Isaiah's first pet.

Isaiah decided to spend his birthday money a couple weeks ago and purchase his very first pet!

 

 He picked out a "sucker" fish and 4 gold fish.

 He also picked out a glass bowl and a bridge for the fish to play around.

 He watched so patiently as the fish sat in their bag in the bowl.

 And was so interested as Mark took them out of the bag and put them into the bowl.

He checks on them and watches them -- but I must say he's not quite as interested as I'd like him to be anymore :) He is having a hard time figuring out names for them, but has commited to Ravis Bavis for the sucker fish and Slippers for the mostly white goldfish.

** well since I've started this post, 3 of the 4 goldfish have been moved from the fish bowl to the toilet bowl:(  I guess it was to be expected with 28 cent fish from Wal-Mart.  Isaiah really doesn't seem to mind, he's just happy that he has the two fish left.  And wouldn't you know it, the two fish that survived are the two fish that actually have names.  So, now we have Slipper and Ravis Bavis.  So we'll try to take extra good care of these last two fish and we'll just have to see if we are ready for more! :)  

*** and now that it's been about a month since I began this post, all 4 fish are gone, and Isaiah could care less! :)  We have a fishbowl full of water just sitting on the counter and truthfully Isaiah is just as happy with this.  I guess it was a good thought, but just reinforces the fact that Isaiah is not an animal person.  He really could care less if he sees a dog walking by the house (where as Levi gets all excited and waves excessively and says hi), he pays no attention to my dad's dog (Levi chases him around and plays with him), he didn't really care about Jayda's new puppy or kittens (Levi loved them all and screamed when we had to leave them, and asks to go see the kitties about twice a week!), really I can't think of a time that Isaiah was all that excited about an animal, except picking these fish out at the store.  Goes to show we are all different and that's good!

So I guess Isaiah's first pet experience was not successful, maybe we will try again in 10 years (or maybe he can try in 20 years when he's on his own! haha).

Warning ...

Remember my last post about Shutterfly and getting 50 free Christmas cards?  Well, I got my code and just ordered my cards!  If I post my selection on my blog then I get $25 gift card for my next purchase.  I can't pass that up, can I?  So, just a warning, if you want to be surprised by our Christmas card, skip over my next post!! :)

PS - Hopefully soon I'll be posting more about what's going on around here.  I maxed out my 1G of free space through blogger so I have to find the time to purchase more space...

Christmas Card 2010

Holly Frame Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Cards and Shutterfly.

I must admit I love Christmas cards.  I love the month of December and checking the mail every day hoping to get at least one Christmas card.  I love creating my own Christmas Cards and sending them to my friends and family.  I especially love to send photo cards.  For the past several years I've made a photo card with a family picture, but this gets harder (and better) as every year there are more and more options!

Have you checked out Shutterfly's designs this year?  (Shutterfly is one of my favorite online photo websites.  I've purchased several things off Shutterfly including four different photo books.  Their quality is unbeatable and they almost always have a sale that makes their price comparable or cheaper than the other sites I've found! Click here to check out their photo books)

Here are some of my favorite Shutterfly Christmas card designs this year:

Here is a link to view more cards from Shutterfly!  As you can tell I like the cards that say Merry Christmas rather than Happy Holidays! :)

I also love to give photo gifts as Christmas gifts!  I know how fun they are to have, but how much time they can take to make so I love to do this for my friends and family!  One fun project I did was to make a photo calendar - you can check those out here.

And do you know what else makes Shutterfly so great?  They are offering free Christmas Cards!  Head here for more details!

Liahna's 2!

Our little niece turned 2 years old on November 15!  She is such a little cutie pie! 

She definitely has her own personality and knows how to hold her own!  My boys are, well, boys rough and tough - she's learning to let them have it back!  You go girl! :)

Because of annoying work schedules (her husband works third shift, and my husband works second - why can't we all just have my schedule 8-1 four days a week! HAha.) we ended up having a little celebration at my parents house the Saturday before her birthday.  We gave her a bunch of art stuff (finger paint, play doh, crayons).  Notice the gift bag - my sister and I have passed this gift bag back in forth like 5 times :)  I think it started as a gift from a baby shower years ago! 

and my parents gave her a John Deere tractor!! 

I'm not sure which kid liked it the most!  From the moment she got the gift until she left I think one of the three little ones were on it!  And much of the time, one kid was riding and another kid was pushing.  

Instead of cake, we had little mini cup cakes!  

Happy Birthday big girl!  

date afternoon.

It's been a few weeks now, maybe even a month, I can't remember for sure.  But Mark and I got to go out on a date one Sunday afternoon.  It was so nice.  We went to see the play Pyrates at our local Christian theatre.  It was a fun play with a great message. 

Before the show we stopped to take a picture of just the two of us, Mark was so excited, haha.  But was a good sport and even posed for a picture by himself! :)

 

Hopefully we'll make it to the Christmas play that they have next month too!  If you live in the area, I'd defintely recommend you go, in fact, let's make it a group date!!

quote of the day.

We were on our way home from Target, Isaiah and Levi were in the backseat drinking a Danimals smoothie (basically yogurt that's a little less thick - Isaiah LOVES them) and Isaiah says, "hey mommy!  I'm drinking my energy drink!!!" I say, "oh, is it good?"  Isaiah says, "I'm just pretending it's an energy drink silly."

Gotta love his imagination!