Hannah and I are having an amazing time on our family Disney Cruise! Will post lots when we’re back on dry land. Until then, here’s one of the many.
Now, it’s 11:30pm and I’m off to the Oceaneer’s Lab to see if I can convince her it’s time to call it a night! LOL!!
This is why she can last until 11:30. Each night at supper Rolly (our main server) brings Hannah’s meal as soon as we arrive and then when he or Beata (our assistant server – they’re both wonderful!!) see her start to fade they pull 2 chairs together for Hannah and make up a bed and then cover her with a table cloth as a blanket. She sleeps through the rest of supper and then is raring to go until midnight!
Hannah and I celebrated with a group of friends earlier this month and what fun we had! Many of us became friends a number of years ago while we were waiting to become parents and now it’s a treat to celebrate with our children home! I still marvel all the time at how blessed we are that God brought Hannah and I together in this most wonderful way to become a family!
It was sweet to look in and see some of the girls gathered around listening to a story being read to them. (At first I thought it was a CNY story but then I looked closer and realized it was a ‘Frozen’ story. No surprise there!)
After dining on an Asian potluck dinner, there was the gathering of red envelopes. This was new to L but she caught on quick and as the most recently home member of our group, everyone oooed and ahhhed over her! Welcome to Canada Baby L!!!
The kids disappeared after gathering their envelopes so after a few minutes I went to see where Hannah was. This scene just made me giggle! Red envelopes ripped open and coins everywhere.
The kids all took turns wearing the dragon as they paraded around playing musical instruments. We’ve sometimes done this outside in the past but frigid temps easily determined this parade was happening in the warmth of the house! (LOL…check out some of the boots! There were almost 50 of us gathered together! Oh how we cherish these friends who share similar stories to ours!)
Saturday Hannah, Mom, my niece Rebecca and I shared a wonderful morning together as we went to a local nail salon for manicures and pedicures.
Hannah was overwhelmed by the selection of colours but she finally narrowed it down (ok….with a little ‘guidance’ from Mommy).
You need to know that Hannah’s feet are beyond ticklish and she made me giggle over and over again getting her toes done. (I’m not sure Katie was quite as entertained since she needed to remove the polish not once but twice after she smudged her toes with her wiggling. Oops!)
She also found the chair massage. Adorable!
Becca shares her ticklish feet with her cousin Rebecca!
8 long months ago we were told that a Panera Bread would be opening near us. We watched the building of the new plaza with great excitement and tried to anticipate what location PB would take up. Finally the first signs went on the building and the grand opening was just days away!
What does any crazy mother and daughter team do when one of their favourite dining locations is opening close to them do? Why, they get up at 4:30am in order to be some of the first in the door at 6am!
We weren’t the only crazy ones. Papa was more than happy to come along for our early morning adventure and Nana joined us via texting as she was away at the time.
Since we were some of the first in the door we snagged their Grand Opening special of PB travel mugs, each with 5 free refills. (Pink duck was just an added bonus to the pic who tagged along in Hannah’s pocket .)
Welcome Panera Bread! I’m sure we’re going to become good, good friends…even though we can’t visit you in the golf cart here in Canada! (Panera Bread throwback to 2011, 2.5 yo)
Hannah and I have had a wonderful January and enjoyed slowing down, sharing lots of time together and regrouping after the busy Christmas season.
Sadly January began in a tough way when we said goodbye to my Uncle Gerry who had passed away late in 2014. He was a sweet,gentle man and will be missed by many. Love you Uncle Gerry!
The funeral was a 4 1/2 hour drive away but since my brother and I only had 1 day off Dave, Hannah and I loaded into the car and hit the road at 3:15am. The drive was nothing short of horrendous battling terrible, slippery, snowy road conditions! There were hours when the only thing I could follow were the tail lights of the tractor trailer in front of us and sadly in spite of our best efforts we missed the funeral as our 4 1/2 hour drive took us almost 8 hours!! We made it to the reception though and were able to share time with family there.
My brother took this video for us as we drove through the storm. We averaged about 30-40 km/hr (18 – 25 m/hr).
The drive home was almost as bad as the drive there so after being on the road for 14/21 hours I emailed my boss and booked a vacation day for the day following the funeral. Hannah wans nothing short of AMAZING this day as never once did she complain about being in her car seat for SO long. She woke up after we dropped David at home at 1am and chatted with me as we drove the 10 mins home. I praised her for how amazing she was and she said with a grin, ‘Mommy, I think I should get an ‘award’ for today’ and I could agree fast enough!! Even though it was freezing the following Saturday night we happily enjoyed some frozen yogurt as her chosen ‘award.’
Hannah enjoys preparing breakfast for us some Saturday mornings and I tell you, she is far more creative than mommy is! This breakfast consisted of banana and strawberries skewered on a straw; apples, candy cane bits and cereal.
When we took the Christmas tree down I asked Hannah to help me hold the box closed while I taped it. Why just hold it when you can use it as a surfboard?
Cousin time. Look at these 3 cuties!!!
I am thrilled to be able to volunteer in Hannah’s classroom on my flex day off, one morning every 3 weeks. For the past month they have been learning about China which is exciting! They learned about China plates and painted their own.
The last time I was there it was a snowy, snowy day and only 10/26 kids were there. It was fun to see the kids enjoy more time with the teachers and I also saw Hannah interact with some kids she doesn’t normally talk about. They also coloured Chinese dragon puppets that day and since there were so few kids we went on a parade to the office to share their creations with the principal.
This picture makes me giggle! For years, Hannah has chewed on her stuffies and ‘Baby Sparkles’ has seen a lot of love! Nana bought Hannah a new ‘Baby Sparkles’ and Hannah exclaimed, ‘Look Mommy! They’re just the same!!’ She then explained that if I had trouble telling them apart I could just look at their eyes and that would help me tell them apart! Oh yes baby, that’s it for sure!
One day when we were grocery shopping Hannah found a bath mat with a neat texture and asked if she could feel it? I said ‘sure’ and then began looking for something on another shelf. When I looked behind my my cute pumpkin had taken not only her boot but her sock off so that she could truly feel the texture of the bath mat. LOL!
We finished up the month celebrating the birthdays of two little friends.
We had a quick photo shoot just before Hannah went to bed tonight.
Thanks for understanding the lack of posting everyone! As Hannah’s signs say, we’re doing great, just crazy busy preparing for next week’s vacation! I’m hoping to carve out some time to update the blog before we leave but in case we don’t, here’s a little sneak peek at next week’s adventure. We can’t wait!!!
PS – Hopefully we’ll be able to pop up for a visit to see you this spring Uncle Billy!
Single Mommy to the most amazing baby girl in the entire world! We were blessed to be brought together through the miracle of adoption. My file was logged in China on March 23, 2006 and life changed forever in a wonderful, amazing way when Hannah was placed in my arms in Hunan, China on Monday, November 2, 2009!!! This site is created to welcome family and friends to follow along with our family's fun and adventures.
'The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.'
Psalm 118: 23
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