Easter Sunday

We went to a very lovely Easter morning mass.  Surprisingly mass was not terribly crowded and we could sit in the cry area as Hannah was feeling rather active this morning.  We came back home for Hannah to discover her Easter egg and treats inside.  I think she has a sweet tooth just like her daddy!  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

After a very delicious dinner of ham, pineapple stuffing, veggies, and rolls, we had a little egg hunt for Hannah in the basement.  It was too cold to do it outside, so we tried our best!  She didn't quite understand what was going on at first.  John and my dad put coins in the plastic eggs so Hannah was opening every one up when she picked them up.  We had to steal them from her quick and put them in the basket.  She did enjoy finding the hidden eggs.  Once she was finished she put all the coins into her "piggy".  What a fun egg hunt!  

  

  

  

                                                     Happy Easter from the LaMacchia family!!  

                                              

Parents Visit for Easter

We had the pleasure of having my parents fly into town and celebrate Easter with our family.  They arrived late Wednesday night into Lansing which is a quick 10 mins drive to our house.  Thankfully no delays or issues with the travels.

We spent Thursday relaxing and just taking it easy, well trying to take it easy with a very active child.  Hannah loved up her MomMom and Poppy and I'm sure they had a pretty great time with her as well.
  

During the day, my parents and I took Hannah to visit the Easter Bunny at the mall.  While standing in line, she seemed to not mind the bunny as she was waving and looking happy.  But once we got up there closer, she did not want anything to do with that bunny.  Needless to say, Hannah is sitting next to the bunny while her momma tries to hide behind her. Hopefully one of these years she will decide that the Easter bunny and/or Santa are pretty cool dudes.  Until then we will have quality pictures to laugh at over the years!  Later in the evening, we went out to dinner with the in-laws and enjoyed a fish fry at our favorite spot, the Westgate.
  
 


Saturday was a nicer day that we could spend some time outside.  Hannah and MomMom played with some bubbles, those were lots of fun!!
 
  

And some fun play time inside:
 
 

We had a great time with my parents, I love that they were able to come out and spend a long weekend with us.  (and no hospital trips this year too)  I'm so glad that Hannah doesn't have stranger anxiety around my family.  Even though we don't see each other "in person", we skype and facetime almost every week so she "sees" them and knows who everyone is.  I love watching my family interact with Hannah, they love her so much and certainly make good use of every minute that we can spend together.

Big Ten's- Women's Gymnastics Championships

MSU hosted Big10's gymnastics championships this season.  It was nice that it was super close and I was able to watch some pretty amazing gymnastics.

I took Hannah with me to the first session which was MSU, Illinois, Iowa, and Ohio State.  I met up with the Williamson family who traveled from both PA and Iowa to watch the meet.  Kortny and Kiva are two of my former teammates at Berks in PA.  Kort and I used to see each other at meets as she competed for Iowa, but we haven't seen each other in a few years now.  Her parents also came into town, and I haven't seen them since like 2005 or so!  It was very nice to spend time with them and go out to lunch together.  What fun  memories we had back in the Berks' days!

John picked Hannah up near the end of the first session which allowed me to have lunch with the Williamson's and also go back and watch the second session which was UofM, PennState, Nebraska, and Minnesota.  Session 2 was a great session with some pretty amazing gymnastics.  It is always a treat to watch gymnastics, but even better to watch live gymnastics.

The Big10 channel was live broadcasting the meet.  When Hannah was there for the first session, she got some air time waving and blowing kisses!  My mom was watching the tv and was so excited to see Hannah (and me hiding behind her little body).  One of our friends took a screen picture of Hannah on tv, her first big screen appearance, haha!
                                

                                                                                   GO SPARTANS!!!!!
                                                

18 Months

Our baby is growing and getting so big, too quickly.  Sadly enough, I can no longer call her my baby, she is a toddler on every aspect.

We had our 18 month check up and Hannah is doing great.  I love these check-ups with our pedi, we have our few questions, the Dr examines her, she looks great, and we go on our way!  We don't have any concerns (besides her peanut allergy obviously) but she seems to be developing right on track.  This wonderful girl is such a blessing to us!  I can't believe she is a year and a half old already!

 

18 Month Stats:

-Height: 32.5 inches (72%)

-Weight: 22 lbs (16%)

-Head Circumference: 46.5 cm (47%)

Hannah is quite the talkative little lady.  She is putting two and sometimes three words together.  She can count 1,2,3 and tell us A,B,C as well.  She loves to read her books but doesn't like us reading to her all the time.  Instead we find her making up her own mumble jumble and "reading" to herself.  It is sweet music to my ears hearing her say "Love you Mommy or Dada".  I can't believe how much she has to say, ALL the time!  She is a very friendly and outgoing kiddo, always saying hello to anyone, anywhere, telling everyone byebye and blowing kisses.  She gets that side of her personality from her dad.  

She loves playing with her princesses and her stuffed animals.  She has a few baby dolls that she rocks and gives kisses to.  For the most part she is gentle with her babies and is upset when we tell her they are crying. She is so sweet to watch when she hugs them and pats them on the back.  She will be a great mommy one day :)  

In our basement she enjoys riding her car all around.  She can steer and move herself all over the place.  She pushes her animals around on the seat as well, its cute to watch her figure things out.  

We aren't big television watchers, but Hannah does enjoy watching Sesame Street.  We don't have cable, so we watch this on Netflix.  Hannah gets so excited when she seems Elmo on the screen!  She names all the characters on the beginning intro to the show, its amazing!  She doesn't sit for the whole 45 minute episode, but can last up to 30 mins at a time.  

Hannah has been on a coloring kick lately.  She calls coloring and paper, "colors".  She is right hand dominant at this point.  She can hold her crayon well and scribble on the pages.  We've been working on teaching her colors and shapes.  Right now everything is green, but that's okay with our Spartan family :)  

She is starting to potty train a little bit as well, we know its a tad early, but she has showed interest to us.  She has always told us poopy and then goes in her diaper, we figured we'd give it a try.  We aren't being too strict about it, but she pees on her potty a few times everyday and when we can catch her, she will poop on it.  She is starting to understand wet diaper vs. dry diaper, so we will keep working on this and hopefully have some potty training success.  

We are starting to experience some of the "terrible 2 tantrums" already.  We have moments where Hannah throws herself on the ground, crying like its the worst thing in the world.  It has got to be so hard to communicate what you want when you can't quite figure it out yet.  She has a strong personality so we are trying our best to help her work through these.  Gotta love parenting!!  

I still can't believe our little lady is 18 months old. Time flies way too quickly.  What a precious gift we have been given! 

John's Birthday

I took John away for a surprise birthday night in Grand Rapids.  He had no idea what was planned for the evening, just knew what to wear and when to be ready to go.

My friend Heather who I worked with at Sparrow, graciously agreed to spend the night at our house and watch Hannah for us.  Such a sweetheart for doing this for us!  This was the first night that John and I both were away from our kiddo.

We stayed at City Flatts Hotel downtown GR.  There were NO hotel rooms left in GR because it was Laugh Fest, which apparently is a big deal.  Thankfully my sister-in-law told me about this hotel, because I probably got one of the last rooms left downtown.  It was a neat hotel, very modern, swanky, and a great location.

We walked to San Chez a few blocks away to enjoy dinner.  It was a tapas-style restaurant, SOOO delicious!  We would recommend anyone to eat there, it was such a neat experience.  After dinner, we walked to Founders Brewing Company.  Founders is one of John's favorite, if not favorite, craft beer.  He figured out, as we were driving that this was probably where we were headed, but didn't realize all the other plans I kept secret from him.

We had a good time listening to some folk music, sampling some delicious beer, and enjoying some one-on-one time together.  We don't have much alone time together, so it was nice to have a date together.  It was a fun night and super nice to sleep in the next morning!
 

We arrived home Sunday to find our crazy kiddo having a blast.  She didn't even notice we were gone, and was still her energetic little self.
                            

Happy 31st birthday John!  You are an amazing father, husband, and best friend.  You are my better half, I couldn't imagine anyone but you walking by my side through this journey called life.  Here's to many more birthdays together!  I love you! 

MSU Alumni Gymnastics

I was so happy to be able to attend MSU's gymnastics Alumni meet.  Last year I had to work the whole weekend and only got to see some of my Spartan teammates for maybe an hour.

We started off by having lunch at Brody's wonderful cafeteria on campus.  I've never eaten there since they updated the place, it was delicious.  (brought back some fun  memories of living on campus and dorm life)

We headed over to MSU's practice facility at Jenison Fieldhouse for some playtime, for all the kiddos (big and small)  Some of us were crazy enough to swing some giants on strap bar. (my shoulders hated me for quite a few days)
 
  
 
 
 
  
                                               
 
  
Meet time fun!  All the girls had a good time watching the MSU gymnasts.  Once the meet was over, we all went to Hall of Fame Cafe for dinner with the current MSU gymnasts and coaches.  Thank goodness all of our kiddos enjoy playing together so the adults can talk and talk and talk....

Once we got kicked out of HOFC, we drove to the Vogel's home in Dewitt for some late night festivities straight out of our college days.  The flip cup tourney and beer pong playing went well into the wee hours of the night.  We had such a fun time together, some of the best memories I have are with my Spartan sisters.  So thankful that I was a part of the MSU gymnastics team with these wonderful ladies!!  Love you girls!