The "Tall" Tales of David, Lindsey, Sarah, & Lincoln

Life Lessons

2012-01-26T10:03:00.000-08:00

Taught by Sarah Bunting

Lincoln just hit Sarah (playfully, he's a nice boy) and Sarah calmly turned to him and said:

"Remember what I told you? We don't hit people."

She's an amazing big sister!

Which color Grandma?

2012-01-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

This is a question I hear a lot from little miss Sarah Jean. As mentioned previously, she loves colors! Especially pink! She loves colors so much that each grandma has been given a color (based off of what color they wear the most) and now goes by their given color. So when I say "we're going to grandma's" her response is "what color grandma?" So, without further ado, and in no particular order, here are the grandmas:

"Black Grandma"
(hehe)
{she does wear black almost exclusively}

"Green Grandma"
{she wears a green jacket a lot}

"Pink Grandma"
{I never realized until Sarah assigned her pink how much pink and red she really does wear}

"Grandma Nani"
{she doesn't actually have a color because Sarah likes to call her Grandma Nani}

"White Grandma"
{apparently Sarah thinks Grandma Fitzgerald wears a lot of white (or she's really pale) hehe!}

Grandma Bunting is "Granny Grandma"

Aunt Debbie is also Auntie Debs or "Blue Grandma"

Sick days

2012-01-16T00:11:00.000-08:00

My Grandma and Grandpa got pneumonia pretty bad and landed themselves in the hospital. My grandpa was there for 4 days (one of which being his birthday) and grandma for 9 days. They overlapped for 3 days and that was no fun! But grandpa got better and grandma is getting there. Chelsea came into town for a week to help out and Aunt Debbie is still here from Christmas so it has been a huge blessing having them devote their time to taking care of grandma and grandpa.

My grandpa gives this look a lot. I can't really explain what it means. It is just his "Well, do you think you could do better?" look or his "How else do you explain this?" look. Or maybe his "Well, don't you think your somethin'?" look. I think this time it means, "You're really going to take my picture right now?"

My grandma had amazing nurses while she was there. This is Matt the nurse.

Finally going home! Yipee!

Home, Sweet, Home.
The kids and grandma were happy to be reunited. The kids weren't allowed to see her during her stay at the hospital.

Birthdays

2012-01-14T23:46:00.000-08:00

Carter turned the big 3!
He had a hockey themed party at the park.

Judah (Krista's), Lincoln, and Bennett (Jennifer's)

We got Carter a hockey alphabet book called Z is for Zamboni. He loved it! Yeah!

The high school clan. Katy, Krista, Jennifer, and me. And our kiddos.

Mike turned the big 3-O!
Party at Rusty's

When we got home and put Sarah to bed and then came back out to the kitchen to find this. The boy loves fried chicken!

Jennifer's little boy, Bennett also had his 1st birthday.

Us girls got to get together again.

And so did the boys. They are all little stud muffins!

Welcome Home, Uncle Gus

2012-01-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

After a long time (6 years?) of living away from Bakersfield, our friend Gus is back! He graduated with his master in accounting from UNLV and got a job at CBIZ here in town. It has been nice having him around. Him and Lincoln are fellow gingers so they get along great! ;)(and ladies, he's single...)

LA Zoo

2012-01-02T23:27:00.000-08:00

Before Dan had to go back to work, he and mom took us and Dalton to the zoo. It was much hotter than we had anticipated so as soon as we got into the park mom bought the kids new t-shirts to wear. Sarah loved looking at all the animals and Lincoln just loved trying to run away the whole time. Sarah said that her favorites were the "mangos" (flamingos) and the elephant. She liked watching the meerkats, too. Lincolns favorite was the hippo. He was pretty cute, he kept rolling in the water and blowing bubbles. The best part of the whole trip was that we ended up with season passes because the line for tickets was so long that we (mom and Dan) decided it would be worth it to pay extra for the short line for season passes. Now, we can take the kids back whenever we want! Thank you!

Sarah was really tired (and slightly grumpy) in this picture, but its a good one of mom. This was taken on our carousel ride. Sarah doesn't like to ride the animals, she prefers the bench.

Side Note: This was Lincoln's first time riding forward-facing. My mom gave us this carseat after this trip and he has been 100% better at getting in the car. I used to dread it because he would fight me every time I tried to put him in his carseat. Now, he likes going in the car. It makes for much quieter car rides.

New Years Eve

2012-01-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

Even though we had just gotten home from LA, that didn't stop us from hosting a small New Years Eve party. Maryellen and fam were still in town so they came over , along with the parentals and Jimmy. The Phelps' and Gus also came over. David made street tacos with leftover prime rib and some sliders. Amazing! The Phelps' brought some appetizers, Maryellen made apple cobbler, and Karl made cheesecake. All that was left at midnight was Gus, the Phelps', and us. We rang in the new year by watching Dick Clark's New Years Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest and drinking a little sparkling cider. We are a crazy bunch!

Happy New Year!

Mia and Sarah somehow managed to stay awake until midnight.

Cheers!

New Years Resolutions

2012-01-01T15:25:00.000-08:00

In no particular order:

To serve others more, e.g., take dinners to people, babysit more, call people to check on them, etc.

Send Birthday Cards! As many as possible. I have a bunch of pre-made cards and I always fail to give them to people.

Make more things. I want to always be working on a craft project or two and maybe accumulate things to give as gifts for Christmas or Birthdays. I want to make more gifts for people.

Make a To Do list each night and try to stick to it the next day. This means I need to lay off Facebook and Pinterest a little bit in order to get things done.

Cook more. (I just got a pressure cooker for Christmas and I want to learn to use it.) Also, I want to be better about keeping track of the recipes that I try and we like. It seems like I always make something yummy and then totally forget about it and never make it again. I need to build up a good collection of recipes.

Exercise more. I know this one is totally cliche, but seriously, I need to get my heart rate up for a little bit every now and then.

Keep up with my BLOG!

I think that is about it!
I think I can, I think I can...

Christmas with the Hess'

2011-12-31T18:00:00.000-08:00

We finally got to meet little miss Kate Elizabeth! She is amazing and I love her to pieces! Just look at that face, so adorable!

Maryellen, Brandon, and the girls came to town a couple days after Christmas. We loved having them here! Pretty much as soon as they walked in the door we exchanged gifts and celebrated Christmas with them. Jimmy even came home on his lunch break for the occasion.

While they were here we took a little two day trip to LA. We left later than we planned, surprise, surprise! We went down to the temple and stay in the temple apartments. I watched all the kids while the rest of the family (gaye, karl, david, maryellen, and brandon) went in to do sealings. That night we went to Santa Monica pier and ate at Buca di Bepo. On the way back to the apartments we got Diddy Reise. The next day we went to the Americana and then Griffith Park and Observatory. We pretty much repeated our previous trip with them. Good times!

Cedar Sinai

2011-12-28T23:26:00.000-08:00

Lincoln went to see a pediatric allergist down at Cedar Sinai on December 20th. His dermatologist referred us to her and we were very happy with her. She was amazing. The whole staff was great with Lincoln because they are used to dealing with kids so they just worked around his hyperactivity rather than having me hold him down and make him cry. He was so happy the whole appointment because they went out of their way to make sure of it. The assistant/nutrition lady who sat in on the appointment kept feeding Lincoln snacks while I held him. Lovely!
They did another skin test and the results showed that he is severly allergic to cashews, which means he is allergic to all tree nuts. He is also allergic to peanuts, coconut, and milk (barely). This was great news! This means that he is no longer allergic to soy, egg, bananas, etc. He either outgrew them or the NAET worked, either way I am so happy! She also prescribed an ointment called Protopic that works really well. The first time I put it on the patch of eczema on his chest it cleared up over night, and has been gone ever since! It cleared up his eczmea everywhere else too! I asked the dermatologist all about it and she says it is safe and totally fine to keep using. I am one happy, happy mama!

He kept "smiling" at the camera and it was cracking me up. He had never done that before.

Right after they pricked him.

A few minutes later.

That big one is cashews. Yikes!

There's that big smile again! HAHA!

Now, look at that beautiful skin!!! CUTE BOY!

Christmas Day

2011-12-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas was so much fun this year with the kids being a little older and all. Sarah was really excited for Santa to come and put out some cookies for him and some carrots for his reindeer. My mom and Dalton spent the night on Christmas Eve and then Christmas morning, Dan, Gaye, Karl, and Jimmy came over. We were all so excited to watch Sarah "open" her new swing set! Sarah ripped the paper off the back door, walked outside and just said 'wow'! She was pretty shocked! Then we (Mom, Dan, and us) went to church in East Hills Ward at 11 with David's family. It was only an hour and all music. Not that I heard any of it, Linc dog and I walked around the building the whole time. Little booger! After church we went to Uncle Davids for lunch and more presents and then to David's parents house for Christmas over there. From there we went to Grandma Smiths and enjoyed time with cousins. It was a long and exciting day! Merry Christmas!

{David and his new ax from my mom. He was so excited about it that later on that night, he and his posse went and chopped a tree down to try it out. Shh...don't tell anyone, especially not Karl, it makes him very nervous. Hahaha!}

I felt extremely spoiled this Christmas! I got everything I wanted and more. New boots, a pressure cooker, a Brighton bracelet, a new scarf, new running shoes, a jacket that actually fits me, framed pictures of the kids, and I am sure I am forgetting something. I felt very loved to say the least!

Christmas Eve at Our House

2011-12-24T23:59:00.000-08:00

We hosted Christmas Eve this year. We had quite the crowd; my grandma and grandpa Smith, my Aunt Debbie and her family, mom, Dan, and Dalton, and David's parents and Jimmy. David cooked the prime rib courtesy of Dan. I made pw's mashed potatoes. My mom made pretzel salad. It was all delicious!

{The first thing Michael and Emma do when they get to our house is get into Sarah's dress-up clothes}

{Mary showing off the strawberry shortcake doll they got for Sarah}

{Jimmy and what appears to be one of his many cool cameras}

{Chris & Alyssa...perfect for each other...hehe}

{Poor little B-rock was sick}

{Grandpa was having a good time.}

{Sarah LOVED her new slippers from black grandma! She couldn't wait to try them out by running and jumping around the room!}

{Needless to say, Sarah was in love with her new jammies too!}

{Dalton got to open his jammies too! And he helped Lincoln open his.}

{Grandpa Dan & Linc-dogg!}

Christmas with Chelsea

2011-12-19T16:35:00.001-08:00

Dec. 14th-Dec.19th

Chelsea, Brody, and Brian came to town for Christmas a little early this year. We met up with them at Knott's Berry Farm and as our Christmas present they bought everyone's ticket into the park. Brian's parents came, as well as Grandma & Grandpa Smith, Dan, Dalton, Mom, and us. We had SO much fun!! The day couldn't have gone better. The kids were so well behaved and had a blast and I am pretty sure the adults had even more fun. My grandpa is the biggest dare devil I know and he went on all of the roller coasters, even the ones I thought were WAY too scary. We even ate their famous chicken dinner to make it a perfect day. ;)

Yes, that is my grandma and grandpa in that bumper car in the middle of this picture. They are too stinkin' cute!

Sarah was nervous to go on the rides until Brody went with her, then she was just fine.

My grandma really enjoyed the kid rides. It was so fun to watch her. On the ride after this, a rocking boat ride, a bunch of us went on the ride with her and we were all laughing so hard because my grandma was having so much fun on the ride! Priceless!

Grandma, Brody, and Sarah had a great time decorating cookies.

Lincoln enjoyed trying to walk in Aunt Chelsea's boots.

Sarah enjoyed one of her favorite pastimes, collecting all of the stuffed animals.

An even better pastime, putting all of the stuffed animals on grandpa. I think Lincoln helped this time.

Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T23:52:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but this year it just never really felt like Thanksgiving. We didn't cook dinner (I made rolls), we didn't make pie, we didn't play football. I decorated my house with every bit of fall and Thanksgiving decoration I had so it felt like Thanksgiving time, but the day itself just kind of went by in a flash. We ate lunch at Aunt Cherie's and dinner at my mom's. Both meals were amazing! We looked at the ads for black Friday, but didn't dare venture out. I think David went to Lowe's, but that was about it. We are not big shoppers.

So, it was a nice, low-key, family-filled Thanksgiving.

These are the only pictures I have of Thanksgiving 2011.
Lincoln playing in Granny's wheelchair over at Aunt Cherie's.
Emma was putting on her Rapunzel wig that my mom got her for her birthday. I was sitting on the floor looking at ads with kids climbing on me.

Sarah's 3rd Birthday

2011-11-23T23:12:00.000-08:00

Sarah started the day by sleeping in until 8:30! That's my girl! Then, after we cuddled on the love sac for a few minutes and talked about how big she was getting and that today is her birthday and she is THREE, she wanted to watch a movie on the "little black tv" (the dvd player for the car). She watched Lion King and drank chocolate milk. She was SO excited when Lincoln woke up to play with her in the living room on all the blankets she had spread out across the floor. She kept saying it wasn't her birthday yet, it would be her birthday tonight when her friends came to her party.

After we played for a little while and got ready to go, we went to College Donuts for some PINK sprinkle donuts! Mmm Mmm!

We left the donut store and headed to Target to spend the money she got in the mail from grandma and grandpa Fitzgerald. She picked out a Little Mermaid doll that sings and can go in the bath tub.

From Target we went to the "toy park" (Seimon park; it is the toy park as opposed to the "grass park" by our house) and played on the playground for a little while before coming home to eat lunch, which included some PINK strawberry milk. After lunch was nap time (my favorite time of the day).
While the kids napped I got ready for the party. For her party, Sarah wore a dress I made just for her birthday. She even picked out the fabric herself! Lincoln wore Sarah's pink football jersey; I figured if he was going to wear pink for the pink party it might as well be cool. The kids loved all the pink candy! Sarah's cake was heart-shaped with pink frosting and pink sugar crystals. She had a very happy 3rd birthday!

At 3, Sarah is 34lbs and 39.5 inches. Dr. Ho said, jokingly, that she was going to be 6'4" and then when I told him that dad is 6'5" he said she would be 6'10". We'll see!
Sarah loves all things pink, obviously! She is all girl!!! She is slightly OCD about things. She is obsessed with colors. Her color is pink, daddy's is blue and yellow, mine is red and purple, and I think Lincoln is green. She assigned these to us and we really aren't allowed to like other colors. She has even designated each grandma a color and they are known by their color. She will eat things that she normally wouldn't if I dye them pink. Oatmeal, for example, just needs a drop of red food coloring and it's magically delicious! She loves her toys and loves categorizing them. When she is into ponies, she gathers all of the different ponies she has and they have to stick together. Same thing with dogs, mermaids, etc. She loves mermaids! She put only her pink dolls and animals on her little toddler bed and no other colored thing was allowed on. She segregates the non-pinks! She has an amazing vocabulary. She says things like, "Actually, I think we do have pink hot chocolate at home, mom." Or, "That wasn't a very good high five, grandma, let's try that again." Pretty much everything out of her mouth makes me laugh. I could go on and on about this girl...she makes me so happy! I love her to pieces and I feel so blessed to have her as a daughter.

Funny story: Gaye bought Sarah a doll house and this is the family it came with. LOL.

Our 7th Wedding Anniversary

2011-11-19T23:30:00.000-08:00

This year the traditional anniversary gift theme was Copper and Wool. David got me a nice wool scarf and I made him a piece of art out of pennies.

There are seven pennies each for: the year David was born, the year I was born, the year we were married, the year Sarah was born, the year Lincoln was born, and the year of our 7th anniversary, 2011. We are "lucky" to have each other!

David was working out of town on our anniversary so I decided to surprise him and go to him. I showed up at his hotel in Fresno and he was VERY surprised. He took me to lunch at a really yummy deli and then took me to see Twilight-Breaking Dawn. It was a lovely afternoon! For not knowing I was coming, he treated me to a very nice date. He got called to work while we were at the movie so once we got out we kind of had to hurry and get him to work, but not before stopping at In-N-Out for a chocolate shake. I dropped him off at the Fresno yard office and was home by 9pm. I must say, it was one of the best anniversaries we have had. I know this will sound completely cliche, but we just keep falling more and more in love with each other every day we are together, which has been 3083 days since our first date!

I am so lucky to have married such an amazing friend. He is my favorite person in the whole world. I love spending time with him and I love watching him interact with our kids. He is an awesome dad and the kids adore him! And so do I!!!

These are our texts when it turned midnight on our anniversary. We usually compete to see who is the first to say happy anniversary.
I win!

:D

Halloween

2011-10-31T23:12:00.000-07:00

Back in September, Jimmy took some pictures of the kids in the Henley's studio in order to get a picture for an ad for Halloween. We got some good ones and I loved using the studio and the uber nice camera!

Sarah got this skirt as a gift from my Aunt Debbie this day so she was already dressed like a ballerina/princess when we arrived.

This is the costume that Jimmy bought for Sarah to wear. He told the saleswoman how tall she was and she said that this would fit just fine. Hmmm...maybe not so much. But, it was still pretty darn cute!

This is the one he ended up using for the ad.

I took some pics of my cute boy, too, even though his eczema was pretty bad this day.

He was giving Jimmy the stink eye.

Ward Party - 10/28/11

Trick-or-Treating - Halloween Night

The kids loved Trick or Treating. We just went to my mom's neighborhood. We went to about 5 houses and called it quits and then went to Grandma and Grandpa Smiths house to show them the kids' cute costumes and then to Grandma & Grandpa Buntings to show them too! Sarah was a little quiet saying "trick or treat," but she did it and was SO cute! And Lincoln just loved being outside and getting to see new people. He's so friendly!
It was a Happy Halloween!

Family Vacation in L.A.

2011-10-28T22:56:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, October 25th-Thursday, October 27th

We decided to take advantage of David's vacation time and get out of town. We couldn't afford to go too far so we planned a little getaway to LA. We stayed two nights in the temple apartments, which I love. They are just so cozy and familiar! We made an itinerary before we left to give us an idea of when we would fit in all of the activities we wanted to do.Tuesday:
Visitor Center
Santa Monica Pier
3rd Street
David's parents were down in LA already so they met up with us and we all went to Buca di Bepo for dinner and got dessert at Diddy Reise.
Wednesday:
Kidspace {it was a fun little children's discovery center that we found online with good reviews. It was pretty fun.}
Porto's for lunch
Griffith Park and Observatory {this includes the train ride and pony ride...very amusing!}
Universal City Walk
Thursday:
La Brea Tar Pits
The Grove
Lunch at The Counter

Then we headed home!

It was a much needed escape and we had so much fun!
We love spending quality time with the kids and each other and this was just the ticket!

Temple Apartment:

Santa Monica Pier:

{check out the dolphin}

{There was a large school of fish. If you look beyond the glare you can see lots of little grey silver lines under the water}

{There was a cool camera store off 3rd street that we hung out in for a little while and talked to a guy named Gibson from Australia that worked there.}

Kidspace:
{I had to clean up his face because he was having an especially bad allergy day. Sad.}

{Sarah volunteered to demonstrate the stages of a butterfly and she was so stinkin' cute!}

I think he is signing, "more," in this picture. He's a genius! ;)

Griffith Park:

Griffith Observatory:

{Looking at all of the pictures from this trip, I realized how bad I slouch. I need to work on that.}

LaBrea Tar Pits:

{It looked like the building just dropped off at the edge of the concrete}
{but it didn't}

The Counter:

Porto's:

{Potato Balls!}

{Cuban Sandwich...my favorite!}

Universal City Walk:

{There was a huge candy store!}

The Grove:
{Mario Lopez was doing his show from the The Grove while we were there.}{We rode on the trolley after we walked through the farmers market.}

Lincoln's 1st Birthday

2011-10-08T19:57:00.000-07:00

For Lincoln's 1st Birthday we had a Very Hungry Caterpillar themed party. I served all of the food from the book. I even had broccoli to represent the leaf, gummy worm candy as the caterpillar {which were the kids favorites}, and butterfly crackers.

We tried to keep it kind of small, but by the time we invited all the family and a few close friends we are at 40+ people. My dad, aka Grandpa Fitzgerald, was even here for the celebration!

The cake was nothing like the idea I had in my head. It was supposed to be a caterpillar, but I didn't want to do fondant because it wouldn't be as fun for him to make a mess with so I had to make a special dairy-free frosting and it was very soft and I didn't add enough red food coloring so it just looked like a pink cake. Oh, and I didn't really have a plan for his face since I was originally planning on fondant so I just used marshmallows for his eyes and nose and left it at that. Birthday cake FAIL!
{oh well}

Here's the whole caterpillar. You get the idea.

Grandma Dansby, Grandma Smith, and Grandma Bunting

Such a cutie!!!

He wasn't very interested in his presents. I felt like I was having a baby shower because I opened all of his presents by myself. He got a lot of clothes, which he needed, so I can understand why he wasn't too excited about it.

At one years old, Lincoln:

Weighed 20 lbs. (10%)
Was 31 inches long (76%)
His head circumference was 18.5 inches (55%)
He had 7 teeth.
LOVED:
Putting his Shoes on (shoes in general)
Attacking his sister in the morning
Playing Peek a Boo
Blankies
His bottle
FAVORITE FOODS :
turkey/ham
pears
Cheerios
peas and carrots
popcorn
chicken and rice soup

I LOVE this kid so much! He is so funny and sweet and full of energy! He keeps me smiling and on my toes! I am one lucky mama to have such an awesome little boy!!!

Let's Go Fly A Kite

2011-10-04T22:46:00.000-07:00

It was pretty windy yesterday so David took Sarah to fly the kite at the park by our house. Lincoln and I met up with them when we got home from the grocery store. It was the perfect family home evening activity!

The Kern County Fair

2011-10-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

We went to the fair twice this year. The first time I took my Grandma Smith for senior day since she got in for free and we got free parking. We met up with David and his parents. It was a miserable day! It was SO hot that it wasn't enjoyable at all! We suffered the heat long enough to eat at Strasner's BBQ and then we headed in to see the crafts, food, rocks, etc. We grabbed a cinnamon roll for grandma before we left.A family made of gourds!

The second time I just took the kids for school day (we got in for free) and we met up with some of our friends from our ward. We got to see all the animals and watched part of the circus show before Lincoln got fussy and we left. It was pretty hot that day too, but not as miserable as the first day we went.
We never made it at night this year. We didn't see any free concerts. I never got an apple dumpling or a corn dog. Oh well, there's always next year!

Allergies, Eczema, and NAET

2011-10-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

The following pictures are were taken on Tuesday, 9/20.

This was a pretty bad day, he was having some sort of allergic reaction on his chest and back along with his usual eczema on his face, arms, fingers, and feet. This is after a few treatments of NAET. He had been treated for Egg Mix, Calcium, Vitamin C, and Milk Mix. The milk mix included breast milk, cows milk, and goats milk. That is when I realized that every milk I had been giving him was probably just making him worse. I went from breast milk to regular formula to soy formula (also allergic to) to goat's milk (which I thought would help, but come to find out it's very similar to cows milk). Ugghh! The more I tried to help him the worse off he got! I was so frustrated!

{back}

Because he was having such a bad reaction I decided to leave my house on Wednesday, thinking that maybe it was something there, and go to my grandma's house for a couple of days. When I got there I went shopping and bought him some rice milk. By the next morning, Thursday, he already looked SO much better. I took him to the pediatric dermatologist that morning for his much anticipated appointment and it was very helpful. She gave me some good tips such as, bleach baths, and prescribed some 2.5% hydrocortizone cream. She also recommended a pediatric allergist down at cedar sinai that is supposedly pretty awesome and sets him up with a nutritionist and such. That appointment is scheduled for Dec. 20th (that doc is a little busy). But he was already looking and feeling so much better so I was happy all around!

Here he is on Thursday. His skin was basically just peeling right off his face, but in a good, healing kind of way.
(don't worry, that's turkey on his shirt, not skin)

His arms and fingers were considerably better, but still healing.
Here he is Friday. Much better!

By Saturday his skin was almost completely clear.

It was a little pink and wrinkly looking like scar tissue, but it was still 110% better than before!

Happy baby, happy mommy!

Back to the NAET treatments. NAET stands for Nambudripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques. So here is the back story on how we got involved with NAET. Back in June, Steve Nichols told me about a guy in St. George who can get rid of your allergies. He said that his dad went and was treated for pet dander and is no longer allergic to their dog and that his niece took her extremely fussy baby to him and he found that the baby was allergic to the mother's breast milk, treated the baby, and now he is a totally happy baby. So I started to look into it and read everything on the internet about it. I even called the office in St. George and told them my situation with Lincoln. They suggested I find a NAET practitioner in my area. I searched for a practitioner on the NAET website and the closest doctors were all in the la area. So I started to seriously consider which doctor I would take him to, but it was overwhelming to just pick one.

Then....the fates aligned and I got a call from David's Aunt Cherie on Friday, September 10th letting me know of a new allergy treatment Randy Clement was doing now and she said he put something up on Facebook about needing patients to treat for free to help him continue his study of the practice. He was becoming a NAET practitioner! What are the odds?! I called immediately after getting off the phone with Cherie and scheduled our first appointment for Monday morning. You can read more about it on their website and I will explain more about it in detail in another post, but for now we are just so glad that Randy is here in town and able to help us! I really believe in the treatments and know that it has been a big factor in helping Lincoln feel better.

Happy Birthday, Mom/Grandma Bunting!

2011-09-27T21:51:00.000-07:00

For David's mom's birthday this year we went to Frugatti's and then to Tutti Frutti. It was the best dinner & dessert EVER!

Happy Birthday, Gaye aka Mom aka Grandma!
You are very loved by us!!!

Carpinteria

2011-09-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

We decided to go to Carpinteria for the day. My mom came with and we had a great time. It was overcast and chilly, but that didn't stop us from playing on the beach. David buried Sarah in the sand and made her a mermaid, but all of a sudden she hopped up and we found a sand crab where she had been sitting. Haha! We kept digging and found tons of them! We would dig them up and then take them to the wet sand and watch them disappear into the sand. David took Sarah for a long walk down the beach while I put Lincoln to sleep and held him while he slept. After hanging out on the beach for a couple hours we changed clothes and cleaned up and went walking up the street.

There was this new playground that the kids had fun playing on.

We looked in all of the cute shops and finally made our way to Robitailles Candy Shop.
Here is a great shot of Lincoln trying to get some candy out of the bag and Sarah flashing the camera her princess undies.

We had dinner at The Palms where David cooked us all some great steaks! Lincoln ate a ton of food! And Sarah fell asleep so I ended up holding her all through dinner. That walk wore her out!

It was a great family day at the beach!

Michael's Birthday Party

2011-09-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

Michael had his birthday party at the park during a lightning storm! It was awesome! It only sprinkled on us for a minute and there was no lightning above us, just all around us. It was pretty cool to watch, but it caused all sorts of fires so i guess that wasn't so cool.

Sarah always has fun playing with Emma.

And Lincoln always has fun playing with Grandpa Smith.

It was a Donkey Kong theme so all the kids got a Donkey Kong tie to wear. I love that Lincoln just let Sarah hold him for the picture. They seriously love each other so much!

Greek Food Festival

2011-09-09T23:30:00.000-07:00

We have made it a tradition the past several years to go to the Greek Food Festival. We always get the gyros and the loukoumades (aka honey balls). Delicious! Oh, and David gets these cookies coated in powdered sugar that are pretty good too. Here is Sarah enjoying one of those cookies. She also was enjoying dancing to the traditional Greek music.

The Kids Lately

2011-09-08T13:12:00.000-07:00

Lincoln climbs everything! I couldn't figure out how he was getting on the couch until I caught him in the act. I kept asking Sarah if she was putting him up there and she kept telling me she wasn't, so I couldn't figure it out. But here he is, sure enough, getting himself up there.

I found this idea on a website called Muffin Tin Mom. She eats lunch out of a mini muffin tin all the time now and Loves it! It's nice because she gets a little of lots of healthy things and thinks it's fun to empty each hole. I always put ranch in one of the holes for dipping the veggies. Good stuff!

Sarah and Lincoln have so much fun playing together. The other day Sarah decided to take all the pillows and put them on the floor. They both thought this was a GREAT idea!

I often find Lincoln crawling around with a toy in his mouth, like a puppy. His favorite is a little bear of Sarah's and he carries it around by it's little puff tail...so funny!

If I ask Sarah to smile with her eyes open, this is what I get. Apparently, it's really hard to do.

Lincoln can get in the tub by himself now. He loves the tub! In the middle of the night, when he is hysterical and I can't calm him down, I put him in a bath. It's the only thing that works sometimes.

Is it weird that I get jealous of Sarah's bed head hair? She usually sleeps with her hair up, she doesn't let me take it down, and she wakes up with a beautiful messy bun. Lucky girl!

This is one of my favorite kind of days...

...kids playing outside, Diet Coke, and a magazine. Life is good!

She likes to put my shoes on and say, "Mom, take a picture of me."

She put my shirt on. It's a little big for her.

They really like climbing the LoveSac.
She was so cute in her little plaid dress (from D.I.) that I just had to snap a couple pictures of her. We are still working on smiling with our eyes open.

It didn't take long for her to give up on taking pictures and start playing with the kitty.

She wanted to play with my stamps so I got them out and we stamped for a few minutes and then she got distracted and started lining them all up.

Asleep in the swing. It seems like just yesterday I was taking a picture of Sarah asleep in the swing. So cute!

I try to do the dishes when he's asleep now.

He doesn't take a pacifier, but every morning, when he first sees Sarah, he tries to take her pacifier or she just gives it to him and then he puts it in his mouth for a few minutes and plays. They are so weird!

I love this boy! I could just eat his face he is so cute!

He puts his foot on his tray every time he eats! Every time!

He had a blast riding around the house with cousin Amber.

His eczema still makes my heart ache and my eyes well up with tears quite often. I keep trying everything the doctor tells me to do as well as everything random people tell me to do. Not much helps, but I have high hopes for a new treatment we are starting soon.

Sarah was not a very big fan of swim lessons this year. She only made it to half of the classes due to various reasons, but when she was there she preferred to sit on the edge of the pool. If she did get in she did not want to get her head wet.

He teacher found her hilarious, as most people do.

Just chillin' with his bottle in his recliner, watching some Wubzy. Life is good for Mr. Linc.

After swimming at my mom's house the other day, Sarah got out, grabbed the chair cushion and put it on the floor, and then laid down on the patio. She never hesitates to make herself comfortable, anywhere!

She will get off the steps if she has her floaties on or a tube.
Here is another one of her signature smiles with her eyes closed.

This was Lincoln's first time belly laughing. I got it on video. Dalton kept going under the water and popping back up and Lincoln thought it was HILARIOUS!

She is really quite creative, that girl. She decided to take my rolling stamp and use lotion to make patterns on the coffee table! Genius! She did get in trouble for this, but I still think it was a good idea. ;)

Grandma & Grandpa Smith Are Home!

2011-09-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

My Grandparents are home from Idaho! The kids, especially Lincoln, were SO excited to see them! They were gone all summer, as usual, at their condo in IF.

Sarah welcomed grandpa home by covering him in stuffed animals!

He loved it!

They spent a week in Bellingham, WA, visiting my aunt, before they drove home and they brought my aunt with them! The skirt Sarah is wearing is from Aunt Debbie! Sarah loved it!

Blessing, Baptism, & Birthdays

2011-09-04T21:17:00.000-07:00

Tuesday we went to Amber and Andy's for the blessing of baby Penny and Preston's 4th birthday party.

My grandma and grandpa with baby Penelope

The kids look exhausted. They had been playing outside for a while before this. The first time the candles were lit Sarah blew them all out before we even started singing. Preston was not too happy about that, but we re-lit the candles and everything was fine.

And I had a good excuse to make one of these! Amber sent me a pic on Sunday and he looked so cute with it on.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday was Jimmy's birthday and we celebrated at Rosemary's that night and again with pizza and brownies the next day for lunch.

I found the brownie recipe HERE. Well, actually I found them on Pinterest and that sent me HERE. ;) It's definitely a keeper!
Sarah and Lincoln love there Uncle Jimmy! Or as Sarah says, 'Nuckle Jimmy.'
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Saturday was Spencer's Baptism. After the baptism was his and Clara's joint birthday party.

It was a fun week, full of celebration!

Linc's First Haircut

2011-09-01T23:22:00.000-07:00

Lincoln's hair was getting a bit crazy and he was starting to resemble a homeless man so it was time for a haircut! Katy is our official barber/hairstylist so she had the honors of giving Linc is first trim. He didn't hold still AT ALL, but Katy is amazing and somehow just keept cutting even while he moved around. And she did a fantastic job!

Here is my handsome boy with his cute little boy haircut!

Sarah's First Dentist Appointment

2011-08-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sarah had her first dentist check-up with Dr. Purdy and she did AMAZING! We prepped her a little so she would know what to expect and the dentist did exactly what we told her he would! She was doing so well that they decided to take x-rays too, rather than waiting until her next appointment. And she has NO cavities! And her lip thing (which I learned is called a upper labial frenulum) is okay for now. It may need to be cut before she gets her adult teeth, but we will deal with that later.

Here she is waiting to be called back. All smiles!Getting in the chair...still all smiles!

Wearing her "princess necklace." That is what the dental assistant called it and Sarah said, "wow," in almost a whisper. She felt very special.

With her "blanket" on. She was SO good!When she was done she got to pick out a toy from the treasure chest and she got a Dora sticker and a bag of "goodies", i.e., toothbrush, paste, floss, etc.

We went to Tutti Frutti afterwards to enjoy some delicious frozen yogurt!
And Lincoln had his usual, a bowl of blueberries.

Handy Hubby

2011-08-29T21:00:00.000-07:00

I love that David knows how to fix stuff!

Lately he has fixed the front and rear brakes on the Yukon, the drain under the kitchen (again!), the shower (funny story), my lamp, and I know I am forgetting things.
He is constantly fixing things!

I take it for granted sometimes, but I totally appreciate his mad skills!

True Love

2011-08-28T21:47:00.000-07:00

David got home late/really early from work and when I woke up this is what I found!
He really loves me!!!

The Circus

2011-08-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

Gaye and I took the kids to the circus! Not just any circus, the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus! It was pretty cool!

We went early and were able to see all of the animals before the show.

We also were able to hang out with the performers before the show.

And try on some of the circus costumes.

Finally we went to our seats and the show began!

After the show I found my grandma and grandpas brick outside the arena. I hadn't actually ever seen it. It's been there since they built the new arena, but I had never looked for it. I knew it was on the corner by the stop light/crosswalk around the fountain so it only took me a few minutes to find it. Here it is:

Bugseum

2011-08-23T13:52:00.000-07:00

Sarah loves bugs!

She went on a field trip with grandma Bunting and a preschool group a few months ago to the Insect Lore Bugseum and loved it! Every now and then she will see a commercial on PBS advertising the bugseum and asks to go, so...

we decided to go!

She lovingly gazed at the roaches and said, "Aww...look at them crawl...," as if they were little kittens or something. She thought they were just precious.
{and I was thinking...EWWWW!...but kept those thoughts to myself as to not ruin her lovefest with the bugs...gross!}

Lincoln stayed in the stroller most of the time and was more interested in his veggie straws than the bugs.

When we left the Bugseum I asked her what her favorite bug was and she said the pink lady bugs were. {they were pretty cool}

When I asked her about if she liked the butterflies she said they were kinda scary. She really didn't like the fact that there were so many in each cage (they were breeding them...A LOT of them) and she kept saying, "they miss their families," in a very sad tone. She must have thought that they caught them all and she didn't like it one bit!

There was a praying mantis in our backyard the other day and Sarah watched it and talked to it for hours! And she loves snails, too! And whenever she sees a fly she calls it a bee, like it's a good thing.

That girl and her bugs...

Twenty Seven

2011-08-17T22:40:00.000-07:00

So I turned 27 today and had a blast doing it!

I kept saying I was 24 because in my mind that is how old I am.

Seriously, though, I had an AMAZING day! David had to go to work on the railroad the night before my birthday so he gave me my present early: Hot Tamales, Whoppers, M&Ms, Diet Pepsi, and good hairspray (not the cheap kind that doesn't work that I always buy because I feel guilty spending that much on hairspray). He totally knows me and that present could not have been any more perfect! After he left I had my mom come watch the kids for an hour so I could go spend some coupons and giftcards at the mall. I bought myself a new bracelet at JCPenny with my $10 off coupon so it only cost me like $3 and then I went to Gap and bought myself a scarf with my $10 GapBucks so it only cost me $1.79! Nice! I also stayed up after the kids went to sleep and printed out a bunch of free birthday coupons to places like Baskin Robbins, Schlotzsky's, and Sonic that I can use any time during this coming week.

This morning I woke up early with Mr. Linc and ate Frosted Flakes, watched t.v., and cleaned the house up a bit. Katy and the kids came over around 10:30am and brought me a vanilla Diet Coke from Sonic...amazing! Then we packed up some snacks and lunch and went swimming at the Nichols' house.

After a couple hours, we came home and the kids took naps while I happily pinned away on Pinterest. Also, waiting on my porch when I got home, was a present from Maryellen and Brandon. It was the Oliver + S Little Things To Sew book! I am already so excited to try out a couple of the patterns in it...cute stuff!

{I actually didn't take any pictures all day and even stole this one off of someone else's blog}

When the kids woke up we got cleaned up and got ready to go to Rollerama for my birthday party! It was SO MUCH FUN! My mom was amazing and got me balloons with a cute little owl on it, owl plates, german chocolate cupcakes from Frosting, Inc, she bought us pizza from Rollerama, she bought my ticket into Rollerama, she pushed the kids around the rink in the stroller most of the time...she really made it special for me! The people who came included: Katy, Tyler, & Carter, Mom, Dalton, Jimmy, Maribel & Jason, Renee, Emma, & Alexis, Jen, Michael, Emma, & Brock, Amber, Andy, Evelyn, Preston, and baby Penny, and Sarah and Lincoln, of course! All people I love so much and I had so much fun with everyone there! We skated our hearts out and I even raced in a race! It was me against 3 men (Tyler, Dalton, and some stranger) who were way faster than me, but they were all so sweet and let me win! Hey, a win is a win, I will take it any way I can!

My mom got me some new hair bands, a cute orange bracelet and matching ring, a Lowe's giftcard, and the Willow Tree birthday girl, along with some chocolates and cupcake lip balm. Loved it! Katy got me a rotary cutter and mat that I am stoked about and already tried out as soon as I got home...it is awesome!

After Rollerama, some of us went to Tutti Frutti for some delicious frozen yogurt with yummy toppings! Jimmy even got me a gift card that more than covered mine and Sarah's and will allow me to go back a couple more times...Sweet!

Sarah made Lincoln laugh most of the way home until he fell asleep. I love those kids SO much! Now I am waiting for David to come home. He probably won't be home until around 3am so I don't think I will wait up, but I am glad he is on his way home. One more thing that made my day is that Sarah fell asleep on the couch so I don't have to fight her to stay in her bed and go to sleep. It's the little things that make me so happy.

Also for my birthday, David is fixing up an old lamp that used to hang in my grandma's house. He is rewiring it and is going to hang it in the living room for me so I will post a picture once it's up. I am so excited.

So, if you actually read this whole post, you know every detail about my day and can see why I am such a happy birthday girl!

I already love being 27...I have never been happier!

P.S. I also thoroughly enjoyed all of my lovely birthday wishes on Facebook!

Bakersfield Blaze

2011-08-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

For FHE we decided to take the kids to a Blaze game. It's only $1 on Mondays & $1 hot dogs!

Dalton met us there!
How does Sarah get so dirty?!

David's parents' neighbor is the team Chaplain and was so nice and gave Sarah a ball.

Lincoln just had fun playing with daddy...that boy loves his dad!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Glenda!

2011-08-13T13:21:00.000-07:00

This is what we gave my mom for her birthday this year:

This last one was made from a picture I took of my mom reading The Sneetches to Brody and Sarah in bed while we were in Idaho.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Celine

2011-08-07T14:17:00.000-07:00

fstatel

	EventReminder
	July 30, 2011

Hi Lindsey. just a reminder that your event is coming up!

Celine Dion

When:	Wednesday, August 03, 2011 7:30pm
Where:	The Colosseum At Caesars Palace 3570 South Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89109

For mother's day, David got me tickets to go see Celine Dion in Vegas. This is something I have wanted to do for a very long time! I LOVE Celine! So right away I bought tickets for the August 3rd show. We borrowed my mom's car (for better gas mileage & because it is more reliable, being a new car and all) and hit the road! Everything was fine until we started the first climb before Stateline and the car started slowing down and making a funny noise. I pulled over and let the car rest for a few minutes and we decided to try accelerating again, but we couldn't get the car to go over 40mph. Luckily we were close to an exit, but there was NOTHING there. It was an old abandoned gas station or tire shop or something. Also, luckily, we weren't alone! There was a broken down tour bus full of Asian people also stopped there, so we didn't feel so vulnerable out in the middle of nowhere. So, first thing I did was call my mom and David and see what they thought I should do. They had no ideas other than calling AAA and getting towed to Vegas to have the car looked at, but we were supposed to be at our concert in 3 hours so we were a little nervous we might miss it. Not too long after getting off the phone with David I get a call from Gaye that went something like this:

Me: Hi.
Gaye: Hi, where are you?
Me: I don't know, the middle of nowhere.
Gaye: Well, I am almost to Stateline.
Me: WHAT!?! I thought you weren't driving home (from Utah) until tomorrow?!
Gaye: I was going to, but I decided to go home today instead.
We were in complete shock and totally elated! Turns out she was only about 5 minutes from us!
While Katy was taking a little jog down to the freeway to find out the exit number so we could tell Gaye, I decided to turn the car back on and see what it would do. It ran totally fine! Weird! So Gaye got to us and we couldn't have been happier to see her! Even though the car started running just fine, we were a little nervous it would act up again, so...
Gaye followed us back to Vegas, spent the night with us, hung out with us and shopped the next day, and followed us home!
I have the best mother-in-law EVER!
We had a great time having her with us!
It was just meant to be!

So, when we arrived at the hotel (The Palms, which we book through Priceline...funny story there) they asked us if we wanted to upgrade for like $30 so we thought, why not! Well, it ended up being an amazing room! It was very sleek and modern and we wished we could have stayed there longer so we could have fully appreciated all the amenities it offered. Next time! ;)

We checked-in, got ready, and headed to see Celine! I was SOOOO excited! I have wanted to see her for a very long time!
This is the best pic we could get of the 2 of us, and trust me we tried countless times!

There were no cameras allowed, so I snagged these off some website.
She looked amazing for just giving birth to twins!
The orchestra was amazing and the stage was beautiful!
The show was better than I ever imagined it would be! It was unbelievable! I was a bit emotional at the beginning because I just couldn't believe I was there and then once she started to sing it literally took my breath away. I know I might sound cheesy describing it, but you really just have to see her to understand. Even Katy was surprised at how amazing she was. And she did a Michael Jackson tribute by singing several of his songs so Katy was ecstatic about that! I highly recommend everyone go see her and I wish I could go again!

The next day we went to the outlets and shopped and Katy got her ears re-pierced because they had closed up. It was very exciting!

Good times, good times...

Idaho Trip 2011

2011-07-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

We played at Grandma and Grandpa's condo. This mostly consisted of Sarah gathering all of grandma's stuffed animals and dolls and lining them up of putting them all on the coffee table. Lincoln and Grandpa were buds and spent a lot of time hanging out and drinking pop.

My mom used to read this to us when we were kids. Memories!I was having a hard time figuring out what to eat for breakfast, with my crazy diet and all, and before I knew it mom came out of the kitchen in our hotel room with this! It was as if the clouds parted and the heavens shined down on it as she handed it to me!

Sarah never looks at me! Brookie, Brody, and Bradley (saw that 5 times fast) were stinkin' cute, though!

Bridger and Lincoln were so cute playing together...

...eating watermelon together...
...and getting to know each other.

Sarah was sick the last couple of days and slept A LOT!

She even slept the whole time we were at Heise Hot Springs! I hadn't been there in years, but it was just as fun as I remembered. Even though Sarah wasn't feeling so hot, I made her go down the water slide with me 3 times. She was really nervous and didn't want to go each time, but as soon as we got into the tube slide she would quietly say, "weee!" When I asked her if it was fun she said, "yes." But when I asked her if she wanted to go again she said, "no."
We went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Tuesday night, right before we made the crazy decision to hop in the car and drive all night to get home.

So this was my 4th year in a row going up to Idaho to visit family. It was a little different this year. I drove with my mom and we met up with Chelsea and Brody. We were only gone a week this year and didn't stop to see anyone along the way, except for a quick potty brake in Hurricane ;). We did do the usual activities once we got to Idaho Falls. Tautphaus Park Zoo, Reed's Dairy, Onda's, Yard Sales, fed the ducks, etc... It was a great trip overall and I am glad I got a chance to go again. Each year I leave not know when I will be back again so I am always grateful to be there and really enjoy seeing family and taking time to relax.

Independence Day

2011-07-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

So, apparently I didn't take any pictures on the 4th of July which means I am going to have to recall what happened from memory. This is what I remember:

Gus came to town and brought his lovely girlfriend, Heidi. Seriously, she is super cute and way awesome! We had a great time getting to know her a little bit.
We went rafting with our friends. Nichols', Phelps', Gus & Heidi, Jesus, Jimmy, and us. It was nice and relaxing to be on the water. I even jumped out of the jumping tree!

{photo courtesy of Rivers End Rafting via Facebook}

We went swimming at the Nichols and ate some bbq and treats (well, everyone else did...Lincoln and I were gluton-free, dairy-free, nut-free!).
We went to the Monica ball field with the Bunting clan to watch School House Rock and light off fireworks. And eat again, of course.

So...that is how we celebrated this great nation and the freedom that we very much enjoy every day!

God Bless the USA!!!

Allergies and an Entertainment Center

2011-07-10T07:13:00.000-07:00

This is kind of an update to this post on Lincoln's eczema that I wrote a few months ago.

I put on there a picture of Lincoln with clear skin and said that I found what made it better and all was well. Well....that lasted about a day. Eczema has been a constant battle around here. After a pretty bad reaction to peanut butter and a trip to the urgent care, we followed up with Dr. Pardo, Lincoln's pediatrician. She said that if he was that allergic to peanuts (an allergy he will not likely outgrow), then he probably has other allergies and that is probably the cause of the severe eczema. We decided to have him tested to find out what he was allergic to. They did a prick test by poking his back with a small amount of different things to see what he reacted to. Turns out, he is allergic to...are you ready for this...

Milk, Wheat, Peanuts, all Tree Nuts, Animals (the cat), and Dust!

Wow. So, all of you cat haters out there are probably asking if I got rid of my cat. I did not because there is no way of knowing from the test which allergy is the worst and which ones are causing a reaction or not.

So the first thing to try, without getting rid of Amelia Bedelia, was to eliminate all wheat and milk and of course, nuts, from his diet. And since I am still nursing, I would have to be on the same diet. It has been almost 3 weeks and we have been doing really well with out diet; it is easier than I thought it would be. We can still eat meat, fruits and veggies, eggs, rice cakes, soy milk, etc. I have to focus on the "can"'s rather than the "can not"'s. I even found gluten-free, dairy-free ice cream and chocolate chip cookies that are pretty good.

So, how has his face looked since we started all this madness?
Better.
Not perfect, but better.

He obviously is still reacting to something else or maybe he is super allergic to milk or something and reacts to Sarah and David who still eat milk and wheat. Who knows?! We are leaving for a week and I figure if he gets a lot better being away from the cat, we will try to find a home for her, but I want to be pretty sure that he's reacting to her before I get rid of her.

So, that's the update on that.

We have another update on this post about my shopping day and the entertainment center that I found and loved.
We bought it!
It's kind of a long story, but here are the cliff notes.
I called a few weeks after that day to see if they still had it. They did. I called back about 10 minutes later to find out the dimensions and more details on it and it had JUST sold. I was pretty bummed because it was marked WAY down for the memorial day sale going on. I called the next day to double check that it was gone (I was still mourning the loss) and they informed me that they just got two more in that morning, one was the same size but in a honey color and the other was a bit smaller in the same color. We decided to go check them out and get one! We hooked up the car trailer and headed to Camarillo and came home with the big, honey colored one.
Now we need a really big flatscreen to fill that hole, but that might have to wait a little while.

Girls Rule

2011-07-09T20:57:00.000-07:00

I went on an all girls rafting trip! It was a blast! I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous before hand. I was actually contemplating cancelling the night before; I was so nervous. But I went, and I loved every minute of it!

We went with Kern River Tours and did the run called the Gusto. It is 13 miles of class III and IV rapids...pretty intense! It was a cold day, June 29th, go figure. It actually looked like it might rain that morning, but the sun decided to peek out every now and then and we had jackets on so it wasn't so bad.

It was the first time I had left Lincoln for a long period of time, but he did way better than I thought he would. Apparently, he is better for other people and just cries all day for me so he was just fine. He took a bottle just fine for Katy and has taken it pretty well since then, so it turned out to be a good thing after all. Thanks to Gaye and Katy for taking my kids all day! I didn't worry at all knowing they were in great hands!

That's me in the middle with the glasses on.
WooHoo!

Our boat consisted of 3 from Karrie's all girl group, me, Karrie, and Carla H., and a family of 3 from Big Bear, CA. It was a mom, dad, and son and they were very nice. The other 5 from our group were in another boat.

Lucy's Dance Recital

2011-07-09T19:21:00.000-07:00

I have been looking forward to Lucy's first dance recital since Katy decided to put her dance. She was born to be on the stage! She did so well and just ate up all the attention. She kept waving to the audience during her dance. She was super cute! Afterwards, we all went to Rosemary's and she kept wanting to pose for pictures and she wouldn't put her flower that Tyler got her down. I love that girl and am so proud of her!

Sarah sat on the edge of her seat the entire time (about 2 hours) with her eyes glued to the stage. She loved it! Now she really wants to "be like Lucy" and dance too.

Sarah was having so much fun blowing bubbles in her cup she didn't want to stop to take a picture. Pretty typical of her.

My sweet little baby with his ever red cheeks. He looked so grown up in that outfit.See, this is what I was talking about. So funny!
Carter wanted to pose for a picture, too!

Mustache Party

2011-07-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

I left Sarah home with a babysitter this year and just took Lincoln with me to Casa de Mustachio. He slept most of the time so I was able to just hang out and relax a little.

David shaved his beard into a "cats tail" this year

You can see it a little better here.

I was able to spend some quality time with little miss Clara Michael.

David and the boys, Ryan, Justin, & Jesus, made some scrumptious tacos!

Father's Day 2011

2011-07-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

We had so many wonderful fathers and grandpa's to celebrate on fathers day, but the most important one around our house was Sarah and Lincoln's dad! I couldn't have asked for a better father for my kids. He is so much fun and is always trying to show them and teach them new things. He really enjoys that Sarah is at an age now that she can hang out and help him with things. David even took Sarah to Toy's R Us to buy her a little toy lawn mower so she can 'help' him mow the lawn. They are very cute together. He is so good at showing his love towards the kids and they love him so much in return!

We bought David a smoker for Father Day. The kids also made him a cute little tree using there hand prints, but I don't have a picture of it. It was pretty cute, though.
David's parents were unavailable, due to illness and being out of town, so we had dinner at my grandparents house this year and hung out with my family, which included my Aunt Debbie who surprised my grandpa by coming into town the day before. It was a nice day!

The other important dad's in our lives, in no particular order, are:

David's dad, Karl, aka Grandpa Bunting.
He is amazing to say the least. He is always there to help whenever we need him. He doesn't even think twice before coming to help/teach David how to fix something. He loves his grandkids and they love him! He is the best father-in-law anyone could ask for! Seriously!

My dad.
He is one of the only people who understand my sense of humor. He is truly a kid at heart. He lives a little ways away so we don't see him very often, but he is still loved from afar.

My grandpa Smith.
He has been my biggest motivator/cheerleader/coach/teacher/etc. He has been such a rock in my life and I respect and love him so much! He absolutely adores my kids and that is the biggest understatement of the year. I have pretty much been chopped liver ever since I had kids. =) But in all seriousness, he is an amazing role model and I am so proud to call him my grandpa.

My step-dad, Dan.

I didn't have a good picture so I just put two so-so pictures I found on Dalton's facebook.
Dan has been a father to me. He came into my life when I was very young and has always been there for me. He has taught me the meaning of hard work. He is caring and kind. He is only home a few days out of the month and he makes sure to spend as much of that time with us and we love it. He is always willing to help out however he can and we appreciate everything he does for us and the kids. He is Grandpa Dan and we love him!

My Grandpa Dansby.(I can't find a picture)

He is a wonderful grandpa. He is quiet, but caring. He loves the beach and spends 1/2 the year in Mexico now so we rarely see him, but we love him!

We have been so blessed to have so many wonderful men in our lives!
I don't know what I would do without them!

Princess Party

2011-07-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Ashlynn decided to throw a Princess "Tea" Party for all the little girls she knows and babysits and, fortunately, Sarah was invited! It was such a cute idea and Sarah was so funny to watch. She loves dressing up, but I think the fact that everyone was dressed like a princess put her in shock. She was pretty quiet the whole time, but I could tell she was in princess heaven. The big girls, Ashlynn and her friends, did the little girls make up and nails. And there was a little lunch set up for them with tiaras and everything.

All of the princesses + Sammy
(Sarah is looking at this picture saying, "Sammy wants to be a princess like me." She just walked over, looked at the picture, and recalled the memory of Sammy standing next to her and how she thought it was funny that Sammy wanted to be in the princess picture. I don't know why, but I am constantly amazed at her and her little brain and her great memory)
I wanted to dress up too! I was the only mom dressed up, but I didn't care, it was fun!So pretty!

Here is Sarah, off in her own little world while the other girls get pampered. She finally did sit down to have her nails painted and apparently, as soon as they finished her nails she threw her feet up on the table and asked them to do her toes too. She really does think she is a princess.

It was a very nice little lunch with fruit, cookies, cupcakes, and little pb&j sandwiches.

We love Ashlynn! Thanks for some great memories!

It was a prefect princess day, even after a little incident of Sarah trying to paint her own nails while no one was watching! Haha! Let's just say she had nail polish in her hair for days!

Neville's Party

2011-07-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

The theme this year was African Safari and I think it may have been my favorite theme so far. There was a giraffe and a zebra! And lots of other cute animals!

A baboon!A baby leopard!
A sloth!

A toucan!
and a super expensive palm cockatoo!

It was pretty, pretty, pretty good!

Things for me to remember

2011-06-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Sarah:
She says the funniest things. I am always amazed at the things she comes up with.

"It's hard. You do it for me." (referring to father's day crafts) "No, you wipe it up." "You put it away." "You do it." (when told to pick up or clean something up)
I told her to close her eyes and rest while we were in the car so she closed her eyes and tilted her head to the side and said, "Like this?"
When crossing the street at Grandma and Grandpa Buntings house I started crossing without holding her hand and she stayed on the sidewalk and yelled, "Hold my hand!"
She asks questions like this now, "You're tall, aren't you mom?" "I am like you, huh, mom?" "You like it, don't you?"
She loves to eat at other peoples houses.
She likes to put all of her toys on her bed.
She has her own language.
She likes to sing (in her language).
She loves nursery.
She is a nice girl. She never hits or fights with other kids.
She likes to take toys from brother, but she also likes to give toys to brother. She trades.
She is a master staller (if that's a word). When going to bed or going to time out she can stall like nobodies business.
I had been trying to get her to come in her room and get dressed to go swimming and kept yelling at her to "come here!" Finally she casually walks in with her hands at her sides and asks, with a hint of attitude, "what are you talking about?"
I was trying to get her to calm down in bed and go to sleep and said, "you need to calm down." She replies, "Who are you talking to?"
I told her if she came out of her room again she would get spanked so when she came out, I tried chasing her back into her room and she turns around and runs backwards all the way to her bed with her hands on her behind. When I asked her why she got out of bed she said, "two minutes!" What?!
While riding her horse outside she told me, "I'm using the recipe. I stir it like this." (She had her hand in a fist and was acting like she was stirring a bowl of something.)
She couldn't find her little Woody shoe charm and said in a panic-like voice, "My Woody! My best friend, Woody!"
She gathers things. Anywhere we go, she gathers as many things as she can. She doesn't really play with them, she just likes to gather. She really loves purses for this very reason....she can gather more things with a purse.

{After her nap in grandma Smith's bed the other day she gathered almost everything off of grandma's nightstands and dresser and laid them all out on the bed. It was kind of tricky putting everything back where it came from without grandma knowing, but luckily Sarah seemed to remember where she got everything. She's a little weird, but we love her!}

Lincoln:

Crawling.
Puts everything in his mouth.
Has 4 teeth.
Starting to eat more.
Doesn't like to sit. He won't let you set him down in a sitting position. He locks his legs and tries to jump. I have to set him down on all fours.
He prefers to stand (with help).
He loves water (bath, pool, shower).
He loves sister!
He loves to sleep in the LoveSac under the swamp cooler.
His eczema is still pretty bad.
He is allergic to peanuts and probably other things. He gets tested on 6/28.
He is pulling himself up to standing, but still falls sometimes so he hurts himself a lot.
He LOVES TO JUMP!!!
He is talking more and more each day. And he likes to hear himself yell. He yells just for fun. And they aren't short little yells, they are long, drawn out, siren-type yells. It's lovely.

{We just bought them this little 'pool' at Tractor Supply. It should last a while.}

Mother's Day

2011-06-13T17:54:00.000-07:00

I had an amazing Mother's Day.

David made me breakfast. Yum!

I got tickets to see Celine Dion in Vegas. Tears!
And I have the most amazing family in the world. I am so Blessed!

I also got a Mother's Day cake from my VT's that Sarah got into when I wasn't paying attention. Oh well, I ate part of the one I bought for her so we are even.

She was so funny when I caught her! She almost fell off the chair she was standing on because she went into full blown panic mode. She was a little confused when I laughed and got the camera rather than get mad.

Pismo Beach

2011-06-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

We went to Pismo (May 12-13) when Maryellen came for a visit. We stayed at a really nice hotel with 2 rooms and 2 bathrooms so we had lots of space.
We ate at Splash Cafe, bought some salt water taffy, and hung out on the beach.
Good times!

A seagull hung out on our balcony for a little while.
My cute boy!

I shared a bed with Sarah and Lincoln slept in the closet on a nice little bed of blankets, but by morning I had pretty much been kicked out and this is what the bed looked like. It's a good thing I love these little bed hogs!

Texas

2011-05-17T18:23:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Texas.
April 20th - 27th

The flight there was Amazing!!! Our plane was upgraded and they hooked us up with front row seats right behind the business class seats so we had A TON of room.

We each had our own tv. Sarah was loving life! She was so good the entire flight. She even fell asleep for the last half of it.

This is Lincoln at LAX. He kept playing with his tongue...it was pretty cute. Turns out he was teething because he got his two (bottom) teeth over the next couple of days.

We went to the zoo.

It was pretty hot and humid that day so Lincoln's eczema got pretty bad.

After the zoo we went to the Fortworth Stockyards.

While we were there we went to a place called Risky's for a bbq lunch.

We celebrated my dad's birthday with some yummy cupcakes!

My dad and Maureen were kind enough to watch the kids Friday morning so that David and I could go to the temple.

Lincoln loved this walker.

Easter was fun. We woke up and went to church and then came home to find Easter baskets, take naps, and make a yummy dinner.

We went to a Rangers game.

We toured the new, amazing Cowboys Stadium.

This is Jerry Jones' wife's car.

These tv screens double as the play boards and the coaches are able to electronically draw on them. Pretty cool.

We went to the arboretum on our last day. It was beautiful and David took a ton of pictures of Sarah in her Easter dress using mostly film.

How cute is this kid?!

Sarah kept telling David, "'top it! 'top taking my picture!"

We were packed in the plane like sardines on the way home. A little different than the heavenly flight there.

Shopping Day

2011-05-17T18:06:00.000-07:00

Every year the girls in our ward have a yard sale and then a few weeks later go to the outlets for the day for a girls only shopping trip. Well, this year, a few a of the girls weren't able to go and I wasn't able to leave Lincoln alone because he wouldn't take a bottle so we just cancelled the shopping trip. Well, I really needed clothes given I hadn't bought anything for myself since last years trip so I called up Katy and we planned our own girls (+Lincoln) shopping trip to the Camarillo outlets. It was so fun! We took our time, I wasn't stressed about leaving because I had Lincoln with me, it was great!!!

I didn't take any pictures except this one because I want David to build me this entertainment center from Restoration Hardware. Katy is there for scale.

Pre-Easter

2011-05-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

David took some pictures of Sarah in the backyard before he left to take some family pictures. She wasn't really into it, but I thought the film he used made her dress look awesome!

Instead of an Easter basket this year, my mom bought this cool sand/water table for the kids. I must say, it is way better than a bunch of candy and fake grass. Sarah loves it!

Here is our one bloom from the bulbs David planted. One day it was just a green bud and the next day it was this lovely purple thing! Amazing! We planted a lot of other flowers too, but this one is special because it was split from bulbs at David's parents and their bulbs were split from the bulbs at his grandma's house so they are heirloom bulbs now.

Since we were in Texas for Easter, we celebrated a week early with Michael and Emma at my Grandma's house. They each took turns finding their baskets left by Easter Bunny Debbie. Jen and I made dinner and it was yummy, if I do say so myself!

Shooting

2011-05-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

4/7: David took me shooting up off of Breckenridge road. It was a beautiful drive, but we only got to shoot for about 15 minutes until a rancher guy pulled over and told us we couldn't shoot there (which we were well aware of). So we headed back home. It was still pretty fun and I can't wait to go again. Except next time we will just pay to go to the shooting range so we can shoot a little longer.

I think I did pretty good. I hit the target almost every time.

The next night we had the ward chili cook-off, which David was in charge of because it is put on by the elders quorum. It was a good time and David won "Hottest Chili" for, I believe, the fourth year in a row.

I didn't take any pics at the ward activity, but I did take this one of our adorable little kids all ready for bed.

Everyday Stuff

2011-05-17T13:16:00.001-07:00

4/22: Sarah helping daddy make homemade biscuits and gravy.

3/27: Lincoln was a little chilly on grandma's patio and I forgot to bring his sweater so grandma put Emma's shirt on him. He was so pretty.

3/22 (around 5pm): This is what happened when Sarah refused to take a nap.

3/22: We needed to burn through our firewood to get it out of our way in the backyard so for about 2 weeks straight we kept the fire going. It made the house quite toasty inside.

4/2: He kicked and kicked until he finally crashed. I love this sweet boy!

Awkward and Awesome Thursday

2011-04-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

Some friends of ours, Justin and Ashley, have a blog and they do a thing called "Awkward and Awesome Thursdays." Well, yesterday was totally an Awkward and Awesome Thursday for me.

First: I was at my grandma's house and thought, "It's so nice outside I will lay the kids on a blanket under the tree." Good idea, right? Well, after about 5 minutes I walked over to check on Lincoln and THERE WAS BIRD POOP ALL DOWN HIS FACE!!!! It was SOOO gross! It wasn't the white stuff that you are thinking of, it was that black/purple berry-looking poop that makes a mess on everything this time of year. I totally should have known this would happen, too, because the patio right next to the grass was covered in the stuff. Duh! I think it would qualify as awkward, yet awesome at the same time.

Second: Ok, picture this... We are in Target, Me, Sarah walking next to me, and My Grandma pushing Lincoln in the cart. We were looking to buy Sarah some new shoes so we headed straight to the show section. Everything was fine at first; I was trying different shoes on Sarah while my grandma entertained Lincoln by pushing him up and down the aisle. Well, Lincoln had finally had it and was tired of shopping and maybe a little hungry so I go to get him out of his car seat and he is all wet; he had peed out of his diaper and soaked himself so I had to take all his clothes off. So now I have a naked, crying baby and Sarah had begun to wonder around. I decided to try to get Lincoln to go to sleep, or at least calm down, by nursing him. So, now I am still sitting in the middle of the shoe section, nursing Lincoln, while Sarah is wondering around taking all the spare button bags off the pajamas and dumping the buttons on the ground. My grandma is following her, picking up the buttons, saying loud enough for other people to hear, "Sarah, you are going to get in trouble, you need to stop taking these buttons off." At times I was afraid they would wonder too far away and I could imagine the store making an announcement over the loud speaker looking for them, but luckily they kept making their way back to the shoes. Finally I decided that it was time to get out of there. Lincoln finished eating but didn't fall asleep so he was upset (and still without clothes), but I just stuck him back in his carseat, rounded up Sarah and grandma and got the heck out of there while I still had a little dignity left. Totally Awkward, and yet a little Awesome because it made me laugh later in the day.

Last: We went to the Bo Bice concert at Crystal Palace. Nuf Said. No really, it was a pretty good show, but Bo is a little Awkward in the way he dances and also he didn't communicate well with the audience. When the show was supposedly over, the lights went off and the band disappeared from the stage without any mention of them being done or that being the last song or anything. The place was silent in confusion for several awkward seconds before they ran back on stage and said they could do a few more songs. Awkward! And we sat at a table, across from each other, with other people we didn't know, which was both awkward and awesome. It was pretty Awesome of Kathy, Davids co-worker, to give us the tickets she had won from KUZZ though. Thanks, Kathy! It was Awesome to have a night out together!

We saw Bo get on his bus before the concert.

This is what David looked like the whole time. On his phone...

So that's it for awkward and awesome Thursday!

Ashley also just started doing "Flawed and Fabulous Friday." Check her out!

Lincoln is 6 months old!

2011-04-08T10:21:00.001-07:00

My little boy is growing so fast! He still has some food anxiety, but we are working on it. His eczema is still bad. He is almost always happy and he loves to jump.

Sarah really enjoys putting all her toys and stuffed animals around Lincoln. Lincoln quite enjoys it, too. I love that they already play together.

Here is Sarah at the BC Garden Show. I walked over there with the kids and we had a great time. Until Lincoln had a melt down and we had to walk all the way home with him crying. But overall, it was fun.

General Conference

2011-04-05T11:36:00.001-07:00

This was our first conference since we have had BYUtv and it was great. I loved being able to record it so that I could wait for David to get home on Saturday to watch it together. I loved being able to pause it to go change a diaper or get Sarah a snack. And I loved being able to rewind it when I wanted to hear something again. We watched all four sessions at home and it was lovely. Sunday between sessions, David made homemade biscuits and gravy that were amazing. I have never liked biscuits and gravy, but I LOVE David's! Jimmy also came over for the second session on Sunday. Afterwards we all walked over to the park. David and Jimmy took some pictures while Sarah blew on all the dandelions and Lincoln and I just watched. It was a beautiful day!

My favorite parts of conference were:

Elder Ballard's talk on service. I loved the story about the gold flecks and how instead of looking for the big nuggets, so to speak, it is through many small, simple acts that we create great impact (wealth).

“Great things are wrought through simple and small things. Like the small flecks of gold that accumulate over time into a large treasure, our small and simple acts of kindness and service will accumulate into a life filled with love for Heavenly Father, devotion to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a sense of peace and joy each time we reach out to one another.”

This is something I have been struggling with lately so it was nice to be encouraged once again to get out there and find people to serve, even if it is something small.

Elder Scott's talk on marriage. He said to show love towards one another. I loved how he said saying "I love you" has a much bigger impact when said while embracing. It just made me so grateful to have David as my husband. We have such an amazing relationship and he makes sure to tell me, in many ways, several times a day how much he loves me. I am truly blessed to have married my best friend and I am so glad we get to spend eternity together.

“It is so rewarding to be married. Marriage is wonderful. In time you begin to think alike and have the same ideas and expressions. You have times when you are extremely happy, times of testing, and times of trial, but the Lord guides you through all of those experiences together. . . . Marriage provides an ideal setting for overcoming any tendency to be selfish or self-centered.”

And of course, Elder Holland's talk was amazing. He basically told us to listen to the prophets and apostles because their messages are inspiration from God. What they say is important.

“I ask you to reflect in the days ahead, not only on the messages you have heard here but also on the unique phenomenon that general conference itself is—what we as Latter-day Saints believe such conferences to be and what we invite the world to hear and observe about them. We testify to every nation, kindred, tongue and people that God not only lives, but that He speaks. That for our time and in our day the counsel you have heard is, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, ‘the will of the Lord, . . . the word of the Lord, . . . the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation.’”

President Monson left us with a comforting message:

“We face many challenges in the world today, but I assure you that our Heavenly Father is mindful of us. He loves each of us and will bless us as we seek Him through prayer and strive to keep His commandments.”

I have a testimony that the things said in conference were inspired.
President Monson is the living prophet on the Earth today.
Families can be together forever.
It's so simple.

April Fool's Day

2011-04-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

David got a few people riled up with his April Fools Day Facebook post. I will just copy and paste it here:

David Bunting
We woke Sarah up extra early this morning and told her we were going to Disneyland, she was so excited. We drove around for about twenty minutes and pulled up in front of a burnt down warehouse. She was heart broken to find out Disneyland burnt down. She'll believe anything. Haha

Friday at 8:15am · ·

Jason Maner, Cheryl Smith, Jocelyn Bunting Delgado and 5 others like this.
- Jesus Moreno LMAO
  Friday at 8:17am ·
- Patrick Ang that is so funny but so messed up at the same time
  Friday at 8:21am ·
- Jennifer Pitts Killmer Must've been pretty hard to get a TWO YEAR OLD to believe her parents!! I hope you really are taking her to Disneyland!!
  Friday at 8:22am ·
- Tiffany Ann Robinson aww that is so messed up but at the same time LOL and I agree with Jennifer you guys should take her.
  Friday at 8:27am ·
- Crissy Cochran You are so mean!
  Friday at 8:30am ·
- Katy Allred Nichols OMG your so dumb!
  Friday at 8:32am · · 1 person
- Manuel Galaviz Dave ur brutal. Lol
  Friday at 8:34am ·
- Jessica Frey So mean!!!!! (but super funny prank!)
  Friday at 8:38am ·
- Abby Reber Taylor You will never win Father Of The Year!!!! That was Just Terrible!!
  Friday at 10:01am ·
- Jeri Boring Blair Hope this is an April Fools joke on us!
  Friday at 10:16am ·
- Kimi Bryant she is going to be tramatized. LOL mean!
  Friday at 10:19am ·
- Jocelyn Bunting Delgado Brilliant!
  Friday at 10:21am ·
- Aubrey McGee This better be a joke! I don't think Lindsey would allow that!!
  Friday at 10:22am ·
- Stephanie Nichols Holladay Mean!
  Friday at 10:48am ·
- Glenda Smith James That's so not funny!!! That's borderline child abuse
  Friday at 10:50am ·
- Glenda Smith James You better be April fooling me
  Friday at 10:57am ·
- Stephanie Nichols Holladay Mean!
  Friday at 11:25am ·
- Kristie Larene Roberson THAT IS FORRIBLE!!!!!!
  Friday at 11:35am ·
- Rinez Fewkes Campbell Oh no! Poor little girl! She's too young to understand April Fool's day! Meany daddy!
  Friday at 1:11pm · · 2 people
- Connie Randall I can't believe Lindsay let you do that.
  Friday at 8:57pm ·
- David Bunting When i wrote this post Sarah was sound asleep, I never did prank her but I got a few other people pretty good.
  Friday at 9:50pm · · 1 person
- Keri Loftus So Funny!!!!
  Saturday at 6:26am ·
- Rinez Fewkes Campbell You got us!
  3 hours ago ·

When I read it I thought people would obviously know it was an April Fools joke (on them). I never would have thought people would seriously think we would play a joke on our 2 year old, but they did. It was pretty funny.

My sister really did get me with her joke. She sent a text with a picture of her left hand with an engagement ring on and said "I'm engaged!" I got SO excited for her and told David and was about to tell a few more people when she sent a follow up text that said, "April Fools!" She got me! I hope she really does get engaged soon though!

I didn't attempt any pranks or jokes this year, maybe next year...

Pajamas, Pictures, and a Party

2011-03-31T15:45:00.000-07:00

Sarah and I got matching pajamas for Christmas! I love that we match, but Sarah doesn't really seem to care or even notice. Maybe one day when she looks back on this in our blog book she will appreciate the cuteness; or maybe she will just think I am an even bigger dork than she thought. We'll see.
**Update: When Sarah saw this picture on the blog she said, "Mommy 'n' Sarah matching owl jammies." So maybe she does notice.

{This is what she did after we said, "Smile! Show us your teeth!"}

I was looking through the pictures on my camera one day and found these:

Not bad for a 2 year old.

And lastly, the party. Mikey Taylor had a Halo-themed, surprise birthday party this year courtesy of his cute wife, Larissa. Jaime made the cake to look like an Xbox with a controller and it was amazing!

Exciting Stuff

2011-03-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

Sarah reached an important milestone this morning....she can now eat cereal (with milk!) by herself! WooHoo!!! And her cereal of choice....Lucky Charms! My little girl is growing up too fast. And this is her "cheese" face for most pictures now. It's a little blurry, but that was as good as it was going to get, she is not a big fan of the camera.

*I just noticed that with that pajama shirt on it reads "Love Lucky Charms." Haha!
And more exciting news....this is what Lincoln's face looks like this morning! SO much better! I just want to stare at this cute face all day and kiss those soft, smooth cheeks!
*I am almost embarrassed to say what made them better because I should have been doing it all along, but it is a mixture of hydro-cortisone and Eucerin cream. I was using Eucerin, but I couldn't find my hydrocortisone so I just ignored that part until I had tried everything else and finally had David pick some up at the store so I could try it (since that is what the Dr. told me to try) and Viola! it worked. I also put some coconut oil on it occasionally and that seems to make his skin extra smooth and soft.

Stinkin' Lincoln

2011-03-12T23:04:00.000-08:00

...that's what Sarah calls him.

So Mr. Lincoln is 5 months already! I can't believe how fast it has gone, but it's hard to remember a life without him. Here are some things going on with Lincoln:

He has pretty bad eczema. It's all over his whole body, but the worst on his cheeks. It is so sad to look at, but it doesn't seem to bother him much.

He moves all the time. He can get himself out of the Bumbo and the other day he dove head first out of his bouncy seat.

He rolls from back to tummy & tummy to back.

He still doesn't belly laugh, but he smiles A LOT.

He nurses to sleep (Sarah had to be walked to sleep so this is much nicer on my back). If he wakes up when I lay him down, he usually can put himself back to sleep.

He hates food. I have tried rice cereal, sweet potatoes, bananas, blueberry smoothie, and pretty much anything we eat and he hasn't liked any of it. He did eat part of a graham cracker and seemed to like it.

He loves his big sister. She can make him smile just by walking by.

He is still our happy little guy most of the time!

His stats as of 3-2-11:

Weight: 14lbs 6oz (50%)
Height: 28 inches (off the charts/above 95%)
Head Circ: 16.5 inches (25%)

Here he is....

Valentine's Day

2011-03-11T16:44:00.000-08:00

This year for Valentine's Day, my Aunt Debbie, who was in town, watched the kiddos while David and I went out. We went to Rusty's and had a heart-shaped pizza...so romantic. Then we went to see Just Go With It, with Adam Sandler. It was Hilarious! We had a great time celebrating our LOVE! This was our 8th Valentine's Day together...good times!

Happy Baby

2011-02-18T23:28:00.000-08:00

Lincoln is such a happy baby. He is just so sweet and loves people. For the most part, if you make eye contact with him he will smile at you.

This was just cute.

Long Beach Aquarium

2011-02-18T23:10:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we went to the aquarium with my family. It was pretty fun. Sarah loved everything! She got to feed the birds, pet a shark, and she even saw Nemo! We ate a late lunch on the boardwalk and then stopped at Diddy Reise on the way home. It was a great day!

Leaves!

2011-02-18T17:39:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year again. Every February the giant tree in our backyard drops its leaves. And every year I am totally impressed at the amount of leaves that come down. During our warm weather last week we headed outside to rake them up. It was nice to get outdoors and do something active. I actually enjoyed it so much that I even went out after dark one night to rake by myself. And the exercise was so good that for a few days I just moved the pile from one spot to another just to have something fun to do for my exercise (because I hate exercising on purpose). I know, I am weird. Sarah loved being outside and she even got to eat popsicles, which she calls 'iceiples.' She also calls yogurt, 'orgut.' Anyway, enough rambling, here's the proof.

I ended up bagging them all up to get them off the grass and I filled 10 bags and the green waste can.

Here is the yard the day after I picked up the leaves. They just keep falling.

This is after the crazy wind we had today.

Happy Birthday, David/Daddy!

2011-02-18T16:35:00.001-08:00

David turned 29 this year! To celebrate we had some friends and family over on his birthday. We all went in on a group gift and got him a BIG griddle/grill. Now he can use it to cook for the ward dinners and pancake breakfasts. And it worked great for making a lot of sliders with grilled onions! Mmm! Here is David opening the carrying case for the grill that 'Sarah' got for him.

Here is the grill already in use!

The spread: carrot cake, sliders, potato salad and green beans.

A chocolate cake I made using a yummy recipe out of BHG. It was Delicious!

A rare picture of just us.