Cheese! Now, stop with the pictures...

So, as you can see (incase you missed it) I changed the heading!  I figured since IT IS mostly about Lincoln I should add that! :)  

We decided to make it another park day, it's a little cold still and definitely nothing but clouds in the sky, but we needed the fresh air!  Lincoln asked for the slides today, so we decided to take a few minutes and get out!  We had a great time running around and he loves to watch me go down the biggest, winding slide!  He laughs so hard when I come down it, I wish someone would have been there to take a picture ...because whatever he sees is HILARIOUS!  No one else was there today until right as we were leaving.  But we didn't care, just more slides for us and room to run!

I also used the opportunity to take some pictures and play around with some of the things I'm learning in my photography workshop!  We learned in our second week about taking pictures of something or someone moving, but where the object or person looks still!   Running at the park is a great place to practice that for sure!

Definitely not the pictures of a professional, but hey practice makes perfect, so I'll keep practicing! He was so funny, trying to dodge the camera and finally I asked him to just say CHEESE and I'd stop with the pictures! So, he said cheese and I stopped...



But not without taking one last picture! He looked so big walking off like this!


Have a great weekend...

"Teamwork Mama"...

This has to be my new favorite phrase! I hear it from Lincoln everyday and every time he says it I think I get as excited as the first time! I of course can't take full credit for it because I'm sure he got it from watching Nick Jr's, Wonder Pets! I guess I owe all or most of the credit to Linny, Tuck & Ming Ming!

It is so sweet and he knows when he is using teamwork, but he always makes sure to point it out to me! HA! We were making his bed (no you can't even tell at the moment that we did make it today) and I was getting the pillows and he was pulling the blanket and he says it without skipping a beat ..."Teamwork Mama!" It makes me so proud and always makes me smile!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

And it did! We got snow! Not enough to shut the city down ...well it did shut down the schools, but its really just a little blanket of snow out there! The roads look fine as of right now! Lincoln and I got out in it for a little bit! He'd finally not coughing anymore, so I didn't want to stay out long, but I know he wanted to get out in it, so we did! We ran around in it for a little bit and he found a nice puddle and jumped right in! ha!

We both slept late this morning so we missed it actually falling. I'm not sure if it stopped during the night or the early morning. Last year we got to see it fall, but this year we just got to enjoy it on the ground! We heard the ice falling last night while we were laying in bed and I was worried that the roads were going to be really bad, but it must not have been cold enough!

Here are a few pictures of what we got...



I was looking at the pictures and realized that Lincoln is still wearing the same hat from last year! Made me want to go through the snow pictures from last year, so I did! I found this one and wanted to compare ...the difference one year makes!

Snow 2008

Snow 2009

Baby Katie arrived...

I went to the hospital on Saturday to visit one of my greatest friends, Kim and her new baby girl, Katie! Jeff and Katie just welcomed Katie Elisabeth Hill! She arrived on Friday at 3:13pm and weighed 6lb 5oz. She is absolutely beautiful! Both Mommy and baby are doing great! I know I'm so happy she has finally arrived so I can start spoiling her rotten!

Meet Katie...

I could just eat her up...

Smiling at me while she sleeps...

Great Gift Give*Away

Ok, does anyone like coffee? Does anyone like coffee in an adorable, girlie travel mug! :) I found a website that has great monogrammed, girlie things ...Monogram Chick! Check out the site!

The Give*Away this week is an adorable, aqua polka dot travel mug! I know I'd love to win it, how about you! Stop by The Monogram Chick and let her know I sent you! Have a great weekend!

Honest Scrap...

I was tagged by Lori the Wife In Training
Here are the rules of the award:1) Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design2) Show the 7 winners names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with "Honest Scrap." Well, there's no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon3) List at least 10 honest things about yourself.

Alright here goes ...10 Honest Things....
1. I'm very detailed when telling or repeating a story ...my husband reminds me of this all the time! :)
2. I enjoy playdates with Lincoln at the park when the weather is nice!
3. I'm a Target-a-holic ...I absolutely love this store!
4. I love Chick-fil-a sweet tea!
5. I'm a secret lover of 80's Hair Band music ...and can recite most songs by Poison word for word! Shhhh!
6. I enjoy knitting scarves and hats!
7. Reading is a great treat!
8. I love Spring weather and not a fan of the Summer heat.
9. I love taking pictures.
10.I can be pretty OCD about things!

Now, I tag the following & hope they can participate when they have a moment...
Brandy @ Our Story With A Few Laughs
Kim @ The Hill Family Taking Baby Steps

Sliding through our day...

Yesterday, Lincoln and I had to get out of the house. The weather was warmer and the park was calling us! We drove out to Collierville to our favorite park, not really the park around the corner, but its such a great one and worth the drive! Guess where we spent most of our time ...yep, you guessed right THE SLIDES! We really enjoyed ourselves and the warmer, sunny weather!
The park was full of kids and moms with the same thoughts as us ...it's time to get out of the house! Maybe if the weather remains nice outside we can go back again soon, we sure have missed our trips there lately!

I managed to take a few pictures while we were there ....surprise, surprise! :) Have a great weekend!

The perfect wedding is what is perfect to each of us...

I've been reminded lately that going to Anguilla to get married was such an amazing way for Ash and I to begin our life together. Our dream begining! Everyone has their idea of what the perfect wedding is and I believe ours was perfect for us! To me marriage is about finding happiness with someone and spending the rest of your life with them. That happiness can begin in a church with a big, white, princess dress ~ barefoot on the beach somewhere ~ on the steps of a court house or in a little white chapel on the strip, this can include a certificate or maybe it doesn't, the point is happiness is whatever you want it to be, what makes you happy! I want to wish everyone the happy ever after you dreamed of! love, Shanna

Our wedding day ~ Anguilla ~ May 11, 2005

Getting more familiar...

So, I've been taking this photography workshop and its going great, we just got our second lesson yesterday! Although we are not working with black and white pictures right now or maybe not even cover it, but this workshop has got me all curious! I've had my camera for just over a year now and I really love it, but didn't realize I know nothing about it or what each button does! Since I've been learning what the different buttons do, its open the door to all sorts of settings and such! So, I discovered the black and white setting last night and started to play!

I've taken many pictures and then gone in and edited them to black and white, but they were all once in color! I'm the idiot that didn't even realize my camera would take pictures in black and white to begin with ...oops! :) I enjoyed playing around with it last night while Ash worked late and Lincoln ....well you can see for yourself ...he played with his trucks and then eventually fell asleep! I'm sure he enjoyed my picture taking more once he was asleep! HA! Here are some I took, maybe not the photographs of a professional, but still shots I liked! Enjoy...





His little leg up like this just cracks me up!

A student again...

Well, I haven't gone back to actual school, but I am taking a photography workshop online and learning alot! AND LOVING IT! The girl who teaches it is an amazing photographer and for this to be her first workshop to teach, you can't tell, she's great! I'm hoping she will teach more and if anyone is interested let me know and I will pass it along to her!

So, I was finishing up my "hum-work" assignment (as Lincoln calls it) with some help from Lincoln. I was taking a picture of a cup and he kept saying "cheese" across the table. How could I not stop and take a picture of him! Awww! :) So, here he is...


I will make sure and post some pictures I take from my class from time to time so you can see what I'm doing over the next 6 weeks!

And their engines ROARED...

Tonight was the Monster Jam Truck Show and it was a blast! Ash, Lincoln and I went down there early and had hoped to get up close to the trucks, but the lines were insane. So, instead we took our time getting some dinner and getting to our seats! We were trying to gage how loud it was going to be since we didn't get tickets ahead of time and our seats were pretty close to the top. Lincoln wasn't having any part of those earplugs, so we ended up buying him these ear muffs that were shaped like tires and surprisingly he didn't give us much fuss!

He did great! He freaked out with the very first ROAR of their engines, but soon realized that everything was ok and that we were safe in our seats! Wow, those trucks are loud! It reminded me of a rock concert, how your body vibrates with the sound! We had so much fun! I didn't know if I'd really care anything about it, but I actually had just as much fun as the boys! We ran into our friends JR and Pierce and that was super exciting too!

I'm ready for them to come to Memphis again, I think we are all Grave Digger fans now. All the trucks were amazing, but that one was the best for sure! I think it was the favorite of most of the forum, as well. Lincoln had a blast and I know he is looking forward to going again, the trucks were awesome as were the 4-wheeler races and BMX guys that performed, too! I know I promised a family picture from tonight, but we didn't get one! :( But I did get pictures to share, hope you enjoy! Good night!

Before the show began...




ROAR...

I've been instructed...

HA! So, I've been informed that my blog name is ..."Ash, Shanna & Lincoln" ...not just Lincoln! :) Very true! I guess as a mom its so easy to forget about yourself and the wonderful hubby! We are ALL doing great! Ash has been super busy with work and doing lots of traveling ...or more traveling than usual I should say, it might now be alot compared to some people. But he is doing great!

We are all having a family date tomorrow night to THE MONSTER JAM at the Forum! YES! We are all excited! Lincoln and Ash were laying in bed at our hotel in Texas over the holidays and they were running a Monster Jam marathon and they spent hours glued to the tv! I will let you all know how it goes ...and promise to get a family picture for everyone! :)

Have a great weekend!

Breath of fresh air...

So, Lincoln and I have been under the weather since New Years, but really starting to feel better! We took him to the doctor on Monday and he has had sinusitis:( We haven't really done much because we haven't felt good, but yesterday we were both getting a case of cabin fever and had to break out! I decided since it was sunny outside, we'd make a run for the park for a little while! It was so nice to get a little fresh air. I know he enjoyed being in the sun! We didn't stay long because it was still a little cold outside, but we did spend a little while enjoying ourselves!

Safety First...

Lincoln got a carpenters table for his birthday back in October from Mahdee, Hadi & Layah. He loves banging on that thing ...thanks Suzy! :) Anyway, he loves all the tools and has been fascinated with all the nuts, bolts and tools. He hasn't been too concerned with his safety goggles, but decided we should really be practicing Safety, so meet our MAD CARPENTER...

He has this Crazy Mad Scientist look on his face! It just cracked me up and I had to share!

Newest Rasoul family members...

Well, it doesn't look like Lincoln and I are going to get a puppy anytime soon, but Daddy thought these guys would appease us for a little while! HA! Meet Prince William & Prince Harry the African Dwarf Frogs from the Oakcourt Mall Kiosk! HA! You can't see but there is a snail in their too, too keep them clean ...He's Gary The Snail.

They are the tiniest little creatures! They are about the size of a nickel and the craziest little things! Mr. Bubbles our family beta fish doesn't seem to mind them living in the bowl next to him, he just ignores them most of the time!

I promised the picture...

Here is the picture I wasn't able to post in my last entry because of scanner issues. But here it is...

It's 2009 and I'm SO BEHIND...

Let's see, where did I leave off...

Oh, wow, before Christmas! Well, let me catch everyone up! We went to Texas this year for Christmas! It was great! We celebrated at Crystal's this year. We are going to try to alternate it each year, so no one has to do all the traveling. We left Memphis on Christmas Eve and got there in time for dinner and gifts! :) My mom had been busy for two days cooking and had made such a great spread for everyone, I don't think I'd ever seen so much food! It was YUMMY ...thanks Ganny!

The kids had a blast opening gifts as usual! It was more exciting than last year for Lincoln, he actually knows what presents are now, so he was thrilled with it all and so fun for us to watch him!



Ethan and Evan got Nintendo DS's and that was absolutely their favorite part of their Christmas gifts, ha! We could barely get them off those things! Lincoln got so many things, I don't know if he had a favorite, he just seemed excited about everything!


Christmas morning was MORE PRESENTS! We woke up and got ready and headed to Crystal's for Santa.

We were so surprised when we got there ...Santa had left Ethan & Evan a horse! They got Shiloh The Horse! She is beautiful and so gentle! The kids were so excited!

Lincoln was not a big fan of the horse, I think it was a little too big for him, so he was more excited about his new Diego Train for now and will love Shiloh in time!

After playing with Santa's gifts and eating some yummy leftovers for lunch we took the kids to see The Tale of Despereaux. It was such a cute movie and it was Lincoln's first movie to sit through. I'm sure that it helped that he slept through half of it.

Outside the Hilton after seeing the movie...


Friday after the festivities we took the kids to get their pictures taken together! Let's just say that taking pictures of my child at this age is EXHAUSTING! He is great when it comes to candid shots, but getting him to sit and pose for the camera ...close to impossible! Ethan & Evan were such good sports. Evan was really good at trying to get him to sit down with her. Finally they played a little game with him where they would all run around and then plop down on the ground, they knew that when he sat down they were supposed sit down as close as possible to him and SMILE BIG! It worked! We captured ONE picture of them all three smiling and facing forward. It might not be the most common pose for the photographer, but I was thrilled with it and I know Crystal was too! The other kicker ...the vest! Crystal bought these adorable vests for them to all wear. I forgot to mention when she got them that Lincoln hates anything that comes up high on his neck, so of course that is why my child doesn't have on his cute vest! HA! But hey, the picture turned out cute so that's all that matters! And of course, I'm sure you'd all like to see the picture ...but my scanner is giving me fits so I can't scan it! :( But as soon as its working, I'll post it!

After the crazy photo session, we headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch. I did manage to get an adorable picture ...candid shot of course ...of all three of them together! The picture just shows off their wonderful smiles and the wonderful closeness of them, which just melts my heart!


Well, the holidays are over and the new year has begun and I know I'm looking forward to a wonderful 2009!
Happy New Year everyone!