i've dispensed with the formalities of cropping and formatting this time. the bare bones will have to do! We've had a busy few weeks, like everyone else i'm sure. still don't have any pictures to show you of boston, but i promise i went there :-). VBS last week was good, but i'm glad it's over. over 50 kids made professions of faith, praise the Lord! then we had a great visit with my dad. he and hannah had alot of fun together. we figured she was old enough for our first zoo trip. Hannah came away with some souvenirs that she's pretty fond of!


peeking back to make sure papa's still there!


she really enjoyed the reptile building. we found this one rattlesnake that was a native texan, just like her

at first hannah was pretty scared of the crocodile, until she believed us that it wasn't real.

patrick found his namesake

who knew there are three sizes of penguins?

trying to get at the animals

we got this cup at the front gate, and the sign just said free refills all over the park. which was nice, because it's, well, hot! i didn't drink it, just gave it to hannah. she said "juice, mommy?" i wasn't really paying attention, so i just said no, baby, it's water. about 2 hrs later patrick said, that smells like lemonade. sure enough! thankfully, i don't think she drank that much. we dumped it out and replaced it with water :-).

i have no idea what she was going for here, but the gloves with the naked baby was just funny!

i've been trying to involve hannah in the necessary activities of daily life, instead of telling her to go play with toys while i do things myself. yes, it's faster and easier to do it myself. but then what's the point in staying at home with my kids, if not to be together? she got a kitchen as an early birthday present, and it came with a bag of toys. apparently not everyone cleans their toys before they consign them, so washed them together. she did have a blast!

i advertised on freecycle for craft supplies, and somebody gave me this huge tub of stuff. the majority of it was actually school supplies, for preschool and the first few years. I know I won't be using it for awhile, but even sorting it was so exciting! I dont' want to push her, but I can't wait to start. I guess we have already. I've also borrowed some books from a friend. There are so many ways to homeschool, as many ways as there are to educate in general. I really want to explore different methods and philosophies before we start in earnest. I tend more towards the regular old textbooks and worksheets, but I don't want to limit us to that. so, we'll see!

we ordered Hannah her own food the first time the other night. she's such a big girl now!

don't know if it's a pregnancy thing, but i've really been wanting mexican breakfast lately. so it's been huevos rancheros on corn tortillas for me and Hannah. she really likes salsa, and she even rolled it up herself.

not much else to post. things are fine on the charlie front. we got him some bedding the other day, it got me excited. still 10 wks away though. it's very warm here, tonight i saw a sign that said it was 7.45, and 100 degrees still. we miss everybody!