Sweet Birthday Girl

My baby is one year old.

*sigh*

I'll admit - I am strugglin' with it! This year has passed too quickly.

I'm bracing for the trials of toddlerdom. No longer does my sweet baby girl hear the word "NO" and smile, OBEY, and move on to something else. Now she gives us that little impish grin while disobeying. She's also dabbled in the tantrum waters a few times. Seems like forever since we conquered this stage with her older brother.

I'm also bracing for the joys of toddlerdom. Walking, talking, seeing her personality come out more, and exploring every facet of her little world. In can be such a fun age! If this morning's birthday cupcake is any indication, she'll be diving into life full-force!

So here's a little of what our little princess is into right now...

Hannah, at age one you are walking most of the time. You fall frequently, but you get up every time without any frustration. You love babies, animals, wagon rides, swinging at the park, being outside, tea parties, books, baths, and music. You really love to dance and it cracks us up! Every time Jack goes upstairs without you, you call for him ("jaht jaht!"). You love for him to chase you around. Your favorite foods are ALL types of pasta, chicken, peaches, guacamole, green beans, and yogurt. You still generally eat everything we give you, but you are starting to avoid peas.

Right now you dislike hats and remove all bows the second they are put in your hair. Hannah, you love to flirt and wave at everyone in the stores. Ever since our camping trip where daddy let you bounce on the air mattress, you LOVE to bounce and climb on beds and couches! You like to "wrestle" a little with daddy and Jackson.

Above all else, you most prized possession is your little pink lovey blanket. Nothing calms you down faster! You cannot hold it without also sucking your thumb. I am so pleased that that is the only time you suck your thumb, though! We are currently on a serious hunt to find a duplicate just in case something were to happy to the beloved blankie.

You transitioned well to whole milk and we can't wait to turn your seat around later today. We hope you will enjoy being in the car more now! Hopefully the drive to the zoo tomorrow will be a breeze.

Happy Birthday, sweet baby girl! 

da Bulls

Last weekend we went to a night out at the Bulls game with our church. SO much fun! I don’t know what Jackson was more excited about – seeing the smoke coming from the bull after the homeruns OR the hotdog and soda he got. Hannah liked the people watching mostly. We left early and just in time to miss getting soaked from a really nasty thunderstorm.

Snugglin' up with Mr. Joe

walking video

Hannah is quite the high-stepper now! She's taking steps all the time and grows in confidence every day. I think the highest step count is around 20 at a time.

In the video below you'll also see how she loves on her baby dolls. Big brother can't stand to have a video without him in it, so he is reading a book loudly in the background to show off his new skills too.

[Good news! After a lengthy conversation with the maker of our camera, we discovered that I would need to mail it to them along with $90 dollars (ridiculous!) to fix it... which made me bold enough to get rough with the camera and got it working again. ]

Dedicated to the Lord

On Mother's Day, both Hannah and cousin Caleb were dedicated at our church.  Hannah was unusually fussy and flucuated from smiling and waving the the congregation to wiggling and wanting to be down to crawl around.  Weeks before a few people had mentioned that they had never seen her cry or fuss - guess she had to prove herself! 

Here's a copy of the letter that we wrote to her and Mike read out loud:

May 9, 2010
Dear Hannah Elyse,
We prayed that God would give us another child and He blessed us with you. You have been such a gift to our family. Mommy, Daddy, and Jackson love you very much. Your big brother completely adores his little sister. Hannah, you are such a sweet baby, and you bring even more joy to our home. Your laid back demeanor and crinkled-nose grins melt our hearts.

 Hannah, we know the One who created you has mighty plans for your future (Jeremiah 29:11). We are so excited to watch you grow and see the lady God molds you into. We promise to keep praying for you every day. Our prayer and hope is for you to grow up to be a godly woman who loves God with all of who you are (Matthew 22:37). We pray that Christ is not just first in your life, but that He IS your life (Deuteronomy 30:20, Colossians 3:3-4). Our desire is for you to experience the joys and successes that this life has to offer. But, more importantly, we pray for you to passionately love God and desire to follow His will and direction above all else (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We picked the following verses out for you and pray that they will be true of your life as you grow:

This is what the LORD says:
"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boasts boast about this:

that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:23-34

As your parents, we commit to do our best to love God first and foremost in our lives, to love one another faithfully, and to model lives surrendered to God (Galatians 2:20). As you are God’s gift to us, we accept the responsibility of being faithful stewards in raising you to know Him as the Lord of your life.


We love you so very much!

Mommy and Daddy

[Thanks Aunt Cheri for sharing pics since our camera died during the ceremony!]

It is killing me that our camera is on the fritz and that I have no pictures from this past week and a half... Hannah chose this time do some changing!  She is climbing the steps every opportunity she gets.  I can not stand the hassle of gates, so we procrastinated to the very last minute in getting something in place.  She can also stand independently. 

Last Saturday she took a few steps. We actually didn't see the first ones... but our friends Michael and Michelle did!  She then took a few more for us to see a few moments later.  Last night she got up to at least nine steps and had to stop because she ran out of room.

Where is my BABY?  *sniff, sniff*

As soon as Mike figures out how to get the video off of his crackblackberry, we'll post them.

Mother's Day video

Here is a link to the video that some people made for Mother's Day at church.  So cute!  (you have to have a Facebook account to see it).

A little translation:  To the question "What do you like to do with your mom?" -- Jackson describes that he likes to be a "crazy guy" and run around in his underwear at night.  This is NOT something mommy does too.  :)

Surfside

We spent last week at Surfside Beach with Mimi, Granddaddy Pete, Uncle Tyson, Aunt Amanda, and cousin Elle.  It was a fantastic week with beautiful weather, great location, awesome company, and yummy food.  Both Hannah and Jackson really loved playing with their cousin Elle.  Jack introduced her to his Star Wars figures.  I cracked up when she made Luke Skywalker become Prince Charming and made him hold one of her princess' hand while singing "I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream." 

Jackson continues to love hitting the waves on his boogie board. Hannah warmed up to the sand and ventured off the blanket by the end of the week. She wasn't so sure about the cold ocean, but she LOVED the pools. The resort had a great little kiddie water park with a lazy river that we all loved. Besides camping out on the beach or by the pools, we also ate out several times in Murrells Inlet, played putt-putt, saw the Legends show, went to a children's museum, went on a treasure hunt, and the men played a little golf.  We also had a little early birthday celebrating for Hannah.  Jackson's confidence with swimming underwater is growing and he was a little fish all week.  Hannah discovered hushpuppies and butter... there was a little mishap when mommy gave her a butter packet to preoccupy her.  I looked back to discover she had opened it and had butter all over her face, hair, and hands.  Oops. 

All in all, it was a relaxing and fun vacation - can't wait to do it again next year.

[more pics may be added later... our camera has just decided to stop working and we can't yet download pics for the last half of the week.]

Nine and counting

Known him for 12 years.  Been in a relationship with him for 10 1/2 years.  And, nine years ago I walked the long aisle of Binkley chapel and married the man of my dreams. 

We went out to celebrate together a few weeks ago.  We went through the newly remodeled NC Museum of Art, which I had been wanting to go to since it had re-opened.  It is such a beautiful building and I really enjoyed the art... Monets, Georgia O'Keefe, the Rodin garden, Picasso, etc etc.  I had thought about taking Jackson sometime, but judging by the large amount of art with nudity I think I'll reconsider for now!  I can just imagine his LOUD commentary.  Um, no thanks. 

After absorbing much art, we strolled through some shops at Cameron Village and then had a fantastic dinner at 518 West in Raleigh.  At 5PM.  Because we are old now and that is when we were hungry.  :)  Afterwards we ran some errands, which may sound weird for a date night but to me any shopping or errands without kiddos is heavenly.

Yes.  We are wild.

We have taken a brief break from our normal out of town excursions for anniversaries.  It's so hard with a young one at home!  Next year marks number 10 and we have some ideas for a big trip.

Love you, Mike!!!!

11 Months

For some reason she was afraid of the grass today.  She got upset and refused to put her left foot down the entire time.  So funny!

This little girl brings our home so much joy and laughter!  These months are flying by.  There are so many signs that we are losing the baby phase and gaining a toddler...

Some highlights of what our little princess has been up to:

• She's "Hannibal" -  She hit a massive growth spurt and eats everything in sight. No lie - in one sitting she ate a whole banana, whole avocado, several spoonfuls of corn, and several spoonfuls of guacamole. She was begging "muh muh" the whole time. To our complete joy, she is not picky whatsoever!
• She now walks while pushing her little car/walker thingie.
• Hannah LOVES animals. She really enjoys the Baby Noah video from Baby Einsteins and squeals with delight the whole time. Can't wait to take her to the zoo next month!
• Got a 4th tooth.
• She has a crazy baby doll obsession!  She holds them, pats them (more like beatings), and coos to them.  Such a contrast from Jackson who never cared about babies ones bit!  There is a HUGE ugly babydoll at the school where we have church. She is obsessed with it.  This doll is bigger than her, yet she insists on holding it and snuggling it.  Everyone does a double-take when they see us carting her around with mega-baby.
• She points at everything.  Especially when looking at books.
• Loves to put objects inside of other objects.  Jackson is using this to his advantage and teaching her to pick up toys so he doesn't have to.
• She dances to any and all music.
• Hannah still stands at the foot of the steps all the time, but she hasn't figured out how to hike up a leg and climb them.  A blessing for now...

snuggles

Every morning when Jackson finally meanders downstairs after awakening, Hannah is waiting for him with grins, squeals, and a giant snuggle.  He is so good to basically let her maul him with love!  She's not above licking his shirt, pulling his hair, poking his eye, and always gives a good smack love pat or two on the head.  It's all in the name of love to her.