Spring Rain

We had our first spring thunder storm last night. Imagine Hampton's delight when he got out of the car at BSF to see lots of worms in the parking lot. Now imagine his teachers surprise when he arrived at the door (before me) and proudly displayed his parking lot catch. He didn't want the worm to die, so we stored it in a cup of water in the stroller and then washed his hands before he entered the classroom. After BSF, we found a "home" for his worm (an empty wipe box) and some friends to keep him company from our own backyard. It was a battle to get him to eat lunch b/c he wanted to play w/ his worms so much. I'm sure we will add to our collection and have a worm box for quite a while.

This is the face he made when I asked him how excited he was about his worms.

Intrigued!

This is a terrible picture, but you can still see the saddness in his face...after some of his worms accidently went down the drain when he was "giving them a bath" in the bathroom sink.

I am so thankful that he loves nature and finds so much joy in the tiny things. I am excited to teach him how about the vast creativity and imagination of our Creator. This is going to be a fun spring!

We Have Another Walker!

At lunch Saturday, I looked up and Lucy was walking across the kitchen (about 8 feet). Then she walked another few feet to Ben, but hadn't done it again...until tonight! She can stand on her own, until she realizes what she's doing and she quickly but carefully sits down. She is my scardy-cat, I mean cautious one. She can totally walk on her own, but won't. Here are some videos from tonight before bed.

This girl is C-R-A-Z-Y about her big brother. (And so is Reid)

Do you think she's proud of herself?

If you listen carefully, you can hear her gritting her front teeth...terrible habbit Lucy, terrible. Just ask Pops!

Happy Valentine's Day

We had the strangest, most beautiful snow today. The flakes were HUGE and it stuck really well to all the tree limbs because it was so wet. Quite different weather than we have been used to in February in Texas. I love it...still, even after a record setting snow fall year in KC.

We are so thankful for new friends who live super close to us. To celebrate Valentine's Day, we invited some of our favorite people over to decorate.

Meredith~Ben~Brandon~Hampton~Allie

The 3 year olds hard at work!

Allie

Mere

Brandon

Hampton (check out his tongue :))

Ben

Ben and Brandon are twins who are 3 months younger than Hampton. They moved in across the street along with their mom, dad and little sister Katie, who is about 3 months younger than Lucy and Reid. We have really enjoyed getting to know them and look forward to lots of fun outside when the weather warms up.

Allie and Meredith and their little brother Peter live one street over. One of my precious friends in Dallas, Courtney, is good friends with their mom Mindi. Courtney told me she had a friend who lived in OP. Come to find out we are neighbors. Mindi and her family have been such a blessing to us.

Hope you have a happy Love Day and celebrate the One who loved us more than we can imagine.

School V-Day Party

I saw these super cute valentines in a magazine, so I decided to make them for Hampton's school party. Ben thought I was crazy to put that much effort into it, but he willingly helped me assemble them. It never crossed my mind that Hampton's valentines would be the only homemade ones handed out. A bit of a let down when I opened his mail truck and found only super heros and princesses w/ their coordinating pencils. Oh well.

I thought they turned out really cute and Hampton was excited about giving them to all his school buddies.

I love this boy!!!

As a parent, sometimes you feel like what you do isn't working...like you're beating your head against a wall when you're teaching, training and loving your kids. Once in a blue moon, you catch a glimpse of hope. Today was one of those days. When I dropped Hampton off a school today, his teacher said she wanted tell me something sweet that Hampton said. The other day they were learning the nursery rhyme, "Humpty Dumpty." They were putting sequencing cards in order to tell the story. When they came to the end Mrs. Nash asked the class what the last card represented. They all replied, "All the king's horses and all the king's men, couldn't put Humpty together again." Hampton looked up at his teacher and matter of factly said, "You know, God is really the best at fixing these kind of things." I was so proud and so thankful for the Lord's faithfulness! It's glimpses like these that keep a mommy going.

I have been meaning to blog this story for a long time, but keep forgetting. Hampton is really into pretending he is Bibleman, a superhero in the "Lord's army." He has learned all the peices of the Armor of God and often suits up in full armor to fight the "evil doers." Several weeks ago, Ben and Hampton were playing in the bounce house. Ben was tripping Hampton and Hampton was using his sword (of the Spirit of course) to try and chop Ben's legs. Mid-game Hampton ran to the corner, bowed his head and prayed, "Dear God, please help me beat him."

Hampton, you are such a blessing to our family. Our prayer is that you will always turn to the Lord no matter what the circumstance. You are precious. I love you SO MUCH and I am so proud of you just the way God made you!

Really???

Not even the gate will keep him off the stairs!

We are waiting on Lucy to work up enough nerve to learn to climb down the stairs and then we are going to put the gates away. Reid has mastered up and down, but Lucy gets to the top and yells, "Momma" until someone carries her down.

Can you believe that exactly one year ago I was checked into Baylor, contemplating when to get an epidural and anxiously awaiting the arrival of Lucy and Reid? I cannot believe that they will be ONE tomorrow. They are such a joy and blessing to our family. I love them so, so much! How could you not?

We're Not in Texas Anymore!

On Christmas Eve, it snowed 4-6 inches here. So when we got back from TN, there was still a lot of snow on the ground and Hampton was dying to sled and make a snowman. It was so cold that there was absolutely no moisture in the snow, so it wouldn't stick together enough to make a snowman. We did sled down our very slightly inclined driveway a few times...enough to satisfy Hampton's craving. He got cold and gave up pretty quickly.

A few days into January, we got another 5-6 inches. It was still super, super cold for a week or two, again leaving us with non-sticking snow. Finally on Monday the temp climbed all the way to 32 degrees, which felt like a heatwave. I was convinced that I didn't even need a coat b/c it was so warm. Monday afternoon was the first time since we returned from TN that I could see the pavement on our street. Wednesday the temperature climbed all the way into the 40's which provided some major meltage :). Ben called from work to tell me that Hampton and I could finally make a great snowman; however, that would require missing nap, so I didn't even mention it to Hampton. For fear of all the snow melting, we made a snowman in the dark after dinner Wednesday evening. It was great. It was warm enough that I wore a cotton jacket and a scarf, and Hampton didn't get too cold too fast. We had a great time and Hampton was so proud of the snowman that he and Daddy made.

Reid was asleep, but Lucy watched from the kitchen window.

A face only the creator could love.

We like to move

Things in our house are rarely calm and quiet. But now, Reid is officially a walker! He took his first independent step or two at Sweetie and Pops' house over Thanksgiving, but we are big time now.

Lucy is doing her best to keep up with her brothers, but doesn't seem to have as much desire. She is loving her push toy and just yesterday, walked from the coffee table to the couch (maybe 2 steps, but that's how you start).

Lucy likes to move...to the music too. She literally cannot sit still if she can hear any beat.

I'm Baaaaaaaack!

I'm sure that the 3 of you who actually read my blog have long since given up on me. I promised my sweet GranConnie that I would blog this week. So, GranConnie, thanks for encouraging me to get back on the horse... I really want to back-blog, but for now, I'll start with Christmas.

Shortly after Thanksgiving, we purchased our Christmas tree...from Home Depot. I had grand visions of going to a tree farm all bundled up to pick the perfect tree and cut it down ourselves. That wasn't happening, so we headed to Wal-Mart. It was about 28 degrees, but I was determined to chose a tree as a family. All 5 of us walked around the very small selection of trees at Wally World and quickly returned to the car disappointed. We then went to HD. The babies fell asleep on the way and H didn't want to get out b/c it was too cold. So, I ran in, picked a few options and then sent Ben and H (who decided he needed to go) in to make the final decision. After a total of 12 minutes, we tied a tree to the top of the car and headed home. Not exactly my vision of selecting the perfect tree, but it was great. We decided to put the tree on a table in order to eliminate ornament temptation . Lucy was fascinated by the lights and would squeal w/ delight when we turned them on. Ben and the babies put the lights on one evening and the next night H, Ben and I hung the ornaments. My mom has given us meaningful ornaments each year. They usually represent something significant that happened during the past year. It is always fun remembering as we decorate the tree. This year my ornament was two peas in a pod...perfect! reaching the top of the tree & the ceiling

Hampton was very precise with each and every ornament he hung. We had so much fun.

I decided to simplify the toys in our living room and left out only the Christmas train and the Nativity. The kids loved them, but I was not a fan of all the pieces :) I think I picked up Baby Jesus and put the train back together about 20 times a day. They had fun though...

Sweet brothers

We traveled to Tennessee to celebrate with the Stites crew.

We drove this year, but decided to stop about half way to spend the night and break up the trip. The kids did great, but driving straight through would have been nearly impossible. There were 23 of us in the same house for about 10 days...and it was GREAT. I'm not sure how it works, but it does. We enjoyed opening presents...

playing games...

Lucy l-o-v-e-s the ball popper and was thrilled to learn how to turn it on herself.

playing outside...with the puppies...

snuggling with Gran and Poppy...

playing in the hay barn...

family pictures...

playing football...

and cousins, cousins, cousins.

Thank you to all the Stites/Shewmakers for such a fun Christmas.

Oh, and Lucy was inspired by all of her big cousins to start climbing the stairs.

We were thankful to spend Christmas Eve with the Yarbrough family in Franklin. It was so much fun to see everyone, and we wish we could have spent more time with them. Uncle Bob and MaryHelen gave the kids stuffed puppies. They reminded me of Pound Puppies, only Hampton's was HUGE. He loves JoJo and slept w/ him every night in TN. At home, he likes to kick back to "watch a show" with him. Aunt B and Charles gave Hampton his very own laptop w/ lots and lots of educational computer games. He is really into doing workbooks and playing computer games w/ me right now, so that gift is p-e-r-f-e-c-t.

Sweet Rebecca playing "tigers" with Hampton