Nauvoo Trip

Before I get into our Nauvoo trip I need to just post these two pictures of game day. 

Ryan and I got to go to the Standford game since our friends decided to have a baby. It was a very VERY wet game. I only lasted til halftime and then I decided being home with a baby and a nice warm blanket sounded better.

We don't get to go to a lot of games but we love going to campus for game day. They go all out. Lincoln loves all the sounds and sights.

OK now on to Nauvoo. For fall break this year Ryan worked most of the week on his fellowship proposal. After working hard Monday-Thursday we took off for Nauvoo. Its about 6 hours away from us and this time of year the drive is gorgeous. All the leaves are bright and colorful. The drive didn't seem that long at all. Linc did great. He slept for a couple hours, read his books and then looked out the window. We are blessed to have a good traveler.

As soon as we got to Nauvoo all he wanted to do was move, EVERYWHERE. He's been taking steps lately. The record is across a good sized room. Crawling gets him places faster so he sticks to that.

We were lucky enough to go with our neighbors for the first couple days. These pictures are from our last day. We started off at Carthage Jail.

We put the boys in jail. The sister missionary was more then helpful with that ;) 

I'm impressed with this picture Ryan took. He took it looking through the bullet hole in the door. Linc and I are looking out the window that Joseph Smith fell out of.

It was a Spirit filled building. I wasn't expecting to feel the Spirit so strongly since I knew I'd spend most of the tour chasing Linc around the room. I did still chase him but I think Heavenly Father knew I needed to feel the Spirit still. It was amazing. 

After Carthage we went back to Nauvoo for a picnic lunch and to see some more houses before the Halloween Parade in town.

Linc loves blowing kisses now. 

I love my two boys. 

I had to document the beard. Both boys are looking at a truck passing by. Ryan is quite proud of his beard. 

The leaves!!!! 

Oh they were beautiful. 

During the blacksmith tour Linc finally passed out. He was so tired. 

Nauvoo town itself is quite small and quaint. They had their Halloween parade Saturday night. It was full of delightful small town flavor.

Lincoln has a surprise for you

Thats right folks. 

Linc is going to be a big brother this spring! 

We are excited.

So I've had 2 doctor appointments so far and sadly I didn't get the news I wanted.

 I really wanted to try for a VBAC but after talking with my doctor and a few other people looks like I'm in for another C-section. My doctor was very gracious about it and said he would do whatever we wanted but he would not be held responsible for anything going wrong if we chose to not follow his advice. Apparently when they did my Csection with Linc it was such an emergency that they cut me vertically, the easiest way, to get baby out right away. Well that means they cut against the muscles so my uterus is more likely to rupture due to it having a larger weak spot. My doctor wants to do a planned Csection at 37 weeks so there is no strain on my uterus. I'm still terrified to have a Csection but I guess thats whats in the works for me. Hopefully when they cut me open again they can get a better look at my previous cut and let me know if I have any chance of having a VBAC.

family pictures preview

Our new neighbor takes pictures and offered us an amazing deal so we jumped on it. It was so fun and she was very professional and the pictures are AMAZING!!! I'm always nervous to have a friend take pictures, especially when I'm paying them. I take my pictures very seriously and I don't want to pay a friend and then not like the pictures, that just gets awkward. Ali was amazing( Have I said that word too much? I can't think of any other word to describe it) If you're in the area you should check her out. 

www.facebook.com/AlisonLalorPhotography

 I loved it. Here are the first 3. More are to come.  I'm already planning on printing the family one out on canvas and hanging it on the wall.

Lincoln is ONE!!!

Everyone's view for the cake smash

Linc's view of everyone. 

I had so much fun making this cake. It was Orange and light blue....Linc's favorite colors. 

If you want to see the actual cake smash click here!!!

Linc @ 11 Months

This is very late but better late then never.

#momproblems

Highlights:

-5 teeth boy

-has perfected the ninja crawl

-wearing 9 month clothing

-the helmet is still with us but plans on coming off at the end of July

-likes to eat baby cheetos and yogurt bites.....hates puffs

-talked to Aunt Marie on Father's Day

-started using a professional walker with Physical Therapy 

Linc @ 11 months

Weight: 17.5 lbs

Height: 28 inches

Teeth: 5

daily vlogs?!?!?!

Ryan and I have really started exploring youtube and we have discovered an amazing new way to document life...daily vlogs. It all started when I watched a silly video called "no smiling on the teacups" by the Shaytards. From there I started looking forward to watching what they Shaytard family did everyday. Then I branched out and I now follow several different familys on youtube. We then discovered that we both wanted to try it. We think our lives are pretty interesting. Mostly we want to document Linc's life. I remember watching home videos every Sunday night. Those were the moments that we would sit around the tv and just laugh and laugh at the silly things we did. Thus we'll start daily vlogs on our youtube channel.
If you hit the red subscribe button you'll get asked to sign in with an email. If you sign in you'll get an email whenever we put up a new video.

Anyways click here is our first video hopefully one of many. Enjoy

Memorial Week

This year for Memorial weekend we extended it to the full week. Ryan got me flights to Arizona for Mother's Day, using our frequent flyer miles (aka free flight). I was scheduled to fly out Tuesday and come back to South Bend Saturday night. A quick trip but loads of fun.

For Memorial Day we went up to Lake Michigan to spend the day at the beach with our friends. It was wonderful. I love the beach and the sun and it was a perfectly overcast day. After spending the day at the beach we had a big group BBQ at our apartment complex with all the Mormons.

We started the trip off right by spending a day in Chicago. Ryan got a round of golf in with our neighbor before we left. We went to Museum Campus. We did the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium. It was loads of fun. I thought Linc would love looking at all the fish. You know the colors, the movements the water, NOPE. He was more interested in all the people, especially kids running around. Owell. We enjoyed our time.

Fish are not my favorite. I do like the pretty colorful ones but most fish are disgusting and it makes my ears hurt. Don't ask me why but when I get grossed out my ears hurt. Anyway these fish behind us were HUGE, ugly and had teeth. They were much much bigger then Lincoln.

Chicago. It is such a beautiful city. 

The Field Museum has the biggest complete T-Rex. Her name is Sue. Thus we had to get a Sue Selfie.

After a wonderful day exploring we jumped on a plane to go to Arizona. 

For the flight over Linc got his carseat on. Thus he ate then slept the full 4 hours. 

Lately Linc does not like to sit back in his seat. He wants to sit up straight. I'm not looking forward to buying another carseat for him, they are Expensive. 

Arizona was so much fun. We had a very chill trip. I was just excited to be around my extended family. They all loved Lincoln. The Hansen girls were completely under his spell. I don't think his feet touched the ground while they were around. Someone was always holding him.

I got to go to the Gilbert Temple. It's been about a year since I got to go to the temple. Last year at this time I was so pregnant there was no way I could sit through a session without having to get up to go potty. Then we moved out here and Chicago is our temple. It would be a full day trip and we haven't been able to leave Lincoln that long yet. 

Sink Tubs....They are my FAVORITE

 Lincoln and his great-grandparents. 

We got home Saturday night. The flight home wasn't as wonderful since the plane was completely full but Lincoln made lots of friends. He played peekaboo with the lady behind us, and the lady next to us loved playing with him. The most exciting toy he had was the Skymall magazine. He spent 30 minutes laying on my lap ripping it to shreds. I tried to keep it tidy but it was hopeless. The flight attendants were super nice. 

We are home and back to the grind. I was not looking forward to work today but the moment I walked in I was tackled with hugs from my little friends. It made my day wonderful.