Our Baby's THREE!

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

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

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

Our Summer (So Far) in Pictures

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

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

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.