Jennifer's Maternity Photos

My adorable sister-in-law, Jennifer is due with my first nephew ever in 3 short weeks! I am SO happy for her and also for us because that means there will be cousins around! And since we have only boys so far I think we're all in for a real treat :)

I volunteered to do some maternity photos of her and her fiancé Scott so that I could practice my photography on subjects who don't run away crying.





We went to the Beach Boardwalk in Santa Cruz and were initially bummed that NOTHING was open. The weather was gorgeous though and it was pretty empty, which made navigating, snapping and keeping the two year old in line fairly easy :)





These two... I mean, I might be biased because I already love them and all, but they were seriously adorable tonight.



Oh, and then we spied on this other photographer (probably one that knows what she's doing) and she was in this alley so I figured we should probably go see what was so special there...

Um, girlfriend knew what she was doing (and I still don't - haha!) because there we found this awesome blue wall. I hope I did it some justice.












(They really wanted one like the one we had in our living room and I HAVE to give the posing credit to Rob Vreeland, our amazing photographer friend - I think his is still better, but I happen to like this one, too!)







Next we went on the actual beach and made the best of some craptastically harsh lighting.












Black and white? Er... I'm working on my editing skills.



And I have to credit ANOTHER amazing photographer I know, Amanda Patrice - because as soon as I saw this lifeguard tower I remembered her and tried to channel just a fraction of her brilliance.













And my favorite ones of the day... because they're a bit quirky. And, I like that.





Now, the wait is ON!! Come on baby Vincent! I'm so excited for you, Jen and Scott! This little man is already so loved by us all!

Bennett at 8 Months

Our Mr. B man has been 8 months for a couple of weeks now, but I'm just getting to posting about him.



It was the month of sickness here at the Lincoln household and he spent a good 2 weeks feeling pretty yucky off and on. This, of course, affected sleep and now we're back to our tried and true statement of... we're working on it. Sleep was not good... IS not good. Not good at all. I don't even want to talk about it, I'm so over it.





In other news, Ben sprouted a second tooth (did I tell you about his first one last month?). He now sports two bottom teeth and it's pretty much the cutest.



He became MUCH more mobile as he mastered what we affectionately call the inch worm. He doesn't army crawl... because that would require moving his arms and legs simultaneously. No, he lifts with his arms and pushes with his legs and inch worms his way across the room. The speed with which he can do this is astounding.



He continues to LOVE his brother. He smiles whenever he even gets a glance from Max. He makes a beeline for any toy that Max has. This, of course, causes conflict and Max has become very fond of the word "MINE" but Ben doesn't care one bit about Max taking a toy from him. He just wants to be near him. It's pretty cute. The two of them together are magical.



Ben has started to smile more with his mouth closed and he looks like a smiling hammerhead shark, which cracks me up. His big ol' cheeks stick out so far on the side of his face and his eyes squint with glee. He really is such a huge love.





Oh, Ben. We love you SO much. We think you're going to be such a handful and maybe never ever sleep, but we can't help but smile every day because of you. I fall in love with you over and over again. You are delicious.

April's Photo Favorites

Well, clearly I'm done for with P365. It was a good run, but I think far too ambitious. I'll attempt the 52 week project next year for sure. WAY easier to maintain one photo a week of each kid than one a day. I mean, come on, what was I thinking?

FAIL.

Anyway, I am still practicing a bunch with my camera and hope to continue seeing improvement! I'm going to start doing my favorite photos of the month in a post at the end of each month in place of P365.







We had a week long bubble kick and it was really enjoyable :)


Cheerios is a new favorite for both of the boys!


I love this hat! It doesn't quite fit him yet, but we'll get there.

Happy April everyone! I cannot believe it's almost May!

Our Weekend

We were beyond ready for this weekend. After a week of illness it appeared that both kids were finally starting to feel better. Ritchie was also improving and I had (somehow) managed to not get sick at all! It was Ritchie's birthday and we awoke ready to celebrate with well children and the glorious weather we've been having!

Yeah... it didn't exactly go like that. We noticed that Ben had a rash covering his entire head that was quickly spreading down his body and that he was wheezing, so we made a(nother!) appointment with our pediatrician and stalled our plans for the day to make sure our littlest guy was okay.


Here he is at the dr office - so sad.

They think he was having an allergic reaction to his antibiotic so they gave him a different one and they also prescribed him breathing treatments for his wheezing. It's insanely ridiculous how sick these children have been and how it seems to NEVER EVER end. Yeesh.

Anyway, it was over 90 degrees and we were determined to make the most of our day. Ben just needed to rest so we figured it was fine for him to do that while we visited our local farm for their annual tour. Max needed some time out of the house after being trapped all week. The farm was really fun and since it's spring it was bursting with baby animals.









Max had a great time seeing all of the animals, but was talking about a peacock and there wasn't one, so he was a bit bummed about that. Overall, we had a great trip there!











And the birthday boy was happy to get a walk in outdoors and see the kids have fun.






Ahh.. self portraits.

The only bummer of that trip was that I got some insane sunburn.


But, I didn't wear sunscreen, so... what can I expect?

Ritchie is one of those people that, while he has favorites of things, he usually won't be able to tell you what he wants in advance. So, I waited until that morning to discuss with him what he wanted to eat on his special day and what kind of cake he wanted. Is it just hilarious to me that he went into ornate detail describing this light, lemony cake with creamy frosting that had just a hint of lemon taste that he wanted but when I asked him what I should cook for dinner he said, "Chili-cheese dogs. With tater-tots!"

Umm.. okay? Ask and you shall deliver birthday boy. And, he's not that crazy because it was all delicious.



I'm proud to say that the cake was beautiful AND freaking scrumptious. Favorite lemon cake I've ever had. Max was VERY eager to eat it and became very sad that we made him wait until after dinner.







Ben still wasn't feeling great but Daddy was a champ and held him while I baked and cooked all afternoon.





Happy Birthday to Ritchie! You're our favorite!

Sunday was a busy day it felt with errands and getting the house in order for the week, but the weather was still lovely so we snuck in a park visit.



















It may appear that Ritchie is a single parent while I run around snapping photos all day. It's true.

I hope you all had an equally fabulous weekend minus the sick kid!