Thankful for a King Bed

I've always been glad that we have a king bed but this week I've been more thankful than ever before. Lincoln will often come into our bed in the morning for a little while and want to watch cartoons in our room. Most of the time it's only him and then once both boys are up we go downstairs. Lately they've been getting up pretty early so we all just lay in our bed while the boys watch TV and mom and dad try to get a few more minutes of rest. I don't think anything smaller than a king would comfortably fit our family....even though it wasn't made to sleep four. I had to take a couple pictures because it was too cute to see all my boys laying there. The pictures are from my phone so they're not the best but they capture the moment.

We've Made the Switch

Lincoln has successfully switched from Soy milk to regular whole milk. He's been on soy milk for over a year because his system had a hard time processing dairy, specifically cows milk. He's been off of his medicine for 4-5 months and has been doing well so we decided to give it a try. We've slowly been transitioning him over the past couple of weeks and this week he made it to full cups of whole milk. Hopefully his system is strong enough to adjust and keep up. So far so good.

Milk does the body good!

Phoenix Zoo

To enjoy President's Day as a family we spent the morning at the Phoenix zoo. Rick has a pass so that he can take the boys while I'm at work but I had never been. It was also Logan's first time to any zoo. It wasn't too impressed by anything except the big aquariums. He seemed to show some interest in those.

I was surprised that we had such a nice zoo less than 15 minutes from us. The best thing is that they have a ton of monkey exhibits with all types of monkeys. It's so fun to watch them because they are so entertaining. We even got to see a baby monkey, who was only three weeks old, holding on to it's mommy as she would swing around the cage from rope to rope and branch to branch. The mommy was so proud to show her baby off. It was precious.

I loved the turtles.

Logan actually seemed interested in watching the fish for a few minutes.

Lincoln decided to talk to the sting rays after touching them.

Funny Story: We ate at the little restaurant at the zoo. Lincoln had this noodle on the side of his face and Ricky and I were busting up because he didn't seem to notice or care. Well we ended up being the ones who got fooled. After a few minutes and a series of events, we realized that he knew the noodle was there. He was just being a clown and thought he was funny. When we realized that we figured out what was going on he busted up laughing. He is seriously too smart, and funny, for his own good.

I was more excited to see the camel than either of my kids were.

If you look close you can see the tiny baby monkey in its mommy's right hand.

Daddy and Lincoln enjoying the show the monkeys were putting on.

Obviously not impressed with anything that's going on at the zoo.

This is my happy little monkey.

Lincoln's Nice Chart

Aunt Nancee gave us the idea of doing a nice chart. This is intended to help get past the tantrums and defiance that a two year old goes though every day. Well, it's worked for the most part. We bribe Lincoln with stickers and if he gets enough stickers to fill a row then he gets a treat and if he fills the entire chart then he gets to go to the toy store and pick out a toy. He's filled two charts so far. He's earned stickers for things like...

• going straight to sleep when it's nap time or bedtime
• staying still during a diaper change (you wouldn't believe the struggle that is sometimes)
• eating all of his lunch or dinner
• being good at nursery or the gym
• being nice to brother and/or helping him by giving him his binky or singing to him
• helping with cleaning up around the house

Although he is still in the middle of the terrible two stage, I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel. He is still too cute for words.

Yes, Dora was a phase he went through but he's pretty much over her now. Thank goodness.

This is the toy that he picked when he earned his trip to the toy store. The first time he filled a chart he picked a Little Einsteins Red Rocket ship toy.

Gotta love that adorable smile.

He was showing off his new hat. He kept it on all day!

Really? Seriously? Are You Kidding Me?!? - Part 2

So it only gets worse. Not to complain but I write this in the hope that when I look back years from now that I will be able to laugh at how ridiculous this rut of back luck is. Here is a quick update...we just found out over the weekend that the landscaping company that Fulton Homes contracted with to fix our first sink hole did a terrible job. Without compacting the soil first, they filled in the hole with a quicksand like material. It looks really bad. The bigger issue in all of this is that they actually broke a water pipe for our drip system. Our plants and trees were starting to look brown. When Ricky went to the side of the house (right where the first sink hole was) he noticed that the water valve had been shut off and the pipe had been busted. We escalated the issue to the Director of Customer Service at Fulton Homes and needless to say we got the dumbest response ever. He didn't even address the issue! The battle continues.

Secondly, over the weekend my crown from a tooth in the back of my mouth fell out. I couldn't believe it. Of course it happened on a weekend and Monday was a holiday. Luckily there are like six dentists at church so I was able to get connected up with one. I was excited to know that he was open on Monday so I made an appointment. I was thinking he was just going to re-cement the old one in but not so lucky. He showed me where the crown had been made wrong and it didn't have the proper fit which is why it came off in the first place. So, I sat in the dentist chair for the next two plus hours getting a new crown.

Good news...the Olympics are on and I love the Olympics. Lincoln gets really excited when he sees someone doing a "BIIIIIGGGG JUMP" an he makes sure we know it. We've been talking about routing for team USA. Earlier tonight when I asked him where we lived he said America. It was so cute. See...good things can come from watching TV!

Really?? Seriously? Are you Kidding Me??

I try not to post about negative things but I'm also not one to hold back. I try to say things how they are, deal with it, and move on. Since this blog serves as my journal, I have to also be real about the bad stoke of luck we're having and not just how cute my boys are. So here it goes...

Last month after the really bad rains that hit, we noticed a small minor sink hole on the side of our house. We had the builder come out and fix it the next day and everything was fine. That night we discovered a pretty major sink hole in the front corner of our house. It's been a lot of drama. After ripping out our new pavers and pulling up our perfect grass, we've determined that it's about 10' x 10' spanning from our pavers, grass, house and driveway. Unfortunately a sink hole of that size and in that location isn't so easy to fix. We've had several people from Fulton Homes out, including the general rep, two different cement guys, and today we had an engineer. Frankly I haven't been happy with any of them. They don't know what caused it (heaven forbid they admit that they made a mistake and didn't properly compact the soil in the front of the lot) and they don't seem to care about making sure it doesn't happen again. They're going to fix it once they all decide the best (and I'm sure the cheapest) way to fix it. It's just frustrating to have spent a lot of time and money on yard and then just a few months later have it torn apart. More to come on that later.

Last night we loaded the boys up in the truck ready to head out to run errands and grab dinner before a meeting I had. We were all strapped in when Ricky started the truck. As he turned the key we heard...click, click, click, click. The truck wouldn't start. Are you kidding me!?!? Really??So much for going out. Oh ya, I should mention that the truck was in the driveway blocking the honda that was in the garage - and - our truck can't be put into neutral when the engine isn't on. So much for trying to push it anywhere. Luckily our neighbor across the street (who works on his cars everyday) came over and helped Ricky analyze the situation. Dead battery. They pulled the battery out of the truck and our neighbor put his honda battery in our truck just to get it started...then he took it out. I had no idea that a car can run without the battery. It was good enough to move the truck to the street so that we could go get a new battery. Of course by the time this was all over, it was too dark for Ricky to put in the battery so he fixed it this morning. Crisis complete.

We're new to the world of PPO medical insurance. We used to have Kaiser (HMO) in California and we loved it. Loved our doctors, loved the simplicity of their system, great customer service...just loved them. So now we have Aetna. Hate them. Hate everything about them. It's one problem after the next. Last month Ricky went to the doctor because he's been having some stomach issues and decided that maybe it was something that he's allergic to that is causing his problems. The doctor tells him that it's possible but she's going to run some quick in office blood tests to find out. She didn't tell him which ones or how many she was running. The doctor's office called Rick about 10 days later and say everything was negative. It was a ten second call. Fast forward to last week. I open mail from Sonora Lab - Are you kidding me??!?! A bill for $1300+ for blood work. Ricky was so mad. There had been no discussion of what insurance would cover (or not cover) or that they were even sending the blood out. He then felt bad that he had even gone in and asked about it in the first place. I couldn't believe it. Medical Insurance is the biggest scam EVER!!

This last week we've had some other minor issues including both listening units on our new baby monitors going bad. Lincoln got a violation warning at the gym for hitting the other kids. Seriously?? I was pretty irritated with the ladies at the gym. On our CA trip our portable DVD player broke. We had to go get a new one because there was no way that I was going to make that drive home with a two year old and not have a DVD player. I think there were a few other things too but luckily they don't come to mind right now.

The good news in all of this is that these are all things that can be fixed. We actually are blessed in a lot of ways. For the most part we are all healthy & happy, I have a job and we have a beautiful home (if it doesn't fall in the sink hole...just kidding) we have good friends & neighbors so life really is good. I guess these things that come up, while stressful and costly, are a part of life. Everyone says you have to have experience tough times to really appreciate the good times. I would have to agree. Lucky for us there are more good times then there are tough times.

We first noticed our grass was sunken in. I stepped on the pavers and they were really loose. Ricky stepped on them and one fell right through.

After we pulled up the pavers and realized that there was a bigger issue.

Unfortunately the pictures don't do justice.

Now this is a picture of the good times! Seriously...this boy is pretty dang funny. As I sat on the couch, Lincoln came running in to show me that he turned himself into Mr. Potato Head. He came up with this all on his own. I love that he even has the arms.

Lincoln's Art Class

We've enrolled Lincoln into some classes to give him something to do outside of the house. He was in a class for two hours every Friday where they would do reading, music time, art, sign language, open play time, etc. Every week they would learn a new letter of the alphabet and then the other activities would be focused around that letter. He was the youngest one in the class and for the most part did really well. It's hard to get him to focus on one thing for a long time...unless it's exactly what he wants to do. He's learned lots of letters and it's been a fun change for him. The first session has ended but he will likely be going back for the next session in March.

He is also taking an Art class on Saturday mornings. Every week there are new stations where he can paint, play with beans or bird seed, play with playdough or moon sand, etc. Everything is hands on and it doesn't matter how messy they get. I just love that he can make a mess in a classroom as opposed to my home and I don't have to clean it up.

Moon Sand - we had never played with that before. Pretty fun stuff.

Lincoln's favorite activity is playing with the beans and bird seed. He doesn't like to get his hands messy so he doesn't spend much time at stations like finger painting.

This isn't a picture from his class but I had to include it because it was so funny. We went out to eat and Lincoln ordered spaghetti. It's the first time that he actually placed his order with the waitress all on his own. After his spaghetti arrived this is what he did with it...a noodle eye! I don't know where he comes up with these things but he is a dang funny kid!

Logan's Three Month Stats

Logan is now three months old and cuter than ever. He smiles all the time, still sleeps a lot, and eats about 4 ounces every two hours. We can make it about 5 hours through the night so we are getting more sleep too! He is a big growing boy. He is wearing 9-12 month clothes and is in size three diapers (Lincoln is in size 4 but is still within the weight range of size 3's.) Logan has a tight grip and has gotten really good at grabbing toys that we put in front of him...specifically red bird from his Einsteins tummy time mat.

• Current Weight: 16 pounds
• Current Height: Ricky and I measured him at 25 1/2 inches (the nurse at his two month appointment measured him at 26 1/2 inches but we've since decided that she was wrong.)

Sometimes he will pull the bird so hard that he can pull him right off.

Starting to really like the "Happy Star" mat.

Visit From the Rizzo's

It just occurred to me that I never posted any pictures from our visit with the Rizzo's. They came to stay with us for a few days after Christmas. As always, we had a great time visiting with them. Lincoln and Vincent play so well together and, since they are only four days apart in age, they seem to be into the same things. We went to the mall one day, Karen made us a great dinner one night, we just hung out, caught up, and laughed a lot. We hope they will come visit us again really soon!

We bought a new thermometer so Rick and Marc decided that they would test it on each other.

The playroom didn't stay clean for long.

Who can resist a ride on the merry-go-round.

I couldn't help but post the diaper picture!