lots of posts

I just posted a ton of stuff and still have more to come. Beware...they are totally out of order!!

belly pics

This was me at 32 weeks....back on October 15.

This was me yesterday, at 38 weeks. Yikes...the lighting is making me look super crazy and scary...or maybe I do look that way....so just look at my belly and not my face! 

I am huge!!

Lincoln also wanted to be in the picture.

decorating for Christmas

Even though Thanksgiving was early this year, we immediately started to put up our Christmas decorations so that everything will be ready before the baby comes. I love putting up the tree as a family. The best part is seeing how much Lincoln loves it. Lincoln also got to set up his own little tree (the one that Derick and I got when we were first married). He was pretty excited about that. I love how kids put all the ornaments in the same spot. Last year, Derick's parents gave us the train that they've had going around their Christmas tree since Derick was little. Lincoln was so excited to set it up. It's going to be a favorite tradition of his, I just know it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. We have 5 other families from our ward come over and share with us! It was a lot of fun to get together with our friends, and it was a blast for Lincoln to have so many of his little friends over.

Lincoln and his friend, Wade.

Lincoln, Wade, Taylor and Hannah.

Other kids that were there: Carter, James, Brighton, Charlotte, Kaylee, Monson. I will have to get pictures of them, too, for memories.

Thankful Tree

I found an idea online to make a Give Thanks tree, to display the things that we are thankful for each year. This is the version that I came up with. I think it turned out pretty cute, and it was perfect for a Thanksgiving FHE lesson!

preschool Thanksgiving party

I love doing this mommy preschool with Lincoln. He has learned so much already, and he loves it. Once each month, we either do some kind of field trip or party with everyone. This month, my friend, Cari, did a Thanksgiving party for the kids. She did such a good job. They talked about things that they are thankful for, talked about the Thanksgiving story, made cornbread, made turkey apples, made Pilgrim hats, etc. It was so fun.

Lincoln just wanted to hurry and eat the apple...

...and eat that apple he did! This was all that was left.

When I told Lincoln to smile so that I could take a picture to send to Daddy, this is what I got.

Trip to OH

Back in mid-October, we were able to go visit our friends Sam, Jenae, Mila and Emmitt in Ohio. We love them! We had such a good time.

Highlights (other than just hanging out together!):
- Giving the kids baths together
- Going to the Columbus Zoo and getting there so late in the day that we only had like an hour, but it made for a very efficient zoo trip! Lincoln was very excited about his penny souveniers
- Derick and I going to the Columbus temple while Jenae watched the three kids
- Pushing the kids on the swings in the backyard
- Going to Young's Farm. We had some delicious ice cream, saw the farm animals, and visited the pumpkin patch! So fun.
- We loved watching Lincoln have so much fun with his little friends. He thoroughly enjoyed that trip and talks about getting together with Mila and Emmitt often.

 

 

Halloween

Halloween was a little bit crazy this year because of Superstorm Sandy. We didn't get hit very hard here (we thought it would be a lot worse) but the weather was still freezing and very windy. Sunday night is when the storm hit the East hard. We thought we'd have a foot of snow, but instead we only woke up to 1/2 inch or an inch. Lincoln was SO excited about the snow. He wanted to play in it soooo bad, but I didn't take him out. Why, you ask? Because I know him. It was still really windy outside and if he would have hated the snow this once because of the wind, he wouldn't have wanted to play in the snow for the rest of the winter. And considering that it's technically not even winter for another 2 months, I didn't want to risk that. I do feel bad that I didn't take my kid out to play in the first snow of the year, but oh, well. We actually went out that night with Derick and when we were getting in the car, Lincoln ran over to the snow and started to eat some. Silly kid. I am excited, though, for a good snow to take him out to play. And that's coming from someone who hates the snow.

Anyway, there were also some activities in town the Saturday before Halloween (day before the storm hit) that we didn't even really get to do because it was raining. So we waited to see how the next few days would be...

On Tuesday, we had our ward party. We had to wait until that afternoon to even see if it would be held because of the crazy wind and cold. It was a high of 30-something that day! Thankfully we had it. It was supposed to be a trunk-or-treat, but we set up in all of the rooms inside the building instead. Lincoln was so excited! He loved going around to get all of his treats, playing games, and being with all of his little friends. He loves all of the kids his age. And there are a lot of them in our ward.

I have to say that Lincoln was the cutest train engineer EVER!

Forget bouncing the balls...getting up close and throwing them in works better!

On Halloween, Derick really wanted to take Lincoln trick-or-treating, even if just for a couple of houses, in the freezing cold. Some of our friends, the Daleys and the Parkinsons, came over and did it with us (of course I forgot to take pictures of Lincoln with their kids). We went to a neighborhood near our house (our house is on a country road...not a trick-or-treating road) and did one street. The kids made out pretty well for just one street, I must say. We picked the perfect costume for Lincoln this year...it was completely adaptable to the cold weather. He wore a coat under his overalls, a beanie under his hat, and when his nose started to drip from the cold, he had a hankie around his neck to use! Ha ha!

Here is one house where we let Lincoln go up by himself. I think he rang the doorbell like 10 times before the people came to the door...it was super embarrassing.