the many faces of lincoln

Lincoln loves our iPhones.  He’s gotten smart enough to move my apps around and delete things, so I don’t let him play with it very much.  Sometimes he will wait until I am in the shower and then sneak into the bathroom and grab it to play games while I’m occupied.  One day in the car I let him have it because he was sharing his Leapster with a friend who was in the car with us.  When I looked at my phone later, I noticed he had taken some pictures.  This is not unusual, either, but I didn’t know he knew how to flip the camera so it looked at him.  This is what I found.  

Needless to say, I laughed pretty hard.  This is one funny kid.

family pictures 2011

I know I’m so behind in posting anything.   So here’s to a new start.  Our new family pictures.  I love them.

back online

I have to say, most of the time I’m pretty patient about waiting for baby #2.  Yes, I’m ready for it to happen and I do get antsy.  But I realize that we cannot operate on our timetable here and I know that when the time is right, we will get another baby.  But this time around has definitely been different than the last time.  With Lincoln, we were almost exactly a year from start of paperwork to bringing him home.  And it all went flawlessly, for which I am incredibly grateful.  This time, there have been some kinks.  We were initially approved in July 2010.  Then we moved in October, so we had to redo our home study and get a new bishop’s reference letter.  Because our new bishop didn’t know us, he wanted to meet with us a few times and get to know us before writing an endorsement.  And then we had to wait until the basement apartment where we would be living was completely finished.  So, we were unpublished from October to February.  We were so excited to get back in the pool.  Well, then we moved again in September.  Once again, we were unpublished until we could redo our home study and get another bishop’s reference letter.  All of this was pretty simple this time around since we moved back from where we came.  Our bishop was awesome and got his reference letter in right away, and we had our home study yesterday and our caseworker republished our profile last night.  It’s nice to know it’s out there for people, hopefully one person in particular, to see.  I am grateful I am able to have the experience of adoption and being part of the adoption world.  It’s a world full of amazing, inspirational, and very special people. 

fall is in the air

Let’s talk about why I absolutely love this time of year:

*I love the crisp fall air (it’s still a little warm, but I can feel it coming).

*I love looking up to the mountains and seeing the splashes of red as the leaves turn color.

*I love the sound of leaves crunching under my feet as I walk.

*I love baking with pumpkin.  Pumpkin bread, pumpkin bars, pumpkin muffins, mmmmm, yummy.  Is it an unspoken rule that you can only bake with pumpkin during October and November?  I guess it is for me!

*I love the scents of fall and yummy candles that I can burn that bring fall into my house.

*I love making soup for dinner on a cool, fall evening. 

*I love the wardrobe change.  Hoodies, long sleeves, sweaters, jeans, boots.

I could probably do similar post about every season because by the time the seasons change, I’m excited for something new.  I love that I live somewhere with all 4 seasons and changes in the world around me every few months.  I’m not quite ready for winter, but am excited to enjoy a beautiful autumn.

happy

I'm not usually a fan of change, but we just made a change that I couldn't be happier about. We moved. About a year ago, we moved from where we had lived for 4 years. We needed a change and felt a great opportunity had been given to us. We decided last week that it wasn't working out so great for us and just happened to have just been to our old ward and wanted to go back. Lucky for us, the house we had been renting was still available and our landlords (and good friends) welcomed us back with open arms. On Monday we decided we wanted to move and by Thursday, had the truck loaded up and moved back. It feels so good to be home. The things we didn't like and took for granted before now seem heavenly. I have felt very blessed the last 10 days and feel grateful for the tender mercies I have seen in my life.

getting so big

I’ve been very aware lately of how big Lincoln is getting.  He is constantly amazing me at the things he can do and how independent he is.  I love that I can ask him to get dressed or ready for bed and he can do it all by himself (although not always matching and I need to make sure there are no clothes that are too small for him in his drawers).  At the doctor’s office the other day, he went into the bathroom all by himself, locking himself in, and took care of everything.   Dan has been working on simple math with him and he loves it.  He’ll often say, “Dad, let’s do math!”  (That is so not something he would get from me!)  He can also tell you the sounds of all the letters.  Some of my favorite examples of how grown up he is happened just yesterday and today. 

Yesterday, he was coloring and wanted me to write his name for him.  So I did and then he copied it with a bit of verbal coaching.  Look how awesome he did!  I couldn’t believe it. 

Today, he came running in to me and said, “Mom, the letter ‘C’ says ‘kuh’.  That means I have a ‘c’ in my name.“  After which he said his name, emphasizing the “kuh” sound!

We have started reading Charlotte’s Web before bed with him.  Tonight while we were reading, I asked him if he knew what being lonely was, because Wilbur was talking about being lonely.  He looked at me and said, “Yea, it’s to be all by yourself.”  What the heck?  I didn’t expect him to know the answer!  I’m assuming he learned that from one of his shows or something, but I was stunned. 

I love how he soaks up everything and is always wanting to learn new things. 

summer fun

Wow, have I really gone the whole summer without documenting a single thing?  Well, trust me, we’ve been having lots of fun!    I have lots of pictures and lots of stories, but it would take way to long to cover everything.  So here are just a few highlights:

*I ran my first ever 5k.  I’m not a runner.  I’m not an exerciser.  I really don’t like it.  But I’m trying to like it.  When our neighborhood had a 5k in conjunction with a neighborhood party, I decided to participate.  I’m not gonna lie – it was hard.  I wanted to die during it.  And I was so sore afterward.  But I’m glad I did it and keep trying to convince myself to sign up for another one.

* I was able to spend a week in Tulsa with my sister after she had a baby.  It was fun spending time with her and her husband and cute kids, but I sure missed my boys.  They did lots of fun things, including boating on Utah Lake with Dan’s sister’s family.

*We went to Lagoon for Dan’s summer work party.   I can’t access the pictures for some reason, but believe me, it was a blast!  Lincoln’s favorite was the new Bora Bora rollercoaster and he loved driving his own car on the racetrack.

*We’ve done a lot of hiking this summer.  Dan is preparing to hike Mt. Timpanogos in September so he’s been trying to hike every weekend.  I was going to hike Timp with him, but I’ve had a lung infection the past 2 weeks and just don’t think I’ve done adequate preparation for it.  But it was fun to hike the beginning of the trail and also up to Timp Cave. 

*We bought a bike for me and a bike trailer and have been enjoying family bike rides.  Lincoln often requests to go on bike rides and thinks riding in the trailer is so fun.

 

Okay, this is getting long, so that is our summer in a nutshell!  I can’t believe it’s already August.  Next up for us is Lincoln starting preschool (how is he already so big?!), me starting a new job, Dan hiking Timp, and just enjoying life together!

random thoughts on adoption #2

I have lots of fun pictures to post of things we have been doing so far this summer. But I'm not going to do that right now. I've been thinking a lot about our second adoption journey lately. With Lincoln, we were 1 year from start to finish -- from starting our paperwork to him being born. At this point, we are at about 14 months (but who is counting, right?). I thought this time around would be easier since we already have Lincoln. I thought I wouldn't feel that hole of being childless. But it's hard in another way. I see how Lincoln is with babies and what an awesome big brother he will be and it makes me sad that I can't make that happen as quickly as I would like. I've been doing lots of reading and trying to figure out how to speed things up. But I came to a realization the other day. I need to just be patient. Profound, eh? I was looking at our adoption blog and our profile and wondering if I needed to revamp things and make us look more appealing. And then I realized that this is who we are. Anything different would be changing who we are to "sell" ourselves better. I don't want to change who I am or who we are in order to get a baby. Our baby will come to us when the time is right. I have a new resolve to just chill out and wait patiently. I have the funniest, cutest kid who I need to enjoy instead of wishing the days away hoping for another baby.

U2 concert

What an awesome show!  I wanted to go the last time U2 came, but we weren’t able to.  I wanted to buy tickets last year when they were supposed to come, but then the concert was cancelled.  When I saw that it was rescheduled and that The Fray was opening, I told Dan we had to go. 

Waiting for the concert to start.

 

The stage, “The Claw”, was awesome!  And the huge LED screen allowed us to see even though we were pretty far away.

We are both so glad we went! The caliber of show that U2 puts on is indescribable. It was such a fun night!

first ER trip

I was just saying the other day that I was amazed that we had made it 3 years with Lincoln without stitches or other injury.  Maybe I jinxed us! 

Last Friday night, May 20, we were up late playing games.  At about midnight, Lincoln came stumbling upstairs, still half asleep.  Dan cuddled with him for a bit and then took him back downstairs to bed.  I went down a few minutes later to say good night.  When I gave Lincoln a hug, he whimpered and said something about his head.  I felt his head and found a huge goose egg.  I told Dan to come feel and as I moved my hand, I noticed there was blood on my fingers!  Dan grabbed the lamp and shined it on Lincoln’s head, shedding enough light for us to tell that he had quite the gash on his head.  Lincoln could not tell us what happened and we had no idea what could have caused the wound.  Dan took him into the bathroom to clean it up and quickly declared that he was going to need stitches.  So, we loaded Lincoln into the car and headed to the nearest ER, 20 minutes away.  As we left the house, we asked Dan’s sister to go survey Lincoln’s room to see if she could figure out what could have happened.  She called us a few minutes later and told us she had found a single hair on the corner of the bookcase that was right next to his bed.  Our best guess is that he somehow tripped while getting out of bed and fell right into the bookcase.

We got into the ER quickly and Lincoln was a champ!  He needed 2 staples in his head and, since the numbing injections are worse than staples themselves, the doctor just did the staples quickly after numbing the area with ice for about 10 minutes.  No tears were shed during the whole ordeal!  I couldn’t believe how brave Lincoln was.  He was content to play on our phones and didn’t even seem phased by the fact that it was the middle of the night. 

Getting vitals taken at the triage station.  Waiting to be seen by the doctor.

Gash pre-staples.    All fixed up.

  Proud mom and tough kid!  I think I would have cried if I had to have my head stapled!  Let’s hope we can go at least 3 more years until our next ER visit!

lincoln’s birthday

Yes, I know Lincoln turned 3 two months ago.  I just barely downloaded the pictures off our camera and decided I better get them documented. 

We had such a great time for Lincoln’s birthday.  We took him to the aquarium.  He was so excited to see the penguins, fish, seahorses, and the octopus.  Dan got a ticket for Lincoln and him to feed the stingrays and Lincoln thought it was great!  He got splashed and his fingers nibbled, but he still loved it.  It was definitely a hit!

Eating lunch in the aquarium café.

Comparing ourselves to the penguins.

Feeding the stingrays.Lincoln loves “froggies” right now so he thought this frog was “awesome”!

How did this little guy get so big?!

After the aquarium, we hurried home to get ready for a party.  Grandpa Clyde & Grandma Marj, Granny, Uncle Nic, Aunt Natalie, Hannah, and Bryson came over to celebrate.  It was so fun to have people over and just play.

Lincoln with his train birthday cake.  He had been telling me for several months that he wanted a train cake.  He loved it!

Opening his present with Grandma Marj.

Grandpa Clyde showing Lincoln how to use his new golf clubs.

Happy birthday (albeit a little late) to my cute, fun, smart little boy!  Here’s to another great year!