Deep Thoughts by the Rices

I was trying to teach Lincoln about some vowels recently.  

Me:  "This is the letter 'U'"

Lincoln:  "The letter Me?!?"

Me:  "Uh, no ... the letter 'U'"

Lincoln:  "The letter me!"

Me:  "Sure ... the letter you!!"

How do kids ever learn to read? 

 A couple vowels later ...

Me:  "This is the letter 'I'

Lincoln:  "The letter you?"

Me:  (can you just imagine how I feel stepping into this after the above convo?)  "Yup!  The letter 'I'"

Lincoln:  "Oh, the letter you!"

Lincoln may not learn to read until he is 12 thanks to all his mother's help.

 Porter can't be left out.  So, here he is doing some great thinking and growing.

 And he likes to bite things.  (Lemony Snickets, anyone?)

Other great things Lincoln has been saying:

We have some friends named Madden and Lindsey.  He refers to them as 'Madalindsey.'

Everyone is his friend.  He will talk about his 'Friend Grandma' or his 'Friend Aunt Lindsey.'

He started referring to himself as 'Feet-teef' when he pretends to be a dog and then decided that Porter was 'Mr. Pennyball' (I would assume this is from some PBS show?).

He likes to tell you about the 'word on the street' and then end his explanation as you would end a prayer. 

Lincoln is Fulfilled

 So, before we moved here Lincoln would say multiple times a day: "We are going to move for Florida and we are going to bury my whole body in the sand at the lotion."  Translation: "We are going to move to Florida and bury his whole body in the sand at the ocean."  The boy loves to play in the dirt.  Today, his goal was achieved.  Although, he didn't really love having his whole body buried.

Porter just wanted to eat all the sand.  He was a good sport, but he wore his mama out.  8 month olds at the beach are work.

Hey, We Live in Florida

   So, yes, we did move to Florida.  We decided a couple weeks before we actually moved so I guess that would be why I didn't spread the word a little more.  Tyler is doing one more year of school (we all hope) at UF.  The boys and I are living it up ... or trying to figure out our new terrain.  We really like it so far and we have been doing lots of fun things.

A long, long way

It takes a long time to get from Idaho to Florida so we had some fun with it:

First, we took a train.

Then we tried a motorcycle (the whole family didn't really fit).

A boat.

We found a friendly dolphin once we hit the coast.

We even borrowed Elvis's car for a bit. 

Lincoln hardly noticed.

He was more interested in the trip once we got on another boat.

And even a friendly dinosaur gave us a lift. 

Remember How ...

 Remember how the last time I posted pictures of this cute baby was months ago?  Look at him now.  All grown up and driving.

He even rocks classy hats.

 Remember how summer is the best?

And speaking of memory ... I hadn't participated in this activity in 4 years until tonight.  Yup, that's me.  Apparently, my muscle memory is better than my actual memory.

This boy is being hilarious.  Here are some quotes from the past few hours:

(before going to bed last night, repeatedly pleading) "I don't love basketball, I don't love basketball"

Lincoln:  I had a bad dream last night.  Me:  Really?  I'm sorry.  What was it about?  Lincoln: Mickey Mouse  Tyler:  (cereal through nose)

Me: are you wearing basketball shorts?  Lincoln:  No, ABC shirt.

New Stroller

A couple weeks ago we got our new stroller. Hooray! This is the afternoon we got it and started putting it together. The excitement was so thick ...

... the boys could hardly contain themselves. But we have since been on lots of walks and even a couple bike rides. These 2 have been doing a great job while I push them all around town.

PS - Erica Holland, if you read this, I had to look closely to decide if you were the model on the box. About the same haircut you had when we lived in the dorms, plus the mom has twins ...

Also, these two are way cute together. (When can I start playing match-maker? Birth, right?)

IRLHJ

I Really Like Hilary Jorgenson

(she uses great acronyms on her blog)

And look at Porter's eyes. He already knows to be wary of Lincoln.

POLL

Question: Do you let your kids eat cookie dough? (With raw eggs in it). Please respond.

the genetics of picture taking

my eyes: shut

shut

shut (we took 5 fam photos)

Tyler has pointed out to me on numerous occasions that it is not difficult to keep one's eyes open for a picture, but I have yet to master the task. I have no idea why I can't keep my eyes open for the millisecond it takes to take a picture.

until now! my mom - eyes shut

my mom - eyes shut

my mom's mom - eyes shut

grandma - eyes shut!

I didn't know it could be a hereditary defect, but the pictures don't lie. We have some sort of mutated-photography-sensitive-heavy-eyelid-DNA.

salt

I have a good friend named Katie L. Actually, Kate L.L. and I'm Katie L.R. so it only makes sense that I would think she is super cool. For lent she gave up blogging on religious topics, which is funny because now I want to blog on something that struck me the other day. I guess I'm filling in while she is out. And since I know my audience is basically other LDS moms, I'm going to hop right in.

Growing up in my ward we had a period in young women's where we did lots of singing. I did not like it. We sang one song, 'Window to His Love' that I esp hated. It goes something like this:

'I want to be a window to His love

So when you look at me you see him

...

And with each passing day
I want to fade away.
'Till only He can be seen And I become a window to His love.'

At the time we sang it I didn't like the idea at all of losing my personality and becoming another clear pane of glass like everyone else.

I recently read, THE SCORPIO RACES. There is a character in the book who uses salt in his tea to enhance the flavor. Not to make it taste like salt, but to bring out the sweet. I knew this fact before, but this put it on my mind. It made me really think about the efficacy of salt.

CS Lewis brought to my attention the scripture, "Ye are the salt of the earth." He pointed out that salt enhances flavor and when you turn to Christ you are becoming the 'salt'; a real you. Here is a really long quote:

"The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated be my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact, what I so proudly call "Myself" becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call "My wishes" become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men's thoughts or even suggested to me by devils. Eggs and alcohol and a good night's sleep will be the real origins of what I flatter myself by regarding as my own highly personal and discriminating decision to make love to a girl opposite to me in the railway carriage. Propaganda will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideals. I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I like to believe: most of what I call "me" can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own." (MERE CHRISTIANITY, p 189)

'Salt' is the really great, really genuine me. When you're 'salt' you can bring out the best in others. Why did I never have this explained to me before? Or, prob more accurately, why did I never listen when this was explained to me before? Now the idea of being 'salt' or a window (maybe even stained glass?) makes all the sense in the world to me.

(okay, Katie L.L. how did I do? I know it's not nearly so deep, but I thought you might appreciate my efforts).

Blessing Day!

On Sunday, we went to Tyler's grandparents house to bless Porter. I mentioned before that Porter Leonard is named after Tyler's grandpa, Leonard (Papa). It was a sweet day.

We call this face 'Star Wars Baby,' but Tyler is the real nerd and corrects us ... it should be 'Star TREK Baby.' Yes, I'm only posting our 'goofy' family picture.

Here we are with Papa.

Porter got to wear the outfit that his dad and Uncle Adam were blessed in, Tyler gave him a short, wonderful blessing, and Papa said some really nice things about passing on the name. Plus, it's always so fun to hang out with family and friends.

Porter

He is nearly 2 months so I thought I would share a few more pictures of my cute baby.

This is us on Valentine's Day. He is wearing a girly onesie that says, "I love mommy." How could I not?

Lincoln has been a really good big brother thus far.

From Last Week

What does Porter get to wear when he pees through 10 outfits in 1 day? Baby's First Christmas. It was the middle of January, so we weren't even a month off.

My sis and I took some 'model pix of Porter' (see below). Everything 'Baby Brother' does Lincoln wants to do too. So ... he took a turn in the spotlight. (I just realized he is wearing his Santa jammies too. Lincoln likes to say, "Hey Mom, guess what?!? CHRISTMAS!!!")

Our Van's model.

For the Aunts

Snow Day!

Porter is 2 weeks old now. I sure think he is super cute. (The above 2 pix were taken mere hours ago for Jen and Jennette's delight)!

Porter Leonard Rice

He is here! Our sweet baby boy weighed in at 7 lb 8 oz. He is 20.5 inches long. He made his debut at 6:54 pm on January 5th. We finally decided on a name. Porter (because we like the name) and Leonard (after Tyler's grandpa who is the sweetest man alive).

(the above picture is one that only a mother would love ... but I wanted to post one of him right after he was born)

Here are a few more fun facts:

Porter was born on our 4th anniversary.

He was born at the birthing center in Meridian, and I have very positive things to say about the experience.

Although Lincoln has been hanging out with grandparents since 'Baby Brother's' arrival, when he did see him he was a really good Big Brother. He just kept saying, "He's cute! He's cute!" and copying what Porter would do.