m.a.i.l. t. ime

snow

2012-02-11T20:46:00.001-06:00

When the weather got cooler the boys just about refused to play outside, even when it wasn't that cold, they still wouldn't go. But as soon as the snow hit the ground they were all about being outside and have since spent hours and hours out in the snow this year! The favorite things are sledding down the "hill" that we have on the side of our house which is actually a second set of stairs but works great for them to sled down and pushing the trucks around in the snow. They also are always up for a good snowball fight - but only if they are the ones doing the throwing! :) It's nice that they are big enough to play together and by themselves outside and I can stay in with the baby and watch from the window. I have gone out several times with them too. You will see in the picture below our snowman they named Frosty. The boys also made a little one with my dad too (not pictured). Looking through my pictures, I've obviously not done a good job getting good snow pictures so far this year. Next time they are outside I'll definitely have to get some good ones!

The last time my sister was up here she brought Liahna's snow gear and the cousins had a good time playing out in the snow for quite awhile too.

As nice as the weather has been this winter, for the kids sake I hope we get at least one more good snow!

who's who take 2

2012-02-10T11:55:00.000-06:00

I was informed by someone (ahem dad) that the pictures weren't fair with Levi being in black and white and Titus' head turned a bit so I promised him I'd try it again. Here are all 3 boys again - not the exact same age but all within a few days of each other. Now can you tell who's who?

no coats in January!

2012-02-09T11:17:00.002-06:00

We went straight to the park one January day after school. It was so warm we didn't even need coats! This was officially Titus' first trip to the park since he actually got OUT of the carseat! The boys had fun on the playground but then decided they needed to look for interesting things around the trees. I think they would have spent hours doing this, but we had to head home before it got dark. We are loving this mild winter!

first bottle

2012-02-08T17:40:00.000-06:00

Titus enjoyed his first bottle (3 oz of mommy's milk) last night with daddy. Mark was so very excited and Titus drank it pretty well. I will admit it was just a bit sad for me, however, I'm reassured that he will survive when I head back to work in 12 days. What a good boy!

who's who?

2012-02-04T22:38:00.000-06:00

I think it's so funny to hear everyone's comments on who looks like who. Everyone has an opinion and it seems to be different from the last persons. I've had people tell me that Isaiah looks exactly like me. I've had people tell me that Titus looks exactly like Mark. I've had people tell me that it's great that I finally have a baby that looks a bit like me since the others look just like Mark. I've heard that Levi has the same features as Mark. I've been told Isaiah and Levi look just alike and I've also been told they look nothing alike. I think any combination that you can put together I've heard. So let's hear what you have to say about the boys. Here is a picture of each of them EXACTLY (to the day) the same age - 7 weeks 5 days old. See if you can tell who is who... I think it's pretty obvious, but based on the variety I've heard about looks, I have no clue what you will think? And while you are at it, do you think they look like Mark or me?

and just for fun, here is me at 4 months, so a bit older, but fun to compare...

I'm still digging for a picture of Mark as a baby, I'll keep you posted...if you happen to have any Michele, feel free to send them my way!

all 3

2012-02-03T23:07:00.000-06:00

Isaiah desperately needed a haircut (and Levi could use one too) and of course Levi doesn't have a shirt on, but here's just an every day glimpse of my 3 baby boys... the first week of January.

love them.

1.3.12

2012-02-02T21:01:00.000-06:00

Not sure how I'm going to sort through the hundreds and hundreds of pictures that have already been taken of this sweet sweet baby. But here are a few good ones from 1.3.12.

laundry soap

2012-02-01T16:00:00.000-06:00

I started making homemade laundry soap several months back. I'd been wanting to try it for years, but I just never got motivated enough to do it. I was reading an article about the health risks of fabric softener one day and ran across a very simple recipe and decided it was time to try it. Not only does it contain far less chemicals than the typical laundry detergent that you buy, but it is also much, much cheaper! I'm still using the original ingredients that I purchased months ago and all together they cost under $15! I see no change in how clean our clothes seem and I rarely have to pre-treat anything. I've had several people ask me for my recipe so I figured here would be a good place to post it!

the ingredients:

* 20 Mule Borax laundry booster
* Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
* Ivory bar soap

I had trouble finding the Borax and the washing soda at Target so I did have to go to Wal-Mart for that. (bummer!)

the recipe:

Step 1 - Shave one bar of Ivory soap with a cheese grater. (I use the smallest part so the flakes are tiny).

Step 2 - Measure 1 cup borax and 1 cup washing soda and pour into container you plan to store the soap in

Step 3 - add the soap flakes and mix, mix, mix...done!

It takes a grand total of about 5 minutes and it makes me enough soap to last several weeks.

how to use:

1 tablespoon per load unless very soiled then use up to 2 tablespoons.
(I almost always use just 1 tablespoon, but occasionally if I stuff it full I will use a little more).

I do have an HE washing machine and this recipe is safe to use in this type of washer as the ingredients, like the HE detergents, produce very low suds.

swimming

2012-01-31T09:52:00.000-06:00

The boys were getting awfully restless by the end of Isaiah's Christmas break. One afternoon my mom and I took them to the Y to go swimming. We've gone several times (but not lately) and we've been the only people in the pool or maybe a couple others, but this day it was packed! This is my favorite pool to take the kids too (probably even more than an outdoor pool!) because it is sooooooooo warm, and big, but not huge, plus I can trust the kids alone in it with their life jackets and not worry they are going to get lost. Levi was going crazy with his jumps into the pool - he was jumping in really far, he was jumping in backwards, he was walking right in - it was really funny! He continues to have NO FEAR. Isaiah had fun jumping in too, but nothing like Levi. He also had fun just paddling around the entire pool. Titus just slept through it all - I had no intention of getting him in the pool anyway! What a fun way to play! Thanks mom for coming with us!

New Years Eve.

2012-01-30T14:31:00.000-06:00

We had a fun New Year's Eve with a few friends....When we left it was decided that we'd try to be home by 10... (and it actually wasn't me that set the time!! :)...but we ended up making it home about 11:30 or so... we watched the ball drop at 11:00 and then headed home. The kids - Isaiah, Levi, Titus, Caleb, Elise and Caiden - had fun running around playing who knows what and barely watching Cars 2 while the adults - Mark and I, Chad & Erica and LeAnna - sat around the table playing fun games and eating lots of food... I didn't even think to get the camera out until it was about time to go.

It's definitely fun to ring in the new year with good friends!

marble surprise!

2012-01-28T13:52:00.000-06:00

Isaiah and Levi received a huge marble track set for Christmas (from my sister - she gives good gifts! 2 posts in a row!). This set came with instructions on how to make three different tracks. Since seeing the instructions on Christmas Isaiah had been really, really wanting to make them and we finally had a chance one naptime. Isaiah and I worked and worked to make sure we got things just right (the directions were just a big confusing black and white picture - not easy to follow at all!). But after quite awhile - we did it! We picked the biggest track using just about all of the pieces. Shortly after we got it together Levi woke up and was surprised at our creation. I love the pictures of Levi because it is totally him right now - shorts, no shirt, a tattoo on his arm, blanky in hand and a random stuffed toy with him (he has not attached himself to any one specific toy but will often want to sleep with one - this one is his soldier bear that sings "I'm Proud to be an American", but he also likes a beanie baby dog and rabbit, a cute little lamb that Grandma Michele sent for Titus, along with a few others I can't think of right now). We did keep this track set up for a few days but then it got knocked over so we ended up doing the other two when that happened. What fun!

UNI Carnival

2012-01-27T21:32:00.000-06:00

On December 29 UNI Athletics held a family carnival at the dome before the women's basketball game. My dad wanted to take Isaiah to the basketball game, but my mom, Levi, Titus and I joined them at the fair first. The kids had a blast in the bouncy house and maze when we first got there - and good thing too because it got crowded with long wait times. After watching lots of people dance to the Kinect on the big screen, Levi decided to join in and did NOT want to leave. He looked pretty cute up on stage next to everyone else! The big boys finally talked me into letting them jump on the big track mats with all the other kids, but it got crowded and made me too nervous so we made them get down! And just as we were getting ready to go, we spotted TC. Levi refused to get up close to him, but spent a good 5 minutes a few feet apart from him while TC tried to convince him to at least give him a high 5. Isaiah gave him a big hug. And Titus, well, he slept through the entire thing! It's fun living in a college town!

slippers

2012-01-26T20:13:00.000-06:00

Titus got lots of cute little gifts from so many friends, family members and even friends of my mom's! We love each and every one of them. And I sure hope I remembered to write each person their thank you card - if I didn't send yours - please know that I thought it and we are so thankful! I did happen to catch a couple of my favorite pictures from the week after Christmas with the cute little slippers my sister gave Titus in the hospital.

Sweet Brother.

Dear Friend.

Christmas Day

2012-01-25T19:48:00.000-06:00

On Christmas morning the boys woke up to find that Santa had come and filled their stockings (which never did get hung up this year!) and a few other gifts. Along with a few gifts from us - we kept our tradition of getting the boys each 3 gifts from us like the Bible talks of the 3 gifts for Jesus. (however, Titus did not receive gifts this year :).

1 - A spiritual gift (like frankincense) - a Bible story book each - Isaiah's was the story of Adam and Eve and Levi was David and Goliath

2 - A gift they might cherish or really want (like the gold) - board games this year - Isaiah received Operation and Levi received Ants in Your Pants

3 - Something to keep them warm (like Myrrh) - long Batman socks with grippers on the bottom (and the slippers from the day before too)

Santa brought them each a Imaginext airplane, a small transformer, a Corvette Hot Wheels car and monster truck, and a personalized Cars book. Santa did bring Titus a little teether toy and Mark a bag of mini Reese's Peanutbutter cups and a dark chocolate orange for me (I remember getting an chocolate orange several years as a kid and I usually try to find one for myself to get each year)

The boys each gave us a gift too - I got a new pair of sock monkey slippers and Mark got a Superheros T-shirt and some much needed new basketball shoes! Mark and I decided to buy a family pass to the Rec Center as our gift to each other!

Then it was time to go downstairs to see the gifts from Grandma Michele and Great Grandma Mary. A real drum set for Levi and a keyboard piano for Isaiah!!

Around lunch time we headed to my parent's house for a yummy soup lunch. Of course presents came next. Isaiah had a good time helping pass out the presents while baby Titus got passed around from one person to another!

We spent the rest of the day just enjoying each other's company and doing a craft project that got all 5 grandkids crying...I thought they would think it was fun, but they all didn't want to do it and cried when it was their turn - go figure. But we did end up with 3 somewhat cute handprint wreaths.

At least they did better for the group picture - my mom wanted to be sure we got a picture of all 5 kids together and I'd say for a 5 year old, two 3 year olds, a 9 month old and a newborn baby we did pretty good!

We ended the night with a Herky show from the boys wearing their new Herky the Hawkeye costumes that Grandpa Mark and Grandma Cindy gave the boys -- super cute and funny!!

What a Merry Christmas we had!

Christmas Eve

2012-01-21T13:00:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve was a fun day for our family! We started the morning by having the boys open one small present - we usually open one small gift on Christmas Eve each year and the morning was really the only chance we were going to have ... and the boys have been very into slippers this year and Levi only had a pair of like 18 month slippers he had been cramming his feet into for a few weeks. They were very excited about them - Isaiah Transformers and Levi Batman. We then enjoyed some blueberry muffins for breakfast (after I went on a hunt for donuts - I like to do something special on holiday mornings, but didn't have a chance to get anything prepared and not a single store was open at 9ish am on Christmas Eve). Mark then had to go play some laser tag for the rest of the morning and afternoon and the boys and I made some puppy chow and hung out together. Things were running a bit late at the store so the boys and I headed to church and Mark met us there just a few minutes after we got there with our friends Chris and Mohammad (there is no better time to invite friends to church, we were thankful that they agreed to come!). The service was beautiful and the boys did really good - a big thank you to whoever thought to play the Christmas Story cartoon as we were waiting for church to start - definitely made our life easier as we got to church early to make sure we had enough seats. It was pretty special to sit in the very dimly lit church with a brand new baby celebrating the birth of baby Jesus.

After church we headed to Mark's dad and step-mom's house to celebrate Christmas with them. Grandpa Mark took first dibs on holding baby Titus and held him just about all night :) The perfect Christmas gift for him!! Mark shared the Christmas Story of Jesus' birth with all the kids around the table and then we sang happy birthday to Jesus. Shortly after we heard sleigh bells and Santa arrived! The kids were all sooooooo excited! Baby Titus was excited to meet Santa too (as his shirt says he is Santa's favorite -- thanks Gretchen!!). Levi kept asking Santa where his reindeer were, but because there was no snow, Santa had to park them in the field a ways away! Grandma Cindy couldn't let Santa leave without some goodies, but Levi thought he needed another cookie too and tried to get Santa's :) He did let him eat a bit of the frosting. haha The night flew by with eating good food, giving gifts and enjoying the chaos of 7 kids 6 and under and before we knew it we had to head home.

at the park in December!

2012-01-19T14:42:00.000-06:00

The weather in December was unusually warm and the boys were getting restless being stuck at home with a new baby so one afternoon we made our way to the park! It was the first time I had driven with all three-I was glad it was a short drive! The boys had a good time playing together, I had fun taking lots of pictures with the new camera and baby Titus snoozed the entire trip.

baby's first bath

2012-01-18T14:18:00.000-06:00

On December 16 it was time for Titus' first bath. Of course it was really just a wipe down since his belly button couldn't get wet yet, but the boys insisted that he must have a bath in a bathtub so I figured why not. He was happy as can be sitting in the tub fully clothed, but once the big boys were settled in their bath and I got him undressed the screaming began and didn't stop until he was all dressed again. The boys couldn't seem to figure out why he was so upset, poor little guy!

Since his first bath we have tried a couple more times but he screams and screams. Isaiah wasn't really happy about baths when he was a bitty baby either so I used to shower with him. I gave it a try with Titus and he doesn't mind the shower, in fact I think he kind of likes it. So for now we are sticking with the shower, but we will try a bath again soon.

baby story.

2012-01-17T11:38:00.000-06:00

So the days leading up to December 12 came and went and baby decided not to make his arrival so we went to bed on December 11 as normal, but Mark and I got little sleep as we knew big things were happening the next day! We were up, showered and out the door before 6 to get to the hospital to have a baby! (Thanks mom for coming to be with the big boys!). Being induced once before I knew what to expect which from my experience with Levi, I'm not sure this was a great thing (he came fast and things were VERY intense with him), but none the less we were very, very excited about what was to come. By about 8:30 paperwork was done, nurses had prepped me and our doctor arrived and he placed 1/2 the normal dose of induction gel to get things moving. At this point I was still dilated to a 2 (which is what I was at 37 weeks), but I was having contractions on my own about every 15 minutes. Shortly after the gel was placed I was contracting very regularly. After about an hour I was able to get up and moving and Mark and I did some walking of the halls with lots and LOTS of good laughter... I think people thought we were crazy laughing loudly down the halls while in very active labor - but it's the laughter that get Mark and I through the toughest times. Next we decided to try the tub as things were starting to be a little more intense and I was looking for relief! By 11 I was checked again and still only to a 4 which was a bit surprising as with Levi's delivery I was pushing by this time! But we had to make the call - an epidural or not? I hadn't had one with either of my other deliveries, but after lots of consideration the weeks before, we decided to go ahead with one this time... so they came and gave one to me - an experience that was like no other - and then we waited for baby to make his move. This was so different for me as I couldn't feel anything and there really wasn't anything I could do to make things speed up, we just had to wait. I think I was also thrown off because I was told I may have some numbness in my legs, but it wasn't just numbness it was like each leg had gained 1 million pounds - I couldn't move. On my right side I couldn't even wiggle my toes! During this wait time our doctor asked Mark if he wanted to deliver the baby and right away Mark agreed. He was so excited! Shortly after 2 the waiting was over, it was time to push. The doctor and nurses had to tell me when to go because I just couldn't feel a thing! After one round of pushing the doctor could tell his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice so he had Mark cut the cord as soon as he could and then had me push again and Titus Cohen was born... a miracle.

Because the cord was around his neck he was very blue/purple and the nurses needed to suck the yucky stuff out of his lungs right away to get him to scream. I was sooooooooo nervous as I couldn't see anything that was happening, I just knew they had Mark hand him off right to the nurses and he wasn't making any noises. My doctor could tell I was nervous and kept saying, "Alisha, he's okay. He's good." But I don't think I really believed it until I had him in my arms. What a relief! I was able to nurse him right away and he latched on first try! Right away I thought he looked a lot like Isaiah did at birth, but as the hours passed I could also see Levi in him and his very own features too. What a beautiful boy.

My mom had the big boys and Caiden all day long and as soon as LeAnna was off work they all came up to the hospital to meet the baby. Isaiah and Levi came in first to see their brand new baby brother. They were so excited to meet him and wanted to hold him and love him as soon as they could. The nurses had given him a clean up bath shortly before they arrived so he was still in his little cradle under the warmer so they got to see him in just his diaper first. Then he got wrapped up and they were able to hold him. It was so precious. Along with his brothers, Titus had lots of visitors while we were in the hospital. Thanks everyone for coming to see us!!

Thanks to LeAnna, Kammy and my mom Mark was able to stay with me for the entire hospital stay -- THANK YOU!! It was such a joy to be together the 3 of us and to soak up every minute of this brand new baby together. Titus was so tired after his birth that he slept and slept his first night - after about 4 hours I tried and tried to wake him up to feed him, but he really wasn't interested so after 2 more hours I had to try even harder and got him to eat. He was such a mellow little baby while we were in the hospital, but he was up a few more times the next night and the nurses did come and take him for a couple hours so we could get some sleep. His blood sugar had to be monitored closely while we were in the hospital since I was diabetic while I was pregnant. Thankfully all of his levels were good every time they checked. He was all around healthy! (by the way - my blood sugar was never checked, guess once baby is born, mommy doesn't matter anymore, huh? haha)

On Wednesday morning it was time for us to head home. We were excited to take our new little guy home, but also a bit nervous...not only did I have to get to know this babe, but I also had to take care of the other two little boys...yikes! The big boys were so excited for us to get home and they were very interested in their baby brother. They wanted to hold him and touch him and look at him.

The transition from 2 to 3 has been easier than I expected. We've had so much support from friends and family helping us - I don't think I can even count the number of meals that have been made and delivered to us (thank you very much - a HUGE help!), and then those who have come by to be entertainment to our big boys or even taken them on adventures (thanks dad for 2 trips to the museum!). And all of this has happened while Mark's Adrenaline X Laser Tag has taken off at the mall. It's doing better than we expected and the business keeps coming (thank you friends who have gone to play!! your support there is also so appreciated!).

Titus' birth story is one all of his own, just like my other two deliveries. We are so grateful to God that he has blessed us with three little boys. All the Glory goes to Him!

Christmas program

2012-01-16T12:57:00.000-06:00

Isaiah's preschool Christmas program was December 13 - the day we got out of the hospital with Titus. I was thrilled that it was a day that I could actually go! When the date for the program came out, I was so sad that I was going to miss it. But was very thankful it worked out that I didn't have to! Because Titus was just 2 days old I wasn't ready to leave him home with my mom (thanks for offering!!) so she came along and we had a fun time. Levi did a pretty good job watching the concert but I'm pretty sure he was itching to be up singing along with all of the kids - he is already so excited for preschool next year! Isaiah and his classmates did an adorable job - there is nothing like a bunch of 3,4 & 5 year olds singing (and screaming) at all different keys and tones to Silent Night. :) But Isaiah's favorite by far was definitely singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" with the arm movements and such. After the concert there was a chance to sit and eat cookies and milk. We quickly grabbed a couple cookies for the boys and left as soon as they were gone - we didn't want Titus out in the crowd too long!

What a fun Christmas celebration!

5x7 Folded Card

2012-01-15T20:47:00.001-06:00

Posh Pinstripes 5x7 folded card

Send custom cards from Shutterfly for St. Patrick's Day.

View the entire collection of cards.

1 month!!

2012-01-12T19:42:00.001-06:00

Titus isn't so sure how he feels about turning 1 month old today!

It's hard to believe that he's a month old today! This month has flown by, but it also feels like he's been a part of our family forever, funny how that works! I suppose the chaos of the holidays didn't make the days pass any slower!

Titus continues to be such a mellow little boy. He is very happy and content about 95% of the day (minus about an hour sometime between 5-7) as long as he his being held. But he could really care less who is holding him - a rowdy little 3 year old, a loving grandma, or his mama, they are all the same to him :). He has started to move his little arms and legs a lot and is beginning to focus his little eyes. He can tell if someone is talking to him and when he hears my voice he definitely pays attention! He continues to eat about every 1.5-2 hours during the daytime and eats about every 2-3 hours at night. Our night time routine has not changed since we brought him home - he sleeps in a cradle next to my side of the bed, eats every couple hours and ~~occasionally~~ always ends up in bed with me. His big brothers adore him more and more every day. They both try to be big helpers and don't even mind throwing away his dirty diapers for me! Sometimes they are a little more help than I need as I've turned around to find one of them have gotten him out of his swing, car seat or bouncy chair and are trying to bring him to me...this would be a big help if it didn't mean they were carrying him by his neck - haha. But really, Titus seems to love his big brothers right back and enjoys being in their arms. He has officially grown out of just about all of the newborn clothes that I had him wearing and fills the 0-3 month clothes nicely. I have a feeling it won't belong before I'm saying they are getting snug. He had a doctor's appointment on 1/4/12 (3 weeks 2 days) and he weighed in at 9lbs 6oz - up 1lb 2 oz from birth! He grew an inch to 21.5 inches which puts him in the 50% for height & weight (along with his head circumference, but I can't remember for sure how big it was 14.5 maybe???). Doctor had no concerns and thought he was a healthy little guy. Titus has lost most of the hair on the top of his head and it is coming back in light blonde just like his big brothers. He definitely uses a binky, but doesn't want it most of the time. He seems to just want it when he's done eating and when he's very tired, but he doesn't typically sleep with it. Titus prefers showers over baths, just like his big brother Isaiah did. He relaxes in the shower and acts like he is trying to drink the water off my (or Mark's) arm, but he screamed all the way through both baths I gave him. We will probably stick to showers for a few weeks and try again! He toots just about all day long and the boys think it is so funny, but it doesn't seem to bother him, however, he has tooted himself awake many times :) Is this an indication that we have another baby who is all boy? haha

We are so blessed with this little one and are loving life as a family of 5!!

Black Friday Deal.

2012-01-08T16:31:00.000-06:00

I haven't gone shopping on Black Friday for several years and this year was no different. I did send Mark to Wal-Mart for the 10pm Thanksgiving sale which turned out to be a HUGE lines and probably not worth the savings, but our boys love their Batman and Transformers slippers that came from the trip. But we did purchase just one thing on Black Friday online and I opened it the other day...

a new high chair. Safety 1st was offering free shipping and this high chair was on sale for $20.40 (regularly like $100ish) and no tax! What a great deal. The information said it was for infant on up so I decided to put it together the other day - and they are right! Titus loved sitting in it and it had the perfect position for him! He could sit up and enjoy the show of his crazy brothers!

Doesn't he look so teeny tiny in it?

loving the baby brother.

2012-01-07T13:28:00.000-06:00

Isaiah and Levi have had an amazing time being big brothers to baby Titus. They both love him so much and like to be near him. Isaiah was a little less excited about him at first but has really gotten more and more interested as the days go by. Levi has been very happy to hold and kiss him from the beginning. Here's a small look into their interactions with him...

One day Levi found a sheet of stickers and decided he needed to decorate himself with them...but then quickly realized that baby Titus needed the stickers even more so he held Titus and took all the stickers from himself and put them on the baby. :)

Another day the boys were playing costumes (again) and they decided that Titus needed to be the red pepper. We've had the red pepper costume in with all the other costumes from the start, but it is an infant costume that Levi wore his first Halloween.

I couldn't help but take a few pictures one day when the boys were all three cuddled up together on the couch. There is nothing cuter than little feet!

I hear the words "can I hold him?" so many times each day. And usually the answer is sure! After going through pictures, I realized I need to take more pictures of the boys holding him!

This list could go on and on with sweet moments of the big brothers with their baby brother -- but baby calls! :)

Christmas decorations.

2012-01-04T14:50:00.000-06:00

Both big boys really enjoyed the Christmas season this year. They enjoyed the tree in our house, the Christmas lights while driving, the Christmas music, the Christmas specials on TV, the special books we got out and most importantly talking about the Christmas story at home, church and preschool. I wanted to capture their favorites this year and compare them to future years!

First - Isaiah's favorite Christmas "decoration" from our box of Christmas 'stuff'. (gotta love Levi in the background putting on a fake smile - I must have said, "say cheese!")

Once again the favorite book out of the Christmas batch - I'm not sure what it is about this book but Isaiah has loved it for as long as we've had it. Isaiah has definitely outgrown Elmo and Levi never really had any interest in him so I was shocked when this was again the favorite! This year Isaiah love, love, loved to say that last five lines as fast as he could (five golden things, four calling monsters, three french friends, two yummy cookies and a red monster up in a tree -- and no I didn't even have to look up the words! haha)

We got this snow globe as a gift from a friend and Levi thinks it is the most amazing thing EVER. He L.O.V.E.S. to shut off all (and by that I mean any light in the house anywhere) the lights close all the curtains and make anyone who is at home sit and look at this snow globe in the dark (or sort of dark during the day). This is the only Christmas decoration not put away as I cannot bear to see his reaction when it's missing from the speaker -- I think he's going to have to be the one to put it away! :)

I recorded TONS Christmas specials that were on TV throughout December - Prep & Landing, Frosty the Snowman, Flintstones Christmas, Elf on the Shelf, Pinocchio Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A very Pink Christmas, Enchanted Christmas and many more. A majority of them we started, but never finished as the kids didn't really like them, but a few they loved and watched several times. We usually watched one Christmas show each night before bed with just the light of the Christmas tree! The boys really liked Prep & Landing, and Levi loves the Grinch all the time, but their favorite was A very Pink Christmas with the Pink Panther. :) It was a cute little show with no words and just music but it talked about how we can save up for ourselves or give to others - definitely a good message to talk about with them!

And last but not least, the favorite thing of Christmas by far in our house was listening and dancing to Go Fish Christmas with a Capital C CD. And to be more specific the songs Capital C and Little Drummer boy. I think we spent at least 100 hours in the 2 weeks leading upto Christmas listening to these songs - mainly Capital C over and over and over again. The day Isaiah realized that Capital C was on the CD twice - once with a comedian and once without he about fell over with happiness and he had to tell everyone who came to our house. We also spent lots of time drumming on things to the song Drummer Boy. There's nothing like the Go Fish Guys!

We really had a great Christmas Season this year and were blessed with an amazing gift - our little Titus - along with the celebration of the birth of our Savior. I can't wait for next year to do it all over again!!

happy birthday dad.

2011-12-31T20:14:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday to my dad on December 4! Did you ever think you'd spend your birthday ...

- blowing out your candles while holding onto your 8 month old granddaughter?

- watching your 3 year old (and 5 year old) grandchildren master games on an Ipad (or any type of computer for that matter)?

- wrestling with your 5 year old and 8 month old grandchildren?

We had a nice relaxing afternoon at my parents house the first Saturday in December celebrating my dad...what a great way to spend the day! :)

kindergarten basketball

2011-12-28T14:44:00.000-06:00

Isaiah was in the rec center's kindergarten basketball this fall. Even though he technically isn't in kindergarten he met the age requirement so it worked for him! (I'm not sure he was supposed to be in, so don't tell the rec center!!). He LOVED each and every practice and was sad when it was over - it was every Saturday morning from October 29 - December 10. He did a really good job listening to his coaches and doing (or at least trying) what they asked of him. I could tell improvement in many of the skills he worked on each practice - especially dribbling. The kids were each assigned a team and a team color, but they only played short games (like 20 minutes) at the end of the last couple practices. Isaiah's team named themselves Blue Storm. Levi made it to each of his practices with Mark and I and was a good boy having to sit and watch all the kids having fun playing basketball while he sat and watched. My sister and her daughters made it to one of his practices and both my parents made it to a couple too - it was nice for Isaiah to have family support! I'm sure this is the first of many, many seasons of different sports for Isaiah since he seems to love just about every sport he's ever tried... he's already excited about soccer coming up again this spring!

By the way - he was definitely one of the smaller kids there so it confirmed to me that it was a good choice to have him start kindergarten next year.

2 weeks.

2011-12-26T17:03:00.002-06:00

How can it be that 2 weeks have come and gone since Titus was born?

At 2 weeks Titus:

* sleeps all the time! but often only for a few moments if someone isn't holding him :) I promised myself that the third time's a charm and baby wouldn't be in our bed with us -- but by day 3 - he was in bed with me - haha, who I was I kidding - I like my sleep too much! He goes down in his own bed (which is set up right next to my side of the bed) after a good feeding around 11pm. Around 2 every night he wakes up and then is up every 1 1/2 - 2 hours to eat and sometimes makes it back to his bed and other times stays right next to me :)

* eats all the time! He's latched right on from the first try and has been a great eater ever since! He typically eats every 1 1/2-3 hours.

* is very, very mellow. Our house is often very noisy with little boys playing, but the noise doesn't phase him a bit. Levi got a drum set and Isaiah a keyboard for Christmas and he doesn't seem to mind being right next to the loud bangs and sounds that the boys make on them! He doesn't seem to care who is holding him or what position (most of the time) -- and he's been in some crazy spots with his big brothers holding him (especially Levi!).

* has had only sponge baths and has hated them, but his belly button cord fell off today so we are ready to give him a real bath!

* hates having his diaper changed and SCREAMS the entire way through, but really does want it changed as he gets a bit fussy when he's (really) wet/dirty. He is much happier once it's clean!

* seems to like to swing. We borrowed a swing from a friend (thanks Molly!) and he's swung in it several times and has even taken a few little snoozes in it. He seems to enjoy it for short periods of time.

* is back up to his birth weight plus some! He weighed 8lbs 4.7oz when he was born at 1 day old he was 7lbs 10oz and for some reason they didn't weigh him when we left the hospital. At 11 days old he was 8lbs 3 oz so by 14 days I'm sure he is a bit over his birth weight!

We love, love, love the newest addition to our family and are so thankful that he's here and healthy!!

the announcement!

2011-12-24T21:39:00.003-06:00

Another sweet big BIG brother

2011-12-22T14:27:00.001-06:00

I just got through nursing Titus and am holding him on my lap while he snoozes with a full belly. Levi is down for a nap (but probably not sleeping, I'm sure by now he has on a superhero costume and is playing with something). And Isaiah was to be looking at books in my bed, but after about 45 minutes he knows he can come out -- so he came out and asked to hold the baby. I gave him the baby and opened up the lap top, but before I got too far, I had to open up a word document and type out the sweet, sweet little song my Isaiah was singing to his 10 day old little brother...

Oh precious Titus
Oh precious Titus

Oh precious Titus I will love you every day

And your toots are so little

And you are oh so little

Oh I love you precious Titus

I love you precious Titus

I’ll love you every day

I’ll love you precious Titus

I’ll love you every day.

[long pause]

Little precious Titus, I’ll love you every day

I love you right now while I’m singing this song.

[ohhh look at this little yawns!]

I love you precious Titus

[oh look, he’s messing with me – oh he has a diaper mess….andhe punched me in the face]

I love you precious tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitus

I love you very much

But some people are really bigger like mommy, mommy, ordaddy, daddy, dad-dee dad-ee

They are always bigger than us, us us, usssssss

They are always going to be older than us, us, us

[oh look it, he has his eyes open, he’s blinkin’, he’strying to look at this eyes]

Your eyes are right here, right where your lookin’

That’s what your looking for is your eyes

You’re looking for your eyes and with your eyes to find youreyes

Your’re looking with your eyes to find your eyes

And I can see my eyes right now

Ba dump a dump a dump a dum

(the above part he started singing in the tune of if you’rehappy and you know it)

[a long pause and he was talking to me]

Aww little Titus

I love you like this

I love you Titus

[he is the sweetest little thing, oh he is the sweetest little thing. look at him. come on you can do it (telling Titus he can sit up). I bet you'll like it, there you go - you are facing at me. awww mama look it, he is yawning. you are so sweet....you are the most precious one in our whole family.]

sweet big brother

2011-12-20T18:00:00.000-06:00

I was holding new baby Titus while sitting next to Levi on the couch. Levi looks up at me with the most innocent eyes and says, "mommy, can we keep him?"

I say, "of course we get to keep him, he's ours!"

"the doctor said we could bring him home and have him?" he asks.

"yea!"

Levi got the biggest grin on his little face.

What a sweet big brother!

here.

2011-12-12T19:53:00.000-06:00

Titus Cohen

December 12, 2011

2:39pm

8lbs 4.7ozs

20.5 inches

beautiful.

healthy.

perfect.

Up goes the tree

2011-12-09T20:51:00.001-06:00

The Monday after Thanksgiving our family put up the Christmas tree. The boys had been waiting and waiting to do this and were sooooooo excited when it was finally time! I think this was the only time ever that Isaiah couldn't wait for Caiden to head home for the day (we told him he had to wait until after supper and Caiden had gone home). We have an artificial tree that we bought a few years back. As much fun as a real tree is, I'm glad we have what we have!

After we got the tree together and the lights put on, it was time for the ornaments! Growing up my mom always took my sister and I to pick out a Hallmark ornament of our choice. I remember loving this and even more loving opening the box of ornaments each year to see all of mine from the years. I decided to continue this tradition with my boys and I can already tell that they love it too! (Actually Mark and I continued this tradition when we got married so we each have ornaments too) We had gone a week or so before to pick out this years ornaments - Isaiah picked the Hot Wheels Corvette which was a really hard choice for him because he really, really, really wanted one that made noise and/or lit up, but we finally convinced him that the Corvette was PERFECT for him this year. Levi picked out Batman in no time, in fact he said that was the one he wanted before we even got there which was great for him too especially since he had a Batman birthday party. I had a tough time picking this year but ended up getting the Minnie Mouse one in honor of our Disney trip from February. Mark picked the countdown to Christmas guy mainly because the kids had seen it advertised on TV and thought it was really neat.

The boys had such a good time putting up almost all of the ornaments for us which lead to a huge pile of ornaments on the very bottom of the tree :) We did move some of my pretty purple Christmas bulbs up higher to even it out just a little bit. Levi got to put the star on top of the tree this year! What a fun thing to do! After the tree was up, there was no better way to finish the night off but to watch a Christmas cartoon before bed.

What a fun time of year especially with little boys who get so excited about every little part of the wondrous season!

Holiday Hoopla

2011-12-08T20:30:00.000-06:00

Downtown Cedar Falls has lots of Christmas activities going on that started with Santa's big arrival the weekend after Thanksgiving. I knew that these events were always so crowded that I hesitated to take the kids by myself (since Mark was working) but at the very list minute we went - the boys in their jammies and all! We did miss Santa's arrival which was a big bummer - but I knew we would and the boys had no idea as we showed up just before the fireworks were about to start. They both were excited to be there to see all the lights and the people. Then the fireworks started and so did the big booms and they weren't sure what to think - we didn't get to fireworks this year for the 4th of July (I'm the mom that made her kids go to bed at normal time :) ), but we saw several light shows, including fireworks, at Disney World last February. Levi put his hands over his little ears and was so concerned and Isaiah just watched in wonder. After a huge boom from a fire ball or whatever they call those, we started back towards Santa's workshop because Levi was not happy. It actually worked great because the boys got to go down the slide of the workshop over and over while all the other kids (except just a couple others playing) watched the fireworks. We played around the workshop for a bit longer and then headed toward the car. Of course Levi then got upset that the fireworks were over and he wanted them to start back up :) Silly boy.

The following Thursday night we went back downtown for a horse drawn trolley ride. They do these rides each Thursday in December and I knew that we'd better go to the first one as there is no way a newborn would be joining us on a freezing cold ride! Apparently everyone else in town thought the first night would be the best choice too because the line was l.o.n.g. We ended up waiting almost an hour in the freezing air for our turn - I kept asking the boys if they wanted to go, but they both wanted to wait! Thankfully the people behind us in line were so nice and let us sneak inside the library to warm up a couple times while we waited. Once it was finally our turn the boys were sooooooo excited and loved every minute of the ride. It was such a fun holiday experience to be riding downtown in a lighted up trolley playing Christmas music while snuggled close with a blanket on our laps and candy canes. It was definitely worth the long, cold wait! As soon as we were done Levi wanted to get back in line to wait again (which I might have done but by the time we got done the ride times were about over) and he still mentions just about every day that we need to go back and do it again. :) I have a feeling it's these little memories that will last a lifetime.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-07T16:32:00.000-06:00

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

We have so much to be thankful for this year, especially with the launch of Mark's new business and our new little one almost here. We give so much thanks to God for all that He has given us.

We had a simple Thanksgiving this year at my parents house on Thanksgiving day. My sister and her family and my grandma, my dad's mom, came too. It was a nice day with a simple meal with nothing planned which turned into 4 little cousins just enjoying each other. We spent the day browsing through Black Friday ads and hanging out. I think the cousins had a great day together. It's so cute that Elise is old enough to join in the fun and it seems like the other kids like to play with her too. Somehow my wild and crazy boys find their most gentle actions when around her (for the most part anyway!). They even experienced their first bath with Liahna which was a bit crazy, but a big part of what it means to be a little kid.

36 and 37

2011-12-06T16:27:00.000-06:00

36 Weeks

36 weeks fell the week of Thanksgiving. It was a busy week for us - Mark's second week of being open at the store, several doctor's appointments for our family (I have great eye insurance through work that both Mark and I needed to have contacts ordered by the 31st of December, Mark had a VA appointment in Iowa City, and of course a routine prenatal appointment), getting things finalized for Christmas, and trying to prepare for this little babe. At my doctor's appointment I measured right on 36.5 weeks and the little one's heart was beating strong and in the 140s as usual. He's head down and ready to go! I did gain a few pounds this week - I was a little surprised!! We had a very low-key Thanksgiving this year by spending the day at my parent's house with my sister and her family (thanks Nichole for taking the picture above!). Baby continues to move a lot and I can tell he is getting so big because his movements can be felt clearly on the outside of my belly! I've started to have cramping in my lower belly so I know this baby is getting the hint that his time inside is limited, but nothing major yet!

37 Weeks

This was another busy week for us getting used to Mark's new routine (which is great - home 4 nights a week by 8!!) and more appointments - my regular doctor's visits are now weekly, and Mark had a couple more VA appointments and meetings for his business. But the good news is we are getting them all packed in now before baby gets here! My doctor's appointment once again went fine - measuring right on and baby's heartbeat is strong - 140s again. And this week I actually lost 4.5 pounds so I'm thinking maybe my weight that surprised me last week was off. My doctor scheduled for me to be induced on Monday December 12 unless he decides to come earlier on his own. He scheduled the induction mainly because I'm ready and don't want a huge baby (Isaiah was 8lbs 5oz and Levi was 8lbs 4oz - so we have good sized babies!); he has no big concerns that he scheduled it. I definitely felt the mode to get things done this week - like move Levi into Isaiah's room - we made the final call that Levi was moving into Isaiah's room and that was that so one day (with the help of my dear friend LeAnna) he was moved. I couldn't bear to move him into a new room and switch beds so the crib moved --but more on that later! Baby is still moving lots, but not as much as in the past - I think he just doesn't have the room to move like he wants to and the movements are starting to be lower in my belly. As you can see from the picture, I'm getting to be HUGE and I've had a few people tell me they think my belly has gotten lower - so maybe I've dropped (isn't that what it's called?)? But I'm trying to enjoy every minute of this belly as the days with it are numbered!

Stratego

2011-12-05T19:58:00.000-06:00

About a month ago Isaiah found our board game Stratego in the game closet and asked me to teach him how to play it. The game is for ages 8+ but I figured we'd give it a shot anyway and to my surprise he actually gets how to play and he LOVES it. Just about every day since his discovery we have played Stratego at least once, but many days we play several times. He often begs someone to play with him. He does completely understand all of the rules and does a great job, however, he sometimes doesn't think of the best strategies to actually win the game -- so I may go a little easy on him :) It's fun to see that Isaiah has a love of board games just like his parents! Stratego is by far his favorite, but before he discovered that one we played Sorry on a very regular basis (which he completely understands too). He also enjoys Guess Who, Uno, Discovery Toys A to Z Jr, and Chutes & Ladders quite a bit. It's fun to play with him, if only there was nothing else to do then we'd play games all day every day! So if you are feeling up for a board game, come on over, Isaiah would LOVE to play with you!!

3 little monkeys

2011-12-02T11:53:00.000-06:00

Just had to post this cute picture of these little boys. Mark took them to HyVee on Veteran's Day for breakfast and snapped this one. It's so sweet that Caiden fits right in with our boys :)

Adrenaline X Laser Tag - Open for business!

2011-11-30T19:18:00.000-06:00

On November 16, 2011 Adrenaline X Laser Tag officially opened for business in front of the College Square Mall in Cedar Falls! This has been such an exciting project for Mark (and me!). I am so very proud of Mark for going for his dream of owning his own business (which he started last March as Adrenaline X Mobile Laser Tag) and continuing to pursue the dream by moving into a physical location too. It's incredible the amount of things that he's had to think about before the doors could open - the obvious stuff like what equipment to have, how to decorate, pricing, etc but the not so obvious stuff too like getting the okay from the fire marshal & having things set to code for all of the inspectors, knowing how to balance the books, determining what hours to be open, the signage and marketing that we should do, becoming an LLC, designing t-shirts, and the list goes on and on and on. But he did it!!

I'm excited to say that he's stayed very busy the past 2 1/2 weeks that he's been open with both continuing to get things the way he wants them, but more importantly with customers! He's had lots of kids (both young and old) come in and play (one set of kids has already been in 3 times!) and he has 6 birthday parties booked from this Saturday to next Saturday! It's definitely a place people are interested in coming and we can't wait to see what the future holds.

For all of you who have supported us in this process, we thank you THANK YOU thank you! We've had so many friends and family stretch out their arms to help Mark make this dream become a reality - from watching our boys-sometimes at a moments notice, to giving their advice, to physically tearing heavy, old wood off walls and moving heavy bunkers, to suggesting different contact people for all kinds of services we need, to delivering things to us, to helping us join the Chamber (which included free food -- yep, that's you Molly!), to calling or stopping by to simply see how we are doing and being a listening ear when things seemed so overwhelming, to helping hang decorations & thread speaker wire through the ceiling, to sending balloons on opening day, to cooking for us, to coming in and being customers themselves, and most importantly praying for us in this exciting, stressful and life-changing time. So once again, THANK YOU friends.

In case you are wondering, Mark is continuing the mobile business as well and plans to work it in along with the store being open and good thing too because he has 2 lock-ins booked in the next month, 4 post proms booked for April, and several other events in the works (fairs and such for this summer).

If you want more info about the business check out his website: www.adrenalineXparty.com or stop by the store to check it out - he's located in the front of the mall next to KT's Inflatable's and MasterCuts just down from HuHot.

It's hard to tell but the picture on the right in the middle is him turning the sign to "open" for the first time :)

Congratulations Honey -- you did it! I am so proud of you!

Nutcracker Ballet

2011-11-28T14:31:00.000-06:00

The boys, my mom and I went to see the Minnesota Ballet perform the Nutcracker ballet at the Gallagher Bluedorn on November 20. When the Gallagher first announced the schedule of shows back in July (I think) I was excited to see this one coming and thought it would be neat to take Isaiah, but when kid tickets were only $1 I figured I'd buy one for Levi too and decide closer to the time if we were going to take him and I decided to. I was a bit worried that they would get restless or loud, but I was happily surprised that they were very interested for most of the ballet. After about an hour and fifteen minutes there was an intermission and both boys were upset because they thought that it was over! Then about 30 minutes after the intermission Levi was done - very restless - luckily there was only about 10 minutes left of the show. He really, really wanted the mice to come back on stage - in one scene several mice danced around the stage and he loved them. I got him through the last bit of the show telling him to watch for the mice, but unfortunately when they came back on stage to bow they had their masks off so that you could see who the dancers were. Levi was so bummed. He still talks about it :) Both boys were so excited when it was over and glad to have gone. It was definitely worth the money and I hope we can make it an annual tradition. Thanks mom for coming with us!

Photography wasn't allowed while the play was going on - I wish it was so I could have taken a picture of those mice! But I did get a few cute ones before the show and found a few online of scenes from the production we saw (at least I think).

Although it can be a lot of work, money and stress to take the kids out and about to do things like this, it is soooo worth it! I'm hoping we can still make things like this happen when Baby #3 arrives!! :)

another trip to the dentist

2011-11-26T20:54:00.000-06:00

Now I don't really think I need to take pictures every time my children go to the dentist, however, we just got a new camera and it was only Levi's second time ever at the dentist so I just couldn't resist this time. :) Isaiah did a great job and sat nice and still for the hygienist to clean his teeth and then let the dentist look at them and brush the fluoride on them so well! What a big boy! Levi on the other hand was just not happy about it. The hygienist let him sit on my lap and she brushed his teeth with a new toothbrush and he finally warmed up to her, but wasn't happy. He was a little more cooperative with the dentist and she was able to get a good look at all of his teeth and apply the fluoride. The good news is that both kids have beautiful teeth! :)

the first snow

2011-11-25T20:46:00.000-06:00

Oh how the boys were so excited to wake up and find snow on the ground the morning of the first snow! They could hardly contain their excitement. Unfortunately we had a lot going on that morning (a doctor's appointment and meetings and more to get the laser tag store open!!) so we really didn't get a chance to play in it, but Levi's main concern was that he got to make snowballs and he sure did! By the time we actually had a chance to get outside to play in it, most of it was already melted. But here's some cute pictures of the boys playing in the snow first thing in the morning.

It's now been awhile since the snow so I'm sure we will have this same excitement again whenever it decides to snow again!

Halloween - Trick-or-Treating

2011-11-24T13:22:00.000-06:00

Halloween was on a Monday this year which meant we had our ordinary stuff going on before the excitement began - I had to work in the morning, Isaiah had school in the afternoon and Mark got the keys to his laser tag spot at the mall! But we tuned out all the craziness of our every day life for just a few hours on Halloween night. The boys were so excited to dress up in their costumes and go trick-or-treating! We've gone door to door trick-or-treating the past couple years, but Isaiah hasn't been extremely interested and Levi's been pretty little so we didn't make it too long, but this year I had a feeling we'd go longer -- and we did! But first we made a stop to see Grandma.

Then we stopped by Kammy's house and then off we went. The boys lasted about an hour and then they were done - but we still had about a 10 minute walk back so we stopped at a few more on the way. I think it was a lot of fun for all 4 of us! After we got home, the boys dumped all of their candy out to see what they got! This is something I remember doing as a kid - maybe the best part of Halloween!?! They definitely got more than enough candy and enjoyed more than they probably should have that night - but we figured you are only 3 & 5 once so why not? Since then the candy has sat up in the cupboard and they've only eaten a few pieces here and there. Out of sight out of mind!

What a fun Halloween! The boys are already talking about what they are going to be next year!

Go Panthers!

2011-11-23T13:08:00.000-06:00

Mark loves to go to sporting events, Isaiah loves to go to sporting events, and Levi loves to go to sporting events and I enjoy them too so we've made it to several UNI games this fall. We've been to a few volleyball, the first basketball and even a football game. In the excitement of it all I don't get the greatest pictures, but that's okay I'd rather enjoy it while I'm there! Here's a collage of the fun we've had at a few different events. We ran into our buddy Carson which the boys loved! We always have to look for TC too - Levi loves to spot him, but then gets timid when he gets close - Isaiah gave him a HUGE hug one day. They also got to go out on the court to dance with the cheerleaders at one event and at another we got to sit in the front row!

GOOOOOOOOOOOO PANTHERS! :)

35 weeks!

2011-11-21T18:53:00.000-06:00

Week 35

How'd we make it to week 35 already? Looking back it really has gone faster than it feels day-to-day. This was a good week for us and a stressful week for us and an exciting week for us! Adrenaline X Laser Tag opened it's doors at the College Square Mall! Needless to say we were busy busy busy getting things ready! I'm thankful that I still have lots of energy to do this, but definitely not as much energy as I had a month ago (or 9 months ago!). Other than the excitement of laser tag, it was a fun week of baby movement and baby hiccups! I'd felt him have the hiccups (or at least I think I did) a few times before, but this week (and actually week 34 and 6 days) I really felt them and am positive they were hiccups. They lasted for a long time - at least a half hour - and Mark got to feel them too! He had them the next day too! Even more of my maternity clothes are getting too short for me so my wardrobe choices are getting even smaller, oh well, and the tops of the maternity pants are starting to be really low too - so I'm guessing a few people have gotten a peak at my belly by accident :) This was also my last week before baby that I won't see the doctor - looking forward to what he has to say next week!

Spooky Pancakes

2011-11-20T14:01:00.000-06:00

The Friday before Halloween Ihop was offering free spooky pancakes for kids. I happened to notice this advertised somewhere and I knew the boys would love it. If I haven't mentioned it before, all three boys around here would eat pancakes for just about every meal and could probably eat an entire package of sausage on their own. So after naptime the boys and I went for pancakes - luckily Caiden was able to go along with us so he joined in the fun too. (You'll notice from the pictures that the party was the same day as the fall party at preschool.) The waitress brought the kids each a big pancake with whipped cream eyes and mouth, a strawberry nose and a side of candy corn and mini oreos to finish the face. The kids had fun making their faces and then asked me to wipe off ALL of the toppings (except Isaiah gladly ate his strawberries and the other strawberries) so they enjoyed their plain pancakes. :) I figured this was better for them anyway - they didn't need the sugar of the whipped cream or the oreos!

I love how it's the simple things that make the boys so excited!

Preschool Fall Party

2011-11-19T13:54:00.000-06:00

Isaiah's preschool class had a fall party the end of October to celebrate the fall season with their classmates and a few family members. Isaiah's class has 4 parties this year and each parent could sign up for one. We decided to each pick a different party this year so that one of us could be home with Levi (and the new baby soon!) and we wouldn't have to worry about them. Mark picked the fall party. Mark had a lot of fun spending an hour in Isaiah's classroom and helping with some fun games. Isaiah's teacher Mrs. Blough has mentioned many times how the kids LOVED Mark and his bingo calling skills :) But who's surprised about that, we all know he's great with kids and making things fun!

I did send the camera along with him hoping he'd take some fun pictures and he did! Take a look at the fun of the fall preschool party! (click on the collage to make it bigger!)

YMCA Halloween party

2011-11-15T14:16:00.000-06:00

This was the third year in a row that the boys and I have met my friend Abby and her daughter Erika at the YMCA Halloween party. Erika was born September 13 so she is just a couple days younger than Isaiah. My mom came last year to enjoy the fun and help me take on a wild activity with two little boys and she came again this year. Before the party we got all dressed up and took a few pictures outside.

And then we went to the party. This year they had a huge bouncy slide that the boys LOVED. Good thing we got there early so they got several trips down the slide before the line got VERY long. They also enjoyed several other Halloween activities before sneaking off to the racquetball court to burn some additional energy. We've gone to the courts all 3 years that we've been there and the boys and Erika remembered because they all 3 asked to go after they were done with the party.

And here's a picturing looking back to last year.

carving pumpkins

2011-11-14T09:37:00.000-06:00

The Monday after we went to the pumpkin patch we carved our pumpkins as a family. In previous years Isaiah has been excited to carve his pumpkin but quickly lost interest, but this year he scooped out all of his own pumpkin guts and enjoyed it! He did a really good job!

Levi, on the other hand, quickly got tired of scooping and decided to switch gears and color his pumpkin with markers. He made his pumpkin look beautiful and he did a great job coloring. Mark carved both pumpkins - it was a fun time!

After the pumpkins were carved we ate the caramel apples we made before we started carving. Note to self - don't try to speed up the process of letting the caramel harden by putting them in the freezer - our apples were very hard to eat as the caramel was very, very hard....but still yummy!

What a fun fall family party!

grandpa & the tree

2011-11-13T21:22:00.000-06:00

One late October day my dad stopped by to visit and the boys convinced him to climb up in the tree with them. You may remember that the rule at our house is if you can climb the tree then you can play in it, but mommy won't help you up! Well, Levi sweet talked Grandpa into getting him up in the tree too. He was pretty excited and I got a sweet picture of grandpa and the boys.

Levi still thinks he should be able to get up in the tree whenever he wants, but I'm holding my ground on the rule that he has to do it himself. I'm hoping this spring he will be tall enough to do it! (or maybe not, knowing Levi haha).

Zoe's Costume Birthday Party

2011-11-12T17:15:00.000-06:00

Isaiah's classmate Zoe turned 5 on October 24 and to celebrate she had a costume birthday party. She invited all of her preschool classmates to come! Of course the party happened to be on one of the few Saturdays that I do have to work so Caiden's mom LeAnna took Isaiah with her while Mark stayed home with napping Levi. Luckily it was a slow day at my work so I was able to get away for an hour to join in on some of the fun! All of the kids looked really cute! It was fun to see what the other kids dressed up as - the birthday girl was Supergirl and both Isaiah and Caiden were Superman.

They had plenty of activities planned for the kids, but also gave them lots of down time to run around and enjoy each other. I think the kids thought it was fun to see their classmates outside of school - at least 10 of their 16 kids were there - a great turn out! The kids each got to color/sticker a pumpkin, have a few whacks at the pinata and a mummy game (? I wasn't there for that one). The other neat thing about the party was the birthday request was each kid bring a donation for the Northeast Iowa Foodbank rather than a birthday gift. It was fun to show the kids they can make a difference in someone else's life!

What a fun birthday idea - I'm sure glad that Isaiah and I were able to go!

Pumpkin Patch

2011-11-11T15:39:00.000-06:00

We decided to take the boys to a little pumpkin patch outside of Cedar Falls on the way to Janesville & Waverly to pick out pumpkins this year. We had a great time at the bigger pumpkin patch last year, but the kids mainly were interested in jumping in the bouncy house, so we thought the little pumpkin patch might make it more about pumpkins -- and we were right. The boys were so excited all the way there and LOVED to look at all the options of pumpkins. We have a couple books about pumpkins, one that talks about all the different shapes and sizes of pumpkins - Isaiah was happy to find some that looked "ghoulish" with all the little bumps on them, just like the book. Isaiah went into the search saying he was going to pick the biggest one he could find -- and he did -- it was so big and awkward shaped that it doesn't even stand up! Levi, on the other hand, wanted a little one which is what he got. Mark and I each picked a pumpkin too.

As we were checking out we had fun looking at the little "baby" pumpkins and Levi thought they were "so cute" (he is so cute and funny when he says "so cute" haha) and so they each picked out a baby pumpkin and also picked a baby pumpkin for our new baby. We got home and put them right out on the front step. I thought it would be fun to get a nice picture of the boys together with our pumpkins - Isaiah was actually completely cooperating (a very rare thing when it comes to Isaiah and pictures) and Levi just was not interested, but I did get some cute ones trying.

What a fun fall family activity!

31, 32, 33, 34

2011-11-09T22:25:00.001-06:00

Week 31
Nothing special to report this week. Feeling good and baby is staying active. I am starting to really be able to feel specific moves he makes. I'm starting to feel really big this week, but know that I've still got a lot of growing to do! I can still eat normally (except a few specific things that I've mentioned before that make me feel sooooo full - like cereal). Blood sugars remain in the normal range so I've started checking my blood fewer and fewer times. Glad things are going as they should be this week!

Week 32

Another good week - definitely slowing down even more and feeling oh so ready for this baby to join our family, but as the doctor confirmed at my appointment this week - he's just not done cooking yet! Both baby and I checked out well at the appointment and I'm happy to report I only gained 2 pounds in 3 weeks. Baby's heart was beating fast for him - between 148 and 152. I was measuring 2 weeks big again this week, but the doctor wasn't worried - especially since it was consistent with my last measurement. The weather has been beautiful and spending this time with the boys outside has been wonderful - it's weeks like this that I wish we could just freeze time for a little bit! We carved our pumpkins this week and realized that my pumpkin and my belly were just about the same size! :) LOVE the pose the boys are in in the background of this picture, don't you?

Week 33
Halloween was a fun way to start this week - I ran across a cute Halloween maternity shirt online and was so tempted to buy it - this was my first time ever being pregnant on Halloween and thought it would be fun, but after searching and searching the cheapest I could find it was $28 and I just couldn't justify a maternity shirt that I'd wear once for that price so I created my own - not quite as cute, but still equally fun for me and the family. We had no time for rest this week as Mark officially signed a lease with the College Square Mall to open Adrenaline X at the mall - lots and lots to do and prepare for the opening in just 3 short weeks! Thankfully I'm still feeling very good and have been able to help in any way that I can with this. Baby continues to move all the time! I can really feel him on the outside of my tummy - it's easy to feel where he is - almost always on my very right side - I can usually tell it's his bottom or foot. It is fun and usually not too uncomfortable yet! I'm trying to enjoy every minute of this pregnancy that I can because I know before long it will be over!

Week 34

I can tell I am in the last stretch of my pregnancy as my feet are getting harder to reach, especially to tie my shoes and getting up (especially off the floor or the couch) is a big task in itself! haha. If Mark is around I will have him push me up! I still feel good and have had the energy to make it through the days of preparing and planning for Mark's store to open. I had a doctor's appointment the middle of this week and things were good. I was measuring right at 34 weeks - I'm glad to be measuring right on! Baby's heartbeat was 140 which was good - right on with what my other 2 were at this point in the pregnancy. I gained half a pound these past 2 weeks which continues to make this pregnancy the lowest weight gain for me yet - I think I'm at 17 pounds now. I still don't have any swelling in my hands or ankles! And I enjoyed my first ever prenatal massage this week - that was amazing - I'd highly recommend one for any pregnant (or not pregnant) person! I'd say the best part was getting to lay on my tummy for a full hour - I think that may be one of the things I miss most. My belly is starting to feel (and look, I think) humongous which is all in the fun, right?

a walk in hartman

2011-11-06T20:55:00.000-06:00

On a nice day in October my mom and I took the kids on a walk in Hartman Reserve. It was a beautiful day, the kids had fun exploring and of course I couldn't resist taking a few pictures.

before I forget

2011-11-06T19:40:00.003-06:00

Intro to the story - if you've never been to our house there is a door that closes the bedroom side of the house to the living room that we typically close when anyone is sleeping so things are quieter in the bedrooms.

We were tucking Levi in for the night and he looks up at Mark and says, "Can you please close that door (pointing out his room towards the door I mention above) so that I can sneak out?"

At nap time, we've been catching Levi playing in Isaiah's room or our bedroom instead of napping. He's able to do this by sneaking out of his room and we don't notice because the door to the bedrooms is closed. Now he's thinking of doing this at bedtime too??

His little question made Mark and my night. I am guessing however that after this time change day and no nap, he'll be too tired to try it tonight - but I have a feeling tomorrow might be another story!

a secret hidout

2011-10-30T21:22:00.000-05:00

The boys have a special secret hideout that they have LOVED these beautiful fall days. We have a screened in porch on the back of our house with a wooden walkway to the door. Whoever designed this must have had kids (or knew that you may need to get under it for some reason) because there is a small door that opens and you call fit all the way under the porch. This spring the boys played underneath a little bit, but then the weather got really, really hot and it was just too much to be under it. This fall as the weather has been beautiful and the boys have rediscovered how amazing and fun it is under there. They have spent hours playing - they mainly play with their outside dump trucks and monster trucks - they have some big ones and then matchbox car sized ones. The favorite game I hear them playing is daddy and son trucks - a big monster truck is the daddy and a little monster truck is the son. :) The pictures below also show them playing with shovels which they like too. As you can see it's definitely a dirty activity - but that's what being a little boy is all about!

This is so much fun for them, but also a great benefit for me - they are completely contained underneath the porch except for the one small door that I must keep an eye on - it's been a great way for me to get yard work done or take a minute to just sit and enjoy the beauty of the day!

An afternoon with grandpa & grandma

2011-10-29T21:12:00.000-05:00

A few Fridays back the boys and I went to my parents house to spend the afternoon (while Mark was working). We really didn't intend to spend all afternoon and evening there, but there was so much fun to be had that's how it worked out!

I have childhood memories of having popcorn parties with my family and neighbors - my dad is a big popcorn lover and he's passed that on to me! What's a popcorn party? Well, my dad would make a huge bowl of popcorn (or sometimes two or a big grocery sack full) and then we'd all sit together and eat popcorn - and that's that. To this day popcorn is one of my favorite foods - probably because of these parties! My dad hosted a popcorn party this afternoon for me and the boys. The boys do like popcorn, Levi more than Isaiah, but they are no where near popcorn lovers --- yet!

After the party my dad went back to work - raking up some of the millions of leaves in their yard. He had a huge pile in the back of the driveway that the boys were excited to play in. Both my parents also jumped in a time or two to play with the boys (not me! haha). They both also enjoyed sweeping and shoveling the leaves back into the pile.

A little later on, my dad got out his lawn tractor/mower and took the boys on a long ride around their yard. They loved the ride! I thought they looked pretty sweet with their grandpa.

What a fun fall afternoon!

sharing a bed?

2011-10-26T20:11:00.000-05:00

Our house has 3 bedrooms so the plan is to move Isaiah and Levi into one room and sleep on the bunk bed that's in Isaiah's current room. It's a HUGE bunk bed with a full bed on the bottom and a full bed on the top. The boys love to play on it and Isaiah loves to sleep in it. We figured that Levi would be excited to sleep on it too, but we were wrong! He has absolutely no desire to move out of his crib. We've been mentioning it for months and he still refuses to entertain the idea of sleeping in Isaiah's room at all. Since the beginning of this summer the boys decided that Transformers are really cool - not sure why - we had one Transformers book and they had never seen the movies/shows at the time (we've since rented the 1980s Transformers cartoon and they each got one Transformer toy for their birthday), but we were hoping that putting Transformers sheets on the bed would be enough to entice Levi into wanting to at least try sleeping on the bunk bed. We gave them to the boys a couple weeks back...

and....no luck. Levi still has absolutely no interest in sleeping in the bunk bed. He wants his crib and that's that. I'm not sure what we are going to do as baby's arrival is quickly approaching - but if he's anything like the older two, he'll be sleeping in our room for quite awhile anyway. Levi has slept in my friend LeAnna's crib all along (because we had two cribs set up when he was born), so the plan is to get our crib out so at least the new baby isn't taking over his crib -- but we simply do not have the room for 2 cribs set up. If anyone has any good suggestions as to how to interest Levi into the big boy bed let me know!! I know in time it will work itself out, I just wonder when that time will be!

football

2011-10-25T07:57:00.000-05:00

Over the past few months Isaiah has really developed a love for playing football - especially with his daddy - it's just not quite the same playing with 8 months pregnant mommy - haha. Mark has been so good about playing with him and teaching him lots of rules and basics of the game. He really seems to be grasping the concepts and improving. Mark bought the Nerf flag football set which has been a lot of fun for the boys to play too and a much safer option as tackling isn't involved. Levi likes it too, but thinks he should have the ball at all times so makes playtime a little less enjoyable for Isaiah. Mark has worked hard to make sure that Isaiah gets one-on-one football time - and then later on Levi gets to join in. It will be fun to watch Isaiah keep improving and see if his love for the game continues.

UNI Homecoming

2011-10-24T18:53:00.000-05:00

We had talked about going to the UNI homecoming football game, but never really made a decision. On the Saturday of UNI homecoming we had a laser tag party in the morning and then came home to nap time. Mark turned on some other college football and Isaiah said, "I want to go to a real football game." So we said, "okay" and we put on our Panther gear and off we went to the dome. We made it just as half time was starting which meant awesome parking and free tickets! It really worked out perfectly because half a game was about all the boys were up for anyway. Levi insisted that he needed his ear protectors to go to the game so he wore them for most of it. He looked cute -- and silly -- but he was happy and that's what matters, right? We called LeAnna and Caiden when we got to the game because we knew they were there - they had tickets on the VERY far side and just happened to have a room to sit by them! Being on the very edge we got to watch the band and cheerleaders walk right by us. Levi was impressed with the pom poms. The boys were also very excited to pick out whatever snack they wanted - Isaiah picked carmal corn (which he ate very little of) and Levi picked regular popcorn, but as soon as we got back to our seats he insisted that he said he wanted cotton candy - so back to the stand went Mark and Levi with a big bag of cotton candy and a blue lemonade for the parents! (it was really yummy!). Levi devoured just about all of the cotton candy while Isaiah ate about 1/4 of the bag. Nothing like a sugar high, haha.

After the game they announced that fans could come down to the football field, it was getting late and we didn't really know for sure what was going on so Mark and Isaiah were already outside when Levi spotted lots of people on the field. He really wanted to go too, so Mark and Isaiah came back in and we went and had a BLAST on the field - I'm really glad we went -- good idea Levi! Isaiah and Mark ran all over the field pretending to play football - I think they made it down and back at least 5 times! Levi played a little football too until the drummers came out to put their drums away. Levi was amazed. One drummer was so very nice and let Levi try out his drum . After about 20 minutes the drummer really needed to get his stuff put away and Levi was so sad he had to be done. He sure loved every minute he got to beat on the drum!

It was a really fun afternoon and evening -- both boys had great ideas!!

field trip to Hartman Reserve

2011-10-22T21:01:00.000-05:00

Last week Isaiah's class took their first official field trip to Hartman Reserve Nature Center. Parents were invited to come along and luckily both Mark and I are off work while Isaiah is at school so we both were able to go! (Thanks mom for coming to stay with Levi!). Mark took Isaiah to school and rode the bus with him to Hartman and I met them there. They got preschool t-shirts this year and asked all the kids to wear them on the field trip. Isaiah was excited!

Sounds like they had a fun ride on the bus!

It was a nice day - a little chilly, but not too cold to be outside in just sweatshirts and dry! The kids gathered around while the Hartman Reserve naturalist (I think that's what they are called?) talked about apples - the different colors/kinds and how they grow. The kids did a good job listening and were then very excited to make apple cider.

Each classmate was to bring two apples to share and they got to use an apple grinder to make fresh cider out of all of these apples. They all got a turn cranking the grinder.

and then got a glass of cider to drink. There was plenty so the parents got to try it too - it was VERY yummy - much better than store bought cider full of sugars and things - this was just pure apples. Isaiah and the rest of his class seemed to really enjoy it.

We then went in the nature center to see the corn snake. The kids were all very interested.

and most of them were excited to touch it too. (not me!!)

And then it was time to go. Mark rode back to school on the bus - he said it was another fun ride.

What a great way to spend the afternoon!

28, 29, 30

2011-10-20T16:40:00.000-05:00

28 weeks

This picture is posted because I love my husband! haha. He was helping me take 28 week pictures and managed to get me in this pose -- a bit silly, but at least it shows off the bump, right? Another pretty good week for me. Baby continues to move all the time and likes to remind me that he's there! I monitored my glucose levels carefully this week as I failed the test and was finally able to get my machine and test strips (silly insurance took forever to approve it). I tested myself each morning when I woke up and 2 hours after every meal. My levels were to be under 140 to be considered normal - if they were above that, then I knew I was eating something that I need to cut back or out of my diet. Just like when I was pregnant with Levi, my levels were well under the 140 mark every.single.time. Mostly in the 80s and 90s but the highest it got was 123. Otherwise, the week went by with little to report.

29 weeks

I didn't get any good just me pictures this week to show off my belly, but we did have this one taken in my "regular" size medium t-shirt - as you can see it barely fits, but I made it work! I continued to check my blood levels this week for a few days until my doctor's appointment - he saw my numbers and told me I really didn't need to check them often except after a meal with a lot of carbs - he saw that I had pizza during my testing period and said if I can get by with pizza then I will probably get by with just about anything -- and so far he's been right! (Thank goodness!). Things continue to be easy going this week, but I can really tell I get worn out much easier than the past few months. I've realized I need to slow it down just a little bit. The boys continue to show little interest in my belly, but know that baby is growing inside. I did develop a good cold this week which other than having to blow my nose often has really made me sleep harder at night which is nice - I tend to have really involved dreams when I don't sleep as hard - which is okay - but leave me feeling less rested when I wake up. I

30 weeks

Another good week for me - still only testing my blood occasionally (okay - like once this week!) and it was normal. My cold is still here, but at least that's all it is. Baby continues to move, move, move! He likes to hang out on my right side and do what feels like flip flops. It's crazy to feel and Mark has been amazed more than a couple times when I've put his hand on my belly to all the movement that happens over and over and over again! Otherwise, nothing major to report this week - It's crazy to think I'm on the downhill count - I made it past the 20s - just 10 (or 9 or 8) weeks to go!

drummer boy

2011-10-18T14:26:00.000-05:00

Levi really is our little drummer boy. For quite some time now he's been very interested in drumming. We have had a few toy drums that he enjoys, we have real drum sticks from Grandma Michele that both boys love, but Levi is just as much in love with playing with baking pans and wooden spoons. Set out the pans and give him the spoons and he is entertained for quite some time. Sometimes he will even get out his little toy boom box (see blue thing in pictures below) to help set up a beat for himself - this toy plays a song and lets you decide which instruments play (drums, piano, horn or all - i think!).

Anyone know how young is too young to start drum lessons - anyone know how to play the drums and want to teach Levi?

It is so much fun to see Levi's personality continue to develop and see what his own interests are - some are very similar to Isaiah's - others are much different!

bike ride

2011-10-17T14:15:00.000-05:00

Both boys really grew this summer with their biking skills. Isaiah can really ride fast and has complete control over his bike. He has gone without the training wheels, but still prefers them on. I have no doubts about him when he is riding his bike! Levi started the summer without a bike - just a trike. He could ride it well, but had no sense of steering. This summer he has learned to ride a bike (with training wheels) and can easily steer it where he wants to go. They have spent hours and hours riding their bikes around our driveway and garage - although the driveway really needs to be replaced - we have a great area for them to ride around in right at home. We've also gone out a few times to the bike trails - not nearly as much as I would have liked to, but the times we have gone, both boys have really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures of our last trip in September to the Prairie Lakes Trail.

I'm excited to see what next year brings - no training wheels for one or both boys??

must be a boy thing

2011-10-11T15:46:00.000-05:00

Over the last several months both boys, Levi especially, have decided that they like to go shirtless. It started when they would pretend to be professional wrestlers, but now it's just about all the time. Levi will often try to take his shirt off while we are in public (like at story time at the library!) and loves to run around the house and yard in just his shorts. I must say the look pretty cute! When the shirts come off, the wrestlers do come out - they will wrestle each other with real wrestling moves. Mark has taught them some wrestling rules and moves and I must say they both do pretty good! I think it's only a matter of time that Levi will out do his big brother! At least when it comes to wrestling! So if you are up for a good wrestling match, just come by our house!

baseball cap

2011-10-09T18:34:00.003-05:00

I think little boys look so cute in baseball caps. I always tried to get Isaiah to wear one when he was 2ish (always meaning a few times here and there), but he just was never interested and rarely left it on for more than a few minutes. Levi has recently found Isaiah's hat and enjoys wearing it often. I think he looks so cute! One day I took a few pictures - don't mind the mess on his shirt -- by the way this is one of our last pictures of him with a binky - but more to come on that! I'm curious to see if this trend will continue. It's fun to watch how similar and just how different our two boys are!

color week

2011-10-07T18:51:00.002-05:00

Isaiah had a color week last week at preschool - every day they were to wear a different color and then did activities to go along with the color. Both Isaiah and Caiden were pretty excited about their colors each day. Levi even participated most days by wearing the color of the day too.

Monday - green

Tuesday - red

Wednesday - blue

Thursday - orange

Friday - yellow

Isaiah has already said several times that they need to have color days again. On Thursday night before yellow day Isaiah says, "we really need to have green day, I have lots of green shirts." I reminded him that Monday was green day and he said, "oh yeah, well we need to have another green day!" :) It's the simple things that make him happy.

five years old.

2011-10-06T16:33:00.002-05:00

Isaiah is five, practically 5 and one month - these months just keep flying by! I wanted to write out a little bit about who he is now just like I did at four and three and a half.

* Isaiah continues to be such a boy. If it's rough and tough, dirty, wild, crazy, daring or dangerous he is all in! He couldn't love playing in the dirt more; his favorite toys are superheros, monster trucks, dinosaurs, race cars, but his very favorite thing right now is Transformers - he's never seen the movies, but we have rented the 1980s Transformers show from the movie store.

* But as boy as he is, he also continues to be gentle at heart. He's gentle with babies and little ones at the park, he makes sure to watch out for the little ones around him and he truly cares about his friends. He will often put his arm around or stroke your arm when talking to you - it's just natural to him.

* However, the side that comes out more than the gentle one is the rough one. It's not uncommon to see him push his brother over or bump into him hard enough to knock him over just because he can. He likes to play rough, wrestle hard, and show off his strength. He, like most of us, wants things to go his way and if they don't - watch out - this side comes out! And I think he knows (most of the time) when he does things hastily out of anger and does feel (at least some) regret. So we continue to work on his response when things don't go your way.

* Isaiah continues to be a very good eater and will eat a large variety of things. His favorites include: strawberries, broccoli, oranges, pizza, waffles/pancakes, sausage, hot dogs, ramen noodles. He drinks milk during meals, but typically prefers water otherwise throughout the day. If you ask him his favorite food he will always say McDonald's (what is it about that place??)

* He also continues to be a social little boy. He enjoys playing with friends, having people over to play and going just about anywhere. He quickly makes friends at the park or other play places, but plays very well with his brother too.

* He also loves company at bedtime. In his perfect world, I would lay with him every night until he fell asleep, but in reality this just doesn't happen! He asks every night for me to lay with him and many nights I will for a few minutes, but then I have to get up to get things done (unfortunately our dishes and laundry just don't do themselves!). He does understand this now and doesn't usually get up to come check on what I'm doing, but sometimes he will get up to make sure I am doing what I say (and believe me if he catches me on the computer he questions it! haha). Thankfully he is pretty quick to fall asleep. Bedtime is still 8:30 and our routine has stayed the same for a long, long time - vitamin, brush teeth, 3 stories, Bible story, pray, bed. If we skip a step Isaiah (or Levi) will say something.

* Isaiah is definitely a snuggler - but only when the time is right - when he's tired, not feeling the best or when grandma's around. He loves to hug, but again, only when he's in the mood. A lot of times his mood is rough and tough over the snuggle, so we take in the snuggles when we can!!

* At his 5 year appointment he weighed in at 46 pounds and 47 inches which puts him at the 57th and 54th percentile. Right in the middle! He has been in the lower half for his height since he was a baby - so he has done some growing thing year! The doctor had no health concerns at his appointment but his hemoglobin level did come back slightly low (10.6 and normal is 11-16), but the doctor just had us switch his multivitamin to include iron hoping that will bring it up - we've also been working to encourage him to eat more meat at each meal.

* He also had to get his 5 year shots at this doctor's appointment - this was quite the experience. I decided not to warn Isaiah of the shots before going to the appointment as I didn't want to worry him or have a fit getting him to the doctor. He did ask before we left if he would have to get shots and I said that he would if the doctor thought he needed them (not exactly a lie, right??). We got through his appointment and then the doctor says, "I'll have the nurses come in with your shots." He immediately started SCREAMING. We tried to calm him down, Mark even offered Angry Birds on his phone (one of Isaiah's favorite things that he next to never gets to do unless we are with my sister and her Ipad), but nothing worked, he continued to scream and cry. The nurses finally come in at least 5 minutes later with his three shots. Levi, by this point is upset that Isaiah is still crying and seeing the needles, Caiden was holding his hands to his ears saying, "Isaiah you are too loud." and Mark and I are just trying to figure out what in the world we should do. The 2 nurses have us try to hold him down while they get his legs ready for the shots. He kept pushing with his hands and kicking with his legs that they couldn't get him in the right spot so the one nurse leaves to get a third nurse! They come back quickly and Mark, the nurse and I hold him down as hard as we can while the other 2 nurses give him the shots. He starts SCREAMING and crying even louder!! The shots were in, the bandaids were on and I thought we had made it through. Just as the 5 of us were leaving the room the nurse says, "don't forget to stop at the lab to have his finger pricked." Isaiah immediately starts in even louder, but we make it to the lab. The tech has Isaiah sit in a chair and Levi gets even more upset and starts sobbing, "don't do it to Zay-ya, don't hurt my brother." Caiden is sitting in the hallway with his hands still on his ears and practically yelling himself, "Isaiah you are being too loud." And Mark and I couldn't really do anything but laugh. The lab lady isn't the most kid friendly and took about 2 minutes trying to ask Isaiah which finger he wants pricked and we finally had to tell her to just pick one so we could get this over with. She finally gets the blood she needs and out the door we flew. It was quite the appointment. My friend Gretchen just happened to be waiting for an appointment in another patient room and said she could hear the whole thing -- I'm sure the entire building did. Thank goodness he doesn't need shots for several years! Unfortunately Levi will be getting these shots at his 4 year appointment in less than a year, we will see how that goes!!

I asked Isaiah to name his favorite --

Food - McDonald's
Color - Yellow ... and red and blue...that's all.
Animal - ummmm lion and tiger and cheetah
Thing to play -games and to play with Caiden
Place to go - the jumpy house
Shape - uhh I don't know
Song -Kickin' It Old School
Toy - the trucks.

What are you thankful for?
A long pause, I'm thankful for everything I have.

Isaiah's 5th birthday!

2011-10-01T21:51:00.001-05:00

On September 11 Isaiah turned 5 years old! It seems so old to me - 5! We celebrated Isaiah all day long! His birthday happened to be on a Sunday so we got up and I made cinnamon rolls to eat while we watched a show before church. After church we let Isaiah pick out anything he wanted for lunch and it was no surprise that he wanted to go to McDonald's! So we went and ate at McDonald's. The boys were both very happy to find out that the kids meals had Ben Ten characters as the toys. Ben Ten is a cartoon character that can turn into superhero type guys. I'm not sure I really understand it, but they love it. The McDonald's cashier was very nice and let the boys pick out whichever one they wanted. Then a couple girls who had kids meals at the table beside us asked the cashier for girl toys for their Happy Meals (since they were given boy toys) and she informed them they were out of girl toys so the girls let our boys have them. The cashier was nice enough again to let them switch for different characters - the boys couldn't have been happier going home with 4 new Ben Ten toys!

(picture to come)

Then on the way home we ran into a car show so of course we stopped for a bit. Isaiah enjoyed all of the cars and was especially excited about the green Camaro which we like to call Ben Ten cars -- after the car that the cartoon character Ben Ten has (or someone in the show has). All I know is it is in the one Ben Ten book that we have. The owner of this car found out it was Isaiah's birthday and let him sit in the driver's seat! Isaiah was very excited about this! Levi also wanted his picture by the Ben Ten motorcycle that we saw. (can you tell they like Ben Ten??) The car show happened to be near the big Army helicopter that we can see from the highway so we made another stop to see that.

By the time we got home it was naptime for Levi so Isaiah had some alone time with Mark and me. We gave him the gifts from Grandma Michele and Great Grandma Mary. He was soooo excited and happy to open a Batman Batcave and Riddler Car. He played this this while watching some professional football with daddy and eating some of the cheeseballs out of the huge bucket he picked out as his special birthday football treat!

As the afternoon went by we got everything ready for the birthday party! Isaiah invited several friends and family members over to help him celebrate with a pirate birthday party.

Isaiah was so excited and couldn't wait to get into his pirate costume - Levi, on the other hand, all out refused to put on his costume - but I made him anyway. (And then didn't want to take it off that night and has talked many times since about wanting to have another pirate party and dress up like pirates!:) As the friends arrived they picked out a few pirate tatoos to put on and were given their eye patches.

Once (almost) everyone had arrived it was time to say the pirate pledge to become official pirates! The kids did a pretty good job repeating after Mark and saying the pirate sayings. Each new pirate received a pirate certificate.

Then it was time for the treasure hunt. Mark had created a clues that he hid all around the yard and a couple in the house for the kids to find. At many of the clues there was a game to play too - including Captain Says, a pirate ship pinata and pin the treasure box on the map. At the very end of the treasure hunt was a big treasure chest full of, well, treasure of course -- candy, gold dabloons and treasure necklaces. I think all of the kids were amazed by the treasure box and loved the treasure hunt!

After the hunt it was time for food and cake. I was pleased with the treasure box cake that I made the night before and Isaiah loved it too - which is what really mattered! Then the kids had fun playing together outside in the beautiful weather! The party was a whirl-wind for me - it seemed to fly by! Thanks everyone for coming!!

Isaiah had a few more gifts to open after the party - the gifts from us and Levi. Levi gave him a airplane and we gave him a Discovery Toys game called ABC junior and Motor Works toy (a racecar, motorcycle and airplane that are put together with screws that can be taken apart and put back together). Below are a few pictures from opening these gifts and then pictures from the birthday hats that Isaiah and Caiden, who share the same birthday, made at school to celebrate their birthday the Friday before. A local business also will post happy birthday if you call and ask them to so I had Isaiah's name put up for that too. It was full for his birthday so they put it up the following Tuesday - he thought it was pretty cool!

I think Isaiah had a great birthday and had lots of fun celebrating! I still cannot believe that he is five -- but he sure can, he is already talking about when he turns 6!!

25, 26 & 27

2011-09-24T16:38:00.000-05:00

Week 25

This was quite the week! My poison ivy was TERRIBLE - so very, very, very, very itchy right on my belly! Between when I started the medicine Saturday to Wednesday it had gotten much worse so I called my doctor. He prescribed a tapering dose at a much higher rate. It helped, but was still awful this week! Otherwise, I was feeling good! Getting big - some of my smaller maternity shirts started to get snug (already!!) and I get lots of comments from strangers about my belly. Baby boy likes to be on the move which is lots of fun to feel! Mark has been able to feel him move lots of times - very easily this week! I also experienced my first charlie horse cramp this week in the middle of the night. I remember these pains with both of my other pregnancies and really, really hoped they would not show up for this one, but it wasn't the case. After about 15 minutes the cramping was gone and I was able to go back to sleep, but did have a sore leg for several days afterwards - I have been trying to drink lots more water as I read this can really help with these pregnancy leg cramps. Hopefully that will be the only one this time around!!

Week 26

Another good week - still feeling pretty rested and well. Baby is moving like crazy this week! Mark and I were laying in bed one night and my belly just happened to be right at his tush, I felt him move several times and then Mark says, "is our baby kicking me in the butt?" and he was - even before he was born he was kicking his daddy's butt haha. it was pretty funny. I've noticed my belly move from the outside a couple times this week so I know his kicks are getting much stronger. Levi started talking to the baby this week. He said to my belly one day, "hi in there you goo goo baby." Isaiah really hasn't shown too much interest in my belly, but knows to be careful with it. My poison ivy was still very, very itchy this week, but has faded quite a bit - I am so ready for it to be gone! My maternity pants make it itch more so I've been squeezing my belly in my regular jeans and they do fit - just a bit tight - by the end of the day I end up unbuttoning them! :)

Week 27

Still feeling good, but I can tell I'm a bit more tired this week. I even caught a nap one afternoon! Baby continues to move like CRAZY and has kept me up late a few nights - he really likes to kick and kick and kick hard at like 11pm. I had a doctor's appointment this week (my 26 week appointment, but it worked out to have it this week at the same time as Levi's 3 year appointment). This was the week with the glucose test and go figure I failed. The maximum passing level was 140 and I was 147. I failed miserably with Levi (if I remember right like 180) and did the 3 hour test and failed all 3 hourly checks, so failing this time was no surprise. My doctor told me ahead of time that if I failed (which is to be expected) we wouldn't take the time to do the 3 hour test I would just begin checking my blood 4 times a day. I go back in 2 weeks so we will see what my sugar levels do. With Levi I took my blood 4 times a day for several weeks and it was well under the 140 limit every.single.time except one shortly after I ate an entire large strawberry shake with no diet change at all! So I'm hoping for the same results this time around! I did gain 4-5 pounds since my last appointment at 22 weeks which brings me to a total gain of 11 - I'm good with that! Baby's heart was beating strong at 152 bpm and his head was down so the doctor has no concerns about me or the baby! I am so blessed to have such a healthy pregnancy!

Farewell 4 ... UNI Volleyball game

2011-09-19T19:59:00.000-05:00

On September 10, the night before Isaiah turned 5, Mark took Isaiah to the UNI volleyball game. It was a fun way for Isaiah to spend some alone time with daddy and celebrate his last night as a 4 year old. It sounds like Isaiah had a great time and enjoyed every minute of it! He got to watch the girls play volleyball, eat some yummy snacks, play with TC and he even check out his loot that we brought home for him from the Adrenaline X birthday party we had earlier that day (the mom of the party was so nice and made extra birthday bags for our boys - they were army themed and both boys loved them!) that he had stashed away in his pocket. I can see many more UNI events in their future! (It was also a nice night for Levi and me to hang out and make Isaiah's birthday cake!) To top off the night the Panthers won the volleyball game! Go Panthers!

Click on the collage to enlarge.

University Avenue Cruise

2011-09-16T14:24:00.000-05:00

On Sunday of Labor Day weekend the 5th annual University Avenue Cruise was going on and I knew the boys would LOVE it so we made sure to go. We parked the truck along University and sat in the back in our lawn chairs, but first we stopped at Wal-Greens and each picked a yummy treat for the show. I'm not sure if you have to enter to be in the show or if anyone with a car they want to show off just joins in, but there were TONS of cars. The boys were amazed with all of the cars driving by. And of course things couldn't go without something crazy happening to Levi - he grabbed the handle for the tailgate and pulled up on it - flew out of the truck and did a complete flip in the air and landed on the grass in front of us! He was definitely startled and sat on my lap for about 5 minutes, but then was up and jumping again enjoying the show! :) I could have taken a picture of just about every car because the boys loved them all, but here are a few of their favorites!

What a fun event - I can't wait to do it again next year!

my bday

2011-09-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

My birthday was on August 31. Mark and I had already celebrated in Chicago a few weeks earlier so my plan for the day was to simply enjoy my family. My dad surprised me first thing in the morning on his way to work with some pretty flowers and some fresh cherry tomatoes from his garden (yumm!!)

Then we decided to head outside to go geocaching and enjoy the weather (looking back we may not have made this choice!! all 4 of us plus Caiden ended up with TERRIBLE poison ivy!) Our first stop was a park close to our house - while looking for the geocache Isaiah spotted this:

and then we found it - so high up that Mark had to lift Levi as high as he could to get it!

Then we headed to the next geocache - the one that caused all the trouble - that we never even found! bummer!!

We headed home to have lunch - the kids ate mac&cheese and Mark went to get me one of my favorites - Pitta Pit! We took the big boys to school and put Levi down for a nap and Mark and I had some time just together. Then he had to go to work - :( So the boys and I took off for Kammy's to go swimming in her pool! It was a hot day and I figured probably one of the last opportunities we'd get to go swimming. The boys had a blast -- I did too - if only the water had been 10 degrees warmer!! :)

We got home to play and my mom and LeAnna (Caiden's mom) came to celebrate with me.

We had another favorite of mine for dinner - taco pizza from God Father's pizza and then we went on a walk to River Hills Park where we saw many deer walking around. They were very pretty!

Then it was home for desert -- THANK YOU LEANNA! and my dad joined us too. My parents gave me their gift - Crocs - something I've been wanting - everyone else in my family has them and they are so comfortable, convenient to wear and easy to clean up - THANK YOU MOM & DAD!!

Then it was time for stories and bed.

What a great day!

Preschool: Round 2

2011-09-12T07:53:00.000-05:00

Isaiah started his second year of preschool on August 29. He was technically old enough to start kindergarten this year, but we made the decision to hold off just one more year, so instead he is attending the same preschool as last year only 5 afternoons a week (rather than 3 mornings). I feel good about our decision and think it will be a great transition for him to start kindergarten next fall. He's already loving it and his teacher Mrs. Blough has been great so far! Caiden is joining Isaiah in the same preschool class this year so we get to have Caiden at our house every morning, take him to preschool, and have him in the afternoons until his mom or dad get off work. It's fun to have another boy in the house and the kids love to play with him too!

Both boys got new backpacks this year - transformers! Their new favorite characters - they each picked out the backpacks on their own - Isaiah picked Optimus Prime and Caiden picked Bumblee.

Such a big boy excited to go right in!

but I had him stop and wait for me!! :)

On the first day Caiden's mom LeAnna got to take Caiden.

We are here!! I'm so ready!

Isaiah with his new teacher Mrs. Blough

After school we took the boys out for ice cream at 4 Queens to celebrate. This made their day too!

But rather than eating it there, we went to the park! What a perfect way to end the afternoon!

So far preschool has been going great - Isaiah loves to go every day and is so happy when I pick him up. I can tell he's already learning a lot and making many new friends. His class this year is much smaller - 13 little 4 & 5 year olds - 10 of which are boys!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2011-09-09T21:09:00.000-05:00

My mom's birthday was Sunday August 28 and we had a fun little family birthday party to celebrate. A day for the cousins to play, a family meal and cake!!

The weather was nice so we spent some time relaxing outside while the kids played horseshoes - their own way.

After about 25 times, my mom decided to let the kids play without the poles - Levi or Liahna kept pulling the pole out immediately after she got it pounded in and walked away - I think they thought it was a pretty funny game! haha

Flash was around to celebrate too - I don't have too many pictures of him recently! This one isn't very good, but better than nothing, right?

And baby Elise was pretty content to sit back and watch it all.

Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you enjoyed your day!

Small Group at Palmer's

2011-09-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

As I've mentioned before, our small group took this summer to do fun family adventures. One Sunday evening we took a trip to Palmer's (the old Airline Highway Miniature Golf) to golf, jump and go-kart. It was such a fun outing! We started out with the kids on the new jumpy pillow - like a huge trampoline. They all loved it.

Then we moved on to minature golf. We divided up to try to keep things moving - Mark, Chad, Caleb, Isaiah, Levi and I went on one track and Mindy, Brian, Lilian, Aaron, Erica and Elise went on the other. The boys had fun together and Isaiah even got a hole in one!!! After just a couple holes Levi was done and by hole 7 Levi said he just didn't want to do it anymore. So we went and jumped on the jumpy just the two of us!

After the rest of the crew finished up golfing, we got in line for the go-karts. Unfortunately they didn't have enough double seaters for us all to go together as none of the kids were old enough to drive themselves. But it worked out just fine.Isaiah and I rode together and Levi and Mark rode together - we were really hoping they'd let Levi go on because I don't think he technically met the requirements, but they didn't question him and he loved it!

The kids wanted to jump again so we made it back to the pillow. This time things had slowed down enough and the parents were ready for a jump too so we all got on the pillow together - it was so much fun. Check out how high Brian made it off the pillow! I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the parents!

What a fun, fun night! If you haven't made it out there, I'd suggest you do!

Sweet Corn Days & church picnic

2011-09-05T19:53:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago we joined our friends at Lime Springs Sweet Corn Days after church. We knew the kids would love a summer afternoon parade that is known for lots of candy - and of course the sweet corn and watermelon sounded good too.

We arrived in town shortly before the parade started and found a good front row spot.

The kids couldn't wait for the parade to start and once it did we had to keep reminding them to stay back in front of our spots rather than in front of the older people sitting next to us. For some reason the candy was all being thrown closer to them!

The kids ended up with a large back full of candy!

and the daddy's were both pretty happy with their treat from the parade too - a can of beer (or 2 for Chad). I will say I've never been to a parade that hands out free beer!

We then went on a hunt for the free sweet corn and watermelon.

and ran into free ice cream too! And a jumpy house to play in!

Then it was time to head home, but not without a walk through (what was left) of the car show. Isaiah was pretty impressed with the brand new bright red Corvette.

We made it back in town just in time to make it to our church picnic. More free food - fried chicken and fun at the park!

And of course we had to go find the geocache that was at the park we were at.

The kids had lots of fun running around the baseball diamonds while the daddy's looked.

What a summer day full of fun!

Weeks 23 and 24

2011-09-04T21:18:00.001-05:00

Weeks 23 and 24 have been pretty good weeks for me in this pregnancy! As I'm looking back, I really am having a very typical pregnancy - things have been rough when expected and a little more easy going when expected too. I continue to feel lots of movement - still the most in the later parts of the day, but also all throughout the day too. And I can really feel him when I eat something sweet! For the most part I feel "normal" not so sensitive to smells, rested for the most part and still sleep well. I'm enjoying these things while they are here!

In the middle of week 24 I celebrated my birthday - and then managed to catch poison ivy (along with the rest of the family) while geocaching. The nasty rash didn't show up until Friday morning when my eye was swollen when I woke up and I started to feel itchy. By Saturday morning my entire face was EXTREMELY itchy and both eyes were swollen so urgent care at 8am it was - for the boys and me. The doctor put all 3 of us on Prenizone and Benadryl. I am a little anxious to be on a steroid and pregnant, but both the doctor and the pharmacist assured me it was okay. Lucky for me it's just on my face and belly (not sure how this happened!) and lucky for the boys it's just on their legs and arms. I sure hope I NEVER, ever have such a rash on my face again! And tough Mark is getting through it all over his legs and arms with just Benadryl for now.

I'm so thankful that things seem to be going smoothly for this pregnancy!

Levi is 3!

2011-09-03T20:51:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that Levi is already 3 years old, but also easy to believe when you look at him as he's growing so much both physically and developmentally! Here is a list of what he's like today:

* WHY?????????? Levi's favorite question (and probably favorite thing to say) continues to be why. I'm sure he asks this question at least 50 times a day. He asks this about a variety of things all the time including things he already knows the answer too :).

* Along with why, his other favorite question is "what's that's name?" (when he means - what's his/her name?) Especially when reading a book or seeing someone he doesn't know, he almost ALWAYS asks what a person/animal/etc's name is. I almost always have to say I don't know because they are the background people in the story or the random person walking by our house with their dog, but that doesn't stop him from asking. Not sure why he is so interested, but he is and it's funny.

* He can keep up with the big boys like a champ. He has no trouble climbing, jumping, peddling, running, etc to do the same things as his brother. All except climbing the climbing tree in our yard and this is mainly because he's just not quite tall enough. Whenever we go to the park the other mommies are amazed at his ability to climb up the biggest ladder or other bigger kid activities at the park. He can ride his bike as good as Isaiah and has no trouble steering the Jeep!

* Levi continues to love his binky and his blanky. He must have both to go to bed at night or bedtime (except twice now we've gotten him to sleep without binky), but easily goes down for both very easily as long as he has the required items - his Go Fish Guys music along with B&B. He loves to have his binky at times other than bed, and sometimes gets away with it, but will quickly throw it down when going outside or into a store because he knows he is NEVER allowed to have it at these times. He has just one binky left that he hasn't chewed through and has been warned that it's his last one - I think he is being extra careful with it. We really haven't set up a plan for getting rid of binky, but maybe that will come before baby #3 or maybe not?? :) By the way, he still naps at about 1pm every day and will sleep 1.5 to 2 hours just depending on how early he woke up that morning (typically right around 7) and how active/busy we've been the day before and in the morning.

* He loves music and loves to dance. He often asks for music to be played and enjoys spending time dancing to it. His favorite music is Go Fish Guys Kickin' it Old School and Party Like a Preschooler, but only a few select songs off the CD. Isaiah and Levi would be happy to listen to 2 or 3 of the songs off these CDs over and over and over and over again. Watching him sing to the music is pretty hilarious - especially singing to the rocked out version of 5 little monkey's jumping on the bed.

* Levi's all time favorite food is peanut butter. He asks for peanut butter sandwiches (no jelly or he won't eat it) several times a day. He is also happy to eat peanut butter plain with a spoon. :) This has been a nice change over the cereal bars that he used to want constantly - we decided to simply stop buying them so we could tell him we didn't have any. It didn't take him long to get over the bars. He is otherwise somewhat of a picky eater, but will eat the typical "kid" foods (mac & cheese, grilled cheese, etc), but if I give him no other option for dinner, he will usually eat what I give him. But meals often are followed by "I want a peanut butter sandwich" within an hour or so! (no, he doesn't get them every time he asks!) Lately another favorite snack of his is a whole piece of fruit with the skin cut off - he will typically eat the entire thing down to the core.

* He LOVES his big brother so much. He loves to play with him and do whatever he is doing. They are at great ages to actually play together and keep each other entertained. They have fun playing cars, superheros, knights, and so much more. It's very sweet to watch them play together. If Isaiah is doing something else it isn't uncommon to hear Levi yell for him. The other day I caught Levi trying to play on the computer and instead calling me for help he was saying, "Isaiah Alec, Isaiah Alec" over and over again looking for his brother's help.

* Levi knows who he is and is really funny about reminding people of his name if you call him something else. For example, "Levi you are really silly." and he'll say "no, I'm Levi." He doesn't like to be called other things. I think I've mentioned this before, and it continues on.

* Levi weighs in at 35lbs and 36 inches - not sure where that puts him on the percentage chart - his 3 year check up is scheduled for a few weeks out yet, but these were the measurements at urgent care this weekend for his 2nd round of poison ivy this month - yuck. UPDATE - at his 3 year appointment 9/22/11 he weighed in at 37 pounds and 38 inches (obviously one of these appointments was off, I don't think he grew 2 inches in 2 weeks!) which put him 54% for height and 90% for weight. These numbers are similar to Isaiah's at this age - shorter and heavier - we'll see if Levi thins out a little bit too. But the doctor had absolutely no concerns about Levi, his development or his growth! We are so thankful to have a healthy 3 year old boy!

* He is a polite little boy. He often will say "tank you" or "thanks mama" without being prompted. But he is also very aggressive and has an opinion. If you are talking and he wants to talk or if he just doesn't like what you say, he'll often reply with, "don't say that." He's definitely not a snuggler all the time, but when he's in the right mood he will cuddle up with you. But he'll always go for me sitting next to him.

* I could go on and on about Levi's personality, but I think I've hit the big ones. We love you Levi James!

Levi's birthday.

2011-08-31T07:58:00.002-05:00

Levi James turned 3 on August 12! We had fun celebrating him all day long Friday and again on Saturday! I've made several collages of pictures because I had so much to share! (click on the collage to enlarge it)

On Thursday night before his birthday the boys helped me make his birthday cupcakes for his party the next morning. They had fun licking the extra batter and frosting, check out the middle picture of Levi - this is what he looked like by the time he was done with the batter bowl! I had the plan to make little batman symbols on each cupcake but it just wasn't happening and I didn't get started with them until after the boys were in bed and I just didn't feel like staying up until all hours of the night making batman symbols for them to be devoured in the morning! So I came up with little paper symbols instead - I think they looked really cute - I was pleased! For his birthday party with his friends, we invited kids over for cupcakes first (not ideal, but it worked fine!). The boys had fun playing crashing combines with the batman balloons. Levi did open his gifts from his friends beforehand too. I thought he was super cute exclaiming, "oh my goodness!!" after many of the presents and then a sweet little "tank you."

After cupcakes and presents we went straight to the party - KT Inflatables - a fairly new bouncy house place in town. The kids all LOVED it. It was definitely a perfect spot for a young one with lots of energy! There were 5 or 6 jumpy things set up included a huge slide that the kids loved climbing up and going down over and over again! It was fun for the adults too as the kids were occupied so we could chat! I'd definitely recommend this place if your kids have some extra energy to burn! Attending the party (as seen in the lower left corner) was Shiloh, Levi, Silas, Jayda, Isaiah, Jonah, Ava and not pictured in the group photo is Caiden along with parents of the kids (or grandma in Shiloh's case!) and my parents joined in the fun too. It was a nice size for us! It was also fun to get a belly shot with Ava's mommy Andrea - She's due about 10 weeks ahead of me with her second daughter.

After our two hours of jumping the kids were hungry so we went to Pizza Ranch for a yummy lunch! LeAnna, Caiden, Grandpa and Grandma came to eat with us. Then it was time to head home for presents from mommy & daddy and Grandma Michele. After Grandma & Grandpa's Special Agent Oso boat and our Hot Wheels bathtub racetrack, the boys wanted to take a bath! So of course they did! Naptime was in there somewhere too.

Unfortunately Mark had to head into work shortly after naptime, but the boys and I joined up with Grandpa and Grandma to visit the petting zoo. Levi LOVED it and was so excited to see all of the animals. He had no fear of petting them and chasing after them (unlike his big brother who was a little more timid!). Levi loved the turtle in the baby pool and kept trying to make him swim. He also had a fun time chasing around the chickens! Isaiah had a good time too.

It was a very fun day celebrating Levi! After bedtime, I spent a little time making the cake for the next morning - I was even more happy with how that turned out! The next morning we woke up to play with a few new presents from the birthday party and then get ready for the next party - a family pizza party! It was fun to watch Isaiah and Levi playing with their 4 cousins (Dakota-6, Khia-3 1/2, Liahna 3 in November and Elise 5 months). Outside play would not be the same without that big blue Jeep (Thanks Grandma Michele!!). Check out cute little Liahna in her princess dress driving the Jeep. It was also fun to catch up with Uncle Justin & Aunt Kim and Uncle Matthew, Uncle Jay & Aunt Nichole along with my parents and Mark's dad and step-mom. After the party we had naptime and then we went out geocaching and Levi found his very first geocach! He found it all by himself! It was really fun - you'll see a picture of Mark and Levi holding it on the right side.

Happy Birthday Levi James!

my birthday get-a-way!

2011-08-29T18:38:00.004-05:00

My birthday is the last day of August, normally I don't really care how we celebrate as long as I am with my family and friends, but this year is a big one (thirty!!!!) and I just really wanted to do something memorable. I decided on what I wanted to do and was sure of it - it would be very memorable and a once in a lifetime thing. I wanted to go on a hot air balloon ride. I started looking into it and every company within reason did not allow pregnant women to ride - go figure! So, that will have to wait until next year - which works great as it's my golden birthday! Instead I came up with a few ideas that I thought would be fun and Mark surprised me and had arrangements all figured out for a weekend get-a-way just me and him --including a babysitter! (minus the hotel room which he left up to me!:)

We left first thing Saturday morning to go to Chicago. We made it across the Mississippi by around 10.

and to downtown Chicago by 1. We were surprised to see all of the Hawkeye flags everywhere!

and found our first destination by 1:30...

But our show didn't start until 4 so we got the truck parked and went to find a late lunch - my one food request while we were there - a good slice of Chicago style pizza. We walked by one pizza restaurant and decided it didn't look "Chicagoish" enough so we kept searching. We found a place called Chicago's Pizza and bought pizza by the slice. It was good- but not exactly what we were thinking...

After the pizza, Mark needed to make a phone call that I couldn't hear so I had wait for him...hmmmmm what more did he have up his sleeve?? :)

We still had time before our show so we walked the streets of Chicago near the theater. We both had fun looking at all the close together houses and guessing which ones we thought would be nice inside.

We then ran into a ---- yard sale!! If you know me, you know I'm always up for a good garage sale, so of course we went. We found two pair of binoculars that we thought the boys would like - especially Isaiah while geocaching and a book about good vs bad foods for kids. The binoculars were $.75 & $.50 and the book was $.50 so when she said I'll take $2.00 for everything I was like okay thinking it was a good deal - but after I told Mark what she charged me he was quick to inform me that not only did I go to my first Chicago garage sale, but I also got ripped off at a Chicago garage sale! haha, it was only a quarter and the book alone was worth $2 of entertainment for the drive home.

It was then time for our show -

Neither of us knew what to expect, but we were both VERY excited about it. Mark was able to get us front row seats which was very cool too! (The first 5 rows were poncho seating because you could get stuff on you - which we did just a little bit). The show was amazing! During the show a couple of the blue men painted pictures and Mark was lucky enough to have one handed to him - definitely a fun souvenir! Pictures were not allowed during the show, but here we are in the lobby waiting room area - you can see the black piping behind us - the entire theater was set up with that look to it.

After the show we had just a short time to make it across Chicago to Schumburg where our dinner and evening entertainment was to be held...

We've wanted to go to Medieval Times for years but have never made it. It was a lot of fun and really neat! I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to do something different but neat! Mark surprised me by having them say my name in the list of celebrations!

After the show we went through their little museum and then got our pictures with a knight and the king and princess.

We headed back to our hotel which was in Schumburg and were excited to sleep in as late as we wanted, but 7:30 came and we were both awake! We ate the hotels breakfast and then drove back into Chicago to the Sky Deck. Once again we parked the truck and walked towards our destination and as soon as we walked into the Willis Tower (AKA Sears Tower) I saw a special sign posted on the wall...

Our 9 year anniversary was August 3 so the weekend away was a little bit of a celebration for that too. The Sky Deck was really really neat. It was a bit scary to go into the observation areas, but we were brave! We actually went into several of the areas (I think there were 5 or 6), I just couldn't get enough! haha.

Then we went on a mission for Chicago hot dogs - Mark's one food request for the trip - and we found them! But in the restaurant they also had more Chicago pizza and Mark decided that looked better. There was a famous Chicago Pizza restaurant right next to the hot dog shop that he decided looked even better...and it was! We opted for half sausage and mushnroom and half spinach. yummmmmy!

All of our Chicago adventures were over so we walked around for just a little while and then decided to go to Ikea on our way home. It was our second trip to Ikea and we had fun looking around, but were definitely very overwhelmed! We did buy curtains for our computer room - which was great! I've been looking and looking for the perfect ones and couldn't find them and thought I was going to have to make some - but we found ones we both liked - and a great price!

It was a wonderful, much-needed get-away for us! The perfect way to celebrate the big 3-0!

Bremer County Fair

2011-08-24T21:25:00.001-05:00

When we found out the Bremer County Fair was having Monster Truck Monday we knew we had to go! The boys were so excited to go see real monster trucks! We got to the fair before as the trucks were unloading and we got a close up look at several monster trucks and even got to watch them put them together! From a distance both boys were shouting with happiness and were so very excited. As we started walking towards the trucks they got more and more timid. Mark and I tried to get them pumped up to go ride one and both boys stayed back. We finally convinced them to at least get close, but they really did NOT want to ride. Isaiah finally agreed to it even though he really didn't want to and we pretty much just forced Levi to do it (knowing he'd love it and be so sad if he didn't ride it). Throughout the ride both boys looked really nervous and I couldn't tell if they were enjoying it, but as soon as the ride came to an end Isaiah shouts, "that was awesome!!!!!" and Levi was so excited that he wanted to do it again right away!

Here we are before the ride began:

and afterwards in front of the monster we rode on.

Here's one of the monster trucks we saw being put back together.

Checking out the blue Dragon Fly

And the boys' absolute favorite - the Corvette Monster Truck!!

We then found our friends Jill and Lily and had a sweet treat to cool off

and then it was back for a second monster truck ride. This time Isaiah got to ride in the front passengers seat! He was soooooooo excited about this!

We did go to check out the animals, but they had not arrived at the fair yet, except this one lonely bird.

We opted to head home for dinner and bathes since we had spent several hours in the hot sun rather than stay for the monster truck show that started at 7:30.

The next two days Adrenaline X Mobile Laser Tag was offering laser tag at the fair. Mark and I (and our helper Austin) had lots of fun helping kids of all ages (adults included) enjoy playing laser tag together. LeAnna had the boys for us both days and brought the boys and Caiden up to the Crashing Combine Derby and the play laser tag. I'm not sure which they enjoyed more. They still play crashing combines and talk about the show regularly, but also had a blast playing laser tag.

In the next two pictures you'll see our boys playing next to our friend Lily and Caiden in the background.

What a fun county fair! Everyone had a great time - can't wait for next year!!

five.

2011-08-23T20:06:00.000-05:00

It's official - we will become a family of five in December!

and to be a little more specific it will be a family of...

1 girl and 4 boys!

In April we found out we were expecting! We kept the news to ourselves until Mother's Day we shared the news with our parents and siblings. We left the rest of the world clueless for many weeks, but by now it's more than obvious (by the growing baby belly) so I figured I'd make it my blog official as well!

I've tried to keep a short journal of my pregnancy this time around and I'll post it here in case you're wondering how I've been feeling - but mainly for me so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle of the rest of my files!

Weeks 4 & 5

Feeling good with normal energy.

Week 6

Starting to feel very tired and anxious

Week 7

Very tired - went to see Dr P and he did an ultrasound to check on baby - heart was beating very strong. Dr P thought it was as strong as an 8 1/2 or 9 week old baby! Shared the news with parents & siblings on Mother's Day.

Weeks 8 & 9

Still very tired and starting to become very sensitive to smells - a busy week 9 as Grandma Michele was staying with us in Florida

Week 10

I could hardly stay awake! I would be sound asleep by 9 or 10 and even fell asleep on the couch at 6 or 7 a few times! We went back to Dr P this week and he tried to find the heartbeat with a Doppler, but after a few minutes switched to another ultrasound. Baby looked great with a strong heartbeat in the 140s!

Weeks 11 & 12

Still tired and even more sensitive to smells - gagged at lots of things - especially raw chicken! Feeling very sick after eating - I would rather not eat than feel yucky afterwards.

Week 13

A little less tired, but still very sensitive to smells and feeling yucky after eating.

Week 14

Same as week 13 - went back to Dr P. Found heartbeat with Doppler beating at 156bpm and baby was sitting very low. No weight gain since 10 week appointment.

Week 15

Still a little tired, but much better. Smells still bother me and my shirts are definitely getting tight! Eating seems to be a good thing again!

Week 16

Another very tired week - but mainly because I worked a full time work week.Started to feel little flutters of baby kicking - could definitely tell it was baby by the end of the week. Usually felt the movement when lying in bed between 9 and 11 at night. Shared the news with our church small group and other friends.

Week 17

Much less tired, still sensitive to smells and find myself gagging at least daily. Smells like raw chicken, dirty diapers, dirty dishes among many things make me feel sick! Wore my first maternity shirt to a Mom's Night Out dinner. Feeling baby move often - still little flutters, mostly in the evening, but sometimes during the daytime

Week 18

Feeling good! Went back to Dr P this week and he found the heartbeat quickly with the Doppler beating 148bpm. He said my uteris was sitting in just the right spot and things were looking good. Up 1 pound since last appointment at week 14. Feeling baby move a lot more and at all different times. Movements feel more like little nudges rather than flutters.

Week 19

Still feeling good! In maternity shirts about half the time, but can still make other shirts work too and haven't dared to try on the maternity pants!

Week 20

Another good week - feeling good and still well rested - and good thing too for this week - we had 2 full days of laser tag events and my birthday get-away with Mark in Chicago. Definitely into maternity tops most of the time and I am very noticeably pregnant.

Week 21

The big ultrasound week! I was very nervous during the ultrasound and worried that the technician would have a concern - but everything looked great. We were able to see all of HIS organs and see that they appeared to be functioning as they should be. The technician was an older lady who had been doing this for years, she was very confident that it was a boy (but of course no guarantees!). Based on his measurements in the ultrasound he would be due December 22 which is a few days after my calculated due date of December 19. We celebrated Levi's 3rd birthday this week. I wore a pair of maternity pants one day this week!

Week 22

Still feeling good, but feel very uncomfortable after eating this week. I ate half a bowl of cereal and felt like I ate the entire box and another day I ate 2 toaster waffles and felt so full that I ate an entire turkey. Definitely having to cut back on portions so that I'm not miserably full, but not feeling the need to eat more often. Went back to Dr P this week, he found the heartbeat quickly (I forgot to ask how fast!!), he had no concerns about the ultrasound or my pregnancy and said the eating thing was nothing to be worried about. Gained 5 pounds since last appointment! Baby is still sitting low, but is getting closer to the "regular" range.

I'm now officially 23 weeks and 1 day - I'm going to try to record a weekly review with a picture and updates - but it may not get posted that often!

jonah

2011-08-18T15:03:00.002-05:00

Our little buddy Jonah turned 3 the end of July! Unfortunately we missed out on his birthday party, but we went to celebrate a few days later.

I think they all 4 had a good time playing, it was hard to get them to stop for a picture!

Happy Birthday Jonah!

bowling.

2011-08-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

Our small group had a Sunday late afternoon bowling date scheduled the end of July and it was tons of fun and a bit chaotic! haha - just image 8 adults and 7 children (ages 7, 4,4,3,2,2,1~I think I got that right) all sharing 2 lanes of bowling. I think all in all everyone had a good time...and can you believe it, I had to work all day Sunday and forgot the camera, so I called Mark to have him bring it (thank you honey!) but I forgot to remind him to make sure the memory card was in it (which it wasn't) so I have no pictures! oh well.

The boys, especially Levi, had sooooo much fun that they wanted to go back immediately! A few days later, Mark and I took the kids again - by this time I'm sure Levi had asked to go bowling at least 30 times. They had just as much fun and I made sure to have the camera!

And we were all jumping with excitement when Isaiah got his very first STRIKE ever! Way to go Isaiah!

What a silly sport, but a fun thing to do!

poor Levi and his pinky finger

2011-08-13T19:58:00.004-05:00

On July 19 we were all at a routine doctors appointment. I always, always try to schedule our appointments within the first couple of the morning or the first couple after lunch, but for whatever reason I agreed to an 11:30 appointment that day. We LOVE our doctor, but he is always running behind -- mainly because he takes as much time as he needs to with each patient. By just about 1 we were finally done with our appointment, but we needed to schedule a follow up - the boys and I went out to the receptionist counter while Mark made sure he had the doctor's new cell phone number (see why we love our doctor? rather than go to urgent care or the ER or for any questions he asks that we call him directly at any hour of the day!). Of course at this hour all the receptionists were on their lunch break but a very friendly older nurse for another doctor came up to ask if it would be okay if they call me to schedule the appointment. I said sure thinking we could leave, but the lady was so friendly that she kept going on and on about how she just wasn't sure how to use the computer. Isaiah was getting very restless so he opened the door to the lobby and Levi was sitting on the floor near the door. Isaiah could tell that the lady was going to repeat again what she'd already said a few times about having them call me to schedule our next appointment so he shut the door. Levi got white in the face and instantly started SCREAMING. Isaiah opens the door and Levi looks at me and I see the tip of his tiny little pinky finger is BADLY hurt. I scream, "I need help!" and Mark and the doctor come running. The doctor looks and says, "oh sh*t that's bad" (which I've never heard him say anything close to this in my life! and we've been through a lot together including a pregnancy without my husband and 2 deliveries). He quickly grabs a paper towel and puts Levi's fingertip back on - it had broken all the way through the bone and was hanging on by a little skin (disgusting!!). He rushes Levi into an exam room and starts calling out to his nurse what he needs. He assures us that 2 (of his 10) children have had door accidents and he knew just what to do. I'm white as a ghost and in complete panic mode, Isaiah is in shock and feels really bad about what has happened, and Mark steps up and holds little Levi. As he begins working on Levi's finger he tells the nurse he will need scissors (to cut the stitches) and Levi instantly begins screaming and crying harder and harder and I quickly realize that Levi thinks the doctor is going to cut his finger off. Thankfully the doctor knew what he was doing and was able to line up his finger and sew it back on with just 6 stitches and he was very pleased with how it looked. He was confident that things would be fine with his finger but there was just no telling if he would ever have a nail grow back (as his nail and cuticle were cut off in the door).

I am so thankful that Mark was so strong and put together during this situation as I was not. He was able to talk with Levi trying to calm him down and bribe him to make him feel better - I know he offered many things to him, but all I can remember is McDonald's and ice cream and he tried to get him excited about his birthday party at the bouncy place. The doctor and the nurse were both very concerned for me as pale as I was. Isaiah did say to me, "mommy, I'm so sorry I shut Levi's finger in the door." and of course I explained to him it wasn't his fault and Levi will be okay - he stayed close to me and my lap during the whole thing. And really, if it was going to happen, there wasn't a better place than the doctor's office.

By the time we made it to the car Levi had pretty much stopped crying and we did make a stop at McDonald's on the way home - a big treat for us! Levi picked chicken nuggets to eat which he did eat a few and went right down for his nap after a dose of ibuprofen and Amoxicillin (that Mark ran to the pharmacy to get -- I'm telling you, he was super dad! The antibiotic was prescribed to prevent his finger getting infected). By this time it was close to 3! We let him sleep until about 5 and he woke up fine - no complaints about his finger and he even said it didn't hurt!

To be extra cautious of his bandage which the doctor wanted on for at least 2 days without coming off, we had a fun glove/mitten party for dinner that night - everyone had to eat with a glove or mitten on at least one of their hands! (which worked well to keep it dry/clean but did pull the bandage up a little when removing the glove)

We did have to replace the bandage the next morning because it was very lose after the glove and over night. I tried to capture a picture of what his finger looked like...

We did keep him on ibuprofen and Tylenol combination for several days, but he never complained that it hurt - after a couple days he did begin to say that it tickled. We were a bit nervous that maybe he didn't have feeling in his finger since it wasn't hurting, but after several days we poked at it and finally he did say that hurt.

SO if that wasn't enough, on Saturday (the finger thing was Tuesday) I came home from working all day to find Levi had a red rash ALL over his arms, neck and legs that Mark was pretty sure was Poison Ivy. I really didn't want to take any chances of it getting worse or getting in his finger some how so off to urgent care we went. As soon as we walked into the building Levi shouts, "I'm mad at doctors!" and everyone laughed. I told him I didn't blame him. We were able to get in to see the doctor shortly and he confirmed that Levi did have Poison Ivy or another rash like it and he put him on Prednisone and Benedryl to help it go away. So at this point Levi was on medicine around the clock -- poor boy. (by the way - I had the doctor look at his pinky finger just to get his opinion on it and he thought it looked very good and the doctor did a great job!! He, too, said there would be no way to know if the nail would ever grow back And they re-wrapped it for me! Our wrap jobs were not so good haha). Thankfully after 4 or 5 days the Poison Ivy was gone for the most part. Mark and I also had a little bit on each of us, but just by being careful not to itch it (too much) it went away on its own!

Then two weeks after the finger incident we went back to the doctor to have him remove the stitches. Levi was furious that we were going back to this same doctor. He made it clear that he didn't want to go, but would go see any other doctor. Of course we made him go and our doctor was able to remove all 6 stitches with just a little fuss on one of them. He was VERY pleased with the way his finger was healing and said it looked great, but still couldn't say if the nail would grow back. But Levi was free to do whatever with his finger except play in the mud or sandbox for the next 24 hours to make sure the stitches spots were okay. (Both boys made sure to let the doctor know that we hadn't even gotten our sandbox out for the summer yet - haha--and no we still have not! They are just not good at keeping the sand in it)

And to this day, other than the one time, Levi has not complained once about his finger, he uses it like normal (and did even with the huge bandage on it) and appears to have complete function and feeling in it - what a relief!

I have a feeling this will just be a great story for Levi to brag about in his growing up years -- in fact, I already witnessed how cool it is to little boys that it happened - we went over to drop off a birthday gift for my friend and her 8 year old was there with a couple friends and he told all of his friends, "this is the boy I know that cut his finger off!" and the other kids were like "woahh, awesome!" and they asked Levi if it was true, and he simply said, "yep, it is." :)

I hadn't thought to take any pictures of his finger in the healing process, but as I was preparing to post this I took a picture of his finger today (just shy of a month later) - you can see it looks pretty much "normal" without the nail but is still pretty red at the tip - it was cut off at about the point where the red starts (and pay no attention to the dirty nails -- we didn't get a bath tonight! haha)

Life sure is an adventure, isn't it?

and by the way - after all of that, the receptionist ladies never did call to schedule our follow up appointment!

tree climber!

2011-08-12T17:11:00.000-05:00

We have a great climbing tree in our front yard - the branches start very low to the ground and there are several that go out in different directions that make lots of paths to take when climbing. Both boys have had interest in getting in this tree, but I just wasn't sure if they were ready to climb it. This spring I made the rule that if they wanted to play in it they had to be big enough to get up themselves - I figured good motivation for them to work hard to do it on their own (and good for me so I don't have to lift them up into it over and over again)! Isaiah carried a big rock over to the trunk in the spring to act as a step to help him get up, but he still just couldn't quite do it. As the months have gone by he has practiced many times - it's good entertainment for him while I'm in front mowing the yard or picking weeds - and he finally did it! He's done it many times since then - I'm so proud of him and he's pretty proud of himself!

This does leave Levi in a unfortunate situation as he stands at the bottom of the tree really, really wanting to get in, but just not able to do it quite yet. I have stuck to my word and have made him try on his own (but once or twice I've given him a little boost). I have confidence that by next year at this time we will have two full tree climbers! Little boys are so much fun! :)

Brothers.

2011-08-11T21:31:00.000-05:00

These two are really becoming good buddies (most of the time!) They enjoy each other, play very well together and look so cute too! Here's a couple recent pictures of them looking like cute little brothers.

The tank.

2011-08-10T21:17:00.000-05:00

Mark has been wanting to visit the Five Sullivan Brother's Iowa Veterans Museum for quite some time now. This museum opened several years back and Mark was in the opening ceremony as an Iowa soldier, but he never has had the opportunity to go through the museum. One morning the four of us went down to the museum to check it out. The boys were impressed with the huge ship that was sticking out of the wall as you walk into the museum and quickly walked past pretty much every other exhibit until we reached the tank. Fortunately for us, the tank was near the part of the museum that Mark's unit was displayed so we were able to browse through it while the boys "played" in the tank. We finally pulled them away from the tank after a good forty five minutes of letting them climb up and down inside the tank. There is so much history in the museum and so many interesting things to look at; both Mark and I agreed that we need to go back as a couple to spend a few hours (or more) really looking through the displays. The boys agree that we need to go back too, but only to play in the tank!

yee-haw!

2011-08-07T21:17:00.002-05:00

The summer wouldn't be completely documented if it didn't include a post about Isaiah's good friend (and birthday buddy - born on the exact same day, Isaiah is just a few hours older!) Caiden. These two enjoy each other so much! They spend a full day together (like first thing in the morning until bedtime) and still fuss that it's time to part ways. They play all kinds of crazy things together - super heros, race cars, Rescue Heros, dump trucks, dinosaurs, knights - pretty much any 'boy' activity that you can think of, but their favorite of all time is dress up. Between the costumes at our house and the costumes at Caiden's house they can be pretty much anything they want to be - Batman, Spiderman, Superman, a shark, a pirate, a dragon, Buzzllightyear, Thomas the train, a transformer, etc! I'm sad to say that their favorite costume (the ninja) finally completely ripped out this past week so we are definitely on the look out for new costumes. And here they are one day playing cowboys at Caiden's house.

It's so fun to watch these best buds together in action and we are excited to say that this school year Caiden will be spending all of his weekdays with us! These two will sure be happy!!
We love you Caiden!

Waterhawks.

2011-08-06T19:52:00.002-05:00

Mark and I have talked about going to a Waterhawks show for years. Whenever I drive by their arena I always think, we should go to a show this year for sure and then we never do, until this year! It was our turn to pick our small group fun activity so we picked a night at the Waterhawks. Of course it was in the middle of those 115 degree days where it was miserable to be outside for more than 5 minutes, but we went anyway. All in all it was a good time, but I'm sure it would have been much better had it been 20 degree cooler -I'd also have to say, it might be a little more age appropriate in 2 or 3 more years (in other words, the boys got bored)!

A few minutes after we got out of the truck our faces were very red!

Each family packed a picnic to eat while we were watching the show.

We had quite the struggle keeping all the kids up close to us (and not down the hill towards the lake!) but I actually got a picture of all 3 boys (Caleb, Isaiah & Levi) together on the blanket.

I love Caleb's face in this picture - this was one of the first tricks - the boys were amazed!

I was impressed with the tricks that they did - my favorites were the stacking pyramids! I couldn't believe how young some of the skiiers were - I think they said their youngest was 4! I can't image Isaiah out there skiing!

Part way through the show, to keep the kids entertained (and contained!) we put them in the back of Mark's truck.

I'm not sure who's crazy idea it was to do handstands, but they were funny to watch!

By the end, we were all beat red and sweaty!

so we headed over to Chad and Erica's to cool off in the slip 'n slide. The boys had fun running around in the water, but Isaiah, Caleb and Levi were all reluctant to go down the "right" way. But they did eventually do it! What a fun way to cool off from a hot evening!

It was just another fun summer night!

4th of July!

2011-08-03T19:38:00.000-05:00

I wanted to make sure we did a few fun things together as a family on the 4th of July, but I also knew that Mark and I had a fun Adrenaline X Mobile Laser Tag event for the city of Reinbeck all afternoon, so our fun had to begin first thing in the morning! The boys and I ran to the store to pick out special 4th of July donuts, can you guess who picked which one?

(Levi-white star, Isaiah-sprinkles, Me-red/blue frosting, and boys picked out nuts for daddy)

The 4th of July after Isaiah was 1 I found a "Mr Independent" shirt on clearance and I'm pretty sure I forgot to have him wear it at all and forgot to have Levi wear it last year -but this year I remembered and Levi still (barely) fit in this unused 24 month shirt :)

We spent the rest of the morning playing and having fun together before grandma showed up to finish up the holiday with the boys while we were off to help the city of Reinbeck celebrate our Independence! We had a great turnout for the event and I'm pretty sure all 200+ people that played had a good time! To see the event in pictures click here.

I am so thankful for our freedom - Happy Independence Day!

Pool party!

2011-08-02T21:04:00.002-05:00

A few days after our picture adventure with Kammy she invited us over to swim in her pool. Both boys LOVE to be in the pool and are so brave in the water (so brave I've yet to take them to the pool this summer by myself!!). Kammy's pool was all the same size (4 foot maybe?) but with life jackets on they could swim around and play all by themselves (with an adult in the pool with them of course)

Levi had so much fun being thrown up as high as we could get him in the air and then splashing in the pool - he'd go all the way under, hold is breath, and come back up ready for more!

The boys definitely enjoyed having Austin around to play too!

After the pool, Isaiah got to ride on Austin's kid sized ATV for a little bit, but then the battery died.

Levi decided to spend the rest of the afternoon with his helmet on anyway! :)

What a fun day with friends!

Cousins!

2011-07-31T13:21:00.000-05:00

My sister and her girls came up to play on Saturday of 4th of July weekend (while her husband had to work).

Levi is just 3 months older than her oldest daughter, Liahna, so they do pretty good playing together - as well as 2 year olds can! Levi normally only gets his binky at naptime and bedtime, but Liahna had hers in this morning so Levi did too :) I think they look cute two little binky babies playing castle together!

The kids had lots of fun playing in the pool and water table together.

Baby Elise sat and watched it all.

Levi and Liahna also had a good time crusin' in the jeep together.

This picture is so funny to me - Levi often closes his eyes tight when he wants to pretend he isn't hearing what you are saying (in this case, Levi smile for a picture in other cases, Levi can you go clean up your room:) and Liahna has a big smile with the binky in. Love her curls!

What a fun day for the cousins! Can't wait for the next one!

A day at Morwood.

2011-07-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

My friend Kammy asked me to come take pictures of her and her family while they were camping at Morwood Park. I'm by no means a photographer of any kind but I do enjoy pictures - mainly because it captures sweet memories - and for this reason I take A LOT of pictures (mostly of my boys and occasionally I'll make it in a photo or two!). Apparently Kammy likes my photography skills because I photographed her wedding for her and she asked me to come back for these family photos. I ended up taking several pictures of her immediate family, her sister's family, her mother & step-father and the whole group. I was fairly satisfied with the pictures and I think they were too. For privacy's sake (since I don't know her extended family and can't ask their okay), I'll just post one nice one of Kammy's family -- I haven't done too much editing of these pictures so this is a raw image. I must say that being a photographer is hard, and after this session I have NO desire to be a professional photographer of any kind (no offense to the family - they were all great!) it's just not in my make-up to creatively think of posses to fit all sizes of people together to look natural and flattering. My biggest challenge with Kammy's family is their oldest son is much taller than the parents and the youngest son is still little -- how in the world do you make a pose with this without it looking awkward? I did the best I could! :)

During the pictures, Mark and my boys found a fun little water spot to play in.

and I even managed to have someone snap a family picture of us -- these just don't happen very often!

We spent the rest of the morning and afternoon enjoying the campsite and the amenities of the park. We made it to the pool where Levi decided to jump in on his own before we were ready with no life jacket so Mark went after him fully clothed. That little boy is just too brave!! The kids played miniature golf - a nice, clean little course - perfect for the kids to play and the adults to sit back and watch!

After the day full of SUN and warm weather, Kammy wanted to buy the kids an ice cream treat from the little store - well Levi was the only kid to cooperate and got a huge Mr. Freeze pop (and ate 2 bites and said he didn't want it! haha) the other kids each picked a candy. I have to record that Isaiah picked out Bubble Tape gum and couldn't have been happier with his choice. he LOVES it and has been really careful with how much he eats because he doesn't want to run out! He has been nice enough to share a piece with me (which was less than one inch long :) and did notice them at Target the other day and said, "we should probably buy another one of those mommy so that I'll have it ready for when mine runs out." :) (no it didn't make it in the cart). It's the simple joys that really make life great for kids, isn't it? (Maybe I should learn a lesson from that!)

Thanks for a great day Kammy!!

Levi's first movie!

2011-07-21T21:40:00.000-05:00

On June 26th we took the boys to see Cars 2 in the movie theater. They have been waiting and waiting for this movie to come out! This was Levi's first trip to the movie theater and for the most part he did pretty good. He was less than entertained through the previews, but after getting him a booster seat and the Cars movie starting, he sat still for the most part. Luckily the theater wasn't very full and there were mostly young kids in with us!

Isaiah has been to a couple other movies (his first ever with my parents to Where the Wild Things Are and then we took him to Toy Story 3). He sat still through the entire movie and really enjoyed himself!

I'm so glad my boys share my love of popcorn and both helped me to almost finish off a whole large bucket!

It was definitely a fun afternoon together as a family - I'm sure we'll do another movie date again sometime!