Where the Green Grass Grows....hopefully!

So we have been living in our house for a year and a half and have wished for a green back lawn for Hana ever since. The lawn was pretty unlevel and the grass was dry and weed infested. The only fix seemed to be to tear up the yard and plant new grass. Well Saturday was the day that Kevin decided to finally take action. This is our biggest home improvement project so far. He rented a tiller from Home Depot and got started. It was a lot more work than he anticipated. The dirt was pretty hard so he broke it up with a pick before attacking with the tiller. I tried a little pick action myself and it was too strenuous. So I helped by watering the yard to make it easier to till and by pulling out chunks of grass. Kevin had only rented the tiller for four hours and we had friends coming over for dinner so we were also under a time crunch. It probably would have been wise to devise a plan of action but we like to be impulsive sometimes. Hana was probably wondering what was happening to her yard that she loves so much but she enjoyed playing in the dirt and mud.
So Kevin was able to till most of the yard and went to Home Depot to return the tiller while I gave Hana an emergency bath before she started putting too many muddy handprints on our walls. Home Depot is only 10 minutes away yet Kevin took a suspiciously long time coming home. I was starting to worry but he showed up almost an hour later. He was acting strange and took Hana in his office to work on a 'special project'. Because I know him so well, I guessed that he bought Hana a wagon and sure enough, I was right. He was smart enough to sneak it in the house and start building it so it was too late to return it when I found out!
He's been wanting to get Hana a wagon for months now but I've been running out of places to put all the things she already has. To make it worse, he got her the Hummer of all wagons. Yes ATW=All Terrain Wagon with monster wheels. Hana and I could seriously ride in this together if I wanted. I am a bit embarassed by it when we take her around the neighborhood because it seems so excessive. Well if grass never grows in our yard again, at least we'll have a place to take Hana off-roading in her new ride!

So Pretty?

Like every proud parent, we are inclined to think that Hana is the smartest, most adorably, beautifully gorgeous child that ever was! While this may be true (in our extremely biased opinion), we do have a sense of humor and recognize that Hana is not so photogenically perfect at all times. Is she about to start singing "Circle of Life" by Elton John?!
Lesson learned: Do not take pictures of Hana when her hands and mouth are full of food!
Kevin and I disagree on the picture below. He thinks Hana is so adorable in this picture but I think her toothy grin is looking kind of silly!
Okay, the picture below is completely Momma's fault. I tried to trim Hana's bangs and ended up giving her a hairdo that emulates Lloyd Christmas in 'Dumb and Dumber'. (Great movie but not so great hairstyle....) And it may not be fair to include the picture below because Hana had a 103 degree fever and was as sick as she's ever been. She was all snotty-nosed and bright eyed while I, in perfectly good health, was completely snoozing next to her. Bad Momma!

Labor Day

We had a wonderful weekend in Tahoe. Hana loves vacations as much as we do. She is always super fun but she is especially playful, happy, entertaining and loving when we go away somewhere. We went for a walk and Hana found a pine cone. 'Piecone' was one of the new words she learned this weekend. We didn't spend as much time at the pool as we liked. Hana hated her life jacket :(
Hana absolutely loves elevator rides and since our room was on the 16th floor, she got to enjoy a lot of long rides. As soon as the doors would open, she would run down to our room or out into the lobby. She always seemed to know which direction to take. Here she is impatiently waiting for us to catch up with her.
The highlight of the trip was dinner and fireworks right on the lakeshore. Last year, Hana didn't come because she was too young but this year we brought her and she had the time of her life.
There was great food, live entertainment, and fun activities for the kids.
Hana loved all the food, danced by the band, and tried to get attention from anyone she could stop. This was our only family picture of the trip. There was a booth where a woman was helping people create and decorate hats made out of tissue paper. She just happened to have one already made that fit Hana perfectly. Hana usually does not tolerate hats but she absolutely loved this one. She was prancing and posing in it as if she were the most stylish child ever. I love fireworks and we all agreed that these were the best that we've ever soon-even beats Disney World. Hana was trying to figure out what was going on at first but by the end of the show, she was jumping and clapping and waving her hands. What a perfect night!

Then and Now

When we were in Tahoe last Labor Day, Kevin took this picture of me and Hana. It is still one of my favorite baby pictures of her. She was 4 months at the time. We tried to recreate the picture again this year but it captures a different moment. A year ago it was a precious kiss for my cuddly baby and this year it was a struggle to get my active toddler to sit still in my arms for even a second!

Sweep Sweep

We decided it was about time for Hana to quit mooching off of us and get some chores done! Actually, she is always watching Momma sweep and is thrilled when she gets to try it on her own. Momma has to sweep everyday because a decent amount of Hana's meals end up on the floor! So we are off this weekend to our 2nd Annual Family Labor Day Tahoe trip. We are really excited to get away and we hope the weekend will be relaxing and uneventful. (No ER trips. We were just reimbursed $3800 out of $4000 for Kevin's ER bill in Cabo-we are soo thankful!!) In Cabo, Hana decided that she will not ever get in her swim seat again but she still loved being in the water. So I ordered her a lifejacket hoping that it gives her a safe way to splash around in the pool without us having to hold her the whole time. When it arrived, I started thinking that maybe it was a ridiculous idea. Hana seemed to like it though so stay tuned to see if it works!