Isaac turns FOUR!

Isaac turned four on October 6.  Every year it seems so crazy to think about how old he is getting.  But, we drew out his birthday for as much as possible--it started with his birthday party invites we did three weeks early and had on the fridge until we handed them out (we had a Cowboy themed party, so I made "cowboy boots" with a magnet on the back that said 'Come join us for a rowdy good time at Isaac's birthday party.... Isaac's Round-Up!')  Then all the birthday party details started a week before the actual party and then we celebrated his birthday for three days.  Yes, crazy, I know.  It's all about making a big deal for birthdays in this house.  

So, we started with a family dinner and party on Tuesday night. I had this idea to get Isaac a power wheel Jeep (since both Taylor and I wanted one growing up but never got one, so we are living vicariously through our kids...haha... no seriously, both Taylor and I have driven it!) So my parents did not disappoint and got Isaac his very own Jeep...

 The picture is all stretched weird, but you get the idea.  You see...we live in a wonderful neighborhood, with lots of kids, and we love it.  So this Jeep has been so fun for the kids so far.  And Isaac just thinks it is THE coolest thing! Thanks again Nana & Papa! And, I'm pretty sure Isaac included his Jeep in his prayers for a week after... :)

Wednesday: the FRIEND party.  Now, you may think I am crazy, but I will explain.  He had 15 friends over his party.  I know, I know.  But I don't have bad memories of it, so I can't say that I wouldn't do it again. :) Isaac is so into friends right now -- and with just the kids in our neighborhood, there were 10 already! So what were 5 more ...?? :) Again, it was a cowboy theme, and don't worry, I did not go all professional on the decorations. The front door said "Welcome to Isaac's Round-Up"

 Then we had four "activities" that were cowboy themed.  Each kid made their own Trail Mix to take home in their goodie bag.

 My sweet friend let me borrow her horse saddle that we used as the "Cowboy and Cowgirl photo booth." Each kid wore a bandanna that had a "sheriff pin" on it and a cowboy hat and had their picture taken.  I thought the beautiful mountains in the background was a good backdrop. :)

 The classic "pin the tail on the horse" ... don't you laugh at my horse-drawing-abilities! Ha!

 And then "Rope the Steer" which another sweet friend let me borrow her rocking horse and then the kids threw hula hoops at it to "rope it."

 These were the "goodie bags" -- and yes, I cut out each one of those sheriff badges and made them so each of them could "pin" theirs on.  ...Remember, 15 kids??? :)

 Last year, I made a homemade pizza and cupcakes on top of all the games and that was just too much.  So this year I decided we would just do something for the "happy birthday" song part.  Initially I was going to make cupcakes, but last year they made a huge mess (which is expected) but most kids just liked the frosting off the top and that was it.  So, I decided to make "brownie pops." They were fun and easy to make and I got this clever idea of how to present them while laying in bed one night.  So, in case you don't get it, going with the cowboy theme, the "boom", "pow" and "bam" are like targets exploding after shooting at them and the brownie pops are the "explosions." I don't know how they tasted...I never ate one...but I liked how it turned it!

 A close up of the brownie pops

 Here were the cowboy photo booth pictures of Isaac.  I love this one:

 And a sweet smile from the birthday boy.

 Isaac LOVED being sung to.  He got this demeanor about him that was just too funny. 

 And, presents... he loved opening them, and so did everyone else!

Then, THURSDAY (his actual birthday) we woke up opened gifts from us to him and had his breakfast of choice (homemade pancakes) on the "special red plate" and then he went to preschool and wanted to take donuts with sprinkles as his treat.  Again, they sang to him and he loved that.  We met up with Taylor for lunch since Taylor had to work late and then we came home and I made Isaac take a nap because he was EXHAUSTED.  Later that night we kept with tradition, and went to Red Robin.  Initially it was just going to be us and my mom but we were lucky enough to meet up with Emily Alley and her sister-in-laws Julie and Anna.  It was WONDERFUL! We love them! And Heather and Tyson came as well (my dad was out of town and Taylor had to work).  Again, they sang to Isaac and can you see a similarity between this picture and the one above??

 The gang (minus Heather and Tyson)

And that is how we celebrated Isaac turning 4! We sure love you Isaac!

Updated pictures of the boys!

These are just random pictures of Isaac and Beau. Just a typical day in the life of two boys.  Isaac right before he left for preschool... p.s. I love that I can carpool with friends in our neighborhood to preschool!

 And, as long as we're taking pictures, we might as well throw in some crazy faces of Isaac... which I LOVE!

 The last class of the month at preschool is known as "show-and-share" where the parents can come watch for 15 minutes.  Well, all the kids in the class of 5 go to our church and all us moms are good friends and we all have a baby of some sort.  So, being one that loves tradition and hates the meal of lunch, thought it would be fun to go over to McDonald's after show-and-share and get lunch and let the kids play while we chatted.... and it proved to be great! Here are four of the five kids (the other little boy couldn't make it)...

 And I snapped this cute picture of Beau....I love it!

I love my boys!

My 5k MUD RUN!

On September 24 I participated in a 5k Mud Run with friends from our neighborhood.  It was a lot of fun!! But not going to lie, leading up to the race and especially the night before, I was getting a little nervous!! I thought it would be less running than it was and more obstacles, but there was quite a bit of running! It was great how it all worked out, though.  So here we are "before" the mud! We all live in the same neighborhood and are all good friends. 

 This is the last of the last mud holes and of course, my shoe came off.  It was actually pretty funny, so I finished with shoe in hand. 

 Amie, Leslie, Emily and myself.... you may think we don't look too muddy, but 1) you should see our backside and 2) just wait until the next picture....

 We went back to wait for the other two girls to finish and as they approached, they tackled us in the mud and I'm pretty sure I was at the bottom of the dog-pile! Ha, it was the best part of the run!

All covered in mud and smiling! It was fun to do with good friends!!

(Second) First Day of Preschool!

Today was Isaac's (second) first day of Preschool! He actually went to preschool from January-May of this year -- but since this is the beginning of a school year, we made it official with a picture! My sister in law always takes pictures on their front porch, so I thought I would follow.  He was SOOO excited to go to preschool.  He was jumping around because he was so excited...hence, his feet: (post-jump)

I let him pick out what he wanted to wear.  He wanted to wear either his Superman shirt of his BYU shirt.  Both were NOT what I had in mind.  I asked Taylor what he thought about those two shirts -- bad idea -- the response I got was "He'll have 12 more 'first day of school pictures' let him wear whatever." Sooo, Superman shirt was his pick.  This morning he asked, "Mom, do you think Miss Deb (his teacher) will like my Superman shirt?" Hahaha.  At his open house the other week, he said, "Mom, I love Miss Deb....but Mom, don't tell her that, it's a secret!" Ahhh, I love this sweet little boy!! 

Off to preschool we go!

Pro-cycling Event in Colorado Springs

Whew-- after this post, I am all caught up.  I don't like doing multiple posts in one day, but oh well. 

So, currently, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is going on right here in Colorado Springs.  If you didn't know, Taylor recently took up cycling with some friends in our ward and neighborhood, so that meant we watched a lot of the Tour de France.  So when we knew this event was coming to Colorado Springs, my friend (all us wives!) said a lot of the "big wigs" were going to be here.  So we went! It was pretty cool -- it was HOT, but fun to be there!

Here is Cadel Evans -- he won the whole Tour de France.

Here is the "htc motorhome" 

And "Radio Shack" 

 We saw a few other "big wigs" but I don't have any pictures.  It was fun for Isaac -- we went around to each of the teams buses and got the team water bottles, a hat, some candy, post cards, etc....

 Here is Isaac and Kadence... I don't know why it looks squished, but oh well.  I don't have a picture of them with Brennen or of the three little babes!

So fun to have a big thing here in the Springs!

Some latest on Beau

 Beau is almost 8 months --- so this may be as close to a "8 month picture" as we get! He is in such a fun stage, so I wanted to document some things with these cute new pictures I took of him today.  Of course, this is him smiling at Isaac.

-Beau is a sleeper! He sleeps from 7:30 pm - 7:30 am and is pretty regular.  If we are home, he does that.  It seems like when we are staying in a hotel or someones house, he doesn't sleep as well.  He definitely is most comfortable in his own crib.

-We have recently transitioned from 3 to 2 naps and it is great! I say great because it is consistent.  He takes a 2 hour (give or take)  nap in the morning -- about 8:45 to 11 --  and a 2 hour (give or take) nap in the afternoon -- about 2 to 5.

-He sits up well, rolls all over the place, prefers to just be on his back most of the time.  You can tell he wants to crawl but hasn't figured it out yet.

-He LOVES Isaac

-He has started smiling all the time -- outside of his traditional face of big eyes and open mouth! ha!

-Very ticklish under his arms and by his collar bone.  Love making him laugh!

-He just recently became VERY interested in food.  He has done well with baby food from about 5.5 months on, but now he is sooo interested in table food.  He has eaten pieces of a waffle, some yogurt, and today he ate almost an entire pancake.  He gets so mad if you take too long between bites, too! He has figured out the puffs and the yogurt melts.  Like I said -- he is going to be my BIG eater!

-Still nurses, about 5 times a day.  I still have a love/hate relationship with nursing. 

-His nickname is "Beauser" pronounced "Beau-ser" or "Bo-sir" ... if that makes sense :)

He is doing so well and growing so much.  Life with two kids has been good -- it has helped that Isaac is older and much more able to help, and that several of my friends had babies around the same time, so we've gone through the post-baby stages together.  However, doing nursing this time around has been TOTALLY different...meaning, Isaac was bottle-fed and not attached to me, and now Beau is, so that's been different, hence my "love/hate relationship."  Isaac is a great big brother and so much fun -- he has so much personality -- we can't wait to see what Beau's personality will be like.  Isaac starts preschool in a week -- he is SO excited!

Boating

We've done some boating lately -- we go to a lake about 1 hour 40 minutes away.  It's a bit of a drive but the lake is big and it's not crowded at all -- which is a BIG plus! We just stay on the boat all day -- which is great and easy and perfect.  Here is Isaac and Beau chilling in the shade (under the steering wheel) during lunch.  

 

I only have a few pictures of people doing things -- but here is my mom surfing!!! Look at her -- she's awesome!

And here is Taylor surfing -- he's so good -- he doesn't have to use the rope (note to self: do not go before him or after him -- he will make you look bad!) :)  We love going boating!

And during this particular "swim break" Isaac decided he wanted to "surf" with daddy! This is as close as he has gotten...baby steps... :) 

While we were unloading stuff, Isaac drove his tractor around -- and Taylor even put Beau in the back! Look at those cuties!!! Mmmm, love them!!!!!!

Family Vacation in Island Park, Idaho

At the end of July, we went to one of our favorite places on earth -- my grandparents cabin in Island Park, Idaho.  I had the pleasure of driving out with my parents, aka sitting in the back seat of the truck sandwiched between two car seats.  Wahoo! :) Actually, the boys did great, so it wasn't a big deal.  I was able to be there for about 12 days, and Taylor joined us for the last 5 days.  We did a lot of boating, eating, playing games, sleeping... you know--vacation! The cabin is right on the lake so it's wonderful! 

I love this picture of my Papa -- or Papa "G" (for Papa Great) -- and Beau

 

Isaac did a lot of four-wheeling
 

 Nana "G" with Aiden, Ava, Ash and Isaac playing card games

After church we went to a part of the river where you can feed big fish -- it was pretty cool and a nice guy shared some cheese with Isaac to feed them (Seagulls ate the bread before the fish) 

On our way home, we stopped at my grandparents house in Blackfoot (2 hours away) -- another favorite place of ours.  Taylor and Isaac fed one of their horses -- Isaac was totally excited and then saw the teeth and decided to be a spectator.  

Isaac running down the lane to the house 

Got some pictures of the boys in my grandparents beautiful yard.  Beau is 7 months old in these pictures 

 Not so sure about the grass...

Beau LOVES Isaac, and Isaac LOVES Beau -- everyone laughs at me when I say they will be like this the whole time they grow up together :) 

Isaac ALWAYS wants to give Beau kisses 

The best we could get of the two of them smiling (again, Beau was not so sure about the grass - ha!) 

It was a great trip!! We love going to Idaho! It brought back so many memories of when we used to live there! (And it was fun to see some old co-workers!)

I'm WHAT???

Well friends, it's true -- I am doing something that I NEVER thought I would do.... RUNNING! My wonderful friend, Leslie, got me into it. Something about getting out of the house at night without kids and running just does something good for the body! So, we did the 4th of July "Fun Run" for the 3rd year in a row, and this time, I actually ran. Of course I didn't run the whole thing (4.2 miles) because, come on, I just started. But I did run a full mile without walking -- that was my first milestone! I averaged a 12:23 minute mile .... and now I am down to 10 to 10.5 minute miles.
It is fun to think about the first night Leslie and I went running to my last run. The first time was "let's just run to the next street" and now it is running for 20 minutes straight. CRAZY. Soo crazy that we signed up to a 5k all-girls mud run in September!