My Baby's Three

First of all, my pictures are all backwards!  Blogger did some new stuff in my absence, so I guess you are just going to have to enjoy the photos in reverse order because I am unwilling to ditch them all and re-upload them!  Hello world!  I wasn't really sure if people were still reading or not, so that was my excuse for not updating.  As it turns out, all of the grandparents are reading so if for no one else, I'll post for them!

Our lives have been completely crazy these last few months!  I am doing my student teaching right now, writing insanely long papers, getting up at 5:00 am everyday, and applying for jobs.  It's also been busy season for Jon which means super long hours and stress.  Needless to say, we haven't had a ton of free time.  I am having an absolute blast with my kids and I love getting to hang out with high school kids all day.  I am pretty lucky!  I am looking forward to summer vacation though, which starts in 13 days!  We have a couple of trips on the agenda this summer, including a trip to Disney World and a visit to Louisiana, but for the most part we are just going to hang out around here.  We do technically live in a vacation spot, so I am sure we will be able to find plenty of things to do.  We have talked about hiking our first 14er (14,000 ft + mountain) and joining the Jack Quinn running club downtown.  I am really looking forward to a nice, relaxing summer.

Since my last post, the biggest news is that Hannah turned three years old!  I CANNOT believe that my baby is three.  Can I still call her my baby even though she's an older toddler now??  Yes! I will answer that for myself!  Since she's the only grandkid on both sides, we do her birthday big!  About a week before the first round of family came in Hannah told me, "Mommy, my birfday's coming up!"  The girl already knows how to celebrate her birthday week with class and style!

 This is the whole crew!  The whole family came in, but they kind of tapered their trips this time.  My side came in early and Jon's side stayed after for a few days.  So the first time that everyone was actually together was when we met up at the zoo (she had a zoo party...more on that with later photos).  Hannah was so stinking cute because she kept running back and forth between grandparents and Auntie and her Great Uncle Doug.  It was so clear that she was thrilled to have all of her "people" in one place.  It was adorable! 

 We got to have a family dinner after the zoo.  We did the zoo in the morning and then had dinner at our local Chilli's that night.  Again, Hannah was in hog heaven have all of her "peeps" available to do anything and everything that she asked!

 She wouldn't take a serious picture with us, but she would do the silly one!  I guess I do kind of love that about her!

 Grandpas are great!  (L to R) Jon's dad, my dad, Hannah, and Jon's grandpa.

 Grandmas are pretty great too.  (L to R) Jon's grandma, Jon's mom, Nan, and my mom.  I will let them argue among themselves about whether grandpas or grandmas are better!

 This kid is hilarious with the camera.  She's totally a poser!  It was a really nice morning to be at the zoo, which was a relief.  It got cold that night though and ended up snowing!  The cold front was coming in, so Hannah had to were her Uggs for the last time this season (at least I hope there's not going to be any more snow).  She also is sporting her "my BFF is a Giraffe" shirt that she got as one of her birthday presents.

 Finally to the zoo pictures!  We have a great zoo and Hannah LOVES it!  Who am I kidding, Jon and I love it too!  Hannah has always loved animals, but this year seemed like a good year to do a party there because she gets really excited when we talk about the zoo.  So we did and invited the whole family and a few friends...we had so much fun.  Hannah really loved getting to show everyone "her zoo."  Here, she's hanging out with her Great Uncle Doug...although she would correct me and say, "No!  It's just Doug!"  Either way, she loves him and was SO happy to see him!

 Ahh horses!  This kid adores horses...by far her favorite pasttime!  She is not a bit scared of them and I am pretty sure she'd have a break down if she got to see horses but then didn't get to ride one.  It is the highlight of her week when she gets to ride one!  I've always said that she's Hannah Wyoming (not Hannah Montana), so maybe the love of horses comes from her Wyoming heritage!

 Hannah and Auntie hanging out at the zoo!

 Grandma Joan and Hannah getting ready to check some more stuff out at the zoo!

 Is this the most adorable picture you've ever seen??  I cannot get over it!  (L to R) Westley (Hannah's third cousin on my side...more on that in a minute), The Birthday Girl, Max & Max's Mom(her buddy that she's known since birth), and Rye-bread...aka. Rylee (her BFF...other than the giraffe of course).  Does this look like a rockin' group of party-goers or what?!?

 Grandma Joan and Auntie outdid themselves again this year.  I mean, seriously??  I think the picture speaks for itself!

 Me and my girl!

 We also had elephant cookies (see Hannah's hand) and giraffe cookies!

 The weather was supposed to be so crappy for the party.  All week there was a huge chance of rain and a predicted high of 40 something!  That always happens for Hannah's birthday...when she was born there was a foot and a half of snow on the ground for crying out loud!  Every year, it is nice around her birthday and then a cold front comes through or something.  Every year I have planned something outside, and we always end up moving the party indoors.  This year was supposed to be the same...I just decided that if it was cold and rainy then we would just have to bundle up!  As it turns out it was a beautiful, perfect, Colorado spring day!  It started getting windy about 10-15 minutes before we left and then it all went south after that.  I was SO glad that the nastiness held off until we were done!

 My cousin Tricia is in the military and got stationed here in the Springs not too long ago (well it's been a few months, but remember we've been crazy busy), so I asked her if she and her son wanted to come to the party.  I know that her schedule can be just as crazy as mine, if not worse, so I wasn't sure if she would be able to make it or not.  I was delighted to hear that she was free!  I haven't seen her in ages, so it was super fun to see her and her new baby Westley.  She's in the middle of my dad and sister in this pic!  My dad was pretty excited to meet his great-nephew too so that was fun!

 Rylee feeding the giraffes for the first time...it was her first trip to the zoo...her parents and I have been planning this for a while so it was fun to get to play!  Jamie (on the right) loves the zoo, and says that they are going to get a membership too, so I am sure we will be spending more trips together in the future!

 Hannah feeding the giraffes!  She loves the giraffes, although she tells people right now that her favorite animal is the hippo!  When you've got so many favorite animals, I guess you have to rotate them every so often!

Giraffes are cool!  See, this was going to be the first picture instead of the last one!  I love our zoo so much.  This is one of the reasons...you get to be so close to the animals and really interact with them!  I think Hannah celebrated her birthday in style this year!  It's probably going to be hard to beat this zoo party...that's okay...if we need to do it there again next year, so be it because it was super fun!  Not only was it fun, but it just reminded me of how much I love this little person that's in our lives...and how she has captured the hearts of so many!  Happy Birthday sweet Nan!