The BrehiThomas Family Blog: Lincoln 11 Months & July

Lincoln is 11 Months

Here is to 1 more month of buying formula! (Vivid happy dance here)
-Weight: 19 lbs 15 oz
-Size 4 diapers
-6-9 month clothes
-Sleeps 12 hours at night
-1-2 naps a day
-8 oz formula every 4 hours & lots of snacks
-Loves bath time (although he stands 99% of the time)
-Plays peek-a-boo daily
-Favorite thing is playing with Maverick
-Recently, his favorite toy has been a (huge) bottle of vinegar & a light saber
-Knows how to work the "cry" to attention
-Newest food obsession: yogurt, vanilla wafers, anything mom is eating
-Currently has a double ear infection
-Dancing feign (especially the office theme song)

July was a jam-packed awesome month! It flew by between holidays, visitors, and an at home vacation.

4th of July

We started celebrating the beautiful country in which we live and the freedoms we enjoy with a Ward Breakfast. It was perfect with food, friends, and "do-it-yourself" games. Maverick played in his first ever kick-ball game and made an awesome first baseman. He got out twice and scored a home-run (with Lehi's help). Lincoln was totally enthralled with the game, so it was a double win.

Dysfunction at it's finest

Best 1st baseman you ever did see

These two...

Next up was some good ol' Texas BBQ at Lockhart. We stopped at Buckey's gas station and let Maverick pick his very own treat (gummy Sharks) for the "trip". Last year we tried two of the five BBQ places (there is a reason it is called the "BBQ Capital of Texas") so this year we did Smitty's (again) and tried out Black's as well. They were both amazing, although we think Black's sides and sausage were better than Smitty's. But Smitty's wins the brisket. Bonus story--when we were waiting in the long line outside of Black's and came up to a bench for waiting customers. Maverick sat down next to Lehi and, pointing to the small space still on the bench shouted, "Mom, you can sit here. You have a little butt." Thanks, buddy.

The evening ended with fireworks at Tasha's house--we totally mooched off the ones they bought and contributed sprinklers left over from last year. Maverick was a little timid to start, but warmed up to the sparklers once cousin's helped him out. ...In fact he became a little too comfortable with them and would get a little too close to camping chairs and people (Parker's expression says it all in the picture below). Lincoln fell asleep about halfway through the show--it was fantastic that he slept through them, no problem. Sweet Tayson kept covering his ears and saying "Fireworks scary" and "firework loud."

Stay-Home-Vacation

Our beloved Lovell family drove down from Arizona for a week vacation together. Man we packed every day! The night they arrived, Lehi and I left to attend our friend's wedding (lame sauce leaving them, but the wedding was awesome), but I am pretty sure they appreciated a quiet house after a long drive. Lehi and I walked through the doors and realized the event was "semi-formal" and were a bit under dressed. Lehi was debating if he should wear a white shirt and tie or a more casual button-up shirt, I said go with the button-up....oops! At one point he leaned over and said, "I am wearing a shirt with palm trees on it while other people are in suits!" Despite our lack of formality, the wedding was beautiful and an absolute blast.

Day one of non-stop action fell on a Sunday, which meant we walked around down-town after church and checked the Alamo off the list of things you have to do in San Antonio. It was a quick trip, but it was also miserably hot, which made it about perfect.

Yes, Maverick is sleeping

Sea World. Lehi and I found out at the gate our tickets we had bought at a scout auction a few months back had expired in June...but he let is in anyways (whew). Maverick rode his first roller coaster (and was all smiles when it started and then became terrified). The kiddos rode a few other rides, played in the splash pad, and hit a few shows. It was a perfect day to go because we literally walked onto all of the roller coasters. Lehi and Tyler when on all of them while Alex and I took the boys through the penguin house (which reeks), then we switched. We attended the Sea Lion at Play, Sea Lion High, One Ocean (Killer Whales), and Pets Ahoy. We asked the boys what their favorite part was as we were leaving and both Maverick and Dawson replied, "the dogs." Lehi caught a pretty epic video of their reactions/excitement when the show began.

Next up was Top Golf and Smitty's (yes, again for the Thomas family). It was one of Tyler's favorite parts of hi trip last year, so naturally we had to make sure it happened again. BBQ did not disappoint. Then I had the genius idea of having Maverick and Dawson each pick a scoop of ice cream to share between themselves and Jackson...they both picked the "green kind" (pistachio)and took the course of few hundred years to finish the bowl.

Day 4: We dropped the boys off at Tasha's house for an "adults only" six flag trip. Again, it was an excellent day with hardly any wait for the roller coasters. We hit them all up in about two hours, ate some lunch, and had some pretty great "the floor is lava" episodes. Now, however, I must retract my "excellent day" statement--we changed into our swim gear for the water park, rented a locker, began to get into the lazy river, and discovered they were pulling people out of water/closing rides due to weather. We found some beach chairs to lounge on to try to wait it out, got rained on, and then told they were closing the water park. Lehi really wanted a refund on the locker was paid $16 for to pretty much just sit in beach chairs for 45 minutes, so Lehi and Tyler went into services and emerged with 4 all-day passes and 3 jumbo locker rental vouchers. While it was lame we couldn't play in the water, we really couldn't complain with the bad weather policies six flags has. Well done!

Since we had a day to ourselves at Six Flags, we took the boys to a pool the next day. They wore themselves out (which was awesome) and had so much fun. Tasha met us there so Maverick was in heaven playing with friends and cousins. Poor Dawson wasn't feeling too great, so he wasn't in the water too much, but Jackson warmed up to it quickly while Maverick was bribed to get into the "big pool" with myself or Lehi. (He remembered the next day and the day after that we needed to go to the store to get a lolly-pop). ...we still have yet to get it for him. #bribelies

Next we went to Lulu's bakery and ordered some sandwiches as a side to the epic 3 lb cinnamon roll. We did a good amount of damage to it between the 4 adults and 3 children capable of eating, but we still took a to-go box for it. We jumped in our cars and headed to the Zoo. After a few hours, the adults were worn out, kiddos were tired, and we all were ready for naps and a lazy evening.

Our final full day, we kept pretty low-key. The kids played in a sprinkler in the backyard, we went to the Spiderman Homecoming movie, and just enjoyed not having anything too structured to do.

Dawson, Jackson, and Maverick played non-stop and warmed up to each other quickly. Dawson absolutely adored Lincoln and asked to hold him often (even though Lincoln was a little too big to be held). It was common to see them in Superhero masks and capes and anxiously waiting for the other one to wake up in the morning. Maverick has some serious withdraws from not having friends to play with first thing in the morning and all day long. We played pie-face (which Maverick was all excited for until it was his turn), Spot it, Uno, and Heads-Up, and laughed like crazy. It is a miracle the kids did not wake up in the wee hours. Alex also highlighted my hair for me and I am in love!! She did such an amazing job--it is very subtle yet a good change. Highly recommend her to my Arizona friends!
We were so sad to see the Lovell's leave but it so so fun to have them here.

Santikos Summer of Free Movies

Stephanie, April, and myself took the kiddos to the movies to see Storks--part of the free summer movies on Tuesday & Wednesday. Maverick was captivated and sat in his seat the whole time...well...minus the 2 times I had to take him to the bathroom. At one point in the movie, the main character falls off a cliff and Maverick shouted, "Ohh nooo!!" and then "YESSS!!!" when they re-appeared. I was dying. All the of kids were champs it was so fun. We finished the afternoon off with Rasin' Caine's for the mommies.

Things of Three

I recently accepted a position at UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) in their Health and Kinesiology Department. I will be teaching 3 Exercise Physiology Labs, 1 Graded Exercise Testing Lab, and 2 Musculoskeletal Assessment Instruction courses. In addition, I was "promoted" in my online position at BYU-Idaho to be an Teaching Group Leader (essentially overseeing other instructors of the class I teach and do course visits/evaluations). And then...the bomb dropped when I was called to be Relief Society President (all of this in about 2 weeks). Needless-to-say, my life just got a lot crazier, but I am so excited for it!