storybook birthday

saturday was hannah's best friend's birthday party. she turnd two this past week. she loves to read and her mom is crazy creative. right now, mckenna's favorite book is go dog go. so, the kids decorated apple box "cars" to have some races in the yard with. all of the kids came dressed up as their favorite storybook character...hannah was olivia. my mom helped me make the dress, well, ok, she did almost all of the work, but i did do a little of the sewing. i made the ears. she loved it! and now...some pictures...

or maybe not. sad. blogger is experiencing some difficulties and i don't have the patience to try again and again. another day. sorry...

for my sister #2

so i was going through some old posts and came across the one where i talked about eating better and all that comes with that. i said that i would be keeping track of my progress here and i never had a follow up.
so here it is:
i have been walking with a friend of mine every monday, wednesday, and friday mornings. so, along with actually going to bed earlier and waking up earlier (and doing those things every day) i am spending a LOT more time being physically active. i have been trying to incorporate tuesday and thursday as walking days as well, but am not having much luck. i actually feel really good about my three-day-a-week schedule. tuesday morning, we go to church for my women's bible study and thursday morning we go to church for our pre school playgroup. so, every morning of the "week", we have something to get us up and out of the house...and away from the television. which is point two. we have been watching almost NO television. mike and i like to watch heros on monday nights. and that's about it. some evenings, which means maybe twice a week, we watch hannah montana and zack and cody on disney. don't ask. it's better content than most everything else on then. otherwise, we eat dinner a lot earlier, at a decent time, and enjoy our evenings as a family, just playing blocks or reading or coloring or whatever..it's been so nice. i feel like i am eating ...well, better. not like a health nut, but i rarely every drive-thru anymore and am trying to actually eat breakfast in the mornings. doing fruits (which was never a problem) and more veggies for snacking. and less snacking. i was just telling mike the other day that, while i'm not sure that i am actually losing weight yet, i am actually feeling a lot better. i think regulating (for the most part) my sleeping/waking, getting more physical activity in as daily as i can, watching less tv, and being more creative have combined to make a "me on the way to better me".

it's kinda nice.

for my sister...

here it is. not so exciting. i have been sewing a lot lately, making tote bags for our church's craft fair next month and some costumes...one for hannah and one for a friend, matyce. saturday is mckenna's birthday party...storybook dress-up...come as your favourite storybook character. hannah is going to be olivia. i am making a costume for matyce, too. it's really just a fleece shirt and hat. he's going as dikkie dik, a dutch character. dikkie dik is an orange cat, who has a little hand puppet that looks exactly like him. he's pretty cute. i can't read dutch to save my life, but the book is really cute and kat says it's one of his favourites. so, yeah, that is my post i guess. i suppose the point was to put up some pictures, but i haven't loaded any new ones from the camera lately. i will definitly post some of the kids in their costumes at the party. most likely on monday...can you wait that long?

...goofing around...

i suppose it's pretty self explanitory...

...paint, paint, and some more...

we have a playgroup on thursday mornings at church. the moms take turns planning crafts and bringing snacks...a few weeks ago, we had a "it's so hot, let's paint and make a mess and then play in the water day". it's a winner. here are a few pictures of hannah:

and here are a few of her friends:

...our little musician...

my mom brought this little xylephone (sp?) home from nicaragua earlier this year. it's one of hannah's favourite things to play with. oh yeah, she's a bit of a ham.

...calafia state beach...

a few weeks ago, we went down to san clemente. it was hannah's first "real" time at the beach. (we've been before, but she was too small to enjoy the trip...and too small for me to enjoy the trip...)
she had such a blast. playing in the waves, playing in the sand, running around.

...new camera...

all i can say is.....YAHOO!!!

i'd show you a picture, but i'm not sure how i'd do it...
it's totally been fun to be able to take pictures of EVERYTHING!! it makes me me sad that i missed out on the kazillion picture taking opportunities that have come and gone. but, boy oh boy, i am so making up for lost time. it's a bit disgusting.

so, i'll be posting some pictures of our latest adventures. coming up...

...here we go...

so, i have been encouaged by emery (of emery's blog) and a few other sources to be a better eater. ... check out emery's post titled "a better way".
i think keeping track of my/our progress here will help keep me more accountable. the plan is: more fresh fruit, veggies, and water. no (or seriously cutting back on) high fructose corn syrup and no pop (which is a "duh!" since it's made of high fructose corn syrup.)
also, implementing more physical activity and i am adding "less tv time" to the list.

so today i feel i did pretty good at the grocery store. and tonight we went for a bike ride, 3 miles. i have a friend who i will be walking with tomorrow morning and hopefully we'll be able to make it a regular event.

i want this "better" me for many reasons. i want to just plain feel better. i want to have healthier habits to model for hannah. i want to be able to be the best vessel for God's glory that i can be and i feel like a healthier me will be able to do that.

so, thanks emery, for the motivation! i am really looking forward to this adventure.

catching up...

gosh. it's been a while since april. time flies...lots of excuses come to mind, but basically i just haven't made the effort to post anything. not that anyone reads this.
life is just busy. all the time, it seems.
we've had quite a crazy strech since we returned to banning from our cross-country adventure.
hannah turned two. yikes! we traded in the saturn for a subaru. (check that off my"life list"!) (i know...DORK) we have enjoyed an exciting summer...mike's folks moved back into town, allowing for more "grandparent time", not that we were lacking, it's been a zillion degrees almost every day, yuck...i am so very much not a fan of the heat...hannah and mommy got to fly to buffalo, ny to visit with relatives on mommy's side of the family, so much fun...we hit the zoo, minor leauge baseball, pennsylvania - nana's old house, house washing, sprinklers, wading pools, parks, ted's hot dogs!, and lots of time with grammy!
i'll try to get some pictures up sooner rather than later. we just got a laptop and are in the process of transferring our life from the desktop.

something of note: lately, i have been enjoying more and more reading emery's blog (http://www.emeryjo.blogspot.com/) she has been posting installments of "the chris and emery story." it's the story of their relationship, it's very real and very touching and very personal.
thank you emery, for putting that part of you out there.

part two of "of note": i feel like i am really coming to terms with who i am as a sinner, fallen, not worthy. with who i am because of what Christ did for me as a sinner, by dying as a sacrifice, clean, blameless, to take the penalty of sin in my place. i am so thankful for what He has done for me. for what He has done for every sinner. i am so excited about knowing more about who God has planned for me to be in Him. i pray for Him to be glorified in my life.

a few more...

so, i just absolutely love this one. we had just stopped at a target in little rock, arkansas for some leg streching and were playing a bit bit before we buckled up and got going. i love these two people more than words can express... two tired travelers. we were just outside louisville, kentucky and it was about one o'clock in the morning...
can't get enough of these two...and they can't get enough of each other...

PICTURES!!

well, i've got a few to share:

as you can tell, hannah is very excited to be spending so much time in the car. we'd been on the road for about nine hours here... in louisville, kentucky, we visited with our friends the marshmans. hannah and georgia had a blast playing at chick-fil-a after dinner one night. we were so glad to spend time with jeff, rachel, and georgia...
hannah got to visit with her cousin elliot for a while in nashville, tenessee. elliot just turned one and we haven't seen him since last summer. she is trying to give him a kiss here...
the peanut gallery! grandma and grandpa crocker and hannah. we have been having such a great time visiting with them in austin. they just adore hannah and are so glad that we could be here for a while with them. (we feel the same way about them)...
hannah and aunt jill at red lobster, hamming it up...
that's our trip in a nutshell so far. i don't want to spend too much time on-line. i'll post a few more tomorrow. we are having such a good time. God has kept us healthy and safe, which we are very thankful for. we are looking forward to making our way back to california and our friends and family. just a few more days!!

an update...

we made it safely to austin, texas on sunday evening. we are enjoying our time with mike's grandparents and aunt. hopefully i'll be able to get some pictures up before we leave town on friday. if not, i'll do it when we get home next week.

on the road...

well, tomorrow will be one week that we have been away from home. we've been to eight states and have a few more to go...some are doubles that we've already been through...
we visisted with our friends, the marshmans, in louisville, kentucky for a few days. jeff is a student at southern baptist theological seminary. kentucky was beautiful! right now we are in nashville, tenessee visiting justin, mike's brother. he's been here almost a year and we have been missing him heaps. hannah has had so much fun with uncle justin...and he's had just as much fun with her! it's been a great visit and we can't wait to see him again. tomorrow we leave for texas to visist with mike's grandparents and aunt. we always love to spend time with them, and they love to spend time with hannah (and us!) then we'll be on our way back to california, with our last stop in albequerque, new mexico for mike to meet up with some friends who are on the radio...he's really looking forward to that...

i'll post pictures when we get back home. i can't wait. i've got some good ones.

we are so blessed to have this time. God has been so good to us and we are very thankful. (this has been such a great time for our family...it will be nice to look back on when mike jumps back into work.)

i've given in...

i've been holding out. who wants another screen name, another password, another form to fill out... i haven't posted lately because i really didn't want to sign up for google. not the end of the world, but a fair bit of annoying...anyway, i did and here i am.
the days are dwindling, her second birthday is drawing near. i can't believe that she's almost two! i thought that she had changed so much from birth to one, but TWO!, holy cow she is this whole new person who continues to unfold before me every-stinkin'-day.
i am so impressed at who God has designed her to be. i am amazed at how she is developing into that person. i am completely blown away at my role as God's helper in this project. i am so thankful for the blessing that she is, that He has given me. i thought going to school, work, and paying bills on time was a big responsibility...man, i had no idea what real responsibility was...raising a child, being an example, modeling Christ for her. it's so amazing to be a part of this. i look forward to each new day.

how big girls nap...

this is how big girls take a nap. in their big girl toddler beds without guard rails.

it only took her about three and a half weeks to decide, all on her own, that she wanted to sleep there. that was last monday night. i barely slept at all, so blown away by her very big decision and waiting for her to fall out of bed and need me. i finally fell asleep and she did not "fall" out of bed, it was more of a wiggle. daddy found her on the floor at the end of the bean bag, so he gently picked her up and put her back in her bed without waking her up. i found her in the same spot on the floor when i got up a few hours later. we had an adventure at home depot and found the perfect piece of wood to make a guard rail. for under five dollars. (we also looked at succulents and books on how to grow grass.)

...the little girl is almost gone. some day she will decide that she wants to go to the bathroom on the toilet and tie her own shoes. then she will be gone. and i will continue to stare at her when she's not paying attention, amazed at who she is becoming and dreading the day when she catches me and says...all "teenage" and annoyed..."what?! stop looking at me! you're creeping me out!" (sorry mom. i get it now.)

catching up...

so, it's been a few months since christmas, and since we are all still alive, i thought i'd update our blog. lots of things have happened. here are a few of them. more to come... the daddy got some new glasses. it's about time! his old glasses he'd had since he was fifteen. yes. you read that right. fifteen. next order of business - new contacts.


also, our friend georgia (and her parents) moved across the country to kentucky. we miss them very much, but they are doing well, surviving in the snow and cold of the east coast. we are hoping to visit them some time this year, georgia told hannah there are some really cool parks in her town.