pics from vacation

Hannah at the beach, a close up of Hannah in the carriage we rented at colonial Williamsburg (she loved it!) and a pic of all three of us. Click on the the pics to see larger image.

finally writing again

Hey, after a very long break in writing I'm finally back. Consistent communication is not my strong point as anyone can tell you. So lets start with vacation. In early June Matt, Hannah and I went to Virginia for vacation. We spent the bulk of our time at Colonial Williamsburg. We also spent some time at Virginia Beach. By the time we left colonial Williamsburg Hannah was on first name basis with half the staff (of course!) Thanks to her unwavering cuteness she received one free cookie and got the entire family into an evening program for free. You usually pay to get in but Hannah made friends with the program director. That's my girl! There was also a bit of an adventure of sorts coming home from Virginia Beach. While Matt was holding Hannah out in the waves his brand new glasses were knocked off and lost. He didn't have any other glasses or contacts with him so we had to leave earlier than we would have. When we got back to the hotel we turned on the T.V only to see that we narrowly missed a dangerous situation. The highway we had just been traveling on was at a stand still. A man had just gone through there firing off gun shots and injuring a policeman. I believe there was also a fatality. it couldn't have been but by minutes that we missed the situation. Praise God for lost glasses! I'll post pictures from vacation soon. Rhiannon

from the mouths of babes

Shortly after the "I'm too busy" comment we all arrived at our destination. An antique store in Morgantown. Me and my colonial period fetish, what can I say? Naturally I ended up chatting with the woman who was working at the store. Through the course of our conversation the woman mentioned how the world seems to just keep getting worse and worse, and I began to feel that I needed to speak with this woman about God, but was too nervous. I remember the woman then mentioned something about how polite and sweet Hannah had been (Hannah had previously asked very nicely for a lollipop). Apparently God was going to reach this woman with or without my help, because then Hannah walked up. She replied to the woman's comment about her by saying "God made me the way I am! He made the whole world! And you have to praise Him and bow down to Him." Well the woman agreed with Hannah (of course, what else can you say?!) then asked us if we go to church or if we just taught Hannah about God on our own. I of course mentioned chestnut ridge church and she was asking lots of questions. Turns out she actually knows someone who attends CRC. As we were finishing up our conversation she began to cry a little and was really appreciative of our conversation. I certainly was humbled and learned a lesson about speaking up when God prompts me! Praise God for using Hannah for His glory!

in the car

It's nice that life is getting back to normal after the last few weeks being so crazy! Anyway...a couple of nights ago Matt, Hannah and I were driving in the car around 7ish. I knew Hannah hadn't had a nap today so was probably getting tired. I looked back to her and asked her if she was getting sleepy. She said, with a glazed over look in her eyes," No, I'm just too busy." Literally 2 minutes later I looked back again and she was completely out:)

(this is a picture of hannah crashing after her birthday party this year)

How very Hannah

When I was at Target yesterday I came across a series of books called Fancy Nancy. I picked up one of them titled "Bonjour Butterfly". I'm wondering if this author knows Hannah personally! The stories are about a little girl who loves to dress up in fancy play clothes and learn to use big (fancy) words, and just happens to be quite dramatic. The Illustrations crack me up. I'm know I've seen Hannah in some of the exact poses as fancy nancy. I love my fancy Hannah!

someday I'll be 18

this post isn't about Hannah, but still funny.  Today we had our dish washer delivered. Hooray!  The delivery man was nice but as he was leaving he commented...

"you know, i just thought i would tell you;  when I first got here I almost asked if your mom was home because I thought you were 15."

That's right folks, 15!  All of a sudden the comment he made when he first came in made sense.  He said "why wasn't there school today?"  I responded by saying Hannah wasn't in school yet.  But clearly he wasn't referring to Hannah.  So apparently it doesn't matter if I'm in my own home with my 4 year old daughter right there beside me, I still look fifteen!  People have been guessing me at 15 or 16 since I was 16!  Maybe someday I'll look 18, although it will probably take another 10 years.  Just thought I'd share a day in the life.

I'm just practicing putting pictures on my blog.  I love this one.  It was taken this summer at Yankee Peddler.  That's a craft fair in Ohio.  She was inside the Butterfly screened in porch.  They had plants that butterflies enjoy set up all around.  There were probably about 50 butterflies inside.  Next year I think I'll let Hannah buy a crystallise to take home and watch hatch.