Complete and Utter Chaos

Did I get your attention? I know I am the worst blogger ever...the complete and utter chaos obviously describes me. Well, not too much has changed with our family. Our day to day lives are still pretty much the same. Ryan and I are still working full time, which means we don't get to see each other a lot. We usually only have a couple days a week that we really get to spend quality time together, which can be really hard. I miss spending time with him, and I'm sure Lincoln would like to spend time with both of us together more often.

I am going to go back a couple months and update you on a couple of the big events that have happened. Two months ago (as of today actually) my adorable little, emphasis on the little, niece Estee Louise Welch was born. She was 6 lb 1 oz, and was 19 inches.

These were taken when she was a little over a week old and super tiny. She is now starting to become a little chunkster, but is still just as adorable. Unfortunately, I don't have any more recent pictures.

Last month Lincoln turned two. I sometimes see glimpses of those notorious terrible twos. He has been throwing more tantrums lately, but he has also been becoming more familiar with time outs because Ryan and I don't give in to the tantrums. He is still behind on talking. He doesn't say very much, which makes communicating very difficult sometimes. I know if he really wanted to he could talk, he is just stubborn. He gets that from both Mom and Dad. Lincoln is still a ball of energy. He is so fearless...climbing and jumping off of everything and he runs nonstop. Luckily, Ryan and I have made sure that he is one tough kid, so anytime he falls or hits himself, he usually just walks up to us, has us kiss the spot he hit and goes back to playing, without shedding a single tear.

Lincoln has a little truck that he rides around in our living room. Something funny that he has started doing recently is he will either set up his little toy people in front of it and then run them over, or he will grab one of his stuffed toys, like Spongebob or Elmo, and he will drive off with them and then tip the truck with both of them on it. He is so silly.

One of his favorite things to do right now is color. We actually got him an art easel for his birthday and he colors on it all the time.

This is his latest masterpiece

Last month we also got Lincoln's 2 year pictures, and our family pictures taken. They were taken by Jamie Lewis Photography and we love them so much. We are still trying to decide which pictures to order. It is so hard to decide. Here are our favorites.

Love his blue eyes

This one is my favorite

Kisses for Momma

Hugs for Daddy

He is so photogenic

Such a boy, playing with the rocks

My two favorite family pictures

This is typical, crazy Lincoln


Love him


This is the face of mischief

He loves to swing

I think that is all for now...I impressed even myself with the length of this. It took a lot of motivation to actually post something. I have more I want to post, but alas, it is late. Maybe tomorrow...we'll see what happens.

Yes we are still alive!

Lincoln eating popcorn at Grandma and Grandpa Griffin's house

I know, it has been ages since I have written anything on here. I'm sure everyone is wondering what is going on with us. We keep ourselves busy.

Lincoln is 19 months now. He is a little ball of energy. He just goes and goes and goes all day long. He keeps me occupied. He gets into everything. Right now he loves hiding. He will hide in cupboards,

behind his laundry basket

and under blankets. He also just recently has loved playing with keys. He tries to "unlock" everything. I decided to give him a couple of his own keys on a key chain when I had to take my keys away from him and he threw a fit. He jumps off anything and everything, he bounces his balls all around the house. He is just very much a boy.

He tired himself out

Eating cake at Yohann's birthday

He is so funny too. He has picked up patting us on the back while giving us hugs. He gives us massive amounts of kisses for no reason. But they are the sweetest, slobbery kisses you could ever get.

He cheeses every time we take a picture of him.

He just makes us laugh. This is one of videos that we took of him being silly. He is pretending to blow his nose because Ryan and I were sick and were blowing our noses a lot. (You might have to turn it up pretty loud to actually hear him).

So Lincoln still isn't really talking. He has some words that he says. He says "up", "dog" - after which he will pretend he is barking, "cheese", "shoe"...that may be all his words currently, but we are working on it. He will pick up the phone and walk around babbling like he is having conversations with people, with laughing and all. He has mastered some sign language, so he can at least communicate a little. He signs please, thank you, more(though not so much anymore), eat, all done, and he shakes his head yes.

Even though he still isn't talking he is so smart. He picks up things really fast. One of the most recent things that he has done is the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song. I have been singing it to him since he was little (it would calm him down), and when he started going to Nursery at church last month they started singing it with the kids. Well Lincoln has a toy that sings the song too. One day I was on the computer and he was playing with this toy and listening to the song over and over. I looked over at him and he was doing all the motions to the song. It was so cute. I didn't even realize that he knew the motions. I was so proud of him. We just kept doing it over and over. Now we do it while we are changing his diaper so he is distracted and doesn't move all over the place.

We were really bad about giving Lincoln a sippy cup, we pretty much always just gave him a bottle, but we just decided that we needed to break him of it. One day, in the middle of the day, I just decided it was time and we switched over. It was at a time where he usually gets cranky and that was kind of rough, but after that we didn't really have any problems. He did really well. He switched right over and it only took him a couple days to be comfortable with it.

He is still one of the happiest kids I know. He smiles, waves, and flirts with just about everyone he sees. He is so friendly.

Here he is with Chuck E. Cheese. He thought he was awesome and was trying to give him kisses and follow him around. He even hugged his legs.

As for Ryan and I, still not much going on with us. We stay the same for the most part, just busy working. One big thing that I am doing now is couponing. I have been caught up in the world of coupon clipping and deal finding and I love it. I get such a thrill out of it. It is like my hobby now. I started out with one little accordion check filer, then had to upgrade to two, now I have moved on up to a binder. I even had to buy an even bigger binder the other day. In fact, I just bought 12 packs of diapers, 2 body washes, 1 lotion, 2 diaper creams, and two containers of wipes for just under $3o. Very exciting for me!

At the beginning of the year Ashley and Zac moved to Michigan. They ended up living with us, in our basement, for just over a month. It was nice to have them here and help them out. Lincoln loved it too. He got really comfortable with them and loved having more people to play with him. Soon I am going to be an aunt again. Ashley is pregnant and due sometime in August. I am really excited for her to have a baby! It is crazy that my little sister is having a baby, but very exciting at the same time. Ashley and Zac just moved back to Port Huron, as it was too hard for Zac to find a job here in Lansing. He is currently working for a catering company and Ash is working as my dad's secretary.

Coming up soon for us...Ryan and I get a day alone soon. We are going to Toledo to see Wicked next Thursday! I cannot even tell you how thrilled I am! I have been wanting to see this for forever. I didn't realize Toledo was so close. It is only about 2 hours away. We are still trying to decide when to take our two weeks vacation. Right now there isn't really a reason to take it, but it would be nice to have a break. I just can't wait until the weather stays nice. We had about a week of really nice weather to tease us, and now I'm itching to just be able to get out with Lincoln.

Well, congratulations if you made it to the bottom of this post. I know it is a long one. Hopefully I will be able to get back into blogging. I feel bad that I haven't been documenting Lincoln growing up. I haven't even been writing it in my journal. I am terrible! Here is to doing better.