New Nephew!

Yesterday, I forgot to mention the fantastic news we got last week! Little Wynn was born to Dave's younger brother Andy. I know it's mostly family who reads the blog, but I use this as our family journal. We will pull this out years from now and "ooohhhh" at our cute, newest nephew. He is our 12th nephew...the neices are still behind with 6. Yawning baby pictures are some of my favorites!

This Morning

This morning, Lincoln has been dancing to the same Trans-Siberian Orchestra song for at least 30 minutes. He also decided Joseph needed to get to Bethlehem by Snoopy train, not donkey.








Drake has been sitting up by himself this morning. He lasts for about 30-45 seconds before tipping over.









I'm enjoying these peaceful moments before the grocery shopping, laundry, and cleaning begins!

Back Home

Here is a little re-cap of our Thanksgiving trip...

Easy flights/drives to from airports: Lincoln and Drake are road/plane trip champions.
Hung out with lots of family.
Ate lots of pie.
Short trip to the Columbia River Temple.
Stomach bug affected all but 3 adults and 3 kids.
Ate more pie!
Girl Party that included Breaking Dawn.


I came home to a almost packed house. Yep, we are moving again. Yep, we don't know where, AGAIN!! Some day, hopefully soon, we will be able to throw some roots down. Dave still has his job in Winston, but we want to get the heck out of this nasty townhouse.

Lincoln is going through a really tough phase right now. He rarely listens to me and throws fits when he doesn't get his way. I was scolding me one day, and after this conversation happened:

Lincoln: I love you mom.
Me: I love you more Lincoln.
Lincoln: (thinking hard) ...more than me??
Me: Yep, I love you more.
Lincoln: I love you TWICE!

I would like to think he was looking for the word "most" but I'll take "twice!"

Over our Heads

We have WAAAYYYY too much going on right now. Dave actually used our kitchen as a workshop to finish up refinishing/fixing some dining room chairs for someone. We also decided to move out of our very tiny townhouse, but we don't know where we are moving yet. I have been packing like mad-woman, so we can get out by the first week in December. Good thing we have a lovely trip to Oregon coming up soon. We can't wait to see family we haven't seen in a while, and we get to meet 2 new nieces!

Here's what else has been going on...

Drakie surprised my on his 5th month day, by sleeping through the night for the first time ever. It was a wonderful surprise! He has been eating a ton: he must be going through a growth spurt. I have already dragged out the 6-9 month clothes.

Lincoln and Drake have been taking baths together. It saves me time, and both of the boys love it. Drake reaches out for toys and grabs Lincoln's hair. I was a little horrified when Lincoln told me, "You can do so many things in the bath. You can play cars, you can go pee-pee..." Oh geeze. So much for getting them clean!

Mikilani, one of the preschool moms has created a blog for our preschool. You should check it out! www.abookclubformommyandme.blogspot.com

Halloween and the Day After

I bought Lincoln's costume last year the day after Halloween, hoping he would like Spiderman by this year....and he did!

I was surprised he even wanted to keep his mask on the whole night. Drakie wore Lincoln's ninja costume. Poor boy will probably always have a hand-me-down costume! We went Trick-or-Treating with our good friends Kyle and Sean, I mean ninja and Darth Vader.

Lincoln was so excited to run up to the houses and ring the doorbells. His heart was beating so fast, when I would hold him back from running inside the houses! He did a great job saying "Trick-or-Treat" and "Thank You." He also asked everyone who had a pet, "Can I have your cat?" or "Can I have your dog?"

We were out for about 1.5 hours and came back home to pass out candy, except nobody came to our place. We have so much candy!!

Dave carved another amazing pumpkin. I convinced him to carve Drake, since his first pumpkin was of Lincoln. We don't want Drake to have any "issues."

I just want to document a day in our life. Some days are more crazy, some days are less crazy, but I want to be able to look back and remember these times.

2 am--Feed Drake and put him back to sleep.

7am--Drake wakes up for the day.

7:20am--Lincoln storms in the room saying, "It's wake up time!"

7:30am--Breakfast...Lincoln likes warm milk every morning.

8:00am--Shower and get kids dressed for the day.

8:38am--Get in the car and leave for Target.

8:49am--Get Lincoln out of the car and realize I forgot my diaper bag with my wallet inside.

9:02am--Run inside the house and grab my bag.

9:15am--Inside Target I get popcorn to help Lincoln to stay inside the cart, while I shop.

9:28am--Drake starts crying. Stop by the toy isle so Lincoln can look at toys and I can feed Drake. I squat down and start feeding Drake.

9:30am--Lincoln looks at me, and says, "I have to go pee pee." The look in his eye tells me it's too late.

9:31am--Lincoln has a huge accident. I mean pee all down his pants, socks, and even shoes. There is a puddle on the ground. I have to stop feeding Drake, which doesn't make him happy, and clean up the mess.

9:36am--Without any extra clothes for Lincoln, I hurry and finish shopping to get home.

10:03am--Get inside the house and go straight up to the bath. Give Lincoln a bath, and finally finish feeding Drake.
10:45am--Lincoln is dressed, turn on Busy Town Mysteries for him, so I can do some chores. While holding Drakie, I put laundry in wash, clean up pee pee shoes, and put away things from Target.

11:27am--Drake falls asleep, so I put away Halloween decorations and make lunch for Lincoln.

12:22pm--Drake wakes up, we play with Lincoln and get him milk before his nap.
1:00pm--I read to Lincoln before his nap.

1:10pm--Drake watches me prepare dinner (meatloaf) and watches me knit a baby present for a friend.

2:30pm--Drake goes down for another nap, his long one! I have alone time to fold laundry and prepare for preschool the next day. I had to do an example of the train project we were making during art. I also take 30 minutes to be on the computer.

3:45pm--Lincoln wakes up. We paint together and play motorcycles.

4:30pm--Drake wakes up and gets fed. I finish making dinner.
5:15pm--Dave comes home!!!

5:30pm--Dinner time/clean up dishes.

5:59pm--Dave watches kids, so I can exercise.

6:40pm--We swap kids, so Dave can work on re-finishing some chairs for a friend. Drake falls asleep again.

7:00pm--Lincoln plays outside in the sandbox, while I finish preschool project.

7:10pm--Drake wakes up, he gets some rice cereal mixed with apple juice, which he LOVES.

8:00pm--Dave finishes up outside, I take off to Walgreens with Drake to pick up his medicine.

8:30pm--Dave gets Lincoln ready for bed. We leave the hall light on, so he can look at books in bed.

8:30pm-10pm--Deal with a fussy Drake. I don't know if he is teething or just not feeling well.

10:02pm--Just give up and put Drake in bed. He falls asleep in less than 2 minutes, without even crying.

10:02-10:30pm--Hang out with Dave while he is working from home (normally he works until midnight or some nights later). We watch something...I can't remember what it was though!

10:30pm--Pray with Dave and get ready for bed. Every night, I am so thankful for my bed.

10:35pm--I go in Lincoln's room and clear off all the books and toys on his bed. Give him another kiss before I go to sleep.

Phew, I know I will love reading this one day!

Fall Fun and My Crazy 3 Year Old

There are always so many fun activities to do during Fall. This year we have already been to a Fall Festival, where Lincoln got to go on a hayride, jump on a trampoline, and play outside with tons of kids; we have talked about monsters and pumpkins at preschool; we went to a corn maze; and we still have to go to a pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins for carving and we still have Halloween to look forward to. Mom bought us a groupon for the corn maze, which included some other activities. Here is Lincoln riding "Susie Q." Dave took this picture, he was riding on "Bessie." I'm bummed I didn't have the camera to take a picture of both of them.

I know most people think their kids are funny, but at night, Dave and I will recap all the different things Lincoln says and laugh! He is so entertaining. Here are some recent ones...

Dave asked Lincoln if he wanted another little brother (this is not a hint at anything, I'm not pregnant, and will not be for a while...probably). Of course, Lincoln said yes. When Dave asked him what the baby's name should be, Lincoln decided on "Fooie Baby."

We go to church for 3 hours on Sunday. Kids Lincoln's age attend nursery for 2 of those hours. After church we had a "family night" where we were talking about different stories from the Bible. He did something naughty and went to his room for a time out. All of the church talk paid off: when Dave went in to talk to him, Lincoln immediately said, "I'm sorry, cause Jesus love me and I love him. Daddy is special Jesus. Are you?" I think he knew that if he threw the J word around, he wouldn't get in trouble.

Lincoln waves nd says hello to everyone while we are out. Lately, when we see someone the pattern goes: first a wave, then a "Haaay", then a "What is that his name." It doesn't matter if it's a girl or a boy.

My mom gave Lincoln a catalog of toys to look at in the car. Now all Lincoln talks about is this Santa train. We told him we didn't have money, and that he needed to ask Santa. Lincoln's reply was, "Buuuut Mooom, I've got monies in my pocket."

He doesn't quite get the meaning of some words. He will randomly say "I promise" or "Is that cool" or "A lot."

I have to include this next one, because it really made me laugh! Please don't continue reading, if you are offended by private parts talk.

On Friday morning, I was doing dishes, while Lincoln was eating breakfast at the table. He said, "Mom, I love my business." (Business is our word for the male private part.) I asked him what he said, and again he repeated it. I walked towards the table so I could see him and asked, "Why." He said, "Because I can do this...bingadingadong (he was playing his business like a guitar)."

Every night, I say special prayers for that child! Drake is my sensitive, sweet boy. He is growing so fast. At his last Dr's appointment he weighed over 16 pounds and was 26 inches long. He loves to eat rice cereal with pears or apple, so he is going to get even chubbier. I start to tear up when I think about how lucky I am to have him! He really is just the sweetest baby.

Serious Faces

Utah

The 4 Shinsels were in the car by 4am in order to get to the airport on time. Lincoln was so excited about the trip, he didn't fall asleep until after 10pm. We thought for sure he would sleep in the car...nope. Then we thought for sure he would fall asleep on the airplane...kinda. He drifted off as we were descending. I carried him and his car seat off the plane, so he only got a 15 minute nap. It turns out that's all he needed. He was so thrilled to see first Uncle Reed and almost Aunt Chelsea, Deanne, and the whole gang staying at Jeff and Jen's house. Grandma and Papa Shinsel drove the RV down from Oregon and had it parked outside the house. Barry, Amy, and Mya drove in from Provo. Corey drove his motorcycle over (Lincoln still thinks every motorcycle he hears is Corey's). Friday was nice, because we didn't have any plans. We ate dinner and just hung out in Kaysville.

The wedding was at 8:20am, so we needed to be inside the Temple by 7:50am. I could pick out Chelsea's family members, because they all look so similar! It was fun to finally meet her side of the family. The wedding ceremony was lovely, Chelsea was lovely...the whole day was lovely. The weather was perfect! Jeff brought up Lincoln and Drake, since they were part of the wedding party. It was a little of a struggle to convince Lincoln that suspenders are cool, but once he had them on, he worked them.

After pictures we had a delicious lunch at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which used to be The Utah Hotel. I forgot how gorgeous that building is!

Saturday afternoon we had a little downtime before the reception at Heritage Park in Salt Lake City. Lincoln just loved playing at Will's house. They played so well together, like they had never been apart.

Even though we were far from home, Reed had quite a few people come to the reception. It was fun to have a little Hickory reunion. Chelsea's family did a great job decorating and baking for the reception. Dave and Lincoln enjoyed the ice cream sundae bar! Chelsea and Reed had the newlywed glow: they are such a great match for each other. Of course they played the ukulele and sang together at the reception.

On Sunday, my little man turned 3! I'm still having a hard time believing that I am the mother of a 3 year old. Lincoln was so excited for his combined birthday party with Will (They were born 3 days apart.). The Sherwins were so kind to let us party at their beautiful house in Alpine. It was another gorgeous day, so the kids had fun playing outside. I thought there was going to be some drama with opening presents, but the boys were happy with what they got. The drama happened when the helium balloons popped.

The weekend went by too fast. It is always hard to leave such good friends and of course our family. We are so appreciative of all the people who gave us a place to stay, fed us, watched our kids, drove us around and entertained us. We are thrilled to have Chelsea as a part of our family!

Behind

I'm behind in my blogging, but I needed to write these things down before I forget them. Things that a mother wants to remember...

Drake giggled for the first time 2 weeks ago. He was looking at himself in the mirror and thought he was pretty funny. He also rolled over from his back to his tummy for the first time yesterday. He has been trying pretty hard for the past week, and he finally did it! Drake loves to chew on his fingers, the more he can shove in, the better. He also likes to chew on burp clothes, actually he just likes to chew on anything. My shoulders are soaked from his slobber after holding him.

Lincoln is doing a great job at throwing fits when he doesn't get his way. I don't understand why he continues to put on such spectacles, because I never give in to what he wants. Maybe he just thinks ONE day she will give in! I was so proud of myself because I didn't raise my voice at all one day, while he was throwing a fit in the car. I just started to sing. Then Lincoln started yelling, "STOP SINGING" over and over. I told him I would stop singing if he would stop crying. He immediately stopped (I have a pretty terrible singing voice.). Lincoln is very sweet when he isn't throwing fits. Today he told me he was going to use his screwdriver to turn me into a princess. You say when buddy! It still makes me melt when out of nowhere Lincoln tells me he loves me. I am a lucky momma.

The Many Faces of Drake

We had such a fun weekend out in Utah! I have to blog about it once I get all my pictures together. I had Dave's brother Barry take some pictures of Drake, and he captured all of his expressions!

Serious

Sly

Giddy

Slobbery

Worried

Rock the Mic

We have known for a while that Lincoln is NOT a shy kid. I didn't realize how much of a ham he is, until the lake trip. To say he LOVED the microphone is an understatement! When we did karaoke, it was hard for him to share the microphone. He kept on singing "Martha Speaks" and Thomas the train songs.

This past Sunday the Primary kids (ages 3-12) put on their presentation during church. It was a great presentation, and I was enjoying it when all of the sudden it hit me...

Lincoln will be in the presentation next year! This means he will get to use the microphone: this means he will have to share the microphone. Heaven help his teacher!!

I hate that only his backside is showing, but here's proof he hogged the mic.

Drakie

I have such a sweet baby. My Drakie boy is a very easy baby, and he is even getting better at sleeping! Lincoln loves him just as much as I do. Usually Lincoln asks me for milk first thing in the morning. Today, he asked to see his Drakie, even before he asked for milk. You know that is love!




Drake's neck is getting so strong, it doesn't wobble anymore. I figured since he can hold his head up, he can go in the exersaucer. It is funny to see him move around in it, since he is still just a little guy.




He hasn't been taking very long naps, but he is only waking up once during the night. I would much rather have more sleep at night! I swear he does smile a ton, I just can't get a picture of him smiling. In all of his pictures he looks so serious.

Drakie and I had lots of time together while Lincoln was at the airshow with my parents and Dave was at a Ju-Jitsu workshop.

No surprise, Lincoln loved the airshow. He came home jumping up and down, telling me about the helicopters.




Dave came home excited too...he got his blue belt. He told me that's kind of a big deal, because it usually takes 2 years to get one and it only took him 9 months. Yay Dave!

Mommy and Me Preschool

Yesterday I took Lincoln to our first Mommy and Me preschool. Four other mommies and kiddos joined us! We have a very creative and talented woman in our church who created lesson plans for the entire year; there are 5 different activities that each mom splits up and prepares. Yesterday our lesson plan was based around the book, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?" Here is Danielle's blog if you are interested http://www.preschoolbookclub.blogspot.com/

We started out with our gathering activity: making necklaces with the different animals from the book. Emilie, Mason's mommy, was in charge of this activity. Here is Mason showing off his gorgeous necklace.




Next, we had circle time. Mikilani read the book, we sang songs and changed the words based on the book, and then we played a game based on the book. The kids had to sit on pillows on the floor and take turns. Most of them did well, can you guess who did have a difficult time staying in one place? Lincoln and Sean hadn't seen each other in a while, so they thought it would be more fun to wrestle.

Art time was next. Lyla's mom Lynsey was in charge, and we did the cutest craft! We made brown bears out of tissue paper and brown beans. The kids were just excited to use glue.




My favorite part was snack time. Buffy is a great baker, so of course she made rolls in the shape of bears. She also brought honey butter and fruit salad.




I was in charge in of the sensory activity. I dyed rice all different colors and put them in 2 gallon buckets with an animal in each bucket. The kids had to dig through the rice and find the animal. Once they found it and told their mommy what type of animal and the color of the animal, then they could move on to the other bucket.




We ended with a goodbye poem, and then the tears started. Lincoln did not want to leave, he had so much. It's going to be a great school year!

Lake Gaston

It had been planned for months and months...our family vacation. My poor mom had put so much time into finding a house and airline tickets for everyone. Cleve and Carson were flying in from Nebraska; Kristin and Penny from Ohio (after her eye appointment); Chelsea and Reed from Utah; even my grandma and uncle's family were coming down to join us at the Outer Banks. Then Irene happened. Thank goodness mom purchased hurricane insurance. We were able to find a house on Lake Gaston at the very last minute. My uncle's family didn't make it, because Irene knocked a hole in his roof and caused a flood in his basement. Thankfully, everyone else did make it, and we had a blast!

There was plenty of room for everyone at the house; even Kristin's dad came up and stayed with us.

We had fun jumping on the water trampoline,

kayaking,




swimming and jet skiing,

coloring,




singing karaoke,

and celebrating. We celebrated Kristin's birthday and had a mini bridal shower for Chelsea.

The only thing that would have made this trip better, was if Dave got to come. I hate to see my family go home. It really stinks we all live so far apart! Carson, who turns 5 this month, and I went out for a kayak ride together. He turned around in the chair and talked to me the whole time I was paddling. My heart melted when he said,"You know what I'm going to dream about tonight? That I went on a BIG, HUGE kayak." When I asked him if there would be seats for lots of people he said, "No, just 2 seats, one for you and me." Oh, how I love all my nieces and nephews! Oh, how they love each other!

10 weeks

My Aunt Monica gave me a great baby journal when I first had Lincoln. I wrote all of Lincoln's milestones in that journal, and since I didn't blog then...here is what Lincoln was up to at 10 weeks...

He was rolling over from both his back to his tummy and tummy to back.
He loved the blinking baby Einstein sunshine on his activity mat.
He was giggling already. Dave could get him to really give a good chuckle!
He started sleeping 8 hours at a time.
We celebrated Thanksgiving 2008.
His neck was really strong, he didn't need any support at all.

Here is my first born at 10 weeks.

Drake is a little bit behind Lincoln, but he is such an easy mellow baby! His neck is getting stronger, but still needs a little support. He hasn't giggled yet, but he is constantly making grunting/sighing/cooing noises, even in his sleep. He loves to be outside and loves his big brother. It melts my heart when he smiles big for Lincoln in the morning!

Here is baby boy 2 at 10 weeks.

Oh my hair!

This is pretty bad. I don't mean bad in a good way, like "that's baaaad!" I got my hair cut yesterday, and I neglected to get my almost 3 year old one too.

In case you couldn't see from the first picture, a closer shot...

...yep, that's a ponytail!

Out of the Fog

Drake has been treating me well these past couple weeks. He is learning to sleep for longer stretches at night, so I feel like I am coming out of a fog.

Drake is now 2 months old. He is in the 95% for weight, 23rd head size, 55% for height, and 100% cute! The medicine he is on is helping so much: I have a happy, easy baby now! He loves Lincoln's old light and sound sunshine activity mat; he loves to look at the curtains in our bedroom when the sun is coming in, and he loves to look at his big brother. He is cooing more, especially in the morning, when we also get lots of good smiles.

Lincoln is fantastic with Drake. I wish he was as good with me as he is with Drake. We have been dealing with a lack of listening skills lately. Time outs haven't worked for us, so now we are trying a different method. He will be earning prizes for good behavior. He gets 3 warnings during the day. If he doesn't go through all his warnings, then he gets a sticker at night. If he gets 5 stickers, then he gets something he wants. Right now, he is working for a Gordon (thomas tank engine toy). He didn't get a sticker one day, so the next he was pretty much perfect! I am hoping that this will help.

My only hesitation is that I don't want Lincoln to think he gets a toy for being good, I want him to be good just to be good (does that make sense). Plus, this kid is not lacking in toys. He has the coolest room. Notice how he wanted to be in all the pictures!

This is Lincoln's first painting.

Yep, he has a slide on his bed.

Just more toys...

Even more toys stored under the bed

Come Play Trains with Me

I can't tell you how many times I hear that..."Mommy, come play trains with me." I really wish I could do that every time he asks; however, there is a house to run and another child to take care of. That is why Lincoln was so excited to have Corey come and visit. Dave has known Corey for a long time, but I'm pretty sure Lincoln thought Corey came out just to play with him. Lincoln constantly asked Corey to play trains with him. When Corey had to work, he had a secret weapon for Lincoln, the ipad.

Lincoln could/did spend hours watching youtube videos of Thomas. His favorite was "accidents happen." Corey probably has all the words memorized now from listening to it so much. There is one part of the song where Lincoln sings, "Chickenbooga" and we cannot figure out what he is trying to say. When we ask him what that means he says, "the trains have an accident."




I feel like I will be able to play trains more often, because Drake is sleeping more. My head is coming out of a constant foggy state. Because Drake was still having tummy issues, the dr prescribed him some reflux medicine. I hate to have my child on a prescription, but I really think it is helping. We haven't had any painful crying bouts in a couple days, and he is sleeping longer at night.

Welcome to the Gun Show

Check these guns out ladies!

Drake has been changing and chunking out so much lately: it is hard to keep up with current pictures of him. He is turning his head to look at the blinds. Drake loves to look at blinds and curtains. I think it must be the contrast in light.





Lincoln also wanted to be included in this photo shoot. He just woke up from a nap, so his hair is awesome!