sprinkles

Isaiah learned what sprinkles were this summer when Mark made my birthday cake (I think that is when it was anyway). He knew we had more sprinkles and would ask to eat them. So, I came up with a solution -- and every once in awhile he gets a "special treat" with sprinkles. HA HA.This time he got a LOT of sprinkles ("a lot, a lot, a lot" as we call it!), usually he only gets about a third of what he got this time. Lucky boy that time I guess. :)

Jack-O-Lanterns!

At Anna's Birthday Party we each picked out a pumpkin to bring home with us. We decided to carve our pumpkins last night. The boys were both pretty excited about it and we had lots of fun. My mom came over to help (and ended up taking lots of pictures). Thanks mom for joining us!

We started with Mark's HUGE pumpkin.

My mom brought my old pumpkin knife that's meant for young kids...Isaiah thought it was pretty cool to get to use a real knife.

We had lots of fun... but didn't get to Levi's pumpkin, maybe we'll carve his another day?

Ta Da. Isaiah was proud of his pumpkin. He held it up and said, "Scary face, scary face!"
On the front step!
Isaiah was so happy to show Jayda this morning when we went outside to play.
He had to show her how all the tops come off, and how to put them back on. He is getting so interested in things and often says, "that's interesting." What a fun Halloween activity!!

leaves.

After church on Sunday I decided it was time to have some fun in the beautiful weather and beautiful leaves! Our neighborhood is so gorgeous right now, everywhere you look it is another tree with yellow, red or orange leaves. We've gone on several walks (one day we went on three separate walks!) and played outside for many hours this week. We are soaking up all the outside time that we can! Today was a dark and rainy day, and we weren't quite sure what to do without being able to go outside! I have a feeling we are in for a long winter! Let me know if you have any ideas on how to burn lots and lots of wild boy energy inside!!

Anyway, we had a blast outside in the leaves, and no surprises here...I took some cute pictures while doing it. :)

After the leaves, we walked to the park...how adorable is this?

UNI Homecoming!

Last weekend was homecoming for UNI. It's Mark's last homecoming as a student (HOORAY!) and we all wanted to celebrate, of course! Most of the events Mark went to on his own. His was recently selected to be "TC Security" which is so exciting for him! In case you don't know, TC is the "Panther" mascot for UNI. Mark has already spent lots of time with TC at all kinds of events!

But one event we did get to go to as a family, the Panther Festival. It was outside on campus with a virtual parade (aka little booths supporting several events/organizations giving out free stuff) and 2 HUGE jumpy things for kids! It was tons of fun, but a little bit chilly! We had to cut the day short because I forgot to bring hats and mittens (DUH! - what was I thinking? at least they both had coats on, I guess HAHA).

Here we are: Go Panthers! Do you think this one is good enough, that with some editing and cropping I could use it for Christmas cards???
We found TC and got to say hi, give him a hug, and have our mini UNI football signed!
Isaiah playing sandbags...
The jumpy things... I think these are Isaiah's all time favorite things in the world!
After a few times down the slide, the "worker" asked Mark if he wanted to go with him!
Home again, Home again.

Friday night.

Last night the boys and I went on an adventure to Target. It's always a mystery as to how a shopping trip with both boys and a long list will turn out! Last nights list was mostly fun stuff for the boys (like a pair of shoes that actually fit Levi's SUPER WIDE feet) and some bath color tablets (just like Caiden). Surprisingly I made it through an hour and 15 in Target with TWO happy boys! And we got everything on our list except the fruit - how does the new Target not have any fruit???

Anyway, we came home to try out the new bath colors. The boys both thought they were SUPER cool! Levi just smiled and laughed about the water for 5 minutes straight! I told Isaiah he could pick two tablets to try, so he picked blue and red. The water looked so pretty, and was really bright! (You can't really tell that from the picture below)

After bathtime, we got jammys on and put on our new slippers (well, Isaiah's new slippers, Levi's hand-me-downs from Isaiah, and my old, old slippers). The boys sure looked cute, and they both thought they were pretty cool.
Did you notice that Isaiah picked out Spiderman slippers? Did I ever mention that Isaiah loves Spiderman for some strange reason? Isaiah decided that we needed to have a popsicle for a bedtime snack.
Levi's a bit messy when he eats popsicles! :)Levi got bored of the movie Isaiah picked out (Qwest for Camelot, I think?)
What a fun night we had!

finally a new dresser for Levi.

Levi's clothes situation has been a mess since he was born. But as of today, problem solved! Now, not only does he have a perfect closet with 2 clothes bars, but a brand new dresser as well!

The old dresser - a VERY old dresser of my parents that I painted white. The drawers would hardly open, and once they were open, they wouldn't hardly shut. Only 3 knobs were put back on it after I painted...and it actually fell over on Isaiah one day shortly after we moved in...yikes!
The new dresser - BEAUTIFUL!

what's your favorite?

Last weekend we went to my sister's house to celebrate her birthday -- Happy Birthday Nichole! My dad was the official camera man and I don't have pictures from him to share yet...

Anyway, her house is just about 2 hours away. We didn't leave to come home until around 6pm and we didn't want Isaiah to fall asleep in the car - we knew there was no way we'd get him to bed if he slept that late in the evening. So to keep him up, I asked him lots of "what's your favorite" questions...I wrote all his answers down so I could share them on my blog and put them in his baby book...and what do you know, the list is missing.

So, tonight, I asked Isaiah some more "what's your favorite" questions ... funny thing is, a lot of his answers are the same (as far as I can remember) and a lot of them were different too.

Here goes...

What's your favorite...

• color - blue (WHAT?! he ALWAYS, I mean A-L-W-A-Y-S says orange. so I asked him again a few questions later and he said orange--he likes orange so much that whenever picking out a Popsicle or vitamin or anything with a color choice he picks orange hands down)
• song - Jesus Loves Me
• food - Macaroni and Cheese (no surprise there, it's been his favorite for a long, long time)
  
• fruit - strawberries
  
• cartoon character - Grapey Guy, Who's that? I asked him, "that means my name." he said. (I totally expected him to say Spiderman)
• Toy - Jack-o-latern (what?! we don't have any toy jack-o-lanterns or even pumpkins or anything like that!)
• Book - Curious George and the Fire Trucks (we've never even read this book! He's totally in a Curious George phase - we read at least 5 Curious George books a day-we own 3 and usually check out 3 more from the library. Curious George and the Fire Trucks (actually and the Firefighters) is pictured on the back of one of the ones we own, but we've never actually read it before, haha.)
• Shape - Apple Shape
• Dinosaur - "The King One, the Tyrannosaurus Rex"
• Thing to do outside - Ride trikes and race
• Place to go - the mall. "What do you like to do at the mall?" I asked him, "Play at the playland." He requests to go to the mall AT LEAST once per week.
  
• Animal - giraffe (same as in the car)

He's such a funny boy. Maybe I'll try to play this game once a month or so and see how his answers change, sounds like fun to me! :)

Happy Birthday Rhea!

Our little friend Rhea turned 3 last week and we had lots of fun celebrating with her at her birthday party!

Rhea and Isaiah have been buddies since they were tiny, newborn babies! Rhea's mommy, Amy, is a friend of mine from work. We've gotten Rhea and Isaiah together every few months or so (sometimes much longer, and sometimes much more often), since they were born. They always have lots of fun playing together.

Both Isaiah and Levi had a great time at the party!

Birthday girl!
Look at all the kids! Levi ate 2 pieces of pizza!
Rhea's cousin Neveah was being so friendly and motherly to Levi - watching out for him! :)
Thanks for the fun sunglasses Rhea!

some fun we've had the last couple weeks...

With the weather being colder and the days getting darker, it seems like we've had to be a little more creative in the last few weeks in ways to have fun! Luckily for me, my kids and Jayda and Jonah are good helpers with this!

One of the funniest things we have been doing around here is using the hamper as a toy. Isaiah likes to "hide" in it. Often times he will disappear and I will find him hiding in it waiting for me to find him! :) He's also used it as his kitchen to make me lunch. He likes to get in it and ask me, "what do you want for lunch mommy?" Our dinosaurs also like to ROAR at him in it, that's Levi's favorite part -- check out the second picture below. Oh what fun we can have with things that aren't toys -- it seems like more fun than we have with actual toys! We got the go-kart out again this week, both boys have fun making it go!
At my mom's school the kindergarden teach retired and a new teach took over this year. She cleaned out the kindergarden room and gave away some things she didn't need for the classroom. This worked for us because we were able to get some fun things for free from this! Both Isaiah and Jayda have really enjoyed these boards - they figured them out right away! I thought maybe they would be too little for them, but they will sit for a good 15 minutes or more playing with them. Check out the triangle Isaiah made in the second picture - I was pretty impressed with it - he made it in the first few minutes without me showing him...
One day it was nice enough to walk to the park. Isaiah and Jayda didn't feel like walking so I decided to let them ride in the wagon...I was probably a funny site on the way to the park - pushing the double stroller AND pulling the wagon. HA HA. It was a little tough getting up the hill, but we made it! and it was so worth it. The weather was beautiful and we had lots of fun at the park!
Isaiah's been having fun wearing Caiden's Cars jammies - Thanks Caiden for loaning us your clothes! Caiden is Isaiah's birthday buddy - the exact same age - and Isaiah can wear his hand me downs... my little Isaiah! :)
Isaiah was pretty happy about the pudding he made tonight - he basically made it all by himself! I suppose it isn't that hard, is it?! :) Notice the hamper is being used again in this picture! can we say dangerous?!
We've started building lots of towers around here again. It seems like for the past several months, blocks were just not our thing...but they are back!
Baths are turning into a fun activity for the boys to do together. They love to be in the tub together - Isaiah will ask for Levi if he's not there, and Levi will even ask for Isaiah if he's not there. One day Levi decided to get in the bath with his clothes on one day - I'm not sure why I hadn't drained the water, but I hadn't, and he thought it was hilarious! After the bath, the boys like to run around in their hooded towels. Isaiah always shouts, "Super boy!" or he'll say, "I am ready to be super boy now, mommy."
Playing with silly daddy. Isn't this picture adorable!?
So there you have it, our last few weeks in pictures!
If you need a good laugh, or something fun to do - come on over and have some fun with us! :) We'd love the company!