Aaron's 1st birthday

Chris's birthday and other thoughts

I recently have read the book The Kite Runner followed by A thousand Spendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini . These two books especially A Thousand Spendid Suns have really changed my perspective on my own life. I have been amazed at how cruel the Taliban really is. I often listen to NPR while I am fixing dinner and tonight it was a report about how they are gaining power in Pakistan. My heart hurt hearing about it. Now that I have read these books it was easier for me to imagine the constant fear people are currently living with. The other thing that I have been pondering on was how blessed I am to be a women born in America in the church. When I think of all the people that are born in the world it is astounding really how blessed I am. Which leads me to Chris. I always appreciate that I have a really good man but recently I have felt overwhelmed by how blessed I am to have a husband that I not only love but that is my good friend. I miss him when he is gone but I am comforted by the knowledge that it is important work that he does and that he is helping people. He is such a great father and husband. He had the last week off in February and we went to Milwaukee to see my brother. I had such a great time with him. I love him so much and I hope he has a great 30th birthday.

The Big Number 5

This year for the first time Laura got to invite friends over for her birthday party. She had a lot of fun planning the party and in the end it was a big success.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A great Day at the Zoo

On one of Chris's days off we went over to the zoo. We have really loved the zoo and we loved a little break in the frigid cold weather to be outside for awhile. Sadly it is freezing again. The zoo is so big that we only see a few sections each time we go. This day we had a great time watching the Gorilla's. They put on a great show.

Steven the budding photographer pauses to take this one of Laura

Almost birthday time

This is our almost five year old. She has been such a wonderful blessing to our family. She is very good to her two younger brothers. Our Steven will be 4 years old next month. He is a mass of constant happy energy. He keeps us safe from bad guys daily. I don't know how we would survive without him?

The house that laura built. She has had a good time building forts all by her self.

We recently discovered an indoor playground that is inside a church and free to the community. It was awesome!

This little guy is about to turn 1 this month. What a year it's been. I'm sure glad he came along for the ride.

January Update

We have been enjoying a lighter month with Chris around a lot more. It has been really nice to have dinner together and be able to spend time together with the kids. He still has occasional late nights and he is on call every sixth night and we miss him then but mostly this month is great. I have Laura and Steven enrolled in a sports class at the rec center. It is basically a preschool p.e. class. They have loved it and really look forward to it every week. Laura is also in a ballet class at the rec center and she is loving that. For Christmas Laura got a calendar and I wrote for her on the calendar when her classes are and when pre-school is. She is very aware of what day it is and what she has going on. Now when I am not sure what the date is I just ask Laura. "What is the date Laura?" "Its the number 26 mom." She loves to know what is going on and has a strong desire to understand things. She is learning to read some and when she wants to she does really well. When it's my idea she is a little resistant, so I don't really push her. The other day on our way to COSI the children's science museum we were stopped at a light and something was really stinky. Laura says to me " Mom are your shoes old?" I said "yeah they are relatively old why?" "I think it's your feet that is making it so stinky."

Steven is also ever entertaining. He is the creator of most of the games that he and Laura play. Recently he came up with the game Noah's Ark. They take all the cushions off the coach and then fill it up with animals. Once the ark is full they then jump on the coach when the rain starts. The downstairs coach is free game for any abuses they think of. He still wears his batman or superman much of the time. He also is often running around with his knight costume on. That was a knew addtion from Christmas. He is about as happy a kid as I've ever come across and he makes me laugh every day. This past month has been a rough one for him. He has been sick for most of it. He is so tired of being sick. He is currently on antibiotics for an ear infection and now he has what we call the puking cough. The laundy has been running constantly and we all gear up when we hear he is hacking again.

Aaron, well he is just so darn cute and we love him. He is also a really happy guy execept when teething. I especially love that he is sleeping through the night after I finally got tough enough to let him cry it out. I should have done that a long time ago but we are grateful he is doing so well now. Look what my hair can do. This kids hair is tragically not curly but it has it's own style.

We had some fun on Sunday with face paint.

Chris was post call on Saturday so we went to COSI while he was sleeping. it was really crowded but we managed to see a weather show where they made a cloud out of liquad nitrogen. I think kid space was still the favorite of the day for everyone else.

Aaron especially had a great time at COSI. He cried when I took him from the water table. He had fun squirming around exploring things. (He still doesn't crawl at 11 months.)

Christmas at the Hanks house

We had a really great Christmas this year. We worked around Chris's busy schedule and managed to have a great week. We had Christmas the Tuesday after Christmas. The kids had no problem waiting even Laura didn't mind and she understood that everyone else had already celebrated. She was just glad like I was that her Daddy was there the whole time. He had six days off and we had lots of fun family time. After we opened our presents we went to the zoo to see the lights. We went early while it was still light so we could also get some fun animal time in. We really love our zoo here and there is so much to see. I discover something knew everytime.

We make great Praire Dogs.

The lights at the zoo were really impressive. It seemed that not a single bush tree or post was without a heavy coat of lights. They also had a light show over the pond that was quite impressive.

This is a little playground inside the Habitat House.

This was probably one of the favorite gifts. Our Steven loves to dress up and he now likes to sleep with his sword. so much for teddy.

Aaron was ready for a nap at this time but he really enjoyed all the paper. This year we just pulled out Laura and Steven's old toys to give to Aaron. It was funny because most of them they didn't remember. Even a few that we just hadn't gotten out since we moved. I still saved a few more for his birthday. The Busy Ball Popper was as big of a hit as it was the first time it was given as a gift.

Nana made the kids new blankets that have been a big hit. They are so soft and cuddly the kids love to sleep with them and cuddle with them on the coach.

Steven tells eveyone this was his favorite gift. I think he will get a little more use out of it when it warms up. It has been so cold here. We finally warmed up today to twenty degrees. The last few nights have dropped below zero. BRRRR.

Fun bags that Aunt Amy made. Thank you Amy we love them!

Before Christmas we had a great time making gingerbread housed the graham cracker way.

We made buckeye chocolates a Columbus specialty.