Christmas

Here are some things we did at Christmas. We made gingerbread houses twice. All Linc did was try and steal the candy or eat the frosting. It wasn't very helpful. These kits that they sell at Walmart were quite nice. I think if you supplement a little more candy it would be even better.

We bought Lincoln a book about having a new sibling. I don't know if it'll prepare him or not, but I'll read it to him anyway. This is the only actual picture I am in for the present opening. We took some video and forgot to take a lot of real pictures. Lincoln got a new chair that he loves.

Todd cooked us a marvelous breakfast. It was sausage links, an oven baked omelet, and bagels with cream cheese. Delish.

Lincoln has become a pro at opening presents. He was very meticulous and had to get all of the wrapping paper off before he would see what the toy or present was.

Here is the stocking filled with goodies from Santa.

These are Linc's Christmas pajamas. I tried to turn the picture, but when I put it on here it went back. He was so cute in the little tight jammies.

We had a great Christmas as a little family and we had a lot of fun establishing some traditions that will be in many Christmases yet to come. We hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season. We miss and love you all.

Bath and Potty

Lincoln loves taking a bath and he loves sitting on his "potty". He has successfully used it once. I'm not potty training as of yet, we are just having him get used to it and what it means. He just likes it right now so I'll let him sit on it when he wants to. I couldn't really post the potty picture for fear of weirdies looking at my blog, but if you are at my house and want to see it let me know.

Funny

Todd doesn't think this is funny or cute, but seriously how can you not. Lincoln loves to put on shoes, any shoes. Todd's are a little big and his are too hard to put on by himself so mine are the likely choice. He is really good at getting into my closet and finding a matching pair. Then he will put them on and parade around the house with them on. Well today after our naps, Lincoln found one of my necklaces and had to have it on. Then he found a pair of very girly shoes. It was too funny of an opportunity to pass up on a picture. He'll love me someday when I show it to him.

You know, I've been feeling extremely grateful for being a mother lately. It seems like the more busy I am the more I miss just being "Mah-mi". The other day Lincoln cried when I left him at the babysitter's house (my lovely sister Megan). And I pretty much cried too. I had to listen to the music really loud so that I wouldn't get to school with red puffy eyes. I just need more time. More time to tickle, more time to teach him things, more time to explore, more time to play cars, and more time to cuddle.

On another note - I CAN'T BELIEVE HOW DIFFERENT TWO PREGNANCIES CAN BE! I have had a lot more harder time with this one. I mostly have been feeling one long round of nausea - since about 6 weeks along and I'm now almost 18 weeks. I feel pain - mostly in the lower back. Sometimes constant, sometimes shooting, sometimes all the way down my leg. Might just be my sciatic nerve. I hope that it doesn't last my entire pregnancy. With Lincoln all the symptoms of early pregnancy were a lot less and were gone just about now. All I can do is hope and pray I guess.
Todd and I are so excited about Christmas and spending time with Linc and each other. We have both been really busy for the past 4 months. Todd is finishing up the semester at BYU and loving the free time he is already starting to get. I think he has been on a permanent countdown since he started going to school a couple of years ago. He's ready to be out and in a career. I keep thinking he should enjoy it, but hey what do I know. The pregnant picture is from when I was 3 months.

Well

I have definitely been a slacker. I really blame it all on our laptop. It has really been slow lately and I don't want to bother with it most of the time. So finally I downloaded my pictures to my work computer and now we have a new computer at our house so I should be a lot better. I say should so that you can't blame me when I'm not. Pregnancy does that to a person - the best intentions sometimes fall a little short. Here are some things we've been up to lately. Well since I'm doing this on my mac it won't let me see the pictures until I post, so I will have to explain the pictures later.

Thanksgiving was so fun with my family and I didn't even really take any pictures. Just on the airplane. At these family functions I always count on my mom for the pictures.
We had fun in Colorado with Todd's brother's. I love this picture of my little cowboy.
Linc's really into saying cheese in pictures these days. He makes a good cheese face I think.
In Colorado he had a lot of fun with Nathan, they were watching Cars and eating cookies on Eric and Mandy's bed - glad it wasn't mine.
Lincoln especially liked playing in this basket, he kept popping out and then wanted the lid to be put on again.
Finally a Halloween picture. What a cute little monkey.
Watching Daddy play the Wii. So relaxed.
Reading - he especially loves looking at pictures of people. One of his favorite things is our wedding pictures.
Riding his bike. Man oh man, he would do that all day if I let him.
Cute little twinner from next door.

I just love him so much.

Family Pictures

We took our family pictures about 2 weeks ago with a GREAT photographer named Meredith. We knew her because she is related to Jim my brother-in-law. WE had a fun time shooting pics up at the BYU campus and trying to get Linc to smile. He didn't do it a lot, but the ones he did smile in are absolutely precious. What am I talking about, Meredith did a FANTASTIC job and they are all absolutely precious. How are we going to decide, I keep asking myself. Anyway, if you want a looksie, here is the website http://www.merephoto.com/blog/. Don't drool like I did.

Catching up I guess

Well I've been a total slacker lately on blogging. I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted. Here are the things we've been doing. In no certain order.

Playing with Owen. He's like the same size as Linc so Lincoln thinks he gets to sit on him and take his binky and other fun stuff like that.

Lincoln threw some fits. Hopefully this isn't a bad sign for the terrible two's.

We hung out with Kenna and Porter. Again Lincoln thinks he needs to help care for this baby. Porter takes it well though.

Lincoln got a bruise on his ear. No idea how this happened.

I got a black eye. From Linc.

We read a lot of books. Linc found a great place to do his reading.

My little boy loves riding on things. Can you tell that he needs a bike or something.

We got to meet our new neice/cousin. Molly Ann is such a little cutie. We even got to babysit her and Nathan a few weeks ago.

We went to Seven Peaks with Peter, Ashley and Owen. The only pictures I took were of Lincoln.

Linc went up and down the stairs thousands of times. He likes to try to stand up as he does.

We were generally happy about life.

And we are just plain cool.

My Skinny Guy

Well we had Linc's 15 month appointment on Friday and we got the stats. He is average on height and head circumference, but he is below the 3% for his weight. He has only gained 2 oz in the last three months. I can't believe it. He's gotten to that in between stage where he is to tall for 12 month clothes, but not tall enough for 18 month stuff. So he will be in 'too big' clothes for the next little while I guess. Some things he has started doing lately are that he tries to 'run', it looks like he is hopping as he is walking, he climbs things (he climbed up into his highchair today), he blows kisses, he says
pease - please
daint dyu - thank you
Jees - Jesus
Muma - Mom
Dat - Dad
shooos - shoes
side - outside
hi
bye - usually whispered
and he loves to try and walk down stairs (he holds on to the bannister as much as he can).
We love this little guy. Pictures to come soon.

First Day of School

I thought I would post my version of the first day of Kindergarten - whew I'm glad it's over. Putting it in the words of one of my cute kids "Man, Kindergarten is hard work!" I concur. I guess I forgot how tiring a full day of teaching is. I feel like all I have done is talk for the last two days. The first week (even month) of school is so crazy. Just trying to teach all the kids the procedures for simple things - like how to walk down the hall quietly, when to get a drink, how to sit on the carpet, and on and on - seems constant. My students were probably bored out of their minds for a good part of the day, but we did do some fun things. I just hope that my kids had as good of time as Hyrum did.

School

I can't believe how the summer has flown by. I can't believe that in 5 days I won't be seeing this as much as I do now. I can't believe that I will know about 50 new little faces two weeks from now. I can't believe how hard it already is. I can't believe I've already cried. I can't believe there are people who do this more because of want than need. I can't believe I have two more years of this. Ugghh.

Pictures

Well here we are at SeaWorld at the Shamu show. It was very hot unless you got a little coastal breeze.

Here is my sweet Linc in his new hat - thanks Ashley. Everyone made comments on how adorable he looked.

They had this nice little area for babies. You couldn't be on it if you were over 37 inches tall. We saw them kick out a few kids who were like 38 inches. But it was a good place for Lincoln after being in the stroller for so long.
Some back flips. So cool to see a huge whale do it.

The beach. Lincoln loved playing in the sand and trying to eat it, but he didn't like the cold, salty ocean water.

We were lucky and got to go through a session each at the San Diego temple. What a spiritual experience.

This was when we toured the U.S.S. Midway. A naval ship turned into a museum. It was cool to see all the different rooms on board and the planes/helicopters they had.

Todd and Linc in one of the cockpits. It wasn't a full plane, but it had all the buttons and it was a little tight for Todd.

This was the view from our hotel room balcony. The pool was nice.

Our room. This was after we had packed up. So not quite as messy as usual.

Lincoln trying to help us pack.

Lincoln's very favorite activity throughout the whole trip.