Not without my blanket

Lincoln has been struggling with his naps lately. He went from sleeping 830pm to 7ish am and taking a 3 hour nap everyday, usually between 1-4 to wanting no nap at all. I don't like him to go to bed too early, otherwise he would only see Ryan an hour a day. It had been working so well for months. He has been laying in his crib talking to himself. He doesn't cry or misbehave, so we've been using it as a 60-90 min rest time. I'm not ready to give up a nap quite yet, so we're working on it. Today was a good day. He fell asleep holding his night night and baby blue. He didn't even fuss when they fell. I love this picture.

More milestones

I haven't posted one of these in quite sometime. When Lincoln first started talking, every word was new and a triumph. At this point, I couldn't begin to imagine that he would know some of the words that he knows and some of the things he comes up with blow my mind. Here are just a few of the things we can check off his list. I wish I could take credit for all this, but Lincoln is just a little sponge. He usually shows us he knows something new before we even think to ask.

Knows all his colors, including the crazy ones like silver, peach, and gray.

Knows all his shapes, including crazy ones like oval, octagon, diamond.

He has known all his letters since the summer, but he also knows the sounds letters make. Every time we drive by the QT gas station Lincoln says "Q says quah and T says tuh".

He's been counting to 20 for quite sometime. The other day he counted to 50. If he gets going too fast, he skips a few, but he definitely gets the concept of counting.

We'll continue to work on opposites, which thing doesn't belong, and answering "who, what why when and where" questions while we are reading. He's not a huge fan of singing, I wish he would sing. He is like his Daddy in this respect, he likes listening. So we'll continue to work on singing.

Looking forward to what 2010 will bring.

Christmas Festivities

We enjoyed celebrating Lincoln's third Christmas, but I'm a bit behind. We have lots of Christmas traditions and a specific way of doing things and this year wasn't any different. We enjoyed a day of finger foods and snacking while watching the snow fall before heading to the 3pm Christmas Eve service. Gran stayed home with Lincoln while he napped. Lincoln spent the night in his own house and even sprinkled some reindeer food for Rudolph. Here are a few pictures highlighting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

Leaving cookies and milk for Santa.

Lincoln also left a letter for Santa.

While visions of sugarplums....

First thing Christmas Morning

Candy Cane Theme!

PJ's, ornaments, wrapping paper, and real candy canes to eat!

Digging in his stocking!

After opening gifts and stockings at home, we headed to my parents house. Holly and Brian were there with Gran and my Mom and Dad. Here is a view of what was waiting for us when we arrived!

A baseball glove from Gran!

Hugging Gran

A tree skirt for Uncle Brian and Auntie Holly

Opening with Memer

Lincoln with all his loot. He got some awesome things. A talking gorilla, the tent and some cutable wooden fruit were among the big hits!

The 8 of us. These posed shots are a family tradition! Glad to have Brian in this one!

Christmas is my favorite time of the year, I love the traditions, the predictability of what each moment brings and experiencing it all from Lincoln's perspective. We are really really blessed!

No Autographs, Please

If you flip through today's JC Penney ad in the paper, this is what you'll see in the bottom, lefthand corner. We took this picture about 2 months ago and it's finally here. You can also check it out online.

PawPaw and Nana

We spent a few days before Christmas with Ryan's parents, grandparents, brother and sister. Here are a few of the highlights.

A showdown with Nathan's dog Buster.

A gift from Uncle Dillon and Aunt Maria

In Pawpaw's police car.

Let me out!

Playing the Wii

Cookies with great grandma

Playing the slots

Foosball with Nana

Randomness

Hiding from me

At the petting zoo, showing the goats what to eat

He liked the donkey a lot

Some Christmas entertainment

Using the vacuum on his stomach.

Giving new meaning to "suck in your gut"

Just Ryan and Marcy This Time!

Ryan and I decided to have some professional pictures taken since we hadn't had anything done since our Wedding five years ago. We used Holly's wedding photographer Allison Davis. She is young and super creative. We just did a quick, mini session. Here are some of our favorites. You can also check out Allison's blog for more of her favorites from our session. I would highly recommend Allison for you and your family!

Our Favorite

Do we look old? Just lie if you have too:)

10 Years ago....

Five years ago...

On a side note, Allison submitted Holly and Brian's wedding photos to on online blog and it was featured there and they just found out their wedding will be featured in the spring issue of The Knot magazine. So exciting for them.

Christmas Happenings

We've had a fun December so far. It's fun to see how the calendar fills up quickly. Even though December can be a busy month, we tried to stop and have some fun too!

Sleeping on his Christmas sheet from Great Grandma Fast and his Christmas pillowcase from Megan.

First time finger-painting. Lincoln loved it!


A hand print Christmas tree--idea courtesy of Miss Angi and her girls.

We had some friends over Saturday for a come and go Christmas brunch. We did it last year and had so much fun, we decided to make it an annual event! Here are some of the friends that came.

Mr. Mark, Mrs. Shannon and BFF Brenden

Dave, Nicole, Johnn, Ashley, Kelle and Brian

We also visited the reindeer in Allen, but couldn't get them in the same shot as Lincoln. Here we are in front of the giant Christmas Tree.

Keeping the tree up!

Later in the evening we went to a kids Christmas Party at a Friends. We had a ball. The fantastic hostess had some super fun crafts and games. Lincoln managed to fall down the stairs in the first few minutes, but didn't miss a beat the rest of the night. Their carpet will never be the same, but they had fun nonetheless!

Making reindeer snacks with Daddy.

Eating a yummy dinner with Audrey, Kenzie and Will.

Lincoln loved the cupcake...hence the carpet mess:)

Making a Christmas tree with sequins and Popsicle sticks.

Santa made a surprise visit to the party. What a FANTASTIC thing for him to do for these sweet kids. Lincoln reminded him he wanted an orange basketball for Christmas, not a red one.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOURS!