Happy birthday - to me!!

And what a happy birthday it was!

Mark was so wonderful and got up with the boys when they were up for the day so I could stay in bed until after 8am! Which that in itself was a wonderful treat (I won't mention the fact that I was up from 230-430 with Levi -- Silly baby:)! Mark had class this morning, so shortly before he had to leave, he brought the boys in to sing "happy birthday" to me to get me out of bed. They had each made me a birthday card...
Then they gave me my present -- a Mother's Ring!! Something I've really wanted since Isaiah was born!!

Mark headed off to class, and the boys and I headed out to enjoy the beautiful weather! We went on a LONG walk through the beautiful streets of our neighborhood and after an hour or so somehow we ended up at the park, how did that happen?? :)
We spent another hour or more playing at the park having a perfect time. I love how the two boys are really starting to play together and enjoy each other! The park is a perfect place for them to do this!
We spent the first half an hour swinging...Isaiah and Levi both love underdogs. Here's a short video of me giving them underdogs - this was the very end so there aren't nearly as many giggles...

Levi LOVES to ride on the horsey merry-go-round. He even sits on it all by himself and goes round and round!
Isaiah and his favorite slide of all time...
After the park, we came home to Mark making me a special birthday lunch and cake--YUMMY!
After lunch both boys took a good nap! Thank goodness - Isaiah's been a stinker not wanting to nap lately, which would be fine, but then come 4:30 he is just completely C-R-A-N-K-Y for the rest of the night. Then off to the library we went. Isaiah had fun putting on a puppet show.
We had a little time before it was time to drop the kids off, so we tried to go to the petting zoo, but they are closed on Mondays...so we looked at the donkeys, ponies and sheep from the outside. Why haven't I taken the kids there more this summer? What a great place!
Laura asked to watch my kids for my birthday dinner so Mark and I could have some time to celebrate together -- THANK YOU LAURA!! We dropped them off and headed to the Olive Garden for the never ending pasta bowls...they were delicious! Duh, I forgot to take a picture.

Then my parents came over to celebrate. My mom has made me a special cake for every single birthday... Can you guess what she made this year? (Sorry it is sideways!)
It's a tomato!! Because I LOVE tomatoes! We had a rough time getting the kids to bed, so my parents went home so we could get them to sleep...and then came back over 45 minutes later to share my cake with me! :) The perks of living 1/2 mile away from each other...

So as you can tell... I had a WONDERFUL day! I love birthdays.

3 year check up

Isaiah had his three year check up Friday. The nurse did her normal routine of checking his height, weight, temp, etc. Then she said she wanted to do one more test and we had to go in the hall. I had no idea what she wanted to do, but it was an eye test. Isaiah thought it was pretty fun!! And the nurse sure got a kick out of him -- first she had him name the shapes up close to make sure he knew what was up there. She first asked him to name what shape the heart was -- and of course he said star (for some reason Isaiah thinks both a heart and a star are a star shape, until he is asked a second time???-he knows EVERY other shape just fine including an octagon, silly boy). Then she asked him about a O and he got that one, next was a half-moon shape--"what's this one?" she asked, Isaiah looks at it and says, "that's a crescent." The nurse about fell over and laughed, "that's right!!!" Next was a flag with one star in the upper left corner and stripes, "what's this one?" he says, "an American Flag." She was shocked again! :) What a little smarty pants!!

It's funny how he remembers the little things, here's how he knew the cresent and American Flag...We have a book that has "normal" shapes (square, circle, oval, etc) in it, but for some reason the last shape in the book is a crescent. He loves the book and we've read it over and over again... And whenever we go on walks or ride in the car, I always try to point things out to Isaiah - lots of our neighbors have flags they hang out so I try to name the different flags to him (American Flag, Flag with Flowers, Iowa Flag, etc). So he now will often point out all the American Flags that he sees.

It was fun to impress the nurse!! Hopefully we'll do it again next time! :)

My little Isaiah really is a little Isaiah --

height - 36.5 inches -- 25th percentile
weight - 35.4 pounds -- 50th percentile

my first day back.

This week was back to the real world - back to work, back to having 4 kids, back to reality!

Yesterday was my first day back with all 4 kids...and below you will find a picture of what was happening within the first hour that they were all here. HA HA. Yes, both babies climbed up on top of our little picnic table all by themselves and were dancing together and talking to each other! What a fun day to have Jayda and Jonah here! The day settled down, and we all had lots of fun!

It was also Mark's first day of school on Monday - I had to leave for work before he left for school, but I told him he'd better take a first day of school picture...(yes, just like when you are a little kid :) and guess what, he did it! I'm wondering if Laura had a little hand in it too??? But this is an important first day of school for him -- because it is his last first day of school!! He is scheduled to graduate in May! Hooray!

Fun in the (not so much) sun!

As crazy as all of our summer schedules are, my family, my sister's family and my parents all managed to get a week off to vacation in Clear Lake! We rented a little cabin from Clear Lake Cottages and all stayed together - it was fun - but we all agreed next time we need more room!

We left last Saturday morning and caravan'd up to our cabin, unpacked and then hit the beach! We knew the weather forecast for the week was rainy and cold (upper 60s to mid 70s), so we took advantage of any sun we could get! It was a bit of a challenge to get our daily schedules to line up - we had a 9 month old, a 12 month old and a 35 month old - so between feedings, nap times, and cranky times, we really had to go with the flow. We spent lots of time just hanging out together.

Cousins playing.

Isaiah loved jumping on the beds and the twin air matress he got to sleep on - a big change from at home! We don't jump on the beds at our house! I guess we just figured we were on vacation so he could?

The first trip to the beach.

We were just a block away from the city beach and park. It had a fun little splash pad for the kids to run and play in. The water was really cold!! but it sure didn't phase the kids! Isaiah was a little timid at first, but after several times playing in it, he loved running right on through it!
Levi got jealous one morning when he woke up to find his daddy holding another baby...so daddy held both!
The cabin had a big chest in the living room that reminded someone of the Mario Brothers, so I had to take a picture of Isaiah next to the chest when he wore his Mario jammys.

We spent a lot of time hanging out in the front of the house while the boys rode their outside toys.

Grandpa taught Isaiah how to whistle with a piece of grass.

At the beach again...making a sandcastle

Levi really wasn't so sure about the water - here he is getting a little more brave!Aunt Nikki taught Isaiah hopscotch.

We rented a boat one day! It was so much fun! Both boys loved it at first - Levi got tired of it quickly and eventually fell asleep, while Isaiah just looked around and ate three little bags of chips -- ha ha. At that point, it was really whatever made him happy - that's what vacation is all about, right? (This one I've already had to deal with - Isaiah had a fit this morning when I told him no Cheetos for breakfast! Oh well.) Thanks Tara, Chrissy and Abby for loaning me your life jackets!
Look closely at this one -- you'll see that this is ME AND ISAIAH tubing behind the boat!! Isaiah was having so much fun until the tube got covered in water and we fell off (I think we may not have been heavy enough for such a huge tube?). We asked Isaiah if he wanted to try it again and he said, "no." but he says he did have fun on it!
More beach fun. Levi LOVED being in the water in his little floaty. He hung out in one for over an hour one day...and a long time the next day. Just content as could be. Liahna on the other hand only spent a few minutes in hers. :) Thanks Chrissy for letting me use your floaties!

Cute little Liahna.

Mark, my dad and Jay went golfing one day and took Isaiah with them! They seemed to have a good time and Isaiah was a good boy for all 18 holes!! I think we were all pretty impressed! The game plan was for me to go pick up Isaiah when he started getting restless, but I didn't have to go get him! He really does love sports!
We also went to this local attraction called Fort Custer Maze. It might have been fun on a sunny day with no kids -- but the minute we pulled in, it started to sprinkle and quickly turned to pouring rain. The maze was all rocks, so we had to carry the babies (strollers wouldn't roll on the rock)....and it quickly got boring for the almost 3 year old... so needless to say, it wasn't the most fun part of the trip -- BUT the dad's of the group did complete the entire thing (while the girls bowed out to care for the kids) and Isaiah and Levi had fun in the jumpy thing and the tepee.
The boys had a fun time playing in the bathtub at the cabin. They love it at home too!! Isaiah was in the bath so long that the hot water ran out completely! The tub's plug didn't really work so we ran the water pretty much the entire time they were in it! :) Good thing we didn't have to pay the water bill!
And this is what happened right after Part I of the really long bath... so they both got in and played some more.
We did end up leaving early - on Thursday instead of Saturday morning - the weather was cold and rainy and I somehow managed to get a horrible cough while we were there. My sister's family had to leave to get home for a work event and to celebrate Jay's birthday in peace...and my mom had to leave to work on Friday, so we just all left Thursday. It was a good thing too because I came home and went to the doctor to find that I have bronchitis and an fluid in both ears! YUCK.

All in all we had a great time, but as Dorothy says, "There's no place like home."

PS -- Sorry this is so long, but I decided to post lots of pictures rather than trying to figure out which ones I should post and which to leave out! :) Hopefully you made it through the entire story! If not, oh well... "No Biggie" as Isaiah and Jayda say. By the way - I can't wait to see Jayda (and Jonah) on Tuesday! It's been way too long - over 2 weeks!

at one year and one day...

Levi slept through the night!!!!

I woke up this morning and was in SHOCK! I had to go in his room to make sure he was still there! He was sound asleep. He slept from 8pm to 7:15am! Amazing! And yes, this is the first time he has ever done this - in fact this is the first time he has slept more than 4 hours at a time!! Hooray for Levi!



By the way--we are leaving tomorrow morning for a week of fun in the sun! My little family is headed to Clear Lake to spend a week at a cabin with my parents and my sisters' family. I doubt we will have any Internet access so we'll see ya in a week!!

one year ago today.

It was just one year ago today that my life changed forever...

One year ago today my beautiful Levi James was born.

How thankful I am for this day, one year ago. And how much more thankful I am for today, that my little boy is happy, healthy and one of the best parts of my life.

Happy Birthday Levi James.

The above is the start to my entry that I was going to post this morning...but I didn't get it finished, so now I'm back and I'll share the events of Levi's happy birthday!

Levi wanted to share every bit of his birthday with me today - so he woke up around 12:15am to say that he wanted to cuddle in bed with me. So, of course I let him, because it is his birthday... so he came in to bed with me for a couple hours, went back to his bed so I could sleep a little longer...and then came back to visit me around 6. We slept another hour or so together and then got up for breakfast -- Levi's new favorite is nutrigrain bars.
We played a little while longer, and Levi was ready for a nap... in his favorite spot-mommy and daddy's bed. He likes to lay down with a binky and the blanket pulled up high.
After naps it was time to get Levi's first birthday pictures taken. So off to the mall we went... the pictures turned out pretty good. Since we were there, we decided to go play at the playland.
The boys both had a really fun time! Too bad we only had 45 minutes to play--but we had to get home to each lunch and take naps before the PARTY!

Now that Levi's a year old, it is okay for us to turn his seat front facing--we've been ready to do this for awhile! He was getting pretty cramped with the seat rear facing--his legs running into the seat. So in the mall parking lot before we went home, Mark turned his seat around.
Levi has been a picky eater these last few days or so--he really wants nothing to eat but grapes or noodles. So we picked up Zio Johno's on the way home.
After lunch, the boys slept - it took a lot of work to get Levi to sleep...he must have been too excited that it was his birthday! :) So finally daddy rocked with him and he fell asleep. I'm so glad he did so he was happy at his big birthday bash!

We rented a shelter at a park right down the street from our house... we got lucky that the weather was dry! It was very hot, but otherwise it was the perfect spot!
We had lots of family and friends come to celebrate! Including lots of little ones.
Levi received lots and lots of nice gifts! wow-thank you everyone!
Although they were all wonderful - I have to point out an extra special handmade gift that Laura made especially for Levi. It is BEAUTIFUL Laura!! And somehow she managed to find the time to make it in the middle of moving!!

What's going on here anyway?

Mark grilled hot dogs, and we had veggies and grapes to go along with...and of course cake!

Levi waiting for us to get everyone rounded up...patient little boy.
Levi trying to grab the cake as we were singing Happy Birthday.
He had never had cake before - he'd had the opportunity a few times, but I've always said...not until your birthday...so he got his own little cake and he ate pretty much the entire thing!
Isaiah had lots of fun playing too... Thank you to everyone who took care of him -- I hardly had a clue what he was doing, but I wasn't worried because I knew someone was looking after him! (I think!!:)
One special thank you to my dad for video taping the entire party! Thanks! :)
Needless to say, after the party we came home and took a bath! Got our jammy's on and played downstairs for a little while and danced to the Go Fish Guys. Levi loves music and loves to dance! :)

Then Levi got to look at his presents one more time before it was off to bed. Thank you everyone for the great gifts!!

What a special day...I can't believe it's here and gone already!