Life Before Baby

I still had a few pictures from before Lincoln was born that didn't make it onto the blog. And since I use our blog as a record-keeping mechanism for our family as well as a picture back-up arsenal, I decided I still wanted to post these. So, here are some assorted picture of life before baby #3.

I love seeing how much they love reading! Books and graham crackers passed the time while we waited for Daddy.

Wesley loves them too, but urgently needed another cracker.

I don't know who has more fun with their games...Sam or the boys!

We checked out this book from the library a while back. Sam and I got a kick out of the pictures--it's so clever!

Talmage often wants his apron on when he's playing, and that inevitably leads to Wesley wanting one too. We just have one kid-sized one, so I double one of mine over and cinch it around him and he happily tromps around, completely unaware of how silly it looks.

I was thinking of future children when I bought this giant LoveSac in high school (a little strange, perhaps, but I've always been a planner), and it certainly hasn't disappointed! We love dragging it out to the bottom of the stairs and jumping, but jumping off the bunk bed is pretty fun, too.

Wesley freely jumps off the bunk bed as well.

It looks like Wesley is missing one of his front baby teeth. I had all my baby teeth, but am missing 1 1/2 permanent teeth and it's a genetic thing, so it looks like a trip to the dentist is in our near future. I even found one covered by our insurance who went to BYU!

This is how we spent the evening before Lincoln was born.

He is such a goof!

And lastly, here is a pretty impressive model of the portion of the Texas Medical Center where Sam works. It's the biggest medical center in the world, and the pictures are pretty impressive if you look them up! Talmage made a crane building a new hospital, a car, and one of the existing hospitals across the street (which is the location where we pick up Sam).

Lincoln's Newborn Photos

Sam's old roommate from college moved to Houston this past year for grad school at Baylor. It has been so fun to live near him and his wife! They have 2 sweet little girls that are each about 9 months younger than Talmage and Wesley, so the boys love getting together with them as well. His wife has a nice camera and is busy putting together a portfolio to start her photography business, so she generously came over and took some adorable pictures of Lincoln when he was 9 days old! These are some of my favorites.

I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures, but he has got some seriously large hands.

Baby yawns are my favorite!

He really hates being undressed--much more than my other boys. So I was trying to help him settle down and she caught this sweet shot!

Then we changed the backdrop and it woke him up. He was still sleepy, so he was pulling some pretty funny faces!

Breanne--the lemon face!!!

Our bishop's teenage daughter crocheted us this beautiful turquoise & green blanket. She worked all summer on it!

And we had to get a few with the older boys, too! They weren't in a photogenic mood, but Shauna managed to catch some great shots anyway.

He is such a ham.

Thanks to Shauna for sharing your time and awesome talents with us!

Lincoln Loves...

Lincoln loves...

being swaddled

(and sleeping),

cuddling

(and sleeping),

his binky

(and sleeping),

laying in the "poof"

(and sleeping),

his bouncy seat

(and sleeping),

and tummy time

(and sleeping).

I could add a few more things he loves, but I think my point is made clear that our little man has slept his whole first month away! He is starting to wake up a little bit more now, but it is still kind of a rare thing to catch him with his eyes open. He's such a sweet little guy! We love everything about him.

Sleepy Big Boys

There is something about a sleeping child that just melts my heart. Seeing my boys sleep reminds me of their purity and innocence. Each night when I go into their room to check on them before I go to bed, I like to take a moment to just watch them and remind myself that no matter what took place during the day, they are pure spirits, given to me to teach. It reminds me to be gentle and patient in my teaching and guiding and encourages me through the sometimes mundane tasks of motherhood. Watching them sleep makes me wish they would stay small forever.

And seeing them sleep during the day is just as sweet:

Wesley has really struggled with not having a morning nap, even though he is just a couple of weeks away from being 2. For months he would get so tired in the morning that he would fall asleep just about every time we drove somewhere. But I dropped his morning nap when I moved him into a regular twin bed and wasn't sure how I'd be able to pick it up again. On this day, we had gone grocery shopping and he fell asleep in the car on the way home. I got him out of the car, he walked in the house, and promptly lay down like this in the midst of all the groceries and continued sleeping!