March

Over spring break, we rented a little cabin at a local campground. Hannah called it the "cabin loggin." The girls were so excited to go fishing with Mike, who has wonderful memories of fishing with his grandfather.





They were quickly disappointed to find that it's actually pretty rare to catch a fish with a $10 princess pole.


The girls were thrilled when ducks came up to the cabin,


and when their cousin Molly visited. (Along with Toby, Shelley, Grandma, and Grandpa.)



We decided to try kayaking. Abby got in Mike's boat, and Hannah was with me. If you've ever seen Mike's arms (manly), versus my arms (wimpy), you can guess how the boating went. Mike was able to row further and faster than I was. Hannah was quite disappointed with me. "Mom! See how Daddy's doing it? That's how YOU'RE supposed to be doing it!"


At one point, Mike got caught in a current, and I was able to catch him. Hannah and I taunted the other kayak, so Mike stuck out his paddle. At the same time I yelled, "Don't push me backwards!" he pushed me backwards. This picture is of Abby cheering that I had lost so much ground.


The girls sometimes argue who has to ride with Mommy next time. They are hoping they can both be in Daddy's kayak. Be my guest.

I think this next picture is funny, because I don't know what Abby's doing in the background.


At one point during the camping trip, Hannah was waving at people walking by. "Howdy!" she called to everyone. "Howdy, my friend!"
I heard one lady say, "Well, I guess we're in Texas!"

On our way to church, both girls were looking at their Bibles in the car.
Abby: "Hannah, turn to the page that says, 'The Terrible Lie.' It has a picture of a snake."
I hear pages turning.
Hannah: "Oh, I tore that one out."

The girls loved the idea of St. Patrick's Day. We had a group of people over that night. Someone brought a two-month-old baby. Hannah checked him out and told the baby that he wasn't wearing green, so she fake pinched him. It's serious business at our house! The next week, Hannah noticed that we three girls were all wearing pink. "It's St. Pink Day!" she decided. Another day was Blue Patrick's Day so that Daddy could be a part of it.

Abby is getting quite frustrated that everything seems to be "Made in China." She told Hannah, "Everything is made there! Even these tator tots were made in China!" She concluded that the only thing that wasn't made in China was people. I laughed at that and told her that there are actually a lot of people made in China. Now she's just mad!

Mike plays hide-and-seek with the girls:


The girls asked if they could have a "spa." I asked them to clarify what they meant. They explained that a spa is when you take a bath with cucumbers on your eyes.


I love when the girls fall asleep so snuggled together!

I returned a scale. When the cashier asked me why, I said, “Because it says I’m too heavy.” She smiled and said she knew exactly what I was talking about. She smiled even bigger when I slid a candy bar across the counter. “I’d like to exchange it for this.”

I asked Hannah if she needed any help. In a sweet voice she said, “Don’t worry about me. You worry about yourself.”

If any of my old friends are wondering how I look now-a-days, Abby has drawn an incredible likeness of me:

February

Hannah had her first dentist appointment. The dentist was really nice and played around with her. Here, he is seeing how far he can shoot water into her mouth. I think she has a crush on him now. When we were leaving, she ran up and hugged him. Dr. Perry said that she has now spoiled him for other patients.



Abby dresses up in Mike's clothes:


Snow and ice arrived again. Goliath was brought indoors, where the girls treated him like the princess he is. His Minnie Mouse earmuffs kept him toasty warm. His pink sparkle outfit was made for me as a roller skate outfit when I was in elementary school. I think his eyes whisper, "Help. Me." After we stripped his clothes and let him out for a potty break, he didn't come back in. Apparently he'd rather brave the snow than the children.


The kiddie pool made another entrance.


I put the thermometer in the dog's water/ice dish.




Hey, did this woman's rights thing come out as a positive for anyone? Not only do I now have to work, I apparently have to shovel my own side of the driveway. I kept ramming the shovel through the ice to get it to chip off. When the ice melted two days later, I noticed that I had been chipping the concrete off, also. I guess I don't know my own strength. No wonder I was so tired!


I caught Hannah sucking her thumb again.
"Hannah! Get that thumb out of your mouth! You are not a baby, and you do not suck your thumb!"
She pulled the thumb out and looked at me carefully.
"I'm not sucking it. I'm cleaning it."
Then she put it back in for a deep clean.


I rented videos for the girls at the library. One was entitled, The Wheels on the Bus and More Sing-a-longs. When my receipt printed the cut-off version of the title, I found that I had indeed borrowed the video:
The wheels on the bus and more sin

The girls with their cousins, Jocie and Will:


We invited some friends over for dinner. Abby took the second grade boy into her room and showed him around. He was especially impressed with the diorama that we had made a year ago. He called his mom in. "Mom, did you know they made this river out of toothpaste?" I told his mom that I loved the toothpaste idea. It looks real, and it doesn't get really crusty or draw ants. The boy then looked at me. "Did you know that when you aren't here, sometimes Abby licks the toothpaste?" There are many, many moments when I am extremely proud of my children. This was not high on the list.


Hannah has a good friend, Vivian, that she has many playdates with. Vivian is six months younger than Hannah, but she's bigger than Hannah. She has short, curly hair that stands tall on her head. One day, Hannah was packing up clothes to give to smaller children. She wanted to give something to Vivian. I said, "I think Vivian is taller than you." She got offended, since Vivian is only four-and-a-half, and Hannah is almost five. She forcefully said, "She is not!" A few seconds later, she muttered, "Her hair is taller than me."

Hannah took this picture of Abby and me. (I just noticed that all you can see on my shirt is "OLD." It does not, in fact, say that.)


One morning, Abby was looking at her bedroom, which was a disaster area. She glanced at me and very calmly said, "While I'm at school today, maybe you and Hannah could clean up this mess."



Abby was learning about the government. She was discussing it during dinner one night. "Hannah, you're lucky that you were born in this country, because you can be president someday. I can't." When I asked her why, she said, "Because you have to be born in this country. I wasn't. I was born in California."

Maybe Hannah should have been born in California, also. While singing along to a current Christian radio song, she changed the lyrics a bit. The song says, "Where you go, I'll go. Where you serve, I'll serve." In the backseat, I heard her belting out, "Where you go, I'll go. Where you surf, I'll surf."

Abby's Baptism!

Sweet Abby was baptized on January 16. One of the pastors of the church is in our lifegroup, and the girls adore him. I excitedly asked her, "Do you want Mr. Rodney to baptize you?" She thought for a moment and said, "What are my choices?"


So, Abby was baptized by Mr. Rodney Howell. Mike was in the water with them. Mike and Abby both wore their "I Love Cambodia" shirts. I asked a friend to video the event with our camera. During the middle of the baptism, the camera broke. Of course! She nudged the previous child's mom and asked her to turn her camera back on. So I have half of my baby's baptism, and someone else in church has the second half. I also asked another friend to take pictures on my camera. She said the button was too hard to push, and handed it to her husband. (I think she was just nervous because it was such a big event.) He did a great job with the pictures. We didn't get an actual immersion picture because it was so fast, and the camera didn't have time to focus. At least it's in my memory.


The children's minister, Diana Parker, met with Abby beforehand to be sure she understood what it means to be baptized. It was a sweet time. Diana read Abby's words right before the baptism. Abby wrote:

I want to get baptized because I asked God into my heart and I want to show everybody that I want to follow God. He takes my sin and throws it away. I know that God loves me because He made me. He loved me first, so I love Him. God is our Savior and everyone should follow Him.

Blogging about January while it's still January?

It's crazy! I am actually blogging about the month that I'm in! Could this be a new trend? Don't hold your breath.

Hannah was trying to put her jacket on the coat rack. All the hooks were already full, so she cried, "There are no more hookers!"

The girls thought this snowfall was pretty lame. They'd been excited about the forecast all week, but this was about it.


Hannah asked me where the water goes once it's down the drain. I said, "I don't know. Maybe you should ask Dad." She instantly replied, "Yeah, 'cause Daddy is smarter than you!" (Mike never remembers to tell his co-workers any of these little stories, but he SURE remembered this one!)

Hannah was excited because she is learning to "read" books at school. She was sure that she could read better than Abby, but Abby said, "I can read everything, Hannah!" Hannah thought for a moment and said, "You can't read China."

Abby was discussing my recent Cambodia trip. She wanted to know if there were dogs there, and what people thought about dogs. I told her that the dogs just walked around, but were not normally pets. She was horrified. "What if they run in the street and get hit by cars? Wait! Are cars invented in Cambodia?"

Hannah was carefully tearing off her three squares of toilet paper after using the bathroom. She wiped and dressed. Then she looked at me slyly. "I like to make it messy for the next person!" she told me as she ripped the next sheet of toilet paper down the middle.


My cousin told us that as a father of girls, Mike needed to have the Pretty, Pretty Princess game. We happened to come across it at Target one day. Isn't Mike a Pretty, Pretty Princess? (He asked me to take this picture, by the way.)




Abby gets ahold of the camera:

Goodbye, 2010

Abby had her first gymnastics meet. Hannah dressed up in her leotard and went along, too. Abby proudly showed off her skills on the bars, floor, and balance beam. The entire event lasted over an hour. Every five minutes, Hannah would ask, "Did Abby win, yet?" At the end of the competition, each participant received their awards. Abby got a trophy for getting a score of 9.0 or higher in all her categories. After that award, it was announced that her team had won second place in the competition. They came up to the blocks, and Hannah could control herself no longer. So quickly that I could not stop her, she ran on stage and gave Abby a huge hug and a kiss.







The girls rearranged the nativity so that everyone was facing baby Jesus. (Even the hay.)


The girls have been begging for Pillow Pets. Knowing that my folks had them under the Christmas tree, I kept telling them no. One day, while Abby was crying for a pillow pet at the store, Hannah said, "I think Abby is on Santa's naughty list."

(The girls with cousin Jocie.)


Abby has been hinting around about her doubt over Santa's existence. One day over dinner, she said, "Mom, can I talk with you in the other room without Hannah?" I knew the time had come, and since I had the tooth fairy talk, I chickened out of this one. "Ask your father!" I said. She took Mike in the other room. It went something like this:
A- I know that Santa is magic, and I know that magic isn't real. So that means that Santa isn't real.
M- That's right, but it's fun to pretend. Now that you know, you get to help us pretend with Hannah.
A- Okay.
That was it!! The tooth fairy conversation was horrible! Tears and betrayal marked that time. Mike got off way too easy. I got a letter from Abby a few days later.
"Dear Mom and Dad. I know Santa Claws isint real. So why do you spend like all of your money away because we just have so much of it."
I love that she thinks we only buy gifts to keep the Santa farce alive.


Since the Santa talk went so smoothly, I was unprepared for this talk with Abby a couple weeks later.
Mom, is Rapunzel real?
No, it's just a fairy tale.
Is Jazmine real?
No, she's made up.
But Daddy said that princesses are real!
They are, but not the movie ones. Princesses live in other countries, but they are regular people just like you. We can look some up on the computer when we get home, if you want.
Is Belle?
No.
(panic in her voice) But we saw them at Disneyland!
Those were just people in costumes.
Her face crumpled, and once again I took a little piece of Abby's world away. Mike's getting the Easter bunny.


Hannah asked if Santa is going to heaven when he dies. I told her that if he trusts in Jesus, then he will. She said, "But if he goes to heaven, how will kids get their presents?" Abby calmed her by saying, "He won't die and go to heaven until there are no more kids that need presents." Santa's got a long wait.


At Hannah's school, Santa came to visit. They each sat on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. Hannah's teacher wrote down what they had asked for so that the parents could see. When I came to pick her up, there was a note with each child's name and the gift request. I loved the end of the list:
Hannah - pillow pet
Mitchell - firetruck
Sam - doctor kit
Madi - see list


This next picture is after I begged, "Come on, girls, I want a good picture!"


My hair has gotten pretty long, and my old curlers weren't doing the trick anymore. I finally got more curlers and made my hair fancy one morning. Hannah noticed it first and mentioned it to Mike, who then noticed. He complimented me, and I explained the curler dilemma. "If it's still curly at the end of the day, then I will know the curlers work well!" He replied with an affirmative grunt.
Six hours later. "My hair is still curly! I like these curlers!" He replied with a confused grunt.
The next day, he noticed the box that the curlers came in. "Hey," he said, "you got new curlers?" I told him that he was correct and that we had already discussed it twice the day before. "We did?"
I said, "You know I'm going to blog about this!" Mike assured me that every man who read the blog would understand, and I was sure that every woman who read it would also understand. Who's with me?


Mike was praising the girls for their good listening. "I have two good girls, don't I, Hannah?" She replied, "Yes! And if you only had one good girl, it would be me!"

The girls put their Minnie Mouse earmuffs over a fur lined hat.



Abby got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. When she opened it, she cried, "An Easy Bake Oven! Now we can have treats whenever we want!"


Abby and Hannah are fascinated with the Salvation Army man in front of Walmart. They often drop coins into his bucket, and they love that he keeps ringing his bell. While we were at home one day, Hannah gave me some money. She said, "I am the money collector." She then stood there and rang a bell at me until I placed all the coins in her bucket.



Mike told me that I had a string on my pants. Hannah looked me over and took the string off. She then looked around the room, trying to decide where to dispose of the string. She finally shoved the trash in between two couch cushions and called it a day.

We had a family reunion after Christmas. My aunts and uncles and cousins came from San Diego and North Carolina. Altogether, there were 26 of us! It was a WONDERFUL time. Abby and Hannah fell in love with the entire Walters clan, especially their second cousins, two handsome boys. They also really liked the people that lived in trailers. (The motor home crew.)

This is my favorite picture of my niece, Molly. She obviously has her father's attitude problem.