Thankfulness

We have been talking to Hannah a lot lately about Thankfulness. We try and ask her each day what she is thankful for and then we spend time thanking God for those things. Some days she is serious like being thankful for family, mommy, daddy, her blanket, and her sunglasses. Other days she is kind of silly about it and mumbles off randomness. But, we are working on teaching her to be thankful to God for all things, and it seems we are making progress.
We just returned from a great trip to California to see Gramma and Grandpa and other family for Thanksgiving. It was a nice, low key holiday with much laughter and great food. I truly am thankful for my little family and for our time with others this Thanksgiving.
We were able to see my step-brothers and their families for a little while on Thanksgiving Day and it was great to get everyone together and enjoy the kids playing.
We had this great family shot which I love (minus the thumb in the mouth, which is standard when a camera comes out)!

Our Hannah Banana playing on a little car.

Man I love these big brown eyes!

I truly am thankful for my family and for the time we got to spend together. It was nice to get home yesterday to our house and to our sweet Molly girl too. Poor Jason had been in New Orleans at a conference from last Friday until Tuesday night. He got in late Tues and we proceeded to get up at 3:30am on Wed moring to drive to Austin to catch our flight to California. The poor guy wasn't even home for 12 hours before we left again, so he was ready to be back in his own bed for awhile. Needless to say, we had a great trip.

There certainly is much to be thankful to God for in these days!!!

I have been in need of a good laugh lately (it has been a LONG 4 days with Hannah!!!) and it came tonight in 2 forms. One, was when Hannah asked to play with her necklace beads and string tonight. I made sure to tell her that she was not allowed to give them to Molly to eat (which she did earlier today). I told her that she could play with them but if she gave them to Molly to eat I would take them away immediately. She thought for a minute and replied "perfect!" I busted out laughing which caused her to begin giggling uncontrollably.
The second time was also tonight. As Hannah, Molly, and I were on Hannah's bed playing with the beads I noticed a fly buzzing around the room. I wasn't all that motivated to go downstairs to get the fly swatter so I just left him alone. Well, evidently Molly was tracking him and before we knew it she lunged for Hannah's face and tried to catch the fly in her mouth. Well, Hannah thought this was absolutly HILARIOUS and I am sure she thought Molly was trying to play with her too. We both busted out laughing for a good bit about this too.
After a long few days with Daddy out of town it was good for us to have some good laughs together. I sure will be glad when Jason returns tomorrow though!!!

Looking back and looking forward

I wanted to go back and look at pictures from this time last year and 2 years ago. I kind of think it is fun to compare Hannah at various stages in her development (which I gauge by her hair growth!). Here she was 2 years ago this month...with NO hair.
Here she was last year at this time with a bit more hair. I think this is one of the cutest pictures of her...such a sweet little smile.

So, on days like today it is good for me to go back and reflect on our parenting journey thus far. It has been a great one with ups and downs. However, today was definately a down day for me. I can't say exactly why this has bothered me so much, but today was a BAD day at Mother's Day Out for Hannah. When I showed up to pick her up all the other kids were quiet and playing and our Hannah was sitting in time out. Lovely! The teacher sat me down to have "the talk." This consisted of telling me how hard of a day they had with Hannah. She sat in time out multiple times for not listening and obeying and during nap time became disruptive enough that they had to send her to sit with the lady at the front desk. REALLY!?!?! My 2.5 year old had to go to the office? I guess this sent me over the edge. I know she is only 2, but I was just not prepared to have these issues this early (or at all for that matter!). I know how frustrating it is as a teacher to have a child act up, and I guess selfishly I just don't want that child to be mine. To be honest, I think this issue is more of my issue than Hannah's (although we work on listening and obeying ALL day long). I need to not be so concerned with other's perception of me and my parenting abilities. Really, I am just in a place of needing the grace of God more than ever before. I need to know that God is equipping me to raise Hannah to be a child of His and not of this world. Obviously this is hard when I am still struggling with worldly and sinful things like people's perception of me. So, days like today are hard all around! I pray that God would fill me with trust and hope in Him as I endeaver to be a mother who points Hannah to Christ in all I say and do.

Thankfully, tomorrow is a new day.

I was so excited about my great deal on these games the other day. Toys-r-us was selling these Hasbro games (and a few others) for $3.99 each with a $1.99 rebate...so they cost a whole $2 each in the end. AND, if you spend $25 in games, you get a $10 gift card. So, I ended up with $35 worth of merchandise for $12!!! I certainly liked that deal and so did Hannah.
There is nothing like showing your child how to play Don't Break the Ice for the first time.

She made up her own versions of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders, which was fine with me.

Don't Spill the Beans is by far her favorite at this point.

But watching her delight in seeing these new games was certainly priceless!

Great pictures

We had some great pictures taken of Hannah and the other grandkids when we were in Birmingham last month. I was so excited to see them today when they came in! Our sweet girl is just adorable and I love that we can capture these sweet days on camera. I think we pretty well got all of her little personality in these pictures which I love! I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

We were able to also successfully get a picture of 4 grandkids under 2.5 years old with Mimi and Pop. This was quite the success that day! I think it is hilarious that we were behind the camera singing and dancing like goofballs to get the kids to smile and not ONE of them even cracked a smile in the picture. I still think it is super cute though.

Shark fun

I just found these fun pictures that I took with my phone when we were in Birmigham a few weeks ago. One day, we all went to a kids museum downtown and they had a shark petting tank. At first Hannah just wanted to watch as the sharks and sting rays swam by. She was fascinated by them.
There were several small sharks in the tank (about 1.5-2 ft) and several sting rays too.

Others were getting bold and trying to touch the sharks.

Hannah began sticking her hand down in the water when they swam by, but this momma was a bit nervous about that at first. But, Hannah was persistant, so I let her do it. I am not sure that she ever got close enough to touch one, but she showed a bit of her bold side in her determination to touch them.

While some days her determination can drive me crazy, I am so thankful for it and pray that God will use it for His glory as she grows and trusts in Him.

Outdoor eating

Hannah's imagination is booming these days. She loves to order us food at her little food stand under her slide. I have had many dirt burgers, leaf chips, and stick milkshakes these days. Good thing they wern't real or I would really be in trouble. I finally caught her on camera "cooking" for her Daddy.

Another funny thing I heard this morning from Hannah was her response to me when I asked her where Daddy was. She said "he's at work sweetie." AAAWWW, melt my little heart!