December 2010 review

 December was ,ofcourse, insanely busy like everyone else's.  Here was McKinley at 8 months beginning to stand while holding on to things.

Lexi was in a dance recital during December.  It's so fun because a few of her friends do it with her, especially her good friend Sierra.  They've been friends since they were toddlers.

Here they are in their tap/ Asain outfit.  This was taken during the dress rehearsal.  During the actual performance Lexi discovered, after we arrived, that she forgot her pants.  It was quite the adventure to say the least (I may have broken a few speed limits as I rushed back home with a couple minutes to spare).

 Their cute little ballet outfits.

Nate and I went to a fun Christmas/ birthday party...

Can you tell it was an ugly sweater party??

(I swear Nate's sweater seemed a lot uglier when I first bought it)

Before we left for Arizona we had a little Christmas of our own at home a couple days early.  This was Tyler's creative idea for a make-shift Santa costume.

Rudolph??

McKinley sporting her new gift from Grandma Lincoln- so stinkin' cute!

Here's Colton in what we thought would be one of his favorite presents, a Buzz costume.  You can see he lacked a bit of enthusiasm.

Can you believe all these kids come from just two familes?

Here's our kids with our dear friends the VanWagoners'.  My children have absolutely LOVED their kids.  We all spent a lot of time together, so you can imagine our sadness as they had to move away to Las Vegas just before Christmas.  We'll miss them so much, but hope they come back sometimes to visit :)

 This Buzz was a hit!!

Lovin' Christmas day with my family in Arizona...

 Gramma Suzie helping baby go through her stocking

One of the BEST presents Nate recieved;  My mom made him a big double fleece UofA blanket.  He snuggles up in it every night :)

 Looks like McKinley won over Uncle Aaron too!

For Christmas I really wanted to get the kids matching outfits while I still could.  I shopped for days at dozens of stores and this was the closest I could get.  My little handsome men.

We also got to visit with some great friends Nate & I have had for a LONG time.  Nate's been best buds with these guys since childhood.  I became friends with them closer to high school, actually before I was friends with Nate.  Now they awesome wives who we love too!  Anyway here's some of our offspring  (there's still a few missing -in bed & in utero :) ).  What I love about this group is that no matter how long it's been since we've seen each other, it's like no time has passed (our kids all had a blast together too)!
I can't wait to get together again soon.



Thanksgiving 2010

One morning as I was taking the trash out, I looked up & saw I was a few feet away from a big buck. I was taken by surprise to say the least. Sometimes when it snows a lot we can see what looks like deer tracks in our yard, but I never understood how they got there and of course have never seen one. Well  I have now...

In the fall we decided to try to start going to more "local attractions" in our city that we've never been to.  The Western Mining Museum was on of our stops...

For Thanksgiving we went to Utah to stay with Nate's family.  We always enjoy our time there.  Here's Ty & Kinners having some snuggle time with Grandpa Lincoln

We got quite a bit of snow while we were there.  The kids took advantage.

We tried REALLY hard to get some decent pictures of all the Lincoln grandkids, but with this baker's dozen- it was near impossible.  They'll be one more joining us in July (from Nate's sister Karen).

We had a blast at a close-by jump place, trying to find a good place for the kids to use some of their pent-up energy.

Grandma and Grandpa Lincoln taking a little break :)

Nate's brother is a volunteer firefighter in Saratoga Springs & he let the kids put on some of his gear.  It wasn't exactly a perfect fit, but the kids sure loved it!

We were also entertained as some of the cousins put on a musical review.  Complete with costumes &and scene changes :)

 While the other kids were doing that....Colton was doing this....!!

 He got into some really nice paints of our sister-in-law's mother's.  She's an artist, but assured us they wouldn't be too harmful :)  I guess you could call Colton an artist too ;)  Instead of canvas, he uses his mouth as the medium.

Here's the newest addition to the Lincoln clan, baby Disney (Nate's brother's baby girl #6). 

Our busy & fun October

Looking back, October was pretty crammed with events, but it was a lot of fun with great weather!

One event was something I never thought I'd do- run a  5K.  I realize this is not a big deal for most people. But for me who has absolutely loathed running for most of my life, it was a big accomplishment.  My friends Mel & Rochelle helped encourage me and even trained with me by running crazy early in the morning.  Anyway, it was kind of fun & I plan to do atleast one more in 2011.  I didn't have a very fast time, but I never stopped.  Rochelle & her awesome daughter Emma Lee had great times though.

We had a fun family night at a local gymnastics gym & Colton had a ball in the foam pit.  We could barely get him out.

Our first attempt at feeding McKinley solids.  You can see how it went over.  We were a little slow getting to it, I guess it was our attempt to keep her a baby forever.

I love how this sweet baby just radiates joy!!

Cute, cute Lexi with her new braces & glasses.  Can you believe she's almost 8? She's growing up way too fast.

During October, we  went to a great place at the base of Garden of the Gods called Rockledge Ranch.  It's an old settlers' village that they have kept in tact, with everyone dressed in period clothes.   Here was Buttercup the cow.

Lexi also had field day at school , She's a ferocious tiger (before the braces).

Back to Rock Ledge...

 Colton learning how to press apples for cider.  It took quite a bit of muscle power

Our family had another outing to a pumpkin patch out in the middle of no where.

  Conquering the hay pryramid

 Hay ride (it was quite windy that day)

 Awesome hay slides

 There was also a little hay maze.  In summary....there was a lot of hay :)

  Selecting the perfect pumpkin

To celebrate Halloween we went to an event at Garden of the Gods where they had a costume contest.  To our surprise, McKinley won for the babies to 3 yr. old group.  Her costume wasn't all that impressive, but I think it was the enormous smile she gave the judges as we passed them that won them over.  Still we were proud of our lil' monkey!

The next day at our church's Trunk-or-Treat...  Here's Lexi & her friend Avery.
Apparently Cleopatra was a popular costume choice this year. 

Our friend Josey (an former co-worker of Nate's) & her family came with us this year.  McKinley & her little boy Connor were born just a couple weeks a part.

The rest of the fam.  Nate wore his fake tattoos & basketball duds, spiked his hair & went as an NBA player.  His little ensemble actually caused a bit of a stir.

Ending the month with one of my favorite pictures...just horsin' around with daddy :)

September review (just a few months behind)

So one of my goals for the year was to try to keep up with my blog a little better, even if it's just for myself :)  I know most of this might not be very interesting for most of you, but it's my form of a family journal right now, so bare with me.  I realized I hadn't written in here since early Sept. - so here's some highlights from the rest of the month...

My good friend Rochelle has a baby girl named Elizabeth that was born about 3 weeks after McKinley.  We discovered by accident they had the same outfit, so we obviously had to get a picture of them in it.  It took a while, but we finally made it happen.

 Here's McKinley trying to beat Elizabeth up :)

McKinley at 5 months:

 Lovin' her new exersaucer

If any of you know Nate, you know he's just a little bit of a fan of U of A (major understatement!!!).  When I found out I was having a girl when I was pregnant with Lexi- I bought this little dress when we were visiting Tucson.  It was Nate's favorite, he even wanted to get professional pictures of Lexi in it.  This time around with McKinley (out "Little Wildcat Princess" II) , we had to settle for pictures taken by mommy.

After taking the suggestion from our incredibly fit friend Mel, my friend Rochelle and I braved it up the incline (the old Cog Railway) in Manitou Springs.  After realizing we had hiked the wrong trail for a REALLY long time, we finally made it to the crazy steep part.  Great views, but we quickly agreed the climb... kinda sucked.  I felt like I might plummet to my death at any moment.  I'm also a klutz so I don't trust myself.  Hey, but other than that- I highly recommend it to anyone else :)

We tried really hard to put on a happy face while we took pictures, to trick everyone.

We made it.  I know many people who hike this often, some every week, but I can't say I'll be one of those people.