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! :)

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.