Gypsy Cat

I love this picture of Gypsy. He doesn't get near as much attention as he did before we had kids, so I think he is starting to act more like the kids to get more attention from us. This is his new favorite place to take his naps. Luckily Lincoln doesn't mind sharing with him (yes, the purple Dora chair is Lincoln's).

SURPRISE!!!! (to me)

Tommy and my mom planned a surprise birthday party for me on Saturday night. I thought Tom and I were going out for Sushi & a movie, but he ended up blindfolding me and he told me he had a surprise to show me before dinner. When we got out of the car I was still blindfolded and Tommy was helping me walk when I heard a baby cry out & then Lincoln shouted "Happy Birthday Mommy!!" before everybody else had a chance to yell surprise. It was very funny!


They rented a bounce house for the kids & it entertained them the whole night while the adults visited. It was a great party & I got spoiled by all of my family & friends that were able to come.

I cannot even imagine...

I am sure many of you have heard about the woman who has been missing since last week. Well, she lives across the street from us and this is a picture from our front door. The traffic has been crazy all day today. At one point the street was lined with 6 police cars, 3 forensic vans & 3 news vans. Lincoln keeps asking to go outside to play, but I won't let him because it has been too crazy. I do not really know the woman or her son (actually I have only spoken to her son once), but I am just heartsick over what they are going through. They are such a quiet family & keep to themselves unless you approach them. My prayers are with them & I hope Deborah is found quickly & safe.

**Update: I am sad. Those of you who watched the news yesterday (Apr 22) would have heard that it ended badly. I am very sad for the family & I am glad that the man responsible is under arrest. Even though I didn't "know" her I was familiar with her - familiar with seeing her working in her yard, coming to and from work, etc. It is sad how many sick people there are in this world.

Bounce House Birthday Party

Lincoln went to a friends birthday party over the weekend at a Bounce House and he had a BLAST!!! Nicole watched Hazel for me so I was able to play with Lincoln on all of the slides. We had so much fun. I was amazed at how tired I was after the 2 hour party - I am getting old!

Lincoln, Lincoln, Lincoln

I don't know if it is a jealousy thing or what lately, but Lincoln has been acting out a little bit lately and whenever I am taking pictures of Hazel I hear behind me "what about me mom?" I am actually happy for this because this means he will actually look at me and smile when I take his picture. Here is a picture of Linc on his new Hot Wheels he got for Easter. I wanted to get him a trike, but this is what he picked out. Lincoln was pretty excited that Tommy was following behind on his "green machine". The boys rode bikes for a while last night while Hazel & I hung out on the porch.

We went to Smiths Marketplace today to get a few items & Lincoln saw this tiny skateboard. I had to buy it because I have never seen one this small before. It was a great deal - it came with a motorcycle shirt for only $9.99. Hopefully I won't regret it too much when he gets hurt for the first time...

Painting is a very serious job

The other day Lincoln & I got out his watercolors to paint with. He loves it!! He was so excited to paint. We painted four beautiful pictures, spilled one glass of water & cleaned up many spots of paint off the floor before I decided it was time to move on to another activity. Lincoln was sad when it was over. He is very serious when he paints (see photos below). He mostly paints with water & then is sad when he rubs a whole through the paper. I was helping him paint a camping scene & he copied what I was doing on the opposite side of the paper. He did a great job! Granted it was a little more abstract than mine, but he used the same colors & tried to copy me. I was impressed!

Ready for warmer weather

Yesterday was such a beautiful warm day (finally!!!) so I decided to dress Hazel in this cute little sleaveless dress for church. I thought she looked adorable so I had to post a few photos. I love how she is getting a little chunky!

Cowboy party

Last weekend we went to a Cowboy Party at Louie & Skylar's house. Lincoln had so much fun - he wore his cowboy boots, hat & we brought his stick horse & cap guns. He kept going up to people and saying "Stick em up!!". Two days after the party we had Louie, Skylar & Danny over for dinner - when I told Lincoln they were coming over to play with us he said " 'nother cowboy party?!" He was disappointed when I told him nobody would be dressing up.

Too Big

To start off, I think my kids are getting too big too fast. I know this isn't the cutest picture, but to me, seeing the kids sitting next to each other in nothing else but diapers, I just see how big they are. It makes me sad. As fun as it is seeing each new milestone the reach, I don't want them to grow up to fast. I feel like I am not absorbing all of the small moments fast enough. It seems like the busier we get, the faster they are growing up. Yesterday was Lincoln's first soccor class. He was so excited before we left the house. I had bought him a new outfit to wear & some new soccor shoes (light up Spiderman shoes!) and he was so excited. I told him how the teacher is called a coach & he was all pumped up. Then we got to the park & he wanted nothing to do with it. I was so sad. I did force him to kick the ball into the goal once, then he went over to a little grass hill and did somersaults for the remainder of class (at least this shows me that he is enjoying gymnastics that we go to once a week!) I kept trying to coax him into playing with the other kids, but it didn't happen. When Tom got home from work they kicked the ball outside & Lincoln had fun. Hopefully they can keep playing at home & he will enjoy his soccor class better next week.

Oh how I wish I could sleep like this. I am so tired (as I am still waking up every 2-3 hours at night to feed!) Hazel can sleep anywhere which is nice when we have to run errands or go to Lincoln's classes. She is a really good baby and she is getting so big. She rolled over all by herself for the first time on April 1st (below is a picture of the next day trying to roll over again). Lately she is kinda a mama's girl and she would rather be comforted by me than anyone else. Even though this makes me feel special, it is hard because Linc would always go to everyone, he never had stranger danger. Hopefully this stage won't last too long.