Lots of Laughs

Laughter is a wonderful thing. I am grateful that I have a family on the West coast with a great sense of humor and a family on the East coast that is equally as funny. We have missed our West coast family this Christmas season! Here are some moments from the past week that were captured on camera...these still make me smile

Mom cracks up Penny---is there anything better than a baby giggle??

We went down to see the Christmas lights at Tanglewood and stopped at my house for dinner. While we were there, we busted out some Christmas carols. Reed felt the need to dance super creepy.

Kristin really enjoyed the country ham biscuits Christmas morning.

Cleve and Reed bought matching shirts and they posed with monkeys. I really don't know why, but it was fun to take their picture.

I was really surprised by how bright my cake was with 27 candles. Number 30 won't be good...just a warning.

Dave loved his Christmas presents!

The family was not thrilled or showered for a picture, but we had to take one before Dave had to leave for work. Here is one of the last shots.

The boys have it made...

Carson and Lincoln have been in heaven the past couple days, and Christmas isn't even here yet! Yesterday we went to the Snow Village, a big model train village by the science center. They got to see lots of model trains, and the workers let the boys push buttons to make the train whistles blow.


We walked over to the aquarium and science center after they had their fill of trains. Carson was too scared to pet the sting ray that kept coming to the surface, but Lincoln was more than happy to grab it and squeeze the sides. Why does he not listen when I say, "Softly?"


The boys played so hard that they both crashed for a long nap. They needed their rest, because we went to the mall later that night to visit Santa. I don't know why we chose to go at 6pm, because we had to wait in line for over an hour! Lincoln wasn't really sure about talking to Santa, until I told him he needed to tell Santa what toys he wants for Christmas. Then, he started yelling across the line gates, "Helicopter, Garbage Truck, Airplanes." I was relieved he wasn't scared of Santa when we it was our turn. He told Santa he wanted a helicopter. You can see the wait was worth it: we got an amazing picture (just kidding---I'm the only one kind of looking at the camera).

Today we went to the NC Transportation Museum. This is a great museum we have been to once before when we saw Thomas for Lincoln's birthday. The boys had a blast looking at all the old cars, airplanes, trucks, motorcycles, and trains. We even went on a ride on the train turn table.

Busy Times

It always seems like there is so much going on during the Christmas season. I love staying busy, so this has been such a fun week. I wish I had more pictures of our different adventures!

The week started off with the good news that Dave's older brother Brent and his wife, finally got to pick up their daughter in China. Kaylee Mai is almost 18 months old and is beautiful! We are so excited for the H family. They return to the States on Christmas Eve. What a wonderful Christmas present to bring back to their 4 boys. It has been great reading on their blog everyday about the places they are visiting and the food they are eating.

Lincoln enjoyed his playtime at Shay's house this week. She lives in a huge house with super fun toys. His favorite is the mini roller coaster in the basement. Shay's mom made a fantastic lunch for all the moms after the play date. It was wonderful to sit and chat with new friends. I feel blessed that I have met a great group of people in our new city. Lincoln left the play date with hugs all around to his buds.

We had a nasty ice storm that kept us inside all day Thursday. It is challenging to entertain a 2 year old in the house all day. We played some indoor soccer, and Dave had to wrestle Link to tire him out. I just love watching them play together! Dave taught Lincoln some new ninja moves. I forgot about them until one day when I was changing his diaper. I leaned forward to give my little guy some kisses. All of the sudden, I see a little smirk and he yells, "TRIANGLE!" The triangle move is when one person wraps his legs around the opponent's neck and lifts up the hips to make the squeeze tighter. I haven't laughed so hard in a while!

As usual, Lincoln helped me make cookies for a cookie exchange I had later this week. I made Maple Pecan cookies with a Maple glaze, and they were tasty. I also made homemade hot chocolate and apple cider for us to enjoy with all the cookies. We had a small group because of the icy weather, but we still had a great time just chatting and sugar binging.

Mom and I picked up Reed at the airport on Friday. We hit up Trader Joe's and by the time we were done, it was 9pm. I had not eaten dinner yet, so needless to say, I was starving. I have been trying to eat every 2 hours, and it had been 5 hours from my last meal. Reed and I spotted a Mexican restaurant in the same parking lot as T.J's so we started walking over. Mom couldn't believe that the first thing I said to the waiter was, "We are not here for the experience, we already know what we want to eat, and we are hungry." Just so they wouldn't spit in our food, I apologized and told the waiter I was pregnant. He was excited for me and showed me a 4D picture of his baby girl that will be arriving soon. Phew, I almost asked for food poisoning for the 3 of us!

Cleve and his family arrived and we have been playing hard ever since. Carson and Lincoln were instant friends: they are so cute playing together. We have lots of other plans to stay busy. I will be a good girl and take more pictures, or just have Cleve take them with his fancy camera.

Hair Cut and The Death of a Christmas Tree

Dave and I decided a long time ago that we would wait until Lincoln was 3 to get his haircut. I didn't think that would be a problem, because it took him FOREVER to grow hair! For the past couple weeks, his hair had been out of control. He constantly brushed it out of his face, sometimes with 2 hands at the same time. That wasn't the breaking point for me...it was the snot. Lincoln got a runny nose, with all the hair brushing with his hands, snot always got smeared on his face and hair. He had hair stuck to the sides of his face with the gunk.


I warned Dave I was going to get it cut, and I really don't think he believed I would be strong enough to do it. He wasn't doing the snot cleaning though. So, after our Wal-Mart shopping (They do not have a Super Target in Winston!), we pushed our shopping cart over to Smart Cuts. "Quita," the hair stylist, was very nice and did a great job with Lincoln's hair. I'm so shocked he didn't cry or scream. I just gave him a lollipop, and he was ok with it, even though he did shrug his shoulders up and tried to grab the scissors a few times.

My family always celebrated St. Nickolas day on Dec. 6th with stockings. The cars in the picture were in Lincoln's stocking along with Wonderpets fruit snacks and a Santa Pez dispenser.

Do you notice how beautiful our Christmas tree is/was. I was so excited to have a real Christmas tree for the first time since Dave and I have been married. We were gone this weekend and came home to a bug infested living room. Gross!! The tree had hundreds of black, tick-looking (but not ticks) all over the trunk. They climbed on top of my piano, they crawled up the legs of our table, and even made it to the kitchen. I do have an artificial tree, but of course it is in my parent's garage. Lincoln loved our Christmas tree, and I didn't want him to go without one, so...

We decorated our Bamboo!

Shutterfly is the bomb!

I have always loved Shutterfly and have been using their services for years. Shutterfly is an online photograph store. You can do just about anything with your pictures on this website. I have made scrapbooks, posters, birthday invitations, stationary, and just enlarged pictures. There are also great photo gifts if you need a Christmas gift idea, just go to the website. My mother-in-law does a Shutterfly calendar for everyone in the family, it has everyone's birthday and anniversaries, plus the grandkids love to see pictures of themselves on their birthday month. We love to tease her about how she pics out the most unflattering pictures of the adults. Just so she won't get teased again, she sent out an email to post pictures that we like onto our shared Shutterfly family website. This is another great tool that Shutterfly offers! Here is the link to start creating your own personalized calendar... http://www.shutterfly/calendars.com



Dave and I have had a bunch of moving expenses, and since he was out out of work for 4 months, we didn't have Christmas cards in our budget. I was so excited when I was on facebook and saw my friends posting about how bloggers can get free Shutterfly Christmas cards if they write up a blog about them. So, I get to tell you more reasons whey I love Shutterfly, just so I can make this 200 words. We have used their Christmas photocards in the past, and I love all the designs. There are so many different designs: if you like retro/classic/colorful/black and white, you can find them here... http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-photo-cards



Last year, we had this picture of Lincoln,



and chose the design from Shutterfly that said, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas," and we wrote, "Lincoln had a little too much Christmas." I feel bad now for throwing my precious boy into a panic attack over Santa, but the card turned out really cute!

If you don't want to use any pictures, they also have cute Christmas stationary here... http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-cards

I'll leave what we are doing this year as a surprise, but it will be just as cute as last year, thanks to Shutterfly!

Longest Post

So much has happened in the past week, I'm sure this will be the longest post of the year. We had a fantastic Thanksgiving. It was so nice to have Dave home from work for 4 days!

Before we left for Hickory, Savannah, Lincoln's neighbor friend, helped bake some cookies. My tub of 100 cookie cutters doesn't have any Thanksgiving or Fall related cookie cutters, so we used cars, trucks, bunnies, hearts, etc but we decorated them with autumn sprinkles. I know what you are thinking, I tried with Halloween cookies, and it didn't work out so well. I thought if Lincoln saw Savannah concentrating on decorating instead of eating, he might do the same. And he did, pretty much.




Lincoln's cookies, mostly cars, trucks, fire engines, and dogs...





Savannah's cookies, mostly hearts, butterflies, and bunnies...

We invited the "K" family up to turkey dinner in Hickory. They are a fun family of 3, who go to church with us and are living far away from their home in Utah. Tyler is in his first semester of the MBA program. Mason is just a couple months younger than Lincoln, and is so easy. Sometimes I forget he is around, because he is so quiet and easy to entertain. Here he is showing off the turkey hat my Aunt Monica sent to Lincoln. The turkey hat was amazingly, a big hit.

Lincoln in the turkey hat... I know my mom's hands look scary, and they aren't clenching Lincoln, she was just steadying him as he was spinning around in circles.

Even Big Bunny got a turn with the turkey hat.

We had 3 different turkeys for dinner, a brinned baked, a plain baked, and a Cajun butter injected fried one. Is it hard to guess which one was the most delicious? The fried won hands down...too bad mom forgot to put it away in the fridge that night. We woke up to a nasty turkey smell on Black Friday.

I just left myself a great intro into my next paragraph. My fabulous husband and wonderful dad went out at 3:30 am on Black Friday to score my Christmas present. I DID NOT ask them to, just so you don't think I'm an awful, spoiled wife. Dave volunteered and Dad is always up for an adventure with his favorite SIL. They went to Target for this...




It is a Dyson DC17, and I am loving it! I have wanted a Dyson for 5 years, ever since my MIL bought one and cleaned Shinsel Manor, if you ever saw Shinsel Manor, you know why I fell in love. Some women would think that it is awful to receive a vacuum for a Christmas present, but it doesn't feel like work when I vacuum with my Dyson, and I really like functional gifts.

I do love Christmas time, especially now when everything is so new and fun for Lincoln. We picked out and decorated our Christmas tree tonight. There is nothing better than the smell that a Christmas tree puts out! I'm thrilled that we were able to have a real one this year. Lincoln kept saying, "Hooray, hooray" as Dave put the tree inside and secured it in the stand. He has had fun with all the ornaments, and I know that I will be picking them up off the floor everyday. I only got one picture, because the camera batteries died, so I'll have to take more later.


After church, we took some quick pictures for the Christmas card. This isn't the picture we are going to use, but I still like it.


Dang, I have some cute boys!

Finally

Finally, I get to write that Lincoln stayed in nursery the entire time at church today...all 2 hours! There were no tears, and he kept playing when I came to pick him up. He was fine without me.

I have had some proud mommy moments this week. Besides nursery, Lincoln has used his big boy potty twice. I'm not really starting potty training yet, but I'm excited that he isn't afraid to use it now. I'll really start the nightmare of potty training after Christmas.

Last Christmas, Dave's brother Brent and his family gave Lincoln some board books about food and colors. He loves these books and has them pretty much memorized. I read the first line, and he can recite the second line on the page. My proud mommy moment is when we got to the blue page about blueberries. One of the lines is that they are blue, round, and cute. After he recited the line, he took my face in his hands and said, "Mommas cute." That's my sweet boy!

Here's the handsome boy in his church sweater vest. He had nice corduroy pants on too, but the sweatpants took over after church.

Happiness

I have been overwhelmed by the phone calls, thoughts and prayers from family and friends. I really, really, have appreciated them and have felt them work. I decided to see my old doctor who delivered Lincoln, because I just didn't want a stranger to have to tell me bad news. I was absolutely shocked/happy when Dr. L pulled up a picture of a baby on the ultrasound screen. Yep, sorry to scare everyone and make them worry, but I am still having a baby!!! Dr. L said it could have been a miscarried twin, a broken blood vessel in my cervix (which bleeds like a head wound, and sorry yes I did type the word cervix), or it could have due to my blood type (I'm A negative). I'm not supposed to worry about what it was, just that I still have a baby. My due date is 6/23/2011.

This pregnancy was so different that it was with Lincoln, I was convinced I was having a girl. Now, I don't feel pregnant at all, just like before, so I'm guessing it's another boy. Whatever it is, I'm keeping it!

I'm not sad I published my eariler post: I really did need the support of friends and that prayer network. Thank you, thank you for thinking about us, and please keep praying!!

Lots of love,

Julie

Can't Sleep

I havn't been able to sleep all night. I feel so heartbroken right now. I really didn't want to cry again today, but I guess I just I'm not ready to get over this yet. I carried a baby for 9 weeks, and yesterday I lost it. Just during the middle of the day, out of no where. I had still been feeling very pregnant, so I am shocked. I have an ultrasound tomorrow to confirm what I already know: there won't be a baby in the picture. It is strange, because yesterday I still had some glimmer of hope that maybe there was another one in there; however, I slept off that hope and I don't feel pregnant at all today. Please be thinking of me and Dave during this time. I have already felt the prayers of family members, for which I am very grateful! I am also thankful that I didn't experience any physical pain, and that a lovely friend came to pick Lincoln up when I couldn't reach Dave at work.

Facebook

Do I still exist on Facebook friends? I just tried to log on and it said my account was disabled due to a fake name. What?? I guess they think Shinsel is a made up name? Let me know if I still show up or not please.

Sickies

We have all been a bunch of sickies around the house lately. Dave and I have taken turns sleeping downstairs so we won't hear the other spouse or child snore/cough. Dave's boss even sent him home Friday and Monday to do work at home. I didn't mind that part. It was nice to have him close, even though he was in front of his computer. I bought some humidifiers for our bedrooms, and Lincoln calls it his "cool steamer."

Anyway, besides not feeling very well, I have some news....Dave grew out his goatee again! I love his facial hair. I was sad when he had to shave after graduation to interview for jobs. He doesn't usually let me take pictures of him, so this is from April.

Just so I won't forget

Lincoln is completely binky/pacifier free!! It has been over a week, since he first said his binky was broken. I don't know if there was a little hole in it, or if it didn't feel good to suck because he had a cold. Either way, I told him I couldn't fix it, and he was fine with that. He hasn't asked for it since.

He is so picky about what he wears. His favorite shirts have monster trucks, cars, trains, helicopters,etc. The one exception is his keywork shirt made by his friend's mom, Jen. This makes it tricky to put coats or sweatshirts on, because he HAS to see the design. Good grief!

Lincoln sleeps in a big boy bed now. I don't think he really cares where he sleeps, but he loves to jump on his bed! In face, he is jumping all the time. He jumps to dance, he jumps to move into another room, and he jumps from furniture to furniture.

His favorite movies right now are the All About series. They spotlight different modes of transportation, so you can see why he loves them. We went to a new library in our area, and they have all of the movies, so Lincoln was a happy boy. Right now, he is watching the sepisode about Fire Trucks. They are so cheesy and have really horrible actors, so I try not to be in the same room when he is watching them.

I say this every month, but this has been my favorite! He has such a personality, and it is nice to understand what he wants and communicate with him.

Kid Co-op

3 other mommies and I have started a kid co-op. We take turns watching all 4 kids one morning a week for 3 hours. I was worried how Lincoln would do, because he still doesn't stay the entire time at the church nursery by himself, which is 2 hours long. Imagine my surprise when I didn't get a phone call to pick him up that first week! He did so well: he didn't even cry. I was happy to get my entire house cleaned, workout and take a shower without any interuptions.

Last week, it was my turn to have the kiddos over. It was much easier than I thought it would be. The kids pretty much entertain themselves. Even though they don't really interact (except to steal a toy), the play well just because there are other kids around. They are about the same age, except for Sean, who will be 18 months soon (he is so dang cute!).



Here are some of the activites we did:

Drew Masterpieces....thank you crayola for Color Wonder products!!



Played Piano



Got creative with the trains on the DJ table



Watched Blues Clues, except Eli had to make a quick business call on the Elmo phone



It is amazing to see such personality differences in kids the same age. Eli is just a chill dude, who bobs his head to any music that is on. He doesn't get upset when other kids take toys away from him. Lincoln had a hard time sharing his toys in the beggining, but warmed up when we started jumping on the LoveSac(a huge beanbag chair). Sean is into everything and loves to climb/throw stuff. He didn't like it when I even looked like I was going to leave the room. Shay is just a doll, and she has a Gucci bag to store her diapers and snacks. She does really well sharing, probably because she has 3 other sisters to share with.

I'm excited that this is going well. I think it has even helped with nursery. Lincoln wanted to go in this week, and I was able to be out of the room for an entire hour. The only reason they had to get me was for a diaper change. After he had seen me, it was over, but I am hopeful it will only get better.

Shout outs

Today I need to give a few shout outs to some people...

Shout out to my neighbor Mikilani, who drove over to my house, to tell Dave to answer his phone, because I was locked out of my car at the downtown library.

Shout out to Lincoln, who was unusually well behaved while waiting 1 1/2 hours outside the library.

Shout out to the homeless person who entertained Lincoln while I was trying to explain to Dave over the phone where the extra keys were hiding.

Shout out to the man in the very saggy pants, who let me borrow his cell phone, to make a long distance phone call (Dave's still has a Charlotte number) because my phone battery died.

Shout out to the fire trucks, ambulance, and police cars who kept driving by and kept Lincoln happy.

Shout out to Dave, who finally found the keys and came to rescue us.

Shout out to the Halloween candy, which I consumed a lot of when I finally got home.

My Skeleton

We can put the skeleton costume away now, all the parties, trunk-or-treats, and trick-or-treating is over. It was a great Halloween season! Lincoln enjoyed trick-or-treating very much. I think this picture sums up his amazement that he was getting candy...

We went trick-or-treating on Saturday night at Old Salem, a colonial village in Winston Salem. They had people giving out candy at all the houses/stores. It was the perfect walking distance for Lincoln and it wasn't really crowded. Lincoln thought it was perfect, because he got to eat his candy on the way to the next candy point.



On Sunday we past candy out to the trick-or-treaters and Lincoln helped himself to candy everytime someone came to the door. Halloween is over and now we can look forward to Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving and wish it got more credit! It seems like right after Halloween, Christmas season begins.

The sky turned black

I grew up in NC, so I remember practicing for tornado warnings. We had to go in the cafeteria, crouch down and put our arms over our heads. I also remember hurricane hugo ripping through and taking down tons of trees in our area. Those are the reasons I was freaking out a couple nights ago when I could feel the thunder through the walls, I could see the lightning getting closer and the rain coming down in sheets. Sure enough we had a tornado warning, so Dave went into action mode. He found the flashlights, moved furniture around and spread blankets on the ground. I brought Lincoln downstairs with us, and we had a little slumber party until the warning was over.

The next day, Lincoln was taking a nap, when the sky turned black. The thunder started up again, so I checked the weather. Dang if I didn't have to wake Lincoln up again and take him downstairs because of another tornado warning. This time the tornado was only 9 miles away. Poor Dave was watching the sky from the 4th floor of his glass office building! I was just glad last night, we were tornado warning free and didn't have to wake up Lincoln.

Baking with a 2 year old

I should have known, really I should have learned my lesson last week. I thought it would be so fun for our family night to take Lincoln to a pumpkin patch. I had these images in my head that he would run through the field, giggling and excited to pick his own pumpkin. Dang if there wasn't a playground in the parking lot, so Lincoln was not interested at all. I thought he would enjoy scooping out the pumpkin to carve it, but again, he wasn't interested.

One week later, I think, "Oh, it will be so fun to make and decorate Halloween cookies with Lincoln." I have lots of cookie cutters and even bought food coloring for the project. Lincoln didn't care about anything but eating the cookie dough. Seriously, he probably ate a pound of it yesterday. I only used cookie cutters for a dozen cookies, then gave up and dropped the rest of the dough on the cookie sheet. I was still determined and had Lincoln help frost them later. After every cookie we frosted, he swirled his tongue across the beautiful cookie. Needless to say, only half of the cookies got frosted. I even gave up taking pictures of the whole process. We are going to wait another year to do some of the holiday stuff I thought he was ready for!

Starting off ok, even though he did have to taste the flour when I first spread it out.

Now the eating begins and doesn't stop until I put the camera down.

Anxiously awaiting to eat more...the gross streaky stuff on the door is stuck in the glass, and I can't clean it.

Fall Fun

Sometimes I feel bad that Dave is working and Lincoln and I are out playing during the day. We have been enjoying this Fall weather and have taken advantage of lots of activities that go on during this time of year. I really do love Fall: I would love it even more if I knew Winter wasn't about to come!

Last week, the 2 of us joined some other ladies from church for a mountain adventure. First we stopped to get apples at Levering Orchards. The people were so friendly: they told us what certain apples were good for and let us sample what ever kind we wanted. I wish I had Barry's (my BIL) photography skills and his camera, because there were some great photo opps. I promise, I didn't dress him in overalls on purpose, but I'm glad he had them on!



Next, we went drove up the Blue Ridge Parkway to Mabry Mill. I would have been happy just to drive on the parkway, because it was GORGEOUS this time of year! The trees are at their peak Fall colors right now. This mill is so picturesque. I felt like I transported into a different time period. Lincoln liked looking at the ducks and climbing in the wagon with his buddy Denzil.




One night we went to "Dark in the Park." A large band played at Bethabara park, while kids ran around in their Halloween costumes. They also had hayrides for the kids and ice cream; however, Lincoln enjoyed playing on the train tracks. He kept saying, "Train coming." Lincoln broke in his skeleton costume, so it's all ready for the big night.



Dave has still been working hard on his woodworking project, so Lincoln and I visited mom and dad. We took the little guy to Tweetsie Railroad, for the third time this year. This time was great, because we were some of the first people in the park. It was a little chilly, so I guess most people were sleeping in. Because Lincoln was the only one on some of the rides, I could tell the workers to stop the ride if he got upset. So this time, Lincoln tried out 3 new rides! He rode 2 different airplane rides and a boat ride all by himself. After he got off, he was beaming with pride. What a big boy!