This and that...

Cutest thing - I hadn't heard from Mary Grace in a while (usually not a good sign), so I looked in the backyard and found her like this.

Then of course, Hannah and Sarah wanted me to take their picture.

Mary Grace settled herself in...

Sweetness...

Christopher squinting in the sun.

Hannah and Sarah in a sea of bubbles.

MG covered in suds. (yes, that's tear-free shampoo)

Lots of progress this week...

Since we came home from vacation, our weeks have been pretty full (2 weddings, 2 funerals, VBS, swim lessons, a few fun days at the lake with some friends, etc.). I foresaw that this week would be our first 'down' week, so I geared up to potty train Hannah, who had been showing signs of readiness ever since the week prior to our vacation in PA. I thought of potty training her while we were in PA, but there's something to be said for diapers when you're traveling and constantly visiting other people's homes.

Nana volunteered to keep Christopher, Sarah and Mary Grace on Tuesday, the first day of intensive potty training. There were several accidents, lots of carpet/floor cleaner and loads of laundry, but Hannah also had many successes and was even self-iniating by the evening. On day 2, she only had 2 accidents - one in the morning when she started to wet herself, stopped short, ran to the potty and successfully finished the job; and one mishap with #2...always gross. On day 3, her only real accident was not making it to the potty in time to do #2. A funny moment in the evening was hearing her yell, "Oh no!" and then seeing her dart down the hallway toward the bathroom yelling, "I peed on Cinda-rey-yah!" (the corresponding print on her undies). This morning (day 4), she had her first successful poop on the potty! There was much rejoicing in the McCracken household, as you can see in the video below:

I also noticed this week that Mary Grace was able to get herself from her tummy to a sitting position pretty consistently. By Thursday, I thought she was getting so close to crawling and then watched her take a couple 'steps' toward a toy!

Christopher and Sarah began the summer completely forgetting how to swim. I even had to put Sarah back into a life vest and then slowly eased her back into putting her head under water. Christopher picked it back up pretty quickly, and then both were swimming really well by the time we had swim lessons. Yesterday at the pool, I saw Sarah do things I'd never seen her do, like swim out to the middle of the pool by herself and then dive down to the floor to get a ring (or some other sunken object) and swim back to the wall or the steps!

It is so fun to see each of the kids making progress in different areas of his/her development, so we always have to have our cameras and video recorders handy.

Hannah riding her tricycle

One good thing about hitching a uhaul trailer to the van is that we can bring the kids bikes with us. I wasn't planning on bringing Hannah's tricycle because she hadn't quite gotten the hang of using the pedals yet.  Thankfully, John piled it into the trailer along with the bikes and all of our other luggage because Hannah has figured out how to pedal during our first few days here!

Google earth/sky and big bath tub...

If you've been following the blog for a number of years, you may have picked up that Christopher has had a long line of obsessions that began with flicking spring-bound door stoppers and drawer handles as a crawling baby, to bowl-spinning as a toddler, to choirs as a 3-4 year old, to dinosaurs as a 5 year old, and most recently outer space as a 6 year old.  What's interesting about each of these is that it completely consumes his imagination until he has 'mastered' or exhausted it and finds something else that captures his interest.  We really didn't do too much to encourage the first 2 very noisy obsessions, but we did feed his zest for choirs by exposing him to lots of choral music.  We also exhausted the dinosaur bookshelves at our public library on top of buying him several dino encyclopedias.  

We have now moved on to the astronomy bookshelves across the aisle and he is devouring them. Another thing he likes to do during free time is watch YouTube videos about planets, stars, galaxies and the universe.  A friend of ours told us about an application on Google Earth where you can switch to the sky and zoom in on different stars, planets and galaxies.  It is way cool.  I showed it to Christopher the other day and he is hooked.  The above picture shows him checking out one of the galaxies.

Now onto the youngest child: Mary Grace had her first official bath in the big tub.  She displaces too much water in the infant tub, so it was time to make the transition.  As you can see from the above picture, she thoroughly enjoyed it.

As soon as Sarah and Hannah saw her in the tub, they immediately wanted to join her.

Cheese!

The biggest sister with the littlest sister enjoying some fun in the tub.

Hannah moves from the crib to the bed...

Today I decided to transition Hannah from the crib to the 'big girl' bed. Thankfully, it went very smoothly!

Now maybe we can move Mary Grace from the pack-n-play (currently in the master closet) to the crib!

A glimpse of life in March through photos...

Tomorrow is the last day of March but it feels like March just started!

Mary Grace turned 6 months old, started eating cereal and weighed in at 18 lbs. 11 oz. at her 6 mos. check-up.  Hannah weighed 5 1/2 ounces LESS than that at her 12 mos. check-up!  I thought for sure, Mary Grace must be my biggest baby.  But after  sorting through the baby files I found that Sarah weighed over 19 lbs. and Christopher weighed over 20 lbs. at their respective 6 mos. check-ups.

We had a glorious week of Spring Break where we didn't have to be anywhere during the week, so we didn't go anywhere.  It was amazingly relaxing.  Here is Nana with her girls.

Hannah turned 2 on the 27th.  Wouldn't you know she'd have to go and get a black eye just in time for her birthday pictures?  She fell from the bench in our kitchen and hit her upper cheek on something on the way down.  The bruise drained into her eye socket over night giving her this nice little shiner on her fair skin.

Hannah is speaking so much more clearly these days and acting like such a 'big girl'.  She mimics her older sister and wants to do everything herself.  Even though she has officially entered the 'terrible twos', she has retained her very sweet nature, giving hugs and kisses and saying things like, "I wuv you so much" and "Oh, fank you!"

The sisters together at the Chinese restaurant (our favorite spot for birthday celebrations, it seems).  That balloon in the background was the object of much quarreling between the girls and much angst for their mother.  

A sign of the terrible twos: Hannah declared ownership over the balloon, her presents, her food, her water, and anything within reach with these dreaded words, "This is MINE!"  I really don't remember her saying this phrase so repeatedly up until this day.  That box on the table contained a toy sail boat with Jesus and the 12 disciples as figurines.  She even yelled, "This is MY Jee-us...No! That's MY Jee-us!"

She even staked her claim on the whole cake by opening her jaws and putting her tongue on the side of the cake.  "This is most definitely MINE!"

She clearly finished her piece more quickly than I had a chance to finish mine, so she reached over to my plate and said, "This is mine."  I may be a little more than 30 years past the terrible twos, but I asssured her that that piece was MINE.

Afterwards I took the kids to a public playground in Frisco and had a blast.  It was such a pretty evening and we had the whole place to ourselves.  Sarah climbed the highest on everything and, as the oldest girls are want to do, told her brother and sister where to go and what to do next.

Hannah peeks over the wall.

Ever-cautious Christopher.  He never climbs too high or does anything 'too risky'.  This kid is happier reading about or drawing pictures of the solar system (his latest obsession) than he is on a bike.

Happy Mary Grace with her toothless grin and big dimples.

MG is eating cereal like a pro and can't seem to get enough of it.  As you can see, she is starting to sit upright really well.

Saturday afternoon - We came home from a birthday party, got baths and then plopped in front of some cartoons for rest and Hannah just zonked out in the chair next to Sarah.

While we were away...

John and I just got back from a reunion with our cohort in St. Louis.  I'll write about that later if I get time, but I wanted to quickly jot down some of the funny things the kids said while we were away and immediately after we returned.

After we loaded the kids into the van and kissed them good-bye, Nana (John's mom) told me that Hannah was saying, "Bye bye, Mindy" as they were pulling out of our driveway.

One cold morning, Nana firmly told the kids that they had to keep their shoes on if they wanted to play outside.  After a while, Sarah approached Nana and said, "Nana, can I take my shoes off now, 'cuz my foots are bored."  

After Nana and Pop bathed the kids Monday evening, Christopher threw the towel into the bathtub that was still filled with water.  When I learned of this, I said, "Christopher - what in the world did you do that for?  We don't put bath towels in the water!"  He looked at me and earnestly asked, "Then why do we call it a 'bath towel'?"

When we arrived to pick up the kids at Nana and Pop's house, they were all going crazy trying to tell us all of the fun things they did while we were away.  I then said, "Ok, now I want to hear a report from Nana and Pop on how you guys behaved while Mommy and Daddy were away."  As Nana began to gush about how good they were, Christopher interrupted, "Well, there was some disobedience, but NO consequences!"  

The other day while we were driving to the grocery store, Christopher said, "Mommy, that sign says 40 miles per hour...Pop told me to tell you how fast you're supposed to drive."

Yesterday, the kids and I walked to the playground and Nana drove to meet us there.  Sarah was riding her bike and said, "Mommy and Chri-ofer are walking and I'm riding my bike.  But Chri-ofer doesn't like to ride his bike because he's scared...and Hannah and Mary Grace ride in the stroller because they're babies...but Nana can't walk to the playground because she's old."

Last night the kids went to the Explorer Kids program at our church.  After the puppet show, the teacher asked the kids if they knew of anyone they could tell about Jesus.  She then asked if anyone had a sister or grandmother they could tell.  Christopher raised his hand and yelled, "My grandmother is 67 years old!"

Copy cats

One of the funniest, adorable, and sometimes alarming things that you get to witness as a parent is your children copying your behavior and manerisms or repeating what you say.  I thought it was pretty comical that Christopher would begin his answer to almost every question with, "Well..." until I heard Sarah do it on a regular basis.  Then I realized that's how I begin all of my answers to their questions; they simply learned this response from me.  

After a very full morning of homeschooling on Wednesday, I persuaded my wiggly 5-year-old to get through his history timeline and Latin memory work with the promise of a Starburst upon completion.  As soon as he was finished, he triumphantly took his Starburst into the family room to show Nana, who was reading books to Sarah.  Sarah naturally wanted one too, so she came into the kitchen to see where the stash was.  I had her sit down and simply go through her number recognition so that she could earn a treat just like Christopher did.  She took great pride and satisfaction in this.  After she picked out a sucker for herself, she said, "I want to take another one to give to Hannah."  I let her take one to Hannah, who was happily playing in the toyroom. Moments later, I heard Sarah asking Hannah her catechism questions while dangling the tasty sucker behind her back!  "Hannah, who made you?  Who made you, Hannah?"  Ha!  She was making Hannah "earn" her treat as well.  Hilarious.

On omnipresence and incarnation...

Christopher, our 5 year old, has asked me on a few different occasions if God is bigger than Jupiter.  I've told him that God is bigger than the entire universe.  Not able to get his mind around that, he asked, "How can God be bigger than outer space?"  I said, "Well, remember God is everywhere."  "But how can God be everywhere?"  I said, "Well, God is a spirit and is bigger than everything He created and...well, that's just a really hard thing for little people like us to understand, isn't it?"

The other day while the kids and I were driving down the road in the minivan, Christopher asked me, "Mommy, if God is everywhere, does that mean that we are driving over God?" Chuckling at first but then wanting to give him a serious answer, I confidently replied, "No Christopher, remember that God is a spirit and doesn't have a body like men."  I was hopeful this would satisfy him since the answer recalled one of the catechism questions he has memorized. But no.  He then said, "So does that mean we are driving on God's non-body?"

Today as we were driving home from church, our 4-year old, Sarah asked, "Mommy, is Jesus in the van?"  Happy that I could again refer back to already-memorized catechisms I replied, "Yes Sarah!  Remember, God is everywhere and Jesus is God."  Unsatisfied, Sarah demanded, "No, I said is Jesus right here next to me in this van!"

Then after we arrived home, Hannah and Sarah were sitting together on the sofa reading a book and I noticed that Hannah had something in her mouth.  I immediately asked her to spit it out and saw that it was the baby Jesus from their Playmobile nativity set.  I found myself laughing while saying, "No, Hannah - don't put baby Jesus in your mouth!"

On the one hand, it is true that God is a spirit and does not have a body like men.  This is an incredibly abstract concept for us to grasp, let alone to explain to our children.  On the other hand, John 1:14 is also true - "The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us."  This infinite God who created the universe and everything in it, entered our world by taking on human flesh.  This is Christmas - God became a man.  I find that my children better understand and grasp who God is when they hear about Jesus.  In Jesus, "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell."  (Colossians 1:19)

An entertaining and memorable event - MG's baptism

"The heart of a man plans his way but the LORD establishes his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)

Before the worship service yesterday, I had these grand visions (or delusions of grandeur) of my 3 older children obediently and angelically standing in front of the congregation as our 4th baby would be baptized.  I even "prepped" them for this event by instructing Christopher to stand close to me and Sarah to hold tightly to Hannah's hand since I had to hold Mary Grace.  Being that John would be doing the baptizing, I was prepared to corral the kids on my own.  At least I thought I was prepared.  Kids have such a knack of going way beyond your expectations...but in a completely different direction!

Now why on earth would I have such ridiculous expectations?  When Christopher was our only child, I remember welling up with all sorts of tender emotions during his baptism.  When Sarah was baptized, I remember wrestling my 19 1/2 month old Christopher just to keep him still and feeling a bit frazzled afterwards rather than misty-eyed.  When Hannah was baptized just last year, I recall both Christopher and Sarah having a grand ol' time hopping down the steps of the stage.  Mary Grace's baptism yesterday proved to be more like the last two and less like the first.    

Here you see John and I straining to listen and respond to our baptismal vows that Patrick was reading to us.  Sarah and Christopher walked up to the front by themselves and left me with Hannah and Mary Grace, so John came to the rescue since I couldn't get Sarah to stay on her task of holding Hannah's hand.  Christopher took it upon himself to grab Hannah's hand and keep her from running away, but he tends to be a little less nurturing and gentle than Sarah would be so Hannah resisted his efforts.  Sarah took great interest in the flower arrangements and all of the cool objects on the communion table.  Hannah kept grabbing the microphone on Daddy's robe and pulling it off.  When we responded "I do" to the baptismal vows, Hannah grabbed Daddy's nose for fun.  Then to top it off, I saw Christopher doing dinosaur charades out of the corner of my eye.  

John put Hannah down, picked up the baptismal bowl and handed it to Patrick.  I handed Mary Grace to John and then quickly scooped up Hannah from climbing on the front row chairs.  As soon as the cold water hit Mary Grace's head, she began to wail and John said, "Well, here Mommy..."  The congregation cracked up because as soon as John started to give Mary Grace back to me, he said, "Nevermind" realizing I already had my hands full with Hannah.  As he began to tell the congregation about Mary Grace, Sarah thought it would be great fun to play hide-and-seek underneath his big black robe.  By this point, the congregation was roaring with laughter and we had lost complete control over the entire situation (not sure we ever had it in the first place).  

John quickly tied up his comments and I soon realized that we didn't have a good exit strategy since John had to go back to the pulpit for the Scripture reading.  I put Hannah down, took a loudly crying Mary Grace back into my arms and began to walk them both down to the nursery wing.  Thankfully Patrick had the presence of mind to walk Christopher and Sarah in the opposite direction to children's church.  Maybe we should have done a "dry run" (no pun intended) beforehand, but then it would have been so much less chaotic and therefore less entertaining.   We captured the whole blessed event on video so that we can remember this 3-ring circus in years to come.

The expression on Christopher's face above suggests that he had been scheming and planning this chaos all along.

Here he is pretending to be an Struthiomimus dinosaur.

Being that Hannah is only 18 months old and has no prior experience standing up in front of the congregation, we did expect the most action from her.  

Sarah LOOKS sweet and innocent...

My mom thoroughly enjoyed being the photographer of the day.  I saw her laughing behind the camera during Sarah's hide-and-seek under John's robe.  As we were packing everyone up to finally leave the sanctuary, we realized that we didn't have any pictures with her in them.  We were too exhausted to round up all of the kids who were running throughout the sanctuary by this time, but we did manage to get a picture of her holding Hannah (above) and Mary Grace (below).

All of this excitement even wore out Mary Grace.  What a day!  

Now that I have had a little time to stand back and reflect, I am truly thankful that God's covenant promises are for believers and their offspring as we seek to raise our children up to know, love and worship the risen Christ.  And even though it made for an eventful day, I also think it is a wonderful privilege that each of our children has been baptized by their Daddy.  

"And I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." (Genesis 17:7)

1 week old...

Mary Grace turned 1 week old today, so of course, this became an occasion for photos.  

While pink is not my favorite color, I'll have to admit that it is fun to dress up my little girls in pink and pastels.  

"One of these children doesn't look like the others..." but I promise you that Hannah DOES belong!  Looks like she remains the only fair-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed kid among the bunch.  Funny how genetics works.

Big bro and big sis enjoying a moment with Mary Grace.

Big sister Sarah snuggling with Mary Grace.

Yesterday evening I took the older 3 kids for a walk to the playground while John stayed home as Mary Grace slept.  When we returned, John met us outside and we began chatting with our neighbors.  We didn't notice Sarah run into the house, but John saw her walking back outside holding what he thought was a doll.  Next thing I know, John says, "Oh!" and begins running up the driveway.  Sarah had scooped Mary Grace up out of her cradle and carried her outside to be with us. Thankfully Mary Grace is just fine...but her parents are still recovering from near heart failure.

You may remember when we found out the sex of this baby, Christopher was sorely disappointed.  He was determined that this baby was going to be a boy and had a hard time getting over the fact that he was going to have yet another sister.  I am happy to report that since Mary Grace has come home, Christopher has said things like, "Mommy, I think Mary Grace is beautiful," and "I want Mary Grace to be in our family forever."

The protective older brother holding his littlest sister.

Since we were on a roll and the kids were so willing, I thought I'd see how Hannah would do with 'holding' Mary Grace.  When I asked her, she immediately climbed up onto the couch and laid down on the pillow, so I laid Mary Grace down next to her.  You see the results...

Of all 3 kids, Hannah has been the most enraptured and curious by Mary Grace's presence.  Whenever I get her up from a long nap and bring her out into the family room or kitchen, Hannah's face lights up and she says, "Ah baby!  Ah baby!" She'll then come closer and speak in a soft, high pitched voice, "Hi baby...aahhhh, baby!"  It's very sweet to see.  

So while our adjustment to being a family of 6 has been a bit of a circus at times, it has also been filled with many sweet and endearing moments.

An actual family day on a Saturday!

What a deal! John doesn't have to preach tomorrow, so we actually had a "real" family day today! For all of you who are not pastors or pastor's wives, let me just explain what a rare treat this is. Normally John spends the better part of Saturdays at the church studying and tying up his sermon, so the kids and I are on our own. And it's not like I can call up one of my friends for a play-date because everyone is having his/her own regualr family day on Saturdays. Thankfully, John takes Mondays off so we do have a weekly family day. We do try to fit in fun stuff on Mondays, but it is usually filled with the house projects to-do list or errands. All that to say, I was incredibly thankful to have today purely as a fun family day.

For those of you who know John, he's incredibly spontaneous and always has an idea that he's completely ready to execute at the spur of the moment. I'm much more of a planner, but I am learning to be more flexible. This morning as we were finishing up our pancake and bacon breakfast, John says, "Let's all go to Lake Ray Roberts today." In my mind, I'm thinking, 'Ok, that means we'll need to pack lunches, sunscreen, sippy cups, milk, snacks, extra change of clothes...and what if it's too hot? It is Saturday, what if it's too crowded?' As I'm verbalizing all of these concerns to John, he simply says, "Let's just pile everyone in the van and go and we'll find a place to eat nearby."

I consented, but still managed to pack snacks, sippy cups, sunscreen and some sand toys for the kids. I'm so glad that we went because it was such a beautiful day and the kids had a blast. Here is Christopher taking a break from digging for dinosaur bones.


Here is Sarah, also digging for dinosaur bones.


In VAIN, I kept telling John to keep Hannah's outfit from getting wet. Every time he'd pick her up and move her toward the beach, she'd turn around and plow full steam ahead toward the water. I thought about packing swim wear, but didn't because I just figured we wouldn't swim. So much for being a planner! I wish I had at least packed a swim diaper for Hannah because regular diapers simply soak up whatever moisture is nearby. Her diaper must have weighed 5 or 6 pounds when I took it off!


Sarah takes her 'work' very seriously.


Christopher pauses from his work to say "cheese".


Sarah runs along the shore carefully carrying her 'treasure'.


Here is Hannah soaked head to toe, but boy did she have fun splashing around in the water!


There were outdoor showers under which I held Hannah and rinsed off all of the sand that was stuck to her little body (she did NOT appreciate this!). Thankfully, I did pack a change of clothes for her.

After a very enjoyable morning at Lake Ray Roberts, we went to Chili's for lunch and stuffed ourselves with burgers, fries and mac n cheese. I'm typically not a red meat eater but seem to crave a good hamburger whenever I'm pregnant, much to John's delight.


After a full day and a full tummy, Hannah quickly zonked out in her car seat shortly after we left the parking lot of Chili's. She woke up briefly as we unbuckled her and carried her into the house, but fell right back asleep and continues to slumber even as I write.

Thus concludes our last big outing as a family of 5! By next Saturday, we will be a family of 6, Lord willing!