so. what exactly is half-year hannah all about these days? well, we’ll get her official height and weight measurements on thursday, but I would bet that she weighs about 16.5 pounds. and her head measurement may or may not be off the charts. after her four month well-baby check up, we had to go back a few times to make sure her 97th percentile noggin was natural and not due to something wrong. but seriously, have you seen her relatives? it is ALL natural.

in the past couple of months, we have started giving her some real food. we started with oatmeal and she HATED it. although really, we couldn’t blame her because it legitimately looks disgusting and I can’t imagine it tastes very good. we tried that for a couple of weeks and then gave up on it and moved on to veggies and fruits. so far she has had (and loved!) butternut squash, sweet potatoes, avocado, and bananas. next up: carrots and apples. delicious!

hannah’s favorite activities include: bathtime (aka splashing so violently the entire bathroom gets wet), swimming in the pool, bouncing in the exersaucer, playing peek-a-boo with a blanket, standing up ‘by herself’ (leaning on the back of the couch), being startled and laughing, sitting up all by herself, skyping grandparents, playing with her new sippy cup (although I’m not sure how much she really drinks from it), and most especially — rolling around to explore anywhere and everywhere she can. she is such a busy baby and we are terrified for when she starts walking!

speaking of the sippy cup, miss thang had her first official hissy fit the other day. we had given her the sippy cup with a little bit of water in it to get the transition from the bottle started off very slowly. she thought it was very fun to play with, but eventually she just started chewing on it, and because it was just water instead of milk, we weren’t sure that she knew it was supposed to be feeding her. so Brian took it away for a little bit until feeding time, when we planned on giving it back to her with some milk. much to our surprise, baby girl FREAKED OUT! she cried for a good 10 minutes solely because we were not giving her what she wanted. unfortunately for her, as Brian put it, “that’s not going to get you very far in this house!” eventually she was distracted by something else, thank goodness.

she is eating about 24-28 ounces a day of formula, just about every 4 hours on the dot. she sleeps from about 8 pm to about 8 am. (SHE IS SUCH A GREAT SLEEPER. I have great fear that just because I am sharing that, she will wake up a bunch tonight. your prayers against that are appreciated.) sometimes, she wakes up about 6:30 or 7 am, totally happy and talking to herself. when we go in to give her a pacifier (because she has thrown all of hers out of the northeast corner of her crib — every. night.), she gets SO excited to see us, and then immediately opens her mouth for her paci, because she totally knows what’s about to happen. it may take a few minutes, but she puts herself back to sleep until 8 or 8:30. we are definitely spoiled in that respect and we know it! and we are so grateful for it! she usually takes about an hour long nap in the morning and a two hour nap in the afternoon. and depending on what we are doing, she sometimes needs a 30-45 minute power nap in the evening. as long as she is sleeping good and eating good, she is such a happy baby!

she has recently started giggling all the time, and it is just the sweetest sound we have ever heard. we are so completely blessed beyond belief and we thank God every day for our precious baby girl! I am sure the next six months will FLY by and before we know it, we’re going to be chasing her to the ends of the earth.

and we can’t wait!

-amy

Also, today I was able to get the new iPhone today…and while I know for the most part no one cares about that but me, but it will mean it will be easier to record and post video for everyone to see! Here is the first one that I edited with some old footage from the last iPhone.

Hope all is well in your world!

brian

When we got back from our jaunt to the the Lone Star State we had only a few days to wash, repack, and get ready for confirmation camp. So needless to say, I didn’t get the time to upload all the stuff from our Texas trip.

We are now at confirmation camp and will be here until Thursday. Hannah and I are staying at a hotel nearby camp and spending the day at camp with the kids. It is fun to be here watching the middle school kids grow up spiritually and worship with them. Amy is at the camp with the kids all week.

I will be posting pictures from Texas very soon! I might even try to make a video of our day confirmation camp before we head out so you can see the craziness of what we are up to. Hope all is well with you!

Brian

We have…
-spent several hours with lots of extended family
-had dinner with the Dierker’s along with Joey & Ashley (Hannah’s godparents)
-grilled and hangout with some of my friends from high school
-hand lunch again with Joey & Ashley (with Joey’s brother Ben) at the Love Shack for some burgers

aaand today I played a round of golf (schooled by my brother) and right this very second, I am getting a pedicure with my mom and Amy. I would like to say that it is just good quality time with the ladies…but my nasty feet needed.

Tonight we will be wrapping up our time in Texas at Joe T. Garcia’s. Nothing like finishing off Texas with delicious Mexican food!

I will post next with a bunch of pictures from our jaunt to the lone star state. In the mean time, check our photos at flickr to see what we have updated. Stay tuned!

We are excited to have this new place to put all of our stuff online. Don’t hesitate to comment and be a part of the community here on our blog.

Bookmark the site: www.theandersonfamily.me

This is the place where you can find the blog as well as links to our flickr, facebook, and twitter pages. All of those links are at the top of the page. You can also find snippets of information from all of those places on the front page.

We hope that this is a good place for all of our friends and family to get caught up with what we are up to. If you have any questions or recommendations you can let us know by email or commenting on the blog.

Brian

Today and yesterday, Amy and I were tasked with making Hannah smile and take a picture of it. This is a task that is easier said than done. While Hannah smiles a lot of the time and we know what things can make her smile. When we need for her to do it for a picture, she refuses. At least most of the time.

I added an album to our flickr photo stream tonight that includes the best of the shots that we got from Hannah’s photo shoot. We did end up getting some smiling pictures, but aside from that we also got some other really good ones. They do a really good job of showing her current range of emotions and abilities.

We have fully moved to start using flickr to keep our photos online. You can bookmark that site and check it when you like for updates. You can also see thumbnails of the most recent photos on the right of this page. When we update it, we will make sure and post a not here on the blog so that no one misses any pics of the cutest baby in our house.

On flickr when you are viewing the picture, you can click where it says “all sizes” and download your preferred size to use for printing, life size mock-ups, desktop wallpapers, or any other preferred shrine to Hannah. That way you can all add pictures to your collection as we put them on flickr…pretty sweet huh!?

As I transition to a stay-at-home dad/worship leader/videographer/photographer for the summer, I am going to try and update the internets more often with pictures, videos, and various other updates of our exploits. Stay tuned!

mother’s day 2009:

mother’s day 2010:
and yes, this is one of the only pictures I have with my daughter on mother’s day. would it be nice to have a pretty shiny picture of us all dressed up? absolutely. but this is what it means to be a mom every day — so it’s perfect!

dear hannah,

one year ago today, I took a test that would forever change my life. it confirmed what we had been suspecting for a few days — that you were growing inside me! oh, what a mother’s day that was! I was SO excited to get that news, especially on that day.

hannah, this year has been so crazy. somehow, you started off just a tiny little thing –

– and grew and grew, and on January 20th, we got to meet you for the first time in person. and every day since then, you have taught me more about myself than I ever thought possible. it has been a crazy ride so far, baby girl, and I can’t wait for tomorrow and the months and years to come!

I’m not going to lie. the first six weeks of mommyhood were not exactly a walk in the park. you were brand new in the world, so you didn’t know what you wanted or needed any more than we did. we had our struggles and our hard days, and there were a lot of sleepless nights and LOUD evenings. but we had our share of happy times, too!

(although sometimes those happy times turned into scream fests)

one of my favorite parts of the past three and a half months of being your mama has been seeing you be SO loved by our church community. from the very first day you came to church with us –
– the big kids have loved you and lined up to hold you! I swear, you are a celebrity baby the second we step foot on the church campus. but it all comes from love. and you deserve it! you are such a trooper, and you have been to more crazy places than any baby I have ever heard of.
basketball games, lacrosse games, softball games, school plays, talent shows, high school and junior high Sunday school, youth group nights at church, at home, and at the mall, and this weekend, your first church retreat.
the way our lives work, we ask a lot of you, hannahbelle, and you always exceed our expectations. you are the BEST baby, so easygoing and calm and happy. you make me smile and you are teaching me how to have joy in every moment. when you wake up in the morning, you give us the biggest, happiest smiles I have ever seen. you are just so happy to be alive, and it inspires me! I know it’s probably weird to be learning life lessons from my infant daughter, but it’s true. you are teaching me how to live the way that God wants me to live, and I am so grateful for that.

but, oh baby, you have your dramatic moments too. you absolutely hate being burped, and you scream bloody murder like all the food in the world has disappeared when we take your bottle away for those few minutes. you have the most dramatic fake cough, and it makes me nervous for when you hit your teenage years that you’re already trying to get our attention in crazy ways! you know exactly what you want most of the time, and we had just better give it to you! fortunately, we have found the one thing that will ALWAYS calm you down, no matter what: “imma be” by the black eyed peas. it’s like magic! you love standing up, and playing on your playmat, and sitting on the couch with us while we try to entertain you with crazy faces. just like your daddy, you love all sorts of screens — computer, tv, ipod — and you also love watching the fan.

one of my favorite things about being your mama is when we’re in a big group of people who are passing you around. you usually do GREAT for quite a while — smiling, laughing, talking, flirting with boys — and then you hit a point when you realize you don’t know anyone and you don’t know where you are and you have a little meltdown. and all it takes for you to calm down is just to be in my arms. I don’t do anything different than anybody else was doing — you just know you’re with me, so you calm down. oh hannah, that makes my heart so full of joy. I love knowing that you feel safe and loved with me. I love the days we get to spend together (even if about 4 o clock when dad comes home I need a little break from you!) and I love watching you experience and try new things. you are exactly what my life needed, and I didn’t even know it.
hannahbelle, I promise that I will always love you and take care of you. I promise to be the kind of woman I want you to want to be — strong, confident, loving, gentle, patient, passing on the grace that God has given me. okay, I can’t really promise I will be all of those things all the time, but I will try. your smiles make every hard moment worth it. and every day I have with you is a gift. be whoever you are, baby girl. chase your dreams, pursue your passions, and know that me and your daddy and our God are right behind you, ready to encourage, support, and push you to be everything you were made for.

(even if sometimes that means making you burp when you don’t want to.)
I love you more than I will ever be able to express, hannah. thank you for making me a mom!

love forever,
mama

Also, New pics and a better quality version of this video have been added to this website!