May Days Part 2

May was crazy rainy this year which left a lot of time for us to be stuck in the house getting creative with our toys. One afternoon Carson found two watches and Mr. Potato Head glasses to accessorize with.

They built an awesome new park by our library, so we had to check it out one morning after story time.

After story time and our park excursion, we went on a walk. The boys insisted on bringing a book each with them on the walk and flipped through the pages while we cruised.

Eli graduated preschool!

The kids did a little performance to show us a few of the things they have learned throughout the year. Eli reluctantly participated in the song and dance.

By the end he warmed up a little bit and finally started getting into it.

Hooray, Eli! We worked hard for that certificate of preschool graduation. Many a morning battling it out to get pants on instead of shorts in the winter. Many a threat to take away computer games if teeth weren't brushed. Many an afternoon begging tightlipped Eli to tell me one single detail of any part of his morning at preschool. Hopefully it will all be worth it come this fall when Eli proves to be 100% prepared for Kindergarten. We can hope anyway.

I caught Eli showing off one skill he learned at preschool one morning with Lincoln -- saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Eli carefully took Lincoln's hand and explained, "Lincoln, you wanna do the Pledge of Allegiance? Okay. It's like a high five to your heart." Then he recited the whole thing, holding Lincoln's hand hostage against his heart.

Lincoln! I've waited so long for you to get that double chin!

Seriously. This baby. I could eat him up I love him so.

The older boys are getting more adventurous in their handling of Lincoln. I have often heard Eli yell from the other room, "Mom! I picked Lincoln up all by myself!" or Carson yell, "He likes me!" while dragging Lincoln across the floor by one foot. Lots of love going on around here. Accompanied by heightened supervision.

With rain beating against the windows one Saturday afternoon, we really had no choice but to turn our living room into an oversized fort. I think Jeff and I may have ended up having more fun with the fort than the kids did.

With all our fort building, dinner came around quickly with nothing on the menu. We decided to hop on over to Olive Garden for some fine dining. The boys were absolute angels. Other than the time Carson slammed the wine glass on the table and shattered it everywhere. Beyond that it was a very pleasant outing.

Lincoln got his first taste of popcorn this month. Okay, not literally, but he has officially been introduced to the beloved Sunday popcorn tradition minus the ingesting it part.

Eli and Carson found gloves one afternoon and spent the rest of the day vehemently battling Dr. Morocco (the bad guy on Rescue Bots).

Lincoln has started grabbing my shirt when I hold him. I unexplainably love when my babies clutch onto my shirt. It feels like a silent request for me to do nothing else with my day but snuggle my little baby. And when the clutch is intact, I can't help but oblige.

Macho, macho man.

Lest you think he's given up his wide array of facial expressions...

You're probably thinking, "Does Sarah just sit around and take pictures of her baby all day?" And to that I say, "Is that so wrong? LOOK AT THIS FACE! I MUST DOCUMENT EVERY MOMENT OF ITS ADORABLENESS!"

I thought I had Lincoln's whole heart, but he is quickly becoming a daddy's boy right before my eyes.

This little bug has (been forced to) become quite fond of the triple stroller.

With Eli free from preschool, the sun shining and Lincoln growing bigger, we're anxious to see what fun things summer will bring!

May Days

I'm a little behind on my blogging. Here's Lincoln at three months old!

This is what Lincoln was up to at three months:

• He's in size 2 diapers and barely starting to fit in 3 month clothes.
• He coos, smiles and grunts all the time but has yet to laugh.
• He LOVES baths. We give him a bath every night and he goes CRAZY with excitement from the moment he hears the water to the moment we take him out.
• He has started sleeping 6-7 hours at a time when we first put him down at night.
• He takes about four 1 1/2 hour naps a day.
• He adores Eli. Smiles the moment Eli is within eyesight. 
• He loves to be laying flat on his back kicking those little legs.
• He still has very little head control. 
• He hates being in his carseat unless it's moving and then he's happy as can be.
• He still doesn't love binkies. He will take one by force as he's falling asleep but he spits it out as soon as he's asleep and doesn't really take it any other time. 

He went through a burrowing phase where he would wiggle around ferociously on me until he found a good crack to shove his face into and then he'd fall fast asleep.

Cute boys ready for church!

He's the happiest, chillest baby I've ever known...which came in handy when...

I brought him along to go with my mom as she had surgery to get a pacemaker. I guess when your heart start flatlining that's a pretty good indication it needs a little help. My mom thought she would just go get this little procedure done by herself, but Jeff insisted Lincoln and I tag along with her until my dad was able to get off work to get to the hospital. When we got to the hospital there was a 7-minute fire alarm requiring ear plugs and endurance of our sanity.

Yay! My dad made it. And good thing too because we needed some new faces to get us through the hours and hours of waiting my poor mom had to do before they took her into surgery.

After even more waiting, my Aunt and Uncle showed up to keep my mom company. The surgery went well and the pacemaker seems to be keeping my mom up and kicking!

I went straight from the hospital to Eli's last soccer game of the season!

We've had so much fun watching Eli learn something new out on the field while enjoying the spring weather.

That weekend, I participated in my first yard sale. It was. Exhausting. I piggybacked onto my sister's huge annual neighborhood yard sale. We spent most of Friday setting up and questioning all our pricing.

Saturday morning was go time!

Look at all that money we got! From the bank. For change.

Brooke, Caroline and Spencer set up their shops, enticing customers over with Otter Pops. My goal for the yard sale was to make $100. I made $98! So close.

We have started giving Lincoln baths every night in an effort to help him associate baths with bedtime back when he still had his days and nights mixed up. While I was at my parents' house, I gave him a sink bath and it made for the perfect baby hot tub.

I've been trying to get Lincoln on a sleep schedule so he sleeps better at night. I've also been trying to get him to learn how to fall asleep on his own which means I treasure the few times he dozes off in my arms and I'm too lazy to be concerned about it messing up our sleep training efforts.

He's full of smiles all the time!

I brought Lincoln with me to my cousin's fiancee's bridal shower. Lincoln was loving Nani once he finally woke up.

We decided to enroll he-who-won't-ever-dunk-his-head-under-water into swimming lessons. The boys had a lot of fun, but it wasn't enough to convince either of them to "make the plunge" into the head dunk club.

Swim lessons were on Saturday mornings, so we often found ourselves going on fun little food runs as a family after. One day we went to Krispy Kreme.

Lincoln gets so excited in the bath. He looks terrified, but his terrified face is also his excited face.

He also loves to poke his tongue out at us whenever we poke our tongues out at him. It takes all his energy to figure out how to get that little tongue out and usually involves a labored grunt as he finally gets it to emerge.

Jeff gave me the pleasure of sleeping in on Mother's Day. I woke up to the boys handing me cards they made me. When I asked, "Eli, am I the best mom in the whole world?" Eli responded, "No. Dad is."

Can't say he's wrong in that opinion.

Then Jeff came in and said, "Happy Mother's Day. Thanks for birthing my children. We can take it from here."

Always nice to feel appreciated on Mother's Day. Ha.

Then Eli came home from church with a paper he did in primary that had a checklist of about 30 different traits mothers have. The kids were supposed to check which ones represented their moms. Eli checked three.

I think he began having a guilty heart about his negligence to his super awesome, world's best mom because he spent the afternoon making cards for me. The bottom left is a semi. Those things on the wheels are the noise the tires make while driving. The bottom middle is a train with heart train cars. And the bottom right is a train spelling MOM on the train cars.

Jeff made me a nice Salmon dinner.

It was a nice day with my four sweet boys.

Lincoln's Blessing Day

We blessed our sweet Lincoln on May 3rd. 

Lincoln, you have your Aunt Becky to thank for helping you escape the uncomfortable blessing outfit of years past and supplying you instead with this much more comfortable and much more adorable white ensemble.

True to his mellow personality, he slept perfectly through his whole blessing and gave smiles and giggles to guests at the after party. I am constantly in awe at how chill this little guy is.

Kaelynn helped me get ready for the party by holding Lincoln for me so I could get things set up. Lifesaver!

We gave the Excell cousins instructions to "Sit down for a picture." I guess we should have been a little more clear.

These kids love each other! It is so fun to see them run off together giggling through the house. They have such great friends in their cousins!

My sister and mom came. Along with their respective families. Though the respective families never managed to get pictured. :(  Also not pictured were my grandparents, my Aunt Nani, and my friend Melissa and her family. I should have assigned someone to get pictures of everyone for me!

I had visions of Lincoln's blessing day amid all our NICU-ing that seemed so far off. I'm glad to be on the other end now where the NICU experience is what seems like a distant idea.  We've come a long way!

Jeff gave a beautiful blessing. As usual.

The Excell side was able to stay through the evening.

We aren't able to get together as often as we once did, so it was fun to have this many of us together in one place.

Carson and Tyler spent the evening gaming.

While the rest of us cuddled baby.

Thanks to everyone who came to support us! It was a perfect day. I'm so grateful for this bunch of boys!