Five Abigail Phrases

Some grown-up (sort of) phrases we hear from Abigail a lot these days:
1. Are you kidding me?!?
2. Are you listening to me?!? (I had to put an end to that one, thought it was mostly innocently repeating what she hears from her mom)
3. What is that in the world?!
4. Of course! (as in, "Abigail, it will rain today." "Of course!" or "Did you say you wanted PBJ?" "Of course!")
5. HAH-HA-HA (always laughing in the semi-evil Cruella De-Vil voice... though she won't watch the 101 dalmatians because Cruella scares her, she does like to imitate her laugh)

5 ways to take pictures of mom

Here at the Hanson house, I have recently been getting a taste of my own medicine. Abigail was given an Amazon gift card for her birthday by my brother Stephen and his wife Traci. Though they sent it in September, it took me a while to bring up some items on the computer for Abigail to choose from for her gift. Long story short, she picked an orange camera that was waiting on our doorstep when we got home from Texas after Thanksgiving. She loves it! It is really a cool little thing with a couple of games on it too. So anyway, there are some new models in the house and in random places across Birmingham.

Here are the 5 ways to take pictures of mom. The camera has a bunch of 'stickers' and borders you can put on images while you are taking them. Abigail would pick an item and without telling me what it was, direct me as far as what facial expressions to make, and try to hold the camera still while she took the shot. It was quite fun to look through them later!

1.

2.

3.

 4.

 5.

How about five models instead?
1. self portrait

 

2. Mom

 3. Dad (I love this one, Jake had no idea she could put stickers on the picture as she was taking this. She just asked him to hold his mouth this way!)

4. random really nice lady at FedEx

 5. picture of a picture of a girl on a box at FedEx

 

5 details about our week

This past week I...

0. Witnessed zero people dying (this is important to know later)
1. Took one 1300 mile car trip
2. Witnessed two car wrecks
3. Made Abigail miss three of her normally scheduled weekly events (maybe that's why she said she didn't love me this morning?)
4. Bought four spools of white thread for my NEW SERGER! (early Christmas gift from my parents)
5. Worked on custom (paying) projects for five different people

La De Dah!

Five Things I Love About My Husband

Five Things I Love About My Husband

1. I love watching him as a father- teaching, patient, kind, loving, fun.
2. He is a critical thinker and can explain things well.
3. He works on lawns all day and that's not what he wants to do, but he does it without complaint.
4. He is willing to wait on the Lord.
5. He gets excited about the Word of God and gets excited about telling others.

Thank you, Lord, for Jake!

On the next "Hoarders"

Next time, we will visit the Persian Cat family, who have welcomed several other cats, baby mice twins, a skunk, some dinosaurs, and Strawberry Shortcake (and friends) and all their possessions into their luxury townhome. Undoubtedly, their generosity and kindness are overwhelming. But this family and their friends face a problem they can no longer ignore. Their inability to put things away, get rid of duplicate items, and throw away old food has turned into a debilitating living condition. The family, dinosaurs, and S.S. are now forced to live on the back porch. Only the small cats, mice and skunk are able to enter the house. Luckily, a local girl knew of their living condition and got her mom to come see. That started the Cat family's decision to reach out for help. Next week we will show the footage taken when the crew came in to help the Persians.  Will the Persians be able to clean their house? Will they make the hard decisions to benefit their health and that of their friends? Find out. Next time, on "Hoarders."

5 things that make me nervous

1. sneezing while driving
2. saying no to children
3. being late
4. portrait shoots (okay, I admit it!)
5. heights (used to not bother me at all!)

Ok Y'all

This can't go on! I don't care how much I have to do! Studio H, you will have to wait! Here are some pictures from the last few months.

August

 Bed of nails the McWane Science Center

 Family Portrait

"I touched a sting ray!!!"

September

 All by herself

 When life gives you a smoldering grill fire on a pleasant night and you happen to have slightly stale cinnamon graham crackers, pink and blue star marshmallows (from 4th of July) and Reeses peanut butter cups, what should you do? Why make very very interesting s'mores, of course.

 Being a lion again (same occurrence though)

 Sometimes you find things your child has done throughout the house and it's cute.

 Sometimes it's not so cute.

 Yes, that's Abigail inside of a queen size pillowcase, with a pillow in it too.

 Entering the Rocket and Space Center, that's the tail end of a real space shuttle! You will have to forgive me for not remembering which one!

 A real live MOON ROCK!! So cool.

 Making circle crayons from our disabled regular crayons

I'm 4 years old today!

So I planned on doing this through October too, but October has WAYYYY too many pictures I want to share with you. Stay tuned for an album (next week?).

Friday Five Years

Okay, so I was away from home, babysitting for some friends for almost all of Friday. Precious children, but I couldn't think about much else!

So today, the Friday/Saturday Five is for the Five Autumns we have lived in this house. We moved in during September of 2006 and it has been such a blessing to be here! Remembering how the Lord provided for us that summer in living situations gives me continued faith that He has the best plan and timing for our lives now. Though my time table said "Job by May of 2010," God has a different idea. I'm patiently waiting for Him to reveal it to us and I'm so thankful for His loving provision for us in the mean time.

The best way to mark these five autumns is by Abigail's pumpkin pictures for each year we were here. I've posted them before, but here they are again, with a new one!

1. October 2006

 

 2. October 2007

 

3. October 2008

 

4. October 2009

5. October 2010

Already?

Our slow, relaxing golf morning turned into a very nervous one for me when Jake said yes to this question: "Can I drive, Daddy?" He kept his foot on the gas, full speed ahead, for some crazy driving that had me wanting to jump out of the cart, dragging my family with me, several times. Jake may have some fingerprint bruises on his arm from me... and he is a little wounded by my lack of confidence in him. But seriously, he kept his foot all the way down on the gas, not slowing when doom seemed close by. I have to admit she got a little better by the end and I don't have a lot of experience with golf carts... Here is a video of our little girl... DRIVING A GOLF CART.

Missing

MISSING

Sweet little girl with curly hair and green eyes, likes long hugs and cuddles (and pretending to be a lion in tall grass).

She was replaced by a child that is almost the same, but she squirms out of hugs as often as possible and often acts like a teenager:

REWARD: A LONG HUG

Friday Five: Wildlife

Today we encountered a lot of wildlife. Mostly because we went to a 'Barnyard Birthday Bash' for Abigail's friend Maggie. We went to a petting farm where most of the animals just share this large yard (the horses, cows and pigs are penned up).

1. One very nice, calm and patient pony! Although when I petted his mane, white got on my hands? What's that all about?

2. Two Donkeys. This is the first time we were at the petting farm and the donkeys were out roaming free. They were very nice and one gave us a few hee-haws for our listening pleasure.

 

3. Goats. Usually I'm a big fan of goats. The goats at this farm though... they're slightly annoying. They were still fun to pet and we got to feed them too! Sorry this isn't a great picture, I was trying to get a 'V' for my letter prints. Yeah, it didn't turn out so well. But I did get a 'V' from Donkey legs!

 

4. Does a bird's nest count as wildlife? We found this one on the ground at the farm and it seems that the birds flew the coop a long time ago. Bird nests are so cool.

 

5. Giant Praying Mantis. This thing was on the wall of our house when we came home. So cool. How big is it? Too big to fit inside a spaghetti sauce jar comfortably. We put her in a gallon container to keep until Daddy gets home. Abigail is currently looking for her (the mantis's) bug dinner!

Here is some of the human wild life from today:

Friday Five

Okay, so I realized almost none of my 'top five' lists were actual top fives. So decided to change it to the "Friday Five."

The five most repeated conversations in our family:

1. me: "Abigail don't do that because you--" her (interrupting): "Why??!?" me: sigh.
2. me: "Abigail, I don't want you to (fill in the blank)." her: "Why?" me: "Because (fill in the blank) will happen." her: "No it won't." me: "Well then, because I said so."
3. Abigail, holding up her artwork: "Mama, isn't this beautiful?" me: "Oh yes, nice job!" her: "Why?" me: "Why what." her: "Why is it beautiful?"
4. me: "Okay, Abigail you can (fill in the blank with something she likes to do) now!" her: "Why?" me: "Well, if you don't want to, we can certainly take it away!"
5. me: some kind of imperative for Abigail. her, while not obeying the imperative, in ultra-whinny voice: "WwwWhhHYyy?!?!" me: "Because." her: "But you're not telling me why!!"

I sure hope she turns out smart.
And despite what I make it look like, I'm rather happy that she understands the word 'why' because I can ask her the same question and get a real answer! I'm afraid I had many a frustrating day when Abigail was smaller and did something and couldn't tell me why because she didn't understand the question. And I do enjoy answering her 'whys' when they are asked with a good attitude and with genuine curiosity!

 

(we went to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville in September on the Smithsonian Magazine Free Museum Day. It was so fun!)

Brain Teaser

Which of these girls is bigger?

Answer: Neither! They are the same size!

The detail oriented among you might have noticed these differences:

hair/helmet different, different kinds of bikes, different expressions. 

But then you would have seen that the girl was wearing the same clothes and that her face was indeed the same. Then you would have come to the conclusion that the bigger bike must be making the girl in the right picture look like she is bigger, when really she isn't. To these observant people I have to say, congratulations on your keen insight. Now go take the SAT or something.