We're Moving (For Real!)

Well, at least to a different blog address. I am going to start posting at www.jakeandjennchapman.blogspot.com

Reason? Note that our current address only includes me, Jake, and Isaac. I figured I'd probably include Leah and all future children in our blog address. So keep checking us out at our new place. :)

Happy Birthday, Isaac!

Isaac turned 2 on Sunday and we had his birthday on Saturday evening. We rented a community house that our bank owns so no one had to host it at their home. It worked out quite well expect that the room is pretty much empty so there's not much to absorb the sound of 40 people-15 of them being children. It didn't help that it was rainy and the kids had to stay inside. Despite the loudness, it was a great party and I think everyone had a great time. We served nachos, fruit, and cake and ice cream-hopefully everyone left with a full belly!

We did a sports ball theme because that's Isaac's big thing right now. I taught myself the basics of Photoshop and made his invites:


And his cakes:


And the pinata (it's hard to tell from the picture, but each quadrant is painted like one of the balls-sort of like the invite):



Here's a candid of the party in action:


Sining Happy Birthday and opening presents:


And some great things about our Bubba...

1. He has the most expressive, funniest facial expressions. If he's doing something he thinks might be questionable he'll watch for someone out of the corner of his eye with the most devious little grin. It's adorable!
2. He loves to laugh! And he'll do a little fake laugh if he's with adults who start laughing-even though he obviously has no idea what's going on.
3. He LOVES his baby sister!
4. He gives the best hugs and kisses and loves to cuddle-especially with his daddy.
5. He loves to be outside and play in the dirt, but hates being messy with food, lint, fuzzies, etc.
6. He is usually pretty good about walking with me in public when Leah is in the stroller (we have yet to invest in a double stroller).
7. He'll wave and/or say Hi to about anyone we meet.
8. He loves to sing and dance-he even has a signature dance for the ABC song-it's classic!
9. His hair is white, white blonde and I love that it sticks up everywhere when it's getting long.
10. He has the biggest blue eyes ever that sparkle when he's a happy boy!

Happy Birthday, Isaac-we love you so much!

Finally

Part of the reason for my lack of posts lately is because my battery died in my camera and I couldn't find the charger (still can't actually) so I borrowed Jake's mom's charger. Then I left it with the battery in it at my sister's. So by the time I actually got the battery charged, took pictures, uploaded them to computer, and found 10 minutes to blog-it's been weeks! Alright, first are the pictures from the kids' room which I finally finished. Well, kind of. We ordered Isaac a big boy bed and Leah will move out of the bassinet and into the crib once his bed is here. I'll take more pictures when that happens. I realized I didn't take a picture of the crib with the bedskirt I made. I'll do that later. (Isaac didn't take a nap today and was falling asleep eating his dinner-so he went to bed tonight at 6:15...we'll see what time he wakes up in the morning.) And Leah has fallen asleep on my lap as I type this I may cut this blogging session short to work on some other non-kid-friendly projects.

The artwork you see was so totally easy I may do bigger versions in our room once my new bedset gets in and I can buy coordinating fabric. All I did was buy canvases at Hobby Lobby, cut out the fabric and Modge Podged it on. Try it-it's cheap, easy, and cute! Oh, the flower one I hot-glued gross-grain ribbon around the edge only because the pencil marks on the back on the fabric showed up once it was wet from the Modge Podge.

Next, a couple pictures of the kids....


Now off to work while the kids sleep and Jake is at church. Yipee! :) More to come soon-Isaac turns 2 on Sunday so there will be party pictures in the near future!

Best Birthday Ever

Yesterday I turned 25! It was a great birthday. Jake and I went out to dinner at my favorite celebration restaurant (meaning we only go there for special occasions because it's so stinkin; expensive!) Cheesecake Factory. It was as tasty as ever-and super fast. We had an appetizer, main dish, and dessert (cheesecake, of course!) and we were done in 45 minutes! Since it's in the mall, Jake's parents met us there and took both the kids for us-that way if Leah needed me, I'd be close. But both of them did just fine (heck, we were only away from them for 45 minutes!) and we had a great date together. Jake bought me some new glass liquid measuring cups and more cookie sheets (just what I asked for!) and this book:

I LOVE it! I'm pretty sure some of you in Jake's family already have this book and I could have just borrowed it, but I'm so glad I have my own because I want to make every cupcake in it! I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to make cute, easy cupcakes. Jake's family celebrated my birthday last weekend and I got some cash from Jake's parents and lots of fun cards. We are going out with my family tonight for my birthday and for Mother's Day. As much as I love the gifts Jake gave me, my favorite gift was from my kids-with no help from Jake. Really! We were all sitting in bed and I was holding Leah on my lap, sitting her up and she was facing Isaac. He found that quite funny and was just sitting there 6 inches from her facing laughing his little head off. She kept smiling at him and that just added to his laughter. And then....Leah giggled!! For the first time! It was the best birthday gift ever! We tried to get her to do it again on video, but with no luck. Ahh, my kids make me so happy and so grateful to be a Mommy. Happy Birthday to me!

What a Deal!

One my roommates from my freshman year got this email from her cousin and posted it on her blog-it's a private blog so I'm just passing on the fantastic deal. Check it out-it's for real! *I have not confirmed the coupon codes at the bottom, but most of the stuff I looked at really is only $1!!!

Nordstrom is changing the logo on their makeup, so they're selling almost
everything for $1!!!

The make-up line e.l.f.(eyes- lips-face) has been bought out by Nordstrom
and will be re-packaged with the Nordstrom name on it.

They are getting rid of the entire make up in ELF packaging.. They are
selling everything for $1. You do have to pay shipping. They have
everything - powder, mascara, lipstick, a mineral line (100% natural),
brushes & cases, nail polish, lotions, you name it - it's there. The
website is :

http://www.eyeslipsface.com/shop.asp

When you check out there is a space for a coupon code. Use CAROLINA and save an additional $7.50 if your order is over $15.00.

If you don't want the above coupon code, you can enter 2SHIP for $2 shipping - I don't know what the minimum is on this...

Oh Yeah

I forgot...I also FINALLY finished my last few projects in the kids' room so I'll get pictures posted soon. (Isaac is sleeping right now otherwise I'd go take pictures and post them right away)

AND I went to the movies last night with my mom, my sister, her husband, and my sister in-law, oh-and Leah, too. We saw the Hannah Montana movie-SUPER CUTE! I know it is a little crazy that a group of adult women went to a G-rated movie intended for little girls, but it was fantastic and I highly recommend it!

New Poll

Our kitchen is technically an eat-in kitchen, but we also have a dining room with a nice dining table and chairs so we never eat in our kitchen. I've just been using that space as my craft area, but that will all be moving downstairs when the family room is finished. Therefore, we have to decide what to put in that space. Isaac has a big picnic table that is in the garage that we use when we're outside (pictured to the right). I had Jake's parents get it for him for Christmas with the intention of putting it in the kitchen. But now I realize it's one of the first things people will see when they come to our house (not that people ever really come to our house...) so I thought it might be nice to have something a little nicer...like the breakfast nook also pictured to the right. Someone is selling it on Craigslist for $125 (a good deal, I know! Oh, and if you want it now and buy it before me-shame on you!) :) Tell me what to do-please, I need help!

Pictures of Life

More often than not, I go longer than I intend to without posting. And this is just one of those times. So here's our life lately in pictures..

Little Miss Leah is just getting bigger every day and somehow also manages to get cuter every day!

Proof that Isaac agrees with the above statement. :)

We took advantage the nice weather yesterday and planted hostas and impatients in the front flower bed then added some wonderfully smelling cedar mulch. I know it doesn't look like much now, but they will grow...and hopefully better than all the full-sun flowers I planted 2 years ago before taking into account that our front yard gets very, very little sun once the leaves have grown in on our ginormous tree out front.

And here's what a tulip looks like when you try to transplant it. Not sure that you can transplant tulips-it was a loner in the middle of our big flower bed so we attempted to give it a more suitable home. Hmm...can you tell Jake and I are learn-as-you-go kind of people?

While outside enjoying that BEAUTIFUL weather yesterday Isaac decided to try on my garden gloves-he actually almost got them both on all by himself.

I was the purchasers of a fantastic deal on craigslist last week-a $45 plastic storage tower for only $10. Woohoo! It's really inspired a lot of organizing and cleaning out of my craft/sewing/scrapbooking stuff. Once it's all done, I'll take a picture to post.

Family Pictures

Jake's dad took family pictures for us a few weeks ago and I thought I'd post a few. Surprisingly, Isaac did much better with the pictures of just him and Leah than he did with the whole family...I was expecting the other way around. There's also a few of Leah in her blessing gown. Yes, I really did cut up my wedding dress...just the bottom hem and the row with the beading towards the bottom are from my dress, the rest is just fabric I bought at Jo-Ann. It ended up being much easier than I was anticipating. I ended up just sewing snaps on the back instead of doing buttonholes because I was too scared I'd mess it up and have to re-do the whole bodice.

This really is one of my favorites because it really is a perfect snapshot of Isaac-he is such a story-teller at times, though he only has a few words to tell those stories with. I just listen and respond as best I can. I love my boy!

We're Moving!!!!

No, not really, but that's what I say to myself every morning between 5 and 6am when Isaac is awakened by either the garbage truck at the pharmacy or the delivery truck at the grocery store right by our house. Don't know why it just started bothering him. We've lived here since before he was even born. Nonetheless, it's extremely irritating that he now sleeps worse than the baby most nights (by the way, she slept from 11:15 until around 7:00 and went back to sleep and is still snoozing away at 9:09!!! Oh, but most nights she wakes up sooner, but still just wakes up once a night). Poor Jake slept on the couch last night in hopes that he wouldn't hear Isaac and actually get a full night's sleep. If only...I went to bed with a horrible headache and Jake obviously wanted to let me stay in bed when Isaac woke up so he got up and went in to hold him for 30 seconds and lay him back down (which is all he needs when he wakes up like this...). I think he ended up going in there 3 times within a half hour or so. Ugh...some day he'll sleep all night all the time, right? No? Oh well-sleep is so overrated. :)

April

Now that April is more than half over I figured I'd better post something (plus Isaac is going on hour #4 of his nap, Jake is gone, and Leah is content in her bouncy seat).

Quick re-cap....

We dyed Easter eggs the weekend before Easter since that weekend was going to be so busy. Isaac LOVED it. Hence, the sad face when we took away the eggs and dye. We had an egg hunt the day before Easter at Jake's parents' house outside since the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Then an egg hunt Sunday after church at Jake's aunt and uncle's house. Then a little dinner and gifts for Isaac and Leah at my parents' house. We also dyed eggs with my family, but decided to just give Isaac an egg and a cup of water this time around. Just another fun-filled holiday weekend.


Hunting eggs and playing with Easter toys at Jake's parents' house. Isaac got giant magnetix-they're really awesome and he loves them!


Dyeing eggs at home for real...what a mess!

"Dyeing" eggs at my parents' house. Isaac got a basketball hoop from my parents, which great because he's been shooting his basketball at their wall for a couple weeks now. :)

Opening Easter baskets on Easter morning. Isaac's was full of goodies, but Leah just got a book and some pretty headbands-what do you buy a 2 month old baby?!?!

Leah is now 2 months old!!! She had her appointment last week and is doing wonderfully well. We were all expecting her to by bigger than Isaac was at his 2 month appt., but she wasn't! Here's the stats:
Weight-10 pounds, 15 ounces...25%
Height-22 1/2 inches...50%
Head-14 3/4 inches...15%

She's waking up once a night and is just as mellow as can be. She's smiling like crazy now, which I just LOVE!

Just further evidence of Isaac's love for dyeing Easter eggs (actually, it's just playing in water with something that resembles a ball...)

And some great news...Isaac is FINALLY starting to like nursery. Yes, it's been an almost 6 month process, but we are making major progress. He even played and ate snack today. Hooray!!! (He usually just ends up being held most of the time by one of the leaders). What a relief to know he's finally enjoying those 2 hours each week. :)

We all had matching pink and gray Easter outfits that we wore on Easter and today. There are pictures, just not on my camera. We wore them on Easter and today since Easter Sunday was Stake Conference and broadcast from Salt Lake...I didn't feel like sitting in the dark for 2 hours gave our coordinating styles justice. :) We also had Jake's dad take some family pictures that I need to post.

Leah's Blessing

Jake blessed Leah on Sunday at church. It was a beautiful blessing and we were so thankful to have so many family members and friends there. There ended up being 15 men in the circle! All but 5 were family members. It was so amazing to have such a strong circle of the priesthood around Leah. Her little outfit turned out pretty well considering I made pretty much all of it. A friend at church made her a little bracelet, but it ended up being too big so I made another one (late Saturday night!!) as well as her bow because the headband I made was also way too big for her little head. Most of the dress is not from my wedding dress-but the bottom hem and the parts that are beaded on the front are. It ended up not being too hard to cut up my wedding dress. I really feel like it's such a special tradition to start. (If my daughters don't want to cut up their wedding dresses to do the same, that's just fine with me though). I didn't take a really good picture of the blanket Leah is laying on, but it's gorgeous and my oh-so-talented sister, Kristelle, made it for her. (I can't crochet to save my life!) Thanks, Kris! I remember being so nervous at Isaac's blessing that he was going to scream through the whole thing, but he didn't. I was just as nervous with Leah's, but she didn't fuss at all either. Whew! And my sister in-law Brianne was thoughtful enough to take notes during the blessing so I could just listen (and keep Isaac occupied!). Thanks, Bri-I really appreciate it! Thanks to everyone who made a special trip (or who were there already!) to be there for Leah's special day and to my parents for hosting some of those out-of-town guests and for letting us use your place all weekend for meals!!

*There will most likely be more pictures soon-Jake's dad will be taking some more probably sometime within the next week or so. :)