Isaac's in trouble!

He's trying so hard to take steps and balance on his own....I've grounded him for life if he does it! ;) This boy cracks me up, he is so determined. His face cracks me up; its his concentrating face.

:)

This kid just makes me smile.

These girls can be so sweet!



I will get Halloween pics up before Thanksgiving. :) I promise.

wrestling

Mia likes to wrestle Isaac,but now he's starting to be able to get her! :)

Gratitude

General Conference was last weekend, and I one sentence struck a cord with me more than anything else, these words from President Monson: "Regardless of our circumstances, each of us has much for which to be grateful if we will but pause and contemplate our blessings." I can be a complainer. I get feeling sorry for myself because things don't go the way **I** think they should all the time, or I get my feelings hurt and then the whole world is out to get me (ok, slight exaggeration, but you get my point), or I get frustrated that I don't have the nicest things, or that we can't afford to fly to Hawaii every weekend (or ever!ha.) But bottom line, if I "pause to contemplate my blessings," I have everything I have ever wanted. I have a testimony that my Savior lives and loves me, I have a husband who works hard everyday to provide for the children that Heavenly Father has blessed us with, I have a home to live in, food to eat, I have amazing extended family and friends that are just as close as family. I have cheese in my refrigerator-seriously what more can one ask for!?!??! ;) I am going to make a special effort to show my gratitude for the great blessings that I have. :)
Aspen:She is such a great little girl. She's got an amazing imagination and is SO friendly. She loves to talk to people and is SUPER outgoing. She is incredibly affectionate and loving. Not one day ever goes by that she doesn't tell me she loves me. Love love LOVE her. :)
Mia:
This little girl has more energy than I ever knew was possible. She keeps me on my toes for sure. She is also so so so sweet and snuggly and loves to be held. She is also affectionate, but is more reserved about it than Aspen. She gives the biggest and best and rowdiest hugs on earth. Love her to pieces. :)
Isaac: Isaac, my sweet baby boy, is so mellow and happy. One smile from him is all it takes to cheer anyone up. He makes me happy. He is my snuggle buddy. Love him so much. :)
Smalo: Malo is my best friend and the cutest boy I know! He is the greatest husband and works so hard for our family. Our kiddos absolutely adore him and that makes me fall more and more in love with him. Watching him be a daddy has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. I love him so much. :)

I hope that we can all take a few minutes out of each day and think about the things that we are the most grateful for. And take the time to let the people in our lives who have helped us, who have touched our lives and made life better or easier, or just plain more fun ~ tell them you appreciate them! And take some time each day to thank our Heavenly Father for our blessings, because everything we have is from Him. I'm certainly going to try to be better at this. Because I do have a lot to be grateful for.

Sweet boy

This kid is awesome.

Washougal

So me and the kiddos took a trip out to Washougal for a little over a week. It was fun, but as always, there is never enough time to do everything and see everyone we want to.

Isaac and I did the Race for the Cure in Portland on "Tonya's Team," to support our friend, Tonya, who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. She is an amazing inspiration to me. It was great to be part of her team and spend some time with wonderful friends....yay Keila & Jon and Shayla and Tonya and her family and Anne-Elissa (her kiddo, Anderson is super tall for his age and we're hoping he and Mia get married so they can have "normal" sized kids.) hehe.

We also spent some time with Melanie and Damen as well as Allysia and Belen & Camden, who all were in town at the same time as us. It was nice to hang out with old friends. We got to also see Stephanie and her sweet baby boy, Braden. And Isaac and I spend a good time with Aeranee, too.

The kids got to see all of their uncles, Uncle Randy, Uncle Leif & Eric, as well as all their cousins except for two, which was a bummer we didn't get to see Lurlyn & the kids. And of course spent time with Aunt Teresa and Grandma and Grandma Vi. :)

Among the fun stuff we did was this: Throw up (just me and Mia, thankfully), ride bikes with boys at the Suggs house, dinner with friends, trip to the zoo, trip to the beach (and of course the Tillamook cheese factory!), shopping (hello IKEA!), soccer games, watched Randy finish a trail run, played with cousins, swang on a tire swing at Grandma Vi's, ate a lot, ate yummy grilled cheese deluxe sandwiches with super homemade tomato soup, Aunt Teresa took the girls to story time, shopping with Aeranee, pie at Shari's, caught up with old friends and stayed up way too late...oh and did I mention throwing up, too? Yuck.

All in all, it was a fun, but very busy time and the kids did not get nearly enough sleep! Oh and I got a ticket coming home. That was fun. :/

6 months old!

Wow, our sweet little boy is already 6 months old. Why does the time go so quickly?? I took him to his well baby check a couple days ago and his official weight is 20 lbs, 6 oz and he is 27.75 inches long. So he is now about 1/2 lb lighter than Mia. He is a big chunk of a baby and I LOVE it! He's got rolls galore and they are so cute. He's pretty tall, too, in the 85th percentile for height.
Isaac is a sweet, sweet baby. I adore him. He is my little snuggle bug and I love to hold him close and kiss his fat cheeks and listen to his belly laughs. He has a super cute laugh and his smile lights up my world. His mouth takes up half his face and it makes me happy. He is so observant and loves to sit (which by the way, he is a PRO at sitting!) and watch his silly sisters and the crazy dog and all their antics. He lights up when the girls talk to him. When he is sad, Aspen sings "I am a Child of God" to him and it almost always calms him. Mia loves to give him hugs and kisses. He LOVES Daddy (it would be odd at this point or one of my kids not to be daddy's kids.) We are all completely enthralled with this little munchkin.

He LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES to jump. He probably would spend all day in his jumperoo if I'd let him. He jumps when we hold him, he is going to be an active kiddo, I can tell. He's also getting up on all fours and trying to crawl. Thankfully he hasn't figured it out yet. But he can scoot around and roll around and get where he wants to go. Sometimes he scoots under the barstool and can't get out. He also enjoys pulling hair, grabbing food or anything at all within his reach. Love him.

A few days ago he started saying "DADA" and now doesn't stop. Its SO cute. He gets really excited about all the attention he gets from it. Especially from Mia, whenever he says it she'll say "You say DADA Isaac!" in her cute little voice and then he gets more excited and says it LOUDER and HIGHER. I love my kids.

Anyway, just wanted to give a quick report of Mr. Isaac and his sweetness. :)