The Falk Family Blog

I got this idea from another blog I visit. (Thanks Brittani)

Highlights of 2008:

January:
Warren’s parents spent week one of 2008 helping us during my recovery from having Lincoln. Ethan and Isaac happily adjusted to a brand new brother. Warren turned 30! My mom came for a few days to see her grandsons and meet Lincoln for the first time.

February: The boys had a big pillow fight with Daddy.  Lincoln learned to smile. Valentine’s Day.

March:
Isaac turned 4 and had a ‘Go Diego Go’ themed party. We had a snowstorm that left tons of snow in a short amount of time. Warren took Ethan sledding. We went to Tennessee for Easter.

April:
I turned 28. Ethan turned 6 and had a camouflage themed party. My Dad and Sister came to visit us for a few days. Isaac played soccer at the YMCA. The boys took Tae Kwan Do at the YMCA. (but didn’t like it) Ethan and Isaac went to the dentist. Lincoln started “growling.”

May:
Warren and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. Ethan went to his first LAN party. My first Mother’s Day with 3 boys. Lincoln learned how to sit up. Ethan graduated from Kindergarten.

June:
Spent a lot of time with Warren’s parents. They were in the area staying with Dan and Kari. (Dan and Kari had their second son, Alexander.) Took Lincoln swimming for the first time. The boys had a blast collecting Cicadas. Warren’s first Father’s Day with 3 sons. Ethan and Isaac got strep throat. Warren went through a rubiks cube phase. Lincoln turned 6 months! Lincoln learned the army crawl.

July:
We went to New York to visit my family during July 4th weekend. Took the boys for a boat ride and tubing for the first time. Went to the Anderson family reunion in Pigeon Forge, TN. Lincoln and Isaac got bigger carseats.

August:
Warren had his diving “accident” at Dan and Kari’s neighborhood pool. Lincoln got his first haircut. Went to the zoo. Ethan started first grade. Isaac started Pre-K. Lincoln turned 8 months and pulled up on everything, ate lots of table food, danced, did sign for ‘all done’ and ’so big’ and had four teeth.

September:
Melissa and her family stayed the night. We had a big wind storm. Lincoln learned to climb up the stairs. Warren grilled the perfect hamburgers.

October:
Ethan’s class field trip. Beth and John stayed the night. Family day at the pumpkin patch. Isaac’s class field trip. We took a trip to Tennessee to visit Warren’s family and also got to see my Dad and Debbie. Halloween. Ethan was batman, Isaac was spiderman, and Lincoln was a giraffe.

November:
Ethan learned how to play chess. Isaac got eye glasses. Lincoln learned to walk. We went to Tennessee for Thanksgiving.

December:
We went to Owen’s 2nd birthday party. Christmas Tea at church. Lots of baking. Christmas parties. Lincoln’s first Christmas and 1st birthday! Warren made giraffe cake.

Here is Lincoln first thing in the morning on his very first birthday. He just smiled and soaked in all the special attention.

It doesn’t look like much yet…just wait! Tomorrow is Lincoln’s 1st birthday (sniff, sniff) and sticking with the giraffe theme, I wanted him to have a giraffe cake for his highchair. I talked to Warren about it and he agreed to make the attempt. I baked the cake and made the frosting. But, that is all I can take credit for! Warren impressed me beyond belief with this cake! I didn’t know he had it in him. Hiding this secret talent from me all these years…

Warren decided to take his long sleeve shirt off. Apparently it kept smearing the frosting. But, from the beads of sweat on his forehead from the sheer concentration, I believe he was just too hot!

The important spots are making their appearance…

The eyes! I can take credit for these too, I forgot. They are white life savers that I painted with gel food-coloring. Even after the eyes dried they remained shiny. It worked perfectly!

The finished product! Not bad, eh? My hubby can do anything :)

(Oh, the corner piece of cake is where we are putting the #1 candle.)

It’s hard to believe my baby will be one tomorrow! What an awesome year it has been. Lincoln has brought tons of joy to our family. We couldn’t imagine life without him.

Here is our family with our favorite gifts. Ethan and Isaac both LOVE all the Lego they got. They made something to hold in this picture. Warren liked his flashlights, Lincoln loves his popper, and of course, I love my new vacuum!

This is the beginning of our Lego collection. Ethan and Isaac are at great ages for it. They (we) played Lego for hours and hours on Christmas day! It’s something Warren really enjoys doing with them. In fact, sometimes the boys were off doing something else and Warren was still there building! The trays in the picture are from Grandma and Grandpa Falk. I told Ethan it was a great idea to use the new trays for building Lego. He asked, “What else would we use them for?” Apparently he thought the two went together. :)

Lincoln loves this toy!

Christmas morning started with my shower at 6:00 AM. I wanted to get ready before the eager munchkins came running into our room. At 6:50 I heard Lincoln waking up. When I walked into the room to get my precious baby on his first Christmas I smelled a horrible smell. I soon discovered that he had thrown up sometime during the night. Needless to say he got a bath right away and was not able to wear his matching PJ’s with the boys. Good news, he never seemed sick after that… He was his happy normal little, cute self.

We opened our stockings while it was still dark outside!

Baby’s First Stocking.

This is the shirt Lincoln will be wearing for his 1st birthday!

My first attempt at cinnamon rolls from scratch was a success! It will be our new tradition. Good bye, Pillsbury! :)

Silly!

I gift for me! Isaac was very excited to give this to me. I pretended to think it was a huge book. He laughed and laughed and told me that I was right. Really, it was my new bulletin board to help me get organized. Isaac was really sweet. He was more excited about giving gifts than receiving them! Instead of asking to open his next present, he asked if there were more to give to Mommy.

Ethan’s gift to Isaac. Just right!

My favorite gift! Warren surprised me with a new vacuum cleaner! I love good practical gifts like this. I have been vacuuming so much since Christmas. Just tonight Ethan said, “Are you vacuuming again!?” Hehe.

This was a GREAT Christmas! The boys were a lot of fun! We spent the whole day together playing and having fun.

And To All A Good Night!

It’s a tradition in our house to open one gift on Christmas Eve. The boys asked ALL day for their gift. Finally, after dinner, it was time! Ethan and Isaac each got a Lego knight set. They were thrilled! We spent the next 30 minutes putting it together. Tomorrow will be a day filled with playing, I’m sure!

I’m not sure if he was going after a candy cane or a bow, but when I called his name, Lincoln turned with a guilty look! This is Lincoln’s first Christmas so it will be extra special!

Ethan’s class had a pajama and movie day party. The kids brought their sleeping bags and pillows to class. They even had pizza delivered to the classroom for lunch. Not a bad way to start the Christmas vacation!

Lincoln seemed so big to me when I saw him in the kitchen pushing this truck around. He’s such a boy!

The kids did a gift book exchange. They had to say “thank you” to the child who gave it to them and then that child had to say “Merry Christmas.” They went around the table one by one.

Isaac’s teacher is reading about Jesus’ birth.

Isaac was so excited to give his teacher a gift!

We are lucky to have such nice neighbors. It was a lot of fun making a tray of cookies for each house. We are having a Cul-De-Sac Christmas party on Saturday night. Should be a lof of fun!

We really enjoy decorating Christmas cookies with the boys. They look forward to it and the end result is so tasty! These are probably my most favorite cookies of all!

Ethan’s house. He is getting quite good at decorating! He takes his time and takes pride in his masterpieces!

Isaac and some of his creations. Isaac likes to see how many sprinkles and m&m’s he can pile onto each cookie. After we are finished decorating the boys are allowed to make a cookie and eat it… Just like their Dad they take the one with the most junk piled on top!

Warren is so creative and artistic! :) His cookies are the ones I usually choose to give away.

After the boys lost interest I stuck it out till the end! We had A LOT of cookies. I only doubled the recipe, but by the end it felt like more!

Oreo truffles!

Better than Sex cake!

My sad attempt at a Christmas tree cake. :)

Each year I take the kids for a picture with Santa. This was the first year with 3 boys! Ethan said he just wanted to sit next to Santa, not on his lap. He said he was too big for that. This may be his last Santa picture. (Snif, Snif!) Isaac was happy to sit on him and Lincoln didn’t seem to mind either.

I am sure Ethan doesn’t really beleive in Santa. He tells Isaac that Santa isn’t real, but Isaac wants to believe he is real and tells Ethan he is wrong. We don’t play the whole Santa thing up at our house. We don’t tell them the truth about Santa either. When they ask the tough questions we just turn them around and make them think about it and form their own opinions.

This was just after Ethan performed in his Christmas concert at school. The kids were adorable and he did great! He even play the xylophone during one of the songs.

He kept looking at us and smiling like he was so proud and slightly embarrassed at the same time. So cute!

Ethan put himself to bed without telling anyone on this night. I found him sound asleep with his teddy bear just after 8:00. School wears him out and he sleeps so well!

My pictures didn’t turn out very well, but Kari and I took the three oldest boys to a live nativity. We got a little more than half way through when the snow started coming down thick and fast! My boys were freezing and kept whining about it and since the roads were getting bad, we didn’t finish the tour. Maybe next year, kari!

Daddy came home with something special for the boys. We rarely get our kids gifts for no occasion, so this was very special to them! They love these things!

Isaac had his own, but wanted to make sure Ethan didn’t have more marshmallows than him!

Thanks, Melissa for taking pictures of us! There are a lot more that turned out really well. I used 3 of them on our Christmas card! I don’t want to post them yet, though.

Here are Isaac and Ivy cuddling together over Thanksgiving. Take a look at this post from last year.

Happy 1st Thanksgiving, Lincoln!

The kids table.

The kids enjoyed Grandma’s pancakes! I asked Annette what she liked most about spending the night at Grandma’s house. She quickly replied, “Breakfast!”

Lincoln is so stinkin’ cute at 11 months old! I can’t get enough of him. He is walking everywhere and rarely crawls. His legs are so short and chubby, he looks to small to walk like a big person. He always holds his right hand half way up when he walks, I guess for balance. At first, he looked as if he had just been spun in circles and put down on the floor to walk. But, after a couples weeks of practice he is quite good on his feet. Hard to believe…

Lincoln got his first virus shorty after celebrating his first Thanksgiving. He hasn’t been feeling well for over a week. Poor guy. He’s extra clingy and while at times it gets frustrating, I have enjoyed holding him and snuggling with him.

Lincoln spends a lot of time “talking” on the “phone.” He will put anything that somewhat resembles a phone to his ear. He laughs when we join in and pretend that he is talking to us. It’s so much fun watching him learn and develop his personality.

He can point to his belly, hair, and tongue when asked to.

If you notice in the picture he chipped his front tooth. I have no idea when or how it happened. We just noticed it one day.

He is such a fun little boy!