Time for some Lincoln Love

Sausage Link is one cool boy.  He has kicked himself out of the toddler title when he surpassed all the 3-year-olds in size and stature, and is now just a big kid.  You'd think he had all sorts of wise things to say, but its still a lot of jargon to me.  Lincoln is very good at following directions and has such a good heart!

 L is 100% engrossed with the kitchen sink and will fill cups, spoons, bowls, and bottles with water for hours on end.  He will do absolutely anything to be able to watch a Blues Clues episode, and Nursery is his favorite place in the world.   He is most definitely a Daddy's boy and will climb all over him any moment that the two are in the same room.

He does this hilarious side-shuffle-run, and as soon as he starts talking in a raspy gremlin voice, I know he's about to go push Parley.  He still likes to use his strength to show his brother who's boss, but from the way Parley likes to pester, I think they'll be an even match in a few more months.  This spring/summer will be the best thing that ever happened to him, now that he can handle any piece of equipment on the playground.  Super Lincoln is such a great Big Brother and I love having him as my son and friend! 

Baby Wash

Little Parley, you have grown into a little man right before my eyes!  Reaching one year old is exciting and momentous, but it makes me so sad that you're not my tiny infant anymore!  Your little body is bursting with personality and I can only imagine the things you will say when you sounds are real words, though your "Uh-oh" is pretty clear.  In the words of your Uncle Derek, "Stay cool".  Oh the things you'll do before your next birthday!

One!

 Happy birthday to this cute little man!

Parley, you have brought us SO much joy over the past year!  If every baby was as easy as you, I could easily commit to a family of twelve.  You've turned into an intense little bundle of happiness, curious about everything, and ready to take over Lincoln's post as terror of the house!

We LOVE you!! 

The View from our Front Door

Its hard to imagine having a bad day when you open the door and see such a wonder!  In case you've never visited and you didn't know, we live on a pretty terrible street.  High crime, super ugly, trash, trash, trash.  I told a lady in our ward on which street we lived and she said, "Eww, do you like living there?"  But as soon as you reach our block, a miracle happens and at times of the year (see below) you could almost pass it off for a whole different zip code.

Last week, our doorbell rang at 7am, and I ran down to find a city employee asking if I knew whose car was parked in a spot along the street, because a tree was coming down, and they didn't want to crunch the car.  My heart sank, and I thought, "Nooooo!  These trees are the only beautiful thing we've got on this terribly overcrowded ugly intercity Boston street!"  The owner moved their car, and within 5 minutes, these men who were clearly tree-chopping professionals, hacked down and chopped up a perfectly beautiful and thriving tree, threw it in a chopper, pulled out the stump and swept up the mess.  Apparently it was going to soon interfere with some phone lines and someone decided it needed to go, and I had to witness the deed.  It COMPLETELY ruined my day.  Don't even get me started about the Sunday we pulled in to church and found an entire row of breathtaking Weeping Willows uprooted.  I guess call me Camille, the tree hugger.  Appreciate this amazing Spring and don't take even your trees for granted!

Lincoln McQueen

 Pinewood Derby time!  

So even though Pinewood Derbies are usually just for the cub scouts, wards out here with only a couple boys to compete open it up to anyone in the ward, and the Young Men use it as their fundraiser for the year. 

 Despite using every spare minute to study for CFA, Jay found the time to whittle out this beauty!  Promising to use it on every Pinewood Derby car for our boys, he talked me into getting a Dremel.  It IS pretty fabulous, and I'm only kicking myself thinking of hours and hours of time and aching wrists that it could have saved me as I woodburned away on our table.

Isn't it fabuous?!  Great job, Charlie!  Every morning last week, I would come downstairs in the morning and find something 10x more fabulous than when I went to bed.

 Jason could tell you the specifics of how he put it together, but he added more wood to the sides and top, making it much wider and taller than a typical car.  Even with this totally unique style and method, we showed up to find another Lightning McQueen done exactly the same way!  What are the odds?!  Though I think our paint job was better :).  Biased.

 Lincoln LOVED the derby!  The moment it clicked that this was his car, and that Daddy made it for him to race, he beamed with pride after every race, and the two of them have been inseparable.  His bedtime accessories now include blankie, two sippy cups, his knit alligator, and Lincoln McQueen.

Stragglers

Here are some stragglers from our Utah trip:

Parley, meet Parley.  

My grandma, made famous in a recent Church News article about how she lives in AZ, but flies in every Wed. to work a shift at the Conference Center, gave us all a lovely tour.

We even got to meet up with Jason's family (Kati & kids, mom, Marc & Diana) for an afternoon amidst the craziness.

Reception prep in Ohio.  Jason flew back home to work for the week, while the kids and I bummed off of my parents.  Parley found every open plant pot in a matter of minutes, and I thoroughly enjoyed being home to watch my sister get asked to Prom and get hired for her first job!  She'll be waitressing at Bob Evans, just like I did for my first job! 

Watch Me!

I'm running a little experiment to see if beaded watches would actually sell.  I'm doing a trial run of maybe 30 watches to see IF they sell, what colors go first, and what is a fair price.  Check out my Etsy shop, and PLEASE GIVE ME SOME FEEDBACK!  I'd love to know what you think, like if there is even a market for these anymore, what colors you'd like to see, and if the cost/shipping seems accurate.  

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/dearmistergable

 

Family Pictures for 2013

 Family pictures!  I know, I know, didn't we just do this?  Well, it was practically a year ago since our last family photoshoot, and I swear the next one won't be til we have a third crazy, so I feel justified. With the mountains in the back and that Gelato sign in the top corner, we are complete!

These were all taken around Center Street in Provo, which happens to be one of my favorite places--where we met and where J proposed--so I'm buoyant about having these pictures taken here.

For this year's photoshoot, I sewed Lincoln's vest (which is reversible and stinkin adorably plaid on the inside), Parley's jeans, and altered his size 2T onesie covered in a kitschy applique into a 12-month shirt.  My dress is from eShakti and Jason is all Old Navy :)

 

Lincoln's pants were the risky article, but I ended up really loving them!

Thank you to a new friend, Laura, for these pictures!!

  

And Pedey is a serious walker now!  Over the course of the trip, he went from occasional toddling to solely walking and he's fast and confident!  Oh that boy!

 Aaaaaaand the kids are about done :)

And then we had party after party after party...

 

Lincoln loves his uncles!  Big shout out to Spencer, Preston, & Levi for being the best babysitters I ever never hired!  Whenever I couldn't find Link, I knew he was running around with the "kids", as he called them, and placing Linker's carseat between the twins for the long car rides was incredibly successful.

Oh How I Love a Good Wedding

So we had ourselves a wedding!  Travis finally found his match!  We LOVE Holly!!!

 I'm hoping you would never have guessed there was a vest fiasco the night before.  It was completely my fault, too--I only asked for the chest measurements on my little brothers, forgetting that they are are so skinny, and a small chest makes a small vest.  They looked like midriff tops, and so I rushed out to find more fabric and scrambled three more vests together within hours of the wedding, and I'm hoping from these pictures that you can't tell that three of these vests are of a different fabric, no  pockets, without interfacing, and the sides aren't even sewn shut inside.

Hancocks love winning, and Travis won himself a free photographer for the event. :) Of course.  Thank you, Glen Pearson, these are fabulous.

Sealed for time and all eternity!  Oh what a wonderful day it was!