Updates and Plates

So I wrote recently about how Tim and I talked about adding some family traditions into the mix. Another that we decided on is called the 'special day' plate. When Tim was little, he talked about how he and Laura and Jeff loved when they got the special plate and the funny thing is, Tim said there was really nothing special about it, but they still loved it. Well I googled special day plate and guess what, it's actually a common thing and a really easy cheap family tradition that apparently kids love. So I turned to Etsy as any good mom would do and found some really cute handmade special day plates, but then I realized to make it really special, Hannah and I should do it together. Enter Hannah/Mommy Day. Hannah loves doing art projects so over spring break I took her to Color Me Mine and out to lunch. Just Hannah and Mommy, her special day. Hannah got to pick anything she wanted to paint. After much deliberation, she went with an ice cream cone. I'm thinking we will use it as a birthday decoration. I chose a plate and the pressure was on. I was told to go for Loud and Goddy because that's what kids are into. I think I nailed it. Anyway it's not flawless, but it's our special plate and if someone has a good day, has a dance recital, brings home good grades, celebrates a birthday, etc. they get to use the special day plate. I love having days with my kids and making memories.

Mommy Hannah Day at the art store


Our finished Special Day Plate


Cute pics from Pop's Birthday




And little Jack Bryant is keeping busy too. His new friend Braden let him borrow a big fun baby jail to prevent further head injury. So far it's working out nicely and big sister loves playing in it too. His two bottom teeth are so big now it's cute. His favorite consonant/vowel combo is 'DaDaDaDaDa" typical. I'm sure his first word with intent will be dada just like Hannah since he is basically already saying it. His favorite toy is Hannah's Cookie Kitchen. He pulls up on it, slams the bell, waves the frying pan around and laughs when the characters talk to him.

8 Months

Sweet little Jack Jack, 8 months has creeped up on me. You are such a sweet, easy, beautiful boy and you make my heart full. This month you are into every thing. You are constantly on the move, crawling and climbing. You go up stairs with ease which is scary. I swear we are going to be in the ER with you before age 1. Daddy thinks you need a baby jail because we always have to have an eye on you. You are quick my friend. We have never even owned baby gates. Your cautious sister used to wait at the top of stairs until someone held her hand to walk down and she still won't go to the top of a McDonald's play land structure. You have already fallen down the stairs and have a new bump/scratch on yourself daily. You can scale the furniture quickly and are almost standing alone. You hold on just lightly with one hand. You also are into every cabinet and love dumping things. Remote controls and water bottles are pretty cool too. You also really love looking in mirrors and playing with big sister's baby dolls. I think you think they are just like you and research shows babies enjoy faces so don't kill me for writing that. Your favorite mess to make is to pull all of your food off the shelf. Changing your diaper is near impossible because you never like to be still, always flipping and trying crawl away. Also exciting this month, you started clapping about 2 weeks ago and it's so cute. You get a big smile and pretty much clap for all things Hannah as she is your Hero. She loves you back buddy. Today she said, "Mommy, when Jack grows up, I'm going to marry him." The day before Easter you got your first tooth (bottom/middle right) and then yesterday your second tooth appeared. Which means you are a drool bucket but what's new there. You've had a perfect sleep record for about three weeks now and sister is back in your room. I love going in when you are both asleep and just watching you together. You love paci and sleep with many in your bed. You are really into Bella dog and play chase with her which pretty much means, Bella runs and you laugh and crawl really fast to try and get her. You have been eating puffs for about a week. It's pretty funny watching you learn to eat them. Another fun milestone is that you are crawling over and then lifting your arms up when you want up. As for your mystery eye color. I'm going to say brown. Yeah just like mommy! They still have a unique grey/green undertone so you could argue hazel for sure, but I think they are brown. At least for now. Wow it has been a busy month full of lots of fun milestones and development. And Jack got a new little friend on the 21st Braden Scigliano. I'm sure the boys will have a lot of fun together. Happy 8 months!







Dimples :)




Clapping

Happy Easter

Sunday was Jack's first Easter and the 1st holiday for Hannah that she was really into. At Christmas, Tim and I were afraid to even say "Santa" because Hannah would get scared. For some reason, she was so excited for the Easter bunny to come to our house so it was pretty magical for us. Hannah has been saying for weeks that she wanted to leave carrots AND lettuce for the bunny so the night before I took her on a trip to the store and let her pick out the exact ones she wanted. We then let her choose where she thought we should leave them and she chose the front door. When the kids woke up of course the lettuce and carrots were gone and instead was an empty Easter Basket for egg hunting. The bunny left so many eggs for us. Jack crawled around while Hannah found all the eggs. I thought we made it pretty hard (like under the BBQ lid, with the lid down), but she breezed through it. Inside every egg was a puzzle piece. Tim and I have been thinking of different family traditions we want to start and this is one of our ideas that we are going to do every Easter. Now that Hannah is 3 (and research suggests that is when your earliest memories form) we want do start some family traditions. So back to the puzzle pieces. We had to work together as a family to build the puzzle which gave us the clue to the hidden location of our baskets. Once Hannah knew it was the bathtub she went running upstairs to find it. It was so fun. Hannah got Tangled, a swim suit, donuts, a book, princess under ware, a calculator, etc. Jack got trucks, a book, Fox and the Hound, yogurt bites, pajamas, etc. What an awesome Bunny! After the morning activities, we went to church and then headed to Granny and Grandpas house for our Easter Party. There we had another egg hunt, Easter egg dying contest, and lunch. Our car was loaded driving home. It was like Christmas. Totally spoiled. It was a wonderful Spring Break and Easter Day. I love all the memories with my family and of course thankful for God's sacrifice. He is risen!

Morning Hunt from the Bunny


Jack Jack crawled around and loved dumping the eggs out of Hannah's basket


Our kid doesn't eat candy, so puzzle pieces instead...clever bunny


And they found the hidden baskets!


Granny's House








Egg Hunt #2 (Yes, my kids LOVE egg hunts, in fact Hannah 'practiced' for weeks leading up to the big day)




Baskets from Auntie Mimi

Smell the Flowers

A lot of posts lately and even more pictures, but it's our spring break so we have been busy doing many fun activities. Hannah loves flowers and Jack loves being outside in the stroller so we took off today for the flower fields in Carlsbad. Last time we went, we had no kids so it was a weird feeling driving back realizing that many years have gone by. It is so beautiful and it's just nice getting outdoors. You can see the ocean from the hill and get some sunshine and exercise too. Hannah loved the flowers and pretty colors. We didn't account for the fact that she would want to pick every one and the flower Nazi literally screamed at us. You would have thought Hannah stole a Diamond bracelet from a jewelry store. We felt better later when we saw the same man chewing out some other family. Must have been having a bad day. The rest of the staff was nice and even let Hannah in for free. Overall fun day and pretty pictures. Side note: Today was the first day I used my new camera lens and I'm not totally sure what settings I'm supposed to be using. So it was trial and error, but I think they came out good, mostly because my kids are freakin cute, not because of my photography skills.

EGGstravaganza

We were so excited to dye our Easter eggs today. This is a fun tradition for us that Hannah really enjoys and this year Jack Jack got in on the action too. Hannah made beautiful glitter eggs. She also did eggs with stickers and fun designs. She loves dropping them in the colors and waiting. It's like it's a surprise every time she would pull one out. I swear every year I boil more and more eggs and it never seems like enough. Last year I did a dozen and Tim complained that Hannah hogged them all so this year I did two dozen and still we were wanting more. Needless to say our house now has very beautiful eggs. My favorite this year was Hannah's purple glitter egg because it just screams "Hannah Grace" and of course Jack Bryant's "1st Easter" egg that he tried to eat. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Fire fighters in training

Yesterday Hannah and Jack got to tour the local fire station with their friends as part of Luke's birthday celebration. The fire fighters were so nice and went above and beyond making the kids feel special. The kids got to take turns pretending to drive the big engine and trying on the fire clothes. We got a tour of where they sleep and eat. All the kids walked away with pretend fire hats. It was a very cute day and I actually was surprised how much Hannah enjoyed it. She has been playing 'Fire girl' over the last 24 hours instead of princess which is a nice break in a way.





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