Lane

Lane is 4 3/4 years old now. That 3/4 is very important. He will correct you if you just say he is 4.

He is a silly, smart, kind-hearted, well-mannered, loving little Big boy. He is really in to superhero's and pretend play. He loves to dress up in costumes. His favorite is a spy/explorer.

 

His favorite cartoons right now are Peppa Pig, Oswald, Pocoyo, and Team Umizoomi.

He is really in to making secret messages and codes. Sometime he will write squiggly lines all over a paper and call that his message. Or if I ask him a question he will try to answer in codes.

Almost daily we have conversations like this:
Lane, what do you want for lunch?
Hmm, it begins with P and ends with n.
Lane, I have no idea what you are wanting. Just tell me!
Popcorn Chicken! silly mommy, you didn't know!


He LOVES telling jokes! We've recently starting googling preschool jokes, because, well if you've ever been around a child just learning to make up jokes you understand.

He still loves to read. Tonight I remembered a website I used to use frequently when I taught www.readinga-z.com I thought it had a ton of free leveled readers. So, I was hoping to figure out what level Lane was on. They only had a couple free readers now. He easily read the level I book. The next level they had was level k. He read it fine but got bored during the pages and would start sing-reading or just completely stop reading and play with my hair instead. :) So, he is reading somewhere between a 1st - 2nd grade level.

He LOVES going to preschool at Meadow Brook Baptist. He tells me daily that his best friends are Mrs. Kay, Patton, Olivia M, and Caroline. He loves to write letters to all his friends too. Yesterday, he wrote Maggie and "Minner" (Miller) Happy Birthday Cards. So sweet - unfortunately their birthdays aren't until October and September. :) He will also write Gigi and Bo letters and stash them away in his superman bag until it's time to see them.  Sometimes he is known to take the more modern route and swipe my cell phone to text family. Earlier this week, Nana called to let me know she received a text like this "iloveyoutoniallen" Bahahaha! Lane didn't respond back to her when she texted back.

Earlier this month, Chris and I were getting ready to go to bed, but we couldn't find his phone. While we were looking, I got this text. Lane thought he was texting Gigi and Bo, unfortunately for him he texted me and got busted for taking daddy's phone without permission. :)

Notice the trend in his texts - My genius boy doesn't know how to use the spacebar. So, if you get a text that looks like that from me or Chris, just know Lane was thinking about YOU!

He also loves going to church to the clubhouse (his class). Many days after school, he will hop in the car and request song they sing in the clubhouse! Nothing makes this momma happier than my 4yr old requesting worship songs! His favorites right now are Highland's worship - Lift the Name, Hillsong - One way Jesus, and Gateway Next - look up.

My favorite part of each day is first thing in the morning. He wakes up and runs to find me. Then he gives me a great big hug and asks if I had sweet dreams! So precious! This week however he has been waking up REALLY early and climbing in bed with me and sleeping until it's time to get ready for school. I know the time is coming soon when he won't want to snuggle up with his momma, so I am soaking up while it lasts!

Bethany Claire

Bethany Claire is a wild, full-throttle, energetic, sassy, caring, fearless, stubborn, smart, silly, talkative, imaginative, dramatic, but oh so lovable 2 year old BABY girl. Unlike her brother, she still very much wants to be called a baby!

She sings ALL day EVERY day! She is a lyrical database. She sings all the cartoon theme songs, her ABC's, numbers, nursery rhymes, church songs and she makes up her own songs. Last night she was singing her boot and shoe song. One day she was mad because I told her no, so she sang "no,no, no!" to the tune of twinkle twinkle little star. Have I mentioned she's a little dramatic?

She also pretends more than Lane ever thought about at this age. (I love watching the difference between little boys and girls!) She loves to have tea parties and "pic-a-nics". She loves to plays with her Dora and peppa pig play houses. Yesterday, Doc McStuffins was a fireman. (Doc is a very handy girl to keep around!)

Her favorite cartoons are Peppa Pig, Team Umizoomi, Barney Goes to the zoo, Curious George and any of the LeapFrog DVDs (letter factory, numberland, phonics farm - If your kids haven't seen them, go get them! They are great!)

She talks. Oh, does she talk. A couple of weeks ago she went from talking to really talking. From saying "Wanna go bye bye" to "Mommy, can we please go bye bye now." All of a sudden she grew up. It's crazy how overnight they can change!

She is so smart. She knows all her letters and letter sounds. She can count to 20 - she calls fifteen five-teen. :) She has recently fallen in love with me reading books to her. Froggy is her favorite series.

 

 

She is so ready to go to school. Every day when we drop Lane off, she cries and says "But it's MY TURN!!" Then I remind her she has to tee-tee in the potty to go to school. Which speaking of potty training, home girl doesn't want to wear panties. She will go to the potty, but then wants her diaper back. Any thoughts on that one?? And she doesn't care that big girls wear panties, remember she's the BABY.

She is very girlie and very opinionated about what she is going to wear especially her shoes! However, she easily goes from girlie activities to playing cars, trains and superheroes with Lane.

She is completely fearless and so strong, Chris and I think she is going to be a gymnast. She is constantly going between the table and couch and pushing up with her arms and swinging her legs. She loves to do front rolls in her room or hang/swing on the monkey bars at Spain Park. Anytime she finds something to run on like a balance beam, she is all over it. As soon as she turns 3 we will hopefully get her enrolled. I promise not to go all dance mom on her, but man I love watching gymnastic competitions! Gymnastic and swimming are definitely my two favorite sports to watch.

Overall, she keeps us on our toes but she brings so much joy into our lives!

Stitches

Whew! What a day! It started off as a normal, lazy Saturday. Lane woke up wanting Gigi to come over and play with him in his room. So, Gigi came over a little before lunch. The kids both had a dollar they were wanting to spend at the dollar tree. So, we took off and the kids picked out their new treat. Lane chose train bank that he can paint and Bethany chose a bubble set. Then we decided to grab lunch before heading back home for nap.

When we got home, I unbuckled Bethany and sent her in the house while I finished grabbing my purse. Then, just seconds later I heard it. You know, the cry of death. I ran in to find Bethany screaming her head off with blood all over her chin and literally dripping on the floor. So gross. So I quickly grabbed a towel to try to find the cut and it looked bad. Mom and I debated on whether she needed stitches. I was thinking she needed them but since I was unsure we headed down to our awesome fire department down the street.

Bethany was a champ. She squished up her eyes but sat perfectly still and let the fireman wipe off her boo boo some more. He said she needed stitches. So he taped up her chin, gave the kids some fireman hats and sent us on our way.

Then, we went to Children's off Acton Road. Again, she did amazing. She never cried and did everything each nurse and doctor asked her to do. I was SO PROUD! She sat still and never flinched while the doctor did 5 stitches.

 

 

 

 

So, needless to say when we left we went straight to get baby girl a milkshake and a big glass of sweet tea. As soon as we got home, she ran straight to her trampoline! These stitches are not slowing her down a bit! Anyone have a bubble I can borrow to put her in? My goal for the next 5-7 days is just to keep her from bumping those stitches. Wish me luck!

                    

Happy Valentine's Day

Confession: I LOVE holidays! I love making a big deal out of holidays. Every holiday. I love making memories that, hopefully, Lane and Bethany will carry with them their entire lives. My mom made a big deal out of every holiday. I still remember the 3 tier heart cake she would make on Valentine's Day. I'm pretty sure that was our breakfast and it was wonderful!

Needless to say, I had lots of fun planned for yesterday! Usually Chris has to work so he misses out on a lot of our holiday morning fun, but yesterday he was off. Much to my surprise, he greeted me with Starbucks in bed. He know me well :) I quickly got up and enjoyed my coffee while making heart shaped pancakes. Before long the kids woke up ready to open their little Valentine gifts.

 

 

Recently the Target dollar section has been LOADED with Jake and the Neverland Pirate and Dora - which couldn't be more perfect for these two! Along with all the random Jake and Dora goodies, they got ring pops, suckers, animal crackers and gummie bears.

 

 

 We quickly ate our heart pancakes and then rushed Lane to school. Lane had a blast at his first school Valentine's party! He came home and organized all his school Valentine treats! Ha!

Then, we checked the mail. The kids were THRILLED to have a card with stickers from Gigi and Bo!

 

After nap Gigi came over. I made one of the kids favorite dinners - spaghetti! Then we baked and decorated sugar cookies.

 

Bethany did a lot of icing licking...then she started trying to eat the icing straight out of the icing tube :)

 

... and then the kids went INSANE - WOAH SUGAR!! We quickly moved on to bath time, storytime and bed! All in all, it was a wonderful, fun-filled, sugar-coated, memory makin' Valentine's day.

Scripture Memory

For years I have absolutely LOVED Beth Moore! She is inspiring and challenging. When she teaches difficult concepts they instantly become elementary (a testament of what a great teacher she really is!) Any way, she has always been someone I've looked up to but I just recently discovered she has a blog for her ministry. How in the world have I missed this gem! She and her team challenge and encourage me with EVERY post. And bonus, I LOVE that she constantly reinforces the need to be involved in a local church.

Back to my point, I noticed Beth (from here on out we are going to pretend like Beth and I are best friends. We do after all go way back, whether or not she realizes it.) So, Beth apparently does this Siesta Scripture Memory Challenge every year - You pick a verse every two weeks and commit to memorizing it. She has a blog post on the 1st and 14th of each month where you can share your verse and translation you are using.

Now when I think of memory verses, obviously VBS is one of the first things that comes to mind. But probably one of the most meaningful and first memories I have where I really learned scriptures was at Crosspoint (a summer camp) probably 1995 or '96. Our group leader promised to dye his hair a crazy color if  so many of us learned every memory verse that week - and we did. To this day, I still remember the jist of those verses. Maybe not word for word but definitely the heart of the verses all because I was motivated to have some college kid dye his hair purple.

I've had other seasons since when I really focus on scripture memory, but honestly, it has been too long since the last time I put forth real effort. So, I'm joining in on Beth's scripture memory team. I would love for some of you (who reads this thing anyway?) to join me! If you want to be official go here http://blog.lproof.org/2013/01/2013-siesta-scripture-memory-team-verse-1.html and join. It's ok that your joining late. Don't feel like you have to catch up. I don't want this to become some legalistic thing to add to my "good christian checklist" Bleh! None of that.

Jesus used the Word when he was faced with temptation. The Bible clearly says that His word will not return void. So imagine what it would look like if we stood together and learned 26 verses. How would our prayer life be different? How would our bad days be different? How would our thoughts and emotions change? What would our marriages look like? It fires me up just thinking about it! So if you've read ALL this, I totally give you permission to ask me how I'm doing in this area, as long as you promise to show me grace - deal? I want His word buried deep.

So, here are my first two verses - Yes I did feel the need to catch up BUT I chose two verses that I mostly knew but tend to flip the words around and I never remember where they are located! I am also the type person that will write something I've already done onto my to-do list just so I can have the satisfaction of marking it off!

ok, verse #1

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things  Phil 4:8 NIV

verse #2
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.
2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

If you decide this is something you are interested in doing, would you let me know? I would love to walk this out with some other people I actually know!

Lane's first football game

Hubs and his family are BIG Ole Miss fans, so as soon as it was announced they would be at the bowl game in Birmingham we knew we would be there!

I was a little unsure if Lane would enjoy himself. He isn't the biggest fan of large crowds or really loud noises and it was really cold! For a while he looked like a deer in headlights, but once he warmed up - he had a blast!

 

 

 

 

Do you know who you are?

I noticed this blog in the drafts. Most of what is below was written way back in August 2011...better late than never, right?


Labels are everywhere. People are constantly labeled, whether good or bad. Sometime the label is true, sometimes it are completely false. Regardless of who you are we all carry many different labels.

Mom. Wife. daughter. short. tall. skinny. fat. intelligent. funny. lazy.

Most people find it easier to accept the negative labels over the positive - I know I do. For me, one of the hardest label to accept is leader. I have been in leadership positions most of my life. Whether it has been a swim coach for the younger kids, officer in clubs in school, or various leadership positions in church.

About a year ago, I was in a meeting at church and we were asked to repeat this phrase: "I am a leader who develops leaders as we build the body of Christ." That was the hardest sentence to repeat. Who am I to lead other leaders! My mind filled with thoughts like, "I'm not spiritually mature enough . I'm not old enough. Do I even know what I am doing?? How in the world do I lead leaders?"

Lately the Lord has really been showing me the error in my thinking. The focus should not be on me at all.On my own, I am a complete mess -  It's Christ in me that allows me to lead such an amazing group in my church.

When I tell God that daily I mess up, I can't lead He says because of Christ's sacrifice I am the righteousness of God.

When I remind God I feel the need to hyperventilate at the thought of talking to a group of people (adults are scary!), He reminds me that he has not given me a spirit of fear but of power and love.

So, do you know who you are? Have you let past mistakes, fears, or the world define you or have you accepted who the Creator says you are? Not sure?? Here is what God says about YOU:

You are a daughter(or son) of the Most High God.


You are God's workmanship, fearfully and wonderfully made.


You are a co-heir of Christ qualified to share in His inheritance


You are loved with an everlasting love.


You have the mind of Christ.


You are holy and without blame before Him


You are accepted and free from condemnation


You are called, chosen and faithful


You are more than a conqueror


You are the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the beloved of God


You are overtaken with blessing and complete in Him


You are strong in the Lord, dead to sin, and set free by truth


You are forgiven of all your sins and washed in Christ’s blood


You are being changed into His image


You are an ambassador for Christ