Happy 4th Birthday Isaac!!!

Today Isaac is turning 4 years old!

Isaac has brought a lot of joy, energy, fun to our family as well as a lot of frustration.  Isaac (AKA Spike or Banks) has an adorable smile and an ability to make me laugh all day.  He has a great imagination and loves to play pretend, usually army guys, or jets. As much fun as he can be, he has not control over his emotions and gets really mad when things don't go his way.  He is super defiant, a great negotiator and strong willed. 
I can only hope that these attributes will serve him well when he is an adult. 

Here are some things about Isaac:
He is obsessed with Legos right now, he loves to play them especially with Danny & Taylor.
 
He loves school and asks to go to school everyday.

He is taking swimming lessons, and is barely starting to enjoy his classes. He cried the first few weeks.

He loves to go to our next door neighbors house and play with all of their cool toys.  They have no kids his age, and are really sweet to invite him over.

He loves to be outside playing sports, riding his bike, jumping on the tramp, or following the older kids around.

He is still obsessed with all army stuff.

Isaac is the first kid awake in the morning, and always wants breakfast right away.

He loves Macaroni and Cheese, Pirate Booty, cucumbers, all fruit and GoGurts -he asks for them everyday.

Little buddy does not take naps anymore, but somedays he gets too tired and falls asleep in the car, or on the "Timeout" chair.   When he saw this picture, he denied being asleep.  He said he was just resting his head! HA HA

He tries my patience every single day, but he makes me laugh too!

We love you Isaac, Happy Birthday!

Natural History Museum

We had a day off of school on Friday and we went to the new Natural History Museum.  The kids had a lot of fun; here they are making a wall out of sand to see if it will erode.

Isaac loved playing with the dinosaurs. 

It was a fun outing and everyone had a great time!

Snow!

We finally got some snow this week.  The kids had so much fun playing in the snow; building a snowman, having a snowball fight and building a big snow cave. 

Elizabeth hasn't really had a lot of time in the cold and snow, but she loved it.  She ate the snow and had a blast outside with the kids. 

Here are Taylor & Ryan hard at work on their snowcave.  They worked for hours on this and used all of the snow in the whole front yard.  They were planning on sleeping in it, but it was too cold. 

Crazy kids having a lot of fun in the cold!

Busy girl

Elizabeth has been really busy lately.  She loves playing in the bathroom; she empties the drawers, gets into everything and loves the toilet!  It is so gross!  I try and keep the door closed, but it always gets left open.  As soon as it is open she crawls right in there and goes straight to the toilet. 

I have been cleaning the bathroom at least once a day because she is always in there.  It is so disgusting!

She is so happy, smily and loves her snacks and meals. 

She really wants to feed herself at every meal!  She loves yogurt, and makes a huge mess! 

I love how she closes her eyes while she eats! 
 Lizzie, you are a funny, girl!

Looking back

I was looking at pictures from a year ago when Elizabeth was born and couldn't help post a few.  She was such a sweet, adorable baby!  I forgot how dark  her hair was, it's so blonde now. 

We took tons of pictures when she was born, but here are few of my favorite.

I lovet his picture of Emily; you can see how thrilled she is to have a new little sister!

Taylor, Emily, Isaac and Elizabeth look so little.  It's amazing how much kids change in only one year! 
I feel so blessed and lucky to be their mother.
I love my job!

Lizzie's 1st Birthday!!!

We celebrated Elizabeth's 1st birthday yesterday!
It's hard for me to believe she is 1 alreaday, it seems like only a few months ago she was born.  This past year has been crazy, fun, exhausting and wild.  I guess that's a typical year for a mom of young kids!

We started the day with yummy double chocolate pancakes.  Lizzie devoured them and ate 2 or 3.  She loves to eat, especially sweet foods because she doesn't have them often.

We had a mellow day, doing things around the house and the kids played with their friends. 

 

That evening we dinner of chicken tacos, fruit and salsa & chips with her grandparents.  Again she ate all her food, she loves her meals!  After dinner Lizzie opened her presents.  She got new clothes, and car, and some blocks.

Lizzie got passed around all night to everyone and she seemed to like it.  She isn't too nervous around strangers and unknown people yet.



Her favorite part of opening gifts was playing with the boxed, and wrapping paper. 



After she played with her toys we stripped her clothes off of her and put her on the table for her cake.  She loved everyone singing "Happy Birthday" to her. 

These pictures are out of order, but oh well. 
She has some weird, unkonwn rash on her body.

At first she was nervous about eating her Bday cake, but when she saw it was allowed she went right into it! She pushed her face down into the cake and used both of her hands to eat it. 

She made a huge mess and had a lot of fun!

Lizzie really liked it when all the kids were laughing and yelling at her to eat more cake!  She loves to get attention and laughs from her older siblings.



We love you Elizabeth, and we are so happy you are in our family!



We have had a great week so far. Isaac has been making me laugh so hard lately.  I really need to write down the funny things that he says, because I forget them! 

He has been riding his balance bike alot and is getting really good at riding it.  So on Saturday Danny put him on his little bike with no training wheels!  He rode away all by himself and did great!  We were all shocked that he was doing it, and we just stood there watching.  I need to get out and practice with him, but its's been cold this week. 

Isaac went to McDonalds with his friend last week, and had a fabulous time!  They had ice cream and pancakes, who could want more?



Elizabeth is all smiles when she is in her high chair- as long as she has a stready supply of food on her tray!  She demands food by screaming full force, and she doesn't stop until she gets what she wants.  Lately she wants Ketchup, or ranch like the older kids, and even wants her own utensil. 




Emily met Darla and wanted to hold her all by herself!  She is such a wonderful helper and older sister for Lizzie.  I am so lucky to have her as the 2nd mother.



We went to the Aviary this week on a nice, warm morning.  The kids had fun seeing all the birds.  The flamingoes, eagles and condors were the favorite birds. 

I just love Lizzie's smile, and all of her expressions! 
She is such a joy in our family! 
I am in shock that she is turning 1 this weekend!

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