Zoo Lights

Last night we picked Thomas up from work, went out to dinner, then went to the Salt Lake Hogle Zoo for their Zoo Lights. We had never gone before so I didn't know what to expect but it was so fun! Christmas lights were everywhere!

Mr. Potato Head

I had a lot of fun in California but traveling so late in the pregnancy has left me with no energy! It's taken me all week to recover but the nice part is it happened right after Lincoln got a lot of new toys so it hasn't been hard to entertain him. These are pictures of Linc playing with Mr. Potato Head...and his accessories!














*adorable baseball chair compliments of Aunt Jill!

My Inspiration

When I think back to my childhood all I remember is playing nonstop! My mom taught me that a Mother has the best job, she gets to play with her kids all day. We were constantly doing crafts and playing make believe. One day she switched out all of our milk to powdered milk to help us appreciate what we had. I remember countless times she would find a homeless person, pull over, ask them to wait there while we went home and boxed up our dinner to take back to them. If there was a baby born in the ward it was pretty much a guarantee that she would not only take dinner but also be at their house cleaning and watching kids while the new mother took a nap.
One of our favorite games is hide and go seek in the dark. We would use the front door as "safe", turn off all of the lights in the house and try to find the best spots to hide. My mom was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in April of 2007. She went through severe chemotherapy treatments and then went through them again when the cancer came back in 2009. It was during the first chemotherapy treatments that Thomas and I were trying to entertain my youngest sister Julie and her friend so we decided to play hide and go seek in the dark. (This game usually ended with someone getting hurt or my Dad ending it because he was worried we might break something). During this specific game my Mom came downstairs, her hair was gone and her body was very frail from the chemotherapy and we automatically all felt bad for being too loud. To our surprise she wasn't coming down to tell us to be quiet she said that she heard us having fun and wanted to join in on the game. We were all thrilled and quickly changed the rules of the game so instead of having a "safe" we just had to stay in our hiding spot until we were found to avoid anyone getting hurt. It was my turn to be it so I was searching for everyone and as I walked through the family room I fell over laughing, my frail Mother had crawled under the coffee table and was lying perfectly still so no one would find her. That night taught me one of the most important lessons of my life, we need to enjoy every minute we can with our family! And there is no reason to not play with your kids.
My Mom passed away in March of 2010 at the age of 49. Even though it sometimes feels that she was taken too early I know that she accomplished everything she was sent here to do. The world is a better place for having had her in it and I am so grateful for the example she set for me! I know that my family can be together forever and I will see her again!

California Christmas!

Im going to be honest I didn't take as many pictures as I should have but we had so much fun! My family and Thomas' family only live about five minutes away from each other which makes it convenient to only have to visit one place. We played lots of games with both families, ate really good food, spent lots of time with family, and spent as much time as possible playing outside in the warm sun!!
The first weekend we were there we celebrated Lincoln's second birthday...

Playing with Aunt Jill...


Blowing out candles...





And playing with new toys...








Lincoln's not the only one who enjoyed the new toys, here's Cousin Harlow on Linc's new spinning toy...


And Uncle Thrine couldn't help but try it as well...





Aunt Jess and Linc would play "monsters" where one person would pretend to be asleep and the other would scare them...


Sleeping...





Lincoln LOVES his cousin Harlow!!


Christmas morning with the traditional PJ's they got to open the night before...


Opening presents on Christmas after church...











And the long drive back... Lincoln literally played with his new Lightning McQueen cars and Chuggington trains the entire 11 hour drive (I had to stop a lot to walk around). He was so good!!

What a great day!!

We have some great news! One of our favorite people in the entire world got his mission call today! Matt Secor (Thomas' brother), AKA Uncle Thrine, received his mission call today to Charlotte, North Carolina Spanish speaking!! We are all so excited and extremely proud of this incredible guy!! We love you Thrine!!!





Some more great news...we are going on vacation!! California here we come!! This is a much needed break and we cant wait to see all of our family and friends! I will post lots of pictures once we get back after Christmas.

Back Massage

Lincoln is obsessed with a lot of things one of which is driving his toy cars all over anything he can find. For instance, I was loading the dishwasher today...


When I closed the dishwasher...


So I used his obsession to my advantage. I remembered coming across this site on Pinterest, which in my mind is the most ingenious idea and I will make this one day!


So I grabbed a pillow and laid on my side while Linc drove his cars on my back and through my hair (being very careful not to pull it). I was in heaven!! I thought about grabbing my camera to add a picture of it to this post but I selfishly decided I couldn't move, I was enjoying it too much!

Just Practicing...

Linc has a stuffed animal (Nemo) that he was playing with and he all of the sudden decided it was time for Nemo to take a nap so he launched the fish into his crib, then turned to me with a finger on his lips saying "shhhh shhh". I've been trying to prepare Lincoln for Baby #2 as best I can so every opportunity I get I take it. So I took Nemo out of the crib and showed Linc that Nemo was little so he needed to be swaddled. Well one thing led to another and the next thing I knew this is where my "lesson" ended up... Keep in mind he hasn't taken a pacifier since he was six months old so you can see the confusion/ fright on his face that his mother had gone mad...

Santa Came Early!

Lincoln was getting a snow outfit and snow boots from Santa but Thomas and I had a deal with Santa that if it snowed before Christmas he would get his gift early(we're going to California for Christmas and we weren't going to bring it anyways). So this morning we woke up to SNOW and wouldn't you know it, Santa held up his end of the bargain and brought his gift early! So today we played in the snow!





Linc wanted me to take a picture of his breath...


The sad thing is there wasn't even that much snow but this boy walked back and forth playing in the snow until it all melted off our balcony.

The Boy Who Could Fly!

Every kid needs a couch cushion! O the possibilities! Ours started out as an indoor slide...









And then I put the cushion completely on the ground and he used it to jump onto, and off of... Please don't think I'm a bad mother, I promise no little boys were hurt in the making of this blog post!