trail of lights

We made our annual trek into Austin to visit the trail of lights extravaganza in Zilker Park. It was quite chilly, about 40 degrees, but we all enjoyed the lights and displays. We wanted to ride the train (well, Landon wanted to ride the train...he always wants to ride the train) but we just missed the 7:30pm departure and Lincoln couldn't make it until the next one at 8pm. So, I promised Landon a train ride in Disneyland, when he goes to see "Pickey Mouse". I have to get a video of him on-line saying that...for some reason he can say Minnie Mouse, but he is stuck on calling Mickey, "pickey"...it's wild. But cute.

Christmas a little early in Texas

We celebrated our own little Christmas before the boys and I left for CA. Landon and Lincoln enjoyed opening a few gifts that were under our tree. Thanks to everyone that mailed gifts.

spreading Christmas cheer

It is better to give....

We had the opportunity to go caroling and give out bookmarks at a local nursing home yesterday, and Landon and Lincoln were able to bring joy to the elderly residents. The lady that you see holding Lincoln is named Nell, and she was so thrilled to get to be with young children and hold Lincoln. She told me that it made her Christmas, and I almost cried, she was just so happy about holding my little guy. She asked me to send her the pictures, and I plan to mail them out soon, and perhaps we can go back to see her after the holidays. Landon did a great job singing, and then he impressed me with how eager he was to hand out bookmarks to everyone. There were about ten families from our church represented, and it was a great chance to give a little away, as we have been so blessed.

SNOW in Texas

On Tuesday night, I was at Starbucks with my friend, Heather, and it had been a decently warm day- about mid-70's, but had dropped 30 degrees in four hours, and as we were sipping our drinks and chatting, the weather went from raining, to sleeting, to snowing! I couldn't believe it...snow in Texas....so we ran outside and I took this picture with my iPhone. It was humorous because everyone in the cafe was on their phone calling someone, so of course I called my parents in Northern California to tell them, as they haven't had much snow, if any, at all this season so far. I honestly never thought I would see "real" snow in Texas! It was a very fun surprise.

Lincoln is six months old!

Lincoln's six month photo shoot was a success. I wanted to get the same snowflake shot that we have of Landon in this same outfit, and I achieved my goal.

Lincoln is such a happy, mellow little guy, and we are so thankful for the joy he brings to us all throughout the day with his contagious smiles and chuckles. He is just starting to kind of pat me on the back when I pick him up, which I love. He adores his big brother, and anything that Landon does is worthy of his attention and smiles. I hope to get some videos up soon of them interacting, as it is a riot to watch Lincoln laugh at whatever silly antics Landon is up to.

Lincoln is such a smiley little guy, even people in the stores stop me and ask me if he is always that happy! He makes random strangers laugh and smile because he just beams at them like they are his favorite person. He is sleeping well, and some nights he makes it from 9 pm to 5 or 6 am, although most nights he wakes up once. And currently he is taking two naps during the day for about 1 and a half to 2 hours each.

Lincoln is also a good eater and enjoys fruits and vegetables of all varieties, although so far he is not fond of peas or broccoli. He has been sitting up on his own for a while, and he can get around by rolling, but he seems content to just chill, and I haven't seen any major efforts to crawl yet. All around, he gets the "easy baby of the year award" for 2008!

Very Merry Weekend

Wow- we just came out of a jam-packed, Christmas fun-filled weekend. We started off Saturday with a trip to Dell Diamond for pictures with Baseball Santa, and then we went to Georgetown to the Christmas parade. I forgot my video camera, and I wish that you all could have seen little Landon marching in place with the marching band and nodding his head to the music. He loved the parade, which was filled with cute floats, a fire truck, police cars, animals, and, at the very end, Santa.

After the parade, we visited a Bethelehem village with a live nativity scene, and then went to lunch with friends, and then had a bunch of Landon's friends over for a playdate all evening while their parents went out to dinner.

On Sunday, we went to church, and then enjoyed our second snow day in Texas. Every year our development covers a hill with "snow" and offers a play and sled day, and so last year Landon's first sled ride was in Texas, and this year, Lincoln's first snow experience ever occured in Texas...wild! Landon went down the hill on his own sled.

Sunday night Aaron and I got to go out to dinner and a date at the Domain, an upscale area in Austin, which had beautiful Christmas decorations, outdoor fireplaces roaring, and Christmas music playing over the speakers. It was a wonderful, busy weekend.

Domain of Heroes

I am so proud of Aaron. He launched his on-line massive multiplayer game about six weeks ago, after basically working two jobs over the last year in order to support us and test out his game creating skills. I think the game is a great success, and he has had lots of people playing it and purchasing "wishes" to add to their free game play experience. I respect Aaron so much for venturing out and following his dreams, and being persistent to push on to the end and finish the product. If you want to check out the game, visit http://www.domainofheroes.com/. It is free to play, so sign up and try out a character. My little squirrel scout is a lowly level four or something, but if you see skiper (supposed to be skipper!) in the chat...that is me. In addition, my generous husband has donated or given away almost all of the revenue that he has received from the game so far- what a guy! This blog is full of info about the boys, but I realized that I have neglected to blog about what an amazing husband I have and all of his ventures and accomplishments. Many of you already know this, but he also received a nice award from Intel for his very first game, Crunch Time, and he has had a lot of good internet press about Crunch Time and Domain of Heroes (DoH). Aaron and I have been able to go out on a few dates lately (thanks Aunt Glenda and Deanna), and we have enjoyed talking about his gaming creations, all of the new things he has been learning as he tries to market this game and venture into the business world side of a company, and how we are enjoying Austin/Round Rock and all of the opportunities he has had here.

Thanksgiving

We missed our friends and family this Thanksgiving (especially our moms), but we had a good time celebrating turkey day with Aunt Jen and Cousin Hayley. We were happy that they both came out (Hayley up from Austin, Jen out from CA) to be with us and share all of the yummy food. Landon got the big end of the wishbone, and you can see him in his victory pose below. I didn't get any special shots of Lincoln with the turkey as he was sleeping...but, here is his first Thanksgiving family portrait.

Zoo fun

We traveled to Waco to the Cameron Park Zoo on the day before Thanksgiving with Aunt Jen. The zoo was wonderful, and we were able to see all sorts of animals, reptiles, and fish. We saw gibons, flamingos, bald eagles, bats, owls, tons of snakes, a bear, tigers, alligators giraffes, bison, elephants, and much more!
This was Lincoln's first trip to the zoo.

Jen and Landon the ladybugs.

Checking out the alligator (or is it the croc? I get them mixed up...our trip to the zoo made me realize that I am lacking in the animal knowledge department).

Aaron and Landon going down the slide by the bear...I forget which animals they were sliding through! We had a great time on our trip. Landon loves going to the zoo and has asked to go back several times since we were there.

Waco Zoo