Happy 3rd Birthday Hannah/Happy Chinese New Year!!

What a very fun day was had today!  Hannah lived it up at her very favorite place to be - Miss Stacey's music class, then on to chores with Mom made much more exciting than usual by the addition of the normally off-limits lollipop at the bank and Hannah's first ever "own cart"(kid sized) at Adam's Market.  She's been yearning for to push that thing for a long while and now that she's 3, look out shoppers' ankles!! Here she comes.  She did run pretty hard into a fur wearing older woman and the old animal activist in me was secretly pleased.  On to pick up Chinese food in honor of the Year of the Ox and then home to see Daddy off to England.  (Rob's working on another Scooby-Doo tour over there).  A quick nap in the car and then some Dora TV time, of course.  To top it all off, Grandma and Grandpa came over to partake in the Chinese food and brought with them the family fave- the Carvel ice cream cake.  A perfect birthday, I'd say.  Enjoy the pix.  Happy birthday cutie banana.

THE NEW HOUSE!!

Wow-

It's been a busy month and a half.  We moved on my 40th birthday (not the day I had in mind but nice to get a big house as a present).  The weather promptly decided to dump snow, snow and more snow on us, so my parents' housewarming gift of a snowblower could not have been more perfect!  We managed to get a Christmas tree in time for the big day and enjoyed our first holiday in our new digs.  We feel like the house is our new full time job (as I'm sure every new homeowner does) and spend every weekend at Home Depot one day/painting,unpacking,putting furniture together the other.  It's great, though.  The extra space seems ridiculously large - I'm loving it.  More than that, the kids can jump, run and be loud without my constant worry that they're disturbing the neighbors.  BIG RELIEF!  We really are blessed to be here.  My very favorite part of this new living space is the view we have out the back of it - it's truly spectacular especially at sunset. Oh and also I could not love the school bus picking Riley up more.  I can ease into my day :)   The time since we've moved in has flown and I cannot believe that Hannah's 3rd birthday is tomorrow! She is now in her "big girl bed"! (She finally realized that she could jump out of that crib).   It is a happy new year.