Another great day spent at Disneyland! Apparently today was the day to go…not many people there! The girls had an awesome time, like always. I love days like today when I can relax and let the girls wander a bit, by wander I mean walk a few feet in front of me and not get lost in the crowds!! Soon summer will be here and that mean SCHOOLS OUT which means disney will be PACKED, no bueno! So glad we got in a crowd free day!! We actually stayed longer than our norm (4hrs) we made it to 6hrs today, poor Zoe was pooped so we called it a day although Ash could have gone another 6hrs!! We have been annual passholders since Ash was 3 months old and shes almost 7yrs old now, you’d think this place would get old but it just doesn’t, we LOVE it!!! Here are some pics from our day (my camera battery was dead so bare with me as I use cell phone pics)

Hannah did alot of standing and was thrilled to do so!!! So Proud of my baby!

Tarzans Treehouse

Hannah wanting on her sisters seahorse…of course, her sister HAS to be better right?

And theres the seahorse!

One of their favorites….The Jungle Cruise

Best Buds

Taking a break while doing a little coloring over in Thunder Mountain Ranch

I was going to post this last night but I was just soooo tired! Yesterday was Hannahs first Shriners appointment, it went well. To be honest I was hoping for her to get some kind of equipment but they say it isn’t needed. The PEDS doctor along with the ORTHO  and PT say she is definately going to be a walker and will most likely only need AFOs which she already wears. I was excited to hear the news, yet waiting is the hard part (sounds bad huh) Since we found out about her having spina bifida and hydrcephalus at 19 weeks pregnant seems it has been nothing but waiting game. I will say that she has proved every doctor wrong basically from the beginning. They said a long NICU stay was to be expected,she was out in 6 days. They said she would not speak,she does. They said she would not crawl, she does. They said she would be mentally delayed,she’s not. And now here we are hearing that she WILL BE A WALKER! God is good! Here are some pictures from our day…

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So today started off with a BANG! We got up, everyone happy and cheery, I made the girls breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen and got ready for the day. Ashtyn started school the two younger girls playing and getting along, everything was great. Then I don’t know what happend but everything went DOWNHILL!! Honestly it wasn’t anything all that bad. I guess it’s just that I couldn’t seem to handle the chaos today. Ashtyn asking for help with every little thing with every assignment, Zoe basically being a little tornado running thru the house and little miss thing whining and being oh so needy!! After about 2 hrs of trying to keep my cool I was at my wits end with the 3 little rascals and thought to myself “a walk, that is what needs to happen” AND IT WAS!!! I needed to get some fresh air and so did the girls (they needed to get some energy out)  This is definately my new solution to crazy making days…take a walk!! The girls were so interested in all the neighbors landscaping etc as you can see the picture with the roses because “Mom, Mom, you just have to take a picture of us in front of these roses, they are B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L” funny girls. It was entertaining to listen to a 6 and 3 year old conversation about that topic thats for sure, you would have thought they worked at Lowes, haha! Lesson learned, when stressed, take a walk!!

Taking a little stroll…

After the walk they were all chill and getting along again with NO WHINING!!

There’s my Happy Hannah I know and love…

Somehow I skipped our Easter post,oops! We had a fun Easter. We went to church and then headed over to Geoffs Gramps house. Very quiet and laid back but fun. Here are a few pics of the easter eggs hunt and a little photoshoot I decided to do (Geoff takes the pics tho)

Today we spent some time out in the sun at the botanical gardens…it was nice to be out in the SUN!! Ashtyn is studying plants in science so I thought it would be a nice field trip. She ended up running around with her aunts camera and taking pictures of all the different plants and flowers and of course nana was there telling her all the info on the differents plants (nice to have such a smart mom involved)

Zoe has found “her stick”

These little guys were everywhere, in several different colors too (black lizards??)

on a little hike with Nana

taking a little break….

this picture does this flower no justice as it was SOOO PRETTY!!

It was a fun day!

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability
to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it,
to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……
When you’re going to have a baby,
it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy.
You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans.
The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice.
You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives.
You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands.
The stewardess comes in and says,”Welcome to Holland.”
“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy!
I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.
“But there’s been a change in the flight plan.
They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting,
filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease.It’s just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books.And you must learn
a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people
you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy,
less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while
and you catch your breath, you look around….
and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland
has tulips.Holland even has Rembrandt’s.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy…
and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time
they had there. And for the rest of your life,
you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go.
That’s what I had planned.” And the pain of that will
never, ever, ever, ever go away…
because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But… if you spend your life mourning the fact
that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free
to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things …about Holland.

I have been on this journey going on 3 yrs now,counting the pregnancy and today has been a rough day! I got this poem from a gal on a spina bifida board and copied and pasted it to my desktop and its been there ever since…it comes in handy esp on days like these!