18 months

Hannah turned 18 months yesterday. She seems so old to me! She walks around the house like she's in charge. She can be very sassy!




Hannah repeats pretty much anything you say to her. Her vocabulary is quite extensive. The word you hear her say most often is "no." I think she hears her sisters use it too much. She loves to swim, slide down slides, swing on swings, and ride on her little bike.

She also loves to show her independence by brushing her own teeth. It's only a matter of time till the "I do it" phase begins!


I can't get enough of these curls.

She adores her sisters. If Allie and Ava are playing together in their room, Hannah will be watching their every move. She loves to sit at their little table and color or play barbies with them too.

Good night kisses!

Hannah is outgrowing her changing table too. Not too long and we'll start potty training:)

Hannah's favorite foods are yogurt, fruit, burritos (surprisingly), apple cinnamon oatmeal, and anything that has sugar in it. Just like her sisters, she has a sweet tooth. Her favorite person is still Papa! She squeals when she sees him and cries when he leaves. I love it!

She LOVES her blanket. And she has a Bumble Bee pillow pet that her sisters named Biggby. She loves to dance. If any music comes on, she immediately starts moving. She sleeps about 12 hours through the night and gives me one 2 hour nap each day. We love her sassy little atitude, which is good for her with two older sisters. Ava and Allie are great with her too. Ava is such a helpful big sister. Allie can have her moments of pushing or hitting, but for the most part, she genuinly enjoys having Hannah around. Happy 1 1/2 birthday Hannah Margaret!

Hannah's boo boo

Poor little Hannah was hanging on the back of one of our dining room chairs and the whole thing came down on her face. She ended up with a bumped nose and a black eye. She really did handle it well. She cried but not too bad.

Sisters

It's really fun having a house full of girls. Dramatic and emotional for sure, but fun all the same. They are growing so fast. Ava is 5 1/2, Allie is 3 1/2, and Hannah is 18months. Hannah is the biggest diva of all! Her favorite word at the moment is "no."

Ava refers to these dresses as Hula dresses. And they love to match, at all times.


Silly faces


Big girls getting ready for bed, washing their faces and brushing their teeth!


Hannah and Allie

This was a really strange looking bug the girls found in the yard. I love that they're unafraid of bugs! Notice the matchy matchy again!

Pole Barn

With Mike being a carpenter, he has a lot of crap:) Just kidding. He has a lot of very useful tools. He's been wanting to build a shed/pole barn for a long time. I don't blame him. Our garage is so full, he can't even park his truck in it. So he took a coulple weekends and constructed this monster in our backyard.




We might christen it after the concrete is poured inside, with a nice big game of floor pong!

Garden

I have not posted in so long! We have been very busy this summer. I'd like to say that that's my only excuse, but it's not. You see, my computer is getting slow in it's old age. Even with this post, I started to upload some photos and my compter froze. So I had to restart it. It's really annoying. But I'm blessed to have a computer, and a digital camera. So I'll stop complaining now:)

We really have had a busy summer. I don't even know what we've been doing! Actually, I did start a job. I'm working two mornings a week at Biggby coffee. It's really quite fun and I enjoy the adult interaction! And I love making lattes.

Our garden is doing magnificently. We planted a wide variety of fruits and vegetables this year. A few didn't make it. Once again my watermelons didn't come up. I'll have to figure those out someday because we really love watermelon. I also planted spinach, onions and beets that never came up. Not sure why. But everything else is doing great.

Here are a couple pictures before we planted anything. Mike did a fantastic job on the fencing.

And this picture was taken at the end of June. It's even crazier now!

We have lots of lettuce, cucumber, zucchini, sugar snap peas, and squash. And I'm just now starting to get peppers and tomatoes. I also planted pumpkins which are coming along well. This was my first year for raspberries and strawberries so didn't get anything from those. Oh and I planted two blueberry bushes and the berries are just starting to turn blue. I really do love gardening. I have so much respect for farmers because it is hard work. But it pays off!

Creative Arts Camp

Our church puts on a camp every summer for kids ages 4, up through 6th grade. Ava was able to be a part of the 4 and 5 year old class this year, and I happened to be one of her teachers!

The kids had a great time. Here are some of the different things our class participated in:

~we made puppy chow
~planted perrenials
~made cookies mix jars
~made musical instruments
~went on a parade
~made homemade icecream
~decorated aprons to take home
~leanred new songs and a new dance
~heard Bible stories
~memorized Bible verses
~made macaroni necklaces
And so much more! It was a great, but very tiring, week:)


The first part of the camp was singing and a drama. The theme was "He Delivers" and everything was Italian!




Ava decorating the aprons grandma made for our class.

We taught all the kids "If I Were a Butterfly," which they sang for their parents on Friday.

Making tamborines, maraccas, and Kazoos.

We planted perrenials by the pond at the church.

Allie was able to participate in decorating aprons.

Mike even came one evening to help out.

And of course Hannah came along a few times to enjoy the kids!

It was a wonderful week!

Greenbush

We bid on a cottage on Lake Huron last summer and ended up being the highest bidder. So we took a short little weekend and went up to Greenbush MI! It was a cute little cottage within 50 yards of Lake Huron. The girls had a great time. It was too cold to swim, but they did enjoy playing in the sand.





The view out our back door. We love the water!

The girls collected a lot of small shells on the beach!

Hannah was hilarious. She wasn't too keen on walking in the sand. I think because it shifts so much as she would walk, it felt unstabble to her. By the second day, she was getting more used to it.

Hannah and Allie enjoying their first smores of the summer.

Ava had fun roasting marshmallows too!

It was nice to get away with our family. Two friends from high school stayed in the cottage next door so it was fun catching up with them. We should definitely do this more often!

Hannah Margaret

Hannah will be 17 months at the end of June and we are so in love with this little girl. She is seriously so much fun. She squeals and giggles and laughs all day long. She usually is laughing at something silly her sisters are doing. She loves to tag along with whatever Ava and Allie are doing. Since it's been sunny and nice out lately, she has loved playing outside. Hannah loves getting up on the trampoline or swinging in the baby swing.


So often during the day, I'll walk down the hall to see Hannah sitting sweetly in Ava and Allie's room, playing with their toys.


She definitely has the darkest hair out of the girls.



She's still getting into everything! She pulls all the tupperware out of the cupboard, then moves on to pulling the towels off the oven, then will head to the living room to pull the dvd's off the shelf. It's pretty cute, and slightly annoying. But I've sort of come to terms with the fact that my house will usually be a mess (did I say "sort of!?").

Hannah will try to repeat anything we say. Her vocab at the moment consists of the following words: mama, dada, papa, gama (grandma), chicken, ba bye, hi, ball, and bath. She also has her own cute little way of saying "thank you, Ava, and Allie." Her favorite person is still Papa! And she loves bugs. Seriously, if she sees any kind of bug she squeals with delight and chases it till she can get ahold of it! I'm hoping she always keeps this non-fear of insects.

We're blessed to have this little angel in our house. She brings the whole family so much joy!

Nick's wedding

Mike's brother Nick recently got married. The girls were all invited to the wedding. They had a blast! This is the second wedding they have been able to attend. The girls talk about these weddings months after. They love getting dressed up and have so much fun dancing on the big dance floor! Even Hannah had a lot of fun at Nick's wedding. Congrats Nick and Melissa!

Grad video

Our little graduate

Ava graduated from pre-school last week. The teachers put together a very sweet ceremony. Each child was able to walk down the aisle to the graduation song. They showed a slide show of photos throughout the year. They also called each child up individually to accept their "diploma" and hear a little bit about the student. For Ava, Ms. Debbie said "Ava's favorite part of school was the Halloween party and she will be attending Commerce Elementary in the Fall." It was very cute!


Ava on stage with her friends.


The whole class

Proud graduate

Her sisters cheered her on!

Proud grandparents!

Proud mommy!

Mother's Day tea party

Ava's pre-school had a tea party for mother's day. The kids were allowed to invite their moms and grandmas. Both Grandma Epley and Grandma Ross were able to come! The kids sang a song for us and read us a story. It was such a sweet afternoon.

15 months

Hannah turned 15 months on April 26. She is growing so fast. She is now repeating things we say. Just the other day, I'm pretty sure she said "chickens!" She says thank you, papa, mama, dada, and the girls' names (sort of!). She knows where her nose, belly button, and teeth are. She sometimes mixes up her ears and eyes. She will fold her hands when we say "pray." And she also has a word for "Amen" that sounds very much like it! She is very proud of her walking abilities. Throughout the day she will walk from room to room, back and forth. It's really cute. She likes to pick up purses and put them on her shoulder and walk around. She now has 9 teeth. She eats everything! Her favorite foods are cheese, eggs, and cheerios. She's not a fan of green beans, chicken, or pork. She usually spits those things out. She's taking one nap a day for me, which usually last from 2 to 3 hours. We put her to bed at 8 or 8:30 and she'll sleep for about 12 hours through the night. She LOVES her blankie. She was my youngest to get attached to a blankie.

She loves her sisters. She'll play in their room with them very nicely. I love that her hair is starting to grow more!


Hannah loves to be held and snuggled. But she also likes being left alone to walk around or play. Her favorite person is still Papa, but I think I'm a close second:) We are loving this stage with Hannah!