Tuesday, June 23, 2009

fun at the animal farm
























































I've been trying to take the children weekly to do something fun away from the house this summer. During the school year it seems harder to get away. These were some photos from the animal farm we visited. Hope your summer is going well.
Vickie

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

adoption

You never know who the Lord will bring into your life; the people you will touch, and those that touch you. I/our family was given the priviledge of sharing adoption with 2 different families this last month. The majority of people we meet or are around do not have a desire to adopt.
1. While meeting with our photographer, we began talking about adoption. I shared with her the website I found our children on, www.untilallhavehomes.org. Their family is in the process of looking into a little girl from the website. Yeah!!
2. We took the children to our local Serbian Fest this last weekend. We met many lovely people there, as was our experience in country last yr. We met a couple there who have a strong desire to adopt from Serbia. The wife is Serbian. They thought Serbia was no longer allowing adoptions with the U.S. How happy they were to hear our news, and how pleased we were to share it. I promptly gave them the contact info. they needed.
What wonderful opportunities we have had lately. I love to help bring other orphans home to their new families.
have a good day,
Vickie

Monday, May 25, 2009

garden


















Our family project has really turned out to be a great activity for all of us. Things are actually growing!! I had hoped they would, but I worried about the deer and other wildlife. So far the lettuce,onions, potatoes, carrots, asparagus, wild onions, green peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil are all doing well.
bye for now,
Vickie

lost

Seems like there is usually something missing around our house (a shoe, the car keys, etc.). One item will be found, but then another goes missing.

Yesterday was a unique situation. After getting home from church, I got called outside by 2 of the children. They were standing under one of our big trees looking up. Jack was throwing a rock up into the tree. What could he be doing?
Jack: "Mom, when I was walking under the tree; I heard a jingling. I looked up and there they were. I remember where the lost car keys are. They are caught in the tree."

Mom: "What!! How did they get in the tree?"

Jack: "After I opened the door, I heard a bird up in the tree. So I threw the car keys at it. The keys got stuck on the branch."

After a couple of minutes, the lost keys were recovered. As a mother, there are things you never thought you would have to tell your children. Don't throw keys into the tree or at birds--would fall into that category.

Always something interesting going on. Have a great week.
Vickie

Friday, April 24, 2009

I am a Grandma!!




I wanted to share a photo of my new grandbabies.







Yes, there are 8 new baby pet mice at our house. :) The children were quite excited about their new family members. We did our google search on how to properly care for them and their parents. Always something exciting going on around here. Have a great day.
Vickie

Thursday, April 23, 2009

a mother's thoughts

a glimpse into our daily events

Why does a mother ask her children to do certain things? Let's see. Here are a few recent occurences.
1. You guys go pick up the back yard, especially that snow shovel behind the play house. hhhhmmmmm...... fast forward to the next day when the snow storm moves through and buries the snow shovel in the back yard. Now, friend husband is upset because he can't find the snow shovel to get the sidewalk and driveway ready for church tomorrow. aaahhh, yes. I suppose 3 family members with regular shovels will work, but not as efficiently as the snow shovel would have.

2. Please go put your big fats and plastics on correctly before bed. ....a few hours later... mom takes a certain night time potty trainer to the restroom before she retires, to find that he has once again put his plastics on inside out. This means all the absorbant material is on the outside and the plastic repellant part has done a lovely job of repelling the urine onto his sweats and bedding towel. uugghh!
.....the next night after the same bedtime request ..... mom goes in a few hours after he goes to sleep to find a certain someone with NO training pants on at all. This, of course, does not keep one dry either. aaahhh yes.

3.You guys do not throw things in the house. One would think that cement would be quite difficult to dent or make holes in. Contrary to popular belief, a 4 yr. old boy can put a 1 inch hole in their home's wall by throwing a squirt bottle lid. Go figure.

4. I know you all are excited when the family gets new things, but you must be calm.
---After less than 24 hours, the CD machine is jammed in the new to us van by a certain 9 yr. old boy who shoved a CD into the slot when there was already a CD in there. Yes, this did lead to one mother and 2 butter knives probing/fishing to get the 2 lodged CD's out of the machine, while friend husband was at work. Some motivation might have been involved in my speedy CD recovery. hhmm, perhaps wanting to decrease the amount of complaining coming from one head of the household member.
---let's try the new zip cord extravaganza. This fun adventure requires that either 1 adult or 2 older children be strategically placed to stop the participants at the end of the cord trip. Now, it has been demonstrated that if the stopees do not stop the cord traveler; the traveler( if they do not have a strong grip and good coordination) will be propelled onto the ground face first at a rapid speed. Yikes!!! Thank you Father for good lip blood supply(which results in fast healing)and the invention of super glue for the outside of the lip area. I seriously doubt that info. would have qualified us for the family of the year award.
O.K., I could go on; but you get the point. The Hannah's live in a fun-filled type atmosphere and we love every minute of it.
Hope you all have a great week.
blessings,
Vickie

Monday, April 13, 2009

An egg hunt















We decided to attend a church sponsored easter egg event this year. Typically we just do a private family affair. All I can say is wow. They had a large turn out. Lots of work and money went into making the day a success. I was as impressed as the children were. There was a helicopter that flew over 3 times to dump candy onto the fields in addition to the eggs. My master plan was a bit challenged. I always match my older children with a younger partner. Well, the egg hunt was divided up into 3 age groups. Good thinking, but I had to come up with a new plan B real quick. After shuffling children around, we were all ready to go. The little children's group was pretty tame. Dan and Truman caught on pretty quickly to what they were supposed to do. Now, the big children's group was another story. They got pretty aggressive. Over all a good time was had by everyone. Baylie had a few complaints about her partener (Daniella). Of course, Daniella had no idea what she was supposed to be doing, so she decided to say hi to everyone, run into people accidently, and not move along as quickly as her sister wanted her to. That's o.k., even though the event was pretty overwhelming for D and D. They both did great. Neither of them paniced with the loud helicopter noise. That is an improvement.