Hannah's 9th birthday

Hannah asked to have a "camping" birthday party this year to celebrate her 9th birthday.  We had a handful of friends over.  They enjoyed dinner, watermelon, s'mores, sparklers, and even camping in  our big ten person tent in the backyard. Hannah and all the girls had a great time  and we actually all did sleep well that night too. Bonus! 

Hannah's Closet remodel

Our Labor Day weekend projects included remodeling the kids' closets.  Hannah's was first.  I honestly don't know why I didn't do this 9 years ago when we moved in.  We LOVE it! Hannah even begged for me to not put the closet doors back on because it looks so good.

 

Madeline's gone

Hannah's growing up too fast.  She recently asked me to paint over her Madeline and Genevieve painting on her wall.  She had outgrown it.  I was a little sad but complied with her wishes.  I had to take this picture with Hannah and the mural just before I repainted. She does look too old now.  Sniff. Sniff.  

Hannah's 8th birthday

Hannah's 8th birthday was filled with everything an 8 year old girl would want.  She started the day with Krispy Kreme doughnuts for breakfast.  She received jewelry from her Mom and Dad:  green m&m earrings, necklace and a ring.  We joined the YMCA and went swimming in their indoor pool for the first time.  We went out for lunch to Chick-fil-A.  We played and had fun and went out to dinner at Moe's and went walking around downtown Knoxville.  Our last stop was to go up to the top of the Sunsphere to look out over the city.  It was gorgeous!  The biggest gift she received was a bunny rabbit.  She has wanted one for over a year.  We found a litter trained 3 month old Holland Lop.  She is so cute and tiny and a great eater.  She loves eating greens from our garden, especially spinach.  She also eats apples and strawberries and hay.  Hannah's in love!

Showing off her new m&m jewelry

Afternoon activity: swimming at the YMCA

Night out visiting the Sunsphere

Hannah in front of the Sunsphere

Hannah's gift from Jason and me: a Holland Lop bunny

AHG Service Hours

With Hannah's American Heritage Girls troop, she was able to earn some service hours recently by cleaning up the church grounds where they meet.  We picked up sticks, planted new flowers, cleaned signs and more.  Here's Hannah with one of the high school girls in the troop after working hard all morning.  

Little bookworm

I am so proud of Hannah this week for finishing the book, Charlotte's Web. She is a gifted reader and it seems to come easily for her. This book is on the recommended reading list for 3rd graders. Hannah's only in 2nd grade. I believe I'll get her to read all the 3rd grade books this spring, then move on to the 4th grade this summer. She was especially motivated to finish the book because she knew that she could see the movie afterwords. The hard part has begun for me now because I can't seem to find the movie on DVD. What a surprise. It's a great movie. Did you ever see it? I highly recommend it.

AHG Mother and Daughter Tea

Hannah's American Heritage Girls' troop had a Mother and Daughter Tea for Christmas. It was so cute seeing all the girls in their holiday dresses and drinking tea or hot chocolate and eating brunch foods. The older girls even played Christmas carols on the piano. We listened to a Bible devotional and had an arts and crafts table for the girls to make ornaments. There was also a craft to make and give to the elderly at the nursing home later that month for their service project.

Hannah wore her new Christmas sweater and skirt to the tea and enjoyed sitting with her friend Molly. Here's a cute picture of Molly and Hannah.

Hannah's Slumber Party

I received this cute picture of Hannah from a sleepover party she attended last weekend.  It was too cute to not share.  I love Hannah's choice of pillow!  Shortly thereafter, Hannah left the bed to go sleep in her sleeping bag on the floor.  She said it was too crowded.  Actually, she couldn't probably sleep in as many crazy positions as she normally does. 

Hannah's Summer Camp

Hannah's local troop of American Heritage Girls are hosting a week long camp. Hannah is in the Tenderheart group for girls in grades 1-3. They are working on 4 badges this week; sign language, cake decorating, our heritage and creative crafts. She is there at day camp from 8:45-4:30 all week. She arrives home by 5 only to have 45 minutes to rest before we head over to VBS at West Park Baptist Church from 6-8:30. It is very strange to only see my little girl for about an hour a day. I'm thrilled she's having a blast at camp with the girls and VBS at night but do miss her. I will be glad when Saturday rolls around. Sleeping in and enjoying time with the whole family. Then we only have only one more summer camp left, Andrew's Boy Scout Camp. His won't be as intense with all the driving. We drop him off on Sunday at Camp Buck Toms about an hour away from here and pick him up on Saturday. We won't lay eyes on him for a week. He's gonna love it!

Hannah's new school desk

Every year my school room changes. This coming August, we will start doing school with Hannah at her own school desk instead of the "community table". I normally transition the kids away from the group table when they start 3rd grade but I am now out of room on my school bookshelves. I am not able to sell them yet either since I plan on using them for Caleb. So my solution was to store Hannah's school books in her own desk just I do with Ethan and Andrew's books.

Of course I searched high and low for a cute white desk for her and found one on Craigslist. It was a great deal for this antique desk, $75.00 and solid wood. Jason will probably do a complete overhaul paint job on it sometime this summer but it still looks pretty cute right now.

Hannah's Birthday Activities

Hannah's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. She's 7 years old now. 7! She's growing up too fast. The family was split in half that weekend with Jason, Andrew and Ethan gone to a Boy Scout camping trip. Hannah, Caleb and I were together celebrating half of her birthday until the boys' came home that afternoon. So you will see some of the pictures with only Caleb and Hannah in them.


We started the day with a non-nutritous breakfast at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. Followed that with a quick trip home to open presents and watch part of a new video, Hello Kitty before heading to church. After church ended, Caleb and Hannah played on the playground at church. Fast food for lunch then home to play and wait for the boys to return from their Boy Scout Camping trip. At Hannah's request, we headed to Zuma (an indoor and outdoor kids' play area) for the afternoon before dinner out with the 6 of us. By the time the day ended, she had a full tummy, tons of toys, and a full day's worth of entertainment and excitement. With her birthday money from the grandparents and aunts and uncles, she purchased two sock monkeys, two My Little Pony toys, a walky-talkie and a girl Lego set.

Hannah's 7th Birthday

Newborn Hannah

7 year old Hannah

Hannah's 1st time in rollers

Hannah asked for her hair to be rolled for church Sunday morning. I joyously agreed since she had NEVER let me curl her hair before in rollers. So here is my cutie pie's before and after shots. She loved the curls! She ran around the house showing all the boys her curls. She was so excited.

Hannah's BFF's

We ran in to Hannah's BFF's at spring testing so we just had to get a spring shot of the girls together. They are outgrowing my little Hannah Claire quickly I noticed. Sorry about Hannah's bangs, she thinks she wants to grow them out now. So we have entered the hair clip stage again to get them out of her eyes as they grow.

Hannah's new glasses

In Hannah's American Heritage Girls' Troop we came across a little problem lately. While working on her sewing badge, she needed to thread a needle to whip stitch a bunny. She couldn't because she couldn't see it! So we got her an eye exam and discovered she needed glasses because of astigmatisms. She mostly needs to wear them while reading, watching tv, playing on the computer and doing other things up close. Her Dr. did say it would even help for her to wear them all day if she could. So here's my sweetie in her new purple glasses holding her first completed sewing project. Isn't that bunny cute?

Hannah's Room

Madeline and Genevieve are so very cute in Hannah's room but I felt like it was missing something.  So one rainy afternoon, Hannah and I got crafty and made felt flowers for the wall and I painted balloons.  Now, it looks finished and Hannah LOVES it!

Madeline and Genevieve

Madeline and her dog, Genevieve 

Since the house is off the market, I told Hannah she could have her "girly" room back again.  We painted the walls an ice blue color.  Then, at Hannah's request, I free-hand painted Madeline and her dog, Genevieve.  I think it looks pretty good for this girl who was not blessed with artistic ability. 

Hannah's Room (Before and After)

Two times we've tried to sell my cute little English tudor on Connie Road and two times we've been disappointed.  The last time the house was on the market (June-Oct. 2011) I went hard core on depersonalizing it.  I repainted everything a neutral color.  All the family pictures have been gone since the first time we put it on the market.  It was a shell of a home to me.  But since November 1, all that has been changing.   I actually feel like I've just moved in because I've had boxes and boxes of pictures and personal items that have been in storage that I got to put back out. 

A few years ago, I painted Hannah's room a light khaki color that would appeal to most potential buyers.  It was great for selling but not great for my only little girl. So this weekend we repainted Hannah's room.  Normally I would repaint it by myself and get it done fast while Jason was at work but this weekend I needed my protector husband's help desperately.  I had an accident while painting.  I was holding a half full gallon of paint in one hand, a paintbrush in the other while standing on a kitchen chair.  I guess I leaned a little too far to one side and fell or else the chair broke and I fell.  I decided not to catch myself and focus only on holding the paint gallon so that it wouldn't spill. That was a huge mistake!  It fell anyway and I got hurt-  my wrist, ankle, toes, hip and bottom hurt the worst.  I'm doing better 4 days later but am definitely feeling that fall.  I was so overwhelmed and scared when it happened because my mind just shut down.  I couldn't figure out how to clean up the paint without spreading it even more.  Jason was gone out with Andrew and Ethan and I was home with the two little ones.  I had to get Hannah to call Jason to come home to help me because I was crying so hard that I couldn't see. It broke my heart to see how scared Hannah was.  I heard her crying in the other room and praying to Jesus out loud for me.  It was so precious!  Thankfully, Jason was close by and sped home to help me.  I was covered from head to toe in paint, a lot of paint too.  He used a rug doctor and cleaned up all the paint and not a drop is left.  Whoohoo!  What a sweet husband I have.  I went to shower and rest and actually have taken a nap almost every day since the accident.  My body is taking a long time to recover from this. It could have been much worse.  No broken bones, just deep bruises and maybe a sprained wrist.  I am on the mend though and Hannah's got her little girl room back. 

We went back to the baby blue (almost ice blue) color that she had in her room when she was born.  She's been looking over her scrapbook lately and has decided that she would like me repaint Madeline and the Eiffel Tower back on the wall.   Remember this?

  Hannah was 6 months old here.   November 2005

The paint has dried, I'm healing and all that's left is my artistic touch to the wall.  Madeline and Genevieve her dog are going to be painted on the blank wall next to her closet.  Maybe I'll tackle that next weekend when Jason's home (at least I don't have to paint anything high this time).   

Hannah's khaki room.

Hannah - 6 1/2 years old- Jan. 2012

Hannah's Sweet Note

Here's the best gift Hannah could have ever given me today. I love the fruit of repentance, it's so sweet!

Hannah's 1st lost tooth

Finally, Hannah lost a tooth! She's been patiently waiting for a year and a half. She thought that she should loose her bottom teeth in kindergarten like all her friends but her teeth decided to wait until 1st grade. Over the Christmas break, she had one bottom tooth that could practically lie flat on her bottom lip but just wouldn't come out. All it took was my Aunt Bebe to take a look at it (and a little push) and pop it went out on Hannah's finger. Hannah was so surprised she just kept smiling at her brothers, Aunt Bebe, her grandmother and me and couldn't wait to tell her daddy in Knoxville since we were in Germantown at the time. Here's the picture right after it happened. She even has the tissue in hand.