The Loveridge Family

12 months

2012-01-13T01:22:00.001-05:00

Lincoln is 12 months old today! Man, the time has just flown by!!!

At 12 months old, Lincoln can:

*crawl super fast!

*pull up on anything and walk along anything.

*stand by himself, but no walking yet!

*babble

*has two little teeth barely poking out...and it looks like more on the way!

*does a cute scrunchy face smile

*loves his family!

*loves to scream

*eats anything and throws food on the floor when he's done.

*loves to play with pots and pans

*is a very busy boy!

And here he is every month for the first year of his life!

And of course a few pics of the other kids at the same age.
Carson

Brynlee

ONE YEAR!!!

2012-01-13T00:53:00.001-05:00

It has been ONE year since we brought this sweet baby home...

....I can hardly stand it! I can honestly say that I have truly enjoyed his first year of life. I have enjoyed every minute of his fun and sweet personality. He really has been such a friendly and social little guy. He has more recently become much more feisty and getting into lots of trouble. He loves to get into anything he shouldn't...especially anything electronic (much to Dan's dislike). He has recently discovered that he has a talent for screaming and works on perfecting this new talent all the time. Also, a new trait that is driving us crazy! So, our sweet baby boy has grown up and grown crazy! But, we still love him! He still has a super sweet toothless smile (well, there are now two little teeth barely poking out the bottom) that lights us up! I love this big one year old!!! Here are some pictures from his birthday!

We had a party and invited all of Lincoln's biggest fans...he has a lot!

All of his friends helped him open his presents!

And he enjoyed a cupcake!

My friend Jen (she's amazing!) came over in the morning and did a little photoshoot with Linc. He would NOT stay put more than 1 second...that is until we gave him a cupcake...he loved that!

Happy Birthday Linky-doo...we sure do love you!!!

We have a FIRST!!!

2012-01-06T19:13:00.000-05:00

Carson lost his FIRST tooth today....yippeee!!!! He was so excited back in November when he realized one of his teeth was a smidge wiggly. After further inspection by me, I realized that his adult tooth was actually already coming in behind his baby tooth. So, TWO months later we finally got that tooth out! He did not want us to pull it out and wouldn't do it himself so it was just hanging by a thread. Today after dinner I asked him if I could see how wiggly it was today and before he knew it I popped it out. He was soo excited that it came out that he wanted to call his grandparents to tell them all about it. Then he put it in his monster tooth fairy pillow. He can't wait for her to bring him money...I hope he's happy with $1!

Sorry the pictures are a bit bloody, this is right after we pulled it out.

ELEVEN months!!

2011-12-13T02:17:00.000-05:00

I seriously can't take this any longer! This baby is almost ONE! Why does the time fly by so fast!? Our little Lincoln is such a sweet baby and we love him to PIECES!!! This is what I can tell you about my Linky-doo at eleven months:

*He crawls fast!

*He stands up and cruises on everything...even your legs if your just standing there!

*He goes up and down stairs really well.

*He is starting to "talk" more with cute little baby sounds. mamama, dadada, blah, blah, blah.

*He LOVES it when you get down on the floor with him. He immediately smiles and crawls over to you and climbs all over you. He loves climbing all over his family!

*He loves to squawk and then have Carson and Bryn imitate him. He'll repeat this forever!

*He still doesn't have ANY teeth! Maybe he'll walk before he gets his first tooth...we'll see!

*He can eat whatever, but doesn't necessarily like everything.

*He loves to play in the kitchen cabinets, which led to some cabinet locks put on, except for a few kid-friendly ones.

*He is soo happy!!!

And here he is at his eleven month photo shoot on the couch!

This is what it really looks like when we're trying to take pictures of the kids :)

And of course, the other kiddos at eleven months:

Carson

Brynlee

10 months!

2011-11-13T23:48:00.000-05:00

No matter what I tell him, Lincoln just keeps on growing! And pictures are getting more and more difficult! We had Carson help this time.

And here's what Lincoln is doing at 10 months:

-doing a "real" crawl and getting FAST!

-climbing up stairs and now climbing down them too!

-eating lots of table food...pretty much everything...and with not a single tooth!

-so fun and playful!

And a few comparison pictures of the other kiddos.

Carson

Brynlee

Halloween 2011

2011-11-04T19:44:00.006-05:00

Halloween is still one of our all time favorite times of year around our house! This year we had a vampire....

And a princess....

Little Lincoln was suppose to be a garden gnome, but we never had a chance to dress him up. We had a few families from the neighborhood come over for dinner and then trick-or-treating...it was great!

Nine Months!!!

2011-10-13T14:15:00.000-05:00

This is what pictures look like when you try to get an active nine month old to cooperate! Lincoln is getting more active by the minute! He is still a sweet and happy baby and we love him more every day!

Here's what he can do at NINE months:

-army crawls everywhere!

-climb up a couple of stairs

-pull up on everything...and start to cruise too!

-say mama and blah-blah...he doesn't know what he's saying, of course

-eat any kind of food!

-use a sippy cup

-laugh at his brother and sister!

A few comparison pics

Carson at 9 months

Brynlee at 9 months

i hate taking family pictures...but I LOVE these!!!!

2011-10-11T23:26:00.000-05:00

When I think of taking family pictures, I just cringe! I don't know why, it's just so difficult to do with children...let alone three of them! But I knew I had to have my awesome friend Jen take some and put my worries aside. And boy am I glad I did! She helped me pick out our outfits and accessories and my other friend Jessica did my hair (and plucked my eyebrows for the first time ever!). Jen NAILED it!!! I couldn't be happier with our photos! She is so layed back to work with and great with the kiddos! So, if you come over to my house and the walls are plastered with photos of my family it's because I'm SOOO excited about them and can't wait to show them off!!! If you live in VA and need a photographer, check out Jen! Just look how great these are!

We love Hershey Park!!!

2011-10-04T19:43:00.005-05:00

We had another awesome time at our annual trip to Hershey Park! Unfortunately this year, nobody could come with us. But, we still had a blast!! The kids love Hershey Park and so do we!!!

Brynlee turns FOUR!

2011-09-18T00:43:00.000-05:00

Our Brynlee girl is FOUR today!!! I can't hardly believe it's been four years since she joined our family. She is one spunky little girl and I just love her! Here are a few things that I think describe my Brynlee-girl.

*Super spunky and sassy.

*Also super sweet.

*Tall (she's usually the tallest in her classes)

*loves school

*loves to make up her own songs to sing

*great big sister to Lincoln

*loves her big brother

*thinks she's the boss

*makes friends easily

*loves to cuddle with mommy

*let's me do her hair in cute hairstyles

*very independent

*loves to dance

We had a fun birthday party for Bryn with lots of friends. She wanted a princess-bakugan-scientist party. We just had a party with fun games and she loved it!

Brynlee in the pretty dress Grandma Loveridge made for her!

We love you Brynlee!!! Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!

Go Nats!!

2011-09-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

Dan got free tickets from work to a Washington Nationals game, so he took Carson! They had a blast!

Ocho Meses!

2011-09-13T21:57:00.033-05:00

Little Man is eight months today...wowsers!!!! He is such a happy and sweet addition to our family! Here are some fun facts about Lincoln at eight months old:

*can get anywhere he wants with his efficient army crawl.

*starting to stand up on things

*loves just about all food!

*NO teeth yet!

*sleeps great at night!

*loves sweets

*snuggles

*smiles and flirts with anyone he sees!

*takes a bath in the big bath now that he can sit up well. He loves bath time now!
*has brown hair and hazel (?) eyes? What color is hazel anyways?

And a few pics of the other kids at 8 months!

Carson

Brynlee

Fly Spies

2011-09-08T00:43:00.001-05:00

We've had a lot of flies in our house this summer. Good thing I have these "fly spies" to find them for me! These funny kids came up with this all on their own!

Brynlee's first day of REAL preschool

2011-09-08T00:34:00.000-05:00

I was wishy-washy about preschool for Brynlee for the last year! I just couldn't decide what to do! I really wanted to put her in a preschool, but was just too cheap to do it...preschool is muy expensive!! Well, the day that Carson started 1st grade, I decided I would make a few phone calls to a couple local preschools to see if they had any openings. Once they told me they didn't, then I would know that I had to do a co-op with friends from church (that's what i pretty much assumed would happen and I was okay with that). But, I called around and amazingly 4R's preschool just got an opening from someone that had to pull their kid out. This preschool is really nice and has a waiting list to get in! It's in a little house converted to a school and the teachers couldn't be nicer!!! I decided it was a sign that they had an opening and signed her up for 3 days/week. She goes in the mornings three days a week and she loves it! She literally sings around the house "I love school!". I love to see her so excited about it. Yeah for preschool!!!

First Day of First Grade!

2011-09-06T22:39:00.008-05:00

Carson is in FIRST GRADE!!! He was sad to see the summer go and a little nervous to start first grade. He had heard that first grade was "much harder than kindergarten". He had a great first day and loved his teacher! Here's to a great year!!!

We had a little back to school celebration when the cousins were here.

FIRST grade!

getting on the bus

"Z"oo Animals

2011-08-26T22:39:00.002-05:00

I took the kids to see a reptile show with lots of cool "z"oo animals in it...like alligators, turtles, frogs, and snakes! The kids loved it...especially when the frog peed on the stage!

"Y"ogurt

2011-08-21T22:39:00.000-05:00

We took the kids to a new frozen "y"ogurt place in town. We enjoyed our "Y"ummy treat!!!

"W"ork and "X"-ray

2011-08-20T22:38:00.000-05:00

For the letter W the kids got to visit both daddy and mommy's work! We went to daddy's work first and saw the big fish tank with "nemo" in it and all of daddy's work friends. Then we took him to lunch. In the evening, Dan brought the kids to my work while I was there. We met all of mommy's work friends and even had the x-ray tech show the kids the cool "X"-ray machine and how it works. It's always fun to show off my cute kiddos to my coworkers!

"V"irginia Beach!

2011-08-18T22:38:00.000-05:00

Our kids LOVE the beach! At the end of the summer we went to Virginia Beach with Dan's brother, Eric, and his family. The kids loved having their cousins in the ajoining room next to ours and being able to play with them all day long! They played a bunch in the ocean as well as the pool. I hung out with Lincoln in our hotel room while he napped. It was a great little vacation!

We stopped in Williamsburg on the way down for a round of mini-golf.

Haunted House at VA beach...we did NOT go in!

Lincoln loved the sand!!

Cousins!!!! Spencer and Carson.

Dan deep in thought

Chubby, sandy baby hands!

Sand Goatee!!!

Brynlee loved making "sand" angels

We took a ferry to get to the VA Children's Museum in Norfolk.

Look at Bryn's face...what do you think she's mad about!?

The Children's Museum had so much to do!

GIANT bubbles!!!

"U"dvar Hazy Air and Space Museum

2011-08-15T22:41:00.000-05:00

While my cousin and her family were visiting we went to the "U"dvar Hazy Air and Space Museum. The airplanes and space shuttle are always fun to see up close and personal.

"T"ent!!!

2011-08-14T22:37:00.000-05:00

Dan took Carson and Brynlee out in the backyard to camp overnight in a "T"ent. The kids loved it!! They each had their own flashlight, books, and treats! I don't know if Dan got much sleep though since he was sleeping with two kids on a queen size air mattress...bless his heart.

"S"wimming at Massanutten

2011-08-13T22:37:00.000-05:00

We took advantage of our 2 free nights down in Massanutten resort during the summer. They have an indoor waterpark where we spent an entire day "s"wimming and playing. The kids absolutely LOVED the waterpark and I was pretty impressed with their bravery on some of the bigger slides. Carson even tried the waverider!

The other day we were down there we enjoyed some outside activites. Carson did a ropes coarse and zip line, Brynlee panned for gems, and Dan, Carson, and I went tubing down the mountain...that was pretty crazy!

7 Months!!!

2011-08-13T20:38:00.001-05:00

It's that time again!! Another month has flown by in little Lincoln's life! I can't believe how fast it is going! Here's what he's been working on lately:

-Still Mr. Popular! I tell ya, everybody loves this kid! It doesn't hurt that he is super friendly and quick to flash a big smile to whomever will give him any bit of attention.

-Eating all sorts of baby food. Linc eats just about anything we give him, but he definitely favors fruit! He also has tried the little puffs too, but isn't so sure about those yet.

-Still sleeps like a champ!

-Notices when we leave the room. And let's us know it!

-loves jumping!

-trying to sit up. Can't do it on his own yet, but getting better everyday.

-CRAWLING! Linc has recently discovered the art of the army crawl. He still uses his rolling and scooting backwards on his back tricks to roam around the room, but he's recently starting army crawling and getting up on his knees and doing a nose dive to push himself forward. I should really get to baby proofing the house a bit!

Here are his 7 month pictures...we love you Linky-doo!

And here are some comparison pics of the other kids!

Carson - 7 months

Brynlee - 7 months

and just in case you were wondering what Brynlee would look like with a mohawk...here you go!

my baby

2011-08-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned yet on my blog how much I love this kid? He is so sweet and smiley...and easy to photography! I can't seem to get enough of him!

"R"elatives!

2011-08-10T20:35:00.001-05:00

We had RELATIVES come visit!!! My cousin, Elise, and her family (Dean, Dallin 4, Lily 2, and Caleb 10 months) decided to come visit us for a few days! They live in NYC and decided to show their kids the "burbs". Our kids got along swimmingly!!! They had so much fun playing together and I loved having Elise and her husband around too! Thanks for coming Elise and Dean!! Thanks for watching the cheesy Bachelorette with me! And thanks for not being mad when our plans to go to the waterpark were ruined TWICE! We had the best time with you guys...come again soon! Or we'll come up there!

getting ready for bed...4 kids in ONE room!!

Sweet Caleb

Carson and Dallin reading together

Rocket Balloons!

SLIME!!!

Elise and Ken

Lincoln chillin' in his swing

When both of your attempts to go to a waterpark fail, you beg your neighbor to pull out her jumbo slide...at least that's what I do...thanks Lori!!

"Q"uarters

2011-08-07T21:53:00.001-05:00

For the letter "Q" we had a day full of earning quarters. We talked about different coins, then the kids had the opportunity to earn quarters by doing different things around the house. They had fun for a little while, then got a bit bored with doing the "chores". By the end of the day though, they had lots more quarters in their piggy banks!

8

2011-08-02T09:33:00.001-05:00

It's been EIGHT awesome years since this day:

And life couldn't be any better!!!

"P"ackages!

2011-07-28T00:57:00.000-05:00

We prepared some "P"ackages for our favorite missionaries for the letter P. We have a good friend who's son is on a mission in California (he's the brother of our awesome babysitter) and another friend who is on a mission in Singapore. We prepared some surprise packages for them! The kids and I went to Target to pick out all sorts of goodies. We asked their moms what they liked and got some treats and Mac & Cheese (I guess they don't have that in Singapore?) for them. We also threw in some cards and well wishes. The kids loved putting everything in the boxes and taping them up so they were ready to ship.

"O"atmeal Cookies baking in the "O"ven

2011-07-28T00:48:00.000-05:00

For the letter "O" we baked Oatmeal cookies! Our neighbors came over and the kids all took turns adding ingredients into the bowl and stirring. The kids loved helping and especially loved eating the cookies! Yum!

"N"eighborhood

2011-07-28T00:47:00.000-05:00

Next up on our Alphabet journey is the letter "N". We explored our "N"eighborhood for this letter. We drove around and saw all the different things around where we live. We talked about what kind of things are in neighborhoods...like houses, trees, playgrounds, pools, friends, etc! We have a lot of new houses going up in our neighborhood, so we also saw lots of bulldozers and construction workers.

Ready to go explore...in the car (that's what you do in 100 degree heat!)

Our neighborhood playground

The pool house

The back (phase II) of our neighborhood. Still room for more houses! This back area was completely empty when we moved in...now there are 20 + houses back there!

Anyone want to buy this house and live by us!!

One of our favorite places in the neighborhood is the pool...we go there all the time! Carson and Brynlee have taken swim lessons this summer and have been doing great! They are both super comfortable in the water and are doing great learning the freestyle stroke. Both of them love to dive for toys, jump off the side, and Bryn loves to do forward and backwards flips in the water too! Check out the videos!

Arrrgghhh!!!

2011-07-22T00:25:00.000-05:00

Ahoy Matey!!!

My diaper is full...

2011-07-22T00:21:00.000-05:00

....full of fashion!! I poo in blue! I had to try these funny "jean" diapers. They make me smile every time I put them on little Lincoln. Or maybe it's just Lincoln that's making me smile. Seriously, this kid is such a sweetheart...I love him!!!

"M"etro to the "M"useum

2011-07-22T00:04:00.002-05:00

Dan's parents were in town this week and we had a great time hanging out with them! For the letter "M" of our alphabet summer, we took the "M"etro and went downtown to a "M"useum. We went to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, full of bones, animals, dinosaurs, bugs, gems, and the Hope Diamond! Grandma and Grandpa and the kids had a great time!

Here are a couple more pictures from our visit with Grandma and Grandpa Loveridge

"L"ibrary

2011-07-20T21:26:00.000-05:00

We're doing our Library's Summer Reading Program, so we headed over to the Library to pick up our weekly coupons. The kids are excited to read lots of books and earn their prizes! We love our "L"ibrary!

"K"ites!

2011-07-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

We did a few fun things for the letter "K". We had tons of Kids over for playgroup, then later we played Kickball and flew Kites with the neighbors. The kids actually did a good job of running around in circles to keep their kites up in the air.

Playgroup KIDS!

Kickball

Brynlee flying a kite

Click on the pic to see Brynlee's sad face. It think she wanted to try the princess kite.

Carson flying the Batman kite!

half a year

2011-07-13T23:03:00.000-05:00

"Hey, what's this?"

"I don't know what it says...do you?"

"What?? It says I'm six months old already...wow!"

"I weigh 15lbs 8oz (25%) and I'm in the 90th percentile for length"

"I can roll all over the place now and I reach for everything. I can't sit up yet, but I think I'll work on crawling next"

"I love all my baby food and I can even hold my own bottle while I drink it all up"

"Life is good, so I'm pretty much always happy....oh, and I'm popular! Everybody likes me!"

"I love to put anything and everything in my mouth!"

"Life is good!"

"Here are some pictures of my two biggest fans when they were 6 months...do you think I look like them?"

Carson

Brynlee

*I don't usually put videos on my blog, but I just watched these and they are soo cute! I feel like I can barely remember my kiddos this small...time is going by too fast!!!

BABE Lincoln

2011-07-11T23:38:00.000-05:00

I just knew I had to make Lincoln a President Lincoln shirt...so here he is, my little BABE Lincoln!

Can you tell that Lincoln thinks the sun is too bright? Funny kid!

MOHAWK...not just the faux type!

2011-07-11T22:45:00.000-05:00

Carson wanted a REAL mohawk, so I cut his hair telling him that he only got to keep it for a couple weeks. I actually really like fauxhawks, but I'm not positive I love real MOhawks....Carson's cute no matter what!

"J"umpin "J"immies

2011-07-11T22:10:00.000-05:00

We're already to letter J in our alphabet summer! We went to Jumpin Jimmies bounce house to jump, jump, jump!! Of course the kids loved it!

"I"talian "I"ce

2011-07-08T21:07:00.004-05:00

After our hike, we headed over to one of my favorite places...Ritas! They have really good Italian Ice...perfect for the letter "I". The kids enjoyed their cold ice cream after a hot and humid hike.

"H"ike

2011-07-08T21:01:00.003-05:00

We went on a hike today for the letter H. We headed over to the Manassas battlefield to hike on one of the trails. We went over the Stone bridge and continued hiking on the dirt path. The kids saw lots of fun things on our hike...caterpillar, butterfly, flowers, nuts, fish, feather, etc. We had a great time!

"G"ames

2011-07-07T21:08:00.000-05:00

Our awesome neighbors came over for some friendly Games....gggooooooo letter "G"!!!

We played Four Corners (do you remember playing this when you went rollerskating?)

Blow the cotton ball

Animal Charades. Carson's pretending he's a three toed sloth...see his fingers!

Drop the skittle in the cup. Brynlee liked to actually have the skittle stick to her nose and wait for it to drop down into the cup...funny girl.

"F"ireworks!!!

2011-07-04T23:01:00.000-05:00

Of course the letter "F" for our Alphabet Summer was for FIREWORKS on the Forth of July!!! We headed to The Meadows for some tailgating with friends and watching the fireworks. We had the perfect spot this year, right by a big field for the kids to play and easy to get out with the show was over! The kids got to pet a few farm animals and there was a helicoptor show. We had a great time hanging out with friends and all three of the kids loved the fireworks show.

Earlier in the day, we went swimming with Uncle Ken and then had a BBQ with lots of friends. And of course we had to have a Flag cake!

"E"dible Art

2011-07-03T21:05:00.001-05:00

For the letter "E" we had fun making edible art! We made two different colors of pudding and let the kids use it like finger paints. It was edible and messy!!! The kids loved it...of course.

After we made our "artwork", we asked Brynlee what letter we learned and she said "E....I have an E" and she ran into the play room and came back with this:

Don't pay any attention to the cookie pieces in Bryn's teeth...we made barf (no-bake) cookies...yum!

"D"inosaur Land

2011-06-30T21:35:00.001-05:00

Today we went to Dinosaur Land for the letter "D". Dinosaur Land is about 45 mins away out towards the Shenandoahs. Everyone I talked to about it said that is was pretty cheesy, but the kids loved it. I would totally agree with that. It was so old and cheesy, but my kids definitely loved it. It's just a little park with big plaster dinosaurs and other animals. All three kids were really well behaved and we had a great time!

Lincoln's first solid foods

2011-06-30T20:51:00.000-05:00

We started Lincoln on solid foods almost a month ago. It didn't take him long to catch on and now he eats tons of different baby foods....yum!!!

These pictures were taken on June 3rd. This is the very first attempt at solid food.

"C"huck - E - "C"heese

2011-06-30T20:47:00.001-05:00

We headed over to Chuck-E-Cheese for letter "C" of our Alphabet Summer. We've been to Chuck-E-Cheese several times in the last few months and we've been saving up our tickets for "something big". The kids had a blast and we actually went home with something "bigger" this time...cotton candy, two packages of modeling clay, bugs, tattoos, and a rocket launcher. We love Chuck-E-Cheeses!

This last picture is from when we went for our end of preschool party. Brynlee's driving the Jeep with Truman.

"B"usch Gardens

2011-06-28T22:01:00.001-05:00

Next up for our alphabet summer was the letter "B". We headed down to Williamsburg, VA with our neighbors to go to "B"usch Gardens. We had to make up for the not so good time we had two weeks ago there. We definitely made up for it...the kids had a blast!!! We were able to swap with our friends too and each of us went on two big roller coasters. It was an awesome day and we can't wait to go back!

Carson on the airplanes

Brynlee, Dan, and Carson on Escape from Pompei

Madison and Lincoln

"A"lphabet Summer!!

2011-06-28T21:57:00.001-05:00

My friend, Erika, did an alphabet summer last year with her kids and I thought that it was such an awesome idea I'd try it this year! For our first letter, "A", we got together with our awesome neighbors and did worksheets about the letter "A" and ate Applesauce and Angel food cake. It was a simple way to start off the alphabet summer, but we have some big ideas coming up later! The kids are super excited already!

Pics from our phones

2011-06-28T21:52:00.000-05:00

We've taken a lot of random pictures on our phones. Here are a bunch of them.

Brynlee and her preschool friends

Bryn loves Lincoln...and he loves her too!

Funny Carson-man

Silly Girls!

What a pretty girl! I mean...who put that flower on Lincoln's head?

Crazy parents!

Carson at school on his birthday. Dan and I brought him McDonald's for lunch and cupcakes for his class.

Bryn at dance.

Dan and Linc.

Happy Boy!

This is how Brynlee came down after we had already tucked her into bed for the night.

Love this baby!

Ready for swim lessons.

Practicing swimming

Carson with his cool new swim shorts

Just chillin' at the pool

These kids are fish!

Dan at the annual Memorial Day pig roast...disgusting!

Carson earned his White Belt in Karate.

Karate chopping Master C

Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert...so good!

What do you do with a smiley baby?

2011-06-20T20:56:00.000-05:00

Have a little photo shoot, of course!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE this baby!?

love this kid

2011-06-20T16:31:00.001-05:00

I just love little Lincoln! He is such a sweet and happy baby (except for in the first picture)! I am really enjoying this baby!

The end.

Last Day of Kindergarten!

2011-06-20T15:44:00.001-05:00

I can't believe Carson has already finished Kindergarten!!! He was an awesome student and the teachers loved him...and he loved them back! He had a great year and I couldn't be more proud of him. Bring on the summer!!

Karate!!

2011-06-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

We signed Carson up for a 3 class trial of Karate. He's never wanted to do other sports, but always says he wants to do Karate. Here he is at his first class and he loved it! He learned lots of cool moves. When I told him in the morning that he would be going that night he asked me if he would get to break a board with his foot. I told him it might be a while before he gets to do that. He was soo excited! It was so fun seeing him dressed in his little Karate uniform...I was so proud!

5 months!!!

2011-06-13T21:25:00.001-05:00

Lincoln just won't stop growing!!! It's definitely better than the alternative (that's what my mom would always say about getting older). We love this little man more and more every day. He really is a sweet little baby! Here's what Linc is doing at 5 months.

-He can roll from front to back and back to front. He rolls all over now! He always sleeps on his tummy now too.

-He started eating rice cereal a couple weeks ago. We also just gave him some green beans baby food and smashed bananas. He is a great little eater so far!

-He is sleeping a bit better during the day now, taking longer naps. He still sleeps like a champ at night...sometimes up to 11 hours! He goes down for naps pretty easily.

-He does not like the car anymore! I don't understand why and I don't like it!!! Lincoln used to love the car and never make a peep. Now, he cries almost every time we go anywhere...blah!

-Lincoln has a very high pitched screeching cry.

-Luckily, Lincoln is usually pretty happy! He is very quick to share his adorable little smile.

-Lincoln gets lots of compliments. The most being about his hair, the dimple in his chin, or his cute ears.

-He loves his family. Brynlee really loves being his little mommy and takes good care of "her" baby. Carson loves his brother too and always holds him and kisses him.

Here are some pictures of Lincoln at 5 months!

And here are a few of the other kids at the same age.

Carson

Brynlee

It just wasn't meant to be

2011-06-10T21:44:00.001-05:00

Dan had the great idea to go to Busch Gardens today! We have been wanting to take the kids for a long time, but never had. We love amusement parks...and so do our kids! Unfortunately, today the cards were against us. Here's what happened today:

-The whole family (except Lincoln) got very little sleep last night. Dan's work on-call phone went off several times, so he had to address that and didn't get much continuous sleep. That wouldn't have been so bad, but Brynlee woke up multiple times saying her head and tummy hurt. She's been sleeping in Carson's room since my brother is in her room while visiting us...so, Carson woke up too. Brynlee seemed to have a fever too, so we gave her some medicine. The two kids were up several times throughout the night...blah!

-Brynlee woke up feeling a bit better, so we decided to go to Busch Gardens still. We knew we were pushing it, but we really wanted to go and we hoped that the excitement would distract Brynlee from not feeling so good.

-Brynlee puked several times on the way down to Busch Gardens. This should've made us turn around, but we decided to keep going since we were more than half way there and we had a REALLY excited 6 year old boy!

-the weather was SOOOOO hot and humid!!! Seriously...disgustingly hot! It was hard to not get onry in the heat. It was also hard to keep little Lincoln out of the sun and heat. It was miserable!!

-Brynlee wasn't 100%, but perked up for a couple hours and went on a few rides. She normally loves rides, but after a few hours, didn't want to go on anything. She also wasn't very hungry and only ate a few french fries and stawberries for lunch.

-A few hours after lunch, Brynlee puked several more times in the stroller. It was all over her! I did my best to clean her up, but didn't put her shirt back on her, so I just held her only wearing little shorts...poor girl. She looked and felt miserable and I felt bad that we were dragging her all over the park. We decided we better go home. Carson was sad, so we let him go on one more ride. Meanwhile, I held a pathetic, strawberry vomit smelling little girl, while a little pink-faced swetty baby got irritable.

-On our way through the park, we passed by one of the big rollercoasters that Dan really wanted to go on. The wait was only 5 minutes, so I told him to quick run and get on. He got on the coaster, buckled in, ready to go when the workers stopped the ride and made everyone get off b/c of severe storm alerts. He was sooo bummed!

-Then right when we got to the car, Dan went to put Lincoln in his carseat and noticed he was poopy. He went to change him in the trunk of the van and it started to pour. So, there we are changing a poopy baby and changing nasty vomity clothes on a little girl...all in the pouring rain!

So, it wasn't exactly the fun day that we had hoped for. BUT, that being said...the kids were actually pretty good! The park was super fun and we know that in different circumstances, we would've LOVED IT!!! So, we're already planning our next trip...and this time I'm hoping for a bit cooler weather and no puking kids!

Here are the few "happy" pictures we got today. Brynlee did have fun on a few rides and Carson LOVED the whole park! He was soo sad to have to leave early. We'll be back soon!

These next three pictures make me laugh. Brynlee is actually pretty adventurous and has gone on a real rollercoaster at Hershey Park last year. But, for whatever reason, she does not like these dropping rides. She wanted to try it again today, but apparently still didn't like it...look at her face!

Look who likes the trampoline!

2011-06-09T13:15:00.000-05:00

Pretty Sunday Dress

2011-06-09T13:12:00.000-05:00

I realized the other day that I have never bought Brynlee a "fancy" dress. I don't know why. I love dressing up my little lady, but it seems that all the dresses I buy for her or make her are just casual. So, I couldn't pass up this dress when I saw it on sale at Target. Too bad Brynlee wouldn't cooperate for pictures. Isn't she cute!

Carson's Mad Scientist Lab!

2011-06-04T22:33:00.000-05:00

We had Carson's birthday party today! He will be 6 on tuesday! We celebrated with a "Mad Scientist" theme. I got the idea from a friend I grew up with (thanks Debbie!). This was a really fun party...but a bit crazy!!! The kids loved the experiements, but I used all the help I could get from the adults! We decorated a bit with some balloons, CARSON's name, skull xrays, and weird conconctions with dry ice bubbling out.

Here's crazy Dr. Dan with some nasty concoction. He planned all the experiements and did a great job!!

dry ice. "brain" cupcakes. ID badges for all the kids and safety goggles.

The Birthday Boy!

The birthday boy's little sister.

The whole family...ready to do some experiments!

Lab specimens.

The kids building "molecules" with toothpicks and marshmallows.

Every real scientist needs a badge, safety goggles, and a crazy mustache!

We did three stations of hands-on experiments. Volcano. Crazy Pepper. Colorful Milk.

Then we made SLIME!!! This stuff is soo fun to play with!!! And easy to make!

Then we went outside to make some foam bubble out of some pop bottles.

And how about some exploding coke! Just add mentos. The kids LOVED this!!

All the kiddos watching the experiements.

Taking a whack at the pinata.

Blowing out the candles...all 6 of them!

Opening presents.

We had a great time celebrating Carson's birthday with lots of fun friends!

We love you Carson-man!!

We love visits from family!

2011-05-22T20:48:00.000-05:00

Grandma and Grandpa Simmons came for a quick visit and we packed in the fun!!! Here's all the fun stuff we did:

*Went to Medieval Times dinner and tournament! My parents loved it and my mom said "My Lord, My Lady" the rest of the week! The kids loved it too!

*Visited Bull Run Battlefield.

*Went to Rita's for Italian ice and custard...yum!!!

*My mom and I went to the Warrenton Street Festival and looked at all the fun crafts and ate a funnel cake!

*Went to Luray Caverns.

*My dad took tons of pictures of the kiddos! Thanks as always, Dad!

Come again soon grandma and grandpa...the kids are already asking for you!!!

kids...

2011-05-21T21:42:00.000-05:00

....they grow up so fast, don't they?

Neighborhood BBQ

2011-05-16T20:03:00.000-05:00

We hosted a neighbor BBQ tonight and it was so much fun!!! We wanted to get to know more of the neighbors around us, so we invited about 15 or so houses to come over for a hot dog BBQ. We had about half that many show up and we had a great time eating and socializing. The kids had a fun playing and the adults had a great time talking. We'll definitely have to do it again!!!

Dan's Work Picnic 2011

2011-05-14T22:05:00.000-05:00

Every year Dan's company has a family picnic. This year was just like last year and it was super fun! Before we got there, Brynlee kept telling us that she was excited to ride a "unicorn". Luckily she wasn't disappointed when she found out they were just regular ponies. The kids enjoyed riding ponies, playing in the bounce house, face painting (Dan and I did that one too!), food, snow cones, ice cream...and more!!! Dan climbed the rock wall and went down the zip line again this year too. Carson kept saying "Daddy's work picnic is AWESOME!"

The Circus

2011-05-14T21:48:00.000-05:00

We had a great time at the circus a few weeks ago! I must admit, I got a little teary eyed at the beginning during the opening parade. I have very fun memories of going to the circus with my mom...we loved it!!! It really brought me full circle to sit there with my hubby and three kids and enjoy the magic of the circus. The kiddos loved it too! It was so fun to see all the different acts and animals!!

4 Months!

2011-05-13T21:41:00.000-05:00

Our little Linc is already 4 months old!! Dan took him to his 4 month check up and he weighed 11 lbs 12 oz, which is just about average. He's no average kid though...atleast we don't think so! He is super sweet and loves to smile! He is also starting to laugh, which is simply adorable. He hasn't rolled over yet, but recentely we've been finding him in different directions in his crib after his naps...so he's doing something! He has been sleeping through the night since about 9 weeks old and just last night slept 11 hours...awesome. He is still a happy baby most of the time and is hugged, kissed, carried around all day by his adoring big brother and sister. I am still completely in love with this little boy and enjoying every minute with him!

And here are the other kids at 4 months. I can see both of them in Lincoln.

Carson

Brynlee

Carson-man

2011-05-09T13:37:00.000-05:00

My sweet little Carson-man is growing up. I can't believe he'll be six in less than a month! He loves to cuddle with his momma....and his momma doesn't mind either. He loves his baby brother and is really good at making him smile. He has a love/hate relationship with his sister. Sometimes I think it's just normal for them to not get along, other times it absolutely drives me crazy and I find myself saying out loud to them "why can't you two just get a long??". Carson has done great in school and gets rave reviews from his teacher. I have loved watching him grow and learn so many things this year. I have not enjoyed experiencing some of the new attitude he has now that he is a "big" kindergartner. His attitude has been quite difficult for me lately. Hopefully we can figure each other out soon.

Here are the best pictures from our little photo shoot yesterday. I love this kid!

Babies

2011-05-08T21:02:00.000-05:00

A couple of my good friends were over the other day with their babies. We were playing around taking pictures of them....look how cute they are!

And here are a few more pictures of Lincoln.

*I took some pictures of Carson today, so I'll post those soon!

Happy Mother's Day!

love this babe Lincoln

2011-05-03T19:19:00.001-05:00

I can never just pick one picture

2011-05-03T14:07:00.003-05:00

The weather was just perfect yesterday for a few pictures! Plus I just love this $5 dress I got for Bryn at Walmart....so cute!

Little Momma

2011-05-02T14:05:00.000-05:00

Brynlee is a great little momma. She is so good with Lincoln and loves helping take care of him. I wasn't really sure how she would react to a baby around the house, but I'm happy to say that she is doing great! She really just enjoys Lincoln and loves playing with him. It helps that he is a happy baby and responds to her attention with ear to ear smiles. Brynlee is a natural in the mommy-ing department, just take a look:

Brynlee really believes that she is old and "big" and can do what she wants. She is a very independent little lady on a mission! She recently gave me a good scare though. Earlier this week we were hanging out at home and I told her she could go downstairs and out the backdoor to jump on the trampoline. I went down stairs first and waited for her to follow me. After a few minutes went by and she hadn't come down, I went upstairs to see what she was up to. I couldn't find her anywhere. I searched the house, then went out the garage door. The big garage door was open and her bike was gone. I looked at the pipestem next to our house to see if she was riding her bike and she wasn't there. So, I went back inside and looked out the window to the backyard and she wasn't there either. I started to get a bit panicky. I started yelling her name and still couldn't find her anywhere. I really thought she had been kidnapped or something. I was starting to think I should call Dan or maybe even 911. Really, only a few minutes went by before I saw her walking up from the side of our house, with her bike. I grabbed her and told her she scared me to death and took her inside and I started crying. So did she. I held her for a long time, crying the whole time. I've lossed her for a few seconds before, but this time I really thought she was gone! So many sad thoughts went through my head about living my life without my little girl. I cant' even imagine. I might give her a lot of grief about what a spunky, sassy, little girl she is, but secretly I love her sass and confidence. I can't imagine life without her!

Earlier this week, I tried to do a little photo shoot with Brynlee. I'm having fun trying to get some cute pictures of the kids. I just need to get some pictures of Carson now...that's a little harder since he's at school all day!

Here are the best shots we got:

And here are a few funny outtakes!

deep thoughts, by Lincoln

2011-04-28T20:38:00.000-05:00

"Hey you, whatcha looking at?"

"Oh, you're checkin' out my rockin' fauxhawk."

"My mom does this to me b/c she thinks it's cute. What do you think?"

Grandpa takes great pictures!

2011-04-25T13:21:00.000-05:00

Of course when we were in NY my dad took lots of pictures of the kiddos. Here are my favorites!

Palmyra, NY

2011-04-25T13:10:00.001-05:00

We really wanted to take the kids to Palmyra while we were in NY. They are studying about Joseph Smith and church history in primary, so we thought we would take them to visit some sites while it was fresh in their heads.

We enjoyed seeing the Sacred Grove, which Carson kept calling it the "Secret" Grove.

This is what my dad looks like most of the time. He is always taking pictures!

Here are all the cousins that were there. Both my kids and my brother Mike's kids. From left to right they are: Lincoln, Brynlee, Brooke, Carson, McKee holding Gavin, Seth, and Tyler.

Inside Joseph Smith's log home.

After the church sites we went to Lollypop farm. This is a humane society with animals to adopt as well as some farm animals to pet.

On Saturday we spent the day with Mike and Crystal's family for some Easter festivities. The kids enjoyed some games and an egg hunt, but mostly just being with their cousins.