Birthday Pictures

I was a couple weeks behind in getting the boys studio birthday pictures taken this year.  Partly because we were waiting for black eyes to go away.  Each of them had one for a week prior to pictures.  Logan got his at school and Lincoln got his from Logan at home.  Not fun.  Lincoln's pictures turned out really cute but we didn't have many of Logan to chose from.  He wasn't the most cooperative.  There's something in the universe that says when two little kids take pictures together that they will never both have a smile (and looking at the camera) in the same picture. Luckily we were able to get a couple.

A Few Things To Note

A few things have happened this week that I thought would be good to note.

• It has been SO cold here.  I wanted to move to the desert to be warm but we've been in the low 30's at night. The days are not much warmer!
• Lincoln slept from 6:30 pm yesterday through the night and woke up at 8:30 am this morning.  He's the happiest he's been all week.  I have to admit I wouldn't mind if he kept up this sleeping pattern. He doesn't normally like to to sleep but he's such a happier kid when he does!
• Logan is talking in sentences and actually watching TV for 15 minutes at a time.  His communication over the last two weeks has improved significantly. 
• I won my tennis match on Tuesday.  It was the toughest match we've had so far but we won in a third set tie break...beating an undefeated team.
• I'm pretty much done with Christmas shopping.  I would say about 90% of our shopping was done online this year.  So much easy than toting the kiddos around from store to store.  This is the first year I've been done this early!

Bath Time

Our boys love to take baths!  They love the water and they love to play in it.  They always have. Here is what we experience during bath time at our house.  There's always a lot of laughing, giggling and water all over the bathroom. Not much explanation needed...

Thanksgiving Weekend

We decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year and luckily for us, Troy and Nancee drove up from Tucson to join us for a few days. We wanted a fun, delicious and relaxing Thanksgiving.  We decided to make all of our favorite basic Thanksgiving foods but not slave away in the kitchen for hours.  Thanks to  Costco bakery, Pillsbury crescent rolls, stove top stuffing, and a 3 pound boneless skinless turkey breast (SO easy and low maintenance) we were only left with a few other dishes that we actually needed to make.
Dinner turned out to be delicious and according to Lincoln, "It was the best Thanksgiving ever!"

This cousins loved playing with each other while the adults actually go to visit. Thursday night I took Ricky out and he got to experience first hand the craziness of "Black Friday specials."  He was a little reluctant about it at first but we scored some great deals so it was worth it.  Friday morning Nancee went with me to a Turkey Tennisize at our local courts.  It was an hour and a half of cardio tennis drills and we had a fun and got a good workout!

We are very blessed.  I often think about how lucky I am to have what I have in my life.  I try hard to not take things for granted. It doesn't mean that there aren't times of struggle or that everything is perfect.  It just means that I have a lot to be thankful for!

All in all we were able to accomplish our goal of a relaxing fun and delicious Thanksgiving! 

 Trying to get this kiddo to pose for a picture these days is almost a lost cause. Luckily I got this. 

Lincoln made this at school.

 The boys got to shuck corn for the first time.  Logan just wanted to hold it, he was clearly not interested in having to shuck it. 

 Lincoln was a great little helper and shucked several cobs.  Corn on the cob was his favorite part of dinner. 

 Everyone was in on the fun!

 Lincoln and Erica kept each other entertained all weekend.

The whether was a tad chilly but it turned out to be a beautiful weekend. 

Listening to the two of them interact and play together all on their own was so cute and entertaining. They were often in the playroom and every now and again we would hear them say something pretty funny that made us laugh. 

 This is what happens when you can't wait for Thanksgiving dinner. =)

There was food galore and it was yum-my! 

Happy Thanksgiving

Conversations With Lincoln

This conversation took place in the car on our way home after a long day of errands.  Oh how children can humble you.

Ricky: "There are too many freakin' birds in our neighborhood."  (He was referring to what we feel like is a pigeon infestation.)
Lincoln: "Don't say that word."
Ricky: "There are so many dumb birds."
Lincoln (in a stern and defensive voice): "Don't say that word.  Those are Heavenly Father's birds - don't call them dumb."
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We were running errands, in fact Christmas shopping for Lincoln when this conversation took place.

Ricky: "I'm going to take Logan and you take Lincoln."
Me: Okay, Lincoln let's go."
Lincoln: "I don't want to go with you. I want to go with Dad was (his substitution for because) I love him."
Ricky: "You love mommy too.  Be nice to mommy."
Lincoln: "Well I love Logan, and mommy and me and daddy but I love daddy the most."

Lincoln Turned 4

I'm a little behind with this post but it's been a little busy around here.  Lincoln turned 4 a couple weeks ago. As mentioned in an earlier post we had a Lego birthday party for him.  I'm glad he's finally four because he's so tall that he's look like a four year old for a while.
I could talk about Lincoln all day.  He is so incredibly bright, he has the cutest voice, he says the funniest things and I just love him. Lincoln is definitely an independent kid...that could also be interchanged with stubborn.  smile.  Sometimes it feels like he's a teenager already by the things that interest him, what he says and by his attitude. It is fun though that he likes the same kind of music and movies as us . Lincoln is also very sweet.  He wears his emotions on his sleeve so there's no mistaken what he's feeling. He is a social butterfly.  He will talk to anyone and play with any kid, no matter their size. Lincoln has great taste in music and loves movies.  School is something that Lincoln enjoys and he picks up on things very quickly. He can now count to 20 by himself.  More importantly, he can name most any Star Wars character and ship!
Here are a few more stats:

• Height: 41.7 inches (80%)
• Weight: 34 pounds (32%)
• BMI: 13.75 (2%)
• Favorite Food: depends on the day, he is VERY picky.  Some of his favorites include turkey sandwich, nachos, chicken and BBQ sauce, grilled cheese, chips and cheeze its.
• Favorite TV Show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Team Umizoomi
• Favorite Movies: Star Wars, Up, and Shrek 2
• Favorite Music:  Pop
• Favorite Singers: Black Eyed Peas, Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, and Sugarland
• Favorite Church Song: Praise to the Man (he knows all of the words to both verses and he sings it constantly)
• Favorite Color: switches between red, blue and green
• Favorite Toys: Legos, Legos and Legos
• Favorite Places to Go:  the mall play area, the Lego store,  Chuck E Cheese, and the movie theater for a special date
• Favorite activities: playing his iphone, watching star wars youtube videos, coloring, dancing and racing Logan around the island in our kitchen.
• Best Friend: still his teddy from when he was a baby
• Favorite MotoGP Rider: Ben Spies Jorenzo (that's a combination of Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo)
• What he says he wants to be when he grows up: a poop doctor, a medicine doctor and a fireman.
• Favorite Brother:  Obviously Logan! He definitely starting to play better with Logan.  He watches out for him and tells us when there's an "emergency" which consists of things like Logan getting something he's not supposed to have, or if Logan climbed up somewhere that he wasn't supposed to, etc. He's more protective of him then he's been before which I think comes with age. 
• Number of times he's had stitches: just once, but he's had several black eyes and a ton of bruises.  He's a very, very active little boy. 

We are so blessed to have Lincoln in our family.  He makes sure to tell me every time I leave the house (for any reason) that he loves me and then we do all of our special "I love you" signs.  Happy 4th birthday sweet boy!  We love you!

November 2007 - 1 day old

 

May 2008 - Six months old

 June 2009 - 1 1/2 years old

May 2009 - 1 1/2 years old

May 2010 - 2 1/2 years old

Sept 2011 - 3 years old

Sept 2011 - 3 years old

November 2011 - 4 years old

FIVE Guys

You know when your city gets a Five Guys that you're movin' up in the world.  We've been wanting a good hamburger joint to come to our town since we moved here.  We said all along that we'd be happy with either a Five Guys or In-N-Out.  On Tuesday of this week a Five Guys opened up about five minutes from our house. Ricky made sure we were there on opening day and he even scored a free lunch for us!  It turned out to be a fun lunch date for the two of us. As always, it was delish!