Happy Halloween 2010!

We had our "Trunk or Treat" at church yesterday and had a lot of fun. Josh dressed up as a Chilean Miner, just out of the mine, Lincoln was a version of Count von Count from Sesame Street, and I was the "Black Sheep of the family." Everyone's costumes were fairly easy to put together, except mine. I decided to hand dye 400 cotton balls black, then wash and dry them, then I had to pull them apart to regain their fluffiness (individually) and then hot glue them to my black sweatshirt. A very labor-intensive costume that made me look like (according to many at the party) a poodle and a wolf. Oh well.

The Romrell family (Super cute!)


Austin, Alex, and Jannie Medley

My friend/partner in crime, Jessica, made this amazing pumpkin cake for the party. It's become a tradition for one of us or both to make a cake for our ward parties. This one was great!! Good job Jess!

Happy Halloween everyone!!!

2010 Sea World Trip

Saturday, October 16th, we went to Sea World San Antonio with my older sister and one of her boys, Aidan. We've taken Lincoln there before but he was only 1 year old and we thought he might be old enough to enjoy all the animals this time around.

First stop, as always, was to see the Dolphins (My favorite!) Lincoln tried to feed them some fish, but when they came remotely close, he would pull back and say "No, No, NO." Overall he did great and really enjoyed watching them swim and splash. He kept telling me they were "Wimming" as they swam by.

We tried a couple kiddie rides, like this mini ferris wheel and the Shamu roller coaster. Earlier this year at the theme park on our trip to Branson, he screamed when he had to sit down on the ride and then again when it was time to get off. This time he was great. No crying or screaming to speak of. I think he actually enjoyed them.

Lacey and Aidan (age 8)

Josh and Linc on Shamu rollercoaster

Although it was a LOT of walking, we were smart enough to bring his stroller and he rode most of the time. We had a great time. We got to see a little of everything...Penguins, walrus, seals, Shamu, owls, alligators, flamingos, and lots of dolphins! Lots of fun for everyone!!!

First Day of School

Monday, October 4th, 2010 was Lincoln's first day of school at Colt Elementary's PPCD class. I was a bit worried about how he would do, but as we walked toward the classroom door and knocked, he seemed ok. Then his teacher opened the door and tried to take him inside. That's when he started crying buckets and going "wet noodle."

I was expecting a phone call, telling me to come get him, but I didn't get one so I assumed everything was okay. At 11:00 am I went to pick him up and he came running at the door holding Ms. Tina's hand, happy as a clam.

She said he cried for about 45 minutes, then the Assistant Principal took Linc to his office to feed the pet frogs. After that, he was great.

The rest of the week got progressively better...Tuesday he cried for 15 min. Wednesday he cried for 2 minutes 11 seconds. Thursday and Friday were tear-free! I'm so glad that he is enjoying school. His teachers are just wonderful! We get a daily report of everything he did that day and how his behavior was. Then at the end of the week, we get a weekly report of how he did concerning his developmental goals. I'm so excited he gets this opportunity and I pray that it will serve him well.

Colorado visit

A few months ago, we found cheap tickets to fly to Colorado to visit Josh's brother and his family. We haven't seen them in almost a year and they have a new baby boy whom I had not met. Since Josh and his brother, Austin, are such HUGE Texas Longhorn fans, we decided to visit during the Texas/Oklahoma football game.

Going to the airport is never a fun experience with Josh. He is usually very anxious and can be a little short on patience, but this time, he was really good and so was Lincoln. I kept telling Linc that we were about to take off and what kind of noise the airplane was going to make. Then the time came and we started down the runway and up into the air. Once Linc saw how high we were, he got a little scared and repeated, "All done, All done...." and "Up? Up? Up?" Finally we were able to turn on his portable DVD player to watch his new favorite movie...The Great Muppet Caper. But the DVD ran out of batteries about 20 min. before we landed and he was NOT happy. I felt sorry for the woman in front of him because he kept kicking her seat.

We finally got there and had a wonderful time reuniting with our niece and our family and getting to know our newest nephew. We played at the park, ate great food and some "not so great" food at a creepy, haunted house restaurant with a scary gorilla man, and had a really fun time just relaxing at home with Austin and Meredith.

We had a great time and look forward to seeing them again soon!

Charlotte (age 4) and Lincoln (age 3). Hook 'em Horns!

Graham (age 5 mos.)

Happy 3rd Birthday Lincoln!

For Lincoln's 3rd birthday, we invited lots of friends, family and their kids to our local pumpkin patch. Sweetberry Farm has strawberries and such in the spring and pumpkins in the fall, plus a hayride, hay maze, horses and goats to feed, and lots of fun activities. It was the perfect spot to let the kids run wild. And they did!

We decided to go with a construction theme, similiar to Bob the Builder, but without all the stuff. That meant black plastic table cloths, construction hats, work aprons, caution tape, and we had an orange traffic cone pinata. The kids pulled the caution tape out of the bottom of the traffic cone, but only one was attached, sending all the candy flying. (It didn't work that way, but it was fun anyway.)

I made a half gluten-free/half brownie cake and used one of Lincoln's trucks to complete the construction theme, along with some orange fondant traffic cones.

I also made his t-shirt using some old fabric and new yellow tee. It was filthy within 30 minutes! I guess that's the price you pay when you go to a farm with gaggle of three year olds and older friends and family.

Austin (11 yrs) and Lincoln (3 yrs)

The day of his actual birthday, we went out to eat at his favorite Italian restaurant where he stuffed his face with spaghetti and again got super messy! Happy Birthday to our kiddo!! Time sure flies when you are having fun.