The Hannig Home

Well, I'm a little behind because the summer started quite a while ago, but I'm finally getting back to this post that I started around Memorial Day.  We have had more action at the Hannig compound in the past month than we have had the first 3 years of living here.  I can hardly determine how to recap it all.  I will just let the pictures tell the story, as I often resort to doing.  This is just the first few weeks of summer.  I will have to add another post shortly, to catch us up to July! First, we have Meredith, just being cute.  She will be ONE YEAR OLD TOMORROW!  That will require a special post of its own.  More on her birthday at a later date. Here we have a mid-May picture of our pool with the fence taken down.  We are preparing for excavation, which was scheduled to begin on June 9th, but actually started on June 11th.  More on the pool in a different post as well! Meredith is enjoying some ice cold lemon water...

One of the craziest things that has happened to us in the three years since we moved here is this:  Gary Monson (owner of Monson Excavating) popped over on a Thursday afternoon when both Paul and I were gone, but Ann Hannig was watching the kids, and asked if we might be interested in the 'fill' he was going to have from digging a basement on Green Lake, down at the bottom of our hill.  He thought we could fill in our gigantic hole/burning pit on the north side of our driveway.  We didn't realize what a TREMENDOUS blessing this was until talking to others that are smarter than us!  Ha!  The cost of getting fill is not cheap.  For 2 1/2 days straight, 2 dump trucks hauled dirt from the Green Lake basement to our property, one truck after another, over and over and over and over again.  They brought 200 loads of dirt!  After 10-12 loads were dropped off, Gary Monson would hop in his back hoe/loader to level out the dirt piles.  Slowly our ENORM...

This is 2 months (to the date) overdue.  But on May 1st we celebrated BEN.  He turned three!  We had a great day with him.  He got a few gifts he just insisted on sleeping in/with that night bc he liked them so much...a lifejacket, a batman cape, a batman mask, and spiderman shoes.  He didn't sleep so well that night. !!! I can't believe he is three.  I looked at him today and his face looked so different...as if he was literally changing and growing up in front of my eyes.  He looked a like a totally different  boy to me.  So grown up now! Here are some pictures from the days surrounding his birthday.  First was the birthday donut from Teal's.  Cold Spring Bakery donuts of course!  Then comes the gifts from uncle Joe - batman mask and cape.    Brotherly love and a new life jacket!    Grandpa Ernie and Grandma Marcy came to celebrate.  Sleeping with the Spiderman shoes and Dusty...

...until my sweet Meredith turns one. I'm in her room, nursing her, as I type on my iPhone. I can hear her little swallows and know just how she uses her left hand to push off of me and adjust her position.  Both her brothers were done nursing by now - Luke at 9 months and Ben at 11. I'm glad miss Meri isn't ready to stop because I'm not ready to be done. It means getting up at least once a night with her to nurse, but I am aware of the sweetness of this time with her, and how quickly it will be over. She took 7 steps yesterday. She says "uh oh" and what we know is "da da", "mum", and "go."  She has the most beautiful strawberry blond hair with natural blond highlights.  My friend, Tonya, who does hair, wants to use her as a hair model.  ;). She loves to hug and snuggle by putting her head on my shoulder. She leans in to give kisses when you ask. She loves music and will start bopping her head and ever so slightly bounce up and ...

Last week, Luke was helping me build a perennial garden on the side of our guest house (which we just call "Joe's house).  He was trying to dig up some weeds.  He was looking so cute, shirtless, with long pants and work boots on.  His little shovel got stuck under the root of a weed, and as he yanked it free, dirt flew all over him.  He looked at me, shrugged, and said  " A workin' man's gonna get dirty." It was so darn cute.  What comes out of their mouths is too precious. Here are a few pictures of the other perennial garden we created.  We took part of our 'concrete jungle' and turned it into a perennial garden.  Love this change!  

Benjer, Eryn took this picture of you while you were at her store last night - and I posted it to Facebook stating "This guy definitely has his own style."  It's getting quite the reviews and comments.  People I don't even know are seeing it and sharing it with others.  Swim shoes, sweatbands around the ankle (usually you have 3 or 4 on at one time), Meredith's headband in your hair (or is that your batman mask?), only undies on the bottom, and the glasses and necklace.  Yowzers!  So cute I can hardly stand it. Somehow a woman (Shelley ThoeleBecker Anderson) from Cold Spring saw this picture on Facebook through one of my friends' Facebook pages.  She posted it on her own Facebook page.  (Boy, if Facebook isn't around when you are older it might be hard to understand what I'm talking about.  But I will worry about that later).  Shelley shared the photo as did Judi Brisse (and Judi I DO actually know.  She is a friend of Grandpa and Gra...

Lots and lots of beautiful weather this weekend makes for lots and lots of FUN!  Planting and projects and biking and bonfires.  Here are a few pictures of the fun: Swing-set fun!    Pizza for breakfast! Golf cart ride to see the little horsie down the road.  Benny -I mean Superman - loved it! Somebody loves spaghetti.  All the way up to the armpit.  Yowsers. Removing ugly old rock landscaping, planting more veggies.  Kids getting rides in the wheelbarrow in between hauling rock. A bike ride to the grocery store to buy hot dogs for the BBQ at the Bell's.  Meredith's first time in the bike trailer.  She SQUEALED with delight the entire ride!  Lukey had his arm around her shoulder most of the ride.  It was so sweet.  Paul pulled these two monkey's.  Mom pulled Ben in our other bike trailer.  On the way back home, we stopped at auntie Eryn's store and were randomly surprised to see ...