Nana came to visit last week…need we say more?!?! Hank, of course had a GREAT time! Hank and Nana are very special to each other and he was ecstatic about seeing her. We planned for her to come stay with Hank, so Jason and I could have our little getaway, but when the time came it was really hard to leave because we wanted to see her too! Of course, Jason and I had a fabulous time n Whidbey Island and Nana and Hank did great, but we are hoping she will come back soon so we can visit with her too. I didn’t get many pictures because we were gone for most of her trip but we did get to spend a little time together.

We have had a few days of GORGEOUS weather, sunny and upper 50’s. SO we have been outside, soaking up as much Vitamin D as possible.

Best Buddies

Hank found a pair of sunglasses that we used when he was a baby…currently he has been wearing them like a headband and refusing to take the off. Which explains his awesome hairdo.

Caterpillar Friend

Baseball

We had a special dinner on Nana’s last night and Hank asked for ‘Steak and french fries” so we decided on Outback.

This is how Nana poses for most pictures…

Bag Lady

Two Peas in a Pod

Not sure what was so Funny, but these two were cracking each other up!

Big Kisses

Hank has asked for “Nana come to Hank’s house” or to “Fly on a Hair-plane to see Nana” every single day since she left! WE MISS YOU NANA!!! Come back soon! (And, I didn’t post any of the “Bad Pictures” of you!)

Jason and I spent a long weekend on Whidbey Island. Thanks to Nana who came all the way to Washington to stay with Hank! Jason and I used to regularly go out on dates and over-night stays, just to get away and have some time to devote to our marriage…it is just a little too easy to make your whole life about your child. Since we have moved, we have not really had much opportunity to do this, we have a few people who babysit for us, which is great, but we were in need of a little longer get away. We did a little research and didn’t wan to go too far away, so we chose a place just north of seattle, about 2 hours from our house, Whidbey Island. This is the greatest little island and I am so glad we got to go. We stayed at a FABULOUS hotel! The Inn at Langley gets and A++ from us both! It was so quant and romantic and I hope we get to have many more trips there!

Excited!

We had to take a ferry onto the island, which was so fun. It was first time on a “drive on” ferry.

Ferry

Ferry Fun!

Being silly on the Ferry

My cute husband!

So Happy Together

Just in case you wanted to let your children hang over the side of a moving ferry boat...

Our room was gorgeous and had amazing views of the water!

Bathtub over looking the water

Lovely little balcony

Views from the balcony

My favorite view

Bliss

On the beach there was a stone wall with beautiful carving right in the wall!

The Island does a yearly winery tour called “Red Wine and Chocolate” at Valentine’s Day. All the local wineries and bakeries contribute to the tour. We had a ball, tasting and learning about growing grapes and making wine!

Fine wine...Yum Yum

Our tasting glasses

Langley is a sweet little town on the Island with all of these cute little shops…we couldn’t resist the local music shop!

Jammin'

Still jammin'

There is a local soap and candle maker…we found this in her store!

Left Brain=Shai : Right Brain=Jason

…And who could resist the “Puppet and Costume Hat” Shop?!?! (need I remind you that we spent the better part of the day “tasting” wine)

Jason & and a Scary Crow

Demon Head

Appealing to my husband, the Harry Potter Fan

My favorite picture of the weekend

Our Valentine’s Dinner consisted of a 6 course meal but a world renowned chef…absolutely amazing!!! It was an “open kitchen” where the chef went through each course and spoke about what he prepared, how it was done, and why it was chosen. And we watched him do it! If you ever get a chance to do something like this, I highly recommend it!

We attempted to get a picture before dinner…several tries later these were the best ones, or the only ones where we both have heads!

Love Birds

Best Attempt

On our last morning it was very foggy and gray, but still breathtaking!

Beach

Saying goodbye to the ocean

Our friend Henry cam over to play last week. I work with Henry’s mom, Jamie, who is a fellow Nurse Practitioner at our clinic. Henry’s Dad has his wisdom teeth removed last week (OUCH! sorry, Joel) and they needed someone hang out with Henry during the surgery. Hank and I gladly volunteered. Not only is Henry super cute, he is so easy going and chill, that its almost EASIER having him around. Hank LOVES playing with him and Henry just goes with the flow. My job is really just snack maker and making sure Hank doesn’t get to rough … they do they rest!

Hank and Henry having a morning snack

Yummy Peaches

Hank told Henry what each and every animal was called and what sound they make

Nice Zebra, Buddy

Look at that sweet face!

We have started a “Bynum Family Breakfast” tradition on Saturday mornings. After we all get up, Jason cooks bacon, eggs, and pancakes! He is getting really good and is almost up to Linda Bynum Breakfast standards! This has been really fun for us and even Hank looks forward to our meal. He helps set the table and is getting pretty good at whisking the pancake mix.

PANCAKES!

Big Helper

Fun Pictures…

Pouting for the picture

A little better

There's a smile... almost

My FAVORITE dimples!

It’s that time again. Time for me to share a few pics from my phone.

Hank and momma sleeping on the plane.

My oldest and newest best friends working on a puzzle together.

Hank is ready for the cold weather.

I know that the pic is a little blurry, but I think it is hilarious. This is Hank getting stuck in his Buffalo Wild Wings hat.

Hank found a new place for momma's sweatshirt

The saw I used to cut down our Christmas tree.

A little full. A lot of sap.

DON'T PUT RAISINS IN YOUR NOSE - mom's advice to hank

The reason our pipes froze.

Sometimes we have family breakfast on Tuesdays. It's super fun and makes the house smell like bacon.

Hank has been doing a lot of changing over the past few weeks. For one, he is getting TALLER! I know this because he is eating us out of house and home at this point, sometimes more than Jason & I combined, and we have officially moved up a pants size in the last two weeks (4T, if your interested). He also has started playing “big boy” games. His little imagination is really coming out and he LOVES imaginative play. He also has a little bit of a creative side peeking through. He still is very into music but is definitely getting curious about playing interments, not just playing with them. He will sit with his dad for hours (if you knew how much energy this kids has, you would agree that this is REALLY amazing) strumming different guitar cords and trying to keep a beat on his drums. He actually is pretty good and at this point has surpassed his Momma’s beat keeping ability! Here are some things Hank has been into in the past few weeks.

Hank LOVES Dinosaurs and we are trying to learn the “real names” of the dinosaurs we see. This is a challenge for me because, surprisingly, they are NOT the same as I learned in elementary school. And, anyone who knows me knows that spelling/sounding out words is not my strength. Listening to me read a Dinosaur book to Hank is quite funny!

T-Rex

ROOOAAARRRR!

Hank discovered painting after he got the easel for Christmas and he LOVES it. Notice the “H” he painted. He is also working really hard on his letters. He knows his alphabet and even most of the letter sounds, but writing letters is little tougher.

Little Artist

Super Why has been a major happening in our house. We don’t usually get to catch it on PBS, except on Saturday mornings. But Hank often chooses it when he gets to watch a video. He has also recently started playing Super Why. Grumpy gave Hank a gift card for Christmas and this is what Hank picked out!

Super Why Hank

Reading Power

We had a great time picking out what he wanted with his gift card. It was a really fun opportunity to talk about how much money we had to spend and he had to choose what he wanted MOST. We picked out several things and then would decide what he want to keep and what he should put back…He actually had fun and a hard time deciding, until he saw the Super Why costume and airplane! I have some cute video of Hank and Jason playing guitar and drums. I just don’t know how to post it here, so I will have to wait for help on that one! Hopefully it will be coming soon!

We were so thankful that Elvis got to come and visit for a few days! We really missed our families over the holidays and it felt so good to have Elvis here with us. He only got to stay a few days, and as always, it was too short! But, we packed in a lot of fun things and had a GREAT time while he was here.

Hank & Elvis playing with play-dough

Seattle Zoo…notice the rain coat!

Ready for the Zoo!

My Boys!

They all LOVED the lions!

It was a little COLD!

Hank & Elvis

Hanging out with the Monkeys

Momma was a little spent after a long day!

Best Buddies on the Carousel

Seahawks/Titans Game

LOVE Him!

COLD but fun!

Only picture we could get with all 3 of us!

Come back soon Elvis! I have a feeling he can’t stay away for long

We had a really good time, the week/weekend after Christmas. One of the perils of being a working mom is that there is not alway enough time to do all the fun things we want to. So, Christmas cookies took a bit of a back seat this year. Hank loves getting to “help” make cookies, so I thought…Better late than never. The week after Christmas we made so delicious cookies. I opted for the easy, store bought dough and icing, and actually I think we had more fun than ever. He got to break the dough apart and place it on the pan and they only have to bake for a short time so he watched the whole time through the oven door. Then we set up shop for decorating madness. Hank has been requesting “reindeer jammies” ever since Christmas morning, so the pictures actually worked out quite nicely.

Christmas Cookies...a little late

My big helper

Serious decorating

Taste Test

Yum Yum

My Uncle Erich was home from Afghanistan for a few weeks, and my whole family got to take a mini vacation to a cabin and some time with him. We were VERY sad to not be with them, but we got the next best thing…Skype!

Skyping with family in Alabama

Erich is back in Afghanistan now and we are praying for his safe return!

Hank and I met his best buddy, Julia, at the movie theatre to see The Princess and The Frog. The movie was so cute, but even cuter were these two…

Julia & Hank

They even shared their popcorn without any trouble!

Best Buddies!

For about the last year (which is a long time when you are only 2), Hank has LOVED Disney’s Imagination Movers. So, when we heard they were coming to Seattle in concert, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see them LIVE and in person. I don’t think Hank really understood what was happening, until he saw his favorite friends in real life. His little eyes stayed glued to the staged and he even let out a few dance moves in appreciation of the performance.

Hank and Daddy at the Moore Theater

Found our seats

Momma and Hank are ready for some MOVERS!!!

Fantastic!

It was really a great show. We all had TONS of fun! We even got a close up of Mover Rich. He went up and down every single isle on the floor and in the balcony to high-five every single kid in the audience…How great is that?!?!

Mover Rich

Thanks Rich!

Jason lifted Hank up for a high-five, and Rich gave him a good pat on the head and a big High-five! Hank LOVED it and Rich has definitely been our favorite since the show.

After the show we wanted to take advantage of being in Seattle and eat some good food, so we went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner.

My boys!

Such a fun day!!! We all had a blast and I am so thankful for our sweet little family!

Hank’s bedtime prayer tonight…

“Dear God,
Thank you for friends, Thank you for Momma, and Julia, and Daddy, and Julia’s Daddy. Thank you for my favorite Super Why and play dough.
Amen.”

Our dear friends, the Dalans, invited us to Christmas Eve dinner at their home. Being far away from our own family, it was nice to be part of another family celebration. And, as I have mentioned before, Hank is CRAZY about Julia, so he was more than happy to join in.

Hank & Momma, ready to go!

The kids table is a FUN place to be!

Dr. Aaron reading us the story of Jesus

Silly Buddies

After a great dinner, we went to our Christmas Eve service at church. We are really loving our new church in Olympia and starting to feel at home there. Hank got to join us in “Big Church” which was interesting. He really enjoyed the music and the children’s choir performance.

Ready for church

Family Christmas Photo

After church we came home to get ready for bed.

Winding down in Christmas jammies

Then Momma and Daddy had the pleasure of trying to put together all the toys for Christmas morning. Sometimes I think toy manufactures purposely make thing 10xs more difficult than necessary, just for fun!
Anyway, this what Hank woke up to this morning.

Christmas morning

Grammy got to watch Hank open some presents on Skype

Skyping with Grammy

Testing out some toys

Artist in the making

This was our first Christmas away from our friends and family. It was definitely hard and a little sad to be so far away. But, we had great time and got to relax and spend the whole day just enjoying each other. Which was a nice change of pace.

We have been trying to help focus Hank (and ourselves) on the True meaning of Christmas, which can so easily get lost. We have been talking a lot with Hank about Jesus’ birthday and giving gifts to each other in order to remember the GREATEST Gift, Jesus. Before we came downstairs this morning to the tree and presents, Jason read us the story of Jesus’ birth, and once again talked about why we are celebrating this day. As Hank came down the stairs he looked at his presents and said “Presents for Jesus!” and we couldn’t help but laugh!

Also, I attempted a Christmas meal, with ham, sweet potatoes, broccoli casserole, rolls, and sweet tea. It wasn’t quite the same as Grammy’s or Honey’s cooking, but I think it was a good try!

Merry Christmas! “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”- Isaiah 9:6