Isaac is One

Happy Birthday Isaac! I can't believe it's been a year since he was born. His birthday weekend was perfect. We had him dedicated at church on Saturday (his actual birthday) and then celebrated his birthday on Sunday. It was a good weekend. His dedication was really special because my dad sang the same song that he sang at Ethan's dedication. It was really sweet during the dedication right before my dad was about to sing Ethan looked at him and gave him a thumbs up.

Isaac is such a funny funny boy. He makes the best facial expressions and gets himself into so much trouble already lol. He loves to play in the toilet and the trash. He also likes to pull the sugar off the shelf in the pantry and open it and play in it. He yells in happiness when he doesn't think we are paying enough attention to him. He wasn't walking on his first birthday 100% but is now. He is almost running already. He loves his big brother a lot. He eats everything and a lot of it, but bananas are his most favorite food.  He is starting to be independent and can be rather stubborn at times. He talks so good and has a sweet personality already. He gives kisses and waves and he is just all together the happiest boy. He doesn't sleep through the night yet. Why...I don't know but if someone could let me know I'd really like to start sleeping. :) He LOVES Balls and Balloons, they are his favorite toys. He wants to play with anything Ethan is playing with and tries to play trains and cars with him. It's cute.

And for record keeping he is 22lbs and 31.5 inches tall. That is one inch taller than Ethan at the same age. I think he will be tall.

Isaac's vocabulary at one: Baby, Uh-Oh, All done, Thank you, Ball, mama, dada, ball, balloon, bonk, and nanna (banana), bapa, owie and share. I think the last one is evidennce he has an older brother...and two older cousins most days.

Here are some pictures of his birthday weekend (compliments of bapa):

It's been a year...

It's been one year since I started watching Maddie and Brady. When I started Ethan and Maddie were 3, Brady was 7 months and Isaac was 5 weeks old. Yikes, I still wonder what I was thinking. I will admit those first few months were a lot...a lot lol. I often went to bed wishing (or crying haha) I had help. But we figured out our routine and we all worked together to make it work. It's been the best blessing ever. It feels normal when they come over now. Some days I forget there are 4 here because it's just our normal thing. I do remember rather quickly when we go to the store though....or have to go to the dr..They really need to make bigger carts! I can't imagine my days without Ethan and Maddie laughing and playing, Brady and Isaac pulling all my dvd's out every day and learning how to share. One a funny note they both say the word share now lol..it's so cute.

I love all of these kids....

Look who is walking...

Look who took his first steps. He was so funny with walking. He could walk and would take steps if he wanted but he didn't really want to do it until he could do it 100%. He also would only walk to Jon for almost a week. He wouldn't walk the whole day with me and the minute Jon walked in he was walking like a pro. He is now almost running and only walks places. He is so stinking cute to watch...

Fall Fun

We had lots of fun this fall doing the pumpkin patch. We were spoiled and got to do it twice, once with my family and once with Jon's family. It was about 80 degrees when we went with mine and 30 when we went with Jon's haha...only in Idaho right. We also went to daddy's work on Halloween where they have a really fun party just for kids. It's so awesome. People bring candy and the kids can go around to all the desks and get candy. They have games, snacks, crafts for the kids and even a movie playing. It really is a wonderful benefit and it's become our Halloween tradition. We did the traditional pumpkin painting and Ethan even carved a pumpkin with Jon this year. They had a lot of fun doing it so I think we will be adding it to the festivities next year. It was Isaac's first time painting pumpkins...hard to believe he was in my tummy last time we did that. Leah was also with us last year and it wasn't the same without her. We miss you leah.

I failed with the pictures this year, the only one I got of both boys together Ethan has his eyes closed...and I never got one of IJ all by himself. oops. But don't worry...I still have way to many pictures to share, but that's okay because I know you like them. :)

The most magical place on earth...

In October we took a trip to the most magical place on earth. Disney Land. Everything about it was so perfect. We flew down on Saturday, October 8. Ethan loved going on the plane. He has been on a few but he was to little to remember. He took everything in. It was also Isaac's first flight ever. He did really good too. He ate on the first flight there and slept on the second flight there. He is so good. :)

There are so many memories from this trip. It took Ethan a day to get used to everything. There was a lot of people the first few days but by the end of the second day he was so excited about everything. He went on a few roller coasters too. He did one in toon town, thunder mountain railroad and splash mountain. He loves the going fast part and the roller coaster part...turns out he hates dark tunnels. Seriously hates...poor guy was in tears in splash mountain because it was really dark for a few long tunnels. But he loved the end of it. :) He also loved the parades and the Disney Clubhouse show in California land. His favorite ride was it's a small world but he also loved all the rides in the bug life area. They were so cute and just perfect for him. The characters though were by far his favorite part (except captain hook lol). He was absolutely hilarious with his autograph book. He pronounces characters...kur-rick-turs...hahaha. And he loved having them sign his book and talk to them. Mary Poppins thought he was pretty funny. He handed her his book and asked her to sign it in order (i.e. not skip a page) and since they have to stay in character she goes "well there is a boy who has a purpose".

We ate dinner with the characters and breakfast with them once. He loved it so much we had to go back for breakfast. The Mad Hatter was pretty funny too. He was talking to Ethan and my dad was taking pictures and the Mad Hatter goes "well you must be more important than me, you have your own paparazzi". Hahahaha...if he only knew we call bapa the bapa-ratzie. During breakfast Captain Hook was there and Ethan has never seen peter pan so he had no idea who he was but he was scared of him. If Captain Hook could take the hint and leave us alone he would have been fine, but of course Captain Hook kept coming over. At one point Ethan was under the table crying.

Isaac was such a good little boy. He really was the perfect age to travel with a baby. Old enough to love the lights and music but not old enough to know he was missing out on the rides. He also wasn't walking so we didn't have to worry about him wanting to walk. He was such a good boy. He absolutely loved the parades. He would clap and clap and bounce to the music. He spent a lot of time with daddy since he doesn't like rides. But I loved that I got to take Ethan on all the rides. He is such a daddy's boy it was nice to have something him and I could do.

I brought noise cancelling headphones for Isaac because I thought the fireworks and other things might be loud for him. Boy was I wrong lol. We got perfect seats, by luck, to watch the fireworks and tinker bell fly one night. I put the headphones on Isaac when it started but he kept taking them off and clapping and waving as much as he could haha. Ethan thought it was to loud so he wore the headphones and then he loved it as much as Isaac. It was hilarious to watch. Isaac was supposed to be sleeping but it was just to much fun for him. Did you know Disney Land has a baby area when you can feed and change them. Isaac and I visited there a few times.

On Wednesday we went to Sea World for the day. I think this was probably Ethan's favorite part of the trip. He loves whales so much. It was great to watch him experience Shamu again. He also wanted to sit up close to get wet so daddy sat up really close with him during the dolphin show. LOL...they got soaked. Ethan loved it. I ended up getting soaked without planning on it. We were at the dolphin area and it's an open circle you can watch them at and this dolphin with an attitude came over and splashed me on purpose. I was soaked...Isaac was soaked and our stroller was soaked. Once I got the salt water off of me and Isaac all I could do was laugh.

My parents were able to come with us which just made everything better. I love that our boys got to experience this with them. I still smile every time I think about our trip. It's so magical there and you really can't explain it...but it's just a happy place. We are already trying to save for our next trip. I want to go during Christmas so we can see it all decorated. Maybe in 2 or 3 years. Right Jon?? :)

And if you have made it this far reading then CLICK HERE for all the pictures....

Oregon Coast

I don't think there is a place I love more than the Oregon Coast. Well that isn't really true, but since this is supposed to be August, let's pretend. And then when I get to October...I will tell you where I love just as much as the beach.

We had a family reunion in August, that I co-planned BTW, talk about feeling like an Adult. It's odd to be in charge when your parents are there lol. Oh well...I think everyone had fun. We stayed in a rental house for the first time too. Not to bad actually. It was nice to see my cousins that I don't get to usually see. We all have kids now and it was great to watch them all play. Since we were in Portland already I convinced Jon that we had...and I said HAD...to drive to the beach for a few days. He eventually agreed and we spent 3 days there. Here are some of my favorite pictures...there are just a few :)