Riding Bikes

My kids love to ride "bikes", especially on our new laminate flooring.  Both of these "bikes" are Mercedes' but Lincoln likes to ride the red one a lot.  Mercedes is just getting to the point where she cares about it.  She got it for her birthday last year and has just figured it out a little better.

 Cute face.

 Always making car noises.

 Slowly catching up.

 He was putting his arm around her for the picture, but she thought he was tickling her so she giggled and then yelled at him.

 What a sweet brother.  He likes to tell me a lot that he loves Mercedes and often asks me why he can't marry her when he grows up.  I keep telling him he won't want to, but he just knows that he loves her and you marry a person that you love, so that makes it perfect.

Half closed eyes.

 He is such a funny boy.  He got put to bed early the other night for being naughty and we talked about how it was a punishment for not being good.  It's about all he's talked about for 3 days.  How he was punished and he didn't like to be punished.  Another funny story today at church I was helping him tuck in his white shirt after he went to the bathroom.  He was holding his tie up and told me I couldn't tuck that in because then he "wouldn't be handsome."  I just smiled and hugged him.

I love her face in this one.  She's been getting quite mischievous lately.  She likes to run away from you when it is time to get in the car.  She also likes to use Lincoln's slippers and won't give them back.  She absolutely loves her Daddy and has her days where she only wants him.  I love these two little stinkers so much.

Red Sox

Last summer when we went to Maine we went to Renny's and found these little Red Sox outfits for the kids.  Lincoln loves Boston because Todd does, but it is pretty cute to see him all dressed up.  He always wants to wear his Red Sox jersey.  He recently grew out of the hat he had, so we'll have to get him a new one of those.  But here are my cute kids.

(Sorry the lighting was a little weird)

A few new pics

I'm finally trying to learn a little bit more about my camera off of the "auto" settings and have taken some pictures lately trying to test out different things.  I thought I'd share some of the pics since they show the two cutest things around here.  

 Biking is our favorite sport.

 Always trying to follow her brother and do what he does.

 In this case he thought it was fun to get in a picture I was taking of her.

 We love our "pets" around here lately.  Lincoln has especially started to like his stuffed animals lately and really likes his bear.  It is a new comfort object for him, but he still loves his blanket too.

 So happy.  She loves this horse.  It is so cute to see Mercedes cuddle it and put it up right to her face.

They love each other so much and I love that.  Lincoln had a spider bite on the end of his nose and had a red spot for about a week.  Needless to say he missed school pictures.  Make-ups will come soon though.

Great Friends

Okay we actually had a lot of great friends in Utah. Peter and Ashley were great next door neighbors and we could always count on them for a laugh or a hug if needed.  Erika and Rob were always helpful and we loved spending time with them. Brad and Rhianna were always up for anything and we definitely had some good conversations with them.  But Kati and Tyson get their own post because.....well, they're the only ones I remembered to take pictures of.  Sorry the rest of you, love you!!!

Tyson - our "a little too personal" friend, JK.  He was always getting everyone to laugh.

He especially loved Mercedes and she loved him.

Now Lincoln loved his "Kate".  She was his first girlfriend.  He started calling her Kate one day and always did after that.  He sure loved seeing her.

The last goodbye.  We sure miss you guys and so do our kids.  

Lincoln is 3

In May we had a birthday party for Lincoln.  Yes I know that was a long time ago, but I wanted to document it.  Lincoln is really into balls and requested a baseball party.  So we got some baseball cupcakes and some different decorations.  The hats were soccer balls, but he loves those too.

Right before everyone showed up.  We just had a small family party at our house.

The infamous baseball.  He loves playing with Daddy's baseball the most.

When we sang "Happy Birthday" to him, he just thought it was wonderful. About 3 months before his birthday he really started to understand what birthdays were and was really excited about his.  For those three months he wanted an Elmo birthday and then the week before his birthday he wanted a baseball party.

Eating the cupcakes.  I didn't realize how the green frosting would dye everything so green.  I felt like it was a light enough color, well I was wrong.

Payton's face was my favorite.

Here we are starting the presents.  He got a lot of fun things and was so excited to see everything.  Imagine what he'll be like when he actually gets to play with it all!  He and Mercedes left 2 days after this to go to Iowa and we are still all packed up.

The big present, the train table.  We actually bought this at Christmas but decided to wait until his birthday.  We knew we didn't have a place for it and we actually still don't.  Hopefully in the next few months we can get it out and play with it.  

Lincoln is such a great little boy and I am so glad he is part of our family.  He and I play this little game where one person says "I love you" and then the other responds with "I love you the mostest" then he shouts it and we say it a few more times.  I love this little boy and his sweet personality.  He loves to snuggle and is a bit of a Mommy's boy.  He loves his Daddy very much, but there's nothing quite like his mommy and I love it.

Mercedes turning 1

A little late post about Mercedes' birthday.  But I thought a few of you out there might like to see some pictures.  Mercedes' birthday was a cold and windy day.  We thought it was going to clear off and be nice, but it was only like that for a few minutes.  We had a lovely time with family and friends and we enjoyed seeing our little girl's fascination with new things.

My dad was able to come out for the big day.  We bought 10 Dominos pizza for the party and it was gone in like 5 minutes.  It was really yummy though.

We always love to see the Blair family and were really glad they could make it to see us.

The last few remaining slices were quickly stolen.  I was taking pictures when they got out the pizza, so when I got there I had the choice of like two pieces.  If anyone is looking through these pictures and doesn't know who someone is, don't worry - I don't either.  There were a few people who showed up that weren't invited, but the more the merrier I guess.

Stash of presents.

The only reason those tablecloths are down right now is because people are holding them down.  I'm surprised we aren't seeing some lift off of the plates.  It was really windy.

I love everyone's "chewing" faces.

These two love Mercedes and she always loved them.  We are sad we don't live close anymore.

Tyson was always able to get Mercedes happy, even when she was being a Mommy's girl.

The first present to be opened.  Peter and Ashley gave her this cute bug activity book thing.  Well, you'll all be interested to know that my children have actually not really gotten to play with their birthday presents...another sad moment in my life.  With the craziness of the flood when we got here and moving and still not being in our own place all of their things are packed away in some box.  Lincoln has gotten used to the answer he gets when he asks where such and such is...in a box.

Costco cake - pretty good, but I miss the days when you could get something other than white cake, white frosting, white filling or chocolate cake, chocolate frosting, chocolate filling.  Only two options these days.

She just went right for the cake.  Just smashed it right into her mouth.  It was pretty cute.

Never letting go of that yummy thing.

Brody Blair was really good at keeping the little ones entertained.  He is such a great kid.

It's so funny at birthday parties when your trying to keep all the other kids from "helping" open the birthday presents and the birthday child just wants to play with the one that was just opened.

She got a lot of great gifts and we can't wait to actually use them.  Hopefully here in the next 2-3 weeks.  I'm crossing my fingers.

She didn't know about that balloon on her wrist.