Garden Update: Growing is definitely going on!

It's hard to believe how much our garden has grown in just a month! Here is how it's coming along...

Our cherry tomato garden:


Our full-size tomato garden:


My tomato ties (recycled ribbon):


Our herb pots (Italian herbs in the large one and cilantro in the small one):



More updates to come...

Elise loves her some cereal!

I loved all the pictures I took of Elise eating last week, so I thought you might, too!







Precious!!!

Elise eats apples for the first time!

Last week, Elise tried eating apple pieces in her fresh food feeder, and she loved it! Here she is, enjoying that fresh apple juice:

Paw Paw's 82nd Birthday!

This past Friday was not only Isaac's half birthday; it was also my Paw Paw's 82nd birthday! Our family celebrated the life of this awesome man of God by eating a yummy dinner at Captain Steve's Seafood Restaurant in Fort Mill, SC. It was a great time of family fellowship where delicious fish was had by all! Here are some snapshots I got while we were there:

My Daddy, Isaac, and Ray, having fun:


Isaac pretending the Easter egg he got from cousin Mason was a telephone:


Uncle David, Cousin Katelyn, Paw Paw (aka the Birthday Boy), and Uncle Mike:


Paw Paw and Granny:


Granny talking with Kati as she holds Elise:


Paw Paw, Daddy, and Aunt Pam:


Ray and Kati with Isaac:


Ray and Isaac laughing it up:



Paw Paw, we had a wonderful time celebrating YOU! We love you SO much and are very blessed to have you in our lives.

Isaac's Half Birthday!

This past Friday was Isaac's half birthday! He was 2 1/2 years old! He has grown SO much in the past six months since he turned two. His vocabulary has increased by leaps and bounds. He speaks in complete or almost-complete sentences most of the time, and he can learn a new word just as fast as we teach it to him. Also, he can carry a tune! He has just started singing along with us to some of his favorite songs (like "Hallelu, hallelu" or "Saboo", which is a Veggie Tales song).

As I think through a day in the life of Isaac, here are some things that come to mind:

He wakes up around 8 AM and immediately begins calling out "Mommmmmmy, Mommmmmmy, Mooooommmmmmmyyyyyy" until I come and get him from his crib.

He is still sleeping in his crib, and he seems to be content with that. We're in no hurry to move him out. :)

He is pee-peeing in the potty most of the time throughout the day when we're home. He uses diapers at nap, bedtime, when we're out, and when he needs to poop. He's not quite ready to use the potty for #2 yet. BUT he is great at climbing up the potty to pee-pee, flusing, closing the lid, washing his hands, and drying them off. He says "Wash hayunds" as soon as he flushes to toilet.

Most mornings these days he runs around without pants or a diaper on since that's the easiest way to ensure that he'll use the potty.

He can almost fix his entire breakfast on his own. He can get almost anything from the fridge, so we keep only "safe" foods close to the bottom. He loves yogurt or bagels and cream cheese especially. Really he loves the cream cheese. Straight from the container! We do try to limit that. :) In the mornings, Isaac will get out a yogurt cup and a spoon, carry them to the table, open the yogurt himself and start eating. As soon as I grab a cup from the cabinet, he wants to fill it up with ice and water from our fridge. After he eats, he can carry his plate, spoon, napkin or leftover food to the sink and throw them in. He also has recently started asking to help wipe his place by spraying vinegar water on the table and cleaning it with a rag. He's becoming quite a responsible little man!

Isaac loves to help around the house with things such as: helping load the washer or dryer, helping pick up toys, helping carry things from one room to another, helping vacuum (one of his favorites!)... Overall, he just loves to help!

Isaac also has recently come to love watching Sesame Street. We just discovered that our cable includes a "Preschool-on-Demand" channel, so we are able to choose which shows we'd like to watch whenever we have TV time. We don't watch much TV around here, but we do let Isaac watch some Sesame Street each day. (usually after lunch when I am nursing and feeding Elise). Isaac has learned SO much from Sesame Street! Just in the past week, he's gone from counting 1-10 to counting 1-20. We believe he picked most of that up from watching Big Bird and the gang.

Isaac's still a great eater! He usually eats 1-2 really good meals each day and then grazes throughout the day to get his additional calories. He likes meats, breads, sauces for dipping, french fries, fruits, green beans, pizza, pasta... and he likes to drink water, diluted juice, milk, and soy milk. He also loves brownies, cake, cookies, and lollipops, which he gets only very rarely.

He loves to take a good nap each day. After lunch and some Sesame Street, Isaac is ready for his daily nap, which is usually 2-4 hours long. It averages 3 hours. This is one thing that we rarely compromise on! Every single day, with few exceptions, we are home by 1 PM for Isaac to take a nap.

After nap, Isaac calls me just the same as he does in the morning - "Moooooommmmmmyyyyy!!!" - until I come to get him.

Isaac still has his allergies to nuts (peanuts, pistachios, cashews, and almonds especially), cats, dogs, and eggs. However his allergist thinks that he may have possibly started to outgrow his egg allergy, which is great news! Because of the allergies, we are very careful about what Isaac eats. We also see constant evidence of minor allergies with his eczema. He usually has several dry, scratchy places on his body at any given time. Sometimes he's even had very intense eczema episodes where his entire body has turned red and he's started to swell on his hands and feet. These type of episodes are rare, though. We are starting to teach him that he cannot have peanuts. We tell him that "peanut butter is a no-no for Isaac because it will make him sick". He is starting to understand that and repeat it back to us.

Isaac loves his Daddy, and it's always an exciting time of the day when Steven gets home from work. Isaac starts running around and says "Daddy's home! Daddy's home!" Between that time and bedtime, Isaac is full of nonstop energy and likes to play hard with Steven. Some of their favorite things to play are: legos, dancing around the room, singing silly songs, riding Isaac's power wheels outside, playing football or baseball outside, and, of course, playing "iPod games" (which is usually reserved for bedtime).

Isaac is a water lover, if I've ever seen one! He has to turn on any faucet within his sight, whether it's outside, in the tub, the sink, or even at a friend's house. He loves to wash his hands in the sink and spray water from the garden hose outside. He also likes to "wash" the "newvan" every time we get ready to go somewhere. He does this by turning on the water and spraying our van a few times with the hose. Since he loves water so much, Isaac thoroughly enjoys bathtime each evening. Steven usually gives him his bath while I'm cleaning up the kitchen from dinner, and they always have a blast.

After bathtime and getting ready for bed, Steven and Isaac lie in his "big bed" for a while reading, singing, and playing "iPod games". Isaac can't get enough of the little games on Steven's iPod. Also, he loves to watch videos of himself or us and often requests to do that rather than play a game.

Even though he's still sleeping in his crib, he can climb up and get in all by himself. In fact, he really doesn't like it when we try to lift him into it. He sleeps with his lovie, Mr Snuggles, a cup of ice water, and his blanket. We also let him take some toys and books to bed with him. His favorites are his Sesame Street cars (go figure!) and a Monsters Inc light-up toy (thanks Kalpana and Dylan!!)

Most nights he also requests to "rock" with either Steven or me. He really likes it when I rock him and then play "peepeye" by hiding under his blanket. I pretend to be "Mommy Monster" and tickle him all over. It's such a special time for both of us!

Isaac is such a sweet boy. He is also very strong willed, so we have to be very consistent as we discipline him. He responds well, though, and is obedient to us most of the time. We are working with him on manners, such as saying "please, thank you, yes ma'am & sir..." He still needs us to remind him to say most of it, but sometimes he surprises us and says it on his own.

Here's our little man, playing on the computer at our local library (the picture above is also from our recent library trip):


We are so blessed to have Isaac in our lives. He brings us so much joy every day, and we look forward to seeing him continue to grow!

Happy Half-Birthday Isaac Ryan!

Sleeping and lovies...

As of last Wednesday night (May 19, 2010), Elise has started sleeping on her tummy!And this seems to help her sleep better, too. She's starting to be more consistent in taking 2 naps each day that last an hour or longer, and her stretches at night are getting longer as well.

She must know that I like to sleep on my tummy too; therefore, it's just the cool thing to do. It's also the most refreshing thing to do after being pregnant and having to sleep on your side, tossing and turning throughout the night...but that's another story for another time. Ah, yes, the joys of tummy sleeping...

Elise has also started sleeping with a little blanket that we received as a baby gift from our neighbors Don, Dawn, and D.A. It's a very soft little blanket with satin on one side, and she loves to hold it when she's settling herself to sleep. Isaac has also been sleeping with a blankie-bear (named Mr Snuggles - he calls him "Saahhgles") since he was small, and he is starting to carry him around outside the crib more these days. They are both so cute with their little lovies!

Way to go, our little sleep champs! :)

Daddy got grass...

This past weekend, after playing outside, getting sweaty and taking his shirt off, Steven was reading to Isaac before naptime. Isaac pointed to Steven's chest hair and said, "Daddy got grass on there!"

(Yes, he thought his chest hair was grass. Steven quickly corrected him and now he knows that hair also has a chest version!)

Planting 2010!

It's planting time once again! Over the past few weeks, and with the help of my Dad, we have gotten our garden off to a nice start. You may remember that we planted several vegetables in our garden last year. Well, we learned several lessons through that particular gardening experience. First, we learned that you can't plant too many things too close together in your garden. They might look like they're well spaced apart when you first plant, but later in the growing season, they might just grow into huge plants and take over the other plants' territories. Well, that happened, and although our harvest was plentiful for our small family, we think that by planting too many plants in our beds, we kept each individual plant from producing as much as it could have. Second, we learned that some veggies or fruits did better than others. For example, we got lots of tomatoes and peppers, but we didn't get very many zucchini, squash or green beans. So this year, we decided to learn from our experiences and keep our garden simple, plant only tomatoes and peppers (so far), and make sure they have plenty of space. We may add more to the garden before it's all said and done, but for now, we have some nice small, medium, and large tomato plants in the ground, and we also have some green, red and yellow bell pepper plants.

Here's the very start of our 2010 gardens:

Peppers (notice the very tiny one that is very tiny because Isaac stepped on it and all but one leaf broke off; we're hoping it makes a comeback pretty soon):


Tomatoes (and some weeds that I hadn't pulled yet; they're gone now):


Isaac and Gramps had a blast planting the cherry tomato plants in the bed where we've had fantastic tomato harvests for the past four years. Here they are, watering the bed (which is one of Isaac's absolute favorite things to do):



Stay tuned for more gardening updates!

Isaac mows the grass!

Last week while Steven was mowing our yard, Isaac wanted to "help" so badly. So Steven gave him his first opportunity to mow the yard! Steven put the bag on the mower to keep any debris from flying around, and then they went for it. Isaac had a blast! Here they are, on the job:

Elise in the walker!

We finally got the trusty walker out this week after reading this post about Isaac at 7 months. Elise loves it! She can get all around the kitchen and dining area now! I have a feeling we'll be putting up the exersaucer soon since she's on the move! Here are a few pictures of her first few moments in the walker:



Click here to see Isaac enjoying the very same walker!

Oh, and while we're at it, she loves this little green worm, too (thanks Lori, Jonathan and Jonas!):


So much fun!

Why I love Mother's Day...

Isaac sings the alphabet!

Here is a video of Isaac singing "ABCD". As you'll see, he skips "E", "H", and "LMNOP", but he's pretty much got the rest of the alphabet! He just started singing all of this over the past few days. Before then, he would just sing "ABCD" and stop, which proves you never know how those little minds are growing and what they might be learning from the world around them!

Mother's Day 2010

This past weekend was my first Mother's Day as a mom of two! The whole weekend was a great celebration of the joys of motherhood and the impact of moms in our lives. Friday started the weekend off with a nice visit at my parents and lunch out with them. Then we visited Steven's family on Saturday for lunch. As a treat to me, Steven took me to see a movie Saturday night and we hired babysitters for the very first time ever. (Thanks to my mom and dad, we have pretty regular dates a few times each month, but we've never had an outside-the-family hired babysitter before.) It was a great experience, and everyone had a wonderful time! Isaac and Elise enjoyed spending time with the sweet sisters who came to watch them, and Steven and I had a blast on our date.

On Sunday, Steven took over the morning duties so that I could sleep in until 11:30! Wow, did I need and enjoy that! (Since Elise is still waking around midnight, 3 AM and 5 AM, I am still suffering from some sleep deprivation...so any extra sleep is such a gift.) For lunch, we went to Showmars, and then we had a great time with our church family that night, along with a special visit from my parents.

What a great day!


I am so thankful for my Momma and also that I am blessed to be a Mommy myself. There is truly nothing like motherhood in the whole wide world. It's been an incredible growing experience for me - I have been shaped, changed, humbled, matured, and blown away with God's grace since becoming a mother. And it's only been two and half years! I am excited to continue reading the writing of God in my life as He authors my unique motherhood story.

Elise and fresh food feeder

You may remember that I fell in love with the fresh food feeder when Isaac was about 6 months old. Well, I dug the thing out a few days ago for Elise to try. I put a little crushed ice in it since she seems to be having some teething pain, and, boy, did it do the trick! She loved it!




Now for trying the "fresh food" instead of just ice...

Our First "Family of Four" Trip to the Mountains!

This past weekend, our family took a trip to the mountains. Our family loves mountain getaways! This was the first time our whole family has been on an overnight trip to the mountains since Elise was born. (we were there shortly before she was born, and Elise, Steven and I went back in March, but this was the first time taking both kids!) We left Thursday night after Steven got home from work and we returned Sunday afternoon in time for our church service. What a wonderful time we all had! As are all of our getaways, this trip was completely refreshing and restful. We soaked in the presence of the Lord as we enjoyed lots of family time and mountain air.

On Friday, we spent the day at Tweetsie Railroad. We had an absolute blast! Our tickets were compliments of the guy who bought our truck. You may remember that he lives in Tennessee from this post, but did you also know that he works at Tweetsie? Yes, he does. He actually works on the big Tweetsie train itself and has been taking care of the train for the past ten years or so. When he offered us free tickets to "come up and ride the train sometime", we took him up on it! And that train ride was an incredible adventure for our little family! Isaac had so much fun (so much fun that we stayed all day and he missed his nap and he was still an angel-child the whole time!) Elise and her "go-with-the-flow" self seemed to have lots of fun, too! She took her nap in the sling that Steven wore. She even slept through the chair lift ride and petting zoo! Our adventures included riding Tweetsie's famous train, watching the drama while on the train, watching a clogging show, watching a wild west saloon show, riding kiddie rides (Isaac's first time on rides like that!), visiting a petting zoo, riding a chair lift, and riding a bus (also Isaac's first time doing that). We spent six whole hours at Tweetsie Railroad, and we had the best time. It was amazing how good we felt when it was all over. We weren't exhausted (well, Isaac was!), but Steven and I actually felt energized. Obviously there's something about being outside in the sunshine soaking up the vitamin D and spending quality time with your loved ones. We will never forget this wonderful adventure!

Steven, Isaac, and one of the cowboys in the play (he also accompanied us on our train ride):


View of the train from my window:


Elise and me on the train ride:


One of the Native American Indians from the play:


Isaac on his first horse ride:


The famous Tweetsie train:


The balloon guy and Isaac, with the sword that the balloon guy made:


Isaac wielding his sword:


Isaac's first adventure on a boat ride:


Isaac riding a plane ride for the first time:


Isaac and Steven riding a twister ride (I got kind of nervous - OK, very nervous - during this ride.) Isaac didn't like when it started going very fast and he said to Steven, "All done! All done!" But then when the ride stopped, he wanted to go again!


Elise with the ladies from the wild west saloon show (they loved her and she loved them!):


Isaac wasn't quite as thrilled about the cast members:


Our family photo:


On Saturday, we spent some time in Blowing Rock at the park and also walking the main street. Isaac loved the swings:


Elise was sporting her new hat (thanks Hallel!) and just being adorable, as always:



After lunch at Hungry Howies (we love their pizza), naps, dinner at Smokey Mountain BBQ in West Jefferson, we headed to The Dairy House for some ice cream. Isaac loved his rainbow vanilla; Steven had mint chocolate chip, and I had moose tracks mixed with cookies and cream. Isaac was so happy that he made his silly face:


We had a leisurely morning on Sunday before heading home. The last thing we did was to take some family pictures. Here's Elise and Steven laughing it up:


Isaac posing on the chair:


And our family of four on our first mountain trip all together:



Thank you Lord for a wonderful family time full of Your presence, Your goodness, and Your joy!