happy happy birthday

Last Tuesday (13) was my birthday. I got completely spoiled and I'm a little embarrassed to blog about it.... We kicked off the night with pizza. Drew made me a clone version of DQ's ice cream cake. (I think it's the first time Drew's made me a cake. ever.) Yummy. My parents gave me a laminating machine. No more sticking two pieces of contact paper together for me. :) Suzie got me a cricut. So excited. (Any friends who have a cricut, what accessories do you have that you love?) I just bought some vinyl yesterday. I've been hinting, well telling, Drew for a while that I would love a tripod and wireless remote for my camera. I've also been talking about how I want photo shop. Drew delivered. He also got me a photo shop for dummies book, an external flash and a new camera bag to hold all my gadgets. Maybe next year our Christmas cards will feature our whole family. :) Completely spoiled. And the pictures are still on my camera...

hApPy 28!

Christmas picture photo shoot

Trying to get 3 kids to look at me and smile is like pulling teeth... Oh well we finally did get one. You'll have to check your mail box for that one ;)

Some Side Notes:
*Can you tell we have pink eye? Yuck. poor Gabe and Lincoln.
*We have no shoes on. Molly said "are you trying to freeze me to death?" The answer "YES" 60 isn't that cold...
*Lincoln turned 9 months yesterday and got his first tooth. Yay Lincoln!

Happy Thanksgiving!

a week later...

We had a great Thanksgiving. It's the first time we've been back to Chicago for Thanksgiving since we've been married. Drew went and played some tackle football in the morning with all of his old cross country buddies. I was a little worried he was going to come back injured. Luckily Drew and Ben didn't get hurt. Unfortunately, one of our high school friends didn't fare so well. He broke his check bone in 3 places. OUCH... Hopefully he has a speedy recovery. After that we went to Drew's Aunt Julie's house. It was really nice. I love Drew's family. For the first time in a long time I missed not living by family. No pictures, but a lot of good company. After spending most of the day there we went and spent a little time at my parents house. Then we went back to Drew's moms house to put some over tired kids to bed.
Lincoln my great sleeper, self soother who has always been horrified by pacifiers wouldn't sleep. aahhhhh! I'm not a girl who functions well without sleep. Poor little man couldn't breath. We took him to urgent care and then we were admitted to the hospital. Wednesday and Thursday were nice. Friday and Saturday were spent in the hospital. But through it all after the breathing treatments he was all smiles. I really can't get enough of Lincoln. We came back to Louisville Sunday morning. Lincoln is breathing fine and we are now the proud owners of a nebulizer. Hopefully we won't need it again.

Chicago's Museum of Scrience and Industry

Wednesday we went to my favorite museum with my parents. So fun. Ready for picture overload?

Gabe and Drew along with Molly and Grandpa successfully finished their submarine simulation missions.

The model train goes from Chicago to Seattle. I think Gabe and Grandpa would have stayed in this room forever.

There was a tornado simulation. Of course when we had the opportunity we had to go inside and walk through the tornado. Or you could call it a Conado like Molly. It was awesome.

There were huge petri looking dishes hanging from the ceiling filled with water. They would make different shadows on the ground from different noise vibrations. Lincoln liked crawling around after those. And because there was a tornado not too far away I wasn't worried about him getting ran over. (fyi I do carry around hand sanitizer and I did rub it all over Lincoln when he went back into the stroller. Although this activity may have contributed to him getting sick...)

look at me I'm a hamster!

Some of our favorite exhibits aren't pictured.
Gabe LOVED the coal mine. You go down a scary dark elevator into a dark room where you take a train deep into the mine. It's dark and loud; they give you demonstration of how mine equipment has worked over the years. It's a great tour and I was thrilled that Lincoln didn't make a peep.

Molly said her favorite was the babies. Disturbing and really interesting. There are babies that have been preserved at all stages of fetal development. You can see a few weeks after conception all the way to 34 weeks. Looking at this perfect looking little boy who was still born breaks my heart every time. Drew was disappointed to learn that babies really can't hear us in the womb. Molly said it was her favorite because she got to see what she looked like when she was in my tummy. She also liked the hatching chicks and the fairy castle house.

My favorite part was that we get into all the Chicago museums for free with our Louisville Science Center Museum pass. Score.

trimming the tree

One of our family traditions is setting up our Christmas tree on Thanksgiving or the day after (depending on what our Thanksgiving agenda is). This year we've decided to hit the road for Thanksgiving. So we set it up Sunday. Molly was a little confused why there weren't any presents under it when she woke up. :)

Lincoln. Thrilled that there are now fake pine needles everywhere to try and eat. Note the vacuum cord. :)

beautiful.

Lincoln

I noticed that I haven't posted any recent pictures of Lincoln.The weather has been beautiful her. Lincoln loves waiting for the bus with Molly and Gabe.

love that little tongue

Little man is getting into everything. He LOVES trying to eat leaves and anything else he can find on the ground. :( He also loves playing with the surround sound. He's crawling all over the place. He likes hiding under the bunk bed. Lincoln really is the best baby. He's still super content. He loves talking. Food is probably his favorite, he wants to try everything. He makes me want lots more babies.

Perfect

I'm so proud. Molly was perfect in the primary program. Shy Molly who doesn't talk to anyone at church gave the loudest musical performance. Right after church she ripped off her cardigan and shoes and ran to sing on the swing set. That's my girl. ;)

Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Ben made the trip down to see Molly. I only got a couple pictures. Most are of grandpa spinning the kids. It was a nice little visit. Saturday we went to a children's concert that was sponsored by JCPS. There were actually 2 concerts. I took the kids Friday night and then we went again with G, G,&B Saturday. So fun. JCPS even gave every family that came 3 free CD's. I'm pretty sure we have all the songs memorized. David Kisor may be replacing Taylor Swift or at least he has for the past couple days.