Christmas!

Despite a bout with a stomach bug, we had a really fantastic Christmas!  We were able to see our families and hang out with everyone before we all got sick, but not before infecting everyone else.  I feel TERRIBLE about this!!

Anyway, we decided to give Lincoln a new pair of pjs each Christmas Eve.  This was our inaugural year.  :)  I love the footie pajamas.  They're so cute and I don't have to worry about his tootsies getting cold at night.  He won't keep a pair of socks on for anything.  



We spent Christmas Eve with the Schultz Family.  From L to R: Lincoln, Noah, Olivia, Lexi and Sophia.



Lincoln had a great time opening all his gifts but I'm pretty sure this CAT bulldozer thing was his favorite.  It makes noise and shakes.  He loves to press the button.  I, on the other hand, do not love the noises or the shaking.  It's so loud!  And there's no volume button!  And the on/off switch is hidden on the bottom and to get to it, you need a screwdriver.  Oh well...I'll let him enjoy it a little longer. 

Lincoln's favorite thing to do at day care is play in the sandbox.  We decided it was time he got his own.  Grandma and Grandpa Schultz got him a fun sandbox to play in when the weather gets warmer.



Lexi, Amy and Drew's daughter, is such a sweetie!  She's 10 months younger than Lincoln.  It's so hard to believe Lincoln was ever this small.  It won't be long before they're running all over the place together, I'm sure.  In fact, she may be running all over the place before Lincoln. 





Christmas morning was so fun!!  When I was growing up, my favorite part of Christmas was opening my stocking.  Don't get me wrong: I loved all of Christmas, but Santa always filled my stocking with the best stuff!  Books, CDs, movies, jewelry, candy, fun little toys, even an orange!  Nate, Joelee (if she was up early enough) and I would all sit on the heat and open our stockings until Mom and Pop would wake for us to open gifts.  

Lincoln had a great time opening his stocking.  Here he is playing with his favorite toy, a fake cell phone.  He loves the noises it makes.  It makes me laugh when he gives me the phone or puts it up to his ear (or on his shoulder) and says "hi". 



Santa was really good to Lincoln this year!  He got a lot of fun toys.  His favorite gifts were an activity center, a tunnel and a plastic truck to ride around on.  Lincoln has had so much fun playing with his new toys. 



Christmas Day we made the trip to Grand Rapids to visit with my family.  It was chaos, as usual!  :)  The best kind of chaos, of course.  I didn't get any pictures of all the kids opening gifts (darn!) but it really was crazy!  I know it'll only get more fun and more chaotic and even more loud (is this possible?!)

Lincoln got this great little magnet that hangs on the refrigerator.  Right now he just loves the music it plays but eventually, maybe it'll help him to learn sounds and the alphabet.  Although, I did hear him repeating the "K" sound the other day after playing this.  Hmmmm...



This summer Kirk will have a helper to mow the lawn!  

I love everything about Christmas.  Everything.  This year, though, one of my very favorite things was this concert Quin put on for us.  She gathered us all in the living room, told us where to sit and played her new keyboard and sang "ABCD..." to us.  Sometimes she sang different words, but it was always to the tune of "ABCD".  I loved it. 



We made a pretty quick exit after dinner (thank you stomach virus) so we weren't able to get any pictures of the kids altogether.  :(  These are all I have!  Ellery (isn't she too cute with her new bangs??), Jason and Gianna.



The handsome-est almost 2 year old I know!  Easton:



 

A big, huge, GIANT thank you to everyone!  Thank you for the gifts and the memories.  It couldn't have been a better Christmas.

 

Also, thanks to Gigi and Papa for Lincoln's new chair.  He loves it!

 

 

 

 

Visit with Santa

Last weekend, Lincoln and I went to the Potter Park Zoo with my friend Dawn, her husaband Reed and their son, (a.k.a. Lincoln's BFF) Daniel to visit Santa Claus.  The event was called "Breakfast with Santa".  None of us were really sure what to expect, but it was actually really fun for the kids!

We first went to see Santa Claus.  Kirk and I thought the Santa we saw last year with the cubicle backdrop was bad...weeeell, this Santa had a dry earase board for a backdrop.  Lincoln was really good (surprisingly) and just started at Santa.

After Santa, we went to the animal room where we were met by creepy crawler critters.  I had to take a picture of a o'possum seeing as we had a colony of them living under our deck this past winter.  There was also a snake that Lincoln didn't seem to mind and a gross spider.  I took the picture and ran!  They also had some other random animals.  It was really cool!

Our last stop was breakfast.  They had a really nice spread of food.  The best part about it was that it was all food our boys could eat (pancakes, eggs, etc.).  We had a really good time!  A special thank-you to Dawn for inviting us!

Our Little Peanut

This week we had Lincoln's 15 month appointment.  It is so hard to believe that Lincoln is almos 16 months!  Time flies!  Our biggest concern at this appointment was that Lincoln isn't walking yet.  The doctor didn't seem to be all that concerned yet since Lincoln cruises and pushes things all around the house.  Also, I didn't walk until I was 18 months old and the doctor said walking is very familial.  So, for now, we'll keep doing what we're doing and hope he walks soon.  Seems funny in one of my last entries a year ago I mentioned how much we were looking forward to having a toddler running around.

Anyway, yes, Lincoln is small.  His stats were:

Height: 29 3/4 inches (9th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs. 13 ounces (5th percentile)

The doctor still isn't worried about him being small.  He's growing on the curve and that's really all that matters.

Lincoln had some immunizations at the appointment on Tuesday and he's just now his normal little self.  I actually had to pick him up early from daycare this week because he was feeling so miserable. 

Our next appointment isn't until March.  Let's hope he's walking by then!

Christmas Tree Hunt

It was C-O-L-D COLD when we went to get our tree on Sunday.  Not sure what I was thinking wearing only jeans and my Chuck Taylors.  You'd think I hadn't grown up in West Michigan with my thought of "if there's no snow, it's not THAT cold".  Duh.  At least Kirk and Lincoln were bundled up.

We've been going to the same Christmas tree farm for 3 or 4 years now.  Last year it was so much easier when we could just carry Lincoln around in the Baby Bjorn.  This year, we had to push the trusty stroller through all the bumps and humps trying to find the right tree.  It took a long time to find the right tree.  A really long time.  And a really long time when it's ice cold outside translates to A REEEEEEAAAALLLLY LOOOOOONG time.

I feel like we both kept saying "yep, that's the one" and then we'd look on the other side of the tree and there would be a big hole in the back of it.  Or we'd think we'd found the perfect tree only to see an even more perfect one just a tree or 2 down.  Lincoln was getting antsy in the stroller since it was taking so long but there were just sooo many trees!

When all was said and done and just before my toes broke off from frostbite, (seriously: I was limping my way back to the warm barn) we saw our tree and snatched it right up.  We were afraid we had made an impulse decision, but we both agree this is one of the best trees we've ever picked. 

Picking out a tree is hard work.  :)

So far we've been able to keep Lincoln away from the tree.  He's been a little bit curious, but all in all, he'd rather be pushing the santa stool around the room than touching the lights or the ornaments on the tree.  We'll see how long that lasts.

November

That was a quick month!  I can't believe I didn't update the blog AT ALL the entire month of November! 

I guess that's an indication of how exciting our month was!  :)

Besdies a couple of highlights, it was a really uneventful month.  We were lucky enough to have Easton and Quin hang out with us for an afternoon while Joelee stayed at home with G and Elle and Jason went to his old high school's football game.  (They were playing in Howell.)  While Lincoln was napping, Easton, Quin and I headed to the park.  It was so much fun to spend time with just the two of them.  Quin got really tired walking there.

Lincoln was awake by the time we got back.  I promise there was much more fun to be had than the 2 boys sitting around!

Quin and Easton were so well-behaved.  We had so much fun!

This year for Thanksgiving, we had my whole family over.  It was a lot of work but well worth it!  The kids are so good together and make for a whole new form of entertainment.  I believe Gianna (and maybe Easton?) was dancing on the coffee table at one point.  I hardly got any pictures...they must be on Joelee's camera.  Sorry!

Lincoln was feeling under the weather when we were at Kirk's parent's for his family's Thanksgiving.  No pictures either!  :(

Ain't Nothin' but a Hound Dog...

What a great weekend!

Yesterday Lincoln and I went to Zeeland and Grand Rapids to see Quin and the triplets and then to my parent's house for a visit.  Each time we get the kids together, it is more and more fun.  Quin is still so sweet with Lincoln. She touches his face and tells us how soft his skin is.  She always wants to sit next to Baby Lincoln.  I love it!  Lincoln and the triplets could not be better buds these days!  They play really well together.

This trip together wasn't unlike any other: we tried to get them altogether for a snapshot in their costumes...no such luck.  I always think Joelee is lying when she posts a picture on her blog and says it was the best one, but let it be known, I don't think she is!  It was impossible to get a good picture of all 5 of them.  This is the best:

Here they are:

Quinners the kangaroo:

Ellery the giraffe:

Gianna the lion:

Easton the monkey:

Adorable!

We didn't do too much at Gigi's.  Papa went to the Zeeland football game with Jason and Quin so it was just us hanging out.  I was able to get a couple good pictures of him playing with all Gigi and Papa's fun toys.  I love how he is standing up in this picture.  You can really get the full effect of the costume.

I finally found the shoes we had been looking for all week to go with Lincoln's costume: blue "suede" shoes!  So they aren't suede, in fact, they are probably plastic, but they are the perfect companion to the Elvis costume.  Did I say Lincoln was Elvis for Halloween yet???  He was the sweetest, blondest, littlest Elvis ever.  He wasn't a fan of the shoes, but the one piece leisure suit didn't seem to bother him one bit!

What a difference a year makes:

Happy Halloween everyone!  Hope you all had as much fun as we did.  :)

It's true: I'm a Sap

Yes, it's true.  I've always been sappy...it's just gotten worse since I had Lincoln.  I find myself tearing up at the strangest moments and say to myself "what is your PROBLEM?!"  I cried when we had to put away Lincoln's newborn clothes.  Even now I have a stack of Lincoln's clothes from this summer on his dresser that I just can't put away.  It makes me sad he'll never wear them again.  A few weeks ago while I was getting my hair done, my stylist told me her 5 month old had just discovered her feet.  I literally could not stop crying!  (I retold this story at day care just this week and started crying AGAIN!) Lincoln used to play with his feet all the time.  It wasn't until then that I realized he doesn't play with his feet anymore.  :( 

I was just reading old blogs and looking at pictures and it absolutely amazes me how fast time has gone.  I cannot believe Lincoln is 14 months.  It amazes me how much he has grown and changed.  In the last few months his personality has really come out.  He is so much more of a ham than I ever thought he would be!  He does this thing now where he looks at you, scrunches up his nose, purses his lips and huffs.  It cracks us up!  Apparently he was entertaining everyone in the hallway at day care during the tornado warning on Tuesday by huffing at them.  The ladies think it's hilarious!

We stopped to eat at a restaurant on our way home from Frankenmuth last week and someone actually said he was so polite!  For anyone who knows me, this was one of the greatest compliments anyone could have given him.  I hope this is only the beginning of his politeness.

When we were at the doctor in September, the doctor told us Lincoln still had to be facing backward in his car seat because he was under 20 lbs.  We still had him in his infant carrier at that time.  Recently, we got his "big boy" carseat.  Kirk took the base for the infant carrier out of my car and installed the new car seat: I cried. 

 

It really seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital.  He was so tiny and lovable.  I love all my days with Lincoln, but I really miss the days when I could snuggle him and he'd snuggle back.  These days all he wants to do is get down and play.  Which is normal, I supppose.  I just miss my little snuggler.

As I look back over the last year of blogs, I am reminded how fast the time has gone.  I said in a blog a while ago that Kirk and I would agree that Lincoln is the best thing to ever happen to us.  I still think this, but I would also add that he makes me a better person.  I was afraid when I got pregnant that something would change as soon as I had him and I'd be a different person.  I didn't think I'd be able to turn the music up and sing loudly and off-key, or dance around the living room looking like an idiot or suddenly I would lose my sense of humor.  I can say now that I can do all these things AND more.  I'm a better version of the pre-baby me.

Forgive me for being so sappy!  How cute is his bed-head??

We'll see you all on Halloween.  :)

Frankenmuth

Kirk and I had a couple days off work and decided to spend the day/night in Frankenmuth.  We love Frankenmuth and decided it would be an easy overnight trip for all of us.  Not to mention they have a waterpark in one of the hotels.  Perfect!

We left yesterday so that we can spend the day hanging out.  We got there in time to watch the start of the Lions game at the Frankemuth Brewery.  The food was good, the tvs were on, Lincoln was really well-behaved...perfect! 

After lunch, we headed out onto the busy streets of Frankenmuth.  There were so many people out since it was such a nice day.  We were able to stop and take a couple pictures, but it's hard to get around with a baby and a stroller.  Couldn't help but stop at the lederhosen!  Our little German boy!  Maybe Uncle Nate will let him borrow some REAL lederhosen someday?!

We had to wear these bracelets in the waterpark. We decided to put one on Lincoln even though he didn't need one. I know it's mean, but I thought it would be the first time of many where he'll be wearing one of those annoying bracelets. Haven't we all spent hours (ok, maybe minutes) trying to get those things off??

Lincoln's favorite part of the trip was defintely the waterpark.  He loved it, but was tired after an hour!  That was perfect for us!  He loved everything.  So fun!



(Looks like someone needs to find a new waterproof mascara...)



 As you can tell by the lack of posts, our fall has been pretty boring. We haven't done anything too exciting. Enjoying the beautiful weather. It's going to be winter before we know it.

Happy Fall, everyone! Halloween is around the corner...