Happy Birthday to Heather - 25!

September 14, Heather turned 25. We all met at her apartment to have a little party.

We then went to Bricktown and walked all around.We then stopped and had to go to the photo booth and take a ton of photos. It was sooooo much fun. Hannah even got to do the claw machine for the first time.

Happy Birthday, Heather! We love you very much!

How Much is That Froggie in the Window?

Hannah has quite an eye. Tonight right before bed she spotted a tiny little frog on the glass of the kitchen window. I quickly grabbed my camera and captured this image of the little critter for Hannah. You can even see Hannah in the reflection of the glass.

Our Little Friend, Yorkie.

Today on our Saturday morning walk, we meet a little Yorkie dog that followed us home. He had no collar. We called him Yorkie and decided to keep him in our back yard and try to find his owner. We put signs up at our neighborhood entrances and tried to call the pound to see if anyone reported him missing. Hannah and Yorkie got along so well. He played with Hannah and followed her everywhere. He also loved to follow Giget. They looked so cute together.

After going to the grocery, I was unloading the trunk when a lady slowly drove past and asked if we saw a little dog. She was so excited when I told her we had him in our back yard. His name is Freddie and we will miss him. Hannah couldn't hold back the tears as we said good-bye to our little friend, Freddie.

Happy 90th Birthday to Grandma C!

Happy 90th Birthday Grandma !

September 1, 2008 is Grandma's 90th Birthday. We wish we could be there to help celebrate. But we are sending our wishes from Oklahoma. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Click below to see us sending our wishes to you . . .

Brian goes back to OU.

Brian left home to return to OU for his senior year. We had a great summer with him home, but it is time for him to finish his education. We will miss him. On Saturday, we drove up to see his new apartment. It is very nice. Heather & Will met us and we all went out to lunch.

We hope you have a great Senior Year, Brian. We love you very much!

First Day of School!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008 was the first day of school for Hannah. Third Grade! She had a wonderful day going to her new room, meeting her new teacher and seeing her friends again and meeting a new friend. A girl new to the class named Hannah.

I hope you have a great Third Grade Year, Hannah, with Mrs. Flusche.

Happy Birthday Brian - We love you!!!!

Brian, Happy 22nd Birthday. What a great time we all had having a party for you. We love you so very much.

Lazy Daze of Summer Will Soon End.

The summer of 2008 has been a fun and relaxing one. We hate for it to end. But another school year must start. Third grade for Hannah. Wow!

Kaya and Steps High

This week Hannah received a very special gift. An American Girl Doll. It came from her Grandparents in Indiana. This doll is Kaya, which is very special doll. You must first read the books before you are given a doll. Kaya's story was the one that interested Hannah and she poured herself into these books about an American Indian girl. There is so much learning from these dolls. What a summer for Hannah - to be given her first American Girl Doll. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa. We love you.

Happy 4th of July Birthday to Jennie!

Jennie,

We hope you have a great Birthday this 4th of July, 2008. Hannah and I hope you received your birthday present and enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it for you. Roku and Tigger might like the quilt also.Love, Hannah & Renata

PS - Your little quilt inspired us to make another one for Bubbles and even one for Giget.

Surprise Visit from the Gerlach Family!

Today, we had a wonderful surprise. Mark, Sylvia, Melissa, Andrew and the newest family member, four-month old Nathanial came to visit from out-of-town.
We had a wonderful afternoon visiting and catching up, but mostly enjoyed little Nathanial. What a cutie! Congratulations Melissa and Everett on your new baby boy!

It's hard to imagine our little school-girls, Heather and Melissa are all grown up.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat . . .

. . . gently down the Illinois River.

Guess our Lego Project!

We decided to get a summer Lego project to build. Hannah started it this morning, but we will wait for Brian as he wants to help work on the project also.

Here are a few photos of the blocks. Can you guess what we are going to build?














We'll post our project when it is finished.

Do not squander TIME, for that is the stuff life is made of. -Benjamin Franklin

Our new kitchen clock. In the middle of the night, we had bad storms. There was one extremely large crack of thunder that woke us all up. I also heard something fall. I checked, but didn't find anything. The next morning, Brian told me the kitchen clock had fallen off the wall. The thunder had knocked it off the wall. It was broken.

Today, we went shopping for a new clock. Hannah wanted this clock so bad. It was a heart shape and that is her favorite shape. I didn't want to get it because I thought it was too small. I ended up agreeing to this heart clock.

I hung the clock this evening and couldn't believe how adorable it looked on our wall. I was so happy Hannah chose this one and that she persisted in me getting it. Hannah sees hearts in so many things. We photograph things we see that have a heart shape. Every time I look at the time on this clock, I will think of my Hannah who loves hearts and whom I love very much.

Here are some of her current heart finds. Hannah found a heart shaped cloud the other afternoon.
Then she found heart shaped pickles at lunch last week.

Here was one of her first heart shape finds. She was eating an apple and her bite and my bite combined took the shape of a heart. That was one of the first hearts that started her photographing heart shapes in every day things. This one is my favorite. How did she ever see this tiny heart of chocolate milk in the milk lid?
How appropriate for her to find her favorite shape in her favorite chocolate chip cookies.

One Man's Trash is another man's Treasure.

That time again - Garage Sale. We decided to put a few things out at our neighborhood garage sale. Grandma H sent some of her crafts for Hannah to sell. We also have some plants to sell. We got rained out today and put everything away until tomorrow. Then spent the rest of the day riding bikes. Hannah can't stop riding her bike. She is really good.

WAY TO GO, HANNAH!!!!!!!

Hannah and I went to the park tonight to work on her learning to ride her bike. Brian couldn't go. I had to push Hannah to not give up and was a bit tough on her, but SHE DID IT. She finally got the feel and was able to ride. She then rode around the path over and over as I got to jog. It was a wonderful feeling. The lightning bugs came out in the woods and it was the most special evening.


The first thing I did when we returned home was remove the "trail-a-bike" off my bike. It is the bike that Hannah has been riding that is attached to my bike. It is the funnest thing, but she is getting too old to ride it and too heavy for me to pull her.

Then Brian came home and Hannah showed him that she could ride her bike. She rode around the cul-d-sac in the dark. That is where the above photo is taken. We both rode our bikes until 10:00.

CONGRATULATIONS HANNAH!!!!!!

Taking off for our first bike ride together, on separate bikes.

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE, this is fun!!!!!!!!