For your viewing pleasure

I have made a few videos of some fun conversations with Hannah lately. Yes, she happens to be sitting on the potty in them...some of the best conversations happen there (go figure!). Anyway, she is singing a favorite song in the first one and just chatting in the second one.

Enjoy our sweet Hannah!

I know other kids who have had really funny things to say from an early age. That has not been our Hannah. She was really quiet for a long time and we wondered if the girl would ever talk. Now, it seems, she cannot stop talking and has some pretty funny things to say. She was always and still is very observant. She will watch people and listen intently to what they are saying before she busts out with something funny. I love that about her. I love how intentional she is about her words and her actions. I pray that the Lord will use this gift in her life so she can minister to others and glorify God with her words and actions.
So, she has really come into her own lately with talking. She is VERY animated when she tells stories. If you are around her at all, you will notice this quickly! She keeps our adult friends engaged in conversations becuase they just love how animated she is. I love it too!
Anyway, here are some funny things she has said lately.

"I want to wear a skirt today so I can twirl around and dance like the Baylor kids."

As we pass a McDonalds in the car she says "I'm really, REALLY thirsty! I think I need a milkshake."

Hannah asked Jason to get her something in the backseat that he couldn't reach so he told her that we were almost home and he would get it when we got home. She seemed exasperated and said "Daddy, I don't understand what you are saying!"

As Jason got on his bike to ride to work she said "Have fun at work today Daddy. Don't burn yourself!"

Man, I love this kid and all the great things she says!

Oh dear!

Well, let's just say that at the end of our night last night...ALL of this hair was left over. And no, that is not our new pet guinea pig (althought Hannah would like that!). One of Jason's colleagues shaved his head yesterday and Jason was convinced that he needed to do the same. After some bets between the 2 of us (and a phone call to Kelly....AHEM!) this is what we did last night. Hair grows back right!?!?!
Here was Jason before "the 'do."

I considered leaving Jason like this, but decided it would probably not be well received. Plus, I have to be seen with him in public, so I kept going.

And, here is what Jason's new summer 'do looks like. He says that it is easier to run and bike to work without the small animal on his head. I guess that is probably true.

So, what do you think about the new summer 'do? Do you like it before or after?

New technology

We bought this learning computer for Hannah over a year ago. It is great and she loves it. It does letters and sounds as well as games. We keep it in the car for her to play with. On this particular day, she just looked so grown working on her "laptop." I just cannot even imagine the types of technology that she will have that we never had as kids.
Anyway, yesterday, while we were in the car, she told me that she was going to check her faceblog! Oh dear!

3 year stats

We took Hannah to the doctor for her 3 year old check up today. The doctor said that she looked great and here are her 3 year old stats:

Weight: 34 lbs. (85%)
Height: 38 1/2 inches (89%)
Head: 20 in.

She had to get one shot that she was behind on, and she was NOT happy about it. Now that she is older it is heartbreaking when she says between sobbing "what just happened? What is hurting me? Why did she do that?" Thankfully, the nurse pulled out a sucker and all was right with the world again.

I need to start writing down some funny things that Hannah says so that I don't forget them. So, I will try and put them on the blog frequently.
While I was getting Hannah out of the bathtub she said "I got to hurry up and dry off so I don't melt."

A unique birthday experience

So, thankfully it didn't rain today and we were able to go out and ride the horses with Hannah. Papaw and Granny made the trip down to join us for the fun, which was great. Hannah enjoyed meeting the horses and petting their noses before we began riding.

There were 2 horses (Lilly who was 6 years old and Prince who was 27) and Hannah and I rode the older (and much calmer) Prince. Hannah got on him by herself first and was lead around the corral.

She and I then rode together on Prince for a bit while Jason got situated on the other horse. I should mention that the other horse was acting quite frisky from the moment we arrived and so we decided that Jason should ride that horse instead of Hannah and I (in hindsight, it was a great decision).
So, Jason finally got situated long enough for the horse to start walking around the ring...when it threw him off!!!! YES, you read that right. Right after this picture, with all of us watching, the horse jumped up and threw him off. And, thankfully the man (Alan) had ahold of of the horse's reins since we are all pretty sure the horse was ticked off enough at Jason to want to trample him on the ground. All that to say, Jason was done with horse riding at that point.
On another note, the man (Alan) works at Baylor in the risk managment department. We all got a good laugh out of the fact that this man put Jason on this horse and spends his life calculating the risks for Baylor...you can see how the jokes escalated!

Jason did take another shot at riding the much older and docile horse after Hannah and I did, but as you can see from this picture, he could only just say "WOH" every time the horse did anything but walk.

After Hannah saw Jason thrown from the horse, she got nervous and didn't really want to ride anymore. She just wanted to get off and be with her daddy. Anyway, it was a bittersweet trip since Jason didn't quite have a great time. Poor guy turned 35 today and got thrown off of a horse! Not quite the birthday experience he was looking for. Thankfully, besides being sore and having some burns on his hand he seems to be fine.
Happy 35th birthday Jason...sorry your birthday experience was being thrown off of a horse! Let's take round 2 tomorrow and calculate our risks by just going out to dinner!

Another Happy Birthday

Today is my sweet husband's 35th birthday!!!

Jason,
Happy birthday! I am so thankful for you today and for the wonderful years the Lord has given us together. You have accomplished so much in your 35 years of life and I am thankful to God for all the giftings He has given you. You are a wonderful husband and father that I cannot say enough about. Thank you for the joy and laughter that you bring to my life. I cannot wait for the next 35 years that I can spend with you.
I love you dearly!

I just love this sweet picture of Jason when he was young! Too cute!

Birthday update

Our birthday girl is having a blast today! A friend at church passed down this shirt so Hannah got to finally wear it today (it says "Birthday Girl" on it). She loved jumping party this morning and 3 of her friends from church joined us there. They all ran themselves silly there and wore themselves out.
We took Hannah to a local pizza place for lunch where she got her beloved soda....she LOVED every sip of it! It was pretty cute to watch. She chose a Dr. Pepper. She is a girl after her my own heart.

I still can't believe that my baby is 3! I can still call her my baby right?!?! (Sorry about the belly shot, but I love this picture of the 2 of us!)

One of her friends gave her a fruit by the foot this morning, so why not have one after a soda!?!

I was quite shocked, but after a full cup of soda, she still took a 2.5 hour nap this afternoon. She just woke up actually. I guess all that running around at Jumping Party took something out of her. Anyway, it has been a great day so far!

Happy Birthday Hannah and Papaw

Today, we celebrate the third birthday of our sweet Hannah. She is more delightful to me than I ever could have imagined. She is funny, loving, goofy, animated, strong willed, and independent. All of these things and more make me love her so dearly. I am so very thankful to God for every moment that I have with her!

Hannah,
Happy 3rd Birthday! Your Daddy and I love you so much! We are so thankful for you and cannot imagine life without you. You bring so much joy and laughter to our lives. We are deeply thankful to God for all that He has given us in you. You are a blessing from God and today we celebrate another year of your life. We love you!!!

I clearly remember this day and moment! May 14, 2007 at 1:23pm our sweet Hannah was born. We were overwhelmed with delight and joy!

Today, Hannah also shares her birthday with her Papaw. What a fun day that they celebrate together. My dad is one of the most patient and loving men that I have ever known and I cannot say enough about how thankful I am for him as well! God truly blessed with with an amazing dad! I am so honored to celebrate the birth of these two amazing people today! Happy Birthday Dad, we love you so much!

Hannah has only requested 2 things on her birthday...cake and soda. So, Jason and I are going to take her to Jumping Party for some play time this morning and then we will indulge her craving at lunch by giving her a soda and cake (with something of substance hopefully too). Oh yes, please pray for the aftermath of this decision too! She has never had her own cup of soda, just sips of ours, so she has been looking forward to this day for some time. I'll let you know how it goes....
And, in other exciting news, we are taking her horseback riding tomorrow morning! I cannot tell you how excited she is about this. Actually, I have to admit that I might be more excited than she is about it. We have 2 horses reserved that we will have for an hour. Now, here's to praying that we don't get rained out...try explaining that to a 3 year old!!! I will make sure to take pictures and share about our experiences after it. What a fun weekend we have planned to celebrate this sweet little one!

Our building project

Last weekend, we undertook a building project at the house. We decided to rip down and replace the 8 ft section of fence between our house and the house next to ours. The old section of fence and the gate were basically falling down. You could only open the gate from the outside and it was rickety at best.
So, with our little helper, we ripped it down.

We pretty quickly put up the new fence, but the gate took a bit more time.

And this is how we occupied our "little helper" while we did most of the work.

And here was the completed fence and gate (without stain).

Hannah was pretty proud of her work....even though her work really just consisted of sprinkling water on the new fence.

We took a few days to stain the fence and put an iron piece on it for decoration.

The only downside to this new fence was that it caused our alleriges to go CRAZY!! We chose to build the fence out of cedar wood which both Jason and I are allergic to. After putting the wood in our car and working with it all weekend, we were both having horrible allergic reactions. At least we have a new fence to show for it!

Happy Mother's Day

Our family would like to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all moms!

Tree climber

Hannah has become quite the little tree climber lately. She loves to be flung up into trees and she tries to climb around in them (at least until I get nervous and get her down). We went to a great park in town last week with playgroup and there were the most wonderful climbing trees there. Hannah had a blast!

At one point all 3 kids got up into the tree and sat there just enjoying one another. So cute!

Welcome to the world

Hannah's cousin Whit was born yesterday. He is adorable and doing great. Welcome to the world sweet Whit, we can't wait to see you next month! Congrats Laura and Jason!

Andrew Whitlark ("Whit") Brantley was 6lbs 12pz and 20.75in. What a cutie!

Thank you

Thank you sweet HEB checker lady for talking so sweetly to Hannah and giving her a balloon. Thank you for taking the time to actually have a conversation with her and not talking in baby talk to her. Thank you for your kindness to my sweet Hannah!



Thank you for making this sweet girl's day!

Campus Fun

Hannah loves playing on Baylor's campus and I love that she has such an awesome place to play around. She is in a huge climbing phase and it provides endless fun for her as she runs around and climbs on everything.
She walks around campus like she owns the place...it's pretty cute!

We'll see Hannah, one day you might call this place home.