Lincoln is 7!

My sweet boy is seven! This year he has definitely turned from being my little boy to all grown up. The past few holidays, and even last year's birthday, it was becoming more and more obvious that Lincoln was done with toys, even though he didn't want to be. 

This was the first time he got to open no toys. It was hard for me to go shopping and skip right past that isle. Like my heart was literally aching. Instead, I focused on what he loves. For his birthday he got a baseball bag to carry all his baseball gear, batting gloves, lots of clothes, two new card games, and swimming goggles. 

I told him beforehand that there were no toys in the presents, and he was definitely sad. I thought maybe I had messed up, and I was the one forcing him to grow up too fast. But once he opened his presents, he was beyond excited. 

The bag was his favorite part! He absolutely loves baseball. This is his first year playing, and although he is not the best on the field, he is improving so much in just a few weeks! He throws spot on and can hit almost every ball thrown his way. He struggles catching with a mitt, but I know he'll get better with practice. What we love most is that he is completely obsessed with it. We haven't seen this passion in sports with him yet, so we are just hoping it sticks around. At practices he tries his hardest and stays focused even for the boring parts...his first game is this Friday! 

Anyways...back to his birthday.

We woke up, and I made the boys smoothies. Then they went and made Maverick a birthday present to open since he was feeling sad that he didn't get any. Seriously, Lincoln is such a sweetheart! 

 Then we waited for dad to get home at 12:00 and opened presents! Lincoln let Maverick open 2 of his! 

After getting all ready, we headed out the door to go jump at this indoor trampoline place. It was fun! I'm a little too pregnant to jump like crazy, so I just bounced around and took lots of breaks. The boys(all three of them) never stopped, and Scott was dripping in sweat! 

After jumping, we headed home. We rented "Minions" and got Papa Murpheys pizza per Lincoln's request. Then we played some catch while the pizza cooked. The boys and I ate outside because the weather was just so darn nice.

Maverick requested to be buried in grass. 

Then we went inside and started the movie and had cake and ice cream. 

It was "the best birthday ever!" According to Lincoln. Which is pretty awesome,...even though he says that every year. 

Now a little more about Lincoln

1. He loves to read and do math. He constantly is pushing himself to be the best in his class.

2. He hates writing. Although he will sit there and write for hours in his notebook about random things, actually writing at school is torture. I am so impressed with how much he has improved this year, but spelling is definitely where he truly struggles. 

3. he loves baseball and asks every day to play with us. 

4. His best friend is Aubrey, and it's a good thing he doesn't read this, but she is also the girl he "knows he is going to marry." She's also his first crush. 

5. Maverick and him have a beautiful relationship. I cannot even describe how much they love each other. 

6. He has a huge heart. This kid can be a little emotional, but it's due to being so empathetic to those around him. He understands when kids struggle, he feels sad for Maverick when things don't go his way, and he keeps money in the car to give to homeless people. 

7. He loves to play games! He wants to play board games constantly! It's fun having someone to play with! 

Well there's 7 things for my 7-year-old. We sure do love him! 

Spring Break mini vacation

The first weekend of spring break I took my boys to visit my friend Adrianne. She lives a few hours away, and every couple of months we drive to the coast for a mini vacation. She's kinda become my family since I don't have any relatives that live near us(except Scotts parents). It's something that I have had to adjust to since living here. When you don't have your siblings or parents close by, you have to make your friends your family. I live the furthest from my parents, and it can be hard sometimes to not be a part of the action, or be able to swing by for the weekend. I don't think you can understand it unless you live permanently 14 hours or more away. 

When we got there, the boys both got a big Easter basket! She's basically the fun aunt...or the grandma. After looking through their baskets, Lincoln got to open up his birthday present from her. It was all his favorite things; Legos and baseballs. She seriously is an amazing friend! I've never had my boys be so spoiled by a person before. 

We got there late Thursday night, so I spent the next few hours trying to get them to bed, but they were too excited! I think they fell asleep around midnight...and then woke up at 6am the next morning. Soooooo exhausting! 

The next day, we drove to Olympia and went to this fun jump place! I think Adrianne had to call it quits because crawling through tunnels was too hard on her old body ;)

On Saturday we went to the beach. We walked what felt like a mile to the waves to get water for our sand castles. Right when I got up to the water, a gigantic wave came. I started waddling away as fast as my 7-month pregnant legs could go, but the wave caught me and drenched my shoes and pants. Then after all the hard work of getting some water, I sat down to take off my shoes, set the bucket in the sand, and Maverick came over and dumped it. 

After building our sand castles, which Maverick grumpily offered to step on his (that I built) because it wasn't nearly as cool as Lincoln's, we decided to roast some marshmallows. Adrianne is kind of a princess, and I've been trying to get her to go camping with me. Well, she said if I could light a fire, she would go. After the first failed attempt, I got sand in the lighter. After fixing the lighter, I tried again. The flames kept dying! Determined to get it right, I went off to find some kindle. When I got back, she had a blazing fire. All she had to do was rearranged some sticks(eye roll). 

The rest of the trip we spent relaxing, and the boys were both sad to say goodbye. It will be awhile before we can go back since baby is due soon, but hopefully during the fall we can visit again!  

Easter

Easter this year wasn't connected to our spring break, or we would have gone to Idaho for the week. Instead we celebrated the morning as a family, and then Scotts parents met us at church. Scott and I made dinner for everyone, and we all just sat around and chilled. 

The boys were so excited for the Easter bunny to come! Two nights before, we dyed eggs, and I gave each boy an entire carton of 18 eggs to dye. We still have a several left, and Maverick cries every time we eat his precious eggs. The next day he got tape to fix one of his cracked eggs. It was pretty adorable.

Easter morning came, and the boys rushed downstairs to find the eggs! It was so fun to watch them. Every egg Maverick found was this huge deal that he had to shout about and tell us the story. Poor Lincoln had to be slowed down several times because he was just so much better at finding eggs than Maverick! 

I missed celebrating Easter with my family, but now that we are this little family, it's different now. Scott and my boys are my family, and being with them completes every holiday. 

Summer

Oh man! Summer is coming to an end, and I am really, really sad. It has been a blast filled with vacations, lots of boating, and enjoying friends and family. I don't want to blog about every single thing, so here's a quick run-down.

I went to Idaho for about 2 weeks. I've been doing this since we moved here every summer on my own. This was my 4th trip. It was really laid back, and I just enjoyed being with my family. When we got there, grandma jones gave the boys each a present(although one was specifically for Mavericks birthday). 

The boys love going to my parents house to experience something different than what we have in Washington. The boys fed the chickens, picked good from the garden, and played in the playhouses. 

One night we roasted marshmallows 

Another night we went on our traditional stop to the drive-in. We watched "Minions"

On the way home, we stopped at Eleenas house again, and we had Krispy Kreme donuts! 

Another day we went to Island Park to play and go boating. 

When we got back, we immediately began doing wedding stuff. I was so exhausted and my house was destroyed, so one day, I stayed alone and cleaned the whole dang place. 

I just love my in-laws and feel so blessed to be at Scott's sister Lindsey's wedding. She was gorgeous! I really love the man she chose to marry. I'm happy he is apart of our family now too. 

When the reception was ending, I was like, "no one decorated the car!!!" So I went and stole a jar of gummy bears. Sam, the groom, saw me sneak away with it and was questioning me a little later. I was like, "I was needing a time-out and so I went and ate some gummy bears and read a book." And he believed me....until he saw his car. Haha! 

My friend Kara has a little girl Allison, and we had a girls day together. We did massages, soaked our feet, I painted her nails, and then we made bracelets. It was fun to have some "girl time!"

Yesterday, I took the boys again to this mini amusement park with Lincoln's friend. It's such a cool place! 

Oh...we went on a bike ride with friends 

Had a "sweet day" where we are a ridiculous amount of treats. 

Random picture from the wedding 

Looks like I've hit the end! I still need to post about my two friends that moves away, and then my Summer is caught up!