White Christmas

We had such a great Christmas this year. I woke up early because I was supposed to work a couple hours in the morning, but it was slow enough that I didn't need to work! So, I got ready and made breakfast, and FINALLY got my two lazy heads up by 9:30. It was fun opening presents with Isaak, he didn't really understand anything and couldn't figure out how to open his presents, but he seemed pretty happy with his new toys.
I don't think we've had a White Christmas for at least 7 years. It started snowing out at our house around midnight Christmas eve and kept going ALL DAY. My poor parents tried to get to my house on Christmas, but ended up turning around and going to my brother's house instead because our roads were so bad. If we didn't have the truck, there's no way we could have left the house for a couple days!! They didn't even shovel our circle until the evening after Christmas.....
Here's all of us at Ric and Jo's on Christmas afternoon. They had so much yummy food and it was so much fun seeing everyone. We had to open presents downstairs this year because there are too many of us to fit upstairs anymore!
Isaak got spoiled this year, but the poor guy was exhausted half the day.

I had to include this picture! Isaak does NOT get excited about food. He's a good eater, but he's just the type that eats to live, not lives to eat. A couple nights ago, Shaun gave him a taste of his eggnog, and the kid went crazy!! He got all excited and kept reaching for more and would get mad when Shaun would take it away. I've never seen him get excited about ANY food before!

Eggnog face!

Family Christmas Party #2!

We had my family Christmas party yesterday. My sister Kim hosted it this year and we had such a fun time. We ate lunch first, then had our traditional talent show, then left right gift game and chimes! The above picture is my niece Melissa and and her husband Levi. They're moving away in a few days and I'm gonna miss them!
Here's Joshua and Jane..
Jessica and Isaak..
me and Isaak...
my fabulous Mom and Dad ...
very pregnant Alisa, Cip, and Miyuki...
Chris, Robert, and Miyuki...
Every year we play Christmas songs on the chimes. For a long time my Dad borrowed them from a friend, but then Shaun actually made some for them as a Christmas present a few years ago. (isn't he so handy!? :)
These two handsome guys are my nephews, Jordan and Jared. I am so blessed to have such a great family. I love having a large family. (there's 8 of us kids!) All of my brothers and sisters are such great examples for me to follow. I hope they all know how much I love them and how thankful I am for all they do!

Family Christmas Party #1!

Yesterday we had Christmas with Patsy and Jay and all of Shaun's brothers! It was at our house and was so much fun. I just had to post the picture above. I guess Shaun had begged his Mom to buy him that Cabbage Patch doll when he was really little. You have to admit, the resemblance between that doll and Isaak is pretty striking!
Here's Isaak with Adam. It was a great night. We had Lasagna for dinner (so delicious!). After we ate, we all sat around talking and watching football. Then we all exchanged presents.
Here's Patsy and Jay.....
Lauren and Isaak.... (she's going to be a fabulous babysitter!)
Scott and Jae, Brett and Tracy....
US!...
And here's Isaak with a basketball toy he got. We all got such great gifts and had such a great time. Thanks everyone for a fantastic evening!

Too quick!

My baby is growing up too fast!!! Yesterday I put him behind this walker and he spent the next hour walking all the way from the far living room wall to the end of the kitchen. As soon as he'd hit a wall, he'd do his pterodactyl scream and I'd turn him around. He doesn't bend his knees so his legs just stay straight and walks with his feet turned our, but it's SO CUTE! At the rate he's going, he won't need the walker much longer.......

Too cute not to post!

Isaak all nestled snug in his bed.....
Our living room trees......
Isaak under our tree with an ornament.....

I just LOVE that hat!

I've just got to write a little brag about Shaun. Lately he has been putting in such LONG hours to support our family. He's still selling insurance, but he's also picked up another insurance job on the side, PLUS he's studying super hard for all his tests to become a Farmer's agent. He took his property and casualty test about a week ago and got one of the highest scores they've seen! People usually have to take that test a few times before they even pass, but Shaun aced it on his first try! In January he's going back to school with two classes. He stays up late every night studying and works all day long with his two jobs. Even with how busy this fabulous guy is, he still finds time to spend time with me and spoil me. Last night he watched Isaak while I went to get my hair done. When I got home, the entire living room was transformed. He had taken all the cushions off the couch and had set up little caves for Isaak to crawl through. SO CUTE!! I'm so lucky to have such a fabulous, hard working guy. I love you hon, thanks so much for all that you do for our little family, you're the absolute best!

My long term project

I started making these stockings about five years ago. Each one takes from 6 months to a year to finish. When I made Shaun's he came with me to the store to pick out the cording that goes around it. First he chose bright, bright yellow. I immediately regretted that I was letting him choose at all. Then he chose the cording that's around it now. I still hated it, but it was better that bright yellow. When the stocking was done, I was shocked! I think it actually looks pretty good with it. His is the most detailed and was the hardest to do.
Yes, I know what a lot of you are thinking.... "She made one for her dog?!" Well, he's part of the fam. Besides, Shaun really wasn't happy till Rusty had one too.......
Isaak's is by far my favorite. I love the color combinations.
This is the first one I did and definitely the easiest. I have so much fun making these, I'm already about halfway done with our next kid's.....

Thanksgiving

This year for Thanksgiving, we went to Ric and Jo's. The food was delicious and it was so nice to be with everyone for the holiday. The picture above is me and Shaun eating dinner. (It's so nice to be at family's where everyone wants to hold your baby, I get to eat!!)
This is Shaun's brother Scott and his wife, Jae. Isaak was so tired, he was a little grumpy for them.....
Here's Isaak with Bentley and Ashton. Isaak just looooves Bentley and laughs whenever he comes around and follows him around.
With Thanksgiving being over, I gave Isaak his Christmas pajamas. I think I'll start a tradition of giving them on Thanksgiving.

Anyone else go shopping this morning? We braved the crowds for Walmart, Lowes, and Sears. Isaak is SUCH a good sport. He just slept on my shoulder for half of it. Then I spent about eight hours putting up Christmas decorations. I'm still only half done. *sigh* I guess I'll just finish tomorrow.

Just in time

So today Shaun and I went to home depot because we wanted to build some safety gates for Isaak. As we were looking at the stairs and trying to decide how would be the best way to place everything, Isaak just started climbing! (While holding a block in one hand, and his legs pulling up out of his pajama bottoms) He got all the way to the top (13 steps!). We thought we were planning ahead, but I guess we were just in time.

Isaak's room

We had so much fun decorating this room. Shaun mounted the thatched roofs on the walls and painted the monkeys. All I can really claim credit for is painting the walls and the bead board.
We haven't done anything in the play room yet, but we eventually want to paint the inside like a tree house.

We got the idea for these monkeys off a blanket the Miyuki made me for Isaak. Now his walls match his blanket. I had so much fun doing this room, I'm already planning for our next kid. I want to do a camping theme and have bears and moose on the walls, a lantern for a lamp, somehow have the bed inside a tent.... I don't care if it's a girl or a boy, I've got big plans! (girl's can camp too, right?) Ok, maybe I'd have to switch Isaak to the camping room, I'll decide when we have our next kid.

Witches, Ghosts, Goblins, and a .......Monkey

This is Isaak's Halloween costumes this year. The reason I chose a monkey is because his entire room is decorated with monkeys. I'll have to post a picture sometime, but if you can imagine..... there is an actual tiki awning coming out from the ceiling, there's monkeys painted on the walls (compliments of Shaun), plants everywhere, just a regular old rain forest! Anyway, I love the banana on his head. Too bad Halloween only lasts one month.

1st pearly white

Isaak finally sprouted his first tooth yesterday. He'll be nine months old next monday, so it's been a long time coming. ( I got my first one when I was 9 months, like mother, like son.) I'm so blessed to have this little guy. Even when he's theething, he still smiles and giggles ALL the time. I swear the only time he ever cries is ........hmmmm, I can't remember.... maybe I should pinch him and make sure he is capable of a few tears. :) Right now he's crawling all over and can even walk along the edge of the coffee table. It'll be a shock for me when he can start running all over. Motherhood has definitely taken me by surprise. If I'd known it would be this much fun, I would have had about 10 kids by now. Congrats Isaak on your first tooth!!!

Pumpkins and a Monster Mash!

Every October Shaun and I have a pumpkin night. We'll carve pumpkins and stay up late watching a movie. I was excited for our pumpkin night so I resolved to put Isaak to bed early. As I was trying to induce sleepiness into a teething baby, I heard power drills in the kitchen. Isaak heard it too and was immediately awake. I walked in the kitchen to see what was going on and saw Shaun attacking his pumpkin with power tools! He had to get a head start because his pumpkin was so big. He carved most of his with his beloved tools, mine's carved the old fashioned way. We had a blast that night.
Our annual Murder Mystery Halloween party was last Saturday and the theme was a MONSTER MASH! We had such a good time. We are blessed to have so many good friends in our lives. Shaun and I were Frank N Stein and the Bride of Frank N Stein. These are by far our favorite costumes that we've done this far. Yep, that's my real hair. (lather, rinse, repeat.....about ten times!!) We had so much fun planning these costumes. I love Shaun's grin in that picture.
This is the whole group we had that night. Everyone went all out with their costumes. I love how Levi (skeleton) looks in this shot. All the white was illuminated. Here's our regular smiles....
then our scary pose!
I just had to include this picture. Everyone was in charge of a dish and it all turned out DELICIOUS, but Danielle went all out with the red punch (ZZ negative blood!) She works at a hospital and she actually had an IV running down into the punch bowl so that it looked like blood was oozing out. For the cups she brought actually blood containers from the hospital. LOVED IT! She is sooo creative.
We had to get three tables all together to fit everyone. This is all of us eating dinner. Our best costume of the night went to James (Lou Cifer), and the only person who figured out the murder was my very own Shaun! We've been to 4 murder mysteries and he has been able to figure out 3 of the 4. I haven't been able to figure out ANY of them. I guess we can tell who the more observant one is. :) Speaking of Shaun, I promised him that if he helped me figure out this whole blogging thing when I signed up, I would write about how awesome he is. Shaun is Captain Awesome. He is always doing things for me just to surprize me. When I was in Missouri a couple weeks ago, he deep cleaned the house, painted a few walls, moved a TREE in our yard, and the list goes on. He is always looking to do things that will make me happy. I'm so lucky to have him.