Birthday Boy

Tucker would have been 2 years old today....this picture with his pretty mama has always been one of my favorite from his birthday last year. Lincoln said Tucker's probably celebrating in Heaven with a "Toy Story" party...I imagine it to be far greater than that. ;)

 "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him."    1 Corinthians 2:9

Happy Birthday, Tucker!!

4 Years/ 6 Months

Lincoln and Adelynn had their wellchecks yesterday: 4 years & 6mo. respectively.
I was a tad bit nervous because I wanted Lincoln to finish up his shots (until he turns 10 at least) and had NO CLUE how that would go. The only foreknowledge I had was that, if it's anything like when we perform a lobotomy cut his toenails, then that entire office was in for a real treat.

So how did I handle it?

I took Jason with me. :) And it worked like a charm. The boys always feel super secure with him and I really believe that it went so great because Jason was there. Grateful. Lincoln took the shots like a champ and only teared up after the second one. When he was done, the first thing he wanted to do was call Brandon Cole and tell him he was "big now and ready to go hunting".
Oh dear.
And then off to McDonald's for his treat.

As far as his stats go, he is still a big boy. He's in the lower 90's (%) for height and upper 80's for weight. They even took his blood pressure which made him look really big. Crazy.

Noah was perhaps the sweetest ever. Totally unprompted, after the doc checked Lincoln out, he went to Lincoln, gave him a huge hug and said, verbatim: "I'm SO proud of you brother!! Good job brother!!!" And then he told the doctor, "I am so proud of my brother!"

Love their relationship.

As for Adelynn, her day did not go so hot. She had an ear infection, got 4 shots, a flu shot, and I forgot to bring her comfort pacy. Then she ran fever most of the day and just wanted me (no one else) to hold her - that part I didn't mind.
(this picture taken BEFORE it all went down that morning, of course!)

She is in the 75% all around (except her McMahan/Carmack head, of course). And off the charts in cuteness. Love this little thing.

3 Things

1. Black Friday:
My birthday is this Sunday, with Christmas right around the corner, and since I am my old normal size again, shopping sounds fabulous. Some might say shopping is necessary since my current wardrobe is still 50% of clothes I wore in college (and no joke - some even from high school). Since I've basically been pregnant the past 4 years, shopping just hasn't sounded all that exciting.
So this year I was pumped and ready to stand in lines at midnight!
2 items on the agenda:
1. A new phone from Best Buy that was going to uber cheap that day only
2. Clothes

So 10:00pm rolls around and in between yawns I start texting Meredith and Bethany to see if they want to go (because at this point all I wanna do is sleep and I need some motivation). And as I'm talking to them via texts, I was playing around on the Internet and realized the same awesome deals were happening online at that very moment.
What??

Long story short, I ordered brand new Galaxies from Sprint for Jason and myself for $18 (I was expecting to pay $50 at Best Buy...and wait in an infinity line), and bought some clothes for super cheap/free shipping! The only hang up was sprint had me on hold for 30 minutes - while I watched "X Factor" in my recliner and chatted with the family. :)

Best Black Friday shopping ever.

And then the next morning, I slept in, and hit the malls with Jason's family around 9:00am, and we shopped for the next 10 hours, never having to wait in lines for dressing rooms or checkout! I guess all the peoples were worn out from standing in the midnight lines???

Regardless, Black Friday was glorious!

I also must add I purchased something I swore years ago I never would on 2 fronts:
                                            1. Skinny Jeans
                                            2. And white ones, at that.
These post-pregnancy hormones have fully taken over.

2. Post Pregnancy
        Speaking of which, I know I'm 6 months out, but this is around the time after Noah I started having (what I think now, looking back) was hyperthyroid issues. It resolved with Noah after he turned One on its own, and I bet it does the same this time, but seriously - a woman's hormones are something else.
       And I think I talked about that crazy rib pain I had been having for months? Finally figured that one out too this morning at the Chiro: I have a rib that keeps popping out of place and has damaged some of the connective cartilage around it. She found it 2 months ago, popped it back in, and it didn't bother me at all until a few weeks ago. Went back today and sure enough it was out of place again. Glad to know the answer finally!!

3. Tiger Basketball
          The first real game is tonight!!!! Can't wait!!!!

TV Days

So I've told you about my awesome "Friends" story from my Los Angeles-living-days, and I shared my "Bachelor" story of how I was super-duper close to mega-embarrassing myself on that ridiculous show, but have I ever mentioned I actually did make it on the silver screen once as a game-show contestant??

I actually forgot about this until yesterday when I ran across the network's "39 Year Anniversary" news page:
click here and scroll down

And yes, if you noticed the network, it's the most awesome TBN. Hilarious. It was a game show called "Virtual Memory" and yes, indeed - it was a Bible Trivia gameshow. My roommate's brother was the host which is how we were on it. My roommates and I went up against our guy friends. Seriously, though, this was probably one of most hysterical experiences while living in LA and I forgot about it until I ran across our picture yesterday and about died thinking of those memories.

I then searched for a youtube video with no luck (cause I'm not even sure youtube was much around then??). But a few years ago, at my grandmother's house before I got married, I was flipping through the channels and our episode was on! Crazy.

Anyway, the funny thing is, when I googled this show, the first few pictures representing it are of us, and the other was of our guy friends. Now if I could only get my hands on that video!! Ha.

(BTW - we lost royally. Apparently one of our guy friends was a Bible Scholar)

Lessons From a 4-year-old

Last night I decorated for Christmas. I love the season, I love the weather, I love the spirit, but let's keep one thing clear: I hate decorating for it all.
Don't get me wrong, I passionately love the finished product and the luminous glow of all the lights throughout my living room, but the decorating part always seems to leave me in a grumpy, irritated mood. Yes indeed.
And not to mention my decorating process began with the attic floor falling beneath my feat as I was getting decorations down. Yes, an entire side of our attic floor bottomed-out while I (thankfully) was sanding on a beam, balancing as it crashed. That will put you in the Christmas spirit real fast.

Nonetheless, 4 shattered Christmas balls later, I'm done. And since I had a headache 1/2 way through the process (I love hormones), my kitchen is really done half-heartedly.

We recently got rid of the bookshelves in our room to make way for my grandmother's hutch, and thus I don't even have space now to house the Christmas goodies I had last year. So a lot of things remained in their wrappers and are headed back to the attic (the one with the current huge whole though the floor).

One of the things that didn't make the cut this year was the nativity scene. It's too big, doesn't really match the other decor (it's actually just not even pretty). Maybe next year.

But when my intuitive 15 4 year-old son woke up, the first thing he commented on was:
"Where's baby Jesus mom?! Mom, where are we going to put baby Jesus???" implying I obviously wasn't finished decorating yet.

And yall, I kid you not, I found myself saying these exact words to him this morning:
"We just don't have room for Baby Jesus this year, Lincoln. Sorry!"

There's no room for Jesus...we're all filled up.

Hmm...those words suddenly sounded super familiar. And I was convicted as I looked at my concerned 4-year-old.

And guess what? We busted out that nativity scene, swapped it's "not-so-pretty" with one of my more modern pieces, and baby Jesus now sits in glory on the hutch in the foyer.

My personal reminder this season to make room for Jesus.

Thanksgiving: Part 1

Today we did our first Thanksgiving celebration! Our friends from India have been cooking for us the past few months, so we turned the tables on them and cooked them a Thanksgiving meal...which translated meant we overloaded them with casseroles. But that's how we do it in the South, right? :)

It was insane how much food we had between everyone (b/c they still brought some of their yummy authentic dishes as well!).
It was fantastic company and conversation as usual. I have just grown to love these women that live just down the street. Truly blessed. We shared how at Thanksgiving a typical tradition is for everyone to talk about what they are thankful for. We didn't have the capacity to really do this formally because there were so many people there this time (and tons of noisy kids!), but I am grateful Jesus has brought about these relationships with these women! I cherish getting to know their culture, their hearts, and their children.
This beautiful lady hosted the whole crew today!

And some more pictures...

Love these memories!

6 Months

In a few days little sister will be 1/2 to her first birthday. Pure insanity. And let me say, as far as she goes, this past month has been bliss. I on the other hand, have had it out with both a sinus infection and the stomach bug (I won in the stomach bug battle, but the sinus infection too its toll!).
But this little beauty and her cuteness made all the sicknesses much more bearable.

We have not had her 6 month check-up yet, but I will go ahead and guess on her measurements:
Head - huge
Height - tall
Weight - plump.
She is a big girl. I think this one will have some legs on her.

She is still on the same schedule as before, eating six, 5oz. bottles/day.
She still takes a short 20-ish minute nap in the morning (which takes place wherever we are, out and about), a 3-hour nap in the afternoon with the boys, and a 20-ish minute evening nap.
She goes to sleep somewhere between 9-10, and sleeps until 8:00am without waking up. And she has been sleeping unswaddled for the past week or so. We lay her down wide awake for nap and night time and she falls asleep on her own. I love praying over her and watching her just smile back at me before she falls asleep! She has been consistent with this schedule now for the past month which has been awesome. There was a little hiccup for a few days when daylight savings happened, but she has re-adjusted.

She loves playing with toys now! I bet she crawls soon because she gives it all her might to get across the room to a toy. She'll get frustrated if she can't reach it and let out a squeal (in total girl fashion), and she will usually find a way to "roll" to it.
I found her he other day on the opposite side of the room from where i sat her, playing with Lincoln's football players. Ha.

She went to her firs basketball game of daddy's last week, and I had her sitting watching the game, but when the cheerleaders behind her started cheering, she about broke her neck trying to watch them. So I turned her around. And oh.my.goodness. this princess squealed and popped her chest to the rhythm of the cheers with a huge smile the entire rest of the game. It was hysterical. And when they would stop cheering, she would throw her hands out and squeal at the top of her lungs until they cheered again. Aunt Amy would be proud.

Seriously this little thing has been such a blessing. I just adore everything about her. We've already done some shopping together and her favorite place is to sit snuggled in my lap. She is just such a content little thing and she makes me want another one just like her - ha!
(P.S. sorry for the bad instagram photos)

Thankful

Today we went to eat after church (thanks Aunt Judy for the treat!), and it was the first time Lincoln wasn't able to eat free. Sad day - in many ways. A lady made the comment (which I get a lot) - "You must have your hands full everyday!!" And I told her absolutely, and how none of them are in school so it's an all day/every day thing.
But I love that all day/every day. I love how none of them are in school. None of them are in MDO's...how they all trail behind me like little chickadees on all our outings/errands every day of the week.
And I really have often thought to myself  "I look like a hen herding around my chickens!"
Oh how the "mother hen" analogy now makes perfect sense. :/

But next year that all changes. Next year Lincoln (and maybe Noah) will go to pre-school...and yes, i know it's only 2 days/week, but I can already tell you I'm going to miss my trail of mini-me's dragging behind. I'm thankful for these few short years...and I know Adelynn has a ways to go before "school", but I will miss the herd. :) I'm also thankful I listened to my gut and kept Lincoln out of pre-school until next year. I still think Noah might benefit from 2 years of pre-school, but it was definitely not necessary for Lincoln.
Anyway, I'm thankful for these years!

Raising Kids

A few weeks ago, our church held a discipleship seminar with the founder of Downline Minisry - Kennon Vaughan (out of Memphis). The first hour was about general evangelism/discipleship and the second hour consisted of making disciples for Jesus in your home.

He brought his wife up for the second part and basically imparted all of their wisdom to us on raising kids to love Jesus. It was refreshing, convicting, and inspiring.

They shared a few basic things that we decided to implement in our home that I thought I would share, all aimed at shaping our kids' hearts to LOVE JESUS (with added benefits of happy, obedient hearts!).

**FAMILY DEVOTIONS
        - Our aim is to do them once/week for Sunday lunch (increase to more maybe) and incorporate:
               1. Scripture Memory
               2. Sing a Hymn
               3. Work on Catechism Questions
               4. Spin the globe and pick a country to pray for that week
        - The first 3 things come from the Truth and Grace Memory Books
                                     *Example page of Scripture memory for age2&3 (and hymns):

                                       *Example page of the Catechism questions:

**Teach them to Honor & Obey
           - We've worked the past few weeks on really using the words "honor and obey" and helping them see the times when they honor mommy and daddy and each other.
           - These particular behavioral charts were also suggested by this couple that we've been using for the past week and they have been AWESOME.

They are an "If-Then" chart and a "Blessings" chart. One earns rewards and the other lists consequences for behaviors. This way, the kids know exactly what is expected of them. Noah doesn't completely understand (though he is starting to get it more), but Lincoln is absolutely eating it up.
Jason and I decided on our own consequences/blessings that we know most affect them.

For instance, on the blessings chart, they earn "stars" together. They have to get 5 stars in a day to be able to get a reward (something out of prize box, play on ipad, are a few). If they get 20 stars in a week, they get to go out for ice cream, and 30 earns them a trip to chuck e cheese.

These charts are GREAT because they are Biblically based and loaded with Scriptures for each thing. So we are always talking about "what the Bible says".

You can buy the charts here.

**Some other suggestions:
1. Make Sunday special = always cook something special for breakfast so Sunday has a "smell" they will remember. I loved this idea!
2. Be intentional about creating traditions that teach about Jesus. His wife had a good book suggestion that ha TONS of tradition ideas (but I can't remember the name!)

I'm thankful for this seminar and excited for these new tools! I hope you find them helpful, too!

I feel as if I have to mention the election because it only happens every 4 years and is pivotal. And when the last one happened, my sweet little first born was only a few days old! (And then next one, Lord willing, he'll be eight - are you kidding?!).
So here's my mention.
Obama won.
Obviously there is tremendous controversy over this one. But isn't there always?
I mean, when was the last time a President was finished with his allowed 8-year term and the people wished he could stay! It seems by the end of every Presidential term "the people" are complaining and booing him out on his way versus showing their appreciation for undertaking such an incredibly vigorous job.
I wouldn't want that job. I wouldn't wish that job on any of my kids.

Anyway, congratulations Obama family. Much prayers are hopefully headed your way as you've just, yet again, stepped into the ring of fire.

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people...Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor."
–1 Peter 2:13-17

And now some pictures. :)

Camping trip post coming soon!

New Friends

So thanks to the great Walmart, our little town of Bentonville has become quite the international mecca...and I love it. The only bummer part is that most people who move here for Walmart are only here a few years before they move again. :(

Over the past few years, I've noticed a lot of people from India living here - a lot. Indian restaurants started popping up and just recently, an Indian Supermarket opened right down the street. I went in there not too long ago and bought, what I thought, was colored pasta. But when I boiled it, it turned the pan rainbow and the "pasta" was not tasty in the least.

Anyway, a few months back, me and some friends have started meeting these wonderful people! The ladies we have gotten to know are around my age, have small kids, and haven' lived in America all that long. They are absolutely precious and such a fun group. We've tried all sorts of their authentic food (I'm still on the "very mild" spice level), and we've brought some of our stuff over to share. One request we particularly got was to make a "Casserole". Ha. I can do that. We meet in their apartments every week and just hang out - super fun. In a few weeks, we're getting them and some of there other friends together to have a traditional thanksgiving meal...I am actually going to attempt a turkey. Oh dear.

Last week, it was Nimmy's 30th birthday and we threw a party. Everyone was taking pictures/videos, and Nimmy's husband put together this video from the party. Hysterical. I only hope next time he throws in Lauren singing the "Titanic" song - seriously.

Oh and my "pasta"? Yeah - they got a good laugh at me. Apparently you're suppose to FRY the little things and they make chip-like snacks. Who knew. Now if I only knew how to fry...

Anyway, love these ladies!

True Story

First basketball event of the year and my kids were playing in the gym as normal. Only this time, Mr. "I'm almost 4 years old" decided to get adventurous.

One of the coaches happened to see him just sitting up here...on this tiny little ledge...with only a nice slab of concrete to fall on. Fantastic.



 

 The rescue.

 And then we just left Jason. ha.

The real "fun" part was seeing that Noah was 1/4 of the way up when the coaches saw Lincoln.

He Fights For Us

I have always struggled with worry.

When I was little, I remember my mom commenting on this lovely little trait of mine a lot. In my elementary years, I worried about the weather. My parents said they always knew when a storm was rolling in because I would start pacing around the house, talking "90miles/minute", as they would say. You know, kind of like what a dog does when the weather changes.
That was me.

And then in high school/college, I would worry about relationships and grades - the big 2. My mother would frequently remind me that "worrying was my nature, and not a good one, and that I always over dramatized things, making them worse than they really were."

Then I had kids. And I realized I didn't even really know what worry was. Amen??

I've talked about this on here, but about 3 years ago, I had a huge surrendering of my spirit for my worry about my kids and Jason. My battle weapon? Every time a worry would creep in, I would instantly start to pray against it. God had shown me how ALL worry is a sin, and that by worrying, I was in fact playing God in my own ridiculous way. It demonstrates a lack of faith in my Creator, my Protector, the One who loves me more than I can fathom...and is an incredibly self-centered way of thinking. I don't know about you, but when I worry, it consumes me to the point that I cannot enjoy much. I am so inwardly focused...right where the enemy would have me.

Anyway, through the help of the Holy Spirit, I was able to make great strides in this area a few years back.

I'm not sure if I got too arrogant in it or what exactly happened, but over the past 6 months or so, another "worry" slowly started creeping into my thoughts, and yesterday I literally felt as if I might explode with anxiety. Finally...finally (why does it take so long sometimes to surrender to God??!) I listened to the Holy Spirit and recognized it as straight sin and something that was slowly robbing me of joy and effectiveness. Maybe it was spiritual attack trying to keep me from some new things that have been started this semester?? Maybe it was just my own plain fleshly nature presiding because I was not seeking Christ in the way I should have been? Maybe both??
Whatever the cause, I gave it up yesterday. And I could not wait for Jason to get home to tell him. It was so freeing and after talking to Jason I realized perhaps one of the most important features of surrendering to God things that inhabit our lives - sharing that with others so they can help you along the way. And obviously whom better than your husband.

So here's the awesome way God works:
This morning in our Bible study, I felt like Beth Moore and I were having a conversation about the very things I was conversing with God about just yesterday. It was bizarre y'all! There were 2 things specifically she talked of that I was talking with Jason about last night.
One of which I want to share, for the hope that you, too can find it helpful.

It was about mercy - feeling other's pain - being able to walk/pray with them through difficult circumstances...
I was telling Jason how in this social media age, I have found myself getting so weighted down and almost depressed with all the sad news. There is SOO much lately. And some of it is close to home...it's not all strangers. And I gravitate toward it. If it's a sickness, I'll see what their symptoms were and analyze if any such exist in me/family...if it's car accidents, I'll worry more than ever when my husband goes on a coaching trip...you get the point. Me and the Internet have not been getting along lately. But I told Jason, I feel like I should "feel" with these people and pray for them, yet I also feel like it's total overload and making me an insane mess!!"
Beth's advice this morning (I told you, we seriously had a one-on-one - ha) was: don't stop feeling...don't stop being capable of having mercy, but let God be the one who brings about those opportunities into your life. Don't go searching for them or jumping from blog to blog reading sad stories.
Loved that.

And here's what else I have done:
1. plastered my favorite verse on the fridge:
"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
(and I memorized it)

2. listened to praise music and sang praises to God. We taught our cell group girls about this as a way of fighting sin on Sunday...I was teaching myself. :)

3. I "hid" FB statuses that don't line up with the verse in #1...ones that I see constantly that don't provoke the things in that verse. And then I replaced them with "liking" people like John Piper, Gospel Coalition, and other Christian pages. I did this a few weeks ago and it truly has made a difference since I see so many encouraging verses/quotes now when I scroll down facebook.

4. I no longer let FB alerts or blog alerts show up on my phone, and I have a limit on time I am on Internet now.

The whole idea was to free up distractions - the ones that were feeding my bad habits - and replace them with whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy!

I told Jason last night, when I realized yesterday how worry had, yet again, crept in and started overtaking my life, that I got MAD (pissed, actually) and declared war. I praise the Lord he fights for us!

Oh and so on FB a little bit ago, this quote popped up in my newsfeed :)

Lions!

We LOVE the Gentry Zoo. It's the only place in the world I have found that lets you play with their wildlife. Since having the kids, we have gotten to play with Kangaroos (with babies in their pouches even!), baby cows, huge pigs, baby piglets, gobs of goats, baby Lama things, monkeys, baby Ligers, lion cubs, snakes, donkeys, and peacocks. Those are the things we have actually touched, held, chased, and fed. Amazing.

It's awesome having this place so close because our Noah is an animal lover. He has no fear and they seem to gravitate to him like a male Cinderella. It's hilarious. I guess in the sense of his name, he never would have minded God telling him to live on a boat for 40 years with every animal created! I seriously think if they let him pitch a tent in the massive goat/pig/lama/cow/kangaroo area, he would with a happy content heart - and never come home.

Today was no different. We literally got to play with 2 lion cubs that were super vivacious, hyper, and talkative (they said it was their growl).

Then when we went to look at the Tigers (they have tons), we happened to be there at feeding time and were the only ones around! We sat and watched them fight over food, and devour their meat. It was fabulous. And the lions were all prowling around because they were next in line to eat. All the animals wee so lively today - it was great!

Because of the hand-on aspect you get at this cozy little place, it is just leaps and bounds better than big commercial zoos (IMO).

Loved the sweet friends we went with!!!

This picture cracks me up because I feel like my baby looks SO old!

Thing 1&2

I tend to only be posting about Adelynn, so for the sake of keeping things even, (and since big boy has a birthday coming up soon), I thought I'd throw in some updates on the boys.

Lincoln:
He is about to turn 4 and he is so excited about his party. He changes his mind daily on what he wants his cake to look like...I'm not really sure how he will make the final decision. He is still insanely social, and honestly could make friends with a fleet of turtles, but the fact that most of his favorite buddies will be at his party has about sent him over the edge. I'm surprised he's still sleeping at night. He remembers every detail about his party last year - some I even forgot about - which is phenomenal to me. He has such a sweet heart when it comes to his buddies and I think he'll always be the kid who doesn't care where he is or what he is doing, as long as his friends are with him.
HE has his 4 year well check coming up and he has to get shots since he'll be starting pre-school next year. I never stressed about the baby shots but this about has me in a knot. Do I prepare him before? If I do, I can seriously see him not getting out of the car...or do I wait until they pull out the needle and have a major intense round of screams and kicking, all by which he won't trust me coming to the doc anymore? I've already told Jason I made it very early in the morning so he can go with us to experience what I'm sure will be incredibly pleasant times. Oh joy.
He is still BIG. He is in all 5T clothes and can actually wear a boys small. Crazy. He's also out of the toddler shoes sizes and into boy sizes (which are significantly more expensive now). Again, crazy. I also predict by his 5th birthday, his hand is as big as mine.

Noah:
Noah is tall. If he wasn't so dang tall though, no joke - he would still be wearing size 12-18month clothes. This is actually the size that fits him, but is just way too short. He has no hips/butt/tummy. (Remember he is almost 3yo - Lincoln passed this size before his 1st birthday!).
When Noah talks about his birthday party, he wants a Larry boy Superhero/Bad Apple on his cake - every time. It never changes. He doesn't want any kids to come, and sometimes he only wants Jason to come. He calls Jason "my best friend". He has since said a bunch of adults he likes can come, but still doesn't want any kids. Ha. It's funny because he is not so much of an introvert anymore, but doesn't like to feel threatened with his toys. He is getting better but still has some ways to go in the sharing department. He has started being much more obedient as of the past few months! He finally got rid of his pacy, too which is fantastic. Doesn't even exist anymore. :)
One of my favorite things is still watching him play with Lincoln. They are so creative and truly enjoy each other (most of the time). Noah is at an age where he is just really funny. Lincoln has said Noah is the funniest person he knows - I agree. He's stinking hilarious.

5 Months

Little Miss is 5 months old! Of course I have loved all my dalings' stages of life, but I honestly do not remember the boys being nearly this delightful and cuddly (at this age) as this precious one! Is it a girl thing? Maybe the "this could be my last one" thing? A "I just don't remember" thing?
Ha. Whatever the cause, I'm totally, hands down smitten with this little beauty.
She is just pure sweetness and cuddles in the truest form.

So what's she up to?
SLEEP/EAT:
She has finally hit her stride of consistency! She gets a bottle every 3 hours (5oz.) starting at 7am, and her last being at 10pm. She usually falls asleep around 9:00pm (we get her up to feed her at ten and she goes back down), and sleeps all the way until 7:00ish. She gets a bottle, then falls back to sleep until about 8:00am.
The past few days, she has only drifted off to sleep for about 15 minutes in the morning (gets woken up usually by the business of our mornings). But then after her 1:00pm bottle, she immediately goes down from 1-4pm, just like her bothers. Then she will take a short little nap sometime in the evening, usually from about 6-7pm. I LOVE the long afternoon nap! This is how I trained Noah and it's always been great with everyone else's schedules in our house.
I have not tried solids yet and will probably wait until at least 6 months. We'll see.

DEVELOPMENT:
She can sit up, supported, and unsupported, will last about 5 seconds before toppling over. She loves sitting upright. She spends some time in her bumbo, but loves the jump-swing-thing (what is it called??) that hangs in the doorway. She loves standing, too. She rolls on her belly a ton, but only rolls back every now and then.

LIKES:
Two things make her belly chuckle and squeal like Justin Beiber just walked in the room (per, Jason's words of description - not mine!): 1. Watching her brothers jump on the trampoline, and 2. watching people throw and bounce balloons around her. So of course, we do them both all the time.

Her favorite place to be is in my arms, holding her tight on my hip. Seriously. The only child I have had like this and I love it. So me and her are basically attached. :) I used to carry the carseat around when I went places, but not with her anymore. She comes out of the carseat and on to my hip as we go about our days. Except for grocery shopping. ha.

Baths. Loves them.

Riding in the car and squealing at her brothers.

DISLIKES:
Honestly, I'm sure many of those will come, but she only really cries when she is getting tired.

I am going to try to get some fall pictures in the pretty colored leaves here in the next few weeks. Sunday night we had my mom's birthday party, and on the way I realized we were all actually dressed somewhat similar (which never happens!) so I had my mom take a few pictures. Now in retrospect, I wish I would have had Lincoln not wearing dark blue pants, but for the most part, it all worked!

 The birthday gal with her grandkids (I guess Lincoln will have to help hold the twins next year!):

Walmart/Sam's/Aldi's

If you're sick of these, disregard, but thought I'd share what I've found to be the cheapest (of the things we buy) between WALMART/SAMS/ALDI'S.

I've done my research, I've busted out the calculator many times, and this is what I've found to be the cheapest of the things we buy every month from the above three stores (I'm sharing with you because a few weeks ago, I was asking this question!):

WALMART:
Old Roy dog food (big red bag) - no contest on this one
produce that is price-matched from Aldi's - except Apples right now are cheaper than at Aldi's
GV bread - not cheaper, but not cardboard, either
Pasta - GV
Jennie O Turkey hotdogs
Butter (I like the kind i get here and it's only .69cents)
bag of frozen rolls my husband can heat up individually when he wants one with a meal

SAM'S CLUB:
6lb bag of Frozen Chicken (not the Tyson kind...the other kind that is $10)
Member's Mark Formula - absolutely no question...even way cheaper than the GV brand at walmart
GNC Mega Mens/Womens vitamins - 1/2 price than at GNC

ALDI'S
everything else
everything canned...never buy a canned good from anywhere else (fruit, beans, veg, pumpkin, etc.)
Diapers - waaaaay cheaper than Sam's and slightly cheaper than GV walmart
Wipes - 1/2 the price of GV and my husband likes them better
Baby Soap
trash bags
laundry soap - not sure if i like it better though
Dryer sheets
CHIPS!! and they are good!
eggs
milk
string cheese
breakfast cereal bars - much cheaper than GV
baking goods
3lb frozen hamburger meat
Frozen vegetables
Frozen Waffles
yogurt
shredded cheese
Peanut Butter (cheaper and better than GV)
graham crackers
capri suns (they are another brand though - just bought lots for lincoln's party)
potatoes
bag of baby spinach
*those are the things I got today, but literally everything else is cheaper here!!! Yall when I go to check out, my cart is literally overflowing...packed to the max. And my bill is usually around $120. Crazy.

I just got groceries for the next 2 weeks (this includes all diapers/formula we will need) for $225.

So over the past month of doing this, those are my findings thus far. Hope thins is helpful!!!

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