A new cut

Hana got her VERY FIRST hair cut today!! After 3 years of growing those red curls, it was time for a trim!! We went to this cool kids hair place. They had all different kinds of seats for them to sit in. Hana choose this green car. On the way, I went through the "steps" of a hair cut with her so that she knew what to expect. She was SOO good. She sat very still through the whole cut. She just got a trim... in fact if you didn't know that she had a hair cut, you probably wouldn't be able to tell. It is just a little more "shaped" around her face (which is exactly what I wanted). They even painted her fingernails! They also gave us a certificate with her hair clippings attached! SO cute!

Here are a few pictures from her first hair cut!!
Just sitting in the car "pre-cut"


Getting it cut (look how long her hair is when it is straight!)


"Post cut" (not that you can tell too much difference)

Even though she doesn't look happy in the pictures, she enjoyed every minute of it!

Here is Brookie cruising around at the salon :)


After the hair cut we went to the park :) (We met people but I only took pictures before they got there... oh well)

Fun in the swings!

Playing... together??


What a fun morning!

Birds and Butterflies

This is a song that Hana learned at preschool. SO cute!!

The words are at the bottom if you can not understand her :)


"Birds and Butterflies
Birds and Butterflies
Bugs and Bees
Bugs and Bees
These are all God's creatures
These are all God's creatures
Just like Me
Just like You"

Surprise... ME!

My wonderful sweet husband took it open him self to plan a surprise dinner for my (ahem) 27th birthday ;).

Jack told me that we were going out to dinner (without the kids!). He got the babysitter and made our reservations. As we pulled into the parking lot I saw Mark and Emily's car. I was kind of expecting to be meeting them for dinner. But I did not expect to see so many others. I felt really special and (kind of) glad to be getting older. We had a great dinner and some great conversation.
Thank you so much for my great (ahem) 28th (oh wait I said 27th) birthday!!

Here are some picture from my dinner :)

I knew that we were planning to go out to dinner to one of my new favorite restaurants... what I did not know what that 8 of our friends would be joining us!
Everyone :)

Just the girls :)


KJ, Mark, and Emily


What a great night!! Thanks again for all who came!! Thanks to Jack for planning it!! Love you all!!

Now I don't need you anymore

I had to share this sad Hana-ism.
Hana is learning to swing some by herself on our new "play ground". She likes me to put her up on the swing push her some and then she will (try to) swing herself. Well yesterday I put her on the sea-saw swing pushed her several times to get her going. I then asked her if she wanted to try to swing some herself. Once she got herself going she said "Now I don't need you any more". It just made me want to cry! But how true that statement was and will become. We raise our children so that one day they will be able to go out on their own and "not need us any more". I know that is the way it is supposed to be... but man that is going to be hard!

30 years

Well it is official, as much as I was dreading this day, I am 30. No one was able to stop time... or even slow it down, 30 is here. I am not sure why 30 was such a big deal to me, maybe it is because it is a totally new decade or maybe it is makes me "officially" an adult. I am not sure the exact reason, but I was NOT looking forward to being 30. Thirty makes me feel older than having 2 kids, older than driving a van (although the van did lead me in that direction!), older than my husband (by 2 months and 3 days)... it just makes me feel old!
But thirty has given me a lot too! It has given me a wonderful loving husband. It has given me a first bright, intelligent daughter..

and a second loving, sweet daughter.


It has also given me some wonderful friends!

Also, I get to see messy spaghetti peak-a-boo whenever I want!



I guess being 30 does have some perks!

Hana and Noah

As most of you know, I watch Mark and Emily's son Noah 2 mornings a week. It has been a good chance for Hana to have a "play date" and learn to share her toys. Well this morning was especially cute because they played REALLY well together. I captured them playing in many different situations (this was ALL today!). (Oh and don't you just love Hana's belt? Our neighbor passed it along to us! How cute and shiny it is!)

Hana "the teacher" reading an animal book to Noah asking him what each animal was...

Playing inside with some (of Brooke's) toys...

Riding on the sea-saw swing together...

Checking out the neighbor's dog...

Sliding (on their own size slide)...

Playing in Hana's outside house...

Playing in Hana's inside house (she didn't want this picture taken-so this is how it turned out)...

And the pinnacle of the morning... Hana dressed up as "mommy" with Noah being "daddy" playing house (OK this was right before Emily go him, so there was not time for a good picture... but you get the idea! I don't know what kind of mommy she is being... but right before this they were being so cute cooking in the kitchen together!)


They are really cute playing together (MOST of the time!)

Brooke and the shirt

For some reason, Brooke has started putting shirts on top of her head. I don't know if she is trying to dress herself or smother herself. She just repeatedly puts the shirt on her head, pulls it off and laughs. Whatever the reason, it is really cute!!
Here are a couple of pictures




And a video :)

Swing set-cess

I had prepared for the worse... a day of fighting and working for hours to put together our new swing set. I had heard horror stories of it taking all day to get the swing set up. Not us! We had the set up in a merer hour and a half. No fighting, no arguing... just a swing set.

We had planned to get a large two section swing set, but after reading the review on Toys R Us, we decided on the smaller one section. After putting it up we realize that it has everything we need. The kids love it and can grow into it. Yea Swing Set!!
Here we are setting it up... right out of the box

Helper Hana

The final product!


Brooke loves it!

Hana loves it!


Yea Swing Set!!

A day at the beach... that wasn't

I was so excited for out first trip to the beach. It was a bea-utiful day!! It was Brooke's first real trip to the beach! Yea!
The day started out well. As I was packing the car, the thermostat said 80. Great! I thought... what a great day at the beach this will be! I loaded up the sun screen slathered girls and off we went. After we crossed the bridge to the beach, I noticed a cloud cover. The thermostat on the car dropped to 74... not too bad, I thought. We pulled into the parking space and feed the meter for 2 hours. I loaded the girls and all of the beach stuff into the jogging stroller. We met up with Monica and boys and headed down to the water. I quickly learned that pushing the stroller on the soft sand is not so easy. That is OK, I thought... it is all worth it for a day at the beach! We headed towards the pier (our destination due to our previous sunburn) and we laid out our stuff.


Hana headed to the water with Josh (which was a HUGE accomplishment for her- she has been afraid of the water for the last two summers!). They threw seashells and played at the edge of the water.



Unfortunately Hana took two spills in the water. That would not have been a big deal on a normal day. But at about that same time, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the wind stated blowing. Hana sat with me wrapped under a towel. During all of the Brooke was happily playing under the pier.

I went to pick Brooke up and she was shivering. So, I brought her out into the "sun" with us. She preceded to eat some sand (and enjoy every minute of it!)

Hana did find some pleasure in chasing the birds.

We then decided to have lunch. About half way through lunch Hana said "Can we go home?" I felt really guilty trying to force them to stay at the beach. So I told her after we finished lunch we could go home. After we finished, I packed up my freezing children and headed back to the car. The temperature rose 10 degrees as we walked back to the car. As I drove away with a whole 42 minutes still left on my meter, I felt a sense of sadness that our day was cut short. But here is the beauty of the situation... we live 20 minutes from the beach!! We WILL go back!

I should add that over all it was a success since Hana wanted to play in the water. That gives me hope that the rest of beach season will be fun!

Brooke walks assisted

Here is Brooke walking pushing the "walker". She stops for a few seconds to stare down the cat (which she can now "say"... every time she sees Toby she says "ct" "ct"). Sorry the video is so dark.

Maybe Brooke will be walking by herself soon... who knows.

Indoor play

Being that I am a horrible Mom and sunburned my baby, we had to make today an "indoor play" day. So we journeyed to the mall to use their indoor play area. The girls had a good time.
Brooke had a nice open area to crawl.

Hana got to run and jump and climb

...making sure not to kick her sister!


Here is Brooke's face today... much better! (I realize that this is not a great picture, but I just wanted to show how much better her face is doing). Although there was a woman at the play area that asked if Brooke had fifths disease. I said "no, she is just sunburned" I don't think she was very comforted by that... oh well, she should have seen her yesterday!!


We even packed a lunch and had a "picnic" at the mall. All in all, it was a nice day for indoor play!

Red hot

Well it is official... I am a bad mommy. Brooke got sun burned.
We went to the park this morning. It was overcast and chilly when we first got there. By the end of our stay it was probably 70 degrees. But I just did not even think about a sunburn... it is April and this was one of the first trips we have made to the park in quite a while. Unfortunately Brooke paid for that oversight.

I will say that it does not seem to bother her. It has gotten lighter since I took the pictures. When she went to bed, it did look a little better. All I could say was "Brooke I am sorry!"

Hana did get a little bit too, but I guess her skin is a little tougher and she was not very red. Believe me we won't forget sun screen again any time soon!

I just wanted to add that Brooke looks A LOT better today. We are not going to play outside or anything today (which is a bummer because it is supposed to be really pretty). We may try outside tomorrow if they look better. Just thought I would update everyone :)