our little amelia earhart

I love my friends. I have some of the best friends in the world. One of them, Debs, made the loooong trip to be with me as my only baby turned one and to help with her party. She cooked, cleaned, ran errands, got up early and went to bed late. While we ran around town like two crazy women, she kept me from losing it altogether. See how fun she is?


As if all that wasn't enough, that punk of a friend went and bought the Big Girl a present. A riding airplane. With Elmo as co-pilot.


It plays music, lights up, spins its propeller and best of all, you can activate all those features with the touch of a button located on the handle. Reesie loves to push the button over and over again with her little thumb. She loves her airplane.

If she gets her father's vision she might just be a pilot when she grows up. Her Grandad flew in the Air Force. He could teach her some maneuvers. Of course, my protective mama instinct wouldn't mind her flying commercially.

Or just flying with Elmo, for the time being.

Because when you fly the friendly skies with him, pants are optional.

one year stats

Monday Reesie went to the doctor for her one year check up. First they pricked her finger to test her iron level. Big Girl didn't even flinch when the nurse poked her with the needle! Immediately I texted Dan to inform him of his beast of a daughter.

The nurse wrapped a cute little band-aid on her finger. I couldn't wait to come home and take a picture of it to put on the blog. Alas, the band-aid never made it to the car. Big Girl chewed it off while we were waiting for the doctor. Is that too gross to share? Sorry. Big Girl promptly removed her band-aid while we were waiting for the doctor.

I texted that to Dan too and truly, I'm not sure what made him prouder. The fact his daughter took a needle like a champ or that she gnawed off her own bandage.

I did learn that Reese is weighs twenty pounds and is _______ inches long. Those measurements place her in the 55% for weight and 50% for height.

I decided to google how much The Chica would weigh on all the planets in our solar system, just in case space travel becomes the next big tourist attraction. You can never be too prepared to planet hop.

Right now Reesie would weigh 3.2 pounds on the moon. (I am aware that the moon isn't technically a planet, but it's the most feasible of destinations considering we wouldn't immediately burn up in its atmosphere.)

She'd weigh 541.4 pounds on the sun. I wouldn't be caught dead there.

Here's the rest of the measurements:
7.4 pounds on Mercury.
18 pounds on Venus.
7.4 pounds on Mars.
47 pounds on Jupiter. (Wild space ships couldn't drag me there.)
18.2 pounds on Saturn.
17.6 pounds on Uranus.
22.4 pounds on Neptune.
1.2 pounds on Pluto.

I'm thinking Pluto's our best bet. Considering its popularity is down because it lost its Planet-ship status, the lines wouldn't be horrendous. Plus carrying around a one pound baby would be a wonderful break for these tired arms.

So, how much do you weigh on Pluto? Click here to find out.

Reesie always loves it when I dedicate a post to her weight.

a mechanic I am not

Today I pulled out of our driveway to meet the staff for lunch. Something didn't feel right about the car, but I backed it up into the street anyway hoping that once we got going, it'd work itself out. Brilliant theory.

Once in the street, I put the car into drive and gunned the engine. We didn't move. I turned off the ignition and switched it back on thinking I hadn't turned the key all the way before I had reversed. I stepped on the pedal again, and the engine roared but we didn't move an inch.

I did what I normally do when faced with car trouble.

Dialed Danny's number.

As it rang, I remembered the night before, my He-Man Husband had changed one of the rear tires. Honest to goodness, the idea flashed through my head that he must have put the tire on backwards, because it's the rear tires that make the car go, and if one of the rear tires was working as equally hard to go in reverse as the other was turning forwards, that would explain why we were at a standstill even while I was gunning the engine. Yes, that must be what had happened.

"Hello?"

"Hi Dan."

"What's up?"

"I'mstuckinthemiddleofthestreetandthecarwon'tgo!"

"What?"

"I'm stuck in the middle of the street and the car won't GO!"

"Is the car on?"

"Yes, and I've been gunning it and gunning it and we're STAYING IN THE SAME SPOT!"

"Rach, the emergency brake is on. Just reach down and release it."

Sheepishly, "Oh. Ok, we're going now."

I'm so thankful I didn't have to tell him about my backwards tire theory.

And even more thankful he promised to stay married to me for better or worse.

party pics

Long time no see bloggers! I've been offline wrapping up Birthday Week. And what a week it was! When the viral infection hit last Sunday, I had doubt about attending/surviving all the festivities. Thursday I'd scheduled the Chica's first professional photo shoot. (Danny totally makes fun of me for saying "photo shoot.") Thank goodness by Wednesday, Reesie had turned a corner and was feeling much better.

When I wasn't drugging up the baby, I was running around like a mommy maniac finalizing the party particulars. Fortunately back up was on the way. Aunt Debs to the rescue! Auntie Michelle, Grandpa Ken, Grandad and Grammy thought they were coming as guests, but I put them to work too.


I knew every last minute trip to Target was worth it when I saw the Birthday Girl's face at her party. She may only be one year old, but Girlfriend had a great time.


Here's a shot of her party outfit.


At the entrance, I displayed a collage of her monthly lamb pictures. I made it on Shutterfly, and was so pleased with how it turned out.


Many lovely guests came to celebrate with us. Doesn't this baby have the best hair you've ever seen?


If our party had a theme it would be "Eat and Hang Out." Our guests did some of each.


Here's one of the food tables.


Of course, what's a party without some games? When you're playing with babies, the picking's pretty slim. Enter inflatable donkey. Not only did he have multiple tails velcroed to his behind, he was carried around, slobbered on and ridden. What can I say? He's a crowd pleaser.


This sweet baby out-pinned the competition.


The Birthday Girl with her proud Mama, just before we sang.


This baby had so much fun, she drifted off right there in her sling.



Everything I had to get done throughout the week was a great distraction. I really didn't have time to be sad. Friday night, when I was putting her to bed, the reality of it hit all at once and the tears started falling. Rarely does she fall asleep in my arms before I lay her in her bed, but that was the case Friday night. I took advantage of the unique opportunity and held her a little longer. Rocking to she sound of her steady breathing. Lingering in her last few moments as a zero year old. Telling God if I could give Him a holy high five for getting me through this first year, I would.

I couldn't help but flashback to the hospital room one year ago. Until then I was clueless of how sore my body and full my heart could be.

Physically I'm feeling much better than I did April 25, 2008. But my heart, it throbs ever more of a mother's love.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Birthday Reese!

I pray someday you'll have
a best friend at your side,
a husband who treasures you
and a calling that stirs passion in your heart.

But most of all, I pray you'll know a God
Who is
your best friend,
your treasure,
your passion.

one year old!

Party pics and updates of the day still to come.

(The great news is I haven't had an emotional breakdown yet.)

(Today, anyway.)

a year in video

I finished Reesie's video! A couple of things to note:

*It takes a little while to buffer. The entire thing is about 10 minutes but if you're a fan of the Chica, the wait is totally worth it!
*My head is so huge, I can't believe I fit in the door of the hospital. Looking back I think I all of my pregnancy weight went directly to my face. The one good thing about my head being the size of a large watermelon is that the shame keeps me from bawling through the entire movie.
*When did I get a southern drawl?!
*The quality isn't so great online. :( If you'd like to purchase a DVD of Reesie's first movie in Hi-def, it's gonna cost you. Please send a $1200 check written out to Dan and Rach's Hawaii fund along with a self-addressed stamp envelope.
*Enjoy!!

(And if you close your eyes for the first ten seconds or so, I promise you won't miss anything!)

(Except a head that could have headlined its own show on TLC.)


reesie's one (better) from Rachel Hinton on Vimeo.

it's her party and she'll self medicate if she wants to

Well, the countdown is on to the big O-N-E. I had hoped of writing a meaningful, thought-provoking post on all that has been this past year of motherhood. That is until Reesie got kicked out of the church nursery yesterday.

In the middle of Sunday School I received a text message from our nursery director saying Baby Girl had a fever. They had taken her temperature and it was 101. Immediately I booked it to the nursery, scooped her up, took her home and gave her some Tylenol. The medicine did wonders for her fever. But she was cranky, wouldn't eat and was terribly lethargic.

And that was just during the day.

Then, last night happened. But I don't want talk about last night.

Except to say, you know that feeling when you know that you know you should be sleeping, yet something (or someone) keeps waking you up every half hour or so? For hours and hours on end? And you have a full week of work ahead of you, and company is coming to town, and Bible study must be planned and there are still party details to be determined and food must be made and clean sheets must be put on the bed, and you can't even keep everything straight because all that screaming is overpowering the voices in your head?

Like I said, I don't really want to talk about it.

About 4:30 this morning Danny made the executive decision, "we're taking her to the doctor."

At 9:50 we rolled into the parking lot. If you know anything about me, you know I'm not punctual. It's one of my many, many flaws. I love the idea of being on time. But just because you will something about yourself, doesn't make it come to pass. If that were the case, I'd have the Mary Poppins capabilities of climbing stairs of smoke, cleaning messy rooms with the snap of my fingers and flying from place to place by the handle of my umbrella. Some stuff just ain't gonna happen.

What was I talking about?

Oh yes, because I'm always late it, it was quite uncharacteristic to arrive ten minutes before my appointment. It must have had something to do with the somewhat difficult night I had had, which I still don't want to talk about, resulting in some form of time-management transforming desperation.

My prize for getting there ahead of time? Spending the next fifty minutes in the waiting room. Fifty. Five, zero.

I told you that punctual stuff was overrated.

During the excruciating wait with a sick daughter who was growing ever impatient by the minute, I contemplated stripping her down to save time once we made it into a room. I think I might be onto something. If every kid has to take off their clothes to get weighed and measured, why not save everyone time and have a waiting room full of naked babies who are one step closer to leaving? Can you tell I had about 50 minutes worth of spare time on my hands?

To quit the rambling already and make a long story a little shorter, the Chica has a viral infection on the roof of her mouth and in her throat. The doctor had me look at it. And because we're a family friendly blog, I won't describe it. But it is sick. So disgusting, I immediately regretted trying to force feed my daughter yesterday. Despite her fever, I was sure she was just being picky when refusing her vegetables. Turns out there were burning ulcers lining her throat.

Somehow I don't think I'll be including this little story in my acceptance speech when I'm crowned Mother of the Year.

I was bummed about her ear infection. She was five days short of making it a whole year without any ear problems. (And I realize that has nothing to do with my mothering skills, because, hello? Have you been reading this post? My mad mothering skillz speak for themselves.) But I was so looking forward to the day when she'd feel like a failure in all aspects of life, I'd swoop in and remind her of her fabulously- resistant- to- infection ears.

"You got picked last for kickball? Your boyfriend broke up with you? You didn't get the promotion? It's ok honey, because your ear canals defy science!"

After a trip to Wal-greens, this is the scene in our kitchen.


The doctor said if we stick to the regimen, she should be feeling better by Wednesday and we can carry on with all the birthday festivities.

And if this post has you running to your nearest Wal-greens to find anything to make the blabbing stop, I don't judge you.

You would medicate too, if this happened to you.

it's all in the shoes

Because it's the shoes that make the outfit...


these kicks warrant a post of their own.

Amen.

big boy

Do you see this sweet boy? He's one of the boy cousins and he's almost six months old.


Reesie is almost one (six months older, mind you). Check out this picture of them side by side. He's closing in on her by the day! You'd never know they were six months apart.

This picture was taken over Easter. We took three of the four cousins to a farmstead. It was kind of like an outdoor children's museum. And it was beautiful. We were there for a few hours and we only got through about half of the park.

Here's Big Girl checking out some of the animals.


Her favorite was the red-tailed hawk.


Speaking of...


Yeah, she wasn't too keen on the whole hat wearing thing.


These beauties swam right up to where we were. I think they knew I was taking their picture. In some scientific circles, this species is known as the White-Feathered Diva Swan. Did I mention the park was free?


This chicken took off when he saw us coming.


He must have an aversion to giant flowers that are part human.

her first easter dress

Easter. It's one of the best days of the whole year to have a daughter. Lord willing, someday we might have a sweet boy. But for now, I'm soaking up every little bit of having a girl.

Hands down, one of the best parts of my job is getting her dressed in the morning. Ok, I take that back. One of the best parts of my job is picking out her outfit. Actually, getting the cute clothes on her squirmy little body is quite difficult. My mom says it's like changing a snake. And she's right. More often than not, I pass on the baby wrestling honor to her father.

But back to Easter. Once a year, the joyous occasion calls for all kinds of celebration. Worship services, family gatherings, feasts, candy and of course, clothes. Easter is the epitome of ensemble selection. For any mom who's had a daughter, it's like the Olympics for Outfits. I love going to church and gawking at all the tulle, lace and bonnets. I mean really, is there any other event more appropriate to sport our best? Hardly!

My mom, in all her wisdom bought Reesie's Easter dress a year ago. She bought it new for $10.


Even better than the steal of a deal, she bought one for Big Cousin too.


Look how happy they were to match!


They looked so cute. So did every other little girl I saw at church. And for the sake of fairness, the little boys were stylin' too. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More than a thousand years ago, two women approached a tomb to tend to the body of their murdered Teacher, expecting to find Him exactly where they had left Him. Instead they were confronted by two heavenly creatures whose appearance was so other-worldly, the author grasped at similes to describe it. As the angels opened their mouths, out came the greatest news in scripture. The biggest headline in history. "He is not here; he has risen!"

Sometimes His plan is not what we expect it to be. Often His ways are not ours. But they are always better.

"For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross."
Colossians 1:19-20

Happy Easter bloggers. We love you.

it's so warm under all these lights!

Holla bloggas!
(I am so with it. You know I must work with youth since I'm so up on all the lingo.)

My name is Rachel and I've been married to a youth pastor for almost three years. Which means we're well past the point where we think we have marriage totally figured out (you know, like those first ten days) and have progressed on into the stage where we've acknowledged how much work it takes to honor God and each other. The cool part about coming to that realization is you start to understand how it's worth every effort.

We have one baby girl who is a few weeks shy of her first birthday. Excuse me for a minute while I go blubber in the corner. Her name is Reese, but on our little blog she goes by Reesie, Reester, Baby Girl, Big Girl, and The Chica. All the aliases are necessary because she is the most frequent subject on The Hinton Home blog.

Right after Danny and I got hitched, we hitched up a U-Haul and moved several states away from all our family. We never thought we'd be raising our first child so far away from the land of her forefathers, but we praise God for the Internet. It's the easiest way for Reesie's long distance fans to get up to date information on all the earth shattering, life altering announcements concerning our daughter.

Our regular readers (hi mom!) are probably wondering, "What's with all the introductions?" Well, today our little blog is in the spotlight over at the Preacher's Wife place.


So if you're visiting for the first time, welcome! Make yourself at home.

Did you go to Living Proof in Nashville? So did I!

Want to see the only two recipes I've ever posted? Here ya go!

Want to stare at some awesome fish? Gawk away!

In conclusion, I want to give Lisa a big "woo-hoo!" I love her blog. If you're married to someone in ministry, her site's an incredible source of encouragement and community. Thanks for the shout out Lisa!

her little pony

Last week Reesie had another "first".

Ta da! Can you tell what it is?


This angle should help. (I'll give you a hint...it's on top of her head.)

It's her first pony tail! Ever since she started ripping bows off her head, I've had a bout of hair-doing depression. Last week, I realized how long one patch of hair had become, so I got a little ambitious.

Granted, the only hair band I had was an actual rubber band from the desk drawer. This little pony tail was a coiffure catalyst, opening my eyes to all the styling potential out there, yet to be discovered with my blow dryer and bottle of hair spray.


A day later, and one pack of hair ties richer, one pony tail turned to two!


We're still perfecting our technique. The stylist needs to master a straighter part, and the muse needs to grow some more hair.


But we're satisfied with our progress thus far.

happy birthday Grandpa Ken!

We love you!!
Reese, Rach & Dan