Around Our House

Here are a few everyday things we've been dealing with around here.

• Growing pains.  Not fun!  Poor Lincoln wakes up several nights a week with growing pains.  It's terrible to have a helpless feeling. There isn't much we can do.  We give him medicine and Rick will massage his legs for sometimes what feels like hours in the middle of the night to try to help Lincoln but it means lack of sleep around here.
• Logan has now learned to open doors.  Last night in the middle of the night he came out of his room.  We've had to start using the lock on the pantry door again and hoping he stays out of the bathrooms. In a way I'm excited because that leads to him being more independent but until he's really old enough to know what to do once the doors are open it just seems like more clean-up and chasing him down for now.
• Ricky and I got to have a fun date night last week.  I had a mixed doubles (coed men's/women's team) match on Friday and we got a sitter so that Ricky could come watch.  We had a good quick match and luckily I won.  Our team goes out after so Ricky got to come out with the team and hang out with me.  It was really fun for me to have him there and the team is always glad when he can join us. I'm blessed to have a very supportive husband.
• We've all been fighting a cold the last week.  Not fun when the whole family is just grumpy and not feeling well. Hoping to kick this soon so we can get back to doing fun things and feeling good.
• I won my 3.5 match last week but lost my first 4.0 match. It was close and a good fight but we just couldn't pull it off. I played doubles with Kareth my normal doubles partner but it wasn't a great night for either of us. I don't like to lose!
• Ricky is still teaching Valiant 9's and I have the CTR 6 class in primary.  There's always interesting challenges that come with being a primary teacher but we both have good classes this year which makes it nicer.

Conversations With Lincoln

Lincoln is going through what I hope is a phase where he insists on picking out his own clothes and often changes them a couple times a day.  For the most part he actually picks out a fairly decent outfit so we've decided to pick our battles and let him have this one, it's not worth the fight.  The below conversation took place a couple days ago after he insisted on picking out his clothes for the day which consisted of navy shorts and a shirt that was slightly clashed.
Lincoln: "Do I look handsome?"
Me: "Yes, but your clothes don't exactly match."
Lincoln: "Well, that's a good way to be different.  My clothes don't have to match everyday."
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Yesterday Lincoln was wearing a shirt my mom had gotten him while she was in Greece last year. It's bright neon green so it's not one he typically wears out of the house but he insisted on wearing it yesterday afternoon.
Me: "Do you know who got you that shirt?"
Lincoln: "Yes, Grammy."
Me: "That's right, she got it for you when she was in Greece last year."
Lincoln: "Do you remember when we went to Greece?"
Me: "We didn't go to Greece.  Greece is really far away across the world. You have to go on an airplane for almost a whole day." (Then I showed him on a map.)
Lincoln: "Well we went to Greece the other day and it was the longest drive. Remember when we were there I got my chocolate milk and smashed potatoes?"
Me: "Oh, you mean Ikea in Mesa. Yes, it was a long one hour car ride but it wasn't Greece."

Meet Me in St. Louis!

I had to go to St. Louis last week for work.  I was excited to go since I had never been but I wasn't thrilled that the weather was so cold and it was forecasted to snow.  Luckily I was traveling with great co-workers/friends so we made the most of it and had a fun time.  We tried to see as much as we could in the few days that we were there - when we weren't working.

 Heather and I eating at one of the best steak houses I've ever been to.  Yummy!

The St. Louis Arch

 It was like 20 degrees and raining when were there. 

 Heather and Jennifer at the base of the arch.

 We went for a 4 minute elevator ride to the top.  You have to get in this little egg like capsule - it was not for the claustrophobic.  The door was a window so you could see out into the stairwell next to the elevator shaft. 

 I'm pretty sure it was like 4 1/2 feet tall inside the pod. 

 View looking west - downtown St. Louis.  The Cardinal's Stadium is on the left. 

View looking northwest - downtown St. Louis.  The Ram's football stadium is the white dome.

 The Mississippi River

 Heather, Me and Jennifer at the top of the arch. 

 630 feet high. 

 The view looking down the inside of the arch that doesn't have the elevator. 

This is a demo elevator egg/pod that we rode in to the top. 

 We found a local hot spot for dinner one night in downtown.  It's called Three Kings and the food was delicious!

 As part of tradition we scout out the best cupcake bakery and lucky St. Louis happens to have a Cupcake Wars winner in town - Jilly's.  We met the owner, and her two chef's that were on the show.

 Luckily for us we got there with about 10 minutes to spare before closing time.

 This is by far the best cupcake I have EVER had.  It was AMAZING.  It's the Twisted Pink Velvet. 

 You never know what you're going to find in an airport bathroom.

 We flew home first class it Jen was so excited since it was her first time flying first class.  It was a nice and comfortable ride home!

We got out of town just in time.  It snowed our last night there and a big storm was rolling in so we were glad to be heading home.  I missed my boys!

Makeover - Logan's Room

A couple weeks ago I got on this little redecorating kick and decided to add/change the decor in the boys rooms. We kept the same overall decor and theme and I just added a few things like his name and a couple of paintings that I did.  He also got a new big boy bed as well so we moved the furniture around to accommodate that.  He seems to love it and I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Valentine's day was sweet, simple and fun.  Lincoln and Logan got to take boxes of chocolates to their teachers, Lincoln had Rock Star Valentine's cards with guitar magnets to give the kids in his class and I got to enjoy a beautiful bouquet of red roses! I bought the boys a balloon and a little package of candy.  Rick and I exchanged gifts over lunch and we order take out from Pei Wei for dinner.  It was much better than waiting at a restaurant with the boys for hours and we couldn't find a babysitter so we just enjoyed the night together.  I actually went to tennis practice and Ricky watched Tree of Life - a movie he's been wanting to see for a while.  I'm so lucky to have a wonderful husband, who is also my best friend, and two little boys who I love dearly. 

 It's fun to have a little extra fun and love in the air!

 Red roses are my favorite!

 Lincoln made this at school. 

 I like a good practical gift every now and again.

I made the little LOVE decoration a couple weeks ago.  I was a lot of fun to paint and I think it turned out nicely.

Ribbit

Isn't this the cutest little frog you've ever seen!?!?  Logan loves this frog towel and he makes the cutest little ribbit sound when he gets out of the bath.

Lincoln's Art

We're learning that Lincoln is quite the little artist. He loves to draw and he's also reached the stage of wanting to write letters (although he wants/needs you to spell every word to him nice and slowly and repeat each letter several times until he gets it on the page) but it's been fun. Here are a few examples of things he's done lately.  I'm going to try and get him into an art class soon!

Monster Jam

Monster trucks came to Phoenix last week so Ricky took Lincoln for a father/son outing. Logan and I stayed home and actually had a nice time to together too!  The Monster Jam was at Chase Field in downtown Phoenix.  Lincoln's favorite truck is Grave Digger.  He was super excited all day to go on this special trip with daddy.  They ate dinner at the stadium and had a lot of fun together.  Lincoln got a bit antsy the last 30 minutes but what four year old wouldn't!?  It was like a three hour show so all in all he did really well.  I'm looking forward to next year when Logan is old enough to go and enjoy it too!