Thank You, Grandma and Papa!!!

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

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

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.