Go Hawkeyes!

happy birthday to ME! :)

It was my birthday on Tuesday August 31! just 3 days after my mom's birthday. It seems to be a pattern in our family that the kids get to have their birthday close to their mom's birthday. Mark's birthday is just 2 days before his mom's, Levi's is just 19 days before mine, and Isaiah's is just 10 days after mine. Anyway, it was a great day!

I woke up to two little boys wishing me a happy birthday with some sweet little cards (I actually woke up to find them making sweet little cards so I quickly went back to bed unnoticed and waited for them to surprise me!:)
Then Mark decided we were going out for breakfast and it was my choice (of course!) and I picked Panera Bread. yummy!

Then we were off to the mall - Isaiah told Mark that I needed to get Croc's for my birthday since everyone else in our family had them but me. Mark thought I'd rather pick them out myself than for them to guess (so sweet or he just didn't make it to the mall??? :) While I was shopping for Crocs (which I didn't find -- and still need to order online, I can't commit to a color, what do you think???) , Mark and the boys went to get my other surprise. And boy was I surprised when they brought it to me a Nook!! (An electronic book from Barnes and Noble)

It was definitely a surprise!! I knew things like them existed, but knew nothing about them. But what a perfect gift! It's basically a special non-glare screen with a little touch screen below it. You can buy books (and some are free) online to load on your Nook or borrow them from the library! So far I have just downloaded one from the library by my current favorite author (Karen Kinsbury - check her out if you like to read!). It will just automatically be returned to the library in 14 days - so no late fees- which is PERFECT for me. You don't want to know much I have spent on late fees at the library! Thanks honey!!!

We came home for naptime (I can't even remember for sure what we did) and then Mark had to go to work. Bummer - but we got to go out for dinner at the OP the night before, just the two of us. (Thanks LeAnna!!)

My dad called shortly after Mark left to say that he and my mom wanted to bring over dinner - whatever I wanted!! So they came for dinner and cake, of course! My mom has always made my sister and I special cakes for our birthdays, thanks mom! As soon as the kids saw it and the candles, they immediately started shoving candles into the cake :)

Then it was time for more presents!! And I got just what I had asked for - a really nice ice cream scoop and a lightweight cooler to take to the park for picnics (I am old, huh??). Thank you Mom and Dad.

And thanks to my sister for the ladybug flag and wall decorations that she gave me a few days before at my mom's party (does this count as your thank you note??:).

What a happy birthday! Thank you everyone for making it so special!

happy birthday mom!

My mom's birthday was last Saturday, August 28. My sister and her family came up and we had a little "party" to celebrate!

Isaiah giving grandma a birthday hug!time for presents!we had a little intermission with nap time for the little ones.

and then cake! Isaiah picked out the cake and frosting - chocolate with pink frosting :) and then Levi and Isaiah helped decorate it. Then we went to the Petting Zoo - my mom has been wanting to go all summer with us and we just haven't made it so we figured this was the perfect opportunity. My mom always says that she has fond memories of me and my sister at the petting zoo when we were my boys' age.
And here the kids are with the turtle - by far the most popular animal at the zoo that day. They kept going back to it. They loved to watch it swim and kept poking at it to go back in the water!
happy birthday mom! Thanks for letting us share your day with you!

first day of school ever!

Isaiah started a long, long journey on Monday - his journey through school. He has at least 15 years of school ahead of him and that's just preschool through 12th grade! Let's just say he was a little more than excited. In fact, he was so excited he had trouble settling down for bed the night before - check out these excited expressions!Of course I had to get him all dressed up looking his best for the first day. Doesn't he look handsome?silly Isaiah. Backpack on and ready to go!

Levi was excited for him too! "have a good day at school big brother!"
We are all so proud of you Isaiah!
Grandma and Grandpa came over to see Isaiah and wish him well on his first day!
I asked Isaiah to pose outside of his school for a picture and here's what he did :)
Isaiah is in the Monday-Wednesday-Friday morning 4-5 year old preschool class at our church. His teacher is Mrs. Knapp and her associate Mrs. Willhite. There are 21 students in his class!! Right from the start, the teachers were starting them on a routine - backpacks on their hooks and folders in to the teacher. Here he is with Mrs. Willhite looking for his hook.In his classroom - Mrs. Knapp helping the students find their name tags.Isaiah showing daddy his name crayon - Caiden put his right by Isaiah :)And he's off to play with his classmates.
I must say after we dropped him off, it was a little strange to have so much time Mark, Levi and I! But we made the best of it and ran a few errands and had some just Levi time. I think Levi had the hardest time with this - I bet every 5 minutes (or sometimes every 30 seconds) Levi was shouting, "Where's Zay-ya?" He missed his big brother SO, so much!
When we came to pick him up, we caught his class walking in a line back from the playground. They all looked so cute. Isaiah saw us and ran out of line to say, "Mommy! Daddy!" but we quickly got him back in line! That's what we get for getting there a few minutes early!
We got to bring Caiden home with us for the afternoon!
We had lunch and then I took two tired boys to the doctor so Isaiah could get his updated physical. (He's completely healthy! No concerns and he's reached the 42% for height!!) Here they are watching the "bee"movie (I'm not sure what it was) in the waiting room.
After the doctor, I treated the boys to an ice cream treat. What a fun first day of school! And we all made it through without any tears!

And here he is on school day #2. Just as excited as day 1. :)
And no - I won't be taking his picture every day of school, but I couldn't resist the second day.

open house - a night to practice!

On Tuesday late afternoon Isaiah and I went to his open house at preschool (thanks mom for watching Levi AGAIN! and unfortunately Mark had to work). The open house was set up for the kids to meet their teachers and see their classroom before the first day of school.

I was telling Isaiah about what we were going to do earlier in the afternoon and I said, "Aren't you so excited?!!?" He didn't really respond. A little while later he comes up to me and says, "I'm not excited, but that doesn't mean I don't want to go." (pretty grown up statement, don't you think?)

Then when we got to his classroom, he got really shy and said, "I don't need to go. I'll go to preschool when I'm 4." His teacher, Mrs. Knapp, got down to his level and talked with him and started asking him questions. She noticed his school supplies that he brought and asked him to come help her put them away. She's so nice!! He got his supplies put away and was having a great time!

His classroom is the same room as his Sunday School room, but he just wasn't putting 2 and 2 together that it was the same place. A few times he said to me, "My church has this toy!!" I think eventually he will catch on! I will admit, they had a few bigger things out that they don't normally have so that might have thrown him off - plus it was mostly new people and a totally different time of the week and day for him to be there.

Walking in. He's not so sure.

Playing in the kitchen.

He spotted his name all by himself!

Coloring his crayon for the wall - of course he picked pink and purple and was finished in about 20 seconds - I watched all the little girls that sat around and worked hard on their crayon for 10+ minutes. boys.He did NOT want to leave. He was having so much fun playing with all the new toys and seeing all the kids. Hopefully this is a good sign that we will have a fun Monday morning!!

Isaiah's thoughts.

I was laying down beside Isaiah tonight after stories with the lights out (but with the Superman light on, of course). I usually lay with him for a few minutes to help him get ready to sleep. Tonight our conversation went like this...

Isaiah: I was dreaming of something really bad.

Me: You were?? What was it?

Isaiah: I was thinking, what if someone dumped a bucket of paint onto someone else's head.

Me: Oh my. That could be really bad.

Isaiah: Yeah. It could.

Me: That person would have paint all over their clothes and their hair, what a mess!

Isaiah: Yeah.

Me: But it might be a little bit funny, don't you think? If it was washable paint, it might be fun.

Isaiah: I wasn't talking about kid paint, I was talking about grown-up paint.

Me: Oh. well you are right, that would be bad.

Isaiah: What's in the dump?

Me: All kinds of old stuff people don't want anymore.

Isaiah: Like what?

Me: Any garbage or broken things that people don't need.

Isaiah: We'll never take my bunk bed to the dump.

Me: No. Never.

Isaiah: (looking around his room) or my light or my door. We need my door so we can be quiet when daddy is sleeping.



Ha ha. He thinks of the strangest things. He is really thinking about things more and more, it's fun when he actually lets us know what he's thinking about! Silly boy.

a little bit of everything.

We have been enjoying the summer fun the last few weeks... we haven't had a whole lot going on (okay we have - but nothing that I've documented with pictures, except the new carpet - I'll show you that later), but I have taken a few pictures here and there to remember these days with the boys. I thought I'd share...

at the park, looking for ducks

brave little boy, I was watching Isaiah and turned around to find this!

Rollerblading! he gets so excited to put them on and then realizes he doesn't really like it and takes them off about 1 minute later! :)

Mud fight with Caiden and grandma - I wasn't home so only got this picture at the very end when Caiden was gone and grandma was cleaned up.

little brother trying to ride big brother's bike.

climbers

taking a break, thanks Grandma Cindy for stopping by

I cleaned out the coat closet and the boys had fun getting all dressed up in hats, winter coats, mittens and boots!

What fun we have!