the last crib picture

Lincoln is now in a toddler bed (and sleeping better than ever!) so this picture was last week. Nathan walked into his room after his nap and found lincoln butt naked with a HUGE puddle of pee where he decided he needed to pee after taking his diaper off. Hilarious, but not hilarious at the same time.

Real laughs!

Yesterday London gave me her first real purposeful laugh! It was adorable. I love that all you have to do now is look at her and she just lights up.

Big boy bed!

Well, we switched Lincoln over to a toddler bed. The first day for his nap was really bad. It took 2 hours to get him to stay in bed. The first hour I was outside of his room and kept going in there when I heard him get up. About every minute or so. Then I went in his room for the 2nd hour and sat in the dark in the rocking chair, didn't make eye contact or talk at all, and laid him down every minute when he tried to get up. He finally fell asleep. On the floor. But still. He slept.

That night, he got out of bed two times then was good for the night! Last night and tonight, he didn't get out of bed once. Yay! I'm glad that he's doing well with this. I was really worried that I would be losing weeks of sleep over it.

The dreaded day

Lincoln has always been a good sleeper (aside from some random couple weeks of night time wakings).
Well. Tonight was the first of what I think will be the norm now. It's 8pm. I put Lincoln to bed the same as every night. This time at 8:05, he opens his door (which he's now an expert at- and locking them!), and walks into my room with a huge grin of accomplishment on his face. I couldn't help but laugh. Wrong Stacey. That was the wrong thing to do. I silently put him back in his bed just like I'd seen super nanny do on tv. Cut to 2 minutes later. He climbs out again (by climbing down his rocking chair next to the crib), climbs on his nightstand, turns on his bedroom light, finds a hat to wear, slowly opens his door, and proudly comes prancing into my room again. I'm trying really hard not laugh at this point but it's hard! He picked a pink crocheted hat with a rainbow flower of London's to wear and it just looked hilarious with his footing pajamas on! *sigh* I take him back to his crib again and lay him down.
I go to my room and listen closely this time. I hear him climb out of his bed and start to open his door slowly. I go to the hall and he sees me and starts running over to his rockin chair to try to climb back in before he thinks I see him. Oh my. So I go in to his room and move the furniture away from his crib so he can't climb on it, shut the door behind me and listen at his door. Sure enough 10 seconds later I hear a thump, and hands on the doorknob about to open it. He just throws his body over the side and lands right! I put him back in his crib again... And again.... And again...
Now, it's 8:45pm and I can hear him talking every once in a while in there but I'm not sure if he's in his crib or not. He can climb out, but he can't climb back in without the rocking chair next to it. I guess I'll find out in the morning if he's asleep in his bed or on a pile of toys. What a night! That silly boy!

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Christmas!

This was probably one of the best Christmases (?) ever. We woke up, had some orange rolls, went to church for a Christmas Singing Program, came home and started unwrapping presents. After each tiny piece of paper Lincoln would tear off, he had to run in the kitchen to throw it away yelling "trash, trash!". So finally, we just brought the trash can in the living room and that kept him happy and a little bit faster. His preferred method of opening presents is with his teeth by the way. After that, we ran over to nathan's parents house and did some presents there, then came back to our house and my parents and grandma came for a visit. I made my parents a cute little doorway puppet theater and 2 puppets of themselves. I forgot to take a picture of that though. I can just imagine all the kids loving putting on puppet shows at my parents house, and them preparing shows for us. It will be a good time. Lincoln is in love with the whistles that great grandma got him and LOVES the mr. potato head set grandma got him. He loves hats and shoes, so he's in heaven getting to put them on a potato. Once they left, we went back to nathan's parents house and hung out all. We played games and had a great time. I love Christmas even more after having kids. I loved watching Lincoln open up everything and just getting so excited. Next year I'm sure will be even more awesome when London can get in on the action!!

Christmas Eve, opening his Christmas motorcycle jammies.

Christmas Day! His first present, trumpette the boucy cow!
My cute little girl just watching all the fun

Showing dad his alligator sleeping bag/pillow thing

This was a set of 4 puppets, and he had to kiss each one of them before putting them down.
Only a tiny portion of all his loot!
yup. coal. that's right. I'm "that" mom that will always give my kids coal.
my new kitchenaide mixer!!!! hurray! i've wanted one of these for so long. Nathan was super tricky about it too. Made me open a bunch of boxes to get it. Each box was numbered. I got the paper of package 1, and I said, "I'm going to need a knife to open the box". Nathan said flip the box over, and in sharpie he had written "there is a knife on top of the piano." He's so clever. So I open that one, and there is a bunch of trash and a piece of paper that says "there is nothing in this box. open number 2." I got the paper off number 2, then the outside of the box said in sharpie "stop opening this one now and go to box 3 & 4" So I open box 3 and there is another box inside of that called 4. I open box 4 and it says on a piece of paper "Go play the piano." Well, cleverly he had cleaned all my books off the piano the night before so I had to open the bench to get a book, and he had hidden the mixer in the piano bench! It's pretty sweet. I plan to get nice and fat making goodies with that thing. hehe
Grandma holding adorable london.
Great Grandma came by and gave Lincoln some whistles.
I love this picture! Nathan always opens his mouth when he feeds someone so I think it's hilarious :)

Grandpa (in his traditional santa suspenders) with London

the ultimate christmas party sleepover

So we were sitting around one day thinking about putting together a small christmas party. Then it occured to Randy Mangum: "We should have a sleepover!"... The rest is history :)

It was a fun night of white elephant gifting, photo booth taking, lots of laughing, and LOTS of eating.. I mean lots.

I think I see a tradition starting here.

All the cute boys:

And the girls: (love your face amy)

...then things got weird.





posing with our white elephant gifts. (the kids did a little exchange too. shan made up a great story that said left and right and they had to pass it that direction... let's just say that jacob was the only kid who knew which way was left and right so it was a little crazy! haha)
adorable london and lyla... maybe not the most flattering picture though
and mr. lincoln!




mmm. biscuits and gravy!

Christmas eve tradition :)

Sweet pork tacos.
Opening one present: (Jammies of course)
Hot chocolate.
Driving around looking at lights in new pjs.
Great night! I love Christmas.

Chocolates!!

It's that time of year again where we get to make/eat delicious chocolates and gain another 5 pounds! Yummy! This year it was me, shan, my mom, and amy (plus 8 crazy kids running around...) k, well more like 6 crazy kids and 2 chill babies.

We made chocolate covered cherries, caramels, peanut clusters, orange chocolates, and mint chocolates. They are all pretty much my favorite.

mom testing out my super cute new beanie... stylin college student i think!!

amy, how is this the only picture i got of you? maybe it's because i'm secretly bitter about you leaving us. or not so secretly i guess. :)


lyla and london got to stare eachother down for a while :)

the master dipper at work!

the not so master rollers at work... haha


adorable. lol


could she be any cuter?!



ada and sophie

our finished product!

My helper boy

Lincoln loves to help London. Whenever she cries he searches for her binkie while telling her to be "ha-ppy". So cute...