Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Happy Father's Day

Hannah has the best dad in the whole world and here are a few reasons why...
- He tells really good jokes
- He plays games and reads stories to her
- He draws pictures with her on her art easel
- He teaches her about animals and takes her exploring by the lake
- He lets her help in the garden even if she makes more of a mess than he would like
- He loves her and kisses her all over every day
- He loves her mom and works really hard
- He has a testimony and shares it by the way he lives his life
- He says prayers and tucks her into bed every night

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

But I didn't get to ride the pink one!

Yesterday we took Hannah to Seven Peaks water park in Provo. I was a little leery of taking her because she is so little, but since we have been going to the Legacy Center this summer, she has gotten braver each time we go. She loves the water slide there so we thought why not. She absolutely loved it. As we drove up to the park she saw all the slides and the first thing she said is "I want to go on the pink one." Not because it looked fun to her but because it is pink and that is her only criteria. Well it turns out that she is too short to go on that particular slide, so it was a great disappointment to her. Multiple times throughout the day, she would ask again if she could go on the pink slide. Since then when anybody asks her about her trip to Seven Peaks the first thing she says is "I didn't get to go on the pink slide!"

It was a lot of fun to watch her get so excited about being there. As we walked up to go on the first slide, she looked at me and said,"Mom, this is going to be a great day! Thanks for bringing me here." I know, I know I have a really sweet little girl.
She loved going on the slides and wasn't afraid at all.

I was proud of how brave she was being. On one of our trips down a slide, when our tube went particularly high up the side of the slide, Hannah yelled out "I am flying like a bird!" It was so cute and I had to laugh out loud.

It was a day of many firsts for Hannah. Her first time to a water park, and she also tried cotton candy for the first time. I am still not sure which one she liked the best.

It's always fun when Grammy comes to visit

Chad's parents got here the other day for a visit. It is always so much fun when they come and it is all that Hannah has been able to talk about for the past several days. They got here on Saturday night and we went down to Provo to visit them at Grandma Greats house. Hannah was really excited to see them all and of course she got even more excited when she saw all the fun presents that Grammy brought her.

It is fun that even though Grammy lives so far away, she always knows what Hannah would love best. These dress ups are so perfect, and she hasn't taken them off for very long at all. Let me tell you it was a real struggle when we were getting ready for church to convince a 2 year old that a purple boa and patriotic crown are not appropriate for church.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Keeping a 2 year old entertained!

So this will probably be the most random post so far. The last couple of days have been really fun and so I just thought I would share some pictures.


So for many of you out there who have two year olds, it is a never ending quest to find something to keep them occupied for longer than 5 minutes. For me I think I have found the trick. Last summer we bought Hannah a sandbox and put it together. However, we never put sand in it and it sat all year just being destroyed by the wonderful Utah weather. So a few weeks ago, chad sanded the whole thing and sealed it so that we could put sand in it. It has proven to be a fantastic purchase. Hannah will stay outside and play in the sandbox for hours. I can work in the house and she will just entertain herself.

Last night we went to Liberty Park with Brett and Jaci. It is such a cute little park and Hannah could stay there for hours. There is this little man-made stream that goes through the park that the kids love to play in.

Hannah of course was no exception. Being the type-A personality that Hannah is, she immediately started cleaning all the leaves out of the stream. Before we knew it, all of the kids playing were cleaning out the leaves. Brett saw this as an opportunity to see if the kids could outlast the current in the stream by throwing leaves upstream and watching the kids chase after them. The kids were having a great time and it was fun to watch Brett enjoying himself.

Hannah trying to catch the leaves.

"I got one mom!"

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Finally Posting

So, I know it has been a really long time since I have posted. You would tink that now that I am out of school, I would have plenty of time to sit around and post all of the time. I actually can’t tell you where all of my time is going. Anyway here is an update on our lives and what has been going on for the last two weeks.
1. School got out on Friday, May 30th at 10:15. That was a really surreal experience for me. The morning track came at 8:00 and then left at 9:30. We were so rushed all morning that when it was time for them to go home it was just like any other day just send them off on their way. It was only after they left that I realized that I wouldn’t have them in class again. And then when B Track went home at 10:15, it was kind of the same thing. A couple of the kids started to cry, which made me cry too. Actually I was holding back the tears all day. I think it was a combination of knowing that I wouldn’t be their teacher anymore as well as knowing that I wouldn’t be teaching at that school anymore. I have made some really good friends and it was a wonderful experience to have my first year of teaching at Pony Express.

2. After school got out Chad came over and helped me pack up my classroom. After a few hours (9 to be exact) we loaded up the last of it and headed home to unload it all there. What a job I have ahead of me, going through everything before I set it all up at the new school. Yikes!!

3. On Tuesday, June 3rd, I got to take Hannah to her gymnastics class. So far Chad has played the “mom” part of the “mom and tot” class, but now that I am out of school I get to play that role. It was a lot of fun. Hannah loves it so much and she gets so excited to be on all of the equipment. I haven’t seen her get this excited about something since she first discovered candy.
4. Chad, Hannah and I have been doing a lot of swimming. When I say a lot, I mean like every day! Whenever we wake up and ask Hannah what she wants to do, she of course says go swimming. She is getting to be a great swimmer, and every time we go she gets more and more confident.
5. I have been working like crazy on making a movie for my dad for Father’s Day. It was an idea that Jaci thought of and it just kind of became my project after that. I have spend hours going to my moms and looking through pictures that will document his life as a Father and Grandfather. It has taken a little bit longer that I thought because as we look through pictures, we have to tell the stories that go along with them. It has been a really fun process. As I was finishing the project, I thought it would be fun to insert a quote or memory of dad/grandpa from all of his family members. This particular part has been really fun for me. It is interesting to see what is important or considered memorable to different people. My favorite memory is one told by my nephew Nick. He tells of the time when Grandpa pulled his very first loose tooth, and the one next to it that wasn’t even loose. This is funny to me because my dad was the neighborhood tooth puller. Kids from all around would come and ask him to pull their tooth. I never understood how he did it, first of all because it is disgusting, secondly my dad has the hugest sausage fingers I have ever seen. It seemed physiologically impossible. I guess Nick’s experience proves it!

Well, that is a brief update on what we have been doing over the last couple of weeks. I know we have done plenty more but I can’t really think of it and this post is a little longer than most people want to read anyway, so there you go!