He knows that sound. That's the ice cream truck...now just to find it. C'mon ice cream truck, get here already, I'm a hot and hungry boy!




















Doing a happy dance while waiting for the ice cream truck.
Nate of course is all business...he'll believe it when he sees it. Once he sees it though he's all dimples and clapping.

I didn't get any good pictures of them actually eating the ice cream because as soon as they got their ice cream mass chaos broke loose. Everyone wants it open at once, Nathan decides he wants Lincoln's instead of his but he doesn't want anyone else to have his, he just wants to hold it, Adrian is shoving his into his face as fast as he can while also giving me a volume 10 narrative about the antics of Nathan and Lincoln. All the while Lincoln is shaking with anticipation over his cone that is being coveted by Nathan and is trying to take bites of it before I even have it unwrapped.

Aaaahh the joy of summer. It's funny to relive it from this new view. Seemingly small things become big adventures and seemingly big things turn out to be not all that important. They can wait.

Lincoln and Nathan

Nathan and Lincoln are starting to have a lot of fun playing together. It's cute to watch Link imitate his older brother and see Nathan respond. Sometimes Nathan just wants to push him over but there are a lot of times where he involves him and takes turns. Nathan will make a funny face, Lincoln will imitate him and they'll both laugh and then it will just go back and forth.

They are learning to be brothers, buddies and adversaries all at the same time. I have to admit that sometimes when they start to fight over a ball I can't break it up because I'm laughing so hard. Nate stomping his feet and yelling while Lincoln flails his arms around and squawks back at Nathan. It's like two mad monkeys.













My turn...












your turn whether you like it or not.







Lincoln's a happy boy. He sleeps good at night, he laughs easily, he's quick to give a hug or blow a kiss and is a absolute blessing to have as part of our family. Somedays I wish I could press pause and wait for Chad to get back so he won't miss any more of it. I guess that's what video camera's are for and I'm just so thankful to have the boys. They test me, stretch me, challenge me and each one is a part of me and a part of Chad. That is so precious and somedays is the very thing that holds me together (even though there are some days where I think they are gonna make me pop apart ;)

Nate's Day

After staying with Grandma and Grandpa Easley for several days it was time to go see my family. Cool thing was I left Adrian and Lincoln the Easleys! Two whole days of just me and the Natester. He was still having a hard time with adjusting to Chad being gone and now we threw in a road trip to California...he was getting pretty fragile. With his quiet and quirky personality he sometimes doesn't get the attention the others do unless he has a meltdown. And that's not the kind of attention anyone wants. So off we went just him and I.

I took him to the beach. A day at the beach, just him and four adults to pay attention to how cute he is. Oh heaven.
I loved being able to just take my time getting him used to the water. We'd go in a little way, then he'd run out because he was scared of the waves. Each time we went right back in and each time he went in a little further. Until finally he just was loving it. He loved when they would crash through him. I think it made him feel strong because he was still standing. Sometimes it takes a little force pushing into us to show us our strength. He really showed those 2 inchers he's tough.

He LOVED the water, any time I took him through a wave he'd say "yeah!" and then start pointing at the next one coming and say "big wave, big wave!". When he got tired he still didn't want to get out of the water he just wanted someone to stand in the water holding him. If I tried to go out he'd shout "no no!" and point back to the waves saying "wadoo".

Getting to swing with Auntie Lissa and Grandma and shouting "wahoo" as we walked through the waves. The love of the ocean is in his genes I guess.

Auntie Lissa and her boyfriend Chad (yep same first and middle name as my Chad AND their birthdays are 6 days apart AND they are both military). His curls are starting to get sunkissed. There is just no way I can cut them now! He's just gonna be my little surfer dude.

He's looking at Grandma shouting "WADOO!" (water) over and over as they make the first walk to the water. Grandma do you see this? Have you ever seen anything so wonderful?? Look at all that WADOO! Looking at his face you would have thought he was at Disneyland.

I love Nate. I loved my time with Nate. I treasured the extra moments I had to soak him in and just observe him, his mannerisms, the funny way he says things, his contentedness and definately his enthusiasm.

It was of course also sweet to get my other boys back and to see them with fresh eyes. They are so much to handle all at once sometimes but they all bless my heart so fully. I loved seeing them just fall back into rythm with each other once they were back together as if they were never apart. That's what being brothers is all about.