Happy Halloween, yall!

I couldn't decide what I wanted Lincoln to be for Halloween. I debuted between a few ideas but it came down to I needed an easy costume. We borrowed cousin's Eli costume from his second Halloween and he is a pretty cute cowboy.

He did pretty well with the costume except the hat. There was no way he was going to wear that hat for even a second.
Saturday night we went to a Halloween party with some friends and we needed a family theme for our costumes. So we were Toy Story characters, Jesse, Woody and an army man.

Two Jesse's with Buzz and WoodyThis cowboy was more interested in eating than socializing

More costumes

3 of the kiddos there...this was the best picture. Haha!

Halloween morning in his jammies. Where was this smile the night before?!

Halloween night we dressed up our cowboy again and headed to my parents' church Trunk or Treat. Lincoln developed a nasty reaction from something on his face Thursday morning and it kept getting worse and worse. We started giving him Benadryl on Saturday and by Sunday he had developed a nasty cough and sounded terrible. So my visions of cute pumpkin with his costumes pictures did not happen. He was not having it at all!

This is the best picture I got.

This cowboy was not happy!

I was shocked at how well he did even though he felt terrible. He was very interested when someone would put candy his bucket.

Needed to take a break and check out the goods

Two fistin' the candy....he had to have a piece of candy in each hand at all times. We had to keep switching out the candy because it would melt.

We came home early and passed out candy while Lincoln went through his bucket. I think his bucket will be around until Christmas, he can spend a long time taking things and putting things in.

It was a pretty good Halloween. It is fun to think that last Halloween we had just brought Lincoln home and spend the evening staying in with his gradnparents playing games and enjoying being with Lincoln in our house. I am sad Lincoln isn't feeling great but we always have next year. What will he be?!!!

Under one roof

October 28,2009 was the one of the greatest days of my life. I was able to walk out of the hospital with my baby with no tubes or nurses. It was a great feeling! I am shocked I was not running down the sidewalk to the car!
We waited a long month to have this sweet baby in our car, in our home, and most important in our arms.

The night we got Lincoln home was spent with lots of cuddles and staring at him as if we hadn't seen him before. It was start of our family together.

October 28, 2009 was the end of the long journey in the NICU and the start of our family at home.

Don't we look exhausted! We were!

Now a year later, we have this crazy, busy, free standing boy! Sweet boy!

Good-bye Dr. Brown

We have finally said our good-bye to Dr. Brown in this house.

We have washed these 9 bottles thousands of time and it was a pain at the time but for some reason packing away the bottles has been the hardest thing to let go of so far. It proves that the cuddly baby is gone and you are left with a crazy active boy.

We will no longer have this massive,white drying rack on the counter and no more disagreements (arguments) over who has to wash the bottles that night. :(
Now we are left with brightly colored sippy cups....oh well times are changing!

Dr. Brown will stay in the garage packed away until needed again.

Tour of our new house

Many people have asked to see pictures of our new house so I finally got around to taking and posting. So here it is.....

We liked our first house in Lewisville. We put our heart, sweat, tears and MANY hours of work. It was ours because we worked so hard on it. We knew would never live there forever and once Lincoln was born we knew we didn't want a pool in our background and we would quickly outgrow that house. So we looked for a house without a pool, a yard for playing, a nice neighborhood, small schools, and a house to grow in.

We found our house after one day of touring homes. It was finished in January and sat empty. We loved it!

This is when you first walk in our front door. Office on right and dining room on the left

The office. This is the one room that I have let Shane have full decorating rights, so the Indian and gun cabinet are the decor.

This is the dining room. I love my china cabinet. Shane bought it on Craigslist and I painted it a funky color. The table and bench are made by a man in Canton and it is great. We have used this room a few times but I am hoping to use it more.

Through the dining room is the kitchen. I was happy to not have white cabinets anymore.

Attached to the kitchen is the breakfast room (which we eat all our meals). We are wanting a new table for this room but someday it will come.

Across from the kitchen/ breakfast room is the living room (my house is decorated for fall)

Living room again. The green cabinet came from Shane's grandparents' farm. We get lots of compliments on it and I think if the house caught on fire then you would see Shane dragging it out of the house.

Here is the master room. I have more ideas for this room but not this year.

Master bath was one the main reasons I loved this house. It is big and allows for privacy. We have double (separate) sinks, a jacuzzi tub, a standup shower, and a nice sized closet.

Next is the laundry room, nothing too special. This is one thing I wish I could change in this house. I long for a big laundry room with cabinets and room to work in. It leads to the garage.

Our garage is Shane's area. He has organized it and he can be found "tinkering" in there.

Another great selling point to this house was the large playroom/ gameroom/ living room upstairs, for now it is the playroom and family room. We live in that room on the weekends and the evenings after dinner. It is nice to have a large playroom to house all Lincoln's toys that can not be seen from the downstairs.

Bookshelves with the tepee. This was Shane's made by his grandparents and Lincoln will take books in there and "read".

Toy shelves. I hang Lincoln's artwork from school and it is fun to display.

I figured I should put a picture of what the playroom looks like while Lincoln is awake. Every parents' reality. Scary part is...we have only one child who has only had one year of collecting things! Yikes!

This is th guest bath/Lincoln's bathroom (we have a half bath downstairs by the office but I didn't take a picture that)

Guest room #1...this will always (hopefully) stay a guest room, not matter how many kids we end up with.

Down the hall is guest room #2....this will someday be baby #2 room's. If we end up having 3 kids then we thinking some will share rooms. I am thinking pink walls someday....wishing!

Last room is Lincoln's room. It stayed the same decor and I love that is isn't so baby since he is growing into quite the active boy. All the closets are great size which was nice.

Another view of his room

I did not take pictures of the backyard since it is nothing special yet. We have a fence and behind our house is wooded area with a creek. That was a major selling point for Shane because we can not see houses behind us.

We love our house and we are thankful that we aren't spending every weekend fixing something like we did in the Lewisville house. We are excited to grow in this house.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Busy Weekend Travels (mega picture post!)

We have been crazy busy this month and I can't believe it is half over! Where did October go?!
Two weekends we ago, we headed to Abilene for Homecoming and a weekend with the family.

Saturday started with the parade and lovin' on this little guy. Seriously is he not the cutest, "fluffiest" baby?! Never have I described a baby as fluffy but that is what Isaac is and you never want to let him go when you hold me! My sister describes him as bread dough...really we do love him.
The family waiting for the parade.
Lincoln had his first sucker. The kids were pretty funny at the parade; Phoebe kept saying they were spilling the candy.

Nena and her grandsons, it can get pretty rough with these three.

A little pink book reading time before we head home

One last cousin picture for the weekend

Homecoming is a great weekend of little sleep and lots of family time. I love it!

This past weekend we flew to Kansas for a quick trip. We flew in late Friday and packed loads of fun into Saturday.

Lincoln has many new faces lately. He loves to read cards and open anything, so opening his Halloween gift from Gigi and Pappy was a treat.

Who wouldn't want to give him a gift if this is the result?!

Outside for a little tractor ridin'. He liked to sit on it when it was turned off but wanted nothing to do with it once it was started up. He may not have a future in farming.

So maybe a Nascar driver?! Don't all drivers squish up their shoulders when they take off?

We loaded up the family and headed to a pumpkin patch for some lovely fall pictures but Lincoln had a different idea. He wanted nothing to do with the camera so I didn't have many to share.

A decent family picture.....Huge shout out to my crafty sister who made Lincoln's and mine's fall shirts. I love them! Lincoln's is headed to the wash to wear this week at school!

Trying to lead the way for the family out of the maze

Don't worry we made it out with the same people we headed in with, but for awhile we had gained 2 kids.

Grandpa Nimz and Lincoln looking at the turkeys Sunday morning

We have had fun this month but are ready to be home for awhile. The holidays are right around the corner so I'm not sure when life will slow down!