My girl at her finest...

PJs, jewelry, and a tutu. Yep, that's my Lexi!

17 Months

Today, babygirl is 17 months old! Time goes by much faster than it did when Lincoln was a baby, probably because we're so busy all the time. I am trying to jot down funny things that Lexi is doing (something I was really good about with Lincoln and not-so-great about with Lexi).
At 17 months, Lexi is saying a lot of words, but most are pronounced incorrectly so only the people who have been around her a lot can understand her. Sometimes that's a little frustrating, but she's learning more every day so I know it won't last forever. Some of my favorite things that she says:
"ah-guy" (all gone)
"boo!" (this can be moo or balloon)
"DITTY!" (in an extremely high pitched voice means kitty, in a normal voice it means pretty)
I love the way she says "baa!" for a sheep sound. It's hard to explain it, but it's hilarious.
"nye, nye" (night, night)
She makes a grunting/shouting noise when Lincoln is bothering her. She makes it at other people, too, but mostly Lincoln.
She has 7 teeth... 4 on top in front, 2 on bottom. She also has one molar on her upper left side.
She's finally outgrowing 9-12 month clothes.
She is FINALLY too big for her rear-facing infant car seat (the one in which we brought her home from the hospital!).
She laughs a lot more. Loves to be tickled or chased and likes to throw a ball and then say "WHOA!"
Shakes her head (almost violently) for "no" and thinks it's really funny when I nod and say, "yes". It makes her shake her head even faster.
Love oatmeal w/ a mashed-up banana in it. She calls it "oh-mull".
She likes to sneak into Lincoln's crayon drawer and then scrape a crayon across her bottom teeth. I have to keep a close eye on her because of this one. I'll look over and her bottom teeth will be green!
She likes to look at herself in the mirror and laugh and/or talk to herself. She especially likes to put on hats, jewelry, or random clothes and then go look in the mirror and laugh.
She LOVES baths ("ba!")
She knows lots of animals and the sounds they make (monkey, cow, pig, elephant, mouse, rooster, donkey, puppy, kitty [although she refuses to meow], lizard [she sticks out her tongue repeatedly- it's cute], bird, horse, sheep, duck, and probably a few that I'm forgetting).
She loves to wake up Lincoln in the morning. I'll put her on his bed, she'll crawl over to him and press her face against his and laugh hysterically until he wakes up.

The new is obviously wearing off for Lincoln when it comes to his little sister. Sometimes he really enjoys having her around and he's always glad to see her if he's been gone from home. He has really started to get annoyed with the fact that she wants anything that he's playing with. She follows him around everywhere and always gets angry when he doesn't want her near him. I hear lots of shouting in our home because he's trying to keep her from doing something and she's not happy about it.
He does love it when she wakes him up in the morning. He always wakes up with a smile on his face and gives her a big hug. And Lexi thinks that Lincoln is the funniest person in the world. She won't attempt to say his name, but she'll laugh any time we say his name or if she sees his picture. I guess it's just your average brother/sister relationship.
I wanted to get a cute picture of her, but this was all I could manage this morning. I think it's actually probably a bit more accurate of her at this age. The girl has learned how to use her 'tude!
Happy 17 months, babygirl! We love you!

Ho Ho Ho!

We went to see Santa Claus today and both of the kids were great! Lincoln LOVES Santa and Lexi seems to have a fondness for him as well. We drove out to the State School to see all the Christmas lights. Halfway through the lights, we were able to park the car to get out and see Santa(!). We had to wait in line for a while because Santa had to leave for a few minutes to go "feed his reindeer", but the kids were surprisingly patient and well-behaved. Lincoln went first so that he could tell Santa what he wants for Christmas. As soon as I put Lexi on Santa's knee, she proceeded to tell him "Hi!" about thirty seven times.
We'll go see him again next Friday, but hopefully there will be less waiting involved.

I almost forgot- I taught Lexi to say "Ho Ho Ho!" today. We'll ask, "What does Santa say?" and she'll pucker her lips about as tight as they'll get without closing and quietly get out the sound "Ho Oh Oh!". It's dang cute. She is a bit confused about it, however, as she was "Ho Oh Oh"-ing to everything Christmas related that was in sight.
We are finally going to set up our Christmas tree within the next couple of days. I have been putting it off for as long as possible because Lexi is a crazy woman. It's not that I'm worried about the ornaments... I'm worried about her actually pulling the tree down! I do not kid when I say that my girl is pesky! She is in to EVERYTHING! I was going to wait until a week before Christmas to put up the tree (and not even bother with the ornaments this year), but Lincoln really started asking me about it a few days ago. He said, "Mom, we have to put up my tree! We don't even have to decorate it since Lexi will get the ornaments but we need our Christmas tree!" Seriously, how could I say no to that??
Hope you are all keeping warm in this unusually cold weather we've been having. I wish it would at least snow if it's gonna be this dang cold! BRRR!

better late than never

I meant to post this story a couple of months ago, when it happened, but I plain forgot. (Is it sad that I was tempted to type "I done fergot"?)
One day, as the kids and I were driving into town on an old 70-mph country road, a dove flew in front of our car and met its fate on my windshield. "THUD!", went the bird. Then it proceeded to fly directly up into the air and I watched it fall to the pavement in my rear view mirror. "Crud", I thought. I just knew that Lincoln was going to be upset about it. I was trying to plan what I would tell him when he asked me what had happened to that bird or why it died. I was prepared for one of those tough mom moments. Then, I heard "WHOA!"(then a noticeable pause), "...THAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!!" "Wait," I thought, "Awesome?" I asked Lincoln, "WHAT?!?" Lincoln's reply, amidst his laughter, "That bird was like, 'BOOM!', and then (laughter) it like (laughter) flew up in the air! ". I was confused. Could my boy seriously be getting this much joy from the death of one of God's creatures? Then, without having to ask, I got my answer; "(loud laughter) IT WAS LIKE DOVE HUNTING WITH YOUR CAR!!!!".
That's..... my boy. I guess.

Spooky!

We had a lot of fun during the Halloween week. First, we went to a big festival near Pops and Nana's house. Then, of course, we went Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night. Our kids behaved perfectly both nights and they looked super cute, too! Lincoln was a Clone Trooper (a la Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and Lexi was a extremely adorable kitty. I couldn't believe that she wore her costume so willingly and never even tried to pull the hood off. I'm pretty sure it all had to do with the fact that it was a kitty costume and she LOVES kitties. She would get excited every time she saw herself (in costume) in the mirror.

Cute Kitty and cute Daddy

At the last house we went to, instead of telling the lady "thank you", Lincoln said, "May the force be with you,". It was quite hilarious.

This photo is from the festival we went to. They call it "Halleluiah Night".

Nana and Lexi. Nana dressed up as a grandmother. Do you think she did a good job?

I know these pics are out of order but oh well. Here are my costumed babies and me after a fun night of Trick-or-Treating. Look how tall my boy is!!!

I have lots more pictures of lots of things so hopefully I'll get a chance to post them soon. Although, I really hope I choose to clean instead of post a blog- that's what I'm neglecting as I type this one :)

What's that I see?

Wait a second- are those CURLS I see???

Pumpkins!

Daddy and Lexi at the pumpkin patch

Lexi was sooo thrilled about having her picture taken... ok, not really.

my pumpkins

Popeye and me :)

We had a hard time getting a good pic of all 3 of us.

Lincoln looked long and hard before picking out this pumpkin. He named it Abraham.

He wasn't very excited about cleaning out the"pumpkin guts" and even convinced me to let him wear some of my kitchen gloves to get the job done.

Lincoln's pumpkin, complete with Batman symbol, and Lexi's, with a kitty (her favorite).

Lincoln was pretty proud of our pumpkins.

our masterpieces all lit up

no more ear infections!

sweet babygirl had her tubes put in bright and early on friday morning. we had to wait for a while before anything happened, but once they took her in, it was a breeze.
after waiting in the main waiting room, then in the pre-op room, then in the surgical hallway, we finally got to meet with the anesthesiologist and ENT. the sweet surgical nurses gave Lexi a beanie baby fish, which she loooooooved. when it was finally time for the procedure to begin, a nurse came out into the hallway and got Lexi from us. Lexi gladly went to the nurse, telling her "hi" over and over. we expected her to be a bit uneasy about all the new faces, but as the nurse took her through the doors to head to the operating room, our baby girl said "HI!" to every person she passed. it was quite adorable. just nine minutes after the nurse had taken little babe from us, our ENT came into the hallway, where scott and i were still waiting, to tell us that the surgery had gone just fine. he suctioned quite a bit of fluid out of her middle ear and got the tubes in without a problem. he also said that she was doing well with the anesthesia, which was good to hear.
we then went into the main waiting room and waited for Lexi to wake up (in recovery 1) so that we could go be with her in recovery 2. it was only about 10 minutes until they paged us and we got to go upstairs to the recovery area. we waited in there for about 3 minutes and then we heard a pathetic little cry moving closer to us. sure enough, it was our girl, quite unhappy to say the least. a male nurse (murse? ha) brought her to us and her face lit up, "mama! daddy!". she was able to drink for the first time in about 13 hours so she was really happy about that. we then snuggled for the next half hour or so and then we were released. after a good meal and a long nap, she was back to normal- like nothing had even happened. she now acts like she feels better than she has in a lonnng time.

all comfy in her PJs, waiting for her name to be called to go into surgery

in her little hospital gown, playing with daddy's hat

after surgery. she chugged that whole cup of juice in about a minute and a half. she wouldn't let go of the cup or her new fish (which she calls "fiff" or "shish").

grumpy girl

she wouldn't let me move out of the chair i was in after i took this picture. she wanted me in sight at all times.

all is well now. hopefully she won't get any more ear infections!
in other news, our girl is finally walking!!!! it only took her 14 1/2 months, but she finally got it. she's just taking a few steps so far, but in no time at all, i know she will be able to walk across a room with no problems. she THINKS she can walk that far. she really does try, but she ends up falling after about the fifth or sixth step.
Lincoln is doing great. nothing new i can think of- but great nonetheless. he is such a great big brother. he spent the night with Nana so that she could take him to school the morning of Lexi's surgery. when he finally got to see her that evening, he was SO happy to see her (and vice versa!). the first thing he said to her was, "Lexi, you wanna play with me? we can share my blocks!". he then proceeded to build several things just for her because he knows how much she loves to take them apart. so sweet.
our world is busy, but a little boring these days. i'm scraping things together for blog entries, so bear with me :)

Happy Thoughts

Tomorrow, probably before a lot of you are even out of your pajamas, THIS precious little thing:

will be having surgery to have tubes put in her ears. She's had one ear infection per month for the last EIGHT months! It will be so nice to have a baby girl who is well more often than she is sick (instead of the other way around)!
She should be in and out of surgery between the hours of 7am and 8am- so if you're awake, please think some happy thoughts and say a little prayer for Miss Lexi.

quick update

lincoln is still loving school. he really loves getting to go every day and (so far) hasn't had any problems with it. i'm still enjoying getting a couple of hours every day to myself!
scott and i took lincoln to the fair one night. scott's parents kept lexi for us so that we would be able to enjoy our short time there a little more easily. we ate lots of delicious food, went to the petting zoo, and lincoln rode lots of rides (mostly by himself, but he rode this one - the "tornado"- with his daddy):

the guys at the Army National Guard booth told scott that they'd give him a free t-shirt and football if he'd ride the mechanical bull, so he did. it was his first time to ever do so, and he stayed on for a good 20 seconds.

babygirl loves tomatoes.

Lexi girl is having to have tubes put in her ears in a couple of weeks. she has had 7 ear infections in 7 months. no good! i will be glad to have the surgery over with and have a healthier little girl! i'm sure she'll enjoy not being in pain anymore and actually being able to hear clearly!
life is good with us. busy, as always. i'm trying to blog as often as i get the opportunity but this is really a crazy time of year! but hey- 2 so far in sepetember isn't too shabby!

trying to get it all together

so, normally, i would've posted this on lincoln's 5th birthday (august 24) but since we were without a computer from august 22 til sept 1, that was kind of impossible. and normally, i would post a picture of lincoln as a newborn (and possibly one from every bday party he's had), but my old pics are all on my old, broken computer. FEAR NOT- we will be able to get MOST of our old files off of our old computer (which needs a new hard drive), but it's going to cost a pretty penny to have done so we're in no huge hurry.
instead, i will post pictures from lincoln's super-fun birthday party. i made the cake, cupcakes, and the pinata. we rented a 15'x24' waterslide and the kids had a great time!

i don't know if you can tell that it's raining in this pic. it was a random, beautiful rain shower in the middle of the party. no thunder or lightning- and the sun was shining the entire time! the kids were wet anyway so it didn't bother anyone.

lincoln's blowing out his FIVE candles. on top of the cupcakes are whoppers that i "carved" to look like death stars. yes, i made it all (icing and all) from scratch. ok, i lied, i used a box cake mix on the cupcakes but made them differently than the instructions say- so i oughta get at least 1/2 credit for them being "from scratch".

he was SOOO excited about this card!

i decorated a painting extension pole to look like a lightsaber to hit the pinata. the pinata looked good, but wasn't quite strong enough. lincoln was the only one who got to hit it. in my crafty-pinata-making defense, he has a great swing and hit it REALLY HARD twice before it broke :)

scott and i played on the slide with lincoln and julia after all the guests had gone. there is NO evidence of that, however.

Sugar (Scott's mom) and my silly Lexi.

Lincoln enjoyed playing with some of his new toys after the party was over.

here's my boy on his first day of KINDERGARTEN. it also happened to be his actual birthday. we took a giant decorated cookie for him to share with his class and he really enjoyed that. (this girl was trying to hide under the table while i was taking pics but it looks like she's leaning on lincoln's shoulder.)

sooo sad

I have new posts for lincoln's bday party, pictures of him from birth till age 5, and his first day of kindergarten. Here's where I disappoint: I cannot post anything! Our computer is on the fritz and we're trying to make a decision about what we're going to do. We could likely loe EVERYTHING that's on it, o we have been stuck when it comes to deciding what to do. Anyway, I'm posting this from my BlackBerry and it's annoying.
Just so ya know, I have not forgotten about my blog, but my comp is just plain screwed.

a little bit at a time

that's my motto. that's how i'm going to get back into blogging.
those of you who know me closely know what a crappy summer this has been for our extended family. blogging has definitely taken a backseat to everything else.
here are a few fun new facts.
Lincoln facts:
Lincoln read an entire book by himself tonight. it's called "Catch Me, Catch Me!" and it's about Thomas the Tank Engine. the only word that he really had trouble with was "bridge", and that's a dang confusing word!
he starts kindergarten next monday!!!! it's not like a huge deal oh-my-gosh-my-boy-is-starting-school type of thing though. this will be his first year in kindergarten. since he has a late summer birthday, he will go to private K this yr and will start public school next yr. this WILL be the first time he will be doing something full-time. i'm sure at first i will love all the quality time with miss Lexi, but after a while i know i will miss my boy. he will love it though.
he had his 5 yr checkup today (6 days early) and is in the 80th percentile for height and the 90th for weight. it's the way he's been since he was a baby! he weighs 50 lbs and is 44 inches tall! where did my baby boy go!!??
Lexi facts:
Lex has FINALLY cut two more teeth. aftet being one-toothed for almost two whole months, she will (finally) obviously have three teeth within a couple of weeks. they just broke the gum today, so it's not obvious that they're coming in unless you really look closely.
her new favorite word is "kitty" (sometimes it sounds like "kitty" but more often it's "ditty") accompanied by her quite cute "meow" (nya!).
she called me mama for the first time two days ago! i've always been able to get her to say the word "mama", but she never responded when asked where mommy was or who mommy was. when scott and i got back into town from a weekend away, i picked her up, she looked at me and said, "mama". i was a pretty happy mommy.
she has realized that screaming when she doesn't get what she wants gets some kind of reaction, so she does it ALL THE TIME! in the car, when she's not getting attention, she just SCREEEAMS. when i put her down in her high chair just long enough to go to the kitchen and get her food, screaming begins. ohhhhh my girl has got some 'tude.
she is not in ANY hurry to walk and that's just fine with me.

Lincoln's 5th bday party is this weekend. i can't wait to post pics from it because i have really gone all-out. i made a pinata, am making cake, cupcakes, and frosting from scratch with cute decorations to boot; and have a pretty fun-filled afternoon planned. i still can't believe i'll have a 5-yr-old. seriously- 5 is the age when there is no longer any question if a child is still a baby or actually a "kid". i have a "kid".

enough is enough... and this is enough... for tonight at least. i know i need to post a bunch of pictures but cut me a little slack- at least i posted something!

tsk, tsk... bad blogger.

so it's been almost a month since i've blogged. forgive me, friends. i will try to update with pictures of the kids and their latest antics soon. today, i'm blogging about my husband. tomorrow is his 30th birthday.

this is his birthday car from me. click on the image for full view.

One year ALREADY???

(i posted this on july 16 so i don't know why it says july 15)

July 16, 2008
looking just like her brother!

July 16, 2009
(ok so technically i took the picture on the 15th)
looking quite girly and beautiful :)

can it be true??? has it been a whole year since we welcomed our beautiful baby girl into our lives? has it been a year since we experienced the stress and worry of her suddenly turning breech, having a version done to try and turn her, and then an unplanned c-section followed by the unbelievable joy of seeing her for the first time (especially after the scares she had given us during the pregnancy)??
our amazing little Lexi is one year old today. she has forever changed our lives. her gummy little one-toothed smile can light up a whole room. her little voice absolutely warms my heart. i love to hear her try to say new words (she's up to about 16 words now!) and watch her face as she's trying her hardest to understand something.
happy birthday, beautiful girl! thank you for filling a part of our hearts we didn't even realize was empty until you came along. we love you!

this has no title. oh- i guess it does!

my cousin, julia (christi's daughter) has been in town visiting for a few days. she and lincoln have had lots of fun playing and she's really enjoyed helping out with little miss lexi. she's only 10, but i can already tell she'll be a great mommy one of these days. she is such a huge help with lexi. also, lincoln adores her, and she's great with him. they have had a very fun week.
lexi is now saying several words: dada, nana, mama (she's finally looking at me when someone says my name, too!), yay (sounds like "aaay" or "aaaah"), hi (sounds like "haa" or sometimes "eye"), and she just learned to moo like a cow, but she keeps her lips closed so it sounds like "buuuu". she's also waving bye-bye (though she doesn't ever do it when she's on the spot- go figure!), waving when she says "hi", claps for herself after EVERYTHING she says or does (i think this is hilarious!), and plays the "how big is lexi? ...SOOOO BIG!" game. sometimes i think she understands what i mean when i ask for a kiss or tell her to kiss her baby doll, but other times i think maybe it was just a fluke when she actually DID do it for me. who knows! i can't believe she will be a year old in less than a month. i am planning a small party with just family and probably our life group friends. definitely not as over-the-top as lincoln's first bday. i'm able to control myself a little more these days!
lincoln is almost through with swimming lessons but isn't really swimming yet. he's still reeeeally scared of the water, but he'll at least get in the shallow end and walk. he'll also put his face in the water and blow bubbles, but he won't put his whole head underwater. he has no interest in actually swimming or getting anywhere close to the deep end. oh well- at least he'll get in the pool now! before lessons, he would only put his feet in the water! he will definitely be taking lessons again next summer. hopefully by then, he will be used to the water (i'm planning on taking him at least two or three times a week for the rest of the summer!) and will be up for really learning how to swim.
if you haven't read the blog about my aunt christi's battle with acute myeloid leukemia, please do so. she is currently undergoing what the family is calling "plan b". "plan a" didn't work because of the aggressiveness of her cancer, but "plan b" seems to be showing us a bit of hope! we know God is ultimately in control, so we're all praying hard!

an update in pictures...

I have been slacking, so the easiest way to update is by putting captions under pictures i've taken during the past couple of weeks... here we go.

scott built a storage building right outside of our house since we have NO storage space inside the house. he let lincoln get on the roof with him and link thought that was quite possibly the greatest thing ever.

here is my boy on top of the roof. i promise he's not as close to the edge as it looks!

lincoln is playing tee-ball this year. here he is at bat during his first game.

this is the reaction we got after we told him to "keep his eyes on the ball".

lexi has started making a funny little face. she scrunches her nose, furrows her brow, puckers her lips, and inhales and exhales loudly through her nose. it's hilarious!
i haven't been able to get a picture of her doing it whole-heartedly, but this pic is pretty close.

here's another pic of the silly face.

i love this pic of lexi trying to eat the coffee table.

this is a great picture of her! click on it for full-view. her eyes are just gorgeous!

both of the kids got sick within a couple of days of each other. first lexi got sick with a double ear infection and a throat infection. about 36 hours later, lincoln had a sore throat and a fever. then, later that night, he ended up vomiting a few times. this is how pathetic he looked on monday morning. he's awake, just sad looking.

on monday afternoon, he started swimming lessons. i know, i shouldn't have taken him since he was sick- but they were expensive, we couldn't get our money back, he couldn't make up the missed lesson, and he really did feel better in time to go to lessons (even though it was thanks to ibuprofen and not really being well yet).

it rained a LOT at our house the past several days. my boy had lots of fun running through the puddles right after some severe storms had blown through. the next few pictures are from that evening.

we have been crazy busy this week! i've been covering for the owner of Hickory Street Cafe while she's been on vacation in hawaii. i've worked there all this week and will work next week to cover for a waitress who is going on vacation. between being a mom, dealing with sick babies, working, taking lincoln to swimming lessons, and running the normal errands, we have had NO free time. i will be glad when this two week period is over! ...of course, as soon as it's over, it will be time to start fireworks. COME ONNNN, MIDDLE OF JULY! :)