Movin' on up!

A few days ago, Nick was offered and accepted a new job!!! In 2 weeks he will be starting at his new company, SEIU 1000, which is the largest union for State for employees. His new job title is Windows Server Administrator. He will be making a little more moola, they offer GREAT benefits, including FREE parking (Woo-Hoo), and he won't have to do desk top support anymore, he will be working more behind the scenes keeping the server up and running smoothly... all the way around this position should be a great career move for him and more beneficial for our family. The only slight downside of the new job is the company's colors are yellow and purple, and every Wednesday is company appreciation day and they ask employees to wear purple. Since my hubby has never owned a purple shirt in his life, I went out and purchased his first company appreciation shirt as a "Congratulations on the new job" present... I think it'll bring out his sexy eyes!!! I'm so proud of my hubby and knew his hard work would eventually pay off!!

Scootin' in the "Neighvorheard"

Hannah got a scooter for her birthday from Grandma and Grandpa, and we took her to the bike shop this last weekend to pick out a helmet... and I have a feeling it's going to match the bike Santa might bring her for Christmas! *wink* wink* Anyway, this has become our new favorite, daily, activity. After nap we have been taking the scooter out for a stroll in the "neighvorheard" (that's how she pronounces neighborhood!). She has so much fun, she waves and talks to everyone we pass, loves looking at everyone's house, she stops frequently to take in the scenery and I've got to keep her moving or we would take hours to get back home. It's a great way to pass the time and keep her busy until Daddy gets home or Daddy will take her out while I cook dinner!

I love this, most of her scooting time is spent walking behind her scooter... she's still getting the hang of her new wheels!

"Punkin" Patch with Gina and Emma

Gina and I took the girls to the pumpkin patch this last week and had so much fun! But to start off the trip my car got stuck in the mud and Gina had to get a few burly men to push us out while I found a less muddy spot to park. Hannah could hardly contain herself, she was so excited to see what the pumpkin patch was and the fun things they had to do.

This picture was actually taken at the end of the morning after we had found our pumpkins. It's crazy to realize that Gina and I have been friends for 20 years now, and our girls are following in our footsteps and have known each other since birth!

First stop: feeding the goats. Hannah was all about it, and wasn't scared at all; Emma was a little more reserved but came around and totally enjoyed feeding them too. There were also chickens, ducks, pigs, and turkeys (which Hannah thought were ostriches!) which the girls loved to watch.

Next we followed them through the corn maze, they climbed the steps to the tree house and went down the slide, then climbed the hay pyramid, played in the hay house, went down another slide, and then walked through the haunted barn- Hannah kept saying she was scared but as soon as we left the barn she asked to go again!

Finally, it was time to pick out a pumpkin, and they were the perfect size, not too big for the girls to pick up. Hannah was a typical girl and could not decide on a pumpkin, while Emma instantly picked one and was ready to go. Then Gina found a teeny, tiny pumpkin, which ended up being a hot commodity and the girls fought over it until Emma was nice enough to let her BFF have the teeny pumpkin and she chose another one.

Overall, our morning at the pumpkin patch was pretty successful and Hannah only pouted for a few minutes when it was time to leave. We have the best girls ever and I'm so happy they are able to grow-up together! I hope they will look back one day and see how lucky they are to have each other, like Gina and I are have each other... nothings better than your BFF!

Our 3 year-old!!!

My, my what a difference one year makes!! Tomorrow is our little girls actual birthday and today she had her 3 year well-baby check-up! Diagnosis: perfect toddler that is growing fabulously!! (But we already knew that) She is now 28lbs. and is 36.5 inches tall, which means she is in the 25 percentile for both height and weight. Since last year she has gained maybe 2 lbs. and has grown about 4 inches! Her health is perfect and development right on track.

Thinking back over the year it's amazing how much Hannah has accomplished in her little life. When she turned 2, she was able to speak 3 word sentences, and now she can narrate full paragraphs about her day and whats going on around her. She knows all her animals along with the sounds they make. She can count to 20 and say her ABC's. She's learning songs, her favorites are Old Macdonald and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but she tries to sing EVERY song she hears, even on the radio. (She will sing Pink, Paramore, and All American Rejects !!) She also knows all her colors and always points them out to us. Her coloring skills are quite amazing, if I do say so myself, she seriously colors inside the lines and most people are pretty impressed with her mad skills. She has since been able to memorize books and she "reads" them to us or herself during bedtime. She started preschool at La Petite in January, going 2 half days per week, now she goes 2 full days per week, and that may be increased to 3 full days in the coming months as school gets busier for mom. In late April/early May, she pottytrained with her best friend Emma, and caught on pretty quick! She had very few accidents and now is a master at pooping and peeing in the potty. She even got bumped up to the 3's class at school 4 months early because she was doing so well at pottytraining. She still wears pull-ups at night, but will randomly wake-up dry in the morning, so we are getting closer to completely trained. In June we started swim lessons; she was pretty scared and clung to me for life, but got a little more comfortable in the water but she refused to go under the water at all costs so thats what we'll work on next summer. She was only able to do a few lessons because she got bit by her grandparents dog, Jake, and had to get 14 stiches on her cheek and lip; it was unfortunate but she has since healed really nicely. Hannah is getting more skilled every time we visit the park, we are letting her be more independant when climbing and trying not to act too nervous when she's trying new things. Her favorite things to do at the park are swings, riding her tricycle, and climbing ladders or steps. Since last year her daily schedule hasn't changed too much: she wakes-up about 6:30-7, and instantly asks for a "bana", I keep waiting for her to be sick of them, but it never fails she asks for one everyday. She enjoys watching playhouse Disney on the mornings we are home; her favorite shows are Mickey or Caillou, and her favorite movies are Finding Nemo, Cars, and Bolt. She loves going to Blockbuster with us on Friday nights to pick a movie for family movie night-- which we try to do a few Fridays every month. Her favorite breakfast is strawberry shredded wheat with milk. Then we have lunch about 11:30-12, and her fav lunch food is PB&J's or mac n cheese, then naptime is about 12:30-3:30. After nap, it's snack time first and foremost; she LOVES all fruit but her favs are strawberries or watermelon. She's getting pretty picky about veggies, even though she used to eat everything, but she will normally eat avocado every time. For the rest of the day we play outisde, go to the park, or color. Then it's dinner, bath, show, stories, and bedtime about 7:30. She doesn't go to sleep right away, so she'll read to herself or sing until she's tired, but she's normally pretty content. She just recently got a big girl bed, so no more crib for her! She wasn't even climbing out of her crib but I figured it's time for the next step since she is now 3. The transition to a big girl bed was VERY smooth! We were shocked, she doesn't get out of bed without asking, it's so cute! The first couple nights it took her awhile to calm down because it was so exciting being in a new bed, but now she's used to it and even in the morning she calls for us from her room, and we tell her to come in our room. Beside her developmental milestones, we have done lots of fun things this year, including: Fairytale town, colored Easter eggs, got her first haircut, family trip to Oregon for great Grandpa's 80th birthday, the State Fair, Funderland, 1st manicure, movie theater for the 1st time, and I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but the point is we are truly enjoying our privilage of being her parents and watching our girl grow-up. It's been SO much fun seeing the world through her eyes and we look foward to what this next year holds for us!

Movie time!

"I'm so excited!"

"The dinosaur music is TOO loud!"

The time fnally came that I convinced Nick, Hannah could handle sitting still long enough to enjoy a movie at the theaters! It worked out perfect yesterday, he had the day off for Columbus day and I played hooky from school for the first time in years... seriously I never skip school, I'm a total nerd. So, we decide the 3 dollar movies at Sunrise mall was the perfect venue for such an occasion and they were stil playing Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs-- she loved the other Ice Age movies so we figured it was a good choice. I loaded up my purse with snacks of apple slices, M&M's, and lollipops, and away we were! We never know how late this girly will nap so we took her to the first showing at 11:50 which is about 40 minutes before naptime! She was so excited and we explained how it was going to be dark and we had to be quiet, yada, yada, yada. However, we failed to tell her the movies can be LOUD! As soon as we walk in she covers her ears, we kept coaxing her to uncover her ears and say she'll get used to it, but she won't have it! I really thought she would watch the entire movie with hands over ears, but about 10 minutes in she gained enough courage to uncover and enjoy the show! She was really good and sat in her chair enjoying snacks for the first 35 minutes, then started to get ansy, which really suprised me since she can sit at home and watch a movie without moving. She hopped down from her seat and stayed in our little area licking her lolli, having a good time. We chose a great time/place to go to the movies because it was pretty empty, so when she would start talking and raise her voice to be louder than the movie she didn't bother too many people. She made it until there were about 20 minutes left and wanted to go in the lobby and play games before we left. Although I wanted to find out if Rudy the dinosaur was going to be nice and if Syd would live with his friends again, the kiddo was ready to go. We let her play a few games and end up carrying a tiny, tantrum throwing girl out of the mall. We knew she was just tired and needed her nap, so I'm not gonna really hold it against her! Overall, it was really fun, and now that rainy season is upon us I have a feeling we will be frequent visitors of the movies!

Hannah's 3rd Birthday Bash!

The weekend starts with me waking up Friday morning with a bad head cold, and I think "Great, my daughter's birthday party is tomorrow and I feel like poo, but I can't let her down... or the 30+ people that RSVP'd", so the show must go on, and it did! I ran around like a maniac Friday getting stuff prepared, Nick made the yards look all pretty Friday night and Saturday morning he hosed off the patio, good idea- until we realized the lawn wouldn't dry in time for the party and people were walking around in sloppy, muddy grass. Not to fear though, we put down a few white towels (the only color towels I have for messes, not so smart) to sop up some of the standing water and appoligized to anyone walking in the grass because their shoes were not going to survive. Grandparents came early to help with the finishing touches and detangle the 24 pink and yellow balloons I had just picked-up from the store... we only lost 3 balloons to the sky during the whole detangle process, not to shabby. Finally people started showing up, and I was already about to pass out from not feeling so hot, but I charged on and tried to be a good hostess along with Daddy host. Hannah's 2 best friends, Emma and Dylan came, Jordynn, and Hannah's cousins Jacy and Zach all made it to the party, along with ALL our amazing family that we love so much. While the kiddos ran around the yard and trashed her bedroom, the adults ate tons of food and chatted. We decided not to do any games this year, so after lunch we sang Happy Birthday and had to light the candle on her cupcake about 40 times, before she was able to blow it out before the wind got to it. She devoured that in about 2.5 seconds, so it was on to presents next! She had a HUGE pile of gifts and was thrilled to open them... so were all her friends and cousins that "just wanted to help get her started" :) hahaha. I always feel so bad for the other kids when she's opening presents, it's gotta suck sitting there wishing you were getting all those cool things. Anyways, she didn't need much help from mom and dad ripping through her gifts like she had previous years, so I guess that means she's growing up! My little baby is all gone, she's such a big girl now! She absolutely loved all her new things, which included: TONS of coloring stuff, dress-up clothes with lots and lots of tiaras, a few board games, books, and some super cute clothes. When people started to leave they would ask Hannah if she had a good party and her response was "YEAH, but now it's over." in a little voice, it was so cute. She busted out her scooter as soon as dad cleared off the patio of chairs and tables, then had him blow-up her new Nemo ball pit, and she played with that most of the night. She also brought out all her new board games and we taught her how to play, I think Hi Ho Cherrio is her fav at the moment. Then came dinner time, and she got her new "dancin' shoes" on (dress-up heels) to eat her dinner and 2nd cupcake of the day! She was so not wanting to calm down, she was still running strong, going from one toy to the next, and she had zero nap that day! We kept trying to put a movie on, thinking she would sit for a few minutes to rest, but she was not having it, all her new toys were just too exciting. Finally, though, came an early bedtime, we got to read a few of her new books, tucked her into bed, and she was sound asleep maybe 10 minutes later! She had such a LONG day, it really pooped her out and I think she realized it once she layed her head on the pillow. We wanted to say thank you again to everyone that came to celebrate and make Hannah's day so very special. (All the pictures from the party are on my Facebook, I'm still trying to figure out how to post more than one picture on a blog).

Princess Hannah

Getting everyone up to speed

Here's a little update if you're not sure what exactly is going on in our life right now. Nick is working at RCRC as an IT analyst, translation: he fixes computers when people inevitably screw them up. Beside his normal full-time job he is also working on getting his own computer repair bussiness off of the ground. If anyone needs help with their computer email him at Nick@NickWaItService.com!! Say NO to Geek Squad people!!! I am STILL in school, and just turned in my nursing school applications for the 4th time, we'll find out in about 8 weeks if the lottery is in my favor! In the meantime, I am in the medical assisting program at Cosumnes and will have a degree by next summer which means I will be getting a job! I can't believe this, but I haven't worked for 3 years now!!! Holy smokes, I never thought I would be the person to stay home with my kiddo but I am truly lucky to have gotten the chance. That being said, I'm SUPER excited to get a job and we will be house hunting very soon, so stay tuned! Now on to the most important member of our family-- Hannah. She will be turing 3 next Wednesday and her "pink and yellow party" is on Saturday the 10th. She is going to preschool 2 full days per week and loves it, she comes home telling me which friends she played with that day, SO cute! Every day she learns something new and keeps us laughing with the things she says. She can be such a girly-girl by liking manicures, blowing drying her hair, and keeping clean. But she also loves to play soccer, tennis, and volleyball ouside with mommy and daddy. Her most loved activity at the moment is coloring, she could literally color all day long! She's just starting to get into the whole princess thing and is usually decked out in dress-up when I pick her up from school. Today she got her first birthday present and it was a tutu, crown, earrings, and magic wand and she has not taken it off yet! (Thanks Jamie and Brad) We'll update after her extravaganza on Saturday!

Jumping on the band wagon...

So, I've been inspired by seeing other people's blog to actually start one for my own family. I never really understood the purpose of blogs until I noticed that I'm already forgetting when Hannah has accomplished a certain milestone or when exactly something happened and I know it'll just get worse with the older she gets... or the older I get! I want to be able to tell her when she did this or that, and without writing it down it goes straight outa my head! I did a milestone calender for her first year then stopped when I filled out the year. So, even though she's almost 3 now (1 week form today is her birthday) I figured better late than never with keeping track of the fun things we do and the things life throws our way. If other people can enjoy reading this and watch our family grow and learn then that's a bonus! Enjoy!