Goodbye One-Year Old

Sunday Linc turns 2! At the time, I didn't like having a baby in May, but now I am sure glad I did. What a fun time for a birthday, Memorial Day weekend. Since I ruined all of the birthdays in our little family this year with Dr. appointments, I have now learned my lesson. No Dr. visit for Linc! I think we will go to church instead :)

Linc. Mr. Independent. He is still a man of few words. He understands everything and follows any command, he just chooses to let Koby do most of the talking. 

Linc is a fairly easy little guy; when we are at home he just runs off to play with his favorite cars. Out in public, he usually stays close to us because he doesn't like a crowd, he does likes to flirt from a distance though- especially with older women.  Lately he has been interested in other people more, but it has to be in a more one-on-one kind of setting. He likes people he sees often. He has finally decided he sees Emily enough so she must be safe to play with :) He has even started saying her name. Often, you can find Linc chasing behind Koby and his friend, copying whatever they do. 

He is such a fun little guy. He gives intense hugs and kisses, he loves to be chased, and he requires chanting while performing all of his stunts..."Go Lincy Go! Go Lincy Go..." You can always be sure to find him with sunglasses on and a car in hand.

Koby and Lincoln have begun to play together a lot. This also means they fight a lot. I now understand why my parents wanted to pull their hair out some days from all the contention. Today they did not fight. Today was a good day. Today I can focus on how sweet they are.

Yesterday Koby came into my room and we had this cute little conversation:

K: "Mom, I just said a little prayer in Linc's room."

M: "That's good! What was your prayer about?"

K: "I just prayed for our seeds to grow."

M: "Our seeds?"

K: "In our garden. I prayed that the seeds would start to grow and  that our tomatoes would get big and red. Mom, can we go outside now and check our tomatoes?! I think they are red now..."

And some weekly photos of the little crazies:

We went on a walk with Aunt Emily and after five minutes we looked like we took a swim!

Batman and Robin attacking the "bad guy".

It's sweet relief when Daddy is home to play.

Gotta love little boys.

Twenty-Six

My 26th birthday is one I will surely not forget. James took the day off to spend with me and the boys and we planned a BBQ at the park with Em and Shane. It was going to be a great day.

I scheduled my 10 week ultrasound in the morning because I just couldn't wait any longer to make sure we had a healthy heartbeat. Sadly, at the appointment I found out I had miscarried. I had some suspicions beforehand so it was not a big shock, but very hard none the less. It was a depressing day. I was emotional. And James and Koby were very sad too. 

Unfortunately the same day Koby got a stomach bug and Linc burned his hand pretty badly on the grill.  It was a rather rough birthday to say the least. Unfortunately, the next couple of days were even more rough and painful.

I am grateful at the love and support I have felt. Em and Shane made my birthday special with a fun BBQ and delicious Strawberry Shortcake. The sweet Quigley's, brought me flowers and a giant, yummy key lime pie. My friends Kristine and Kristy brought me a thoughtful gift and some delicious cheesecake. I received gifts from family and words of support and prayers from family and friends. And James has been an amazing Mr. Mom and an emotional support. Thank you! I do feel loved.

On a happier note, we finally finished our side yard. James did all of that rock work by himself while we were in Washington - what a man. Em came over and helped me plant a garden too. Now we just hope something grows.

And last, but not least, here is a random picture. This week the boys helped me make some cookies. Did I say help? I meant ate the entire bowl of sprinkles. Little sprinkle thieves...

Oh to be a kid. 

Longest Post Ever

James was scheduled to work pretty much every Saturday in April-boo! Since my cute little sister Emily graduated from BYU at the end of April,  my parents planned a trip out here for her graduation. After some plotting and scheming, the boys and I made plans to fly to Washington for two weeks and then road-trip back to Utah with my parents.

Of course we chose the rainiest week of the year to go back home, but we had a fun vacation none the less. This is what we did...

First of all, the flight. I was so nervous to take the short, 2 hour flight with two crazy boys. But to my surprise, the trip to Washington went beautifully!

Koby made friends with the pilot while we were still waiting to board the plane... The pilot came up to Koby and said "Hi there"...

K: Hi! I'm Koby and I'm four. We are flying to Grandma and Grandpa's house! The plane is over there (points out the window)
P: That is going to be a fun trip! I will go get the airplane all ready and I'll take you to your grandma and grandpa's house.
K: Ok, but we have to go on a red and blue plane.
P: That's right! I will have to go find us a red and blue plane. When you get on the plane come to the front and take a picture with me.
K: I will! Be sure to fly safely, we don't want to crash!

At the front of the plane he charmed the pilots, flight attendants and the passengers. That kid was definitely sent to me to help keep me friendly and social. He makes friends with everyone and anyone. He always makes even the grumpiest of strangers smile and wave. Love him!

My Linc was an angel on the flight. He sat on my lap and stared out the window while we waited to take off. The second the wheels left the ground he was out. Lucky me! He slept for all but 30 minutes of the flight.

Our fun began right away in Washington. We got to see Shan and Matt's beautiful new home. And the next day I got to squeeze all my nieces and nephews :) We went to Jungle Playland, where the kids had a blast running around and playing together. The little boys all became best buddies instantly. And we finally met sweet little Ivy who we haven't seen since she was a newborn (16 long months ago)! She's a beauty..

Yes this was a fast slide!

After Jungle Playland we got to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Nebeker. Linc couldn't get enough of their dog.

Yes my cheese smile is hideous, but all our attempts at a group photo failed.

Sunday we got to sit on the second row in the quietest stake conference I could ever imagine! I just about had a heart attack, but my boys weren't too crazy and my mom helped a lot. Afterwards we got to go home and have a big family dinner ...

The cousins played bad guys/good guys all night. They are cute little friends!

And Linc entertained us with his "Grandpa pants"...

Monday Koby got to play at Eli's while Linc and I went with my mom to check out her new job. We also took my mom's camera down the street and tried to get some good pictures of the boys. We were not very successful getting one of them together. We even bribed them with jelly beans.

We did, however, manage to get some cute ones of them individually.

They aren't the clearest, but for non-professionals with wiggly, wiggly children I think they turned out great. Here are some more random shots and some fun with grandma and dandelions...

Tuesday we were able to go over to Micah and Eve's cute house and eat a delicious lunch (thanks Eve). Micah has been working night shifts so he sleeps during the day. Needless to say, the poor guy did not get much sleep with all our crazy kids running around. We did however give him a little break when we headed to the park. We were there about 15 minutes before a massive rain storm hit and sent us packing.

On Wednesday, Grandpa fulfilled Koby's dream and took him to Stanwood's Skate-park. This made Koby's year!

We were able to go see baseball stud Ryder play in his game. We didn't get to stay and watch him hit, but we saw his athletic skills on the field!

I should have blogged sooner because now the trip is all jumbling together for me. Rach and her two kids came over from Sunnyside, WA to stay and play with us for a few days too. Other than, at times, trying to keep Lincoln and Charlie from beating each other  it was a blast having those little kids playing together(or just in the same room). And they did have some loving moments :)

Grandkids minus Ryder and Audri

Thursday morning we ventured out to the beach to help Grandpa get some shrimp. It was cold, wet, and beautiful. You can definitely tell we have some California beach boys though. They just aren't used to April's cold, WA beach.

Also on this trip we made sure to ...

overload the cat with love,

learn the "secret" recipe for the best popcorn,

garden with Grandma,

act like dorks,

sneak a hug from grandpa, even though we pretend we want nothing to do with anybody,

and hit up the Children's Museum.

And after all of this, we hopped in the car with Aunt Rach and headed to Sunnyside for 3 more days of fun! Unfortunately I did not do a good job at taking pictures at the Quigley's. However, we had a blast. We threw rocks in a canal, played outside, hit up the park, and took lots of baths -the farm scene is a dirty one! I especially loved our daily walks through the beautiful countryside :) I wish I took more pictures...

Shared a bed with this cutie.

Charlie's awesome sandbox!

And then we finally wore them out!

Our trip was full and fun. We didn't even have time to see everyone I wanted to see, but I hope they will forgive me...We will be back in August! 

I wish we lived closer to family. Koby misses his cousins. Everyday he has been asking if we could go back.  At lease our next trip is only a couple months away and this time James gets to come! We sure missed him. Linc gave James a 5 minute hug when he finally got to see his daddy.

Lucky for us our fun didn't end there and lucky for you this blog keeps going! After we road-tripped back we got to have Grandma and Grandpa DeFreese stay with us for a week. AND on top of that Grandma and Grandpa Huntington got to come out too for the weekend. Emily graduated from BYU and Karen started at BYU the same week. How fun!

My amazingly good little roadtrip-er.

Saturday we played at the park with Grandma and Grandpa DeFreese and then went to a graduation BBQ for Em. It was delicious! And we got to start the slack-lining season out right.

Koby's favorite new snack-Seaweed. Thanks Grandma!

Seaweed monsters.

Sunday, we had a big family dinner with everybody. It was so much fun for the boys to play with both grandparents. I am grateful James and I both have good families and that we can all get together and have a fun time together. Sunday was a good day.

Thanks to you Darrell, Linc won't stop squeezing the life out of our noses! He sure loves Grandpa's nose trick :)

Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Darrell and Takako on Sunday. They could only stay a couple days, but we loved every minute we saw them.

Now if you thought this blog was over, you were wrong! I cannot believe I fell so far behind. April was a busy month! So Shane and Em were able to take my parents, Koby, and I zip-lining on Monday. What a fun treat that was. I have to admit it was a little scary for me when I took Koby down one time. Thankfully Em and Shane liked taking Koby down and I am pretty sure Koby loved it more than going with me. Shane is a trickster and can go down like spider-man!

Koby and Aunt Emily

We were sad to see our family fun end, but we have lots of pictures and the longest blog ever to help us remember all the fun we shared.