Mamma Hannah

Hannah loves to play Mommy to her babies. We are in a hotel in Leipheim, Germany waiting to start our 2 day excursion to Legoland. Hannah packed a few toys and of course, her baby was one of them.

Aye, Aye, Cap'n!

Congratulations, Keith! As my wonderful husband recently said, "I will finally have the respect I once had as a Tech Sergeant!". Let us just say that life in the military as a prior enlisted Lieutenant is interesting...

Pinning on his Captain's bars

Cutting the cake

Graduation Night

There are a few moments in your life that you will never forget. Certainly one of them is graduation night. I can recall the anticipation of my name being called, moving my tassel over and finally being a high school graduate. Now, our oldest son has had the opportunity to do the same. We are so proud of him! He did a great job in high school taking 4 honors classes, 6 AP classes, and receiving an AFROTC scholarship. His Senior year he had nearly a 4.0! He did all this while obtaining his Eagle Scout Award, participating in Cross-Country and Track, playing on the praise team at church, and overall being an awesome guy. Who could ask for more. God has totally blessed him and our family!

As far as college plans, he intends to go to the University of Oklahoma and major in Computer Engineering. Lofty goals indeed!

Receiving his diploma!! (Sorry about the grainy photo - we had seats in the nosebleed section)

David and Chris (his best friend)

You know Hannah has to be in at least one picture!

The whole family

Practicing for College

When the sign says, "Free". Doesn't that mean I can have it all??

Bacculaureate

David coming down the aisle.

Hannah entertaining herself

David's turn to go up

Chris and David exiting after the ceremony

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Hannah is three years old! It is so hard to believe that the time has just flown by. Just yesterday we brought her home and celebrated her first birthday and her first steps. Now she is a walking, talking, crazy little girl!

Here are some things that Hannah can do:
She tells you her name is "Hannah 'Lizbef Fuwan Ross"
She knows ALL of her letters
She can spell "stop"
She looks both ways before she crosses the street
She likes to climb to the top of the highest slides and slide down
She is TOTALLY left-handed
She can write her name (almost)
She can hop, skip, and jump
She can ride her bike with training wheels (steering is optional)
She can put together 24 piece puzzles easily
She carries on entire converstaions. At her 3 year checkup, the doctor asked if she said 3-4 word sentences. She replied by asking, "What is a three or four word sentence, Mommy?". I guess she passed that test.
She knows who the doctor is and that she does NOT want a shot when she goes.
She is not afraid of the dark
She likes to listen to her Chinese music when she goes to sleep
She is completely potty-trained, even at night
She knows shat she wants, how to get it and voices herself clearly to make her needs/wants known.
She bosses the boys, the dog, the cat and anyone who will listen.
She does not share very well
She likes to change her clostes - several times a day if I am not careful
She cleans up her own room and toys
She loves to use scissors and asks for her scissor homework!
She loves books and wants me to read her a story
She still likes her milk "nice and warm"
She can count to 11 and add to 5 (sometimes 6)

Here are some pictures of her birthday party, Dora the Explorer style!

Hannah blowing out the candles with Eden watching

Hannah opening presents with Ashlynn

Hannah with the camera - a self-portrait!

Opening present with Eden

Luke enjoying some rice krispie treats

After lunch, games, presents and cake, it was time to go to the playground!

Will, Ashlynn, Keith, Eden, and Hannah on the teeter-totter.

The aftermath...

Sometimes you just need a nap...

Play Group

This year we hosted a play group at our house every Wednesday morning. Some mornings, it was just Hannah, me, another adult, and child. Some mornings there were 21 people at my house! Either way it was a great way for young Christian women to get together, swap parenting stories, encourage each other, and let the kids play. Thanks to all the ladies who helped make this possible!

Emma and Abby sharing some flowers

Sydney and Charlie

Hannah and Aubrey

The fake cry

There are some things that girls master that boys just do not see the need for. Take the fake cry for instance. Neither David nor Jeremiah ever saw the need to make themselves cry. Hannah, however, has this down to an art form!

Easter

I love Easter and the fact that we celebrae Jesus rising from the dead - conquering death and sin! How awesome is HE! I love Easter Sunday worship. It really makes me feel renewed.

We also enjoy some of the other Easter traditions, even when they are just different ways of having fun.

"For me?" "Is this for me?"

Can I eat all of that?

Ready for church. I didn't catch that Jeremiah made a face until we were all home and changed and Hannah was down for a nap.

After church, we had our friends, the Busseys over for Easter dinner and a little fun!

Sydney Easter egg hunting

Hannah finding some eggs, too.

Rock band - Daddies and daughters!

Now, where were the mommies? Making dinner, of course!

It was a great day of fun and fellowship...I love Easter!

Playground fun

Living next door to a playground can have its benefits. We do not have to buy a swing set, we don't have to walk to the park, there is always a clean potty, and when Hannah has friends over, there is always a place to go.





Photos courtesy of Jeremiah.

Loving on his sister

David...loving on his sister!

Being Cute

Cuteness abounds!

Messing Around

Some picture are worth a thousand words...some have no words at all!

Winning the Patriot Pen Essay Contest

Not very often would one expect Jeremiah to win an essay contest. As an auditory learner, he has difficulty putting thoughts into words. Yet, he placed second in the Patriot Pen Essay Contest for his middle school! What an amazing young man! Here is his essay:

Why American Veterans should be Honored

Honor is a gift that we can give every day but we chose not too. Some people deserve it and others do not. Like in the Vietnam War, we never gave the veterans any honor when they came back. We should have given them honor but we were to mad at them for fighting. I think that we should not have dishonored the people who fought because the deserved better for the hardships they faced.
War, poverty, and death, these are what American veterans have seen. They should be honored. Not spat on like they are some dogs nipping at your heels. That is how the soldiers got treated when they came back from Vietnam. Why was Vietnam different? WII had more deaths than Vietnam. Today, military members are getting better respect, when they come back, than in Vietnam and we are doing the same thing we did in Vietnam. In Vietnam most of them were forced to fight while in the other wars they had the choice to fight or we were attacked first. WWI we were attacked and in WWII we were bombed.
We can give honor through love and support. Some veterans need medical supplies or clothes. When they get to the hospital all they have is on their backs. You can also remember holidays and birthdays. That makes them happy because they know that they are still in your hearts. Still some veterans need help with finding peace because they have flash backs of the past and go into convulsions. Also some never got better. I believe that veterans can get honor from fellow soldiers. I also believe that soldiers need respect to fight because without it they feel no importance. I bet that many veterans still need help and respect and we need to help them.

Jeremiah receiving his award

Playing on the Playground

David playing with Hannah on the playground.

We are so blessed to have such wonderful young men in our family. Almost every day one of them offers to take Hannah outside and play on the playground with her. It gets her outside and gives me a break! What an awesome family!

Jeremiah's Musica Nova Concert

Jeremiah's choir at school had a concert tonight. His singing is really getting better and the choir is actually quite good. Next year, he will be in the high school choir and may get to actually sing before a different audience besides a group of parents! The pictures are only so-so...the lighting in the auditorium is not conducive to good picture taking!

The middle school choir...Jeremiah is on the front row, right.

Singing!

Hannah entertaining herself while the band plays.

After her brother left the stage, she kinda lost interest!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had a little fun with St. Patrick's Day. Obviouosly we are not Irish or Catholic...but hey, it is just fun! Although you cannot really tell in the picture, Hannah is weraing her green jingle bell earrings. They jingle when she shakes her head, so all day long she was shaking her and and singing "Jingle Bells". Not exactly Irish!

Here she is in all her splendor!

Later she changed (on her own, of course) to go outside. Quite the fashion statement!

Little girls (and boys) are definately a blessing from God! She is such a charmer, and yet so devious at the same time. However, each evening, she is the first to say her prayers for all that she knows. They are sometimes quite lengthy depending on who all she feels led to pray for, and everyone reading this can rest assured that at sometime she has prayed for you!

Oh, Hannah!

The guitar...it haunts me! Kidding aside, it is one of Hannah's favorite toys. We have to put it away when her friends come to visit because she just cannot seem to share it! I believe in teaching our kids to share, but there is only so much you can expect from a 2-year-old. She shares most everything else really well, so we are not dwelling on the guitar.

Here she is this morning, dressed a mere 10 seconds before she picked up the guitar to sing to me. Yes, she is left handed, and we had to re-string the guitar to be a left-handed guitar.

Hannah and Jeremiah

Jeremiah and Hannah have a very unique relationship. One minute they fight like cats and dogs (Who would have thought that a 13 year old and a 2 year old would have anything to fight about?), and the next they are playing together. Hannah knows just which buttons to push to set her brother off, and I swear that sometimes he antagonizes her. I know, say it ain't so...but it is.

Here are some pictures of them hanging out. Jeremiah took them while they were playing "handyman".