Frohe Ostern!

Happy Easter!!

Hannah had a lovely day with her new Easter dress and her bunny basket filled with tiny eggs. She got up this morning to discover these treasures along with a Dora video and a new set of Dora dishes. this little girl LOVES Dora. Did I say that she LOVES Dora? I really mean it. I am certain that Hannah has Dora radar. She can pick out Dora from a hundred yards away.

Anyway, we got up this morning and opened our Easter candy - which Hannah promptly ate her fill of, then wouldn't eat a real breakfast (even out of her new Dora bowl)! Then we got dressed, took some pictures and went to church. Church was awesome as we got to celebrate the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and conquered death so that we could live eternally in heaven. He is so amazing!

After we got home, I would love to tell you that we had a really cool Easter egg hunt for Hannah,

but would you have guessed that it was snowing outside? You

got it...we haven't hardly had any snow at all this winter, but then spring came and it has been

snowing ever since! Unfortunately, it was melting almost as fast as it was snowing, but everything looked nice and white all day. Too wet for an Easter egg hunt, though. That's OK, though, because she got to enjoy hanging out with us instead. And, we got to watch the new Dora video this afternoon.

Now the precious girl has settled down for the night, but not before she got to talk to her grandparents on the phone. She may not say much on the phone, but she is all grins and laughs!

I hope that you had as blessed of a day as we did.

I gotta hat!

Hannah stole David's ROTC hat...

What were we thinking?

Yep, I am not sure what we were thinking, but Hannah was certainly having a good time!

Cowgirl boots!

Hannah has a pink pair of cowgirl boots. But, did you know that these boots are made to be worn 24/7? I mean seriously, they are the last thing that she takes off at night and the first thing that she puts on in the morning. We do take them off to take a bath, but she usually tries to put them back on before bed if she can.

Of course being bright, shiny, pink, they get a lot of attention when we go out. People often say, "Wow, what cute shoes you have." To which Hannah replies, "Boots." Yes, my little girl knows what she likes and these boots are it!

She does like some other things as well...like hand lotion. Here she is with not one, but 2 bottles. How much lotion can she use in a day? Well, it depends on how quickly I catch her with it. She can open those bottles and lotion herself well very quickly.

And finally, here she is goofing around with Jeremiah. You gotta love those smiles!!

Helping Jeremiah with his Homework

Hannah likes to help. She likes to draw. She likes to push buttons. She like to talk on the telephone. So...here she is doing all these things as poor Jeremiah tries to get his homework done.

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!!