Allow Me To Introduce...

The Playroom.
Our living room has been slowly turning into a toy room - something I did not mind pre-birthday, but post-Christmas...? Something had to be done. Every night before I went to bed was spent picking up and organizing toys neatly in the living room, getting them ready to be destroyed all over again the next day, and as they multiplied, the "neatness" became a near impossible task. So I talked my ever-so-sweet husband into helping me clear out the furniture of our guest bedroom last week in preparation to turn it into a playroom. And after some re-arranging, a few small purchases (one from a gift card we have had since our WEDDING), we now successfully have a playroom at the McMahan house and NO TOYS in the living room.
So some might be wondering..."that's great and all, but where is baby Noah's room going to be next month?" Poor Noah. He's not getting a nursery. Thanks to the McMahan's, there is a pack and play/bassinet/changing table all-in-one combo on it's way to our house that was purchased last week. I have a nice little nook carved out in our room where it will start (until either he's sleeping through the night or I don't sleep at all cause he's in there - which ever comes first)...and then it will be moved to another nook I have envisioned (after some re-arranging) to the playroom. I hope he's a flexible fella and isn't scared by not having his personal nursery. Eventually, him and Lincoln will share a room...even if we have extra bedrooms. That's the plan! Here are some pictures of the playroom (which, might I add, Lincoln full-heartedly approves!):

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!! I think last night at one point (it was somewhere around 10:00 or so) Jason and I looked at each other and said "Man, we're old." So our New Year's have changed a bit from the first one we had together 3 years ago right before we got engaged, but I don't think either of us mind the changes much. Last night Bentonville finished up a tournament in Missouri, and after it was over, the Matchell's joined us at our house for an impromptu celebration (impromptu because none of us even realized it was New Year's Eve and made plans at the game). We made dinner together, engaged in a little dance party with the kiddos, played, took baths, changed into PJ's, ate cookies, watched some sports in the background, and called it a night around 10:00pm. The plan thereafter was that Brandon and Bethany were going to come over after their movie and play games throughout the night. However, when they called after their movie, Jason and I felt like we had been run over by semi's (my excuse was almost 9 months pregnant...not sure what his was), and took a raincheck for our final evening plans. Yeah. Pretty sad. But nonetheless, we had a blast with friends and laid in bed together (mind you, 10:30) discussing all the good things God had blessed us with this year. Some at the top of the list included:
- The privilege of watching and raising a hilarious son
- Finding out we were pregnant with Baby Noah`
- Jason getting hired as the Bentonville coach, which leads to the next one
- Me getting to be a stay-at-home mamma!
- A fabulously long vacation in Destin this summer with my parents
- Building new friendships
- My sister marrying one of my best friends :)
- White Christmas
- Benny coming home after being gone for 4 months!
- The great basketball season last year with the Panthers!
- Getting to know Ogi (Jason's parent's foreign exchange student)

And I'll leave you with one of my latest works-in-progress: The Toy Room. Yes, toys in the living room were starting to make me a tad insane, so Jason worked with me this past week to clean out our spare bedroom and begin turning it into a toy room. Here are some pictures below: It was tried and tested last night with Lincoln and the Matchell kids. Jakin came up to me at one point and thanked me for the room. ha. :) Plans still included another big shelf (that I am about to go pick up) and some art on the walls (probably some Andy Warhol pictures I have no where to put anymore).

And how sweet is this picture! Mikaiah and Lincoln cuddled up with Jason toward the end of the evening. Precious.

The Christmas Finale

After we made our way into Siloam from Alma Christmas morning, Jason, Lincoln, and I did our little family Christmas. Lincoln was so fun this Christmas because he started getting the hang of opening presents...he would rip the paper and try and open the boxes - even with that look of anticipation! One of his gifts from us was a 100-piece giant lego set and the boy loves it!
That afternoon we made our way to my parent's house and did Christmas with the Carmack side. When it was time for the big feast, Lincoln got extrmely fussy and sleepy (still way off in his routine)...Jason and I tried putting him down at Mimi's (where he's slept a million times) - but not this time. Not without mommy and daddy. So we had to lay with him, in the dark, on the bed in his room, until the little sucker was out (which didn't take long). But it did take the length of the family feast. So Jason and I indulged by ourselves...like the rest of this Christmas adventure - we had each other and it was sweet and special. And let me add, that was the last time Lincoln required us by his side to fall asleep - hallelujah.
One of my favorite gifts this Christmas came from my mother. She had a ring designed for me and my sister that used one of my grandmother's diamonds she had been saving for us (she inherited my grandmother's jewelry collection). She personally designed it - the same design for both Amy and I - and it is something I will forever treasure as a memory of my mother, grandmother, and sister. And might I add, it is GORGEOUS!
Here are some of my favorite pictures from the Carmack clan:

Lincoln with his Papa:

Family photo: check out the hat I am wearing...Patty Hill (Amy's mother-in-law) found it at her house over the holidays...it's a hat my mom made me when I was a baby (it says "Missy" all the way around it). Now, why it was at the Hill's house all these years? Not sure on that one...

It was on freezing, but MERRY Christmas!!!!! Thank you Jesus for being born and being the greatest gift of all!!!!!!!!

An Interesting Christmas

Interesting happening number 1:
As I stated in my last post, our little guy came down with pneumonia on the first day of our trip in Crossett visiting Jason's family. I never snapped a shot of the sickly eyes or puny little sucker because, well, my hands were full of 5 different medications, a sick little boy, and, of course - my own tear drops. But here's a picture of our Christmas Eve doctor's visit to ensure he was getting better and safe to travel home. Doesn't he look so sick??? :) He does have a bad cough that the doc said will last for about two weeks! He also said pneumonia can take up to a month to complete clear from the lungs - poor guy!

Lincoln with his first encounter with Santa (aka. Jason's dad - what a trooper!) - and would you believe he brought him a BALL!! :)

And here's some documentation of Baby Noah's progress: 34 weeks here at Christmas (almost 35 now, which means after 36, if I go into labor, there's no stopping it - SCARY!!). Baby Noah received two gifts this Christmas with his name engrave on them (one from my mom and one from Jason's). By this point in pregnancy with Lincoln, we already had a gazillion items with his name on it - but these 2 were the first for Noah. Let me tell you, when I got the first one, I teared up just looking at his little name on a blanket. It was a moment for me and truly the first time it really "hit" me that Noah was going to be here soon and how real and surreal it is that we're going to have TWO baby boys in a matter of weeks!!

Strange happening number 2 on our trip: After Lincoln's appointment Christmas Eve morning, Jason and I were on our way home from the doc when tornado sirens started going off. What??! We went inside the house and sure enough, Crossett was under a tornado warning and everyone was being advised to take cover...seriously? Luckily we escaped the twister's attempt to ruin Christmas and went on with the show:

Strange happening number 3: We left Crossett that night (not wanting to risk another tornado), only to get to Alma and run smack dab into the middle of a blizzard...?? In Alma?? It was close to midnight and we had maybe 5% visibility and decided to pull off and stay at the Comfort Inn...apparently many others had the same thought at the same moment...but there was still room in the inn. :) I'll be honest, at one point, I was having some Braxton Hick contractions and I thought "Oh no...that would just complete this Christmas if I went into labor here in Alma in a blizzard..." It didn't happen, in case you were wondering.
But Lincoln loved jumping on the bed and staying up till midnight! Jason also gave me a Christmas present he had in the car for me - a new Northface jacket!!! I was super excited because (a) I LOVE it and (b) I had left my coat in Crossett. By the way, I never got pictures of Lincoln in the blizzard because, well, he has pneumonia.
So we woke up Christmas morning in Alma, AR to a continental breakfast (with homemade waffles!) and numerous other stranded travelers, before making our way back home. So my question is this: have you ever experienced a tornado and a blizzard in the same day on Christmas Eve? This was a first for us. :) Lincoln actually had a very hard time adjusting through all of this - probably because he was sick the whole time. We had to lay with him for every nap and then carry him to his crib (this worked only 50% of the time - the other half we would just have to lay with him while he napped). Then at night, he slept in the bed with us every night of vacation - we have never had to do this before and it was interesting. Interesting in the fact that it's precious to snuggle with your little one, but I got NO SLEEP. Co-sleeping is NOT for me. But he would NOT sleep in his crib while in Crossett (which is not like him). Until we found out he had pneumonia, I told Jason we were just going to let him cry it out, that he was not sleeping with us. But then after the diagnosis, well, he can sleep wherever he wants, I decided! We were a little worried when we got home we would have to spend a lot of tireless nights retraining the little man how to sleep. But VIOLA! he has bounced right back into his routine perfectly! I guess he's like us and just wants his own bed when he's sick :)

And I'll leave you with my favorite picture of the holidays thus far:
PS. Went did Christmas with my family last night, so expect more pictures to come :)

Sick Baby Boy

Jason finished practice yesterday afternoon - to be off 4 days!! - and we frantically finished cleaning the house (b/c one of my favorite pleasures in life is returning from vacation to a clean house!), wrapped a remaining 30-something gifts that were neglected to be wrapped three weeks ago, packed for three, and loaded up the car to head to Crossett for Holidays Part 1...we spend now-24th at Jason's family's house and then drive back Christmas Eve night to wake up Christmas morning in our own house before spending Christmas day/night with my family in Siloam.
In all the chaos of preparing to leave on the trip, I noticed Lincoln's eyes looking bloodshot and glassy. I made a comment about it to Jason and in a mother's hunch, grabbed all the medicines (tylenol, day cough suppressant, night cough suppressant with coedine, motrin, etc...), threw them in a baggy "just in case".
When we arrived in Crossett around 11:00pm, we arrived with a sickly baby who had fluid dripping out his eyes, snot-filled nose, bright red, glassy eyes, and a pitiful cry. Oh crap. So I dug into the medicine bag, gave appropriate dosages and we attempted to put him to bed. The "attempt" failed. Lincoln, who never has a problem going to sleep - screamed frantically when we put him down, to the point where he was over-emotional and had a hard time catching his breath - the heartbreaking cry. Jason and I looked at each other and knew something wasn't right. We let him sleep in the bed with us the whole night (something we've never done) and he snuggled between us and tried to get some some sleep (but had many coughing attacks throughout the night).
This morning, he woke up smiling, but his eyes looked worse than yesterday. Both of us agreed we needed to get him into a doctor today because this felt different than his previous occasional cold/sinus stuff. Jason's mom worked some magic with doctors she knows in town and got us in within 30 minutes. The doctor wanted to do x-rays, and after about 2 hours of tests and exams, the doctor concluded he had pneumonia - bad and prominent. I felt my eyes well up with tears but was SO thankful we were able to get him to a doctor! They checked his temp for the 2nd time, and it had gone up in the last 20 minutes. They sent us over to the hospital because they wanted to do a blood culture on him. When we got there, the nurse saw the order and her eyes got a sad glaze on them like "I don't wanna do this to this poor child!" and I knew I wouldn't be able to be in there with him while they drew blood without losing it. So Jason and his mom took him to get his blood drawn while I left the room in tears. I actually went outside because I knew I would start crying if I heard him. He then had to get a shot of his first rounds of anti-biotics (which I also could not be there on), but I heard him cry this time. I've always been okay with him getting shots in the past, but this time I think it was so hard because he looked so pitiful, it was Christmas, and he's never had this before. Today broke my heart. But I am so thankful God provided confident, immediate care for Lincoln today and that Jason and I trusted our instincts to take him in.
He's now sleeping soundly in the bedroom - with tons of medicines healing his little body - and his mommy praying he feels better soon! The amazing doctor we saw is going to see him on the 24th to make sure he is getting better and approve us to travel back to Siloam later that night (if he's not better, he'll have to be admitted - on Christmas DAY!).
In funny news - the little sucker weighs a whopping 26 pounds now! My little darling. And even in the midst of all this junk, he has been in good spirits and still has his little playful heart. :) Hopefully some pictures of a healthy little man are soon to follow tomorrow!!!!

Some Lincoln Ramblings

Once we had Lincoln, we quickly got floods of tips and advice on how to raise him (you know, the "Do this, but don't dare do that...you better not let him do this or he'll do it for the rest of his life" stuff) and all opinions contradict each other in one form or fashion eventually. Some of the advice, mind you was FABULOUS and life saving, but I definitely plan on not obsessing that I am ruining my child's life this time around and being more of a "go-with-the-flow" kind of person. There was one point in Lincoln's early years I thought my precious child would require a papsan swing to sleep well into his adult years - yeah, not too hard when we actually made the transition.
One of the rages right now with infants is teaching them sign language. "Really??" I remember my first response being upon hearing this...how can a tiny little creature who coos, pees/poops, and sleeps possibly understand how to sign (heck - I can't even sign more than a few words of the alphabet). But when Lincoln was 6 months old, I decided to give a whirl with the popular "more" sign...apparently, anything you try and teach a 6 month old in relation to food, works. I was not only amazed at the fact that my little baby was signing his needs when he first did this, but I could not believe how fast he picked it up! Within two weeks the champ was a professional at letting me know he liked something and, dang it - wanted MORE of it! I later moved to teaching him "All Done" to let me know when he was finished with his food. We did this one a little later - about 9-10 months or so. These are the only two signs I have taught him, but it has been amazing how through, just these two signs how much the little booger can communicate with us! For instance, he no longer only reserves the "All Done" sign for mealtime when he is finished eating. For the past few weeks, when he gets sleepy for a nap, he will walk to his bedroom door (we usually keep it closed during the day) and stand there doing his "all done" sign - like "Mom, I've had enough for now." It truly is precious. Or the other day we were in this little children's shop and I let him run around and play while I looked at clothes for him. After about 20 minutes, he came up to me and signed "all done" letting me know he had enough and was ready to leave. So the advice on signing...great advice and I completely recommend it!
As far as his actual words go, he is now saying: Ball (80% of the time), mama, dada, dog, bru- (trying to say Bruce), and well, that's about it for his extensive vocabulary. But it is phenomenal to me how many words and phrases he understands! I can tell him to "Go get your ball" and he goes directly to his basketball...or "Go get in your chair"...he also knows the words "Monkey, milk, do you want to eat?, are you ready to go?, ready to go nigh-nigh?, (all by which he responds with a clap if he wants it and a shake of the head "no" if not)...and numerous other phrase we use throughout the day.
I'm not really sure what this post has turned into except crazy ramblings about Lincoln's development at this stage (more for my memory I guess), but all in all just to express how amazed I am every day at this little guy's development and learning abilities - it truly is amazing to see children grow and I am so blessed for this experience!

Night on the Square

Tonight us coaches wives had planned to meet our dazzling men in Fayetteville after practice for a night of Hugo's and lights on the square. Sadly, the Matchell's boy got sick today and so him and Chris had to stay behind while Bethany and I loaded up Lincoln and the girls for a Christmasy night on the town. On the ride over, Anna was on "Reindeer Patrol", Lincoln was trying to nap (but couldn't), and Makaiah was sweetly calling Lincoln "Buddy, buddy, buddy" when he would get fussy. We met our men at Hugo's for dinner and then proceeded to the square. I have never seen these lights before, but they were fantastic. It was a perfect night - not too cold and zero wind - and you can let the kids run around without worrying about car traffic (however, one must be ware of the occasional horse-drawn carriage or camel - yeah, camel). Here are some pictures of the night - some were hard to get because of all the lights and glare...
Ha. He was not happy because I pulled away from a dog he was playing with to try and get a picture - I know, world's worst mom. :)

My little explorer...

The picture below is of Anna singing Lincoln "The Hot Dog Song"...she knows how to warm his little heart. :) I'm not sure if it was her co-pilot and his potential to pull out her pretty blonde hair or the unknown of the excitement of lights, camels, and horses (you know, every essential to getting one in the Christmas spirit) that brought on the teas, but she did not wanna be in that stroller. :)

So Lincoln got to ride solo for a bit (between the "Da-Da-Da!" call when he would see a dog and his excitement for the enticing stairs that seemed to be EVERYWHERE - it wasn't long before I was pushing an empty stroller).

Let me explain the red pants on my son...he was in a Santa outfit tonight. :) It was just too cold to wear it without his coat when we were looking at lights so it looks like I dressed him in hideous red pants - um, no. And I realized I never got a picture that captured the full effect of this little outfit. It truly is adorable and I'm not so bummed cause I'm sure he'll be sporting it again in Crossett in a few days at his grandparent's house.

This picture cracked me up when I uploaded it...not really sure what the little Tiger is doing. And then my little Handsome :) It was a fantastic night! My camera died half way through the night so I have no pictures of Bethany & Brandon or of my sister and her husband - bummer. But Bethany got us a group shot so I'll tack it on here later. Off to bed. :)