Change a Child's Life Today

We have sponsored a child in Ethiopia for many years and have been asked to help find a sponsor for a specific child on their waiting list this Christmas. The child's name is Alex Mamani and he is kindergartner in Bolivia who attends church regularly and enjoys playing with cars and marbles.


This is a great way to give throughout the year (you can have the donation automatically drafted if you want) and it really makes a difference in the child's life. You also form a relationship with them through letters on a regular basis. You would be providing clothes, covering education expenses, food and other basic necessities for only $38 per month. If you are interested in sponsoring Alex, let us know and we can get you the sign up information. To learn more about Compassion, visit www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child.

Family Pics

Our good friends Zach and Emily Cheatham took some family pictures of us in Searcy last weekend. They made a great team and we enjoyed the shoot almost as much as seeing the pictures! Check out Zach's website at www.zachcheatham.com.

A few of our favs...

In Lily's Words

This will just be a quick post to document some of the funny things Lily is saying these days - I'll put what I can think of at the moment and then possibly add to it.

We always joke that Lily is so "advanced" but speech is one area where I can actually say that with confidence. When the doctor left the exam room at her 18 month appointment - her response to the nurse in the hall was, "man that one's a talker." She is constantly chattering and keeping us laughing - she comes by it honestly, falling in line with cousins Noah and Griffin.

Words that took us a while to figure out:

1. monsters (from Where the Wild Things Are) = na-noos
2. Santa Claus = Gee Cause

Other funny things:

1. When Lily wants something, like most almost 2 year olds, she is very adamant about it. However, when you finally catch on to what she is trying to get across and she realizes she is about to get what she wants, she will change her tone completely, cock her head to to one side, and casually say "o-kaay" as if the whole thing was actually your idea.
2. She has a tendency to add "ee" to words that she uses a lot like "thank you-ee"
3. She also says "thank you" when she wants you to take something from her - especially in the car.
4. She has just started saying "mine" (which is not really funny) to indicate that she wants to hold on to whatever she has. Yesterday, a lady in line The Children's Place said hi to her and Lily responded by saying "mine" and clutching her new tights even tighter.
5. She is really into counting but always skips 1 and usually goes, 2-5-6-7.

She has also started putting words together which is fun to see. Her first official "sentence" was while in the tub, she said "Where Pooper (Cooper) go?" when he had grown bored of watching her and walked off. Now, I realize she left out the "did" but I'll give it to her anyway. She also has learned to say "watch ____" (fill in the blank with anything she is into at the moment) or "_____ book" to indicate whether she wants to read about Elmo (Santa, Monsters, Mickey Mouse, etc) or just watch them on TV or You Tube.

Halloween & Homecoming

getting ready for Boo at the Zoo


Highlight of the zoo was seeing Elmo. She cried when I pried her from his lap.

Cousin Eden was so cute as a unicorn.

Lily the Lamb and Captain Griffin the astronaut

Tucker the alien wore that headband all night.

Griffin & Lily at church

after the homecoming football game

hiking with Dad

Lily's "Pillar"

These are just a few shots we took out in the yard this week. She LOVED this little guy and did not want to let him go. We called it quits when he started moving really slowly after being squeezed between two chubby little fingers.

showing Coop

not sure about him crawling on her hand

free at last

18 Month Catch Up

I don't even know where to begin in catching up. Lily has grown so much that I can hardly believe the things I wrote in the last post were happening just two months ago. Bake and I love to just sit back and watch her in amazement - as well as in high amusement - as she darts around our living room playing and talking to us, herself and/or her toys.

Her New Favorite Things...

TO EAT: She LOVES french fries (but come on, who doesn't) - it doesn't matter if they are the real deal or the chip-like "veggie sticks" she is all about the greasy treat. I am constantly obsessed with sneaking more vegetables into that pot belly and have tried to trick her by baking sweet potato and zucchini fries, but she was wise to my game. After having some success with a souped up version of zucchini bread, I tried to bake my own version of a veggie cracker. It worked for about a day and then tanked as well. My next idea is the new-to-me veggie spaghetti squash. She loves pasta and this stuff - when baked - looks and tastes pretty much like spaghetti noodles, so we'll see... She also has a new love of suckers and fruit snacks, but I've decided to just leave well enough alone on those.

TO PLAY: One of her favorite games is what I call "more please." She will bring me a toy, piece of play food, book, or anything really, and then look up at me hopefully and say "moh peeze" with her head slightly nodding in approval. I will then of course say yes and she will cheerfully trot off to bring me more of the item of the day. She, like most kids, loves to pull things out of cabinets and rearrange them to her liking - which many times means just scattered around the floor - and she loves to "read" and be read to. Whether stomping around our muddy backyard or playing at the park down the street, Lily LOVES to be outside. Even when - or maybe especially when - it is raining. Some mornings we end up on the back driveway in our pjs and tennis shoes because she just cannot wait to go "ouwside."

TO DO: Like her mother and her mother's mother, Lily loves to be on the go. We can hardly make it to lunch time each day without getting out of the house for some type of activity or errand. Her schedule is much more conducive for that than it used to be and I who once thought I could not live without that morning nap time to get things done, am loving this stage just as much. One of our weekly must-dos is story time at the central library downtown. We have gone off and on since she was old enough to sit up but now she is really learning the songs and gets excited when I tell her that is where we are headed. Her favorite parts of story time right now are the scarves they pass out and the big bear puppet that they get to hug at the end. With the scarves, while the other children are calmly pulling their one scarf out of the basket, Lily always grabs as many as she can carry. I try to of course correct her, but sometimes am guilty of being "that mom" who thinks her child is just being cuter than the rest. The bear is even worse... she cannot wait to run up and give him one hug then another and another. She is pretty good about backing off enough for the other kids to get their hugs in to, but she is the only one who gets in line over and over. Today I think she hugged him 5 times.

As much as I hate it, Lily loves to watch Elmo and now Mickey Mouse. She begs for them so pitifully that it is hard for me to resist. Some days we are even woken up to a quiet little voice saying "Mee Mouse" or "Ehmo" from her crib. Don't get me wrong, we do not watch TV all day and I certainly don't use it as a "babysitter" - well, okay sometimes while I get ready or catch up on some work - but we do keep a close eye on how much the TV (or iPhone) has been on in a given day and try to keep a handle on it. This is one of those things I thought I would never let my 18-month-old do on a daily basis, but have sadly been proven wrong.

She is learning and saying more things every day and Blake and I are constantly excited to tell each other about her latest accomplishment. To wrap it up, I'll just summarize that she is learning letters (primarily knows A, O, S and B), shapes (circle, square, triangle, star), colors (red, green) and sporadically counting to 10 - hitting or missing a few in between. She is also starting to finish words in books and songs when being ready or sung to. Her best "read" at the moment is Go Dog Go.

Lily loves her cousins!

1st Parade - she LOVED it!

Playing at the park near our house

Triathlon in October - cold and rainy, but we had a good time.

the girls... Sarah, me, Jessica, Jennifer

Blake competed as well, along with Sarah's husband, Ben, and our friend Ryan

Bro-in-law Roger took 5th overall!

Our 16-Month-Old

Baby Steps

What a difference a few weeks make! July 4th weekend, Lily took her first wobbly steps in-between Blake and me or my Mom and me (see 1st video at bottom). The following weeks were frustrating for the both of us. She wanted to walk - crawling was all of the sudden not cool anymore - but did not want to let go of my finger. I, on the other hand, tried to tell myself that I should cherish this brief time when she wanted my assistance and companionship, but still grew tired of walking in super slow circles around our house all day.

At the end of July or the first of August we had a small break-through in the church lobby where - to the great delight of us and our friends nearby - she took off with 10-15 steps instead of 3-5. She was really enjoying herself, and the attention, until she fell and bloodied her lip on the floor.

A few more weeks passed - Blake and I went to Costa Rica and back - and she still COULD walk, but just did not seem to want it bad enough to let go. Then finally, early this week it clicked. Now there is no stopping those chubby little legs. She is a much happier kid.

Two key components of her new love of being upright are number one, her pink jellies and number two, her purse. She loves to play with all her shoes and will inevitably come to me with either both pink jellies or one jelly and one other random shoe and want me to put them both on her. Last night she slept with both jellies in bed with her and had them in-hand when we went to get her this morning. She also likes to have at least one of them in the bathtub.

Her purse contains a plastic girl in a bunny costume from Easter, the letter "T", two home-strung hot pink necklaces, plastic lipstick, a crayon or two, a few stray Cheerios and a plastic mirror - just the necessities of course. She loves to carry that think all over the house (see 2nd video at the bottom) as if she really has somewhere important to go. I am amazed at how Blake and I produced such a girly child.

Her "Faves"

Lily still loves animals and it has gotten to the point that if we are in a store with a display of stuffed creatures of any species, I know to schedule 5 or 10 extra minutes for Lily to hug each one (see pic below). Her favorite ones seem to be the ones that are as big or bigger than she is. At home she always goes for an old teddy bear that was mine and is a head taller than she is. She tries to carry him around without much success.

Lily has two new favorite people - my aunt Terri and our friend Grant. Her fondness for Terri may have something to do with the fact that she looks and sounds like Grana or the fact that Terri works in a children's store and is quick to pass out the above mentions animals anytime we stop by. Whatever it is, Lily is crazy over her. Anytime she sees her picture she gleefully points and either begins saying "Hi" or "T" over and over.

Grant is one of our good friends and has been around Lily all her life. She's always liked the fact the he typically has a ball cap on, but recently her crush has grown incredibly. She goes straight for him at our home Bible study and then when she gets there, she'll cock her head to the side and grin like she's shy or something. On Sunday mornings, even if she is fussy, when she sees Grant she perks up and starts pointing at him.

Eating apples whole is a new thing for Lily that she picked up at Nana's house. She gets so excited to hold the whole thing like she's really a big shot or something. When I started writing all of this, she was eating an apple in her high chair (see pic below) and saying app-le over and over and then she said Bi-ble. She just looked at me confused like she knew that wasn't right and then started saying app-le again.

What She's Learning

Her vocab has really increased from words that I think I can understand to clear and consistent declarations of whatever is in front of her. Her best-said words are: no, bye bye, hello, hi, drink, bread, apple, Bible, Amen (sort of), Daddy, Coop (or Goop) for Cooper, green, dog, bear, ball, more, snack (nack), light, and thank you (more like "taint too" - Grana taught her this one while we were out of town). She's got lots more that she's working on and it's so fun to hear her figure out how to say something new and then begin using it like she's always known.

She loves music and has learned to make motions to The Itsy Bitsy Spider, This Little Light of Mine (from Nana) and God Made Me (from Grana). She has also been working on her dance moves, although her rhythm is proving no better than mine or Blake's, poor thing. I'm also pretty sure she knows the color "green" and the letter "B", but that may just be wishful thinking.

The animal sounds she knows for the most part are those made by the dog, cat, horse (I am guessing Grana taught her this one), fish (this one is really cute and she picked it up at Nana's), cow, donkey (my favorite - although sometimes she does it backwards - "haw-he" instead of "he-haw"), and the tiger bear and lion - which are all are the same, a roar that she whispers.

I am sure I have left out some things - after all she is a genius (according to Blake) - but that is plenty of typing for now.

What an amazing little blessing she is to us and I am so thankful to get to sit back and watch in amazement as she grows and figures out the world around her.

This is what happens when I leave her alone with the Cheerios box.

Some walking action.

Costa Rica!

Wow, what a great trip! We wanted a beach vacation with a little more to offer and I'd say Costa Rica over-delivered. I really only got to lay out once or twice the whole time we were there - which was good and bad I guess. It was great fun though and although we missed Lily terribly, it was a needed get-a-way. Big thanks to Grana and Nana for taking such good care of Lily - she has not stopped talking about all the fun she had!

We went with the Harvey's and the Vinson's - the boys all went to school together - and pretty much did not stop from the time we left on a Sunday morning until we got home late Thursday night. The resort was absolutely beautiful and was all-inclusive, which really means they trick you into thinking everything is "free" because you paid for it months ago. We tried to get our money's worth.

When we were not eating the phenomenal food, we snorkled, sea kayaked, surfed, played golf (just the boys), sang karaoke (not Blake of course and if you know me well, you'll know I had no business with a mike either), went to the spa (again, just me), and then went on an all day excursion that included a zip-line canopy tour of the jungle, a 1600 ft waterslide through the jungle, horseback riding - again, in the jungle, and a hot springs/mud bath spa courtesy of the volcano - you guessed it... in the jungle. And all these years I've thought all jungles have to offer are animals and bugs that could eat me alive.

It's good to be home - I just wish we could have stowed away one of those Costa Rican housekeepers!

The Race

Last weekend, we went to Austin to see the Smiths and for me to race in my first triathlon. There were around 2000 women participating and it was so much fun! My goals were 1. not to drown and 2. not to come in last. I accomplished both so it was a success for me! It was also so great to have Blake and my sister out there cheering me on.

Katie - I had many flashbacks of watching your cross country races - so I guess you owed me one - ha!

pre-race stretching

the competition

part 1... the swim

part 2... the bike

part 3... the run

finished!