Baby Dedication

Yesterday we had Lincoln's Baby Dedication at church and dedicated him to the Lord. We made a promise as a family to love him and bring him up in a Christian household. It was such a sweet family moment. My parents and Anthony's parents were there to support us. My grandparents and Leslie & Zane came, too. It was so nice to be together and know our families were behind us and supporting us and loving us and Lincoln. We played a sweet video after the dedication of Lincoln's short tiny life. Anthony chose the song "I Want to be Just Like You" by Phillips, Craig & Dean. If you haven't heard it and you have a son...it's VERY powerful. What a moving message it carries and it's so sweet. Many tears were wiped away. 

We managed to snap some pictures of Lincoln & Zane. We haven't had any made together since we were still in the hospital. Aren't they sweet?!

Lately, Lincoln has been doing a lot of helping! He's been helping with the laundry....

Helping in the kitchen.....

And helping take care of the dog...

He's such a good boy!!

Anna and Baby Ian are supposed to come visit us this week...I think we're going to have our first baby sleepover!!!! 

Father's Day and Such

I know it's long past but it's been busy around here! For Father's Day Lincoln and I had a plan. We were trying to think of something super great..seeing as how for Mother's Day Daddy and Lincoln got me diamond earrings. For all those in the "know" Anthony and I have a really cute fish pond behind the house. It's got 8 beautiful fish in it, including one VERY large koi. Beside this pond is the largest pompas grass you have ever seen. Almost as tall as our two story house!

 Needless to say it's quite an eyesore and Anthony and I both hate it. We've been wanting to remove it for the whole time we've lived here, but were really afraid that it was going to be a huge undertaking and we didn't even know where to start! Thankfully I talked to our great friend, Erin, about getting it out. See...Lincoln wanted to buy Daddy a Japanese Maple tree for the pond. And we needed to put the tree right where the pompas grass was. We didn't want to buy a gift that came with work along with it and I didn't want to say "Here's your tree...now dig out the pompas!" So Erin GRACIOUSLY volunteered to help with Operation Father's Day and remove the pompas for us! 

Father's Day morning Lincoln and I gave Anthony his beautiful Red Dragon Japanese Maple tree.

 He was so excited! He's wanted one forever. Then you could almost see his thoughts going to the pompas and how it would have to be taken out. The look of sheer relief when I said Erin was coming to remove it was priceless!! We also gave him a big pop-up shade for when we go camping or to the beach. We've already used it at our neighbor's pool! 

Erin came over the next day and we (she) attacked the giant grass. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be - though I wasn't the one wielding the shovel!! Needless to say, we got it out and got the tree planted in its place. It was very symbolic to plant a tree for Baby Lincoln's first year of life. As we watch the tree grow we'll always remember it was for Anthony's first Father's Day. It is sooo pretty! It looks so good. It was the perfect finishing touch to our fish pond. 

Here are my beautiful boys by their tree!


Lincoln is rolling over allll the time now! He always turns over his left arm but yesterday he rolled over his right arm! We're rolling from back to front..he chose to do it the hard way first! This is what we now see as soon as we lay him down. 

He won't stay on his back now. And he doesn't want to be on his tummy, so he lets us know as soon as he's flipped by screaming at the top of his lungs! I'm thankful he's not rolling over in his sleep yet. I'm afraid we would have to get up like 10 times a night just to flip him over! We're still sleeping through the night. Most nights he's in bed from 9:00-8:30. It's WONDERFUL! Although, I am well aware that not all babies do this and that he won't do this forever. Anna...your day will come! Ian will sleep 6 or 7 hours at  a time before you know it! Hang in there.


We had some 4th of July fun. We took Lincoln to Valdese to see his first fireworks show! He only jumped at the first two big booms then spent the rest of the time in awe of the show! He was relaxed and just talked to the sky while we watched. We met up with Kelly and all the kids, and Anthony's aunt, uncle, and cousins. 

Elise LOVES Baby Lincoln and had to get in the picture! 


We also had a cookout at Anthony's mom's house. Collin and Melissa and Faith and Corbin always come. They're like family, anyway! We played cornhole and ate some yummies.

I can't tell you how many pictures we have like this through the years! :)

Lincoln and I also went to visit Anna and Ian. We spent the day putting some of Ian's toys together so Lincoln could play with them and chatting about babies. Ian eats ALL the time...so that's how Anna spends her day! Man, I remember those days! Lincoln is going about 4 hours between feedings during the day. Sometimes he'll go longer, it just depends on what he's doing. 

Our boys in their Chicco car seats! We may have to switch soon. Anna's goes up to 30 pounds and I'm certain Lincoln will get there before Ian does!!!!


We're always busy it seems. Anthony just started tearing the deck off. We're going to rebuild it bigger! Then we're going to replace the table we lost 3 years ago to a wind storm. I can't wait to have it covered over so we can sit outside no matter what the weather! 

Here we go again!

Fun Stuff

Baby Ian is here!!! He was born Sunday, June 20th....Father's Day. What a great gift for Jeromy! This is my first snuggle. He weighed a whopping 6 pounds, 15 ounces! He's so tiny beside my giant boy!

Erin has a new man in her life!!!

New mommy Anna...with my chunker!!

Erin's two favorite boys!!! They love you, too Erin!

What a sweet family photo!!

Who doesn't love a yawning baby?!

Can we say 11 weeks makes a BIG difference?!

Our boys...with their boys...on Father's Day.

Sorry it's sideways!! Erin bought both boys their first guitars!! How fun.

Lincoln got his first piece of mail. His Social Security Card!! He's official! (Even though I haven't yet ventured to the court house to pick up his birth certificate!!)

My precious fellas on the way to church! Man they're awfully cute!

We've been spending lots of time in the neighbor's pool lately. Lincoln absolutely loves it! And so do we! It wears him out and he usually takes a nice long nap and goes right to sleep that night! He just kicks away.

Amy and Aydan came to visit just the other day. Aydan had been practicing at home how to play with babies so he could play with Lincoln when he came over. Sweet! We took our boys outside to play in a little splashy pool. Aydan was so cute with Lincoln.  

Kayaking

We decided it was time to initiate Lincoln to the kayaks. We love to go and we wanted him to be able to go with us. It took a few minutes to figure out what we needed to pack and how we were going to keep him in the boat. A friend gave us this wrap and we thought it might help keep him sitting up straight, so he wouldn't be so floppy. Anthony decided he wanted to wear him since he's a more experienced kayaker. 

This is us testing the plan at home to see how it would ultimately work.

He seemed like he was going to tolerate it and didn't mind too much. 

We had on sunscreen, swim trunks, a swim shirt....then we had his super cool shades and his hat to keep the sun off his face. He was asleep for the first 30 minutes then just hung out while we paddled around. It was a lot of fun. We even got sprinkled on while we were there and that helped cool us off. It was a beautiful day, but we shuffled in before the afternoon thundershowers popped up.

Our cute little paddling family!

Erin went with us and was a HUGE help juggling boats and paddles and babies!! She's also in the market for a boat herself, so she took a turn in all three boats to see what they were like. I think she fell in love with Anthony's because it's the longest, so the easiest to maneuver. (It's also the most expensive!!)

Just a few of the pictures from the last two weeks...

I LOVE these elephant overalls. This was the second time we've worn them and it's going to be the last! The little blue shirt constantly rides up (no onesies with overalls) and the straps are tight. It was cute while it lasted!

What a little stinker!!!! Don't you love that smirk?!

We put up the Johnny Jumper the other day and he absolutely LOVES it!! He'll sit and twist and turn and bounce for almost an hour. It's so funny. He turns and looks over the deck for a while, then turns and looks at his exersaucer which is right beside him, then he'll look in the living room. He sometimes even watches TV from it. It's the funniest thing! There's NO fussing in the jumper! He'll sit in his exersaucer, too. It doesn't lower farther so his feet touch the bottom so he doesn't like to stay as long. I put a pillow under his feet so he can push but it's not the same. It sure is cute to see him growing up a little bit more each day!

Weeks 6-9

We've been busy lately and up to quite a bit of fun. We've got some fun pictures to share!

Lincoln and Lile love to take strolls through the neighborhood. Lincoln usually ends up falling asleep and Lile barks at all the neighbor's dogs. It's usually quite interesting! 

Mom and I went to Gaffney, SC to hit the outlets last week. We didn't come home with anything fantastic but we sure had a really good day. That's the giant "peach butt" to tell you you're in Gaffney. 

Lincoln and I have started walking with my old friend, Jessica, and her sweet baby Avah. Lincoln and Avah were due one day apart but Avah was two weeks early and Lincoln waited a week late. They ended up three weeks apart. But we've been hanging out alot and going to baby massage and such. I always ask Lincoln if he wants to go see his girlfriend. We took these pics the last time we walked.

We're pretty happy babies!

Avah: "Waaahhhhh!" Lincoln: "Oh, maybe I should cry, too!!"

Avah: "Waaaaahhhhhh!" Lincoln: "Ugh...girls!"

We've been walking about twice a week for the last two weeks. We're up to almost 3 miles at a time. Not bad!

We just took our first overnight trip with Lincoln. We wanted to run away for the weekend of Memorial Day because all we've been doing on the weekends since we got pregnant was working on the bathroom. I thought it might be nice to do nothing! Or at least do something for fun. We decided on Columbia, SC so we could go to the Riverbanks Zoo. 

We had a reallllly fun day! Lincoln was asleep when we first got there and probably slept for about half an hour. After that he was awake alllllll day! He didn't take a single nap all day. I guess there was just so much going on and so much to see and hear that he couldn't stand to shut his eyes for one second! 

This is a Galapagos tortoise that was bigger than you could imagine! We tried to get the stroller beside him so you could see the size of him but those pesky kids kept getting in the way!! 

Lincoln even had his first amusement park ride while we were there! We chose the cheetah because it's the fastest land mammal. He seemed to enjoy it. He liked the air blowing through his hair. He's such a hot baby. He's always sweaty! It was fun.

Daddy and baby on the tram ride between the zoo and the gardens. He's not sleeping, just enjoying the movement of the air! Not that he's in a different shirt this time....pooping accident!

I even nursed him at the zoo. Good for me. It's a little uncomfortable just physically, not very comfy places to sit. But all went well and we were all very happy. It was a little warm, but the humidity was gross. It rained around lunchtime so we left and had lunch outside the zoo and came back when the rain had passed. That cooled it down quite nicely. 

We stayed in downtown Columbia in the Vista area. It was nice. You can walk to tons of restaurants and shops and such. Saturday night we ate at California Dreaming.

It's an old train depot that's been remodeled. I'd only been one other time when my cousins, Tony & Stephanie, got married. I remembered it being a pretty nice place and I was right. It was really good. 

Here's a pic of me and baby before dinner...he's sooo cute!

Sunday was zoo day and afterwards we had dinner at Mellow Mushroom. It was just a few blocks up from the hotel. I'm NOT a fan, but Anthony loves it. I made him swing by Marble Slab Creamery on the way back to the hotel as my reward for eating at the Mushroom!

We had a lamaze reunion where we got all our babies together. It was so much fun and they were very cute! They all have such different personalities and are such different sizes even though they're not very far apart in age. Note Lincoln asleep in the Boppy. The only one who was conked out. Left to right they're Lincoln, Sarah Paige, Layla, Samantha, and Reid. Sarah is the oldest and Layla is the youngest. We'll have to get them together again. 

We had our 2 month doctor's visit yesterday. He weighs a Whopping 14 pounds, 7 1/2 ounces!!!!! He's 25 inches long. What a big boy. He's over the 95th percentile for height and weight. He's in the 50th percentile for his head, 14 1/2 inches. Dr. Todd said he looked wonderful and was impressed with his head and trunk control. He had to have his first shots. How sad that was! Notice in the pic he's checking out his hand. He's found them and will just stare. It's so cute.

The shots were not fun, talk about an unhappy baby.

Note the battle wounds! His first bandaids! He was a little extra fussy for a while later in the day. His legs were sore and he didn't want me to touch them and he even cried when he wiggled them on accident! He slept wonderful last night, even though I was nervous. We had to give him some Tylenol for the first time, too. He had 100.5 last night before bed. Just from the shots, though. All is well today and he's been a pretty happy boy. I'm glad it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. 

He's still sleeping from 10-7 every night. Talk about wonderful!!

We don't have anything coming up lately...but we'll post again soon.