Wednesday

Some things I love

When Molly and Gabe watch tv they like to line up all their little people. Sometimes their people take up the WHOLE sectional, but today after my shower I found this little family.

Dress up

Molly in her "Rapunzel" hair

We haven't played with our dress up clothes in a while. Yesterday Molly and Gabe had a lot of friends over, 10. (5 in the morning and 5 at night) Their 2nd set of friends loved the dress up clothes. So that's what they've been doing today. Having 8 kids the majority of the day made me realize a few things. 1. the more kids you have the less they need you to entertain them and 2. if you have sandwiches for lunch you go through a lot of bread...like a whole loaf.

happy 4th of July

Lincoln turned 4 months old. Try to tell me this isn't the cutest picture :)
(Well maybe not if you're a sox fan... sorry family)
We spent our 4th of July driving back to Louisville. We left Kelly's house around 11am (central time) and got home at 5:24pm (eastern time). The kids did great. Molly and Gabe napped for about 2 hours in the car. Like usual Lincoln was happy as long as the car was moving. We had been invited to a BBQ that we were planning on going to, but in the end I was too tired along with everyone else. Drew and I tried to put the kids down for bed at their usual summer bed time 8:30ish, but they weren't having it. After a few days of consistently going to bed around 10 (central time) they were still ready to party. At 9:30 I told them to come outside with me. We sat in the driveway and watched a fireworks show courtesy of our neighbors. I'm pretty sure the fireworks we saw between our 3 neighbors could have rivaled the fireworks of the small town I grew up in. :) It was great. Gabe just sat and watched with a smile on his face. Molly clapped after each one. She kept saying "this is great" "thank you so much mom" "no that one was my favorite". It was smoky and fantastic. After about a 1/2 hour we all went inside and went to bed. One other highlight of our trip was coming home to a clean house. I'm not very organized. Usually before we go on a trip I do all the laundry, but it doesn't make it into the closets and drawers before we leave. (We come home to couches full of clothes). This trip we had the car packed the night before. That meant while Drew was at work I could get all of the loose ends tied up. When we came home we unpacked the van. I started putting everything away while Drew vacuumed out the van. SO NICE. lots of pictures *hopefully* coming soon.

Lincoln has been very interested in food the past couple of weeks so yesterday 7/6 we tried some oatmeal for the first time. It was a big hit. I now have an oatmeal eater.

I made Lincoln a mobile a couple weeks ago. I wanted something simple. I think it turned out cute.

better late than never?

my grandpa

This picture is from 12/09, but I think it was the most recent one that I have... Molly and Gabe were so little.

My grandpa passed away June 26th. Drew and I were planning on meeting some great friends in Chicago over 4th of July weekend. We left a day earlier than we had originally planned so that we could attend my grandpa's wake and funeral. My grandpa lived a great life. He turned 90 this past January.

My grandpa had 8 kids, 28 grand kids, and 24 great grand kids. I remember that for special persons day at school they would always give a prize to the grandparent with the most grand kids. My grandparents always won. I have fond memories of running and playing all over my grandpa's huge house. My favorite places to hide were in the closet of the basement bedroom or on the upstairs porch. When we were playing outside us kids loved playing under the back porch and under the huge pine tree in the front yard. I remember my grandpa always being funny and telling jokes. Later in his life he never felt well. He'd often at the last moment decide not to go to family parties and get togethers, but whenever I was in town we'd usually have dinner at my parents and invite my grandpa and Julie over. He'd always come and that meant a lot to me. My grandpa was a proof reader. He fought in WWII. He grew orchids. He was a patriarch. He'd also wear some of the most ridiculous ties. Even though I couldn't stop crying Saturday morning I have faith that my grandpa is in a better place and that I will be able to see him again.

Chicago Trip part 3

We're planning our next trip to Chicago so maybe I should finish blogging about the first one...

Friday morning we went to play at Fort Frankfort not too far from Aunt Kelly's house (who we stayed with. Thanks again for having us Kelly!). Fort Frankfort is a park that looks like a giant fort in the town of Frankfort, hence the name. It was a pretty neat park, but it must have been senior ditch day because there were a bunch of teenagers hanging out on the big play equipment. BOO. We played on the "baby" side for a while then we moved to the swing area. Molly could swing for days, Gabe not so much. After watching the teenagers for a while Gabe decided he was going on the big slides. He climbed right up by them and went down the slide. Molly watched waiting to see what the outcome would be. After Gabe made it safely down the slide a couple times Molly followed. A couple minutes later a couple other kids decided to join in. It didn't take too long before the "big" kids left. I guess it wasn't much fun when the little kids took over.

We met up with Granny for lunch. She has a great teppanyaki grill next to her office. yum.

We hit up the Carter's outlet store in Orland Park.

Then we headed over to Aunt Shelley's house for some crafting fun. Shelley has a new Cricut. I'm going to have to start saving my pennies. I want one... I made a sign that I totally ripped off from House of Smiths.

I didn't take any pictures Friday, but I do have some from when Shelley came and visited us when Lincoln was born.

I think Molly and Gabe wore Carson and Bo out. Molly and Gabe LOVED the attention. Here they are painting with sidewalk chalk. (Molly and Gabe like to color with sidewalk chalk and then paint over it with water. messy=fun)

Bo and Carson with Lincoln. It's only been 3 months, Lincoln has changed so much.

Saturday morning we stopped at the Petrone's house. We introduced them to Lincoln and chatted it up for a bit.

Then we headed over to Aunt Mary's house. Michelle graduated with her BSN. It was fun getting to hang out with Drew's side of the family and catch up with everyone. Congratulations Michelle!

Sunday we went to church and then headed over to Stephanie's house for Cooper's Birthday party. Great food and company, but horrible weather. I felt like a terrible mother. It was the middle of May so I was planning on decent weather. WRONG. The first part of our trip was in the high 80's or even 90's and then all the sudden it was 50 degree's and raining. The party was outside (I think Stef had planned for better weather too) and I had all of my kids in their summer clothes....

Then we headed over to my parents house for dinner.

too soon

I've been going through Lincoln's clothes, packing away all the newborn things and washing the 3-6 month stuff. I can't help but think that my baby is growing up too fast.

Today he rolled over, tummy to back, 3 times before noon. I'm not sure if Lincoln knows what he's doing or not. I guess I'll be finding out over the next few days. I think he's too little. It's exciting and a little sad watching him grow.

T-Ball

Guess who's playing T-Ball... That's right our very own MC. This was on the way to her first practice. Practice is 7-8:00 at night and it was still in the mid 90's. It was a little too sunny for her to look at me...

Molly's first game. There she is waving at the camera.

batter up

Gabe hanging out with the team

Yesterday all of us went to Molly's practice. (A cold front has blown through and we're in the mid 80's. beautiful.) Gabe fell asleep in the car so I was carrying him across the gravel parking lot. When I stepped in a hole and fell. My pride was hurt along with my ankle. I've never been hurt before. Having a sprained ankle isn't the worst thing that could have happened, but it's making daily tasks a lot harder and very frustrating. I feel like an idiot. But it was fun getting to watch the team practice. There are a bunch of really cute kids on the team if only I could get Molly to interact with them... :)

Mr Lincoln is...

3 months!
a few facts about Lincoln.

*13 lbs 2oz
*23 3/4 in
* he's always searching for something. I'm not sure what, but I always feel like he's always looking for something.
*likes to be held away from you so he can look at your face
*he'll try to mimic what you do with your mouth
*he likes playing with toys especially the floor mat
(our swing/bouncy chair has a tray with a plastic giraffe and zebra that clip onto it. Lincoln will coo and smile at the zebra for a little while. Then his little eyebrows will get furrowed and he'll start making angry noises. That is followed by screaming and eventual crying. It's kind of funny in a sad way. They always start off friends and then I'm not sure what that zebra does, but Lincoln doesn't like it. He has no interest whatsoever in the giraffe, but if the zebra is clipped on Lincoln's little eye's are glued to it. happy or sad. )
*scoots all over his crib
*can lift the front half of his body while on his tummy
*not a big pacifier fan
*goes to bed between 8&9. I nurse him before I go to bed between 10&11. He wakes up between 6&6:45. I'll nurse him and then he wakes up for the day between 8&9.
(he sleeps a lot better than Molly and Gabe ever did and I think it's because he's in his own room. I'm not waking up every time he moves thinking he's hungry.)
*he's finding his sweet little voice
*he's getting smiley, but like Molly he makes you work for it
*super content
*loves Gabe and surprisingly Molly :)
(Molly never leaves Lincoln alone)
*LOVES the car
(we took a road trip to Chicago last month. Lincoln was awake almost the whole time (51/2 hours) and never cried. Amazing. If the car is moving he's happy.)

Lincoln is a keeper we're happy he's in our family.