Beulah Land

David was not going to share this but I wanted to because I think the three guys did a wonderful job a couple of weeks ago singing "Beulah Land" in church.  It is a favorite of many of our church members (including Granny!).  I know Andy and David's parents will enjoy this, too!  This is our church's wonderful men's trio made up of Andy, David, and Keith Johnson.

Love and Basketball

Tuesday evening we went to Caleb's last home basketball game.  Caleb played well and hit a three-pointer.  Matt enjoyed watching "Dah" play and told me he wanted Dah to come home with him and play basketball in his room with him.  Here are a couple more pictures of Caleb in action.

We also got to see Anna Catherine cheer at the game.

Matt was enjoying the game until his crush, Annie, came by to see him.  As you can see in the following pictures, I have a lot to teach him about interacting with girls.  Oh my.......

Bless his heart, he closed his eyes as soon as she came up to him and didn't open them until she left.

Annie was very sweet to him.

Chunch tried to help him open his eyes.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is the Cummings Charm on full display!

The War Has Escalated

(Warning: This post contains scenes that may be offensive to some readers.  Reader discretion is advised.)

Matt has added bombs to his arsenal in his war against Cheerios!  He pooped in the potty for the first time Saturday afternoon!  We went to Southaven Saturday to scout out the site of Elizabeth's wedding since I will be taking pictures for her.  We also needed to do a little shopping.  We decided that we would put Matt in a pull-up since we'd be on the road and in stores most of the day.  Matt had other ideas.  He refused to put on a pull-up and said that he wanted to wear his "unawear".  We thought, "Why not?", packed a change of clothes and hoped for the best. 

While Betty and McKenzie were in a store in Southaven, Matt and I were sitting in the car and Matt said, "I need to go tee tee."  I automatically responded, "OK", and then the words finally registered in my brain and I sprung into action.  We hopped out of the car and hurried to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and hoped that the "Beyond" part included a restroom.  It did and Matt did his business (#1, #2 is coming later).  We continued on to Target (of course) and then to supper at our 2nd favorite restaurant, the Side Porch Steakhouse, in Bartlett.

Halfway through my steak, Matt urgently announced, "Oh!  I need to poop!".  Betty gave me a look that said, "This one is yours!".  I snatched him up and we headed to the restroom.  I sat him on the toilet and squatted down to hold his hands because he was afraid he was going to fall in.  I felt like I was back in the delivery room with Betty waiting on Matt to come into the world as I encouraged him through his, umm.... contractions.  He finally had success and I said, "You did it!".  He said, "I did?", and bent over to have a look for himself.  He raised up and exclaimed, "I did it!!!".  On the way back to the table he announced to all of the patrons of the Side Porch, "I pooped in the potty!".  A few minutes later the second wave hit him and we headed back for round 2.  After another success we headed back to the table and again Matt announced to the crowd, "I pooped in the potty AGAIN!!!". 

We promised Matt a reward when he completed his potty training so we told him that we'd go to Toys-R-Us after supper.  McKenzie wanted in on the action and since we had told her that if she learned to tie her shoes we'd get her something, she was looking for something to tie.  I untied my shoe and propped my foot on her chair and she feverishly practiced tying my shoe.  Since she finally had the proper motivation she conquered shoe tying and we finished supper and headed to Toys-R-Us.  McKenzie got a game for her Nintendo DS and Matt got this Thomas the Train track (evil looking cat sold separately).

The War On Cherrios

We have finally begun potty training in earnest!  The picture to the left is Matt with his Potty Chart.  Matt has had absolutely no interest in using the potty.  That's not entirely true, he has been interested in it, just not interested in HIM doing it himself.  He's been reading about it for about a year.  Matt likes to learn all he can about something before he tries it.  He did the same thing with walking and talking.  Monday he put on his big boy underwear (after a small struggle) and wore them all day.  He did have a couple of accidents - but it was a start.  Tuesday we had success!  Someone suggested we make it fun for him and put Cheerios in the potty for him to shoot at.  We put Cheerios in the potty and Matt starting shooting away!  He really enjoyed that and has been blowing away Cheerios like Luke Skywalker ever since!

I'm just waiting for him to follow in his Daddy's footsteps and announce his potty talents in public.  When I was potty training, I hollered out across the Shoney's restaurant, "Daddy, I tee-teed in the potty!!!".

Here he is with his potty library that we will pass along to Jack.  Hopefully he'll be a quicker study than Matt was.

Thursday night we met Nana and Grand in Winona for supper.  McKenzie wants to learn how to really play the guitar and Nana and Grand gave her a full size guitar for an early birthday present.  Miss Amanda gave her a child-size guitar a few years ago and she has loved it.  I'm going to try to learn how to play it, too, so we will probably drive Betty, Matt and Max crazy.

McKenzie's "Tween" Room

McKenzie likes to remind me every other day that she is 8 1/2 soon to be 9 in July. She is going to be a "tween" very soon. That is the stage between little girl and teenager. I can't believe it has been 6 years since I decorated her "big girl" room. So we decided that it was time to give her room an update.

 

Santa brought McKenzie a new pink comforter and a cool new chair. Santa found these at Pottery Barn Teen. I still love the lime swirly fabric from her old room and decided to keep since it goes great with the pink. Granny made these awnings for the windows and dust ruffle for the old house and they worked well at the new house...thank goodness! I kept a few pillows from the old decor. I love the monogram pillow Granny made. McKenzie had a furry hot pink rug by the bed, but I felt it was too much pink in there, so I found this cute rug on sale after Christmas at PB Teen.

It really brightens up the room and looks great with the furlicious butterfly chair. I would like to find a zebra stripe lamp shade for the bedside table lamp. That would be something unexpected in the room.

Before we moved back in October, David found this great furniture from Walmart.com. I love the desk and dresser. They look very similiar to more expensive furniture we had seen in PB Kids. The pieces look great with her iron bed we purchased six years ago. We also had to purchase a new lighting fixture for the room and found this dainty little iron chandlier.

Her room is smaller than her old room, so there was no room for her dollhouse bookcase in the bedroom, but there is a neat space perfect for it right outside her bedroom door.

I like the way it looks here.

Happy Birthday!

We would like to wish my Granny a very happy birthday. She turned 87 years old today, but doesn't look it!  We were so excited to get to spend the afternoon celebrating with her. Mama and my aunt Betty decided to have a little party for her at Betty's home. They invited three of her friends and my sisters and our families. We had a delicious strawberry cake, cheese ball and crackers and candy. Betty provided brownies and cookies for the kids. Everything was so nice.  David brought along his camera and took some pictures of the afternoon. Happy Birthday, Granny!

Basketball

Upward basketball started Friday night.  We are the Lady Clippers and we have a good little group of girls.  McKenzie didn't score tonight but she did make three really good passes that led to baskets.  This age isn't known for their willingness to share the ball so I was really proud of that!

Here's McKenzie in action on defense.

Matt has his first crush.  There's a girl on McKenzie's team named Annie and she rides with us to practice and Matt went with us one night.  He was immediately taken with Annie.  Annie lives a couple of streets over and Matt asks if we can ride by her house quite often.  I think it's pretty cute but I think Mommy is a little jealous!  Matt was so excited to go see Bobo and Annie play tonight.  He told McKenzie on the way to the game, "Bobo you have to throw the ball to your friends.  You have to throw the ball to Annie."  Here is a picture (although a horrible one) of the lovely Annie.

Uncle Ed

Wednesday was the funeral for my uncle Ed Morrow, my mother's brother.  Ed is the one in the "M" hat in the picture to the left.  Andy and I were pallbearers and we gathered with the rest of the family at FBC Eupora for a great meal prepared by the church.  Dad spoke at the funeral and did a great job and Andy sang "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) before we moved on to the graveside service.  This was the first graveside service that I've been to that included military honors and it was very moving.  The soldiers carried the casket to the grave site and then marched to the back corner of the cemetery where they stood at attention while Dad spoke briefly.  Then they gave a gun salute and one of the soldiers played Taps on the bugle.  I don't think there was a dry eye there after that.  Two soldiers removed the flag from the casket and presented to Ed's wife, Glenda.  It was such an honorable service for Uncle Ed and I'm sure he would've hated it!  He was a quiet man and didn't require or desire much attention.  Well, he got that well deserved attention today and he will be missed.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, ...Oh Forget It!

Winter Storm Warning!  80% chance of accumulating snow!  No work!  No school!  None of that happened.....except the no school part.  McKenzie found out about 7:15 that she didn't have to go to school and called me at work to rub it in.  Thanks, Sweetheart!  Only in the South do we cancel things because "it MIGHT snow".  I went home for lunch and found McKenzie and Matt in the front yard playing in the "snow".  Isn't this the most pitiful sight you've ever seen?

They were excited, though.  At least, we did get to see some snow flakes!