Hannah's 1st Birthday

Dear Hannah,

What a joyous, happy soul you are! Happy birthday to my sweet daughter!

At this point, you are no longer a baby and have decided to skip most of the baby stuff. You are an accomplished walker, with mad dancing and spinning skills! You are far advanced for your age! You say a few words, I think "ball" and "muah" 

while giving a kiss) are your favorites.

You are REALLY attached to mommy, but lately you've been hanging and cuddling with daddy a lot. I think you and daddy will have a special bond.


Your brother likes to make you laugh, he also likes to push you down, but that's another story:)  

 As I currently hold you in my arms while you sleep, I am reminded of this time last year. How I couldn't imagine loving another soul and wondering if there was room on my heart for another child. There is absolutely no doubt that you are loved and fill my heart with more joy than I thought possible. We had a rough start with you being a colicky baby, but all those hours of crying were more than worth it! You make us smile on a daily basis. We love you so much!!!

Lion or dog

So we moved into a new place about a month ago. Not long after that, we noticed there were fleas (YUCK!) around the fireplace area. Never knowing what previous tenants have done, we just thought maybe they had an animal that left flea eggs.

Fast forward to a week ago... I was sitting in the living room and heard "SCRATCH! SCRATCH!" on metal and what sounded like an animal that was 30 lbs big trying to claw through our fireplace. We were up until 3 am that night, with Bryan going into the crawl space, and me worried whatever it was, was going to attack the kids in their sleep! Since the fireplace shares the wall with their room.

Having this thing clawing at our fireplace every night was a bit daunting. It would start in at about the same time each night and would shuffle around throughout the night. One night, I asked Nat what he thought it was. He thought for a minute, then replied, "Maybe it's a lion, or a dog!". The following day, he changed his mind and thought it was a shark... makes me kinda glad it was just an opossum!

It took a FULL WEEK to catch this guy! Which did not make for a happy mama.

Here's our lovely before picture: *Cue Christmas music*

Here's our after: *Cue Psycho killer music*
Opossums are very disgusting animals, oh the stench of that critter! ICK! I actually had to shampoo the carpets afterward. And come to find out, they carry fleas and THAT is where the fleas came from. Here's hoping there are no more fleas OR opossums...