Catching Up....

I decided to dust off this old blog and try and keep it up again. I realized if I don't write stuff down somewhere it gets lost and forgotten. It has been such a long time since I wrote on here blogger changed everything and I still can't figure out how to do stuff haha!!

When I last left you I was starting a cleanse. I did it...it didn't really help any of my symptoms but I can say I did it. I need to do it again so hopefully I can loose these last 10 lbs. Yeah right lol.

Lot's has happened in the last 5-6 months. The boys are growing up so fast. Our summer was fun. We went camping with Jon's family and we went to the Oregon Coast with my family. Probably the biggest change this is that Ethan started school. We are very proud of our Ethan. He is in Kindergarten at BVAS this year and is having so much fun making new friends and figuring out the whole school thing. He goes part-time in the mornings right now. School has been a big adjustment for Ethan and we will probably continue part-time for a while and do FT next year.

I am a lucky girl and I am in the middle of transitioning from my old lap top to a new one. This one is super fast and it doesn't have funny lines in the screen that make it hard to work with. :) Sadly my pics are still on the old computer but I do have some funny ones of the boys on my phone to share, so don't worry. :)


This one just makes me laugh. I was making breakfast and I looked over and Isaac was standing like this on the table over Brady's bowl lol. Poor Brady was just trying to eat his breakfast.

Ethan working on a gingerbread train...

Isaac being cute. :)

Ethan playing Uno with us last night...

If it tastes good, don't eat it

I started a yeast cleanse diet last week. For 30 days I have to do a strict diet. I am also taking probiotics to put the good bacteria into my system. It's going to be hard I think because I love carbs, breads and sugar lol. But I am really excited to try this to see how it makes me feel afterwards. I know people who have done this and lived, so I am confident it won't kill me. It  might kill Jon though. :) I can't have anything with flour or any form of sugar. So no pasta, breads, yogurt, cheese, milk, etc. So far it sounds like it if tastes good, I probably shouldn't eat it.

Day One - I had some yummy scrambled eggs with spinach with some salsa for breakfast. Only I realized that apparently the salsa manufactures put sugar in the salsa. Oops, so I didn't do so good for breakfast ha ha. Why do we Americans add sugar to everything by the way. It's no wonder we are all eating to much sugar.

Lunch was a salad with cheese, black beans and a black bean patty. I didn't look at my list right until after lunch and I guess I am not supposed to eat dairy either. So double oops for today. Oh well, it was a start in the right direction. Lunch was really hard because I usually just eat what the kids don't because I don't want to waste food. So I just threw away the uneaten portions of the sandwiches instead of eating them. I felt like I was throwing money away. I am going to start making fewer sandwiches and then only making more if the kids eat what I gave them.

Dinner is taco soup and unless I put cheese on it, I should be within the rules for dinner so yay!!

So far I have a little headache and I am craving chocolate chips, bread and anything I can't have. Pretty sure this is only going to get worse and that it's normal. I do miss my Sobe Lite drinks. But they have artificial sugar, so that's a no no. At least I remembered that right!

Photo Book

I made this book for my parents for Mothers Day and Fathers Day. It is basically photos and quotes from the last two years of watching the kids. They have sure grown so much and I had so much fun putting this together. I thought family and friends would also like to see the book, so here is the link.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AaM2jdi1ZNmLjA

Just click and view. :)

Hope you all enjoy and as much as I do.

The Boys

The Boys are growing up so fast it seems. Ethan will start school in August. We have done two visitors days and he has done wonderful. He even told me school was more fun than home. Although I am sad that he will be gone next year, I know he needs this and that he will have a lot of fun. He does so good with all the kids here during the day, but he wants to play with kids his age, specifically boys lol. Since he does so good with everyone here I am a little nervous about next year. Isaac and Brady just love him and he has such a good way with them. I am sure we will work out a new routine though. Still a little sad lol.

My friend Andrea took some darling pictures of the boys. These are Ethan's 5 year pics and Isaac's 18 months. Can't believe they are that old.

Isaac's Favorite Things...

These are a few of Isaac's favorite things...

First...his blanket, aka "ankie". My sister, Cindy, made this blanket for Ethan when he was two. Ethan was never attached to any blanket, he loved them all equally. So when Isaac started being attached to this one he was very nice and gave it up. This poor thing hasn't been washed since before Disney Land in October. He still naps twice a day and I keep forgetting to do it really quick while he is up lol. Oops...

Next is his pacifier, also known as "boe-boe". Where did boe-boe come from you ask?? I have no idea. He just started calling them that about a month ago. But it's really cute, when he finds one he gets all excited and says "boe-boe". He usually only has his "boe-boe" during naps and bedtime. He is working on 4 molars right now so for the last two weeks he has been wanting it more frequently to chew on.

Next is his beloved Donald, aka "onald". He is obsessed with Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. He got a little Donald and  Mickey in his stocking at Christmas. Mickey has disappeared somewhere...but "onald" is his favorite still. He sleeps with "onald" every night and when he gets hurt or something Ethan always goes and get its for him, and his ankie. He is such a good big brother.

Last is Elmo. I don't even know how he learned about Elmo. We never watch it, and he doesn't even have an Elmo toy. But he picked it up somewhere and has run with it. I tried an Elmo movie the other day and he wasn't really interested. But Jon turned it on his computer this morning and he was dancing up a storm to the song lol. It was hilarious. We found an Elmo sippy cup at walmart that we just had to get him. Actually Ethan found it and wanted to get it for Isaac. He really is a sweetheart and the best big brother ever. Jon's mom got him this shirt the other day. He points to Elmo frequently and says "Elmo"..with a little giggle.

Well this was originally supposed to be all about Isaac, but I can't remembering all the sweet things Ethan does during the day for his brother. Isaac calls Ethan "boe-bur" and Ethan calls himself "boe-bur" when talking to Isaac.  Isaac is lucky to have such a wonderful "boe-bur". These two boys just melt my heart daily.

Check-up's

Ethan and Isaac had Dr. appointments last week. It was Ethan's 5 year and Isaac's 15 month check-up. Both boys are healthy and doing great. It was pretty funny because Isaac wanted to do everything Ethan was doing. Ethan was getting his ears tested and had to say "beep" every time he heard the beep. So he said "beep" and then Isaac would say "beep" just because Ethan was. The nurse thought it was very cute. Then when the Dr. came Ethan sat up on the table first and Isaac wanted up to sit next to him. The Dr. would do Ethan first with something and then IJ would copy. It was perfect because IJ even said "ahhhh" so she could look in his throat without having to use that horrible stick to pry it open.

Isaac
- 24 lbs 2 oz (45%)
- 34 inches long (95%)
- He is tall and skinny lol
- The Dr. was very impressed with is vocabulary. He was at 39 regular words at his appointment. I can't even count anymore. The most recent ones this week are Cheerios, no-thank you and help.
- Great at walking and running
- She wasn't concerned that he doesn't drink milk since he eats yogurt and cheese daily. He has never liked milk and once he was done nursing he stopped drinking it. Silly boy.
- Loved his eating and how he eats anything and everything.
- 100% healthy and perfect.




Ethan
- 47.6 lbs (90%)
- 46 inches tall (90%)
- He knew the answers to all her questions about letters, colors and shapes. I was proud.
- We talked a lot about Ethan's tip-toe walking. He has been going to OT for a few months now for it. Basically there are kids who physically can't walk flat feet due to their muscles. So we went to rule that out. Luckily his muscles are just tight and we have stretches we do for that at home. Tip-toe walking can also been a sign of autism, but that was also ruled out. They also looked at a possible sensory processing disorder. Ethan has a few things he is sensitive with, but we all have things we are sensitive too so they don't think it's anything to abnormal. His dr. and his OT agreed that he was good and didn't need to come back. He still walks on his tip-toes, but it's gone down from about 99% of the time to 50% of the time. He just has to be different lol. We are thankful things are good and we don't need to worry.

We are blessed with two healthy energetic boys!

20 Questions for E

1.              I loved this idea when I saw it on Pinterest. I am going to ask Ethan these questions every year on his birthday and keep them in his scrapbook. Isaac will join with the tradition when he is old enough too. Now I just need to get busy with their scrapbooks.

                     How old are you?                    5

2.                  Who is your best friend?         Bryson and Maddie

3.                  What is your favorite thing to do?      Build Legos

4.                  What is your favorite color?               Blue

5.                  What is your favorite food?                My favorite macaroni and cheese (Kraft)

6.                  What do you like to do with your family?      Play legos, and go on vacation to sea world and 

                                                                                   Disney land.

7.                  What is your favorite toy?                  Monster Trucks, Trains and shamu.

8.                  What do you want to do when you grow up? I want to load up a truck and drive it and                                                                                          drive trains. Every single day.

9.                  What makes you happy?                     Keeping my toys together, not having them broken

10.              What makes you sad?                         People hitting and when they don’t play nice.

11.              What is your favorite show to watch?            Handy Manny, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and                                                                                   Octonots.

12.              What is your favorite book?                           Books about whales

13.              What do you love to learn about?                  animals, especially whales.

14.              What is the best part of your birthday?         My lego cake and the lego space shuttle I got.

15.              Where would you like to go?                          To see Shamu and whales and sharks

16.              What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?                  Waffles

17.              What is your favorite Holiday?                       Easter

18.              What do you like to take to bed with you?      Stuffed animals and a blanket and my toys.

19.              What is your favorite song?                Jesus loves me

20.              What is your favorite thing to wear?             Basketball shorts and pajamas.

No

Friday Phone Pics

Not to much excitement over here this week. I haven't had all four kids so it's been rather quiet. I started the week not feeling so good. I am still really tired but feeling better. Here are my favorite phone pics from the week.

We made puppets yesterday and IJ was very proud of his. He helped and everything.

Apparently IJ really needed to stand there because he moved the bottom rack off the dishwasher himself...

One night I went in to check on E before I went to bed and this is what was lined up along side his bed. He is so funny.

The weather was nice enough we even got to swing outside for a bit...Ethan spent his time driving his tractor around. He sure loves that thing.

Hope everyone has a great Friday!!

First Time...

Last week for the first time I left Isaac for 26 hours. I had to go to Portland for a quick trip. I left Monday at 630 pm and returned Tuesday at 1030 pm. Jon took off work on Tuesday to stay home with the kids. They both loved having Jon home all day to them self, I don't think I was missed all that much. But that is a good thing.

The trip was ok, I get nervous traveling by my self so my stomach hurt almost the whole trip. I flew on one of those small planes with propellers. On the way there is was a smooth flight but I was sitting right by the propeller so my chair vibrated the whole time. My rear end was numb when I got off lol. On the way back I sat on the last seat of the plane, that was special. At one point it was so bumpy I almost landed in the guys lap next to me. luckily he almost ended up in the isle, so it was okay.

This was my rental car haha. It was so small, my dad is longer than the car. Shoot...I am longer than this car probably. I had to bend down to look out the windows. I went through a large mud puddle on accident and I thought the car was going to drown. It made me laugh every time I thought of the car though. And I drove all over without getting lost (we wont mention I brought our GPS haha). But all in all it was a good trip. I survived.

The boys loved being home with Jon all by themselves. They built trains and Jon took them swimming at the Y. Such a good dad. It was nice to know they were being taken such good care of.

15 Months

It's really hard to believe Isaac is 15 months already. I sure do love this stage though, they are so cute, full of energy and love to learn new things.

• Talking, I thought Ethan was a good talker at this age...so I pulled out his scrapbook and his list is about 1/3 of Isaac's lol. I can't believe how much Isaac communicates. We did more sign language with him so maybe that is it. But we just talk to our kids and have conversations with them, I think that is a lot of it. This is words he says regularly..not words he will try to repeat if you tell him to (because he does that too)

         Words: Momma, Dadda, Bro-bur (Brother), Grandma, Bapa, Maddie, Bubby (Brady), Papa, hot,
         please, thank you, share, no, eat, cheese, milk, water, baby, nanna (banana), ball, help, uh-oh,
        oh-no, amen, Jesus, choo choo, shoes, here go (for here you go), stuck, yucky, football, bye bye,
        wave, bath, hi, all done, sorry and blanket.  That is 38 words!!
 
       Amen and Oh -no and two of the cutest ones.

• He knows where his head, tummy and feet are
• He can give high fives and knuckles
• Loves the water and loves swimming. Bath time is his favorite time of the day.
• Loves to play anything Ethan is, especially trains
• Eats about 5 times a day. (And I mean 5 meals, this doesn't include snacks he sometimes asks for)And if anyone is eating he will join you. He doesn't like to be served different food than anyone else either. He always looks at our plates to make sure we have the same thing. If we don't, they he doesn't eat his food and he wants yours. He tries everything and anything. Nothing like Ethan. He has a sweet tooth and loves desserts. He had his first sucker on valentines day and he is pretty sure he should have one every day.
• Follows directions very very good. He will throw something away if you tell him to, if you tell him to bring something to daddy or mommy he will.
• So very curious, he is into EVERYTHING! Toilets are his favorite, especially if he has time to put toilet paper in the toilet then pull the paper out and smash it on his head or the wall. He throws remotes in the trash, opens every last drawer and cupboard in the house daily and loves to play in the pantry while I am cooking.  Right now he is throwing his basketball in the trash can and saying uh-oh so Ethan will come get it out. :)
• He watches everything we do and amazes us with how he tries to copy. Jon always uses q-tips every morning...now Isaac has to do the same thing.
• Loves to play basketball with Ethan and daddy, especially when daddy lifts him up to put the ball in the hoop.
• He is finally a good sleeper. Only took 13.5 months lol. But now he sleeps about 11 hours. WAHOO!
• Is becomming more and more of a daddy's boy. Loves to have daddy get him up in the morning, I do it all wrong now.
• Loves his bro-bur a lot. I love watching these two play together. 
• Wants to go outside all day long. Even if it's windy and 20 degrees. 
• Must sleep with the same blanket, and asks for it. 
• Still sleeps with a pacifier, but he has to go to bed with one in his mouth and one in each hand.  
• Gives kisses and hugs if you ask for them.

I can't wait to see what kinds of trouble this kid has in store for us. He is smart, quick and sweet.

Happy Birthday Ethan

We celebrated Ethan's 5th birthday this weekend. It was a nice party with just my family and Jon's family. He wanted a Lego party so that is what we did. We kept it pretty simple, all the decorations I made from paper. He got a Lego rocket, a Lego trash truck, a Lego airplane, roller blades, a volcano making kit (he is fascinated by volcano's), fire man boots, mickey mouse rocket (which he love love loves), some clothes and Jon's parents spoiled him with his own driving tractor. He was very spoiled for his birthday this year.

This and That with the Cousins

It's been a while since I talked about all the kids. Things here are going really good. I finally feel like we have a good routine and Isaac is done nursing which is so helpful. I am doing some preschool with Ethan and Maddie while Isaac naps in the am. I have a feeling his am naps are about over so I will have to get creative. I like being able to help them and sit down with them. Ethan will start school this fall so I am trying to help him be ready. So far he knows all of his letters and he knows the sounds of almost all of them as well. We are working on numbers now.

Isaac and Brady and quite the pair. Some days they play really good together, others they steal toys and give each other dirty looks ha ha. Isaac is making up for the fact that he is the littlest one in the bunch and is usually the one stealing toys or knocking people over. I think he is going to give me a run for my money.

I keep seeing other blogs with pictures on Fridays. Someday I will have the time to actually figure out what instagram is. I use my phone to take pictures of the kids all the time and they go no where but other peoples phones. I don't have a smart phone...I call mine the dumb phone lol. But since I quit work I can't quite justify the additional money each month. So I thought I'd share my low quality highlights of our week. It will be a good way to remember all the fun we have during the day. And if the low quality bothers you...feel free to contribute to my new phone fund. :)

Scene One: On Wednesday morning I was making breakfast and Brady started pointing saying "I-Zak..I-Zak..I-Zak"-

...

Scene two: I went to find Isaac and found him hiding in the bathroom eating a banana he stole from Brady's plate lol lol lol. It was hilarious. He had to go give it back.

Tuesday lunch together. Don't judge my paper plates, I had already run two loads through the dishwasher that morning...

Ethan wanted to address his own birthday invitations. So he wrote every ones names on the envelope and I added the address...

If you have been to Krispy Kreme lately there is a truck parked outside and part of the word doughnuts is missing. So it reads "Eat Krispy Kreme Doug". My dad finds this very funny and sends pictures of it all the time. So I made him his own hat lol. Oh his name is Doug if you didn't know that. :)

Ethan had to get a filling for a tooth that came in with a defect. I am so proud of how well he did. We have been taking him to the dentist since he was two and I am glad because he does really good. After we left he goes "well that wasn't so bad mom...it is still not a lot of fun, but it wasn't bad". I think that sums up every ones feeling of the dentist.

And this silly boy...just cause he is cute. :)



That was so much fun. I love looking back and the pictures from my phone.

The North Pole

For the last three years we have been able to take the boys (well it was just Ethan the first year) on a train ride to the North pole. It's become one of Ethan's favorite Christmas traditions. The first year we went with friends and the last two years Jon's family has taken us. It's become a nice tradition. Ethan actually talked to Santa this year. And he was very impressed with Ethan's list because Ethan had very specific details on what he wanted lol. I know it is a bit late...but it's still worth remembering.

Ethan wanted his picture right up by the train wheels lol. He had to inspect them first though. And we had to hurry because you're not supposed to get that close. Although the train was not on or anything so I don't see why it was such a big deal. But I suppose there are always irresponsible people out there.

I am one lucky girl...

Ethan is so good with Isaac. I love this picture...

Helping brother back...

It was such a nice time. I hope we can do it again next year.

Trouble

Trouble is this kids middle name lol...He is always getting into something. Wouldn't trade him for anything though. Here is some proof: