one year ago today.

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

One year ago today my beautiful Levi James was born.

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

Happy Birthday Levi James.

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

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

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

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

What's going on here anyway?

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

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

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

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

another haircut

Isaiah really needed a haircut again ... and as I told you before ... I always put it off...but Saturday afternoon, it was time.

Before: After:

He sure looks cute! :)

a big boy bed - kind of...

The crib we bought for Isaiah way back before he was born is a 3-in-one crib that turns from a crib to a toddler bed to a headboard/footboard for a full size bed. For months now we've been talking about making Isaiah's crib into the toddler bed - the rail was right under the crib and it would take just a few screws to make the switch, we just never did it.

Well today I decided it was time. I thought maybe it would help Isaiah sleep at night again. For the past several nights Isaiah has not been sleeping. One night he just would not fall asleep until after 12:30! He was wide awake and nothing would help him sleep - not even late night TV! Another couple nights he woke up after a couple hours of sleep and couldn't get back to sleep -- daddy even slept with him on the toyroom floor one night to help him sleep. Needless to say, he's been extra tired and cranky! So - like I said - I was thinking maybe this will help. I guess we'll see tonight!

I'm not overly confident though, he didn't sleep at all at nap time today - he got up 3 times to go potty - which I'm guessing is because I told him that with his new bed he could get up in the night and tell me when he needed to go, and he did go all 3 times he got up. He did stay in the bed otherwise at naptime today and just looked and looked at books and his magazines. (He get's High Five Magazine by Highlights -- and he loves it! Especially the "That's silly" page).

Here he is in his "new bed" pretending to sleep!

A little while later Isaiah and Jayda had run off to Isaiah's room, I peaked in to find this: And this is what I get for letting the two big kids entertain themselves while I put the bed together: HA HA - they were so funny jumping on the matress and sticking ladybug stickers all over themselves, each other and the mattress! :)

I'll keep you posted on how the "new bed" works out!

Levi's new blanket.

My mom has made each of her grandkids a special quilt. She's picked out the fabric especially for each quilt and spent a lot of time working on each one to make them special. She finished Levi's quilt a week or so ago and brought it over for Levi last Thursday.

Thank you mom for all of your hard work!

Take a look - isn't it perfect for Levi?
The boys had fun playing together on it - until Isaiah got bored - but that was my last post! :) In this picture they each have their little pillow that goes along with the quilt that grandma made for them.
This was also the day that Levi looked like he does in the pictures below just about all day long (just like he is in the picture above)
Just for fun, here's a picture of Isaiah getting his blanket from grandma back in December of 2007 and a picture of Isaiah in the same outfit that Levi has on in July 2007. Isaiah had lots more hair, huh? :)

a potty training story

Isaiah has done AMAZING with potty training. Like I said in my last post about it, he just decided he was ready and that was that.

Since July 4, he has not been back in a diaper for awake hours. He was in a diaper for 4 or 5 days during naps, but then told me one nap time that he doesn't need a diaper and he will stay dry -- and for the most part he has. I think there has been one or two nap times since July 4 that he's wet the bed. He stayed in diapers for a week or so over night and then told me he didn't need a diaper for bed either - that he'd stay dry... and there have been maybe a handful of nights that he's wet the bed. So WOW did he do amazing! I can officially say he is totally potty trained! I am so proud of him!

And for everyone who told me to just wait it out and let him decide when he was ready - you were right!!

It was definitely great to go buy diapers the other day and only need to buy ONE box! It's been a YEAR since that's been the case!

But, of course, things haven't been without a funny story here and there, Mark and my mom were around to witness one funny incident and they both agree it must be shared!

The other day my mom was over giving Levi his new blanket (see my next post) so Mark, Mom, Levi and I were all inside with Isaiah. He got bored of the blanket talk and went outside to play. This is normal - he will often go outside and ride his tractor or find some bugs to look at while we are doing something else. I always check on him every few minutes, but trust him enough to let him play on his own.

So he was outside, and I peaked at him and could hear him talking to himself (or maybe to a bug -- or maybe even his newest friend, Tootie-his imaginary friend-I'll post more on him later too). I walked closer so I could see him and this is what I saw:
That's right - the orange is his shorts, and the red and white are his underwear. Oh dear. If you look just a little farther you'll see a nice big wet spot--yes, his pee. :) ha ha.

I asked him, "did you go potty outside?" he said, "yes." I told him that was very good that he didn't go in his underwear, but we have to go in the potty. Mark also encouraged him for not going in his underwear. (There have been a few times that Isaiah has known that he has to go potty but is having too much fun doing whatever he is doing and not want to take the time to step away and go). So we both knew it was a good step that he had realized he had to go and took the time to do it.

Then Isaiah says, "there's something in my box." That's also not an unusual thing - he sometimes finds things to put in other things - remember he is a little boy:) So I said, "Okay, let's see what's in your box." He says, "There's something yucky in my box." "Okay...."

And can you guess what the yucky thing in his box was? yeah, you're right - his poopy!

"There's something yucky in my box."

My mom, Mark and I had a hard time not laughing at him...but we knew he couldn't think it was funny. So we went inside got changed and talked about how we only go in the potty...and it hasn't happened since--but this was just a few days ago...

I'm sure there will be many more funny potty stories along the way with our little wild one Isaiah.

A wonderful anniversary!

Yesterday was our SEVEN year wedding anniversary! Of course we had to celebrate! Thankfully my job is so flexible that I was able to take a vacation day and Laura was nice enough to take our kids even though I wasn't working and off we went for a day of fun!

We had a hard time figuring out what we wanted to do. We wanted something different, special, and not something we could do just any day. With the help of my good friend Kammy, we decided to go tubing down the Iowa River. What a FUN, FUN thing to do! We drove the 40 miles to Rock-n-Row and had a fantastic time! I would definitely recommend this if you are looking for something slow and relaxing to do--on a weekday, they told us weekends get really wild and crazy! It was exactly what we wanted (and needed!).
Getting ready to go...
The bus they took us on to the beginning of our journey...
It was a quiet day on the river - there was only one other group of people going at the same time as us - a few mom's and their many boys! They were really nice and friendly. We were glad, though, that the guide let us down the river first and then got them ready. This meant that we were 15 minutes or so ahead of them so our journey was very quiet and relaxing!!

We stopped a little ways in to have lunch on an island in the middle of the river.
You get to bring your own cooler full of whatever you'd like and they put a tube around it and it floats down the river with you.And the other party caught up to us...but stopped for lunch too so we remained ahead of them.
It was perfect weather and beautiful on the river. The nature we were in was amazing.
It was a beautiful day and a great anniversary!