My Fathers

My husband is the best father I could ever ask for my children. And in the words of my children, this is why...

• He snuggles with us every day when he comes home from work
  
• He let us watch movies (that's why they never cried when I left for work)
  
• He has our blonde hair and blue eyes (remember, this is in the words of my children)
  
• He takes us in his car without car seats (hmmmm...)
• He has LOTS of muscles

I find it funny (but not surprising) that my children always cry for their father when they get hurt or are upset. I'm a red still working on the whole sympathy thing.

My dad...is the greatest example of love, laughter, generosity and kindness that I have ever known. I have many memories of growing up with my dad...riding with him and about four of my friends in his tiny little Fiero, accompanying him on speaking engagements, and watching him pull weeds from the garden in his suit and nice shoes...to name a few. My dad will probably never know how lucky I feel to be his daughter.


To my father-in-law and my grandfather... I count myself exceptionally lucky to have you in my life.

So You Think You can Dance?

One of the many fun times while visiting Ohio last week



And yes, Andy sustained another head injury in the fall

Come on...

Does anyone know how many times a kid can hit his head in the same spot and not experience some type of permanent damage?

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a fabulous day. We spent the day eating yummy food with great family and friends and had lots of fun. But no holiday gathering is complete without an accident or two.

Poor Andy was the victim this time. Here's how it all played out...

Noah's thinking about the swing...


He's winding up...


And the swing... (notice Andy walking right into the bat)


Ouch! But he IS smiling. (the bruise on his head was from a few days earlier)

Funny Things

We've been taking it easy around here after a busy weekend. Lucas was blessed in church on Sunday and it was a wonderful, fabulous weekend.

Since there's not much to report from the Hanks household, I thought I would post a few funny things I've heard from the kids lately.

1. Noah: "Andy, do you remember when you were a baby and you weren't married and you didn't have a child."

2. This conversation took place after Andy passed gas at the dinner table...
Andy: "I tooted."
Mom: "Andy, what do you say?"
Andy: "Dad, change my poopy diaper. Bye, bye poopy diaper."

3. After the kids helped clean up a mess in the kitchen, I told them they could have a pop tart.
Andy: "Hooray, now we get a hot tart."

4. Mom: "Noah, tell me the truth because we always want to be honest."
Noah: "I'll be honest if you don't put me on time-out."

Who needs TV when you've got this entertainment?

Lucas

I've been thinking about how fast babies grow out of the newborn stage...especially mine. The pediatrician called Lucas Hank the Tank at his 2 week appointment. He weighed in at 9 lbs 15 oz and almost 22 inches long.

I don't think it's very fair that during this precious stage in this little boy's life, I'm not functioning quite at 100%. The recovery from child birth, not sleeping, and other issues that result from a 5 foot 3 inch somewhat petite girl giving birth to 9 pound babies. I'm enjoying mostly every minute of this newborn stage (except maybe at 3am). I just can't help but think that nature could have thought this one through a little harder.

I just wish I could keep him little longer.

I AM crazy

I just had a baby last week. The same time my 2 year old decided he wanted to be potty trained. I have been known in the past to take on too many things at one time. Like when we lived in Kentucky...I was 7 months pregnant with Noah, teaching high school full time, coaching the tennis team, and Young Womens' President. I swore I would never do that again.

But here we are.
I'm recovering from child birth, nursing, have three very young children, and am potty training my middle child.
We're half way there, if you know what I mean.

I AM crazy.