Baby Blessing

Our church had its annual baby blessing service on Sunday night. Lots of people worked really hard to make sure it was special for us all. There was a slide show of all the babies, several people spoke about teaching and loving the little ones. Some of our elders prayed over the babies. We were so touched that all of Lydia's grandparents, aunts, uncles and even some great aunt and uncles made it! We ate dinner at mom and dad's afterward. It was a really special night. We are also excited that within the next few months all of Lydia's grandparents will be in Maumelle. Beth and Manuel are moving into some brand new apartments out here and Pop and OG are looking at some town houses VERY close to us!

Lydia coughed RIGHT in the middle of this picture, so I stole the one of Pop and OG's blog!!

Fun with Friends

Lydia has been spending a lot of time with different friends and family members lately. We are so super blessed to have so many people that want to spend time with Lydia...she is very loved!

Erica and Jimmy came over for dinner last week

Lydia LOVES playing with Josiah!! Can't wait til he's big enough to play back...

This is just before Lydia tipped over Josiah's carseat...

Lydia and her cousin Rebekah

Necon's mom still hasn't picked out a name...I think Grandma is topping the list this week!

Lydia's first time in her big coat...if you look closely you can see her snotty nose!!

Sitting Up

Three days before she turned 5 months old, Lydia started sitting up. She had been sort of sitting up if she was leaned over far enough, but this was the first time she really held her torso up and kept her balance well. She looks so much bigger now that she can sit up and play with things!! Time goes by so fast...

This is her other new trick...she reaches for us. Melts our hearts!!

Lydia turned 5 months old on January 24th. Besides learning to sit up, she is well on her way to crawling. She can get up on her hands and knees and she pulls one knee in like she is about to take off, she just hasn't quite done it yet. I have really mixed feelings about her becoming mobile~but I think it will be super fun. She hasn't gotten any of the teeth we thought were coming 2 months ago...guess she is just the world's slobberiest baby! She weighed almost 18 pounds but is now down to 16 pounds from all this sickness. She is the longest baby ever...she has to wear 9 month sleepers because she can't straighten her legs out in the 6 month size. She has been holding her bottle for a while now, and she absolutely LOVES taking a shower. She will lean back into the water, squeal and get out and then do the whole thing over again. She loves to eat her baby food carrots, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. She has now had some apple juice and white grape juice. I think she likes the grape juice better. Can't wait to see how much changes by next month...

Oklahoma City

We finally made it to OKC to see my family for Christmas. We drove down on Thursday night and stayed with my dad's side of the family. We went to my cousin Michelle's shower on Saturday. Lydia is going to have another cousin, Cooper, in February. We came back after church on Sunday to celebrate Travis' birthday. Another quick trip to Oklahoma! We always wish we could have stayed longer!!

She finally likes her carseat!!

McKenzie wasn't too sure about Lydia in the beginning.

Someone has learned how to pose for the camera!!

Megan scooped them both up and forced them to bond...

They finally had fun playing together!!

I was super sad to realize I took no pictures of the rest of our trip. If any of you have pictures we would love to see them...Lydia caught her first cold while we were there and she is finally feeling better. She had a little bit of everything: runny nose, cough, diarrhea, throwing up, fever. I am glad she is getting better because I never took her into the doctor. I was starting to feel like a really bad mother. She has been her happy self today...

Happy Birthday Trav!

Today is Travis' birthday. He was Necon's bestfriend since they were very young. They grew up playing baseball together just about year round. We all went to high school together, and Trav would probably try to take some credit for getting Necon and me together! We got older and spent some years where we didn't see eachother as much, but a few years ago we started playing ball together again...co-ed!! Trav's dad (Pop to us now...) was our coach, just like he used to coach the boys all those years while they were growing up. Travis was without a doubt one of the smartest people I know. He was extremely talented in many areas: sports, academics, music. He was extremely caring and genuinely concerned for others. He loved to hunt...he and Necon would go out hunting anything they could find to hunt at any time of the day or night. They had also started mountain biking down some pretty serious trails around Little Rock. Travis would come back to our apartment bleeding and in need of nursing care and Necon never had a scratch. I never had to ask why this was, because I already knew. They would sit at the top of the trail and Necon would get Trav to go first. Once he saw the way NOT to go, he would go another way. That was pretty much the story of their life! Travis died May 31st last year. It has been a tough road since then, especially for Necon. We are going to the cemetery today when Necon gets off work. It is the first time we have been since the week of the funeral. It is very hard for me to know how sad Necon is and I am not really sure what to say, but just pray for us and especially Pop and OG. Today is hard for all of us...

Necon, Trav and Tash back in the day...

Necon and Trav before Junior/Senior (our equivalent of Prom...)

Necon and Trav after winning the state baseball tournament their Senior year

First Sunday in Class

Last Sunday was Lydia's first trip out of church. She is usually really good and either plays quietly or sleeps. This time she was playing with her super soft penguin from her Aunt Susan and she got really excited and started squealing. I took her out and went to the nursery to change her diaper. Karen Pritchett asked if I was going to leave her and I told her I of course was not. She coaxed me into it and informed me she would just take Lydia to class when worship was over. I wasn't sure if I was ready, but we put her in the little exersaucer and she had a blast. This Sunday we took pictures of all 27 babies born last year for the blessing service on Sunday, Jan 27. We would love for all of our family to join us at Pleasant Valley by 5:25 to join in blessing Lydia!!

First Sunday in Bible Class

This is as many of the 27 I could get in one shot...

Just in case you couldn't pick Lydia out...she is the one doing the Jabba the Hut impression!!

Josiah Clark Warrior-Benson

Lydia has her first cousin!! Josiah Clark Warrior-Benson. He was born on December 31, 2007 at 12:50 am. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz and was 21 1/4 in long. He looks JUST like his mommy (Necon's twin sister, Tasha).

Tasha called us first thing Sunday morning and told us they were headed to the hospital. We met them up there and waited...

and waited...

and watched the miracle of laboring with an epidural

Keith was SUPER nervous, but a great support for Tash!!

No doubt Keith looks just like his daddy...

Keith making sure us nurses were doing our jobs...

He FINALLY made it...

Uncle Necon

The cousins...

Real Food...

After Lydia's 4 month appointment the day after Christmas we went to the store and got Rice Cereal. Dr. O'neill told us to try it once a day for a while and then increase to twice a day. We were both really excited to try it because we knew she was going to be so excited about it. Apparently she absolutely HATES it. It could be that it dosen't taste very good, but if you have ever tried formula that is pretty gross too, so I'm not sure that is it. I am thinking it is because I have the greediest eater ever!! For those of you who have had the pleasure of watching Lydia devour a bottle (she takes 7 oz in MAYBE 4 minutes and don't even think about trying to stop in the middle to burp her...) you are probably already picturing how our attempt at feeding from a spoon went. She did great until I tried to take the spoon out of her mouth. She was highly offended, grabbed the spoon and wouldn't let me take it out of her mouth. She started doing a little better, but by the end was just exhausted from getting so frustrated.

So then we decided we would try baby food and see if that went any better. Dr. O'neill told us to start with vegetables, so we went for a yucky one first: peas! Don't think she likes those either!

Weight loss Update

Just incase you are feeling sorry for me because you think I can't figure out how to get my weight loss ticker to move, don't worry! I have lost 4 pounds, but right before that I gained 5 pounds! (You can blame a weekend at Grandma Warrior's eating biscuits and gravy for that..) So I still have one more pound to lose before I can start moving the ticker...

More Christmas

So, I am super behind on blogging our Christmas, but here we go...our Christmas was actually on Christmas Eve because Necon and I both had to work on Christmas Day. We woke up Christmas Eve morning and did our stocking and Santa presents.

Lydia was very intrigued by her glo-worm. She loved looking at the face lighting up. She also got some Leap Frog maracas that teach colors and numbers in English and Spanish, a toy that will help her learn to crawl, and a Strawberry Shortcake football and softball.

Her big toy from Santa was her new exersaucer. This has proved to also be a toy for mommy because Lydia absolutely LOVES to play in it. It can keep her occupied for at least 45 minutes!! She has learned how to push the buttons to turn on the music and she thinks it is completely hilarious!! After just a few minutes of playing in it we found her propped up on her elbows... we laughed at this so she laughed at us too!!

I think this is going to be one of my all time favorite pictures...

Every year we bake at my mom's house. We usually make cookies, peanut brittle, divinity and fudge. Sometimes we also make rocky road. Lydia fell asleep early on, so this is the only picture we wound up with. Her and Aunt Susan. Look closely and you can see some flour on her nose...

Christmas Eve night we spend at my parent's house. We eat shrimp, cheese dip, fruit dip, pigs in a blanket, and this year we added meatballs. We watch A Christmas Story and open presents. This year we opened more presents than usual since Necon and I were working on Christmas Day...

Wrapping presents has always been super important around my mom's house. I can remember spending days wrapping with her. Here is the beautifully decorated tree complete with sea of impeccably wrapped presents!!

Mom got Lydia some keepsakes for Christmas. She got a cup, brush and comb and the most beautiful porcelain shoes with pink ribbon that have her name, birthday, weight and length on the bottom. She opened those on Christmas morning, so we don't have pictures

Aunt Alicia with Lydia

This is the bracelet Alicia gave Lydia...

Lydia and Grandpa

What a cutie...