Monday, June 30, 2008

Lincoln is 17 months!

I'm a little late doing this post, but better late than never! Lincoln was 17 months on the 20th. I've said it before, he is wearing me out. He is definitely a handful! While we were packing to move he loved to climb on the boxes! One of his favorite things to do ANYWHERE he can find them, is walk up and down stairs or just a step if that's all there is. So, he had a blast just walking off of these boxes. I thought it was hilarious!



Since we've moved into the new house, he has had much exploring to do. He loves to stand at the bathroom sink on the stool (Anytime he can catch the door open, he dashes in there as quick as he can.) and look at himself in the mirror and try to figure out how to get that stuff to come out of the soap dispenser. I'm waiting on the day I go in there to find soap everywhere! He loves to go into his daddy's office (which is still a mess because we haven't painted it yet) and get into the paint stuff and anything he can find on the desk. He loves to go into our bathroom and get in the drawers and put the toilet lid down. This is fun to him. He loves to go into Hannah's room and get into her doll house stuff or get one of her baby dolls--you know, anything he can do to annoy her. He loves to come into the kitchen and try to yank all of the bottom cabinet doors open so that I'll tell him to stop banging on them (They have those things screwed in already to keep kids out, so when he tries to open them, he can't really do it but he tries over and over again.) But his all time favorite thing to do is to get up on the kitchen table chairs and get into whatever is on the table and just look up at me with those big brown puppy dog eyes and little mischievous grin because he knows I'm going to tell him to get down and he'd better be careful. What a BOY!

We are having some trouble at night lately with him sleeping. I'm not sure what is going on. I've wondered if he is scared maybe due to being in a new place. He wakes up several times a night just screaming sometimes. Most of the times, he's lost his pacy and as soon as I give it back, he's fine. He'll usually go back to sleep okay but sometimes will just scream until I pick him up. He wraps his arms tightly around my neck like he's not going to let go. So pitiful! I'm hoping this is just a phase and he'll be out of it soon. If not, he's going to have to cry it out I guess or find his pacy himself. Momma is getting tired of having to get up so often!

He is VERY attached to his pacy these days. He wants it alot. He thinks he must have it in the car and throws a little fit when he doesn't have it. He does the cutest thing with his pacy--he lifts up the handle and sits it under his nose. So many people have made comments about how funny it is that he does this. If you push it down, he'll put it right back up there. It's like he thinks that's where it belongs.

Just for the record (baby book), he got his bottom left eye tooth this month. He is hopefully good to go on the teething for a while.

Also, just for the record, he's saying a few more new words like "all gone," "night night," "french fry," "done," and "down". He is not very clear in his speech, so sometimes it is hard to tell what he is saying. He says alot of one syllable words. He tries to say alot, but can't seem to make certain sounds. He communicates with me pretty well. I usually have no problem figuring out what he wants. I'll ask him a question and he'll kind of grunt and try to repeat me. I can tell he understands a lot because I'll ask him to go get something or do something and he is pretty good about knowing what to do.

Some of Lincoln's favorite foods right now are strawberries, grapes, dill pickles, chips, french fries, and corn on the cob! Here he is while we were moving in loving him some corn on the cob.

He has been giving me "real" kisses lately on the lips. He even makes the kissing sound. I love this! His smile and laugh just make me melt! I love to see him and Hannah laughing and playing together.

These pictures are from today. Jack and Benson came over to swim. They really enjoyed their popsicles!

Jack was eyeing Linc's popsicle. He finished his before Lincoln did, and he looked over at Lincoln's and rubbed his belly to say "please". He wanted some more! It was so cute!

I love that Lincoln has so many little friends that are close to his age. He really seems to enjoy being around them!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Happy Birthday Kris!

Today is Kris' birthday! He has a busy day today with getting 3 fillings at the dentist (loads of fun), work, and class with a big presentation tonight. So, we'll be celebrating tomorrow night just the four of us. He's got the laptop, so I'm not able to post a good recent picture, so here's a goofy one I think I've posted before. Fits him anyway. Happy Birthday! Love you!


Friday, June 20, 2008

Princess Tea Party

Tuesday Hannah and I went up to the church building for a Princess Tea. She got to dress up like a princess. She looked so sweet. Okay, so pretend she has a smile on her face here--most of the time she did!

At the party, they made doorhangers, played 'Pass the Pillow' (hot potato), put on make-up, drank tea (pink lemonade), ate petifors (Little Debbie snack cakes), learned how to do a princess wave, went on a parade in the church office, and listened to some neat princess stories.





Isn't it fun to be a girl!!!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Unwelcome visitor

We had a very unwelcome visitor to our new house today. He was really creepy, slimey, and gross! He was a lizard! He came in the back door while I had it open. Luckily I saw him go behind a box there by the back door. Freaked me out! I freaked Hannah out! Anyway, after several screams and a little proding, I got him to slip right back out the door.

We welcome any visitors to the new house--just not his kind!!!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

"Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days"

I used to have a tape of the Judds when I was little. One of the songs on it was "Grandpa (Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days)". I really liked that song. I was reminded of the "Good Old Days" last weekend when the kids and I went to visit my parents. The Good Old Days for me were when I was little and we'd go visit my grandparents--both sets. My mom's parents lived in Nashville, Arkansas, for a while and then moved to Texarkana. My dad's parents lived in Bloomburg, Texas, just about 25 minutes or so from us. I had a lot of cousins that were around my age, so we used to have a blast together. We'd play all kinds of sports, play in the hay in the barn, play house, etc. I have so many good memories of these times.

Friday night we went down to the land (soon to be new house) and looked at the garden and checked on the cows. It brought back so many memories for me of when I was a little girl and we'd go to visit my dad's parents on their farm almost every weekend. My Pappaw had cows and always had a garden. We helped dig potatoes, shuck corn, or shell some peas--purple hull, I remember, the kind that turned your fingers purple. We'd love to see if the watermelons were ready and thoroughly enjoyed eating them and spitting the seeds out on the ground.


I wish my kids could experience what I did growing up. The closeness of family is so important to me. Unfortunately, we don't live as close to my parents or Kris' parents as I would like. So, we make great memories whenever we get the chance!


Wes turned the big 3 0 on the 4th! He was so excited!


The fam--headed down to the farm in Pappaw's truck. This was fun for the kids to get to ride in the truck with no carseats!

Walking in the garden. The last time we were here, there wasn't much to see. This time there was lots to see!

My favorite part--riding in the back of the truck while going to check on/feed the cows. We used to do this with my dad and my cousins in the back of MY Pappaw's truck when I was little. We'd throw the cows hay and then sit on the tail gate and watch them eat. Such fun!


I love this picture of Lincoln with his hair blowing in the wind.



Hannah with her Uncle Wes and


her Uncle Jeff. She loves them! I think she was looking at the cows in this picture--a little unsure about walking anywhere near them.


My dad celebrated a birthday on Saturday. He and the boys went fishing that morning for the first time in like 15 years! They really enjoyed it!




They caught about 17 fish. They especially enjoyed cleaning them so that we could fry them that night!


I LOVE this picture. How cute is Lincoln watching his Pappaw clean that fish! He was dying to touch it and eventually did!


Look at this sweet, sweet face!



After lunch on Saturday, Lincoln wanted more strawberries. So, he climbed up onto the chair (something he does CONSTANTLY) and helped himself! I turned around while washing dishes and caught him doing this. It was too cute!


Gotchya!!

June 13th is my Mammaw's 92nd birthday! Happy Birthday Mammaw! We love you!

Times with family are so special. I miss the "Good Old Days" when things were simpler, not so hectic, and there was nothing to worry about--like when I was little.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Update on House

It has been a CRAZY last week or so with the house situation! We are due to close on both houses on Wednesday the 11th. Terminix decided to come early last week to do the clearance inspection. They determined that the storage space under the house that Kris built was not able to be inspected properly, so they would not grant 100% clearance on the house. Basically they said they would only 100% guarantee everything including the downstairs office--just not the storage space connected to the office. The kicker for us was that they HAD been guaranteeing it for the last 4 years with no issues!! Crazy! What did this mean for us??? It meant we were in a panic for a couple of days until it was finally determined that we had two options--the buyers could decide that they were okay with everything but the storage space being guaranteed against termite damage and get $500 from us OR Kris could rip out the storage area and make it like it was never there so that the entire house would be guaranteed. They chose the latter. So, instead of going home with the kids and I to my parents this past weekend, Kris was stuck here to fix the downstairs.

If you don't know about our downstairs, about 4 years ago when Kris realized that he would lose his office space because we were having our first child, he got creative and enclosed a section of our crawl space and made himself an office with a section of storage. It is a really neat space--something you wouldn't see much of around here and something that probably really helped us sell our house. Here are some pictures:

Back of the house--Kris put the windows in that are next to the door.


One view of the office. These are the oak bookshelves he was making when he just about cut the top of one of his thumbs off with a compound miter saw when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant with Hannah. I was hysterical. There was blood everywhere!!!

Here are the pictures of the demolition the other night. My brother, Jeff, came over and basically tore most of the storage space out so Kris wouldn't have quite so much to do by himself over the weekend. He was a HUGE help! Thank you, Jeff!

Here you can see the one wall completely down and most of the floor pulled up. This storage area was nice because there was a lot of shelving to keep things on.

This is a picture after Kris enclosed where the storage used to be.

I just have to say that I think my husband can do just about anything he puts his mind to and this is absolutely something that I LOVE about him! He has really been my rock the last few weeks while things have been so crazy stressful with all the house stuff. He amazes me with all the things that he can juggle (being a dad/husband, church work, Life Group stuff, work at Alltel, MBA classes, and all the things that come along with buying/selling a house) and do such a great job at them all. He is one of a kind!!!

I guess I have to throw in a couple of pictures of the kids. Lincoln and Hannah played in the sandbox while the demolition was going on. This is Lincoln about to eat sand.

And here he is actually eating it. He made the awfulest face--but did it again.