Snow Day!

The first few days here were beautiful! And then the following week it got really cold and then surprise, we got snow!  Peter was SO excited, he just had to go outside and once we got him all bundled up he ran around the backyard saying "It's my North Pole!!"

 

The only way I got him to stand still was to make a snowman which was the highlight of the year for him I think.  After we were done he spent the next half hour outside talking to "Frosty" and rearranging his face, his hat and arms.  Apparently I need to find him some friends....:)

Isaac wasn't quite so sure what to think about all the cold white stuff, he toddled around a few times and ended up either on his face or bottom.  He lasted about 10 minutes and was done!  But at least he got his first real taste (literally) of snow!

 February 13, 2012

The Move

We moved at last Saturday of January and even though we had movers I still felt like I spent the whole month getting ready...but I wasn't really sure what to do!  We have never had the luxury of someone moving us before so it felt strange that the morning of our move looked like any other day...but let me tell you, those movers don't mess around!  They showed up early...which was unexpected since usually when you get a time frame people come late....and they just came in and got down to business, within minutes I had 4 men in my house boxing and moving our stuff.  In about 6 hours they had our whole house packed and loaded on the truck.  It was all so surreal and little hard for the "control neurosis" in me to handle, but they did a great job and after a little cleaning we were off to the hotel for the evening to get a good night's sleep before our drive.  Which was much needed because even though neither Alan or I lifted a thing to move, after a long day we were exhausted.  (Thankfully so were our kiddos..thanks to my mom and sisters for expending ALL of their energy at the zoo and swimming)  I was also thankful, since we had been rear ended the week before our move and I sustained some whiplash, that I was able to take it easy. 

We drove to my aunt and uncles on Sunday and then Monday morning the movers showed up around 11am and started unloading our stuff which only took about 3 hours.  What an amazing experience, and one that I hope to be able to repeat with our next and final move.  It of course took us a few days to feel like we were functioning and I am still moving things around when I decide something is not working in that space but for the most part we are settled and loving our new place.  We have so much space that I don't quite know what to do with it all!  I love our kitchen it has room for ALL of my kitchen items and even our food storage.  We are adjusting to life with stairs and a toddler and so far Isaac is still alive!  It is amazing that with our new space I don't have to take the boys out everyday to expend their energy, up and down the stairs a few times or running from room to room or up and down Peter's new bunkbed and they are all tuckered out!  We love our backyard and patio, every nice day we spend some time out there and it is SO nice (again another energy expender).  I can't wait till the grass all turns green and we can get them a swingset.  We have a finished basement with a guestroom and bathroom so for those coming to visit you will have your own space and not a blowup mattress in our living room!  It is so nice to have a garage again and to have enough bedrooms so that we don't have to have a kiddo in our room anymore!  We feel so blessed!  And we can't wait to have our friends and family come to visit!

Here is Peter and Alan testing out our new kitchen and making some cookies. 

Here are my boys watching some Sesame Street!

Good Bye St Louis

As our move date was fast approaching we tried to squeeze in as many fun things that were St Louis based as we could.  Here is a recap of our last few weeks in St Louis.  It is hard to believe that the time has flown so quickly, and we are sad most of all to be leaving our friends. 

Here is Peter in his "dress up" gear...daddy's hat, Winnie the pooh tie and of course his sheriff badge. 

Isaac also discovered his tongue recently and can be found with it hanging out when he is concentrating really hard.

 Just like big brother, Isaac has some great fashion sense and already loves to wear his ties.  He will even stand still while Peter puts one on for him!

 Playing "checker" or in adult language 'Connect Four'  This lasted about 2 minutes before Isaac tried to dump it over and Peter had a meltdown.  But I will take the 2 minutes and hope for more in the future.

 Brother Love...I think about 5 seconds after this shot Isaac began crying from too much "love"...the joys of being the little brother....

 We hit up the Science Center as much as we could and were lucky enough to have some friends join us.  Isaac and Tommy loved the balls-it is fun to play with friends!

 Peter of course found the snowman station and was in heaven, he loved making snowmen out of the magnets...not a bad idea, if I ever get around to either finding or making for him.

 Isaac was intrigued by the magnets...he wasn't quite sure what to do with them.

 We had one last play date with our good friends the Metzgers, and Peter had fun playing with Elsie in her tent...when he wasn't knocking it over of course.

Here is part of our playgroup, we miss them all so much already it was such a blessing for us to find such good friends so close in our neighborhood that we could meet with on a regular basis and play.  The boys loved it and it was such a life saver for me.  Hope to see you guys soon.

We also had a little birthday party for Isaac and some friends from church that were all born within a month of each other...would you guess that Isaac is the second to youngest in this picture??  I hope my boys like sports because they are sure built for them!!

We had so many more friends that we did not get pictures with but we miss just the same.  I hope that we will be able to find some new friends at our new place, because we sure have been blessed.

Giggles

Who knew that hitting a little green ball with mom's big round brush would be so funny...but from Isaac's reaction it is pretty hilarious!  It might have had something to do with it being right  before bedtime, but either way his little giggles are contagious.

January 17, 2012

January week one

Isaac learned to put his circle shape in the block, he is very meticulous about skills like this and loves to put things in and take things out. This entertained him for a good 20 minutes!


After our short little snow following Christmas we had some unusually warm weather that we took full advantage of as did all the kids in the neighborhood.  Peter was dirty from head to toe!

January 5, 2012

 Isaac LOVED the slide, it was so cute because be would sit at the top and lean forward to make himself go and then just smile the whole way down.  Peter thought it was so funny to see his brother slide and Isaac thought it was funny to crash into his brother at the bottom.

 January marked a change in time for our church.  We had been meeting at 9:30 which was perfect, but then we switched to 12:30 and as anyone with little children can imagine, it is a nightmare.  This is what happened to Peter a few minutes after coming home...I felt so bad having to wake him up for dinner with only about a 45 minute nap, but I knew if I didn't he would be up all night. (Also notice his socks, we couldn't find his church socks so he was sporting his blue skull socks with his suit)

January 8, 2012

As I have mentioned before, Peter thinks he is a snowman and here he is being a snowman.  One day I hope to actually get him singing the snowman song or Frosty but he always stops once I pull out the camera or I am just too slow and he is done before I start....but I am determined...

 

Isaac Turns 1

Yesterday was Isaac's first birthday-I can barely believe a year has gone by already! How our life has changed in the past year.  He is such a sweet addition to our life and one that fills us with laughter.  Peter was not quite sure what to do with his first birthday cake, but Isaac had no such inhibitions...he kept trying to take his cupcake from me while we were singing to him.

 And spent no time destroying it until he realized that it was edible.

 Peter enjoying the birthday treats as well!

I thought that Isaac would finally get his two top teeth by his birthday but he is still only sporting his bottom two.  This past month he has really picked up on signing and can now sign "more", "eat/drink", "down", "goodnight", "all done", "up", "lights"  and wave hi/goodbye.  He can also say "MaMa, DaDa, uh-oh and banana and apple.  He is becoming quite the talker, and boy does he let you know when he wants something or if something is not going his way.  Even though he and Peter still have their little tiffs, he still thinks his big brother is so much fun and loves to make him laugh or to laugh at him.  He is the best little cuddler and charms everyone that he meets.  He is a bit of a picky eater and lets you know that by tasting it and then throwing his food on the floor.  I sure it will not be long before he will be like Peter and have more important things to do than hang with mom, so I am enjoying this time as much as I can.  We love you Isaac, Happy Birthday!

Christmas Day

After opening our stockings we got ready for Church, here is our attempt at getting both boys to stay in once place long enough for a picture...they were so handsome in their new suits!

Peter with his frosty the snowman Rubik cube...(Santa thought it might be easier than the real ones, but it definitely is not...at least he likes turning it around)

Mommy and her little charmer.

After Church, naps and lunch we hit up opening presents.  Isaac's favorite part was tearing and trying to eat all the paper.  I was a little worried that "Santa" had not brought enough presents after having Christmas with both grandparents our gifts seemed pretty meager.  But to be honest, Peter would have been happy with just his tie ...

Cute new apron from my sister in law.

Alan opening his present from Peter, which was as you guested a tie...he was so cute in the store picking it out.  He was very insistent that dad needed a red tie for Christmas with diamonds...and think he was just as excited as Alan to open it.

Our adorable little present.

Look at that intensity...

Decmeber in review...part 2

We tried to keep the treat making simple this year since we had so much going on and we ended up making Carmel apples which is one of our favorites.  We tried a new  combination this year of caramel, pretzels and chocolate-it was pretty yummy if I do say so.  We also tried candied apples, which were beautiful but very hard to eat.  Peter sure did enjoy trying to though!

We spent the few days prior to Christmas at my parents house where the kiddos has a sugar filled afternoon decorating sugar cookies (and mostly licking off the frosting and sprinkles).

 Peter and Isaac got new Sunday suits and you would have thought that Peter was in heaven, he had to put it on immediately.  The cousins also enjoyed jumping off of the new art easel they received and going on wagon rides with Alan.

We spent Christmas Eve night and Christmas day at home.  It was so fun to create those memories with our children, learning about the birth of our Savior and his love for us and the fun childhood part of presents and Santa.  Peter was so excited to leave cookies out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  One of the first things he said when he woke up Christmas day was "Santa is here" and we had to go look and see if he made a visit.  He had been waiting for months to get his train tie from Santa and was not disappointed to see it laying beside his stocking. 

Here is our little OCD man, he lined up every item in his stocking on the couch as he pulled it out...until Isaac found it of course.

A few days after Christmas we got our first snow!  Peter has really been into snowmen this year and has watched Frosty the Snowman I don't know how many times,  he even started referring to himself as a snowman as he goes around quoting the movie and singing the song.  So we of course had to make a snowman even if it was a tiny little guy.

Here he is sporting his helmet while drawing on his easel...he kept telling Alan "thank you daddy" over and over for half an hour after he put it together for him...it has been a great outlet for his creativity.