Goodbye Uncle Anthony

My brother is moving to Decatur Illinois to coach and be the marketing director for Millican University. It is a great opportunity for him and we pray that eventually it will bring him back to Colorado to coach for UNC or CSU. We picked him up from the airport on Saturday afternoon and he spent some time visiting friends throughout the week. We met him for dinner at CB & Potts on Wednesday night with his friend Kristen and then he came back home with us. We spent all day Wednesday together getting him ready for his move. Eli made a fabulous dinner of steaks, potatoes and salad on Thursday night. We enjoyed the evening with Anth and Kristen and then Lincoln and I took him to the airport this morning. We have been able to see him a lot since Lincoln was born so it is going to be hard to have him so far away. Thank goodness for technology. I keep a blog, Facebook, My Space and we send videos over you tube so he will be able to see and hear all about Lincoln while he is away.
Uncle Anthony giving his first bottle. Look at the love between them.


I think he looks like a Kerr here


What good looking boys


My shirtless boys

Swim Date with the Alfords

We spent a wonderful Sunday with the Alfords. We joined them for Church Sunday morning and then headed over to their house in Reunion. They made us a wonderful lunch of chicken Caesar salad, pizza and an amazing peach dessert. After lunch we went to the Reunion pool. It was Lincoln's first time at the pool. He is just really mellow when he is in the water. It is a really great pool with a slide. Hayden can go down the slide now so we had fun watching him. The pool was great for Lincoln. It had a really nice area for babies. We all enjoyed some time in the sun and watching the kids play. Thanks Alfords for a wonderful day.

Four Wonderful Years

Eli and I celebrated four years of marriage on June 26th. My parents came out for the weekend to watch Lincoln. It was our first time leaving him with someone else. We left on Saturday morning around 10am and headed to Estes Park. We spent the day shopping and enjoying the warm day. We had lunch at a neat restaurant that overlooked the town. We stopped by a really neat wine and cheese store and had them make us a beautiful meat and cheese tray. We picked out some wine and headed to our B and B to check in. The Bed and Breakfast was beautiful. We spent some time in the hammock on the property and in the hot tub that sits under a gazebo. Instead of going back into town for dinner we enjoyed our meat and cheese tray and wine on the patio. It was such a wonderful relaxing time. We spent some time telling each other what we love and admire about one another. It was a great time for us to reconnect after the busyness of adding our new family member. We headed home around 10 on Sunday morning. Mom and Dad said that Lincoln did great. It meant so much to me that they drove out to be his first babysitters.

The POD

When I lived at the Cairns house we were put into prayer groups of three and they were called PODS. I was blessed enough to be in a group with Jenny and Kari. We met periodically in one anothers rooms and shared prayer requests. It was such a special time to share our hearts and know that the others would be praying for us. Jenny lives in Colorado Springs with her husband John and their little boy Christian. They have another baby boy on the way. We met in Castle Rock for dinner on June 20th. We had a great time talking and reminiscing. We closed the restaurant down. I didn't get Lincoln home and into bed until 1am, but it was well worth it. We met in Castle Rock again for dinner on the 22nd of this month as a late birthday celebration for Kari. Our friend Johanna from the Cairns house joined us as well. We closed the restaurant down again. Thank God for great Christian friends.

Play Dates

Lincoln had a fun week full of play dates. On Tuesday my friend Angie and her little boy Trey came over. It is always great to talk with Angie because she is a Baby Wise mommy too and her pediatrician is the author so she is always very helpful with answering my questions. On Thursday the mommy's from our Church had a play date at Caren's house down in Parker. I don't know how many we had total but it was more than a house full. We got a good picture of all of the babies together. Stacy and Connor came over on Friday to keep us company while we had a garage sale. It is amazing how much difference there is between 4 and 8 months. It is fun to watch Connor and see where Lincoln is going to be very soon.

The University Church of Christ Babies


Trey and Lincoln


Connor and Lincoln

Fun with Friends

We had our friends Greg and Ginger over for lunch on Saturday the 12th.


And then we went over to our friends Ken and Heathers new house for dinner. The Farwells were there as well with baby Lila.

Lincoln at Four Months

Lincoln is growling like crazy and changing every day. He had his four month appointment on the 8th. He had to get 4 more shots and another oral vaccine. He cried but as soon as I picked him up he was fine again. He is 26 inches long which is the 90th percentile. Hopefully he will be tall and handsome like his daddy. He was 14 pounds even and his head was 41.5 cm. The Dr said that he looked great. He finally decided to roll over on the 14th. I have been practicing with him because both of his buddies from my work were rolling over at about 3 1/2 months. He was laying on our bed on his back and he rolled to his stomach. They say that babies roll from front to back first but not our son. When Eli got home he put him on his tummy on our bed and sure enough he rolled from front to back. He decided to do both in one day. He has not rolled over since, either way. I think he was trying to get me to stop worrying about him and he hates tummy time, so I guess he figured once he rolled over for me he wouldn't' have to practice anymore.

Fourth of July-Hartwell Family Reunion

My mom's side of the family gets together every 4th of July for a reunion in Nebraska. My mom's mom was born on the 4th of July so we always get together to celebrate Granny Ladies birthday. It is such a great tradition. I think I have only missed two of them in my 28 years. One time I was in Ukraine and the other I was on my honeymoon, so they were valid excuses!
My mom is one of 8 kids and 5 of the 8 were there for the reunion. My uncle Buddy the oldest passed away a long time ago and my uncle Chad lives in North Carolina and wasn't able to make it and my uncle Dell was not able to make the trip. We missed you guys! We decided to have the reunion at Red Willow lake this year. It was a great idea because there was lots for everyone to do. Most of us camped for the weekend so we got to spend a lot of time together and there was a pot luck on Saturday so all of us could be in one place at one time. We did a lot of boating, wakeboarding, tubing and played corn hole and washers. We ate and talked a lot. Aunt Jacquetta had a drawing for a big granny sun hat. She also put a poster board together of pictures of granny lady at the lake. Some of the grand kids wrote their favorite memories on the board. It was cute to see what some of the little ones remembered about granny. Bubby wrote on there that Jacquetta sent him over to granny's one time to get a band aid and her hearing was so bad that she sent him home with a bag of candy. I remember one time Danny and I were riding in the car with granny and she ran right through a stop sign. We both closed our eyes and told her that she had just run a stop sign and she said don't worry everyone knows it's the granny mobile and they get out of the way! She was so fun to ride in the car with. Every time she would turn a corner she would say "WEE!"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANNY AND AMERICA!