Levi's first crush.

We had our friends Brian & Mindy and their kids over for dinner on Friday night. This was the first time we've gotten the kids together to play. Isaiah and Levi showed Lilian and Aaron what it means to be wild and crazy!

Levi took to Lilian like I've never seen him do to anyone! He was following her around, holding onto her (mostly the back of her pants!) and would scream and cry if he wasn't touching her!! It was so strange! He just loved her. Poor Lilian, she really didn't know what to think at first, but after a little while, she seemed to be okay with it, and maybe even like it!! :)

Isaiah also thought she was pretty cool. As I've thought about it, I think this is their first real one-on-one playtime with someone just a little bit older than them. Lilian is 5 1/2.

Aaron didn't really make it into any pictures, but they had fun with him too. Mindy says that he learned how to growl at our house and has been growling all the time since :) I'm sure she's happy about that!

I guess it just proves, we do have boys through and through!!

Thanks for the fun Mindy, Brian, Lilian and Aaron! Can't wait to get together with you again!

half birthday party.

We don't normally make a big deal out of half birthdays. But we happened to have a playdate scheduled for Isaiah's this year so I decided to make a little party out of it. My sister-in-law gave me a huge cupcake pan that I've been wanting to try, so this was the perfect opportunity.
Thank you Brittany!!

It was Amy and Rhea's turn to host the playdate (we've been rotating houses each month) so Isaiah was very excited to go to Rhea's house. He was also super excited to go tell everyone that he was 3 1/2. I don't think he really gets what 3 1/2 means (duh) but he knows that it means he's closer to 4 and that's way cool. (All day long he told people that he was 3 1/2--Laura and Jayda when I dropped them off there, Grandma when she happened to call, and Grandpa when he stopped by later that night)

As always, the kids had tons of fun and played great together. We had our usual, pizza!
After pizza and a little more playtime, we had cake! yummy. But first I got a group picture. Although Isaiah is bending his knees a little bit, you can tell just how much shorter he is compared to the girls who are his exact same age.
Then they sat down and played ball. Don't they look cute? It took them a minute to figure out how to get situated like this and then after just a few turns they were done playing. :)
What a fun half birthday celebration. Next playdate is at our house...hooray!

three and a half

WOW.

My baby boy is three and a half today! My memories of him being born are so clear it could be yesterday. It's been so amazing watching him grow and develop into a little boy. I don't want to forget any of these moments.

Here are some things about him now, and some funny stories...

**He is a boy through and through. He loves to be rough, wrestle, climb, jump, test the limits. If you were to ask him to choose between a cute little kitten or a scary monster, he'd choose the monster every time.

**However, his favorite colors are pink and purple...but this is all thanks to his beautiful friendship with his best friend Jayda. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES purple (and pink) -- so Isaiah does too. If you can catch him in the right mood though, his favorite colors are red and yellow. He often says, "I don't like blue." :)

**He loves to have company while he plays and often asks for someone to come play with him. Isaiah now, as of the last few months, accepts Levi as company while he plays. Rarely does he like to play alone (these last few days in the warm weather have been an exception - he's spent lots of time outside riding his bike all by himself!!) Even if he's watching a TV show will ask me to watch it with him. Almost daily he asks if we can call a friend to come over or he'll ask "Who's coming over today?" I try to plan plenty of playdates to keep up with my social little boy.

**This makes my life easier when it's time to drop Isaiah off at Sunday School, childcare (while I'm at my exercise classes), Laura's or when a babysitter comes over. He rarely gets upset when it's time for Mark or I to leave him and is usually smiling and playing when I peek at him. But he always has a HUGE smile and hug for me when I come to pick him up. That's the best feeling in the world -- makes my hour long workout class worth it (most days, yuck!).

**He's been nap free for several months now and most days makes it to bedtime relatively happy. But if it's been a busy day or we've had to wake him up in the morning (to go to Laura's) then we know to expect a rough evening from about 6:00-8:30. However, from experience it's well worth it to suffer through the few hours then fight him at bedtime if he does nap. The few days that he's had a nap in the past few months, getting him asleep before 10:00 is next to impossible. Much too late... and no break for mommy and daddy!

**Isaiah's become very interested in what he wears and likes to pick out his clothes. He is getting better at picking things out that match, but 9 out of 10 times will be in 1 of 3 different shirts--Go Fish Guys, UNI Panther's jersey or Spiderman. Thankfully he doesn't push the issue too much when I just help him get dressed in something else. He also prefers to wear "comfy" pants -- pretty much anything but jeans. I think this is partially because he goes potty all by himself now and getting jeans up and down is tricky.

**He loves Spiderman and I'm not really sure why. We have no Spiderman toys other than one mask that he loves to wear, I think this love may stem from Austin (his buddy from when Kammy watched him) who loves Spiderman, too. He points out anything Spiderman that we see in the store (including the fruit snacks that he convinced me to buy yesterday:) Really he loves any super hero and talks a lot about Superman too (because that is daddy's favorite), and likes to pretend to be a "super hero."

**Isaiah hates to wear socks. Most days we don't even fight the battle anymore and he goes without socks in his boots. If we are at home, he will often be in pants only - no socks or shirt :)

**He is usually a really good boy, but sometimes does things he knows he shouldn't (duh). His favorite thing to say when I correct him is "I'm just doing what I do best," or "just let me do what I do best." ha ha. I'm not sure where this came from, but it's so cute--and makes it hard to tell him to stop--but I do it anyway.

** The other day Levi really wanted milk. He was standing on a chair at the counter screaming, "MILK, MILK, MILK, MAMA, MILK, MAMA!!!" I wasn't ignoring him, but was doing something else so he finally yells, "ISAIAH MILK." Isaiah yells back at him, "Levi I can't get you milk, I'm not a grownup." :)

**We were reading our devotional tonight and it was talking about how we can live peacefully without worrying because of Jesus. The lesson asked if you ever worry about things. He didn't answer, so Mark asked him, "Isaiah, do you worry about anything?" He answers, "yeaaa" in a whiny voice. Mark says, "you do? what do you worry about?" Isaiah says, "Frogs." What? Where did that come from??

**Now that the weather's been warmer, we've spent lots of time outside. He likes to walk on the big piles of snow and say, "Look! I'm walking on the snow just like Jesus walked on the water." :)

**One day my mom was watching Isaiah and she asked him if she should get her hair cut shorter or keep it longer and he said, "You should keep it longer so you have more to brush." I can't remember this story for sure, so I'll ask my mom...check back later to see the corrected version of the story.

I could list a million stories of how cute, funny, and sweet Isaiah is... but I'll stop for now.

dinosaurs and a hunt

Dinosaurs have become a big deal at our house. Both boys like to play with the dinosaur toys we have and look so cute when they say, "ROOOOAARRRRRRRRRRR"

We've had a few rearranging projects going on at our house and Isaiah's "birthday box" happened to land in the living room. This birthday box had several toys that he was given for his birthday that we have yet to open... he received so many nice things that we decided to open them a few at a time. Isaiah curiously looked in the birthday box and found a set of little dinosaurs and asked so nicely if he could open them. We hadn't gotten anything new out lately so I said, "sure." They are perfect for him. He's now able to sit calmly and play with little things like this. Look at how cute he is with them...We've also started going on dinosaur hunts at our house. First we gather all the dinosaurs that we can find and then I send Isaiah into the other room with the door shut while I hide them. Then when I'm done hiding them, he comes out and is on a hunt to find them. I am now able to hide them in pretty tricky spots and he'll find them. Levi likes to stay in the room with me while I hide them, so sometimes he'll show Isaiah where they are :) So I thought maybe you'd like to play with us...here's your hunt, find the dinosaurs...
fun, huh? You'll have to stop over and play with us sometime!

how to eat mac & cheese.

Levi has been enjoying the days that he gets to sit at the little table and eat next to his big brother...he taught us all a new way to eat mac & cheese.

Step 1: Go face first into your plate of food.Step 2: Use your hands to shove all the noodles that stuck to your face into your mouth.
ha ha. silly little boy.

Unfortunately Isaiah decided this kind of eating was lots of fun...so he's tried this method with other foods too. We are working on forgetting about this new trick Levi taught us! :)

hello truck.

Mark has wanted a truck for a long, long time. He's waited and waited for the right opportunity to come along...and on Monday, he drove home in a new (to him) truck!

You can just see the excitement in his eyes.so, farewell little Caliber, we will (not) miss you.

the kids in the Caliber...

the kids in the truck...

We have one happy daddy around here! :)

welcome spring.

I know winter is not over, I know we could (and probably will) have more snow yet to come this month, I know it will be weeks before we can go to the park to play, and I know that we are days away from above freezing at night, but after today...I say welcome spring. welcome sunshine. welcome mud....we've been waiting for you.

(By the way, Isaiah and Levi had fun playing in the mud at Laura's today, so they rode home in their undies today to avoid muddy car seats... and in the pictures above, both boys are without pants:)