All Dressed Up

Sunday morning at home before church.
Think I can ride my trike side saddle?

Some Days You Just Don't Want Your Picture Taken...

Somedays, you just don't want to pose for Mommy. Mommy got Hannah all dressed, put her hair up in pigtails and noticed how cute Hannah was behaving. Mommy decided that some more pictures were in order (what else is new?) and got out the camera. However, Hannah did not want anything to do with the camera. This is the best we got (notice how excited she is!!).

Ah, such is the life in the days of the toddler years!

Hanging out with Mommy

Hanging out with Mommy can be such fun! David had some friends over last night to celebrate his 16th birthday. Today they were supposed to go paintballing, but got rained out, so they went to ride go-carts instead. That left Mommy and Hannah to spend some quality time together.

So what did we do? Girl stuff, of course!

We painted our toenails!

We painted our fingernails!

We put Hannah's hair up in pigtails!

We read a book!

Now that is the way to spend an afternoon!!

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year! I know, I know...it has been far roo long since I posted on this site. I hope to get it all caught up again soon...amybe later today after we have gotten some sleep.

The New Year got off to a great start at our house. Hannah was asleep and we were all ringing in the new year when our neighbors started with a barrage of fireworks. Hannah woke with a start, and after 30 minutes of trying, she just was not going back to sleep. So, she was up to hang out with the family, and of course have a snack!

Now, it is back to bed for the angel and to bed (finally!) for the rest of us.

May God bless your new year!

Hannah and Daddy

This morning, Keith did not have to go to work. Hannah is not used to sleeping in, though, so after she woke up, we put her in bed with us. It worked, and she went back to sleep - on Daddy's pillow!

Snow Day!

Well, it snowed today. Not a lot, but I thought that it would be nice to get Hannah out to play in the snow for the first time. It took a little convincing to get her into her snowsuit. Now, who would have thought that getting dressed would be this traumatic?!



At first, Hannah was pretty aprehensive about the white stuff. Walking felt weird, and it kept sticking to her boots. When she finally touched it and it stuck to her glove, she could not wipe it off fast enough!

After a few minutes, she was all smiles!

Christmas Eve

We went to the Christmas Eve Service at our church this evening. We envisioned coming home and waiting up for Santa, setting out cookies, opening our Christmas Eve gift...and look what happened!!

The princess fell asleep! I guess there will be one less little girl waiting up tonight to see if Santa really does come down the chimney!

Happy Birthday, David!!

Today our blessed older son turned 16! Now, mind you, I am not near old enough to have a 16 year old, but , well, OK, so I guess I am...but I'm not telling!



Hannah wanted to help him open his presents. She liked the paper...hopefully she will get an idea as to what it to come with all of those colorful packages under the tree!

Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. Of course, there are the big things that happened this year: Hannah getting to come home was definately the biggest! But there are also the small things in life that we often overlook: the smell of freshly washed laundry, a cool breeze on a summer's day, the sound of laughter coming from the ones we love, a child's hug, the smile of a friend. God, we are thankful for all of these and many more!

We went on a retreat with our church for Thanksgiving. The German hotel cooked us a turkey dinner based on recipes provided by the ladies in the church. It was quite a meal,and Hannah obviously enjoyed the pumpkin pie!

She's full, or at least I think she is!

After dinner, a bath, and jammies, there was obviouosly a little photo shoot that I was not privvy to. With 2 older brothers and 2 of their friends staying with us on the retreat, i may never know who took these pictures, but I will include some of the better ones.

I hope that you all are as blessed as we are!

18 months old!

Hannah is 18 months old! Doesn't time just fly by? It seems that just last week we were celebrating her birthday, and now we are halfway through to her next one. We had family photos take today for Christmas. It was a good thing, because I didn't take any others to celebrate this momentous occasion!



Here are some things Hannah can do and say:

Hannah says please (peas), thank you (dat you), bye, Momma, Daddy, David (day-id), Bubba, Hannah (na-nuh), dog, cat, go, what's that?, hello (lo-lo), hi, more, shoes, socks, eyes, nose, mouth, belly button, foot, toe, ear, bite, book, ball, bracelet (bray), write, A, B, 1, 2, 3, 5, mine, soft, no, yes, hot, cold, banana (na-na), milk, drink, baby, diaper, poo-poo, all done, up, down, bed, night-night, bath, ow!, pray (pay), and Amen (men).
She pats the chair beside her to indicate she wants you to sit down.
She can jump (not much air, but she tries).
She knows the difference between hitting and soft touches.
She loves lotion, and brings us the bottle, saying "more"
She likes to try on clothes.
She loves girly shoes! (Yeah!!)
She loves to sit and read books but, she wants to hold them.
Sometimes she is nice to her babies, and gives them kisses and hugs.
Sometimes she is mean to her babies and throws them in the floor. Ouch!!
She can run.
She feeds herself with a fork and spoon.
She can get her own diaper and put the used one in the trash.
She wants to pet the cat (but he still doesn't like it).
She usually answers "no" to anything and everything.
She gets into and out of her chair without help.
She likes to climb!!
She gives "five".
She tries to open the doors with a key (fortunately she can't quite reach, yet).
She can take off her own shoes and socks.
She likes to say prayers at meals. She folds her hands and squeezes her eyes shut real tight and says "pay". Sometimes she does it after every bite!
She is OK with being alone for a few minutes, and occasionally puts herself down at nap time.
When we try to take something from her, she hides it behind her back or throws it across the room.
She likes to write, and says "a" when she is writing.
She loves to give kisses and hugs!
She has a crush on David's best friend, Chris. When he is around, no one else can hold her!
She holds her finger up in front of her face and says "No, no!".
She likes to get the video game remotes and pretend that she is playing, too.
She gets Keith's computer mouse and imitates him, too.
She loves to brush her teeth - and uses adult toothpaste (recommended here because the water has no flouride).

Hannah's First Haircut

Before!

After!

Like that lollipop bribe?

Boo!!

No trick-or-treating, but we do like to dress up a little for Halloween. Here is Hannah in all of her glory!!

Family pictures

For our home study update, we needed to send in some family pictures. Since Keith has been gone, we haven't had time to go get any protraits taken, so we went to a scneic area close to home and set up the tripod and the camera. After about a thousand attempts (kidding) we did at least come up with a couple of good ones.

Hannah is such a happy girl!! I love this smile!

A New Trick

Here is Hannah's most recent trick! She can climb up on to her chair, then on to the table in about 5 seconds! Woo! That girl is FAST!

Good thing she was sucking on the wrong end!!

Trying to make a quick getaway!

First day in Oklahoma!

We slept a fair amount last night, but jet lag has us a little tired anyway. We decided to take it a little easy today, but we did have to make a trip to K-Mart to buy diapers and some other necessities...of course once we were there, Grandmama and PaPa had to make sure that Hannah had her first carousel ride.


After all of that hard work running errands, we needed some lunch. Off to the Cherokee restaurant for some Oklahoma grub! Good stuff!!

We Made It!!

Let's just say that flying with a baby by yourself is not fun...

We made it to Oklahoma, and then to my dad's house after travelling for almost 24 hours. Most of the time, Hannah did awesome. There were a few moments, though, where she thought that we should be DONE!!

Hannah is now a citizen of the United States. We made it through immigration in Philidelphia without a hitch. There are no pictures because they do not allow cameras in the immigration or customs areas.

15 months old!!

Hannah has been a busy girl this summer, and she has learned a lot of new things. Now that she is 15 months old, she has all kinds of interests...

She has gotten off of the bottle and only drinks from a cup. However, she loves these little water bottles. We have to watch her, because she is a notorious drink-stealer. Fortunately this one was actually hers, but at this going away picnic, I think that she took at least one drink from everyone's!
Hannah loves to feed herself, and has even started to use a fork and spoon...but not on Cheerios, of course!
Here she is today, drawing a picture for Daddy, or was that tearing up the paper? Anyways, whatever it was must have been quite a workout, cause she fell asleep holding her pencil at the table!

Here are some new things about Hannah:
She can run - not too fast, but she can run.
She can scribble on paper.
She can say "book".
She nods her head when you tell her to say "Thank you."
She points at stuff and asks "whazzat?", then listens to your answer.
She mooches anything you are eating by saying "piece", "bite", "more", or "eat".
She only drinks from a cup, and can drink from one without a lid, but not without making a mess!
She points to objects and says "dis" or "dat".
She can almost get herself onto the couch, and can get herself down without help.
She can pet the dogs nicely.
She can almost pet the cat nicely, but he reminds her that he still doesn't really like it!
She can call David "Day-id".
She calls Jeremiah "Juh", "Bubba", or "Day"
She kisses her Daddy's picture and says "Dadda".
Hannah LOVES spaghetti, and feeds it to herself with a fork or spoon (Quite a messy endevour!)
She still likes her milk warm.
Hannah gives hugs and kisses without being prompted.
She even kisses with a closed mouth!
She sometimes kisses the dogs.
She can call the dogs by making kissy noises.
She can send the dogs away by pushing them and saying "No!"
Hannah loves balls and says "ball" every time she sees something round...did you know that eggs were balls??
She can kick a ball.
She can make a big mess very quickly!
She will melt your heart.

Happy Birthday, Jeremiah!!

Jeremiah's birthday was on Sunday, but we waited until tonight to have his birthday party. He had his friends Ricky, Christian, and Curt over for a sleepover, then tomorrow, they are all going swimming at the indoor pool.

He has really had a great time, and was even able to open his presents...with Hannah's help, of course!

Two firsts today!

Hannah had two firsts today. One of them was good, and the other, well, not so good. First t he good news. Hannah learned how to use a pen at church last week. She has discovered through the influence of the other kids that you can take the pen from the back of the chair in front of you and scribble on the offering envelopes. I have raised a Hedon!

Anyway, to give her a more appropraite outlet for her artistic talents, I bought her some crayons and a coloring book. Here is her first attempt at coloring!

While taking these pictures, though, I noticed another first. Hannah has her first owie since coming home with us! Take a look at her middle finger!. Now, you would think that she would have cried or something to indicate to me that she had scraped her finger...but, alas, no. I was left to discover this after the fact and wonder just how and where she got such a thing. Poor Hannah!

New Pictures

I took the kids to have their photos taken. I really like how these have turned out. My only wish was that Keith could have been her and we could have done the entire family...

My three kids...what a cute buch of kiddos!

David...quite a handsome fellow, if I do say so myself!

Jeremiah...does the cuteness never stop?

Hannah...a perfect picture!

Just the boys.