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!