holy, holy

Her newest song:

holy, holy from Rachel Hinton on Vimeo.

And the lyrics if you want to join in:

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee;

Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty!

God in Three Persons, blessed Trinity!

(It only seems appropriate for her first hymn to be one with so many exclamation points, don't you think?) :)

a prayer request

Hi bloggers! For you who have dropped by our little blog this morning, thank you for stopping by. If you have a few minutes, would you mind praying for us? My mom is having surgery today. Praise God, it's not a life or death procedure, but anytime someone you love is in this type of situation, it's serious to you. Truly the most powerful, humbling and effective thing anyone has ever done for our family has been to pray for us. I'm continuing to believe that today as we are three states away. Thank you in advance and if there's anything you need prayer for, feel free to email me at rhinton10@gmail.com. We love you Nana and are so grateful we got to see you this weekend. We're praying for you and hoping that when Reese thanks God for her food today, He will know what she's really asking is for Him to help her Nana. :)

home bound

What's a toddler and her desperate mother to do when they're going on week three of a merciless heatwave with a car in the shop leaving them stranded and unable to seek entertainment outside the four walls of their ever shrinking house?

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Here's hoping for cooler weather, functioning vehicles and piggy tails that look a little less post-nap time-y.

women and their age

Mama: "How old are you?"

Chica: "I'm two!"

Mama: "That's right! You are two years old!"

Chica: "I'm not too old! I'm two!"

Mama: "You're not too old, but that's how you say it baby, you're two years old."

Chica: "No, I'm two."

Mama: "Ok. You're two."

I love that two year old. (Just don't tell her I called her that!) :)

"she's a dern genius"

I love my mom. One of the reasons I love her is anytime I call her with an accomplishment or milestone in my daughter's life her response is almost always the same, "she's a dern genius."

Chica is interesting when it comes to coloring. When we first approached coloring, I bought her a pad of blank white paper. Blank white paper begs to be colored. A blank slate in the truest form, it doesn't restrict my daughter's creativity or jam her into the evil world's narrow-minded definition of art. No, not really. The pad of white paper was the cheapest thing in the Target aisle so that's what I bought.

It wasn't that big of a hit. Chica's preferred coloring technique is barking orders to her mom or dad of what to draw, hovering over our shoulder as we give it our best shot, inspecting the finished product then declaring if it bears any true resemblance to her original vision. It's a real hoot for her art slaves. (One thing I have learned in the process is if you draw any person and put a bow on its head, Chica thinks it her.)

Unable to take one more announcement from my toddler that my artwork looks NOTHING like a real ______, I snatched up a few Mickey Mouse Clubhouse coloring books at the Dollar Tree. Forget a blank slate, maybe some beloved characters would inspire her to color something herself for once.

The coloring books were a little better. She was content ordering what colors to use then turning the page while I was only half finished. I don't know what's wrong with me, but it pains me to leave a page half colored. With all that page turning we discovered that every few pages had activities. And the activities?

They are my child's love language.

She loves it when I read the directions, explaining what to do and then she gives it her best shot.

After completing this page, I realized we needed an activity book a little more age appropriate. :) So I went back to Target and found these.
At the top of each page she spelled out her name so I could write it. When I forgot, you better believe she was sure to remind me. Below is her very first work book attempt. The goal was to draw a line from one side to the next while staying in the white.
Outlook not so good. Up next was the orange section.
Better! We survived the first page! We used that momentum to carry us into the next task. (She was beside herself excited at this point.)

Pretty good, huh? Up next was shapes. Her goal was to draw a circle around the circles.
Then she colored the two squares.
By this point I am swelling with pride. I can't wait for Dan to get home so we can show him her book and high five over our gifted offspring. I took a phone call while Chica continued to work. (Being the motivated and independent child that she is and all.)

(My mom is totally right, she IS a dern genius.)

But then I came back to this.
Uh huh. Clearly she still needs a little guidance. :) Here I explained she was to draw a line from one crab to the next without hitting a rock.
Mmm-hmm. The crabs didn't find each other but in other news she found all the rocks! :) Draw a line from one bunny to the next:
It took her a little while to get the hang of it. But amazingly, by this point, we were still having fun!

I think it's safe to say that for now, she prefers activity books over coloring books. Maybe it's a phase or just her personality, I have no clue and would need to ask a child counselor for some answers. Either way it's where we are right now. :) And speaking of counseling, I'm going to need some before she attempts this page. Or better yet, I'll have her Daddy do it with her. :)

summer snack

Ready for a snack.

Favorite fork.

Concentrates.

Opens wide.

Delicious.

Blueberry bliss.

Ponders life.

Another bite.

So good!

Really, really good.

Needs a refill.

Makes a mess.

No need for a plate.

Full.

gone fishing

August has been a month full of traveling. Just before the wedding we went to Roaring River for our annual family reunion. Before all the fishing we tacked on a few days in Branson to see Debs!
We stayed at an awesome hotel complete with a water park...
and the boy cousins! Chica had all kinds of fun people to play with. She calls them "the boys" and loves it when they're around. For a family of all boys it's endearing to see how sweet they are with her. The affection is mutual.

While in Branson, Debs hooked us up with discounted tickets to the Sight and Sound Theater. The show was fabulous and I've wanted to see it ever since it was featured on (confession time) 19 Kids and Counting. We didn't see any Duggars, but the experience was incredible nonetheless. Thanks to Auntie Michelle, I didn't have to miss any of it due to bathroom breaks.

Chica LOVED the show. The best part is she's walked around for weeks booming "NOAH!" in her lowest, most powerful God voice. Cracks me up every time. I may have even egged it on a little bit.

After Branson, we hit the road to our next destination. It wasn't until our trip to Disney (just before Big Girl's second birthday) that traveling with her became truly enjoyable. She's always done great in the car and on planes, it's the sleeping in new places that has been a battle ever since she was tiny. When no one sleeps, it's hard to have a good time. Thankfully, we turned a corner and we're all more rested on our trips.

This was Chica's third time at Roaring River but her first time to fish. The river is stocked at night, so the best chance you have at catching a hungry fish is first thing in the morning, thus the need to get out of bed waaayyy earlier than we normally do. When Dan woke Chica up to go fishing she told him that she "wanted to go tomorrow." She thought it was still the middle of the night! (And I guess for her, technically it still was.)

Despite our best efforts, vast fishing expertise and dragging ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn, the fish bested us. Let's face it, if I was on Survivor and only ate by way of stabbing a fish with a makeshift spear, I'd have to eliminate myself and go home to food that's been caught by someone else.

Fortunately, we had a quick rebound later that afternoon. Water slide time!!!
The next morning we were back in action. Given how tired we look, I don't think I have to tell you what time this picture was taken.
The second morning wasn't a total bust. Thank goodness Aunt Michelle caught a fish. Big Girl helped reel it in and loved every minute of it.
Even though the characters on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse make fishing look a whole lot easier than it actually is, I think Chica has a new found appreciation for it.
And an even greater attachment to her family members she got to see while we were there.