I Love Mormon Culture!

A lady in my ward and I are working on learning hymns and Primary songs on the piano together. She wanted to learn "Every Star is Different" out of the Primary book. I had never heard it so when I played it the first few times the chorus didn't sound quite right to me. I went online to see if I could find it and found this:

Don't you just love Mormon Culture???

5 Months

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'... into the future. Laura is almost home from her mission! I remember when I was pregnant with Lincoln doing the math of how old Lincoln would be by the time Laura got back. It was (and still is) 6 months. I thought to myself, "Surely by then, I will have gotten into a great workout routine and my baby belly will be all gone". Umm.... it's definitely smaller but still there. It's been 5 months and only one more to go!!! Hopefully this next month I'll be able to ditch the remainder, but I'm afraid that some of it may be there to stay. Working out doesn't make your loose skin snap back. Bummer. Oh well. It was worth it cause I got this cute guy out of the deal:

From this angle you can get a better view of the drool coming down his chin which is pretty typical of the past little while. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts teething soon. He's roughly 26 inches long and about 16 or so lbs. It seems like the growing has kinda slowed the last little while but the learning rate has increased exponentially.

Camping Used to be Fun

"I love to camp!!!", says Lincoln.

This last week I reflected back on my adventurous single days. I used to love to camp, hike, etc etc. Since we've moved to Texas, we've done a little camping but not as much as we used to cause we don't really know any good spots or any people that know good spots and don't really know how to camp Texas style. Anyway, I decided that despite our lack of knowledge about there area, we were long past due for an adventurous camping experience so I planned a little excursion for us. We left on Friday after Matt got home. The drive to Huntsville State Park was BEAUTIFUL. The sun was getting low on the horizon. We drove through the back roads that were lined with lush, tall trees, white fences, and beautiful green fields with roaming cattle. The camp site was also quite beautiful. The trees here are the one thing that Houston has that Utah doesn't and I wish it did. My hopes were high for a great experience.

Gotta watch out for those mosquitoes!!

Things started out OK. We got our tent set up and then got ready to make some great tin foil dinners. Matt tried to start a fire, but the air was so heavy with humidity, all the available kindling was just too damp. He got frustrated and gave up. I decided to just stuff the tee pee of wood with as much paper as I could and eventually I got the fire started. After we got the fire started, we realized we had brought everything for the tin foil dinners except the tin foil so we we resorted to eating some brats instead.

Matt starting a fire the next morning just to prove to himself

that he could start a fire after his failure the previous night.

Unfortunately everyone and their dog (two dogs in our case) decided to go camping at Huntsville State Park this weekend. I much prefer more remote/isolated camping where you're not sure if anyone could hear you if you screamed but since we have a baby now, I thought for his first camping experience, we should probably stay a little closer to civilization just in case. I think that was a bad choice. Our dogs barked at everyone that walked by on their way to the bathroom and our baby had a hard time falling asleep and was keeping everyone awake who wasn't already awake from our barking dogs. I was totally embarrassed.

Lincoln loving camping and his fist.

Despite the noise, the swampy heat was almost more than we could handle. Matt and I laid in our tent as we dripped with sweat and just laughed hysterically at how awful our experience had been. At the risk of getting bitten by millions of mosquitoes, I finally had to put my feet out the tent door for some temperature regulation. After laying there trying to sleep in the heat with a fussy baby and barking dogs I just gave up and told Matt that we were packing up and going home. He refused to pack up so I laid back down with my feet out the door. The dogs and the baby finally calmed down and we all drifted off into a sweaty sleep. When Matt and I woke up, we were amazed that we had made it through the night and that I had only suffered two or three bug bites. I was glad we had stayed just cause I hate being a sissy, but I think it might be a while before I get the itch to go camping again (unless it's in Utah).

Lincoln and mom enjoying the view from the dock

Two kids in diapers?? Are you kidding me?

It's not as bad as the post title makes it sound, but lately I have had 2 'kids' in diapers, that is if dogs count as kids. One Saturday afternoon after running a million errands, Matt and I spotted a silly little dog on the side of a very busy road. We flipped a U-y and picked her up so she wouldn't get hit. At first she was a little timid and unwilling to come to me but after a little burrito bribe, we became fast friends. Matt and I have debated again and again what to do with her. We really don't need TWO dogs in addition to a baby, but I just can't bring myself to take her to the pound. We put up 'found' posters but there were no takers. So, now Lady, as we call her, is a member of the family. We got her all her shots but weren't sure if she had been spayed yet but now we know. She went into heat a week or so ago. Instead of locking her up or letting her bleed all over, we've been putting Lincoln's diapers on her and cutting a hole for her tail. It's worked quite well! Luckily she and Lincoln wear the same size! Here she is looking rather sheepish. I think it is the funniest thing to hear the diaper crinkle as she walks or wrestles with Lucy.

Here's our other baby sporting the jammies that his great grandma gave him. I couldn't decide which one was the cutest so I posted a few:

Last but not least, Lincoln has learned a lot of new tricks in the last little while. I have yet to get him blowing spit bubbles on film, but here he is rolling over, although he's not very happy about it:

Are fake plants kosher?

I've been having a moral debate with myself lately. We have this space between our sectional and the wall that needed filling so I thought of buying some palm plants to fit back there and make it a little more homey. Matt said that I can't spend any more money on house plants cause in the past, I've had what some people refer to as a black thumb, especially with palms. Anyway, I found some fairly realistic looking fake palm plants and bought them but have had mixed emotions about them. When I worked at a high end interior design show room, they were all about fake plants and fake floral arrangements. Even though they were sanctioned by the high end people, somewhere within me, I still feel that fake plants are a little "white trashy" or maybe just grandma-ish, if you will, but there are so many pluses about them; they last forever, you don't have to water them, they can be put in non-sunny areas in your house, they don't attract bugs or mold. Anyway, I thought I'd see what the public opinion is. Will you please kindly respond to the poll on the right? Thanks!!!

A Post for Grandma Laila

Dear Laila,

I'm sorry that I have deprived you of your grandson for so long. I actually have gone through a period of no picture taking cause our camera battery died and the charger has yet to be located. All excuses aside, here are some more recent videos and pictures and some classics. Hope this helps you get your fix for a while.

Love, Charlotte.

Thanks to the tummy time mat, Lincoln has learned to grab things. Here is a video from a few weeks ago. He is now grabbing everything and putting it in his mouth including my hair which can be painful.

This was taken shortly after you left. Lucy decided it was OK to take a nap with Lincoln on the bed.

Little Lincoln and Grandpapa.

This picture was taken in early August. We visited Mareo (Matt's mission buddy), his wife Emilie and baby Lucia in the hospital. Lucia weighed a pound more than Lincoln did at birth. It was amazing to put them side by side and see how far he'd come in just a few short months.

Nap time with dad. Dad is showing a little more leg than he probalby intended to, but it's a great lookin' leg.


Remember this? and how Matt was snoring up a storm?

Gotchya!!!

I was going through some pictures that were left on our camera memory card and found this one. This was taken sometime in July but I thought it was quite cute. I left Lincoln on the bed after his bath while I picked up around our room and he fell asleep. It looks like his monster towel is gonna have him for lunch.