Happy Halloween from a fish and a skeleton

But first, I want to post a picture I've been meaning to share: This is Isaac, just up from his nap (I know, it's out of focus), having put on five pajama shirts on top of his play shirt, and four pairs of pajama pants on top of his jeans. He's discovered his dresser, since there's nothing else entertaining in his room during nap time.

Ok, so actually I have about a million photos I want to share and it's taken me forever already to get them up in this post, so I want to go to bed now instead of annotating them. So here are many photos with minimal words.

This is a classic James profile.
Grandma Karen came to visit and we went to a little pumpkin farm. Isaac loves his pumpkins and has carried his little one around for two weeks.
Grandma brought a little house to paint. Isaac had tons of fun while I freaked out about potential paint messes.
James wanted to paint too. Or at least get out of his chair.

We went to Boo at the Zoo, the one thing Grandma wanted to do (besides buy Christmas presents.) Isaac was excited to be friends with the animals because who wouldn't want to be friends with a fish? But unfortunately all the animals were in bed.
Mom, I will stand here while you take my picture but I won't be happy about it.
And let's show off the back.


For some reason I didn't dress up James. Why?But he is always very patient in the stroller.
Waiting to get in the zoo and I kept taking pictures because what else was there to do?
Good thing I did, because this is a keeper! Going on the wall as his one-year picture.
We were amazed this didn't freak Isaac out.
And I was there too.
I made Grandma take our pictures for our Christmas card and I tried to snap some pictures of Isaac when we were done. Not gonna happen. The ones I took of James I posted on his birthday. come on, Isaac, let go of the stick and let mom take your picture!
Give me a smile!
Playing in the leaves.
And party time! Here's an excerpt from my journal:
James was a little full so didn't eat too much cake but did make a glorious mess, which was fun to watch. Isaac wouldn't touch his cake at his one year party. He was spoiled with presents and Isaac did so great keeping his distance as much as he could. We had prepared him well that he had to let James play with the toys but James would share with him. He got a music table (G and G Newman), a ride on car (G and G Newman), a real phone, some books, a bus, and a jacket and sweater (Grandma K). I love James so much. He adores me and always wants to be in my arms or have me close by. He likes me to put him to bed, which is good because there's rarely any other option. He eats really well, at least we think so. He eats most vegetables and fruits and lots of what I'm eating. He has a more varied diet than Isaac. He crawls well and pulls up on things, can walk with only one hand helping him, likes to bang drums with the drumsticks, likes to take legos apart and put them together, likes to put toys into baskets, waves hello, claps, says momom, dada, and other gibberish, knows his name, knows Isaac's name, loves his older brother and follows him around and wants to go into his room when he's sleeping. He still has cute reddish hair and still the seven teeth (what an odd number to have stopped on for five months!). We can feel the molars coming in soon. He loves to be outside and does pretty good now not to put sticks and sand into his mouth. He loves to explore the sand box and gives the biggest grin when you let him go down the slide by himself into Isaac's arms. He is a really sweet boy and we're grateful for what he adds to our family, even if some nights are still rough. Happy Birthday!




I love how James will play on his knees sometimes.
The first ride on the car!

We carved the pumpkin with Grandma, which Isaac wasn't too thrilled about at first but then he caught on. Then he loved it and wanted to kiss it.
Thanks, Grandma Karen, for coming to visit! You spoiled us rotten! I didn't take any pictures, but she babysat one saturday while Blake and I spent over six hours at 6 Flags. We've always wanted to go so now was our chance. I have never left my kids that long ever. Except Isaac I guess when I was in the hospital with James but Blake was home then. It was a little traumatic but such a joyful reunion! It was so sweet to see James scramble to me.

Oh, and finally a picture of our little skeleton! (Yes, that was the best picture I could get. This boy is on the move!) We went to our church's trunk or treat last night.

We've also enjoyed having Blake home--he's been on vacation and the "pull list" for two weeks. He got pulled in for a guy who's wife had a baby. I guess that's a good reason but we were annoyed Blake had to spend two days giving a guy paternity leave. But I know we would appreciate it if someone did the same for us. Isaac said the cutest prayer last night:

"...Thankee Daddy not go to work
thankee get candy at church
thankee go to the park
...bwess mommy take care Isaac and James
bwess James sweep well
bwess Isaac go to potty and to share
bwess Daddy not go to work
..."

Happy Birthday James!

Isaac loves singing but has to sing things by himself. Don't you dare try to chime in with his "Book of Mormon Stories." Lately he's been switching the words to songs, just exploring words, I think, not trying to be silly. The best one so far (as we finished our run past our complex playground):

I love to see the playground
I'm going there some playground
To feel the holy playground
To listen and to playground.

He's finally started eating meat! thanks to Alexis, who brought some deli ham when she came swimming with us and Isaac wanted some "pink stuff." So now he eats "lexi's pink stuff" all the time. Daddy taught him to make eye holes.

James got an ear infection two and a half weeks ago. He refused to nurse. I tried for a whole week to get him back on, painstakingly hand-pumping in the meantime. But he is just done. It was a really miserable week but now I'm over it and James is better and I guess that made weaning really easy. It's so sad when babies grow up and we lose that little newborn bond. James is one in two weeks so I quit pumping this weekend and when I run out of formula samples, whole milk here we come.

Blake of course was on nights when the ear infection surfaced so he probably slept better during the day than I did at night! After three days of misery, finally on Sunday I had just had it--I was exhausted and so DONE with hearing James cry. He wouldn't nurse so therefore had a hard time falling asleep, because he's always been nursed to sleep. He would wake up in the middle of the night and whatever I did, end up being awake for about 2 hours. I was a bad wife and woke Blake up after only having slept 4 hours (home from a night shift) and told him I was taking Isaac to church and he could do whatever he liked with James. Let him cry, try and bounce him to sleep, get him up, either way I was out of there. Blake took over like the superman he is and I somehow was recharged by attending church with Isaac, who sat in sacrament meeting like a perfect angel, and teaching my primary class which has generally been really hard for me but that day it felt so much easier than the rest of the week had been.

Whenever Blake talks to friends/family on the phone and they ask him how internship is going, he replies, "Oh, it's going just fine." Lots of the time it is going just fine but lots of the time it is going just crappy. Blake is gone a lot. I put kids to bed alone a lot. Is it lame that I feel like a superstar when I manage to finish the week's "work" on friday and do the bathrooms and vacuuming all by myself? And think about all the laundry I did the day before and how I even managed to make it to the grocery store? I am a spoiled wife, but Blake used to help with all those things. I know, most people do all that stuff without even thinking how their husband used to clean the bathroom while you vacuumed. Last week Blake went four days without seeing the kids at all. But we're making it, and as long as it doesn't get harder than the week of the ear infection, we can handle the rest of intern year.

Now that I've finished my rant, I will get on with updates. James has started playing with things in a way other than chewing them. Today in church he sat on my lap for five minutes and put little finger puppets into an empty spice jar over and over again.

My mother came for a visit, at a perfect time when Blake was super busy in the MICU and I was needing some serious sleep catch-up.

We went to the "train park" (museum of transportation), played in the sand box,

listened to conference,


went to Suson park (has a playground, lakes, and animal farm),
and played at the rocketship park. That's Isaac's new fav. (I tried to make these pictures look better, but they are only iPod pictures, what can you do?)