a snowy hike.

Friday my dad called and invited Isaiah and Levi to go on a walk with him and his dog, Flash. What a great idea, but only if I could come too! It was a beautiful day for a walk, even the sun was shining! It was warm enough that Isaiah didn't say one word about being cold (and that never happens!). I was able to get some cute snow pictures of the boys and their grandpa. What a wonderful way to spend a Friday afternoon!
Isaiah had to stop for a potty break so we got to look around the nature center. Levi loved the turtle. He just stood there staring at it and repeating "turtle" over and over.
We decided to take the back way to our cars from the nature center. We got about half way there and the path stopped, so we trudged through the deep snow. That was tough, eventually Isaiah ended up in my dad's arms and Levi in mine. Whew! that was a workout!

we made it!

Why haven't we done this more often this winter? I guess because most winter long it was below zero? Hopefully we get more hikes in this late winter and spring! Invite us again dad! :)

random fun.

It seems like we've had lots of random fun this month. Most of these pictures were taken early February, with all the craziness I am just now getting to share them!

We've had so many days with lots of snow this winter, and many of those days you could find all four of us outside shoveling... We have two "big" shovels and one toddler shovel, so whoever is the last one out had to use the garden shovel or the garage broom! haha. I think we'd better invest in another snow shovel! :)One day we went to the Indoor playgym and Kammy came to visit us. As we were leaving, she made a challenge with Isaiah - Kammy was going to go home and clean her room and Isaiah was to go home and clean his room and whoever got done first needed to call the other one...and whoever lost had to treat the winner to McDonald's french fries... You'll never guess who won--Isaiah! :) He did seriously try to get his room clean and fast! So one afternoon Kammy picked Isaiah up to go play with Austin and then go to McDonald's for dinner. He was so excited, he waited by the door all day long for them to come get him.
Caiden and LeAnna came over this month to have supper and play. The big boys got to sit at the big boys table! These boys are so funny together--they are definitely boys. They like to play trucks, wrestle and be wild and crazy boys.
My cute little Levi managed to climb in the toy box and play all by himself. He seems to like playing by himself sometimes...
We had a pizza party with Erika and Rhea! We had lots of fun. These three play together so well. They are so close in age--Isaiah's the oldest by 2 days, Erika is just behind Isaiah and Rhea is 3 weeks after Erika!! Isaiah still mentions Erika's new puppy Clarabell that was at the party. Can't wait to play again next week!! (and yes, Levi is at these parties too, but I think it's cute to get a picture of just the big kids!)
Once again, Levi managed to get up on the bathroom counter...this time he decided he wanted to brush his teeth with my electric toothbrush. What a little monkey.
We've had more random fun since these pictures were taken, so I'll have to share those soon!

Look!

Look what Isaiah did all by himself...that's right, he zipped his coat! This was not something we'd worked on at all. He's shown some interest in doing it for awhile now, but never really wanted me to show him how to do it. The other day I saw him fiddling with his coat as we were getting ready to go.Roughly 5 (okay maybe 10) minutes later he comes running to me..."LOOK!" He was so proud. He posed for the picture above and said, "take my picture!" I knew it was a super HUGE deal to him since he wanted his picture taken, as he never wants to pause for pictures! He's since zipped his coat just about every time we have gone somewhere (which means we have to get ready to leave 5 minutes early to allow enough time for this!:) Big boy!

jammy time and memories of the glider rocker

Sometimes getting ready for bed can be a bit of a challenge at our house. We might hear: "I'm not tired" or "I'm not ready to go to bed yet" or "I just want to wear this (meaning his clothes) to bed tonight." Usually I can predict if it is going to be one of those nights and try to come up with a way to avoid the fight.

A week or so ago we were about to have one of these nights when I suggested to Isaiah that he and Levi should be twins tonight in their Mickey jammies. He thought this sounded like fun (thank goodness!) and we had a twin party! They were so cute! I actually let them play a little later than usual just because I was enjoying them look so sweet. cheese!!

I bought the glider rocker chair below before Isaiah was born. I spent countless hours in the middle of the night rocking and feeding Isaiah in Isaiah's room at our old house in this chair. I also used it as a place to take lots of pictures of Isaiah when he was a little baby. We now have the chair in Levi's room, and it gets used right before bed for Levi and daddy (or mommy) to read stories with him. We rarely spend time in Levi's room playing - so when Isaiah sat in that chair it brought back a lot of memories.
memories...

2 months.....................4 months

6 months.....................8 months

10 months....................13 months

18 months old.

Our little Levi James turned 18 months old a few days ago! How is that even possible?

Here's a little update on who he is today:

* He is starting to talk so much and use real words and sentences. Some of his latest new words/phrases are: I want milk (i wa mil), outside, ow (when he gets hurt), stuck or I'm stuck, bar (for his favorite thing to eat - cereal bars), go, I want down (I wa do), help, please (peese), thank you, Elmo (mel-mo). He's been saying for awhile now: mama, mommy, dada, daddy, Isaiah, Grandma, Grandpa, ball, puppy, book, no, mine (love that one), stop, stop it, uh-oh, out, binky (dinky), blankie (bank-ie), and probably lots more.

* He loves his big brother. He often calls for Isaiah when he's not around. He loves to do what Isaiah's doing...

* which means he's a monkey and a dare devil just like Isaiah! He has no fear and is very curious. He isn't afraid to climb on the coach and fall off the backside of it. He is brave.

* This braveness has left him with multiple bumps, bruises, cuts, and scrapes. I can't remember a day that Levi hasn't had some kind of owie on his face. But he is so brave, that he hardly flinches, let alone cries, when he gets a bump.

* He loves to dance. When he hears music, he starts waiving his hands in the air and dances. He gets a big smile on his face and is so happy.

* He also loves to jump. He is a good jumper! His favorite thing to do is jump up and then land on his bottom. He will do this and then grin, get up and do it again :) silly boy.

* He still loves to sleep with his binky and his blanky, but I think he's about ready to give them up (okay, maybe not, but I'm starting to feel like he should). He actually has just about given up his binky at Laura's house. I think it's been 2 or 3 days now that he's gone down for a nap without a binky there! He usually doesn't have a binky unless it's nap time or bed time -- or he's really cranky/tired.

* He still shows no interest in the TV (which is good). He could care less if it's on. He might stop and watch it for maybe 30 seconds if something very exciting happens to be on (like Elmo or Mickey). We rarely have the TV on at our house, but Isaiah usually likes to watch a show when he first wakes up.

* He now sleeps really well at night (it's about time , right:) and goes down easily (most nights) around 8--sometimes closer to 7:30 when he didn't get a good afternoon nap, or 8:30 if he had a late afternoon nap--and sleeps until about 7 in the morning. Once in awhile he wakes up around 4 or 5, but Mark can usually get him to lay back down in his crib and sleep another hour or two. If I try to put him back down, it doesn't work! I'm too much of a softie and will pick him up and then Levi's won the battle! :) Just occasionally does he wake up in the middle of the night.

* Just recently he was working on getting all 4 of his cuspid teeth in. They have all popped through (or at least you can see the tips of each one) so he's finally not so cranky. Last week was a week where the occasionally up in the night was for a couple hours each night. Those teeth were the hardest yet! He's now up to 12 teeth!

* He's still a picky eater. He has a few things that we can count on him eating: cereal bars, cheese, noodles, grilled cheese, grapes, kiwi, rice. He will usually eat: apples (but he prefers big pieces or a whole apple), things made with hamburger - like casseroles, tacos, etc, chicken nuggets, soup. Hopefully he'll start eating a little more variety!

We love our little Levi and are so happy that he is such a healthy little boy!!

12 years ago today...

we were all dressed up and nervous to go on our first date!Our high school had a Valentine's Day dance on Valentine's Day 1998. Mark asked me to go to the dance and I excitedly said "maybe." He said, "how strong of a maybe is it?" we don't remember how the rest of the story goes, but that we ended up going to the dance together! We danced the night away at the Greyhound Park to the song MMM Bop by Hansen.

The picture above was taken before the dance at Mark's mom's house. I drove to pick him up because he didn't have a car, but I did. A brown 1989 Toyota Camery (or some year close to that).

How crazy is it that 12 years later we have been married for 7 1/2 years and have two beautiful boys together!?!? What a wonderful life we've built together!

Toddler playdate.

Levi had his friend Shiloh over a week or so ago. Shiloh is just a few days older than Levi. She is my friend Erin's daughter. Erin and I have tried to get these little ones together as much as we can - it's good for the babies, but really it's even better for us.It's crazy to see just how different the two are when they are basically the exact same age. Shiloh has a HUGE vocabulary and repeats so much of what she hears! She was saying Levi the entire time she was here. Levi, on the other hand, was running and jumping all around and Shiloh just watched him in awe. :) It was also nice to catch up with Erin and find out that her baby #2 was on the way and due to arrive in September!! How exciting!

What sweet little friends.

Superbowl Sunday

We had a little Superbowl party at our house for the big football game. We had the perfect turnout - a few guys, my parents, another mommy for me to hang out with, and 2 little boys to hang out with our 2 little boys.

The first half of the game the mommies kept the little boys upstairs so the guys could enjoy the game. This was our first playdate with Will and Weston so it was a good chance for the kids to get to know each other. They had lots of fun and were all very well behaved! I don't think there was a single fight!!
After the first half, we decided to go downstairs to watch halftime on the big screen and join in the party. We ended up staying downstairs for the rest of the game because the boys, especially the older boys, were very entertained by---you guessed it, the JEEP! Isaiah and Will (who is just about a month older than Isaiah) had so much fun driving the Jeep back and forth and playing make-believe with it. For awhile they were bird watching and driving to where they needed to go to watch for birds and take pictures with Isaiah's toddler camera. Then they decided that the Jeep was broken down and it needed new batteries (blocks) and oil (I'd pretend to hand them something for this). They must have done this for well over an hour!They were so good about taking turns driving and riding. I was very impressed. Because our basement really isn't set up for a little Jeep to go back and forth, the adults had to make sure they didn't bang it into the wall or anything else. So close to the end of the game, the Jeep's real battery needed to go to bed. :)

What a fun night, thanks friends for coming!

how old are you?

For a month or so now Isaiah has been telling people that he's 4 or 5. When someone asks (like the cashier today at Kohl's), "how old are you?" Isaiah will hold up 4 fingers and say, "I'm 4." I'm not really sure why he's been doing this. silly boy.

Tonight Isaiah was playing with my bottles of shampoo that I have to set up so they don't get dumped out in the bathtub (learned that the hard way - I've had a few full bottles dumped out on me:) . He says to me, "I really want to be 5."

I say, "you do, why?"

"because I do." and he starts throwing the bottles on the floor.

"5 year-olds wouldn't do that," I say to him.

"I'm 3," he says and keeps throwing them.

haha


one other story from today...

Isaiah gives me a hug today and says, "your a great grownup." Awww

I will often tell Isaiah that he's a "good kid" or a "great little boy" and things like that. Today he reciprocated it to me :) so sweet.

Happy Birthday Great Grandma!

My Grandma Irene, my dad's mom, turned 90 this week! We had a birthday celebration for her today. These family events are getting harder and harder with two busy boys, but it was great to see family and celebrate my grandma.

The party was at my cousin's in Dubuque. My cousin's home is BEAUTIFUL, but is in NO WAY child proof :) So the kids cannot be left for even one minute without someone watching! I'd hate for them to break anything!!

Much of the day was spent chasing someone up or down the stairs - they have two staircases going upstairs, Levi and Liahna loved going up and down them. Isaiah liked that he could peak through the stairs.


My cousin's daughters... Madison and Carolyn.
My Uncle Tom and Aunt Sheri made us a delicious Prime Rib (or so I heard, I'm not a fan of that style of meat.) THANK YOU!
My grandma and her kids.
Now with the spouses...

Little Liahna is growing up! She is now walking all over the place!! Big girl!
The kids had fun, and Isaiah was exhausted for the ride home. He fell asleep about 5 minutes after he got buckled in. We let him sleep for a half hour or so and then had a dance party in the car the rest of the way home. Thankfully Levi was able to get in a nap at the party (Thanks Dad for getting him to sleep!) so he was on his "regular" schedule.

What a nice Saturday.
Happy Birthday Grandma!

Meet Mickey Mouse.

A few days ago it got nice and warm outside, it had to have been at least 33 degrees! :) But the snow was PERFECT for making snowmen! Isaiah actually asked if we could go outside to play while Levi was napping!! So out we went...and we made a new friend...
We made two others before him, but as I was putting on the top ball, I fell over on them both times! :) It was pretty funny, both Isaiah and I were laughing. I asked Isaiah what he wanted to name the first snowman and he said, "grandma." I asked him again with the second one and he said, "grandma" again. And the with the third snowman I asked him again and he said, "Mickey Mouse." haha

I think Isaiah's favorite part of the whole experience was that we got to walk across the street to find sticks. He kept thinking of more reasons that we needed to go find more.

So here we are with our friend Mickey Mouse.
I hate to say that with all the snow we've already gotten today and all the snow that's yet to come, Mickey may be a goner by tomorrow. Poor Mickey! :)