Creatively Cheap Again...and Bored

The lamp I saw at Target.com and wanted

 Price:  $59.99

The simple lamp shade and pedistol table lamp I found at Wal-Mart and the rocket birdhouse from Michaels.

Lamp Price:  $10.00                                      Rocket Birdhouse: $8.00

The rocket lamp I made for Lincoln's room by sawing the birdhouse in half and gluing it around the lamp.

Total Price: $20

The value of having something to keep me busy while Joe finishes his MBA.

Priceless

He's three!

Lincoln gave us a birthday present by potty training quickly.  He earned his potty training prize, a bike, right on the day of his party.

 Lincoln requested a dog cake again which works out because that's the only cake I can make.

 We invited some friends from church over for a family party.

Lincoln and Berkley playing during the party.  I just thought this picture was cute.  

Lincoln's real birthday was Sunday June 19th and it was a little lack luster.  We did save one present for that day.

Vacation

Here is a condensed vacation log.  

1. Drove 4.5 hours to my parents' house after Joe's work the 22nd

2. Woke up and drove 22 hours straight to UT with Hannah sleeping very little.  If any of you are thinking of driving through the night with an infant...don't do it!

 3. Got to UT Friday morning and stayed at Joe's friend's house.  (His friend was watching his in-laws house and it was very awesome.  It included this pool, an arcade, home theater, etc.  Basically we chose the right people to stay with:)  Joe slept a long time while we swam.  He did all the driving.

 4. Friday night we did a pre-wedding pizza party and Lincoln was a little to tired to particpate.

 Later he did help clean.

 5. Friday night we had the semi-traditional pre-wedding girls party including painting nails.  Rachel and Jocey were excited when Aunt Deanna painted their nails.

 6. Saturday the 25th Deanna and Dale were married for time and eternity in the Provo temple.  Yeah!

 

My cousins and siblings were nice to watch the kids while Joe and I went to the sealing.  Rachel was so excited to meet my cousin Rachel and they were automatically best friends.  How could you not love someone with your same name?

The girls with the princess for the day.  My nephew went up to Deanna and asked her if that was Princess Kate's dress.  What more could you ask for in a compliment?

Lincoln with my dad and then my grandpa behind them.  It was really hot and Lincoln wasn't the happiest camper.

7.  We caught Deanna for some pictures before the reception.

8.  We went to the reception at Deanna's friend's house.  It had a beautiful backyard.  This is all the girl cousins in their cute flower girl dresses.  Unfortunately I found out after washing Rachel's dress that it is dry clean only.  That was sad.

Deanna's best friend provided the music at the reception and the girls were mesmerized.  They had good reason to be.  She was amazing.

Lincoln enjoyed the refreshments all night long.  He really thought the water dispenser was cool and drank several glasses of water.  He peed right through our backup supply of clothes/underware.  He's wearing a borrowed diaper here.  Oh the shame.

9. Sunday we drove up 5 hours to a cabin near Bear Lake.  We got lost, which made it a long trip.  For the record, if anyone tries to go to the Bear Lake cabin called Sutton's Cabin, with the physical address being in Ovid, it is not close to Bear Lake or Ovid.

 I put on a carnival, that included face painting for the kids.  They all wanted the paint on their forehead.  Lincoln proudly wore his monkey for a while.

 

The whole Ned Lunt family

10.  We drove back down 4 hours to Provo/Orem and were able to visit Joe's brother Carl and his wife Jenny.  They were nice to give us a BBQ dinner.  The kids liked the volley ball court near by.

11.  We went with Joe's high school friends and their wives to the Salt Lake Real soccer game that night.  We also got to visit Alpine Storage where we lived/work for 2 years and the co-manager we worked with.  That was fun.

Sickness hit right the day of the game and Joe pushed through it but had to recover all the next day.  

 

12. We thought we were rid of the sickness until I got it the day we were supposed to drive 10.5 hours to the AZ reunion.  I thought I could quarantine myself so we went and I received a priesthood blessing and felt better.  We were successful in not getting anyone sick until Lincoln threw up all over the dinner table and then that spread the disease.  I really feel guilty about that.  Lincoln showed no other symptoms besides throwing up.

 We went bowling during the reunion and Lincoln got a strike.

 

Hannah actually let my parents hold her for a while and also learned the meaning of the words, "Say cheese!"

 Rachel had fun bowling but got sick of it pretty quick and started pretending to play the archade games.

 

What made the bowling trip is when Rachel was given this ugly bear/lion stuffed animal.

Rachel loved exploring during the reunion and had fun with this rope swing. 

We then drove 14 hours to Wylie, stayed with Joe's sister and family and then drove another 14 home.  It was fun to see so much family, but we are glad to be out of the van!

Today's Project

This is the picture I saw at Target and loved. I wanted Target to give it to me for free so I could use it in Lincoln's space themed room.

 That didn't happen so I decided to be artsy and try to create my own.  I think it turned out ok.  It's nice that it's supposed to look like a 12 year old did it because that's about my level of skill. 

Best Baby Ever

We have been confused in the past why some people say they're sad to see their babies grow up because our babies are always happier as they grow older.  Hannah has helped us to understand.  She is such a sweet baby.  We're sad to see her grow up because it's impossible to get a fill of cuddling with her and appreciating how patient and nice she is to us.  Among many of her high points: she trained herself to sleep through the night at seven months, she lets Rachel and Lincoln play with her like a doll and my favorite is that she is so calming and just lets me cuddle with her while she rests calmly on me.  She is such a blessing. Rachel and Lincoln are blessings too:)

This is Hannah at a story time with Rachel and Lincoln.  She (9 months) sat completely by herself for 15 minutes.  Rachel and Lincoln can hardly do that now.

Solato Nature Center

Our friends invited us to go to the Solato Nature Center in Frankfurt.  We really enjoyed it and Rachel has already asked to go back.   There were shady outdoor paths with some of the local wildlife.  This picture was taken in the much appreciated air conditioned part of it.  They had cool displays where you could go fishing, etc.  It was really fun and well done...and free.  I think I love most things that are free.

 

 Rachel and Lincoln with their favorite friends Braelyn and Berkley.

I can't find my camera charger so this is again a blurry cell phone pic, but I thought it was funny because it captures Rachel's personality so well.  She cautiously and meticulously wraps her mind around situations before she delves in.  When she was a baby she hardly ever blinked.  I think it was because she wanted to figure out everything around her and blinking was a waste of time.  She hasn't changed much.  She did pet the snake eventually.

Begin with Sleep, End with Sleep

A few Friday's ago Lincoln and I headed off to stake Fathers and Sons campout. I was a little nervous about how he'd do, but I figured if I can handle 3 kids out home, there's a slight chance I'll be able to handle one on a campout. I've always enjoyed camping, so this was a great excuse to finally get to go camping in Kentucky. When we started out Lincoln quickly fell asleep in the car. It could have been because my car was so hot because the air conditioning wasn't working then.

The campsite was at a farm of someone in our ward, so luckily the drive wasn't very long. It turns out we were just in a big grassy field. Cars would pull up right to where they wanted to unpack and unload everything. Having a 2 year old with me, I really appreciated that. The field was nice and big and there was plenty of room to play games. There was even a little swing set that Lincoln enjoyed playing on.

When I opened my tent, I noticed all the polls were separated. For anyone who has set up a lot of tents they know that most tents have stretchy rope through the polls to hold them all together. Apparently somehow all that string had broken in my tent and now my polls had to string to keep them together. I tried to pull the string back through, but it was useless as the string was in about 30 different pieces. Finally, a member of the ward pointed out that the tension of the tent would keep the polls together as long as it didn't get really windy or anything. We tried it out and it worked like a charm. Lincoln loved being in a tent. In fact, he didn't want to leave it, so while he played in it, I went and played a football game with some of the youth.

We had a nice program and Lincoln was a true boy and loved seeing the fire and wanted to throw stuff in it a lot. When he was finally ready for bed I went and laid down next to him in the tent. Sadly, our tent was also near the capture the flag field, so it took him a while to fall asleep, but eventually did. (Joe forgot to include that Lincoln wanted to hold his hand while they laid there together and Lincoln fell asleep that way.  So cute!)  I then went out to talk to everyone. Lincoln was so tired that he slept through breakfast. When he finally woke up we packed up and got him home. I think we both had a great time.