To my Big Brother, PaPaw, & cousin Shannon...

Yesterday was my brother Adam's 30th birthday! Happy Birthday to you Old Man! :0) I better be nice because my 30th is right around the corner. My PaPaw Shadix's b'day was also yesterday. He is 84 and stubborn as ever! :) I hope they both had a great birthday. My cousin Shannon's birthday is tomorrow. You never mention a lady's age - it isn't polite, but I will say that she was born the same year as Adam! :0) Happy Birthday to her as well! I hope all three of you have many more! I love you!

Self-Feeding

Hannah has been learning how to feed herself. She is not very good with a spoon yet but she can eat with her hands very well. She loves to eat little pieces of bananas, peaches, & puffs. Everything you put in front of her she will eat! She gets so messy when she eats by herself. I usually strip her to her diaper and she will sit for an hour in her chair picking at the pieces and eating. It is good for me because I can get usually get the dishes loaded in the dishwasher and occasionally the floor swept before she gets tired of sitting. As soon as she is through eating she has to have a bath! Here are some pics of her eating bananas in her high chair.

She is concentrating very hard!

I made it to my mouth!

Yummy! This is good!

Monday!

There has not been any exciting events in the Courington house lately. Josh is home from camp and we are just trying to keep Hannah from eating every piece of fuzz in the house. She can find the tiniest things in the carpet. I fished a bug out of her mouth yesterday and the day before that Josh retrieved a small rock. You can't take your eyes off of her. Well I hope that everyone has had a great Monday. Here is something to think about this week....

Never regret a day in your life.

Good days give you Happiness.

Bad days give you Experiences.

Both are essential to life.

Keep going...

Happiness keeps you Sweet,

Trials keep you Strong,

Sorrows keep you Human,

Failures keep you Humble,

Success keeps You Glowing,

But Only God keeps You Going!

A Long Week

Josh has been at camp all week and he is coming home today! I am so excited!! Hannah & I have had a good week but I would not like being a single mom. They have it hard. Hannah was good but she had a couple of rough days & nights. She didn't want to sleep and I think she just missed her daddy a lot. Sometimes I think Josh doesn't help me that much. I throw little pity parties thinking I am the only one doing everything around the house. Then he leaves for a week and it makes me realize how much he does do around here and how much I need him! I have missed him and have had a hard time sleeping as well. Things just aren't the same around here without him!! I mentioned that on Saturday I was going to leave Hannah with him and go off by myself for a few hours (I have to meet Becky to decorate for Tina's shower Sunday). He had no problem with it. He missed Hannah as much as she missed him. What a wonderful man! Even though I saw him last night I just can't wait to see him today!!

Without Josh here this week I invited my crazy niece Emily over Monday night. She ended up staying until Wednesday morning and we had a lot of fun. That girl has the best little personality! Wednesday night I went to camp with mom, dad, Adam, & Clay to hear Josh speak. Well he ended up not speaking that night so we missed out on that. Then Mom spent the night with me because the air has been out at their house. Thursday Mandi, Hannah, & I went to visit camp and got back late last night. We have had a very long week and have I mentioned I can't wait for Josh to be home! :0)

ANYWAY, Hannah had to go see Dr. Walley for her check-up Wednesday morning. She weighed 19 lbs and 3 1/2 oz. She is the 65th percentile of weight. She measured 29 1/2 inches long which put her in the 95th percentile for height. Basically she is tall & skinny. She has discovered a lot this week. She is standing for about 10 seconds at a time. I am just waiting for her to take a step. She is also eating everything she sees. When she has something in her hand on the way to her mouth and you say her name or tell her no she tries to hide it behind her back or hold it out behind her thinking you can't reach it! What a mess!!! She has also learned to say "Elmo." It is really cute to hear her say it. She is growing up. We made her appointment for her 1 year check-up Wednesday and it made me realize how big she is getting! She is calling me now so I better go get my sweet girl. Have a great weekend!

Happy Father's Day

Today is Father's Day. It is the first one for Josh. He is such a GREAT daddy! Hannah lights up every time he walks into the room. She smiles so big and laughs a lot when he is around. He is so wonderful to both of us. I thank God everyday for giving Hannah & I such a strong leader for our family. I can't express how much my love has grown for him since we have had Hannah. Sandra Griffin told me when I was pregnant that I couldn't imagine how much more I would love him when he held our baby for the first time. At that time I thought I loved him more than I could but she was right. He became even more special to me and my love grew deeper when he became a father. I hope he had a great day!

I have several other father's to mention. Of course, our grandfathers - Papaw Shadix & PaPaw Courington - they are both strong Christian men. Unfortunately Papaw Courington got sick before I had a chance to really get to know him the way Josh knows him. But I know how much his family loves him, I hear their stories, and I know he is a great man. My Papaw Shadix is a wonderful Godly man. Everywhere he goes he tries to tell someone about Jesus - the grocery store, gas station. I wish I had his courage. He knows so much about the Bible. He has always impressed me with his knowledge.

Of course there is my father-in-law, David. He too is a strong Christian. He taught Josh how to be the wonderful husband and father he is by his example. He has a great sense of humor and I enjoy being in his company. Hannah loves her Gramps. Sometimes she will smile the biggest smile when she realizes that he is preaching. Gramps doesn't get to see her do this but she tries her best to get his attention.

My dad! I don't know where to begin. He means the most to me just because he is my dad. For 27 years he has had my best interest at heart. He would do anything for me. He loves to joke around, so most of our time is spent in making fun of each other. That is how we show our love! :0) He is a Christian too. He always pushed us in Bible Bowl and I know a lot more about the Bible because of it. He has a love for God and his family. Hannah also loves her PaPa Tim. She already knows that something fun is going to happen when he is around - maybe a silly song, playing the piano on her belly, or a ride on the shoulders!

Thank you to all of the men in my life! Happy Father's Day! I love you!

NO!

Hannah has been hilarious lately. She is discovering her world which means she is into EVERYTHING! I bought a DVD guard today because she has a fascination with the DVD player. It has a little red light on it (red seems to be her favorite color - just like her mommy) and she is drawn to it all the time. I feel like I say "No" a thousand times a day and apparently I do. Wednesday night before church, I was loading the dishwasher and Hannah was crawling around the house. She crawled over to the extra paper towels package, starts pulling on the plastic, and says "No." I couldn't help but laugh. Not only is her vocabulary expanding from "Da-da" & "Ma-Ma." She is now saying "No." If I say no to her she will repeat it back to me. She is a smart little girl!

Furniture Shopping

I am SOO excited! Josh & I went yesterday to Jasper to look at furniture. We shopped for hours trying to find the right sofa at the right price. Plus, I was trying to figure out what color to buy. We already have a dark brown chair and our walls are green. So really the only color I thought would look great was cream. Well, we all know that cream is going to show everything and will end up looking dingy, especially with a baby that likes to lick everything! LOL! So I get in my head that I want to paint. Josh didn't want to paint the walls but he decided it would be best. I found a chaise lounge that I L-O-V-E-D! It was discontinued so he gave us the floor model very cheap. It was a sage color, so Josh decided it would be worth the painting to get the cheaper piece of furniture. We bought a couch to match. So now I need to find a paint color. I think I am going to go with a beige. I know it is kind of boring but I don't care I have new furniture! No more ugly, annoying couch covers! YIPEE! Plus it will be a while before we do any more redecorating and I don't want to do anything too modern. I am just so excited about my new furniture!!! I tried to get a picture of the couch off the Ashley furniture page but I couldn't figure out how to post a link on here. So you will just have to wait until I get the real deal and post some of my pictures on here. We should have it after the 25th.

I forgot to mention before that Hannah has another tooth. Her bottom tooth came in this week. She won't let me look at it but I can feel it in there. We are just waiting on the other "fang" to come in, which will be soon. Poor little baby has been so snotty and drooling all over the place. I will be glad when her teeth come in so she will feel better. She has been a little ball of energy lately. She has developed quite a personality these last few weeks. She played for hours in her toys tonight before she went to bed. She was loving on her bear and laughing at Elmo. I love to watch her play and to hear her laugh. It makes my heart so happy!

We had another busy weekend! Saturday I had a DeMarle party at my house. The DeMarle products are the silicone cookware. I love the stuff! I am getting lots of good stuff for hosting my party. We had a lot of fun and ate a lot too!! Jan took pictures of Hannah on Saturday. She is a GREAT photographer. She should seriously consider doing this professionally. Hannah was not in a smiling mood at first (she had just got up from her nap) until cousin Emily came along and she thought Emily was so funny. Jan got some very cute pictures - I will share a few. There are a lot of good ones and it was hard to choose. I am going to do a picture cake for her birthday and I am going to put one of the Elmo pictures on her cake.

Sunday in between the morning and evening worship services, Josh & I went to look for living room furniture. We found a couch and a chaise lounge that we liked a lot. I fell in love with the chaise lounge! It was for a good price so we were going to buy it. Then the man started adding $80 shipping costs and over $100 to spray the furniture so it will repel stains for up to three years. There were many other hidden fees which after they added it all up ended up being over $300 more than the sticker price. So after Josh tried to negotiate with the man (he wouldn't let us pick up the furniture - it had to be shipped) we left without buying anything. We are going today to Jasper to find something a little cheaper without the hidden costs! Wish us luck! I hope everyone has a good Monday. I am spending it with my family so it will be wonderful for me. (By the way, the last three pictures are from VBS)

I love Elmo!!
Sweet little baby!
"Emily is so funny!"

Ned with Dr. Dan, Wally the Welder, Frankie the Fireman, & Bernice the Bearded Lady!
The B-I-B-L-E, yes that's the book for me!

The Cradle Roll Class (from left to right) Kaden, Jackson and Helen (in the back), Gavin, & Hannah

I love Vacation Bible School!

This week is our Vacation Bible School. We only have 3 more nights to go. It has been fun. I always enjoy VBS. The kids get so excited and it is fun for all ages. I have been teaching the cradle roll class. They enjoy singing & the good thing is that they are so young they can't tell that I am singing off key! :0) Josh has been Ned the Neighbor. Ned is our nightly visitor. Below are some pictures of Ned and last night's visitor, Wally the Welder. I can't wait to see who else visits.

In other news, CONGRATULATIONS to the Maddox family. Bayley Lauren Maddox was born on Sunday. She weighed 2 lbs, 14 oz. She is doing good so far but needs lots of prayers. I got to see Tina and Bayley yesterday. Bayley is so sweet. She is a tiny little princess! Please remember this family in your prayers.