Bookworm

For most of her life, Vanessa has loved reading. :) We have tons and tons of pictures with her flipping through books. She spends a good part of her day dragging over books for you to read. She often likes you to repeat the story two or three times, if not more, before moving on to another. Here are a few pictures of her from the last month or so. There's no getting her to look at the camera when she's absorbed. And she loves looking at pictures in magazines and newspapers!

Thankfulness

At times I've wanted to share my deepest thoughts on here but I realize that some of them, no matter how pleasant, are meant for me to store away in my heart. That being said, and it being the time for Thanksgiving, I undoubtedly need to share how grateful I am to be a mother. I've wanted nothing more in life than to have a family and raise children. If I'm granted the chance to grow old in a relatively healthy state of mind, I know I'll reflect on my years as a mother and decide these were the happiest, so it's extra important that I strive to do my best . . .

I love children in general -- their innocence, enthusiasm for life, and the fact they just want to be loved and nothing more. To be entrusted with a child's life, is such an amazing responsibility. I pray I never take it for granted.

I realize I don't always know what is best, so it is my hope and prayer to be a facilitator in Vanessa's life -- to provide her with all the unconditional love and support I can so she can live a happy and fruitful life. I pray I can always be there to pick her up when she falls and to encourage her to try again. I pray I will allow Vanessa to live her own life and not mine. I pray that I can set a good example for her and that she'll learn to ultimately rely on God for everything.

For whatever amount of time God is allowing me this wonderful gift, I pray to always remain thankful for the unexplainable blessing Vanessa is.

May not seem an appropriate picture, but it represents Vanessa's radiant personality . . . and it makes me smile . . .

The Beatdown

Vanessa loves to dance. So it's no surprise that once home from watching the rivalry game with family, Vanessa demonstrated how the Buckeyes danced all over the Maize 'n' Blue today.

Veteran's Day

Vanessa has several extended family members with a history of serving in the military. With no forethought to today, Vanessa recently posed in front of a veterans’ monument that includes her mommy’s father’s name. (Although they misspelled his last name by placing the “h” and “a” out of order . . .) John T. Mollohan served as a mechanic in the U. S. Army during the Vietnam Era.

Math lesson?

I've wanted to share this photo for the last few weeks now! As mentioned previously with playhouse photos,

Vanessa enjoys taking all kinds of things into the house.

We have an extra booster seat that comes in handy for times when I need to feed the girls together. Vanessa automatically becomes attracted to the dining room chair in which it's fastened. While cleaning the kitchen I could hear that Vanessa was extra hard at work. I glanced to see what she was up to when I noticed she was trying really hard to take the dining room chair inside the playhouse. She worked from behind it and pushed, and she even worked from the inside and pulled.

Happy Birthday Joel!

We were able to attend Joel's birthday celebration this last Saturday. He turned 4! He's a remarkable little boy with a handsome smile and gorgeous eyes. (And he makes a great Batman!)

Three of the four Mollohan girl cousins (Rachel will have Hannah and Vanessa posing before we know it!):

Joel was a good sport to let Hannah and Vanessa (mostly Vanessa) tear down his balloons.

Miniature Tiger

Tigers are known to be the heaviest of the four kinds of big cats in the wild, so it might’ve seemed a contradiction to dress our petite little Vanessa as one, except for her comparable feistiness.

According to her mother, the little tigress can postpone begging for candy for another year or so, especially since she doesn’t seem to need the extra boost of energy, but she did enjoy visiting and playing in her costume. (Okay . . . she may have licked a cherry sucker several times and had a bite or two of a Hershey bar . . . but her parents didn’t need the temptation of a basket full of candy – we just polished off our own bags of Kit Kat bars, M&Ms, Snickers and Reese Cups! What a pleasure those few days were . . .)