Fall Fun

Ye-Haw!

(Or as Lincoln says, "ha-ha!")

Fall has been a lot of fun at our house this year.  Lincoln is old enough to participate in and enjoy the activities that come along with the season.  Doesn't he make an adorable cowboy?  

We took our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch at the Arboretum. 

Last year at just under 6 months we had to prop him up on the pumpkins because he couldn't sit up by himself yet.  

This year he was all over the place!

We painted pumpkins with Grandma Kathy and Paw-Paw (though I'm not sure the grandparents enjoyed it as much as Lincoln...notice they are sitting VERY far away from the paint!)

Our church held it's annual Fall Festival; which Lincoln loved.  

Linc's favorite game at the Fall Festival was the duck hunt.  He didn't care about the candy or prizes, he just thought pulling the ducks out of the water was awesome!

Halloween at school was filled with all sorts of fun events.  Lincoln's daycare is located in downtown Dallas.   Each year the kids dress up and walk around the the area offices to receive candy treats.  

Getting his bag ready...

Miss Gretchen handing out candy...

He loved holding his bag open!

Whew...Mommy was TIRED.  Next year this will be a two-parent job!

Daddy works just down the street and was able to join Lincoln for his afternoon Halloween party

Lincoln loved showing his friends the cool games his daddy could play.

Umm...adorable!  His teachers must be saints.

Yum...juice and cupcakes and cheetos.  

Rounding out the fall fun, we went to a birthday party at the Dallas Zoo.  

(thanks Chandler for having such a cool party!)

Lincoln loved checking out the animals

But I think he loved chasing Laurel even more!  

They were adorable!

Sitting on daddy's shoulders to see the animals!

Of course, it was hard to go to the zoo and not think about the loss that our friends, The Sikes', have experienced this year.  They continue to be on our hearts.  If they continue to be on yours, I encourage you to make a donation to the James Camden Sikes fund for the research of rhabdoid tumors.  You can contribute at www.jamescamdensikes.blogspot.com

We didn't visit Jamie the Giraffe on this trip.  

We'll make a special trip to see her soon!

Lincoln turned 18 months old in October.  He is growing and changing everyday, so I thought we'd document the words he knows and the things he likes to do right now.  Getting him to perform on command is always a bit of a challenge, so this is in bits and pieces...Enjoy! 

P.S. ...thanks to Sandra Boynton for teaching Lincoln that "three singing pigs say la, la, la"...

Catching up with the Guilds

Right after my last post, John and I finally decided to put our house on the market.  We've talked about it for years, but to be honest, it was just never the right time and I was certain that I would never find an actual house that I loved as much as our townhouse.  However, it had become apparent that we needed MORE ROOM (baby toys take up a lot of space).    

The weekend our house went on the market coincided with Lincoln's rescheduled 1st birthday party and we had our first showing an hour after the party ended (I always tell my clients not to turn away showings, so I couldn't tell them not to come!)

A couple of obligatory party pics are below.

My great-grandmother made this sock monkey 

for my mom when she was  a little girl!

John's Aunt sent Lincoln this sock monkey when he was a baby...

He obviously loves it!

Somehow we managed to clean up all of the party decorations and ball pit in time for the showing.  Luckily, our house sold in less than a month and the past few months have been a whirlwind.  

In between selling our house and moving into the new house...my brother and sister-in-law had TWINS!  Samantha and Easton are adorable!  My sister-in-law, Kim, is an excellent blogger, you can check her out here:  http://www.bluegrassandgreentomatoes.blogspot.com/

I'm so excited that Lincoln will have cousins close in age who are also close by (hint hint B&K...don't move off!)  Lincoln has learned to say "ba-by" and point to the babies...ADORABLE!

Okay, back to the Guilds :)....

This is the house we bought.  It backs up to a creek (in theory...there hasn't been any water in the creek since we moved in) and is walking distance to Lincoln's elementary school.

We moved in over the 4th of July weekend, though not before checking out the 4th of July parade in our new neighborhood.  

Moving into the new house has been a challenge (to say the least).  When we moved into the townhouse (7 years ago!), we really just had to sit our furniture where we wanted it and nothing else really needed to be done.  We decided to buy new furniture for the new house (our current furniture was purchased before we got married...9 years ago!).  So, everything is "on order" and nothing is really finished yet.  This drives me crazy, but I'm trying to be zen about it.  Luckily, we've had the help of the amazing Sydney Fiedler at SydneyDesign with this process!  I'll post pics of the inside when it's come together a little more.

As if our lives weren't hectic enough...John changed jobs!  You can check him out here.  

We are so excited about the new firm.

http://www.ghjhlaw.com/Lawyers/JohnFGuild

And we just got back from our first summer vacation as a family of 3!  The last vacation John and I took was to Hawaii two years ago with my family...boy does that seem like a lifetime ago!  Here is one of my favorite pics from the Hawaii trip.

And here are a couple of my favorite pics from our trip to Orlando with my best friend from college, Jamie, and her family!

Just chillin' with Mickey

It's a small world!

Look Parker, you can climb this window!

My mommy made me wear this!

The ocean is SOOOO fun!

Run run fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the Lincoln man!

Seeing the animals on safari at Animal Kingdom

I hope they can be this good of friends always!  

Lincoln seems to be growing and changing every day!  Just look how big he is in all of these pictures!  

At 16 months old, he says the following:

mama 

dada

papa

Bailey

baby

ball

up

please

fish

tree

bubbles

five

duck

quack-quack-quack

poopy ;)

It seems like there are more, I'll have to go back and add to the list as I think of them.  

In addition, he signs:

more

please

all done

milk

and is really good at waving and pointing to what he wants...we are working on "thank you"

Even more impressive, he seems to understand everything you tell him to do.  He loves to go outside (can't wait until it's under 100 degrees and we can actually play outside some) and pet Bailey as well as play with mommy and daddy's phones and iPads.  He's a fan of Mickey Mouse and enjoys taking things out of a bowl/box and putting them back in.  My dad started setting him in his lap and counting 1-2-3, then throwing him up in the air.  He will now climb up in your lap and hold up one finger to tell you he wants to play that game!  He still likes to climb anything in sight.  He has a sweet disposition but is starting to show signs of the Terrible Two's (i.e - I want this and I want it RIGHT NOW)

Proof that he isn't always a perfect little boy!  We had stopped at the Ghiradelli ice cream shop and the people at the other tables had ice cream he wanted...NOW!

Okay, that was an incredibly long blog post, but you are mostly caught up now!  

Birthday Boy

It was impossible on Lincoln's birthday not to reflect on the past year and think about how much the tiny little baby we brought home from the hospital changed our lives.  I was a bit of a sentimental mess all day!  Everyone tells you that kids grow so fast, but until you have one of your own, you really can't comprehend how true that statement is. 

I had planned a BIG birthday party to commemorate the special occassion. But, as I've learned this year, once a baby comes along, plans have to be flexible. Lincoln's daycare called on Thursday to say he was running a pretty high fever. Turns out, he had the flu...again. I didn't know it was possible to get the flu twice in one season (especially after getting a flu shot), but apparently it is more common than I thought. As a result, we postponed his birthday celebration (so stay tuned for pics from the party in a few weeks). 
Luckily, Flu Round 2 was not as brutal as the first round and by Friday evening he was feeling better, so on his big day we had a small family celebration with Grandma Cheryl. 

Opening his presents from Uncle Jay, Aunt Debbie, Julia and Ethan

He LOVED Grandma Chery's gift and did not want to put it in his piggy bank

The birthday hat, though adorable, was NOT a hit.  

But he thought the cupcake was pretty cool....

And interesting...(it needed some studying before he dug in)

and VERY yummy!

  So...what does one do with a one year old who is too well to hang out at the house all day and rest, but too sick to have a party?  I'm not sure what the right answer to that one is, but we decided to go to the park. 

 

Too cool for school in his sunglasses! 

As always, the slide is a HUGE hit! 

We purchased a ball pit as entertainment for the party, but decided to go ahead and blow it up and let him play in it this weekend.  What a great idea.  If it didn't take up half of our living room, I'd be tempted to leave it up all the time because he loved it so much!