Thanksgiving & a Visit from My Parents

I invited my parents to come for Thanksgiving, and they surprised me by coming! I was excited for them to come. I didn't take any pictures of the actual Turkey Dinner, but it was delicious! My mom even brought blackberry pies - the blackberries picked in Oregon! YUM. (I ate every last bite... in fact the last piece of pie I ate for my birthday breakfast - I figured it was my birthday & I could eat what I wanted to, even if it meant pie for breakfast.)


More on cooking the turkey. Jesse had seen shows on the Food Network last year about making "the perfect turkey" and wanted to try it this year. I got him all the supplies he needed and he did everything else. (I had a pretty relaxed Thanksgiving with little cooking/preparing myself... that was nice.) Needless to say, Jesse researched every in and out of the recipe (e.g. why so much salt in the brine? why brine a turkey? why kosher salt? etc.) which definitely paid off - that was probably the most delicious turkey I have ever eaten! You can find the recipe HERE. It may just be Jesse's job every Thanksgiving from now on... :)

The day after Thanksgiving we took my parents on the hike we call Slots. (We took Emily & Christian on this hike when they came to visit - it's one of my favorites!)

The first set of petroglyphs
Jesse, Lincoln, Mindy, & Craig

Mary & Craig with the red mountains & Utah hill in the background

Mary in the slot canyon

Jesse & Linc

It was such nice weather! (I understand why my parents wanted to come!)
Notice the short sleeves...
Jesse, Linc, Craig, & Mary

After the morning mayhem, we even went shopping on black Friday. It wasn't even bad at all and we got some great deals. It is really nice when we get visitors - especially Grandma & Grandpa! The last time they saw Lincoln was at his baby blessing. I'm glad Lincoln was able to see them for the few days they came to visit. :) Thanks for coming!! (& Thank you for the early birthday & Christmas presents!)

Sleepy Linc

Lincoln wakes up pretty early (for me) to eat. After I feed him in bed I'll sneak out and he'll keep sleeping for an hour or so. I thought it was cute how tiny the big bed made him look. He sure likes to sleep with his hands by his ears.

Man, those cheeks are getting chubby!!

Paintball & Turkey

The day before Thanksgiving a bunch of us went out to play paintball in the desert. It was Ben, Matthew, Nathan, Ashley, Kurt, McKay, Jonny, Matt, Cody, Dryden, Freeman, Grace, Jesse & me. (I think that was everyone...)

First thing... Ben decided he would show his kids EXACTLY what it feels like to get shot by a paintball gun. So he shot them each once. It was kinda funny.

Jesse getting his gun ready with Grace & Freeman getting shot in the background

Adam in his bright white shirt & Nathan in his new camo gear

Jonny all decked out - even the sweet hat!

Matthew got shot on the head...

Kurt, Ashley, Nathan, McKay, Dryden, & Matthew

Last time Jesse went paintballing, I was pregnant (therefore I didn't go... crouching & big bellies don't go together well...) so I was excited to go for my first time. I LOVED it!!! (We even got a gun for me!)

That night Jesse put the turkey in the brine... Jesse was excited to make a turkey for our potluck-style Thanksgiving. More on the next post...

4 Months Old!

Time flies. It is hard to believe how much faster time goes after having a baby.

Here are a few pictures of Lincoln at 4 months old:

Checkin' out his hands

Crazy big smile!

Tongue roll

What a SWEETHEART! I love my little man. Sorry about going overboard on the pictures... it doesn't feel overboard when it's your own babe!

4 Month Check-up: 13 lbs 12 oz

Turkey Triathlon 11-14-09

A month ago I signed up for THIS Sprint distance triathlon (using an indoor pool) to help motivate me to work out. I'm glad to say it worked! Although it was difficult to work out with a baby... going on a bike ride or a run was that much more of a pain (not to mention I didn't feel like working out since I wasn't in shape).

Anyway, the day before the race Sabrina called me and said she was also doing the triathlon. So we were able to do some of the bike together which was fun. :) (Sabrina had some friends come down from Ogden to participate also - in the pictures.)

Heather, Sabrina, & I waiting our turn

(They have 11 lanes and 2 per lane -

and 75 female & 79 male sprint distance...

we all just got in line.)

Sabrina's Dad & Jack watching Sabrina start the bike leg

Starting the bike

Sabrina & me

The group from Ogden & me

My results:

7th of 9 (20-24 age group)

45th of 75 (overall women)

01:31:36.74 - Overall time

00:12:23.89 - Time back from 1st place in my age group

00:24:35.52 - Time back from overall women

00:09:46.97 - 400 yd swim (SHAC pool)

00:36:43.63 - Transition 1 (2nd triathlon... 2nd mistake on my transition time - switch with 10 mile bike time)

00:08:51.12 - 10 mile bike (no way did I take 9 minutes to get dried off & dressed...)

00:01:48.47 - Transition 2

00:34:26.54 - 3 mile run

BIG Eyes & Rolling Over

Everyone always tells me "He looks scared!" or "Look at those eyes! So big!"

Here are 4 examples why...

And I also got a video of Lincoln rolling over...
He still doesn't do it hardly ever even though I put him on his tummy every day.

Baby Cousins

I babysat Flora while Audrey went to school a little bit ago. I got a couple pictures I thought were cute. :) (Notice Lincoln grabbing her blanket..)

Sleepin' with Eyes Open

Sometimes when I check on Lincoln I think he's awake because his eyes are partially open. Usually his eyes are even open more than this (during the day).

Sound asleep...

When Linc has a short nap he'll either wake up crying or I'll hear him talking and squealing.

Here is a video clip of a happy Lincoln after his nap. :)

His Father's Son

Getting him started with computer games a little early, don't ya think, Jesse?

Another Cousin!

Nate & Audrey had their baby girl yesterday! Flora May. She is so beautiful! And tiny! Here she is with Lincoln. :)

Giving Smiles Out like candy on Halloween...

Lincoln is smiling so much more and a lot more easily! I love it!

Linc as Link

So for Halloween, we dressed Lincoln up to go to the Trunk-or-Treat. If you know what Nintendo's Zelda is, you may recognize that we dressed him up as the hero of Zelda - Link (see below). Janet's friend in Gunlock actually hand-knitted the Link costume. It turned out to be adorable! Those of you who don't know what Zelda is... we can say he is Peter Pan instead. (I got that a couple times..) You can see in the pictures above that instead of a quiver to hold his arrows, our little Linc had a quiver to hold his bottle. :)

Here is Link from Zelda to compare him to..

Here I am with Linc after the Trunk-or-Treat
(it was FREEZing here... I wore a jacket and scarf and this sweater and I was still miserably cold. You would never have guessed I grew up in Idaho!)

The only problem with the costume.. is that Linc HATED wearing the hat. In fact, after I took a bunch of pictures with the hat on (top) I took the hat off and he started smiling so BIG!
He is such a cutie!

The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins. I love this tradition. I even roasted the pumpkin seeds.. which turned out pretty good.

Here are Audrey & Cody working on theirs

Nate & Audrey (left) & Jesse holding Lincoln

Cody's (he did himself), Nate & Audrey's (evil), and Jesse & mine (uhhh..)

Nate holding Linc

On Halloween, we went over to Natalie's house & had a Trick-or-Treat party with the cousins. We had a pretty good time and finally got rid of most of our candy.

Lincoln's newest cousin (at the time, anyway..), Simone, was there. He looks like a giant compared to her! She is so tiny and cute!

Claire the witch holding Linc

Peggy holding Charlie the monkey

Ellie the clown

Jude the mummy

Carly the kitty

Elyza as Snow White & Carson the chicken

& Berlyn. The girl with the broken neck and lit up teeth.

I didn't get pictures of Grace, Freeman, Cohen, or Dryden (sorry, guys!). Fun Halloween!