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. :)

Spring Break

For Spring Break we went down to Burlington for a few days with Jake's family to One Fun City. It's an indoor waterpark attached to an arcade attached to a bolwing alley attached to an indoor go-kart track. We went there last year and it was such a hit we made another trip. Unfortunately, Isaac still didn't like the waterpark aspect. I think it's just a little too loud and overwhelming for him. Luckily, he did like the arcade and did pretty well with the bowling (with Jake's help as seen in the picture). Jake won something like 1,300 tickets and we cashed most of them in for an Elmo for Isaac-he fell asleep with it on the way home. It was pretty cute. I was surprised to find out that Isaac was big enough to go on the go-karts with Jake. He didn't love it, but he didn't absolutely hate it either. Maybe next year it will be a better experience for him. Though we all had fun, it was nice to get back home and have more living space than just our little hotel room. Isaac was a little too cooped up for his own liking. It was nice that our room, Steph and Jack's room, and Jake's parents' room were all attached so he could roam a little when all the doors were open. He especially enjoyed bouncing on Grandma and Grandpa's bed with Tava and Cael (that's sheer joy on his face, not terror). The trip clearly wore him out-he slept really well the night we got home and took a 4 1/2 hour nap the next day. Had I known he was going to sleep that long, I would have made a better attempt at doing something really productive (like starting Leah's scrapbook...). In one picture, you can see Isaac wearing a red lanyard-if we had taken a group pictures (which we never think to do for some reason) you'd see that almost all of us had one. The arcade there works with cards instead of coins so I found these lanyards on super cheap clearance last year and bought them. It was such a pain last year to carry the card around in your pocket and hope it didn't get lost. Isaac felt pretty cool with his own. It was a fun trip and we're looking forward to next year.

*We were there during St. Patricks Day-we usually don't intentionally dress in clashing greens for the fun of it. :)

Science Center

Last week I took the kids to the Science Center with my sister and her neighbor and little boy. We really had a good time. I was worried Isaac was still a little young for most of it, but we were there for 3 hours and he easily could have stayed longer. I'm sure we'll be making several more trips there in the future. Even little Leah did great-she was pretty content the whole trip-I think she really was glad Aunt Kristelle was there to play with Isaac so she could have Mommy all to herself a little.