Cream on the mind!

Isaac's favorite food lately (by far) is cream...short for ice cream! If we ever want his attention all we have to say is cream and he comes running to our side. He's becoming very smart and we don't know how he knows but when we are out driving he will start talking about cream just as we are driving by the ice cream stores. We don't tell him that's an ice cream store, somehow he knows where they are and he loves to tell us. Here is a video that shows his love for cream.

I'm 2!

It's hard to believe but our little baby is 2 already! Seems like yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital. We celebrated his birthday on Saturday and we got to enjoy the day with Gaga and Papa. He was really excited to see them, and I noticed this time he had an increasing fondness for his papa. The whole weekend when papa was out of his sight he was asking for him. He liked when papa would swing him around, papa would put him down and Isaac would go "again, again!", I think Isaac wore papa out! I'm sure they will be great fishing buddies some day. Of course he loves and adores his gaga too.

Isaac spent the morning entertaining gaga and papa with his nonstop energy and silliness and then we ate lunch. After Isaac's nap we did some driving around and then came home and had pizza. He typically eats pizza and loves pizza so I made it especially for his birthday and he wouldn't eat any of it. We eventually got a few bites down and then we had cake and cream (Isaac's favorite, ice cream). Since he loves Veggietales or more specifically "Bob" I had a veggietales themed cake made for him. He loved it.

I'll try not to make this too long, but after all it's been a long time since I posted anything. Some of you already know but we haven't made a big announcement officially, but I haven't been blogging much the past few months because I have been pretty sick with baby #2! I am finally feeling better and starting to get that 2nd trimester energy so I will try to do better about blogging what Isaac is up to. We will be welcoming baby #2 in mid-September. Hopefully around the beginning of May we will be finding out whether Isaac will be getting a baby sister or brother. I'm hoping for a girl, but we will welcome whatever God has planned for us. We are really excited to meet her...or him. :)

Here are some pictures from Isaac's birthday and from the last couple of months. Within the next few days I will be posting some video of him. He is changing so fast and sometimes it's easier to get it on video than capture him in a picture.

Isaac got ahold of Papa's hat and took it
Isaac still loves to give away hugs all the time. He's giving Papa hugs here.
Isaac giving Gaga hugs
Isaac with Gaga and Papa at Valentine's day weekend
Isaac likes to put hats on and run around with them, this time he got ahold of my hat!
He been starting to grab my phone and run around playing with it and talking on the phone
I made this box for Isaac's train set, but Isaac loves to dump all his trains out and then sit in the box with this blankies
Isaac loves to play in the corner with his toys
Isaac's 2nd birthday cake
Isaac with his cake
Enjoying his 'cream' and slice of cake with Bob on it
The barn set we gave him. I had this down in the garage and he spotted it once or twice, so he was very happy to finally play with it. He loved all his gifts!
There's a big smile on this face, he loved his train. Thanks Aunt Gina!

Chatter Box

Thought I would give an update on what Isaac has been up to since it's been awhile :). He continues to be the entertainment of this house, he is always doing something to make us laugh. And of course when daddy gets home things get even more silly around here.

Isaac has been starting to talk some sentences, and I love all of them so far. For the most part his sentences are, "I nee a hug." as he comes running to me with his arms open, "I wanna read", and my favorite so far "Mommy, I love you". Only within the last couple of days has he learned and started saying, "me no like".

Gary taught Isaac how to demand for supper so when Gary comes home I usually have both of them by my side going "eat, eat, eat". Every once in a while Isaac will come up to me before lunch and say "eat, eat, eat" his memory for things completely amazes us.

Isaac loves to read and when he's not playing with his trucks and trains he's usually just flipping through books and he will stay occupied with that for quite awhile. He is fascinated by the moon and any time we go outside at night he is quick to spot it and point it out to us. He always has to tell everything and everyone "bye-bye" so that includes the moon. He'll point to the moon and then he'll start waving at the moon going "bye-bye moon" over and over. His love for the moon pours out into his books as he knows every single book that is in the house that has a moon in it. He also loves his "moose" book he got from Aunt "Cheetah" for Christmas. We read it at least once a day if not twice and sometimes more.

We are just enjoying this time and stage with him. We have our days where it seems all he does is test us, but for the majority of days he is a very sweet and loving boy. He is becoming quite the helper as well, he knows where all of his toys belong and he is very good at helping us put them away when it's time to go to bed.

Here's just some recent pictures we've taken.

Isaac riding the rocking elephant Papa & Gaga made him for Christmas

Isaac loving on mommy

Getting pretty good at feeding himself

For some reason he loves to lay on the stairs, it's one of his favorite spots

Eating "corn" with daddy, one of his favorite things to do at night

On the way home from Colorado he fell asleep while he was sucking on a sucker

A Warmer Winter Day

Finally for the first time since we got home from Colorado it was warm enough to go outside and play last Thursday. Isaac and I went sledding with a couple of my friends and his friends, Jack & Hailey. Isaac had a blast sledding, but he was more content to just lay on the snow and eat it.

Can you Say?

I'm sorry that it has been awhile since I have posted anything. I wanted to post this awhile ago but I had to spend some time making the video. He is quite the character lately, nothing gets by Isaac and he repeats and immitates most things we do. I swear since Christmas he has added about 20 words to his vocabulary and he will go through the whole alphabet if I lead him. He will also count to 5 but his version only includes "two & five". Enjoy the video, remember to pause the music at the bottom of the page. Please don't pay attention to the mess in the background or on his tray, he seems to only give us a show when the house is a mess :).



Steph, I'm not sure why but you are still 'bob'. I even tried a couple times today to get him to say Steph and he gave me this grin and said 'bob'.

Merry Christmas to all!

We are switching it up this year and blogging our Christmas letter. Below you will find some of our favorite moments of this past year. We hope you enjoy!
Our Top 10 Favorite Memories of 2008

10. Isaac and I flew to Colorado in January to visit my sisters in Boulder. We spent the week hiking, rock climbing, swimming, shopping, watching movies and taking Isaac to the Denver Aquarium. While we were having a blast in Boulder, Gary’s company took him to Las Vegas for the World of Concrete Convention (he had a blast as well!).

9. Our little baby boy (well not so little anymore) turned one in March. We celebrated with family in Sheldon and even though he had a double ear infection he thoroughly enjoyed his cake and opening his presents. He began walking at 13 months and he has been non-stop since. We joke all the time that he is our Curious George because he’s always climbing or investigating something.

8. Gary turned 30! My best friend and I threw a double 30th birthday bash for Gary and her husband; friends joined us at their house for dinner, cake and ice cream. He continuously tells me that “once you hit 30 it’s all down hill;” he’s always got some sort of ache or pain lately. I think it’s his job, he thinks it’s his age :). Either way he has left me no hope in looking forward to turning 30!

7. Isaac enjoyed his first trip to the zoo! He had just learned to walk so he was more interested in all this space he had to roam around rather than looking at all the animals. We still had a fun time, but he was more interested in the animals the second time we took him to the zoo this summer.

6. Branson, Missouri was our vacation spot this summer. We spent the week with Gary’s family (33 of us total!) at Aunt’s Creek Resort. It was a hot week so most of the week was spent on the water-- boating, swimming, skiing, wakeboarding, tubing and cliff jumping. Isaac had a great time playing with all of his cousins and Gary and I enjoyed the extra help in keeping him entertained!

5. In September, we attended my 10 year high school reunion in Sheldon. My class had dinner together at a restaurant and then had a bon fire at Hill’s Park. It was fun to reconnect with friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.

4. This fall we had fun taking Isaac to the Center Grove apple orchard and trick or treating for the first time. At the Orchard he thought it was so funny to feed the goats; he chuckled the whole time and he loved to eat the apples fresh from the tree. He also enjoyed riding the train with his friend Ashley. Isaac dressed as Curious George this year for Halloween, we are biased but we thought he made the cutest little monkey! We went trick-or-treating with good friends of ours, so all together we had a monkey, a cow girl and an Indian…they were definitely a hit with other trick-or-treaters!

3. Gary still enjoys his work and the company he is with. I still love this time that I have to be able to be home with Isaac and raise him. People ask me all the time why I stay home, wouldn't I rather go back to work, don't you get bored, and what do you do all day? Well there's lots of reasons I stay home with Isaac, I wouldn't even dream of going back to work right now, no I don't get bored...everyday goes too fast as it is, and I teach, train/correct/discipline and play with my child all day. I still enjoy teaching fitness classes a couple times a week!

2. At 20 months, Isaac is walking, running, climbing and talking. We are having so much fun watching him grow and learn so many new things. He loves playing with his “frucs” (trucks/tractors) and he is very much like his daddy, he enjoys building with his blocks and legos. Most of what he says is complete jibberish but his favorite words so far are: oh-no, no, baby, ba-bye, moe-moo, (milk & water) stinky ooh-ooh (pee-yew), qwah-qwah (what a duck says) and shoes. I taught Isaac baby sign language so he will also sign a lot of things that he wants which is very helpful. He knows most animal sounds and will make most of them and most recently he has added poo-poo to his list of words. I’m hopeful this means he will potty train early and quickly :) (fingers are crossed)! Isaac continues to be quite the lover and gives us lots of cuddles and kisses.

1. Even though this hasn’t officially happened yet we know it will be a highlight of our year. My family is spending Christmas in Colorado this year; everyone will be together…Gary, Isaac and I, mom, dad, my sisters and their boyfriends and my aunt and uncle. We haven’t all been together for Christmas since 2004 so we are really looking forward to this time with my family. We plan on spending the week skiing, snowmobiling, snow-shoeing, as well as many other things. Most importantly I’m just looking forward to us all being together and enjoying family traditions that are special to our family.

There has been much to reflect on this past year and we have so many things to be thankful for. Like so many of you there have also been many trials this past year that we are looking forward to leaving in 2008 and hope don’t follow into 2009. We are grateful to God for keeping us in His Grace; we have seen His presence in so many ways this year. Our prayer for all of you is that, more than physical or material blessings and abundance, you would grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, the world’s only Savior. We hope you have a blessed Christmas and New Year.

In Love,

Gary, Jess & Isaac

Feeling Better!

Okay, I think it's safe to say that Isaac is 100% better (knocking on wood, fingers are crossed :)). For those I haven't talk to since last Wednesday Isaac came down with a fever Wednesday afternoon and he still had it on Thursday morning so I took him into the doctor. I was surprised that he had an ear infection because other than his fever he gave no signs like he has had in the past. So we got that taken care of but he was not recovering at all and his fever hung around (pretty high one too) until Saturday morning. And no amount of tylenol would bring it down, water helped a little but it was consistently between 101-102.7. He put himself on a starvation diet and refused to eat anything other than "nannas". Most of his calories came from his milk last week, which was understandable. He had no desire to play he would walk around almost dazed but was only content if I was holding him...all the time other than when he was in his crib napping or sleeping. Friday evening when I was making supper I put him on the couch to lay down, popped in Veggie Tales and I don't even think he moved even a finger for over an hour. I'm not sure he has laid that still since he came into this world, after we were done eating we just cuddled in the chair and waited for daddy to come home and he fell asleep and slept for over an hour. Whatever this was had him knocked out!

On Sunday we were getting ready to go to church; afterall his fever was gone and we were told it was just an ear infection and as far as we knew he wasn't contagious. I went to get him changed and noticed he had a rash all over his little body. This is what he looked like (I couldn't get a picture taken that would show up good enough so this is not a picture of him) on Sunday morning.

I was thinking he was having a reaction to his medicine, his fever was gone so I had no clue. So after waiting and waiting we got in and found out he had Roseola Virus. The rash is the last thing you get when you are over the virus. So that rash lasted about 2 days and finally yesterday he was back to his goofy, silly self. No more confinement to the house, Yay mom is happy! Now we are just praying we can all stay healthy from now until we leave for Colorado and while we are out there!