The update

Addie:

Our little 8 yr old isn't so little anymore.  She's got such a big sense of humor.  She's a lot like her daddy.  She loves soccer, and is the fastest girl on the field (on both teams!)  She's only been playing for 2 seasons, but she's one of the best players on her team.  She's a natural (totally takes after the Hannan genes there.) She has a great class at school, Mrs. Remy, and loves to read.  She states she "hates writing", but is pretty good at that too.  She LOVES candy.  She just went on a "candy-free" diet for a month and got $20 for doing it.  We were so proud of her.  Addie talkes with her hands up in the air... like up by her head... JUST like Dan.  It's so funny.  Lately she's started snapping her fingers as a habit.  reminds me of myself when I had a billion annoying habits as a kid.  (I don't have any now and am totally habit-free. Ahhem. )  Sometimes Adds has a bit of a hard time with friends at school, so she's taken to playing with "Sarah Lynn", her imaginary friend.   When she does play with other kids, she admits to still loving shows like "Dora, Cat in the Hat, and Super Why".  Who doesn't like those?  Addie loves to spend time with her family.  She will often state, "This is the BEST night of my life!!" when we remember to have Family Night, or when we go have a family day at the park.  She's sensitive in some ways but is super practical in her emotions.  We don't get a lot of drama with Addie (not that she doesn't CAUSE drama... just that she doesn't feel it or express it emotionally).  At night if we get everyone in bed before 8pm I cuddle with Adds- just us.  She gets SO excited when this happens, and squeezes her arms tight to her and kind of crosses her eyes and smooshes her face tight (all in excitement- like she's hugging herself really really tight) and we stay up for 10 minutes and just talk.  These are some of the best talks we have.  Tonight we were talking about how all of the Disney movies have terrible Parent-situations.  (Like Ariel only having a single, controlling Father she has to rebel against... Cindrella has an evil Step Mother and Sisters... Jasmine has a single-dad and no apparent Mother... Enchanted has an evil Mother-in-law... Tangled has loving parents but a warped woman raises her as her Mother... Snow White, etc  the list goes on.  Addie mentioned "Brave" and there are 2 good parents there.  (She didn't realize the entire movie was about the daughter rebelling against her Mother) Then out of the blue she pretended to shoot an arrow in the air.  She said it would be funny if the arrows made sound effects like horses instead of arrows, then she mimed shooting an arrow and said, "Neihehehehegh!"  We laughed for a while and continued to make the wrong sound effects for shooting a gun, a barking doggy, etc.  Had to be there???  Addie and homework:  One day on her story for her homework assignment she kept writing "hay tent" in stead of "fort".  Finally, after handing me back her corrected and re-corrected paper seveal times I told her she still hadn't fixed the problem.  She needed to change the word "tent" to "fort", and if I saw teh word "tent" one more time I was gonna loose it!  She said, "Ohhh, NOW I get it!"  She erased and scribbled on her paper again, and handed it back to me again.  Finally, she had corrected her mistake.  But also, on the margin of her paper were the words "tent tent tent" written in HUGE kid writing.  I busted out laughing and so did she.  What a clever girl. Oh- and she loves catching bugs and keeping them in a jar and making a home for them.  Her most recent captive being a ladybug that laid eggs.  Despite the plethora of affids we fed her, she was left in the sun in her jar and all the baby ladybugs hatched and died, along with the Mama and affids.  Addie burst in to tears when she saw them- I've never seen her so upset.  Not even when our dog Bella died.  When Bella died she just wanted to poke her eyeballs.

Abigail:

Her 6 yr old birthday was this last week.  She was very specific that she only wanted a few friends at her party, and she gave me reasons why she didn't want to invite each of the other girls.  She's a very personal girl and likes to make the kind of friends that last a lifetime.  Abigail is our little sensitive kid.  She gets emotional very quickly in any given situation.  Her feelings get hurt easily, and she is very loving and fair.  Sarcasm is not an option with Bird.  Ya gotta be sincere.  Bird loves the heat, and can be sweating to death but still wants to wear long sleeves and pants, and hates shorts.  She won't wear a church dress without a t-shirt underneath.  She loves playing with her friend Willow.  They play and imagine things for hours at a time.  She is an awesome sister.  She gives Addie all of her money and shares her candy till it's gone.  If you give Abigail a pack of gum, it will be gone within the hour.  She LOVES her lion and her froggy blankie.  She loves her sisters.  There's nothing she loves more than to get the full, undivided attention of her parents... she glows.  She is loosing her teeth one-by-one.  She is a brave little girl.  We talked about her birthday last year at Chevy's and how funny it was that when she and Daddy went to the bathroom, and it was just Addie and I at the table, the waiters all came clapping around us and put a hat on Addie and started singing "Feliz Cumple Anos" to the wrong birthday girl!  Luckly they did it again when Abigail came back out.   Went to the jeweler to get my ring cleaned, and Abigail called the jeweler "the dirty old man" because his hands were dirty and metal-y.  (Tays kept calling the diamonds "ditamins" and Addie said the jeweler looked like Fix-it-Felix on Wreck-it Ralph.)  Abigail loves eating messy food with her hands- like salad or taco soup with chips.  She enjoys licking her fingers.  Right now our biggest challenge with her is that she forgets to wash her hands and flush the toilet!!!  Oh- and she is an AMAZING reader lately.  She just picked it up one day and could read.  She is very smart.  She loves to cook and bake.  She is a natural at this.  Abigail is one of the most loving people I know.

Taylor:

Love her.  She is a mix of everything.  She's the first person to be thoughtful for others... whenever I'm nursing the baby she says, "Mommy I'll go get you a glass of water!" and if anyone gets hurt she is right there saying, "Are you w'ok Mummy?" She loves taking care of her dollies and of course still loves her "Bubby" and the "Corner" of her bubby.  Though it's shredded to pieces she loves it till death.  Recently, she fell out on our porch and knocked her front tooth.  It's turning dark, and it's so sad!  She dislikes getting her hair done, but loves getting hair spray and "Difi" put in it.  She wears skirts and pants underneath all the time.  Sometimes I threaten to take a garbage bag and throw away anything that's on the floor in the girls' rooms. (I've actually done it a few times.) I did this recently, and also instructed the girls to make their beds.  Taylor looked at me and said, "I want you to throw away my bed."  She's 3!!! Ha.  She also is so funny when she's exasperated and Dan and I laugh out loud when she heaves a big, exhausted/exasperated sigh.. As if she's 16 and just got her hpone taken away at the dinner table.  "Ugggghhhh!!!!"  She's so funny.  Also, Tays always says, "Yup-ee-do" instead of "yes".   She also says, "What da heck?!" a lot.  We were driving one day home from the school and Tays says, out of the blue, "Mommy!!! Look how beautiful that is!!!"  I look out the window.  She shouts, "Made you look!"  It was so unexpected and funny.  We are working on not letting her suck her thumb during the day.  When she does suck her thumb she falls asleep.  We can hear her falling asleep in the car when she's sitting up and we know when she's "out" because you hear her thumb falling out and the sucking noise is constant and trying to suck it back in.  She gets really mad when she has to wake up from a car-nap.

Rebecca:

What an angel.  She is the best baby.  She's 6 months old and perfect.  So smiley and cuddly.  She laughs full-bellied, and is very ticklish.  She's just starting to enjoy rice cereal, and loves her sisters.  Addie and Abigail can change her wet diapers.  She always goes nuts moving and scooting back when we are trying to change her diaper.  She puts her feet on the ground and pushes her bum up and scoots back.  It's so funny.  She only does it when we are trying to change her.  She ALWAYS has her arms out to her side like she's flying, and when she gets excited or scared she shakes them and gets all stiff and wide-eyed like she's trying to tell us something.  She is learning how to stick her tounge out and she loves chewing on soft blankies. She rubs her feet together non-stop and pinches me while she nurses.  She's getting 2 teethies on the bottom gums and they are sharp!  She sleeps through the night unless she's going through a growth spurt, and she still likes to be swaddled in order to fall asleep.  She loves to play with my earrings, and she is a quick eater, only taking about 7 minutes to feed!  My favorite thing to do is cuddle her with a big, fluffy towel after she's taken a bath and she's all naked.  She is such a joy to have in our family!  Really makes me contemplate having another.