Several of my friends' blogs lately have been about funny things their kids have said. I need to be better about documenting these things. Ryan was at work WAY early this morning (4:45) and worked until 6:00 and has to be back early again tomorrow! Glad I'm not the Dad this week for sure! Anyway, he's in bed and I'm awake...
As Lindsey was playing alone in her play room as I cleaned up I hear "Oh Lordy!" and "Danget" (however you spell that). The first one is from me and the second from Ryan! Just funny to hear out of the mouth of a 3 1/2 year old!
She's been asking a lot of questions about Jesus, the angel who told Mary, God, etc. I get nervous about giving her the right answer, but also know that she has "faith like a child" and will believe what I tell her and not question it, even if it seems to be "far out." So, she asked "How did the angel get out of heaven to tell Mary that she was going to have a baby? I don't know Lindsey, I guess it flew down since angels have wings. (concerned/confused look on Lindsey's face) I guess you can ask God one day when you get to heaven (even more concerned/confused look on her face!)." End of converstaion. I'm srue it moved from that into Dora or Cinderella!
Later...."When do you go to heaven? Oh, not until you get old." End of conversation again.
Today..."Mommy, when I get done with all my numbers, I'll go to heaven too. Not yet. Yes, when you are done with your numbers, you will go to heaven, Lindsey." WOW! She put that together. I wasn't sure she even understood what it meant to be old! Amazing how their minds are always turning!
Courntey isn't saying much of anything funny, just "Mommmy, mommy, mommy, mommy times 100!" Seriously! I need to tape it and put it on here. She just walks around SCREAMIN it! Love it most of the time, but other times I need her to hush.
The most precious thing that she does right now is when we pray, she says "Amen" everytime! It started a month or so ago and it was a very long word more like " AAAAAAAAAmen!" Now it is very short and I can't even type how it sounds. Just precious. As we pray at night and I start naming us all off, "Thank you for Mommy....she says "Daddy, Insey (aka Lindsey) Amen" So cute!
Those are my thoughts and words of my precious children! What a blessing they are to me!
Playing together has become more of a norm around here. Most of the time it is ok with the other one that she wants to play...it goes both ways. This is the other day when they were both cooking for me! Courtney wants to be and do just like Lindsey does! Imagine that! Too cute!
My cheerleader (as long as no one looks!). Ryan has been going to the gym at church to play basketball on Thursday evenings! Some Cintas guys have been going, so he's had fun! We went to watch because Lindsey was dying to go. 
We went to Sonic before hand and Courtney LOVES my drink, or Lindsey's, whoever will share with her! She's a Sonic fan just like her mother!
Our friends, Gary Don and Tracy's lab, Lucy birthed 12 puppies almost 4 weeks ago now! They lost one of the puppies very early, not sure what happened. But, the other 11 are doing great! There are 2 runts, but they are just small, doing fine! Lindsey loves to hold the puppies, but they have learned to walk so she gets upset. We have to find one that is sleeping and she loves it! There were 2 in her lap asleep, but we didn't get that picture. Courtney LOVES LOVES LOVES dogs! She especially loves Lucy, she has since she's been able to walk and find her. Lucy is the most laid back lab I have ever seen. She doesn't even hardly get up when we walk in the door! So, she's very good with Courtney! 
This is Courtney's favorite thing to do with Lucy...put her head on her. She will give Lucy loves the whole time we are there! It was just priceless when Lucy laid on her blanket and some of the puppies went over to nurse, Courtney just did the same! Not to nurse, but to love on her! Lucy lets her and Courtney just laid over there. It was so cute!!! Just priceless! Thank you Tracy for sharing the pictures! Love your puppies (and Lucy) but don't want to bring one home to my house!!
This was Sunday morning. Lindsey looked to cute not to take a picture. She is getting much better about taking them and even looking at the camera and most of the time smiling! Lindsey took this picture of Courtney and it was actually pretty cute. She is showing her teeth at least! :) I tried to get her to stand by Lindsey, but that didn't work, so seperate pictures will have to do!
Monday night was our town's Christmas parade. It was cold, but not as cold as last year. We have a system (2 years running)...Ryan parks his car right by the square (where the parade comes) then I go get him there. We come home and all bundle up, go park my car somewhere (further away because it is close to starting time) and then walk to his car, sit in it until the parade starts, eat our beans and cornbread we get from the Chamber of Commerce, then sit on top of our car to watch the parade. I wanted someone to take our picture of all 4 of us on top of the car, but no one walked by that I felt good about asking. Courtney didn't last long on top of the car anyway. She hates being "contained" and obviously didn't have free reign on the top of the car. So, she and I ended up back in the car. She didn't care! I laid the seats down so it was like a climbing spot for them. Just playing in the car was fun in itself. She liked that just as well. Ryan and Lindsey stayed on top of the car and eventually moved closer with Lindsey on his shoulders. We stayed until the end because Santa comes on the fire truck! So fun! She didn't know that Santa was getting off, so we were able to just go ahead and leave! :) We'll see next year.
This picture is from the other night when Lindsey had eaten some chocolate pudding. Courtney got ahold of what was left (not much) and was able to get it all over her face! Of course...what would you expect from her? She was so proud of "feeding" herself she couldn't stand it!
I posted the video of Lindsey "dancing" last night! These are just some pictures. My flash sometimes seems to not do well, I guess I need to get my book out and look at it. I don't remember that happening near as much as it happens now, so I don't know. Anyway, the middle picture is Lindsey going over to the group to do "turns on the bar," but of course she didn't do that either. Then the last picture is ALL the girls getting up to do their bow and get a drink. However, look in the far back and see Lindsey just sitting there, all alone! So funny! My shy little girl. Maybe she'll perform in May at the big recital! We'll see! She said she had fun and that is the most important thing, right?!
Tonight was the parent watch night at Lindsey's dance class. Usually she just goes and we aren't allowed to watch. They don't have a recital until May, so this is just a half way point that they let parents come watch. Anyway, we didn't have much to watch....Lindsey just stood there, pulled at her tights and her leotard in a very "funny" place! Interesting! ALL the other girls were pretty much doing EXACTLY what the teacher was doing. I've watched Lindsey one other time through the window and she was doing it. Obviously she's just painfully shy and was concerned about that. She didn't even do her turns on the bar, her favorite thing! So, it was interesting to say the least. Ryan blames me all the time for the drama in our house, so tonight as she was doing NOTHING, I looked at him and said he got all the credit/blame for this performance for sure! No drama at all! Enjoy!
Here is some SKILLED tapping!
Well, this is my new (to me) car! My sweet husband got this for us! It is a 2005 GMC Yukon Denali. It has every bell and whistle on it you could imagine. It is so cold outside I just can't take pictures. I wanted to, but it turned so cold it just isn't worth it. I looked online for some pictures. This looks just like ours, it is silver and very very very pretty! The inside is SOOO nice! The 2nd row is captain's chairs and that is nice. There is a fancy "tv" radio touch screen thing. I'll take a picture and add it later! Anyway...I had to show it off and brag on my husband. He takes such good care of us!
This is Henry and Harper! Henry still has a feeding tube, but is doing great! Harper is eating good, so he is off of the tube. These precious babies belong to my good friend from college, Lesli. We basically lived together. Not literally, but we did our MAT (Masters of Arts in Teaching) together and our Master's project/paper together. So, we became very close. She is from Fort Smith, so what is now almost two years ago (in March) when we found out we were moving down here, I e-mailed her. She had been in Fayetteville teaching, but moved back to FS because she got married. Anyway, we have become close friends again and these precious twins are hers! Are you ready? She also has an 18 month old son, Ashton! Yes, she is in for some busy times for sure!!!
What happened to this poor marker???
What did I do?
Well, this is my most favorite time of the year, although my girls' birthdays are running a close second this year! This is our new tree! We opted to "invest" in a pre-lit artificial tree this year. For almost every year that we've been married, we just got a real tree. Ryan was the one that cared about having one. So, when he suggested this year that we get a pre-lit one, I was all for it! I found this beautiful one at Sam's! I LOVE lights....this one is 7.5 feet and has 1,500 lights! I LOVE it! It is so pretty!
This is our second tree. I hated it last year that we didn't have a tree that was in front of a window to be seen from the street, so we bought this skinny one for the toy room. This year we put the big one in the toy room and I put this one in the living room. I wanted to have one to enjoy in the living room too! I know, some of you think I'm weird! I would probably have a tree in every room (like my mom's friend Shelby!) if I had the money and time to do it all! But, instead, I'll stick to my 2 trees. I decided to make this a Razorback tree. There really isn't much razorback about it other than the red and white and a few Razorback ornaments. I like the tree with the light off because you can get the "effect" of the lights, but I LOVE my "tree topper" sparkles that I found at Hobby Lobby this week, so I had to put this one in so you could see those! It is probaby the "prettiest" tree I've done. Usually it is just our ornaments (which I LOVE) and no ribbon or sparkly ornaments. So, I really like this "dressy" tree! Go Hogs!
This is our beautiful house that Ryan did! I love lights on our house and he HATES HATES HATES heights, so I know it is not something he looks forward to doing. However, it has been his idea to do more every year. This year he did the peaks and not just the outline of our house! It looks incredible!!! It is hard to "capture" how pretty it is because it is hard to get the light to do right with those lights and the flash and all. But, I thought this was a good enough picture to brag! WAY TO GO, Babe!! I love it!
Well, it is that time of year when you start baking for no real reason other than making things you like. So, Lindsey and I made turkey cookies the other day to take to all of our family dinners we were going to on Thanksgiving Day and Friday! They were a hit and Lindsey loved making them. She was very particular about the color of eyes she chose for each one! I love that we can do these fun things together! One day Courtney will be baking with us, but for now I'm sure she was having fun otherwise--as you can see from her own picture! 
My friend Ashley is in Russia right now visiting a little boy "Nik" that she and her husband Bart are potentially adopting. It has been so amazing to see God open doors and work in His timing. It was literally only about 2 months ago that she even told me that they were looking into this. That is how fast God has worked. Some of the long story is this: They wanted a boy or girl (they have 2 girls now) who was between one and two. They were getting all of their paperwork done and things were moving along. Ashley was frustrated with some papers not getting mailed to Russia from their agency that was slowing the process some.
However, 3 weeks ago she got an e-mail with a list of kids on the "waiting list" which just means that they had been rejected by another family, from my understanding all for medical reasons. One little boy (Nik) stood out to Ashley, but she didn't think much about it. He only has one kidney. Thinking that Bart wouldn't want to pursue this boy, she didn't say much but sometime soon after she mentioned it to him and he was fine with looking more into it. Ashley did some research of her own and found out that 1 out of 750 babies born, are born with only one kidney. She contacted her agency for more information on this little boy and asked what they would need to do if they might be interested. From there the agency got his medical records for Ashley and Bart to take to a doctor here and have him look them over. So, they did that and the doctor said that from what he could tell this little boy looked like a growing, healthy child! The one kidney thing was not a big deal to him as far as medical concerns. The doctor told them that he may live his whole life and not have any issues from it, or it may come up down the road, there is no way to know. He looked at them and said, "It wouldn't be a reason not to adopt him." He looked at their two girls and said, "I think he'd make a great little brother!" So, Ashely was excited and called their agency about what to do next. They said they'd start the paperwork of them pursuing Nik. Sure enough, last week her agency called and asked if they could leave for Russia in 10 days. There was a lot to do in those 10 days, but if it was supposed to work out, God could do it. Ashley said that she got nervous and started questioning things. One of the BIG things that had to be done was their visas for Russia. That next Monday was veterans day, so when they mailed their things to Washington DC they weren't even sure if they would get things back in time. So, Ashley just thought, "Ok, if we don't get them then maybe that is a sign." They had their visas Tuesday morning! One of the neat confirmation stories!
So, they are in Russia for the week. I got an e-mail from her this morning with pictures of her holding him and Bart holding him. The one where Ashley is holding him, Nik is smiling and it is just precious. I looked at it and tears rolled down my face! This is a lucky little boy! Bart and Ashley love the Lord and are just doing exactly what God called them to do! I am amazed to see the love that Ashley has for this little boy already. I'm sure Bart is the same way, but I haven't seen him or talked to him about it. It is neat for me to think that in God's big plan, He "saved" Nik for Bart and Ashley!
God is good! When you read this, please pray for them and for Nik. They will get to see him everyday this week for a little while, but will have to leave him there on Sat. when they come home. It is supposed to take 2-4 months for the offical paperwork to go through and all, so it will be that long before they can go back to bring him home. Even before they left, a lot of conversations happened about how hard it would be to leave him. I know that it will be difficult for Ashley and Bart to leave what they believe to be their little boy there, but God will, just as he has through this entire process, give them a peace!
Well, when Courtney had some pictures at Legacy House made, their website was down. Of course they were cute. Then when it was up and working, they didn't have the pictures up from then. Anyway, I got it figured out....they had them under the wrong name. So, here are some pictures from almost 3 months ago, but they are cute!
http://www.legacyhousephotography.com/
view proofs
in the search option type Scogins (yes, with the s on the end)
password: scogin11
Hope you can find them! They are cute, most of them. If you have a hard time, tell me!
Anyway, they are pretty cute. She wasn't very happy, but I liked a few of them.
Courtney was trying to sit in this box that she had taken all of the toys out of. However, as I was taking the picture she fell, so it made for an even better "moment" as a one year old. Life is so hard!
Tonight I found her in the toy room with every purse and "pretty" aka necklace and bracelet out of the box. She LOVES to have a purse or even her diaper bag to carry! I just thought Lindsey was my girly girl! Which she still very much is, so it will be funny to see how they grow up in that area!
This was Courtney when she was finished! She was so frustrated because she could hardly walk as she was so tangled up in her "pretties!"
How cute is this face? Thankfully the top was on these bubbles, or at least A top! I just thought she looked so cute in her hat that I had to take a picture!
Ok, this first one is sort of blurry, but I was having a hard time with the flash and the window and the light and all. So, I'm sort of frustrated with the camera. Anyway, I LOVE my red kitchen though. Lindsey keeps saying, "This is the best red kitchen, Mom!" So grown up! Anyway, just thought I'd share what we did at our house before we went to the tailgating party at Taylor's house!
My brother, Taylor, just moved to a different house in Fayetteville and it is RIGHT by Razorback stadium! So, he let us park there for free, instead of the $20 they charge other people. We went up with our friends Gary Don and Tracy. He is our Sunday School teacher and started working at Cintas about a month ago. Their daughter is Paige, Lindsey's good friend. So, we rode up together and sat in the Cintas tickets and had fun.
Amber was there and we got to talk a lot. She has the bean bag game called "Bago." We had played it but not with such official boards! Way to go Amber! It was fun. Ryan and his brother Kyle played and didn't lose for like 8 games or something. So Gary Don and I decided we'd play them. I was horrible, Gary Don had scored all of our points. We needed 6 to win (which meant 2 bags in the hole) and I hadn't even thrown but like 1 bag ON the board much less in the hole! So, one went in, missed the board with the next and then the next one went in the hole too! So, Gary Don and I beat the unbeaten "Scogin Brothers." It was sweet!! Especially since I was the one that threw the winning points, even though I had not thrown any of the other points! Way to go Gary Don!
This is Taylor's back yard, very nice with a lot of trees and stuff! That is Gary Don, Ryan, Kyle and Tracy. 
