snow.

Isaiah isn't a huge fan of the snow - or I guess, the cold that comes along with the snow. So getting him to play outside in the snow has been a challenge this year! I often ask if he wants to go play in the snow and he usually says, "no, not right now." I can't say I blame him, playing in the freezing cold isn't my favorite thing either.

But, one day when Jayda was here, it wasn't too terribly cold outside and I convinced them to put their snowpants on and go out with me. We only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was a fun 20 minutes!

So here are the snow pictures that I promised a few posts back...

Christmas part 2

We woke up Christmas morning excited for the day! (Really, Mark woke up early excited for the day and couldn't wait for us to wake up, so he woke me up -- then Levi woke up shortly after me, and he then woke Isaiah up :).

We quickly hurried downstairs to the fireplace to see if Santa made it to our house!

A side note on that, Christmas Eve as I was tucking Isaiah in bed we were talking about Santa coming and he said, "I can't wait to see Santa and play with him." I explained to him that Santa wouldn't be stopping to play, he would drop the presents off while we were sleeping. He got really upset and had tears in his eyes, "but I want him to stay and play." It was so innocent!

Anyway, do you think we were good this year and Santa made it to our house? Yep, we were - even Mommy and Daddy got presents! see...

He left 2 presents and a little candy for each boy and 1 present and a little candy for each parent!

Grandma and Great-Grandma from Florida sent Isaiah and Levi an extra special gift this year! It is so big that we had it hiding downstairs on Christmas morning. It was a bit of a distraction for the Santa gifts! ha ha. So we let the kids play with it first! Thank you so much Grandma and Great-Grandma!!!After lots of fun on the Jeep, we were able to get Isaiah distracted enough to read the letter that Santa left for him and check to see if he ate the milk and cookies he left out. The letter, by the way, said that he was sorry he couldn't stay and play :) Santa ate a bite out of each of the three cookies Isaiah set out and drank all of the milk! Isaiah was pretty excited about this!

Getting Levi away from the Jeep was not happening! We attempted to get him to open a present, but he just reached for the Jeep! :)

so we gave in and let him take the present to the Jeep! :) After more time on the Jeep, we headed upstairs to open the presents that we had for the boys. We decided to give each boy 3 presents - like the 3 gifts that Jesus received from the kings. One representing gold, frankincense and myrh.

Isaiah
-- Gold (something he might really, really want) - Discovery Toys match game/shapes puzzle
--Frankincense (used to make incense that was used during worship - so something spiritual) - A Preschool Devotional book (which, by the way, is PERFECT for him, we have read it every day starting on Christmas, I'd recommend it!
--Myrh (used to preserve in Jesus' time) - A new pair of "comfy" pants - black fleece from Old Navy!

Levi
--Gold - A nice and sturdy shopping cart! (He loves to push things around!)
--Frankincense - "Jesus Loves Me" Life & Look book
--Myrh - A pair of "comfy" pants - navy fleece from Old Navy.

waiting for daddy to get the cart together.Mark and I exchanged gifts too - and he spoiled me (as always!) :) The birthday present that he got for me this year went back to the store, so he felt like he needed to get me a Christmas and Birthday present together (which I totally was NOT expecting!) and he gave me a little tiny computer called a netbook (I think!). He knows that I love to blog, edit my pictures and make photobooks and knew that a little computer with a huge battery would be perfect for that. I am so lucky! :)

(my gifts to him did not compare - just a few xbox games, the Bible on CD/MP3 for his Ipod and a crock pot - see I told you!:)

Anyway, next we went over to my parents house to spend Christmas Day with them. Because of the forecasted storm, my grandma and aunt stayed home, so it was just my immediate family. I didn't take too many pictures because I knew my parents were taking them too...but I haven't gotten copies of theirs yet so here's a limited display of what happened there.

Isaiah, Liahna and Aunt Nichole playing with Isaiah's new pizza party! Levi crawling through his new tunnel & tent.And the toys Isaiah and Levi decided to get out in the hall way when we said it was time to go home. :) And yes, Levi is STILL in his jammies!

We left shortly before bedtime (around 7:30) so that we could be home in time to play with the new Christmas toys (AKA the Jeep) before we had to get them to bed.

What a Merry Christmas we had.

happy new year 2010!

Happy New Year 2010!!

We had a fun little party last night at our house with my parents and our friend LeAnna. Levi made it until about 8pm and then he went off to sleep. We let Isaiah stay up a little later than normal so he could share a few toasts with us, but was in bed and asleep before 9:30.

We each gave a little toast, here is Isaiah's!

Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!! And what a Merry Christmas we had!

Throughout this season I have been reminded of how blessed our family is and how lucky we are! We have each other, we are healthy, we are full, we are warm, and we are loved - loved by family and friends, but most importantly loved by our Savior. We have enjoyed celebrating His birth these past weeks!

I'll begin to show you what we've been doing, but I must say, I've got a brand new Whirley Pop waiting for me and a bed that's calling my name (man it's rough working 2 days a week! HA HA) so I may not get through our entire BUSY family filled weekend.

We woke up Christmas Eve and realized we had a lot to do! We had cookies, cake and salads to make, presents to wrap, a car to be packed and much more! Isaiah, Levi, and I started with the cookies - of course we wanted to bring a sweet treat to all of our parties, but we also needed some cookies to leave out for Santa! When visiting Santa at the mall, he informed us that chocolate chip were his favorite, so of course that's what we needed to make... (but daddy's favorite desserts include peanutbutter - so we, well, I, decided to make double peanutbutter chocolate chip!! YUM!).Before we knew it the morning was gone, Levi had napped, and it was time to get ready for church! Because the weather was questionable, and we had to get back to the ER to remove Levi's staples, we decided to go to the first service at our church at 3pm.

My boys looked so sweet. They were so impressed with the carolers who were singing in the lobby. Of course Levi started dancing to the music! :) You may notice the stickers on the kids' backs - those are for the nursery. We've decided to utilize the nursery/Sunday School program that our church offers for our boys. It lets Mark and I focus while in church and gives them the opportunity to learn about our Faith in an environment set up for them. We debated on taking Isaiah with us for Christmas Eve service, but decided not to.
After church, we went to the ER to have the staples removed. Surprisingly this was a breeze! Levi was happy-go-lucky the entire visit this time and was patient while the nurse removed them. Now we just hope his cut heals without infection!
Next we were off to Mark's dads house to celebrate with his family. We knew this would be an exciting time with five crazy brothers and four crazy grandkids, how could it not be? :)

Isaiah and Dakota turned into 'bears' and growled around...when someone asked Isaiah what kind of bear he was, he said he was a polar bear. :)daddy and grandpa decided to join in the fun, by this time, I think it was just wrestling and the bears were gone.
Later on, it was time for presents! Isaiah and Dakota waited so patiently for everyone to get their gifts before we started opening.Ready, go.
Somehow I made it in a picture! So I figured I'd better post it! :)
Isaiah and Dakota thought they were pretty cool in their new Sponge Bob sweatshirts! What is it with kids and Sponge Bob? We don't get to watch him at our house. If Isaiah sees him on TV he knows we don't get to watch it, and he'll say, "he's naughty." ha ha. But for some reason, he still thinks he's great. I don't get it! :)
We gave Mark's dad a UNI sweatshirt, they match!
Both Isaiah and Dakota (well, really Isaiah & Levi and Dakota & Khia) each got a new kitchen set from Grandpa and Grandma. Here are the dad's behind each set - why I got a picture of the dads instead of the kids with the kitchens is beyond me! I guess all I can say is, it was getting late.
Levi climbed up in the chair and just sat. He was all done partying for the day...and so were we, shortly after this picture we put on jammies and packed up to go home.
And before we went to bed, Isaiah made sure to set out a glass of milk to go with the cookies we made for Santa...
Well, I am going to stop here... but stay tuned, I'll post about our Christmas Day soon!

snowpants.

This week the big kids were obsessed with their snowpants. We've had lots of snow on the ground for quite awhile now and so the snow pants have been out and taken back and forth between our house and Jayda's. I must say, we only made it outside twice in the last two weeks, but they've had their snowpants on many more times than that!

One day I had them pause for a few pictures...

I think they turned out really cute.

I love you, Jayda.I love you, too.

"I want in on this too," says Levi."hey wait! I want to be in the picture, too!"
don't worry, I have a few pictures of them in the snow too...
that'll be next.

our first trip to the ER! yikes!

Last night we were at an extended family Christmas party all having a great time, the boys love this side of the family gatherings because there are 35 great-grandkids to play with, when we had a little accident! Levi was playing by with his cousin when he fell over backwards right into the metal railing of the stairs. He immediately started screaming so I picked him up and everyone said, "he's bleeding, he's bleeding!!!" and sure enough he had blood all down his head and on my hands. Mark took him and we got a towel and applied pressure, but knew we needed to get to the Emergency Room for a doctor to see it. Thankfully Mark's grandma lives just behind Covenant so it was a 5 minute drive away! We thought we'd leave Isaiah at the party and go, but with all of the commotion and with Levi bleeding, Isaiah started screaming at the thought of us leaving him there (in any other circumstance, I don't think he would have noticed if we left him). So Grandma Cindy said, "Go, I'll be right behind you." And off the four of us went. Levi was still bleeding and we were all a little scared, so Mark held Levi in the front seat while I drove (don't tell the police!). We made it to the ER and they took us right back to a room. Luckily by this time the bleeding had stopped and all Levi wanted to do was get down and explore. Grandma Cindy arrived with a few Christmas gifts to keep both boys distracted (Good idea!! Thank you!!). But before we knew it this really nice doctor came in to look at Levi. She was so nice and gentle with him. She told us that he needed to have the cut stapled or glued and gave us information on both. We decided to have it stapled. She then looked over Levi quickly and said, "Has his ears been bothering him? or is he teething?" and what do you know, he also had an ear infection. (I wasn't surprised because he was really cranky the day before and his first molars are popping through). Poor little boy. Anyway, she left, Levi played in the sink and Isaiah and grandma went off to explore the hospital. A few minutes later the doctor came back with a nurse to staple him up! (yikes!) They had me hold him and told me to hold him tight. The nurse then looks at me and says, "Are you okay?" I just looked at her, and she says, "why don't you sit down?" So I did. They quickly cleaned his cut with alcohol and then put two little staples in his head. He SCREAMED for about 30 seconds and then was just fine. He wanted to get down and explore. They hadn't taken any of Levi's insurance information or even his basic information yet, so we went out to give that. Levi was happy and walking around. You wouldn't have guessed that he just had his head stapled without any numbing and that he had an ear infection. We decided to go back to the Christmas party -- we wanted to make sure everyone knew he was okay - and we didn't want Isaiah to miss out on the fun (Santa was just about to arrive at the party!!!).

Whew! What a night! I'm still shocked that our whole trip to the emergency room only took 45 minutes and that Levi was such a trooper!

Our little patient

Thanks grandma for coming to help and for thinking to bring toys to distract!
His little ow-ey. (the next day, it doesn't look too bad, does it?)

Back at the party.
Santa brought Isaiah a really fun Cranium Polar Bear game

and he brought Levi the book "Little Hands Love" Levi wasn't sure of him, so he just watched Santa from a distance.

Presents from Great Grandma! Look at all the kids -- that's only about half of them! Isaiah got his first set of "real" Legos (which he has already spent lots of time with and LOVES) and Levi got a Build-a-Bear that's white with red and blue stars. She named him Iron Man, which is the name of Mark's Army Unit. Thank you so much Great Grandma!!

Mark making Levi sit still. He really wanted to be running around!

Isaiah and Dakota playing together with his new toy, Isaiah and Dakota have so much fun together! Aren't cousins fun!
I must say, it was quite the adventure! But we survived, and we did it together!