July, the 1st 2 weeks

I'm finding myself once again behind on updating this blog. I can't believe we're almost 1/2 way through July already. The days just fly by. But once again, here's a recap of what we have been up to.

Bria is back to normal self, for which we are very, very thankful. She's very chatty these days, has quite a vocabulary, and loves to laugh. Right now she's walking around our living room wearing my baseball hat and Tyler's shoes. Her new favorite thing is to say "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy." And when I answer her with "Yes Bria?" She looks at me and says "Nothing." She makes us laugh and although she still challenges us with her temper, she does seem to be having fewer tantrums. Perhaps in part to being able to verbally tell us what the problem is.

Tyler continues to surprise and impress us with the things he picks up on and understands. He's a very loving and sympathic big brother, with his occasional antagonistic actions towards his sister. But I would probably question his "brotherhood" if he didn't. :) He continues to enjoy playing with lots of different toys, but has recently become interested in attempting to draw his shapes. I can't tell how many pieces of paper we have with 1 large circle/oval drawn on it. ;) He's been hungry all the time, so I don't know if he's going through another growth spurt that I need to brace myself for or if he's just making up for the one sick day he had when Bria was under the weather. :) He misses his friend, Philomena who moved back to Pennsylvania just a couple of weeks ago. Her daddy was our associate pastor for the past 3 years (all of Tyler & Philomena's lives), but recently took the call to the Meadville RP church. We're planning on making a trip to Pennsylvania at the beginning of August to see Matt's cousin & college roommate get married so we're going to try and meet up with the Hannas then.

As for Matt and me...we've just been busy with work and trying to keep up with 2 very active, but fun toddlers. Matt is really enjoying his new job and we see the blessings of this job every day. Matt's brother, Jonathan, came out and surprised their mom for a long weekend, so we really enjoyed spending some extra quality time with him. I managed to forget my camera every day we were together though, so I didn't get any pictures of the kids adoring their uncle, but they sure did. Beyond that, well, you'll just have to look through the rest of the pictures. :)


Matt found a sprinkler in somebody's trash a year or two
ago and decided to take it home and see if it still worked. It does
and the kids were having a BLAST playing in it earlier this month.

She was a little hesitant at first, but she decided
it was a lot of fun too.

Tyler insisted on taking "Scuba Tank Mater" out
to play in the water too. I think they all had a good time. ;)

Getting brave and actually walking
THROUGH the sprinkler.

My handsome little man. He's growing up

so fast!

Bria woke up early from an afternoon nap, so I laid

her down on our bed where Tyler was already napping.

She fell back to sleep and cuddled right up to him. These

pictures are so few and far between, I couldn't resist.

On the 5th of July we went up to the Topeka Zoo.

It rained steadily all morning, but the kids didn't complain

and we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. The only

downside was that many of the animals were inside and we couldn't

see all of them. Fortunately though, the rain did subside by the time we

were leaving so we were able to see a few more animals who were hiding

from the rain.

Napping otters

Checking out the map on where we should go next

New shirts...can you see why they're smiling??? :)