Valentine's Day 2015....and some other stuff

Valentine's Day is pretty low key when your husband is a grad student and you're expecting another baby in a month. 

We went to IHop the night before as a family to avoid the crowds plus kids eat free and Lincoln puts his food away like a champ! 

On Saturday, actual Valentine's Day, my friends & I got together for a fancy breakfast to celebrate Emily's birthday. It was fun to have a gal-entine's day. I'm so thankful for the wonderful friend's I've made here. We laughed about pregnancy woo's and other womanly things. All of us in the picture are pregnant or nursing.

 

We realized we were the loudest table when we took the picture and the restaurant got very quiet. Oops. 

While I was out with the girls Ryan took good care of Lincoln. 

I got Ryan a copper card, the size of a credit card, with a small love note engraved on it. His wallet is small and I thought it would be fun for him to have a love note that will last forever. Then we both agreed to buy a used Wii game system from a neighbor. I'm actually loving it. After Linc goes to bed we play a few rounds of whatever game we're feeling. 

I feel like since Linc has gotten older its harder for us to have good quality time together. After he goes to bed Ryan has to go back to work and I'm usually exhausted. We're trying to make more time for each other even if its just 20minutes a day without phones or tv. I'm surprised by how fun it is to challenge Ryan to a video game....he usually stomps on me slash he ALWAYS stomps on me.  It's fun to have time waster fun. 

 Saturday was super snowy so we kept inside as much as possible. Ryan worked from home and spent time with Lincoln. We all made a romantic trip to Costco for our monthly shopping trip. 

We got Lincoln a cute red shirt to wear on Valentine's day and thats about all the fuss we put into the day. 

Sunday church was cancelled due to frozen temps and slick roads. Since we're 9am church I have a feeling we'll get canceled church more since the roads don't get paved until later in the day. We did get invited to go to another ward's sacrament meeting when the roads cleared up by 1 but Linc refused to nap at his normal time. After a long battle he finally went down at 12:45 and I was too exhausted to fathom getting him up and out to church.  

At our apartment complex each hall is encouraged (with a good budget) to do a hall party. This year our hall reps kept it low key and it was awesome. Sunday evening we just had pizza at the community center and they took our pictures for Valentine's Day. The fun part was they ordered pizza from all over town so we got a good taste of the different local shops. Bonus we got to eat take out pizza on Sunday without breaking any Sabbath rules ;) 

The pictures turned out really cute which was nice since we didn't have any together time on actual Valentine's to take a photo.  

All in all a wonderful holiday. 

Here are some random pictures I pulled off my phone. Gotta love camera phones.

This is the gate that leads to our Frosty store. Too bad its buried. 

Linc is getting so big. He's really into putting things in order. He's constantly taking toys from one location to another all day just organizing them. 

 This lady saved my life. The other day we had to mail off a package at the post office which is the worst place to take a small kid. She finished her stuff just as we walked in. Rather then rushing out and on with her list of to-do's she stopped and played with Linc the whole time I was there. I kept checking that she was ok with him, she told me that she hopes someone will do the same for her grandkid. I started crying, hormonal happy tears at her kindness. The post office went smoothly and it brightened everyone's day. The postal workers even noticed and were more patient then usual. Kindness really is an everyday miracle you can do for others. 

The library continues to be my favorite place of all time. They had the local zoo come and bring some animals to show the kids. Linc got to see a tortoise (not a turtle) a toad (not a froggie) and a bunny-rabbit. I laughed at how the zookeepers were quick to correct me when I was explaining the different animals to Linc. Sorry folks but my kid knows turtle not tortoise and froggie not toad. 

Linc apparently had a rough nap. He woke up with a bloodly lip and a very dazed look. 

Mornings are our only time with Daddy and we soak it up. Mommy sleeps in later and Linc gets to play and read with Dad until the bus comes to take him to school. 

Linc loves this game and whenever he sits on our bed he wants to play it. 

This kid is a child after my own heart. He loves books! At storytime he doesn't want to sit on my lap (probably cuz my lap is over-run by baby brother) Linc sits right in front of Miss Sandy. 

The other day at the grocery store he got a cookie from the bakery. A HUGE sugar cookie the size of his head. I kept a close eye on it but after he had eaten about half of it he shoved the rest all in his mouth while I was picking some crackers off the shelf. I turned around to this face.... 

...look how smug he is with his accomplishment. 

He loves spoons right now. I haven't fed my son in over a week. He won't let me, he does it all himself now. 

Grandma Darla & Grandma Ann sent Linc a valentine's card with stickers. He put all the stickers on baby brother. 

Linc has started sleeping just like his daddy. Legs crossed and up. I don't know how they find this comfortable but both my boys sleep the same.

One day after nap Linc wouldn't let go of my hand. He was completely healthy and happy but he just wanted to hold my hand all through lunch. My heart melted

Linc loves my baby belly. He will randomly come up and give it kisses. Embarrassingly enough he has to kiss my skin so he'll just yank my shirt up and kiss my belly whenever he feels like it. 

This kid LOVES the snow. Which is good cuz we're getting a ton here. The back windows are half-way covered and its supposed to keep snowing the rest of the week. Ryan will have to shovel them out so we can get some light in. 

At the doctors office waiting for his last round of shots till school! 

This kid is 19months, 21 pounds and 31 inches! 

We got the bug :(

Here is our life lately:

Linc is growing bigger everyday. I look at this picture of him lounging on his/my bear and it amazes me how big he looks. He loves to discover new things and is starting to really catch on to what we're saying. He'll get diapers and other things for me when I ask him from his room. Linc still loves his bath and afterwards will put his clothes in the dirty clothes. Such a good helper.

 This bear was given to me by my aunt Jana when I was a baby. I love that Linc loves it so much.

 During the summer we couldn't get this kid to wear a hat for more then 30 seconds, he's since discovered that he loves this hat. He'll go get it from the drawer and put it on and then take his red mickey hat to Daddy to put on. If Linc is wearing a hat Daddy has to as well.

 January 31st was a big date night for Ryan and I. The village arranged a dance for all the couples, we had free babysitting, free limo rides to and from the dance and free food at the dance. It was so fun. The theme was the 1920's too bad I only have 3 maternity dresses so I couldn't dress up too much. Ryan arranged for a fellow student to watch Linc and she loved it. We invited her over for pizza before and then we left. We returned to find her and Linc up and playing. One night won't hurt ;) 

We have such amazing friends here ;) 

Baby & I only lasted so long but we had fun while we could. 

Another fun thing with Linc is he is starting to have strong opinions. He wanted to wear the new mickey jammies we pulled from storage never mind they are silky and not for cold weather. We layered him up and it worked out fine. He also loves his shoes and will bring them to us whenever he isn't wearing them. 

This is day 2 of the mickey jammie shirt. He would not let us take it off him. 

Sunday church was canceled due to a huge snow storm we got. It started snowing at midnight Saturday and didn't let up til Monday morning. Our car was covered! Saturday night Linc developed a cough so we were somewhat excited we wouldn't have to find subs for church.  

We enjoyed the superbowl on sunday. Linc ran around saying football and touchdown the whole time. He rotated between sitting in our laps pointing to the football on tv and running around the apt with his football over his head shouting touchdown. So cute. This kids loves his sports. 

Sunday Linc spent the day coughing and got a slight fever. Monday this kid was sick! He was throwing up, coughing just not happy at all. Poor kid. All day he sat on the couch with me and we watched movies and practiced throwing up in a bowl. 

Ryan got home late and we did a quick FHE and then Ryan gave Linc a blessing to help him feel better. Linc went to bed on time then woke up at 10pm and wanted to play. Since this was the most energy he had shown all day I let him (Ryan had gone back to work) Things were looking up. Linc slept the full night, coughing throughout but he'd sleep through them. Before he was coughing so hard it would wake him up and turn into cries. 

Tuesday morning we still had a sick boy. He just wanted to cuddle on the couch again. Which I didn't mind. We took a hot shower and the steam seemed to help him a ton. Afterwards I put him in new jammies and we had a little fun before the sickies came back. 

Linc was combing my hair since I had combed his. 

By 10am this was my little boy, sick again. Back to the couch we went. 

We've gotten really good at getting to the barf bowl quickly. Its always close. 

I've never seen Linc so lethargic. He couldn't even sit up on the couch. Linc spent most of yesterday sleeping, on Mommy and in his bed. With his bed he would start coughing so I tried to let him sleep on me as much as he could. 

Today he is still sick but not couch ridden. We got out the grocery store. (My cupboards were bare) Linc still has a cough but hasn't thrown up for 24 hours so thats good. We've discovered that this kid loves Disney but only Disney with lots of animals. Mulan...not a hit, 101 Dalmations & Tarzan were a win. We also watched Curious George and Thomas on PBS. Linc loves George thanks to Clayson. 

I've also come to realize how vital insurance is. We've been waiting for our new Medicaid cards in the mail and they're late. We tried going to an 18month checkup and were denied coverage until the cards come. So this whole week we've been praying that Linc will get over this without having to visit a doctor since we can't afford a doctor without insurance. We also received our bills from Riley's Hospital in Indy for our echos, $1200 each. Hopefully our cards come soon so we don't have to dive into our very small saving account to start paying these. 

Also I've come to really appreciate my friends and family. Having a sick kid and a husband in school is hard. Monday-Thursday Ryan leaves early then comes home for dinner, scriptures & prayers then he's off to study til 1am. I've been stuck in my apartment with no one besides a very grumpy, sick child. I can't take Linc anywhere or invite anyone over for fear they'd get sick. It wears on you. Lucky for me I have a great husband who is present when he is around. He isn't on his phone or laptop he is down on the floor with Linc and will let me talk his ear off about my dull day. I also have friends and family who call and text me throughout the day with words of encouragement and silly stories to remind me there is life outside of L1.  

Things are looking up so hopefully we can get out tomorrow and go to the library. The local zoo will be coming to bring animals to story time. I hope Linc feels up to it. I miss my happy energetic boy.