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The Rules: List 3 Joys, 3 Fears, 3 Goals, 3 Current Obsessions, and 3 Random Surprising Facts About Yourself...

3 Joys

1. Isaac-while I can still remember life without him, it's really a whole lot more fun with him here. I can only imagine what it will be like years from now when we have a whole house full of kiddos running around. I love that Isaac has so many things unique to his personality (most of which I have yet to capture on film)-dance moves (the good ol' chicken wing thing), surprise "0" look, etc., etc. What a beautiful blessing he is! Oh, and it's nice that he's finally sleeping through at least most of the night if not the full 12 hours-hallelujah!

2. Jake-I really feel so blessed every day that I am married to such a wonderful, hard-working man. I think he really takes a lot of joy and pride (the good kind of pride!) in being the breadwinner and in allowing me to stay home. Ever since we started dating and talking about getting married and having kids it wasn't even a question whether I would work or stay home when we had kids. There are days when he does something or I am doing something for him and I think how lucky I am to be the only one who knows certain things about him. That might sound kind of strange, but it's just one of those things that happens after being married to and living with a person.

3. Being a stay at home mom-alright so this pretty much goes along with my other two listed "joys" but it really does make me happy. Before I had Isaac I was a substitute teacher and I did two long-term jobs in a row-both for girls who were on maternity leave. They both came back so sad to have left their babies. No kidding! When Isaac was 6 weeks old I remember thinking that I'd have to have some major therapy if I had to have left him to go back to work full-time. Jake and I have certainly made our share of sacrifices for me to stay home, but, to us, no sacrifice would be too big for me to stay home.

3 Fears

1.needles-I don't really have a reason to be afraid of needles. I suppose it's a pretty common fear. Due to, well-thanks to-this fear, I was able to have Isaac WITHOUT an epidural. The idea of a big needle sticking into my spine was a whole lot scarier to me than just dealing with the pain (with a little fetanol). Hopefully all of my labors will follow suite. I even hate getting my blood drawn. As much as I'd like to donate blood, I don't think it'd go very well. I was at the mall a couple weeks ago during Donor Day and I had to make a conscious effort to not look at all the people casually lying there with needles sticking out of their arms (trust me, if I had known about it, I would have taken a different route through the mall).

2. Turning left without a green arrow-strange, I know. I totalled my car when I was 16 turning left in front of someone. I was fine (and I got a new, better car out of the ordeal!) but to this day I hate turning left without an arrow. I actually go out of my way sometimes so that I can turn right instead or turn left where I'll get an arrow. Depending on the day I will sometimes make Jake take a different way so we don't have to turn left. He thinks I'm insane (which I may quite possibly be) but he loves me so he usually does as I ask. (See above-Joy #2)

3.Being late and/or unprepared-I'm not really afraid of being late or unprepared I just hate it! Perhaps it's the result of being raised in a military home where neither were an option, I don't know. I guess I'm really kind of thankful that I don't accept being late or procrastinating. Most Sundays we get to church and Jake wonders why we are so early. Thanks to his new calling as the YM President, he has to be there early for meetings so I can come as early as I like. Wohoo! People say that my punctuality may change once we have a whole brood of kids, but I don't think it will. :)

3 Goals

1.Keep Isaac's scrapbook up to date-I really enjoy scrapbooking, I just hate getting everything out just to put it all away again. My scraping table right now is our dining room table. So I can either scrapbook or eat-tough choice, I know. The main reason for this goal is that I will have another scrapbook to start here pretty soon-beginning with ultrasound pictures in a couple weeks. I try to keep it simple because, as Jake sometimes reminds me, I will not be able to do anything to elaborate for all of our kids.

2.Improve the look of our sad yard-this has been an ongoing process over the last 18 months since we moved in. I planted all sorts of flowers last year (8 1/2 months pregnant might I add) just to have most of them die within a couple weeks due to lack of sun and of course the rest died when it got cold because they were all annuals. Dummy me didn't realize that our front yard gets about 15 minutes of direct sunlight each day. This year I've focused on inside projects (which means persuading Jake to work on things) :) Well, I finally went out the other day and dug in the dirt so it didn't look a big weed patch. I suppose we will get some perennials in there some day....

3.Staying out of debt-thankfully, Jake and I are pretty good about saving and not doing too much unnecessary spending. We are both anti-debt to the point that our basement could have been finished a long time ago, but we didn't want to charge the materials (not that we have a credit card to charge anything to come to think of it...). I am happy to say that the only debt we have is our mortgage and our car loan. Hopefully, it will stay that way.

3 Current Obsessions

1. Cleaning-alright, so these first two are necessarily current obsessions-but I'm kind of a boring person and I don't really pick up new things very often. I'm not a neat freak per say, but I just like my house to be clean. I don't really have a string routine that I follow, but I try to do the same chores every week with a few deep-cleaning project here and there. Thanks to my mom for these two obsessions!

2. Organizing-a place for everything and everything in its place, right? Right! At least for me. Jake is still learning this one. I actually really have to force myself to not clean up after him too much-I already have myself a one year-old to deal with. I take a lot of joy in the fact that I don't really lose things because I always know where my things are-in their homes. Crazy, I know.

3. The Library-I'm certainly not a book worm by any means, but I really like to walk to the library (it's only 3 blocks away) with Isaac every couple weeks to see what I can find. My favorite section is actually nonfiction. I look for good cookbooks or random informational books. I try to find good novels, but I'm not much for mysteries and I seem to pick bad ones more than good. I think the one I'm reading right now, "Recipes for a Perfect Marriage," is pretty good despite the occasional profanity. One of the few things I miss about living in Utah is that in some of the libraries there was a sticker on the binding that said "LDS" on it. That made it WAY easier to find a good book.

3 Random Surprising Facts About Me

1. I don't have a junk drawer-I was going to add this in my organizing obsession, but figured I'd use it down here. I know I'm probably one of only a few people who don't have a junk drawer, but I just don't know what I'd put in one???

2. Jake and I met online-most people who know us fairly well probably know this already, but lots of people don't. It's a sort of detailed, yet boring story, but if you want to know the rest, I'd be happy to share.

3. I put ketchup on my tacos. Another thing about me thanks to my mom. I think she and my dad did this in fear the the meat alone would be too spicy. Really, though, it's good-try it, you'll like it!

Independence Day

So I was a slacker and only took a few pictures on the 4th. I'd also like to blame my camera for the lack of pictures-despite my remembering to get an empty memory card, I neglected to take into account that the battery might be low. So whatever the cause...here are pictures from the 4th....

The first is Isaac with my parents over at Jake's parents' house. We all swam and ate dinner there that afternoon. The next is Isaac with my step-grandpa watching fireworks at the church. Isaac was a little worn out by the end of the night-can you tell. He was such a trooper and really enjoyed the fireworks much more than he did last year.

June Happenings...

I was going through my pictures from June and realized there were a few things I didn't post about.

We went to the zoo one day with my two sisters in-law and their kids. This was Isaac second official trip to the zoo, but the last one was last summer when he was only 4 months old. He really enjoyed it this time-his favorites were the fish and the bats. We also fed the animals in the petting zoo part-he really liked that despite this picture where he is screaming. We also got to ride the train (for free nonetheless because it was Member Monday!).

We bought him a little pool to play in at our house. While he's only played in it once so far, he's really had a fun time. It was nice for me to sit outside and just read and get a little sun.

Jake's mom wanted us all to plant some pumpkin seeds out at her house. We'll see how well they grow as we're all pretty much ametuers.

And a picture of just Jake...our poor gutters looked like planter boxes by the end of Spring so he rented a power washer and went to work. Lookin' good, huh? (Please check out his fellow gutter-cleaner here.)

Isaac really loves meat in any flavor or sauce. One day he was done with his food (meatballs in spaghetti sauce) and then picked up his plate and attempted to lick it clean (at least that's my best guess at what happened). Whatever his goal was, this was the result-what a clown face!

Isaac's newest favorite past time is opening and closing and opening and closing and opening and closing....anything that will open and close. All that was in this side of the TV stand was a container with some DVD's in it. I really didn't think he could get it open. And then I turned around and found this....

Vacation Number 2....

Three days after we all got home from Florida, Isaac and I left for Utah for my best friend, Rachel's, wedding. We stayed with my other best friend, Janelle. It was such a fun trip and I am so glad I went. I was a little worried about flying alone with Isaac, but he did great-partly due to helpful flight attendants who gave me two seats when I only paid for one on both of my long flights (Isaac LOVED having his own seat and tray and seatbelt and armrest and window and safety cards....anyone who's ever flown with a small child can understand that)-and partly due to Isaac's great sleeping on planes. The wedding was beautiful and I had a blast getting caught up with Janelle and her family. She has a little boy who is just 5 weeks older than Isaac-yes, Isaac is small for his age and Gavin is very tall for his age...the pictures speak for themselves. I don't know that they became best pals like we were hoping, but they kept each other somewhat occupied if nothing else. Not to mention Isaac loved playing with someone else's toys! Congrats again, Rachel and Micah and thanks again, Janelle!

Rachel and Micah coming out of the temple-not the best picture, I know-I was trying to help Isaac recover from being left with someone he barely knew for an hour. Sorry buddy!

Isaac on his flight to Salt Lake. Isn't he the cutest frequent flier ever?!? Goodness-I forgot already how short his hair was-it's way longer already!

Isaac and Gavin "sharing" some toys and Isaac attempting to master Gavin's truck-his little legs were just a little too short. He had to lean to one side and only one foot touched the ground-the other just dangled.

Happy Father's Day!

This is Jake's second Father's Day as a dad and what a great daddy he is! Isaac is always so thrilled to see him when he comes home each evening. Jake always can get him to smile and giggle and is such a great help with whatever I need. I always knew he'd be a wonderful father and he has surpassed my expectations! Happy Father's Day, Jake. Thank you for all you do-we love you so much!

Daytona and Beyond...

The day after Isaac's birthday we left for Florida with my family. We flew into Orlando and drove to Daytona Beach where my parents had rented a house. We spent lots of time just laying on the beach and playing in the waves-it was so great to be back in the ocean. One day we went to Downtown Disney (the only part of Disney we could afford-it was free!). Despite our efforts to buy Isaac some great souvenir, he chose (really, he wasn't interested in anything else) a $1.50 tin of candy (that I ate) and a $3 Mickey shovel. Dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe was great. Thankfully, Isaac enjoyed the realistic animals and thunderstorms and was not terrified of it all. We also spent a few hours at the Daytona Raceway. It was warm that day, but enjoyable nonetheless.

This was actually Isaac's third official trip via plane. He was quite squirmy, but he did just fine.

Just a random picture of Isaac playing at the table with my family...he loves this little ball-thanks Mom and Dad!

Us at LegoLand and Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney.

This little sundome was a really lifesaver-he figured pretty quickly how to get the sand into the tent, but he was happy and out of the sun and much as possible-thanks Grandma and Grandpa Chapman!

One of Jake's goals in Florida was to catch a crab-and he did! I lived in Florida for many years when I was a child and never thought to dig them up after I saw their little air bubbles. Jake roped my brother into a few digs and they were usually successfull-boys will be boys, right?

There is a small chocolate factory in Daytona Beach that gives free tours (and samples!). It was a cute little place with very yummy chocolate. We ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. that night for dinner-here's Jake showing off his lobster claws from his "Bucket O Trash." The whole restaurant was a Forest Gump theme-very fun and the food was great!

A couple of pictures from the track-we took a tour out onto the track and the infield (I think that's what it's called). It was a lot of fun-Isaac was our little speed racer that day!

One morning my sister in-law had to go to the doctor for an ear infection (bummer!) so Jake and my sister and her husband and I all went to the most random place-I actually can't think of what's it called right now. Basically, it was a garden, the ruins from a sugar mill, and the remains of a 50 year old amusement park (that's what this dino is from). It was pretty-and free-and it gave us something to do while everyone else was at the doctor.

We were so glad for the opportunity to go to Florida with my family. Thankfully, Isaac enjoyed the sand and even the surf by the end of the week. Hopefully this will be one of many trips to the ocean!

Happy First (and Belated!) Birthday, Isaac!

While we celebrated Isaac's birthday on time, I am obviously a few weeks late posting about it. (See following posts for explanation in my lack of blogging...) We had a party for him at Jake's parents' house with just (all 40 of us!) family. We did a little swimming, some eating, and even a pinata! Isaac seemed to really have a good time-especially once he got his first ice cream! I was so excited because he never ate anything with a spoon-never ate rice cereal, baby food-nothing...until he tried that ice cream. He couldn't get enough of it. I thought-yay! Maybe now he'll start eating applesauce and mashed potatoes. How wrong I was-he will still eat ONLY ice cream from a spoon.

We had a farm theme for his party-this is the cow cake that Jake and I made for him (thanks, FamilyFun.com for the idea and directions!) and one of the little farmer cupcakes.

I called every party store in Des Moines looking for a cow, pig, chicken, horse, etc. pinata and no one had one! I could find them online, but I hate paying shipping for something I can get without paying extra. I settled on this one-no pun intended-and it worked out just fine. The kids had a great time with it. I think I'll be expected to have a pinata at all of Isaac's parties from now on. :)

Isaac enjoyed attempting to open his gifts-he cried a few times when we would open one, take it away, and then get the next one. He didn't understand why he could only have his toy for a few seconds. Poor guy! Because we left for Florida the next day, he didn't get much time to play with his new toys. Now that we are back and settled from all our adventures, he's really enjoying all the new toys and books (and I love all his cute new clothes!).