Posts Tagged ‘Hannah Michelle’
What to Feed a Monkey
Posted on: June 14, 2011
- In: Life
- 8 Comments
Hannah turns two tomorrow and we are celebrating her birthday with a party this Saturday. Because of her crazy love for the Paul Frank monkey, I decided we needed a monkey theme party. And what do monkeys {especially my monkey Bear} love to do most? Eat. While I am going for banana themed foods, I’m also adding Hannah’s other favorite foods. Here’s what is on the menu for Saturday’s party:
2. Banana Bread
3. Cheese Slices
4. Peanut Butter Sandwiches with Banana Slices
5. Fruit slices
6. Pita Chips and Hummus
7. Monkey Bread
9. Carrots and Dip
10. Your Suggestions – Any more banana themed ideas of what to feed a group of kids and parents?
Visit Amanda at Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.
The (*) indicates photo and recipe credit.
It’s the Little Joys in Life
Posted on: June 3, 2011
- In: Life
- 5 Comments
It’s the little joys in life that add up to a joyous life. Little joys like –
Coming home to this guy after a week+ away:
Finding random pictures of the girls on our computer:
Yes, that is underwear on her head
What are your Friday Joys?
A Portrait of a Baby Girl
Posted on: April 29, 2011
- In: Life
- 13 Comments
In September 2009, I spent a week with my parents in Tennessee. Hannah was just shy of three months old and Julia had just turned 21 months. It was a crazy, sleepless, fun trip. One afternoon, my aunt came to visit. While there, she snapped this picture of Hannah on her iPhone.
On Monday, this arrived in the mail:
Honestly, my photograph doesn’t do the painting justice
Aunt Shannon decided that she would paint Hannah’s portrait from the picture she took. Isn’t it beautiful? We hung it in our hallway, where we hope to have a row of family pictures.
What’s your Friday joy?
- In: Life
- 12 Comments
Our family is still trying to sort through how exactly we plan to celebrate Easter. Will there be baskets? Candy? Eggs? Thankfully, the girls don’t ask too many questions and seem oblivious to the commercialized side of Easter and have only learned the true meaning.
With that said, we did do an egg hunt this weekend. Our neighborhood held an egg hunt and several of our neighbors were attending with their kids. We decided to go. When we arrived, there were long lines of cars and people so we just kept driving by. We figured maybe a family breakfast would be much more fun.
Then, as we drove past Walgreens, we saw several workers standing outside advertising an egg hunt that started in 20 minutes. It was free and no one was around, so we figured we would give it a try. By the time the hunt started, there were more parents than kids, so every kid walked away with a big bag of eggs.
The girls "smiling"
Our loot
Despite being tired, Hannah was not going to lose out on getting some goodies
Two of my favorite people {and the loot}
Now, for this next picture, I realize it’s not the best, but it’ll have to do…
The growing baby bump:
Being Pursued in the Midst of Pain
Posted on: April 18, 2011
- In: Life
- 12 Comments
I nearly burned our house down on Friday.
You might think that is a slight overstatement, but it’s not. I put a pot of stew on the stove, walked outside to play with the girls and that was the end. I had no concept of the time passed. I had no clue what was taking place, literally, feet from me. No alarms. No smell of smoke. Nothing triggered me, but Jack’s barking.
Jack {who was outside as well} started barking and barking. At first I dismissed him, then when he persisted, I went to the back door to find my kitchen/living room filled with smoke. Black, nasty smoke. In the moment, I calmly removed the pot, opened the windows and began to air out the house. Thankfully, nothing was damaged beyond the charred pot, though the smell of fire still lingering this morning.
Saturday morning, I flooded the girls’ bathroom. The toilet got clogged while I was cleaning and water started flowing everywhere.
I panicked.
My first instint was “Don’t tell Jonathan.” You see, I’d already failed miserably the day before and we were still paying for it {by way of spending all Saturday morning cleaning and washing our smoke filled home}. I didn’t want him to see my failure again. I was ashamed. Embarrassed. Guilty. I wanted to run. Hide. Escape.
Finally, I called out for Jonathan. Even though I knew he was frustrated, he still loved me through it. He stayed calm. Fixed the situation.
And that’s when I lost it.
I ran.
I hid.
I sat in our bathroom and wept.
I calculated all the ways I failed. All the things I’d done wrong. Again. All the ways I didn’t deserve love. Didn’t deserve a second change.
Then there was a knock at the door. It was Julia.
“Mama, why are you sad?”
More tears.
Then another knock. It was Hannah.
“Mama, sad?”
More tears.
Then another knock. It was Jonathan.
“Babe, come out, please. You have two adorable daughters and a husband that loves you. Come out.”
Then a final knock. It was God.
“Sarah you are loved. By Me.”
I opened the door. Both to my family and to my God.
When I am in pain, I run. When I have failed, I run. When my trials are too big, too overwhelming, I run. I hide from the pain, from the failure, from the trial. I run and hide because I am afraid that maybe this time – this time – I’ve gone to far. I’ve messed up too much. This time I can’t be forgiven. This time I can’t make it right.
But that isn’t true.
Through Christ’s blood, I will always be forgiven.
Through Christ’s death, I will always be made right.
This weekend, through my failures, my family’s love spoke to me. My husband’s kind direction and warm embrace. My daughters’ gentleness and sweet innocence. Through them, God reminded me that I can run, I can hide, but He will always find me. He will always knock at my door. He will always pursue me. Because, in my failures, He loves me most of all.
Valentine Surprises
Posted on: February 15, 2011
- In: Life
- 10 Comments
Usually Jonathan and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, since neither of us are big fan on the holiday. However, this year we decided to “celebrate”. I say celebrate loosely, because we didn’t go out last night, we didn’t even really acknowledge the day beyond a nice family dinner. But, there were some unexpected surprises that happened:
1. Flowers – Can I brag a minute? Jonathan does a wonderful job of bringing me flowers on a regular basis. However, typically speaking, he doesn’t bring me flowers on days that you’d expect – such as Valentine’s. So it was a complete surprise when he walked in with these:
2. Cupcakes – There is a fun little cupcake shop here in Austin – Hey Cupcake! Yesterday I splurged on their Luvcake for dessert. I’m fairly certain is fulfilled my caloric intake for a week, but it was worth every bite.
3. Balloons – In addition to my flowers, Jonathan brought home pink and white balloons for the girls. They loved them.
4. Dinner – I experimented with a rice and chicken dish for Valentine’s Day. We were all impressed with how great it tasted. Looks like we found a new favorite recipe {score!}.
5. Date – While we didn’t go out last night, we are going out tonight. Which means….
6. Dressing up – I get to wear this:
7. Clean house – Let’s face it, once kids are involved Valentine’s Day changes {along with everything else}. To have a clean house made my Valentine’s.
8. Spurs Game – Our family are big Spurs fans. They played the Nets last night and won. Needless to say, my husband was quite excited. Happy Valentine’s Jonathan!
9. Valentine’s Hater No More – As I mentioned, I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day. But as the girls are getting older, I’m starting to enjoy it. Aside from the balloons and cupcakes, the girls didn’t really celebrate – but I’m kind of looking forward to next year {and the years after} when we can really do something fun with them.
10. My Valentine – Jonathan is an amazing husband and father. He makes my life brighter, filled with laughter and joy. I can’t express just how grateful I am to be his wife {Love you babe!}.
Visit Amanda at Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.
My Heart Flutters
Posted on: February 11, 2011
- In: Life
- 8 Comments
Here’s this week’s Friday joy:
{You might not notice, but H has cover up all over her lips – she really like putting on make up with me 😉 }
What’s your Friday joy? I’d love to hear it!
An Entire Year of Family Photos
Posted on: February 1, 2011
{Sorry for the fuzziness - I'm still figuring out our Point and Shoot. And Jack does look a little evil in this one...}
Yesterday marked the 12th month of our monthly family photo. It’s hard to believe an entire year has passed since I first started this project. It has a been wonderful documenting how the girls have progressed. So much has happened in the last year that our lives seem so different now.
Hannah is talking up a storm. Every day she adds something new to her vocabulary and it’s awesome. My favorite phrase is “I did it!“. She says it with such pride and enthusiasm. Hannah has completely transitioned to a twin bed and isn’t waking up nearly as much to crawl into our bed at night. Watching her always imitate Julia has made her seem advanced for her age. And while she isn’t even 2, she seems so much older than she really is. It makes me want to pause life for a while and capture all these little moments.
Julia, as always, is acting like a little mama. She’s taken charge of several responsibilities – putting away dishes, helping with Hannah and cleaning. Julia’s been learning a lot in preschool lately. She’s very fascinated with sciences, so we have been spending time watching educational videos on the planets, the ocean and wildlife. She can’t get enough. I secretly believe she’s going to be a scientist.
Jonathan recently became part of Toastmasters – an impromptu public speaking group. It suits his personality perfectly and is teaching him how to be short and concise in his presentations. In addition, he has been spending a lot of time researching houses here in town, narrowing down what part of Austin we would want to live in. While we haven’t found a house that we want to buy {or rent}, we have at least settled on living in south Austin – for now.
I’ve spent the last month training for the Austin Half Marathon, which happens February 20th. It’s been good for me to get back into a real running regimen again. However, I’ll be happy to have long runs of only 5-6 miles instead of 10-12 miles. I got back yesterday from Blissdom in Nashville. It was a awesome. Overwhelming {with information and content} but I am hopeful that I can really implement a lot of the things I learned this week.
- In: Life
- 14 Comments
I’m leaving today for Blissdom. And much like when I left for New York last fall, I have taken some steps to help Jonathan out while I’m away. Because, while some days I’d like to think my full time job is my blog, it isn’t. My full time job is taking care of my family. I take a lot of delight in my work and want to make sure that I can still fulfill my wife/mother roles while away. So here are some ways I’m helping Jonathan cope with me being away:
1. Organize the girls clothes –
Each day is bundled together, with the girl’s name on it. Unwrap, dress and you’re ready to go! {I did provide layers, in case the weather goes all crazy on me.}
2. Organize meals –
I have the freezer stocked with dinners and the pantry loaded with quick and easy snacks. I’ve also made a list of side options to go with each meal.
3. Organize activities – While Jonathan is super active in the girls’ lives, he doesn’t quite know what activities there are to do around town like I do. So I made a list for each day to let him choose.
4. Sticky notes –
I did this when I traveled to New York. Jonathan said it was helpful {for other things – like coffee}, but the dog never did get fed…
5. Movies – While I tend not to want the girls to watch much television during the week, I know it’s an easy pass time. I’ve made sure there are several episodes of their favorite show recorded so they can watch a set amount as needed.
6. Diapers/Wipes/Pull ups – Jonathan isn’t as into cloth diapering as I am {read Jonathan doesn’t cloth diaper}. To prepare for the week, I stocked up on disposables. Because there is nothing worse than having to run to the store just for diapers.
7. Back up help – We were very blessed to live right by three close families while in Iowa. At the drop of the hat we could ask for help and they could be there in no time. Now, as we are still meeting people, I’ve had to do a little more planning. Still, we’ve been really blessed with people willing to help Jonathan {even if it is just inviting him to playdates} so that he doesn’t feel alone in the process.
8. Answering my phone – I’m notorious for not answering my phone. And it drives Jonathan bonkers. Because of that, for the next few days, my phone will be attached to my hip {not literally – not a big fan of those hip holders}.
9. Sweet loving – I’m making sure Jonathan gets some sweet loving before I leave. And… It’s not what you think. I made him a batch of cookies {as bribery for girls} and am currently baking some blueberry muffins – which are his favorite.
10. Grace – Taking care of the girls and being a homemaker isn’t Jonathan’s full time job, it’s mine. I need to loosen up any expectations I might have for how things should go – or honestly, how the house should look when I get back. I need to be overwhelmed by the fact that my husband is showing me this grand gesture of love and respond in kind, with grace and love.
What do you do to help your husband prepare for you being away?
Visit Oh Amanda for more Top Ten Tuesday.
Hannah Makes Tortillas
Posted on: January 21, 2011
- In: Life
- 7 Comments
While we were packing to move, Hannah decided to take a break and make some tortillas. You can hear Grandma in the background – she was less than pleased. But, personally, I thought {and still think} it was pretty hilarious.
A Wife Loved Like The Church 
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