Jacob Nevin Linton

We welcomed our second precious little boy into this world today. He is so sweet and wonderful. We are so grateful that he was born heatlhy and is doing great. He was born weighing in at 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. He has a beautiful head full of black hair and has a beautiful smile. We can't say how thankful to our Heavenly Father we are for this tiny little miracle. We will post more later, but for now here are some pictures to enjoy. Hugs and love to all!!

Just minutes old.

Mommy and baby - both doing great!

What a pose!

Brothers

Family of four now!

2 YEARS OLD!!

I honestly have a hard time believing that 2 years have gone by since Cayden joined our little family. Sometimes it seems that he hasn't been with us all that long and other times it seems as if he's always been around. He is such a sweet little guy and brings so much joy into our lives. (He brings many frustrations too, but that's all a part of growing up right?)

He has grown so much in the past year. He is counting, recognizing colors, singing parts of his ABC's, and putting together sentences. It is such a joy and a treat to watch him learn and grow. His newest phrase is "I do it." He is at that point in his young life to where he doesn't want help. He wants to be a big boy and do things on his own. He also is saying "not yet" and wanting to do everything in his own time. He is still a Daddy's boy and I think he always will be. They have such a special bond that I hope and pray NEVER goes away.

We had Cayden's birthday party yesterday. When he woke up from his nap he saw his pile of presents by the fire place. He got a big smile and wide eyes and said, "Me." He was very excited about his presents. We invited family over and had dinner, watched the Christmas Devotional, and enjoyed cake and ice cream. Cayden had a blast opening presents and needed no help getting into them. It was a fun evening.

Tonight we decided to take him to Red Robin for a special birthday dinner. He was allowed to have a soda and he chose what he wanted for dinner. He got 2 balloons too. He was in awe of the atmosphere and loved the white horse on the wall. He kept saying "White horse! Yay!" What a treat it was to see his excitement.

We are so thankful to have such a special boy as our own to teach, care for, and love. We truly are blessed.

~LOVE TO ALL~

Whobilation!!!

Jared and I were called to the activities committee 2 weeks before the Christmas party. They said they needed more people to help out and since we were "new" in the ward they chose us. OH BOY! We were so excited!!!

Anyway, the theme was "A Whobilation". It was all centered around How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And by the end of the evening Cindy Lou Who made sure that everyone understood what the true meaning of Christmas was. It really was an AMAZING party. It just took A LOT of work to prepare. They asked Jared (and me) to make signs for each of the activity rooms that people could roam through for the first hour. Well, if you know Jared at all then you know these could be no ordinary signs. The party was last night and I'm glad its finally over. We had to make 14 signs. 1 week and many sleepless nights later this was the final result....

Each child had a package in the post office

Water gun game shooting a snowman ping pong ball off a tee

Balloon dart game

Anyone could go in and get a "whoville" hair style

Make a Grinch Christmas ornament

Pick a present- they gave a small gift to everyone

A game of "toss" using garbage and throwing it into a trash can

Take a photo with the Grinch

"Operation" giving the Grinch his heart that grew 3 sizes (my dad gave us the x-ray)

Each person got to go into the candy store and fill a candy bag with homemade candies

They served hot cocoa and funnel cakes in this room

This room was set up as a cafe. Anyone could go in and read "poetry" from a Dr. Seuss book while a band played behind them.

Last but not least...The Nativity room. Members of our ward brought their Nativity scenes to put on display in the chapel.

It really was an excellent activity and everyone had a blast. They ended the program portion of the activity with a live nativity and then had everyone circle around the Christmas tree and sing Silent Night. It was really neat. Jared stayed to help clean up and I thought it would take HOURS to clean up the mess. But there were so many people in the ward that stayed to help it only took about an hour to get everything put back to normal. Here are a few more pictures from the night.

Making Grinch ornaments

Last year's Cheermiester-The Grinch

Cayden enjoyed watching the dancers, band, and singers, but his favorite was the Grinch

~LOVE TO ALL~