Christmas with the Lott Family

This Christmas morning, we opened gifts at home with Nana & Pappy before the other family members arrived. Isaiah was up most of the night, so he didn't wake up in time to open gifts.

The girls getting ready to open presents.


Makenna was thrilled with her gift from Madi -- so much, she gave her a big hug!

The girls love their new Princess capes!

Isaiah decided to wake up and join us.

Isaiah opening his present from Makenna.

He definitely enjoyed getting "Percy". The last few weeks he has been really interested in Thomas the Train.

Now onto gift opening with the rest of the Lott family. (I can't believe I didn't take many pictures, but here are a few highlights.)

The girls received an easel that they can use chalk or dry erase markers on -- a real favorite!


LPS (Littlest Pet Shop) was the most wanted toy at our house this year. I'll have to take a picture of them playing sometime. When they play LPS, it's the best the girls have ever played together. I'm glad they found something they can do together.


Here is Uncle Rick causing problems . . . Halle was more interested in him than in opening presents!


I think this is one of the only shots I have of some of the family.


Pappy will enjoy his binoculars . . . he loves to feed the birds and watch all the different types that come to the feeders.

Again, Isaiah slept through the gift opening . . . he just woke up and ate some lunch as we were finishing up.


Such a big boy!


Tractors have always been facinating to Isaiah, so he like his John Deere tractors. The Steelers blanket was a hit from the get-go. He drug it around with him everywhere.


I'm sure sunglasses aren't what you expect to get for Christmas, however it's a great time of year to buy them. I couldn't see paying $4.00 for them in the summer, but $.99 at the end of the season -- I'm all over that!


Tractors, tractors and more tractors! Yea, Zaya!

We had an enjoyable, relaxing Christmas. The kids were so well behaved (we were almost in shock). There was only one comment of ungratefulness, so our recent efforts must be working. Praise the Lord! We are so furtunate and thankful for all that we have been blessed with.

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A special thanks to the Lotts for all the gifts and for the food and other items you brought. It made my job so much easier!

Couldn't wait!

I don't have a lot of time to post, but I couldn't wait any longer to share this picture. My aunt & uncle bought this outfit for Isaiah last Christmas. He's just now fitting into it. He was so proud of it and didn't want to take it off when we came back home from church. What a CUTIE!!

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Well . . . it looks like there are two of them! The last few weeks I have noticed Isaiah getting more and more quirky like his sister Madison. "Things" have a place and he's becoming very methodical.

Last week, I saw him carrying cream cheese boxes from the pile of used boxes that we collect in the kitchen (which we later burn in the woodburner) over to the garbage under the sink. Apparently, Momma didn't know enough to throw them away because that's where they belong! He's always getting in the hall closet to use the broom or his little vaccuum.

One day, I was straightening up the kitchen. He saw me and had to help me by sweeping the floor. . .
I went downstairs to get something and to check on Madi because she was supposed to put all the balls in the ball pit. She was picking them up by color -- green first because it's her favorite color. You can kind of tell by the photo that they are layered -- green, blue, yellow, orange and red . . .

I just laugh and try not to get frustrated. I'd rather they be neat freaks than sloppy bums! If we could just teach Madi her room can be cleaned too!?!

In other news, Isaiah is finally drinking out of a straw. Two days ago, he figured out how to do it on his own. He's still in that state of confusion learning when to blow or to suck. It was hillarious watching him blow on flowers to smell them! He is starting to say Momma more often. He said it quite a bit Saturday, but I think that was only because I wasn't home most of the day. He was so excited to see me that he forgot he was being stubborn and not saying my name. He said Nana Sunday -- again, I think because he hadn't seen her in a long time. Other than that, everything is just "eh, eh" and pointing. He gets your attention and you know what he wants, but I'll be so glad when he says words! He doesn't care for sign language either. That seemed to help Madi some, but she was willing to participate!

Preview . . .

The next few weeks will, no doubt, be crazy! Lord willing, I will be able to post more about what we're up to these days.

Look for the full reveal of what is pictured above . . . "Thing 1 and Thing 2" . . . "Making Lemons into Lemonade?"

Special Delivery!

For fear of the Lord being disappointed in me (again), I would like to share an answer to prayer in my life this week.

Saturday afternoon I was faced with a bill of $150. Having never sold that much on ebay before (which is one of the only ways I can make money), I began to worry about how I was going to be able to pay this bill. As the day progressed, tension began to build in our family as financial burdens tend to do. I began to ask the Lord where the money would come from.

To help set the stage for this story . . . this year I participated in our Secret Sister program at church. For those of you that don't know what that is . . . it is simply a group of ladies that anonymously exchange names, pray for and encourage one another either with a little note or small gift throughout the year. At the end of the year, we have a "reveal" dinner where we let our Secret Sister know "I've been praying for you". Since we arrived back in town just hours before it started, I was not planning to attend the reveal this year. However, the director of the Secret Sister's group, called and asked me to run down to church just long enough for my Secret Sister to reveal herself.

To my surprise, my secret sister was a repeat from a couple years ago. She mentioned that when she picked my name she asked the director if that was okay because she had already picked my name before. Our director told her that God must have a reason. I had thanked my Secret Sister for the supply of Reese's Cups (among other things) she gave me many times explaining that I rationed them out to last until I received my next package. She laughed and said "Wait until you receive your [reveal] gift." At which point, I had to look in the gift bag. Sure enough, it was filled with Reese's Cups -- 100 of them!! I noticed there were some dollar bills rolled up and stuffed inside some of the candies, but I would have felt rude digging them out to count them all in front of everyone. I thanked her for her prayers and headed back home.

On the ride home, I tried calling my sister, mother and mother-in-law -- none of whom answered their phones. I had wanted to ask them all to pray that the Lord would specifically meet this need of mine. Disappointed, I said, "Lord, it's just you and me" and I began to pray the rest of the way home.

I got the girls in the shower and started to clean up from the dinner I left behind. Passing by the gift bag I had just received, I decided to count the money to see how much of a [small] dent it would put in my debt. I have to insert that I am not good at estimating. Also, the Secret Sister program is centered around prayer and limits the amount of money spend on gifts so everyone can be involved. One by one I began to pull out the dollar bills and set them on the table. There were a few stashes of five or six dollars stuck together too. The pile slowly began to grow. Finally, I asked Rick (the CPA) to come help me unroll the money and count it. To make a long story, a little shorter . . . when he finished counting, there was $100!!! (Insert exuberant joy and tears!!!) I was in awe of what the Lord had done!

I had not expected to go to the dinner that night. All the way home I was praying for the Lord to meet my need while the bag with $100 was sitting right next to me. (My sister pointed out it must have been a blonde moment and God was saying, "Look in the bag! I've already answered most of your prayer!")

The next day at church I had to share with my Secret Sister that the Lord had greatly used her in my life. She said she already had another gift picked out and bought, but the Lord told her four different times to give me that money, that I had a need. God did indeed have a reason for her picking my name again this year! In his omnipotence, a year ago, he knew that on the day of the reveal, I would have a need . . . that this lady would be open and willing to listen to Him and He would use her to meet that need.

GOD BE PRAISED! I hope this encourages you to increase your faith, pray for every individual need in your life and to give God all the honor and glory He deserves for working in your life!

Thanksgiving (and a little more)!

Again this year we headed to Cleveland to Gramma & Papaw's house for Thanksgiving. Each year we seem to have less and less people -- we missed Uncle Jon who is living in Florida and Aunt Mel who was visiting her fiance's family. We did enjoy the addition of Uncle Rick (Papaw's younger brother) this year. He usually visits my grandfather in Tennessee, so we haven't been able to share the holiday with him for quite a few years.

We always enjoy sitting around talking after stuffing ourselves!

Anna & Stephen (my brother & his girlfriend)

Uncle Rick, Gramma & Papaw

After the ladies cleaned up, we enjoyed some Pumpkin and Chocolate Pie. My mom is so kind to make Rick a Chocolate Pie since he doesn't care for pumpkin.

The girls are anxiously awaiting to get their piece of pie!


Makenna spent a lot of time over the holiday making cards. Gramma has a huge stash of envelopes, so Makenna would draw pictures and write notes to everyone.

Makenna was proud of the turkey she made at school. She didn't believe me when I called it Tom Turkey even after I told her to ask Papaw what name people give the turkey and he told her the same thing. She wanted to call it Kaylee, so pictured is Kaylee Turkey!

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This will prove a few of Madi's quirks . . . our first snow she asked me if she could go shovel. Being a bad mother, I told her to wait until later (honestly, because I didn't have the time to stop and bundle her up, undress her and help get her hot chocolate when she came in). She wasn't too happy when the snow melted off the grass before she was allowed to go outside. As you can see by the pictures, she had to get the snow off all the steps on the swingset and climb up to get the snow off the very top of the slide. There was a little snow left on the porch, so she was able to shovel that. A couple days later, she asked to go shovel again. I figured I better let her go out before the snow melted and she got upset again. She had been outside for a little while playing with the cat and "shoveling" everything -- at one point I noticed her knocking snow off the strawberry plants. I happened to look near the swingset as I turned around and saw she had shoveled a square, yes a square in the snow! I asked her about it and she walked over, so I was able to take her picture. Priceless!

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Isaiah has been enjoying playing with the remote controlled My Little Pony Scooter Madi received for a birthday present. He isn't quite skilled to make it go in a specific direction, but he gets a kick out of watching it spin in circles and run into things. He likes the horn too (which drives his father crazy)!

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For her birthday, Madi received an activity book. It teaches the skills of using scissors. She gets very determined while she is working and is thrilled with the outcome. The first couple times she was frustrated, but she soon got the hang of it and loves to cut and make pictures.

Any parent will agree, sleeping children are adorable! I couldn't pass up taking a picture. I let her sleep in and paid for it that night come bed time. She wasn't tired when we laid the kids down, but we made her be quite so she didn't wake the others. She read books for a while and wanted to get up off the couch for any reason. I finally told her to lay on the couch and close her eyes. She couldn't lay still and finally ended up on the floor. (For some reason she really likes the floor -- she usually sleeps on the floor in her room.) I happened to look over after a while and noticed she had fallen asleep.

Happy Birthday Madi!

Previously I mentioned Madi's birthday was nearing, but I never got around to updating everyone with the details almost two weeks later. So here goes . . .

(Pictured Chuck & Cheese!)
Madi wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese with a couple friends, so we picked them up from school and headed over to play.

I'm glad I had them use a token to have their picture taken. Everything was a little crazy trying to keep up with four girls hence no picture on my camera.

Afterwards, we headed over to Nana & Pappy's house for pizza and birthday cake.

On her actual birthday, we enjoyed the last of the birthday cake. Of course, we sang 'Happy Birthday' again. (On a personal note, I'm so glad she is getting over her shyness around the camera.)

She did very well at her doctor check-up. She's tall and skinny -- surprise, surprise! They aren't too concerned about her quirkiness for now. Just said don't bring attention to it. She seems to be improving some times (we can now make it through a meal without closing the lid on the ketchup), but other times she is very passionate about having things done a certain way. She passed her eye exam with flying colors and was very brave about getting her ears cleaned out.

Lately, I have seen her maturing. I love her little stories and out looks on life. Everyday is always exciting with her around. WE LOVE YOU MADI!

Happy Turkey Day!

MAY YOUR STUFFING BE TASTY,

MAY YOUR TURKEY BE PLUMP,

MAY YOUR POTATOES 'N GRAVY

HAVE NARY A LUMP.

MAY YOUR YAMS BE DELICIOUS,

MAY YOUR PIES TAKE THE PRIZE,

MAY YOUR THANKSGIVING DINNER

STAY OFF OF YOUR THIGHS.

Happy Thanksgiving!

In a BIG Nutshell

Life is NUTS as usual, so there hasn't been much time for posting . . . I'll try to hit the highlights and not make this a novel! November has been full of excitement in our family in addition to the day to day stuff. (I'll leave out the stories of hand sanitizer in the eye and the "almost" trip to the hospital when we thought there was a tooth through a lip!)

Madison turns 4 tomorrow. This year we took Madison, Makenna and their best friends to Chuck E. Cheese -- a most requested activity! It was me and the girls, so I didn't have much time or thought to take a picture of all of them. Fortunately, I had them sit on a ride that sketched a picture. Afterwards, we had pizza & cake with family. Madi was still her shy self at times, but she did enjoy some of the attention. I asked her the next day if she had a good time -- she had a smile from ear to ear and shook her head YES!

Our cousin's little girl also had a birthday this month. We enjoyed the time celebrating her birthday with family, and thanking the Lord she is part of our family. Happy 1st birthday Halle!

The weather has recently turned and winter is here! We enjoyed every minute of the warm weather we had in November. A few weeks ago, Rick mowed the grass for the last time. Madi was the first one to get ready and go outside. I looked out the window to see her cleaning up the leaves from where she didn't think they belonged -- I should have guessed as much -- She used to sort her fruit snacks by color at 15 months!

Isaiah received his first "official" haircut. I gave in because I didn't want to mess the top part up and end up buzzing his hair. After being charged an arm and an leg, I think I'll attempt it on my own next time! I guess the cute certificate and hair momento helped ease the pain.

Makenna's school celebrated Grandparents with a little morning program. Only Nana & Pappy were able to make it, but we filmed the program so we could share it with Gramma & Papaw. Makenna did really well (especially in comparison to her last on-stage performance -- see Lady Liberty)! We are all so proud of her and how much she has grown in many ways.

After the program, Nana & Pappy treated us to 'the taco place' (a.k.a. Rey Azteca). Yummy!! Thanks again!

Well, I guess that wasn't horribly long. I'll pray I have more time to sneak in a short post here and there instead of a bi-monthly update!

We love and appreciate all our friends and family, and we are glad you stop by to "see" us! We are thankful for our God who never fails us, and a special thanks to our men and women who serve to keep our country safe. God Bless!