Isaiah photo shoot

I actually took these pictures a month ago and just realized I never posted them. But they are too cute not to share. And since my camera hasn't made it out much lately, you'll have to see some older photos. Hopefully I'll get back into blogging once I can come up for air. Thanks again for all of your prayers for Olivia. She's doing much better and now we're just waiting for her next surgery in 3.5 weeks.
So, back to little man....

Snowed in

This past weekend was dreadful! It was 11 degrees outside and snowing like crazy. And anyone knows me, knows I do not drive in the snow, or take my kids out in it, unless I have to. We were getting a little cabin fever Sunday. So I broke out two of my favorite books and got to work. And so did my little helper, Carter.

We picked out a few activites to do. For the craft, we made a clown (he wasn't finished in this picture. He ended up having a hat, ribbon hair, and a balloon nose)

But the hit for the day was dying ice cubes with food color (add one drop of food color to the water in each cube and freeze for a few hours). Then at bath time, I let them dump the ice cubes in the tub. When they melted, they turned the water all kinds of cool colors.

On a different note, this little princess has been sick for a long time. I don't have the emotional energy to go into it right now but she has pneumonia that has so far not gotten any better and may end up having to have a procedure done at Children's Hospital in Denver. I'm waiting on an appointment with a pulmonologist hopefully this week while mom's in town to help me. Her doctor is hoping the antibiotics and steroids will help her but if she doesn't get better, than we have to have a new plan of care. Please just pray for her healing.

Isaiah's first birthday party

We celebrated Isaiah's first birthday over a month ago. We had to have his little party early since Theo was going to be gone on his actual birthday. Since we had the party two weeks after Christmas, we asked our friends not to bring presents but instead bring any books from home that their kids wouldn't mind parting with. As always, our friends were more than generous.

We really wanted to keep the party low key. I had decided on an airplane theme several months ago and found some good ideas on pinterest of course! I liked the idea of having airplane type food so we had sandwiches.  Well, at least they used to serve sandwiches on the plane. Now you're lucky to get a soda but I digress :)

We, as usual, also had a veggie tray with spinach dip and a cheese and cracker tray. I made strawberry, blueberry and marshmallow fruit skewers to go with the color theme of the party. I also made the little tags and cupcake toppers from my scrapbooking program.

And the cupcakes (my first time making homemade frosting!)

The good thing about having an airplane party was since the boys room is decorated in airplanes, I already had the party decor :) I just brought their vintage airplanes down, used the airplane fabric I already had and put it over the cheap tablecloth.

One of my favorite things was the photo board I did. It had his official onsie picture for each month and then I put them on his memory board and made an "Isaiah" banner using my cricut. I loved being able to see how our little guy grew and changed each month.

Isaiah and his first cupcake

I love this picture and how excited he looks about his new books!

For party favors, I got ready to paint wooden airplanes and had the kids draw on them with markers (instead of paint!) and then I got some little inexpensive planes to assemble from Michaels. The cheapest party favors evah!!!

Still can't believe our baby boy is 1!! Now if he would only sleep through the night :)

Our baby Isaiah is one year old!!!

Birthday's seem so much more special now that I'm a mom.....especially the birth of my children. They seem like such accomplishments. Together, we made it to a year! I am so proud to have Isaiah as my baby son. I cherish him tremendously and have a special place in my heart for him because he is the baby.

I wrote him a letter for his birthday, just like I have been doing with Carter and Olivia. It's such a pleasure to do that and reflect over the past year. I hope when my kids are 18 that I will share the letters with them. I hope they find as much joy in the letters as I have while I'm writing them.

This past year has been incredible, challenging, love-filled, fast and slow at the same time. It's overall been an amazing year and I'm honored to be this little man's mom. He is such a joy and makes me whole heart melt when he looks at me with those big brown eyes and his full face smile. I could eat him up!

Isaiah, little one, you have grown and changed to much this past year. We are so incredibly grateful for your health, your happiness, your easy going spirit. You light up our lives. We look forward to celebrating many many more birthdays with you. We know God has amazing things planned for your life and we are blessed he entrusted us to be your parents. We love you to the moon and back!!! Happy first birthday baby boy!

These are a few of my favorite things

I love finding new things that I just adore. One trip to Target last week to pick up Olivia's eye drops turned into an hour of perusing leisurely and spending way too much money! And as always, I found a few things to add to my favorite list.

1. My newest addiction: Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice Coffee. Target had it all marked on clearance after Christmas and I bought a few bags. Okay, nine bags over the course of three trips. I ended up getting half of the bags for $4 and it was originally $8 so score for me!

2. I also racked up on the best smelling soap I have ever come across. Unfortunately, it's dish soap and not body soap...although I've been tempted to lather myself up with it :) By looking at the scent of it, I thought it would smell funny because it's olive oil and corriander but it's the most clean scent every. I got 3 bottles for 44 cents.

3. My fleur de lis candleholder mom got me for Christmas. You put it in the top of an empty wine bottle and it's instantly a candleabra. How clever is this!!

4. Last weekend I made my grandmother's infamous banana bread. It is the best banana bread you will ever put in your mouth and I'm so thankful that after many years, she finally shared her recipe with me :)

Eleven month olds!

Isaiah turned eleven months old yesterday! One more month until his first birthday. I truly can't believe it. We're having him a little birthday party this weekend because Theo is going out of town for a while and we want daddy here for Isaiah's first birthday.

Isaiah, at eleven months old, you:

-are at such a fun age. You are almost ALWAYS happy! People often comment on how content and laid back you are. You are the light of my life.

-weigh between 19 and 20 pounds and are growing every single day it seems!

-are mostly sleeping through the night. You still wake up some  nights but don't usually have to be fed.

-are getting about 28-32 ounces of formula and about two to three jars of baby food. You are now eating quite a bit of table food (rice, bread, you LOVE bread, turkey meatballs, pasta, fruit, some veggies. You've had a couple of desserts but don't tell anyone!)

-will hopefully switch to regular milk soon but we'll see. You're still on soy formula and that seems to make you much happier.

-are still into everything. You are now opening the cabinets and pull out drawers. You like to get stuck under the kitchen chairs. But then you get frustrated and I have to pull you out :)

-are pulling up but not quite standing up yet but it won't be long.

-are moving so fast. The pictures I usually take of you look like this:

-have four teeth with two more front side teeth breaking through.

-love all of the toys you got for Christmas. You love any thing that rolls and that you can chase. As long as Olivia and Carter don't steal your toys first!

-have almost outgrown your 9-12 month clothes and are in a size 4 diaper. I still put you in cloth diapers half the time but you leak through almost every single one of them.

-are THE sweetest baby. I can't believe you are almost a year old. You never cease to amaze you. We love you more than the world!!!

Park Pictures: Isaiah

First of all, thank you so much for reading my last post. I really feel a lot better after getting all of that out :) So, now back to my regularly scheduled, and happy, posts!

These are more park pictures from last week....featuring none other than an almost one year old Isaiah!