Around Here...

Around here our house is always a bit messy

Around here Lincoln uses Rhea as a place to climb

Around here we are very curious about everything

Around here we like to mess with Daddy...especially when he has something shiny!

Oh Christmas Tree....Christmas Tree

Todd's family has always been a real tree family while I never had a real tree growing up.  I told Todd that once we had kids we could get a real tree, but if we were going to do it, we were doing it right.  We headed down to Morning Star Tree farm between Washington and Brighton to pick out our tree.  Luckily my mom went with us so she could sit with Lincoln in the car until we found the tree and could take a picture before Todd cut it down.  After quite a bit of looking we settled on a tree, Todd cut it down and we strapped it to the top of the car.

Unfortunately our great day took a turn for the worse when the strap holding down our tree came lose and the tree flew off the car on Highway 218.  Luckily it didn't hit anyone, but when Todd got back in the car without the tree I knew it had met its end and would soon become the home for some animals in the ditch along the highway.

When I called me mom to tell her she started laughing so hard she could barely breathe...while I was on the other end bawling.  That was the tree WE had picked out.  I had plans to make an ornament from the truck after Christmas and now my "big" plans were ruined!  She said she would look at Hy-Vee the next day to see if there were any decent ones left.  The next day she sent me a picture of a tree in a clay pot.  I told it looked fine and then she called to inform that it was OUR tree...the one we had cut down.  She had gone and retrieved it from the ditch for us.  She taped some greenery to the top to make it look more tree shaped and stuck it in a clay pot.  She had also went out and found us a new beautiful tree from Hy-Vee.

The original tree now sits in front of the house and the backup tree has made a nice addition to our living room.  Todd will probably kill me for posting this story because he thinks the tree flying off was his fault, which is not true...sorry honey...this was a story worth telling and one we will laugh about for years to come!

Found the Tree!

Todd cutting it down

Strapped on top nice and tight! 

Todd getting our new tree ready while the original looks on in awe...

Almost done...good thing I had my little elf to help me out!

First Thanksgiving!

Lincon's first Thanksgiving!

Complete with mashed potatoes, pickles and all sorts of yummy things!

And with a big meal...comes a big nap...

Sicky Sicky...

We had over a week of sickness in the Chamberlain Household.  I got a call that Lincoln was throwing up at daycare, then he had an ear infection, Todd ended up with a stomach bug as well...luckily it has skipped me thus far!

While there really isn't an upside to have a sick kid due to the night long screaming it did give me a chance to snuggle with my little buddy...something I try not to take for granted.

Since Todd got sick while we were Harlan I had to drive the whole way home :(

Catching Up...The Iowa State Fair

So I've been a bit of a slacker the last couple weeks when it comes to blogging, but I think I have a pretty good excuse.  I had to head back to work after a summer of carefree days with my favorite little buddy.

Prior to heading back to work Todd, Lincoln and I took a little mini "vacay" to the Iowa State Fair, something I have been doing for as long as I can remember...I don't think Todd had even been there before he met me...sad.  Luckily my family had a camper up there, which makes "doing the fair" with a baby a heck of a lot easier.  You can head down for a little bit and come back up to the camper whenever you want and the best part of all...no looking for a place to hide to feed my kid.

Needless to say it was a fun couple of days.  We took in a few must have fair foods including a fried pickle dawg aka a fried pickle wrap, steak tips, and J.R. mini donuts, the most delicious little melt in your mouth delights at the fair (a big thanks to my fair junkie sister for the food suggestions). We also got to meet up with our friends Ron & Somchai to finally meet their almost one year son Simon and catch up with their other son Gavin. Todd was also chosen over Ron to go down the big slide with Gavin so that was a real treat.

For a night away from the fair we headed to downtown Des Moines to visit Zombie Burger which is right up Todd and my alley as we are kind of into zombies.  The menu consists of various zombie themed burgers of all shapes and sizes including a burger with fried mac and cheese for the BUN!

Todd & Gavin on the BIG Slide

Me & Lincoln

Relaxin in the camper

Zombie Burger

Slowly turning into a zombie baby...

Grandma time

Wiggle & Shake

Todd has a habit of taking songs,especially my favorite songs, and creating his own version of the lyrics. More often than not he ends up with a slightly more inappropriate version of his own. This might not be an issue in most cases, but his versions seem to stick with me. In fact, his lyrics are so catchy that I will find myself singing his new and “improved" creation the next time I hear the song.

He has put this talent of his to good use since Lincoln was born, creating some completely original songs that he sings to Lincoln in various situations. His miss recent composition is called Wiggle & Shake. He sings this song when he's helping L stand as he tends to be quite wiggly

It does have a tune...but here's how it goes...

Wiggle and shake

Wiggle and shake

Because you ain't no fake

Sing and repeat over and over!

It really is quite cute...maybe I can sneak a video sometime :-)

6 Weeks Old

My smiles are getting more and more frequent

Listening to Game of Thrones with Daddy

Nerd Training

'"Now Lincoln, this is how we set up a VPN..."

The Strange Shopping Bag...

Do you ever stop and think about what you are buying and what it might look like to the checker at the store? Today I did...and it dawned on me that this is a strange assortment of items...probably not my strangest though :)

Sick Husband=Gatorade & Generic DayQuil & NyQuil in both pill and bottle form (yep she did check my ID in case you were wondering)

The rest was pretty much for me...

• Corn Starch for a few Pinterest Recipes I found...the one item I forgot to buy the last time I grocery shopped even though I had a list!
• Sparkling Calorie Free Grapefruit Drink=trying out the cheaper alternative to ICE Sparkling Grapefruit
• Cherry Coke ZERO=this stuff is hard to find let me tell ya! They only had one box! I am a regular Pepsi girl all the way, but this is one of my go to "diet" sodas!

What you don't see in this picture is how nice of a wife I REALLY am...the bag of Panera that I brought home especially for my hacking and coughing husband to have for dinner :)

December Daily...only it's January!

Happy New Year!

In all of my Pinteresting...I'm guessing that is a verb now...I came across a lot of really cool posts about doing a December Daily, where you create a mini scrapbook page for each day in December and compile it into a little book. Obviously I missed the December part of the project and I thought what better way to kick off the New Year and get back into blogging with a December Daily...only now it's January Daily. (I'm still working on the name :) )

Todd and Rhea ringing in the New Year with a little rest and relaxation!

 I was laying behind her so we were one cuddly crew, but someone had to capture this little gem!

Like Father Like Daughter...

So obviously Rhea is not a human but we still think of her as our daughter...the other night she laid down is a perfect spot and then proceeded to end up in the following positions.  Good thing I had a my camera on hand to capture the moment!  I did not pose these pictures...believe she wouldn't have let me :)

So I have taken the liberty of sharing and also putting some captions for your reading pleasure! If you have a better more clever caption be sure to share!

Oh hello...

Hold on...I'm reading something (this is what Todd always tells me)

What is wrong with this thing?

Damn this technology...

A look into the future...

So Todd and I have trying (key word there, TRYING) to get rid of some clutter.  There were a couple of tubs in the garage that Todd's mom brought and we found some great things including the entire Goosebumps books collection that my students have been asking me to buy! Thanks for your donation Todd!

Along with these books and others, we also found some of Todd's old scout stuff and a notebook from eighth grade.  Well in the back of this notebook was a little look into what Todd's future will look like...or so he thought at the time :)

So we jump ahead to....

 For your sake I will decipher Todd's lovely handwriting for you!

 Not only is this his wife but they will meet in Paris...good thing I decided to take Paris off our list for the honeymoon in June...I'll have to keep that in mind in the future....OR there is serious plastic surgery in my future.

Show me the money....Jerry Maguire anyone?  Hopefully this will be the case by then...as for now we are getting by :)

I went to college at Notre Dame...well we better be rich by then to pay for that education!

 Yes this is sideways, I was too lazy to change it, you get the gist!

 This is his house with his wife in Florida, it has 25 floors and a 25 car garage....not saying I wouldn't take it!

 Well these kids are somewhat blonde which according to Todd probably won't happen with our kids because blonde is a recessive gene....I've seen it happen...either way they WILL NOT have these names!

We eat some healthy food I guess...we cook almost every night so that is better than take out!  Note: WE cook not our maid Helga....hey not saying it wouldn't be nice!

Well check back in 24 years...we'll see how we're doing :)

Todd's TV....two different versions

So I just got this book in my library and interestingly enough it's called Todd's TV by James Proimos. I was talking with my library secretary about how funny this book is and how I should give it to Todd for Christmas. Read the summary and if you know Todd it will make sense.

Here is the summary & check out the link to Amazon where you can "look inside" and see the hilarious illustrations.

Todd’s parents love him very much, but they are very busy

and have lots of grownup things to do. So they often set him in front of the TV. One day, when his parents realize neither one can make it to his parent-teacher conference, the TV

offers to take their place. They

agree, and from that point on the TV takes on more and mor

e parenting duties -- even driving Todd to school and taking him on vacation. His parents are grateful … until the TV proposes adopting Todd.

Alarmed, they try all sorts of

tricks to wrest their son away from the TV. But it’s Todd who

proposes a simple, effective solution: Turn it off.

http://www.amazon.com/Todds-TV-James-Proimos/dp/0061709859

Later that night Todd and I were just hanging out at home when Todd disappeared, which means he is working on some sort of creation....

Eventually he comes back upstairs and says "I just built a TV!" Turns out his PS3 wouldn't work with his regular monitor so he had to make one and this is his creation....

He was so proud, so I guess I was too :) My little nerd