Savoring the Savior

Future Choreographer?

2012-02-05T22:42:00.000-08:00

Life with Hannah is never dull. She is full of energy, excitement, drama, and creativity. I wish I could capture (almost) every moment of her life, because she is a crack-up 90% of her waking hours. One of my neighbors from my childhood gave Hannah this dress for Christmas, but we didn't get it until today. Of course, it's a PERFECT dancing dress, so Hannah danced like this for at least an hour tonight. :)

Goodbye.

2012-01-27T21:29:00.000-08:00

Sunday night was a night I was dreading. It was the night we were saying goodbye to Aaron, Kim, Linnea, and Natalie before they left for Kansas. I was hoping that somehow we could just skip that part, because I knew it wouldn't be easy. We'd gotten so used to having them so close and being able to walk to their house and visit them anytime we wanted. Our girls are best friends and get so excited every time they see one another. We've swapped a lot of babysitting nights. We became more than just family; we became friends.

While Sunday night was the hardest time of this transition, there have been little things and realizations here and there that have been hard, too. For example, the other morning I realized that I wouldn't ever hear an unexpected knock on the door and open it to find the Johnsons standing there, stopping by on a walk. It's also hard, because Hannah's been very sadly and pitifully saying, "I want Linnea" lately. It's hard explaining the concept of time and distance to a 3-year-old. All this to say, we are so thankful for the years we were all together and we're looking forward to continuing our friendship long distance. We are so excited for what the Lord is doing in and through the Johnson family and couldn't be more thrilled for where they are!

The week leading up to their move, we spent a lot of time with the girls while Aaron and Kim packed, painted, and prepped, so I took advantage of what time we had left and took a lot of pictures of the girls! I figured these would be pictures that not only we, but also Hannah and Linnea, would cherish. Below are a few of the pictures I took. You can see more of them here. Just beware! The link will take you to an album with 81 of these photos!

I framed this one, so Hannah could have it in her room. :)

In a bout of nostalgia, I compiled these pictures showing how Hannah and Linnea's friendship has developed over the past 2 1/2 years. It's so fun to look at how much they've changed and how they've grown into such great companions.

Hannah checking out her new cousin. She's apparently not quite sure what to think.

The first time we babysat Linnea! I love how excited Hannah is!!

Haha...this one cracks me up. This was Easter 2010.

Going in for a smooch. :)

Hannah thoroughly enjoys the role of older cousin. :)

Love the kisses!

The cutest little puppy and giraffe ever!

Hannah loves helping out her little cousin.

Helping Linnea with her buttons.

Best friends.

Sometimes Hannah shows a little too much love for Linnea's preferences. :)

Again, too much love, Hannah.

Anytime we're anywhere, walking together, they hold hands.

Stopping to chat.

Hannah makes Linnea laugh a lot!

Laughing together.

So Aaron, Kimberly, Linnea, and Natalie, we all love and miss you SO much and we are so thankful that we'll get to see you a couple times this year, Lord-willing!

Princess Hannah

2012-01-23T16:37:00.000-08:00

I have a ton of pictures to post at some point, but I just had to share this video. This is Hannah being her typical self. She's got the princess wave down to a "t" and is looking down at all her royal subjects with a forced cheesy smile (she learned how to be a princess from the Disneyland parade). Enjoy!

Parker Family Update - January 2012

2012-01-11T23:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I feel so lame. Every year I plan on writing a Christmas or New Year's letter to update everyone on what's happening with the Parkers. And (almost) every year I don't write one. :( So, I've decided to just list some of the highlights of our past year here. Sorry that it's quite informal, but here it is.

James started off the year as a mortgage officer for Bank of America, but was laid off at the end of March. We went through 7 1/2 months of unemployment, which was really hard, but we learned to trust the Lord more during this time. It was really encouraging and humbling to see the various ways that He provided for us through members of our church and other means. In November, he started with a new company in inside sales for consumable medical supplies (i.e. hospital bracelets, labels, stickers, etc.). He is excited about his job and is glad to be out of the banking industry!

Since James was home, we did a lot of hiking and made many trips to the beach over the summer. That was one perk to the unemployment! We discovered many beautiful and fun trails in our city and just enjoyed being in God's wonderful creation.

In September, our little baby turned 3. I'm still in denial, which is why I still refer to her as "my little baby." :) She truly is a gift to us. Her personality is so fun - she's animated, cheerful, determined, and goofy. She keeps us entertained and we never know what to expect from her next! I am trying to do preschool at home with her this year. My goal was to have a formal preschool time each day, but with the busyness of life, that doesn't always happen, but we're still learning through everyday activities!

Faces like this aren't uncommon in our house. She often goes into the bathroom to practice her silly faces and cracks up at herself. She definitely didn't learn that from me!

In November, James and I enjoyed a cruise to Mexico as a belated 5th Anniversary trip! We are very thankful to have gotten to go and had such a nice and relaxing time! We are also thankful to Mama and Bapa, as well as Aunt Sumiko, who watcher our little munchkin for us while we were gone!

I continue to blog with my sister at Near to Nothing and I like to pull out the sewing machine whenever I can. Other than that, I'm busy at home, taking care of James and Hannah as well as maintaining our home. It's such a rewarding job and I love it!

Rejoice in My Sufferings!?

2012-01-09T00:10:00.000-08:00

You know how you can read and hear a passage so many times and yet still find or realize something new about it? I love how God brings to light the truths we need at just the right time. I'm working on a newsletter-type post for the blog to update everyone on our 2011 and in the process of reflecting, I've realized that last year was, by far, the most difficult year of my life. It had its joys, but it was also full of much heartache, hardship, and grieving which, I hate to admit, left me questioning God's goodness at times. It was tough, but God is faithful and James and I both learned a lot this past year (and realized how much we still have left to learn!). Anyway, as I'm reflecting on our trials of the past year, I came across Romans 5 and was particularly struck by the end of verse 2-5. It says,

...and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. MORE THAN THAT, WE REJOICE IN OUR SUFFERINGS, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. (ESV, emphasis added)

I actually had to read that several times to make sure I was reading it correctly. Of course I know that we are to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Isn't that what hope is? But then the next phrase jumped out and grabbed me. "More than that, we rejoice in the our sufferings..." Ummm...I'm supposed to be rejoicing more in my sufferings than in the hope of the glory of God? What?

I like what my study Bible has to say about this passage. It says,

The people of God rejoice not only in future glory but in present trials and sufferings, not because trials are pleasant but because they produce a step-by-step transformation that makes believers more like Christ.

Boy, was that convicting! Yes, we rejoice in the future hope we have in Christ, but more than just knowing Christ, our suffering and trials make us like Christ which should cause us to rejoice even more! I don't know about you, but rejoicing isn't the first thing that comes to my mind when I'm in the midst of a trial. I pray that as I work through my current trials and whatever new trials 2012 brings, I will be able to rejoice in them!

Cleaning/Chores Schedule and Some Thoughts

2012-01-07T23:14:00.000-08:00

On Facebook I mentioned that I was working on a new cleaning/chores schedule and got a lot of questions about it, so I decided to post it here for those who are interested. The amount of stuff that I have to do everyday is a bit daunting when I see it all written out, but it's all stuff that pretty much has to be done!

Before you take a look, please consider the following points:

I don't expect that I'm going to be able to complete every chore every single day, but at least I have a goal.
My annual, semi-annual, and monthly chores may seem to be stretching it. For example, am I really going to wash the inside and outside of my windows and clean my cupboard doors every month? Probably not, but I know that if I didn't get to it this month, it'll be on my list next month and will still get done regularly enough to accomplish my overall goal of not letting anything get out of control. Before you think I'm crazy for hoping to clean my outside windows every month, you have to know that I have a small condo will windows on only one side and only the sliding glass door and one small window are accessible from outside, so cleaning the outside windows is a pretty simple task for me.
I know there will be days that I won't be home much or things just won't go as planned (i.e. extra time needed shepherding/teaching Hannah, sickness, etc.) and I won't be able to complete my list for that day. I'm going into this knowing these days will happen and I'll just get done whatever I can. If it's something I know is coming up (like a day out), I will try to spread out that day's chores over the other days so they still get done.
I have only tested this schedule for 1 week and it wasn't a normal week, either. James was off work Monday and Hannah and I went to Disneyland on Wednesday. I didn't get everything done, but I got 90% of it done and my house is still in order! I expect that I will be making changes and adjustments to my schedule as the weeks and months go by, but this is a good starting point for me.
Additionally, to help in my planning/organization, I'm typing out all of the recipes my family likes so that I have them in one spot. Right now they are all over the place: on my blog, on different websites, in various cookbooks, in a notebook, in my email inbox, on Pinterest, etc., so meal planning can be daunting going to all these different sources. Having all of our tried and true recipes in one place will make sitting down to plan out our meals for the week much easier and more efficient.
Lastly, I've attached PDF's of my schedules. I tried attaching Word documents that can be customized, but the formatting didn't transfer over, so until I figure that out, this'll have to do. I realize this isn't the best method for everyone, but I'm a list person and making a list that will work all year long (as opposed to sitting down each week or each night to make my lists) will save me a lot of time.

Daily Chores
Weekly Chores
Monthly/Semi-Annual/Annual Chores

Believe it or not, immediately after I published this post, I ran across this post from Desiring God. It has to do with how God and our worship of Him needs to be a part of our entire day (even the medial things, like cleaning), not just the time we specifically designate as quiet time or whatnot. I figured since it has so much to do with what I just posted, I needed to put a link. Go take a minute and read it; it's a great reminder!

Hannah Potato Head

2011-12-27T21:05:00.000-08:00

For the record, she came up with this all by herself.

Mrs. Potato Head

2011-12-26T21:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T20:56:00.000-08:00

Hannah picked this one out all by herself!

This is why it's so fun to give this girl presents!

The kids got to use one of their presents at dinner.

Christmas Eve Tradition

2011-12-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

Ice cream sundaes! Yum!

Best Friends!

2011-12-23T20:52:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure Linnea's not allowed to move halfway across the country. :(

Stockings

2011-12-22T20:47:00.000-08:00

They may look more like boots, but they're our (temporary) stockings!

Look What Hannah Found!

2011-12-21T19:00:00.000-08:00

Kristin, I think you were the one who gave these to James!

Making Christmas Cards...

2011-12-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

Bubbles + Glow Sticks + Dark Bathroom =

2011-12-19T21:07:00.000-08:00

FUN!

Getting closer...

2011-12-18T14:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas Lights

2011-12-17T23:15:00.000-08:00

People around here go all out for Christmas. Here's just a snippet of some of the neighborhoods around here:

They even deck out their cars!

I told James I would love to live in a neighborhood like this. All the neighbors were outside hanging out with one another!!!

Family Vacation Video

2011-12-16T23:09:00.000-08:00

While at the grocery store, the song "Wipeout" came on. Hannah got very excited and said, "We watched that song! They were running and jumping!" Of course, she was talking about our family vacation video from last year (this girl has a crazy memory). As soon as we got home, she wanted to watch the video. Here she is, utterly content to watch our vacation video. Thanks for putting it together, Uncle David!

Puzzle

2011-12-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

Tea Cups

2011-12-13T23:04:00.000-08:00

A Kodak Moment...

2011-12-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

17 Days 'til Christmas!

2011-12-09T22:57:00.000-08:00

Waiting for Cookies to Bake...

2011-12-08T23:02:00.000-08:00

Bubbles!

2011-12-07T22:55:00.000-08:00

Reading to Mouse

2011-12-06T22:53:00.000-08:00

Helping with Laundry

2011-12-05T22:52:00.000-08:00

Shopping...

2011-11-28T22:49:00.000-08:00

Home Life

2011-11-27T22:00:00.000-08:00

These are probably often going to come in clumps and will be postdated, so each time I post them, make sure to scroll down to see them all!

Decorating her own little tree.

Home Life

2011-11-23T13:10:00.000-08:00

I have a helper. :)

Pictures

2011-11-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying the 52home posts over on girltalk ever since they started doing them last year and I've been thinking that doing something similar would be fun. For those of you who aren't familiar with girltalk, 52home is a series in which they take pictures of everyday life. So, I've decided to do something like it, although I'm pretty positive mine won't be a daily occurrence. Anyway, enjoy the first one!

I was having trouble opening this jar (I'm a weakling), so Hannah said, "Let me help you, Mommy!"

County Fair

2011-10-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that we had gone to the LA County Fair. James, Hannah, and I had gone with my family when they were here for Hannah's birthday. It was the opening weekend and they had $1 admission, so we all headed down to the fair for a day of fun! We were surprised that when we bought our tickets, we were also given free tickets to come back during the week sometime! The fair admission is normally $17 dollars, so to get TWO days for $1 was an amazing deal! Since my family wouldn't be here to use the tickets later on, we invited Aaron and Kim to come with us. We had a blast!

They had the most adorable section for little girls. It was an area with a whole array of princess dresses the girls could wear, along with every accessory you can think of: shoes, tiaras, necklaces, boas, earrings, etc. They also had a little play house area set up for the girls to play. Needless to say, this was a highlight of the trip for the girls!!!

Princess Linnea

Princess Hannah

This princess irons! And check out those shoes. She insisted on wearing those!

The littlest princess

There's a HUGE garden with model trains and towns in it. It's amazing and so intricate!

Hannah got to wear some sparklies on her eye lids. :)

I don't know these two crazies. :)

Preschool: Week 3

2011-09-25T23:25:00.000-07:00

We took last week off to go to Disneyland, but hopefully this week we'll be able to get back into our routine! Before our trip, we learned about the letter "C"! Here are some pictures from a couple weeks ago.

Playing Colorama with Daddy!

Things that begin with "C": Talking with the cousins on the computer, corn, cup, comb, car, cake, candle, camera, card, and clippy (pardon my naked child).

We made clouds with cotton balls!

A special snack of crackers with cream cheese.

We went on a walk to look for things that start with "C' and also for things that are squares, since we were learning about squares. We found a curb and some crunchy leaves!

Of course, we had to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

And then we made our own caterpillar paper chain! (Sorry for the lack of pants. One of these days my daughter will be fully clothed.) :)

Hanging out with her cousin in the car!

At the county fair!

Made paper cupcakes!

Since it was "C" week and we were talking about caterpillars, we also talked about how they make cocoons and turn into butterflies, so we made our own butterflies! Phase 1: color a coffee filter with washable markers.

Phase 2: Spray with a spray bottle 2-3 times.

Phase 3: Wrap pipe cleaner around the center and, voila! You've got butterflies!

We also learned about Adam and Eve and had some projects correlating to that, but I don't have pictures. Sorry!

Disneyland

2011-09-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

Last week was another week of fun school projects, but I'll blog about that later. There's something more fun and exciting that has taken place in our family this week! :) We've had a pretty large Disney gift card sitting around our house for a while now, just waiting to be used. We'd been wanting and planning to take Hannah to Disneyland since Christmas, but just never actually did it. After mulling it over, we finally decided to go! Thanks to so many of you for helping pay the way (you probably didn't even know you were helping!)! We took Hannah's birthday money and saved some Christmas money from when we were originally planning on going, along with our gift card, and went! It was a blast! Thankfully I have an aunt who lives about 5 miles away from Disneyland who let us crash at her place for a few nights. It was really great, because we could just go back to the house, eat lunch and even give Hannah a nap (which made for a much more pleasant time all-around). :) Instead of me telling you about our trip, let me show you instead - I think it'll be much more enjoyable for you. :)

On the "train" (tram) to get from the parking garage to the park. This ended up being a highlight of the trip for Hannah. She was never sad about leaving the park, because it meant riding the "train." :)

If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you'll be ale to see Hannah's cute little hand waving.

My cute, crazy husband. :)

Loving the tea cups.

The World of Color show at California Adventure is amazing!!! It's unbelievable what they can do with water and lights.

We were on the Ferris wheel when Hannah spotted Buzz Lightyear walking through the park and started yelling to him. "Hey, Buzz! I'm on a ride!"

You can now purchase life-size Hannah Grace action figures!

A highlight for Hannah. Before going to Disneyland, the only thing she knew about it is that Buzz, Woody, and Jesse live there. :)

One of our friends wrote a book called Discovering the Magic Kingdom. I have yet to read it, but James did and in the book, we found out that we can ride in the wheel house of the Mark Twain Riverboat!!! Hannah even got to help "steer" the boat!

That's the boat Hannah got to "steer."

It took a few days for her to warm up to the characters. You'll notice that in all the other pictures, either James or I am holding her. This was the first time she approached one by herself and gave him a hug. :)

After 2 1/2 days at Disneyland. :)

Here's Hannah on the tram with a year's worth of sunscreen on her face.

Translation:
Me: Where are we right now?
Hannah: On a train.
Me: But where's the train?
Hannah: Right here. (Haha...obviously!) :)
Me: Where's it taking us?
Hannah: Uhhh...this way.
Me: But where are we going?
Hannah: Uhhh...to....
Me: To Disneyland?
Hannah: Disneyland!!!

This one's really cute. It's Hannah on the tea cups. Thankfully it's dark and you can't see much so you won't get motion sickness from all the spinning. BUT you can still hear the cute laughter and squeals (plus get a glimpse of Hannah every once in a while).

Hannah "steering" the boat.

A video of just a small portion of The World of Color. It's not as impressive, because we were watching it from behind, but if you watch it from the front, you they project images and movies onto the water - it's amazing!

Preschool: Week 2

2011-09-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

Last week we embarked on our second week of preschool! It was a very special week as we learned about the letter "B" and it just happened to be Hannah's Birthday that week! Here's a sampling of some of our projects this week:

We learned that on day 3 of creation, God separated the land from the water, so we made the world with it's land and water. Take a coffee filter, color green for land and blue for water. Lightly spray it with a spray bottle; let dry. The colors will run together and you'll be left with a world! Sorry I don't have a picture of the finished product, but you can see what it's supposed to look like here: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/earth/mcoffeefilter.htm

We made a Bird puppet!

We had a birthday celebration with lots of balloons!

"B" objects from around the house: bag, bun, ball, baby, balloon, book, backpack, box, bear, bow, blanky, bunny, Bob the Builder, brush...

Preschool!

2011-09-14T00:33:00.000-07:00

This year I've decided I would try to do homeschool preschool! It's been fun, and Hannah and I are both learning a lot through this endeavor. Hannah is learning how to have a little bit more of a structured day (doing what activities Mommy says when Mommy says). She is loving all the activities and projects! I am learning lots of patience! :)

I decided I would try to blog some of our activities each week, mainly for my own records. You can come along for the ride, too, if you'd like! We're on our third week, so I'm a little behind, but I figure better late than never!

Week 1

We learned about the letter A! She did a pretty good job tracing them!

Hannah was practicing her little a's, then decided she'd turn it into a person.

Big A!

Special A snack: Apples!

Apron starts with A!

Working on her fine motor skills!

*Almost* straight lines! Not bad for a 3-year-old, I guess!

Learning about creation and how God created light. The Oreo half on the left is what there was before God created light and the Oreo on the right is after God created light (or maybe it's just an excuse to eat Oreos). :)

We didn't do a whole lot the first week, because we were waiting for a birthday present from Bapa and Mama which contained most of her preschool supplies, but we had fun nonetheless!

Our Baby's THREE!

2011-09-08T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ok, I understand that technically a three-year-old isn't a baby anymore, but I think Hannah will always be my baby! It's hard to believe that she's three! It feels like we just had her, but that we've known her forever all at the same time! We named her Hannah (which means grace) Grace, and she really is a gift of grace from God to us. We have learned so much from Hannah - about her, about ourselves, and about our heavenly Father.

For those of you who weren't around to enjoy her birthday festivities, here are just a few pictures from our fun!

Hannah LOVES firetrucks, so she was thrilled with her cake! For those of you who are interested, it was chocolate cake filled with chocolate mousse, caramel, toasted almonds, and chocolate chunks.


She loved having everyone sing to her! And I do realize that it's ironic to have flames coming out of the top of a firetruck. :)

The previous picture is such a nice change from her reaction when we sang to her at her first birthday! :)

Since her party was on Saturday, but her birthday wasn't until Wednesday, we decorated the house so that when she woke up on her actual birthday, she would realize it was a special day! She LOVED it and told me it was "beautiful"!

I hung up some baby pictures of her and she really enjoyed looking at baby Hannah!

Birthday pancakes! She blew out the candles all by herself in one puff!

She is very animated when she opens presents/cards! :)

We don't normally let her drink ketchup, but since it was her birthday....

Here's Hannah's reaction to the decorations when she woke up on her birthday:

And here's her opening Papa and Grandma's card:

Translation:
Once she opens the card and sees the stickers: "Oh goodness! Stickers! They're pretty.
Once she pulls out the check: "A other card! So beautiful!"

Seeing Double

2011-08-20T10:44:00.000-07:00

We're enjoying our time with Grandma and Aunt Kristin and I've got lots of pictures to post later, but I couldn't help but post this one now. We always knew that Hannah looked like Aunt Kristin, but it is amazing how much she looks like her.

The One You Need

2011-08-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

Here is a new Shane and Shane video for those of us with daughters. - James

Our Summer (So Far) in Pictures

2011-08-03T17:21:00.000-07:00

The months have been flying by and we've been busy! The easiest way for me to catch up on what we've been up to is through pictures, so here we go!

On our way to my parents', we stopped to visit some friends and their 2(?) week old baby. Hannah LOVED him!

We went to Keanna's 7th birthday party!

April likes rice, though I'm not sure if any of it actually made it into her mouth!

Hannah went to her first Guide Dog Puppy Class!

Playing drums at the county fair with her cousins.

James and Hannah went down the Super Slide about 20 times! There were no lines, so they could go on whatever rides they wanted as many times as they wanted!

Hannah went on EVERYTHING she was tall enough to ride, including this roller coaster. If you look closely, you can see her little hands up in the air!

Keanna and one of the boys (I honestly don't know which one this was) waiting for their daddy and Uncle James to get off this ride.

We took Hannah to a free night at a children's museum! She enjoyed watching the bees.

James and Hannah climbing one of the towers at the museum!

She got to ride a tricycle at the museum, too!

Hannah's favorite mode of transportation these days is as "Daddy's pack-pack."

Ran my first 5K on July 4!

We've spent quite a bit of time at the beach this summer! Hannah loves it!

Visiting Hannah's 96-year-old great-great Aunt Pearl!

Mama and Bapa came to visit!

Beach Beauty!

Hannah makes friends everywhere she goes!

Mama and Bapa spoiled us and took us to see the Winnie the Pooh movie (and even got popcorn)!!!

I let Hannah pick out nail polish! So, so fun!

Pretty in pink!

Hannah surprised me one day by coloring (almost) in the lines!

How to Keep Cool

2011-07-28T12:19:00.000-07:00

If you've ever been to our house in the summer, you know we don't really use our air conditioner. Instead, we've found some much cheaper (and WAY more fun) ways to keep cool. :) Here's one of our favorites.

Step 1: If you're a toddler, strip down to your underwear. Note: for the sake of all others, adults should skip this step. :)

Step 2: Sit on the floor in front of a box fan. Turn fan on high.

Step 3: Spray each other with water.

Step 4: Spray yourself in the face.

Step 5: If you're thirsty, go ahead and aim for your mouth. Otherwise, just shoot for the face.

Step 6: Make cute faces.

Sunset

2011-07-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

It's been hot here lately...and humid. While I've learned to withstand the heat, the humidity is really getting to me! There is one nice thing that has resulted from the humidity, though, and that is clouds. Last night, while on a walk, I took note of the beautiful clouds strewn throughout the sky. I turned to James and mentioned that the clouds would produce a beautiful sunset. So once we got back from our walk, we gave Hannah a quick bath then jumped in the car and drove up to a hill by our house to watch the sunset. It was amazing! The whole time we were watching the sun set and sky turn all sorts of beautiful colors, Hannah asked, "Are we watching the sunset? Is it going to be pretty?" Then, once we got in the car to go home, she informed us that she wanted to watch the sunset again. It only comes once a day, child.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into our beautiful sunset!

We're just getting started!

My heart is melting.

They found the moon!

Now that the sun's down, the clouds are starting to get some color.

We had a great time enjoying God's artwork! As I sat here typing this, I realized that as a result of the icky humidity, we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset in the same way that through our trials, we're able to more fully enjoy God's grace and love.

Thank You, Grandma and Papa!!!

2011-06-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Grandma and Papa,

Thank you for the dollar you sent me to get a treat for using the potty!!! I was so excited to get ice cream! Daddy kept trying to eat some of it, but I made sure he knew it was for me! I love you!

Love,
Hannah Grace

Blessings

2011-06-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

I love when God brings the perfect verse to mind, the right person in our lives, or even the right song in our lives at just the perfect moment. That happened to me recently with the song, "Blessings" by Laura Story. We all go through various trials and it can seem that God is so distant, but it's usually at those times that we learn the most about Him and His love. This song has been a great encouragement and reminder to me in the midst of a very difficult time. I think all believers will be able to relate to this song in one way or another. I would highlight some of the lyrics, but I would probably end up writing the whole song, so have a listen for yourselves! :)

Also, on an unrelated note, you can get 5 free rentals from Blockbuster Express through this coming Monday, the 13th!! Get the promo codes here!

Pictures

2011-05-24T22:14:00.000-07:00

A while back, we babysat Linnea while her mommy and daddy got away for a weekend. While we had her, we decided it would be fun to surprise Kim and Aaron with some cute pictures of Linnea (they still don't know about these...so...SURPRISE!). So we trekked out with Hannah's rocking chair to get some nice pictures. However, by the time we got both girls ready and got out there, they were both hungry and tired. Hungry + tired toddlers = not so great pictures. Needless to say, I didn't quite get the pictures I was looking for, but we did get some cute ones. Here are a few of them. We'll just have to trek out again sometime in the future when they're both happy....and maybe when Kim and/or Aaron can come along too to help get them looking and the camera AND smiling! :) Enjoy!

I love this one!

We finally pulled out the mice (they each have a stuffed mouse they're attached to) to entice smiles.

And....time for a water break.

Our stubborn daughter would neither look at the camera nor smile.

We're starting to lose it....

Ahhhh...nothing like Cheerios. Except it's hard to get good pictures when they're stuffing their faces with fistfuls of Cheerios. :)

"Would you PLEASE stop making us sit here?!"

Awwwwwwwwww!!!!

Love little feet!

They were much happier once we let them run around.

Thank you for the matching dresses, Grandma (and Papa)!!!!

Amazing!

2011-05-23T20:45:00.000-07:00

Last night, James and I sat down to watch an interview Desiring God did with Elyse Fitzpatrick on her new book, Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus. Let me just tell you, it blew us away and gave us so much to think about as we raise Hannah. We've heard/read a lot of Christian books, articles, discussions, etc. on parenting, but this is probably the most effective thing we've heard and I'm excited to read the book in the near future.

The interview is pretty long - 1 1/2 hours, but I promise you, it's well worth your time! Even if you have to break it apart into a few chunks, I would encourage you to make the time and watch it! You can find it here.

Our Big Girl!

2011-05-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

There's been some excitement in the Parker house recently. With James home from work, we decided this would be the optimal time to potty train, since we could share the responsibility. Well, that and that fact that Hannah's over 2 1/2 and has been ready for potty training for a long time - I just hadn't gotten around to it yet. So, last week we decided that we would start on Monday (yesterday) - no excuses! I think we were both dreading it, but our daughter is a potty training champ! :)

We had heard of the potty boot camp method, where you lock yourself in the bathroom with your child ALL DAY. For some, this is a very quick and effective method, but we decided we would only do this if we had to (something about being locked in our tiny bathroom with a 2 1/2 year old just wasn't appealing). Instead, we would just let her run around without a diaper (or pants) and make it very clear to her that if she has to go, she needs to use the potty. Let me tell you, there's a benefit to waiting until they're 2 1/2 to potty train, because it comes easier to them and they understand a lot more! She told us when she had to go, then went! While we're not completely done potty training, we've had success with the no diaper method and are going to try panties tomorrow. Hannah is super excited about it!

Also, today was a very big day because Hannah learned how to do a somersault!! She's been trying for a while now, but always ended up flopping over to the side. Today she managed to do a full somersault!!! And then we couldn't stop her from doing them! I would have videos, but we're potty training...and she's been wearing nothing from the waist down. While it is very cute and adorable, it's not quite web appropriate. :)

And for those of you who don't have Facebook (ahem, Kristin), here are a few recent pictures:

First trip to the dentist = success!!! She prays and thanks Jesus for the toys at the dentist - no joke!

Even though you can't see her face, this is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Hannah.

She LOVES playing in the dirt!

Giving Daddy one of her "special kisses."

LOVE!

Best friends!

Firetrucks!

2011-05-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

Stereotypically, firetrucks are something boys are interested in. Hannah, however, isn't interested in stereotypes. Whenever we hear a siren, she exclaims, "FIRETRUCK!" Every time there's a firetruck parked in a parking lot we're in, we take a detour and either drive by the firetruck or walk over to it for a closer look.

When we found out that there were going to be pink firetrucks at our mall, we were pretty excited! Yes, I did say pink firetrucks. They are firetrucks that have been painted pink and drive around the country raising awareness and support for cancer. You can find out more about them here. While it was fun to see the firetrucks up close and personal, Hannah knew these weren't real firetrucks, so she wasn't super excited about them. She did, however, get to sit in the trucks, which she liked. You can click on the pictures to see them better.

Look closely - little Hannah's sitting in the passenger seat!

The firefighters even wore pink uniforms! Hannah gave one of the firemen knuckles. :)

The firetrucks are covered in names of women who have/have had/died from cancer. We have several women in our family who have died from cancer, so my mom wrote their names. Here, she's writing my grandma's name.

As if pink firetrucks weren't enough, today was Fire Service Day and many fire stations across the US had open houses. Thankfully, there's a fire station right down the street from us, so we walked over and got a personal tour of the trucks and station. It took Hannah a little while to warm up, but once she did, she had a great time! She kept asking to drive the firetruck!

She got her wish and got to "drive" the firetruck!

Sitting at the table where the firefighters eat their meals. They have quite the set-up in there!!!

"Driving" the chief battalion's SUV. They even let her turn the lights on!

Looking at the lights she turned on!

She wanted the seat belt on!

The cutest firefighter there ever was!

The fireman who showed us around is a driver, so he said he spent a lot of time memorizing maps of the area. James decided to quiz him and gave him our address and he knew exactly where we lived right down to the name of our complex! Pretty amazing, if you ask me, especially since there are several condo complexes on our street! We learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I think Hannah's going to want to stop at the fire station every time we drive by now. :) The station we went to also has a ladder truck, but it was out at an HOA pool that had flooded, so we didn't get to explore that one. :( Maybe some other time. :)

Sweet Encouragment for ALL Women this Mother's Day, Plus a Sweet Deal!

2011-05-07T22:19:00.001-07:00

Today a friend of mine had shared a link on Facebook that caught my attention. The link led me to a blog post titled, "For Moms, Former Moms, and Wannabe Moms." You see, this caught my attention because I fall into two of these categories. I fall into the "Mom" category, one of God's many gifts of grace in my life for which I'm so thankful, but I also fall into the "Wannabe Moms" category, which isn't always as easy to be thankful for. Up until recently, I hadn't really shared with anyone (with the exception of family and a couple close friends), but we've been struggling with secondary infertility. Though we have been through numerous trials in our 5 years of marriage, this is by far the most difficult. Hopefully I'll be able to share more about this journey which God is leading us through at another time, but for now, I just want to share a small portion.

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, which I'm anticipating will be a bittersweet day for me. While I will enjoy celebrating the joy that comes with motherhood, it will be another reminder of the children I don't and maybe never will have. However, as Wendy points out in her post (which I would encourage you all to read),

...understand that unfulfilled desire is a tool He uses to give you even better things – things of Himself that you cannot know in easy ways. Believe in confidence that this time of waiting is not just a holding pattern with no discernible value, but it too is a blessing, albeit in disguise, as it increases your strength to run and not grow weary and to walk and not to faint.

This is something that I've had to preach to myself daily. God is not allowing this to happen because of any reason other than that He loves me. While the world may try to convince me otherwise, I know this to be true. I can be thankful for my trial because it forces and causes me to look to the gospel on more than a daily basis. Through the pain and tears, I'm able to have hope because I know that God loves me, is in sovereign control over my life, that He is doing what is best for me, and that there are far greater things (even greater than children) to come!

Ok, now on a completely unrelated note (but I wanted to let you all know), Starbucks is offering half-price frappuccinos during happy hour (between 3 and 5) until May 15! You can go here to get more info.

My Awesome Husband!

2011-03-27T20:57:00.000-07:00

Well, James may no longer have a job, but he's still bringing home the bacon! Last night was the 2nd annual Tripoley Tournament and I'm proud to announce that my husband came home victorious!!! As some of you may remember, he also won last year! There weren't as many people playing this year, so his winnings weren't as large, but we're still super thrilled! It'll be nice to be able to go out on a few mini dates, since our date fund is pretty much non-existent these days. The Lord is providing and will continue to provide, even in unconventional ways...like Tripoley Tournaments. :)

Convicted by My 2-Year-Old

2011-03-17T22:32:00.000-07:00

As the mom of a 2 1/2-year-old, I spend a lot of time instructing and correcting my daughter's behavior and attitude. Tonight, however, the tides turned and she ended up pointing out my sin. During a conversation James and I had, I didn't have a very submissive attitude towards him, and I became quite upset. Hannah looked at me and said, "Mommy need to obey Daddy." Ouch. And then she rubbed salt in the wound by saying, "Mommy need to have happy heart." Uh....how do I respond to that? She was absolutely right, I wasn't being submissive and I didn't have a happy heart. It's a very humbling experience when your toddler recognizes the sin in your life and points it out, but I'm so thankful for how God is using her to make me more Christ-like! I'm also thankful for the work He's doing in her life - that she's even able to recognize sin and realize what the proper response should be.

Happy Birthday, Aunt Kimmy!

2010-08-16T14:23:00.000-07:00

Today is Aunt Kimmy's birthday, and we've been awfully excited about it! Hannah's been singing Happy Birthday all morning. We took a video just in case she gets shy when she actually sees the birthday girl tonight. :)

Her version of the song goes, "Happy to you! Happy to you!" She was a little distracted and only sang one line of the song, because she's discovered that you can actually see pictures and videos on the camera, which is what she was asking when she said, "See."

Near to Nothing

2010-06-28T22:15:00.001-07:00

My sister and I have been talking about starting a blog for a long time now, and we finally did it!!! We have been asked on several occasions to share our kitchen "secrets," so here they are! The main point is to share recipes, tips, strategies, etc. for preparing meals on a tight budget. So head on over and check out Near to Nothing!!!

Happy Anniversary, My Love!

2010-06-24T21:54:00.001-07:00

Today is our anniversary. Unfortunately, we're both miserably sick, so we're postponing our celebration until we actually feel like celebrating. I guess it's just a reminder of our vow that we took to love each other "in sickness and in health." :)

It's hard to believe that it's been four years since we said, "I do." It's hard to remember a time when I didn't know James, and it's hard to imagine what life would be like without him. I'm so thankful for these four years we've had together. Though they've not always been easy, they've been good. There have been times of laughing, crying, hoping, praying, loving, confessing, forgiving... I could go on and on. We pray that the Lord will bless us with another 60+ years (wow, we'll be OLD!) together, and all of the joy and trials that come with those years!! I love you, honey!

Monterey

2010-06-05T20:10:00.000-07:00

James and I were blessed to be able to go on a mini vacation last weekend. It was our first vacation in over two years, so we were REALLY looking forward to it. It was also our first time away from Hannah, which wasn't really as hard as I thought it would be. It actually worked out really well for us. Keanna's birthday party was last Saturday (and also happened to be my Mom's birthday), so we surprised Keanna by showing up at her party (I love surprises like that!), then James and I left Hannah with my parents and went to Monterey. It was a wonderful time for us to spend time together without the distraction of work, home, Hannah, etc. Did I say it was wonderful? The last year-and-a-half has been a very busy and stressful season for our family, so we were excited to be able to get away. And I think Hannah had fun on her little "vacation," as well. She had a blast playing with all the fun toys at Mama and Bapa's house, and playing with her cousins. She LOVES other kids, and I'm sure she's going to have the time of her life playing with all her Pichura cousins this summer! :) Anyway, here are some pictures from our trip.

Hannah got a very special treat at Keanna's birthday party - ice cream!!!

The Lone Cypress on the 17 Mile Drive.

We went back to where James proposed to me almost 5 years ago! Spanish Bay along the 17 Mile Drive.

James in Carmel, with Pebble Beach behind him.

I saw this in a restaurant, and figured all members of the Parker family were represented here. Moxie for Dave and the Red Sox for everyone else. :) James agreed!

Monterey is gorgeous!!

We went black light mini golfing.

We went to Dennis the Menace Park, which was super fun! We got to be little kids again! :) And since we went at night, there was no one there!
James on a climbing wall at the park.

Now that we've had our relaxing vacation, we're ready for the crazy (in a good way, of course!) family vacation next month! :)

Truly a Parker

2010-05-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

Making great strides in the speech department:

Homemade Brownies and Pitas

2010-05-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

For those of you who asked for my brownie and/or pita recipes, I figured this was the easiest way to get it to all of you. If you know anything about me, I have this strange need to alter just about every recipe I try. Anyway, I'll post the original recipes, then give you my alterations.

I got the brownie recipe from AllRecipes. Here is the original recipe:

1 cup butter, melted
3 cups white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 baking dish.
Combine the melted butter, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each, until thoroughly blended.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture until blended. Stir in the chocolate morsels. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared baking dish.
Bake in preheated oven until an inserted toothpick comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove, and cool pan on wire rack before cutting.

**My alterations: Instead of using 3 cups white sugar, I used 2 cups white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar. Also, instead of using 1 cup cocoa powder, I used about 1/3 cup cocoa powder and 2/3 cup dark cocoa powder.

And here's the pita recipe:

1 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

1. In a large bowl, combine first 4 ingredients. Add 1 cup of the flour, along with the yeast, and stir to mix. Add remaining flour and knead to make a soft dough. (Add additional flour if necessary during kneading.)

Alternately, if you have a bread machine, you can put the ingredients in the pan in the order listed and use the dough cycle. Skip to step 3 if using your bread machine! :)

2. Put your dough into a bowl, lightly oil the top, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise, until almost double (about an hour). I like to turn my oven on for a minute or two, then turn it off, and let the dough rise in there, since our house is cool.

3. Punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 6- or 7-inch circle.

4. As you roll the rounds, set them aside on a lightly floured countertop or table, and cover loosely with a towel. Let rise for about 25-35 minutes, until slightly puffy. (The rounds will still be thin though! :D)

5. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place 2 rounds, side-by-side, onto a wire rack, such as is used for cooling things. Place rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 4-5 minutes, until puffy and just slightly browned. (If bread is too browned, it will be dry and not pliable.)

6. Remove rack from oven and immediately wrap/layer pita breads in a damp towel, to soften. Continue baking the remaining breads, layering them between damp towels as soon as they're baked. Allow breads to completely cool.

7. Cut pita breads in half, or split the top edge, and fill as desired. :)

8. Store pitas in a plastic zipper bag in the fridge for a few days, or place in the freezer for longer storage. To re-warm pitas, wrap them in a damp towel and then wrap in foil. Place in a warm (200-250 degree) oven for about 20 minutes.

**My alterations: Instead of 3 cups all-purpose flour, I used 2 cups all-purpose and 1 cup whole wheat flour. It's not as healthy as whole wheat pitas, but definitely a little better than using all processed flour. :) If you're looking for a whole wheat pita recipe, there's one here. I haven't tried it, so I don't know how it is, but it's from the same site as the recipe I posted above, so it's probably pretty good.

The Many Faces of Hannah Grace

2010-05-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

As most of you probably already know, Hannah is a huge ham. For those of you who didn't know that about her, let me show you. Keep in mind that all of these pictures were taken within the span of about a minute or less.

This one's just plain scary:

Hannah loves to dance...as long as no one's around...except Daddy and Mommy.

Hannah and Linnea absolutely LOVE each other! It's so neat to watch them play and interact with one another. Linnea thinks Hannah is quite funny and entertaining. :) Hannah thinks the same about Linnea.

Beautiful Creation

2010-04-26T14:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday we had the privilege of going to the Poppy Preserve in Lancaster. The park covers almost 1,800 acres and the state doesn't water or stimulate the flowers, so everything is natural. It was absolutely gorgeous and we marveled at God's AMAZING creation!! Uncle Aaron, Aunt Kimmy, and Linnea came with us, and we borrowed a van so that we could all ride together. It was a great day! Here are (more than) a few pictures:

Ok, I'm tired of trying to walk through all these flowers. Can you please pick me up now?

And now, the pictures everyone's been looking and waiting for:

Is Hannah already trying to blame her baby cousin for things? It looks like she's saying, "She did it!" :)

Kisses...
...and hugs! They love each other!

The girls seemed to enjoy sitting next to each other in the van. They held hands and shared toys - it was precious!!!

Hannahisms

2010-04-08T17:32:00.001-07:00

Hannah has a couple of fetishes/habits. These include, but are not limited to:

Closing anything that is open (cabinets, doors, drawers, the fridge when we're trying to get something out. James said we should get her a Papelbon jersey, since she's our "closer" - haha... yeah, it's Parker humor.)
*Trying* to play with fruit (when she sees oranges or grapefruits, she yells, "Ball" and tries to get it, so she can throw it around the house). I say "trying" because we don't let her.
Brushing her teeth
Purses
Shoes (and the sound they make on hard floors)
Plants (we took her to the zoo, and she was more interested in touching all the plants than looking at the animals. Same on our walks - she loves to touch all the plants.)
Other kids (she LOVED the time she spent with her cousins at Easter, and I can't wait for her to get to play with her Pichura cousins!)
Having clean hands (if there is even the smallest piece of fuzz on her hands, she comes up to me, whining to get it off.)
Knocking on doors (I've had to stop her from knocking on our neighbor's door)
Reading books aloud (and upside down)
Being outside (I've learned to be careful about using the word "walk" around our house. When she hears it, her face lights up, and she runs to get her shoes. This word is now only to be used when we're actually going to go for a walk.)
The blanket from Papa and Grandma
Her stuffed mouse, followed by any stuffed animal
Mirrors

And just to even things out a big, here are some things she loathes:

The vacuum cleaner
Getting water in her face (you should have seen her reaction when we put all four of the Fujita grandkids in the bathtub and one of the boys thought it would be fun to dump a cup of water over Hannah's head. Yeah. Let's just say I've never seen her so anxious to get out of the tub.)
That's pretty much it. Can't think of anything else. This girl is a pretty happy girl.

Here's a video we took of Hannah, which includes a couple of her fetishes.

Since most of you probably don't speak Hannahese, here's a translation:
"Knock, knock. Something even Mommy can't understand. Door. Something Mommy can't understand."

Then comes the stomping of the foot. These shoes are WAY to big for her, but she found them (or, one of the them) and put it on herself (on the wrong foot, of course) and proceeded to walk around, stomping on the hard floors, because she likes the sound. I can't blame her, because I remember liking the sound of my shoes clicking on the ground when I was a little girl, too. Am I the only one, or is that a "normal" little girl thing?

How Many Lines Do YOU Have?

2010-03-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, Hannah added a neurologist to her list of medical specialists she has seen. For only being 18-months-old and healthy, this girl's seen a lot of specialists! She's been to an ophthalmologist, a pediatric ophthalmologist, a geneticist, and now a neurologist. As I mentioned in a previous post, she was referred to the neurologist since her soft spot hasn't closed yet. The neurologist didn't seem too concerned, since Hannah appears to be a healthy little girl and is developing right on schedule. The doctor mentioned that sometimes a Vitamin D deficiency or thyroid problem could lead to the soft spot staying open, but as she watched Hannah walk play in the exam room during her appointment, she kept saying that she looked to be very healthy and didn't think these were factors. She ordered a blood test anyway, just to make sure. She also ordered an ultrasound of her soft spot to make sure there was no fluid in there. The neurologist really doesn't suspect that anything's wrong and told us that many babies' soft spots don't close until 2-years of age. Regardless, I'm thankful they're being proactive, as Kaiser isn't always known to do so.

One other thing she noticed were Hannah's hands. She only has one line/crease that goes all the way across her hands. Most people have two lines going across their hands, but neither line goes all the way across. She said having one line go all the way across is common among people with Down's Syndrome (which we know she doesn't have, by the way). She said it may be linked to the chromosomal translocation that she (and James) has, and was going to check with the geneticist. It's not anything to be concerned about, just interesting. Anyway, once she pointed this out, we were curious as to whether anyone else in the family had only one line going across their hands, so we called James on our way home from the doctor. Sure enough, on both of his hands, he only has one line going across. My parents, my sister, and I all have two lines on both hands. So now we're wondering - all you Parkers (including Pichura kids) need to check your hands and see how many lines you have! :) We checked Kim and she has two. So, how many do you have?My hand is on the left. You can see two overlapping lines going across my hand. James's hand on the right only has one line going all the way across.

Hello Toddler; Goodbye Clean House!

2010-03-18T20:41:00.000-07:00

This is how I like my house to look. It's clean,
neat, organized, relaxing, and enjoyable:

This is how my house looks between the hours of 8:30 am
and 8:00 pm.It's messy, unorganized, and anything but relaxing:

This is why my house looks the way it does:

And I wouldn't want it any other way!

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
the fruit of the womb a reward.
Psalm 127:3

A Birthday and My Husband's Winnings!

2010-03-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

On Friday, I turned another year older. I am officially a quarter of a century old. James and I had a fun day. Unfortunately, he had to work, but we were able to meet for lunch at Egg Plantation, where you get a free meal on your birthday. I enjoyed my usual #74 - an omelet filled with Jack cheese, bacon, avocado, green onions, and tomato (minus the tomato for me). It was delicious, and if you ever make omelets at home, I highly recommend using these ingredients! For dinner, we headed to Benihana, where I had a coupon for a free meal on my birthday. That, too, was excellent and a very special treat, since places like Benihana aren't really in our food budget. :) It's always a fun experience to eat there, as they prepare your meal right in front of you. And James and I learned some very, um, interesting things as we had dinner, as there were five other ladies at our table, all of whom were either lawyers or currently in law school.

We were blessed to have one of the elders from church babysit Hannah while we were at dinner. His wife was sick, so it was just him and Hannah. Hannah likes just about everyone she meets (almost...), but there are some people with whom she has a natural attachment. This man is one of those people. There have been a couple times she has seen him at church (she didn't really know him very well at the time), where she walked right up to him and put her arms up for him to pick her up. :) From what we heard, they had a lot of fun, and we are so thankful for his servant's heart in giving up a Friday night to come play with our little girl!

Let me just say that my husband cracks me up. I had let him know all week that I could get the wrapping paper for him to wrap my presents (I knew he had gotten me presents, because he had been asking me to update my Amazon wish list and make sure everything was properly prioritized :) and I was there when he ordered it and when the package came). Anyway, he never asked for the wrapping paper, but still managed to "wrap" my present. If I tried to explain it to you, you might not believe me, so I'll let you see for yourself:

And what was inside, er, underneath the wrapping paper:Ok, so everyone knows that it's taboo to buy this sort of thing for your wife on her birthday, or any holiday for that matter. Well, I guess I'm not like most women, because these types of gifts absolutely THRILL me!! Seriously, I'm not joking! I've been wanting a cast iron skillet, and I can't wait to use it!!!

Now for the second part of the title: My Husband's Winnings. Last night, some friends of ours hosted a Tripoley tournament. There were 24 people in the tournament, and the buy-in for the tournament was a $5 gift card. Well, my amazing, card-playing husband ended up getting first place and got to take home 12 of those gift cards!! That was very exciting, and now we have some date "money" for a while! :) I think some sort of tournament of this nature might be necessary for the Parker family vacation this summer!

I'm so proud of him!!

And now for the part of the post that can be expected in just about any post I write: the Hannah part. She keeps us on our toes as to what she is going to do or say next. She now refers to her baby cousin, Linnea, as "Nay-nay" and it is absolutely adorable! Especially when she saw her at church this morning and ran up to her and said, "Nay-nay!!" unprompted. She's a polite little girl, saying "Teas" (please) when she wants something and "Tank you" (thank you) when you give her something. She is not polite on the phone when talking to Aunt Kristin, however. She definitely takes control of the conversation and doesn't let Aunt Kristin get a word in - at all! :) Hehe...

She has such an excitement for life that is contagious. Almost every morning is just as exciting as Christmas morning in her eyes. She gets so excited when she sees her toys in the morning and excitedly exclaims, "Oh wow! Wow!" It's as if she's never seen a toy in her life. Of course, her favorite toys are still not actually toys. For example:She's been carrying around this Benihana bag all weekend.

...and...The possibilities with a pack of diapers are endless: seat, platform on which to stand, a push toy, something on which to pile all your other toys, etc. There were a couple of times, I was about to go put it away, but then decided not to just yet, since she was having so much fun with it.

Here she is running to get the camera. That's one of her new favorite games: Let's see if I can get the camera from Mommy when she's trying to take my picture. Oh, and her awesome t-shirt is from her Pichura cousins - thank you!

Hannah just recently figured out how to crawl under the coffee table. You may think 18 months is a big late for that, but she actually avoided attempting this feat for a very good reason. Our coffee table is has wooden ledges that hang down, making it quite easy to bonk one's head. She knew that she had to army crawl in order to get from one side to another, and successfully made it without hitting her precious little head! And she's very proud of herself, too!

We apparently need to find her a little chair to sit on. In the meantime, however, she's found something that is the perfect height to sit on and read books.

Hannah's just a big ham. I don't know what the expression on her face is for, but you can see how she likes to eat her breakfast: pile it all on top of her cup. Why? I have no clue, you'll have to ask her.

One-and-a-Half Years

2010-03-08T15:17:00.000-08:00

Yesterday our "little baby" turned 18-months-old. Where the last year and a half went, I don't know. The one thing I do know is that I'm trying to cherish every single, second I have with her - even the fussy, cranky, and trying ones. I've found that having a child makes me realize how fleeting and precious time is and is causing me to learn more and more to make the most of it. I will never get these days back!

Hannah had her 18-month well-baby check-up this morning, and we were so excited that Daddy got to go with us this time! I'll let Hannah tell you all about her appointment:

Mommy woke me up early this morning (8:30-ish!) to take me to the doctor. After we got dressed and had breakfast, Mommy put me in the car and off we went! I got to sit in a big person chair in the waiting room, and while we were waiting, Daddy showed up! I didn't know he was coming, so I was really happy to see him! The nurse came to get us, and I walked back to the room. Mommy took all my clothes off (except for my diaper) and I got to go stand on the big girl scale! Last time I was there, I just sat in the baby scale, so this was a new experience for me. I stood really still on the scale and Mommy and Daddy said I did a good job. I love being nakey, so I was pretty happy, too! The nurse had me lay down on the table and put a line under my foot and above my head. She also wrapped some weird ribbon around my head - I don't really know what that was for. The nurse left, and I got to sit on the table and read some books. It was a lot of fun! Then my doctor came in. We talked for a little bit, then she looked in my ears and listened to my heart and lungs. She even listened to my mouses's heart, too! He's a very healthy mouse! Oh, I think I forgot to tell you that Mommy had me take my mouse with me for moral support, since she knew I was going to get some shots (she didn't tell me that part). I had fun with the doctor and blew her kisses when she left. Then the nurse came back in and put some funny-looking gloves on her hands. Mommy held/hugged me tight on her lap and the nurse poked me on my leg. I didn't like it at all! It hurt and I cried. Thankfully, I only had to get two shots today, so it wasn't that bad. After the shots were done, I got two band-aids. I only cried for a little bit, then the nurse gave me a book about farm animals, so I started to look through it and forgot about the shots. I even blew the nurse kisses when she left, too. People seem to like it when I do that, so I do it a lot!

So there you have it from a 1 1/2 year old's perspective. Now the stats: She measured 2' 8.75" tall and 24 lbs. She is officially more than 1/2 of my height! For the canucks in the family, let me convert that: Hannah is .832 m tall and weights 10.886 kg. Sorry, just couldn't resist. :P Hannah still has a significant amount of chub, as you can see in the picture, but somehow, she comes in in the 40-somethingith (I think I just made up a word. Sorry, I can't remember the exact number) percentile for weight and - get this - 81st percentile for height!! Don't know where she got those genes! Her development is coming along just fine and the doctor said she's a "very happy baby!" There is one thing, however, that hasn't developed as it should. By 18 months, most babies' soft spots have closed, but Hannah's is still there and is still big. Per protocol, she is referring us to a neurologist, but advised us that she's never had any patients in which this has been a major problem. I'm thankful that they're looking into it, though. I must say that it still weirds me out a little to see her head pulsating where her soft spot is. :)

This afternoon, Hannah and I took a walk around our complex. We stopped by Uncle Aaron and Aunt Kimmy's house to say hi. Hannah apparently feels very comfortable there, because Aaron opened the door, and Hannah immediately squeezed right past him and let herself in. Guess we need to work on her manners. :) It has been fun to watch her personality develop and begin to manifest itself. She is such a ham (just ask Aunt Kimmy)!

Well, I better go get some chores done since Hannah's napping!

My Wonderful Hubby!

2010-02-28T21:59:00.000-08:00

"Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make a helper fit for him." Genesis 2:18

According to the creation account in Genesis, I was MADE to be a HELPER to my husband. This is my main responsibility as James's wife, according to God's great design. While I am to help him in many areas of life, the Lord has really been teaching me one particular aspect of this responsibility over the last couple of months - encouragement. I have realized that it's really easy to encourage James when things are going well; however, it takes on a whole new meaning when times get tough.

My husband is an amazing man. There are many things which make him wonderful, but one thing is that he understands his responsibility to provide for our family. I know that it is a huge burden at times, particularly now, with a fully commission-based job and a slow economy. It is very easy for him to get discouraged, which is understandable, considering he has a wife and daughter at home for whom to provide. I can understand why he feels so pressured, but I can't fully empathize with him, as I don't carry that burden myself.

This is where encouragement comes in. I've learned that what he needs the most from me during these times is encouragement and support. I don't always know the right things to say and when to say them; I don't always know when I should just keep my mouth shut and lend a caring and loving ear; I don't know when all he needs is a hug. But thankfully, the Lord has been teaching me these things. Don't get me wrong, I still often feel inadequate for such a huge task as encouraging my husband, but I know the Holy Spirit will guide me. It's just a matter of relying solely on Him and making sure I'm in His Word daily. If I'm not Gospel-focused it is impossible for me to truly encourage my husband, for hope can only be found in Him, not in our own talents, abilities, desires, etc. I just ask you all to pray for me (and him!) during this time in our lives. Pray that we will focus on Christ and that our greatest desire would be for Him and to grow closer to Him. Pray that I will be able to continue to lovingly support and encourage James and that I will be diligent at home, so that he can come home to his "En Geddi," and not to a stressful home. Also, please pray for James that he will get some leads at work, if it's the Lord's will. If not, pray that we'll find joy in our trial and in learning to lean fully on Him.

Ok, now I'm going to shift gears a little bit and brag about my husband! :) I can't even begin to tell you what a joy it is to see my husband interact with his little girl! I just love to watch the two of them play and interact. Hannah absolutely loves her Daddy, which is easy to see whenever she says, "Da-ee," because it's always exclaimed with much enthusiasm and accompanied by a smile. When she hears him coming up the stairs and putting his keys in the lock after work, she drops whatever she's doing and runs to the door (hopefully someday she'll learn not to stand right behind the door, as that can be dangerous :) ). I thought you would enjoy some pictures and a video (which was taken tonight) of James with his little girl!

This is how Hannah prefers to get her teeth brushed.

You can ask James about this one. :)

Bible story time!! Thanks for the Bible story book,
Uncle David and Aunt Michelle! We're really enjoying it!
A video of James and Hannah jumping. Well, of James jumping and Hannah trying to jump and laughing at Daddy jumping.

I hope all of that made sense. I had a lot I wanted to say, but wasn't quite sure how to word or condense it.

An Early Birthday Celebration!

2010-01-31T20:46:00.000-08:00

James' birthday isn't until Tuesday (Groundhog Day!), but my parents are in town this weekend, so we decided to do a little bit of early celebrating while they were here. James got to choose where he would like to eat dinner, so he chose Sam's Philly Steaks in Tarzana. It's a bit of a drive, but they food there is yummy (which usually means unhealthy and greasy, as well). :) After dinner, we headed back to where my parents were staying for some cake and ice cream. While we're bummed that the whole family couldn't be here to celebrate, we're so thankful that Aaron, Kim, and Linnea are close by and were able to join us!James with one of his favorite foods in the world!

James' cake. It was chocolate cake with mocha filling and mocha buttercream for frosting.

The birthday boy!

Are All Women Born This Way?

2010-01-15T22:47:00.000-08:00

There's a video on YouTube that was going around a few months back, called "Are All Women Born This Way." It's quite hilarious, so if you haven't seen it, you should definitely check it out. It's only about 30 seconds long.

I think we might end up with a similar situation on our hands, except with the addition of a phone.

Enjoying God's Beautiful Creation

2010-01-08T22:40:00.000-08:00

We've been enjoying some BEAUTIFUL weather here in Southern California this past week. It's been in the mid-70's and sunny, so we couldn't resist getting outside to enjoy it! Hannah absolutely loves being outside, so it's been a good week for her. :) She's been exploring all sorts of new things - leaves, plants, bark, shadows, etc. A few days ago, I decided to take the camera along the other day to document our adventure! Here are some of them. You can see more on Facebook. :)

And here's so you can see just how much of a ham our precious, little Hannah can be:

Our Japanese Daughter

2010-01-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

As I was sorting through Hannah's clothes, packing up the ones that don't fit her anymore, I came across this kimono that my dad's aunt had bought for Hannah in Little Tokyo in LA. It's been in her closet for almost a year now, just waiting for the day when she would finally fit in it. As I flipped through the clothes in her closet, I couldn't resist at least trying the kimono on her to see if it fit. :) It was still a little big, but she looked so cute in it that I had to snap some pictures. Of course, she doesn't look Japanese, but I promise, she is!!!

And I'm throwing this picture in for kicks, because I think she looks A LOT like her cousin, Faith! :)

A Fujita/Clark/Parker Christmas!

2009-12-30T17:01:00.000-08:00

Well, I guess since Hannah's sleeping, dinner's on the stove, and my back is out, leaving me flat here on the couch, now is a good time to update everyone on our Christmas! We went up to my parents' house in Northern California, where my sister and her family also live. It was a fun time with a 5-year-old, two 19-month-olds, and a 15-month-old! :) We drove up on Wednesday night after James got off work, and it was nice to be able to have all of Christmas Eve Day to just relax and enjoy time with family. That night we went to look at Christmas lights and then came home to have our traditional Christmas Eve ice cream sundaes - YUM! It was also our 3 1/2 year anniversary! Times sure does fly!

Christmas morning, we headed over to my sister's house for our traditional Christmas breakfast (err...I mean lunch), complete with homemade cinnamon rolls (mmmmm!), potatoes o'brien, bacon, and frittata.

After breakfast, we opened presents, which took a long time! When you have three babies, each with a lot of presents, it takes a little bit longer than it normally would, but it was a lot of fun to watch the babies! For dinner (I feel like all I did was eat!), we decided to forgo the standard turkey or ham and went with prime rib. It was delicious, and we had it with homemade garlic mashed potatoes, roasted winter veggies (which is one of my new favorite sides!!!), and rolls.

The rest of our time was just spent hanging out with family and relaxing. James and I even got to go on a date, since there were plenty of babysitters! :) We had a great time, but the vacation fun had to come to an end, and we came home yesterday. So today, it's back to reality with piles of dirty laundry, new toys that need to be put away, meals to make, dishes to clean, work for James, etc., etc. :) We are thankful for the time that we were able to get away and celebrate Jesus's birthday!!!

Some of the presents we had to take up with us. Thankfully I had taken most of ours up at Thanksgiving!

Hannah doesn't get sweets very often...ok...she doesn't get sweets at all at home, but Aunt Sumiko fulfilled her auntie duties by introducing Hannah to Muddy Buddies.

They all played so well together!

Hannah's checking out the t-shirt she got from her Pichura cousins! She doesn't quite understand the significance of this t-shirt, but don't worry, she will! :)

Our little Christmas bunny.

Keanna made her annual trip to the dollar store to do her Christmas shopping. She must know Uncle James well, because she got him two decks of playing cards!

Opening her "big" present from Daddy and Mommy. It's a...

vacuum cleaner!!! Since Hannah is terrified of the real vacuum, we decided to ease her into the world of vacuums with a toy one!

However, her favorite toys were the ones we got at the 99 cent store - kitchen utensils. Here, she's basting my sister's house with her new basting brush!

Robbie's parents brought a piano down for my sister's family, and the babies wasted no time testing it out.

And today Hannah was busy working on her thank you notes!

I guess Hannah wanted to add something, because while I wasn't looking, she wrote this: ]\[
nnnn\\
;;;;;//;;

Free Movie Rentals!

2009-12-22T17:11:00.001-08:00

Since it's Christmas and I know a lot of you watch movies during this time, here's a way to get a free movie rental or rentals from Amazon Videos on Demand! I just did this and got my credit - now we have to decide what to watch! Go here to see how to sign up.

Hannah vs. the Croc

2009-12-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

Well, this must be a record - posts two days in a row! Just consider this an early Christmas present! This one is just a video of Hannah that I forgot about. This was taken at my parents' house at Thanksgiving. She is one determined little girl! I eventually had to take the croc away, because she got too frustrated that she couldn't get it on. :)

A Brief Update

2009-12-21T17:22:00.000-08:00

Oh my word! Life is busy, busy, busy! I promised a family update, so here it is, though brief:

James's job is going great! He is loving it and is feeling much more comfortable there these days, which is a huge praise! He is looking forward to going to my parents' house for Christmas, so he can read and eat at the Mecca. :)

I had a wonderful time this afternoon, catching up with some friends from college whom I hadn't seen for a couple years. They came over for lunch and our entertainment, of course, was Hannah. She is such a ham and she loved having a new audience.

Which leads me to the main subject of this post - Hannah. :) She is 15-months now and has a great little personality. She LOVES to play games like peek-a-boo and do songs with hand motions, like "The Itsy, Bitsy Spider" and "Pat-a-cake."

Her language development is coming along and she's gradually adding words and signs to her vocabulary. She said her first two-word sentence last week (besides "what's that?"). When James came in the door, she looked at him and said, "Hi, Da-ee!" It was very cute and made James's day!

Last week, she also discovered that there's water in the toilet and that she can splash in it. She's a smart cookie and knows how to open the lid, so I'm afraid our bathroom door is going to have to be kept closed from now on.

And here's the best part of our updates: the pictures and videos. Enjoy!

We went to look at Christmas lights, which Hannah LOVED, but some houses are just a little overkill, don't you think?

Such a little sweetie! Giving her big cousin, Lukas, a hug! :)

Hannah found this box and decided to collect toys in it.

Uncle Paul came to visit all the way from Seattle!

Uncle Andrew came to visit, too!

Who needs Chuck E. Cheese's when you've got your own personal ball pit?!

Playing peek-a-boo with Mommy after church!

Cracker Crazy!

2009-12-14T21:16:00.001-08:00

Would you believe that I got all of this stuff for just $1.90?! Actually, I paid $11.90, but will be sending in a $10 rebate form for the crackers. Here's the breakdown:

The crackers are on sale at Safeway stores (I went to Vons) for $1.49 each, if you buy 5. I bought 10, for a total of $14.90. I had a coupon for $1 off 2 Nabisco crackers from yesterday's newspaper (there was also a coupon on Nov. 8, but I had already used that one), and then I got two more printable coupons here. So after the $3 in coupons, the total for the crackers came to $11.90. There's a $10 mail-in rebate if you buy 10 boxes of Nabisco crackers here, bringing the total to $1.90!

The pasta and pasta sauce I got free, using coupons I had received by signing up here. I also had a coupon for free eggs, but they were out of eggs. :( Oh well, these coupons don't expire until March, so I'll still be able to use them, I'm sure! Even if you don't have any of the coupons, but use the rebate, you'll still be able to get 10 boxes of crackers for $4.90, which is still a really good deal! The sale at Safeway and Safeway affiliates ends tomorrow, so there's still a little bit of time to take advantage of this great deal!

On a different note, I've been wanting to update everyone on our lives lately, but haven't been able to get to that. Hopefully soon!

Great Find at Target!

2009-11-20T09:59:00.000-08:00

If you have a baby, little kids, know anyone who has a baby or little kids, or is pregnant, or might possibly have a baby, you should check out this deal at Target! Our Target had their blanket sleepers on clearance for 75% off!! I'm not sure if all of the Targets have them on clearance, but it's definitely worth checking! They are Just One Year, which is made by Carter's, so the quality is good. They come in sets of 2, and at 75% off cost only $3.98!!! That's less than $2 per sleeper! They have some really cute designs, too, but they're going FAST, so if this is something you're interested in, you may want to head out soon! I was there a couple of days ago and they had 2 full racks of them at 50% off. Today, they're down to 75% and there was only 1 rack left!

My Dad's Going to Need Another Pumpkin

2009-11-10T15:39:00.000-08:00

As I said before, my dad carves a pumpkin of each of his grandkids every year. Next year, he's going to need one more! BUT before you get too excited, it's not us (don't worry, family, I don't think we'd choose to announce a pregnancy over a public blog...or would we???). :P My sister is pregnant with her 4th baby and is due sometime in July!!! We're so excited to have another niecephew on the way. This little blessing brings Hannah's cousin count up to ELEVEN! And I'm guessing that the number will just continue to rise in the coming years. :) Yay! We're praying that God will keep this little one safe until my sister's appointment on the 23rd, when she'll be able to start her blood thinners. We are so excited and can't wait to have another little one in the family! Maybe this one will take on the characteristics of the Fujita side of the family, but judging by the four that are already here, the chances of that are slim to none. :)

The Lessons Our 13-Month-Old Doesn't Even Know She's Teaching Us

2009-11-01T19:50:00.000-08:00

Hannah has taught us so many spiritual lessons over the last year; however, the way this one played out made it pretty funny. James has been really excited about Tim Keller's new book, Counterfeit Gods. It basically deals with the idolatry of our hearts. The things that we worship aren't usually bad things. In fact, they're often good things - marriage, children, church - but when they become more important to us than Christ, they have become our idol. I think we often try to simply get rid of our idols, without replacing them with Christ. What we often forget is that we were created to worship. Therefore, we will always be worshiping something. If Christ doesn't become the focus of our worship, we will just find something else - some other "good" thing - to worship in His place. Well, Hannah gave us a nice visual of this the other day.

As you probably know, James loves candy! He has worked to make it so that it isn't an idol in his life, but we were laughing because we looked in his candy jar, and all the candy had been pulled out and in its place was a little New Testament. I knew Hannah was carrying the Bible around that day, but I had no idea what she had done with it! We both laughed as we thought about the lesson she was trying to teach her daddy! :)

On a side note, Hannah apparently missed the memo about the time change and was up at 6:30 this morning and James has come down with the flu. :( I've been loading him up with Chicken Noodle Soup today and he's just been resting. Praying for a quick recovery so that he can get back to being himself!

Hannahkin

2009-10-31T14:30:00.000-07:00

As most of your know, my dad carves AMAZING pumpkins! Each year he carves one of each of his grandchildren, which means he has four pumpkins to carve this year. Here is my personal favorite from this year - Hannah! :)

Bargain Grocery Shopping

2009-10-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

So I've really gotten into bargain and coupon grocery shopping recently. I've been using coupons (here and there) pretty much since we got married over 3 years ago, but I guess you can say I've become a coupon psychopath as of late. :) I even have a coupon binder chock full of hundreds of coupons. Anyway, I've decided to try The Grocery Game to see how it is. I've heard some good things about it, and since they offer a month free, I figured there's nothing to lose. I've only been using it a couple of days, but so far I haven't found anything special about it that I can't get for free from other websites. We'll see if I find out what's so great about it in the next few weeks to see if it might actually be worth paying for. So far, I'm not convinced, but only time will tell. After testing it out, I'll let you all know what I've determined. :)

Great Deal on Ziploc Bags!!!

2009-10-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

***EDIT: I was mistaken about Food4Less. I was there this week and they DO have catalinas, so this might even work there. The only thing to consider is the fact that they don't double coupons like Ralphs does, so it may not be quite as good of a deal, depending on their price for Ziplocs.***

I read about a great deal on Ziploc bags at Kroger stores here. There is the potential to not only get FREE Ziploc bags, but also to actually make money on them! I've noticed that Southern California's prices are almost always higher than the rest of the country, but I was still able to make a little extra money out of the deal. :) According to the website I got this idea from, the bags cost anywhere from $1.84-$2.19. Ralphs (our Kroger affiliate) had them on sale for $2.50. So I grabbed three boxes for a total of $7.50, used a coupon for $1.50 off 2 and another coupon for $0.40 off 1 (which doubled to $0.80 off). With the coupons, I only spent $5.20 (plus tax) out of pocket, but will submit an SC Johnson rebate for $5, making them only $0.20 total for 3 boxes of Ziplocs!!! On top of that, when you buy Ziplocs at Ralphs, you get a coupon at the register for $2 off your next purchase!!! So, in all reality, I actually got paid $1.80 to buy 150 Ziploc bags! Can't beat that! By the way, if you don't have the coupons, you can go here to print one. This is even a great deal without coupons. If I didn't have the coupons, after the rebate and $2.00 catalina (coupon that prints at the register), it still would have only been $0.50 for 3 boxes of Ziplocs.

On a side note, I don't think this would work at Kroger discount stores, such as Food4Less, since they don't have catalinas. :(

From Baby to Toddler

2009-10-17T15:15:00.001-07:00

It's official. Our little Hannah is starting to toddle around the house. On several occasions over the last week, she's taken anywhere from one little step to three or four little steps. Today she decided to try to walk about four feet by herself - and succeeded! She loves to walk around the house while holding onto our hands and gets a good laugh out of falling down, which is a good thing, because there's probably going to be a lot of that going on in the next couple of months! :)

Hannah's language development is also coming along, although it's mostly in her ability to understand language rather than to communicating language. There are a few words she does say. Right now her favorite word is "Bapa," but she also says "Bup," which in Hannah language means "book." She loves to look at "bups," although it's almost impossible to actually READ them to her, because she's mostly interested in turning the pages! I think she's also starting to learn the sign for "milk," because I mentioned something about milk the other day and she started signing it. She understands the names of objects, as we can ask her where a specific toy or object is and she'll either point to it or get it. One of her newest developments is showing us where her head and nose are when we ask her. Now we just have to work on the rest of the body parts! It's definitely a ton of fun to watch how she learns and masters each task. Watching her development has also helped me understand just how much Christ had to humble Himself to become man. He also would have had to learn these things, as Hannah does. Truly amazing!

My parents were down last weekend and my wonderful husband and dad took the glass doors out of the shower and replaced our leaky drain plug in the bathtub, so Hannah can now take baths in the big bathtub! She absolutely loves it, especially the new bath toys with which mama spoiled her! I've also been trying to be better at remembering to brush her teeth every night (I know, I should've started doing that A LONG time ago, but I usually don't remember until after she goes to bed - oops!). Anyway, I bought her a new toothbrush and some Gum and Tooth Cleanser. She thinks brushing her teeth is just the funniest thing ever! I'll have to get a video of it sometime for you.

Last weekend we also turned her around in the car. She loves facing forward, because she can look out the windows and watch Mommy drive the car. She has started babbling a lot, too, and talks my ear off in the car, which I think is so cute. We'll see how I feel about that when she can actually talk! :)

Hannah is also a big social butterfly! She makes friends wherever we go, especially with other little kids and babies. She gets so excited when we see other kids and starts squealing and waving to them. It's so cute to watch!

We've also discovered the joy of a webcam! It's much better than having her talk to people on the phone, because she usually gets distracted by the phone and doesn't talk. With the webcam, however, she gets really excited to see someone and is more interactive. She even got to have a lunch date with her twin cousins in Northern CA, and was also able to talk to her Grandma in Oregon! We were laughing today, because James was watching a Mark Driscoll sermon online. Hannah walked up to the computer, stood in front of it, and got really excited and started talking and pointing to Mark. She thought it was someone on the webcam! :) She'd love to chat with any of you, whenever you have time. Just let us know and we'll schedule it. :) We're looking forward to seeing Papa and Grandma next month in person (we're working on how to say, "Papa."). :)

Paul's Trials are Still Producing Fruit

2009-10-12T22:31:00.000-07:00

James and I received a great reminder yesterday at church. The sermon was about missions, but there was something (not about missions, per se) that really struck us. Our pastor was speaking out of Romans 1 and was discussing Paul's desire to go to Rome, but was prevented from doing so. However, because he was unable to visit the Romans, he had to resort to writing them a letter, resulting in the book of Romans. If he was able to visit Rome, the book of Romans would not exist! Think about the rich theology and doctrine that we get from this amazing and wonderful book of the Bible! If it weren't for Paul's imprisonment and other circumstances which prevented him from traveling at times, we probably wouldn't have ANY of the Pauline epistles! What a great reminder of how God takes our trials and uses them for HIS glory! Of course, we often don't understand why He's allowing us to go through trials while we're in the midst of them, but it's so encouraging to see His hand at work even in our darkest and most difficult hours. I'm sure Paul would have rather been able to give his messages to their recipients in person, but because he was unable to do so, everyone for all of time to come would have access to his God-inspired wisdom and teaching and would be able to learn and grow in the knowledge of Christ! While the fruit of my trials most likely won't ever have an impact of this magnitude, they can definitely be used for God's purpose and glory. This is something we can be reminded about every time we pick up His Word and read one of these letters!

As I write this, I am reminded not only of the great encouragement we have in trials (and God's sovereignty), but of what Paul's attitude and actions said about him and his faith while he was undergoing trials. Even during times of trial, he continued to have a Christ-ward mindset.

18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:18-30)
Paul was always thinking about Christ and the hope that we have through Him, and He was always reminding others about this hope. Can I say the same about myself?

Life With a One-Year Old is Anything But Boring!

2009-10-05T22:25:00.000-07:00

It seems that everyday brings something new with little Hannah. She definitely keeps me on my toes! Today I caught her playing with some raw chicken pieces that I had thrown in the garbage. Thankfully I caught her right away, so she didn't have any time to eat any of it or stick her icky hands in her mouth. Nevertheless, I'm a bit of a foodborne pathogen freak, so this really grossed me out! You better believe that we scrubbed her hands well with soap and warm water!

On an unrelated note, I saw her munching away on something, so I stuck my fingers in her mouth to fish around for whatever she was chewing on. I didn't find anything, but I did discover that she has two little molars in her mouth! I knew she was getting some teeth in the front, but I had no idea she was working on some molars, too! That brings her tooth count to seven, which is pretty incredible, considering that a month ago, she only had two! She's been working hard to push out all of these teeth!

Also, Hannah has recently developed an utter fear of the vacuum. One day while vacuuming, I looked down to find Hannah screaming her little head off and shaking. Poor thing! I can't even pull the vacuum out of the closet without her losing it - it doesn't even have to be turned on for her to get scared. This is something we're going to have to work on. In the time being, however, I have resorted to vacuuming while Hannah's in her highchair, occupied with food. And even then, I have to look at her and smile at her when I turn it on, so that she knows it's okay. Hopefully she gets over this fear quickly. :)

James had the privilege of going to our church's men's retreat this past weekend. I'm glad he was able to go and have fun, but it sure is nice to have him back home! I am so proud of my husband for all the work he's putting into learning his new job. It hasn't been an easy path for him, but I'm so proud of his attitude through it and his diligence in learning. He's amazing and I thank God that He brought him into my life!

Last post I mentioned that I was doing a new running program. Well, I made it through the first two weeks and the first day of the third week before the treadmill decided to give up. So, I'm quite bummed that I've not been able to run for the past week. :( Tonight I told James that I start to eat more junk when I don't exercise, so it's a double whammy! I guess I'll just have to figure out something else in the meantime.

So, that's about it for now. Here are some pictures of the little cutie for your viewing enjoyment!

The cashiers like to give balloons to Hannah when we go to the grocery store now. Usually she just gets the regular latex balloons, but on this particular day, she got a mylar balloon that was bigger than her!

Check out my cool monkey bib!

Hannah often puts her face into this toy and talks/squeals/giggles/yells into it. She also does that with cups and basically anything that will sound funny when she talks into it.

What? You mean this isn't for me to climb on?

Hannah takes after her daddy. This is where he sits when he reads his books.

Just cute!

This is how Hannah crawled for about a week. We couldn't figure out what she was doing. Maybe she was trying to figure out how her legs worked - we really have no idea! Anyway, we would often hear a thud when she was crawling around and it would be her running into a wall, or a door, or furniture. I guess that's what happens when you're not watching where you're going! She has given up this silly habit of crawling while looking at her legs, only to be replaced by her rolling around the floor, giggling. Like I said, life with a one-year-old is anything but boring! I LOVE IT!

Parker Family Update

2009-09-18T14:09:00.001-07:00

Since Hannah's decided to be a sleepy head today and I'm waiting for her to wake up so I can vacuum (I've already got the furniture moved out of the way and her lunch waiting in the fridge!), I figured I might as well use this time to give an update. I often write updates centered around our precious little girl, but I thought it was about time to update you on the whole family, as there has been some major changes in our life lately.

First, we'll start with the biggest change, which was James' change in employment. His last day with Chase was Saturday and he jumped right in at Bank of America Home Loans on Sunday (yes, he worked Sunday, because it was the only day someone would have the time to show him a few things). Actually, he had been going over to Bank of America on his days off from Chase for the last couple of weeks, so he's been working hard on this new job (and hasn't really had a day off in a few weeks, so we're excited about this weekend!). His official start date was the 16th, but because he lacks the mortgage experience that was needed for the job, he has a lot to learn and is getting a crash course in the loan process. He has been learning quickly (there's so much to learn!!), and I'm so proud of how hard he's working so he can provide for our family! :)

Our decision for James to switch jobs was not an easy one. Things were starting to come together for him at Chase and he was really doing well there. So when this mortgage opportunity came up, we had a lot of praying, seeking counsel, looking at finances, etc. to do. James has wanted to get into the mortgage industry for a while now, so we knew we had to look into it. Since it is a sales position, it is purely commission-based pay - there's no base salary. With the economy and housing markets the way they are, we had a lot to take into consideration, since at Chase, we at least had a consistent and guaranteed income. I am so thankful for James, who doesn't just jump into opportunities, but takes the time to think through them, pray, and seek counsel from other sources. After talking with our Realtor, a family friend who's been in the financial world for a long time, the loan officer at Chase, and some others, we decided we would trust the Lord and go for it! I had prayed that if this was not what God would have for us, that the door would be shut, but God left it wide open for us! Since we will no longer have a guaranteed income (or even know what our income will be, for that matter), we recently sat down to evaluate our budget and shave off as much as we could, which is hard, when there's not much wiggle room to begin with! We're just trusting the Lord that he'll provide an income adequate to support our family, as we know that everything comes from Him!

On another note, I have been trying to lose all of these pesky pounds that I have gained since we got married and since Hannah's been born, so I've been running. Running on a treadmill that is placed in the corner of the room, facing the corner of the room gets really boring really fast. So, I decided I needed to change things up a bit and started a new running program called "Couch to 5K." It's a program designed to get you running 3 miles in 2 months. I figured that since I've been running already, the first couple of weeks would be easy-peasy! Oh boy! So far, it's still been a good workout! I don't think I'll ever run an official 5K (or at least not in the near future), but it's still much better running with an actual plan and goal in mind. We'll see how it goes. :)

James wanted me to share this photo with you all. We took a trip to Albertsons because I had some coupons I wanted to use, and while I knew it was a great deal, I didn't realize how great of a deal it was until we checked out. All of this cost us -- get this -- 95 cents! When it rang up at 95 cents, I looked at James and said I didn't think it should be that low, so we asked the cashier, who brought the manager over. They looked over the coupons (I had store coupons plus manufacturer's coupons) and receipt and couldn't figure out what was wrong, so they just sent us home! Wow! Glad we decided to stop by!

So, that's what we're up to. We miss you all and can't wait until the family vacation next summer!!! :) We're so EXCITED!

Sweet Cousin Time!

2009-09-12T21:17:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned earlier, I would post pictures/videos of Linnea's visit with us today. It really is precious to watch Hannah interact (or TRY to interact) with Linnea. Enjoy!

Hannah's 1-year check-up

2009-09-12T15:58:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Hannah and I ventured out to Kaiser for her one-year check-up! This was a huge deal, because we were hoping that we would be able to put her forward-facing car seat in the car, so we can see her when we're in the car and so she could see where we're going. California's regulations for placing a baby in a forward-facing car seat are that the baby must be at least a year old and at least 20 lbs. She weighed 19 lbs., 4 oz. at her 9-month check-up, so she's definitely at the 20 lb mark now, right? Nope! Apparently, she only gained THREE OUNCES in the last 3 months, because she weighs 19 lbs., 7 oz - meaning, we still have over a half pound until she can turn around in the car! Bummer! This is a surprising statistic to anyone who's SEEN Hannah - she's adorably chubby! I can't figure out how she keeps her weight down with all her chub! She's only in the 20-something percentile for weight and seventy-something for height (sorry, I don't remember the exact numbers). All I can say is, there must be some really chubby babies out there! :) (Her length is 29.75 inches).

Anyway, Hannah had to get 5 shots yesterday, plus a blood draw. Poor baby had a band-aid on every limb. I think shots must be confusing to babies, especially once they get to this age and have a little more of an understanding of things. All she knows is that mommy's holding her while some lady repeatedly inflicts sharp pains into her legs and arms, and she didn't even do anything to deserve this kind of poor treatment. It was kind of cute, though, after she got the blood draw, the lady went to put a sticker on her shirt and as soon as Hannah saw her coming at her with something, she started screaming again! Such a traumatic experience for such a little girl! Thankfully, she doesn't remember any of it! Except, we have to go back next month for her flu shot. At least it's only one, though!

On a different note, I had the joy of babysitting Linnea for part of the day today. While it was a lot of fun and I definitely won't mind doing it again, it made me thankful that I don't have kids that are a year apart (Kristin, I don't know how you did it)!!! It is, however, so much fun to watch Hannah interact with her baby cousin. We're still working on what it means to be gentle and to be careful not to fall on the baby, etc. (which is one of the reasons having babies this close in age would be difficult to deal with full time, although I realize that God's grace is sufficient for even that!). I did manage to get some really cute pictures and videos of the two, so I will hopefully post those in the near future. Hannah absolutely adores Linnea (most of the time) and gets REALLY excited when she sees her! It melts my mommy heart!

Happy Birthday, Hannah!!!

2009-09-07T21:21:00.000-07:00

Has it already been a year?! It's hard to believe that one year ago, our precious Hannah Grace entered the world! James and I can't imagine what our life would be like without her - she has brought so much joy to our family. Her smile and laughter are contagious (and she's smiling or laughing most of the time)! I'm not a morning person, so I don't necessarily enjoy getting out of bed in the morning, but once I walk into her room, and see her smiling face and squeals of joy, I wouldn't trade it for anything - not even an extra hour of sleep (but, thankfully, she's not too early of a riser!! :) ). James and I have learned and grown so much through this year - about marriage, about family, about ourselves, about each other, about God (and His grace, love, mercy, patience...) and, while they weren't always easy lessons, we are so thankful God walked us through those trials and times in which we learned these valuable lessons and truths.

Yesterday we had a little party for Hannah and were so blessed by our friends and family! It's so great to see how many people love our daughter and are praying for her and will be godly influences in her life as she grows up. The theme of her party was "Cheerios," because they are her absolute favorite things in the world!!! So, my sister and I set out to make a Cheerios box cake! We had fun making it and were pretty happy with the end result! We also made a small Cheerios box out of the scraps from the big cake that we used for Hannah's own, personal cake.

I was a bit disappointment in how Hannah went about eating the cake. I always love when babies just shove the whole thing in their mouth and make a HUGE mess all over themselves and everything around them. However, my baby is just too polite to do that. At first she just picked the Cheerios off the cake and ate them. Then I pulled the fondant off the cake to see if that would help, but she just stuck her finger in a little bit of the frosting and licked it off. Ok, well, let's try breaking the cake into smaller chunks, so she can just pick up a chunk and eat it. Nope! My little princess just picked up the little crumbs and ate them. Finally, I picked up a chunk and gave it to her, but she still didn't shove it in her mouth. What a disappointment, but it was still fun watching her eat it!

She had a blast with her presents, too! She was probably wondering why we kept giving her a toy and then taking it away from her. She didn't mind us taking them away, though. I think she realized that when we took one away, she got another one! Anyway, she's been busy today playing with all of her new toys! Daddy's had fun playing with them, too! :)

One of the highlights of her birthday was having family here to share it with her. My Grandparents flew in from Pennsylvania to be here (this was the first time they were able to meet her), my parents and my sister and her family came down from Northern California, and of course, her Uncle Aaron, Aunt Kim, and baby Linnea were there. We were also blessed by all of our friends that came to share this special occasion with her. Thanks to everyone who made this day so special!!!

For those of you who weren't able to be there, here are some pictures. We wish you all lived closer and could come!!!The big cake and Hanna's little cake (we obviously didn't spend much time on her cake)!

Top view of the cake.Eating the Cheerios off of the cake.Not too happy about having about 25 people standing around just staring at her... (and the fact that I didn't put a clip in her hair, so she looks like Donald Trump - I think I would be crying, too!). This is as messy as she got.Listening to the Pichura cousins sing "Happy Birthday!"

P.S. There are more birthday pictures on Facebook (sorry for those of you who don't use it, but Blogspot takes A LOT LONGER to upload photos).

Linnea Joy is Here!!!

2009-08-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

Linnea Joy arrived this morning at 9:30 after a very quick labor (yay for Kim!!)! We are so excited that she is finally here!!! We were able to visit them this afternoon and let me just say that Linnea is beautiful!!! She is also very tiny - actually she's not that small for a newborn, she's just small compared to our 11-month-old!! She weighs 6 lbs, 5 oz. and is 20 3/4 inches long.

Fun with Grandma!!!

2009-08-16T23:32:00.000-07:00

Grandma is here!!! Grandma Parker came from Oregon because Uncle Aaron and Aunt Kimmy are waiting for my newest cousin, Linnea Joy, to arrive! I'm really excited about having a little cousin to play with soon (and she lives so close to me, so we can play A LOT!!!)! In the meantime, though, I'm enjoying having Grandma all to myself! She's so much fun and I love her a lot! Mommy kept telling me that Grandma was coming, but I wasn't really sure who she was, because I haven't seen her since Christmas, and I wasn't even 4-months-old then. I've grown up a lot since then and was very excited to show Grandma how big I've gotten and how much I've learned since then. Here are some pictures that mommy has taken of Grandma's visit so far. I like them and I hope that you like them too!Grandma brought my birthday presents from her and Papa! The night Grandma got here, I got to stay up way past my bedtime and open my presents! It was fun! I wasn't really sure what to do with the paper, but daddy helped me! There were fun and exciting things inside the paper! In this picture, you can see the fun book that they got me (on the floor next to me) and I am opening up the second present!

Yay! It's an elephant with toys that you can put INSIDE the elephant! Mommy caught me crawling around with my whole arm stuck inside of the elephant! I love him and he will remind me of Grandma and Papa!

I was eating Cheerios out of Grandma's hand at church tonight! I love Cheerios so much! I was stuffing my mouth full of Cheerios and Uncle Aaron said I'm like a vacuum cleaner. I'm not quite sure what he meant, but everyone thought it was funny.

We're still waiting for little Linnea to come out. I already asked her to come out and play with me. I told her it's really fun out here! There are lots of people and toys to play with - oh, and lots of yummy food, too! I don't know what she's waiting for, but I guess she's really comfortable in there and not ready to come out yet. I hope she comes soon, though, because I can't wait to meet her!

I love all of you (even though I probably don't remember who you all are, but mommy and daddy tell me about you), and I miss you all!!!

Love,
Hannah

A Special Treat for You!

2009-07-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

Well, I periodically share what new developmental steps Hannah is taking, but I decided this time, it might be nice for you to be able to see for yourselves. I don't normally post pictures or videos on my blog, so here's a special treat for you!

As you can see, her language is starting to develop. She can say "Dada," "Uh-oh," "Bapa" (which is my Dad), and "Up." Of course, she doesn't always say them when prompted, but usually just when she wants to. :) Oh, and that little ducky she's playing with is just about her favorite toy (just ask Aunt Kimmy!).

She's also beginning to show signs of preference, which can particularly be seen in the area of food. I have found that if I give her noodles and kidney beans at the same time, she will eat all of the kidney beans, leaving all of the noodles on her tray, then ask for more. So now, if she's going to be getting noodles, she gets them before she gets (or even sees) any other type of food.

As you can tell from the video, she has thinned out a little. She's still "squishy," as someone from church described her the other day, but she just doesn't have quite as much chub.

Our little ducky!

Standing up (she doesn't need much to pull herself up; just a wall for balance).

Simply cute! :)

10-Months Old!!!

2009-07-06T23:01:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow our precious little Hannah turns 10 months old! I can't believe how quickly these past 10 months have flown by! There has been a baby boom at our church lately, and seeing all of the TINY newborn babies has made me realize that my "little" baby isn't so little anymore! :(

She is such a joy and James and I are enjoying watching her grow up and turn into a little girl! She is very curious and loves to explore anything she can possibly get her hands on! Her favorite things to play with are the things she's not supposed to have, so we're working on that. She definitely understands what the word "no" means and sometimes it's so funny to see her reaction to it. If she's playing with something she's not supposed to and we tell her ,"No," she'll throw whatever it is down and look at us with an expression of, "I wasn't doing anything!" Sometimes it's hard not to laugh, though. Such a little stinker!

Hannah absolutely LOVES her Cheerios. Whenever that bright yellow box comes out of the cupboard, her face just lights up! Now we're working on chewing and swallowing each Cheerio before putting more in her mouth. This morning I caught her with a mouthful of Cheerios, so I had to start rationing them out. The girl loves to eat, that's for sure!

One new thing she's doing this month is dancing. She gets so excited whenever we turn on music - whether it's the radio or the music on one of her toys. Shortly after the music starts, she starts bouncing up and down, which is her version of dancing and it's so cute to watch!

Speaking of music, the other day, I turned on a Sovereign Grace CD. Hannah stopped what she was doing, listened, then crawled over to her little piano and started to play. It was so adorable! The things she does never cease to amaze me!

Who Needs a Vacuum Cleaner When You Have a 9-Month-Old?

2009-07-01T20:52:00.000-07:00

My life has gotten a lot busier lately. When you have an almost 10-month-old who knows how to crawl, anything goes! That, coupled with the fact that she peruses the floor as she crawls is what keeps me extremely busy. You see, she used to find little specks of whatever on the floor and pick them up. But thankfully, she would just play with them in her hands for a little bit and then throw them back on the floor. However, a few weeks ago, she entered the brand new world of finger foods! As I was giving her some Cheerios, a thought came to mind. I knew that she hadn't figured out how to put all the junk from the floor that she found into her mouth yet, but I feared that once she learned that she could put little bits of things in her mouth (i.e. Cheerios), the possibilities (at least in her mind) would be endless! And my fear became a reality! She has a great superpower of being able to find the tiniest objects on the floor and now I have to watch her like a hawk and even follow her around most of the day. Even if I'm watching her closely, but not right there when she finds something, it's in her mouth and gone before I can even get to her. Gone are the days of letting her play in the living room while I work in the kitchen! No matter how clean I think my floors are, Hannah proves otherwise.

Today Hannah was playing on the floor, scouring it for fun, new things to feel and taste, when a tiny, little spider went running past her. "Uh-oh!" I thought! And sure enough, she began to pursue this little spider with her hands! Thankfully for me, spiders are just as scared of babies eating them as mommies are scared of babies eating spiders!

I'm Not a Feminist...Or Am I?

2009-06-27T23:20:00.001-07:00

This summer, my church's women's Bible Study is on the topic of "Becoming a True Woman." If you haven't already realized it, femininity (according to the Bible) and God's plan and design for women is something I highly value - it is a passion for me. Sadly, however, our society has strayed far from true femininity. In fact, the feminist movement has "defeminized" (if that's a word) women and has striven to make women as much like men as possible.

We are going through the book, Becoming God's True Woman, edited by Nancy Leigh DeMoss, and watching a video series from "True Woman," a conference that was held in Chicago last year. In the video we watched last week, Mary Kassian went over the history of feminism. It was very interesting to see how we went from the "Leave it to Beaver" society in the 50's to where we are today.

While I'd like to think that I'm far from being a feminist, I was reminded just last night at how I have let worldly feminism creep into my life. Yesterday was one of those days. You know, the ones where you feel like it's never going to end and your list of things to do goes on forever. It had been a long day, and my evening was just beginning. I had bathed the baby (which is exhausting in and of itself), fed her, and gotten her ready for bed. Then, the pile of dishes in the kitchen stared me down. Dinner was one of those meals where it seems like I ended up using every dish and utensil in my kitchen - or at least all of the ones that should be hand washed. After cleaning up the dinner mess, I still had to clean up and organize the house for the day and fold the laundry that was sitting in the dryer, just calling my name. I was exhausted, and frankly, I just wanted to sit on the couch and do nothing. In fact, I found myself thinking that it would be so much easier to just work a 9-5 job instead of having to take care of the house and my family. It would be so nice to have a job that I could leave at the end of the day and be done with. However, I am "stuck" at work. I LIVE at work and there is always something that I can and/or need to be doing. There is no lunch break, no 15-minute breaks, no weekends, no holidays, etc. Even though James offers his assistance, my job is still physically and, sometimes, emotionally draining. Why can't I just have a "normal" job. Then it hit me! I had a feminist attitude - the same attitude that started and fueled the feminist movement. What an awakening that was for me! At that moment, I was thinking that society's definition of a true woman was better than God's definition of a true woman.

One of the ways the feminist revolution began was through Consciousness Raising Groups. These were groups of women who would get together to discuss their feelings about being a woman. Basically, it was an opportunity for women to vent about how miserable their lives were and discuss the advantage that men had. As they listened and began to participate in these groups, even women who weren't unhappy in their role as a housewife began to share these feelings of dissatisfaction and discontent, and the revolution spread rapidly. It was those same sinful, selfish feelings that I was having last night that greatly contributed to feminism. All I could do was pray. Pray that God would change my heart at that moment and that I would see that God's plan was the best thing for me. I don't even want to imagine what could or would happen if I let those feelings take hold of me. Yes, being a wife and mother is hard and sometimes I just want to be able to "clock out," but there is great beauty this work. I just need to look at it through a biblical perspective instead of a worldly perspective.

My heart is truly burdened for girls in the church. I pray that they will see how beautiful and GOOD God's design is and choose to follow Him rather than what society is trying to embed in them. I know that I have a responsibility to teach them and to lead them by example. Titus 2:3-5 says, "Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored." That's a HUGE responsibility! I pray that God would use me as a tool in teaching the next generation just what it means to be a woman. I pray that my daughter will grow up to value God's design for her and that she will be a "worker at home." Whether she gets married or not, has kids or not, she is called to display her femininity as God designed it. As we watch society stray farther and farther from God's great plan, it is all the more important for us to daily CHOOSE to follow Him and to teach it to our children and those around us. The feminist movement started with just a small group of women and spread to what it is today. I am excited to be part of a relatively small group of women who are part of a new counterrevolution!

Disclaimer: After thinking about it, I realized it might sound like I'm not happy being a wife and a mother. So let me just make it clear that I absolutely LOVE my job as a wife and a mother and I am SO THANKFUL that I have a husband who is willing and able to work hard to provide for our family so that I am able to be at home. It's just that, well, I'm sinful (big surprise, there!) and sometimes I don't find joy in my job. But God is gracious and faithful to show me my sin and selfishness and lead me toward repentance. :)