Awesome April

Isaac had spaghetti for the first time this month and he LOVED it! (Notice the "thumbs up." No, he really doesn't give thumbs up, but it sure makes the memory that much better). At around this time we learned that his favorite food is meat-chicken, porl, beef-anything that was once walking around, he chows down on it. He especially likes meat that is flavored (taco meat, sausage, etc.). He also really likes most veggies-if only I could get him to eat a stinking banana. I know, I know-most parents would give anything for their kids to eat meat and veggies and cut back on the sweet foods. I guess he just didn't inherit his mother's sweet tooth.

This next picture was taken April 3. It was the most beautiful snow, but it made me a little frustrated because at this point I had Spring fever like nobody's business. Living in Iowa most of my life, this late snow shouldn't have been surprising to me, but I prefer sunny and 70. :)

Isaac LOVES other babies (as all babies do, I know). This picture was taken at the office (Midwest Ambulance) on a day that Shalie and I both happened to be there. We both work from home and don't go into the office that often, but when we do it's always nice when we're there at the same time-the boys play together and we can get a whole lot more accomplished. Poor Kyler just hasn't learned how to defend himself from the grabby claws on my kid. Eventually Kyler is going to realize he's bigger than Isaac and retaliate!

Jake and I really like going to football games-we went to several of the ADM High School games last season and probably will ever year. Well, we decided that we'd go to the Barnstormers Game a few weeks ago....That was pretty much the dumbest thing we've ever thought of. For some reason we both neglected to take into account how insanely loud an indoor football game is. Needless to say, Isaac was in the stadium just long enough to take this picture and then he and I spent some quality time by the concession stand-just standing and walking and watching the people. Jake came up and held him during the 3rd quarter and then it was my turn again. We went with Jake's parents and Dan and ReNae Arnold-I'm just glad Jake had someone to sit with through the whole game. Next time we'll leave Isaac with someone or wait about 7 years so the noise won't be so terrifying for him.

Another haircut....Yes, I think this is Isaac's 4th official haircut. Those golden locks grow like weeds! He really didn't enjoy this trip to the Bumbo barber, but, hey, beauty is pain, right?

Ahh...Spring! We've really enjoyed these last few days that have been SO nice. We went outside to do some reading and just enjoy the warmth and sunshine. Isaac loves being outside and I was happy to get out of the house for a little while. He also enjoyed pulling out the grass and attempting to eat the dirt-I think possible because the dirt somewhat resembles ground beef (see above)...

Boys and their toys...our yard really isn't big enough to make a rider mower necessary, but my parents moved into a townhouse last year and hooray for inherited goods! I always have to laugh at myself when Jake says, "well, I guess I should go mow the yard" because it's like me saying "well, I guess I should go scrapbook." He makes it sound like a chore, but he loves his mower. Surprisingly, the noise didn't really bother Isaac-he just watched and sat with me while I did some work in the garage. Then when Jake was done, Isaac got to go for a ride (the blade was off and they were going eternally slow). I took like a gazillion pictures, but somehow I didn't get one of both of them looking at me. So, sorry Jake-I think people enjoy looking at your son's adorable face more than yours!

So while April isn't officially over yet, it's been a good month for us overall-certainly less busy and hectic than March to say the least. I am so thankful that it's finally getting warm and sunny out-it's amazing what a little sunshine can do for your soul.

Early addings....

Jake had to work out of town today so he got up at 5:00. Unfortunately, I also have been awake since then. I laid in bed for about an hour and finally gave up. I tell Jake I have insomnia, but I don't really-it just takes me FOREVER to get to sleep sometimes. It's really some sort of sick joke-for a mother of a child who wakes up several times a night to occasionally suffer from not being able to sleep. Oh well...there's plenty to do so why waste time sleeping, right? So I figured I'd get up and do something "productive" and work on my blog. I've added a bunch of people to my links list-if you're one of those people and see your name and wonder, " How did this girl get my blog address?!?!" don't worry-I just found it on someone else's blog. I was hesitant for a long time to add people who didn't know that I had their blog address because I didn't want them to get freaked out-but then I think I'm not freaked out when people I know look at my blog and I don't really know they have my blog address. So anyways...this is what I've been doing for the last 45 minutes. I suppose I'll go do another post from the laptop since that's where the pictures are-and since the pictures are the important part of any post.

Here comes the sun...

My family (parents, siblings and their spuses) and I are going to Daytona Beach the end of May and we can't wait-especially with this eternal winter that is finally ending. A few days ago I decided to try on some of Isaac's summer clothes to email to my mom. (She bought him the swim trunks for Easter and kept asking if they fit). Oh, by the way, he's not really standing in the one picture-I just propped him up against the back of the chair. :)

Isaac's First Easter

Easter, like most holidays, was pretty busy for us. Beacause my sister's wedding was the weekend before and her reception the day before, there was a lot of family in town so we really had to juggle both families. Saturday we went to lunch in Ankeny with my family and then went to an Easter egg hunt at Jake's aunt Cindy's house in Adel. Then we went to my sister's reception and were there for several hours and until late that evening. Then we went to sacrament with my parents at 9:00, had lunch at their house, went to the last two hours of church in our ward and then went to Jake's parents' house for dinner and another egg hunt. Needless to say, I was very thankful when Monday came and I could just be home to clean and do laundry. The first picture is from Aunt Cindy's, the second is at my parents' house and the last is at Jake's parents' house. What a busy weekend!

All that hair.

I forgot to mention that Jake and I cut Isaac's hair-again. This time we used the clippers and he did pretty well. I saved some to compare to the first hair cut and will take a picture to post. His hair has gotten SO much lighter. I don't think we took any pictures this time, but there is video. I will have Jake help me get the video posted later.

One Fun City

Here are the rest of the pictures from Spring Break.

If you look closely at this first picture, you'll notice my ball going straight through the hoop and Jake's is hitting both backboards. The score at this point was 6-0. At the end, I was still the clear winner with a score of 12-8. Turns out my high school skills stayed with me all these years.

Here Jake and I are trying to play DDR. I am horrible at the Wii version and I wasn't much better at this version. Surprisingly, the game said I won, but I think Jake will argue that. :)

This is what you get when 20 people going bowling together. I can't remember my score exasctly, but I think it was a sad 67 or something like that. Clearly, I am not the best bowler. Half of the kids beat that score-granted, they used bumpers, but it's still pretty sad.



And one last picture of Isaac. This is before we went down to the pool-notice the smile. He only was happy until we walked into the pool. It was all downhill from there.

March Madness

Not that I'm greater regular poster, but this month has been especially busy. Below are lots of pictures of what we've been up to.

The month started out with a bang with my sister's bridal shower on the 1st. It went great and was a lot of fun. This is a picture of me, her, and our sister in-law, Brianne.

After that shower we had another shower the next weekend. This one was for my cousin's fiance. We traveled to Davenport for this one-it was a bit of a long drive for Isaac, but we all survived. Luckily, he slept most of the way home. The picture is of me, my sister, my mom, and my aunts and cousins (the one in the pink is the one getting married).

My mom, my sister, my sister in-law, and I all went to get pedicures a few days before the wedding. It was so relaxing! I can certainly understand why people do this on a regular basis.

This picture has a funny story to it...Jake and I were getting the car loaded before we left for Nauvoo for the wedding. We were about half done and figured we'd go ahead and put Isaac in his seat. He was completely content to just sit and watch us get things loaded. Well, we had just put the last few things in the car when I went to my seat (which is in front of Isaac's) and heard what sounded like him playing with something. The only reason this was strange was because we hadn't given him anything when we put him in his seat. Well, we looked and this is what we found-Isaac just eating away and happy as could be. When Jake put the bag with the food in it in the car he unknowingly put the end with two containers of these Star Puffs, as we call them, right next to Isaac. He obviously didn't waste any time grabbing them, managed to get them open and was in hog heaven. We don't let Isaac eat in his carseat because we hate the mess, but he appearantly had other plans. Needless to say, we didn't leave right away because we had to clean up this mess and get him reloaded. We have video of this little event as well-I might be able to get it loaded.

Next was the wedding, but I didn't get any pictures on my camera so those pictures will be posted soon. We stayed in Nauvoo (where my sister was married) for two more nights because we met Jake's family in Burlington for a few days for Spring Break. We stayed a hotel that had an indoor waterpark, bowling alley, indoor go-karts, lazer tag, and a huge aracade. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately Isaac didn't like the water (I'm pretty sure it was just too cold and too loud). We had a lot of fun and it was great to have a few days on our own in Nauvoo to just relax.

There are many more pictures from Spring Break as well as lots of Easter pictures, but they will have to wait for a later time to be posted. While we really enjoyed all of the activities this month (not that it's over yet) we are really looking forward to April as it looks to be much less scheduled and more relaxing (knock on wood!)...