10 months

Hannah baby is 10 months old. T-e-n. Where has this time gone? Can I really be 2 months away from having a 1 year old little girl? Hannah has filled these 10 months with SO much joy that we can't picture what life was like without her.
A few stats...
Approx. 20 lbs
She is tall...and has really big feet like her sisters (size 3-4)
She is wearing 18-24 month clothes
Size 4 diapers
She has 4 top teeth and 2 bottom...and is working hard at getting more
She drinks a bottle every 3-4 hours and then has meals/snacks of things like bananas, grapes, green beans, carrots, yogurt, eggs, goldfish, puffs, and rice cereal. She LOVES yogurt.
She started crawling this past week, although she prefers to stand and dream of walking.
She loves her sisters and still cracks up laughing at the sound of their voices.
She loves to clap her little hands.
She will mimic "mama" but usually just babbles.
She has a lot of energy...she twirls and shakes her little arms and legs as fast as she can when she is communicating with us.
She loves to dance and bounces to any music.
She likes to play ball and will roll it back and forth to you.
She wakes at 6:30 a.m., naps at 8 and 12, sometimes a 3rd catnap at 4:30-5, and then is down for the night btw 6:30-7 p.m.
She is so happy...really. Except for when she has to go visit the church nursery. But usually she is all smiles and super giggly.
Take a look at our sweetie...

Hannah baby you are VERY loved. We can't wait to watch you grow and bloom even more in the next few months ahead!

Date with Daddy

The girls and I went to visit Brad while he was working at the VA hospital. His afternoons there are usually fairly slow and he was able to check his girls out:)





CGH let him do any an everything...she even let him remove some wax with his tools.


Emily preferred to be an on call nurse who watched at a distance.


Allie follows in her mothers footsteps.


Hannah baby got lots of hugs an rode up and down in the chair.

Fun times. We are so proud of Dr. Daddy!

Hard at Play

We have been doing a few Montessori moments everyday and also incorporating some preschool activities into our mornings at home. Here are some pictures of their little fingers at work pouring, scooping, using tongs, and other fine motor skills.

 We learned how to write the letter Aa and painted an apple to look like a lower case a.

 I made a super quick make-shift fabric box full of bibs for Hannah to pull out and explore.

This was a pinterest activity I found. As I made our spaghetti dinner that night the girls stuck fruit loops on the noodles. Caroline was able to make a few patterns.

Caroline loves to draw...FINALLY. She has not been in to drawing much and struggles making sense of writing in general because she is a lefty. She switches her writing utensils between her right and left hand as she works. This picture is of a squid. She was in the kitchen and yelled to me (in the living room)
C: Mom, how do you draw a squid?
Me: Maybe draw a circle for the head and some lines for it's legs
C:How many legs does a squid have?
Me: 8 (YES, I realize that it is an octopus that has 8 legs...but for simplicities sake I used 8)
A few minutes go by and I see her finished project...and it is perfect! Water and everything. I love her squid drawing. And she even drew 8 legs perfectly. Sweet squid drawing Caroline!


Consensus: Caroline likes all these activities but moves super fast (surprise??) and doesn't spend much time mastering it before moving on. Emily spends LOTS of time exploring all the avenues of each activity and is VERY good with her little hands. Hannah likes to chew on pipe cleaners and fruit loops.
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A stinky shoe

I'm not writing about Hannah's shoes again. Promise.

Purpose of this post-
To remember this moment in time- the trials, circumstances, and simple joys
and MOST of all- how faithful God is to give me just what I need in my moment of need. And it doesn't hurt to document how the Lord of the Universe has a sense of humor.

Last night I laid in bed and had a bit of a pity party for myself. My half asleep husband was next to me responding mostly with "uh huhs". I was feeling like a stinky old shoe. What? Yep. That was my description word of choice at 11:45 last night.

Definition of a stinky old shoe: feeling un kept, un-pampered, and un attractive. Gray hair, un cut/styled, un colored hair. Un polished nails and toenails. Old make up routines.

I didn't even attempt to think on the UN skinny part of me last night. Just the rationale that most women had regular upkeep routines with their appearance. And I don't. For a few reasons...lack of financial means being the first, and then lack of time coming in close to second. I do not usually like to complain about our financial struggles because we are SO blessed. BUT I am human, and every now and then the superficial desires of the flesh (and of being a girl) hit and I get down because right now in our life those luxuries are not realities. And it makes me feel like a stinky old shoe.

Brad promised me I didn't look like a shoe to him. And then fell asleep. He probably dreamed about his brown Merrell's that he has had since his freshman year of college.

Now on to the awesome part. I snuck away with my bible this morning, which just so happened to be into the bathroom...in hopes of having a few quiet, uninterrupted moments to gleam some wisdom for the word of God. And it happened. Amazingly quick, and undeniably from the Lord. I have been trying to read a Psalm and Proverb each day- correlating to the date. If it's the 1'st, I read chapter 1, if it's the 28th, I read the 28th chapter, etc. As always, I am always a day late and a dollar short when it comes to knowing what day it was today- but I was able to calculate what the date was and read Proverbs 16. Check out these 2 verses struck my right in the middle of my sole...(stinky shoe pun intended)
"How much better it is to get wisdom than gold!
And to get understanding is to be chosen above silver" verse 16
and here is the real kicker...
"A gray head is a crown of glory;
It is found in the way of righteousness."  verse 31

Really Lord? You are going to show me the one verse about gray hair?? Ha. Point taken.

It touched my heart and set my hope back on the things that matter- seeking wisdom and righteousness instead of outward beauty and wealth. I'm reminded that yes, this season of strict budgeting, menu planning down to the penny, extreme resourcefulness and frugality are all creating wisdom and understanding that I will carry with me forever. It also helped me focus on the fact that it doesn't matter what I look like, gray or not, my crown of glory is showing a hard working mommy who makes sure her family has what they need before she even can dream of getting her hair highlighted. Such silly trivial thoughts to most...but reality for me right now. And I don't want to forget. I want to record these moments so that I can gleam wisdom  the rest of my life.

So I'm still not sure if I believe my husband in saying I'm not a stinky shoe...but I do believe that my God doesn't think I am. He doesn't even see my gray hairs...and even if he does...he likes them that way because that's how he made me:)

PS- please know that I am in NO WAY am asking for a hair cut...Caroline has gotten really good with her scissor skills. :)

Happy Feet

Hannah has never put on a pair of shoes...until this week. Caroline found these Teva shoes we inherited from some sweet friends and decided it was time to put them on her 9 1/2 month old sister. Take a look at Hannahs response. I wish she would decide to walk in them...or at least crawl...or at least pull up. She is taking her sweet little time in that arena. But I'm ok with it:)

Gram and Grandpa

We were so fortunate to get to spend so much time with my parents this summer while they were on summer break. They spent some time in Little Rock with us and I also took the girls on a long weekend trip with them to Dallas, TX for my cousins wedding weekend. My girls loved spending time with them and we were sad to see them head back east. We can't wait to see them again soon!

Cousin Fun 2012

We had a fantastic time with Cara and Charlie last week! They arrived on Saturday morning and we played hardcore until Wednesday evening. Here are a few pictures from our special time with them. It was AWFULLY hot so we racked our brain and attempted to find some indoor play around town to keep us entertained. Forewarning...it is extremely difficult to get a decent picture of everyone..but I attempted.

Our van was officially filled to maximum capacity:)
We visited Chuck E Cheese. This picture is really odd...we all have glowing eyes and Caroline is posing like a munchkin. Definitely a framer...nope.


Hannah LOVED playing with her cousin for the first time!
We went to the splash water park. I'm pretty sure Brad got the award for playing the hardest that day.
We spent a morning at the museum. Charlie is a big time show stopper and preformed for all the ladies as they watched and clapped in admiration.

And of course we had a trip to Chick fil a. I'm not sure you can visit us and NOT go at least once.

We also went to The Wonder Place, the tubes at Rock Creek and our swimming pool. Everyone was tuckered out after this busy, fun week.

We are SO thankful they came to visit and we look forward to seeing them again soon!!

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