Oops...Forgot My Favorite

Mom took this picture when we were helping Amy with her bridal portraits - I love it.

Already a little Coldplay fan - I train him well.

And We Have a Crawler

The past few months have been full of vacations, concerts, wedding planning, wedding parties, friends, family, oh - and working there in-between (my favorite part of summer for sure)...and unfortunately, blogging has not been my forte. But I got a hold of some pictures tonight (some dating back to the vacation I found from the 4th of July) that I wanted to share about the above-mentioned events. If you read my blog, you know I'm a picture fanatic. Always have a camera in hand. :)
In updates, LINCOLN IS CRAWLING EVERYWHERE!!! And standing up (including in his crib - banging on the outside when he doesn't want to be in there), cruising down the couch, and balancing better and better on his own each day - I truly think those little independent steps are right around the corner. He definitely has some independence in his little bones. This has become much more evident in the past week. But with all these new changes come baby-proofing and, yes, disciplining. Sad day. Now the hard part of parenting begins (and never ends). :)
Here are some pics from the beach on the 4th:

And the Coldplay concert with our good friends Jody and Michael. I didn't get many pictures there b/c I was too mesmerized (stupid excuse, I know - but it's true).

Saturday, a bunch of us girls went to the lake for a pre-bachelorette party, and then this past Sunday we spent in the Fort for church, lunch and Amy's wedding shower! It was so great to see people I literally haven't seen in ages!

Amy with mom and her future mother-in-law:

Last night we had our Home Fellowship Group over to our house for dinner and games. Mr. Lincoln LOVES playing with kids when they come over (except he's in the stage where he likes to pull noses, ears, hair, etc...).
Less than 2 weeks until Amy and Nathan's wedding!!!! I'm getting so excited for them! Stephen Sbanotto and I are doing a couple of duets during the ceremony...hopefully that goes well. and we'll be lighting up the 'ole Fort the night before the wedding for old times sake - now that should be interesting.

One of My Many Loves

Those of you who know me (really, you only have to know me for 5 minutes to figure it out) know that I have a deep rooted obsession with Chris Martin's geniuos he displays in the everso talented musical mix they call COLDPLAY.
Yes, friends - I am a fan.
And after a year now of wondering (more like agonizing) whether or not I was going to MISS their Viva la Vida tour, thanks to their added shows, I have now had the absolute pleasure of seeing them in Dallas. Just the thought of not being able to see them when they're that close makes my skin tighten up and my eyes begin to well (patheitc I know, but did I mention I'm a fan?). And it was FAN-tastic. We had worse seats than in the past, but that's okay because Mr. Martin likes to jump into the depths of the crowd which happened to be close to us. :) Thanks Chris.

Here are some of my personal Top-10 highlights:

1. Chris making reference to J.Timberlake hair was pretty much hilarious.

2. Getting to hear the drummer Will play and sing! He's my favorite behind Chris, of course.

3. The personalized gig to the great state of Texas

4. The AMAZING performance of "In My Place" - maybe my favorite performance (even though "Lost" was my fav and fun to see from new album)

5. Added piano flair to dislpay Martin's genious

6. Chris getting out in the lawn (oh so close!), guitar ready, closing in with the mike, only to bust out "I kissed a girl and I liked it..." (don't worry, he immediately stopped and started laughing)

7. His evil face and hand guesture game he seemed to get a kick out of (those there know what I'm talking about)

8. FREE CD!!!! No joke: he gave out a free live cut to all the audience - and it's AWESOME! I've been listening to it non-stop. You can download it on their website.

9. Billie Jean - hilarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeTHcGssOWA

(sorry I can't post video directly...it's not letting me right now for some reason - but I promise it's worth checking out).

10. And then, though this version wasn't at our concert, it's on the CD they gave and my new personal favorite - LOVE the rendition of this song (The HArdest Part):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_LSGomrsrE

So thanks Coldplay for an amazing night and brilliant music. :)

Here We Go...Again

Okay. So I don't think I quite done the job of expressing just how huge these last few weeks have been for us...that is between thinking we know what lies ahead for us to having that completely blown into another direction, taking a new HUGE job, finding out I no longer have to work but can relaxingly stay at home with my little man...a lot of big changes for us, all ones that we are incredibly excited about and feel overwhelmingly blessed by God to have a chance at some of these new opportunities.
But perhaps there was also another "change" I have yet to discuss till now. A change that was also brewing in the midst of all the above...did I mention we had our next 5 years planned??? Scratch the planning folks, cause I now want to introduce you to something that keeping us consistent with the latest trend in our lives:
To backtrack, Jason came home from work (in Siloam) one day a couple of weeks ago and exclaimed with a smile on his face "Babe - I have some news for you!"
My response was "Funny, cause I have news for you..."
His, of course was that Bentonville had called and wanted to negotiate his coming there as head coach.
I smiled cause his surprise fit in perfectly with mine. So what was my surprise that day????



No joke people. I know it feels like two months ago I was as large as a barn, sweating and peeing out my ears, and waddling like a fat duck, but it's true. I'm pregnant AGAIN!
Now check out God's timing: We always said no matter what, when we had an other kid, we would MAKE IT WORK so that I could stay at home. And the same day I found out I was pregnant was the SAME day God made that work out with Jason 's new job. God is GOOOOOD!!!
And for those of you doing the math, our little tiger's will be 15 months apart. I like to consider it the best of having twins without having to carry them at the same time. :)
So here we go again!
Today was my first appointment.
I'm 9wks 2days
Due date: February 10th
Starting weight: 114
And everything looked perfect so far!!!!!!!

Here Come the Teeth!

That's right. Since we've been in Destin, Lincoln now has two "half" teeth (not fully in) and has been pulling up on his own (from sitting to standing position) - well, kind of on his own. He grabs your arms, shirt, couch, ice chest handles - whatever he can grasp to pull himself up. Yeah for new developments!
We're still here in Destin, sadly leaving in the morning, but looking forward to celebrating Independence Day under the stars on the beach tonight!

And the Vacation Continues...

First off, Jonathan sent me this link to their blog with some of our recent photos that they took before we left for vacation. You can see them here: http://jephotography.wordpress.com/2009/07/01/mcmahan-family/
These are just a sneak peak and I'm loving what I see so far!!!

Vacation is still amazing. The weather has been perfect the past two days and today the water was as crystal clear as I've ever seen it here! Case in point (you can see our legs):

Lincoln has been relaxing to the FULLEST. Here's his "beach schedule" he pretty much set for himself (I let him set his own schedules since he's on vacation!):
7:00am - wake up (with Mimi & Papa)
eat breakfast
8:00am - take nap #1
9:00am - wake up and play with the rest of us who are getting up
10:00 - eat again & change in clothes for the beach
10:15 - oops, fall asleep again (nap #2) before heading out to beach
10:45 - wake up and head to the water!
11:00 - fall asleep under umbrella for nap #3 on the beach
12:30 - wake up and have some lunch on the beach
play in pool & sand
1:00 - come up to the condo for some vegetables
1:30 - nap #4 (this one's LONG)
4:30 - wake up
4:35 - bottle, bath, play
6:00 - go out to dinner, vegetables, bottle, play
7:30 - nap #5 (no joke)
8:30 - play
9:00 - go to bed for the night

*Yup, Lincoln sleeps about 17 hours/day - that's what I call a vacation!!!! :) Here's some more pictures from today:

The Much Needed Vacation

Okay. SO much to talk about that hasn't been mentioned yet on this blog. But either you guys have seen it on my facebook, read it in the papers, or heard it word of mouth, or maybe have no cue, but our family is about to make a HUGE move. Not huge in the part of distance or trekking across states, but huge in the sense of leaving behind a school system we love, a church we are passionate about, and some friends that have become close to our hearts (though they'll always be close...just not as close (distance) as we'd like!).
An opportunity was presented before Jason to take the head basketball coaching position at Bentonville High School a few weeks ago. After meeting with them and prayers on out part, he turned down the job. However, BHS contacted him again, this time making an offer hard to refuse on many facets. They said Jason was the coach they had in mind for their program and would work with our family to make it happen. And as of Friday morning, it has happened. Those that were around us during this time saw the agony and turmoil we muddled through - countless prayers and tears as we made this decision to leave behind something we've loved and head down new waters.
Here's the amazing part, though, folks: this move is going to enable me to stay home and raise baby Lincoln!!! This has been one of our prayers since we had the little guy - God is good. Simply said. We're planning on living in Siloam until we sell our house, so we could still be around for a while. So major changes in the McMahan family! But we're feeling good and confident about where God is leading us! This picture was taken Friday morning (on our way out of town for vacation) at the board meeting/press conference to accept the position. This whole process has moved FAST - in a matter of a week, Jason was approached and now he's the new head coach of BHS! How do we look in Black/Gold???? :)


In other news...WE'RE ON VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The little man all strapped in and ready to roll. Mama's in the next seat over, Aunt Amy in the back (3rd row), and Daddy and Uncle Nathan up front.


Quick stop in Crossett to visit Gran-Gran and Poppa...and eat some fried catfish.

Next stop? Biloxi!! Were we lost our money...oops. So I got little Lincoln on a slot to see if he was more lucky. :)

On one of our lunch stops, Lincoln lunged for a piece of fudge Jason bought, successful snatched it with his teeth and WOULD NOT LET GO! and yes, he got some in his mouth! oops.
This is what happens when mama turns her head - Jason feeds Lincoln coke! I guess we are on vacation.

And then, DESTIN!!!!!!!!


These shades never stay on for more than 2 seconds before he's examining ever intricacy of how they are made. Someone stopped us in Biloxi and said, "I've been watching you and your baby for the past while through different stores and I just had to tell you that I think he is the most observant baby I have ever seen!"
Yes, we know. :)
Nathan and Amy introduced us to this game. Me and dad won, thank you very much.

And then he crashed. So cute.
The newly-engaged couple.
So you might be wondering, "why are you writing this blog in the middle of the afternoon instead of being on the beach?" It's storming. Yeah for vacation. But we're here for 6 more days!!! I'll post pictures of our condo later - it's unbelievable! Gorgeous, huge, and beautiful view! The parentals really came through on this one (and we all have our own rooms and bathrooms!!!).