our trip to Dallas

first, we'll talk about Lexi's new tricks. ...everything is pretty much the same, except for the fact that she is now pulling up in her bed. this makes naptime annoying, because she can pull up but hasn't yet figured out how to get down. instead of napping, she spends her time pulling up and then panicking that she can't get down. it's a bit frustrating.
we went to Dallas yesterday afternoon so that we could get Lexi to a doctor's appointment at Scottish Rite this morning. she has webbed toes on her right foot and, according to what we had been told by our pediatrician, should be able to have the separated around her first birthday. he didn't seem to think it was any big deal and has actually had patients who have had the surgery before. so, we made the trek to Dallas, paid for the hotel room, meals, etc, and woke up early this morning to make Lexi's 8am appt. when we got there, we waited in one area, then were moved to another area, then were moved to another area, then finally we made it into an exam room. after looking at every part of Lexi's body, the orthopedist said that she was in great shape. however, the bad news is that since it's not medically necessary, they no longer separate webbed toes. it could possibly lead to bad scarring, etc, and it doesn't cause any problems with growth or mobility, so they won't do it. i was pretty upset when i was told the news. as of now, they don't look too bad- but on adults, webbed toes are pretty dang ugly. poor girl will have to wear close-toe shoes for the rest of her life. anyway, the good news is that she's healthy (and growing!) and if she decides she wants her toes separated when she's older, a plastic surgeon will be able to do it then. needless to say, i'm not very happy about the whole thing. ...whatever.
we DID, however, have a fun day in the city. we had a "surprise" visitor (well, she was a surprise to Lincoln)- Tia (my sister, Mitsi)!!!
Nana graciously agreed to stay at the hotel with Lexi so she could go to sleep last night, so Tia, Lincoln, and I went downtown to see all the fountains. Lincoln ended up getting SOAKED but we all had a great time!

Tia and Lincoln feeling the water. he insisted that they feel the water at every separate fountain. he didn't get to all of them, because there were fountains as far as the eye could see!

the big spitting fountain was Lincoln's favorite. it covers an area that i would guess is about 20ft by 20ft and has lots of holes in the ground from which water (on a timer) comes out in cool patterns. this is what cause the boy to be soaked!

today, we went to a different part of downtown with all of these metal longhorns. there are dozens of them and they're huge! we started counting them, got to 8, and then realized that there were tons more, so we decided to stop at 8.

Lincoln and Tia crossing the "creek". i love this picture!

here are Nana and the grandbabies at the longhorn place.
it's like a memorial or something. i know you guys know what i'm talking about.

Lexi and Mom-Mom (my grandmother).
we stopped at the hospital to visit Christi, but she was asleep (and not feeling well AT ALL) so we just visited with Mom-Mom and Dan-Dan in the family room.

i'm a bit frustrated because i feel like it was kind of a pointless trip since they just told me NO about Lexi's toes, but i'm glad we went because we had fun!

she speaks!

ok, so the title of this blog may be a little misleading. lexi TECHNICALLY only says one word, but she's trying hard to say others! "yay" ("aay") is still the words of choice, but she's finally branched out from the D sound. i've heard lots of "mama" and "mamama" the past few days. any time i leave a room, she says it. any time she's tired of being in her jumperoo or excersaucer, she says it. i think she might be starting to realize that i react when she says "mama" and hopefully she'll start using it more discriminately soon. she is also fond of the N sound, thanks in part to Nana. we're working on it!
lincoln had his first tee-ball practice yesterday and it was a success. he had a lot of fun and did very well. there was no complaining, talking back, or whining. he did everything his coaches told him to do, took constructive criticism very well, and actually let his coach help him swing instead of fighting it off. last year, at his first soccer practice, he cried. i was glad that this year he just had fun. he said that it's better than soccer and he can't wait for his next practice.
lincoln is about to help me make coconut cupcakes for his daddy. gotta try to be productive while the baby girl is napping!

i'm too young to feel old.

lexi is 10 months old today. i honestly can't believe it. i can't believe that in 2 months, we'll be having her birthday (and it's REALLY hard to believe that in 3 months, my boy will be 5 years old!!!)
it seems like so much has changed in just a couple of weeks. lincoln finished pre-k at young children's world, which was quite a surreal experience. it makes me feel old that i have a child who is too old to go to a school i remember going to! he will be starting tee-ball this week. he's pretty excited about it and i hope it's a good experience for him. he is such a good boy, despite the normal almost-5-yr-old antics. he loves his sister, thinks i'm alright, and absolutely adores his daddy.
lexi has put herself on a new schedule. she is still taking two naps but is now taking them later in the day which really works out well. she is also eating three meals and a snack instead of four meals, which is really awesome. she's saying one word, YAY- but it sounds like "aaaay". everything else is still da-da-da or da-dee. she has also started wanting to hang upside-down all the time! i'll let her hang, then pull her back up. she'll then throw her head back and hang again. she's a pretty funny girl. she also loves to drop things just to watch me pick them up.
i suppose i will go open my front door and enjoy this rain. it's the first time it's rained in for-ev-er!

some new pics

i made a delicious snack for myself. who doesn't love bruschetta??

this is one of my favorite new discoveries. "fresh" herbs in a tube! it tastes just as good as fresh herbs and stays good in the fridge a lot longer! you can find tubes of several different herbs, not just basil. i got it at HEB.

the babies and me after lincoln's end of the year program at school. he did such a great job!

lincoln and one of his teachers, mrs. abbey.

lincoln and mrs. tiffani- we couldn't get both teachers free at the same time so we just had to take two pics.

if you know me very well, you know that i love to cook. i love to invent recipes and also try out lots of new ones i find on the 'net. anyway, i decided to start a food blog to dedicate to all my trials and successes (and bombs!). if you're interested, check it out here. i will still be updating this blog about this kids, too.

another long week.

so, last week we had a REALLY long week. just when we thought it was almost over, we found out that we're going to have ANOTHER long week. AAAAAAHHHjkdsldkalcoidsociwasdkxfff!
so, if anyone has fun ideas of things to do (or if anyone wants to feed me and my children and save me from having to cook every night- HA) let me know!
no seriously, we'll be fine, but it will definitely be a lonnnng week.
lincoln says the most hilarious random things. i'm sure every almost-5-yr-old says random things, but mine is exceptionally hilarious. just little things like, "oh, i've already made several, thanks," and, "i would greatly appreciate it if you would stop doing that." and he used the word ASS the other day. he was singing old mcdonald and sang, "and on this farm he had an ass... with an ass ass here and an ass ass there." WHAT?!?!
today is mother's day. we got to see my mom today, which was nice. lincoln wanted to make cookies for his grandmothers, so we did. he helped me make the dough, roll it out, cut out the shapes, and decorate them. i've made the cookie recipe before but used a new frosting recipe that was, if i do say so myself, quite amazing. i wish i would've taken a picture of all of them before we gave them out because they were so cute. they were flower and heart shaped with pink, white, purple, blue, and green frosting. then, as a finishing touch, lincoln put clear sugar sprinkles on them. hahaha... i don't know why i felt the need to go into such detail describing our cookies.
k my mind has stopped working for me for now. this is all.

the cool of the pool

i love this picture of my boy and me! he looks so old in this pic!

it was 101 degrees today (YUK)! lincoln and i set up our little pool and he spent at least and hour in it. this is a really cute pic of him, even though his belly's all dirty.

this is Lexi's first bathing suit. i think it's pretty dang cute! she looooved splashing in the pool, but of course i couldn't get any pics of that because i was trying to keep her from diving in to the water.

cute girl.

we've finally decided for sure what lincoln is going to be doing in the fall as far as school goes. he will be 5 on august 24, so technically he could start kindergarten. we made the decision that he wasn't quite ready to start kindergarten and, since making that decision, have been kind of stumped about what he will do. he'll be too old to go to pre-k at a public school, since he'll be 5 before sept 1. and we feel like he needs to be going to school full-time instead of yet another tues/thurs school... so we have enrolled him into a private kindergarten at a church, in which he will be one of only about 15 students. i was told by the secretary at the school that there will be several other kids there with late summer birthdays, who will be in the private kindergarten for the same reason as lincoln. even though free school would be much betterm, i'm pretty excited about it. lincoln is not quite sure how to feel about going to school 5 days a week, but i'm sure he'll love it in no time.
lexi is still not saying anything... everything is da-dee. of course, scott thinks she's saying "daddy", but i'm not quite convinced. EVERYTHING is "da-dee".
me: lexi, say "baby"
lexi: da-dee
m: say "mama"
L: da-dee
m: say daddy
L: da-dee
m: good girl!