Operation Christmas Child 2012

A couple weeks ago, the kids and I went to the Dollar Store to get some goodies for our Operation Christmas Child boxes.  The kids picked almost everything out themselves.  I'm not sure they quite understood that all the toys were really for other kids until we actually dropped the boxes off at the Lifeway store!

Putting the boxes together:

Isaac's box, for a little boy:

Elise's box, for a little girl:

Ready for drop-off!

We are thankful to be able to participate in such a wonderful family activity for an awesome ministry to kids around the world.

Reading lessons for Isaac...

Steven has been working with Isaac on his writing and sounding out words.  Here are some words he recently wrote on our chalkboard after Steven asked him to sound them out and write them.

Soccer game fun!

These pictures are from an early November soccer game, where Isaac played for the first quarter of the game.

Fun at Monkey Joe's

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we took the kids to Monkey Joe's. They had a blast playing on all the big slides and bounce houses.

Here are some pictures of their fun!

Black Friday Shopping...

Isaac's 5th Birthday!

We had a wonderful day celebrating Isaac's fifth birthday!  Here is our little man right after waking up on his first day of being five years old:



His special day started out with a bike ride with Gramps on Isaac's new 16 inch bike!  He's practiced riding his new bike each day this week.  On Sunday he needed help getting on and off of the bike, but by Monday, he was able to do all of that on his own!

After his bike ride with Gramps, we went to have lunch out with Steven, near his work.  Isaac chose Moe's as the restaurant for his birthday.  We all enjoyed our nachos, quesadillas, salad, and of course, chips and queso!

Then, we headed to pick my mom up, and we went to Discovery Place Kids for a bit!  Isaac had lots of fun on the tractor and the fire truck.  He enjoys sitting in the driver's seat and pretending to drive these huge vehicles.

Since it was such a beautiful day, we spent the rest of the afternoon at two parks in the area.  North Mecklenburg Park, which we've visited several times... and another park on Sherwood Lane that we'd recently learned about.  Isaac and Elise both enjoyed climbing the rope and coming back down.

The evening ended with homemade pizza, cake, and ice cream.  And a couple of presents (in addition to the ones he'd received at his party on Sunday.)  He got a Imaginext airplane and a Discovery Toys Race Car/Submarine building kit.  

It was an awesome day celebrating an awesome boy!

We love you Isaac Ryan!  We treasure the five years we've had with you, and we look forward to the fun adventures the future holds for your precious life!

Isaac's Family Birthday Party!

On the Sunday before his birthday, we had my parents, Kati, and Ray over for a hot dog lunch and birthday celebration for Isaac!  We had a great time!  

Here are some pictures from our time together...

Eating yummy grilled hot dogs:

Opening presents!

Isaac got his first Lego kit from Kati and Ray!

And a couple of remote control cars!  (One from my parents and one from Steven and me.)

Steven and Isaac, testing out the race car from Mommy and Daddy:

Ba and Isaac, testing out the remote controlled car from Ba and Nana (which can also be controlled by an iPad or iPhone!)

And his big surprise from Gramps and Nana - a 16 inch bike!

Cake time!  Isaac asked that we please not sing to him.  We honored his wishes and he had plenty of fun blowing out the candles!

Thankful for this little man!

Daddy and Isaac putting his Lego kit together.  He LOVED it!

Isaac (and all of us) had a blast!  We love birthday fun!

Loose Teeth!

Our little man lost his first two teeth in the past two weeks.  At four years old (this was before his fifth birthday).  To say we were surprised and not ready for this is an understatement!

A little over two weeks ago, around the first part of November, we noticed that one of Isaac's bottom teeth was loose.  At first, I thought he'd fallen and knocked it loose.  But I couldn't remember a fall that would have had that kind of impact.  On Tuesday, November 6th, I took Isaac to preschool and took a look at his tooth before dropping him off.  Yes, it was still loose.  After preschool, we went to lunch with Steven.  While we were there, I noticed that Isaac's loose tooth was missing!  It had fallen out!  I said, "Isaac!  What happened to your tooth?"  That's all it took for him to become embarrassed and clam up socially.  He wouldn't talk to us, eat, or show us his mouth.  We couldn't get any information from him on what happened, so we figured he must have lost it while eating at preschool.  And either swallowed the tiny tooth or dropped it on his plate, which got thrown away.  When I told his preschool teachers about it the next day, they said they hadn't been aware of anything happening the day before.  However, they both said (almost simultaneously) that losing teeth is a developmental milestone that can indicate a child's body is getting ready for reading.  Reading?!  And lost teeth?  I'd never heard this, but they said they had learned about it at some teaching workshops they'd attended.  Well, Isaac has definitely shown reading readiness over the past few months!

A little more than a week later, the tooth right beside his lost tooth space started to wiggle.  Another tooth?!  And he's still four years old!  This one fell out sometime on November 19th.  I thought it happened at preschool again since I noticed it once he was home.  However, that evening, Steven was able to get Isaac to share that it had fallen out in the early morning and that he'd thrown it into the trash can in our downstairs bathroom.  Thankfully that trash can had been emptied the night before, and the only thing in it was the tooth.  YAY!  We were able to retrieve Isaac's second baby tooth!  (good for us sentimental folk.)

We can already see one permanent tooth starting to poke through Isaac's bottom gums.  What an adventurous couple weeks!  We realize that this is a new and scary milestone for Isaac, so we're trying to help him understand that losing baby teeth is a good and healthy thing.  Hopefully the money under his pillow will help too!

He really is a big boy!

Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet sleeping boy...

Today is his last day to be four years old...

Sibling love...

Steven's Airport 5K!

Steven was ready to run another 5K in October (after his first on in September).  He chose the Runway 5K at the Charlotte Douglas Int'l Airport.  The kids, Aunt Kati, and I went with him to watch and enjoy the airport fun!  We were actually on the runway, and there was an old plane set up for tours.  There were lots of other fun things to do, but we mostly enjoyed watching planes while we waited for Steven to run.  It was quite windy and chilly at first, but as the sun came up, we warmed up a bit.

Steven had a great time, and he beat his personal record with a time of 25:47!

Here we all are, before the race:

Steven, right before crossing the finish line:

And thrilled to be done and have made his goal!

We are so proud of you baby!  Great job!

Pumpkin Patch!

We took Isaac and Elise to a pumpkin patch for the first time this year.  We had a wonderful family day there!  We picked pumpkins, rode a hayride, saw lots of animals at the petting zoo, played on giant hay bales!  

Apparently the kids were tired before we even got there...  (we went after a soccer game and lunch out)

But they got their energy back, and we had a blast!

Yes, it was A-MAZE-ing!  Hopefully an new annual tradition for our family!