Brandt's imagination

Last night I laid in bed with Brandt for quite a while because he was in such a talkative mood.  He started out by telling me that he and Daddy were going to build a tree house.  He was going to work on the roof and Daddy was going to work on the brick.  He said it was going to have a big round slide like the one at the North Pole (the amusement park in Colorado Springs that we were just at).  He then started talking about that he was glad that we didn't have tigers in the house, but he wished we had elephants in the backyard.  I wish I would have come and written it all down last night after I got up from laying with him because he talked non-stop for over a half hour before I told him he needed to go to sleep.  He's a funny boy with a great imagination.  He also told me that he was my buddy and gave me a kiss.  I love my boy!!

Crawling

Laekin started crawling on July 18th at my parents.  She's been on her hands and knees and pushing herself forward, or else army crawling, but she figured out how to move those hands and knees together.  So I told Mike that night since he was not with us.  Then the next night I was giving Laekin a bath and I had her lying on the bathmat while I was running the water, all of a sudden I looked down and she had pulled herself up and was looking into the tub.  I screamed, and she sat back down.  I told Mike that night and he said good grief, she's crawling one night and standing the next, what is she going to do tomorrow?  Thankfully, she hasn't done anymore milestones.  There's only so much a mama can take!!  She sure is a happy little girl.  Whenever you ask her a question, she just nods her head yes.  It's so cute.  We just keep asking questions to see it.  She also got her 3rd tooth while up in Wisconsin.  She's almost 11 months old.  Time is going by so quickly and each day she blesses us so much.  We're so thankful for our 3 precious gifts!!

Shooting

Brandt is a typical boy, he likes guns.  My Mom bought the kids a bunch of balloons while we were at their house.  Brandt took a really big one, tucked it under his arm, and said "mama, this is my gun, I shoot you."  I said, Brandt you don't shoot people, what should you shoot, and he said "animals."  So a little while later Lucy comes running through the kitchen and into the back hall and shuts the door.  Brandt comes running in and says, "where is sissy."  Grandma is pointing to the back hall, and Lucy is yelling "don't tell him where I am" like he can't hear her, but obviously he didn't pay attention because he went downstairs to look for her instead.  So Lucy comes in the kitchen, puts her hand on her hip and says "do you know why I didn't want Brandt to find me?"  We said no.  She said "because he said I was a bird and was trying to shoot me."  I just started laughing, which Lucy didn't like, but Brandt figured out a way to shoot his sissy and still just shoot animals.  Oh what a little boy!!

Surprise

While we were in Wisconsin this summer, Lucy told me one night that she had a surprise for me the next day.  I said, what is it, and she said, you just have to wait and see.  So, the next day came and I forgot about it and she never said anything.  A few days later, I found a note behind her pillow.  It was to the tooth fairy.  She said Dear Tooth fairy, I'm sorry that I do not have a tooth for you to day (then she circled to day and said it should be 1 work...love that she is correcting spelling).  Then she went on to ask the tooth fairy if she could pleeeese turn her into a fairy.  Lucy was by me when I was reading the letter.  I looked up at her and she had this disappointed look on her face and said, "that was your surprise."  I told her how happy I was that it didn't happen because fairies are so small and I would be afraid that I wouldn't be able to find her and then I couldn't hug and kiss her anymore.  It was so sweet that she thought she could be a fairy, and so sad as I thought about how disappointed she was that morning that she couldn't fly around the room and surprise me.

Lost tooth

Lucy lost her first tooth last week.  It came loose about a month ago while she was eating a bagel at Panera.  She got this scared look on her face, and when I asked her what was wrong she said her tooth made a funny sound when she took a bite.  I said, I bet your tooth just became loose.  She checked it and sure enough, it was loose.  She was so excited.  When the tooth was really loose, Mike said, I think I can just pull it out with the pliers.  Surprisingly, she agreed to it.  She laid in bed and Mike sat over her with the pliers.  I couldn't watch.  He pulled at it, but he was too nervous to pull hard and it hurt her a little and she was done with that.  Mike said, I should of just pulled hard, but I couldn't do it.  Anyhow, she was eating a hamburger last week, and she said this is really hard to eat with a loose tooth.  All of a sudden she said, mommy look... she was holding her little tooth out.  So now we have a sweet smile with a hole!  The night before she lost her tooth it stormed really bad, so Lucy said, I hope it doesn't rain tonight because the tooth fairy won't be able to fly here because her wings will get wet.  We put her tooth in a special pillow case that my Grandma had made for my sister and me.  It has a little pocket for the tooth, and thankfully it didn't rain and the tooth fairy made it.  Her new tooth has already started to pop up, and she has another loose one.  Crazy!!  Didn't she just get her teeth? :)

9 months old

Laekin is 9 months old.  She is learning things so quickly this month it seems.  She started clapping, signing more, saying mama, waving, dancing by rocking her bottom on the floor while holding her hands together, and now she is pulling her knees up under her. It won't be long until she is crawling.  I can't stop it, although I do try because I hold her a lot!  I love my Laekey. 

Brandt loves Laekin too.  It's so cute how he runs to be first to see her when she wakes up from naps.  He lays toys by her that she can play with.  He gives her kisses a lot and still talks to her in his high voice.  He really loves her.  It's such a blessing!!

Lucy's Prayer

November 8th marks a very important date in our house now.  It's the day that Lucy asked Jesus to be her Lord and Savior by inviting Him into her heart.  It was during the time of all the earthquakes.  We were eating lunch, and I was reading the Bible and had said out loud that I thought Jesus was going to be coming soon because it says there will be earthquakes is diverse places.  Lucy started to cry and said that she didn't want Jesus to come yet.  I asked her why and she said because she loved our house and the way everything is right now.  So we talked about heaven and how perfect it is, and even our favorite things on earth cannot compare to what the Lord has for us in heaven.  So then we talked about how all of those who have asked Christ into their heart would go to be with him in heaven, which is our family and a lot of our friends.  I then asked her to tell me why we have to ask Jesus into our life and accept His free gift He has given us in order to go to heaven.  She told me all about Jesus being perfect and having to be nailed to the cross and suffer for our sins.  I asked her what happened then.  She said he died, and then he rose again on teh 3rd day.  She understood what rose again meant and she understood that it was the only way that death could be defeated and that we could be forgiven and made clean.  It was a beautiful thing to listen to my little girl understand what I have prayed for her since the day I found out I was pregnant.  I remember going for a long walk after I took my pregnancy test.  Mike was still sleeping, so I hadn't even told him.  I walked and prayed for this life that was in my tummy that he or she would come to know Jesus at a young age and would bring Him much glory in life.  So here we are on November 8th and Lucy wanted to pray and ask Him in forever.  She asked me what she was supposed to say, and I told her just tell Him thank you for the sacrifice that He made for her and that you love Him and want Him to come live in your life forever.  She said "that's all."  I said yes.  So she prayed while I sat their crying as the heavens rejoiced over another won soul!  We started to call people to tell them, but it was almost as if she was kind of embarassed about telling people.  So we talked about how we need to be bold and confident in Christ as the Bible tells us, and she did start telling people loudly and proudly of the choice she had made.  We are very proud of her.  We celebrated by taking her to Mardell to pick out her own big girl Bible.  I told her not to pick the Bible that she thought was the prettiest, but to look through them and pick the one that she would read.  So she picked a Veggie Tale Bible that has good explanations of passages in the margins and some cartoon Bible stories like their movies.  We also went to Chick-fil-a to eat and play.

It was amazing to see the Holy Spirit work in her little life. She had been having trouble with lying to us because she thought she would get in trouble, but since then we have not had that problem. It was like it was a spiritual warfare in her body as she was coming closer to knowing Christ. Lucy is an amazing little girl with a gentle spirit, and it's going to be amazing to see what she is going to do in her life to bring God glory. There are so many things I pray about for our children, but it's such a blessing to know her eternity is secure in Christ.