City Cakes, City Cakes, baker's man - bake me a cake as fast as you can!

We found it.  The perfect bakery exists!  We've been eating our way through any bakery suggestions, randoms we drive past, or good reviews we've read (see here and here), but never liked one enough to prioritize revisiting.

But this bakery...not only can I have everything on the menu, it all tastes amazing!  And it's not just my forgotten-what-dairy-tastes-like taste buds, because Tyce (and Lincoln) liked the cupcakes, peanut butter bars, cinnamon rolls, and chocolate peanut butter mousse cake we've had in the last week (obviously I did make revisiting a priority).

The inside looked similar to an antique bookstore, the laid back atmosphere made it easy to take an active toddler along, and I'm sure Lincoln appreciated that Liberty Park was just a block away!  Since City Cakes & Cafe also offers "real" food (hence the "cafe"), the menu isn't limited to just dessert.  Date night (and lets be honest, any summer night), here we come!

"Hello? It's for you!"

The cell phone obsession continues.  I hear it only gets worse?  At least now he's sharing...sort of.

Rules of Play

Last week we went to a "musically equipped," especially-for-toddlers park (complete with "you can do it!" motivational sayings stenciled everywhere, which I firmly believe are there for the parents).  Tyce had a blast playing all of the percussion-modeled instruments and teaching Lincoln to high five mid-swing, and I adore watching those two!

Our Memorial Day did not look like this.  Since our Memorial day consisted of naps, soup, and more naps, in an attempt to beat this bug that's been hanging around our apartment for the past few weeks, I thought I'd post some pictures of what yesterday should have looked like.  But hey, if it's any consolation, we did barbecue filet mignon for dinner...so at least for the 30 minutes we were on our balcony grilling, we felt very "memorial day-ish."  And that was enough for us.

Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday with a side of sunshine and barbeque...and also keeping in mind that today is one to remember the sacrifices being made for our country by so many brave soldiers.  How blessed we are to have people that fight for our nation.  Happy Memorial Day!

Best Proposal. Ever.

Thanks to Sydney for the video, I totally cried while watching this.  That never (ever) happens. 

Take: Four!

Thanks to my sister, Rachel, for taking pictures of our little family.  It's been a while since that's happened, and although we'll chalk this experience up to "lesson learned: family pictures with a one year old are impossible," it was still so much fun!

Tyce's glasses are an impossible temptation for Lincoln, but if he wasn't on top of Tyce's shoulders or being held (while he tried to escape) by me, it just wasn't happening.  These pictures ended up being a perfect reflection of our family's dynamic, so while they aren't "perfect," they are perfectly us.  And I really love I'll be able to remember these moments with a squirmy, energetic toddler, because tomorrow he'll be too fast for me to catch!

What to Expect

My sister, Rachel, visited us last weekend.  The night she got here, we took her to see "What to Expect When You're Expecting," and it was just as funny as the commercials!  Since I was pregnant over a semester Rachel was out of school, she visited us often and got to experience pregnancy secondhand.

I'd tell Rachel details and make her watch the YouTube birthing videos with me and Tyce, and since Rachel and Tyce were the ones I primarily leaned on emotionally during my pregnancy, I thought it fitting to see the movie together.

Throughout the entire movie I was getting "remember that?" elbowed from both sides, and I really had to laugh because there were some crazy/cliche/unintelligent moments they witnessed (we'll save those stories for another time...)!

Lincoln's form of "artwork"

While most babies want out of their cribs, once Lincoln had teeth, he wanted in.  When his bottom teeth came in, Lincoln was quiet post-nap so I wouldn't notice he was awake and devouring the wooden rail.   No full moon required, our sweet baby turned into a beast when he realized his crib was chew-tastic.  I mean seriously...I'm still baffled when I examine the rail's remains!

May 2011 versus May 2012

vs.

burp rag vs. esophagus control

onesie vs. outfit

gumless smile vs. gapped front teeth

gray eyes vs. hazel eyes

first laughs vs. recognition of "funny"

needing me vs. wanting me

bald vs. practically bald

infant vs. toddler

tender adoration vs. enthusiastic devotion 

*the only one I favor is no longer needing burp rags!
And maybe I miss onesies...

My Mother's Day

Cut me a little slack on the horribly late post - I was deathly ill by 2:35 p.m. on Sunday, and since then Lincoln has gotten sick, and now Tyce is sick!  It's a really good thing I started feeling better this afternoon, or who would've microwaved soup, divvied up Tylenol Cold, and repeatedly mentioned the importance of going to bed early and remembering to drink lots of fluids?  That stuff is important!

These pictures are basically a play-by-play of how our post-church Mother's Day went: I only had a sore throat so I was still okay.  It started to hurt worse and I began to feel dizzy so we skipped lunch and went straight to opening presents, and then I sat against the wall in the corner in an attempt to convince my head that now was not the right time to implode (because it really wanted to)!

I had my amazing husband to take care of me, and my baby boy get so excited when I'd walk (zombie-style) into the room, making me realize how much I have in my life now, and sore throat or not, my Mother's Day was beautiful!

How to feel better when you're sick

Especially when you have an energetic toddler running circles around you, getting sick on Mother's Day is the worst!  I woke up yesterday with a (manageable) sore throat, but by the time church got out, my head hurt so bad and my body felt so achey that I could hardly stand up.  We rushed through present-giving (thanks to Lincoln's professional paper tearing skills that wasn't a problem), then I went to bed and slept for four hours.

To be clear: that was the most uninterrupted sleep I've had since Lincoln was born!

Tyce (a.k.a. "knight in shining armor," and/or "angel of mercy") has totally taken over the past two days, and I'm slowly feeling better and better.  It's been inexplicably awesome to wake up to a clean house, a napping baby, Theraflu, Tylenol, and a meal waiting for me.  Although getting sick on Mother's Day was horrible, it's also been really sweet to see what a gift the man I married is in my life!

And then, last night Lincoln gave me his own Mother's Day gift and slept through the entire night!  Do you know how ecstatic that makes me?!  If you've slept more than 3 hours uninterrupted, in the last year, you probably don't...but you can imagine (maybe).  We've definitely got some sleep issues around here, but hopefully this is the beginning of a better night's sleep for all of us.

Happy Mother's Day!

I feel extremely blessed to be a mother.  How fortunate I am to have an amazing example as my own mother, that I feel spiritually and physically capable of taking care of Lincoln because of her belief in me as a parent.

Happy Mother's Day!  

What a gift it is to be a mother 

and I'm amazed at the huge amount of happiness 

such a little boy brings in my life.

An attempt to ban [uv] rays

Hey dude, remember these shades?  Yeah, they're still cool, and Lincoln's still rockin' them...at least for the few moments we're continually clapping, in an effort to help him see the light - not the UV light - but rather the sense it makes to wear these sweet glasses in the sun.

You'd think with how obsessed Lincoln is at always (did I say always?) grabbing glasses off our faces, he'd be happy to have a pair of his own...but we're still in the process of convincing him to keep them on his own nose.  For longer than we can cheer and clap.

lullaby

My sister, Rachel, thought I might this song to sing as a lullaby (I'm guessing she'd heard me sing "Winkin, Blinkin, and Nod" over the monitor too many times).  Since learning the song, it's become Lincoln's favorite.

The song is about putting the broken pieces back together and because I've gone through some heartbreak (haven't we all?) in life, it makes me horribly sad to think that the little boy, laying on my lap nursing, might also experience something similar.  To think of a day I can no longer protect Lincoln makes my voice become wobbly with emotion and I have to take deep breaths (and a few pauses) to finish the song.

It makes me so grateful for the atonement's power, for the strength the gospel brings to help avoid the world's heartbreak; it motivates me to be a mother who teaches Lincoln how to prevent making detrimental decisions, and to be there for him in times of unavoidable difficulty.

I keep singing this song to remind myself to become a better example, a better teacher, and to enjoy this minuscule amount of time I get Lincoln in my arms.  And just maybe I keep singing this particular song because Lincoln is so tired of my other lullabies that lately, my attempts to sing something else annoy him.

Oh, and probably because I sound so similar to Michelle Branch.  That's probably the real reason Lincoln enjoys me singing this so much.