Christmas Celebration

We hosted Christmas this year and it was awesome!!  Mom, Bobby, Mary, Nani, and Mike and Adrianna all hung out for Christmas.  Since I was large and in charge (meaning fat and pregnant) everyone was a huge help and made it possible for us to do it at our house.  We all opened one present Christmas eve after gorging on Tamales, Queso, Bacon wrapped dates, and 7 layer dip!

All Lincoln wanted from Santa was "Tookies" and because he is such a cute little guy, Santa came through and brought Lincoln tookies Christmas morning.  So Lincoln decided to eat like 10 before breakfast... Christmas is special!!

Really, if that was all of the presents and whatnot, he would have been happy there, but of course he got lots more.

Here I am rolling out Cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.  Wow, I look lovely.

Lincoln got to help be Santa and hand out gifts for everyone.

Here is Mimi and Mary showing off their Christmas plates that Lincoln made them.

Lincoln even helped cook Christmas dinner, a beef rib roast, mashed potatoes and green beans.

Here we are mashing taters...

  

Lincoln got new boots and likes stomping around in them!

 This is "Lincoln ball".  You hit a ball in a downward motion with a blue plastic bowling pin.  Wearing cowboy boots...

 I got surprised this year!! I got a Nook from  my sweet baboo!

Pop was happy to get a new mouse pad from his favorite little guy - and the LOTR trilogy special edition!

Everyone got lots of nice things, and best of all we were all together for Christmas.

Mike and Adriana came over on Christmas day and surprised us all with an awesome Tee-Pee for Lincoln...

He loves it!! And also for Christmas I'm getting a new Sister-in-law because Mike and Adrie are getting married!

Now if I could just get this baby to come out we would be in business.

25 Days of Christmas

This year I did a planned 25 days of Christmas for Lincoln.  I LOVE Christmas, and I wanted to make sure to start some traditions with him that were fun, but especially ones that taught him, and reminded Jay and I about the real meaning of Christmas.  JESUS!

So I bought an advent calendar and put a Hershey's kiss in every day along with a strip of paper that had a scripture reading for that day.  Our church provided those selections and I have to say it has been an awesome experience.  Lincoln doesn't really listen to the scriptures all that much, and Revelation may be a bit over his head, but I know this is a great new family tradition that we will continue for years to come.

On a completely unrelated note, we made a gingerbread house!  Linc decorated it and it was a huge success.  Now when anyone comes over he takes them to the bar where it sits and proudly declares, "I make DAT!!".

We also went to Dewberry farms again, this time with Jay.  They grow Christmas trees there that you can cut down... but we just enjoyed all the amenities they have to offer.

Goats are super fun!

Lincoln loved that Daddy was there to play.  Mommy is just to big and round these days to wrestle or fit down many slides, so they had a blast!

Linc's favorite mode of transportation currently is Daddy's shoulders... I think he is trying to help Jay from gaining too much pregnancy weight by having Dad carry all 35 lbs of Lincoln on his shoulders where ever they go... :)

Big smiles!

Tractor Ride

I JUMP!!!!

Linc went down the slide by himself again!  He is in a very independent mode right now...

We have also made ornaments, cookies, looked at Christmas lights, wore our new footie jammies, and this week will take some toys to boys and girls who don't have any... While we haven't done everything on the list exactly according to plan, this has been a fun experience and I will do it again in the future. 

Please leave a comment with a favorite family Christmas tradition you have!!

Tookies

Today we made tookies - aka cookies. Linc loves tookies and in fact tha is all he wants from Santa for Christmas!



Linc used the cookie cutters and cut them out.


Then we made icing....


Here is stinker trying to sneak some... He tasted powdered sugar and said, "I wike dat!!!"


Yummy!


He is a wiz with sprinkles!


Sweet rewards after hard labor.


So pretty!!!

Halloween 2011

 This year Lincoln was Bamm-Bamm for Halloween.  I figured it would be one of the last years that I had total control over what he wears so I took advantage of it.  Also, I needed something that did not require a hat because if you ask Lincoln, all hats have a deadly venom in them and should never, ever be worn for longer than .25 seconds or else you could die.  Well, he hasn't said it in those words, but if you've seen his reaction to hats, you would know that is what he is thinking.

So I found a costume online but it was sorta lame, and it cost 30$.  So I decided to make my own... I think it turned out pretty cute and only cost about 7$ total.  I love these pictures of him, the light is good and he's still pre-sugar rush.  Our church does in-neighborhood get togethers instead of at the church, since Halloween is one time of year that people come out of their house and meet their neighbors.  They really did it up right!  

 They even set up a photo spot so people could get their kids picture taken, it had lighting and everything!  I tried to get one of Linc and Jay but Linc wouldn't put his legs down since the hay is pointy and as you can see below, Jay was very, very into it.

 One of Linc's friends from our Moms club came with his Mom and Dad, and Lincoln was excited to have a friend there.  Here they are watching putt-putt.

 Here is where stuff gets crazy.  By crazy, I mean 2 year old sneaky-sugar-crazy.  So I didn't realize that Linc was drinking a Capri Sun in this picture...

 Then he and Dad had hot-dogs...

 Then Sneaky-Linc-y asked Mommy for a juice.  WHAT!?!? and dumb ol Mommy fell for it.  So this picture is of him sucking down his second juice right before trick or treating time started.... What a stinker!

 Here is the sugar kicking in.  Notice the crazed look in his eye, and his friends face which says, "this guy is CRAY-CRAY!"

 So then it was time to strike out on our candy hunt.  I wasn't sure that Lincoln would get it but realized quickly that I did not give that kid enough credit.  He walked up to the first door and rang the bell.  When the nice lady opened the door he walked right in and said "Trick or Treat!" then stood there while she gave him candy.  And stood there.  And stood there.  Finally she gave him some more so he would leave.  Then he said "Thank Youuuu!" before turning around and looking and Jay and I and screaming, "NEXT HOUSE!!!" 

We got done and he got to have a sample out of his bag.  Jay and I ate most of the Chocolate candy, we must admit because we know next year that probably wont fly.

A great time was had by all...

Next post is Dewberry Farms... Its become a yearly tradition for us and is lots of fun.

Fall, finally

 I have been a bad, bad, bad blogger. But, I'm back!! I'm getting a bit caught up since its been a million years since I posted.  I've also been a bad photographer... I haven't been taking nearly as many pictures as I normally do, but here are some from this fall.  We went to a farmers market here in Sugar Land one weekend when Mary was visiting, when I was still in the "honeymoon" of my 2nd trimester.  Linc fell in love with 'punkins' when we were there.  He tried to carry each and every one at least once.

Then he got tired and decided to pose.  The reason I like this picture below so much is he wasn't even looking at me.  He didn't know i was taking pictures, just decided to sit a spell.

 This is the one we finally bought.  He helped Daddy carry it to the table where we paid.  Such a good little helper.

There was an "EEE-OOO-EEE-OOO" parked there.  He was totally blown away to get that close to it.  He kept waving to the firemen but when Daddy walked him over to say "Hi" he got all bashful and wouldn't even give a high-5.  Can I just say that I love Linc's language?!  Besides "EEE-OOO-EEE-OOO's" (firetrucks) there are also "EEE-OOO-EEE-OOO frooms" (police cars), frooms are cars, and fuff's are dogs. 

 I let his hair get shaggy, mostly because I'm lazy and I do think it is a bit cute, too.  He was Bamm-Bamm for Halloween and I thought it looked best with lots of blond shaggy hair.  Here is one morning getting ready for school.  It was so nice out that we went and ran around the front yard for a while before heading out.  He LOVES to run and will do it any time he can. 

Here is one of his many "CHEESE" faces below, I love this expression.  It makes me laugh just looking at this picture!

I am posting Halloween pics tomorrow.  It was a great one this year.  He totally got it and was a HUGE fan of free candy.  I am loving this cooler weather! So nice!

I am 33 weeks pregnant now, and its starting to catch up to me.  I'm in that easily-tired-out stage and keeping up with Lincoln is a full time job.  We are getting ready for Christmas and enjoying the Advent season.  I'll post more on that soon.

Amanda's Baby Shower

This is such old news that Amanda has already had her baby! That is how slow I am! We had a shower for Amanda's family in Austin. We went to the fabulous Chez Zee for a brunch including presents, flowers, and creme brulee french toast. DIE!

My poor mama had 3 pregnant girls in her house a the same time. Luckily we are all really sweet and agreeable so we had a great time. Sunday we went to the pool before everyone had to head back home and mom showed us a trick she does and ended up at the minor emergency clinic. She is fine though!! She is one tough Mama!!!

The cake was worth slapping someone over. It was lemon rosemary and a TRIUMPH among cakes.

Ashley let me dress Maylee in a frilly dress. She was so stinking cute that other diners were gawking at her like she was a monkey at the zoo.

Amanda got a ton of lovely gifts, and a ton of advice. We stayed at my Moms house and had a girly-good time all weekend.

Welcome to the world Emerson Kay! I cant wait to see you! (You do know I will be your favorite Auntie, right!?)