haircuts!

We are busy and excitedly getting ready for the arrival of Wil, Kenny, Mimi and Papa McCracken in just 2 days! While its not really getting ready for the visit, we all had too long of hair and got some haircuts last night. The big 2 don't look much different, but sweet little Titus, we're all loving his new look :)


Before--



After--

Recording...

We've mentioned previously the popular "secret stories" in our house...

Got a recording a few weeks ago- and just up to the computer, if you'd like to hear a Grace told secret story- one for her daddy and another for Uncle Scott.


(Daddy story)

he needed to go to the park, he needed help, daddy needed help, help. daddy needed help...hudson needed help, and he all cried, and he didn't cried. and he rode to the park. daddy needed help. he ...and he all stayed by himself... and the giraffes and the elephants and the sheep ...all the animals go away from dada. and he goed back to his home. the end.


(Scott story)

going to the store going to the ponytail store (unless he was saving somebody from the store- (hudson)) and cried and he cried- (no way- (hudson)) and he buyed a birdie ponytail from his birthday and he didn't cry and he got some ponytail, money and he didn't get anything and i got his birthday and he said, happy birthday to scott happy birthday to scott happy birthday to scott happy birthday to scott...the end.

Music Videos

While I'm at it...here's a music video from this week- and a link to the first one they made from last October.





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMsPuosiqUw

bracket-ships

Hudson, Grace and I stayed up sort of late Thursday night (our time) to fill out our NCAA brackets. I was pretty sure Hudson would love it, but was surprised how Gracie jumped in too. With brackets named "Bethany" and "Walkie Gracie", Grace picked her way through all the games- sometimes taking her brother's advice and sometimes defying it. (This is pretty typical of sweet Grace sometimes wanting to make her brother happy and other times purposefully not.) By the time Hudson was done with his 3 brackets and help with mine, he recognized most of the school names and helped G through it. Grace often had a hard time repeating the names back though and chose such schools as "Notre Baylor".

That night for her secret story Amazing Gracie went to a store out of power and called Papa McCracken (who has a generator on his truck and is also always wanting to help). Hudson asked where was Papa- in China? or Illinois? Since the Amazing Gracie bike can fly, I of course said she was in Illinois, so Papa was in Illinois too. Gracie responded, "Oh Papa is on that b'ball team?" For now, I'm okay with my girl thinking Illinois is a b'ball team :) (one that hopefully will be better next year!) We'll get to geography soon enough...

Friday morning the kids woke up and Grace asked if she could do another "rocket ship" when she saw us checking ours out. (all of which are quite bad...although Hudson has got Ohio going a long way...) :)

2?!

I treasure the rare opportunity to have lunch with just me and the kiddos. I also LOVE when others are around (we all do), but it is fun when its just the 4 of us, like today. Hudson and Grace were trying to sing for me a new song they learned in Monday School (thanks Monday school teachers!) that went something like, "Deep deep down down, deep down in my soul (2x), (somebody's name) Do you love your Jesus deep down in your soul? Yes, I love my Jesus deep down in my soul." Really cute...

Anyway, Hudson asked Grace, "Do you love your Jesus deep down in your soul?" Grace answered, "No I don't love my Jesus deep down in my sold." Of course Hudson said, "Yes you do" and I asked her why not. She said because she loves daddy. Hudson replied, "Well, Jesus is your daddy." And then I reviewed with them that yes, we have a heavenly daddy and an earthly daddy, we are so blessed, etc. etc. And how many Gods are there? (1) and how many persons? (3) Then Hudson said, "No, there's 2 Gods." I said "2?!" (We've been reading through Acts at night.) Hudson said, "Yes, Jesus and Bar-Jesus." Did a little more explaining and went on with our lunch... :)

In all seriousness though, we've recently eavesdropped on Hudson sharing with Gracie about salvation in Jesus. Really thankful for his love for her and for Him.

One more quick Hudson story...on the way home in a cab the other day from Titus's one year check up, Hudson and Grace were both on my lap as we're playing the alphabet game- and rhyming words at the same time (H is really into this) words such as "you and thank you". :) I tell Hudson that he is getting kind of big and could probably start sitting on his own soon, like maybe when he's 4.5 (which of course he knows is 55 days away :)). He doesn't like to sit on his own in the car - and is really tired at this point- and says, "Maybe when I'm 7, or actually maybe when I'm 52." :)

Back to teaching!

Craig and I are both really excited about this latest teaching opportunity that we have taken advantage of! It is so fun for us to be at Hudson's school and to be teaching these 30+ sweet 4 and 5 yr olds music and English. We've had a great time with these kiddos last Friday and today. We're just teaching 30 minutes every Friday, but we're so glad to get in and be a part of H's school...I kept trying different ways to try to get involved, get to know the teachers, etc. but then my full-of-ideas husband thought we should teach a music/English combo.

This morning we reviewed a little melody singing "What is your name?" The student responds singing his name, then everyone says "Hello, ___. " I was impressed with Craig keeping a straight face when responding to these cuties after saying their English names "Hello Cake" "Hello Flying" Singer, Apple...

Pink-pink-pink-pink

More often than not these days, GJ (Gracie Jo) wakes up and asks me where pink-pink-pink and pink is. That is...pink shirt, pink pants, pink socks, and pink rubberband. She would wear these everyday and night if she could, but thankfully she doesn't like when they're dirty, so she's willing to change when I point out a spot. It's kind of a shame as far as her other really cute clothes, but its not really a battle that's worth fighting...so pink here we come! The battle worth fighting though is one for long-sleeve, warm clothes. G also hates "sleeves shirts" and it is freezing! She told me the other day, "When mama gets married in the summer time, I'm going to take off my sleeves shirt. That'll be fun."

Here's 3 of 4 of the pinks...

Worth a listen

Just listened to this interview again-- makes me worship. Our good friend here Rob's little 18 yr old sister died a week ago in a car crash in the States. He's back there now (please remember him and his family in your prayers).

As usual, tragedies cause questions to arise...and many call out to God or call God to account for what happened...

Our tutor is again wondering how we respond, deal with this, etc. I'm in the midst of preparing a response in Chinese (please pray for her too!)

This is worth a listen for all though, if you haven't already listened...it's John Piper's response to the tsunami a few years ago on NPR.


http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Interviews/1678_The_NPR_Tsunami_Interview/

More Titus...

For the last couple months, Titus will every once in a while crawl towards the camera and "smile" for me.







And I caught this the other night while the other 4 of us were cleaning up...Titus picked up the b'ball and took advantage of Hudson's lowered hoop. It was really cute- he picked up the ball took a step toward the basket and flipped the ball out of his hands (of course with lots of grunting along the way).

Titus boy!

Our little Titus boy turned one on Monday, have no idea how that happened, but we are so thankful for him! I got a good reminder from Kayly via Skype, who said she feels for the third child, that this was a big deal. :) We celebrated Monday night with some cake and ice cream and then again tonight with a few local friends and more cake. And we all guessed right...Titus was not like his sister and brother, he devoured every last crumb!

We love our T-bo, T-duo, T-T, "danger", little baby villian, growler boy.







Here's a couple pictures after the banana eating contest. (Titus's favorite food)