The Newest Lindsey

It's a girl!!!! No, John and I are not expecting. Our NEICE was born on Tuesday! Kara Lynn Lindsey was born to Susan and Travis on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 at 12:39 p.m. She weighed 11 pounds...yes, you read that right! She is 11 pounds even and she is 22 inches long. She is beautiful and already very alert. Michael and Malachi are already in love with their new baby sister. Susan and Travis opted to not find out the sex of the baby until the birth, so it was quite an exciting time when Travis and the baby came through the hospital room door and he announced it was a girl. (Susan was still in the OR). Mommy and baby are doing just great. Aunt Allison is so very happy not only to have a new baby neice to spoil, but there is hope for me to have a girl some day...the Lindsey boys do make girls!



Malachi, John David and Michael, playing at our house the day before Kara was born.

Catching Up

We hosted a small Super Bowl get-together this year and had some friends from church over after the evening church service. Our friend, Kristi, made this very clever cake and brought it to share with us. Isn't it just too cute?!? It was quite tasty too!

Christmas Continues in January

Since the holidays get so busy, Kimberly, Meredith and I decided that this year we would get together in January, long after the hustle and bustle of Christmas was gone. So the weekend of January 26 - 28 was our time to visit and exchange Christmas presents with one another. We had fun hanging out together with our babes - Meredith and baby Nolan (12 weeks old at the time), Kimberly and Harrison (9 months old) and me with John David (16 months old). We took them to Walmart to have their pictures made together and they turned out really cute. I'll try to scan and post one of the pictures soon. Cole is missing from our pictures. He's Meredith's 4 year old who stayed at home with daddy for the weekend. John David was facinated with the "babies" and said the word for the first time Thursday night before their arrival. He is still asking about them, now 4 weeks after they were here. I guess they made quite an impression on him! We all hope that our boys grow up to know each other so I'm sure we'll have many more weekend visits with them. In addition to the "professional" pictures we had made (I have to laugh since we had them made at Walmart and it was hardly a professional experience!), we took several other snapshots that I'll share two here.

Sumo Baby Nolan weighing in at 16 pounds at his 12 week Dr.'s visit! Such a sweet and happy baby!

The Swimmy Heads - John David and Harrison had fun posing in their swim diaper hats! They will probably hate us for this one in a couple of years!

It was a fun weekend and great to be with my two dear friends!

Happy Valentine's Day!

John David and I made valentine cards for his little friends at school (Mother's Morning Out) and he was so proud of them! Just like all of the other holidays, he has loved learning about Valentine's Day. He squeals with delight every time he looks at the valentines he received from his friends and grandparents. And we must've read "Biscuit's Valentine's Day" a hundred times. It's a book he received last year from Nana (John's step-mom, Jackie) and while he enjoyed turning the pages last year when I read it to him, he has loved it this year, being able to ask what everything is on the pages and pointing out the cat, the dog, the girl's hat, her coat, etc. He is such an observant little boy.

John was at home last night with John David while I went to my "Ladies' Night Out" group. I left the art supplies John David and I had used for his Valentines on the table and when I woke up this morning, John suprised me with the cutest little hand-made valentine card that he had made for me. It was precious and I was really impressed with his creativity. Earlier this afternoon I was working on this post and the doorbell rang...it was the UPS man with a package for me. It was a PajamaGram from John! I just love the idea and it came in the cutest package.



I'm really not a huge fan of Valentine's Day because of all the commercial hype and social pressure put on people, making them feel out of place if they don't have someone with whom they can spend Valentine's Day. We should be telling people we care about how much we love/care for them every other day of the year and not just on a day that has been determined by someone else as THE day to do that. If you don't have a honey to share Valentine's Day with then I hope you celebrated yourself today. YOU are a special person with or without a partner, made unique by your creator just to be YOU. Psalms 139:13-14 says "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." God's works are wonderful and you are one of His wonderful works. Happy Valentine's Day!

The Woods of No Return

When I was little we had some woods behind our house. One day I was playing outside with my brother and the neighborhood kids and we saw a girl walk into those woods...but we never saw her come back out. From that time on, those woods were known as "The Woods of No Return". Truth is, the girl was probably just passing through and we either didn't see her come back out of the woods or she was using our yard as a cut-through to the neighborhood behind ours. I've stayed in touch with the neighborhood kids and we get a good chuckle as adults out of our fear of those woods.

Last April, we moved into our new house and one of the things I particularly loved about this house was the private backyard that backs up to 60 acres of undeveloped land, mostly trees and some pastures. We checked on the plans for that land before we bought the house and were told that an elementary school would be built on the land but that construction wouldn't start for another 5 years. Well, that construction started last week, 4 years early according to our understanding! It was so sad for me to sit and watch as the workers cut down tree, after tree, after tree. John David loved watching the men use the big machinery and constantly waved and said hi to them out the window. But I sat and tortured myself by watching them cut down probably close to 200 trees I would guess - huge tall pines and even some hard woods. Those were the hardest to watch. I imagined how long it had taken them to grow so big and they were gone with one grab of this machine. The machine was kind of neat - it grabbed the tree, sawed it and then laid it neatly in a pile.

Before

After
So instead of having our own "Woods of No Return" for John David to play in when he gets older, we now have "Woods that Won't Return". I'm trying to look on the bright side - maybe it will be a great school and John David will be able to walk to school through our backyard. And at least they aren't building a neighboorhood or a shopping center. And maybe, just maybe, they will plant some new trees when they are finished with the building. But for now, I'm grieving the loss of our our privacy and the loss of so many of God's beautiful works of art.