On March 24th our Grant turned three! This year we celebrated with family and friends in our back yard on an unseasonably warm Saturday. It was a train-themed party complete with train table, bubbles and homemade cupcakes. On the morning of his actual birthday we continued the streamers tradition and then had cake and presents at EB & GPa’s house. I think he loved tearing them down more than the surprise of having them on his door. His big gift this year from us was a sandbox for the patio. He also got a balance bike, tool kit, and truck basket to hold his lovies. Happy Birthday, Grant!
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!
Christmas 2025
These are just a few of my favorite memories from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2025. Grant was so excited to finally receive his tanker truck from Santa (he had been asking for one for months) and we loved spending time with our whole extended family over all the festivities. Merry Christmas!
EB’s 60th Birthday!
On December 4th my amazing mom and Grant’s EB turned 60! We had the best celebration at our house (just what I pictured when moving in and buying our dining room table) complete with festive red bows, a cake from McLain’s and our gift which was a photo book with one picture from each of her 60 years. We love you, EB!!
