Lincoln Turned 4!

I know I say it every year... but it really is hard to believe that my youngest is 4!! Lincoln is such a joy to have in our family. He is such a loving child, he insists on giving kisses frequently and out of the blue will say "Mom, I love you" so often. He can be intense sometimes with his enthusiasm and loves to also wrestle or play with Reuben. He uses the word "ginormous" and other words that I would not expect from a little 4 year old. He is loving preschool and has made some great friends there.

I was debating weather or not to do a party for him this year, since he is still young. In the end I decided to throw a small one with the kids in his primary class at church and a friend from preschool. He chose to have a super hero theme. (special thanks to my friend Rochelle who took all these pictures for me)

I made capes for him and all of his friends. The boys capes were reversible, green on one side with the superman logo but the first letter of their name instead of an "S" and then blue on the other side with Captain America's shield. The girl capes were reversible too, with purple on one side with a crown on it, and pink for the other side with the first letter in their name.

I forgot how the attention span of kids that age is about a zero on a scale of 1-10. We had super hero coloring sheets for them to color that I found online. They played a game where one person hid a super hero monkey while everyone else stood out of sight in the hallway. When they were ready then everyone returned to the room and looked for the monkey. We played a couple of rounds of that.

Then we had cake and ice cream. Lincoln then opened his presents and everyone played. Really a low key party.

Ryan and I had a blast working on Link's cake together the night before the party. Ryan sculpted Captain America and I did the other parts. I think watching those cake shows has paid off a little bit :)

Lincoln told me afterward that his party was the best ever, so I guess it was a success!

Going to the Zoo

I had a Friday free from babysitting recently. Lincoln and I thought that it would be fun to go to the zoo with our friends. We packed a lunch and headed to the zoo's rain forest. Lincoln and Jayne are so adorable together!

Underwear Rocks!

I can officially say that everyone in our house is potty trained! After 11 years with no breaks in between of having at least one kid in diapers sometimes two.

Lincoln is potty trained!!

To celebrate this momentous occasion Ryan bought me a new (smaller) purse!

Evie and Lincoln

Just thought I'd share a cute picture of two of the kiddos.

Spring Break

I'm a little behind on my blogging. Life has been super busy. Spring break this year seemed to slip away this year. I had one day off from babysitting, so as a family we went to the Children's Museum. The kids were stoked! We went and they had a fun time until we went in the massive sand room. (note, never go in the sand room :) Lincoln ended up with a face full of sand. We spent the next half hour flushing his eye with this little eye cup they had there (I guess it has happened before). It broke my heart to hear my little boy cry and scream in pain. Finally we decided to take him to the doctor to make sure all the sand was out of his eyes. Lincoln refused to open his eyes from the point he got sand in his eyes until we were sitting in the patient room at the doctors. Luckily Lincoln had not scratched his eyes and the sand was out as far as the doctor could tell. The doctor gave us some drops to put in his eyes to keep them moist in case there was some more sand hiding out in there.

Despite the crazy Children's Museum visit, we all seemed to have a good Spring Break. The kids had fun doing crafts at home and playing with their friends.

Nacho Libre

Nacho Libre has become a new member of our family. Reuben reminded him of his outfit a week ago and it has been like pulling teeth to take it off, even for bedtime. I have put it in the laundry just to have it pulled out and and Nacho insisting on wearing it. Yes, he does respond to "Nacho" and actually refers to himself that way. Luckily I babysit full time from home so we don't have to worry about changing to leave the house. He had fun posing for these photos :)

Big Boy Bed

I was out running errands the other night at the kid's bed time and Ryan was home with the kids putting them to bed. While I was gone Ryan gave Lincoln the choice of sleeping in his crib or in his big boy bed. He picked his big boy bed and hasn't turned back. Knock on wood he has done really well with it. To be honest it breaks my heart a little to have my baby all grown up and out of his crib. We went to the store and he picked out "Woody and Buzz Lightyear" sheets for his bed which he is in love with.

Lincoln is 3

Lincoln turned three this week at our house! It is crazy that my baby is 3 and not really a baby anymore. I love this little guy! He has a huge grin most of the time and loves to dish out his kisses to everyone in the family. He is all boy and loves to play catch or anything else his big brother is doing.

Lincoln is obsessed with tractors so a tractor cake seemed in order. He has been into tractors for awhile now and never really wavered to anything else. Maybe he'll be our farmer.

It was so hard to get a picture of him next to his cake this year because Lincoln was singing "Happy Birthday" right along with everyone.

We're Here

I haven't known what to post about... It is snowy and we've tried to stay home as much as possible. But here are a couple of photos to let you know we are still here :)

Lincoln found a great hiding spot when I took the contents that were in the cabinet out.

Reuben had to make a mask for a book report at school. He read star wars the clone wars, so here he is as Anakin.

The Reason For The Season

The other morning Lincoln and Eve decided to play "baby Jesus". Eve is Mary and I am guessing Lincoln is Joseph. They set up their own little manger scene.

My Boys

The last two weeks Ryan has worked A LOT which is really an understatement. One night last week I was getting ready to hop in bed after midnight, Ryan was back at the hospital because he had been paged, when I heard Reuben crying. I went in to see what was the matter, his legs were hurting him so bad. He said he couldn't even straighten them. Reuben couldn't come down his top bunk because he was in so much pain. So I carried him into my bed and told him that he was growing and that even though it hurt a lot it would go away. So I rubbed his legs till he fell asleep. In the morning Reuben hopped out of bed excited and announced that he definitely felt taller! He even wanted me to measure him because he was convinced he had grown. I had to smile! That night we went over to our good friends' house for dinner and Jackie asked Reuben if he had grown taller. He was so excited she had noticed and of course said YES!

The night that Reuben had the leg pain I had had a girl scout leaders meeting which I brought the kids to, because Ryan was still at work. The meeting lasted longer than normal and Ryan ended up coming home and getting the kids. Then he put them in bed while I was still at the meeting. The next morning I was excited with Reuben that he had grown taller :) and then Lincoln woke up... When I went to get him out of his crib I saw that he had gone to bed with gum in his mouth the night before! I just had to keep smiling because my poor husband has been SO tired and didn't even notice that Lincoln had had the gum in his mouth. Luckily the gum was all over his hands, chin, neck and shirt. But not in his hair or sheets! What a blessing! I just couldn't stop smiling about what an eventful morning it had been and it wasn't even 8 am yet!

(This picture is from a different day but you still can see Lincoln's mischievous side)

My Boys

I love my boys (and girls, of course)! When I came back in the house after taking Kaitlyn to the bus stop I found these two cute boys laying on the couch watching a show. Reuben had gotten Lincoln out of his crib for him.

Lincoln

I can say Lincoln is officially obsessed with tractors and trucks. Thank goodness for youtube, you make it possible to make dinner without a little boy being upset.

Happy Birthday Lincoln

We LOVE YOU!

What's for dinner?

Last night I made hamburgers for dinner... I had a normal cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard,etc. Reuben had meat mustard and pickles on a bun. Kaitlyn had cheese,ketchup and mustard on her bun. Eve had butter on a bun and that's it. Lincoln stared at his hamburger and eventually I got him a thing of yogurt. 

It is such a challenge for me to find meals that everyone in my family likes. Do you have any suggestions?

Here are some cute pictures of Lincoln after his bath the other night. The chair Lincoln is sitting in was mine when I was little. I used to play with my American Girl doll in it and now Kaitlyn plays with her American Girl in the same chair.

Here are some random pictures from this weekend...

Lincoln is in the train stage. He LOVES trains. Everyday we cross over train tracks to get to Eve's preschool and he always says "Choo Choo" weather there is a train on them or not. This last Saturday it was free to get into a model train museum by us so of course we had to go. We went last year and everything seemed to be the same except there were some buttons you could press to operate different miniature carnival rides. They kept us all occupied for awhile.

Summer Haircuts

Reuben LOVES to be bald.   He begs us to shave his head.  Being the mean mother that I am we let him do it once a year.  (Since winter lasts at least six month's of the year here and has negative degree weather more than not, having some hair sounds like a good idea)  So after dinner I shaved his head and gave Linc a trim too!

BEFORE

AFTER

Mr.Mischievous




Some of Lincoln's favorite things are:

Playing with the silverware and dishes in the dishwasher and throwing them on the floor

Playing with the plunger

Playing with the hinges on the toilet seat

Taking out the vent cover and putting things down the vent

Taking the phone off the hook

Standing on the two step stool in the bathroom (but not knowing how to get down)

Pressing buttons on Mom's ipod while it is sitting it's speaker dock

Who needs toys????