A Very Merry Day

I can't believe it's been 365 days since we celebrated Lincoln's very first Christmas. It's incredible all the changes that have happened since last year. This year was WILD, with Lincoln at the center of the excitement. Christmas is a very special time for our family. It's packed with traditions and routines and "must do's" that don't waver from year to year. As usual, we enjoyed the Christmas Eve service, then went back to my parents for a yummy spread that always includes 'lil smokies, a cheese ball, sweets, and apple cider among other things. After waking up at our house and takings some pictures of Lincoln, we headed to my parents (a five minute drive) to open gifts. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the day.

Ornaments

Christmas Morning, checking out what Santa brought.

Elmo slippers. He loved them!



My new wooden train from Santa. Big hit!

This picture captures the day best. A whirlwind of lights, sounds, fun and excitement, with Lincoln in the center of it all. Merry Christmas, Lincoln. You're still our favorite gift!

Do you call a boy "diva" a DIVO?

We got a call on Monday that Belk Department Store wanted Lincoln in their Spring Catalog, so Lincoln and I braved the cold fog yesterday and headed downtown. This was Lincoln's first shoot. The protocol is they have the kid and then a back-up in case the kid has a meltdown, clothes don't fit, etc. When we got there, there were 6 kids there for the 830 timeslot, different ages and sizes. Lincoln was to represent the 18month boys. He was dressed in a little white polo, red plaid shorts and man sandals. He has a HUGE rug burn on his nose, so he got a little touch up and they said they could photoshop the rest. He didn't like the makeup and teared-up. I took him back where the lights and cameras were, but the second I put in down, he cried. A real boo-hoo, mamamamama kind of cry. He didn't bounce back (they gave him maybe 30 seconds to snap out of it), so they let the other little boy try, but he cried even harder. So, they shot the little girl and said they could edit someone else in later if needed. So, after about 30 seconds of "work" we left with a pretty hefty check. Let's just say I'm in the wrong business:)

As a side note, Lincoln is usually pretty chumby with strangers or at least warms up really fast. There was a lot of chaos going on, people talking, lots of noise, people walking in and out, lots of lights, etc. It was also a little early, so I'm blaming those things. It couldn't be Lincoln:) Nonetheless, it was an experience and we were back in McKinney before 10am. If he gets another chance, we'll probably try it again. Might as well pad his college fund.

A Day with Santa

Last year, Ryan Lincoln and I went to see the Northpark Santa with my best friend Shannon, her husband Mark and their son Brenden. We made a day of it and had a ball. The boys were so cooperative! This year, was another story. The 6 of us went to IHOP for breakfast and then headed to Willow Bend to meet the big guy. Lincoln was not a big fan of Santa, though as soon as he wiggled out of his lap, he turned to smile and wave bye bye to Santa. Lincoln has a lifesized singing Santa in his room, that he lovingly refers to as "Ho Ho Ho". I thought he'd be less skiddish around the real thing...not so much. Here is a shot of Lincoln and "Ho Ho Ho".

Santa and Lincoln

Under the snow machine in the Polar Express display.

Snow!


Two of the cutest kids ever! Brenden is 3 months older.


Marcy Lincoln and Ryan in our sweet Christmas sweaters!
This was intended to be a joke, seriously!

As a side note, we only sent out a handful of Christmas cards to the grandparents, and a few out of town friends. I hope you are enjoying this Christmas season and are finding plenty of reasons to celebrate!

Snippity snip

Lincoln got his first haircut on Sunday. It was actually more of a trim around the ears and a little off the back. Gone are the sideburns and pseudo-mullet. He did not cooperate and was not fond of the buzzing and snipping.

15 month Well-Baby Visit

This is for the grandparents and great-grandparents who care about stuff like this...the rest of you can let the eye glazing begin!

Height - 32.5 inches (85%)

Weight - 24.4 lbs (46%)

The verdict to this point is tall and skinny...I wonder where he gets it...hummmm

The doctor said he was growing at a steady pace and exceeding all his milestones. He has about 20+ words right now and about 12 signs. He is still cutting all four molars, but that isn't having a real impact at this point. He got 2 shots, cried his little eyes out this time, but made a quick recovery.

Dr. Smith said he will probably avoid all the ear-infection mess I was plagued with as a child since he's been ear-infection free up to this point. Hooray! We are so thankful for Lincoln's good health.

What we will be working on...

1. Coloring - and not eating the crayons

2. More body parts

3. Using a spoon

We've tried all of these and will keep plugging away. We go back in 3 months for his 18month visit. Stay tuned!

Christmas Galore

We love Christmas around the Blake house! We usually put the tree up Thanksgiving weekend, but I couldn't wait that long...so the weekend before, we put the tree up, sans ornaments so Lincoln could get used to it. He was so excited to see the tree and he would sit and stare at it. Once the ornaments went up, he proceeded to look at it without incident. Now, the "admiring from afar" has worn off and he pulls an ornament off usually once a day. We've only lost a few thanks to his gentle touch. All in all, he has done significantly better than we anticipated. I can already see him falling in love with the lights, sounds and festivities of Christmas...now if he could only grasp the true meaning of Christmas....then again, he's only 15 months old!

This was our first tree as a married couple. It's now our secondary tree in the sitting room. It's mainly red and white.

Our mantle, with real garland this year and it smells divine. I also got our stockings embroidered with our names this year.

Our pride and joy. This is our newest addition. Nine spectacular feet of Christmas glory. This baby has 1200+ lights and 3500+ tips. It is a Fraiser Fir, though artificial, looks very convincing. Now, we just need more ornaments to fill her up!

Merry, Merry Christmas!

What's the Deal?

Black Friday...this was my third attempt at Black Friday shopping. This year we went to Target, Old Navy and Lowe's for poinsettias. We left around 730 and were home by 9ish. However, Thanksgiving morning I headed to CVS and hit the jackpot. This is a picture of what I got completely free (about $85). Diapers, makeup, razors, even 2 pairs of earbuds for my IPOD. And to top it all off, I accumulated an extra $25 to spend in CVS extra bucks! Hooray for free stuff!

Sicky

It's another milestone to record. Lincoln had and survived his very first illness, a honest to goodness cold. We have been so blessed to have such a healthy baby. Other than cradle cap and a concern that he wasn't gaining weight at the right speed (which by the way is not any concern considering he is around 26 lbs now), he hasn't been sick at all. He managed to avoid the colds we had last winter and he dodged the stomach bug Ryan and I both had in November. Yippee for his super-human immune system! We go for his 15 month well-baby visit next week, so I'll have some hieght and weight stats to report then.

In other news, Lincoln has taken to biting when he doesn't get his way. Me: "No you may not have any candy". Lincoln: frown, bite on the shoulder. Me: "No you may not take the ornaments off the tree" Lincoln: sad eyes, and a bite on the knee. And for those of you who are thinking, bite him back, he'll learn. We are not taking that approach-- at least not yet:)

A Season of Thanksgiving

My how things have changed. We spent last Thanksgiving with the Blakes in Tomball, Lincoln was about 10 weeks old. He slept during lunch, but managed to take a picture with the turkey leg. A short 12 months later, he is walking, talking and eating everything in sight.
We spent Thanksgiving 2008 in town. My sister Holly, Auntie Holly to Lincoln, hosted us at her apartment in the Village. We ate a delicious dinner, Lincoln sampled it all, and then walked around the lake at her complex and managed to snap a few great shots.

Lincoln with my parents, Gigi and Memer

Taking a stroll


Lincoln was not having the realistic, fine crafted Indian Headresses I made

Another family shot

Our Thanksgiving Baby

Memer, cousin Cason, and Lincoln

Do we look alike?

Gig'em Aggies

All in all we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending a long, relaxing four day weekend. The Cowboys won, the Ags lost, which FINALLY ends a humiliating football season, but which also sweeps us into basketball season. Hoooray for Aggie Hoops. But I digress, we have so much to be thankful for. And topping our list is this precious little boy. In addition to being obviously cute:), he is curious, energetic, smart and sweet-spirited. He gives us reasons to be thankful everyday.

$16.92

Here is a picture of the deals I've gotten since my last post. Who would have thought that freebies, deals and coupons spark such interest. This is a combo of CVS and Walmart. Hooray for not needing batteries for a long, long time! Hooray for new eye makeup and hooray for moving into size 4 diapers!

Fall is Here!

Lincoln playing in the leaves.

He looks so grown up. How did 14 months get here already!

A close up of those baby blues

Lincoln has learned to spin around in circles, which he thinks is hilarious. He picked it up after playing at his BFF Brenden's house. Monkey see, monkey do. He is also really into reading books. He learned the sign "read", thanks to Kaycie his babysitter! Also, he randomly says blueberries. He says it all the time, b/c he eats them everyday. He says it really slowly with a lot of emphasis on the "Bl" sound. What a joy he is!

New tricks

For those family members who like to be kept in the loop, here is what's going on with Lincoln right now. Here is an update on some of Lincoln's new words, signs and tricks.



New signs: Light, Cracker, Love, Please


Words: Apple, Hot

Tricks: Throws his hands up when Ryan says "touchdown"
He's getting pretty good at using a spoon

In the last few days or so, he has really become obsessed with reading books. He will bring a book to us, sit in our laps and then have us read it over and over.

All four of his molars are breaking through! Poor little guy has been so good considering it must hurt to be teething 4 teeth at once!

The Giggles

I dare you not to smile as you listen to our favorite sound in the whole world!

$5.35

Friday is usually my grocery shopping day. I went to CVS and Kroger this morning. Take a peak at what I got for $5.35. While you can't see it all, that is 3 boxes of cereal, 3 tubes of toothpaste, 2 cans of evaporated milk and a $10 bottle of Cetaphil, among other things. I was gone about 45 minutes. I will head to Wal Mart for the rest of the things on my list this afternoon. You'd be SHOCKED to see how low our grocery/toiletry bill is per month.

What a difference a year makes

Here is Lincoln in his Halloween costume from last year. He is 5 weeks old in this picture.

My little chickadee

Here is Lincoln this year, almost 14 months!

The cutest spook on the block.

A Freakin' Cute Frankenstein

Happy Halloween. Lincoln was Frankenstein this year. It was my first attempt to make a costume and we were very pleased with the results. It wasn't as "quick and easy" as the magazine claimed, but it was more original than something from Target and less humiliating than his chicken costume from last year. Plus, we figure soon enough he'll want to be a power ranger, spiderman or something else really lame, so we chose for him. Lincoln even mastered his Frankenstein walk...wobbly, with his arms stretched out. We went trick or treating around the Allen outlet stores with Memer and Gigi and then met up with Daddy after work at the church festival. Lincoln ate some lollipops, road on a train, pulled a ducky out of the pool, and did a pumpkin toss. Here are a few pictures from the evening.

A blue candy bottle from Memer and Gigi

Marcy and Batman (cousin Cason)

Marcy and Ryan circa 1988

Mmmmmm...candy corn

Frankenstein in the graveyard

Update

Lincoln has now acquired two more signs: please and bath. He is such a sponge and it doesn't take long for him to catch on.

He also has a new word. As we drove up to my parents house last night, Lincoln said "Memer" My parents chose Memer and Gigi as their grandparent names. (My dad's name is Emerson, and his nephew Cason started calling him Memer and it stuck). Gigi on the other hand is much harder to say, so that will take a bit longer to master.

Hooray for Lincoln!

Wedding Bells

We spent the weekend in Tomball to celebrate Ryan's brother Dillon's wedding. They were married on Sunday Oct 19th. Dillon and Maria met in Plano in August 2006, when Dillon was in town visiting us. As they say, the rest is history. They will be living in their new home in Tomball. Maria was a beautiful bride and is a very sweet addition into the Blake family. On a selfish note, I am no longer the shortest person in the Blake family. Congratulations Dillon and Maria. Here are a few picture we took this weekend.

Lincoln primping with Great Grandma Fast before the wedding.

Lincoln sporting his tuxedo. He wasn't feeling the jacket.

Here we are with Ryan's other siblings and his parent.
Nathan, Morgan, Mike and Deanna
Another tuxedo shot.

A family shot

It's funny how being a Mom changes one's perspective on things. As I watched Dillon and Maria dance their first dance as husband and wife, I started bawling. This is not like me. Not because it was sweet, or sentimental or because of the song, but because my brain flashed forward 25 years and I caught a visual of Lincoln as a groom with his future wife. The thought of him getting married was too much for me. Just one more reminder to enjoy every second we have together. He's changing so quickly!

They put the "Sweet" in Sweetwater!

My brother-in-law Dillon got married this weekend (more on this later). We had a great weekend and got to catch up with Ryan's extended family. It was fun to see Ryan's cousin Jason, his wife Denise and their super cute kids Jaden (8) and Ryan (3 1/2). They live in Sweetwater, TX. We hadn't seen them since March. Denise is the best and I'm so lucky to have her as my cousin-in-law. They graciously sent us home with two HUGE bags, and I mean HUGE, filled to the brim, can't lift them myself, lawn size trashbags of PRECIOUS clothes. I didn't count, but there is easily 200+ pieces. There is even the pink polo shirt I've been dying for! Lincoln is the best dressed kid around in part because the Sweetwater Blakes. Thanks, we love them all.

Ryan, Jaden and Lincoln

Lincoln's Fall, Winter and Spring Wardrobe!

A Case of the Wiggles

Our morning at the Wiggly Play Center.

Sliding down with Auntie Holly

Auntie Holly gave me this shirt. Does it make me look tough?

Smiling for Mom

This isn't right.

This is wrong, too.

Great, now I'm too tired to drive it around.

We had a really fun time at the Wiggly Play Center in Frisco with Auntie Holly, Chance, Shannon and Brenden. We spent about an hour and half there and had a ball. Lincoln loved the slides, the bounce houses, playing with the balls, and most of all, watching the big kids. I got a glimpse of Lincoln in a few months. He is full of energy, fearless and 100% boy. End result? A super long afternoon nap.