Boys night out!!

Mark took the boys on a boys night out a week or so ago (while mommy was out with a friend!). They made a trip to Best Buy to replace the camera that I broke (yes, I broke another one - we learned the hard way to buy the replacement plan so we get them replaced for next to nothing) and then were off to the mall (by Isaiah's request - if you ask him where he wants to go, he'll typically respond with "the mall," "the park," or "the playgym.").

Mark used the new camera to capture their night out -- Diamond Dave's for dinner (I guess Levi wouldn't eat, he just wanted to play with the cup and straw - he was up in the middle of the night STARVING that night!) and then to the playland.

Happy Birthday Jayda-girl!

Jayda turned 3 on October 31. wow. I look back at pictures of when she first became a big part of my life, and oh boy has she grown up! Click here and here to see some older pictures.

Jayda is such a sweet little girl - she is so gentle and loving. I'm so glad she's my little boy's best friend. They are such a balance for each other! God knew what He was doing when He paired those two up! When he's wild and crazy, she's willing to go along with it - but be the voice of reason (she'll say, "your mommy doesn't want you to do that." to him :) When he wants to watch TV, she'll encourage him to go play something else with her. When he wants to be silly, she'll be silly right back with him. They are complete opposites in just about every way, but it just works. works perfectly.
Jayda had her birthday party last weekend. The party was for Jayda and her two cousins who have birthdays close to hers. They had the party at her Aunt's house out in the country on or by a farm?? (I'm not quite sure exactly if it was a farm or ?).

We got to the party to find a big trampoline - one of Isaiah's favorite things! So of course the fun began right away!
The main theme of the party was a treasure hunt! Isaiah and Jayda had fun with it for a few clues and then decided it was more fun to jump on the trampoline or play in the playhouse.
The treasure at the end of the hunt was a pinata! Both Isaiah and Levi gave it a good whack!
Then it was time for some yummy soup and CAKE! :) Aren't those the cutest cakes you ever did see?? :)

What a fun birthday party! Happy 3rd Birthday Jayda!

Pizza Party!

Rhea and Erika came over the other night for a pizza party! Rhea, Erika and Isaiah are all pretty much EXACTLY the same age (Isaiah's birthday is Sept 11, Erika Sept 13 and Rhea Oct 7, 2006). It's fun to see how kids the exact same age can be so much alike and so different all at the same time! They had tons of fun together; there was lots of laughter and playing and NO fighting! How does that happen??? Right after the girls left, Isaiah was so sad. He says, "I want to go with them." I told him they were just going home to go to bed and he said, "they need to come back really soon."

How fun is it to have friends? I'm so happy that Isaiah does! How I got a GREAT picture of all three kids on the FIRST (and only) try is beyond me!
Aren't they cute!?!!?

found it!!

I came home from work on Friday to find my family outside in the backyard. I was happy they were out enjoying the BEAUTIFUL, warm, fall November weather! But as I looked a little closer, I realized that Mark was pacing the yard and obviously looking for something! uh oh...

The boys had been playing and wrestling outside with each other and the leaves. Mark's wedding ring slipped off at some point when they were playing and he couldn't find it. I helped him look for another half hour or so and then it was just too dark to see...

This morning we got up and looked some more and couldn't find it. So we decided to go rent a metal detector...and guess what, after like 5 minutes - we found it!! whew!!

It was pretty funny to watch Mark walk around with the detector and Isaiah was so confused at what it was. I'm just glad we found it! I know from previous incidents (yes, incidentS) that they don't make his ring anymore so we'd have to get a different one, and that makes me a little sad!

Anyway, the lost has been found!

Racecars!

Isaiah is such a busy little boy! He loves to be doing something ALL OF THE TIME! Which can make for some pretty crazy days! If I run across a fun, easy project - I remember it and do it with him. A few nights ago we made some racecars! What fun!

You need:
* Paper towel or toilet paper rolls
* Paint and brushes
* Hammer and nail
* Scissors
* Toothpicks
* Paper punch
* Straws
* Plastic bottle caps
* A mom and dad who will gather the last two items and bring them over to your house at 7:30pm so you can make the project! (Thank you mom and dad!!!!)
* and an excited little boy! -- see below
Step one - put the baby brother in his booster seat with something to do.
Step two - paint the tubes whatever color and design that you want - I decided to go simple and do solid colors
Step 3 - go to bed and wait until morning for the tubes to dry

Step 4 - cut a square hole in the tube on the top for a "person" to sit in

Step 5 - punch 4 holes in the tube, 2 at the front, 2 at the back - make sure to punch them low enough so the wheels will touch the ground (we learned from experience!)

Step 6 - put a straw through the holes and cut so there is just a tiny bit of straw showing

Step 7 - use the hammer and nail to make a tiny hole in the bottle caps

Step 8 - put a toothpick in one of the small holes of the bottle cap, put it through the straw and put another bottle cap on the other end, repeat.

Step 9 - Enjoy your racecar.

Happy Halloween part 2!

A few days before Halloween, the YMCA had a Halloween party! Caiden and LeAnna joined us to have some fun! They had lots of games set up that were fun for the kids to play and of course you got a prize if you played! The boys all had lots of fun!

but before the party - Caiden and Isaiah had fun exchanging costumes and playing with our box full of dress up clothes!

my little duck and scary shark in the car ready to gothe shark.

the duck.

the shark getting a star on his face

games.

the most fun of all - of course not the Halloween costumes, games or cookies ... just a place to run and laugh!

do I get to play too?
so little.

Happy Halloween!

We had a silly little duck and a scary dragon help us celebrate Halloween this year! What fun did we have! The plan was to simply go around to a few friends and family members' houses to show off our cute little ones and then head home...but as we know, plans don't usually work the way we plan them! :) it got to be 3pm on Halloween and Mark and Isaiah were getting too excited for the fun to begin...Mark said, "isn't there anywhere that we can go trick-or-treating now? The festivities on Main Street were starting at that time. I'd told myself we weren't going to go down there this year because it just ends up being a big, slow-moving line, but I reminded Mark that that's what was going on. So we decided to go downtown. The kids were so excited to go!

What we found on Main Street was a really long, slow-moving line! :) But the kids enjoyed it. Isaiah got to say "trick-or-treat" a few times, and Levi got to cruise along in the stroller sucking no the wrapper of a sucker! haha
We decided to stop by Great-Grandma Jo's house next because she lives near Main Street. The boys were both excited to see her HUGE bucket full of candy. I think all 3 of them (Isaiah, Levi, and Great-Grandma) enjoyed digging through the bucket and transferring the candy to Isaiah and Levi's pumpkin buckets!
By now, we began to realize that we needed to eat supper before any of us filled up on candy! So we called my parents and told them we were bringing over Zio Johno's for supper. They didn't argue with that!
They even had special "treats" for Isaiah and Levi for Halloween. (The big shirt Isaiah is wearing below is to keep his shirt clean from the spaghetti! But he refused to eat any of it anyway and decided to have yogurt for dinner.)
Finally it was time to go actual Trick-or-Treating! By this time, Isaiah was getting pretty tired, and wasn't sure he even wanted to go. But we eventually got him out the door...
But after just a few minutes (maybe 15) Isaiah said, "I'm so tired, I'm ready to go home." :( So we went home. We are still trying to figure out how to handle Isaiah's sleep situation, so if anyone has any suggestions - please give them! If Isaiah takes a nap in the afternoon, he will not go to sleep at night until after 10 or even 11pm!! If he doesn't nap, he's tired by 6. oh well! before I know it, he'll be sleeping in till noon!!

Funny thing is, we came home, he rested and watched a show for about 10 minutes and was ready to be up and wrestling with daddy and Levi. Silly boy.

What a Happy Halloween! I hope you had a good one too!

By the way - you may recognize the dragon costume Isaiah is wearing. He was the exact same thing last year! ha ha. Click here to see pictures from last year. We had a few new costume choices, but he eventually decided to be a dragon again! :)