i should be doing other things...

i have several things i really should be doing instead of this (finishing the blanket i started making for Lexi, straightening my hair, baking 3 pies, making cranberry sauce, and preparing snacks for tomorrow) especially since Lexi's taking a nap right now! but here i sit, blogging. so i guess i'll dig right in and try to get this over with as quickly as possible.
sleep training- something we NEVER had to do with Lincoln. he was always so easy and such a great sleeper. Lexi, however, has been quite difficult. she slept through the night until about a month ago and has been a real pain since then. even when she was "asleep", i would have to hop up several times and stick her pacifier back in her mouth so she wouldn't completely wake up. so this past sunday night, we started using the ferber method. so far it's working reeeeally well.
the first night, we put her to bed at 10pm and she cried for 2 hours (i went in about every 10 minutes to reassure her and let her know she hadn't been abandoned) and then she woke up twice (maybe three times- i was sleeping so i don't remember) and took about 20-30 minutes to go back to sleep each time. the second night, we put her in her bed at 10:30pm and she cried for 30 minutes. she woke up once during the middle of the night and only cried for about 10 minutes. she then didn't wake up till 7am. LAST night, she went to bed at 9:30pm. she cried for about 20 minutes and then fell asleep. she fell asleep on her belly, so i had to go m ove her to her side. usually that would wake her up (she's such a light sleeper but is getting better thanks to this!) and she slept through it. she didn't wake up until 6am! i was SOOO HAPPY! at 6, we got up, i fed her (didn't talk to her, of course- wouldn't want her thinking it was time to get up), put her back in bed, and she slept until 9am. it was the best sleep i've gotten in almost 4 1/2 months. anyway, i'm pretty encouraged about how well it's going. it's really great cause we're not having to swaddle her anymore or worry about a pacifier at night. she only has one during the day, and usually when we're out in public and she's reeeally grumpy.
Lincoln watched Tarzan for the first time the other day. he was in the living room watching it and i was in the dining room talking on the phone. the next thing i knew, i looked to my left and there was Link, stripped down to just his undies. "why are you naked??" i asked. "i'm not naked! i'm Tarzan!" ...i thought that was pretty hilarious.
i've got all my Christmas shopping done for Scott and our kids. i've got a lot of shopping done for Scott's family as well. and we're not doing presents this year for my family (which i'm really excited about, actually) except we ARE buying for Lincoln and my nephew Layton...
until this week, my brain had totally skipped over Thanksgiving and was in Christmas mode. the tree's up, our stockings are up, lots of my shopping is done. yesss.
this is the first Christmas that i really don't want anything. i never understood when my mom would tell us "don't get me anything! save your money!" and now i totally understand. i don't need anything. i would really people rather spend their money on things that they need. does that mean i'm getting old? i just want to make sure my kids (well- mostly Lincoln, since he's old enough to enoy it) to have a great Christmas.
the musical is almost over. i'm sooo glad. we've done 2 of our 3 shows and won't be able to do the next one till Dec 7th. we can't do it this weekend since it's a holiday weekend, and we can't do it the 6th because i will be out of town for my sister's lingerie shower (which i am hostessing, so i really can't miss it). so i'll have to wake up bright and early on Dec 7th, drive home from Austin, get myself ready, and have a show at 3pm. that day is going to SUUUUUCK!!!
it's really weird that Scott and i are the only "kids" who live here now. his siblings have both moved away, and now both of mine are gone. of course, Mitsi's been gone since i was in 7th grade, so that's no biggie. i'm used to her being gone. but now that Matt's gone- well- it's weird. and Scott and i are still here. i think we'll stay here forever. i know people hate this place, but we really love it. ...maybe we're crazy.
ok, ok... i really have to go take advantage of the fact that Lexi's napping. i'm making 2 caramel apple pecan streussel pies and one coconut cream (NOT coconut meringue) pie. yummmmmm....
happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Family Pictures 2008

Stan West took our pictures yesterday and they turned out great! I posted my favorites on Facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=70833&l=ec8d9&id=500533383

Lexi's newest tricks.

Lexi has so many new tricks!
She really likes to blow bubbles and "talk" so she can hear the spit blowing between her lips. If there's no drool already on her lips, she will force some spit onto them and blow bubbles and then make noises. it's pretty cute!
She's been laughing more, and it's reeeeally cute. It is a totally girly sounding squeal. LOVE IT!
She's also learned to grab things (though it takes a lot of concentration and doesn't go very quickly) and get them to her mouth (which is even more challenging!) it makes her reallly angry when she can't get something into her mouth like she wants it! It's also hard to figure out how to let go of things once she's managed to grab them.


She has gotten really good at holding her head up for several minutes. She's even rolled over a few times. The first time she did it was at 14 weeks (which was about 3 weeks ago). Lincoln did it when he was only 10 weeks, but we were on the go a whole lot less with him and he spent more time playing as a result. She has now rolled over about 5 times. I've seen two, Scott's seen two, and Lincoln claimed to have seen one.


She'd been holding her head up for probably 5 or 6 minutes and I had been taking pictures of her the whole time. ...This look lets you know that she'd had enough!!!


This picture has nothing to do with a new trick, but it's just funny to me. She has to be swaddled to sleep, but she HATES it when Daddy is in the process of swaddling her! This is her sad/angry face as he was just beginning the "hog tie".

There is a lot more going on in our lives right now... my father-in-law is home, so hopefully Scott's work load will lighten a bit. Scott took Lincoln on his first deer hunt yesterday (during which they saw NO DEER! how bad does that suck!?). The holidays are rapidly approaching and I am itching to shop.... a lot.

There is even more than all of this, but it's almost midnight. Lexi's finally gone to sleep. I'm the only one awake and right now i'm wondering why i'm doing this instead of sleeping. NO MORE!

Halloween and other things

we have been so incredibly busy lately.
scott's dad has been doing insurance adjusting the past couple of months (thanks to hurricane ike) so scott has been working over-overtime. he's doing the work his dad usually does PLUS the work he usually does, so needless to say- he's been exhausted. he doesn't sleep enough and we don't see him enough. i've been told, though, that my father-in-law is coming home in about a week. it will be good for scott to not have to do quite so much work! it will also be good for the kids and me to get to see him more!
my aunt christi is doing well in the hospital, but is still not out of the woods yet. she now needs a bone marrow transplant, and they're having a hard time finding a donor for her. noone in the whole country (who is actually on the marrow donor registry) matches her completely. isn't that bizarre? so some family members are trying to organize a bone marrow drive to see if someone can match her. if not- maybe the people who get tested could match someone else in the USA and help them!
i'm working with the clyde hs theatre department, doing vocal direction of the fall musical. lincoln would describe my job as "teaching those kids how to sing". it's lots of fun, but it's much harder this year since i'm trying to fit it AND two kids into my schedule. there have not been many home-cooked meals lately (and usually i cook 6 times a week!). i'm ready for it to be over, though, so one aspect of my life can go back to normal.
Halloween week has been fun. Lincoln is having a total of SIX Halloween festivities this year! Sugar took him to "Boo at the Zoo" and to a fall festival in San Antonio. we went to the Halloween festival in clyde last night, he had 2 different events (pumpkin festival and a costume parade) at school, and then we're going to a Halloween party tomorrow night at some friends' house and he will get to trick-or-treat a little. it's ridiculous!
we had fun at the festival last night... Lincoln's a bat:

...a bat who looooooves hot dogs!

a silly bat!

and Lexi didn't wear her costume to the festival (it's too big) but she's a super-cute daisy! (seriously, does it get any cuter than this?)

i feel like there's a lot more i need to fill you in about, but it's 11pm. that means it's time to fill lexi's belly up one last time before i'm allowed to go to sleep. and sleep sounds really amazing right now.

so i'm going to go get to work and GO TO BED!

HAVE A GOOD DAY!

"Hi, I'm cute!"

life's going crazy

things are just insane lately. i'm working a few days a week, doing music direction of the clyde hs musical. my kids are insane (mostly the 4-yr-old. 4 is an innnnteresting age!). we found out last thursday that my aunt (my mom's youngest sister) had leukemia (please add christi to your prayer list. she's undergoing very aggressive chemotherapy for the next 3-4 weeks). scott's business is booming and his partner (his dad) is currently working out town so scott's working A LOT. my brother, sister-in-law, and sweet nephew are moving 6 hours away in just 4 days (WAH!). all sorts of crazy busy stuff going on these days. we haven't gotten a "weekend" in weeks. my gas tank is starting to run low (not the one in my car, the one in my body). i'm just beat. and there's no sign of anything slowing anytime soon. i suppose that's life, eh?

lincoln's still loving school. i can't believe he's in pre-k. he came home one day telling me all about his pupils and how they get big when it's dark and little when it's light. he loves to learn so much. i love it.

he pretends like he's spiderman alllll the time! he even goes as far as making everyone call hiim spiderman ("i'm not lincoln! i'm spiderman!") and he "shoots webs" on everything and everyone. i guess he could like something a lot less cool, like the power rangers or spongebob. spiderman is pretty cool.

lexi is giving real, big, appreciative laughs (mostly to her daddy) now. daddy is absolutely hilarious! she gets so happy when he comes home from work.

she slept 7 consecutive hours last night. it was amazing! i can't believe that she'll be 3 months old on thursday!

the last time we went to the dr. (10 days ago), lexi was 11lbs 3oz. that's almost 5 lbs in 11 weeks! wow!

my hectic life calls, i must be going.

Lexi and me at the pumpkin patch, 10/10

the wind was right in our faces

Nana and her grandbabies

he's saying "cheese!"

cuteness.

life is hard sometimes.

well i'll start with the short(er) things before i get to the main point on this blog... let's see...
i've been really sick. thought i had the flu and was going to wait it out, but when my fever got to 103.5, my mom made me go to the dr. i found out that i have a really bad kidney infection- there is e. coli in my kidneys! so that's pretty scary and yes, i suppose my mom was right about making me go. you might never hear (or read) me say that again :)
i'm on some serious antibiotics and am feeling much better. i'll know on monday if the antibiotic i'm on will actually kill the infection that i have (that's when my dr will have the results from all his labwork). but for now i feel better- so if the medicine isn't working, something is.
lexi has kind of found her hands. she still hasn't seen them, but she can get them to her mouth. she loooooves to suck on her fingers. it's so cute- she'll talk and suck on her fingers and giggle and suck on them some more. she's such a sweet girl.
so, on monday, one of my parents' dogs died. she was 10 years old and had just suddenly gone way downhill (like the week before she died). of course that's a little sad for everyone (we got her when i was 14!) but all of the adults were just fine.
lincoln overheard me talking on the phone to my dad about it (even though i wasn't even in the same room he was in), and he came in and asked me, "did nana die?" i said, "no, baby! nana didn't die!" ......"mommy, did cricket die?" i thought for a minute about how the heck i was going to approach this subject. lincoln has never had to deal with death before and i knew this was going to be really difficult.... there was no way for me to sugar coat it. "yes. yes, baby. she did."
"NO! i want her to come back!". so i told him that she had been really sick and that she was in dog heaven now and that she's not in pain anymore and that it would be ok. well, that's not good enough for a 4-yr-old. he told me how much he wanted her to come back, speculated that maybe she had just run away and that she would come back, and told me that he was so very sad. i told him it was ok to be sad, and he just collapsed into my arms and bawled. it was awful.
later that day, we went out to my parents house because i had things that needed to be done out there (these plans had been made days before the dog died). when we got out there, he wanted my mom to show him where my dad had buried cricket, so they got on the golf cart and drove off to go look. i don't know exactly what was said (other than the fact that they discussed that she was buried in the dirt), but i know that when they got back, he was totally at peace with the whole thing. (one funny moment: he told my mom that when he gets old, that i will have to bury him. she told him that it was different for people and he said "good. people have a better choice!")
he tells me that he still misses her but that's ok for him to miss her. ...it was quite a tragic ordeal.
guess that's all for this go 'round.
ttfn