Build-A-Bear

Soon after becoming pregnant, I saw a children's book that talked about welcoming a new sibling. In the book it talked about bringing a present for the new baby from the older sibling, and also a present from the new baby for the older sibling. We thought that would be a cute idea, so a few weeks ago we got a little toy that is now wrapped and in my hospital bag to be a gift "from baby to Isaac." Then Taylor and I thought it would be cute to have Isaac bring a stuffed animal to the hospital for baby. I came across a coupon for Build-A-Bear, so that's were we went last night. I've never been there, always thought it was way pricey, but was pleasantly surprised!!! It can be as cheap as you want or as pricey as you want. It was pretty cool and a great thing for Isaac to see and do at his age. Here's Isaac with his bear, which was about to be stuffed.

His bear, which was named "Vanilla" (Still not stuffed)

Isaac holding baby brother's bear, which was named "Blackie" (man we are original!)

He got to push the pedal to make the stuffing go. He is watching his being filled.

Giving both bears a "bath"

I don't know how long it will last, but it was sure cute to watch Isaac all cuddle up with "vanilla" last night and carry him around all morning. :) It was a fun family outing and Isaac even put baby brother's bear in his crib. (Here's to hoping we'll remember to bring it to the hospital!!)

More Christmas Stuff

Are you ready to see a grown-up, soon-to-be big brother??

Both Taylor and I think he looks so grown up in that picture!! We took Isaac to the Flying Horse Club for a Breakfast with Santa the other weekend. We got him dressed up in his Christmas Sunday outfit and he did great. Look at how cute he is...

Papa and Isaac

Isaac and Katie (this was at the very end, so Katie was very done! Not to mention, sick... :( ) But Isaac loves "baby Katie"

Couldn't get enough of him...

Isaac wrote a letter to Santa and got a letter back from him...this is Taylor reading it to him.

He thought that was pretty cool, or he thought it was cool because I made a big enough deal out of it. :)

And last but not least, we made a ginger bread house tonight while watching The Polar Express. I don't think I've ever made one, so I was anxious to do one with Isaac. He loved licking the icing.

Concentrating so hard...

Love that I captured this one!

Taylor trying to get him to smile...

Isaac and the finished product.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hopefully the next post will be announcing the arrival of our little boy!!!

Pregnancy Update: 38 weeks

well, some may not care to know, but I sure appreciate that I wrote this down when I was pregnant with Isaac. So, today I had a doctor's appointment and learned that his heartbeat is good, he seems to be a "perfect 7-pounder" (Ha, we'll see!), is lower or dropped, and that I am 30 percent effaced and dilated to a TWO! If he doesn't make his appearance in the next week and a half, my doctor scheduled me to be induced on Wednesday, December 29....which is also our FIVE year anniversary!

I know a lot (or a little) can happen between now and then, but can I just take a moment and tell you how excited I am that I am already dilated to a TWO at 38 weeks?! The farthest I've ever been is a 1.5!!

Wahoo!!!! CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

November + First Santa Visit

We're still keeping busy and counting down the weeks until this little baby boy debuts--which will be in 3 1/2 weeks! Here's a little update on us... back at the beginning of November, my curling iron broke and Taylor took it apart in hopes of repairing it. Needless to say, it was beyond repair, but Isaac sure liked getting his tools out and pretending to fix it!

Taylor spent Thanksgiving in Utah while Isaac and I stayed behind since I didn't get a green light to travel. It wasn't ideal, but it's what we felt was best since our niece got baptised in Utah...still waiting to see those pictures... ahem! ;) One of the days over the break we went bowling--I was surprised with how "well" I did 9 months pregnant...actually, I shouldn't say that since for a majority of the game, Isaac was beating me! (And we even had bumpers and I barely beat him!) :) It was so fun to watch Isaac bowl and get excited when the pins all fell down and how he didn't think it cut it when they didn't all fall--I had to tell him numerous times that "8 out of the 10 was really good!"

Dec. 4 was my dad's work Christmas party. I was nervous how Isaac would do sitting on Santa's lap since he freaked out at seeing the Santa at the mall, but he did well! He was still shy...but at least he was ok with going to him!

He got a train from Santa!

And Isaac really liked showing Baby Katie "how to sit on Santa''s lap" as he likes to tell me... :)

We have at least one more Santa visit coming and some jam-packed weekends ahead. Before you know it, this baby boy will be here.....we can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!

Our Church Halloween Party

Last night (Friday, Oct. 29) was our church's Halloween party. Isaac has been looking forward to wearing his costume and was so excited when it came time to put it on. He had just woken up from his nap -- so his smile totally doesn't look like him in this picture:

His friends!! Here is Isaac with Lucy

Isaac the ladies man-- here he is with Sophie and Lucy (I believe Taylor's response to this picture (after he laughed) was, "He really needs to hang out with boys his age!") :)

After dinner, we went around to some of the carnival games.

This is how Isaac & Lucy walked to each carnival game:

Ring toss

Sophie and Isaac before the Trunk-or-Treat

Isaac and Daddy walking around for the Trunk-or-Treat (I was handing out candy from our trunk). We sure love doing the Trunk-or-Treat. I grew up doing it, but Taylor had never heard of it until we moved here. He said, "This is such a great and safe idea for kids!" Isaac really mastered asking "Trick-or-Treat" and has been saying it ever since! He LOVES candy!

Isaac was now on a sugar high--this is him running around while we were cleaning up...gotta love his hat!!

We sure love our ward!! We have great friends and the youth are so great with Isaac and Isaac loves his friends! Happy Halloween!

Prego Update: 30 weeks (or 7.5 months)

Weeks keep going by...we're getting closer to Dec. 31! I am 30 weeks, or for those who don't like translating weeks into months, that is 7 1/2 months. So far, so good.

Taylor and I thought we were pretty funny...

A view from the front

And of course, Isaac--but he's not showing off a baby bump, he's showing off his car--such a little boy!!

I work on little projects every week to get ready for Baby Boy #2. I've got everything washed and put away, nursery set up (I sit in there every day in anticipation!!! ... and gratitude!), car seat ready to go (not in car....yet...). I want to get the diaper bag ready and my hospital bag, but Taylor thinks it's too early for that.... ;)

Isaac is THREE!!!

Isaac has talked about his third birthday for the past year--how he wants "3 balloons" -- and the day came and I can't believe he is three and how fun it is to have birthday parties for him now! I wasn't going to do a party, but recently he has been all about friends--so we did a neighborhood party and it was just right. Here is Isaac in the morning prior to breakfast--showing me the "red plate" he gets to eat off of.

Prior to the party. I put coloring pages and crayons out for the kids to color while all the guests arrived.

The theme of the party was "hidden treasure." I made the invitations to be like treasure maps and it said "We hope you'll find your way to Isaac's house to search for hidden treasure" so in honor of the theme, I made cupcakes like "X marks the spot"

Isaac was so excited for his friends to come!

Isaac and his dear friend, Lucy...sitting together until all his friends arrived.

We "searched for hidden treasure"--I got a big blank piece of paper and told the kidswe had to find the clues that would lead to the treasure. There were 7 clues in total scattered around our house outside.

One of the clues--at our neighbors house. Here's a shot of my 7 month pregnant belly--too bad it doesn't really give it justice. (But hey, those are maternity pants!! I've never had those before and they are surprisingly comfortable!! ...I've never had them because I only needed capri's with Isaac)

Another clue...at our waterfall

Finding the last clue...

We turned Isaac's water table into a sand table and buried "treasure" in it. Here's Isaac searching..

We attempted to get a group picture with all our treasures...but somehow it turned into Isaac with all the girls! There were 10 kids in total.

I made homemade pizza, and it wasn't done cooking...so we went in and opened gifts.

His friends spoiled him--don't know if Isaac quite understood the concept of opening presents, but he loved them all.

After presents, we had pizza....

And then cupcakes....we sang to Isaac... (twice because I couldn't get the lighter to light the candles!)

And then our little party winded down and came to an end. Isaac loved it all and I was impressed with how well he did with so many kids around and playing with his toys. So, the party was a success!! For dinner, we let Isaac pick. He loves "chicken, fries, baby juice (milk), and a toy" so to Wendy's we went! Haha! He loved it, we were all satisfied...it worked! While we were waiting for Taylor to come to the table, I snapped this picture of Isaac and it turned out SO cute!!

Taylor and Isaac after dinner... my blue-eyed boys!

After dinner we came home and Isaac got to open the gifts from us. I love this picture--it shows how fast Isaac was moving and how excited he was to open gifts!

I finally got a picture with the birthday boy! :) (I wish we could have gotten a family picture at some point in the day!)

All in all--I think Isaac had a great birthday--I think we had the perfect balance of play and rest. We ended the day with a family friend that came over to see Isaac (Taylor was at YM's) and it was great because he got to play with all his toys while she and I visited! I'm so happy to be in this stage with Isaac--he is so fun and we love him so much!!!