"Harry & Cookies!!!"

Today... I met some new friends on my Halleck Coach street, and engaged in my first ever cookie-exchange party: I felt super domestic, let me tell ya.
I brought the ever-so creative chocolate-chip cookies (I know).
And between those, the Cowboy cookies, the PB balls, the chocolate-chip mint, puppy chow, chocolate-covered pretzels, etc. (yes, there was MORE)...I feel slightly like a butterball turkey ready to be rolled onto the treadmill. :)
Thank goodness I like to run.
And that I love meeting new friends because - let's face it - calories don't count when you're with friends, right?
(Right!!!! you all yell in unison).

Thankful to live on the same street as all you super fun gals and look forward to more parties!

I didn't get any pictures because I knew Ashley & Amanda would have that part covered (and one less thing for me to carry!). So I'll be stealing photos of our festive morning to share later. :)

But I did start playing with my camera more this afternoon while Lincoln was asleep. I was trying the self-timer option...trying to get Noah in, focus right, all that fun stuff.
As you can see, I didn't quite succeed at either.
This one actually focused right...but too bad it's a ridiculous picture of me
Oh - and as for the title? That's what Lincoln kept exclaiming all morning when he woke up. :)

Profile Change

I feel like i just updated my profile...seriously, it had to be 10-15 minutes ago, but as I happened to just glance over it and read it, I realized everything (except Jesus - thank you for NEVER changing!) is different!
Let's see...I'm now 29...oh great joy;
My boy is now 2-years-old;
We only have 2 dogs (remember for a second, shed a tear, then move on telling self he's happier than before!);
And my tiny little infant is about to have his FIRST birthday.
**sigh**

Where Did He Learn That??

When he is playing with something, he randomly sometimes will furrow his brow into an insanely ugly look and go "MI------NE!!!!"
Jason and I never retract and object to our chest, furrow our brows (into an unbelievable shape, mind you) and yell this statement in an ugly, low tone...?

Where did he learn that???


Or how about when he wants to "dance! dance!" he can magically fetch the remote and actually turn it to a music station???!

Where did he learn that???

Then - on the same TV lines - Jason and I will be flipping through our DVR to see what we haven't watched yet, only to find "The Wonder Pets", "Olivia", and "Caillou" all recorded on a season pass?? And the VERY WEIRD thing is that 2/3 are on different channels, but ALL are cartoons???

Where did he learn that????

Oh our deep thinker, crazy extrovert, and little sponge... we may never know.

Editting Boredom

I know the editting is pretty over-the-top, but I've been bored (jason's gone) and this is crazy how you can totally change a picture!
So here's to reality (super embarrassing cause this picture was taken on 2 hours sleep the night Amy went into labor):

And here's to editting and boredom:
(I always wanted blue eyes - hehe).

Sorry about the first picture...I know it's a little frightening.

Tucker Alan Hill

Sweet baby Tucker was born yesterday a little after 11:00am.
So thankful for God's little blessing and super excited to see all the plans God has in store for this little guy.
My sister did not have an easy road yesterday but did AMAZING. She is one to be admired. :)

Before Jason and I went to bed Tuesday, we randomly talked about a "plan" in case Amy went into labor that night - good timing! We went to bed around 1:30-2:00am, then the phone rings at 3:30am!
I think I was already putting my shoes on before I said "hello" I jumped up so fast, knowing what was on the other end of the line! Nathan called twice and said she's moving extremely fast so I joined in the urgency and raced out of the house, making it to the hospital in record timing.
*Jason would later tell me of how I flew out of the house and he thought "I don't even think she stopped to brush her teeth! I didn't.

I called the parentals on the way and they were taking turns showering and doing their hair! But I knew Savannah would be there to greet me in a similar manner I would be presenting - I was right. :)

So it was just us, her bother and his girlfriend for some time...waiting...at 4:00am...and we all were laughing about how ridiculous it as that everyone else was showering and getting ready when they might miss it! We concluded that them showering and all would be the joke of the day probably.

Turns out, Tucker slowed WAY DOWN when the epidural took effect and - well, the joke was on us. Yes. Everyone was dressed, rested, ready for the day, and then there was me and Sav - 7 hours later. Ha.

But it was well worth it and super exciting to be on the "waiting" end of it all!!! I'm loving the Auntie role already!!!!!

The Potty

Apparently it's that time.
Yall know that I am usually behind on transitions with the kids because (a) I don't like them and (b) we have had great success thus far with letting them take the lead and show interest.

Enter the Big Potty.

one night at Community Group a few weeks ago, one of the little girls ran upstairs and exclaimed that Lincoln was in the bathroom and had take his pants and diaper off and was trying to use the toilet. I ran down to find exactly what she described, and proceeded to set him on the toilet and let him do his thing. Then when he was done he goes "I wanna wash hands."

Okay.

Funny thing is we've never worked with him on this.

Since then, he randomly tells us he needs to pee-pee, and when he does, we do the same setting-him-on-the-toilet(mind you, backwards) routine. We don't do it every time, just when he asks so far. I call this the "introduction phase".

Now, when he went to stay with his g=parents last week, God bless them, they kept with it! They even bought him a training potty that sings to him when he succeeds.

This week, we've added something: rewards. :)

But Lincoln's easy...he gets a stamp on his hand when he uses the potty and you'd think we gave him a hundred dollar bill.

Sunday, he pooped in the potty for the first time! Then later on that day, I could tell he was doing #2 in his diaper, then he caught himself and yelled "Mommy!! I got to potty!!" So I sat him on the potty and he finished his stuff! He got double stamps for that.

Anyway - that's where we're at. I haven't read a darn thing on potty training yet so we could be completely going about it the wrong way...who knows.

I'd love to hear your stories of what worked for you. (well, your kids). :)

10 Months

Mr. Noah Jackson is 10 months old today!!! I forgot how FUN this stage is! This little tiny man has really come to life in the past few weeks.
Though he is not walking yet, he pulls up on everything and can stand independently for sometime now. He can almost stand up independently...but not quite there yet. Lincoln loves getting Noah's hand and making one of us get the other so we can "walk" Noah. Most of the time, Noah likes this, too. (Most of the time - ha).
Noah still loves your undivided attention and to be held, but you can find him more and more playing contently by himself in the toy room, or climbing in and out of toy boxes around the house.

Noah and Lincoln seem to play more and more each month. This past week or so, they've really interacted more than usual. Lincoln found out Noah loves playing ball, too...and that Noah can even catch!

Noah's still a good sleeper. He takes a few naps a day, and wakes up around 8:00. He is till on formula in bottles every 3-4 hours. He doesn't eat baby food anymore. He has no teeth still, but the boy can EAT (or gum, I guess). He loves everything, too...literally. I haven't found anything he doesn't like yet.

He messes around with Lincoln's sippy cup, but we haven't really got him started on this yet.

Noah had his first overnight outing with us this past week. One night he stayed with Mimi and Papa and then he went with Gran-Gran and Poppa for 4 nights after that! They all said he did great.

And thank goodness we're still not experiencing the attachment issues at church. Man that would be nice to skip that phase. :)

Overall, this little guy's been a pretty easy-going baby. I can't believe it's almost in that acceptable-party-planning range where we start getting ready for his 1-year birthday.