where have the last 7 months gone?!

I can't believe my baby is already 7 months old. It's crazy how fast this time has gone by. I love the stage he is in right now and think he is so fun. Here are some things he does now--
*Rolls over (finally!)mostly from his back to his tummy, but occasionally from his tummy to his back
*Manages to wiggle his away around a room pretty well
*Sits up and plays with his toys all by himself
*Feeds himself his bottle
*Grabs everything and anything within his reach
*Talks a lot and makes lots of funny noises
*He loves, loves attention and being played with

Lincoln is such a fun little boy and I'm excited to see what the next 7 months bring!

so grateful

I've been working on scrapbook pages of Lincoln's birth and the few days afterwards that we spent in St. George with his birthmom in the hospital. Last night as I was looking through pictures to use, I got an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for Lincoln's birthmom. I don't think everyday of the fact that he is adopted or that he is not biologically mine. Because I feel like he is. I couldn't love him any more if he were. But when I think about it and remember what his birthmother did for us, I feel so, so blessed. It takes a very special woman to carry a child for nine months and then to place him in the care of someone else. I know that she was guided to choose us as Lincoln's parents, just as we were prompted at the right time to start the adoption process. When I think of how smoothly everything came together for us, it makes me so grateful to Heavenly Father and his love for us. He knew Lincoln was meant to be ours and I'm so grateful to a woman who was open and receptive to the Spirit in order for us to get our son. So eternally grateful.

fun with photoshop

Dan has been teaching me how to use Photoshop, so I've been doing quite a bit of scrapbooking the last couple of days. I'm pretty proud of how my pages have been turning out. Take a look!

lincoln's blessing day

We were able to bless Lincoln on Sunday, October 12 (I know, I'm a couple weeks late...better late than never, right?) Over the past five years, we have sat through countless baby blessings wondering when, or if, we would be able to have the experience of blessing our baby. We had such a good day. Dan gave Lincoln a wonderful blessing and then after our meeting we were able to visit with friends and family at my dad's house. I was so busy making sure everything was running smoothly that I didn't even take a picture of Lincoln before he got too crabby. Thankfully, his Aunt Janna was on the ball--thanks, Janna! Here are some pictures of our day. Much thanks to our friends and family for your love and support. You guys are the greatest!


I love these boys!




Lincoln and his two cousins, Micah and Gracie, from Dan's side of the family

autumn days

I love fall and I love making soup in the fall and winter. But I need some new recipes. Please, anyone who has a soup recipes that they love, leave it in my comments and share the love with all of us!

baby einstein

Lincoln gets so super excited when other people are around that I thought DVD's for babies, like Baby Einstein, would be fun for him. I went to our library this morning to check some out, but couldn't find any. I don't want to just buy a 30 minute DVD for $15 without really knowing what I think. What are your opinions about Baby Einstein? Has anyone seen them or gotten them for your kids?

laptop for sale

We are selling my laptop. I love this computer, but Dan recently bought a MacBook and we have no need for three laptops and a desktop! If anyone is interested in purchasing a laptop, let me know. Here are the specs:

2006 Toshiba Satellite
Windows XP Media Center 2005 SP3
1.60 GHz Intel Centrino Duo Processor
512 MB RAM
80 GB Hard Drive
Microsoft Office 2007
$400

weezer

Last Tuesday, for my birthday, Dan and I went with Alecia and Drew (my sister and brother-in-law) to see Weezer at the E-Center. We had a yummy dinner at Chili's beforehand and then enjoyed the concert. I had never been to a concert before so I didn't really know what to expect. It was so much fun. Weezer put on a great concert and played some of their greatest hits that I know. I don't know all their songs so it was fun that I knew a lot of the ones they played. I told Dan I could definitely be a regular concert-goer!
I didn't get any pictures of the four of us at the concert, but here's some pictures of the band that Dan took.

i love this bottle!

I've been wanting Lincoln to learn to hold his bottle for about a month now. Once he started reaching for and being able to hold onto his toys I figured it wasn't too far-fetched to think he could hold his own bottle. So, I would try at least once a day without much success. Then last Wednesday I was at Walmart and saw the Playtex Kinder-grip and thought I would give it a try. He did really well at first, but would take the bottle in and out of his mouth and would get milk all over his face and never stayed interested enough to feed himself the whole 6 ounces. But I knew we were making progress. I'm happy to report that as of today, he will lay and drink his whole bottle all by himself! I think he actually prefers to do it himself now than to be held and fed. He still plays and gets milk on his face, but he's doing really well. He'll even hold his bottle with one hand while he plays with a toy with the other. I love watching him reach these milestones but it makes me a little sad that he's growing up so fast! Now if he would just learn to roll over...

The first time trying the new bottle.

Doing it all by himself!

SO HAPPY!

pillow fatality

We have been house & dog-sitting the last several days for one of Dan's former bosses. They have two dogs who are in the house. We have to be careful about what is left out for them to destroy. When we got up here tonight this is what we found.

he's ours!

Yep, it's official. We are now legally Lincoln's parents! YEAH! We had our hearing with Judge Stott of the 4th District Court at 9:00 this morning. After our caseworker testified, our lawyer asked Dan and me a few questions. He asked both of us to tell the court how it's been having Lincoln in our home. It was so hard to put into words what he's brought into our lives and how much we love him. It was great to hear the judge say that in all things legal it is as if Lincoln is our natural child. He told us that this is a great thing we have done and that the three of us need each other. The hearing lasted about 20 minutes. It was great and we love that he is officially ours!

The three of us with judge Stott

Our family that was with us at court. Thanks for your love and support!

getting to know you

My friend just sent this to me as an email, but I figured I could just put it on my blog instead. I'm kind of bored and need something to do (rather than doing the laundry or the dishes!)

1.What is your occupation right now? A mom
2.What color are your socks right now? No socks
3.What are you listening to right now? Dan teaching piano lessons, one of his students playing Tennis on the Wii, and Lincoln growling and spitting.
4.What was the last thing you ate? French toast, eggs, and sausage at Village Inn (like 8 hours ago--no wonder I'm hungry!)
5.Can you drive a stick shift? Yep. I have great memories of my mom teaching me in our little Ford Ranger.
6.Last person you spoke to on the phone? My sister-in-law, Jill.
7. How old are you today? 26 today, but 27 tomorrow!
8.What is your favorite sport to watch on TV? Basketball.
9.What is your favorite drink? Diet Coke, hands down.
10.Have you ever dyed your hair? Yes, several times. In fact, today I was thinking I would love to do it again now that it's been almost a year and I'm finally back to my natural color after 8 years.
11. What is your favorite food? That's a hard one because I love food! Fettucine alfredo, broccoli cheese soup, chocolate, ice cream...just to name a few! :)
12. What is the last movie you watched? The Black Dahlia...weird.
13.What is your favorite day of the year? Just one? Christmas Eve, Christmas, 24th of July, & Thanksgiving.
14.How do you vent anger? I usually get mad first and then cry.
15. What was your favorite toy as a child? Cabbage Patch kids and Barbies. I didn't have much Barbie stuff, but my best friend had a ton!
16.What is your favorite season? I love them all for different reasons.
17. Cherries or Blueberries? Strawberries.
18.Living arrangements? A cute little white house with red trim.
19.When was the last time you cried? Last night...and I'm not really even sure why.
20.What is on the floor of your closet? Lots and lots of shoes.
21.What did you do last night? Played the Wii.
22.What are you most afraid of? Dan or Lincoln dying.
23.Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers? Cheeseburger
24.Favorite dog breed? No dogs, please.
25.Favorite day of the week? They all kind of run together, but I love Saturdays when Dan is home.
26.How many countries have you lived in? Just the good ol' USA.
27.Diamonds or pearls? I love them both, although I don't have any pearls.
28.What is your favorite flower? It's a toss up between tulips and daisies.

6 months

I'm a week late on this, but better late than never, right? Lincoln turned 6 months last Friday. It's crazy to me how fast these last 6 months have gone. I hate to think that in this same amount of time, he's going to be turning one! I try not to think about it too much.

In an adoption timeline, 6 months is a big deal. We can now finalize the adoption, which will enable us to bless Lincoln and have him sealed to us! YEAH! As I said below, we are going to court on Monday to finalize and we will be blessing him next Sunday, October 12. We don't have a date for our sealing yet, but I'm hoping we'll be able to do it by the end of October. We are super excited to do all of these things.

Lincoln is so much fun right now. He's getting pretty good at sitting up, but is still a little wobbly. He doesn't roll over yet, but I'm not too worried. He loves to play with his toys and it's fun to watch him reach for them after he has dropped or thrown them. He's a great eater and we've had great success with fruits and vegetables. We've recently discovered that he is terrified of the vacuum and I also discovered today that it goes for the food chopper as well. He gets the most scared look on his face before he bursts into tears--it's sad, but the scared face is pretty cute. He has also figured out how to spit, pull his hair & his ears, and has realized that Mom's earrings and hair are great things to pull on. I think my days of wearing big earrings are soon coming to an end for a while!

I'm so lucky to have such a fun and cute little boy and am so grateful to be his mom. Here are a few pictures from the last month! Enjoy!

disappointment

We've been scheduled for court for October 3 (tomorrow) for Lincoln's adoption finalization since May. We're so excited to get one step closer to making him ours forever. But this afternoon our attorney called to tell us the judge had to go out of town and there were no other judges to fill in for him so our hearing has been postponed. Utter disappointment. Fortunately. they said they would fit us in aytime we wanted next week, so we will go Monday morning. What's three more days in the eternal scheme of things? We're still disappointed.