Catching Up

The past 3 months have been quite busy for the Browns. Much of our time was consumed with our recent move... less than a mile away. We are finally feeling settled in our new home even though there is still work to do. Lincoln is loving the extra space to roam and April is loving the washer and dryer! It's amazing how free our weekends feel without doing the marathon 10 loads of laundry.

A few other highlights of our new place are...

We have a backyard with room for Belle to roam around and plenty of room for Lincoln to play. We've been working hard to clean it up... so we'll have to post pictures when we are finished. For now we are enjoying the beautiful weather.

Lincoln loves playing in his new room. We don't have stairs anymore which means that Lincoln can wander down the hall

and play with all his toys whenever he wants. In fact he has the biggest room... which means toys are no longer overtaking our living room. Yay!

Lincoln has also been busy learning and growing. He is 18 months-old now and is full of energy and personality. He's learning new words every day, trying new things, and finally ma

king some progress toward walking.

Over the past 3 months Lincoln has started looking more like a toddler and less like a baby. We even cut his hair for the first time today. We were both sad to see his sweet little curls go, but he looks adorable with his new big boy haircut that will be great for summertime. The before and after pictures definitely show that he lost a few inches.

Needless to say we haven't had much time to blog over the last couple months... so here are a few snapshots of the fun times we've had together. Enjoy!

Get Away

The last couple of months have been pretty busy around the Brown house. In addition to taking two groups of students to two winter camps in the past two months, Jeremy has been busy with school work for an accelerated degree program he's going through. To say that April has been busy would probably be a slight understatement (ok...maybe it's a big understatement). In addition to being a full-time stay at home Mom, she has continued to do contract work for some missionaries as well as some clerical work for a small private school in our area. Sooo...because it's been a while since we got out of town to catch our breath, we decided to just go for it and stay at a bed and breakfast in Half Moon Bay for one night last week.

We had an amazing time and although you might call us crazy for taking a 15 month old to a B&B, Lincoln was great the entire time! He had a particularly great time with Dad jumping on the bed. The view of the ocean from our room was amazing. With the waves crashing on rocks less than 100 feet from our room, we couldn't help but decide that waves are a great sound to go to sleep and wake up to! Needless to say, our short getaway was much needed and much appreciated. We left Half Moon Bay on Friday morning feeling refreshed and headed up the coast 30 minutes to San Francisco where we spent some time at the zoo.

This was Lincoln's first time at the zoo, let alone the first time he had ever seen another kind of animal besides a dog or a cat. From all appearances, he had a ton of fun! Since it was a Friday and kids were still in school, we were able to get lots of close-up looks at some really cool animals. One highlight was the petting zoo where we had some funny encounters with some sheep and goats (fyi - goats always seem to want to get a little closer than you want them to). Another highlight was getting to see two lions up close. Lincoln seemed to take a particular interest in a giraffe who was sticking it's long neck (and really long tongue) over a fence with the hope of getting a nibble of a plant. Maybe Lincoln was so interested in the giraffe because he loves to stick his tongue out too:-)

All in all, it was a great couple of days to just get away as a family for the first time. We enjoyed the sights and sounds of the coast, and it was a lot of fun to watch our little boy take it all in at the zoo. It's so easy to just blast through life at top speed and miss out on making memories that last. Sometimes it's the smallest moments in life that matter the most. We are so thankful that we decided to just go for it and spend some time as "just us." Our quick get away was definitely a memory maker!

Happy

This morning we had a special moment as a family when we realized that today marked an important event in our lives. One year ago today we were finally able to bring Lincoln home from the hospital. I could say a lot and share so much about how our lives have changed since Lincoln's birth. I could tell you how much we love him and how blessed we are to have Lincoln in our lives. I could update you on the new things Lincoln is doing...but instead I just want to share a story with you.





Tonight while we were eating, Lincoln was sitting in his high chair making funny faces at us. He was trying to make us laugh. Sooo...naturally I joined Lincoln in his silly ways and began to make funny faces back at him. The result was a lot of laughing. Lincoln was giggling uncontrollably... it was hilarious! After a few minutes of laughing at and with eachother, April and I looked at eachother and realized that we might regret all of the joking around at the dinner table someday. We wouldn't want to establish some sort of pattern where Lincoln thinks it's ok to goof off at dinner time instead of eating. That's not the point though, because one thing we've learned over the last year or so since Lincoln's premature birth is that life is fragile. Life is too short to get wrapped up in all of the things we so easily get preoccupied with (such as whether or not we are going to let our son goof off at the dinner table). That's exactly the reason that we decided to laugh with him. We got to watch him smile (showing his four little teeth with pride). We had the chance to laugh really hard with him and see the joy and happiness in his eyes.


As we remembered back to the day when we were able to bring Lincoln home from the hospital... we can sum up the last year with one word - Joy. That's what Lincoln is all about and that's what our lives have been full of since Lincoln was born. He's a little boy filled with a huge amount of happiness and joy and I can't imagine life without him. We are so thankful for him that words really can't describe it.

One Year Old

It's hard to believe but yesterday, December 5th, Lincoln turned 1!!!! To say the least it has been an amazing year. Lincoln has come so far and grown so much. We couldn't be more thankful for our little boy and all the joy he brings.

We are thankful for all the ways God has been faithful to our family. Friday we drove past the hospital at the exact time we were checking in a year ago. We reminisced about the whole experience and in some ways it still seems surreal.

To celebrate his birthday we spent time with family and a few friends in Modesto. One of Lincoln's favorite activities has been to read books. He loves it when we read to him and can even sit on the floor and amuse himself for half an hour studying the pages of a book. When he reads to himself he even points out the pictures like we do! Too cute! Since he has a love for books and we thoroughly enjoyed reading to him we chose to do a Dr Seuss themed first birthday party.

Grandma (April's mom) did an amazing job on the cake, and was able to incorporate lots of Dr Seuss characters and elements... see if you can remember what books the characters are from. She even incorporated on of April's favorite Dr Suess phrases, "A person's a person no matter how small." It seemed fitting since he came so tiny!

To our surprise Lincoln decided to take a nap for the first part of the party. We ended up having to wake him up after a while. Since he didn't get a full nap he was a little reluctant to join in the celebration. Lukily he warmed up to it after a bit.

A funny moment happened when we gave him his very own cupcake. Against better judgement I (April) went ahead and lit the #1 candle and placed it right in front of him. Just as his little fingers reached the flame I was able to blow it out. Lincoln was safe... but a bit startled. At least it was a good laugh! Lincoln was slow to get started, but definitely enjoyed his sweet treat!

Lincoln was thrilled to receive some fun toys, and has been playing almost non-stop this morning. He was laughing and screaming with excitement.

Thanks to all who have celebrated his birthday with us! Thank you all for your prayers and support over the past year. It is so important to us that Lincoln grow up knowing how many people love him and how they prayed for him from the very start.

As we look back on the journey we've been on since December 5, 2008, we know we are blessed. And we look forward with anticipation of watching our little miralce grow even more.

Thanksgiving

We drove up to Oregon for Thanksgiving to visit Jeremy's family. Jeremy's parents and grandpa live there, along with Julie (sister) and her family. Jodi (sister) and her family joined us from LA, but we all missed Jen (sister) and her family this year.

Lincoln did a great job driving up to Oregon (an 11 hour trip). He slept most of the way since we drove through the night. We reached Eugene, OR, and found a Target parking lot since Jeremy needed a quick power nap. We took Lincoln out of his carseat and he was so excited to camp out in the van. It took him a while to calm down and let us get some sleep. His excitement and silliness that night was one of the first highlights of our trip... Even in the most unlikely situations he brings us so much joy.

We had a great time celebrating Lincoln's first Thanksgiving. He adores his cousins and so do we. The kids (8 of the 11 cousins) all had a great time playing. We love watching them grow up, and it should be fun to see how they all interact as they get older.

(Pictured above in order by age are Alison, Megan, Hannah, Gracie, Molly, Luke, Jacob, and Lincoln.... from 13 to 1!!!!)

We made sure we got a great picture of the four generations of Brown family men. Great Grandpa was happy to finally meet Lincoln.

We were very Thankful for a great week with family and can't wait to see them again soon.

11 Months

As of last Wednesday Lincoln is 11 months old! I still can't believe how time flies. The other day I was going through a bunch of files on our computer when I found some videos we had taken while Lincoln was in the hospital. Our idea was to make a "day in the life" type of video to document what it was like to go back and forth to spend time with Lincoln while he was in the hospital. Needless to say, we never really found the time. Maybe some day we'll have the chance to put something together but for now it's just a reminder of where we've come from, and how much Lincoln has changed in the last 11 months. Crazy to think we're already planning about his 1st birthday party!

This past Friday our nurse came out from the county (the program that tracks a preemie's development). As always she was very pleased with his development (9 months old corrected). He even surprised her by being able to do a few things ahead of the development chart. To name a few of the things he really enjoys to do right now: he tries to laugh like us, he loves to listen to music and clap to it, he loves to read, he loves to try and play tug-o-war with our dog and her toys, he recently discovered Elmo and is often mesmerized by him, he loves to try and help us feed him, he loves to watch other kids play, and last but not least...he loves cheerios! Thanks to whoever created that miraculous little cereal!

As I mentioned before, time continues to fly by and he is growing up way too fast. It seems like just yesterday we were learning how to give him a sponge bath in the NICU. Now we are starting to give Lincoln baths in a big bathtub (with mom and dad really close of course).

One highlight from this past month was going to buy Lincoln his first drum. He loves to clap and bang on things so figured that it's never too early to let him play some real drums. And we've got to admit, he seems to have some natural rhythm! Another highlight from October was dressing Lincoln up for a Halloween party with some friends. Yes, it was probably more fun for us as parents...but he definitely made one cute giraffe!














With Thanksgiving just a few short weeks away, we've got to stop and realize how thankful we are to have such a blessing of a healthy and joy filled little boy. This time last year we were preparing to spend the holidays with family...having no clue what was going to happen right after Thanksgiving. This year we prepare for the holidays with a totally new perspective on life. I know this sounds so stinkin cliche, but God's plans are always so much better than ours. The adventure we set out on 11 months ago is proof. We are reminded of God's blessing every day when we look at our little 19lb giggle factory.

10 Months!

This past Monday Lincoln turned 10 months old. To be honest, I could probably fill up pages and pages of what we've been up to since our last post (almost an entire month ago)...but I won't. Instead I'll just let the pictures do most of the talking.

One thing I would like to make sure I get out there for you guys to read though is that we are so thankful for the blessing God has given us by entrusting us with Lincoln! Yeah, yeah, yeah...I know you've probably heard this from me before...but God reminded me of this in a very vivid way recently...a way that just made me stop and think, "Wow, life is more precious than I could ever attempt to explain!" It's true - for some really weird reason, we just take life for granted way too much. But the reality is that life is a gift, a blessing, and especially in our case - a lot of joy! I'm still in awe - when I watch him sleep - that God created this little boy and chose to bless us with him. I hope you can look around at the people you love the most and thank God for them. He is an awesome loving God who creates some really special things.

A guy from our church made these really cool benches
for a couple of the babies at church. Lincoln is very proud of his.

Lincoln "tried out the piano" at a friend's house Lincoln got to meet his cousins in Southern California for the first time

Lincoln's first time in a swing...he loved playing next to the bigger boys!He discovered that the cousins have something very important...toys!

Helping Dad celebrate his birthday Checking out the lyrics on a new CD with Dad This is what happens when Lincoln hangs out at Daddy's work:-)