Easter Fun

We had a wonderful Easter in Disney World this year. We went to a fabulous character brunch with delicious food, and got to see the gorgeous gardens at the Grand Floridian. We also went to church down there and I actually got to see a couple of familiar faces from when i lived there. After Hannah's only nap that entire vacation we went to Epcot to watch Illuminations which is my favorite fireworks show. Hannah loved it, and it was fun to spend some alone time with my parents.

Yeah for Disney!

This is a shot from Playhouse Disney Live. It was her absolute favorite, and it was a blast to see her dancing around and getting excited to see everything!

We made it back! Our trip to Disney World was amazing, and we couldn't have had a better time. It was so much fun to watch Hannah's reaction to everything that we saw. Every time she saw something she loved she would get this huge smile and her face and say "Wow!" It as also so nice to spend time with family. Hannah loved all of the attention she got from her aunts, and loved playing with her cousins. She was always so concerned about Blayr and had to make sure that she was always happy! Hannah made out with quite the haul in souveniers! Grandma and Grandpa got her a Cinderella princess dress complete with glass slippers. She wore those glass slippers all over the Magic Kingdom!
We are sad to that the vacation is over, and really miss everybody, but I think Hannah was ready to get back to a schedule. She only napped one day down there, and was up until around midnight every night. She was such a trooper, and never had any major meltdowns!
Well, I took about three hundred pictures, so I will put some on here, and they say it all better than I can!


She loved seeing all of her fave characters from afar, but was never a fan of getting too close!







These are the glass slippers she got from Grandma. She had to put them on right away and wore them all over the park that night!

You can't go to Disney World and not get Mickey ears...well in this case her Minnie ears!

Warm weather, here we come!

Russ surprised me with a new camera yesterday because I am always complaining at how stinky ours is....okay it wasn't that horrible, I just have started scrapping more and the pictures are never the quality I want them to be. Anyway...of course he had to test it out as soon as we got it so here are some of our first shots with our awesome new camera!!




We are headed to Disney World tomorrow and we are so excited! Everyone keep your fingers crossed that this weather cooperates. We have had horrible luck trying to travel from out here and I just become a nervous wreck every time we have to travel. So of course it is foggy today, (which is what made us have to end up driving to Utah for Christmas), and there are t-storms and wind in atlanta tomorrow (which is where our lay over is). AAHH!! Russ tries to be my calming influence but I really have become quite a pessimist about anything going right with our travels out here.
We'll get there eventually, right?! We hope everyone has a fabulous Easter and I will try and post some fun pics while we are down there!

Ends in E?

This is a pic of Hannah "making it top". That's what she calls it when she wants to stack her blocks.

I've always been impressed with Hannah's vocabulary, and with how well she has picked up on two languages. But lately she has started changing things up a bit. She has started to add an E onto the end of almost EVERY word she says in English. Shoe-e, food-e, head-e...you get the point. At first I thought it was pretty adorable, but now I am getting concerned. What if this is how she talks for the rest of her life? Annoying-e. She never does it in Spanish, which I think is a little weird-e.
Today has been such a great day. It is 60 degrees outside and we love it! We went to the park with our friend Rachel and her dog Wally this morning and Hannah got to swing and slide for the first time this winter. I didn't get any pictures, but I am sure this isn't our last trip. She has been outside with Russ for a while now with no intentions of coming inside. Ever. We are just keeping our fingers crossed that the weather stays this beautiful.
My fam leaves tomorrow for Disneyworld and I wish we were going to be there with them. We have to wait until Wednesday...but we are so excited. It's pretty much all we talk about at our house! We got a new camera for the occasion so I will try and keep everyone updates while we are down there. Have a fabulous weekend!

Hannah decided to teach herself to do the splits I tried to capture it on camera, but she was too quick.

She loves playing in her kitchen and is always "mix mixing" something for us!

Where is spring?

I am pretty convinced that it will never be warm here again. We had a beautiful 70 degree day last Sunday, and the high today....a whopping 24. I don't even think it got that warm because of this stupid wind. Only a week and a half until we are in sunny Florida, and I can't wait. I don't even care if it rains because Florida rain is warm.
Hannah survived Russell's first week back to school, which means I survived! The last couple of days have been much better, not as many meltdowns. It has worked out perfectly that he walks in the door right when she is waking up from her nap every day, and she has come to expect him to be there at that time. Well, today it didn't happen. The first thing out of her mouth when I walked in her room to get her was, "Daddy's coming!" Unfortunately he wasn't coming anytime soon and I had to tell her that. As soon as I told her that she flung herself back onto her bed and started sobbing. Not just crying, but break your heart sobbing. I wanted to cry right along with her. We are so excited the weekend is here!! I am getting a massage tomorrow and we are taking Hannah swimming. I can't wait.
Everything is going pretty good with my pregnancy so far. My iron was way too low at my last appt. so I get to take those lovely supplements now, but other than that everything is good. I am loving not being sick anymore! It is amazing how much more I enjoy life and being a mom when I don't feel like I want to die! I have a new respect for my mom who was this sick with all seven of her children. She deserves some kind of medal.
Here are a few fun pics from watching the eagles down on the river. You can't really see the eagles, but they were everywhere.

Shake it, Shake it

This one is for you mom! Grandma W. taught Hannah this song when she was really little, and it has been her favorite ever since!

Fun at the Y!

Today was a pretty monumental day for Hannah. She got in a swimming pool! She has been pretty much terrified of swimming pools her whole life, and today for the first time she became little miss daredevil. Russ was beyond excited. The Bettendorf Y has a children's pool with a rain tree, and a cute little frog slide and some fountains., and a zero entry. Just perfect for Hannah. She was doing her usual routine of standing just at the edge, and crying if we even mentioned wading in three more inches, when she spotted some toys on the other side of the pool and started walking towards them. I sat there in shock while Russ chased after her. From that point on she couldn't get enough of it. We even took her into the "deep" part, which used to send her into meltdown, where Russ helped her float on her tummy and dog paddle. I still can't get that proud smile off of Russell's face. Ok, I can't get it off of my face either. We are pretty proud parents! We were there for over two hours, and the only way we could get her to leave was to bribe her with french fries. I know, pitiful right. But we figured it was the last day of Russ's break and we deserved a little celebration. :)
That's right....Russ heads back to school tomorrow. I am pretty sad about it. This break has been so nice. We didn't travel anywhere and just explored everything there is to do here. At first I was pretty sad about not being able to go home, but that quickly changed. We have had days packed full of fun family things, and there has been no stress. I am bracing myself for the fall out tomorrow. Hannah always struggles after being able to spend so much time with her dad, and then having him disappear all day. But we have some fun play dates planned and I am sure the museum will be our best friend...

This is where she usually hangs out...
Just a little bit braver here...

Then suddenly this!