Hannah Turns 6

 Our little Hannah turned 6 years old on Wednesday.  It seems like just yesterday we were sitting in the hospital room having Tabby braid my hair and count the hours.  And we even had Toppers pizza fries delivered to my hospital room afterwards - who needs hospital food?!?!?

 School was canceled for her birthday thanks to over a foot of snow, which for most kids would have been ideal.  Not for Hannah.  It meant - no birthday dress to wear to school, not getting to take her cupcakes (which I was up late frosting Tuesday night for nothing by the way), not seeing her best friend, not hearing her name over the loud speaker, not getting to get to Happy Joe's, not getting to go to the Awana Fair, and so on.  After she spent some time crying it out, she got over it (for the most part).  It helped to have the neighbors bring presents, getting a birthday card in the mail, and Grandpa & Grandma bringing root beer floats (with A&W Root Beer) when they came to plow us out.  The picture above is how she wanted to "pose" and smile.  Is she 6 or 16?

 Since our plans had to change due to the weather, I dug through the cupboards and thankfully found an angel food cake mix so we could have a cake, but no frosting.  So I dug out some strawberries and put those on top, no whip cream only led to a minor meltdown.  I love the picture above.  Tyler was horribly grumpy all day and he didn't want to be in the picture.  But I made him anyway.  But he refused to face the camera.  So I said fine and took it anyway.  Chloe kept taking bites out of the cake, which led to some more meltdowns, but Chloe was laughing at least.

Tyler was better when I had him take a picture.  Me and my girls.  My Hannah is a treasured gift from God.  I see her growing so much and it honestly scares me a little bit.  I want to say slow down!  It is a lot of pressure to know that God has given me this child of his to raise and train to His glory.  And that one day, Jon & I will stand before Him and answer to Him for how we raised His children.  I ask God everyday for the strength and knowledge to raise His children to turn to Him for their every need, that He will be their foundation and their everything.  Hannah's faith and trust in God has become so much stronger this past months and I can see it!  I hear it in her comments, and her questions.  She is learning so much about her heavenly Father and I couldn't ask for anything more for her.  In our nightly prayer time, Hannah always ends with the same prayer, and I pray she always holds on to this promise from God...

"God, no matter what happens, with you, we will always be ok."