March was such a special month! On the very first day of the month we found out that Winnie is getting a little SISTER, Grant continued his love for “skiing” around the house on cardboard skis, we went to Dozer again for a classmate’s birthday, we had to say goodbye to our Chevy (but Dale was very excited about his new Subaru Solterra!), I led an archival lettering workshop at work, EB and GPA pained Grant’s big boy room his favorite color blue, we had Spring Break adventures at Crown Center, Grant got to golf with GPa, we celebrated Grant’s 3rd (!) birthday and ended the month celebrating baby boy #2 at a sweet sprinkle hosted by Megan and Mary. So much joy this March!
February Memories
February began with Aubrey’s birthday party at the Hanlin household – kicking off a month of festivities! I always look forward to my birthday and Valentine’s Day (which fall in the same week) and this year our team at work did a market research day for Valentine’s Day, Dale and I celebrated my birthday with dinner at Lidia’s, we had a wonderful family dinner at my parents and we capped it off with a weekend at The Elms. This was a combo birthday/Valentine’s Day/mini-babymoon (just like we did before Grant was born). Grant enjoyed Val this year as well and picked out monster truck Valentines for his class at daycare. This month we also visited the zoo aquarium with Grammy and Pop (their Christmas present), I traveled to Charlottesville to celebrate Holly’s Bachelorette party, and Dale, Grant and I had lots of fun everyday moments playing at home and enjoying family dinners. Sadly, we also had to say goodbye to Granny this month and had a wonderful celebration of her life at our house with the Smith family. I’m going to miss her (and the sweet voicemails she often left after I mailed her a card) so much. For the shortest month of the year, we sure experienced a lot!
January Memories
This month. I was just about halfway through my pregnancy and it was a month full of busy and relaxed moments and lots of family time! Grant loves his new bounce house he got for Christmas that we have setup in the upstairs playroom, we took advantage of some warm weather to walk to school, we enjoyed a KU game at Austin and Ali’s house, Neil and Bruce were in town which led to lots of cousin time and a trip to the Nelson-Atkins, Grant and I made muffins when Dada was on call, and we ended the month with a trip to The Rabbit Hole. He’s at the perfect age to recognize all the books and loved reading them at the museum. We came home with the Frog & Toad series! Grant also loves mixing and his duplo legos right now. To top it all off we had some major family milestones in January as well – we had a wonderful 90th Birthday celebration for Pop at Jack Stack Barbecue and Sophie and Alex shared the news that Baby Wilson #2 is on the way!
December Memories
December was a month full of holiday cheer! We kicked off the month with a beautiful snow and Grant experienced sledding for the first time at Grammy & Pop’s house. He loved going down the hill with Dada! The next week Grant headed to work with me for the Hallmark family holiday party and got to pick out a snoopy lovie at the Hallmark store and eventually decided to briefly visit with Santa. He loved the Christmas cookies best of all. We also celebrated at the Indian Hills family holiday party and Winnie and Grant especially loved the moonbounce. December also included year two of the Hallmark Christmas Experience (and leading several lettering workshops), making pipe cleaner ornaments with the studio at work, celebrating EB’s 60th birthday and of course Christmas Eve and Christmas festivities. Amongst all the festivities I dealt with a few colds and wasn’t able to attend Kriskindlmarkt at Church, decorate gingerbread houses or visit Union station but I am so grateful for all the memories made in a crazy holiday month! Merry Christmas!
November Memories
In early November we kicked off the month finding out that Baby Smith #2 is another boy and that Grant’s prediction of “it’s a brother” was correct! We can’t wait to meet this second little buddy next Spring. After that we headed on our trip to California, and then I immediately hopped on another plane to Nashville to visit Grace! I got to spend a few nights with her in the dorm, eat in the cafeteria and we went to Kamala’s “107 Days” Nashville book tour stop. The end of the month was full of Thanksgiving festivities and getting our Christmas tree/starting to decorate. Here’s to the holidays!
October Memories
October was a month full of celebrations and spooky activities! There were major milestones: we celebrated Granny’s 99th birthday, Sophie’s 30th birthday (at Tailleur!) and Dale’s 34th birthday. Grant and I walked to and from school as much as possible to enjoye all the Halloween decorations around the neighborhood, we made it to the pumpkin patch with the Hanlins, spent time at the zoo, I participated in a nutcracker workshop at work, and we had the BEST time at Indian Hill’s kids Halloween party. On the 30th we once again carved pumpkins at EB & GPa’s house after a spooky themed dinner. Grant picked out a sad pumpkin face this year (which Dale did an amazing job carving) and Sophie and I enjoyed dressing the boys in matching pumpkin shirts. Happy Halloween!
