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!