A weekend at the lake

On May 3rd Brad and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe we've only been married 6 years... but, we have been together 13 years! Now, talk about CRAZY!!! We usually go all out... we spent our 1st in Mexico, I believe it was our 4th in Vegas, always the best restaurants, 10 course meals with wine pairings... the works! We spent number 6 at the lake. On Saturday night we left the little one with Grammy and Grandpa and headed to town for a romantic dinner. Hehe... did I mention they live in Corsicana, Tx? It's a small town... you know, kinda country. We went to eat at this place called Black Jack McCanless Steakhouse. It use to be some old saloon. It was actually kinda cute. It made me smile sitting there. The menu was like a newspaper. The steaks were really great. There was also live music... some guy playing old stuff like Johnny Cash!!!! Even though it wasn't all fancy I really enjoyed it! And, of course... my date!! Love ya lots!

Other than that....

Lincoln took his first dip in a pool. The water was actually a little cold. But, he didn't seem to mind until he sat down in it. He really loved splashing around in the water.


Lincoln also had his first boat ride. Daddy and Grandpa worked real hard cleaning the boat and getting it ready. Brad and I had bought a life jacket for Lincoln the night before. I figured we get the thing on and Lincoln would hate it and throw a fit... we'd never even make it in the boat. But, to my surprise... it didn't bother him! So, we all piled in the boat and went for a ride. Lincoln seemed to really enjoy it. He sat at the front of the boat and bounced up and down... watched the water splash and smiled. Then, he started to get tired aaaaaand, became not too happy. Grammy tried her hardest to distract him by dancing around, being silly... but, he wasn't having it! So, we turned around and went home. It was a short trip. But, I think overall he really liked it!


This is a picture of Lincoln getting into the paper recycling basket. He loves to get his hands on paper. And, of course... it then goes into his mouth!


And, last but not least... this is a flower that Lincoln picked to give to me for our anniversary!

Playing catch up!

This post was suppose to go before the last one... but, I could never get it finished. So, here it is now:

Okay, so it's been awhile. Seems as though I say that every time I post! Hm.... what does that tell you?! There's so many great pictures and things to talk about... but, I'm going to try and keep it short. Remember, if you want to check out all of our photos go to our dotphoto site!

We went to the Arboretum back on the last day in March with our friends Michelle, Jadon and Torin . It was a Tuesday and they had a petting zoo and a lady doing a music class.

Sorry, but this video will be sideways. I'm not sure how or if it can be rotated.



Then there was Easter which we spent at the Lake house. I packed Lincoln and I up and we drove by ourselves. Brad was real busy with work and met us up the next day. This is the Easter basket that I had as a kid. My mom filled it with goodies for Lincoln. There's an Easter bunny in there that she sewed herself... which we gave her a hard time about... um, because it didn't look like an Easter bunny!


This is the Easter basket that Brad and I gave to him. I filled it with seashells, paper mache eggs, a soft Peter Rabbit book, a small stuffed blue bunny and a book about ducks. The duck book was his favorite because you can push a button and it quacks! Next year, I'd like to make him a soft basket... one that he will use to gather eggs in. I have seen some really cute basket ideas!

My mom was really excited and went a little crazy. She made an Easter bunny house, Easter cookies and a Easter cake. Gotta love her!!!!


The next weekend we went back to Houston for Johnny and Shelia's wedding. Again, Brad wasn't with us on the drive down (that crazy work). I was suppose to pick up his dry cleaning before we left... which I did... um, but I forgot I was suppose to take his suit from that and take with us!!! Opps, Brad had nothing to wear! Luckily, he was able to borrow a new suit from his friend Mark. My mom had to put a temporary hem in the pants. And, he had to buy a shirt... but, now he was decent! We weren't sure if we to were going to make it to the wedding from my parents old house (they kept Lincoln). It rained like crazy and flooded. We managed to find a way out of the neighborhood and made it to the wedding. We had a good time... and I didn't worry too much about Lincoln!! This was the first time we've left him. And, he did pretty well until it was bed time and then he pretty much had a melt down. I felt so bad for him!!!


While in Houston we spent time at Pops and Nona's. We had breakfast there and Uncle Taylor, Debbie and Richard (Taylor's mom and step dad) joined us.

Lincoln got his feet wet in the lake that's behind their house.

We also stayed one night with Gramma and PopPop. They also braved the weather and went to the wedding!

On the way back to Dallas we stopped to visit Big Daddy (Brad's grandfather) and Granny (Brad's grandmother).


I feel like I left out so much... but, I said I was going to TRY and make it short. I said try, right??

Lincoln's First Steps!

Our baby took his first steps yesterday!!! We were down in his room playing. He was getting a little fussy... not completely sure why. I he's getting some more teeth in... so maybe that was what was making him cranky! Anyways, I stood him in front of me and let go. He took 3 steps towards me before he fell forward. It was so, so sweet. He got a big smile on his face! I told Brad, who was in the study working, that Lincoln took his first steps. He came in the room and I stood Lincoln up facing Brad and let go. I was hoping he'd do it again and that it wasn't just a fluke. Lincoln took 4 steps towards his daddy!!!! He's still very cautious about the whole thing. He hasn't taken steps on his own free will... it's been us standing him up and seeing what happens. He stands up and lets go of what he's holding on to all the time... just never has taken those tiny steps on his own. You could always tell that he was thinking about it though!!! So, we'll see what happens! Cute, cute, cute!!!!

I was going to wait and post this once I had it on video... but, who knows when that will happen! We will try to get it on video some time this week. I'll post it as soon as we get it!!

Later!

Save Our Organic Farms!!!

Please help me stop HR 875. In its current form, the bill would prevent small local organic farms and community gardeners from growing and selling you nutritious, truly fresh, organic produce. The bill would effectively ban small farming and outlaw organic gardening. It would crush our small local food producers by imposing heavy government regulation that only large corporations could adhere to. Imagine:

• No more farmers markets.
• No more garden fresh, seasonal ingredients from the local farmer at your favorite restaurant.
• No more roadside stands with fresh picked sweet corn, juicy ripe tomatoes, or refreshing
  watermelons in the summer.

Americans would essentially be forced to only eat corporately manufactured, chemically treated, hermetically sealed, irradiated fruits and vegetables. Stop this abomination now.

To prevent this bill, act now by signing the petition!

Future champion

I remember watching a TV program some years ago about how Andre Agassi’s dad started him out in tennis with a ping pong paddle. Ever since then I’ve had my own designs on what to do for my own son. Well here it is…

The Wilson K Factor KSix-One Tour Racquet for the 8 month old…

In case you are wondering, Roger Federer plays with this racquet and as Shannan would say I might be a bit obsessed with the great one.

The project took over 3 weekends since I travel most week days and was so much fun to focus really intensely on something creative. With this project I knew templates were the way to go so I first photocopied the ping-pong paddle and then drew in the designs to mimic the Wilson. Cut out each individual piece and placed them into position then traced ‘em onto the paddle. I actually scored the lines for the string pattern with a razor blade and even created a template of the ‘W’ to paint onto the strings. If you know me, you know that I plan everything out and test where I can to make sure things turn out perfect down to the last detail. I even used a real overgrip just like I use on my racquet when I play.

Here is the lil’ guy taking to tennis…and momma making him cry just before the unveiling.

He really just wanted to eat the tennis ball...

And of course the racquet has to go into his mouth…

No pressure at all on Lincoln to play tennis…If he wants to play soccer that will be fine too. Everything is all for fun! And apparently eating as well.

For more on the Agassi story follow this link.

We have a crawler....

I meant to post this back on March 19... I think that's the day it happened... but,well... stuff happens! Soooo....

It's official... Lincoln is now a crawler!

For awhile he could get up on his hands and knees, rock back and forth, lift his little hiney way up in the air. But, he never moved his arms. He'd just bring his legs up underneath him and then flop down! Then there was one day or so where he'd move his hands twice and then flop. But, on Thursday (3/19) we had a play date with two friends from our birthing class. I think Lila must have inspired him... because, when we got home he started crawling!!! Here are two pictures that Emily (hosted the play date) took that day.

Here's Lincoln with Lila. She's the crawler that inspired my baby!! She was such a doll!!!!

This is Lila and Lillian. Lillian and Lincoln had the same due date... but, of course did not end up being born on the same day. I guess they decided that they didn't want to share a birthday!!!

I think Lincoln had fun. He kept smiling at Lila when we first got there... even though she kept stealing his toys!!! Which, I have to say, was pretty cute! But, we left early... Lincoln was ready for a nap and he was letting us all know it. It was so good to see the girls. And, it's fun to see what Lincoln does around other babies!!!

So, not only is he now crawling, but he also learned how to sit up from the crawling position. He's also starting to pull himself up at the couch. He gets so happy with himself... I love it!!! Here's an early video of him crawling and sitting up.



Not too efficient yet with his crawling. But, seriously, I think he'd rather stand up and start walking. He's pulling up on things constantly and then letting go!!!! He stands there, no hands, a good little bit. Can't really tell you how long because I've never actually timed it... but, you know... probably less than a minute... although it seems like forever!!!

Oh, it's crazy how fast things happen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What we've been up to...

It's been awhile since my last post. So, here's what we've been up to....

Lincoln and I went to our first official play date. My friend Michelle hosted a LLL playgroup at her house. I took my camera... but, never managed to take any pictures. So, no pictures. But, it was nice to get out and meet some other moms! It was also a reminder of what it's like to be around kids... it got a little loud! I kinda had forgotten about that... not being at work and all!!

Michelle's oldest son also had a birthday party. He turned 3 and we were there to celebrate. It was Lincoln's first birthday party to attend. Here's Lincoln decorating the wrapping paper for Jadon's gift. This is his first experience with coloring. At first he just wanted to eat the paper... then he wanted to eat the crayon. Okay, so he's not quite ready for coloring!!
Here's the birthday boy.
Lincoln with his party hat... and borrowed toy!

And, taking a nap with dad.
After the party we eat at the Macaroni Grill... where Lincoln tried his hand at coloring again! We got more color on the paper... but, still trying to eat the crayon!! I tore it out of the tablecloth and put it up on the fridge at home... LOVE IT!!And, these are just miscellaneous pictures.

Lincoln with his first soccer ball!!

Playing in a box.

Helping sort beans.
And, one of his favorite things to do right now... watch the laundry go round!!
That's all for now folks!