Best Two Years

Lincoln's brother Luke came home from his mission in the Philippines last night. We drove down to the airport to pick him up.
Here we are waiting with the signs we'd made

This is the point where we realized that it was in fact Luke walking towards us. We were a little confused at first.

And this is what happens when you let Lindi grab the bag as it's going by really fast!

Everyone is really excited to have him home. And I'm glad because I finally got to meet him!

There's video I just can't figure out how to load it. I'll try again later.

Springfield Fun

I've spent the last couple of weeks with my in-laws in Springfield. Here are a few pictures of all the fun we've had

First is Lindi's Graduation. She was one of three valedictorians and gave a great speech. She also received the student of the year scholarship!

 This was an experimental cake. We didn't have anything to use for the tassel, so we boiled spaghetti noodles in green water. It looked really good at first. Then it dried up...

 Lillie had her dance recital. She performed three dances and did a great job. I didn't get any pics of the first dance. She was wearing the same costume as she did for tap.

Easter

We had a quiet Easter day. Nothing special. In fact we had eggs and bacon for Easter dinner! We did however make some fun Easter baskets and filled them with good candy. I think they turned out pretty good.

The Easter Bunny also brought us a present!

It's amazing! I never knew knives could cut so well!

Lincoln's family also came to visit us for their spring break. We took them to the zoo. It was lots of fun. This zoo is great it's definitely worth a trip to Omaha

This last one is of us visiting the pedestrian bridge that goes over the Missouri River. That's the bridge in the background. Not a very good picture.

And last but not least, I have a new calling. I'm now in the Young Womens. Their fundraiser for girls camp  was a cake auction. Here is my Easter Bunny cake.

Taste of Parenthood

Last week Kim and Cory took a week-long trip to DC and Gettysburg. They needed a babysitter, so who better than Uncle Lincoln! The original plan was just for Lincoln to spend a week and a half in Utah by himself. But I couldn't let him have all the fun! He went out four days before me and got a nice taste of raising three children. We had lots of fun visiting family and friends and being "parents"! One of our favorite moments was taking the twins to their very first soccer game. Rather than write a long paragraph I'll just list some of the highlights.

1. Laney getting really excited and frequently running to the sideline to give us high-fives

2. Bradly losing interest in the game and sitting down on the field picking grass.

3. Bradly getting the ball and kicking it in the wrong direction.

4. Julia (who is not playing soccer) waiting in line with the team to get a treat. She thinks she's a big kid.

5. And my all time favorite moment was Laney falling to the ground right in the middle of play and doing push ups.

I told them to look tough....





Notice at 17 seconds Laney falls to the ground and starts doing her push ups

Then at 25 seconds Bradly is trying to pull up his shorts that keep falling down.

Shortly after that you see Laney rejoin exhausted after doing all her "exercises" as she calls them.

oh my, how funny it was.

We also celebrated Easter a little early and had an egg painting party.







Unfortunately that's all the pictures I took of Utah. But we had tons of fun and it was great to see everyone.

Lincoln's 25th Birithday

Last Friday was Lincoln's birthday. He had to work so we didn't do much. I made him dinner and I think we watched a movie. Sad that I can't remember. We had the BEST chicken cordon blue....mmm and this Andes Mint ice-cream pie instead of a cake.

His present was a quilt that has been almost 2 years in the making. It was going to be a surprise for Christmas '09 and I didn't get around to actually making it. Then with the wedding it got put on hold. I promised him that I would finish it for his birthday this year (it's hard to keep it a surprise when you live in a one bedroom apt. and the entire living room becomes your sewing room). I worked really hard to try and get it done. On Friday (the day of) all I had left was the binding. I ran out of time because I wanted to cook him dinner. But I will finish it. Here is a picture of it basically done.



2 years of hard work. I think it turned out pretty good. It might be the only quilt I ever make though. It's a very time consuming process...

Here is the pie. I got the recipe from my friend Erin here.




And I don't have a picture for the chicken, but trust me it's good. A lady in our ward made it for a Relief Society dinner. She has her own cookbook, so of course I bought a copy of it. Here is the recipe, it's fabulous. Note: it's not the healthiest recipe, but it's well worth it.


* 6 Chicken Breasts
* 6 Slices of Ham
* 6 Slices of processed Swiss Cheese (it is very important that it's processed)
* 1 Cube butter
* 1 C. Corn or Bran Flakes, Crushed


Place one slice of ham and one slice of cheese on every piece of chicken. Fold around chicken (as best as you can). Melt butter. Baste chicken/ham/cheese combo and dip in crumbs. Pour the remaining butter in the bottom of a 9X13 pan. Place pieces in pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

Most recipes use fresh Swiss Cheese, however, the processed cheese melts into a sauce rather than being stringy. And the sauce makes all the difference.

Like I said maybe not the healthiest, but it's so yummy!

So this post was less about Lincoln's birthday and more about my preparation for the day. I hope it was a good one. I feel that 25 is a good marker for adulthood (for most anyway). Happy Birthday Lincoln! You're all grown up!


Oh and I think the movie we watched was 127 Hours. I could be wrong though.

Pass Along the Word

My cousin Harmony is trying to adopt a baby. Lincoln's brother adopted a year ago and they say the best thing to do is to pass along the word. It's a pretty big process and can be rather pricey. Harm has set up and Esty account with all of her cute creations. Check it out here. All the money she makes will go to their adoption. They are both so great and would be great parents. I wish them all the best.

Also here is their adoption blog. Please pass the word along to anyone who is looking for two loving people to raise a baby.

Follow Up

My friend Carly asked a very interesting question regarding my previous post. She wanted to know what I was going to get with my $100 gift card to Bed Bath, and Beyond. Well Carly, here is my dilema....

I am not allowed...strongly encouraged rather to not buy more stuff. You see we will be moving to Chicago in a few months and don't really need to add to the truck loads of stuff we will already be moving. It's understandable, I don't really enjoy packing and moving, but with $100 it's hard to not want to buy stuff. Not to mention my discount, 20% off everything. I don't know if it really works this way, but now I have $120 worth of stuff I could get. Someone that's good at math please correct me if I'm wrong.

So this is what I propose to all of my friends in the blogger world....

What would you buy with $100 to Bed Bath, and Beyond?

Keep in mind that I am moving and that I have a discount. I'd love to hear all of your suggestions. Maybe it will help me decide!