Isaac turns 4

I love having the kids birthdays on a Saturday, because we really get to celebrate the whole day.  I started by decorating his bed while he was sleeping.

 The next morning I took him to Build-A-bear with Jordan and he made a football dog, which he named doggy.  He kept saying that's a good name for a dog.

On the way in the car he was counting for me and then said, what is 10+10.  I told him 20 and he says now ask me.  So I asked him "what is 10+10"  and he says "20...see I am really good at math."

 We then went to IHOP with everyone for lunch (his choice)

Derek really liked football dog.  We were also noticing with their new haircuts how much Derek and Isaac actually look alike.

Kevin then took all the kids, minus Derek, to play Laser Tag.  After that Kevin and I took Isaac to a BYU basketball game, where he got to have Popcorn and soda.

 Afterwards Dinner and cupcakes.

 We let him open presents all day long so that we could stretch out the day.

The spider balloon he got.

Isaac is a wonderful boy.  He is very smart and remembers EVERYTHING.  We have a foosball table that he loves to play on.  He looks a lot like his daddy.  He likes to play basketball with the kids and daddy.  Loves Stars Wars, and can sing the theme song to Pirates of the Caribbean.  He is at a very fun age.  He loves to play with Derek and he always lets Derek win.  His favorite color is still orange, even though sometimes he changes it to Golden, because right now that is Logan's favorite color.  He still loves cars, and dinosaurs and still likes to entertain himself.  We love our Isaac.

January....

January was a busy month so I was really bad at keeping up this blog so here is a quick recap of some of the things that happened.

 Logan fell in the shower and got a black eye.  He didn't want to go to school because he didn't want to tell them he fell in the shower.  He was just going to say he fell on the hard floor because he thought people would laugh at him.

 Logan and Haley dressed up for church.

 I sent Derek and Isaac upstairs to get ready to watch a movie and when I got up there this is how I found Derek.

 Derek had hand surgery.  He did really well except when he first came out of the anesthesia.  He woke up very angry and did not like having the bandages on his hands.  He kept hitting me and crying.  He was hitting me in the face and the chest.  Then he would fall asleep and when he woke up he would hit me again.  This went on for about an hour.  After the anesthesia wore off he was fine.  We never even had to give him pain meds.  It didn't slow him down a bit.  The second day home he turned on my bathtub and soaked both his hands, so we had to take off these bandages and just use regular bandaids.  Anytime we changed the bandaids, he would whine and say "no no no", but once the bandaids were back on he was fine.

Isaac played Itty bitty basketball and Loved it.  I think his favorite part was "defensing"    He would always come find me and tell me how he made a 3 pointer while a big guy was defensing him.

 Derek had a birthday...but i'll post about that later.

Derek likes cuddling with his sister.

AUnt Kati came for a visit but I forgot to get pictures from her while she was her.  The two of us went to the Brad Paisley concert while she was here.  SHe also got to play Laser Tag and Miniature golf with the kids.  and Kevin got to go to Belgium and France.  Haley and Logan are playing Jr. Jazz basketball and doing well.  Like I said it was a busy month.

Christmas

I Love Christmas.  I put so much time and work into it and it seems to just happen so fast.  I love how we break it up, so it takes up more of the day and isn't over in a couple of hours. Haley and Logan woke up around 7:30 and we made them wait till Isaac and Derek woke up.  Then some family pics and then we let them go downstairs.  After doing Santa Claus, we went upstairs and had our Christmas tradition French Toast breakfast.  Then we went to church.  After church we opened up the presents under the tree.  Then mommy, daddy, and Derek took a nap, while the other kids watched a new movie they got for Christmas.  Christmas dinner, then playing with Christmas presents.  We keep all the kids new toys out until we have played with/opened everything they've gotten.  This way things don't just get put away without being appreciated.  It can take the whole 2 weeks they are home from school but it is fun for everyone (except for the fact that it drives mom crazy that toys are out for that long)

 Haley and Logan know whats up they know where to go while Derek and Isaac are posing for the camera.

Christmas Eve

This year for Christmas Eve we tried to implement a new family tradition of playing Christmas games.   First we played "Don't Eat Pete"

 This was a great game because Derek could even play it.

 Then we played a Christmas Bingo game.

 And last Pin the Nose on Rudolph.

 Every Christmas Eve the kids open a present of new pajamas.

 Isaac really liked his.

 Derek had been really good about leaving the Christmas Tree and presents alone, but after he figured out there was stuff inside the wrapping, we couldn't keep him away.

10 year anniversary

We celebrated our 10 year anniversary on Dec 22.  Being so close to Christmas we hardly ever do anything to celebrate.  Because it was our 10th I wanted to a big trip, but getting pregnant put that on hold.  We did go out though and went to dinner and a BYU Basketball game.  I did put a lot of though into Kevin's present and wanted to post it on here, so we can remember what I did.  I bought 20 balloons and numbered 10 of them 1-10.  Then I tied those balloons to their corresponding presents.  Each present represented a year we were married and the present reminded me of something for that year.  It was fun watching him find each present and then think about what the present could be and when he opened it if he had the same thoughts I did when I bought the present.

Year 1- A San Diego tie clip with our anniversary date engraved on it.  (We were married in the San Diego Temple
2.  A Harry Potter book on CD.  In our 2nd year of marriage we did a lot of traveling and we listened to these CDS
3.  A picture cube with a picture of Kevin with each kid on the sides.  We had our first baby.
4.  An air compressor.  To represent buying our first house.
5.  The children's book, Answered Prayers.  About the BYU football win over Utah with the famous, Beck to Harline pass to win.
6.  I framed his MBA Diploma.  This was the year he graduated from the EMBA program.
7.  A flash for his camera.  His big camera was a major purchase for us.
8.  A new drill set to represent us buying our second house.
9.  A toy man and a wheelchair.  He had 2 knee surgeries this year, and we pushed him around Disneyland in a wheelchair.
10.  A pewter Florida gators key chain.  Aluminum is the 10 year anniversary gift, so pewter is representative of that and the FLorida is for the wonderful family vacation we took this summer.


Kevin was very impressed with this present and mentioned several times how cool it was.  I had fun putting it together, but if I do it for our 20, I'm only doing years 11-20!

O Christmas Tree

We have two Christmas trees this year.  This is the small one that is downstairs that we let the kids decorate.  I love decorating the tree also, but the kids always have it done before I even get a chance, So this year I put up my own tree upstairs.  The kids had a blast and they love to wear their santa hats while decorating.

Oh Derek

My Derek loves to put things on his head. It is not uncommon for him to come out wearing 4 of Haley's headbands. And he will wear them for a long time. Many a time I've had to take them off his head so we can go into a store. He loves to wear hats, and in this picture his hat is a chicken nugget box.

My Derek loves