally let her drink ketchup, but since it was her birthday....

Here's Hannah's reaction to the decorations when she woke up on her birthday:

And here's her opening Papa and Grandma's card:

Translation:
Once she opens the card and sees the stickers: "Oh goodness!  Stickers!  They're pretty.
Once she pulls out the check: "A other card!  So beautiful!"

Seeing Double

We're enjoying our time with Grandma and Aunt Kristin and I've got lots of pictures to post later, but I couldn't help but post this one now.  We always knew that Hannah looked like Aunt Kristin, but it is amazing how much she looks like her. 

The One You Need

 Here is a new Shane and Shane video for those of us with daughters. - James

Our Summer (So Far) in Pictures

The months have been flying by and we've been busy!  The easiest way for me to catch up on what we've been up to is through pictures, so here we go!

On our way to my parents', we stopped to visit some friends and their 2(?) week old baby.  Hannah LOVED him!

We went to Keanna's 7th birthday party!

April likes rice, though I'm not sure if any of it actually made it into her mouth!

Hannah went to her first Guide Dog Puppy Class!

Playing drums at the county fair with her cousins.

James and Hannah went down the Super Slide about 20 times!  There were no lines, so they could go on whatever rides they wanted as many times as they wanted!

Hannah went on EVERYTHING she was tall enough to ride, including this roller coaster.  If you look closely, you can see her little hands up in the air!

Keanna and one of the boys (I honestly don't know which one this was) waiting for their daddy and Uncle James to get off this ride.

We took Hannah to a free night at a children's museum!  She enjoyed watching the bees.

James and Hannah climbing one of the towers at the museum!

She got to ride a tricycle at the museum, too!

Hannah's favorite mode of transportation these days is as "Daddy's pack-pack."

Ran my first 5K on July 4!

We've spent quite a bit of time at the beach this summer!  Hannah loves it!

Visiting Hannah's 96-year-old great-great Aunt Pearl!

Mama and Bapa came to visit!

Beach Beauty!

Hannah makes friends everywhere she goes!

Mama and Bapa spoiled us and took us to see the Winnie the Pooh movie (and even got popcorn)!!!

I let Hannah pick out nail polish!  So, so fun!

Pretty in pink!

Hannah surprised me one day by coloring (almost) in the lines!