Can Anyone Say Nursery!

Today officially begins Lincoln's experience in Nursery. He officially turned 18 months today and not a moment too soon. We have been fighting with him for the past 6 months during church. It has been a long time since both Justin and I were able to sit through Sunday School. And lets just say Lincoln was past ready for something better to do with his time.
After sacrament meeting, the two of us headed out. And if I wanted some kind of sadness from him with the thought of having to leave Mom's side, I did not get it. I was chopped liver compared to all the toys and kids in that room. He did not even look back! Which I think is just fine, but it just reminds me of how big he is getting.
My Mom is one of the Nursery leaders so that could have helped matters. When I went to pick him up he was glad to see me, but he seemed to be doing just fine. And it does not look like he will be getting picked on, but the other kids better watch out! I guess he pushed the same kid down twice (although my Mom said he had it coming-he did not push Lincoln down but I guess he had pushed a few of the other kids) and then pulled another kids hair. He also does not quite understand the whole sit down and listen to the lesson idea! But I am sure it will come with time!

Merry Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas everyone! What a fun filled day! We started off at our house were Santa definitely made his presence known! :) Lincoln is still a little young to really understand what was going on, but he did not have a problem getting into the spirit of things once we brought him into the front room.







His big present this year is a mini-quad! He is really into cars lately, so when we ran across this motorized quad a few months ago we could not help ourselves! We had it all charged up and ready to go for him. And that was the first thing Lincoln tested out. As soon as he walked in the room, he went straight to the quad and climbed on. And before we could show him how it worked he had already figured it out and was on his way across the room!


He probably would have been happy with just that present. But as Santa usually does he left more presents to be opened. So we pried him away form the quad and he helped open his presents. He got cars, a new book, a lion towel, the Kung Fu Panda movie, and blocks. He also got a funny frog puppet from my friend Lisa and some cool cars from Jen. I think he had a good time opening the presents, but was still not that great at it! It took quite a bit of help from Mom and Dad to get everything opened.

After Christmas morning at our house we went up to my parents house. We had an awesome breakfast of Ham n' Casserole and sweet rolls. That is definitely a Christmas tradition none of us can pass up! There were of course presents to open. And my Mom out did herself again. All the kids loved their gifts. Lincoln and Cutler got little guns that remind me of Buzz Lightyear, with noise and lights to make them even more exciting! You would have though they were both in heaven. Cutler opened his first and Lincoln could not take his eyes off of it! (Mom made sure that was the next gift he opened!) My Mom also got us the Wii Fit, which I am super excited about. I have wanted one of those for quite awhile now so I can not wait to get it open! Maybe, it will finally motivate me! :)

After my Mom's house we headed up to Justin's Moms house. Landon, Erin and the girls were down so everyone was there. They of course could not put off Christmas morning, so the girls had already opened their presents. Which meant Lincoln was the center of attention as he opened his. He got some more great things including a Basketball hoop and Elmo Live! He had the biggest smile when he opened Elmo. And I must say it is pretty cool. It really attempts to interact with him, on a small scale anyway!

We also had a wonderful lunch with Justin's family. The main course was prime rib and was quite tasty! After digesting a little bit we headed over to Nana's house. Everyone else had already gone home so we got to spend a little one on one time with Nana and Papa. It was nice just to chat and be there to celebrate with them.

As you can see we had a full day. It was nice to finally come home and Lincoln got to actually start using some of the great things he got. So far he loves his Aquadoodle that Landon, Erin and the girls gave him. and all his new cars. I am sure he will get a lot of use out of all the fun things he got. I just hope we an find space for it all!

Oooh...Lights

We took Lincoln to see the Light display out at Sunset park today. Neither I or Justin had ever been there before so we did not know what to expect. But it really was pretty cool. The price was $13 a car so that wasn't horrible. Much cheaper than many of the other Christmas events in the area. And Lincoln is enthralled by lights, so this was very exciting for him. Since we were driving at less than 5 miles an hour, we let him sit up front with me. And although we had to convince him to stop pushing the unlock button, and pay attention to the lights on more than one occasion, we still felt like it was worth it. There were some really cool light displays, which if anyone has tried to take pictures of lights they are not the easiest thing to photograph, so hopefully these pictures give you an idea of what we got to see.

No School Day!

Okay, many of you are not going to believe this. But school has been canceled tomorrow due to snow!! I have no idea if there are any records kept on this type of thing, but I am pretty sure it has not happened here recently! All I can say, is Yippee!! I can not express how excited I am to not have to go to work tomorrow. Maybe they will do us all a favor and just call it good and let us out early for break. :)

White Christmas?

Well, the weather has finally turned cold! And it has done so with a vengence! Not only is it cold, its snowing! Lincoln got his first chance to play in the snow. And from what I saw he thought it was great fun! Here are some fun pics of our snow dusting here in Vegas!!

Santa's Coming To Town!

activities. Some of our "shops" were the Bakery, the Sewing Shop, The Ornament Shop, the Toy Workshop, and the Post Office. And of course we had Santa's House! Lincoln was okay with the Big Man. (Unlike his cousin who was not too fond of the man in red!) He was a bit more interested in the tree and its lights but we were able to acquire one picture We had our Ward party this evening. The theme was basically built around the old town feel of Christmas. We tried to turn the building into a small town full of inviting store fronts and wonderful Christmas with him looking at the camera versus the tree!
Lincoln even wrote a letter to Santa this year. Although he was a bit more interested in emptying every writing utensil he could find out of its container than he was in writing the letter. I stopped counting how many times I picked the colored pencils up off the ground. Luckily, at the time he was the only one attempting to write a letter so he wasn't hindering anyone else's progress!
In the toy shop he drew on a block and in the sewing shop he stuffed a felt ball. Even Justin got in on the action by drawing on a block. And he made sure to draw on all sides of the block! Overall it was a fun night. I think everyone had a good time.
And just as a plug I have to say that my Mom is awesome. She turned ordinary posterboard into nativities! We used them for the centerpieces on the tables. And although there was a lot of work involved it brought the whole room together! (I was dumb and did not take a picture but you can see one on my Friend Lisa's blog!)

Happy Naked Dance!

Beware Naked Little Boy in front of a newly lit Christmas Tree!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Justin's Birthday and to celebrate I took him to..... Monterey, California! I found a killer deal on airplane tickets from Vegas straight into town and just could not pass it up. We brought the little man with us too. Which isn't much of a break for either of us, but I knew we couldn't leave him behind. Especially since the best aquarium ever is right here in Monterey!
We flew in Friday night after work. And it was a very empty flight which was nice. Lincoln was able to have a seat to himself. He did pretty well, considering all he wanted to do was run around the plane! Luckily the flight was just over an hour long.
Yesterday, we split the day between the Aquarium and Cannery Row. Lincoln loved the Aquarium. We had him in the stroller for a short time, but he was too excited to be in there. So we let him out and he ran from one exhibit to the next. He was enthralled with the Jellyfish. But his favorite area was probably the giant fish tank. He ran up and down the glass pointing out all the fish and saying, "Ooo, what's that?"
There was even an entire area that was set aside just for the little kids. He got to push buttons, jump on a tramp like thing, and play in water. What wasn't to love!
Today we drove out to Big Sur to go to the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State park. Too bad the Internet site did not mention that the park was closed due to fire damage! Luckily it was a beautiful drive and it gave Lincoln the opportunity to take a much needed nap!
On the way back to Monterey we stopped at a beach in Carmel. It was a little chilly but a gorgeous day overall. Like most beaches in the area it's not what you imagine a beach is like. It's not white soft dune sand. This stuff it much coarser, a bunch of little rocks. (It's nice though because it is easier to get off when you leave the beach!) Lincoln was pretty interested in the waves of the ocean. He probably could have stared at them all afternoon. Except then he got too interested and decided to see them first hand. He probably would have walked right in if we had not been there to stop him! He truly has no fear!
The fun couldn't last of course. But we tried to fit as much fun as possible into the weekend. Lincoln even had time to try his hand at geese herding!

A New Decoration

I put the tree up last night and Lincoln got to see it this morning. Even without light or ornaments he found it quite interesting! He kept asking "what's that" and touching the branches. I think we might be in trouble this year with the Little Man and his never ending quest to see how all things work! I think I will take it a piece at a time with the tree. Maybe put the lights on next and then the ornaments. With the hope that a few of those items will stay on the tree itself!