Girl's Only!

Last Friday morning, the kindergartners had a gingerbread house making day with parents. Cailin had been looking so forward to this day, asking when it was for weeks and planning on wearing this exact shirt that day because it has a gingerbread guy on it. It was fun to spend this short time just with Cailin and see her interact with her little Kindergarten friends.

 Of course, later we heard the news about the school shooting in CT, and it made me all the more glad Jason could work from home that morning so I was able to go and do this with her. So, so sad. On Saturday we had more one-on-one time planned. I had gotten tickets for Cailin and I to see The Nutcracker.

 I still can't believe this theater was at a high school! The more I see of other schools around the country, the more I realize how bad our schools really were were growing up! Sheesh, our high school was mostly portables! Anyway, here's Cailin ready for it to start.

Cailin wanted to be sure I took a picture of this nutcracker:

At intermission, they were selling cookies and Cailin was not too happy to find out that I didn't have any cash on me. Luckily, I found some sour patch kids in my purse from the movie Jason and I had been to the previous night!

It was a very nice production, and I can't believe how good some little little kids are at ballet! It kept Cailin's attention pretty good, until near the end, when she was getting a little restless. She was able to follow the story, too.
 The cast at the end:

Jason's Birthday!

Life is getting too busy! Jason's birthday was on a Wednesday, which was already double-booked--Ben had his first basketball practice, and also scouts (which he had to miss)--so we had to wait until the weekend to properly celebrate. Friday night we got a sitter (first one in about a year!) and went to see The Hobbit. Saturday night, Cailin helped me make the cake. She suggested a football one since "Dad likes football!"

 We went out to eat dinner and came home for cake that we were all too full to eat!

 And presents!

Happy Birthday, Jason!

Random Stories

Poor Cailin was the first of our kids to need cavities filled last week. I was nervous for her, but she didn't seem to be at all! She was just excited to go back to the dentist and pick another prize from the basket--especially since she lost the bracelet that she got after her teeth cleaning before we even got home. Once we were there, and they gave her the numbing shot, I was sure she'd freak out or at least start crying after they left the room. Nope! She just thought it felt weird.

She was great all through the drilling and filling--they told her the tool was for "cleaning" the cavity  and that they were filling it up with "silver stars".

At home, she was super annoyed at how the numbness felt. But as least she got a laugh when I told her to look in the mirror at herself smiling!

One day I was jogging and noticed something strange about the ducks in this pond. They were just standing on top of the water! This happens here, of course, but it was weirder because the water didn't look like ice! (but maybe it was frozen just beneath the surface?) Also, it just didn't seem that cold.

Random picture from Cailin's dance class.

A Crazy Story About our Holiday Wreath:

The first year we lived here, my front door wreath got pretty destroyed. I assumed it was our terrible and harsh winter that did it in. It was a fake pine one, and it somehow looked like a real one that had died! I can't remember what I did for a wreath last year or if I just didn't have one, or maybe I just hung up our dead looking one anyway. Anyway, this year I wanted a nice one, so I got a new one (fake again--don't wanna have to keep buying these!) and hung it up. Wish I got a picture! Anyway, a couple days later I opened our front door to get a package off our porch, and saw this:

Confused, I looked up at the wreath to find this:

What the?! It had also "died"?! This time, I knew it had nothing to do with Winter weather, as we hadn't had any yet. As I looked closer, I noticed a strong hot glue smell. I knew our front door gets pretty hot, even in the winter. The sun beats on it most of the day. Apparently, our front door gets so hot that it melts wreaths! Our door--in Minnesota, in the winter--melts wreaths! So...no more fake pine wreaths for our door! I had a foam wreath thingie laying around so I made this one.

But it was a little small, so I hung it inside and got some cheap ornaments the next time I was at the store and made this one.

It needs a better bow, but at least this one hasn't melted (yet)!

Eighteen Months Old!

Lincoln turned 18 months old this week--a full-fledged toddler! He has so many adorable mannerisms right now that I know are fleeting, so I thought I'd better write some down before they stop and I forget them. So, here are some random facts about Lincoln at 18 months:

He has his own song he made up. It's usually sung in the car, and it goes, "Ahh-waaaah, ah-waaaah, ah-waaaah, ah-waaaah....ah-waaaaaaaahhh!", with that last one super high pitched. He has a great voice!

One of his most-used "words" is uh-oh. It's always easy to tell when he's made a big mess or knocked something over (which is pretty much every 3 minutes all day anyway) when you hear that little "uh-oh!" from the other room.

He's a great little walker, but one thing that's funny is that he seems to have trouble standing still. He has to constantly be stepping all around so he doesn't fall over. I blame it on his tiny feet--still in size 3's!

Another of his favorite words is thank-you, or "doot-doo!" as he says it. He says it more often when he gives you something than when you give him something, but it sounds so cute and polite.

Ever since he stopped wearing the newborn swaddlers to bed, he's been in a sleepsac (a wearable blanket thing), but he's starting to get too big for it. He loooooves it, though, every time I'd put him in it, he pulls the front up and inhales deeply, and his eyes droop immediately. It's like it's infused with some sleepy gas of some sort. Anyway, even though I don't put him in it anymore, he still goes to bed with it, snuggles with it, and sometimes drags it around the house like a favorite blankie.

Along the same sleepy-time line, Lincoln absolutely loves anything soft. He has two particular stuffed animals he goes to bed with that he also likes to sniff--his little teddy bear and his little monkey-blankie thingie. Around the house, he loves hugging his sheepie. When he comes across anything soft, he hugs it, squeaks softly, and puts it up to his nose or cheek. This includes stuffed animals, blankies, socks, yarn bundles, and q-tips to name a few.

His absolute favorite game to play is chase. He loves to be chased. If he sees me get out a diaper, he giggles and runs away, waiting to be chased. He's a very lucky boy in that he has three older siblings, and there's usually at least one who is willing to indulge him in a little chasing around the house at any given time. He giggles his little head off.

Right now Lincoln loves Blues Clues. He calls it, "bow-bow bow!" and likes when the kids draw him a blue paw print.

Poor little guy--this was a few weeks ago when he and Sam got pinkeye. His eye got so puffy! I was sewing something and turned around to find him all wrapped up in the fabric!

A little light reading.

At target one day. He wanted to snuggle the puppies, but every time he got near, they started jumping in their boxes and barking! He was intrigued and a little freaked out.

One day he somehow got the cereal cabinet open. He was so pleased with himself.

Little business man!

Snuggling with Scout.

Right now, Lincoln's not the best eater. I guess he's built up a nice reserve, so he must be living off that because it doesn't seem like he eats anything at all most days! It's all on the floor. At breakfast, though, it's funny to see him mess around not eating for so long, and then when I go to get him out of his chair, this is what he does: grabs up all his little waffle pieces to take with him!

I love how he crosses his little ankles when he sits!

One day as we were about to say the prayer before dinner, I noticed Lincoln holding his arms to his chest tightly. I wondered for a second what he was doing, then realized...he's trying to fold his arms! So adorable! He still does it this way.

He loves giving hi-fives.

And of course scribbling on anything he can.

18 months old is also monumental because Lincoln can now go to the nursery at church! He's few times, and so far...I think he's going to be our toughest sell. The other kids couldn't care less when we left--there's toys and snacks there! Cailin was a little more nervous in the beginning, but not too bad. On Lincoln's first day, he was excited and ran in to play. I stayed for a bit, and then they said I could go since he seemed fine. I was sitting in Sunday School for all of about 30 seconds when they came to the door with Lincoln hysterical! It took a while to calm him down enough to bring him back in, and even longer before he would venture off my lap. So, we've been taking him for 3 weeks now and staying with him. He still gets nervous when he can't see us, and he just seems like such a tiny baby compared to the other kids. He's way too short to sit in the chair by himself, and he keeps getting bumped over and trampled. Hopefully it'll get calmer in there when the 3 year olds leave in January, but I think this will be a long process!

Snowstorm!

We finally got our first descent snowfall this winter! It started snowing Saturday night, and didn't stop until sometime Sunday night/Monday morning. The kids were thrilled, church was cancelled, and it was just so much fun to have a good snow day. (This all sounds so weird coming from me, but I guess snow can be a fun surprise sometimes!) 

Jason had to go out and shovel/plow I think three times during the day to keep it under control.

Sam, posing atop the snow hill like an explorer, "Mom--take a picture!"

Of course, we had to start grooming our sledding course. So glad we bought a house with a good hill!

Getting so deep! It was predicted we'd get 6-7 inches...we ended up with more like 11-12!

Then we built a snowman. I'm very proud of this dude. I've never been able to build a good roundish one before! Next time, I wanna make a massive one!

Sam and Cailin loved him, too!

Sam is such an outdoorsy kid. When he wasn't running around playing, sledding, building stuff, burying stuff, and anything else he can think to do with snow, he'd just be lounging around in it! It was so nice in deep at the bottom of the hill in fact, that he'd run and just jump and flop into it. It was very fluffy, and if it wasn't so cold and wet, I might've joined him!

Getting out the snowboard.

Come on!

A bit too deep and fluffy for it!

Before going inside, we decided to build another snowman in our front yard. Used some extra ornaments for his face and buttons!

Oh yeah, we also built a small one on our deck for Lincoln to see when he woke up.

Of course, it just kept right on snowing, so soon all our snowmen were lopsided and weird. One last plow before it gets dark!

It was a fun day and it's nice to see our lights twinkling from under a blanket of snow.

The next day Jason had to fly to Philadelphia, early. Our street was pretty packed with snow and our cars weren't going anywhere, and since he had to leave at like 4 am, he had a taxi to take him to the airport. His flight was then cancelled, but he was able to get on to another one, all to fly back home again that evening! Crazy day for him, but we were glad to have him back so fast with all the trips he's been having to take lately. Meanwhile, the kids and I trudged to the bus stop through the deep snow. I had to get my snowpants on for the trip as well. There's a little sidewalk plower that comes though our neighborhood, but he hadn't been there yet.

The bus comes through again! Nothing can cancel our school!

Here's Lincoln on our way home from getting Cailin at the bus stop. He's still not sure what to think of all the snow.

Cailin has been wanting me to go sledding with her everyday during Lincoln's nap. I haven't been getting too much done, but it's been fun!

Mmmm, fresh snow!

Now is when the kids really enjoy recess at school--building snowforts! And now is when it takes 10 minutes to get out the door with all the snowgear, and now is when I really wish our mudroom was as big as our living room to contain all the snowpants, coats, hats, mittens, boots, etc that come in each day soaking wet!