She has arrived!

Here are some pictures and the story will come later. Isabell (we haven't decided if there will be an E at the end or not) Sharon was born yesterday, December 23, 2010, at 4:33 pm. She was 20.5 inches long and 7 pounds 4 oz. So far she is a much more mellow and less demanding baby than Lincoln was (or still is) but she hasn't gotten the nursing down quite yet (Lincoln had it down pretty much from the start) but she is getting better. We have to stay through tomorrow (Christmas day) because I was GBS positive so they have to watch the baby for 48 hours. The doctor said if she is doing okay they will let us leave in the morning and not make us stay the full 48 hours. Hopefully our Christmas still goes well. Good thing Lincoln doesn't quite understand it all yet. We hope you all have a great Christmas and we are very grateful for our new family member and to be a family of four!

Coming along!

I have tried to post onto blogger from my phone but I guess it didn't work last week, so here it is again. This picture was from my phone (cameras got stolen - not very good pic) and I was 28 weeks here. I am currently at 30 weeks. Can't believe we only have 10 more to go. I would love to update this blog more but quite frankly, I have other things that I must get done first. Sorry for all the delays.

New T-shirt

So Lincoln would really like to show off this shirt I made for him.

April

April was actually one of our slower months although we still traveled a little. Easter was awesome and Lincoln loved finding the eggs. He loved it. We went to Utah a few times, one time was us sisters giving Maggie (& Nate) a baby shower. It was lots of fun and she got lots of cute stuff. I applied for a scholarship and got one for $2000 but later found out they will only pay for certain things. I thought a scholarship was mine. Although I am happy for what it will pay for, it is pretty ridiculous! Then at the end of the month we headed to Vegas for Reagan's baby blessing (pictures with May) and to see my family and the Donny & Marie show, which was great! Here are some cute pictures of Lincoln and hopefully a video (of him showing his dance skills) that will work. The first picture is of Lincoln when we read scriptures. He always gets his blanket and plays with his cars. He only sits there for about 1 minute but its a start.

Out of hibernation!

Now before all of you say FINALLY for posting, I want to explain. These last few months have been, well pretty hectic! I was planning on updating in December and January while I was out of school (still have posts from my England trip last August I am still working on) but I finished school, we left for our cruise Mexico to celebrate our 5 year anniversary, came back, had surgery on my wrist the next day, and pretty much couldn't type for a month after that and then school began again. I was way toooo busy to worry about my blog and decided I needed to concentrate on much more important things. Plus, we traveled a lot in March, April, May... so you see, just not home to do much posting. Quite frankly, I don't even know where to begin to tell you all the things we have done in the last few months, and I would just skip it all but since this is pretty much my journal I need to post it all. So I think I will start with newest to oldest.

May
We were able to go to Las Vegas (technically the end of April but stayed through May) and see Raegen blessed. It was so fun to see all of my family since I don't see them all together very often (although the last year has been more than most).

Here is the family and all the cousins (at the time). The boys were trying to give Reagan a kiss. It wasn't working the best.

Lincoln is finally deciding that he likes to swim but he gets in at his pace. He has always loved the bath and used to love the swimming pool until we took him a few months ago when he flipped out and would not stay in the pool. While we were in Vegas he just watched from the side and has decided he likes it now, but he gets in when he is ready.

Luke went to Washington DC for a last minute conference, and Linc and I were going to go as well but we decided the $900 ticket wasn't worth it this time. If he wants to post something on it I will let him do it. We hope to go again sometime and we all will have fun there.

Next we went to Yellowstone Bear World. It really is a neat place to see bears. You drive through with animals and then onto bears, where they are just walking around. While we were there one bear decided it wanted to walk on our car, so it did and put its paw right where my face was. It was neat but I was hoping our windshield didn't break (after all we have about a billion cracks in it).

They have a petting zoo and Lincoln loved the little goats even though they are a little rambucious.

They also have a few kid rides but we went on them with Linc so he wasn't scared. They were fun and we hope to go again if they lower their prices. haha

The cubs were the cutest. I could just watch them play all day!
What do ya think? We could totally pull off being bears!

Christmas

Rachel's family all came up to stay with us in our little townhouse for the holidays. It is a full house, but that makes it all the more fun. Linc got more toys than he really needs, but one that he grew attached to right away was his little basketball set. He's actually pretty darn good already. He could probably beat his daddy in a one on one match.

On Christmas eve I was playing with Nate and Maggie's camera. I noticed that it could take an extremely detailed photo of Nate's hobbit-like feet. I tried again with my camera with nearly equally hairy results. Yes, this his how I spent part of my Christmas break.

When I wasn't taking picture of feet, we were opening presents. Hunter and Linc were fought over the same toys a lot even though they were surrounded by hundreds of other toys. Ah kids.

Rachey got her wrist operated on to remove a cyst she had. For now she's got a little stump but hopefully it will heal soon. It's a nice excuse for her not to do the dishes or change diapers. She's milking it for all it's worth. JK rachey.

too busy

sorry for the lack of blogging... i am trying to catch up but not till after my finals this week.... sorry it has been a rough semester. there are a few short posts below, and videos, so enjoy those while you wait.............................and wait............................and wait!
oh ps- i am also way behind in reading all your blogs too! sorry!

Throwing balls

Is it time for bed? NO!

August/September/October/November

Well, I feel like all I do is try to keep up with the blog, so this is going to be short and sweet and too the point for these 3 months. We have done a lot some months and others not so much.
August
- I went to England (gets its own post... coming...)
- We went to Bear Lake and rented a boat with friends (thanks Lindsey & Jared) and Maggie came too! It was way fun and Linc loved it (although not the lifejacket). We were able to tube/wakeboard (for those who got up). It was fun had by all and wish we could have done it longer.
September
- 5k
- Provo
- Canned peaches
- Canada (also gets its own post... coming as well...)
- Said goodbye to dear friends... we miss you Hailey, Daniel & Aliyah
October
- Went to a few straw/corn mazes. Lincoln had so much fun just running amuck!
- Canned salsa with my friend Kadie
- Halloween (also gets it own post)
November
- Lots of studying for Rachel, traveling for Luke, and playing/growing for Lincoln
- Honestly that was the majority of the month, but we did have a fabulous friends over, Rachel saw New Moon, and bought curtains for the living room (YAY!) on Black Friday.
- We also enjoyed a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving with Luke's family in Pocatello (such great company and food)!
- And lastly, we were able to watch BYU beat the U! Hip hip hooray!
December will be a busy month too, but you will hear about that later..... until then....
(oh and pictures will be on this post eventually!)

New Member of the family

This is the newest member of our family and it was a SWEEET deal! It only cost $395 for the piano, $150 for delivery (which was well worth it cause it is HEAVY) and that includes a tuning. The best thing is if I ever want to upgrade the place will take exactly what I paid and put it towards a new piano. You can tell it is a little old, and it definitely doesn't play as well as it once did, but really, you can't ask for much for a 1916 piano. We are loving it!

My new favorite thing...

If I didn't share this with you all, it would be rude. These are so good, although just 3 or 4 are enough for awhile... but so yummmmy!

Talent

This girl has talent! It amazes me!

New tricks

This would be the Zoolander face. He started this tonight at dinner, but I guess I was doing it first because he was copying me... I didn't know this is what I looked like.

Lincoln loves to copy us and brush his hair....


Lincoln has become a snuggle bug with his blankets... doesn't matter which one, but as soon as he sees a blanket he grabs it throws it on the floor and cuddles with it. He will also cuddle with me on occasion (which I LOVE!!!).



Man we love this critter! (because I don't know how to blow up videos, here is a closer one, but it is not the best quality and not as cute as the first)

Zoo time

So, just found this post as a draft and since I already uploaded pictures I might as well publish it. Don't really know what I was going to say but enjoy the pics. We had lots of fun at zoos this summer (we went to Hogle Zoo and Idaho Falls a lot)! Lincoln always seemed to fall asleep during some of the trips, they were during nap time, but he still had fun! (There are also two new posts below as well.)

Dedicated to Texas

Yes, yes, among all our travels this summer we also went to Texas... that is where my mom's side of the family is and I haven't seen them in a few years. It was a lot of fun and Lincoln warmed up to them pretty well. This is what we did while in the Lonestar state.

We played in the water at the science museum and sat in a big mouth (we did more than that there too but that was one of Lincoln's favorite).



We went swimming a few times, and Lincoln loved his new floaty toy.


We went 4-wheeling (Linc LOVED!!!!) and saw my uncle's ranch with all the cows.



Hung out with good ol' Petey - Lincoln loves dogs! He really loved him from afar and always wanted to pet him but Petey would come up licking him and then Lincoln pushed him away, but still wanted to pet him. It was hilarious!



We celebrated this...



With this result...


Making him need this.... (a bath... this pic is just after)


We also got to open these...


which made him this... :)


But the best part was hanging out with all these fine folks (aunts/uncles/cousins galore)...

(can you believe this guy is 6'8".... big compared to Lincoln... oh and me)









Even my Grandma and Uncle Mike came all the way to see us from Houston! Thanks Grandma and Mike, we were so glad you could come and visit!





This explains my kids personality to the t...


This was a cool life size (Linc size that is) chess game in the Lubbock Airport! Linc had fun...


But when we got home we were all like this...


Thanks for the great time family! We love you... Go Tech!