We love visitors!

Lincoln's cousin Amanda came to visit.  She and her husband have joined the Peace Corps and will be going to Burkina Faso, Africa in June for two years. This was her last chance to come visit us while we're still in Chicago, and we're so glad she did. We had so much fun!

One of the highlights was her cooking. Amanda is vegan so I was a little skeptical at first. However, she made some really good dishes that we will definitely be making again. My favorites were her mac n' cheese and her lasagna. I also really liked her lentil soup. We were mostly vegan for the time she was here, and I must say it's not terrible when you have an experienced chef with great recipes. I do not think I could give up bacon, though.

We were able to see some of the fun sights in Chicago and enjoy a little bit of sunshine.  I wasn't very good at taking pictures, luckily she got some good ones with her camera (check her facebook page or blog). Here's what I have.

The Bean at Millennium Park

This is from the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier

This is at a conservatory that Amanda discovered. It was super cool.

Again, check Amanda's pages for many more pictures...

Young Women Fundraiser

The Young Women had a fundraiser for girls camp. They had mini photo shoots. I think it's such a great idea. The pictures turned out great too!

There is such a thing as 'cute' plumbers crack!

1 Year Old!

I'm a little slow at getting this out. But here is Bennett's one year post.

His two front teeth have finally broken through, so no more vampire fangs! He loves to be outside. Now that the weather is finally getting warm, we take all the opportunities we get to go out and play. He's happiest when both mom and dad are playing with him. He enjoys hitting the balls (and a birthday balloon) with his bat (with assistance of course). He's learning how to color. He'll scribble a few lines and then just sucks on the crayons. He's mostly a happy baby and loves to do whatever his mom and dad are doing.

Here are his stats:
Weight: 25.11 lbs (85%)
Height: 31 1/2 in (91%)


Let me add a little commentary to the pictures...

Walk? Are you sure, Dad?

 Well, okay.

 Here I go...

 Mom! Look at me!

Wait, who's winning the White Sox game?

Yeah, I'm doing it!

Here I come!

We have a walker.  Well, sort of.  He's not running around the house, but he will pull himself to a standing position and start to walk. If he falls he just figures it's easier to crawl. It's so fun to see how excited he gets over it.

Birthday Boy

I have a one-year-old!! Crazy. Lincoln's sister Lillie was in her school play (High School Musical Jr.) and his sister Laura came to town with her baby. So we decided to go down to Springfield to see the play and have some cake. one year post coming soon

He was a little nervous when everyone was staring at him and singing

 He went for the caterpillar first

I think he might have been a little excited about it.

 He started swallowing the pieces whole...

 Daddy was concerned about it

 See those puffy cheeks...he's stuffed a bunch of the caterpillar pieces in his mouth.

Not sure what to do next

His belly is too big to bend over to eat, so we helped him out a little.

 Cousin Declan wanting to get in on the action

 Happy Baby

 This is the garland I made with pictures from the last year.

 Opening presents

Almost walking

Bennett will walk when assisted. He loves his motorcycle and has recently learned to steer it.

We love bunnies

It's really hard to get Bennett to imitate sounds. So far all we've got is dada. He loves, however, to imitate actions. I've tried to teach him several animal sounds and he just smiles. I don't know what a bunny says if anything, so I tried to teach him to scrunch his noes. This is what we came up with....

He makes a pretty darn cute bunny face. Also he knows how to shake his head no, but doesn't understand what it means. He thinks it's like any other word with an action. We're definitely in trouble when he figures it out.

Our next animal is going to be the hippo. They just open their mouths really wide...right?

Climbing

This kid climbs in and on everything! It's exhausting trying to keep up. It makes him so happy though.

This one was supposed to be a picture not a video. I was trying to capture his vampire teeth, but by the time I got the camera switched over he'd squirmed away. If you pause the very beginning you can see it.