Life with the Armstrongs

Summer fun!

2010-07-21T15:40:00.003-05:00

Colossians 2:8-14

2010-06-15T16:52:00.001-05:00

Colossians 2:8-14 (Part One)

“8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

2:8

We must guard our minds and hearts with the Gospel of Jesus Christ

As Paul writes to the Colossian church he is dealing with heresy. Heresy is false teaching. There were some who were teaching that faith in Christ was not sufficient for salvation. The heresy Paul is writing against involves two main components; false Greek philosophy, and Judaistic legalism and ceremonialism. The Greeks denied the sufficiency of Christ through teaching that Christ alone was not adequate. They taught that salvation involved both Christ plus knowledge. This knowledge came through visions in which they were given deeper insights into the divine mysteries. The Jews denied the sufficiency of Christ by teaching all or some of these beliefs: that circumcision was necessary for salvation, asceticism (rigid self denial or harsh treatment of the body), and an emphasis on keeping the Jewish dietary laws and observing holy days.

Though these teachings might seem to have some physical or seemingly spiritual value, they are in addition to Christ. Therefore they are not of Christ. Anything that takes away or adds to the person and work of Christ is considered to be non-Christian. Therefore Paul writes to instruct and encourage them to focus their hearts and minds on the person and work of Jesus Christ.

We in today’s church are not exempt from the attacks of the evil one. We too must guard against anything that does not found itself on and proclaim the truth of Jesus Christ. We must guard ourselves both in the world and in the church. We too are susceptible to the ploys and the strategies of the enemy that slowly and deliberately carry us away from the truth of Christ.

2:9-10

The sufficiency of the person and work of Jesus Christ

The sufficiency of Christ is established in the person of Jesus Christ and the work of Jesus Christ.

The person of Jesus Christ

John 1:1-2 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” The sufficiency of the person of Jesus Christ is found in the fullness of God in flesh. Jesus Christ is fully God and has always been and always will be fully God. Jesus Christ is not a lesser God or an ascended man as the Colossian heretics claim.

Paul establishes the deity of Christ in Colosians 1:15-19,” He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him”

As a member of the godhead Christ is head of all rule and authority.” Scripture consistently teaches of the fullness of Christ’s deity, in 1 Peter 3:22 it speaks of Christ saying, “who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.” Philippians 2:9-11, says “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” And Ephesians 1:20-23 says “which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
Jesus Christ is Lord and ruler of all, the promised Son of God. The sufficiency of His work on the cross for salvation is the result of who he is.

The work of Jesus Christ

Because of who Christ is, we as His people are made complete in Him. As we read in Ephesians 1:23, the church is Christ body, and his fullness fills the church. His fullness is imparted to us by faith through grace. We who have been separate from God are now one with God. Those who have been incomplete as a result of sin are now complete through the work of the Savior. This is only possible because of who Christ is. The redemptive work of Christ has brought about complete salvation and the complete forgiveness of sins. There is no need for anyone or anything else for the salvation of men.

the question

2010-05-18T14:16:00.003-05:00

So many times we ask ourselves, "How could a loving God be so judgmental towards sinners? How could you show such punishment and wrath and judgment to us in our sin?" We are so man-centered!

Instead we should be asking, "How can God be completely holy and completely just, and yet forgive us and show mercy to us when we rebel against Him? How can God satisfy His character and save our souls at the same time?"

The Gospel is the answer. It's only by His blood. His blood covers us. His wrath is satisfied on the cross. Look at the cross. This is the beauty of the Gospel. See the beauty of the cross?

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! He is merciful towards us as sinners - He substitutes Himself in our place!

Finally caught up!!!

2010-05-17T21:23:00.000-05:00

I've posted a ton today, so if you're actually interested in seeing what we've been up to over the past year, make sure you look at the last several posts. They go all the way back to last summer!

2010-05-17T19:52:00.004-05:00

Getting ready to go swimming in the hotel

At the park on her third birthday

Loving the trampoline

Easter Sunday

Getting hugs from Mammaw Barrett

on the tractor with Daddy

Fall and Winter 2009/2010

2010-05-17T19:03:00.004-05:00

Finally catching up

2010-05-17T18:49:00.003-05:00

Sooooo, I'm way behind. As in, so far behind that it's ridiculous! But at least I'm catching up, right??? Anyway, here are pics from our trip to the beach (LAST) summer. Yep, a year ago.

Oh well. Enjoy!

Seek First

2010-03-24T15:08:00.002-05:00

"For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Matt. 6:32b-34

Father, how busy my mind is today - in planning so many things and trying to keep up with all of the details of this life. How easily I am distracted from Your Word and Truth and from You! Oh, that I would ever be focused on You alone! That I would not worry myself over silly things that do not matter. That we would use our wealth and excess of time, energy, and resources in ways that are pleasing to You! Let me seek You first - always first and above all things. My heart desires to seek Your kingdom and Your righteousness above all else! Oh, that our hearts would be stayed on you!

2009-08-26T21:25:00.005-05:00

I know it's been forever since I've posted any pictures. I'm just so behind at this point that it'll take hours when I finally update everything. So, for tonight, pictures will have to wait!

This was just too cute and I had to make sure I got it written down so that I'll remember it:

Tonight as we were praying, Hannah asked God to help her with a couple of things that were personal - her mouth was hurting (new teeth coming in) and her head was hurting (not sure what that's about, sometimes she pretends that she hit it and will pretend to put ice on it like they do at school, so it could've not been true...) The great thing about this was that she actually asked God to help those things. Normally she just thanks God for random objects and people and then she's done. We've been talking a lot lately about different stories where Jesus healed people of their sickness or made the lame to walk again, etc., and I think she's really getting it!

It just made my heart smile that she understood it and transferred it over to herself. Her mouth was hurting her and her first thought was "I'll ask Jesus, 'cause He can make it all better!"

LOVE. IT.

2009-08-04T14:42:00.001-05:00

Last night we had a meeting with a leadership team at our church and talked about what we can do to reach people with the Gospel, We talked about what we can do to reach out to the people in our neighborhoods. In the time of discussion we mentioned so many great characteristics about our church and our staff. All of which I hope are true. But, there seems to be a disconnect between our efforts and results. Results is a dangerous word in the world of church because people have so many different ideas in their heads when they hear the word results. But, there seemed to be a consenus last night that we are not seeing the kingdom results that we are praying for. Sitting at my desk this morning and replaying last nights conversation I am finding a phrase that is missing.

In all of our conversation and effort in my 3 years at FBC Jackson, I cannot remember us saying "God has told us to do _________" I sat in a room full of some of the most earnest and sincere Christians I have ever met. These are men and women who have a hunger in their gut to see Christ exalted in our fellowship and in our city. So, maybe it is time that we ask God this question: "Lord, what do you want us to do?" I understand that it may take some time for us to hear and comprehend His answer for our church. So, to steal some advice a friend of mine recently received and shared... "What was the last thing God told us to do?" I think that it is time that we earnestly seek the face of God, and in line with the sermon our interim pastor preached this past Sunday, we need to learn to "knock" and persevere in our prayer as well as our faith. I believe that God will answer our request, I believe that God enjoys the conversation with us as well. So, we need to remember what the last thing God told our church to do and do it, while we pray for God to give us fresh direction and vision as to what we should do next. This has direct application even to the individuals in our fellowship. If each of us asked the Lord what He wants us to do in every aspect of our lives, and then did it, we would be in line with the picture of following Christ that is seen throughout the scriptures. I am confident that Christ will finish His work in my life, my family, in other people's lives, and in His church! Because of that I am asking Him what is it that He wants me to do?

I must warn those reading this that asking this question may radically alter the landscape of your life. If you choose to obey and follow Christ as Lord, then what you do with your stuff is no longer your decision. Which house you live in, what car you drive, what you spend your money on, etc. Asking God what he wants us to do applies to every aspect of our being, and thus transfers to the fellowship of believers. It is an awesome place to be when we are trusting on His will and plan for our every move, and it is often a worldly difficult place to be as well. He may want us to look very different than we do now. He may have plans to showcase His glory in ways that we cannot fathom, but when He is magnified we are not. It is in our weakness that He is strong. So, go ahead and ask God what He wants for you to do. Ask knowing that in being obedient to Him you will find the greatest satisfaction of your soul and He will receive the greatest glory through your life!

Blogging from camp

2009-06-16T20:58:00.002-05:00

Well, we're here at Student Life Camp with Hannah for the 3rd year (yep, that's right, I'm a crazy woman and took my 2 month old to camp!) We are at Shocco Springs in Talladega, AL, and despite the 97 degrees and 100% humidity, we are having a great time! We're sweaty, but havin' fun!!

The great thing about camp is that Hannah is able to do almost everything that the kids are doing (not participate, but she can be present without messing anything up.) For example, the band is loud and fun, so she can dance and clap along with the students and nobody is concerned about a 2 year old being in the room. And our students are doing rec tracks this year, so we get to walk around and see all of them, which Hannah loves! Basically the only thing we miss out on is worship at night and first thing in the morning. But, they have a playground here, so we do that in the morning, and then we head back to the room for a bath and bedtime after supper. It's really working out well, and I'm really glad that we are able to do this as a family. I really appreciate that Student Life is so accommodating to people who want to bring their children.

I've taken some pictures, but Rob has the camera with him tonight in worship, so I'll have to load those later!

Summer has officially arrived!!

2009-06-09T20:59:00.005-05:00

We got back from Gulf Shores late Sunday night, so we took some time to regroup and get ourselves settled back into life on Monday. This included 'fun' things like going to the bank and getting groceries and doing laundry. So, to reward ourselves, and just to have some relaxing time at home, we decided to grill out Monday night. It was sooo good to be home and just rest some! We pulled out Hannah's pool and let her play in it too. She was so excited about swimming!

Filling up her "aldergator" pool all by herself.

Please ignore the crazy bumpy hair in this pic and just focus on the cute grin on the sweet girl!

Sliding down...

splash!!

Oooooh! That's kinda cold!!

Getting braver and laying on her stomach in the water.

Deep Sea Fishing 2

2009-06-09T20:52:00.004-05:00

Deep Sea Fishing

2009-06-08T20:27:00.005-05:00

Last day at Gulf Shores

2009-06-08T20:25:00.003-05:00

Dancing with Daddy

2009-06-08T19:57:00.002-05:00

Gulf Shores beach

2009-06-08T19:53:00.004-05:00

At the beach for the first time...

And she loved it!!

Riding the boat in Perdido Beach

2009-06-08T18:23:00.004-05:00

We headed to Gulf Shores this weekend for a wedding (congrats Josh and Molly!!) and stayed with my Aunt Becky and Uncle Chuck at their beach house in Perdido Beach. We had such a great time seeing family and relaxing!

We rode their boat over to a place called Pirate's Cove for lunch on Friday. This is how Hannah rode the whole way - standing up at the very front! Even when the boat was going really fast, she would just stand up there looking at everything!

At Pirate's Cove, playing in the water and sand with Daddy

Sitting by Barrett in the driver's seat of the boat. She actually helped Harrison drive later on the way back to their house.

Sitting on the front of the boat with Uncle Chuck, looking at some really big birds.

Mother's Day 2009

2009-06-08T18:20:00.003-05:00

It's crazy that two years ago on Mother's Day, she was just 4 weeks old and just starting to smile a few smiles here and there. Things sure have changed a lot in 2 years!!

Sick kid

2009-05-03T19:37:00.003-05:00

There's nothing like your kid puking all over your hair, shoulder, into your purse, and all over the floor of Don Pancho's to make you change your plans really quickly.

Yep, Hannah's sick - we're hoping it's just something she ate, and not an actual stomach virus. I guess only time will tell, huh?

Ugh, this is no fun when they're not old enough to warn you so you can get them to the bathroom in time!

I know, I know, this too shall pass!

spring-time fun!

2009-05-01T21:57:00.005-05:00

Nelson came over the other day to play, and he and Hannah had lots of fun with all of her toys outside!

Playdoh fun

2009-05-01T21:55:00.003-05:00

birthday card from Mammaw

2009-05-01T21:53:00.003-05:00

She loved the music that this card played!

Easter 2009

2009-05-01T21:42:00.003-05:00

Birthday pics

2009-05-01T21:21:00.007-05:00

Just catching up on pics from the past few weeks! Here are some from Hannah's Elmo birthday party.

"Jesus, come back soon?!?"

2009-04-01T14:33:00.002-05:00

The other night, Hannah and Rob were playing with the Resurrection Eggs that we got her the other day. I saw them advertised in a Lifeway mailout, and thought they would be really neat to help teach her about Easter. Each one has a little reminder in it about the story of Jesus' death and resurrection (ex: a small cross, a piece of white cloth, a crown of thorns, etc) to help you tell the story of Easter. Not that we need help telling the story of Easter - it's really more that Hannah needs help paying attention to the story of Easter. So, we got them. And she loves them...

So, Rob and Hannah were playing with them the other night, and they got to the one that was empty (signifying the empty grave) and Rob went on and on about how Jesus isn't in there any more because He's alive and how great that is, etc. Hannah kept asking "Where'd Jesus go?" and looking around in the box, like she was missing a piece to her new toy. Rob kept telling her, "He's not in there, just like He wasn't in the grave any more because He was alive." She kept asking "where'd Jesus go?" so finally he just answered with, "He went to heaven and He's there with God."

Her answer...with a worried look on her face - "Jesus come back soon?"

Rob: "I sure hope so, Hannah."

She then looked inside her egg again, to be sure He wasn't there, and looked at the front door and said really loudly, "JESUS, COME BACK SOON!"

I'm really glad that we got these eggs - they're kinda cheesy, but they are helping make Jesus real to her, even though I know she doesn't really understand yet.

On a side note, "be back soon?" is something that she says all the time. Everyday that Rob is at work and we are at home, she asks all day long, "Daddy back soon?" When we have friends over and they have to leave to go home, she asks, "be back soon?" She's such a social little person, she constantly wants lots of people at our house. Maybe some of that is our fault, since we constantly have people at our house...

"Horsey, I'm scared..."

2009-03-29T20:45:00.002-05:00

Family time tonight was fun, but just so memorable, we had to write it down so we wouldn't forget.

We were reading through one of her books called "The Story of Jesus" (it walks through many stories of Jesus, including His birth, miracles He did, His death, and resurrection.) Hannah, for some reason, loves the story of when Jesus and His disciples were on a boat during a storm, and they were all scared except Jesus (who was sleeping). We talk to Hannah about how when she is scared she can talk to Jesus and He isn't ever scared and He's in control and can help us. She loves it and always wants to go back to it over and over again.

(To give a little background, months ago we took Hannah to see the eagles and falcons at a park here in Jackson. Remember those pictures? Well, she talks about it all the time... "I saw a brown eagle! I saw a brown eagle!" And on and on she goes every day.)

So, tonight as we read that story, we told her again, "you can talk to Jesus when you are scared about things."

She responded " I scared of the brown eagle!"

We said, "Well, tell Jesus about it!"

She sat there for a while, then said, "I tell horsey I scared!" and promptly ran across the room, leaned down in front of her rocking horse, stared him right in the face and told him "I scared of the brown eagle."

We then (after we regained our composure) talked to her about how she can tell Jesus when she's scared (again).

So she leans over the book, looks at the picture of Jesus in the boat, and leans in real close and says, "I scared of the brown eagle."

She proceeded to tell the horsey about 4 more times too.

We just thought it was so precious. We are loving the chances that we have to teach her about Jesus, even though most of it is hard for her to grasp still.

Cool Kid!!

2009-02-28T07:42:00.002-06:00

Cypress Grove

2009-02-19T00:02:00.003-06:00

We discovered a park in Jackson on another semi-warm day recently - Cypress Grove. It has lots of boardwalks over a kinda swampy area, and lots of cypress trees. It was great to get outside and let Hannah run around.

"C'mon Mommy!"

Running full speed ahead

So fun

We discovered that they also have a raptor exhibit there, complete with a bald eagle, golden eagle, etc. Several of them, if not all, were injured in some type of way - missing a wing, part of a wing, etc. It was really neat to find out that we had this type of thing right here in Jackson. Hannah loved looking at the birds.

First Hair Cut

2009-02-18T23:51:00.002-06:00

She picked out the lion to sit on. And kept roaring the whole time. Her other options were an airplane or a boat. I think she wasn't sure what noise they made, so she picked the lion!

She was SOOO good the whole time!! I really expected her to scream her head off, but she was loving it, as you can clearly see! I had told her all day long that we were gonna go see Ms. Becky and that she was going to make her hair look cute. She went around saying "cute" all day long!

The result - shorter, but finally all one length, yay! No more crazy layers!

Waiting to get her balloon as a prize for being so good!

Silly willy

2009-02-18T23:45:00.002-06:00

Hannah was particularly silly one day after her nap. She was wide awake and insisted on me being in her room, but she did NOT want to get out of her bed yet.

WILD bed head!!

This is her new SILLY FACE that "Uncle Neil" and "Aunt Kim" taught Hannah one day. We see this alot now!!

Snow Day!!

2009-02-18T23:40:00.003-06:00

I have other cute pics of all of us in the snow, but they're on Robbie's phone, so I'll have to get those from him.

She has seen snow before, but didn't really get to play in it last winter. She definitely loved it! Except for the mittens or gloves. And she got mad that the snow made the gloves get wet. So, being the smart little girl that she is, she pulled out her sand shovel and went to work!

Warm day at the park

2009-02-18T23:34:00.002-06:00

We try to take advantage of any semi-warm day that we get during the winter months. This day was beautiful and in the 60's so we headed to the park. Robbie was behind the camera this time, so that's why there's a lot of Jill!

Christmas present from Mammaw Barrett

2009-02-18T23:30:00.005-06:00

Doesn't she look like such a big girl in this shirt?

She wore her hair down this day, without a bow or pony tail holder. It's usually pretty wild, but this day it stayed put - and made her look so grown-up.

New Years Eve

2009-02-18T23:24:00.002-06:00

Who needs fireworks when this is in the sky??

For those of you who knew me in college, you know that I was often seen running full speed across campus with a camera in my hand to try to catch a sunset on film. I didn't have to run anywhere for this one! Just standing in my back yard!! Oh what a good and perfect Father we have!!

the rest of Christmas pics

2009-02-18T23:14:00.003-06:00

These didn't come out in the order I expected, so just bear with me... they're not in chronological order at all.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Riding in the wagon, feeding the baby her bottle of milk

Everyone was amazed by the Tickle Me Elmo

Eating around the table

Playing with the duck from Uncle Russ - she loved this thing! And as usual, Russ succeeded in finding a toy that's loud and somewhat obnoxious! :) She still plays with this toy over and over again!

Riding in the wagon on Christmas day

Opening presents Christmas morning - wearing the backpack she just opened and not letting go of Elmo while opening something else

Opening presents Christmas morning

visiting family at Christmas

2009-02-18T22:42:00.003-06:00

Here are a few pics from visiting family at Christmas. I'm really trying to get caught up on the blog, but don't want to just skip over stuff!!

Hangin' with Grandpa

I don't know if you can see this or not, but I am practicing my flute in the background (for our church's Christmas Eve service) and Hannah picked up this and kept acting like she was playing the flute too!

Playing with Gran, and Pappaw Peoples

Playing with new toys - or watching Grandpa figure them out!

Opening gifts with Mammaw Peoples

Reading a book with Mammaw

Playing with Mammaw

All dressed up for church!

All things loss...

2009-01-05T23:24:00.002-06:00

This hit me square in the forehead tonight:

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him..." Phil. 3:7-9a

I so often get caught up in the comparison game, my life versus others. So unhealthy, so not right. The "what if's" and "if only's". All that is loss in comparison to the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus.

This hit me smack in the forehead tonight and forced me back into the right perspective on life. None of that matters - what size my house is, how cute my clothes are, what SIZE my clothes are, what kind of car I drive, if I have to work and other people can stay at home full-time. These may be things that matter, in general. I may have to make decisions that influence or are influenced by these things. I may have to think on these things. But, in comparison to the value of knowing Christ? Nothing compares. I have immeasurable value in my relationship with Christ, and that's all that matters.

All things loss.

Just had to share.

Christmas card picture 2008

2008-12-29T11:33:00.003-06:00

St. Jude Marathon weekend

2008-12-29T11:17:00.003-06:00

Three little girls waiting to see their daddies running. In the FREEZING cold!

Hannah decided we were gonna have to wait a while, so she made herself comfortable.

Here they come!!

Running into Autozone Park for the finish

The finish line!! Yay!!

First pony tail

2008-12-29T11:06:00.003-06:00

Hannah's hair has finally gotten long enough for a real pony tail! I think it makes her look like such a big girl.

Christmas parade

2008-12-29T11:02:00.002-06:00

It was FREEZING cold that day = not the best pictures ever! But it was fun! Our college students are the greatest ever and met us downtown to watch the 17 santas roll by!

Thanksgiving at Mammaw Barrett's house

2008-12-29T10:57:00.002-06:00

Aunt Heather's dress

2008-12-29T10:47:00.003-06:00

Robbie's mom went through some of Heather's baby clothes and we took a few things for Hannah to wear. This little jumper was one of them. The shirt and tights are new, but I thought it looked cute! Here's Hannah showing off for Aunt Heather!

The Memphis Zoo

2008-12-29T10:35:00.003-06:00

We had a rare warm Saturday in November and took Hannah to the Memphis Zoo. She loved it! I got lots of pics of the animals, but I know that you all know what a tiger looks like, so I'll just post a few of Han.

Looking at the monkeys - her favorite!!

Riding the carousel with Mommy - not really liking it very much!

Amazed at the elephants! She tried to climb through to get to them.

Playing in the boat. (I don't know... it was some kind of Native American display, complete with canoes, and Hannah loved it. She threw a fit when we decided it was time to move on to something else.)

Walking with Daddy. She sure does love him!

We saw a LOT of this (pointing) that day!

Trip to Little Rock

2008-12-29T10:28:00.005-06:00

We took a trip to Little Rock right before Thanksgiving to see Mimi and Jay, Lauren, James, and Eliza. It was a great time!

Aunt Lauren and Hannah

The big girls on the swing

All the cousins!

Jay and Robbie

Hugging Mimi

Everyone in Mimi's room (yep, Jay, I stole these from you! Thanks!)

Catching up

2008-12-29T10:25:00.001-06:00

I know that it's been forever, so I am attempting to catch up on the blog. I am on call today, so I thought I'd put the unexpected free time to some good use. Hopefully if I get caught up, I'll do a better job of posting on a regular basis!

Out of the mouths of babes...

2008-11-07T21:34:00.004-06:00

We've started saying prayers at night with Hannah. You never know what she's gonna come up with! This is usually about how it goes:

Me: "Thank you God for Jesus"

Hannah: " and da doggie!"

Rob: "And Mommy"

Hannah: " 'n my paci!"

Me: "And Daddy"

Hannah: "and da rah-rah" (this means the rocking horse - we call it the rock-rock)

Han: "and my milk..... and da dogs.... and my shoe.... and my toe.... and my paci!"

(pause)

Han: "nigh' nigh' "

Rob and me together, kinda grinning: "Amen!"

It's really special to see her picking up on the concept of praying and thanking God for the things in her life. Each night she says something different, depending on what is fresh on her mind from the day. The paci usually gets mentioned more than once though, so I'm thinking that is really meaning a lot to her lately! :)

Video from the pumpkin patch

2008-10-31T21:04:00.003-05:00

Fall Festival

2008-10-31T20:33:00.005-05:00

Sunday night we had our Fall Festival at church. Hannah got to dress up as an elephant - and she loved it! I've been practicing with her for weeks, trying to teach her to make the noise like an elephant. She's gotten really good at it (along with lots of other animal noises!) but of course, she wouldn't do it for anyone that night! :)

Hannah with her friend from school and church, Faith. Isn't she the cutest little pirate you've ever seen?

The whole fam

Hannah and I with our friends Lori and Emma. Isn't Emma a precious poodle? :)

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-31T20:11:00.006-05:00

We made our annual trip to Green Acres Farm to take pumpkin patch pictures a few weeks back...

This was right before we left - she was getting kinda sleepy, can you tell?

Trying to push a HUGE pumpkin with Daddy

Hannah and me

She loved riding in the wagon!

This one was just her size!

Last year we put her all the way down on one of these crates - she's grown so much!

Sweet face

"Wow, really?!? Are you sure it's okay for me to TOUCH these things?!?"

"Look at this one!"

Vacation - random

2008-10-31T07:32:00.004-05:00

Here are a few more random pics from our vacation...

I love the mountains!

The condo we stayed in, from the outside. It was really nice.

Hannah playing on the balcony - her favorite spot. We would just open up all the doors and let her go in and out as much as she wanted to. She loved being able to go outside when she wanted to!

Vacation - Chimneytops

2008-10-30T21:55:00.003-05:00

We spent one morning at the Chimneytops picnic area - hiking and playing in the water and climbing rocks - so fun! We loved doing this with Hannah - just pure, old-fashioned fun, enjoying God's creation. Isn't it beautiful?

Sweet girl hanging out in the backpack carrier

Putting her feet in the water

She loves her Daddy - can you tell?

Vacation - hiking

2008-10-29T20:52:00.005-05:00

We took one whole morning and hiked up a 3 mile trail to get to another waterfall. It was really fun! Rob and I both love hiking and being in God's creation, and we hope to instill this in Hannah too. She really enjoyed riding in the backpack carrier and exploring everything with us.

Stopping for a snack at the top of the trail.

Exploring around the waterfall with Daddy.

The whole fam! A really nice couple offered to take this for us.

Going behind the water with Daddy.

Mommy and Hannah in front of the waterfall. I'm sure this is beautiful in the spring when it is full and really flowing.

And last but not least - not a good pic of me, but proof that I carried my 25 lb kid all the way up and all the way down on my back!! (Robbie had run 12 miles that morning so he was doing good just to get himself up the mountain and back down!)

Vacation - the view

2008-10-29T14:22:00.002-05:00

Vacation - Laurel Falls

2008-10-29T14:06:00.005-05:00

We took the short hike to Laurel Falls one afternoon.

On the trail - Hannah wanted to walk too. But it was cold, so she wanted her blanket. So her really smart Daddy made it into a cape for her to wear. She was quite proud of that!

Sitting pretty

Exploring with Daddy

Playing on the bridge with Mommy

Looking over the edge at the water flowing by

The whole family

Vacation - the aquarium

2008-10-29T13:56:00.003-05:00

Hannah loved our visit to the aquarium while we were in Gatlinburg. She can say "fishy" now (although it sometimes comes out more like "bishy"!) The pics came out a little dark, but these are some cute ones.

Sitting on an octopus (okay, this was actually in the gift shop, but she liked sitting up there, so I snapped a picture!)

She loved the jelly fish. Aren't they beautiful?

A family shot that someone offered to take for us

Standing in front of her favorite fish tank at the aquarium. It was hard to get her to walk away from this one

Can you see the HUGE catfish that's staring at her on the other side of the glass?!? It was SO big! She was pretty scared of it for a while.

Vacation - balcony

2008-10-29T13:47:00.004-05:00

We took a trip to Gatlinburg this year for our vacation. It was so relaxing! Here are a few pics of Hannah at the condo that we rented.

Reading a book with Daddy

The "say cheese" face

Wearing Daddy's hat

Waving "bye"

And the view of the Smoky Mtns from our balcony - beautiful!

Dance dance dance!

2008-10-29T13:06:00.003-05:00

Hannah loves to dance to the "hot dog" song from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Here's a short clip of some of her moves. This was over a month ago, and she's picked up some new ideas when it comes to dancing since then, so I'll work on getting a more recent video for ya.

Apologies

2008-10-29T13:05:00.001-05:00

I know that it's been forever and a day since we have updated this blog. I could go into all the reasons why, but no one really wants to hear all of that! So, suffice it to say, I've got a LOT of pictures coming your way!

video from reading a book

2008-09-09T20:24:00.004-05:00

This is from a month or so ago, but I thought it was funny! I promise she doesn't really know what chocolate is! :)

Weekend visit with Gram and Grandpa

2008-09-09T14:25:00.005-05:00

Over the weekend, Robbie's parents came to visit us. We had a good time, including a trip to the park and some fun times outside. Here are some pics from the weekend.

Our girl loves sliding!!

On the playground at North Park.

She had ravioli - can you tell?!?

Playing in the back yard with Gram and Grandpa.

Ocoee River

2008-09-09T12:46:00.006-05:00

Over Labor Day weekend, we took our students whitewater rafting on the Ocoee River. Well, we didn't actually take them, because Rob couldn't raft because of his finger, and we had Hannah with us. So, we just rode along the river and played and took pictures of the students. It was kinda hard to not be able to raft (because we both LOVE it) but we had fun anyway!!

Here's Hannah sitting down like all the big kids, listening to the raft guide explain how to paddle, pull someone in, etc.

We told her to smile and this is what we got. A little cheesy, but cute still!!

Now she's doing the motions to "If you're happy and you know it." This is her face surely showing it!!

Down on the river with Mommy. She really really wanted to get in that water!

Climbing and playing with Daddy. She sat down in the water right after this.

Okay, now we're all in, with no clothes!!

Wandering out in the river to say hey to people. That water was SO cold, but she didn't even notice!

Hey, guys, this diaper is getting kinda heavy...

All dry and clean afterwards, ready to go back home!!

Random pics from the summer

2008-09-09T12:37:00.006-05:00

We've finally got our camera back in working order, so here are some random pictures from the summer!

Loving bath time!!

At summer camp at LA Tech - riding the bike with Mommy!!

On the bus on the way home from camp - being entertained by awesome students!!

"Walking in Memphis" with our college students - looking at the Peabody ducks with Daddy!!

On bo-bo's and elmo's and hot-diggity-dogs

2008-08-24T21:30:00.004-05:00

Robbie hurt his finger this past week at church playing dodgeball. He headed to Convenient Care, where they put it in a splint and told him that it was probably just a ruptured tendon. However, they sent him to a "hand specialist" (who turns out to be a plastic surgeon) who told him that it's actually completely torn off of the bone. So, tomorrow morning he's got to be at the hospital at 6am to have surgery. I'm a little nervous about this because I've got to work and so I can't be there. I know that all will go well, but I would much rather be there. One of my greatest fears in returning to work was that I wouldn't be able to be there for my family when they needed me, so it's been hard for me that such a situation has already occurred in the first two weeks of me working.

As a result of this injury, Hannah has learned a new word - "bo-bo." She says it all the time now, pointing to Rob's finger and then will give it a kiss. That was actually the first thing out of her mouth this morning. She's absorbing words like crazy these days.

She is also loving Elmo right now. She can actually say "Elmo" but sometimes it comes out like "Melmo." But she definitely knows who he is. She has a little doll that she carries around and loves on and will tell you "elmo, elmo, elmo" and on and on. She even spotted him on her toothbrush the other day (I hadn't even noticed that she had an elmo toothbrush...)

Hannah is also loving the theme song to the Disney clubhouse. She dances all around every time she hears it. We actually downloaded the song the other night on i-tunes because she loves it so much. The words say, "hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog!" It's a pretty catchy tune, and I really can't get it out of my head right now. Hannah doesn't really understand what the words are saying, but she has caught on to the fact that the word "dog" is in the song. A lot of times she'll start barking as she dances around the room!

I know it's been forever...

2008-08-17T14:01:00.003-05:00

since I've updated this blog!! I know!!

We've been incredibly busy lately, just trying to keep up with the day-t0-day tasks. And we have officially lost our cords that connect the camera to the computer. So, instead of writing tons of stories on here, I've been waiting to get that cord so that you can see pictures too. Because we all know that no one really wants to know what's going on with Robbie & Jill, everyone just wants to see pictures of Hannah. So, hopefully, in the next few days I can do something about that for ya!

What's new with the Han-ster

2008-07-10T21:18:00.005-05:00

Well, I was going to upload some pictures from the past week or so, plus some videos tonight, but we can't locate the cable to connect the camera to the computer. So, instead, I figured I'd update everyone on what Hannah's up to lately:

- First of all, she's sleeping A LOT. (Please note, this is NOT a complaint, not at all!) She's been taking about a 2 hr nap in the mornings and a 2.5 hr nap in the afternoons, plus sleeping closer to 12 hours at night. Just so you don't have to do the math, that means she's awake for a whopping 7.5 hrs! Not much for a 15 month old. We're guessing that she's in a growth spurt - she tends to sleep lots when she's growing.

- She is jabbering away. In the past week or so, she's just really starting trying to talk. She hasn't really increased the amount of actual words that she knows. She's just started talking in gibberish and then looking at you, waiting for you to answer the question she just asked. It's really cute!

- She loves riding the bike. We got a bike seat for her, and she absolutely loves it! If she sees it, she throws a fit to get on and go for a ride. She even spotted it out of tons of bikes at camp at LA Tech and grabbed on and sat there waiting for me to pick her up and put her on it. Here's one picture that I do have - Robbie was able to email it to me off of his phone.

- She's really understanding a lot of what we say to her. She can complete simple commands that we ask her to do ("Hannah, can you pick that up and take it to Daddy?") and is FINALLY starting to like reading books. And then she remembers what you say about the books. If it has a doggie in it, she'll pick up that book and immediately start barking. One book is about a bear that goes to the doctor. I explained to her on one page that the bear has to say "Aaahhh" so the doctor can see down his throat. Now when she sees that book she says "AAAAAHHHH!!!" everytime!

As you can see, she's at a really fun age! Hopefully I'll be able to upload videos soon!

Fun times at the park

2008-06-20T21:33:00.005-05:00

We headed to the park one afternoon this week since the weather has been so cool. As you can tell, Hannah had lots of fun! The last time we took her to the playground, she couldn't walk yet, so she only got to crawl through a few tunnels. She had a blast running all over the place this time!

carrying her bag

2008-06-20T21:26:00.004-05:00

Hannah loves to carry her lunch box when she goes to school. Whenever she sees it, she reaches for it and wants to carry it on her arm like a purse. As you can see she kinda has to hold her arm high up in the arm to keep it on, but she insists on doing it. Here she and Robbie are leaving one day this week. She's always ready to "Go!" She will stand by the front door and say "go" while she looks out the window.

catching up

2008-06-20T21:11:00.006-05:00

I've got some random pictures from last weekend, so I thought I'd catch up. All in all, it was a good weekend, and I think that Robbie had a good Father's Day.

One of Hannah's new things is to sit in her chair and "rock, rock." Well, okay, that's what we say. She says something more like "Rah, rah."

Last Saturday we went to see some girls play softball. It was really hot that day, but Hannah had fun anyway. She really liked to sit on the bleachers, and figured out a way to do it all by herself. She also had fun when Harrison read her a book. I know it doesn't look like she's having fun, but she was getting sleepy at this point I think!

She loves brushing her teeth all by herself too. We brush them first, then we give her the toothbrush to chew on. In this picture, she decided to try and brush Daddy's teeth too.

This is just an evening playing in the backyard. She really is having fun despite the look on her face. That's her look of concentration. We see that face a lot.

glad to be back home

2008-06-15T22:24:00.003-05:00

This is from Friday afternoon. I think she was glad everyone was back home, what do you think?

Powerplant

2008-06-15T22:05:00.008-05:00

This past week Robbie was speaking at Powerplant in Nashville. He left Saturday, and on Sunday after church, Hannah and I headed over to spend a few days with him. He spoke each morning, and didn't have any responsibilities after that, so we got to spend lots of time as a family! We went swimming, took naps, went shopping, etc.

We also got to see some friends from seminary that we hadn't seen in a while, which was really great. We drove to Franklin to see Matt & Elaine & Anna Claire Tipton. The girls had fun playing in Anna Claire's kiddie pool. But I forgot our camera, so no cute pics, sorry!

We also met up with Michael & Anne Albritton, who were in Nashville for a few days. We went to the Rainforest Cafe with them, and Hannah got so excited every time the animals would come to life and make noises. By the end of the night she was making noise with them! I stole this pic from Anne's blog because I forgot my camera that night too! (thanks Anne!) It was so good to visit with both of these couples!

Just a few more pics... Hannah in her carseat reading a book.

And Wednesday night after Hannah & I got back, we took the youth bowling. That was a new experience for Hannah. She would clap and cheer when everyone else did. But wouldn't stand still for a good picture, sorry this is the best I could get!

VBS week

2008-06-15T21:56:00.003-05:00

VBS week went really well. It was good for us to get to know the 5th & 6th graders. Before we know it, they'll be in the youth group! As if VBS wasn't enough to keep us busy that week, we had a cookout at our house on Monday night with the youth, and a pool party with the college students on Wednesday night.

Then Friday afternoon after VBS, we did a 100 foot slip'n'slide down a big hill covered in baby oil and baby wash with our group from VBS. They loved it! And, of course, so did Hannah! She wasn't afraid at all. In fact, she started wanting to do it on her own. She wouldn't sit in Robbie's lap anymore, so he would hold her next to him as they went down. Here's a few pics from that day...

Block Party

2008-06-15T20:26:00.009-05:00

On June 1st our church started a new schedule, which was exciting, and it all went great. That afternoon we had this huge block party at the park near our house, and Robbie had a lot of responsibility in making it happen. Everything went off without a glitch, and we had the opportunity to talk to lots of families about our church. They had lots of inflatables and a rock climbing wall.

Hannah's favorite thing was the 20 ft inflatable slide. She has no fear at all! She would go down with someone, then go back and stand in line until someone picked her up and took her again. She loved it!

I don't know if you can tell or not, but in this picture she's clapping her hands as we're sitting at the top!

She also got to experience her first snow cone. And the wonderful cool air coming from one of those little fans that sprays water on your face!

We love our students! They are so great to watch out for Hannah at events like this so that we can talk to people. This is Hannah with Patrick, she was his little buddy for the day!

She's reaching out for the slide again. Sitting here in Neil's arms watching other people slide is just torture!

Sometimes Daddy would slide a little crazy! But she loved every minute of it, as you can see from her BIG smile!

Week of Project Acts

2008-06-15T20:10:00.006-05:00

On Memorial Day, we started the week of Project Acts, which was a great missions camp experience right here in Jackson. It was really great for our students to have the opportunity to get out and serve right here where we live, instead of heading off to some distant location to do it.

Hannah and I had fun that week because we were able to come and hang out some since they were here in Jackson. We met them everyday for lunch and supper, plus some days we went and played with Rob in the afternoons for an hour or so before supper. I also got to help out with Rob's teams two of the days with some painting, so that was fun! Hannah got into the spirit of serving this week and decided to help Mama clean the house some. She was pushing the swiffer thingy all over the house! Too cute!

Project Acts was over late Friday night, and the next day we got up and headed to the church. We had to decorate for VBS, and this year we had the 5th & 6th graders, so it actually had to look cool. It took us all day, but I think we accomplished what we were trying to do! That evening our friends kids - Landon, Nelson, and Caiden, all came over to play, so here are some pictures of that evening. They liked the playhouse!

We survived!!!

2008-06-15T19:58:00.005-05:00

Well... I guess I should apologize for the lack of blogging the past 3 weeks. It's been crazy, folks. Crazy. But we survived. And actually have had a great past 3 weeks. We just didn't have time for blogging, that's for sure!

So, tonight is my attempt at catching up. I'll probably have to break it up into several different posts, but I'll do my best to get caught up.

First off, we had a good Memorial Day weekend with Robbie's parents. Here are some pictures from that weekend. Oh, and 2 pictures of the cute outfit that Rhonda/Gran found for Hannah.

New video

2008-05-22T11:18:00.005-05:00

The "new" playhouse

2008-05-17T21:35:00.003-05:00

Well, actually it's not "new" at all, but it's new to us! I found this at a garage sale for $10, which I thought was a great deal. It's been raining a lot lately, so we haven't been able to play with it since I got it cleaned up and assembled. So, after playing in the pool and sand, we headed to the backyard to play in the house. Hannah was pretty excited to find it sitting there in her backyard (I don't think she had noticed it yet.) She kept going in & out of the door, and opening and closing the windows.

Fun in the sun

2008-05-17T21:23:00.006-05:00

Today was a beautiful day, and we were all itching to get outside after working on stuff for hours at the church, so we pulled out Hannah's sand & water table that she got for her b-day. Then, since she was soaking wet anyway, we decided to blow up her kiddie pool and have some more fun! It was a little cold, so we ended up draining the pool, but she still had fun climbing in & out of it. She's actually getting a little bit braver in the water - she kept putting her face in it today!

As you can tell, she had a blast!

Same old toy...

2008-05-17T21:17:00.005-05:00

brand new fun!

This is Hannah's exersaucer, which she hasn't played with in months. We finally folded it up and had it set out to be put in the attic. But she's decided she loves it now, in its newly folded condition. She kept crawling in and out of it the other day. It was really funny to me that she had that much fun with it. I think the best part was that she could get out of it by herself.

another video of Hannah walking

2008-05-11T21:52:00.003-05:00

As you can tell, she's got this whole walking thing down pretty well. And the word "uh-oh"! We heard that so many times on Saturday while we were hiking, right BEFORE she dropped something!

What a great Saturday!

2008-05-11T21:14:00.011-05:00

We had a great day yesterday as a family! When Hannah got up from her morning nap, we packed up lunch and headed to a state park nearby. It has several Indian mounds, and lots of walking trails, and we intended to explore! First we had a picnic lunch under a pavilion.

Then we got all of our stuff together and packed up. I also found a great backpack carrier at a garage sale recently, so we decided to try it out with Hannah. It took us a little while to get it all situated, but we finally got everyone comfortable.

Then we checked out the trail map and headed on our way. There were several huge mounds. The tallest was 72 feet high! We took the stairs to the top. Hannah did pretty well in the carrier, as long as we kept moving. But after a while, she got tired of it and wanted to get down and walk. There was also a boardwalk area that we went on, so that was fun for her because it was easier to walk on that than the rough ground. We thought some of those pictures were funny because we're walking along with her, or carrying her, but we have that big backpack thing on our backs! Oh well! :)

Then we headed back home for an afternoon nap (for all of us!) That evening we had a staff "get-together" at the Bruce's. Hannah had tons of fun jumping on the trampoline!

New toy

2008-05-11T21:09:00.003-05:00

This is Hannah's newest toy that I found at a garage sale. She loves it! I thought it was really cute, and it's a lot of fun. I realize that this isn't the best picture to illustrate that, since she's sitting next to it, but playing with her dad's shoe, but...

The little door opens and she can crawl through. One side is like the outside of the house (shown) and the other side is like the inside, with a clock and radio, etc. The funniest thing about it is that it speaks in a British accent!! :) The lady I bought it from said she bought it from Germany because she loved it so much, so I guess that's why. We just think it'll be funny if Hannah grows up saying "post box" instead of "mail box," etc.

Walking

2008-05-07T21:04:00.002-05:00

She's gotten better at catching herself and regaining her balance since then. She's really walking everywhere now...down the hall, to her bedroom, from the living room into the kitchen and back... It's a little weird to see her just come walking into the room, peeking her head around the corner, grinning at ya. Such a big girl!!

Today she started trying to run, though, which didn't work out so well. We had lots of crashes today because she would go faster than she could really handle, and then just wipe out! I guess that's how you learn, though, huh? Isn't that how we all do things sometimes, get caught up in things, taking on more than we can handle, and sometimes we hurt ourselves in the process. Hopefully we learn something in the midst of that though...

Welcome to Toddlerville

2008-05-07T20:54:00.003-05:00

Well, I guess it's official -- we are now in the next stage of life...toddlerville!! :)

Hannah started walking Saturday!! It's been a little crazy around our house this week, that's for sure! She had been taking some steps for a while now, but I came home Saturday morning from going to garage sales and she came walking out to me. Rob said that he had worked with her the whole time I was gone, basically just making her let go of his hand, and it worked! We knew she could walk on her own, she just didn't want to let go. Now she wants to walk everywhere we go! Unfortunately, our camera died and I just got it recharged, so I don't have any video to post of her walking really well, but I do have one from a few days before that. I'll try to figure out how to post video...

It's been beautiful weather here, and we've been spending a lot of time outside. As soon as Hannah sees her stroller, she's throwing a fit to get in it and go! She starts saying "doe" over and over again. We're convinced she's trying to say "go."

She can also give you a high five now! That's fun! And everything that happens is a good reason to say "uh oh" in Hannah's world. It's so fun to see how quickly she is learning and changing.

Our azaleas bloomed beautifully this year, so we tried to get a few pics of Hannah next to them. None of them turned out really cute because she was too busy pulling the flowers off and tearing them into little bitty bits! Oh well.

"DAAAA DAAAA!!!"

2008-04-28T16:03:00.002-05:00

That's all I've heard all day long. Now, I know I'm not a ton of fun right now because I'm sick of being stuck in the house. And "Daddy", of course, is a TON of fun when he comes home at night. And I know the poor kid has got to be sick of seeing me, and only me, for the past 2 days.

"Daddy" came home for lunch and played and played and played. But evidently it wasn't enough. She got up from her nap yelling this today. She immediately crawled to the front door and yelled this out the windows. She's been yelling it from her highchair as she eats her snack. I think she loves her daddy, what do you think?

I tried to get a video of all of this, but she stops every time I pull the camera out.

Weekend of sickness

2008-04-28T10:04:00.003-05:00

Well, there's no cute pics to go with this story, needless to say!

Last weekend, I had to go to the doctor because I had strep throat. I was SO careful all week long, hoping that this time Hannah wouldn't get it. But, sure enough, Friday night she didn't sleep without being held and rocked, and she was running a fever that wouldn't break with Tylenol. So, Saturday we headed to the walk-in clinic. Miraculously, we only spent about 45 minutes there, got her prescription and got out. She has strep throat, and her ears are looking red, so we're on a 10-day round of antibiotics, hoping to knock both things out.

So, Saturday and Sunday were low-key days around here. We had big plans that included a babysitter and going out on a date, plus a packed Sunday, but instead we just stayed around the house. Yesterday we watched chick flicks all day, had a PJ party, tried to have fun with it! I think she's feeling a little better today, and no fever so far! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

She's still been learning all sorts of new things lately, even with not feeling good! She can now take about 7-8 steps on her own, when she feels like it. Most of the time she still just drops to her knees, though! She's trying SO hard to be able to put on her socks and shoes all by herself. And when she first wakes up in the morning, she's immediately calling for her daddy. I love it! Now HE gets to be the first one up out of the bed! :)

Today's other new trick

2008-04-23T15:59:00.005-05:00

She has loved this car thing for quite some time. At first she would just walk behind it, holding on for dear life. Next she wanted to sit on it all the time. And I do mean all the time. But she just couldn't figure out how to get anywhere on it. We kept showing her over and over again how to move her feet, but she'd just grin and sit and wait for you to do it again.

Well, today she finally got it! Only she goes backwards. So she goes backwards until she can't go any more (see 2nd pic) and then just rams it over and over again into whatever she's run into. She really gets into it! For a second, she thought about turning around backwards on the seat and going back the other way (1st pic) but decided against it. She sure does love this toy!

Today's new trick

2008-04-23T15:45:00.008-05:00

A friend of mine (thanks Anne!) told me recently that before babies turn 1, they're learning something new every week. But after they turn 1, it's something new everyday. Well, Hannah conquered 2 new things today:

She got a little toy purse from the Haas family for her birthday, complete with a little pink cell phone. This morning I was playing with her, talking on it, then putting it up to her ear so she could talk on it. This afternoon I caught her jabbering away and looked to see what she was doing. She had the phone up to her ear! I tried to catch it again later with the camera...

And finally.... birthday party pics!

2008-04-21T22:17:00.008-05:00

Fun day at the park

2008-04-21T22:12:00.002-05:00

We managed to squeeze in a trip to the park this afternoon after Rob got off of work. It was such a beautiful day! We went for a walk on the nature trail, then played on the playground. It's so much fun now that Hannah can move around and play more!

Birthday girl

2008-04-20T11:17:00.006-05:00

Here's Hannah on her very first birthday! Yep, she's sitting in a rocking chair at Cracker Barrel. Yep, we took her to Cracker Barrel to celebrate her birthday. What can we say, we ARE from the South! :)

Just wanted to post this picture really quickly. More pics from her party to come soon!

Happy 1st Birthday sweet girl!!

2008-04-15T20:37:00.002-05:00

Well today was Hannah's first birthday. Such a special day. Even though we had her birthday party 2 weeks ago, we had a fun day today. Robbie was able to take the day off after doing some things this morning, so we just had a low-key day playing with Hannah. She loved her presents from us - a basketball goal toy and a little purse with stuff to go in it. She got so excited about the little bracelet that came with the purse! Every time we put it on her wrist, she would grin really big and hold it up in the air for everyone to see. Too cute! And of course Robbie was proud of how quickly she caught on to putting the balls into the basketball net!

She is such a blessing to us. We spent most of today talking about how humbling it is that God has chosen to give her to us. We have such a responsibility in raising her, but it is such a JOY!! We are consistently amazed and overwhelmed at how God chooses to bless us.

"Behold, children are a gift of the Lord!" Psalm 127:3

On the road again

2008-04-14T23:01:00.002-05:00

Well, we survived yet another road trip! We took our college students to Atlanta to the Passion Regional Conference this past weekend, and boy, are we glad to be back home for a while! It was a great trip, but quite a bit of driving in 3 days. Poor Hannah was really glad to not have to go anywhere in her car seat today!

We had a good time while we were there, though! She loves all of the students, and they all took turns entertaining her in the car when we were on the road. On Saturday she and I had some down time together while Robbie and the students went to the conference. So, we played in the hotel room and watched cartoons, took a good long nap, and then checked out the indoor swimming pool! I didn't have the camera, but I took a few pics of her in her cute little swimsuit on my phone. (Hopefully I can figure out how to get them off my phone soon!)

This was her first time swimming, and I think she really enjoyed it. There were two sweet girls swimming at the same time we were there, so they played with her some. She would watch them swim back and forth, and when they came near she would lean forward and start kicking her feet! It was as if she was showing them that she could swim too! It was a good time, except for the fact that her floaty had a leak in it and I kept having to put more air into it every couple of minutes. I guess that's what I get for buying something last year on clearance! Trying to save some money and I just ended up wasting it!

We also got a chance to see our friends from Hammond and seminary, Chip and Sarah Beth Wheeler, and their 2 kids Cade and Caroline. They are planting a church in an area outside of Atlanta, so we drove over to see them. It was great to visit with them. It's always good to see old friends!

So, we are back home, and all very tired from the trip. But, we're looking forward to one special little girl's birthday tomorrow!

Talking back already?!?

2008-04-09T13:19:00.002-05:00

Here's the Hannah story of the week! I think she's already learned how to talk back!

She was sitting in the high chair the other day at lunch saying bye bye to her food and tossing it over the edge of the tray. (I guess my cooking's not quite as good as I thought!) I caught her doing it and told her "no, no!" She looked at me, grinned, and said "yeah!" and kept doing it. I thought it was just a coincidence, but later on she got into something else (I think it was the garbage can) and I told her no, only to have her respond over and over again with "yeah!" She is too smart.

For my mom...

2008-04-08T21:43:00.003-05:00

Here's a pic of Hannah in her Easter dress since you haven't seen it yet!

2008-04-08T21:18:00.000-05:00

So we've finally joined the world of bloggers! Yippee! We're pretty excited about this so that we can more easily keep up with our family and friends that don't live near us.

More to come soon!