conquered

"Jesus conquered the grave, Momma. He did."

Why, yes He did. Conquered the grave indeed.

Right out of the mouth of babes.

And...he's off!

Levi's officially crawling, yay! He's so cute learning how to do it, going a few steps, then falling on his belly...only to get back up & go a few more steps. This is a picture-heavy post, here we go:


Going for his favorite thing right now...the green Publix balloon:

And he's got it!

Just chillin'...

Look at those baby blues...Ben's nickname for him is "The Blonde Bombshell":

Here's Linc being the awesome big bro that he is...helping out L-Train with his pacifier:

best buds:

Hello, chunky thigh. so cute.

Doh! There's the camera!

Getting tickled by Momma...

Talk to y'all soon.
xoxo

I've been tagged.

I love these games. I've been tagged by my friend Court, in which I'm going to tell six quirks about myself (only six?) & then tag three people to do the same thing. Fun stuff.

1) Our bed HAS to be made every single day. I love it when Ben does it himself, but then I feel like I have to "re-do" it because I'm a lunatic like that. Even if it is 9pm & I plan on going to bed at 10pm, I have to make the bed. Just so I can pull it down an hour later.

2) I am an interrupter. If Ben comes home from work & has to tell me a story from what happened that day, he has to preface it with, "Do not interrupt me until I'm finished. Don't ask for more details because I'll tell you everything you need to know." I'm really bad. Poor guy can't even get through one sentence without BigMouth over here asking for more info.

3) Every morning, I have to drink my coffee out of my pink diamond bling clock mug. I know those are a lot of adjectives to describe a coffee mug, but you haven't seen the mug. Coffee just doesn't taste the same without it. It was a gift from my sister, & I absolutely love it.

4) I love ice in my drinks, except when it's water. If I'm drinking water, I don't want any ice. Stupid, I know.

5) When I pay bills, I set out everything on the kitchen table. I write each each check & on the front of every envelope, I put a post-it note with the date it has to be sent out in order for it to get to each company on the due date. Is that a quirk or a rather serious symptom of OCD?

6) I have to be dressed for the day, make-up on, hair done, etc. by 8:00am. If not, then I feel like I'm running late.

And here's one to grow on...it's one of Ben's quirks:

Ben has to be wearing shoes all the time all day long. Seriously, when he gets home from work, he'll keep his shoes on until he gets in the shower & then gets into bed. He hates going barefoot anywhere, not even in our house. Not only does he wear shoes all the time, but they have to be practical shoes, like Adidas or some sort of running shoe. And he gets upset with me if we're out somewhere & he looks down at my shoes, & they're not "practical." He'll say, "Why'd you wear those shoes? They're not practical at all." I thought this was really ridiculous of him to say, until we had been married for about 2 years & he asked me to go for a ride in his MG through the country. Halfway into our country drive, the MG breaks down & I have to get out & push the car so he can start it again. I was wearing flip-flops. He looked at me & said, "See!? So impractical! You can't run in flip-flops!" Excuse me, did I know I was going to be running full-speed down a dirt road in Old Navy flip-flops? But ever since then, I usually always keep a spare pair of Adidas shoes in my car. Just so I know that I'm being practical, even if I have stilettos on.

I'm tagging Lindsay, Amanda, & Daeon.
Toodles,

the kick-ass hot wheels track

When I say kick-ass, I don't lie, people. I'm just telling you like it is. Ben loved playing hot-wheels when he was a kid, so he wanted to build a track for the boys that was a notch above the rest (or 100 notches). Just take a look at this track that Ben made in our basement. Lincoln loves playing with it & insists upon putting the robot box on his head before letting the cars go down on the track. Enjoy.

the ripple effect...wow

Upon my blog-hopping tonight, I bounced upon an insanely addictive, tear-inducing, belly-laughing, & beautiful/wonderment/how-is-this-possible blog that I have to pass along to whoever may be reading this. It's one of those blogs that make me think hard about who I am, what I'm doing, where I'm headed, & who I hope in day after day. If Ben were to die tomorrow & leave me with both boys all alone, would I still hope? Would I still dream & have goals? Or would I just be an invisible girl, trying to get through each moment without my love. These things I don't know, but I do know that this girl makes me want to be a better girl. She hopes through the messiness, loves her boy like mad, misses her husband moment by moment, & is in love with the Lord.
Change me, O God.

brit-brit & tattoos

Hi y'all. Is it weird that I'm back on the Brit-Brit bandwagon? I used to dislike her immensely, what with the no-underwear-getting-out-of-the-car & the head shaving debacle that we will not speak of. But as of late, I gotta admit that I'm totally liking her again. I liked her back before K-Fed, when she was still cute, & had a 'normal' relationship with the people in her life. Those few years that she went all crazytown on us was just...crazy. Let's recap:

Making countless trips to the local gas station in bare feet to use the public restroom. Even I know that's just bunk:



Here she is apparently losing it on the curb of some street in LA. So discreet.



Oh, but we're not done yet. Here she is with some sort of 'medical crisis'. The words Percocet & Oxycontin come to mind.



But friends, everyone has their down days. And by days, I mean years. I think brit-brit may be comin around the bend, albeit ever so slowly & sometimes ever so tacky.

When I saw this promo, she immediately jumped off my Sh%* list & corralled around my HaHaCute List:



I will watch the VMAs this year, just so I can see Brit sober, not crying, & actually back to beautiful. That promo makes me want to see what transpires during that awards show. I'm back on board, B.

In other news, did anyone else see this little sweet tart tattoo? Couldn't love it more if I tried.





It reminds me of Ben's tattoo wedding ring, but I don't have a picture of that to show you, darn it all. Here are my thoughts on Levi & Bristol:

1) Levi's a doll so I'm all for him.
2) Bristol's beautiful (which, BTW, so are all of those kids...seriously good genes goin on there).
3) Bristol could possibly be the best name ever (that's Ben's thought...Bristol race, anyone?)
4) Levi was man enough to be with her on her family's huge important night in front of mad press, sit by her side, & stick around to be the baby daddy.
5) They're planning on getting married & raise that child together in a loving environment. Yay.

Let's back up for a minute to those kids' names: Bristol, Piper, Willow, Track & Trig. Holy Mother of All Things Good. Love all of them.

If you've got a problem with any of the above post, please take it up with the Board of Trustees.

See you later, Alligator.

Boxheads & Scootin'

Meet The Boxheads! Here are a few pictures of us having fun with something simple like a box. hehe
Here's LincBox:



Then here's Mrs. Box:



And Mr. Box (who looks naked, but he's not I assure you):



Then here's ShinyBox:



The box just wouldn't fit on Levi's head, so we didn't capture that magic. But here's some magic for you. He has started getting on all fours & rocking back & forth, & scooting a bit. Yay! Or should I say Oh No. We need the gates. And so it begins.
Here's the little monkey:



Brother Time:



And here's Smiley Joe in his highchair:




Happy Labor Day weekend everybody.
See ya peeps.

texas

We are here in McKinney, TX with my parents. Within the past 5 days, my parents have used their swimming pool more than their time living in this house (which is coming up on 6 years). True story. My mom spent about 5 hours in the pool yesterday with Linc-Man, & my dad pent about 5 hours today with him. Linc loves making slides out of the mats, loves to have my dad throw the ball & hit his face, & loves to jump in with full-force & speed. To say that nap-times have been easy would be the understatement of the world here. He is ready & willing to go down for his nap & bedtime, happy to sleep in the BIG-boy bed...a huge white sleigh bed in my mom's upstairs room! I'm honestly surprised he hasn't fallen out of it yet. He thinks he's awesome for getting to sleep in that bed.
Anyhoo, we're planning on flying home to Frank-town tomorrow morning EARLY...as in before the sun comes up early. As in 4am early. Oh brother. It's going to be a loooong day.

I'll post pictures soon, once I get home. Hope y'all are having a good week.
word.

please pray

I know I just posted earlier tonight, but I want to ask you all, my friends, to pray for this family. They are in the process of saying good-bye to their 4-year old son, who is battling a brain tumor. Please pray that they will feel Jesus' peace & strength in the midst of this nightmare. Kiss your children tonight & be thankful that you have them. God, be with this family.

A visit to the dentist, among other things

I am happy to report that Lincoln had his first dentist appointment yesterday at Snodgrass Dental. We loved that place! I've never seen such an amazing dentist office. It has cool toys for Lincoln to play on, video games, a huge Lego table, & much more. He was upset when they called him back to the room because he didn't want to leave the waiting room! We walked back to the separate room where he met his dental hygeinist, Elizabeth ("Wizabef"). He jumped into the chair & exclaimed, "Hi Wizabef! Where'd you get this cool chair?" Elizabeth laughed out loud, looked at me & said, "Oh, this is gonna be fun!" He was very vocal the entire time, which made cleaning & flossing his teeth go a little longer than planned. But he was able to watch movies, ask Elizabeth about 100 more questions, & when she looked at his teeth, she said, "He sucks his thumb, doesn't he?" I guiltily replied "yes" because there is just no hiding it. She even knew what thumb he sucked, due to how his teeth were coming in. When she left to go get Dr. Snodgrass, I told him that when he came into the room, he should say hello to him. The dentist walked in & Lincoln cried out, "Hi Dr. Snotgrass! How are you doing today? Can I stay at your work today?" The dentist looked at me, laughed & said, "What a ham you have on your hands." A quick look at his teeth (upon him saying damage had in fact been done to his bite because of the thumb-sucking) & we were pretty much done. It was a great experience & went muuuuch better than I thought it would go. Whew.

On another note, we are leaving on Saturday to fly to Texas. Ben is staying here because he has to work, so I will be braving the friendly skies by myself with the boys. The long list in my mind of all the crap I have to pack for them both for the airplane ride is already starting. Have I told y'all that I hate to travel? I don't mind the actual airplane ride; it's the arriving, checking bags, standing in line for security, going through the pure hell of the security check-point, only to wait at my gate for another hour before boarding. My dad was a pilot for 26 years; you'd think I'd be totally used to this. I am used to it when it's just me traveling! But it's an entirely different animal with kiddos. I hope all goes well on Saturday, & that Lincoln can be a big boy. I'm already prepping him to be "Momma's Big Helper" while we're at the airport & on the airplane. Sometimes he's keen to the idea; sometimes he isn't. We'll see what his mood is on Saturday.

I'll be posting pictures soon of the cutie pies soon.
until next time,