Easter Weekend

We were so blessed this Easter for Kevin to have THREE days IN A ROW off work!!! We squeezed in some housework, a doctor's appointment, a trip to the zoo, dessert and games with friends, and more - including our baby's FIRST haircut! We took him to Amanda, a friend from church who also gave Graham his first trim. He did GREAT, sat perfectly still, and scowled the ENTIRE time:

Amanda in action. She told me she'd better not end up on facebook, but didn't say anything about the blog!! :)

We spent all day Friday getting house and baby stuff ready, then Kevin treated Kate and Graham to a backyard camp out. Here they are after pitching the (2-man) tent:

My silly faces enjoying their campfire and "smarshmellows."

Ready for bed!

They wanted to use their flashlights, so Daddy read them both a story and then it was lights out! Kev had to go equipped with his iPad since 9:00 was a little on the early side for his bedtime. :) I was sure SOMEONE was going to want to come in at 1 am, but they slept all the way until 7:00 the next morning! Maybe family camping trips aren't too far in the future?!

Saturday Kate and I were able to go to Lexington and celebrate our friend Danielle's upcoming wedding! We had fun seeing some amazing friends and then jetted back home for our church's Easter Egg Hunt. Wouldn't you know, Kate broke down in tears for no apparent reason, Graham took one look at his big sis and refused to participate, but sweet Hollis found himself FIVE eggs and scored the only photo of the day:

Kate and Graham did end up enjoying themselves and a long afternoon playing with friends!

These Easter day pictures are definitely in the wrong order, but I'll be honest, I just didn't feel like switching them all! Here we are at my grandmother's house enjoying a delicious lunch with Mema, my cousin John Robert and his fiance Caroline:

After church next to the cross that the children decorated with flowers. I love this activity. What a perfect representation of how beautiful the cross truly is! Our children have been sad to see it is gone now, but we've been able to use even that to talk about the reality of Christ's love and power even after the Easter "season" has gone.

Picking flowers to take to church to decorate the cross:

Trying to get a couple individual shots. This was the best I could do in the five minutes we had on the way out the door:

And a couple attempts at a sibling pic:

After we got home from lunch in Lexington, the kids pulled out their beach towels that Mema gave them and beach chairs from Nana and Papa and took a quick trip to "the beach" (aka: our front steps):

Kev and I surprised them with their Easter baskets:

Hollis went STRAIGHT for the candy...

Graham pulled out the Lightning McQueen cars...

And Kate carefully spread out ALL her loot...

It is definitely fun having the opportunity every once in a while to spoil our little ones, but far greater is reminding them that God's gift of His Son is the best gift we can ever receive. It truly is the most wonderful thing I've experienced in my life to see my precious babies seeking their own answers about our Savior as we pray that He will reveal Himself to them. I'll leave you with Kate's totally unbidden, unprompted and unrehearsed bedtime prayer from the other night (written down as close to word-for-word as I could remember):

Kate's bedtime prayer; April 16, 2012:

"God in heaven,

I want to tell you how I feel about you.

You are the most wonderful.

I want to be in heaven with you.

Please write my name in that book of the Lamb.

(Something about following and obeying...)

Because I don't like fire.

I don't want to go to the place with fire and ghostes.

I want to be with you.

So please make me die and go be with you.

Are there beds in heaven?

Because I am tired and sleepy.

(Something about being tired and sleepy every day...)

(Something about loving Him....)

Jesus I love you,

Amen.

In this prayer are pieces of conversations about friendship with Jesus, the cost of following Him, the penalty for our sins and His perfect gift of salvation. We pray that she and her brothers will grow in wisdom and true understanding of all these things, and as we wait for these to be fulfilled in Him, we thank Him for allowing us to see a glimpse of the seeds of wisdom He has already planted in Kate's little heart.

What's in a name?

Or, half of one at least...

We've FINALLY decided to call this sweet little boy "Maddox!" It's really the only name we've truly ever considered, but my tall, dark and handsome hubby wasn't ready to commit. It finally came down to having a place an order with everyone's names for big brother/big sister t-shirts. Sorry, little baby, I know isn't the most thrilling "name story," and you still don't have a middle name.

The big kids around here think it's fun to have a name picked out for their baby brother. Just the other day we loaded the 4th seat back into the van, which takes up ALL of Kate and Graham's room in the back...Kate asked me when we were going to move it out and I said, "We're not! Maddox will sit there when he's born!" She got all sweet and dreamy and said, "Maddox...I like that word." So precious. AND, even Hollis can say it! It's adorable to hear him, quite literally, SPIT it out.

Among the other fun things Hollis is saying lately:

"Kate"

"Graham" ("Grum")

"Why?"

"OK"

"I'm OK."

"Oh, man."

These last four are truly hilarious because he actually uses them correctly and with the perfect amount of drama. "Why?" is used mostly when I tell him "no" to something he wants to do, and it comes out with his hands out to his side in this high pitched little six syllable "WHHHYY??" and "Oh, man." is said in a deeper voice with his shoulders slumped down and his head bobbing from side to side. "I'm OK." was most hilarious this morning when he fell out of the kitchen chair and popped up, looking around to see if anyone saw that, and upon noticing that we did, dusted his hands off and quickly said "I'm OK." like a 15-year-old slightly embarrassed tough guy. If only these moments could be captured on camera.

We are truly having fun waiting for baby and enjoying our crew in the meantime. Can't wait to meet you

"Maddox Something Lott!"

My Darling Daughter,

Have I told you how much I love you?
That it seems like there needs to be another word besides "love" for someone as precious as you?

Have I told you that your cheesy little smile is a sure way to melt my heart?
That your sense of humor makes absolutely no sense to me, but I hope you keep that sweet, innocent ability to laugh with you forever?

Have I told you that I love spending time with you?
That whether we're reading, cooking, chatting, playing dolls, coloring, or folding laundry, it simply doesn't matter what we're doing, my little friend?

Have I told you that your made up songs are my very favorite?
That your sweet little voice singing about brothers, or princesses, or froggies, or eating cupcakes is a sound that never grows old?

Have I told you that you are growing big too quickly?
That I feel like I am grasping at the wind trying to hold it in my hand, just to keep you here next to me for an extra moment or two?

Have I told you that your interest in the Lord is precious to me?
That the questions you dream up stop me in my tracks? Humble me? Crack me up?

Have I told you that computers are expensive?
That water and MacBooks are not friends?

Have I told you that, should you decide to introduce water to Mommy's MacBook, you should come and get me right away?
That I would not want to miss such a momentous occassion?

Have I told you that it's totally MY fault for letting you play your princess game on my computer unsupervised?
That I could never be mad at you for ruining my ability to keep up with ever important things like Facebook, the world of blogging, Pinterest and the latest episode of Castle?

Have I told you what I've been learning in my James Bible study?
That holding hands with the world is turning your back on God? That material possessions are nothing but to be shared freely with others?

Have I told you that God will faithfully teach you the lessons He most wants you to learn?
That if something takes you from Him, He will call you to abandon it for the sake of righteousness?

Have I told that He does that because He loves you?
That He has given His very life for yours because, as precious as you are to Mommy, you are infintely more precious in the sight of your Creator?

I hope I've told you these things, my sweet little girl. I will be sure to tell you more often.

Sweet Dreams...

This Mama has been in serious nesting phase lately. After much debate, we finally decided to set up Graham and Hollis in the upstairs room and let big sister Kate share her room with baby. As much as we went back and forth over it, deciding was the easy part! Here is what happened when we let Hollis start sleeping in the room with Graham:

Yes, Graham has Hollis' pacifier.

Not too long after this, I went upstairs one morning to get the boys up and arrived to find the lovely surprise of BOTH boys jumping on the bed! I asked Graham how Hollis got out of the pack-n-play and he replied, "Umm, him just tip over, but him OK." Great. Time for the big boy bed!





Both boys sleeping soundly in their new big boy bedroom! We found these beds at a huge flea market in Charlotte way back before Hollis was born. A friend suggested to use bunky boards instead of box springs, which has worked out perfectly! It makes them just the right toddler height!

Overall, the boys have done great. Really MUCH better than I expected. We went through a couple weeks where we had to sit at the top of the stairs and jump right in at the slightest noise - sometimes we'd have to stay there for an hour! They quickly figured things out and an hour was whittled down to 10 minutes and now we're good to go! It feels SO good to have this bedroom thing settled a full 3 months before baby arrives! That's not to say everything ALWAYS goes perfectly:

That paci is just too tempting.

Craving wide open space?


We clearly have some work to do, starting with getting rid of the extra queen mattresses just hanging out in the boys room, all the way to painting and curtains and wall decorations! Assuming all that stuff actually gets done, I'll post picture of the finished nursery and big boy room later!

Valentine's Activities

We're back at it!

Baby #4 has done quite a number on our homeschool routine. Other than a few holiday activities here and there, we've done practically ZERO when it comes to school. Good thing preschool doesn't require official record keeping. :) So, now that the morning sickness and holiday seasons are over and we're all settled into our new bedrooms (more on that later), we are tackling our school work again. It is amazing how much the children have continued to learn just from our day-to-day activities and 6 more months of maturity - it has been like teaching a whole new group of students this week! :)

This week my goal was just to be SUCCESSFUL. I've been pinning away all these precious, picture-perfect ideas for the children, but I just couldn't take on all that pressure, so we went with what I could actually make happen! :) Here are just a few of our Valentine's week school activities:

Color sorting:
The children taped up construction paper hearts under the correct column, labeled with the color word written in the corresponding color. Getting to use tape was a BIG hit.

Color matching:
Since I'd already taken the time to cut out the hearts, I decided to tape their outlines onto some white paper and let the children use crayons to color in with the appropriate color.

Heart numbers:
We were reviewing numbers 0-2 this week, so I cut out hearts, wrote a number on them, and had the children put the correct number of stickers on each heart. For Graham, I put the correct number of dots (with a marker) on the heart and let him put stickers over those. Kate could do it without those prompts.

"Red" scavenger hunt:
I taped a red piece of paper onto gallon size ziploc bags and wrote the word "Red" under it in red sharpie, then told the children to find red items to fill their bag. Graham had trouble with the concept at first (he was just finding all his favorite toys:) ), but quickly caught on. They LOVED, I mean LOVED, doing this. I think they filled and emptied their bags 3 times! We certainly had a LOT of toys to put away, but the 45 minutes they spent doing it happily was well worth it to me!

"Things we love" collage:
Since Kate and Graham love using scissors and tape, we decided to make Daddy a collage of all the things and, more importantly, PEOPLE, that we love. I printed out pictures of family members and the children found things they liked in some old magazines. They had lots of fun with this and Daddy loved it, too!

Valentine's cards:
We made these Valentine's cards last week to send out to family and kept one to give Daddy, too! I didn't have red paint, so we used 2 shades of pink.

All our Valentine's goodies! We made sugar cookies and Kev and I put all the cards the children received in the mail into these buckets we reused from last year. The watches Kev and I got for them were a big hit!

Envelope heart counting:
I got slack taking pictures toward the end of the week, but I did document this activity so I'd remember to do it again. :) They love playing with envelopes for some reason, so I wrote our numbers on envelopes and let them put the correct number of hearts in each one. Good review of our shape, color and numbers for the week!

Mixed in with these activities, we did lots of letter "A" practice (letter tracing, do-a-dot A, A search (both from this blog), and color by letter) as well as these fun Valentine's worksheets and some random things like scissor practice. Oh, and, my sweetie made me the best steak dinner on Valentine's Day!! :) Hope you and your family had a fun time celebrating all the loves that God has blessed you with!!