My Forever Girl

My girl. She pledges her love to me day after day. Often she tells me that she never wants to get married. She wants to stay home with Mommy forever and ever. Which is fine by me! I think I should try to record her saying that, so that when the teen years hit I can remind her how at one time she thought I was the best thing ever.

Somehow or other, Hannah has it in her head that we will be having a baby soon. Awhile back Tony said something about organizing the basement so that when the time came we would have the option of moving the toys down there. I guess she heard that conversation and it stuck with her.

The other day she told me she did NOT want me to have another baby because she didn't want her toys to go to the basement, she wanted them to stay in the toy room. I assured her that it would not be that way for sometime because the baby would sleep in Mommy and Daddies room at first. That eased her mind for awhile.

Soon she wondered, where would the baby go when it got bigger? Well, if it was a boy he would sleep in Alex's room and if we have a girl then she would sleep in Hannah's room. Well, it seemed that would work "Only if she doesn't snore! If she snores, she cannot sleep with me!" OK Hannah, but Mommy does NOT have a baby in her tummy so we have a long time to worry about that. To which she replied, "Are you sure? Your tummy sure is getting bigger!" Thanks sweetie;)

Soon enough her mind was reeling with questions again. Now she wanted to know if she could get a bunk bed if the baby was a girl. I told her we would wait and see. Then she told me when we take down her bed just to put it in a box and save it for her. That way when the girl gets married, we can take down the bunk bed and put her bed back up! You know, because she is never, ever getting married.

I like the way you think little girl! You can stay with Mommy and Daddy as long as you want. Maybe we could sign a legal agreement stating that you will stay away from boys all together while we are at it. Or you could just freeze time and stay my little girl forever.

Lose the Loose

Hannah's tooth has been loose for weeks upon weeks. For a little girl who is anxious to lose her first tooth, it seemed like it had been loose FOREVER! The following is how it finally came out. I took a million pictures of this event, but luckily enough for you I narrowed it down to just four.

One night fresh from a bath, Hannah told Daddy that her tooth was really, really loose. So we all gathered around her as Daddy tortured her tried to pull her tooth.

She was a little bit scared, so she held Mommy's hand. She was worried that it was going to hurt even though that little tooth was only hanging on by a thread.

Daddy's big fingers had a hard time grabbing that tiny little baby tooth. So eventually we called it a night. The next day (August 26) while sitting at the table with Hannah I asked her if I could wiggle her tooth. I twisted it one time and out it came.

She was so excited to finally lose the tooth that had been loose for so LONG. The end.

A Whole Hand

I know I start out every birthday post lamenting the fact that I cannot believe how old my "baby" is, but it is so true. How can my girl be 5 already?! It is unreal. Where does the time go? Which is funny to say because there are days that literally drag on and I am ready to pull my hair out by bedtime. However, the next thing I know another year has passed.

Things I want to remember from the past year:
You are still such a swimmer! You love the water and if it were up to you, you would swim every day all day! You have recently began swimming under water. I think maybe we should invest in swim lessons for you.

You are also so social. You love to play with your "friends" and cousins. In fact in the mornings I will often find you looking out our front window to see if any of your friends are outside. As soon as you spot one, you get so excited and beg to go outside.

You still love to sing and dance. In fact when we say your bedtime prayers it is usually done in form of a song! You just make up your own beat and dance to it. I love how you are constantly dancing or singing. We are hoping to find you a dance class this fall so that you can continue to do what you love.

You have started not only dressing yourself, but picking out what you want to wear. You come up with some crazy outfits! They do not always match, but to you they do! One day you wore two totally different patterns that both had flowers on them. Your reasoning was that you were going to be a flower girl, so you needed to wear flowers! You also almost always have some sort of scarf or headband as an accessory. For this reason, some people think you are going to be a fashion designer when you grow up.

One of your greatest loves is dogs. You have never taken an interest in playing with dolls, but you have so many stuffed dogs that you LOVE to play with. You just love Fuzzy Bones and all of the neighbors dogs. You are so gentle with them and loving. It still surprises me that you never had a fear of dogs even after you got bit. I know that I have a major fear now. I always have to stop you when we "meet" a new dog because you just want to get right down there and give them hugs and let them kiss you. It makes me so nervous! Sometimes when we are outside playing with the neighbors, you will ignore all of the kids and hang out with the neighbor's dog Clyde for awhile. Many people think you are going to be a veterinarian one day.

It is so amazing to see how much you have grown and changed over this year. You are my baby girl, and yet you are getting older right before my eyes. Often times you tell me that you do not want to get married. When asked why, you will respond that you want to stay with Mommy forever. Which is perfectly fine by me. You are such a strong, stubborn, spunky girl. I know God has some big plans for you. Really, it doesn't matter what you decide to become one day as long as you are happy.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Love,
Your Mommy

A Dog Gone Good Time

It was no surprise that Hannah chose to have a dog themed birthday party this year. Although once again it was a last minute change. Pretty much since last year she has been talking about how she wanted a Hannah Montana party. I found a cute guitar cake stencil to use, as well as cute favor and game ideas. Then shortly before the party she decided on puppy dogs. It fit her well and we had a lot of fun doing it.

We had a great turn out for the party, besides most of my family not coming:( All of our neighbors (with kids) came, most of our small group, and some family. It was a little crowded in the house, but it was worth it.

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the decor (I was a little busy running around doing all the last minute stuff) so for now I will just tell you about them. I found dog dishes at Target in the $1 aisle. So I bought one for each of the kids and wrote their names on them with a paint pen. Then I put coco puffs in them (dog food) and sugar cookies cut in the shape of a bone on top. When the kids first came in we had a station for them to make a dog collar, licorice with fruit loops. The cake was in the shape of a dog face and then I made cupcakes with paw prints on them.

Games: A few weeks before Hannah's party we were at a neighbors party and they were getting ready to play pin the tale on the donkey. Hannah kept saying that she did not want to play. I could not figure out why because she had played all of the other games up to that point. She asked me if she could just watch. Then she asked me where they kept him at. Who? The donkey, is he outside? It was so funny. She actually thought there was a real donkey that she had to try to pin a tale on! After explaining to her it was pretend and showing her the picture, she was ready to play.

Of course she wanted to play pin the tale at her party. I tried to find a pin the tale on the dog, but couldn't so we were stuck with a donkey. We also had a barking contest and a pinata.

Hannah with all of her loot!

Her big gift from Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa Fries, Grandma and Grandpa Lauck and Uncle Matt. We are looking forward to using that this summer!

Is He Still There?

Hannah has recently taken an interest in the fact that Jesus is always with you. She has started asking questions...all sorts of questions. Here are a few of them:

Is Jesus with Grandma? Alex? Daddy? Fuzzy?
Why doesn't Jesus live in Fuzzy's heart?
Does He see me when I am in the bathroom?
Does He go with me when I go upstairs?

On and on the list goes. However, the other night she didn't want to go upstairs by herself. When I questioned why, she informed me that she was scared that He was going to follow her again. LOL! Then a little bit later she told me that she was didn't want Him to follow her anymore.

I don't think she really understands the concept!

Catching Up

I realized that I have not really posted much about the kiddos lately so I thought I better give some updates on them. I really need to do an Easter post, but that will have to come later! For now here is a picture of us all dressed up.
Tater is doing great. Not much "changing" going on with her. She continues to get smarter by the day and I am constantly bombarded with questions throughout the day. Most of which I have no idea how to answer! I usually stumble along to the best of my ability, which is usually followed by a long list of whys! She keeps me on my toes, that is for sure. She is quite the fashion diva...only the fashion makes sense to only her. I have long ago decided not to fight her on what she wears. She gets to decided what to wear even if it evokes quite a few stares when we are out and about. This past weekend when it was 80+ degrees outside, she thought for sure that she needed to wear her hat and gloves.

Zander is also growing and changing so much everyday. One of my favorite things that he does right now is to tell me secrets. He comes up and makes the whispering noise and at the end whispers secret. It is so cute. He just loves to play outside and is all boy, let me tell you.

Unfortunately he is cutting his two year molars right now and it has really changed his disposition. I couldn't remember Hannah being so fussy, so I looked through my archives to see if I had written anything. Sure enough I had. Turns out she was fussy, I just must have blocked out that part! I am also a little concerned with how he turns his right foot in when he walks. When we originally asked the pediatrician about it she said they usually don't do anything about it until the child is 3 or 4. However, it has gotten much worse since then so I think we will be bringing it up at our next visit.

My Little Artist

I love it that Daddy resembles a potato and I am a much skinnier frog!

Tater goes to the dentist...

Last Friday Hannah, Alex and I all had dentist appointments. I was a little nervous going into this since both the kids and I had appointments. Whoever I talked to on the phone assured me that it would be fine. The kids could watch while I got my teeth cleaned and then it would be their turn. We went ahead and scheduled them all together.

Of course we got there and had to wait at least 45 minutes before going back to the chair. Then for some reason they decided to take Hannah next door to start with her. Which of course made Alex mad because he wanted to go to a chair too. Upon seeing his meltdown another assistant took him to his room. All this time I am sitting in my chair fuming, hello these are my kids ages 2 and 4, I don't think they are quite old enough to be in their own room! Thankfully, they were just distracting Alex and taking Hannah's x-rays.

Alex is so young (the offices youngest patient!) that the dentist wanted it to be a positive experience for him. So, I held him in my lap and the dentist counted his teeth. Alex thought he was such a big boy! Hannah on the other hand got the works.
She was so excited! She just loved going to the dentist. As you can see, she thought her experience was worth two thumbs up.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

Hannah had been talking about getting her hair cut short "like Riah" (her cousin Mariah) for awhile. I'm not sure where it came from, but she just decided one day that she would like her hair cut short. So, we talked about it. Me telling her that it would take a REALLY long time for her hair to grow back when she cut it. Her telling me she didn't care because she wanted it cut short. She would also inform me that she didn't want bangs anymore.

The problem was that I did not want to get her hair cut! She has such beautiful long hair. It would lay so nice, even without brushing it in the morning. It is so thick and has natural highlights...sigh. In the end I decided that it is her hair so she should get to pick how to wear it. That plus, she was starting to be a real pill when it came to brushing her hair. She would instantly tear up and start whining before I would even start to brush it. I figured, fine we would get a few inches cut off and it would be easier to manage.

On Friday we headed to the salon. Here she is pre-cut:
We started off cutting about 4-5 inches off.

When we were all done she decided that wasn't long enough! So I asked her how short she wanted it and she pointed to her cheekbone. That was a little too short for me. Instead we chopped another 4 inches off!

She was so excited and proud when we were done.

She was very excited to have her hair cut like Riah. She even said that next time Riah saw her, Riah would think that she was Riah! Too funny. Here she is with her pile of hair.

I was a little sad to see all of that hair come off. I'm still not sure of the haircut. It is all one length, so it doesn't lay very nice. I think it is because her hair is so thick that it sort of looks like it is just chopped off. I think the bottom layer should have been cut a little shorter so it would lay nicer. In order for it to look decent I have to take the flat iron and give it a little curl. Oh well, it's only hair right?

I Can See Her Future...

and it does NOT involve being a make-up artist! Although who knows. Maybe by then this:
will be what all the A-listers will be sporting. No?

Some Cuteness

I found this video when I was looking through my pictures for the tag. It was just so cute that I had to share it! I just love those chubby legs!!!

Hannahisms

Background: It is Sunday after church and the parking lot is full of snowy-slush. I am carrying Hannah so that she doesn't get all wet and dirty. For some reason Daddy parked way out in the boonies even though we were early and there were plenty of parking spaces. Whatever, we are young and healthy we can walk, but carrying Hannah all the way out to the boonies is no easy task. About halfway to the car this is the conversation we had:

H: Mommy my legs are tired, I can't hold on anymore. (She lets her legs go limp.)
M: Well that makes Mommy's arms tired and I might drop you.
H: And a car would run me over...
M: (Laughing) Well it might...
H: and I would become and angel and go see Jesus!
M: I really don't want you to go see Jesus yet, I want you to stay with me.
H: OK. How about for my birthday you buy me real wings so I can fly up and just visit.
M: (Laughing) I don't think they make real wings.
H: Just look, OK Mommy:
M: OK!

Just One of Those Days

This past weekend was kind of a "relaxing" weekend. I decided that I was going to take the day off on Saturday and not do any housework. Which was great, for the day, but come Sunday the house was disastrous. Which caused me more stress then what my "day off" was worth.

Anyway, back to Saturday. My day of rest ended up turning into a day of stress. On Friday night my nieces and nephew spent the night. The kids had so much fun, but got little sleep. They stayed up way past bedtime and got up extremely early. Which is what a sleepover is all about. However, that makes for a very cranky two year old. It messed up his entire schedule. Nap-time came too early, so by late afternoon he was Mr. Cranky. He was crying and whining about everything! I was at my wits end. I was counting down the hours until bedtime. I had planned on putting them to bed extra early and playing some Wii picking up a bit. However, my plan was foiled.
I found this pile of bodies at 7:00 P.M. I knew it was a bad idea. I knew that if I let them nap they would not go to bed...but. But, it was quiet! There was no crying or whining or complaining. It had just been one of those days where I could not take it any longer. So I let them sleep.

Of course, when it was time for bed neither one of them were tired. That is why I was still putting a mad Zander back into his bed every two minutes and rubbing Tater's back in between at 11:00. Three hours past bedtime. Oh, what one little nap at the wrong time can do.

60 YEARS!!!

Today is my Grandparent's anniversary, they have been married for sixty years. Can you believe that? Sixty years and they make it look so easy. This past weekend we had a surprise party for them. Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I did not get any pictures of the grand event. I will have to steal my Mom's memory card so I can put up some pictures of them....they are so cute! Anyway, we had a great meal, went on a hayride and had a bunch of crafts for the kids to do. One of the crafts was to color and decorate pumpkins.
Here's Zander, cheesily showing off his pumpkin creation:
And Missy with hers. She spent a long time just coloring her pumpkin, the other side is also colored.

We decided that we also wanted to carve the pumpkins with the kids. So Sunday evening before Bologna left we carved them. Alex jumped right into the goo.

Hannah on the other hand was a little more timid. Tony finally put some in her hand and let her feel it so she would be brave enough to stick her hand inside.

I caught her face mid-yuck. She actually got better after a few times of sticking her hands in.

I will have to post the finished product later because I do not have a good picture of them yet. Tony is so creative, he made Tater a clown face and Zander a pirate. I think that he actually enjoys carving the pumpkins more than the kids do and in a few years we will have to get an extra pumpkin so that he still gets to carve one;)

BIG A, little a

Today I decided that since Missy Tater is not in preschool, we really need to start working on her letters. I figured we would start with A and work our way through to Z (ingenious I know), doing one letter per week, capital and lowercase including the sounds that they make. We'll see how it goes. Today we worked on writing big and little a's and sang a song about the sounds they make. Then for lunch we had "Aa" sandwiches.
We also had tomAto soup. It was very yummy and the kids just loved eating their letters.

After lunch we ran to the $ store and bought some art supplies so that we could do some serious "Aa" art projects this week. When we were done there we went to my friend Steph's house for a little play date. It was great to catch up with my friend Molly who I haven't seen for a few months. Towards the end of the night we tried to get all of the kiddos on the couch for a photo, but it did not work out to well.

I chose this one because H, was sitting there all nice and proper while everyone else was in their own world. Yep, that basically sums up us trying to get five kids to sit still for five minutes.

WE MET LIZZIE!!!

Very photo heavy post...however there are about a thousand pictures I could post so really you are getting off easy!

Tonya had a party on Saturday and I was soooo excited not only to see everybody, but because the Hedger's were going to be there. That meant that not only was there going to be somebody Hannah's age, but there was going to be a GIRL that was Hannah's age! However, what I did not expect was how much I would enjoy talking with Lisa. Not that I don't enjoy talking with Tonya, Sarah, Sue and Cat, but this was different. This was a mommy of a girl my girl's age. (Are you following me here?) That meant that we got to talk about things that applied to our girls. Things that the other parents are not facing either a. because they have male children, or b. because they are younger than Hannah. Anyway, what I am trying to convey here is just how nice it was to be able to talk to somebody at the same point that I am. Does that make any sense?

Anyway, moving on. The kids had such a great time. As always, Tonya was such a great hostess and had so much for the kids to do. They were buys most of the time which gave all of us mommas a chance to chit-chat. There was a cardboard box house, that had a bunch of shredded paper in the middle that hid the candy. Hannah and Liz actually sat in there forever picking out that candy. It was quite funny.

I think it is so cute how Alex is just peaking in!
There was bobbing for apples, and really what more can a bunch of almost two year olds want than a big bucket full of water and apples?

Hannah and Liz really enjoyed the bobbing.

They each got to make their own bag to collect the candy in. Tonya, so crafty had foam stickers, stamps and puffy paint for them to use.

There was even a bouncy house for them to jump in and boy did they love that.

When they weren't occupied with all of that, Will gave them a box of rocks to throw into the little fish pond. I think that was on of the highlights of the night. However, it was not until much later that Hannah discovered the fish.

Hannah and Liz were just so cute together! They played so well and at one point were upstairs playing by themselves. Every now and then somebody would go check on them to find that they were playing "Princess of the year!" Not sure what that is but okay. The one bummer is that they live so far away:( I did google it and if I have the right city then currently we are only roughly two hours away. Once I move though we will be almost four hours away!

Hannah and Liz saying goodbye:

I will leave you with some of the other cuties at the party. Unfortunately I am so bad about getting pictures of the older kids, mainly because they are so busy running around!

Dude, is this party over yet? 'Cause I am wicked tired!