Celebrating Hannah

After waking up for a pancake breakfast at home and then going to a ranch round-up, we took Miss Hannah Mae out for a waffle/pancake dinner for her birthday. Can you tell she was excited?

At dinner we conducted a little 4th Birthday Questionnaire:

1. What is your favorite color?  Pink

2. What is your favorite toy?  Mermaid

3. What is your favorite stuffed animal?  Jackson Bear

4. What is your favorite thing to sleep with?  Pink Blanket

5. What is your favorite fruit?  pear

6. What is your favorite cereal?  cinnamon cereal

7. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?  waffles

8. What is your favorite thing to ear for lunch?  ham and cheese

9. What is your favorite dessert?  cookies and cream ice-cream

10. What is your favorite animal? hippo (she just saw a baby hippo at the zoo)

11. What is your favorite book? Charlotte’s Web and Fancy Nancy

12. What is your favorite song? Trust and Obey

13. What is your favorite game? Candyland

14. What is your favorite TV show? Curious George

15. What is your favorite movie? Peter Pan

16. What is your favorite thing to do outside? swing

17. Who is your best friend? Luke (although now she would say, Betsy)

18. What is your favorite bible story? Genesis

19. What story in Genesis? Jacob

20. What do you want to be when you grow up?  a mommy

After dinner, we met some friends at our favorite kids art studio. They had a great time painting pottery and being silly.

Hannah’s creation:

Nathan’s handiwork:

The birthday girl blowing out her candles.

I was afraid that since we had a smaller party this year, Hannah would wonder when her real party was going to be. But when we got home she said, “Mommy, you are the best mommy. I had such a fun birthday!” I couldn’t have received any better confirmation.

Happy Birthday Hannah!

Hannah’s 4!

 

How can I have a four year old!?! The obvious answer is, well….four years have gone by. Yes, I know that. But how can so much change happen in four short years?

Hannah, you are such a sweet little girl. You are definitely a typical firstborn and such a rule follower. The trick is….you like to set the rules! You like to push the limits, but also like to know that there are limits.

I feel like you and your Dad are on the same wavelength. One day in the car you asked out of nowhere, “What are those things floating in the air?” Without skipping a beat, Scott rattled off something about dust particles and matter and lots of other scientific words. You seemed to know exactly what he was talking about and was very satisfied with the explanation. You have a sense of knowing when we tell you the whole truth about things and when we just give you the kid version. You are never satisfied with the kid version. Consequently, we’ve had some pretty deep conversations. One night your babysitter said you basically shared the gospel presentation with her from Jesus being born to him dying on the cross and ascending into heaven! Those are the appropriate stories you share. But you also know where babies come from and lets just say I’m a little nervous about that one.

You still love to “read” in your room before naps and bed (you have pretty much dropped your naps. You may take one a week…if I’m lucky:). You also love to listen to me and your Dad read. We’ve gone through several chapter books this year: Charlotte’s Web, Frog and Toad, Stuart Little, and the Mercy Watson series. These are some of my favorite times with you. I remember my mom reading to me and I hope you will do the same.

You also still love puzzles and arts and crafts. You color constantly and love gluing anything on a piece of paper. I can give you scissors, glue, pom-pom balls, and colors and you are set. You have a 100 piece Fancy Nancy puzzle that you need help working, but love the challenge of putting together.

You love riding your bike, playing in the water, dancing, and singing to music (you memorize all of the music we have in the car and make us start the song over if you miss a word).  Your memory is like a steel trap, and I don’t think you ever forget anything!

As far as behavior….just being honest…you still have your fits, but they don’t seem to be as irrational as your three year old fits (or as often). Most of the time it’s just because you don’t get what you want or get it how you want it. Your very particular and a tad bit bossy;)

You’ve pushed me to limits I’ve never seen before or never even knew existed, sweet girl. I don’t have this mom thing figured out yet, and I pray you can give me grace in those areas, but I do know I’m so blessed to have you as my sweet daughter. I never imagined it would be this good.

Hunting

Nathan saw a deer across the street and put on his boots and grabbed his gun. Watch out!

Hunting

We saw a deer across the street, so Nathan got his gear on and went "hunting."

Goodnight

Nathan stayed up late because he couldn’t sleep due to a late nap.  I couldn’t help but snap a couple of pictures of him as he went back to bed

Goodnight little boy.

North Carolina

Jennifer and I spent a long weekend in North Carolina last month. I had a conference in Wilmington on the beach so Jennifer came with me to get a mini-vacation.  We had a great trip except for the travel on the way there.  We had to change planes in Charlotte and there was a front passing through as we were trying to land.  I got visibly and audibly sick on the plane (twice) during the 1+ hour the pilot was trying to land.  At that point, the proposition of getting immediately back on a smaller plane in the same weather for another leg was not very appealing, so we opted for a rental car for a 4 hour drive to the coast.  Once we made it, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the weekend.  We had lots of good seafood and plenty of rest.  Special thanks to Nana and Pappy for watching Hannah and Nathan.  Here are a few pictures from our trip.

View from our balcony.  The beach was beautiful

There were some beautiful beach houses along the coast

I got in the water once.  It was cold but not too cold

Chapman Family Ranch Roundup

We went to a ranch roundup a few miles from our house earlier this month.  It was a free event put on by a local ranching family.  They were working cows and branding them.  The family had several chuck wagons set up and were cooking over campfires. This happened to be the same day as Hannah’s birthday and it was a good start to her day (more on her birthday later).

Here we are walking up from the parking area, there were easily 200 people there.  Notice we dressed appropriately

Here is my beautiful cowgirl

and my handsome cowboy

Although they were actually working the cows, this was as much about the show as it was the actual work, and there was no shortage of cowboys

Working the cows looks pretty easy when you have this many hands.  These guys were pretty efficient.

After watching them work, Hannah was able to recite the process: “one cowboy ropes the head, then the other ropes the feet, then they get the cow and give him shots and give him a checkup. that’s just what they do”

The kids rode a pony named Bucky. I presume he was named Bucky because he bucked at one point in his life, but that didn’t appear to be a concern this day, even with this 10 year old girl on the lead rope.

And finally we ate!  They had fajitas and dutch oven cooked biscuits.  And it was good.

Nathan was happy!

Ever since we’ve been home, Nathan has worn his cowboy boots a lot more and keeps talking about riding horses at Aunt Amber’s house.  This was a good start to Hannah’s birthday. If they do it again next year, we might have to make a tradition out of it.