Birthday Eve

Today is my Birthday Eve. For those of you that don't celebrate the holiday, that means it's the day before my birthday :) We started the celebrations so early this morning that we had to wake up Lincoln (usually he is the alarm clock). We went into his room and he was so cute all cuddled up and asleep. Don't worry that he's totally backwards in his crib.

We met my mom and Kerry and Tanner at IHOP in Lehi at 9:00am for breakfast. It was delicious. Aaron had french toast, I had Nutella Crepes which I highly recommend, and Lincoln had a smiley face pancake. It was Lincoln's first time ever ordering food at a restaurant, usually he just eats off of our plates, but we were both too hungry to share with him today. Other highlights of the meal include Lincoln taking a bite of his blue crayon and pulling the funniest disgusted face I've ever seen.

After breakfast we did presents in the parking lot. Mom and Kerry gave me a cutting mat and circular cutter, so that I don't have to measure out my fabric with the twisty thing on the kitchen blinds anymore (hey you do what you've gotta do), and some new dish rags that my mom crocheted for me (hooray!), two movies Ever After and The Sandlot. Very excited about all of it. Thanks guys!

The big activity for the day was the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point, so that's where we all headed next. Supposedly it's the largest dinosaur museum in the world. Pretty cool. In one of the rooms a sign told us that most of the smaller skeletons and fossils on display were the real deal, but that most of the larger ones were a cast because the bones are too delicate to be fused and screwed together, and that's why they just do a cast.

I was surprised how much "hands-on" stuff they had. Here is Lincoln and Uncle Tanner crawling though a small tunnel they had on display. They also had tons of exhibits that kids (or anyone I suppose) could touch, feel, sit on, climb through, etc. It was pretty cool, and Lincoln loved it.

Here's Aaron, Lincoln, and Gramma Tam. I can't remember what they are pointing at, but it must have been awesome since all three of them are pointing.

Aaron picked a fight with a raptor. Ok not really, but if this had been real life, Aaron would have been toast. Look at the claws on that thing.

This is probably my favorite shot of Lincoln of the day. He's climbing up the leg (foot and ankle is more like it) of a Brontosaurus. It's one huge dinosaur and took up an entire room. Lincoln barely reaches up to his ankle.

Mom, Kerry, Tanner, and Lincoln in front of the Stegosaurus.

Mom, me, Aaron, Lincoln, and Tanner in front of the Stegosaurus.

This was my favorite exhibit, it's called the erosion table. What it is is a sort of model or a river bed. It's got tons of sand on the bottom and little toy trees and toy dinosaurs in it. Every so often is a water fountain type thing that lets out water. The point is to build little islands, or dams or other structures out of the sand, and then you watch to see how over a period of time water erodes the land mass. It's really cool, especially because it's so hands on. All of us from Lincoln right on up to Kerry enjoyed playing in it.

In this picture, on the far left, you can see the dam Tanner and Kerry built. Aaron and Tanner are currently in the process of personifying a tsunami to speed up the erosion process. Lincoln is torturing plastic dinosaurs by hurling them to a watery grave. :) We probably would have spent a lot longer at the erosion table, but Lincoln started throwing sand, so we had to go.

Here's Tanner in the under water room. All the skeletons they had in there were pretty scary looking. I'm glad I don't have to worry about running into any of those guys while I'm out swimming.

I thought this picture turned our really well. It almost seems like the shark really is swimming up right behind them and they don't expect a thing. They actually don't know for sure that sharks this big ever existed. The only fossil evidence they've found are shark teeth that are 7 inches long. Yikes!

Here is a dinosaur egg and me, looking like I swallowed one! :) I can't imagine having to poop one of those things out and then still having to wait who knows how long for it to hatch so I could see my baby. I'm glad I'm not a dinosaur.

This was another cool hands-on exhibit. It was a giant sand box that had dinosaur bones burried all over the place. The kids got paint brushes and were turned loose on 'em like real paleontologists. Again, we had to leave this one sooner than planned because Lincoln kept throwing sand. Oh well.

After the museum we had a small lunch at a place called JCW's. I made cupcakes last night for Birthday Eve, so we had those too. Here's me blowing out the candle. :)

Typical

Here is a typical video. I delete thousands of these, probably. It's an example of where Lincoln has been doing something really awesome, or new, or funny for the last 20 minutes, so I decide to get out the camera and BAM! he will no longer perform, but instead becomes fascinated with the camera because it is an electronic device. It's definitely typical, but this video also happened to be hilarious so I decided to post it. :)

35 Weeks...and counting

This picture was actually taken on Valentines Day, but I saved it for today because today I am 35 weeks pregnant! And just like the title says I'm counting down. I know I shouldn't be counting down already, it's just going to make the last few weeks take FOREVER, but I can't help it. As you can see, I'm huge. It makes doing everyday things pretty difficult, breathing, sleeping, eating, tying my shoes, changing Lincoln's diaper, sitting in the car for long periods of time, you name it. So that's why I'm counting down. I keep asking Aaron questions like "Hey Aaron, after Lincoln was born I had energy again right?" and "Aaron, after I had Lincoln, I started feeling like cooking dinner again, right?" I guess it's been so long since I was normal (whatever that is haha!) that I'm afraid I won't ever be again. But really I shouldn't complain because the pregnancy is going well, and I am healthy (except for the stuffy nose I've had non-stop for eight months!) and the baby is healthy, so that's good. I don't want him to come prematurely, but after he's full term, bring it on!

Moving on to more exciting topics than the woes of pregnancy... the baby's name! I was going to wait a week to let everyone guess the letters, but the suspense was killing me. Haha! Plus, my mom already guessed it (which she did with a lot of help from Suzy's guesses, so good job Suzy!) so I might as well say so. We have decided to name Shark Bait Ivan Erastus Swan. So far no one but us is really thrilled about that name, but that's ok because Aaron and I are in love with it, and that's all that matters. But let me explain why we picked it.

Ivan is Russian and means God is gracious. Ivan is a name I have always liked. It was on my list of names to name my kids before I ever met Aaron. I like it because it's not a common name, but when you see it on a piece of paper you can pronounce it just fine, and most people can spell it first try. Aaron really likes names with strong sounds like "n" "v" "c" "x" etc. And for our boys we wanted to pick strong sounding names. Ivan is perfect. It sounds good yelled at a baseball game, "C'mon Ivan, hit the ball!" And it also sounds good as a general authority, "Ivan E. Swan of the seventy will be our concluding speaker." :) It sounds like the name of someone who could look you in the eye and give you a firm handshake. I like that. Plus, it was one of the few first names Aaron and I agreed on.

Erastus is Greek and means Loved. Since Aaron is taking a Family History class this semester, we have been working a lot on our family history, and are both getting really into it. We thought it would be really cool if we could find a middle name from our family history. As it turns out, Aaron's dad's grandfather's name is Charles Erastus Swan. After we had picked out Ivan, we tried out a lot of other family names as the middle name, but nothing felt like it flowed really well. Aaron was the one to suggest Erastus, and I immediately liked the sound of it, not to mention the fact that it's not your typical middle name. So we looked it up and discovered it meant Loved. We also happen to really like names that have a cool meaning (as opposed to the ones that are like "from the grassy hill" or whatever). We tried it out, checked the initials to make sure they didn't spell anything awkward, and pretty much fell in love with it. And that is how Ivan Erastus Swan came to be the name we chose.

Maybe once the little guy is born and is absolutely adorable the name will grow on everyone as much as it's grown on us. We hope so. And mostly we hope that he likes it and feels like it's a name he can be proud of.

What Are YOU Gonna Call Him?

Well, I know we said we weren't going to announce Shark Bait's name (or even decide on it) until after he was born, but we (probably mostly me) weren't feeling very settled about welcoming a nameless baby into the world. So we sat down for a few long hours (not all in a row, but mostly over this weekend) and picked out a name for Shark Bait. We feel really good about it, it's the only name we've both felt really settled and comfortable with, and trust me we tried it out in lots of phrases... "______ go sit in your chair." "Lincoln stop throwing toys at ______ ." And this is the name we like. Also, we really liked the way Stacey (Aaron's sister) announced what Jeremiah's name was going to be on her blog, so we decided to do something similar to make the game fun.

Here's how it works. We have taken all the letters in Shark Bait's real name (first, middle, and last) and we've mixed them all up, and you guys get to guess what his name is going to be. After a week if no one gets it, we'll put up some hints. Here are the letters....have fun!

N A S U T R A W A V E S N I S

Lincoln's Room Decor

As previously mentioned, we are working on decorating Lincoln's room in a pirate theme. We decided that this needed to include something on the wall that has his name on it. Since he was born we've had a picture frame on the wall that has his name in it, but the colors match the crib bedding that's going in the baby's room, and so we are going to put the picture frame in there as well. So that was leaving Lincoln's room pretty bare.


We decided to cut the letters of Lincoln's name out of wood, along with some anchors and hang them up in a net on the wall. The letters and anchors weren't too hard to do. We used my mom's scroll saw while we were staying up there, and we also painted them. I did the letters of his name, they are red and navy blue. Aaron is quite a bit more artistic than I am, so he did the anchors.

The next step was to get the net. We couldn't find anywhere that sold fishing net that looked like it could be on a pirate ship. So we moved to plan B, make our own. We bought some hemp twine, and with Aaron as the master mind, figured out how to tie it into a fishing net. He used a piece of cardboard to hold the ropes tight and then measured out the distance between the knots, and then he tied all the knots. There were a lot of knots. When we were all done with the net, we put Lincoln in it, just for fun, and swung him like it was a hammock. Linc thought that was great fun, and whenever we would have the net lying on the ground he would go and lie on it, in hopes that we would swing him again.


After that we had to tie the letters into the net. Aaron did that by drilling holes into them and threading some twine through and tying that on to the net. It looks great. The letters kind of remind me of little fish caught in our net. :) The last step was to wrap the rope around the anchors. Aaron also figured out how to do this and make it look authentic. I'm telling ya, my husband is amazing. He has all the hidden talents, like making rope, that he just whips out when we need them. I love it!

Then of course we got to hang it on Lincoln's wall. It looks awesome. I'm really excited to get the rest of his bedding sewn so that it all comes together and matches.

Heart Day

Happy Valentines Day! Our day wasn't super exciting actually, Aaron spent the morning on campus working on homework. Then we cleaned our house. For dinner we invited Aaron's brother Kelly over. We had a red and white themed dinner. Spaghetti with meatballs, heart shaped french bread, salad, cranberry juice mixed with gingerale with heart ice cubes, all on heart shaped plates. Oh, and of course the heart shaped chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Kelly thought I was weird, but I'm sure I get it from my mother. :)

This is the valentine I made for Aaron this year. Niether of us really made a big deal out of the holiday. Inside his heart are some reeses peanutbutter cups, his favorite candy. Yes, if you can't tell, I made the heart my self...I was going for authentic heart shape...or something like that. Haha! The "with love" part is supposed to be attached, but as soon as I hung up the valentine, Uncle Kelly lifted Lincoln up to see, and Lincoln promptly pulled it off. Oh well. Lincoln got a heart shaped magna doodle. It's mini so it will fit in the diaper bag for church.

Happy Valetines Day 2009!

Catch and Jump

We survived Hooper, and made it back to Provo all in one piece. We've spent this last week trying to get our lives back in order. (laudnry, grocery shopping, etc.) But we did take several time outs for playing. Lincoln has been working on a couple of new skills 1. Throwing and catching a ball 2. Jumping. He wasn't cooperating super well in this video, but well enough that you get the general idea. Hopefully we'll be able to get him doing a really good job soon and we'll post those.

Day 5 in Hooper

Today wasn't super exciting. It was actually kind of slow. Last night I walked out to the garbage can at the end of the driveway to throw away some diapers, and on my way back in I heard a really big dog from next door barking. I couldn't see well enough in the dark to be able to tell if there was a fence between the two of us, and it was coming towards me, so I ran (well, as much as a pregnant woman can anyway) to the front door. Not a good idea. I pulled something, I'm not sure what, but something that is vital to my ability to walk, or move my legs in general. I've been hobbling around ever since. Tanner has been making fun of me all day.

Anyways, this morning I did a lot better with the carpool. Lincoln still woke up soaked all the way through everything, but this time I woke him up about 10 minutes ahead of time, so we were only about 3 minutes late. Not bad. I had big plans to go into town today to search for the baby carrier, but I really couldn't walk much faster than a snail, so I decided to bag it. Instead Lincoln and I just played inside the house all day. Good thing that compared to our apartment my mom's house is ginormous, so Lincoln didn't get cabin fever too bad. Tanner had basketball practice after school today, so we didn't see him until 5:00pm. Then his friend Raysh came home with him. Lincoln thought those two guys were the coolest thing ever. Tanner and Raysh were playing Xbox and they gave Linc a controller they weren't using, and he sat with them on the couch and pushed the buttons and thought he was so big. It made me laugh.

After I got Lincoln to bed, I decided to work on some sewing. I can't remember if I've mentioned it before or not, but I am currently in the process of decorating Lincoln's room in pirates. I already made him one pillow case, but tonight I made another one because I had the extra fabric and this way he'll have one to use and one to wash. I think it turned out pretty good. I didn't post any pictures of the last one, so I got Jackson to model this one for me. He was a pretty good model if you ask me. Haha. If you click on the picture you can see the fabric more closely. I think the pirates are way cute, but maybe that's just me. Anyways, so that was our exciting day. Aaron will be up tomorrow afternoon, woo-hoo!

Day 4 in Hooper

Well, I survived my first day as the only person over 18 in this house, with four (almost) under 18. I had to drive Tanner and his carpool to school this morning. I was supposed to leave at 8:10am. I decided to let Lincoln sleep until the last possible second and then just stick him in the car in his jammies, run the kids to school, and then come back and do the breakfast thing. Well, it was a bad idea. I went to get Lincoln out of the port-a-crib, and he had completely soaked through his pjs. Which is probably my fault because I left all the night diapers in Provo (dumb!) and am too cheap to go buy more. Needless to say I ended up having to change his entire outfit because I didn't feel that it would be kind to take him out in the cold morning while he was sopping wet. So we were late for the carpool, but the kids did get to school on time, so that's all that really matters right?

Lincoln and I ventured out to Target later in the morning. He had a tantrum because he didn't want to sit in the cart. I was bound and determined to be in Target because I found a baby carrier online there for $31 and it had really good reviews comparable to the BabyBjorn only it's in our budget range. So I finally got Lincoln calmed down by finding him some beads to play with off the dollar rack. Then we got all the way back to the baby department only to discover that this particular store did not have the right carrier in stock. Grrr. I'll have to try Wal-Mart or Shopko or just wait to go to the Target in Orem I guess. Well, Lincoln's temperament was rapidly deteriorating, so I decided to head home and put him down for a nap. While he was napping I used my mom's surger to make some small receiving blankets (just the light squares of material that you wrap them in for the first month) for Shark Bait. They turned out pretty good. I still have a few more to do out of the extra fabric from the quilt I made him.

After Tanner got home from school we played outside for awhile. Lincoln liked taking the dirt out of the flowerbed and dropping it in piles on the driveway. I'm sure Papa Kerry will be thrilled with that. Oh well. Then we had to go to Tanner's soccer game. We got there pretty early. It was indoor soccer. It was pretty cool because they have a wall all the way around the field, but the wall is made out of fiber glass so you can see right through it to the players. Lincoln loved it because he could go stand right up next to the glass and see what was going on, but couldn't get knocked down or be in the way. Tanner played well. He scored a goal, but his team lost.

We came home, put Lincoln to bed, and then Tanner and I had FHE. We read an article out of the Ensign about missionary work, and then we wrote emails to Kyle (my bro who is on a mission).

That pretty much sums up our day. Still surviving here after 4 days.

Day 3 in Hooper

So apparently today was the Super Bowl. My mom had bought all this food (chips, soda, honey bbq wings, even a shrimp ring) so that we could celebrate. Too bad we (Aaron and I at least) had about zero desire to watch. I used to watch the Super Bowl every year, but since the Janet Jackson incident, I have not been a big fan. Plus, I don't care about football anyways (gasp! I know! I'm such a weirdo. Get over it.) and neither does Aaron, so we didn't really feel like watching was a good Sunday activity for us. Jackson ended up going to a friend's house to watch it, so Tanner was the only one here who was in. He was pretty disappointed that he had to watch the majority of it by himself. I felt kind of bad for him actually, because I remembered what it was like at his age to be so pumped for a game, but not bad enough that I watched with him. Aaron and I decided to work on family history instead. Lincoln was in and out between the game and playing near Aaron and I. Here's a really cute picture of Linc and Tman watching the game together. Lincoln loves his Uncle Tanner. Whenever Tanner is home, Lincoln follows him around and wants to do everything he is doing. Tanner is the only person who can get a hug out of Lincoln 100% of the time he asks for one. It's probably because Tanner is such a great uncle. Here is a video of Tanner entertaining Lincoln with the shrimp ring.



In case you are thinking that we are super mean, don't. We didn't just completely ignore Tanner for the whole four hours or however long it was that the game was on. We had the food out in the kitchen and we would all be together in there while we ate it. Besides, Tanner came running in about every 5 minutes to give us a recap of what had just happened anyways, so it was practically like we were right there with him when it happened. We let Lincoln try shrimp for the first time. I didn't think he would like it, but he loved it! He just kept saying more,

more! Which I thought was so funny. Tanner was really disappointed in the outcome of the game, but from they way he was jumping around and yelling during the last little bit, it sounded like it was pretty intense.

Meanwhile, our family history session was really intense. :) We found a file on the Internet that had Aaron's Dad's great? grandma's line all the way back to 1000 AD. I thought that was pretty cool myself. Aaron is taking a family history class this semester and we are both getting really into it. I can't wait until we get to go to the family history library and use all their resources. It's gonna be awesome.

So, my pregnancy hormones kicked in towards the end of the night, and for no reason at all I just burst into tears, and had a complete meltdown. I still couldn't tell you why I was crying or what I was upset about. Maybe the stress of being in Hooper all week by myself while Aaron went back to Provo to go to school and work, who knows. But because of that Aaron decided to spend the night and get up early and drive home, instead of driving home tonight. I was really happy about that. I hate being away from Aaron for so long. We also decided that he will come up and spend Wednesday night here, and go back home early Thursday morning, and then come back Friday night for the weekend. I'm pretty spoiled to have such a wonderful husband who is willing to do a lot of driving and waking up early just to be with me. I think he loves me. :) I love him a whole bunch too, and I think I just might survive this week here.

Day 2 in Hooper

Ever since we found out we were having another little Swan, we've been thinking about getting a double stroller. Ya, I know, wow. It is quite the step. We've been looking around a lot and came to the conclusion that they are expensive! :( So we were holding off on getting one. I'm really glad we did. Tami, my friend from high school, called the other day and said that her aunt had a double stroller that she was just giving away because she didn't need it anymore and did we want it? We did. Tami dropped it off to us last night.

We spent the whole morning figuring out how it works. It's still in really nice condition. I'm pretty excited about it. Both seats lay down, and the front one turns around so the kids can face each other. There is lots of storage underneath, and a cup holder in the front and one for my by the handle. It's kind of big when it folds up, but that is to be expected from a double stroller I would think. Lincoln loved it too. He spent the whole morning climbing in and out of it and then just sitting in it. It was funny. We couldn't get him to come out.

But one thought I had, was how it's amazing how the Lord blesses us with what we need. I mean, Tami's aunt just so happened to be getting rid of the stroller and Tami just so happened to think about us and give us a call. Pretty cool if you ask me. We have also been really blessed lately in finding a reasonable priced dresser ($45, and it came with a matching night stand) for the baby's room as well, and it's in great condition. I just feel like we've been really blessed in the preparation for this baby.

Also today, Aaron decided to clean out our car, yay! It really, really, REALLY, needed it. Lincoln was a big "helper" and got to play in the car while dad cleaned. He thought that was great fun. Now our car looks so good, and it will probably stay that way for at least a week since Aaron will be the only one driving it. (I have my mom's Rav for the week, so I can take the carpool.)

Later in the day we went and watched Tanner play in his basketball game. He did really well. He made two back to back layups to put his team ahead in the last minute of the came. Unfortunately the other team made a buzzer beater, game winning basket and Tanner's team lost. But Tanner did awesome. Lincoln loved the excitement of the gym. He's never really been in that kind of environment before, and having so much going on at once kept him pretty entertained.

So, I guess we've survived day 2 in Hooper!

Day 1 in Hooper

My mom and step-dad decided to skip the country on a ten day cruise to Mexico. Guess who is watching Tanner and Jackson while they are gone? Yup, me. I've suddenly found myself to be the mother of not only my toddler and one on the way, but of two teenagers as well. Yikes!

Day 1, Friday January 31st, Aaron, Lincoln and I packed up and headed to Hooper. We got there around 6:00pm and decided that we'd take Tanner (and Lincoln of course) out on date night with us. We went to ABC Mandarin in Roy. This place has great Chinese food. It was packed but it was well worth the wait.

We ordered shrimp lo mein (which is what I always order at Chinese places) and sesame chicken, a few egg rolls, and some ham fried rice. Delicious. We even attempted to use chop sticks. Well, all except for Lincoln, he makes a big enough mess as it is with a spoon. Notice how his corner of the table is completely open. All the food was crammed on the rest of the table so he couldn't reach it. Ha! But we had a great time.

A Regular Little Chatter-Box

Over the last few months it has just amazed me how much Lincoln's language skills are developing. He said his first word (Dada, of course * rolls eyes *) about a year ago, and then for a long time nothing else. But lately he's been a regular little chatter-box. He jabbers on while he plays with toys, and if he gets hurt, he's very dramatic about pointing and trying to tell me exactly what happened. Not that I ever understand a word, but it's still fun to see that he realizes what those sounds coming out of his mouth are for. He does say words that we understand too, and the other night Aaron and I decided to count them. There were over 50 words that he can say! Wow. And that's not counting the ones he understands but doesn't say. Anyways, I thought for the record's sake I would list the words Lincoln can say, in no particular order:

Dad, Mom, baby, bear, please, no, yes, banana, hat, light, snow, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, teeth, shoes, socks, thank you, Jesus, breakfast, duck, bath, door, bubbles, diaper, Mo (G-ma Swan's dog), more, grapes, cheese, yogurt, rice, ice, piece, blocks, horse, juice, water, uh-oh, yo-yo, trees, stick, puppies, Kelly (uncle), Zac (cousin), vroom (car noise), ball, oof-oof (dog noise), fish, tickle-tickle, kiss, house, erase, Doodle (his magna-doodle), book, wipes, toes, beads

What I've Been Doing Instead of Blogging

Yikes, I know, time to update the blog already! Well here's what I've been up to while Lincoln is sleeping instead of blogging (which is what I normally do when he sleeps).

A Blanket For Shark Bait

Well, a few years ago I inherited a sewing machine from my great-grandmother. The thing is probably older than I am, and it weighs more than Lincoln (probably about 50 pounds, no exaggeration) and it is practically an antique. It's been sitting in my mom's barn for a few years. Well, I've gotten the sewing bug lately, so instead of making a trip to Hooper to use my mom's machine every time I wanted to sew, we decided to dig this dinosaur out of the barn. And guess what...it works! Thanks to Aaron who put a lot of TLC and some bike chain grease into it for me. Anyways, it's the perfect thing for a beginning sewer.

Back in October I made a baby blanket for Aaron's sister Stacey's baby Jeremiah. It turned out so well (at least as far as my very limited sewing skills are concerned) that I wanted to make another one for Shark Bait. I got some material (and who knew how difficult it would be to find six different kinds of fabric that had a similar theme/color scheme to them?) then I cut it out, and we decided to make the quilt a little bigger than the original pattern called for, so Aaron (the math brain in this relationship) helped me adjust the pattern size and keep all the right dimensions. And then away I went on the sewing machine.

I think it came out pretty darn good for a first try all by myself. There are lots of crooked parts that you can't really see, and a couple lines that don't match up perfectly that you can see. But all in all I'm happy with it, and I'll probably keep sewing.

Yesterday I went up to Hooper and my mom helped me put the batting in and the backing on. So now all that's left is to sew up the little gap where we pulled the quilt right side out and then it'll be all done!

In the midst of this project, I decided that since Lincoln has started using a pillow now, that I should probably make him a pillow case so he doesn't have to keep using our old camping one. Well, at the fabric store (it's starting to be a dangerous place) I found the cutest pirate material, so I got it to make Lincoln a pillow case out of. Then I got to thinking how we are going to take all the crib bedding out of Lincoln's crib to use for Shark Bait's crib, and how Lincoln wouldn't have a dust ruffle on his crib anymore (I know, disastrous!) and I got to looking at the dust ruffle, and it didn't look too difficult, so I made the decision that I would make Lincoln a dust ruffle and a blanket to match his pirate pillow case. And if I still feel ambitious after that, I'll attempt curtains for his window! Wow, so I did the pillow case at my mom's yesterday (sorry no picture yet, Lincoln is currently napping on it) and at night while Aaron does homework I've been working on the dust ruffle. I'm pretty excited about it all.

Trying Out Christmas Gifts


Also I've been trying out all our new Christmas gifts! Aaron's mom gave me a Pampered Chef melon baller/cookie scoop and a Pampered Chef cooling rack and a PC cutting board, and a PC potato peeler. I have been going to town! Isn't it amazing how a few good tools can make life so much easier? My cookies were so round, and all I had to do was use the scoop. No more balling them by hand. And even better than round cookies, when I pulled them out of the oven to put on the cooling rack, they didn't fall between the cracks (which is what they always did on my old ones) so they stayed in a nice shape instead of sagging through the bottom. I was very pleased with the results. And Lincoln and Aaron both seemed to like the cookies, so I guess it's a keeper. :)

Oh ya, and a quick side note that has nothing to do with this post: Lincoln's souvenir from Texas finally fits him! Hooray! It's cute too. Don't mess with Texas. Ok, that's all, back to the post.

My parents made us a book case. Which I was really excited about because our other three were running out of room. So I've been reorganizing books so that we can spread them out across 4 book cases. Admittedly, one of the bookcases is only a half size, we used to use it for the reference shelf, but now we've emptied it and it's in Lincoln's room holding all of his books.

Teachin Linc to Be a Band Nerd

Maternal Instinct Kickin' In?

So, I don't know what it is, but for some reason yesterday all of the sudden, I just felt this, what could I even call it? A craving? A burning desire? A very strong urge, to get things ready for Shark Bait. I just kept coming up with lists of things we need to get and do and make.

He needs a car seat, a dresser, I need to go through Lincoln's baby clothes and see what we have so I can make a list of what we need, I want to make him blankets, burp clothes, toys, an Easter basket (ok I didn't say all of this was realistic or rational, it's just what was running through my head), we need to decide how to organize his room, where to put the computer (currently Shark Bait's room is the study), and I, for serious real, had to stop myself about 3 times from going and setting up the crib to be ready for him. Like I wanted to put the bumpers on and raise it up to the bassinet setting, and the whole works.

In a way it's kind of ridiculous, all this sudden rush, he's not going to be here until mid-March (and no I don't think he's coming early). And yet here I am pulling up craig's list and KSL to see if anyone has posted a cheap dresser in our area. And here I am frantically crocheting around a baby blanket (like we don't already have 500 from when Lincoln was born), and here I am frustrated that I can't find what I want at the fabric store, and that I bought the wrong kind of cloth diapers for making burp clothes out of.

Last night Aaron humored me and we got online and ordered a car seat. I feel good about that. I mean, it's not a bad thing to want to be prepared. But why all the rush all the sudden? Maybe my maternal instinct is kicking in on over-drive. Who knows. Aaron said I acted the same way with Lincoln, but I don't remember.

Lincoln's First Snow Fort

It appears that the Arctic Blast followed us back to Provo. Monday night it started snowing and it still hasn't stopped! This afternoon Lincoln and I bundled up and headed out into the winter wonderland.

I didn't know what Lincoln would think of all the snow, he didn't really like it before, but this time he loved it. He just kept saying "Snow, snow." And then he would pick some up and throw it and laugh really hard. The sidewalks had been shoveled but the roads and parking lots were covered.



On our way to the backyard, Lincoln found some really deep (for him) snow to walk it. I thought it was so funny, but he kept at it and eventually we did make it to the fenced play area in the back of our complex.

The snow was really easy to gather and pack, so I decided that we would make a snow fort. I piled the snow, and Lincoln caught on really quickly with how to help me pack it down. When his attention span ended, he'd just go around and pick up snow and throw it at me, and then he'd come back and help. It was great to watch him having such a good time.

We stayed out so long, that before we knew it Aaron was home from school. He couldn't resist and came to help us finish up the fort. The arch on the doorway was his idea, and he did most of the construction while I took pictures and piled more snow.

My boys and their completed snow fort. It looked really cool. Too bad other kids from the complex will probably knock it down tomorrow. Oh well.

And here's Lincoln going in and out of the door to his snow fort. He thought it was the coolest thing to have a door that was just his size.

Late Christmas in Hooper

Saturday night we all made it to Hooper safely. Aaron by car with Kelly, and Lincoln and I by airplane. My mom and Kerry had saved all of our Christmas gifts so we could unwrap them when we got there. They had made Lincoln an adorable wooden rocking horse. I was really impressed with how well it turned out. They used a mop for the hair, and even some vinyl lettering to spell Swan on the bottom of the rocker.


Lincoln loved the horse. Even though he's not tall enough yet to get on and off by himself. I'd put him on it, and then after a while ask him if he wanted to get down and he'd say "NO!" and start rocking harder.


While we were in Washington, Aaron and Kelly divided up their 5,000 piece set of K'nex. Of course we brought ours home with us. Aaron was (unadmittingly) desperate to play with them, and so was thrilled when Tanner wanted to play to. Lincoln even got in on the action! Who said you have to be 11 to play with these things?

.JPG" border=0>I was surprised how long the K'nex held Lincoln's attention. And he didn't even make a mess out off all the small pieces like I thought he would. Aaron built him a lawn mower, which he pushed around and around the house all day.

This is a great video of Lincoln making building sound effects and then falling down and saying "Ah-oh" one of his favorite words. He's a pretty silly little boy, but we love him.

We weren't sure we'd be able to get all our stuff home in one load. We had all our luggage that we took to Washington, plus all the Christmas presents from there, plus all the Christmas presents from Hooper. But my husband just so happens to be the master packer, and we fit in everything except the bookcase Mom and Kerry made for us, which we knew wouldn't fit in our car in the first place. Here is a picture of it all jammed into our car. The trunk is full too. We even had room for all three of us to ride home comfortably. Way to go Aaron!

Baby Moon, Oregon Coast

Monday afternoon Aaron and I left Lincoln with Aaron's mom and Aaron's sister Sydni and headed out on our baby moon (for those of you that haven't heard of a baby moon, it's supposed to be the romantic trip you and your husband are supposed to take together before the baby comes and ruins life as you know it.) . Okay, the baby moon thing is more of a joke, but since we baby-sat Zac for a few days in Oct. Syd offered to watch Lincoln so Aaron and I could get away for a few days. We decided to go to Seaside on the Oregon Coast, a couple hours south of Vancouver, WA.

Since it was off-season down there we found a killer deal on a cute little condo right on the beach. We only paid $115 for two nights! The two pictures above are of the view out of our bedroom window.

The first night we were there we went for a very chilly walk along the beach at sunset. We got some beautiful pictures. All the rest of the pictures on the page were from that walk.

We made it to the coast in time for a late lunch. We stopped at a little cafe and I had homemade tomato soup with cheese sandwiches and Aaron had a bacon cheese burger. It was delicious. We decided to save the rest of the little shops for the next day. So we walked along the beach for awhile. When the sun set, we went back to our condo and worked on the blog for awhile, making the new background to fit the winter season. When we got hungry we ordered pizza and had it delivered, which hit the spot. After dinner we worked on the blog some more and just enjoyed the time together talking and not worrying about Lincoln's bedtime or what time he was going to wake up in the morning.

The second day we slept in for a really long time. It was so nice not to have any kind of agenda, but to be able to relax and just lay around all morning. Aaron made a trip to a local grocery store and got us muffins, yogurt, and orange juice. Then we spent the morning reading books and looking out the window at the beautiful ocean. Hunger was what finally motivated us to get up and get going around lunch time. :) We went to a place called Pig 'N Pancake where we only ordered hot chocolate and french fries because the wait was so long. After that we walked down the street and looked at all the little gift shops and stores. Then we walked along the beach again. And then we went and got our car and drove to the outlet mall. It was kind of funny because last time I was there in June with my sisters-in-law I could have spent a million dollars, but as Aaron and I were walking through we just couldn't even find anything we "needed" not even for Lincoln at the Osh Kosh outlet (I know mom you're wondering if you raised me right because I was at an Osh Kosh outlet and didn't even get one thing). I guess that proves that Christmas was a huge success because we just couldn't think of anything we wanted to get.

That night we ate dinner at a restaurant called Doogers. Originally the plan was to each get a bowl of their homemade clam chowder, but as we were looking at the menu the Salmon sounded too good to pass up. So we split a Salmon instead. To this day, I still have not had fresh clam chowder from the coast! Haha! But the salmon was SO good, and so fresh. And it was so nice to be out on a date with only my husband and not my child. After dinner we went back to the condo and played 3 games of Blockus (our new board game). Aaron beat me twice, but I did manage to win one!

In the morning we had to be out by 11:00am and we just barely made it :) (Mostly my fault.) After we got checked out we went down to the shops one more time to find Lincoln a souvenir. We got him a little fuzzy seal. It's cute. Then we got some salt water taffy for Lisa, Sydni, and Debbie to say thanks for taking care of Lincoln while we got away.