Reunion

First off, our trip to Memphis was amazing. I have a post coming up dedicated more to that, but for now,  just a quick post about my babies.

Adelynn
This was the first time me and little princess have been apart and it was for an entire week! People have asked if I was going crazy the whole week and I honestly wasn't. Of course I missed her sweet chubby cheeks and looked at her little pics often on my phone while away, but God just truly blessed us this week with Jason's parents. I was able to relax and be with my cell group girls in the fullest sense because I knew she was having a blast and creating bonds with her grandparents - something I desire for all of my kids! The only think I was worried about was her sleeping in a new place, but she did perfect!
But little cherry cupcake has grown up in a week! My goodness! She pulls up on everything, can cruise around the living room pushing things (whether it be a big plastic tub or a push toy), and perfected some tricks. My favorite is how she can "kiss" on command. Love.

Noah
Ha. HE had a blast. He got tons of attention since Lincoln wasn't there and even coerced his GP's into throwing him a "birthday party", complete with a cake, presents, and guests. Spoiled rascal. The most awesome thing? He is 100% potty trained!!! As in, I don't even know all of the times he goes, because he does everything completely independently which is awesome.

Lincoln
This week was hilarious, frustrating, amazing, blessed, and tiring with this guy. And I wouldn't trade it - the good with the bad. The bad, it was long days...but the only difficult part was timing up his naps between work projects and going to the gyms in the afternoon. We only messed up with it once. And then Jason missed out some evenings because Lincoln would need to go to bed before the services were over (and Jason took that duty). The bummer part for Jason was missing out on some INCREDIBLE teaching, but he in turn got some extra sleep with Lincoln. Another area of "work" that emerged is being nice to girls. :) He has pretty much always been around boys and this week was with me a lot and my girls. I think he started liking them by the end of the trip, but we have some work to do. Ha.
The "good" was just watching his independent self in action! He built relationships with little Memphis boys in the gyms and would ask them questions getting to know them, then play games with them. He LOVED being one of he big boys, getting to ride the charters and vans with his JH buds. He slept great and took naps which was a blessing, and even found jobs he could do to be useful on work projects. It was great for him to be emerged in a different culture and teach him some things that just don't really exist here in Bentonville (unfortunately).

Here's a funny Lincoln story that happened right away on our first day in Memphis. It sums up my little guys personality and why we felt so comfortable taking him:

Our first morning, the entire 200 group of us loaded the buses to go to church at Fellowship Memphis. The 2 main pastors that started this church are a white guy and a black guy, with the goal of easing the racial tensions in a very racially divided area. So the church was obviously new, as well as he culture to our little guy. Not to mention, it was day one being in a new city. We let Lincoln ride the charter bus over there with KK & Lauren (while we drove our car), and when we got there, he had a skip in his step all the way to the front door with the "big kids." The church was rather large and we thought FOR SURE he would just sit with us and the kids.
But when we got inside, he INSISTED he go to church with all the little kids he was seeing. We kept telling him he could stay with us since it was a new big place, but that little social bug insisted otherwise.
So we chuckled and checked him in. We took him down the hall and he galloped in his little classroom with new buddies, never looking back.
We shrugged and laughed and went on to the service (which was AMAZING).
After the service, we went with some of my girls to pick him up and his teachers said he did awesome! They said all of the children's section pooled together for "big worship" and in front of the entire children's church, they asked who wanted to play "Jesus" for the children church production that morning.
Guess who volunteered.
Lincoln. They said he played "Jesus" in the production, and that Mary even washed his feet. He later told us she washed it with her hair and that it tickled. Hilarious.
And we were thinking he would want to stay with us.
He also skipped out of class and thus started his signature "hop in his step" he seemed to have everywhere he went on this trip, he was so excited. Love that guy. I love how he can be thrown into strange situations and go with it.

Lincoln told me the other night that he really missed Whyatt, Riley, Tyler, Tyrik, and Bowen. Precious.

More on my experience with my girls and what all we did later!!!!!! :)
(and some pics - Bedfords is having to recover my SD card because it got damaged)