Tea Party

Olivia got a Curious George set for Christmas. We've kept it up in the closet until last week. It was actually Carter's idea to have a tea party so I brought his little table downstairs and the kids had fun having tea!

Even Isaiah enjoyed his spot of tea.....until he made the other two mad by trying to steal all of the cups!

Belated Valentine's Day

I know I'm only almost a month behind but I wanted to document our Valentine's Day for my own sake. It was a little overshadowed with everything that happened with Olivia but I managed to grab a few photos of the two older ones opening their mailboxes.

I didn't do a whole lot this year but had gotten them mailboxes at Joanns several weeks before and filled them with candy and bubbles. Olivia thought it was neat she had her very own mailbox.

Isaiah even had his own box but was still asleep for the festivities.

Carter was so excited because he got a new Veggietales computer game (which he has played with literally everyday since then) and a new coloring book.

Olivia loved her princess ring pops but didn't actually eat them :)

Theo sent me some chocolates and a heart necklace. I am thankful for such a thoughtful husband. I got him a NY Giants Super Bowl shirt and some candy. The kids also made him some pretty precious artwork and we mailed that too. 

My greatest present though was my mom flying in early to help with Olivia. It was such an emotional roller coaster of a week. Monday night we thought Livie was going to have to go to the hospital so I called mom crying and of course she immediately made arrangements to fly up early the next day. Then we were told Olivia was fine and I felt a huge amount of guilt having asked my mom to spend an arm and a leg to change her plane tickets. But fortunately, God had a plan. Because at our pulmonology appointment that Thursday in Denver (which I almost canceled because Olivia was doing so much better), the pulmonologist wanted to admit her and do the bronchoscope the next day. So after all that, I was truly glad mom had come up early and I didn't feel so guilty. I also have to give a huge shout out to my best friend Meredith. I don't know how I could have survived the whole ordeal without her (or mom too). She let us stay the night at her house, got up at five a.m., drove us to the hospital, stayed with us for several hours and provided more emotional support than I could ever say. Olivia was thrilled to have spent so much time with Aunt "Meresis".

So Valentine's Day wasn't all we were hoping it would be but I'm so thankful that week of my life is over with and that Olivia is doing so much better. I am also so thankful and blessed to have these great loves of my life!

We have a little over two weeks until daddy gets home and I couldn't be more happy. I'm also so happy for my good friend Georgette who's husband is coming home from Afghanistan Sunday! Can't wait to meet back up with them in Louisiana this summer!!!

Haven't been blogging much since Theo left but did manage to take some pictures a few days ago. Will post those later. Hope you all have a great week!

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 :)