Thursday, January 31, 2008

Isaac



I remember 4 years ago today, January 31, 2004, Daniel announcing to me that "Isaac was here." I was in disbelief! I had 2 sisters growing up and really wanted a son someday. I had already had 2 daughters (which I am very thankful for!!) and the girls far outdid the boys in Daniel's family. So, I was just sure that this one was another girl and I was very happy with that. Then Isaac was born and what a surprise and blessing he is!


Today he turned 4 years old. This morning he walked into my room and tapped my arm. I turned over to look at him and there he was just grinning and holding up 4 fingers. How exciting to be 4 years old! He's getting closer to 5 which is when he can have gum, and he just can't wait for that. He has tried to convince us in the past that he is already five, but we know better. :) He then went into the bathroom where Daniel was in the shower and said, "DAD!" Daniel replied, "How ya doin' buddy?" Isaac, "DAD!" Daniel, "Hey big boy!" Isaac, "DAD!" Daniel, "What, Isaac?" Isaac, "I'm 4!" :)

Isaac is one of the sweetest little fellows. He is so gentle, kind, thoughtful, and such a delight. He can also be the goofiest, silliest boy! He loves being Dad's shadow, especially when Daddy is fixing anything! He walks around announcing, "I'm Daddy's helper. I'm a good fixer man!"


Today it snowed and Daddy ended up being able to stay home all day. Yeah! We had a nice relaxing day at home. Isaac helped me make some brownies for his birthday and he got to put sprinkles on them! We look forward to a year with our big 4 year old boy!!


Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Christmas #2

We left Christmas day and went to Daniel's mom's side of the family to celebrate with them for a day, then headed down to visit my family in Missouri.

We decided to leave a little early, drive part way, and stay in a hotel, then have a shorter drive the next day. I did Priceline's name your own price and got a great hotel for just $30! You can't beat that!! Plus it had a pool, so the kids had a blast swimming, I'm sorry to say that we didn't take any pictures while we were there. :(

The girls enjoying their aunts!
Aunt Emily with Joanna and Abigail

Auntie Becca with Hannah


Here is a picture of my parent's Christmas tree. It has gotten smaller as my sisters and I have moved out. :)

Did Santa change his looks? :)

Getting ready for present time.

Dad and me

Can you see the excitement on all the faces?

All the kids and grandkids

Here is Mom opening a "Grandkids" picture frame we put together for them.

Dad "modeling" it?

We tried to get a picture of each the kids with a present before they opened them. As you know it can be a bit chaotic with all the kids, adults, and presents. :)

Hannah

Abigail

Isaac

Joanna

Since Uncle Jason was stationed in Iraq he bought souvenirs for everyone. Thanks Jason & Emily!
Here Hannah and Abigail are opening real pashmina shawls Uncle Jason brought back from Iraq.

Hannah with her shawl.

Isaac got a soldier outfit, with pouches and a belt that were actually Uncle Jason's while he was over in Iraq. Cool!

Joanna is modeling a new outfit she got.

Joanna with her new pony.

Me and Isaac looking at some new alphabet puzzles from Grandpa and Grandma.

Here is Benny (Em & Jason's doggy) all wrapped up too!

Still more to come....

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Christmas #1

I am finally getting to our Christmas pictures! The weekend before Christmas we celebrated with Daniel's parents, siblings + families, and Grandma. (9 adults and 12 kids ranging in age from 2-16 yrs, for a total of 21 people.)

We went to a hotel with an indoor space themed waterpark and had a great time! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the waterpark. There were several different pools varying in depths and having different activities available plus 2 waterslides, and don't forget the hot tub!

Here is Hannah posing as an astronaut at the waterpark.

On Friday night we celebrated Christmas.

Me and the kids getting settled for present time. (Isaac looks so serious in this picture. :)

Me helping Joanna with one of her presents, and showing her who to say "thank you" to.

Daniel's sister Michelle and her husband Mitch.

Hannah and Abigail opening a gift from Grandpa and Grandma.

Daniel's Mom and Dad.

Isaac and cousin Caleb sporting new hats and playing with some new toys.

Daniel's brother Brian and his wife Brenda with son Levi.

Matthias (nephew) playing with his new toys.


Saturday morning we celebrated the December birthdays. We have Michelle, me, Hannah, and Calista.

I had a fancy cake made for Hannah this year and she chose for Princesses to be on it, very girly. Here are Hannah and Calista blowing out the candles.

Me attempting to serve the cake in a full hotel room.

Matthias and Joanna looking cute!


Christmas morning we had our own family Christmas time. Since the kids have such generous grandparents, aunts & uncles, and such, we just do a few little things from us. I finally bought stockings for our family, so this was our first year with those. I decided to take the kids to the dollar store and have them each pick out one gift for their siblings' stocking. (They needed some reminders that they were choosing things for their brother or sisters, not themselves. :)

Here is a picture of our tree on Christmas morning.

My ragamuffins on Christmas morning drinking hot chocolate Daddy made for them while waiting for mommy to put her contacts in! :) (Notice all the clean clothes on the couch and baskets of more waiting for me to put away or pack for leaving that day.)

Isaac enjoying his stocking toys.

The girls enjoying their stocking toys.

Isaac playing with his new airplane book, mat, and airplanes.

Joanna excited about her new dolly.

The next half of Christmas and New Years to come.....


Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Christmas Posts

I was going to post the first half of our Christmas, but when I got on today, I found out that some of my pictures won't work, so I have to re-upload them. UGH! I know that I have gotten behind here, so some of it is my fault and some of it is Blogger! :)

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Congratulations....

to Jud and Sara on your engagement!!



*Edit*
In Sara's own words, here is the engagement story.


I am trying to not make an entire blog post...but here is the story for those who want to know.

On New Year's Eve we went on a dinner cruise. We started off the evening on the boat and Jud tried to make small talk. We see each other every day and talk about so many things that there is not much we do not know about each other. I tried to think of a conversation starter so I asked him what was his favorite moment from the past year. He said walking in the park with me. I then asked what did he hope to accomplish in the next year. He told me he would have to think about it (which is a typical Jud response). After some dancing and some dinner he said that he had thought of something. He then said that what he wanted to do over the next year was take more dance lessons with me. I thought, DANCE LESSONS! WOOHOO! Cool! Then he said that he wanted to learn more dances with me (we mostly swing right now) because he wanted to dance with me for the rest of his life. Then he said, "so I am wondering, would you marry me?" As the music was loud and I haven't been hearing so well lately, I said, "What?" Then it hit me...he just asked me to marry him! I thought, just in case I misheard him, I will let him ask again. When he did, my response was, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" He said, "yeah." I said, "REALLY?" He said, "yeah." And then, of course, I said, "YES!"

It was a great evening, needless to say.


Thanks Sara! I hope you don't mind me doing a whole post about you guys! Also, can you e-mail me a pic of your ring sometime? :)

Friday, January 4, 2008

We're Back!

We had a GREAT time with all our family over Christmas and New Years! I hope to post some pictures soon and tell you all about it. :)