This is the beginning of Lincoln's first birthday! He woke up around 6:30. We fed him a bottle. He's taking formula and cow's milk now. Actually, later today he signed to me that he wanted milk, so I gave him cow's milk in his sippy cup and he totally took it. He has always refused formula in his sippy cup before, so I was very excited! In the first picture Jon is about to head off to school at 7. Second picture, uncle Konnor is feeding him the last of his bottle before he goes down for his first nap. And third, my little birthday boy is taking nap #1. Isn't he adorable? Especially with all those crazy curls! They're starting to take over his head. I just love it! Guys (like his dad) are just gorgeous with curls. Mmm-hmm.

This is the mother hummingbird who has claimed our feeder. She's hilarious, and sooooo cute! Just perched right on the top of the shepard's hook, keeping guard of her treasure. It's really neat to see what hummingbirds look like still. This is my first time getting to see a hummingbird up so close. They are magnificent. I'm so glad that God created them. I think they are my favorite bird.

We threw a little party for Jon for his 25th birthday. It was a lot of fun and several friends came over. In these pictures we have the carpool gang and associated wives: Jon, Zac, and Sean followed by Kim, Dorsey, and Jessica. Now, try guessing who's married to who? We were so happy because our dining table made a surprise early delivery the day before we threw the party. It was perfect because we then had enough seating. I think about 7 couples showed, kids in tow. Costco is the place to go to get party food. I served those cream puffs, some yummy meatballs, spring rolls, and classic root beer in glass bottles. And yes, even Jon's cake turned out alright. Last year I completely botched his bday cake, so this year I went simple. He liked the writing cuz it looks like 'mud'. I don't know if I'll ever be a Terrie Willison or Jen Lage when it comes to cake decorating. I'm more of a party girl. I like to organize big get-togethers. Maybe one day if God sees fit to bless me with that talent. Until then, let's party down.

These are July photos when he was 10 months old. Wow! Can you believe that he is almost 1 year old?!! I can't believe I was going through the whole infancy thing this time one year ago. Those first several months were the hardest months of my life. I think back to how hard it was to take care of Lincoln and his colic and how badly I couldn't sleep, and it makes my whole body tremble. I love how much easier it is to take care of him now. Life is so good right now. Sure, there's new challenges, especially the tantruming and how to discipline, that are coming up, but at least I can get enough rest and feel good every day. I was in survival mode for a while there... To end on a positive note I will tell you of my favorite thing to do with Lincoln: I love to cradle him and tickle his rib cage with my teeth. He just looses it and totally cracks up. It's the cutest laugh you've ever heard! (By the way, Lincoln's almost walking. But don't tell anyone yet. I don't want him to feel pressured :0)

Oh! This is our beautiful flower garden that we enjoy so much! When we moved in we bought all of these flowers and planted them ourself. We actually went through the huge process of arranging and planting the flowers twice because we didn't like how they turned out the first time. We sure love it now, though. The biggest reason why is because of the hummingbird feeder that you can barely see in the photo right above this text. We patiently waited a couple months until they figured out that we were giving out free food, and now every time I look out the window or go outside with Lincoln, they're out there eating (more like drinking) away! It's awesome! Lincoln loves to look at the birdies. Our second favorite reason why we love our garden so is because of the hibiscus flower trees. (The first photo shows one of the gorgeous and huge hibiscus blossoms.) They are so lovely. They are the best buy because they've been blooming over and over again since we got them in May! So awesome. The trunks are really pretty, too, because the branches were braided together. Plus, they remind us of our honeymoon in Hawaii. Ah, how sweet! You gotta come out here and see what we mean. Or just come to visit little Lincoln. Thanks for visiting our blog! love, dors

Konnor successfully finished selling alarms systems and is staying with us for a couple of weeks. We're so excited! He's so great with Lincoln. Squeekers just loves him. For a guy that's not his dad, Lincoln responds to him really well. A couple of times we've caught the two of them just cracking up together while Konnor's doing something to make Lincoln laugh. Konnor's also really helping us out with some handy-man projects we have around the house. It's awesome. We're getting all these photo frames up on the walls--it's looking great! Yes, I will take pictures soon of the inside of the house and post them on the blog. I just have to remember to do so. Anyway, we're just really proud of Konnor for making it through such an incredibly tough summer, physically and spiritually. He's a good thinker and great laugher. We're honored to have him in our house for a couple of weeks.

Oh, I am such a classic parent-- I love watching him sleep! Isn't he adorable? I swear, he gets cuter every day. I love walking in on him and seeing what position he's sleeping in this time. These are just a few of many. He cracks me up how he can fall asleep with his butt way up in the air! Konnor walked into his room the other day and saw Lincoln sleeping tail end up, and couldn't keep from laughing. Lincoln woke up, but it was okay cuz his nap time was over. Speaking of nap times, he's doing really great with his sleep schedule. He has gone from three naps to two. An average day for Lincoln looks like this: wake up at 6:30, first nap by 8:30, wakes up at 9:30, second nap at 1:30, wakes up at 3:30, bedtime at 6:30. It's so fabulous! As long as I get my butt in bed by 10pm, I'm good to go in the morning. He's so easy to put down to sleep now, too. We just put him in his crib, give him his binkie and duckie, sing him a hymn we know from the hymn book, give kisses, and wave goodbye. So simple. It's great practice for me, too, because I'm learning more hymns and training my voice to get better. Man, when I first converted, singing church music was SO hard for me. It's definitely gotten easier the last 3 years. And by the way, when we wave to Lincoln, he waves back. I'm working on teaching him baby signs. He recognizes 'hi', 'bye', and 'milk'. So awesome!

This was our new kitty Phoenix. What a sweet cat (to humans, not other animals, unfortunately). He would totally curl up on our lap. He would even let Lincoln come up to him and pet him. Oh! Was he hilarious with the scratching post and catnip! So funny. He would totally get all cooky and roll around. I have always wanted an orange cat, so I was quite excited. Unfortunately, though, he couldn't handle sharing the house with another cat. There were several instances where he just let loose on Romeo and attacked him with all his might. It was really quite scary. Jon and I got really mad at him and explained to him that eventhough he was a sweetheart to us, that Romeo is our dear cat and if he can't live with Roo, then he's gotta find another home. Of course, he understood exactly what we were saying. So, in three short weeks we dropped a ton of money, experienced what it's like to have a very affectionate cat, and then returned him to the Humane Society. What an experience. We definitely learned a lot: like get a kitten, not a teenager if you're going for cat #2. I hope he finds a good home with no animals.

These pictures were taken at the white coat ceremony held for the first years (doesn't that remind you of Harry Potter?). Anyway, the top photo has our LDS friend Russ who graduated from BYU the same time as Jon. They didn't meet until we saw him at a furniture store here in Indy and noticed him wearing a BYU shirt. We introduced ourselves and found out he was starting dental school, too. We invited him and his mom over for dinner the next night and have been good friends since. He's making lunch for us this Saturday. Now, the guy on the second and fourth photos is Zach. Him and his wife Kim live really close to us. Jon carpools with him everyday. It's really cool because his wife is Catholic and he will be Catholic soon also, and so I'm learning a lot about the Catholic faith. Very cool. Anyway, we've been abundantly blessed with good friends and a good ward, and not to mention a great house! We're loving it here. And I'm loving the weather most of all!

Lincoln loves the vacuum! Everytime I vacuum he follows me all around the floor. The middle pictures were from Lincoln's first time to the pool, we have two in our subdivision, and his first time on a swing. We now have one in our backyard and he loves it! He could swing for hours. The owners of our home left their play set for us and it's been great. Plus we have tons of grass to play in too. It'll be perfect for teaching Lincoln how to throw some baseballs and footballs. Oh I can't wait!

Some fun photos of Lincoln back in May! So, a little story here: Lincoln loves to brush his teeth and touch people's teeth with his fingers. It's the funniest thing. He's already acting so much like a mini Jon. All of our friends say he's meant to be a dentist like his daddy.