Lincoln's Alter Egos

Santa's Little Helper or Rudolph's Greatest Fear??? You decide.

Letter to Santa

Robby wrote His first letter to Santa yesterday. He wrote it all by himself though Mommy did have to spell the words for him. As you can see, it's in our mailbox awaiting delivery to the North Pole. On the list:

Big boy bike
Spiderman toy
Superman toy
A dog

He did tell me that he doesn't know if they can do dogs at the North Pole, which is the same intel I've been receiving as well ;)

We've Got Spirit Yes We Do!

We've got spirit; how 'bout you?? ;)

Had a Great Time for Thanksgiving

We spent almost a full week in Houston for Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful time of family and fellowship. The eight cousins who were there had a blast playing with one another. And, the grownups did too :).

But, getting home and slipping back into a routine just has something to say for itself too. Especially when new PJs are involved :)

A Good Day

We woke up on Saturday to an unusual phenomenon. We had absolutely nothing on the docket for the day. First order of business, as per usual, donuts. But we decided to go eat there rather than bring them own.

Then, instead of going home, we decided just to go to FW to visit some of our favorite haunts including Barnes for story time and then a trip to our old neighborhood park. It was Lincoln's first time there :).

Then, after nap time we headed to Pizza Nizza for some yummy pie. It was a nothing special day turned into a special day for just the five of us.

Carving Out My Niche

Before Lincoln was born, I would often work in our office, logically enough. In our old house, the office was a neglected space rarely used by anyone, so Bryan didn't really think to use it, despite the pretense of it being set up as his room. But, once L arrived, I migrated to working off a lap desk in a big comfy chair in our room because as often as not, I would be holding him while I worked. It took little time for B to move in and entirely claim the office as his own.

L is now at a stage where holding him to work is fairly impractical much of the time, but I've continued to be stranded in this big chair with no other place to really work. We've been mulling over the problem for a while and considered lots of less than optimal possibilities that all meant either work spaces that would have to be cleared away when we have company or crowding lots of furniture or both.

Then, last week I had a brainstorm. We got an awesome deal on these great bookshelves from World Market when we moved into our house and have found creative ways to use them from entryway pieces to a wine rack. So, why not a desk?

A couple of nights ago, I reorganized my books so that I could take out three shelves, and I created this tiny workspace for myself by adding a painting to the wall, installing a light on the shelf above my desk, and then adding this cool chair we found.

It's the perfect place to work, and I am just loving it. The kids love to sit at it and "work" too :)

My Little Big Man is Five Months Old!!

My little man has now turned five months old, and I could not be more in love with this person.  He has the sweetest smile, and he turns it on so freely for me.  With each child I have had, the rush for him/her to leave behind babyhood has become less and less in my mind.  I am trying to linger and hold onto each little moment with this one because I know that before I can blink, he is going to be running after his brother and sister yelling at them to wait up, no longer a baby but becoming a little boy.  Trying to really remember Robby and Juliet as babies is almost impossible it feels like, and so I am holding on as tightly as I can.  Even so, I find myself helping him practice sitting up, pulling up, and am already making and freezing babyfood on occasion.  We have already bought the prerequisite baby food cereal boxes, and they are just waiting for this guy to get just a couple of weeks older.  I know we are entering into that really fun stage of an explosion of developmental milestones, and I am so excited.  But, I love that this one is willing to take the occasional nap while I hold him, and I am also finding myself less and less inclined to put him down :)

What Kind of Monkey Business Is This?

Robby or Lincoln??

 Robby or Lincoln??

Robby or Lincoln??

Robby or Lincoln??

Robby or Lincoln??

Robby or Lincoln??

A Halloween Teaser

Well, today is Halloween at school, so I thought I'd give a sneak peak of the kids in their costumes (sans my little monkey man who is saving his debut for Saturday night).

Four Months Old!!

This post is pretty late . . . Sorry about that. :). My little man continues to melt my heart more every day. He has such a warm and inviting personality. He's quick to laugh and smile and is just as happy being held by anyone who wants to interact with him. He especially loves it when his brother and sister come over to play with him.

He's rolling like a champ both ways and has started reaching for anything he can get a hold of in order to conduct as many taste test experiments as possible. A constant favorite is Mommy's hair despite her discouragement of such grabbing.

He is a good sleeper though of late he's been waking us up at 6:00am for a quick feeding before snoozing again until after 8:00.

I know that the milestones start quickly piling on from this point forward, and I'm excited. But I will hold onto the sweet baby moments with this one for as long as possible as well.

Happy 2nd Birthday Juliet!!!

Juliet is at the age where she doesn't want to smile for the camera.  Robby did the same thing at her age, and it is so sad because a two year old's smile is so sweet.  And, Juliet is so sweet.  Of course, this year her personality has really taken on a life of her own, and sweet is not necessarily the first word people would probably use to describe her.  I would use words like independent, spirited, charming, energetic, friendly, and happy as well.

She has clearly developed her own interests, which include shoes, jewelry, purses, chap (aka chapstick and/or makeup), and she loves the movie Tangled.  At school, they say that she loves to play with baby dolls, but she doesn't do that too much around the house.  She does love to go shopping, either in real stores or with her shopping cart and purses around our house.  She also loves to talk on the phone, especially when she gets to FaceTime with loved ones :)

As with seemingly most little girls, she has her daddy wrapped right up in her little finger, and she and her big brother are great friends.  She also loves hugging Lincoln, and it will be really fun when all three of them can play together.

She truly lights up any room that she walks into, and she makes me laugh and smile every single day.  She so clearly likes to make up her mind about things, and while she is certainly showing a two year old's attitude sometimes, just as often, she is very sweet and obedient.  Tonight, we were over at a friend's house, and I did not want her going up the stairs.  When she headed up, I called for her to come back down and was ignored.  So, I went upstairs and asked her to come down, and she looked at me and thought for a bit about what she wanted to do.  Finally, she said "okay Mommy!" and then every couple of steps on the way down she would say, "Welcome, mommy.  Welcome."  Clearly, she had done me a big service in her obedience :), but her sweet spirit was really shining through at that moment as well.

I am so proud of her and so grateful to have been given the gift of being her mommy.  I can't wait to see what this coming year will bring and what I will be saying about her by the time she turns three!

Look Who Started Rolling Over!

Heaven help us when we get to the mobile stages. :)

Sloan Family Zoo

My kids have created a zoo in our house. Much as in Good Night Gorilla, the animals seem to sneak their way into the zookeeper's bed at night. Fortunately for them, this particular animal liver doesn't seem to have a problem with that :)

New School

With our move this year out to a new city has come a change to move to a new school.  The two oldest kids were blessed to attend a wonderful school in Fort Worth, but when we moved, the drive to TLCC was prohibitive as a regular routine.  So, the kids have been out of a formalized school setting since the beginning of April and home with us full time.  While we love having them home, we also want them to have the benefit of the academic setting and social interactions that school offers, so this fall, we have enrolled them in a two day a week program at First Baptist Aledo.  For Robby, it is a preschool program, and for Juliet it is more of a play-centered environment.  Last week was their first full week of attendance, and they both really seem to love the school and are excited to go on school mornings.

The first pic is from when we took them to Meet the Teacher day a couple of weeks ago, and the second pic is from the actual first day of school.  The little guy will still be home with us full time this year, though based on his grin above, he seems okay with that :)

Happy 3 Months Lincoln!!

> Lincoln is getting so big already! My little man is three months old and has officially promoted upstairs to share a room with his big brother. He's also been going to the church nursery for about a month now and been totally spoiled by the workers in there. :).
>
> He's not quite rolling over yet, but he's working hard on it and will be mastering it very soon I think.
>
> He's also my first baby who has no interest in this thumb. Why suck a thumb when the whole fist is available for gnawing??
>
> He is a complete master at smiling, cooing, and laughing, pretty much enrapturing everyone who gets around him for any time at all. I'm definitely extremely smitten with the guy :)
>

Happy 4th Birthday Robby!!

I cannot believe that my big boy turned four years old last week. He has grown so much this year, gaining confidence and blossoming into such a little man. I could not be prouder of him!

Below are some pics of him at the Rangers game this week with Pahpah and tah. What a great present!! He loved it :)

Brotherly Love, Sisterly Love

Lincoln is so lucky to be doted on by two such great older siblings :)

Crazy August

This month has been such a crazy one at the Sloan house. We spent the first week at a lake house with the whole Sloan clan where Bryan's big sister got married!! It was such a wonderful and joyous week. There were 8 kids in the house. Robby was the oldest and Lincoln the youngest. They all loved playing together.

Then, we got home and Bryan and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary, which is kind of hard to believe.

Next up will be Robby's 4th birthday!!!!

In the meantime, here are a few pics of the kids from this month. :)