another funny story...

every night since sarah was a little baby, i have sung (sang?--that is one of those verb tense tricky ones!) "i love you Lord" to each of my babies>infants>toddlers. i don't really know why that particular song became the last one i sung/sang every night, but no matter what other songs i sing first, i always end with that one.

at various times over the years, sarah and drew have either listened or sung/sang along. depending on their mood, degree of sleepiness, age, etc.

well, drew is in a "singing stage" right now. and he is CRACKING me up. i leave his room laughing every night.

you know at the end of the song when it goes, "take joy my King, in what you hear..."

for some reason, drew thinks the words are, "take joy movies, in what you hear..."

it is too too precious to hear. i have been trying to figure out a way to record it without getting too much of my voice and without him knowing i'm doing it...you know, 'cause he's a stinker and totally wouldn't sing it if he knew i was really listening :)

just a sweet memory that i don't want to forget...

jacob and sissy...1.18

somebody loves her new little brother A LOT!

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both of the kiddos LOVE to hold jacob. and sweet little drew still sings to him every time he holds him--just like he did in the hospital! the other night, the kids were loving on jacob and making him smile SO big! i think he smiles bigger for sarah and drew than he does for me :) of course, we had to grab the camera to capture jacob's big ole smiles.

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and although blogger officially hates me and won't post ANY of my pics in the order i want lately, the pic of jacob asleep in the swing was right after all the sweet smiles. he was tuckered out.

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btw, the cute little monkey (a gift from aunt jodie and the j's) is jacob's constant companion in the swing. before the monkey, he wanted nothing to do with the swing and NEVER fell asleep in there. NOW, with the monkey, we have a happy little guy who frequently catnaps in the swing...often times at dinner time which is a HUGE blessing! thanks so much 4 j's!!!

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neither sarah nor drew liked lovies as babies. jacob is a different story. he LOVES to have a blankie or monkey(!) next to his face while he is sleeping!

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one of my friends with 5 kids said that the more kids you have, the more the recessive genes come out of the gene pool!!!

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sarah and drew were short and fat for the first 2 years...jacob is long and lean...

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sarah and drew had brown eyes pretty much from the get-go...jacob's eyes are still blue at 3 months...

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sarah and drew look so much alike, they would never be mistaken for NOT being siblings...jacob doesn't look that much like them...

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i don't know if my friend's theory is scientific or not, but it seems to be proving true in our little family!!!

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okay, i got WAY far off on that tangent :)

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bottom line, the big kids LOVE their sweet little brother!!!

also found these on the old camera...12.22

sweet kiddos!!!

we love uncle andy!!!...12.22 (found these on my old camera!)

the kids were SO SO happy when uncle andy was in town. i think andy had a sarah sized impression in his lap! she was on him like white on rice THE. WHOLE. TIME. he was in town! it was so fun to watch my kiddos bonding with their uncle!!!

too funny!!!

scene: sitting at the dinner table. sarah, drew, mommy, and daddy (jacob was asleep...go figure)

we are discussing how the kids need to eat FIVE more bites of salad before they can have a chip.

out of nowhere...sarah says, "mommy, when you hear your eardrum sends a message to your brain".

HUH? she MUST be a genius :)

(actually, they studied the 5 senses at school this week!)

then, as tim and i are so flabbergasted at the turn in the conversation and laughing so hard, sarah keeps talking...

sarah says, "mommy, pop pop can't hear me when i talk to him...i think he has a broken eardrum!"

ha ha ha!!! what a little smarty pants, huh?!?

thank you preschool for teaching my little girl so much!!!

current events...

first of all, i am COMPLETELY caught up on blogging...savor the moment because it has only happened once or twice before! and i'm sure i'll be behind again before you know it :)

i thought since i was caught up on pics, i'd take a second to write about what each kid is doing...you know, since this is basically all 3 of their baby/toddler/childhood memory books combined!!!

SARAH:

~she is SUCH a busy body! she has to know what everyone is doing ALL the time!

exhibit #1: saturday afternoon, she woke up from her nap before tim, kelly, drew, or jacob woke up...she answers the phone (a BIG no-no!) and tells mimi and poppy that everyone is alseep, and mommy is asleep IN THE CAR!!! so, mimi and poppy get concerned, because they think i am really in the car--you know, carbon monoxide poisoning!! sweet poppy drove over here to make sure i was okay! of course, i was asleep upstairs in sarah's room and she just didn't know where i was!!! i felt so bad for my parents...but i was SO thankful that they checked...JUST IN CASE :)

exhibit #2: sunday, jacob was asleep. sarah came to us and asked, "where's jacob?". when we said he was sleeping, she RAN into our bedroom and looked in jacob's bassinet. she RAN back to us and said, "jacob is NOT in his bed...where is he?". he was safely sleeping in his actual room, in his actual bed. granted, that doesn't happen all that often, BUT she was frantic because she didn't have the 411 on EVERYONE in our house!!!

~she just had her evaluation by her 4 year old teachers to discuss her progress in school and whether she should go to kindergarten or the 5 transitional class. she got all "+" signs! her teachers said she was ALWAYS happy, VERY social, and VERY smart!!! she WILL be going to the 5T class because of her birthday falling 2 days before the cut-off. i would rather her be one of the oldest in her grade instead of the youngest!!! her teachers agreed that it just wasn't fair to send her to kindergarten before she turned 5! of course we want to give her every advantage in life...

~as i've said before, she is NEVER quiet and NEVER still...she is always singing and dancing around! most of the time its fine, sometimes it really really really gets on my nerves!!!

~she is very sensitive to/aware of others' feelings. her little friend courtney is moving to ohio after this school year. she has repeatedly told me and her teachers that courtney is moving, and courtney will be sad, but it will be okay because courtney will make new friends at her new school!!!

~her new year's resolution (unbeknownst to her!) was to stop wearing a pull-up at bedtime. i have to say, this was really just laziness on my part! i didn't want to have to change wet sheets in the middle of the night! but, she has only had 1 accident since january 1st! i'm very proud of her!!!


DREW:

~he still thinks he's just as old as sarah!!! he THINKS he is sounding out words, just like sarah! if i can't understand what he is saying, and ask him to repeat himself, he will say, "duh-duh-duh-popcorn"...you know, like he is saying the beginning sound of popcorn :) too cute!!!

~his new year's resolution (also unbeknownst to him!) was to start wearing big boy undies all the time except nap/bedtime. we have been toying around with potty training for a long time...again, laziness/new baby-ness kept us from going full force. so, starting january 1st, NO MORE DIAPERS/PULL-UPS!!! he has done really really well! he's only had a few #1 accidents...usually when he's at school or sunday school...too busy to potty! and the first couple of days he totally did NOT grasp the concept of doing #2 in the potty...now he's a #2 machine! i think getting FIVE WHOLE skittles when he does #2 in the potty has something to do with that :) so, we quickly went back to only having one child in diapers...hip hip hooray!!!

~he has acquired quite the collection of boy dress-up clothes, but still prefers to wear a combo of girlie dress-up clothes! he is usually sporting a princess dress, sunglasses, bunny ears, and wielding a hockey stick or leaf blower when left to his own devices...what a mess!!!

~he is getting much better at "sitting still" activities. he loves to have a book read to him, he loves to put together puzzles, and he will sit quietly and play with his trains or cars for a good chunk of time (in toddler time!). its nice that he isn't a tornado of energy at all times anymore :)

~he is slowly moving into his role as middle child...he was NOT happy for a while that jacob was stealing some of his attention. but, now he seems to be adjusting...his behavior has definitely improved since the new year. he is usually really loving with jacob. and talks in the highest voice possible to him...i guess he is trying to mimic my "baby talk" voice...

~he is really trying to grasp numbers...he can count to 10+, but doesn't understand "more" and "less". he and sarah had the longest argument the other day because sarah said they wanted "10 candies" and drew kept saying, "NO! i want 4 candies!" and he totally thought he was asking for more. drew's number requests are often accompanied by him holding up a different number of fingers than what he is saying too. so funny!!!


JACOB:

~he is growing up TOO TOO fast! i can't stand it! he is already learning to put himself to sleep...or he would be except i WANT to rock him because i figure he's my last little one to rock!

~he is SO SO long! he has outgrown all 0-3 month clothes and is too long for his bassinet already!
~he LOVES to stick out his tongue. and will do so if you stick out your tongue at him!!!

~he is always moving his arms and legs...like, "hey...i can control these things!" so funny to watch. but SO glad he is out of that whole stuck-in-fetal-position-thing that makes dressing and diaper changes impossible!

~he thinks he can "talk" and will carry on "conversations" with us. complete with precious facial expressions!!!

~oh, and he just realized he can "stand"! oh...that makes me so sad! he looks too grown up locking his knees and trying to be in the standing position all the time!

~just in the past couple of days, he has noticed his hands. i LOVE it when newborns find their hands. its so funny when their hand happens to pass through their vision field and they always get this expression like, "hey...what is that?!?" and the same thing happens again 2 minutes later :)



well, i ended up working on this blog for several days...too much to write in one sitting :) so, i broke my streak of blogging every day. i have taken some more pics since i started this post...so i will get those up asap! thanks for reading!!!

more sweet faces...1.17

sweet faces...1.13

kate's 2nd birthday party...1.3

all 5 of us went to kate's 2nd birthday party the first saturday of the year. the party was candyland themed...and deana went ALL out! the kids decorated gingerbread cookies, made gingerbread men with stickers, listened to the candyland story and tasted all the different candies, ate a delicious candyland board cake, etc etc etc!!! it was a precious party! the kids had so much fun! by the way, the sweet old lady holding jacob is kate's great grandmother...she held sarah when she was a baby at anna's 1st birthday party 4 years ago!!! i have pictures of that somewhere :) what a fun day!

rockin' new year's eve...12.31

this year, for the 2nd year in a row, we went to the york's house for new year's eve. we added the higginbotham family to the mix this year...meaning we had 6 adults and 7 kids!!! what a crazy night! actually, it was pretty calm for the most part. the kids happily played upstairs for most of the night without incident...well, except for the lipstick on the carpet :) everyone had a great time! after the kiddos went to bed, we played the new game i got for christmas...it was hilarious! i'm surprised we didn't wake up the kids with our antics!!! happy new year!!!

visiting with friends from long ago...12.29 and 12.31

kelly, regan, colleen, elizabeth (ej), dianna, and amber

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on monday night the 29th, amber hosted dinner at her beautiful home for a group of girls that i have been friends with since early high school. we all have kept in touch for almost 13 years now by email and try to get together at least once a year when everyone comes "home" to germantown. sadly, we remembered to take a picture after laura and christy had left :( there are 16 girls total who are a part of this group...we live in tennessee, texas, mississippi, alabama, louisiana, and missouri so we don't ALL get together very often. and i think we have 14 husbands, 27 kids, and 2 more babies on the way!!!
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ej with walker, lucy, dianna with brady, grace, kelly with jacob, sarah, and drew...this was one of the hardest pictures to take that i have ever been a part of!!!

on friday morning, dec 31st, those who could came to my house for a playdate! tim and dianna's husband, josh were there as well as the mommies! it was mass chaos! the kids had lots of fun playing together and terrorizing each other! everyone was wiped out after playing so hard! it was so great to get to see "the next generation" playing!!!

sweet and silly moments with uncle andy...12.29

stringfield family christmas...12.27

g.g. holding baby jacob...
drew terrorizing the piano...

the entire vick stringfield family

granny merle (aka g.g. to my kids) and papa vick and their 6 grandchildren

granny merle, papa vick, and their 3 children

4 generations

i know this is surprising...but jacob slept through all the present opening at aunt ann's house too!!!

the obligatory picture of andy holding his annual lsu t-shirt...he loves them and wears them all the time, but for some reason, i ALWAYS get a pic of him holding it each year...random!

sarah wearing and holding her presents...

granny merle opening a gorgeous ring from papa vick...

drew showing off his power tools...oh, in case you can see the MASSIVE cut between drew's nose and lip...on christmas day, he pulled on a stocking at mimi's house which caused the stocking holder to fall off and somehow cut him there...none of us saw it happen (great parenting, huh?) but, it was a nice little injury for EVERYONE to ask us about for a few days...

oh yes, you can see the huge cut quite nicely in this picture...poor drew boo :(

sweet "aunt" lana and "uncle" ed...

baby jacob, sleeping once again...this nap time was on aunt annie

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again, we had a wonderful time visiting with family. our trip was too too short, but we squeezed in as much as we could while we were there. we came home on sunday, the 28th after being there a little more than 36 hours! the kids were great driving home too, considering the grueling schedule they had been on while in louisiana. we were able to be a little more leisurely on the drive home since we weren't racing to a family gathering. okay, that concludes the christmas posts...i think i was posting christmas pics til the end of january last year :)

wood family christmas...12.26

cousin emily and andy being SO cool :)
the "big" cousins...emily, kelly, joanna, and andy (we were missing michael-boo!)

all the first cousins...jack, emily, kelly, joanna, andy, and julie (again, no michael)

being silly!!!

what could be more fun for a two year old than playing with toothpicks!?! do not try this at home...

julie was SO sweet helping little drew open his presents...

sweet emily was nice enough to paint sarah's nails IMMEDIATELY upon sarah opening her present containing nail polish...of course, mommy had just painted her nails the day before :)

savannah was NOT happy that she wasn't sitting by sarah...

attempting to get a picture of all 5 great grand kids together...drew showing off the finer side of his personality :) 7 hours in the car and no nap definitely brings out his best!!!

don't jacob and samantha jo look so comfortable? drew "holding" (and i use that term loosely) jacob, savannah holding sj, and sarah

a little better? maybe?

we saved poor baby jacob from his torture and tried just the other kids a few more times...

the whole gang...minus michael, heath, and steve

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we had a wonderful time visiting with the wood family...although the time always passes too quickly! my family of 5 got on the road at about 11:00am the day after christmas and made it to madisonville, louisiana about 5:30pm. it was a LONG drive!!! the big kids were amazingly well behaved...and baby jacob barely made a peep! but, the exhaustion/hyperactivity hit at uncle rick's for sure!!! but, i'm still so so glad we made the trip to get to see our family!

christmas afternoon at mimi and poppy's house...12.25

surprise...surprise...jacob slept through all the present opening at mimi's house too!!!

we laughed and laughed at sarah playing with the toolbench and drew playing with the dollhouse! i promise, we ARE trying to get drew more masculine toys :)

christmas morning at nana and pop pop's house...12.25

aunt marcell and uncle therell surprised us by joining in the festivities on christmas morning!!!
nana and pop pop got sarah a personalized princess book! how perfect! sarah was WAY excited that the story had HER name, address, birthday, and friends' names in it!!!

aunt marcell lovin' on little jacob...

uncle therell taking his turn with the peanut...

singing happy birthday to Jesus...

pop pop told the story of Jesus's birth to the little ones...i LOVE the look on sarah's face in this pic! pop pop asked questions during the story and sarah was on cloud nine raising her hand and answering the questions...SO the little nerd!!!

sweet pic of prayer time after the story...

sweet little man slept through opening presents...he had already slept through opening santa presents earlier!!!

opening santa presents...12.25

leaving cookies for santa...12.24

christmas eve...12.24

this year we started a new tradition on christmas eve. my family of 5 plus nana, pop pop, mimi, poppy, and uncle andy all attended the gbc vesper service together, and then came back to our house for dinner. tim and i decided that we wanted to be at our house on christmas eve instead of rushing home at the last minute every year to leave cookies for santa. tim and i haven't really established any of our own christmas traditions so we decided that this would be our night to host. so, anyone is welcome to come to our house on christmas eve...

we had a nice time at the vesper service. pastor hal had all the kids come down to the front for a bible story. i walked sarah and drew down there and left them there. i was worried about how drew would do, but he was a perfect angel. at the end of the children's time, sarah took drew's hand to help him find me. too precious!!!

when we got back to our house, we had a no-fuss dinner of taco soup. it was a nice night with family! and a great start to our christmas celebrations!!!

sarah's winter dance recital...12.20

a walk down memory lane...

santa visit 2008...12.19

we made our annual trek to visit santa as a family of FIVE on december 19th...it was a really mild night and the kids had taken good naps which translated into a very fun night out! we walked right into santa's workshop and waited less than 5 minutes to see jolly old saint nick! i think the "official" pic turned out quite nice!

every year before this one, we have made the long journey to the galleria for our pic, and i finally wised up and we went to the collierville mall this year. it turned out to be a great decision, as santa has a loveseat in collierville instead of a chair! more room for our expanding family!!! overall, another very successful visit with santa!!!

posin' in front of the poinsettia tree...12.18 (hopped up on sugar from preschool christmas parties!!!)

sarah's preschool christmas party...12.18

bunko christmas dinner...12.16

i left tim at home with all three kids for the first time to attend our annual bunko christmas dinner at elfo's. it was a delicious meal made even more spectacular by the company...NO kids :) thankfully baby jacob took his bottle like a champ...it was only his 2nd one ever! we had a really nice night out except we were missing one key ingredient--MARY! she was being a wonderful sister and helping out bekah! we missed you mary!!!