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. :)

Traditions

Last night our community group met one last time before the Holidays with the topic of choice being, of course, Christmas. We read some Scriptures about the prophesies of Christ's birth and contemplated Advent and the anticipation the people must of felt for their Savior's birth into the world. All but one family in our group have children and the topic quickly shifted to how we keep Christ the center in the midst of all the added glitz Christmas has assumed. The Foughts had researched some common traditions aimed at keeping Christ centered and shared some of them with the group, while others offered things they do/have done with their families.
Jason and I were just discussing this topic Sunday night as we were finishing up our Christmas shopping and decided on one thing we were going to start...
One of my continuous prayers for Lincoln has been that he will have a compassionate heart for others and an spirit of servitude. Christmas provides such great opportunities to exercise such qualities and teach them to our kids. But not only to our kids, but as a reminder for us adults as well...I pray that I can be remembered as someone who is compassionate and know that this is a daily battle fought between myself and the continual things that aim at distracting. Jason and I have always set a budget for ourselves and what we would buy everyone and each other at the Holidays. We decided next year to, not expand that budget, but start taking a certain amount from each of our allowances (including Lincoln's) by which we could use to buy gifts/meals/anything needed for a family in need. Jason has shared some stories with me about how families did this for his family when he was a child when things were extremely tight. He said some of his greatest memories stem form these times when others were so generous and Christ-like.
I'll be honest, sometimes I struggle with the whole gift-giving aspect of Christmas...it's Jesus' birthday - shouldn't we be giving Him gifts? I've always had a hard time understanding why we all buy each other gifts at Christmas. Don't worry - I'm not robbing my child of this! But I do long to find a way to help Lincoln (and myself) understand and keep an appropriate perspective on this truly, most wonderful time of the year.
Which leads to a tradition another couple shared - giving Jesus gifts. They talked about a tradition where each family member decides on something they will give back to Jesus...maybe a commitment to more time with Him, or doing an act of servitude, for example. Then as each member shares on Christmas morning their gift to Jesus, the family can keep each other accountable to those gifts. I personally loved this one and think it is a good way to get the whole family involved!
Other traditions shared were having a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake, and then their was one about Advent that I think we might try and do next year:
For each of the 4 Sundays before Christmas, light the appropriate Advent candle and prepare a dinner to share by only the light of the candles, while reading appropriate Advent readings and scripture. Likewise, the first of these would be eaten by one light, next by two, and so on, before the celebration of Christ's birth, symbolizing no more darkness and full light. I think it is a fantastic way to re-center each week the true meaning of Christmas and get a small glimpse into the anticipation the people must have felt long ago.

Those are a few of the traditions that stuck out to me and seemed like something we might try to incorporate. I'm just curious...what are some of your traditions and how do you keep alive the true meaning of Christmas?

My Mush Brain

Please please PLEASE let me blame this following story on being pregnant! I feel like everything else can be blamed on pregnancy (literally, the comprehensive symptom list pretty much covers EVERYTHING), so I'd like to throw the blame that way for this mishap for sure.

The story kind of starts last holiday season (which, yes, I am full aware I was not pregnant then...but still)...

It was Black Friday and Jason and I had been shopping all day long - the exhausting, feet detaching from your ankles kind of shopping, when we decided to make one last stop (at dark) at Gordman's before coming home...and to make matters worse, it was Gordman's - the store where it always seems like I can find some good things but yet always seem to leave empty handed in disappointment (I still haven't figured it out, apparently). So we were literally in and out within a matter of 15 minutes maybe, and as we were driving home, I realize the heart-wrenching fact that my wallet was gone. Sparing the details, we knew it was stolen (from Gordman's!), so I quickly cancelled everything (always fun) and slummed into the depressive state of making a list of all I wold have to change and get new to replace what was stolen.
Low and behold, a few days later - on my birthday to be exact - I get a package in the mail, sloppily addressed to me - with EVERY CONTENT of my wallet wrapped nicely in it - seriously??! They even mailed back gift cards! But no wallet and no return of the cash I had stashed in it. I couldn't believe it - mean enough to steal it but nice enough to save me the hassle of the DMV. Folks, they even mailed back my credit cards.

Now, flash forward to today...this was our designated day to finish up the Christmas shopping. We headed to the mall (about a 30 minute drive) after church this morning. After we had been driving for about 20 minutes, a van pulls up next to us (on the highway - going 70) and yells something in Spanish while pointing to the back of our car. All we get is that something is wrong with our car so we pull over and Jason gets out to check the damage. He's looking confused, not figuring out what the guy saw on the highway - and then the face. The "Oh my lovely wife" face.
He comes back to the car - not a word, but a sheepish grin - and hands me my CELL PHONE. I had left it on the trunk of the car, by which some man had happened to notice driving 70 mph, and it had stayed for 20 minutes on the highway. I've always thought it was a pretty awesome phone.

So we shop, shop, shop...then shop some more, flash forwarding to nightfall and feeling the exhaustion coming in, when, before you know it, we find ourselves making one last stop at none other than Gordman's. Why always the last stop? As we're walking in I joke with Jason about the last time we went there together a year ago..."hang on to your wallets in here!".

Okay. So we leave Gordamn's with no mishaps and actually bought a couple of things this time! On the way home I reach into the diaper bag to see if my sister has called me, and OH MY GOSH. No phone. My mind races to a scene in Gordman's where I let Lincoln look at my phone...but I got it back from him, right? Oh my goodness - it's in the shopping cart at Gordman's.

So I quickly call from Jason's phone (as we're turning around to head back to the store and my husband has that "I'm trying to be patient with her" look)..."Hi, yes. You might remember me from last year - I lost something in your store, again."

When we got back to the store, I frantically searched the carts and talked to employees...nothing. So we left my name and started the long trek home, this time feeling CRAZY depressed and wondering if my brain could fall to pieces even more. People - my phone had already survived a car ride on the trunk earlier that day - what were the chances of it surviving this? Not good.

So I called and had outgoing/ingoing calls blocked, as well as Internet access (which you can directly access a handful of some accounts from my phone) and felt creeped out that someone was reading my text message conversations. I also had Jason send a text to my phone offering a reward. We spent the whole ride home doing these arrangements.

Then we got home. And it was there I became utterly convinced it had to be the pregnancy because no one was as ridiculous as me without a grand excuse...

My phone was in the diaper bag all along...I never thought to check twice.

My poor husband.