I'm not sure what happened, but I totally lost touch with the blog and obviously haven't updated it in months. I'm going to try and do a catch up with photos and videos...hold on to your hats!
November 2011
Isaiah's 2nd Birthday Party
Isaiah's favorite birthday gift was a Fisher-Price farm set; the animals make many appearances in the pictures below.
Christmas 2011--First year we were actually home on Christmas, and we really enjoyed it.
This Imaginarium train table was Isaiah's big Christmas gift.
Melding birthday and Christmas gifts together.
Christmas Morning 2011
You never know where you'll find these animals. The horse, cow, and goat are his favorites (in that order).
After the Christmas service at church
Christmas at Mom's house
Feeding "Jr." the fish with Mawmaw
With the boys' great grandmother, Mawmaw Littrell
Meagan made these adorable dinosaur tails for the boys' Christmas gifts.
Attempting a bath with Jude; the boys weren't real thrilled.
Trying out Mr. Potato Head's glasses
Jude's 2nd Birthday Party
Smokey's hungry too!
Easter Hunt at UABC 2012
Easter 2012
Watching Pawpaw's favorite Looney Toon cartoons with Landon
Bath with Landon (and the farm animals)
Farewell to our house on Philwood. We moved May 12, 2012 after living here for 5.5 years. We loved this home and brought our first baby home here, but we have outgrown it and needed more space.
Our vacation to Gatlinburg May 2012
Isaiah isn't taking regular naps very well for us anymore, so this is what frequently happens.
Cade's Cove
Isaiah's favorite part of Cade's Cove: the horses!
Black bear in the far background
The Starnes' came for the weekend in Gatlinburg
After hiking a 1.3mile trail (all up-hill/mountain) to see this waterfall. The trail was classified as "easy" b/c it was (poorly) paved, but Chris might say otherwise after pushing the stroller up.
Back down the trail
Isaiah's new big-boy bed. I sewed the duvet cover and shams with a cowboy print, and "Nei-nei", Isaiah's horse, is a regular occupant.
Memorial Day 2012 at the Fleming's
Again, skipped a nap and fell asleep in his swing.
My 28th Birthday; notice the "bump"
Riding the carousel at the zoo with Mawmaw
Pushing Daddy in the hammock swing on the front porch of our new rental home.
I wish I could remember all of the funny and cute things Isaiah has done in the past 8 months. Here are a few things that come to mind:
- Sometime in the winter/early spring, I was driving home with Isaiah from daycare and he was being a little difficult. I called him down by saying "Isaiah Starnes" in a stern voice, and he replied with "Momma Starnes!"
- He always notices attractive young ladies (typically in their 20's) and has one teacher at school he likes in particular, Miss Courtney. He talks about her a lot, but recently his teacher Miss Tasha told me he's dropped Miss Courtney for a girl his age in his class, Madison. She told me he leads her by the hand on the playground saying "Come on Madison" and plays with her hair during group time...oh my! We're in for it!
- When we moved to the new house, Isaiah made it very clear how he felt by saying "I like our new house!" When we had to drive back over to the other house to get a few things, he broke down in tears because he thought we were moving back to the old house.
- As you probably know by now, we're expecting baby #2 (more on that later). We told him the day after having our first ultrasound. I showed him the ultrasound picture and told him it was a baby, and he said, "No, it's a doggie!" Then I said you're going to have a little baby brother or sister; he said in a very whiney voice, "I want candy!"
- Isaiah has become very proud of being a big brother. His teacher told me one day he repeatedly said to her, "Tasha, I'm gonna be a brother." When they asked him what we were having, he said confidently a baby sister. I asked him later that night if he wanted a baby brother or sister, he said "Baby sister; Little baby Hazel." Our friends the Jones' little girl is Hazel; we consider this a great compliment to her.
Other Isaiah updates:
- When we moved to the new house, we changed him from a crib to a full sized bed. He really likes it, but naptimes have suffered greatly. Bedtime is generally okay, though lately he's been waking up a good deal in the middle of the night and coming to our bed.
- Isaiah can say the ABC's very well, and he recognizes all or most of the letters and can tell you the sounds they make. His favorite letter is "W" for some reason...he spots it wherever we go.
- He can count to 10 easily, and sometimes a little higher. We're working on counting objects and he does okay with that when he really pays attention.
- He loves to sing and dance. He knows a lot of nursery rhymes, like "Humpty Dumpty", the "Crooked Man", "Jack and Jill", "Old King Cole", etc...
- We're slowly working on potty training, but it's been a struggle. Isaiah is extremely strong willed, so we've tried not to push too hard because he tends to do the opposite of whatever you push. He gets an M&M for each real attempt at using the potty. We're coming along okay with #1, nothing yet on #2.
- He's been very fixated on everything horse for several months now. In every book or magazine we read, his goal is to spot a horse.
Clearly I'm out of order on updating past events. It's Christmas Eve and I'm still trying to catch up on posts from events in October. For Halloween this year, Isaiah dressed up as a train conductor. Honestly, we debated so long as to what to dress him as that it was too late to order something, and he already owned every part of this outfit.
Normally we would attend our church's fall festival (usually a week before Halloween), but this year Isaiah had a GI bug and we stayed home. We did enjoy time with friends on Halloween night at the Alley's home. They live in our neighborhood and host the annual Halloween party for their block. We don't live on their block, but they're kind enough to include us. Isaiah and William Jones trick-or-treated a bit down the street with their daddies in tow. Isaiah is becoming more difficult to photograph these days as he often refuses to look at the camera and rarely smiles for it, but here are a few pictures from the night...
William Jones, the astronaut, and Corban Cartner (I mean, Peter Pan)
We traveled to North Carolina to celebrate Thanksgiving with Chris' family this year. We spent Thanksgiving Day in Winston-Salem with Ginger's extended familiy. We met Arlo (Isaiah's second cousin) for the first time. It was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed playing outside. There is a decorative metal rooster and chicken in the yard that Isaiah was obsessed with the entire time. If we asked Isaiah what the rooster says, he'd say "dock-doo-doo". We couldn't really get him to eat any lunch because he was so fixated on the rooster. Of couse, he did take a break for dessert.
Charlie with Arlo in the background
Aunt Deda and Arlo
We made the beautiful drive from Hickory up to Blowing Rock for some shopping. Unfortunately, Isaiah didn't really get a nap so it wasn't the most pleasant experience. We did stop at the park in downtown Blowing Rock for the kids to play for a little while.
Hallie and Isaiah had a lot of fun together during our visit. Hallie now says "Saiah" for her favorite cuz. She likes to give him kisses (which tend to look like she's trying to bite him). Isaiah calls Melissa "Sissa". We also learned that Isaiah's very vocal nature comes from the Starnes side of the family...he and Hallie have very similar volumes when expressing happiness or discontent :)
Kiss on the head...
Trying to escape more kisses!
Here's a fun video of the kids playing in the hall/entry...
Overall, we had a great Thanksgiving and truly we have so much to be thankful. It's very easy to lose sight of the purpose of the holiday in the busy-ness of traveling. Hopefully, we can impress upon Isaiah the importance of daily thankfulness to God for his many, many blessings.
Mom, Lindsay, and Landon came in town in November to visit Lindsay's friend, Brooke, who is experiencing difficult health issues. They stayed with us and the boys had some playtime. I love this video of them dancing to the rhythm of the washing machine!
Chris turned 30 on October 11th this year. We celebrated with Corky's BBQ and cookie cake with the Jones family. Chris is the best husband and father to my son I could ever ask for, and I'm so thankful for the 30 years he's graced this earth. I hope they'll be followed by many, many more!
