Holy Molar!

Hannah finally got her first molar! Initially, I just thought she had a leftover piece of cheese in her mouth, so I put my finger in her mouth to check it out and found out that it was very sharp! I must say that she's been a trooper through all of her teething. We wouldn't even have known she was teething, if it weren't for the drool. If that's the only side effect, we'll take it!

Does a goose poop when it flies???

Unfortunately, Hannah learned the hard way, that yes, indeed, it can and does. We were out for our family jog tonight when a flock of geese flew overhead. As we got caught up in watching them, we didn't expect to get bombed. Poor Hannah got a direct hit. Needless to say, we had extra motivation to run the rest of the way home.

*What's probably even worse is that I had to get a picture before we sanitized both her and the stroller! The things I put my child through for a good blog post :-)

Picnic in the park

Sunday afternoon we met our friends Erich and Lindsay at the park in East Grand Rapids for a picnic lunch. Initially the weather didn't look too promising, but it actually ended up being a perfect day. The temperature was comfortable and the clouds kept a crowd away. We really enjoyed the afternoon spending time with good friends.


Hannah thought she was big stuff with Lindsay's pink hat.


Of course, Jason couldn't go to the lake without taking the boat for a spin.


While the gang cruised the lake, Hannah and I roamed the park.


Turned out that there was also a bike race in EGR at the same time we were there. We'd never witnessed a bike race before, so we checked it out before we headed home.


The best view in town!

Zoo stop

After a long drive down to Coldwater and doing very well through the funeral service and luncheon, we had one tired little girl. Hannah conked out as soon as we were out of the church parking lot. Since she got in a power nap, we decided to make a detour and stop at Binder Park Zoo on the way home. We've heard all kinds of great things about it from several of our friends who've been there, so we were excited to have the opportunity to check it out for ourselves.

Since we arrived a bit late in the day, it was strongly recommended that we head immediately to the Africa exhibit. I think Hannah would have been just as happy to ride the tram all day(must take after her daddy), but eventually we had to get off when we arrived in Africa.

Hannah and Mama having fun on the tram

Once getting our bearings, we headed out into the African wilderness where we came upon a large crowd of...people. It was a pile of madness! Hannah and I managed to work our way closer to the source of the excitement and discovered that we were at the giraffe feeding area. There were just too many people battling to get to the front, so we skipped out on feeding the giraffes ourselves and instead enjoyed a great view of them, and all of those crazy people, just a few feet down.

I must admit, they were pretty neat.

The set-up of this zoo is much different than John Ball Zoo here in Grand Rapids. The animals have much larger areas to roam, which is great for them, but makes viewing them a bit more difficult. We did enjoy all of the trails to walk, though. We certainly got our exercise in for the day. They also had a nice children's area of the zoo, where little ones could get up and close with the animals. Hannah was quite popular with the goats in the petting area, but she wasn't so sure about all of the attention she was getting.

Good thing Daddy was there to keep Hannah safe from the curious goats.

These are definitely well fed goats.

Hannah seemed to much prefer viewing the animals from the other side of the fence.

Friends

As the song goes, a lifetime's not too long to live as friends. My friend Aubrey and I have been friends for practically that long. Aubrey's mom came to our house selling Avon over 25 years ago, and our families have been great friends ever since. We've been through a lot together - church activities, sports, boyfriends and break-ups, weddings, and most recently babies! In fact, Jason and I have Aubrey and her husband (then boyfriend) Brian to thank for introducing us.

This past week, though, we sorrowfully grieved for both Brian and Aubrey as Brian tragically lost his mom in a car accident. We went to Coldwater yesterday morning to attend the funeral and to support them through this time of loss. Although it was a time of sadness, there was also a sense of hope and joy. Brian's mom had faith in Jesus Christ, so through all of the sadness and tears, there was also joy in knowing that she is resting in the arms of her savior, with no more pain or suffering. What a legacy and comfort she has left her family. The whole scenario served as such a reminder to me that only God knows the day and the hour that he has chosen to take me home. Until then, I need to live my life in such a way that I will be ready to meet Him at any time. I am far from perfect, but I'm so thankful that Jesus took my imperfections and the punishment I deserved and nailed them to the cross. For the wages of my sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus my Lord. I am eternally grateful for that gift of forgiveness and redemption and knowing that when that when that day and hour come, that I'll be home with my Lord and Savior.

Some pictures of the day...

Hannah with Brian and Aubrey's son Trevor. He is a miracle in and of himself, being born 2 months premature. He's doing great now, and actually bigger at 4 months than Hannah was at that age!


Of all of the pictures I have of Aubrey and I together, this is the first of us as moms!


Funny how life can pass by. It's hard to believe that these two guys are now daddies :-)

17 Months Old

Where has August gone?? For some reason, this month seems to be slipping away more quickly than normal. Time is flying. Hannah is now 17 months old. Here are some of the things she's up to these days:

*She's somewhat in between sizes right now. She's outgrowing her 12 month summer clothes, but some 18 month things are still too big. Still a little peanut, but her feet are growing for sure! It seems like I can barely keep her in a pair of shoes. She's gone through size 4 this summer and is now into size 5's.

*She's working on transitioning from two naps down to one per day. Somedays she needs the sleep more than others. Unfortunately, when she takes one nap, she doesn't sleep much longer than when she takes 2 naps, which means I have to really maximize my recovery time during the day! On days we don't work, she sleeps until 7:30 or 8:00 and goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00.

*She is on the move nearly all the time. In fact, one Sunday when we picked her up from nursery, the volunteers commented on how busy she was and that we must be very tired at the end of the day! On those rare occassions when she cuddles with us, she pats us on the back when giving us hugs. So cute!

*She loves playing with JJ. She pats him, catches his tail, throws him his toys, and shares her meals with him (much to our dismay). Just today, she was "washing" him with her sweater! She particuarly loves it when he chases her (usually b/c she has something of his in her hand), running away laughing hysterically. He's been a real trooper!

*Some of her favorite activies include emptying JJ's toy basket and either filling it with her toys or climbing into it herself, trying to climb onto the furniture (although she's a hare too short to pull herself all on her own just yet), and climbing up and down the stairs (with our close supervision). She is a total monkey.

*She gives JJ a run for his money when it comes to begging for food. Whenever we begin making meals, eating a snack, or even open the refridgerator door, she will literally drop whatever she may be doing and run up to us with her arms upstretched and grunting for her own.

*She is a very good problem solver. She's figured out how to open boxes, unbuckle and take off her shoes, and is working on trying to take the rest of her clothes off. Hopefully, she won't pick up on that one too quickly.

*I can't figure out if she's going to be high maintenance or a tomboy. She likes to brush her own hair and put bows in her hair (although she won't leave them there) but also is a little toughy, taking lots of spills and getting back up again without missing a beat.

*She's still only got 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on bottom. You can see the molars are bulging, but they just won't come through.

*We've been giving her a little more freedom when we go out and about, letting her hold our hand and walk with us instead of pushing her in her stroller. Surprisingly, she's not tried to take off on our her own. In fact, she's recently started taking our hands and leading us places.

I don't know how it's possible, but we love her more and more every day. She's really getting her own personality and cracks us up with some of the things she does. We are having the time of our lives being her parents.

Up North

With the weather forecast calling for a beautiful weekend, we decided to take full advantage and head north for some time at the lake. Thankfully, the weather man was right, and we had absolutely beautiful weather, perfect for spending time outside and on the lake. We didn't waste a minute of it.

Friday morning, Hannah got spoiled with some Grandma and Grandpa time while Jason and I got a mini-date and took his boat for a nice cruise around the lake. Since Hannah got worn out playing in the morning, she took a nice, long afternoon nap, which meant Mama got some nice, quiet time to herself at the beach :-)

Saturday was another hot, sunny day, perfect for the beach. After Hannah's morning nap, while Jason was putting his boat in, my mom, her friend Penny, Hannah, and I packed up our lunches, and headed down to the lake.


Hannah, ready for a day at the beach

I know that some kids don't particularly like the feeling of sand, but not Hannah. She can't get enough of it. In fact, she was literally rolling in it. Thank goodness that she likes the water just as much, because she definitely needed a good rinse.

Grandma helping Hannah wash off.

We bought Hannah her own floating crocodile to play around in, but quickly discovered that ages 3-6 years on the package really meant it was for 3-6 year olds. This petite little girl would have slid right through, if not for lots of assistance from Daddy.

Maybe next year...

We did, however, borrow cousin Mark and Matt's tube for Hannah to float around in, which worked perfectly!

It just wouldn't be a perfect summer weekend without a trip to Dairy Queen, where we treated Hannah to her very own ice cream cone. When it comes to food, especially sweets, there is no holding this girl back. She dove right in!

Don't get in the way of this little girl and her ice cream!

One very satisfied little dairy queen.

After all of that stickiness, a bath was definitely in order. Ah, nothing feels so good as having a bath after a day of sun and sweets.

Our little free bird.

We were also happy to have my brother, sister-in-law, and niece come up to spend some time together. We haven't seen my niece Kara since 4th of July, and oh my goodness has she ever changed! She was just a tiny peanut the last time we saw her, and now she's a little chunky monkey. It was really nice to catch up and spend some time together.

Such a cutie!!

Here's to hoping that we get a few more nice summer weekends like this one!

Beach Day

Woo hoo for the 90's!! No, not just the decade (although they were pretty great) but finally these warmer temperatures! With only a month left a summer, we decided after church that we needed to find some water, and Millenium Park was just the ticket.

Other than our backyard blow-up pool, Hannah hasn't had much of a chance to really get in the water this summer. Oh my goodness, did she love it!! She walked right in and just kept going (holding our hand of course). She would loved to have me count to 3, and then she would "jump" (with lots of assistance from mama) right out of the water. Closer to shore, she would lay down with her hands on the bottom and kick her feet, as if she were swimming. I guess those swimming lessons did pay off!

Hannah is definitely not afraid to get dirty. She was literally rolling in the sand. After our last couple of trips to the beach, I've learned to bring a spare outfit and attempt to brush her off at the car before we leave. Absolutely no point in trying to keep her clean while we're there.

Nothing like a little grit mixed in with the sippy

This explains the sandy face

Not only was today a perfect beach day, but with the wind, it was also a perfect kite-flying day. It really worked out well b/c the kite kept Jason occupied while Hannah and I just enjoyed playing around in the water and sand. After 2 hours of setting it up, he finally got the kite up in the air. He was absolutely delighted!

After spending a good chunk of our afternoon in the sun, we packed up and headed home, thankfully before the thunderstorms arrived. Someone was not happy to have to leave...

I'm sure we'll be hitting the beach again at least a couple of more times before summer's over.

Summer's Here!

It only took until August for it to feel like summer, and we weren't about to waste it. We broke out the pool, and Hannah jumped right in!