Picture Buddy

Ever since Lincoln was born, Ethan prefers to have all pictures taken of him, taken with Lincoln as well. I pull out the camera, and Ethan will run to find Linc, wrap his arm around him and say "Say cheese buddy!" Lincoln is Ethan's picture buddy.

Here are a few examples: (okay, maybe more than a few ...)

 

 

 

I LOVE that Ethan adores Lincoln and I LOVE that Lincoln adores Ethan! I hope that when they are both older, they are still best friends.

Friendships

When Mart and I were in high school, I'd like to think we were pretty outgoing and had quite a few friends. We all had a blast hanging out and hung out with friends often. We were the first of our group of friends to get married, and well, I'm sure everyone knows how that goes. It doesn't generally work. Things slowly went downhill from there. Long story short ... we got burned pretty bad by our friends, and basically ended up with zero friends. We were both hurt by it, but neither of us really expressed our feelings on it. We just moved on with life, but a lot more cautiously.

When we moved into our house in Richmond, our first week at our new ward we felt very out of place. We felt like we had just moved into a retirement ward! I was by far the youngest person in the relief society room. We both felt like we were so different from everybody else, and sort of shut ourselves out and would just go and keep quiet and come home when it was over. We were given two callings within a couple weeks of moving in, which didn't help matters at all. We only knew people if their kids were in our classes, and even then, we only knew them as "so and so's parents".

After a year or so, our ward boundaries were extended and a new neighborhood (that was currently about to begin construction) was added to our ward. This made it so we had a lot more families with small children in our ward. It was our chance to meet new people, but still we felt out of place and kept to ourselves.

Fast forward roughly 4 years from when we moved in. We were finally released from our calling in the black hole which I call nursery. (Don't get me wrong, I love the nursery ... but 5 years was long enough ...) Two weeks later I had Lincoln and wasn't at church for a couple of months. We knew people in our ward, but not really. Our friends at this point consisted of Mart's siblings Kace and Ber, and then our friend Traves. There is nothing wrong with this, but we just needed something more.

Last summer, it seemed like overnight everything was about to change. I made a new friend out of the blue, and it was so nice to have someone to talk to, even if it wasn't a lot. I also reached out to someone else for a haircut and she turned out to be another new friend, who sadly, moved soon after. I almost felt like I was back at square one. I was invited to go to the Relief Society session of General Conference last fall and went with a small group of people. It was really fun, but I hardly said a word the entire night. That's just me ... I'm quiet until I feel comfortable. I just don't want to get burned again if I let my wall down.

In August, a group of guys from our ward randomly invited Mart to go on a major hike they were all going on. We were both thrown through a loop and surprised that he was being included, but he was VERY excited. He was beyond nervous of the socializing part of this trip. He didn't think he had a thing in common with anybody who went. It turned out good though and he had a great time.

A month or so later, Mart had a really strong impression that he was supposed to be friends with Ethan's nursery leader. We didn't know him at all! Not even a little bit. All I knew about him was his name. A few months went by and Mart hadn't done anything about it. He finally told me about it and I came up with an idea for him to break the ice. He made some granite letter blocks with last names of people in our ward for Christmas gifts, so I told him to make one for them and take it by. It wouldn't be too weird because he was Ethan's nursery leader. Later that week, Mart took the blocks over to their house. His wife opened the door and Mart looked at her and blurted out "God told me I'm supposed to be friends with your husband!" (apparently we are more awkward around people than I originally thought ...) More surprisingly, she welcomed him in with open arms and told him that her husband had been telling her that he wanted to be Mart's friend as well! It went so smoothly, that there was no way that God wasn't involved. He knew what he was doing. We have since had them over several times and they have joined our "game night" group competing for the trophy each month. Shawn even won it the first month they played! Beginners luck. :)

I still don't feel like I fit in all the way at church, but now I know more people and am way more comfortable than I used to be. I enjoy seeing the people who have become my somewhat friends and I hope that as time goes on, we have the opportunity to become closer.

I hear the stories at church about women who are so blessed by friends who show up exactly when they are needed, and I try not to feel left out. Instead, I just hope that maybe one day, it might happen to me on one of those really bad days. I know I just need to let my guard down and things will fall into place more easily.
I know that God watches out for me, and maybe he's tired of me not doing anything about it, so he's finding the friends that we need and shoving them in our direction. Whatever it is, I'm grateful for the new friendships that are beginning to form.  It's been a very long time.

Water Baby

Lincoln LOVES to take baths and showers. He is such a water baby. I can't wait to take him swimming this summer.

Every time he hears the water turn on, his little skinny legs go booking it as fast as they can for the bathroom. He has even tried climbing in with Martin fully dressed. Silly boy.

Here are just some cute pictures of him after a shower.

Tender Reminders

For a while now, Lincoln communicates by nodding his head in yes or no. He doesn't say a whole lot except "Dad" on repeat. You have to ask him questions that can be answered in yes or no, and he will respond by nodding his head. It makes things so much easier! "Are you hungry?" *Nods yes* "Are you sleepy?" *Nods yes* "Do you want to go take a nap?" *Nods yes* "Do you know how to say no?" *Nods yes, and then nods no so that you know he knows the word no* ha. Silly boy.

He's very much a Mama's boy and I'm basically the only person he likes to put him to bed. I will snuggle him up against my chest and just rock him and hum. Sometimes after he calms way down, I'll ask him questions in a whisper.

Tonight went something like this:

"Do you know I love you?"
*Nods yes*
"Do you love me too?"
*Nods yes*
"Do you know that Dad loves you?"
*Nods yes*
"Do you love Dad too?"
*Nods yes*
"Do you love Ethan?"
*Nods yes*
"Is he a fun big brother?"
*Nods yes*

**Long pause**

(Kacean, my cute sister-in-law who had a baby two months after I had Lincoln, is currently pregnant again with a sweet little boy due in August. Pregnancy has been on my mind lately with so many people I know who are pregnant.)

"Do you think Mama should have another baby?"
*Nods yes*
"Do you think you could share Mama with a baby?"
*slight pause, nods yes*
"Is there a girl waiting for Mama in heaven?"
*slight pause, nods yes*
"Do you remember heaven?"
*pause again ... nods yes*
"Do you remember Jesus?"
*Nods yes*
"Do you know that he loves you?"
*Nods yes*

At that exact moment, my heart became so full of love and peace and I knew that he remembered heaven. I knew that he remembered our Savior. I knew that he knew he was loved. I also knew that I was remembered, cared about and loved. It brought tears to my eyes and it was such a tender reminder that was much needed.

While sitting here typing this out, the feelings I had while rocking him and an incredibly warm and full heart came rushing back. I don't always feel like I'm remembered or loved. Sometimes I just feel like I'm lost in the background. Tonight, I am thankful for tender reminders.

Bowling

At the beginning of last week, I mentioned in passing that we should go bowling. Ethan overheard me and talked about going bowling non-stop. After a few days of being hounded to go bowling, we made a party of it and invited a group of people. Needless to say, Ethan had a blast! He has been talking going again since we got in the car to leave that night.

He was so cute and had so much fun. He is getting so big! Seriously. I can't get over it.

I haven't posted a whole lot about it, but potty training has been a very LONG process. He's very VERY strong willed and was definitely not going to do anything or even consider it until he was good and ready. It was a very proud moment for Mama when Ethan looked around in the middle of bowling and booked it to the bathroom all by himself with no one telling or reminding him to go! I'm glad I noticed what he was doing so I could send Mart after him. :) He still is not 100% there, but he is SO much closer than before, and I am so relieved. I hear all these stories about children being potty trained at 2 ... and here is Ethan, he just turned 4 and is barely starting to get the hang of it or even be interested enough to follow through. Better late than never. :)

Anyway, back to bowling!





Ethan was so excited that Taylor came bowling with us! He talks about this cute girl non stop all week long. He asks me everyday when Taylor and her brother Riley are going to come over again. He'll start counting on his little fingers and say "Tuesday? Saturday? Tuesday?" It's very cute.


Mr. Lincoln had a blast bowling! He would help me with my turn, and every time we were finished he would get upset because he wanted to go again!

Ber, Kace, Tyler and Linc



Lincoln and Uncle Ryan


He's such a nut, and it's been so hard to get decent pictures of him lately. I don't take as many as I used to or as I should because this is generally the face I get:



Traves and Tyler.

Amanda, Linc, Shawn and Taylor. Riley was around here somewhere ...


We had a good time and we'll definitely have to take Ethan back again soon.

Oh yeah, and I took 2nd! I am usually horrible, so I was totally surprised! Boo-ya!

Happy Angry Bird-Day Ethan!!

My little Ethan was totally spoiled this year for birthdays! He's been so excited for his birthday. I think he's been counting down since Lincoln turned 1 in October. I used to catch him standing on our vents and he would close his eyes and say to himself "I'm going to January ... I'm going to January" then he would open his eyes and say something like "I'm in January! Hi January!"

I guess we had to make it big for him this year and have 3 separate birthdays. ha!

The first birthday was just basically a family dinner (post still to come ... I've been a little busy. :) )
The second was his actual birthday in Disneyland

And the third was this Angry Bird Bash with some of the neighbor kids!

I have never thrown a birthday, and so I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to do it. It all came together in the end and I think it turned out pretty good!

These are the invitations I made. They took me quite some time considering I only made 8 ...
(I'm sure if I had been better at paper crafts, it wouldn't have taken so long!)




Every birthday needs a banner! "Happy Bird-Day!"



My front door needed some love, so I adorned it with a tissue paper piggy.


I loved the paper lantern pigs! Thank you Pinterest for all of the great angry bird ideas!


The food was by far the biggest struggle for me. Not because it was food (that part is easy ...), but because one of the little boys we invited has Celiac Disease and cannot eat gluten. Yeah, gluten is in everything! I had to read every label down to the food coloring. In the end, I managed to find everything I needed. At one point, I was making my own sprinkles because I couldn't find any! That would have been no problem, but I think Seantae (his mom) was in a small panic that I would do that for them. She was happy when I managed to find sprinkles that were gluten free.

My cupcake representation of the pigs, without actually making pigs:


Can't have an angry bird bash without bird cupcakes!


My cupcake tower:


And, of course we needed more cake. :)


Bird seed pops! (for future reference, fruity pebbles are gluten free!)



My awesome sister in law Ber made all the kids a mask! They turned out so great!


We cleared all the furniture out of our living room and built an angry bird arena!



We collected small dodge balls and Mart painted bird and pig faces on them so the kids could have a ball and a mask when the party was over.


After the kids picked a mask, they all lined up and the fun began!





Ethan was so excited to have that many friends come over and play with him!



After they were done playing knock down the pigs, we went bowling for pigs.






This is my little friend Cameron who has Celiac Disease. He was so excited to be able to eat as much cake as he wanted!


I think little Lincoln ate just as much as the big kids!






It turned out awesome and Ethan had a great time! It wasn't even too crazy with 18 children in my shoebox house! I'll have to come up with a fun idea for Lincoln's birthday in October ... I'm thinking Harry Potter. :)