Family

This is Mama Cille (my mom's mom) and Mammaw (my dad's mom). We were blessed to have both of them together at Thanksgiving this year. Mama Cille is in her late 80's and Mammaw is 91. They both had to go into a nursing home a few months back. The really neat thing is that they are in the same room together. They are such sweet ladies and I love them very much.

I love big families. I love my family. My mom's side of the family has 42 people in it plus 1 on the way. My grandfather, Papa Jim, died several years ago. My grandmother, Mama Cille, has 5 kids, 15 grand kids, 10 great-grand kids, and 11 in-laws. We spent Thanksgiving Day together at my parents' house.

We had the usual great Thanksgiving food. We have to have double and triple the amounts to feed everyone. It is all delicious! We went outside and threw the football around and watched the kids play as usual. However, this Thanksgiving we did something that we have never done before. We all went around the room and everyone had to tell what they were thankful for. Some said they were thankful for health, freedom, jobs, soft toilet paper (yes, that one was MY husband), and vasectomies (no, that one was NOT my husband). The ones that hit me were the ones that were thankful for family and for Mama Cille. She has played a huge part in making our family what it is today. We are by no means perfect people or the perfect family, but we were all raised in Christian homes and have some great godly people in our lives. That is definitely something to be thankful for.

It just gave me something to think about. If I live to see my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, I hope that I can have the same kind of influence on them as my grandmother has had on her family. I hope they will say they are thankful for me.

Now for the pictures...

Lincoln is 10 months!

Lincoln was 10 months old last week. Amazing! Here is the latest on him:

One of his favorite toys are his socks. He loves to pull them off and bite on them. He likes anything of Hannah's that he can find. He likes to bang things on hard floors. He gets a kick out of this. He, like many of his little friends, loves to try to yank cords out of the wall sockets. He can spend forever playing with an empty coke bottle as I learned this weekend. I think his most favorite toys are still balls. He LOVES balls. He'll throw them, crawl to get them, and then do it over and over again. I'm ready for him to get into cars, trucks, and trains! I hope he likes them, cause he's getting alot of them from Santa!

Lincoln has never really been too thrilled about me singing to him or reading to him. He has to be REALLY sleepy to be still long enough to let me sing. (I love to sing to my babies so this is sometimes hard for me.) But I've finally found a book that he will sit still and listen to--Dr. Seuss' Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You book. He loves listening to all the sounds in that book, especially the BOOM BOOM and the SPLATT SPLATT. He giggles.

Lincoln is a little pig! When we put him in his high chair, he starts saying, "Naa" which is his word for "more." He gets really excited about eating. The other day for breakfast he nursed, ate half a thing of yogurt, and a whole waffle. That boy can put it away! Some of his favorite foods are broccoli (for real), green beans, any kind of potato, mac and cheese, and any kind of bread. We are still working on the sippy cup. He'd rather bite on it than drink anything out of it.

Lincoln is getting pretty fast at crawling. He can crawl holding a ball in each hand. It's funny! He pulls up, but mostly to his knees. He seems content to do this right now and isn't real interested in standing a whole lot.

Lincoln laughs all the time. He likes to give those big, wet, slobbery kisses on your mouth. Sometimes he thinks he's kissing me, but he bites. It hurts. He bites alot actually.

Bathtime is fun! He loves to splash and kick his feet. I love to watch him in the bath tub. He is so cute and so happy.

Lincoln hates his changing table, always has. He hates to be dressed or undressed. This is not a very pleasant time for us. He wiggles all over the place too.

Linc still just has 7 teeth. Don't know where that 8th one is.

His favorite words are mama, dada, bye bye, and ball. He jabbers lots of other stuff too.

Well, that's the run down on my little sweetheart! He is a joy. I am thankful God brought him into my life when he did. I need his sweetness, love his hugs, and cherish every moment I have with him while he is my baby.

You're an angel...

Well, I got up early and went to Sams this morning. When I got home and walked in the front door, Hannah had this cute smile on her face and said to me, "You're an angel." So sweet!

My little momma

Hannah has really been playing with her baby dolls alot lately. I had alot of baby doll clothes that I used to play with when I was little that I have let her play with. She is really into dressing her babies right now. She has a little trouble doing some of it on her own, so I have to help her quite frequently. She will put on 3 or 4 pairs of bloomers on the baby and a couple of shirts/dresses. It cracks me up. She loves to get out her iron and iron her baby's clothes, especially when I am ironing. She can be very meticulous about this. She will iron a little dress, lay it down, smooth it out, iron another one, lay it on top of the other one, smooth it out, and so on. You wouldn't believe how long she can keep herself busy doing this!!!!

The other day, I came into the living room and caught her coloring with her baby and teaching her baby to color. I can't remember what she was saying, but she was just talking away.

This is Hannah showing her baby how to hold the crayon.

This is a picture of Hannah feeding her baby like mommy feeds Lincoln. She has to "do both sides" when she feeds her she tells me. She had been feeding her for a while, when all of a sudden we heard her say, "Baby, don't bite!!!" Of course she got this from me! Lincoln is a biter! He loves to bite us when we are holding him or on the floor with him, just about any time, especially when he is nursing! A little while later, I went into Lincoln's room and found Hannah in the rocking chair. She was, again, feeding her baby. She whispered to me, "She's eating. Close the door." Again, she got this from me! Sometimes I have to go into Lincoln's room to nurse because he gets so distracted. She will continuously open the bedroom door and start talking to me while I'm nursing and I'll tell her that I'm feeding Lincoln, please close the door, I'll be done in a minute.

This is a video from today. It is hard to hear her talking because of the background noise. She says she is feeding her baby milk, that she needs to feed it some baby food, something about her doctor kit and her kitchen. Then, she decides it is time to burp the baby. I think you can hear her when she starts burping her baby. She makes a sound for the baby burping. Cracks me up!!!


Hannah loves to help me in the mornings with breakfast. She likes to sit up on the counter and help or watch. This particular morning we were having scrambled eggs. I put the eggs in the bowl, scrambled them, and added some salt and pepper. I turned around to do something else for a minute and when I got back to the eggs, this is what they looked like.

I don't know how much salt and pepper she added. I didn't dare try to eat them! She just wanted to help!!!

Kids are so impressionable!!! It is AMAZING what they say and do because YOU said it or did it!!! I can't get over how much Hannah imitates me. She imitates the good AND the bad. It is scary sometimes!! She definitely keeps me on my toes!

Join Us for the Jingle Bell Run/Walk

Some of you have already seen this in an email that we sent out, but I had to put this out here for all you other readers out there whoever you may be!

Since we found out at the beginning of the year that Hannah had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA), I have struggled not really knowing what to do. It has been a difficult year for us. Sometimes I find myself asking God why this is going on in my life? I have been sad, mad, confused, frustrated, angry, overwhelmed, depressed, tired--you name it. However, today I am feeling optimistic, encouraged, blessed, excited, overwhelmed, thankful, and humbled. Can you tell I am a VERY emotional person? Ha!

I remember reading about the Arthritis Foundations Jingle Bell Walk/Run back when we were first researching arthritis. I had kind of forgotten about it until bunko the other night when someone brought it up. So, I went home and talked to Kris about it and we decided that we wanted to try to get a team going. So, we came up with a silly name, Little Hannah Who and the Grinch, created our team webpage, and have started telling everyone about it. We have been blown away by the support we have gotten in just one day!!!! THANK YOU!! The race is not until December 1st, so there is plenty of time to get more support! The money goes to the Arkansas Chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. So, THIS IS YOUR INVITATION!

Please Join Hannah for the Jingle Bell 5k Run/Walk

To Benefit the Arthritis Foundation

on

Saturday, December 1, 2007

at

11:00 a.m.

at the River Market Area

The festivities actually begin at 9 a.m. with registration, fruit, orange juice, and coffee. You can also get your (or your kiddos) picture made with Santa. There is also a costume contest if you want to dress up with a Christmas theme. After the race, pizza, chips and salsa, and soft drinks will be served. Sounds yummy to me!

The cost to join our team is $20 which will get you some jingle bells for your shoes, a T-shirt, and a goody bag. You can also make a donation to the Arthritis Foundation if you so chose.

We are SO excited about this and greatly appreciate any support you can give! Here is a link to our team page

http://LittlerockJBR07.kintera.org/littlehannahwhoandthegrinch826

Bye Bye and Ball

Lincoln learned how to say "Bye Bye" and wave this weekend. He loves to say it! It is so cute to hear his little voice. This is for you MiMi and Pappaw!!! Pardon the clicking sounds from my camera in the background.




Here's another video of Lincoln. He loves to play ball! Here he is playing ball with me.

Sick kiddos

Well, it has been a hard week and a half. I feel like we just can't get well. I guess it all started a week ago Monday when Hannah woke up limping on a swollen ankle. She laid around all day obviously not feeling well. The next morning she was fine. It was so strange. Finally after talking to a couple of doctors, we have concluded that it was either just a flare-up of her arthritis or possibly we over-did-it the weekend before with all the Halloween parties. I was just glad it only lasted one day. It was hard to watch.

Since then she has had diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, and as of today, a double ear infection!!! Luckily she hasn't had any fever--yet. This would have made it alot worse. To top all this off, Lincoln had pink eye more than a week ago. As of today, it is back and he has an ear infection as well! Oh yeah, I've had pink eye too! What is next?

I feel like we have been in seclusion for the last week and a half! If you could pray for everyone to get to feeling better, I'd really appreciate it!

On a much lighter note, yesterday morning when Hannah woke up, she came walking into the living room. This is what she was wearing!

She had on a hat, 2 pajama shirts, and 4 pajama pants. She cracks me up sometimes!

Just tuckered out!

This morning after I put Lincoln down for his nap, he sat in his bed and played for a few minutes. I heard him fuss a couple of times, waited a few minutes, and then went to check on him. This is what I saw. I thought it was so cute. His little head was bobbing. He just couldn't say awake any longer! What a little sweetheart!!! (If you can't tell, he is actually sitting up, reclining on the back of the bed.)