Bubby is TEN!!!

This one's for the boy. 

Today my son, my first born, my Lincoln turns 10!!!

Yes, this post is a few days late. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Double digits! I'm getting misty-eyed just typing that!

He has fierce emotions...it's AWESOME or it's terrible, there's almost no in between. He adores Lala and tolerates Aspen. Though he won’t tell you they talk, sing, and laugh far into the night while sharing their bunk beds 

He loves pizza, spaghetti, sweet tea, Fanta, and Sprite, though he doesn't get those drinks very often. His favorite color is orange and he LOVES fast cars. Ask him about Mustangs, Bugatti, or Lamborghini...he can probably give you stats. 

He is amazing at all things kinesthetic. If it has wheels he can ride it, if it has a steering wheel he can drive it, and he probably has one! You should see our ride-on toys. 🤦‍♀️

He loves to snuggle, but probably wouldn't want me telling anyone. He's one of the best hug givers I know. He's very smart and loves one-on-one attention.

This boy made me a mom. He surely holds a special piece of my heart. Love you forever, like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be. <3

Middle is EIGHT!!!

Today belongs to Aspen.

March 28, 2020

It's a different birthday than we've ever had. We usually celebrate with 90-100 friends and family for a big birthday bash. This year things changed. But we're trying not to let this crazy virus get her down.

To know Aspen is to love her. She loves BIG and tells you often. She's sugar, and spice, and everything nice. She is always happy, smiling, singing, or dancing. She NEVER stops moving, even when she sleeps. She is a peacemaker and would give anything she has to make others happy. 

She's crazy smart and loves to read, sometimes 2 chapter books a day! She rarely complains, never even tells us she's sick. 

She is our joy. She's so precious and happy. We truly needed an Aspen in our lives, and God delivered her just perfectly.

We’ve had a good day...in spite of stupid Coronavirus.

We started the day with presents, I had a helper making requested chocolate chip pancakes. 

We celebrated all morning by having small visits from grandparents. She got art lessons from one set, and horsey accessories from the other.

They have jumped on the trampoline allllll day and Daddy even painted her toenails mermaid colors for the occasion.

Her whole Sunday school/Children’s church group met this morning and they sang her Happy Birthday!

My girl, Carrie Setzer killed it for her mermaid cake!!!! 😍😍😍

She dropped her iPod in the fish pond 🤦🏻‍♀️

We had Taco Bell for lunch 😂😂 and went on a Bear Hunt this evening. Unfortunately we didn’t catch many sightings before she got sick in the van. 😭

She’s fine now, she almost always throws up when she has a headache, with little to no warning.

We’ll try again tomorrow.

Can't Believe He's FIVE!!

How did this happen? How did he get so big? Where did the time go?

I've asked myself these questions all day long, and still no answer reveals itself. I have cried off and on all day thinking about the blessing that this little man is. I've reminisced through old photos looking for one from every day of his birthday for that collage. There were pictures of my sweet Moppy.

And of Anthony's sweet grandmother, Matilda.

Sweet, sweet ladies who are no longer here to celebrate this day with us. Oh how I wish he could have known them more. 

There are also pictures of all the precious people in our lives as they met our first born for the very first time.

 What amazing, supportive friends and family we have! We love you all are are incredibly thankful you all are a part of Lincoln's life.

He is beautiful, silly, intelligent, has a memory like an elephant, loves music, and is half of my heart. There is no love like a mother for her son. It's amazing how much our lives have changed because of this small person.

He loves riding his motorcycle and bicycle, he's been without training wheels since last summer, right after turning 4. He can count to 50 with minimal help. He still stumbles after 39 and 49. He can tie his shoes (though it's very loose) but it makes him frustrated most days. He can spell and write his first name and half of his last. He can remember any song after hearing it only a few times. A few of his favorites right now are the Kirk Franklin songs he listens to in Daddy's car, Still I Fly from Planes: Fire & Rescue, and we listen to a Now That's What I Call Music Disney edition CD, he knows all the words to every one of those songs! 

He loves his Legos and got several sets of Duplos for his birthday...including one of Knights and horses from us, construction sets from EE..and he plays with Aspen's Sophia Lego's too. :)

Most days he adores his little sister (though that sometimes comes out as aggravation). He just can't leave her alone. He's always touching her, trying to play with her by taking her things away, or trying to pick her up. 

His favorite places to eat are Kobe's (Japanese) and China View (Chinese) followed closely by any Mexican place. His favorite color is usually blue.

I think we're going to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate tonight...as long as he's feeling better. It stinks being sickly on your birthday. He started running a fever yesterday after nap, about 101. I gave him Advil and waited it out but the fever hung around for a while. He woke up last night unhappy and shivering so we gave him more Advil and some cough meds. Bless his heart. He slept until nearly 8:40 this morning and had a temp of 101.3 when I first checked. Anthony ran for Tylenol this morning before work so I've been keeping him on a schedule alternating meds. 

He opened his presents this morning as soon as he awoke. We got him Lego Duplo knight set and a super awesome pair of motorcycle pants! He said "This is the best birthday ever!!"

We managed to get out to have lunch with Daddy at Dos Amigos. It was rough getting there, Lincoln sure didn't feel well and he fell apart on me before we left the house. Sigh.

Happy Happy Birthday sweet boy! I pray for you every night that God would lead you where you were supposed to go...and to become the man He has made you to be. We love you more than you will ever understand. I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

Things I don't want to forget....

Lincoln says:

pupcake - cupcake

hellipopter - hellicopter

puhsketti - spaghetti

His L's still sound like W's. So he calls himself Winkin. 

He knows his birthday is in April. 

Here is a list of questions I asked him around his 3rd birthday! 

1.       What is your favorite color? red

2.       What is your favorite toy? Mack (from Cars)

3.       What is your favorite fruit? peaches (really? He hasn’t eaten peaches in ages!)

4.       What is your favorite TV show? Wall-E (it should be Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!)

5.        What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Macaroni

6.       What is your favorite outfit? a tree shirt (he doesn’t have a tree shirt?! maybe a tee shirt?)

7.       What is your favorite game? Angry Birds

8.       What is your favorite snack? vitamins (they’re gummies)

9.       What is your favorite animal? a lion

10.   What is your favorite song? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

11.    What is your favorite book? Moo, Baa, La La La, by Sandra Boynton

12.   Who is your best friend? Nemo (???? Sorry Carter!)

13.   What is your favorite sport? basketball

14.   What is your favorite thing to do outside? play basketball (I thought it would be riding his truck)

15.   What is your favorite drink? apple juice

16.    What is your favorite holiday? Easter (probably because that was the most recent!)

17.    What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Lightning McQueen pillow pet (but he never goes without his blue blankey)

18.   What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? pancakes

19.    What do you want for dinner on your birthday? tacos

20.   What do you want to be when you grow up? 3 J

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

 Well...it has come and gone. Our first big together birthday bash was a fabulous success! They came, they played, they ate...and they didn't want to leave!! 

Check out my tissue puffs! Erin made them for me. There's even a goldfish hanging on the left. They were beautiful and better than I even expected!  They are actually still hanging in my kitchen because I don't want to take them down!!

We decorated with bright colors that matched the Eric Carle book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? I added pink owls for Aspen's theme. There are no owls in Brown Bear...but I wanted owls, so owls we did! The circles hanging in the background, the buckets, and the tablecloth were all borrowed from our sweet friend, Jenn Rice. I made the cupcake toppers and food tents all by myself! And the invitations, I think I posted those here already. 

Isn't this pretty? Brown bear, goldfish, pink owl, blue horse, purple cat, green frog, red bird. The cupcakes and two smash cakes were from Alex Bell, of course. You can see her website here. I must say her cakes are fabulously delicious!!  We ordered 36 cupcakes and two smash cakes so each of the kids could have their own. We only ended up with 6 cupcakes left over! 

Lincoln's Brown Bear cake...I think it's fabulous!

Aspen had her pink owl cake with chevron on top! Love it!

I must say they both LOVED their cakes. Lincoln didn't want a fork and had already leaned in and taken his first bite before we had even finished singing Happy Birthday! He really enjoyed eating the bear piece by piece. 

Aspen was very happy to put handful after handful of delicious cake in her mouth!!

She shoved her mouth so full she couldn't even chew! She had cake boogies, too! We actually had to cut her off. I think she would've eaten the whole thing!

Cheesing it up! He loved his cake. 

I used an idea from Pinterest and made a bubble station out of an old detergent bottle. It worked like magic! Jeromy actually sat down there and filled up the tiny bubble bottles. The kids had fun and took their bubbles home as part of their favors.

The birthday boy getting some bubble action.

Our happy family, post cake. They were both covered and we didn't really want to touch them! Aspen had cake in her ears, her nose, her hair...a whole wardrobe change was necessary! 

We had a great time. We don't actually know how many people came. All we know is we went through 3 gallons of lemonade, 30 cupcakes, 21 hamburgers, and 30 hotdogs. The party was scheduled to be from 11-1 but we put both the tuckered out birthday babies to nap and still had people here around 4. My mother in law says that's the sign of a good party, when people don't want to leave. We noted that gifts were not necessary but of course they got WAY more than they needed. Fortunately, several friends and family members blessed them with a monetary gift so we will put that in their college funds for later. I must say that I could not have pulled this party off without the help of some fabulous friends. Erin and Anna were so incredibly helpful. EE made the tissue puffs and hung them. She and Anna helped with anything and everything that was needed. From tying up balloons, to cleaning the kitchen they were instrumental in the success of the party. 

This is who I remember for sure:

Erin Leonard

Jeromy, Anna, & Ian Fitzwater

Kelly, David, Will, Elise & Benjamin Wortman

Betty Bostain & Faith

Collin, Faith & Corbin Delp

Gina & Joey Lindsey

Jenn & Carter Rice

Kaleb, Leslie, Zane & Zoey Taylor

Marci & Rocky Taylor (Nana & Papaw)

Toni & Carroll Vance (Grammy & Dadaw)

Carol Hamby (Mamaw Carol)

Molly & Micah Rice

Carmen, Doug, & Landon Suttles

James, Jan, Daniel & Jace Barnhill

Stephanie Pelliccione

If I missed someone it was inadvertent! We were so busy and the kids played outside the whole time. Everyone had a fabulous time and we can't wait to do it again! The double deck worked out perfectly and people could sit upstairs or downstairs. There was a place for everyone to sit and eat and Nana got Aspen and Lincoln a sweet picnic table with umbrella and the kids loved it. 

We can't wait to have another cookout. Anthony said that was the whole reason he built the decks and the play set. So we'd be the place to hang out. It will definitely be a regular thing. :) Just don't always expect such pretty decorations!

I must say that my babies had a fabulous time and really seemed to enjoy themselves. They sure were tuckered out at the end of the day. It's incredible to think that I have a one and three year old. Every day they amaze me.

At their doctor's appointments on April 4 here were their birthday stats:

Lincoln

 31 pounds - 25%ile

38 inches - 50-75%ile

He got two shots...so sad.

Wearing 2T & 3T shirts, 3T pants with adjustable waist, 2T shorts with adjustable waist, size 9 shoes.

Aspen

20 pounds 3 ozs - 30%ile

20 1/2 inches - 60%ile

Head 44.5 cms - 60%ile

She got 4 shots...even more sad.

Wearing 12-18 month clothes, size 4 shoes (Stride Rite)

Busy, busy...and sick, sick, sick

We've just been so busy! It seems like lately we're just running from one place to another. And it feels like we've been sick for the whole winter!! Finally we're clawing our way back to feeling better. Aspen is still on an antibiotic, day 14 of 20. We had to do 20 days since she had an ear infection and a sinus infection. Thankfully she takes her medicine without a fuss now. When she was smaller it was a fight every time. Now she just eats it up. Phew. Thank goodness for simple mercies! Lincoln was on an antibiotic for strep, at the same time Aspen was starting her first round of antibiotics. But thankfully, we're still doing OK and are on the mend. The stomach bug did find its way into our house, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that I'm the only one who will see it this year. It was terrible. Awful. The sickest I've been since I was pregnant with Lincoln. 

I can't believe I'm planning a double birthday party!! Lincoln will turn 3 on April 2 and Aspen's big ONE will be March 28!! It's amazing! I can't believe she's been here for a year. It feels like just yesterday we were bringing her home. All those sleepless nights, since she didn't sleep quite like Lincoln. But hallelujah they're both all-night sleepers now. Most nights. So we're planning a double celebration. Since their birthdays are only 5 days apart we decided to do a together party. I almost hate to do it. My brother and I are only 7 days apart and I remember how much I hated it. Kaleb's old stinky friends coming to my party made me mad. But it really does make more sense. I want everyone to come and celebrate with us and I felt like if we had two separate parties that people would have to choose between which party to come to. So if we do one big party together then everyone can come to both. Does that make sense? 

We're planning a Brown Bear/Pink Owl party. Check out this precious invitation!!

I made it myself. From scratch! I'm so proud of myself! I even made my own cupcake toppers with all the animals on them, and food tents with cute pictures to relate the food to the party. I've got sweet party shirts in the works. Lincoln's is a brown bear shirt, and Aspen's is a pink owl shirt. There's no pink owl in the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you See? by Eric Carle. So I decided to add an extra animal to make it a little more girly for my sweetness. I can't wait. I love a party! I love having people at my house. I love entertaining. It's just so much fun to spend the day surrounded with the people you love. 

Aspen's been walking like a pro since about 9 1/2 months. She now has 6 teeth. She sleeps through the night almost every night. She takes about 3 naps a day and she's eating like a champion. She prefers table food to baby food. And we just started her on whole milk. She's been drinking breast milk out of a sippy cup for a long time and my frozen stock has run dry. She is still nursing twice a day, in the morning and in the evening. She seems to prefer the morning nursing most. She never nursed to sleep so that won't be so hard to get rid of like it was with Lincoln. She just recently started wearing 12 month clothing. She is wearing size 3 diapers and size 4 Stride Rite shoes. She loves to play with her little purse, she'll put it on her arm and walk up and down the hall! So cute! She loves to read a book and will bring you one and go Bbbbbbbbb. She then turns around so you can pick her up to put her on your lap. Just precious. She's still in cloth diapers about 70% of the time. When we're out and about or if she's at the grandparent's house she's in disposable diapers. But at home we're loving the cloth. We've probably about a third of the amount of money on diapers as we did with Lincoln. It's fabulous. 

Lincoln is amazing. He's always saying something funny. He's wearing 3T clothes, but with adjustable waist all cinched up! He's actually still wearing 24 month shorts because the others are too big! They just fall off. Poor thing. He's wearing size 9 shoes. He's so smart and he loves his cars and trucks and trains. Books are also some of his favorite things. He likes to watch Mickey Mouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Sofia the First, Tangled, Princess and the Frog, and Bolt. That's what we've been watching alot of lately. He and Aspen both love music and still dance anytime they hear it. I'm working with Grammy to get Lincoln started in Kindermusik for his birthday. I can't wait to get him started. I just know he'll love it. We just started Sunday school. In our church you move downstairs at 3 if you're potty trained. So we thought we'd give it a go last week and it was a hit! He loved it. And this Sunday he made a little piggy craft. So sweet! I don't know how I'm going to get rid of any of this sweet stuff. It's only gonna get worse as he gets older and does more fun stuff. But how do you decide what stays and what goes?! I know I can't keep it all, but it's so sweet!

Anthony has been on the kidney transplant list since August...and there's a 2-5 year wait. So that's what we're doing. Waiting. When Shawn wasn't able to transplant we were a little heartbroken. I know his family was, too. So now we're waiting on his other living donors to be tested. Just recently we had a lady from church call us. She said she'd known about Anthony's need for a while but just hadn't said anything yet. She said she was born with 3 kidneys and that she's always felt like there was a reason. She's also A+ just like Anthony. So she filled out the living donor paperwork and sent it in. We're still waiting to see who Baptist chooses to test next. We're just praying a living donor can be found. That transplant last longer so Anthony will be looking at fewer transplants throughout the rest of life. Please be praying with us that a donor can be found. Anthony is such a trooper. He's so tired of dialysis. He hates the time it eats away from his life. Thankfully he's able to do the peritoneal dialysis so he doesn't have to do hemodialysis at the clinic, but it still has to be done 4 times a day at about 20-30 minutes each time. Think of what you could do with 2 extra hours a day. He's back on his bike since the weather has been warmer lately and he's excited for spring to be here to stay. 

SIX whole months!!

I can't believe that Aspen is SIX months old!! It really feels like it was a few weeks since we got home from the hospital. She can sit up, been doing that for about a month now. She's trying VERY hard to go from laying down to sitting...she's so close! She still rolls all over the floor to get where she wants to go, but now she's up on all four's and rocks back and forth. She even lunges forward but forgets to move her arms and she face plants on the carpet! But she doesn't seem to mind too much. She can scoot all over the place. Just not an official "crawl" with hands and knees moving together. One of her very favorite things right now is the "Johnny Jumper" that hangs in the doorway. She can spend up to 45 minutes there while we're cooking and eating just jumping away. She just jumps and looks around and talks and spins. It's so cute! There is constant motion...I don't know how she can wiggle and jump that much without getting sick! Her favorite toys are the alphabet links we got when I was pregnant with Lincoln. She eats them and shakes them, and talks to them. She also really enjoys a vibrating star rattle that was handed down from my sweet friend Jessica, when Macy was too big for it.

She is wearing mostly her 3-6 month clothes. When we're in cloth diapers they're a little snug, but for the most part they still fit well. We have tons of 6-9 just waiting to be worn, but why not wear the 3-6 as long as possible? I never feel like she wears all the dresses she owns. Then I hate to see them go after only wearing them once. She's going to have to start dressing up more often than just to go to church! She's in size 1 shoes but they're almost too small. The size 2 is still too big and falls off or just seems to get in her way. 

We haven't had her 6 month check up yet, but last week we went to breastfeeding support group and she weighed 16 pounds, 6 ounces. This is so much less than Lincoln! At his 6 month check up he weighed 19 pounds, 3 ounces. She's mostly sleeping well. She sometimes wakes up but if we give her a paci she goes back to sleep. I'm trying not to feed her at night, I don't want to start a habit! We've recently begun giving her a bottle before bed, it seems to help her sleep better. She spits up a LOT. Lincoln didn't spit like this. And she can spit up like 2 hours after she ate. She'll be playing in the floor and suddenly, there it is. Yuck! Tons of laundry!

Anthony and I left her overnight for the first time last weekend. We always try to run away for our anniversary, so we left Lincoln with Grammy and Aspen with Nana. Mom said Aspen missed me a lot and had a rough time on Saturday after we left, but was sweet and snuggly and smiley on Sunday. She slept all night for Mom which was great, but I think it had been 4 or 5 nights that I'd been up with her in a row. It was definitely time to get a good night's sleep. Lincoln was his wonderful self and slept great and played well. We went to Fontana Village, NC. It's right by Fontana Dam. I was pretty excited to go. It's the largest concrete dam east of the Rockies and has great history of WWII. I taught 4th grade and there are pictures of Fontana Dam in our social studies book for NC history. I enjoyed seeing it. The Appalachian Trail actually crosses right over the top of the dam, so we actually walked a little over half a mile of the AT! Yay us!

Lincoln is fabulous, of course. He's wearing size 8 tennis shoes, but we're buying 9s for the fall and winter. He is wearing 2T shirts and pants. They're both a little big. The pants have to be adjustable waist or they don't stay up. He really needs the 2T for length, but they're always too big around the middle. He can still wear his 18 month pants from last fall...they're just about 3 inches too short! He still loves to ride his Radio Flyer Scoot 'n Zoom Scooter that we got him for his 1st birthday. He's crazy about cars, trucks, and trains. Oh, and tractors, and cranes, and diggers. Typical boy. Lately he's been carrying Aspen's Cabbage Patch Doll around and taking care of it. It's really sweet. He gives it a paci, wraps her up for nap and even puts her in the Johnny Jumper for exercise. I'm thinking about making him his own CPK for Christmas. Aspen's is actually her, named for her, and on her birthday. Thanks Anna!!

I'd just like to note that these were completely non-posted! That's just how he decided he wanted his picture taken!!!! :)

Lincoln still loves all things Mickey. He also really enjoys Doc McStuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Chuggington. Let's just say we watch the Disney Channel. He loves, loves, loves to ride his big truck outside. And almost every day he listens to hear the ice cream truck! Ha. We're going to Disney on Ice this Saturday and I'm really excited! We're going with some friends, Nicole, Michael, and Maddy Turnmeyer. Lincoln and Maddy are 3 months apart and they play very well together. Maddy is just as verbal as he is, so they share pretty well and talk a LOT! It's very cute! Nicole is my crafting friend. We often go to her house to spend the day creating fun things from Pinterest!

We're working on potty training. Mostly he tells me after he's peed in his diaper, then it's too late. But on days like today he's only peed in his diaper twice, and on the potty the rest of the day! Hooray! We've also just moved him to napping in his own bed. For the longest time he napped on the couch. When Aspen came along it got too loud and too hard to let him nap on the couch so I moved him to our bed. He's been napping in our bed probably since Aspen was a few weeks old. I need to be able to do laundry and things from my bedroom during nap so we just recently got him to sleep in his bed for a nap. Progress! He's still in a crib, that he doesn't even try to climb out of. My thoughts are to keep him locked up as long as possible! No reason to tempt him to get out of bed when he doesn't need to.

I just celebrated my 31st birthday. Wow. I don't feel old!! But I definitely wouldn't want to go back  to being 25. After a weekend in Boone listening to all the kids over at the bar beside Erin's house until alllllll hours of the morning, I'm so over that. I hate the wooing around outside late at night, the inconsiderate loudness, and their general attitudes. I'd also like to go to bed by 10. Does that mean I'm old?!