Monday, December 16, 2013

Thanksgiving Recap


I realize that we're far closer to Christmas now than Thanksgiving, but I still feel the need to share about our Thanksgiving week.  Bear with me.

We drove to Missouri on Wednesday - a nine-hour drive - and Lincoln did great.  Our plan was to leave Tuesday night so that he would sleep for the majority of the time, but we ended up not being able to leave until Wednesday morning.  But no worries, he still did great in the car for nine straight hours!

 
We arrived in Union and the first stop was to meet Grandma Jenny for the first time!  They were both in love!  
 
 

Lincoln also got to meet cousins Eden and Ella on Wednesday night too.  They had so much fun playing together!
 

 
We stayed with Hal's sister, Debbie, and her family.  So we got to her house and met more cousins:  Emily, Amber and Trenton.  I'm obviously horrible at documenting with pictures because I don't have many of their family.  But let's just say that Lincoln wasn't lacking for attention!
 
Here's my little turkey on Thanksgiving Day!  He did manage to get a bit of a cold or congestion on the drive down, so he was pretty stuffy/snotty/drooly for a few days.  Neither of us got much good sleep.  But he was still a happy little guy!
 
 
 
Uncle Hal and Trenton had to get their workout in before eating Thanksgiving dinner!
 
 
Since we're not with Hal's side of the family for Christmas, we usually exchange our gifts on Thanksgiving.  Well........someone got a car for Christmas this year!  I'm not sure I'm quite ready to see him behind the wheel yet, but he does look pretty darn cute driving his new car!  (Lincoln is sitting with cousin Amber in the picture.  She's nine and did not want to be out of Lincoln's sight all weekend - such a sweetheart!)
 
 
 
 
 
Lincoln loved listening to Great Grandma Ann talk.  She's doing great for 95!
 
 
Trenton was SO EXCITED to finally have a boy cousin.  He's been outnumbered by all the girls for too long!

 
Hal's sister, Ellen.
 
 
On Saturday, we had lunch with (most) of the entire family.  It was so great to all be together!  This was the first time I had met Hal's brother, Bo, and our first time meeting his wife, Amy.  They just had a little girl, Oliva, who is three months old.
 
In the front row of the picture, it's Hal's grandparents, who are both in their upper 90s, Amber and Emily, Ella and Eden, Lincoln, Oliva, and Trenton, and then Hal's mom, Jenny.
 
In the back row is Jenny's first husband and Debbie's dad, Willard, then Hal, me, Debbie (Debbie's husband, Bill, had to work that day!), Don and Ellen, and Bo and Amy.
 
 
 
There were so many of us, we had to get two big tables at Cracker Barrell.  Lincoln looked like such a big boy sitting up at the table!
 
 
 
On Sunday,  Hal and I (& Lincoln) went to the chapel in Beaufort.  It's a small meeting out at Rick Babb's blueberry farm.  It was a nice meeting.  That's where Hal went to church after he got saved through the Sardina family, so it was nice for him to go back and fun for me to go for the first time. 
 
After church we drove by the house that Hal grew up in.  He said it's pretty run down since they lived there.
 
 
And we of course had to drive through the high school and check out the new football field and baseball fields.  Oh, the memories!

 
It was so much fun to be able to spend time with Hal's family and for them to get to meet Lincoln.  We're hoping to be able to get down there more than once a year now that we have Lincoln so he can grow up with his cousins on that side of the family as well.  But we all had a great week together and can't wait to see them all again hopefully soon!

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Five Months!

We're a day late, but look who turned five months old yesterday!  Simply cannot believe how fast time is flying, but we're enjoying every moment with our little guy.  He is getting so big and changing every day.  He's rolling over, mostly from back to tummy, but he can go from tummy to back as well - he just doesn't like to as much.  He smiles like crazy and is definitely a social bug.  He loves to sit upright and look at everything going on around him.
 
 
 
He is teething now too, so that means a ton of drool and everything in the mouth! Thankfully he hasn't been too fussy with it.  I just got an amber teething necklace though, so we'll see how that helps.  It's supposed to be pretty amazing.
 
We've experimented with a few solids (rice cereal, oatmeal, green beans, bananas), and when we were home this weekend grandpa introduced him to a few more, including dill pickle, pickled beets and horseradish pickles.  He didn't even flinch!  I couldn't believe it.  He just sucked and sucked away and would get mad when grandpa took it out of his mouth!
 
Oh, and check out who's sitting up on his own.  He's a little wobbly yet, but we're getting there.
 
We thank the Lord every day for this precious gift and can't imagine our lives without him!


Saturday, November 16, 2013

Sorry for all the background noise - we were having dinner at Macalester with our football family!  Lincoln enjoyed his apple, to say the least!
 
 

Friday, November 8, 2013

Grandma & Grandpa Come to Visit

Last weekend my parents came to visit!  We had such a great time - it's always so nice to have them here, even though it goes way too fast.  They hadn't seen Lincoln since he was two months old, and I know it doesn't seem like that long, but he's changing so quickly!  So it was great for them to see him again and interact.  He has such a fun personality and just loves his grandma and grandpa!  We were just having so much fun that I only snapped a few pictures.  I need to get better about that!
 
Lincoln loved grandpa!  Grandpa even let him have a bite or two of his apple!
(i'm going to have to keep my eye on those two!)
 
Lincoln loved grandma too!  Lots of kisses and snuggles!

 
On Saturday night we all bundled up and went to cheer on Hal and Macalester College.  It wasn't as cold as we were expecting, but it did get pretty chilly towards the end.  The sunset was beautiful!  And halfway through the game there was even a fireworks display.  We're not sure what was going on nearby, but I love fireworks so I don't really care too much!


 
Lincoln did great during the game.  This is the first time we've lasted for the entire three hours of a football game in the cold weather.  But having mom and dad there was a huge help.  And, of course, his little football snowsuit that is to die for!  He was nice and cozy warm.  After a bottle he fell asleep during the third quarter.  I kind of wish I could have joined him - the game got a bit boring.
 

 
Mom and dad's neighbor sent three rubbermaid tubs full of boy clothes for Lincoln!  Most of the stuff won't fit until he's at least three or four, but this cute little tie was in there and I just couldn't resist putting it on him for church on Sunday morning.  I think he pulled it off!
 

Thursday, November 7, 2013

Halloween

We celebrated Halloween a few days early this year.  Every Monday night we have "Family Night" with the Macalester coaching staff.  The wives/girlfriends and children of the coaches all get together after practice and before the coaches have their meetings for a potluck dinner.  It's a chance during the week to have dinner with our guys since they're usually so busy. 
 
So every year for Halloween, all the kids dress up in their costumes and come in a few minutes early to pass out candy to the players after practice.  It was so fun to be able to participate this year with Lincoln, especially since we weren't taking him trick-or-treating.  (I thought it might look a little suspect that somebody's parents just wanted a bunch of candy if we took a four month-old trick-or-treating!)
 
all the kids with the senior football players
 
Hal and all the kiddos
(we have a lion, Coach Jennison, a Hawaiian girl, Snow White and Raggedy Ann)

 
me and my squirmy little lion


Monday, October 28, 2013

this and that......about Lincoln

here's what's been happening around our house these days.......all about little Lincoln, of course! 
 
I think in my last post I indicated that the Cardinals probably wouldn't make it past the Dodgers in the playoffs.  well, I guess what do I know!  they did.  and they're now playing for the World Series against the Boston Red Sox.  the series is currently tied 2-2.  for game one, we had to have our Cardinal gear on to cheer on those Red Birds.  it didn't help.  I think we lost the first game 7-1 or something.  Lincoln and I fell asleep during games two and three and we won both of those so I think we might be on to something...... 

 
Lincoln and daddy watching the Cardinals together.  So sweet! 
I think we're going to have another die-hard fan on our hands!
 
last Friday we celebrated Lincoln's four-month birthday by having his four-month well check appointment.  he's growing right on track and is perfectly healthy.  he even gave the nurse a big grin after she gave him his shots!  what a perfect little patient.
 
it's starting to get pretty cold around here, so we had to get a winter hat.  this one is a little big for now, but so darn cute!  I love the little bomber hats.
 
he's such a happy little guy!  and he's loving his walker lately. 
he loves to be sitting up and seeing what's going on.....he's so observant.
 
and he's been rolling like crazy lately, and especially in his sleep.  I was so nervous at first when I would go to get him in the morning and he was on his tummy.  but I guess as long as he can breathe, he just prefers to sleep on his tummy.  it was pretty cute because his mouth was open and there's a big pile of drool underneath his face! 
must have been sleeping pretty hard.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

He Rolls, etc...

Before I went to bed last night, I peeked in on Lincoln and this is what I saw.  This boy just cracks me up!
 
This morning we thought it was appropriate to dress in our Cardinals gear since they beat the Pirates in a good, close series in the playoffs last night!  Go Red Birds!  Now on to the Dodgers - not sure we'll get out of this one alive! 
  
 
And the big guy finally decides to roll over.....while I'm pumping and only have one hand available to flip him back over!  What a goofball!  He's been SO close for awhile now, and this is when he decides to do it! 
(of course I had to get a pic first before I helped him out.  I know - I totally deserve Mother of the Year!)
 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Three months

Here's a little behind-the-scenes look at what it took this morning to capture this cute little three-month picture of Lincoln!


Okay, Mom, what's going on?
 
Oh, nevermind, I'm just going to squirm around while you have that thing in front of my face again and talk to me in that weird high-pitch voice.
 
Okay, you want a smile?  I'll give you a quick one.
 
And........I'm bored.  Are you done yet?
 
Oh, wait - there's dad!
 
Dad!  Where are you going?  Don't leave me here with mom and her phone!  She keeps taking pictures of me with this sticker on my chest!

Oh, good, you're staying?!

Oh, Dad, you're so funny!
 
Kisses and a rescue by Daddy!!