Hannah...11 months old!

Hannah is now officially 11 months old, which means she is only days away from her 1st birthday. The kids are very excited about her having a birthday! Aaron even wants to invite some of his friends over for it!!

Hannah is definitely mobile now...she gets across a room quickly, but she is still not doing a traditional crawl. It's more of a push-up, then she pushes herself forward, then does it again. She's going to have some awesome upper body strength. She does push-ups all day!

She can also get herself into a sitting position on her own. She started doing this a couple of weekends ago, and the day she finally mastered it, she kept sitting up in her bed at naptime and throwing pacis out of her crib, instead of sleeping. It was really funny!

Hannah likes:

1. Eating paper. Ugh--I wish she would stop doing this. She is constantly on the prowl for some paper she can eat. I have to watch her like a hawk.
2. Baths! She takes a bath with her sissy now, and she loves to splash and play with her. She loves when I lay her on her back in the water, and she kicks her legs and laughs. She looks like a little frog! Bath time is one baby sign she does consistently. She even says a word that sounds something like "bathtime".
3. Being carried around. And it's killing my back!
4. Bananas. Really she likes most fruits, but bananas are one of her favorites. I just cut them into pieces and she feeds herself.
5. Cheese toast. And ice cream. Not necessarily together.
6. Giving hugs and kisses. She gives the sweetest kisses now and makes a little "awww" sound when she does it.
7. Getting her pacis at naptime and bedtime.
8. Seeing her brother and sister when she first wakes up.
9. Nursing.
10. Babbling really really loudly. Ms. Joyce, one of the nursery workers at church, said Hannah is their loud one. I think she gets that from her big brother and sister. They say everything at high volume!
11. Cheerios. They're a life saver when I have a fussy baby!
12. Sleeping! She knows the routine, and when we walk into her room, she dives for the bed, gets her paci and goes to sleep. She takes long naps, usually 9-11 am and then 1 - 3 pm, if we're home and I don't have to wake her for something. On Sundays, when she doesn't get her morning nap in the nursery, she'll sleep from 12-3 pm or later!
13. Wearing sunglasses. Seriously. She loves to get mine off of my head, and thinks it's so funny when I put them on her. So I finally bought her a pair of her own, and she likes to wear them. She's a little diva already!

14. As you can see, she also loves to swing. We got a new playset in the backyard so she's getting more swinging time in, and she loves it!

Hannah doesn't like:

1. Green vegetables. She blows raspberries at us when we try to feed them to her. I'm going to keep trying though!
2. Getting "head hugs" from Aaron or Claire.
3. Being left on the floor when everyone goes to another room.
4. Seeing us eat something she can't have. Especially ice cream.
5. Having paper taken away from her. Or having her mouth swiped for whatever illegal item got in there.
6. Having to wait for her dinner. Once she's in her high chair, she expects the food to start entering her mouth immediately! This is where Cheerios are handy!
7. When she's not getting any attention. She likes to be entertained!
8. Being sleepy. When she is sleepy, she is cranky. She wants to get in her bed and go to sleep!
9. Not being held by Mommy when Mommy is in the room.
10. Mommy leaving. She gets over it quickly though. One day when Mammaw was babysitting, she told Hannah, "Mommy's home!" when she heard the garage open. Hannah watched the door and fussed until I walked in!

I can't believe my next official Hannah update will be a 1 year update! One year? Where has the time gone?

Hannah's version of the crawl

It's hard to know exactly what date Hannah started crawling. It has happened so gradually, and she is still not really doing a traditional hands and knees crawl, although she's getting close. She definitely gets around a room, and into whatever she's not supposed to be into. Her crawl started out with her scooting along on her face while she reached forward for something. Now she does more of an inch worm thing, bringing her chest up and propelling herself forward with her legs, then letting her chest fall back down. It's really funny to watch!

A few days ago when I heard her wake up in the morning, I went into her room and she was sitting in her crib! A couple of nights ago she did it again, while I wasn't in the room...I came back in and she was sitting up. Today I finally saw her do it...over and over. When I put her in her bed tonight, I laid her on her tummy as usual, and she just sat up and grinned at me. I'll get video of that soon!

In the meantime, here is a little montage of her "crawl". The first part was early in April, and the last part was just a few days ago.

Hannah's *gasp*!

Hannah started doing the funniest thing today. She learned how to gasp! I think she must have gotten that from her dramatic brother and sister. I took several videos and pulled the clips of her gasping out and made a little movie. Enjoy!

Designer Babies, Designer God

Please take a few minutes and read this blog post I just read.

http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2010/04/designer-babies-designer-god.html

This sweet woman has 4 children, and is in the process of adopting a 5th from Ethiopia. She is very passionate about adoption.

Anyway, I just read it and found myself shaking my head and shouting Amen at several places. It's a very convicting article, very well written...I won't try to restate it--just read it!

Hunter-in-training

Aaron got to go on his first turkey hunt this year!


He went with Chris on a mid-morning hunt, so they didn't have to wake up so early and walk through the woods in the dark.











And no, they didn't get a turkey but they did make some memories. Aaron told me they did see a girl turkey while they were riding on the road.

On opening day this year, Chris did get a nice turkey. He could have gotten two if someone else had been hunting with him. One day, that can be Aaron!

Easter...a glorious day!

I love Easter! I don't get terribly excited about Easter baskets and eggs and all that, but I love the chance to reflect on the ultimate sacrifice Christ made for me, and the victory He has every day! I love teaching my kids the resurrection story with my homemade resurrection eggs. (How is it possible he's grown so much in just a year?) I love the fact that so many people come to church on Sunday, that the church is so crowded and people are hearing a life-changing message! I hope the truth of Easter sinks in with you this year. God loves me enough to die for me, when it was ME who deserved to die. And He has the power to triumph over death...so the power of sin has no hold on me any longer! Amen!

We had a great Easter weekend with beautiful weather and fun activities. We got messy and dyed eggs.



We went to church on Sunday morning and got slap worn out by teaching the 4's and 5's...we had 40-45 kids that day! This was afterwards, putting on our smiling faces because we were headed to Mimi and Pa's for lunch! As a side note, I love this picture because I think the last picture I have of the sign on the front of our church was maybe in our wedding album. It's the church where we met, married, and now we're taking our three children. It's wild to think about!


The kids got to hunt for eggs!


Aaron had to run really fast to get them all!


Gonna beat Reed!


My sweet hubby. :-)


Mammaw enjoyed pointing out eggs to the kids.




We even hid some down in the woods by the treehouse-in-progress. Isn't the railing beautiful?


I love having the family together, enjoying the beautiful weather.






Hannah really was at the Easter festivities, but she was upstairs asleep almost all afternoon. She takes really good Sunday naps because she rarely sleeps in the church nursery!

Why we love spring break!

I never blogged about our fabulous spring break! This is the first year since I was in school that spring break has had any meaning for us. I took full advantage of having all my kids at home and having no commitments.

Saturday: We attempted the Children's Museum with Chris, but there were cars everywhere and a line around the building, so we ate our picnic lunch at the nearby mall instead, then went to a bookstore to play at the train table. So much fun! (We found out later that Dora and Diego were at the Children's Museum that day...so glad we missed that chaos!)

Monday: Children's Museum and Panera Bread for a late lunch.

Tuesday: Zoo with friends...Angie, Augie, and Alexandria, and Christy and Maylee. We got to see the new Teton Trek exhibit which was really amazing. I loved the grizzly bears--they were so active and fun to watch!
















Wednesday: We stayed in our jammies all day and just enjoyed being at home.

Thursday: We travelled south to visit my dad. We made a pit-stop along the way to meet my friend Kassi. She works at a healthplex and we joined her for lunch and then swimming at the indoor pool.








It was Hannah's first time swimming and she loved it! That was a great way to split our road trip in half...we finished the day by driving all the way to Poppy's in time for dinner. Poppy had gotten my nephews from their mom, so we could play with them for a couple of days. Unfortunately my brother was working so I was in charge of six kids for two days! Not much of a "vacation" but we enjoyed seeing cousins!

Ethan and Gabe


Blackmail pictures of Ethan playing dolls with Claire.


Gabe getting into things!


Crazy Poppy, with the Father's Day shirt we made him several years ago. He's expecting a new one this year.


Singing to sweet Hannah.


Bedtime! Yeah right!




They did finally sleep and Poppy made a yummy breakfast of "hoe cakes" for us. It's basically pancake batter cooked like cornbread in an iron skillet. Yum!


Friday: We spent the morning garage saling with Poppy, then went to various parks around town, and played at the house.

Saturday: We got up early and left Poppy's house, headed for Starkville! For Chris's birthday he had bought us tickets to the MSU vs. North Carolina NIT game. He had been hunting with friends while we "vacationed", so he met us in Starkville for the game.

I forgot to take my camera in the coliseum, but we had a great time. I just enjoy being at our old stomping grounds, even if it is only for a brief couple of hours.


Sunday we crashed and Monday it was back to school and routine! I think it took a good two weeks for my house to recover!

Aaron's Art Show

I have been so pleased with the programs Aaron's school offers. Every Monday he goes to an art class, which I thought would just be coloring and painting, no biggie. But the art teacher, Ms. Joanne, is so good and teaches the kids about different art techniques and mediums, such as pastels, charcoal, watercolors, etc...and she lets them use Sharpies which Aaron thinks is so cool! (Mom doesn't let him do that!)

I was excited to get to go to Aaron's art show at school, to see all the art work on display.



That is Aaron's class board. Aaron's drawing is that red and blue structure on the right. That's the Washington monument! Ms. Joanne teaches them how to look at a picture and draw it themselves. You can see a few different renditions of the monument on the board.



Chris was out of town so I had to tote all three kids. Hannah is outgrowing that carrier and my shoulders were killing me by the time we were done!


Aaron, with Ms. Joanne.


He really likes her and you can see how proud he is. What makes me sad is that with the education cuts the government is making, there is a good possiblity that the art and P.E. programs will be CUT next year. I am writing my congressman about that! Having this art class has given Aaron a confidence he didn't have before. Before this year, he didn't color anything at all. He only drew garbage trucks! He still doesn't particularly like coloring, but you can see how much he likes art class by how well he did on his drawing! I think that is a vital part of education. Hopefully these programs will continue!