Two Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

While I was in the kitchen making some phone calls a while ago, Hannah and Lincoln were playing in Hannah's room. I could hear them having a good ole time back there and wondered what they were doing. So, when I got done on the phone, I opened the door to find this....

Fortunately, no doctors had to be called!!!!!

Lincoln is 20 months!

Lincoln is getting so big! Two is right around the corner and it is SO hard to believe!

He has been talking it up lately. I have seen a lot of progress in his talking this month. Granted his speech is still not extremely clear, but he is actually saying alot of stuff now. Some of the words he is saying that I can think of right now are spoon, peach, knife, cheese, bean, diaper, pen, hat, all gone ("dol don"), and more ketchup. My absolute favorite thing he says is "Where's Hannah" or "Where's Dada" or "Where's Momma" or "Where's Jack". It comes out like this, "Da Nannah???" and "Da Dada???" He asks about Hannah alot especially when he wakes up in the morning or from a nap. I love this.

He and Hannah have been playing better together lately. Oh, they still have their moments where they hit and yell at each other, but they definitely have fun together too. The other day they were pushing each other around the hardwood floors on Lincoln's little fire engine push toy. They took turns pushing each other. They just laughed and laughed. They also like to wrestle. They were having a good time here!

We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese a couple of weeks ago. They both had so much fun. Everytime Linc sees a Chuck E Cheese sign he says, "Momma!!!! Cheese, cheese!!!" He got a little baseball glove and ball from there that has Chucke on it and he calls it "Cheese" everytime he finds it. He also really notices McDonalds when we drive by one. He gets really excited and tries to say McDonalds. Guess we go there alot! :)

Lincoln is saying "No" alot! It is one of HIS favorite words. I, however, can't stand it! He actually had to sit in time out for the first time the other day. I think he had hit Hannah. I had told him already not to do it. I told him if he did it again, he'd get into trouble. He did, so I told him he was in trouble and had to sit on the mat by the front door. He kept getting off and saying no, so he had to get a couple of spankings to help him get the point that he was supposed to stay on it until Momma said he could get off. I made him stay there for about a minute or so. Then, I got his attention really good and told him why he was in trouble and that he had better not hit Hannah anymore. I guess it worked pretty well, cause now if I threaten time out, he pretty much minds me. We'll see how long this lasts! :)

This picture was taken at John Henry's birthday party at the Jump Zone the other day. Lincoln liked jumping on all the big jumping things, but his favorite part was the water fountain. There was a stool there and he just couldn't resist. Everytime I turned around he was over there "getting a drink." He was pretty funny to watch. Everytime he'd push the bar in and make the water come out, he'd bend over and put his face in to get a drink and the water would go back down because he'd let go of the bar. He did this over and over. I noticed several people watching him and getting a big laugh in. What a cutie!
Lincoln has gotten a little shoe fettish lately. Ha! He is constantly bringing me shoes to put on him! He also wants to put on Hannah's flip flops, my flip flops, and any of Daddy's shoes he can find.
He has been a little interested in sitting on the potty lately. Sometimes he'll ask to go potty. So, I would put him up on the toilet. He'll just laugh and sit there a minute. He'll grunt, but nothing has come out yet. I decided to get the Pooh potty out that we had for Hannah to see if he'd really sit on it. He didn't seem to care for it too much. Oh well.

We went to the doctor this month about his eczsema. It was really keeping him up at night--and mommy too. So, Dr. Byrum gave us a steroid cream to put on and some hydrocortizone cream. It seems to really be helping. He also said it might not be a bad idea to take him to an allergy doctor to figure out what might be causing the problem. So, I need to do that pretty soon.

Lincoln is still so much fun. I look forward to every new day with him to see what he is going to say or do next!

Heaven in the eyes of a child....

On July 10th of this year, my sweet grandmother, Mama Cille, passed away. I can't believe it has already been 2 months. When I think about her, tears come to my eyes because I realize she is gone---I will never see her again. She won't be here for Thanksgiving or Christmas this year and it will be so hard for my family.

I have so many sweet memories of Mama Cille. She used to tell us grandkids to "play pretty" when we weren't getting along while playing football in her yard. It used to make us all laugh at how she said it. She was a really great cook. Some of the family favorites were her cherry pies, her breakfasts, and her fried chicken. She loved to keep up with politics and would watch shows on tv all the time. She'd be right in the thick of it right now if she were here. She was a wonderful friend. She would keep in touch with old out-of-town family members by cards and phone calls. She would call her friends on the phone and check on them often. She kept a journal for years where she wrote some really beautiful, thoughtful things. She was always so faithful. She went to church and she read her Bible. She was such a godly woman.

I guess one of the things that impressed me most about her was how much her kids loved her and respected her. I have watched my mom and her sisters and brother's relationship with Mama Cille for many years. They were SO close. She left them (and all our family) quite the legacy.

Holding Hannah for the first time 10/10/04

5/21/05

With her great-grandkids--Thanksgiving 2005

With her kids

With my family (at the time)

Thanksgiving 2005

Holding Lincoln for the first time 1/21/07

8/4/07

My two grandmothers 11/22/07

4/26/08

At the funeral home during visitation 7/11/08

When Mama Cille died we had to explain it to Hannah. What do you say to a 3 1/2 year old about death??? Well, we just told her that Mama Cille went to heaven to be with God. When Hannah saw her body at the funeral home, I could tell she was a little unsure of what was going on. She knew it was a sad time because everyone in my family was crying. Every now and then Hannah brings up Mama Cille. She'll pray for her or ask about her.

Last night while Kris was putting Hannah to bed she asked, "Why did Mama Cille go to heaven?" This is how the rest of the conversation went:


Kris--God wanted her to come live with Him.
Hannah--Are we going to go?
Kris--Yeah, it'll be a long time though.
Hannah-- Is Momma going?
Kris-- Well, yeah.
Hannah-- Is she going to take her bag?
Kris--Well, maybe.
Hannah-- Are we going to take the van?
Kris-- Well, probably not.
Hannah-- Is God going to come get us?
Kris-- Yeah.
Hannah-- Is he just going to grab us up?
Kris-- Yeah, I think so.
Hannah-- Does Mama Cille have a house?
Kris-- Oh yeah, I'm sure she does.
Hannah-- Does she have a bed?
Kris-- I'm sure.
Hannah-- Will we have a bed?
Kris-- I'm sure He's got a bed for us.


God does have a "bed" for us waiting in heaven. I won't get to take my bag or anything else with me when I go. God may just "grab us up" one day. We won't know when. We just have to be ready. I hope as Kris and I raise Hannah and Lincoln that they will learn how to be ready for heaven. I hope Hannah keeps imagining her bed up there. Maybe she'll be next to Mama Cille.

Oh to be a kid again!!!

Saturday afternoon our Sunday morning Bible Class had a party at Murray Park, down by the river. We weren't really sure how everything was going to turn out because rain was expected due to Ike coming through. The rain stayed away for a while. The kids enjoyed running around, watching their daddies toss the football, and playing on the playground and in the dirt.

Kris and Linc playing catch.

Ethan and Linc

Emma and Hannah--These girls LOVE to play together!

Eric and my little climber

(Side story: Speaking of climbing, the other day I went to pick Lincoln up from the nursery after MUGG. The first thing that one of the workers said to me was "Do you just have to watch him constantly when you are at home?" I said, "YESSSSSS! What did he do???" She said, "Oh nothing really. He just wanted to climb on everything!" I just laughed! They really earn their pay when Linc is there!

Lexi, Hannah, and Emma

Here's Lincoln trying to make me think he's all sweet posing next to the flowers....




Two seconds later, here he is climbing again. He'll say, "Momma Momma!" to get my attention so that I can see where he is. Stinker!!!





I love that my kids have so many little friends to play with! We really have been blessed that both my kids have so many friends from church their same ages! Here are Hannah and some of her friends.

This little friend of Hannah's, Sean, bless his heart, was fast asleep through most of the party! He must have really been tired!



So, the rain finally came. We all kept the kids out of it for a little while (not very long actually). Kenzie and Benson started playing in it. It really did look fun!!! I didn't want my kids to miss out, so I was like, "Have at it!" I actually thought ahead and brought extra clothes. This is Hannah just starting to get wet.

Benson was so cute. He really enjoyed himself!

Another one of Lincoln's friends, Jackson, with his daddy.

Okay, so here is Lincoln watching Hannah and the other kids out in the rain. He had been eating and so he was just now noticing what was going on. Can't you just see those little wheels turning in that sweet little head??? He was ready to go!!!!

Hannah, dripping wet and loving it!

Love this picture!

Lincoln is in LOVE with "babboons". He goes after them anytime he sees them. Nathan was nice enough to get them down for him.

He didn't let them go after that.

The picture doesn't really show it, but Benson was SO wet! It looked like he had earrings on because there was water dripping off his ears!

Had to show the dirty little feet! He'd run to every puddle and stomp in them to see the mud fly up!

Ethan and Ella. I think Lincoln learned the mud puddle thing from watching Ethan! Ethan is so much fun to watch! He is such a BOY! At one point, he was on his hands and knees with his hands in the mud swishing it all around. Love it!

What a party!!!!! So, how did we get the kids clean enough to get in the car, you might ask? Well I took them over to the water fountain, stripped them down, splashed water all over them, and put on clean diapers (Yes, I put a diaper on Hannah too because I forgot some clean underwear. She thought it was so funny to wear a diaper again.). They rode home in their carseats with just diapers on.

Look at that face!!! Oh to be a kid again!!!!

Hannah and her hair bows!

Every once in a while I get an itch to do a craft. I have discovered that I really enjoy them--especially if it involves painting something. So, I got the idea that I would make Hannah a hair bow holder for all those many many hair bows we have accumulated over the years! Hannah was blessed with a lot of hair when she was born and I have had SO much fun putting bows in it over the last nearly four years!

First off, here are a couple pictures of the hair bow holder I made her and hung in the bathroom. I chose colors that went with the frog theme that we have going on in there.

I couldn't help but post some pictures of Hannah "growing up" with her bows!

2 weeks old - so tiny!
6 weeks

3 months

4 1/2 months

5 months

7 months - long enough to pull up!

12 months - really starting to grow!

14 months - How many times have we lost one of these things???

15 1/2 months - We tried the rollers....

they didn't work too well!!!!

17 months

18 months - The size of the bows really changed!

22 months - Doggy Ears (my favorite)

23 months - Pony tails!!!

2 years - Ribbons count as bows, don't they?

Almost 2 1/2 years - Her hair was really getting long!

3 years

3 1/2 years

2 days ago - This is Hannah's choice of what to put in her hair these days. Mommy still loves the bows though!! (Doesn't she look so BIG in this picture??)