New Hair for a New Year

I decided I was done with my hair. I've had long hair for like 2 years and I needed a change. Also thought it was great time -a new year should start with new hair. It gives me a fresh start. And as you can see I didn't just cut a little bit off -nope when I do something I go BIG. I chopped it all off. Symbolically my hair represents one of my new year's resolutions. Not to be bogged down with worries (aka hair). I give them all to the Lord and let Him take care of them -I will not worry, I will be carefree!!! Hello 2009 -here I come!!!!!!!

Mad Face

Isaac has started making what Adam and I call his "mad face." It isn't really a mad face -actually I think he makes it to make us laugh. Which we do like every time. Isn't he so cute!!






Also -here is a pic of just how stylish he is -we were all going to Christmas Eve service at church. Man who dresses that kid -oh what it's me!!! :) :)

Christmas Adventures!

Isaac's first Christmas was a whirlwind adventure.

First we decorated the tree and put up the Christmas lights.









Then we went to see Santa. And as you can see -Isaac wasn't fazed at all by the big guy! All smiles!! :)



Christmas Eve we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We spent the evening with my family -Uncle Bryan, Aunt Marisa, Cousin Mia and Nicholas, and Great Grandma. We had so much fun -the kids are so good with Isaac. Kids just bring out the true meaning of the Christmas season -don't you think. For Great Grandma it was so amazing that she got to spend the evening with her great grand children. 4 generations celebrating together -how wonderful!!








Christmas day had finally arrived. We all wore our Christmas PJs -graciously given to us by
Nana- and spent the morning reflecting on Jesus' birth and enjoying each others company.



Lastly, we went to Nana and Granddad's house for Christmas day evening. We had so much fun with them and Aunt Sara. It was the perfect end to Isaac's first Christmas.






Now that Christmas is over and we have taken down the Christmas tree and decorations -I must say I am exhausted! Isaac's first Christmas was so much fun -I hope that when he looks back on these pictures he will see not only how much fun we had but how truly loved he really is!

Christ-giving

Our bible study group decided to combing holidays this year (Thanksgiving and Christmas) into one big breakfast bash! We had so much fun and so did the kids. It's amazing how much our group has grown over the years with the additions of all these precious little ones. Isaac, Cora, and Jonas sure had a great time playing together too!!

Simple joys

The wonderful things about babies is that they enjoy the simple things in life, like tupperware. Isaac and I played for a good 30 to 40 mins with tupperware and he was just in heaven. Who says you need expensive toys to entertain children!

My family

Though there is a lot of craziness going on in my life right now, a lot of uncertainty, and a lot of stress... I am so thankful for my wonderful family. I have a wonderful husband who loves me more than anything and would do anything for me, and I have a beautiful, healthy, amazing son who everyday fills my life with joy. No matter what else is going on in my life it is so easy to remember how blessed I am. What more could a girl ask for! I love my family!!

Happy Birthday Jesus Party!

For the second year in a row my friend Kara Noel hosted a Happy Birthday Jesus Party! This time of year can get so crazy and stressful that we often forget what the point of this season is...celebrating our Savior's birth. So Kara started the Happy Birthday Jesus Party. Not only to remind us, but to continually teach our children the reason for the season!! It's so much fun. She actually bakes a birthday cake for Jesus, Brad reads the "Happy Birthday Jesus" story, and the kids play and have a great time with sweets all around. Isaac had such a great time watching and playing with the other kids. He is going to be such a social boy when he grows up!!

Truly Blessed!

Last night God reminded Adam and I how truly blessed we are. After leaving a birthday party for Jesus (I'll explain in another entry) we found a package on our car. The package was full of gift cards: for gas, ice cream, to Target, to Jamba Juice, and had a box of formula in it for Isaac! The most encouraging card was inside assuring us that we were not alone and that we were so loved by God, our family, and our friends! You have no idea how much this care package meant to us! It lifted our spirits in so many ways and helped us refocus on what is important...our family, our friends, our health, and our faith. To the sweet angel that gave us this gift -thank you from the bottom of our hearts. You have helped make this stressful, sad time for us better and more uplifting. Reminding us that this too shall pass and God has a plan that He is working out in our lives!
Thank you again - words can't express our gratitude!!!

Me & My Jumper

So we got Isaac this jumper when he was 4 months old. The first time we put him in it was hilarious. He just sat in it and had no idea what he was suppose to do. We kept trying it ever few weeks -and nothing. Two nights ago we tried it again and finally success!!! He loves it and as you can see he is so cute in it! I think it just took time for his legs to get strong enough. Now... he doesn't jump in it yet -he spins and kinda dances in it. Adam think it looks like he is doing the jig!! Either way he's a big fan!

A Tale of Two Teeth

Once upon a time there was a beautiful little boy who decided he was going to be ahead of the curve and grow his first two teeth early. His first tooth arrived when he was 5 month old and this second came two days before he turned 6 months old. What he and his family discovered was that growing teeth is no fun. It's very painful and disturbs our normally lovely sleep pattern. And there seems to be no end in sight. Though his top two teeth shouldn't be coming in until around 10 months, the beautiful little boy has already started gnawing on things, drooling excessively, seems to be in pain, and is not sleeping well at night again! So with heavy eyes he and his tired parents once again gear up for another round of teeth growing -hoping these will be the last set for a little while! :)

First time to Disneyland

Isaac's first time to Disneyland was last week. We thought it would be a great idea to go there to get a Christmas card picture and boy were we right. We got the best pictures and I think Isaac really enjoyed watching all the people. We went into the Grand Californian Hotel first -their lobby was decorated so beautifully and then we went into the park. We didn't take him to see any characters or ride any rides (which I didn't know at the time but he can go on most of the little kid rides) but maybe next time.

6 months old today!!!!!!!!!

Isaac is 6 months old today! Can you believe it? Serious, where does the time go?!? Isaac has grown to be the most happy baby! He is a pure joy. He loves to play and go outside -he is quite an observer! He is great in new situations -just sits back, takes it all in, and then joins in the fun. He is not afraid to be held by anyone -even new people. He is a very loving boy. We are also noticing he can be very stubborn -like his mother! He knows how to roll over and within the last two days has learned to sit up very well. He is truly an advanced child!! :)

Isaac's friends

Isaac has been so blessed as to be born into a wonderful network of friends thanks to our bible study. In our bible study most everyone has kids -the oldest being 7 and the youngest 2 months old. It's so fun when we all get together with the kids. Everyone has a blast and Isaac loves watching the older kids play. You can just see in his eyes that he is dying to get out there with them and run around. Won't be too long!!

Closest to his age our Jonas Woodall -7 months- (4th pic,he has an older sister Iris- 2years-(3rd pic), Cora Jane Lawson -10 months- (last pic), Alice Howards-who turned 1 year old on Halloween (1st pic) and the newest addition to our group is Noah McCoy -2 months-(2nd pic). Cora and Eli Lawson (2 years) are Isaac's God-siblings (4th pic). Other friends I didn't have pics of are the Domino kids -Cole (7 years), Hayden (5 years), and Sofia (3 years). How truly blessed he is to have so many good friends already!!!

Picking out our Christmas tree

Every year since we have been married, Adam and I go to Peltzer Pines Christmas tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree. And this year was Isaac's first time so naturally we took a lot of pics. We got a great tree and will be picking it up next week! As you can see from the pics I was carrying Isaac in the Moby Wrap -which he loves! Some nice ladies passed us as we were looking and couldn't help but stop and admire how cute Isaac was. They had Santa hats on them and offered to let us borrow them for some cute people. How nice was that!!!

Thanksgiving and the Swing

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Ours was great. We started a new tradition by bringing both our families' together for dinner and it turned out to be so much fun. Isaac was adorable -as you can see - and we all had a wonderful time and were fully stuffed at the end!

However it was when we got home that the adventure truly began for Adam and I. Isaac has been sick the past few days so he hasn't been sleeping well. On top of the excitement of last night he was having a even harder time falling asleep. To help Adam and I brought out his swing (Old Stand By as I like to call it because it puts him to sleep in seconds) - but that turned out to be a mistake. Because Isaac was having such a hard time going to sleep he started to toss and turn and well...the poor thing tossed and turned he way out of the swing and on to the floor with a thud! Oh it was so sad!!! He did recover quickly and we are quite sure there is no permanent damage! :) But sadly we know feel we must retire Old Stand By until the next baby or until we give it to the Good Will.

Good bye Old Stand By...we will sincerely miss you!!! ( see the picture above of the swing in it's glory days)

Twlight

I am in a book club and I LOVE book club. Not only do I get to read great, interesting books (most of the time), but I get to hang out with my girl friends at least once a month for discussion and chatting!

This month we read Twlight and last night we went to see the movie. Oh my Lord it was so painful to watch!! Now I didn't enjoy the book at all so I wasn't expecting much anyway...but oh dear Lord! It was so awful! Actually I take that back...it was awful for me. I'm not a big romance kinda girl so all the lovey dovey talk really makes me sick. But besides that I was not the intended audience for this movie's or the book's for that matter. This is for young, teenage girls. And I do think if I was 14 years younger I would have loved this book and movie. But as I am not 14 years old, I was literally trying to entertain myself through the movie by texting Adam. A lot of girls in my book club did like the book though -for it's romance and because it was a fun, simple read. Maybe it's just me!!! Oh well - at least I got out of the house for a few hours. That's rare!!!

Halloween 2008

Isaac's 1st Halloween. We dressed up 50's theme -Adam and Isaac were greasers and I was a pink lady. We went to a friends house for a Halloween party with the kids and went to my brother and sister-in laws house for the actual Halloween night.

Top left is a pic of our bible study group at the Halloween party!

Isaac's Dedication

This is Isaac's dedication to the Lord on Oct. 26th, 2008 at church. Isn't he cute! He did so well -no crying or fussing. Just watching everyone!

Tuesday

So today was not so fun for little Isaac. He woke up with the sniffles, he has a second tooth that is about to come in at any moment, and he got 6 vaccinations today. Poor little guy. I'm so glad God wipes all of this from our memory!

Interesting thing did happen today -Adam was on the phone with Chase for over an hour today trying to get a hold or a forbearance on our 2ND load. But nobody could help him. He got passed to seven different people! Finally he got one nice lady that took his information and said she would find the person he needed to talk to and would call him back. Well not only did the lady find the correct person to call us back but we found out that it took her 2 hours to find this person!!! In her own company it took that long! Apparently she was so frustrated that she told her manager and her manager also called Adam to apologize and to confirm that someone had gotten back to him! Can you believe it! So for seven people that will blow you off there is one person that will take the time to help you!! So if you are ever in a similar situation with customer service -don't get frustrated...just wait for that seventh person! Oh and isn't interesting that the number seven in our Lord's holy number....interesting....provocative!!!

2008

This year has truly been one with extreme highs and extreme lows for our family. This year was the birth of our beautiful son Isaac and has been full of all the joys and amazing blessings that he has brought with him. But in the past few months, we have been bombarded with some awful circumstances and events. We agonized over the decision of whether I would continue to work full time after Isaac was born for months. We finally decided that I should quit my job and be a stay at home mom. Our rationale: you only live once, your son is only this little once, and for me to be home with him and raising him is worth the sacrifice in income and life style. We also decided it was worth our townhouse -without my income we could no longer afford our mortgage payments. We felt/feel good about our decision. We are fine living in an apartment again if it comes to that -though we are still praying that we can strike a deal with the bank to modify our loan.

Then the unpleasant part of the year struck -Adam got laid off with severance! We just went from two incomes to none in one month. This was a huge blow to us, as you can imagine. If it were just Adam and I that would be one thing, but having Isaac changes everything. Now we have to pay for third party insurance (which FYI is not cheap) and go on a VERY strict budget.

In the end I know God will provide for us and He will work this situation out for us. Adam has already filed for unemployment and amazingly we got a very quick response. Adam has had a number of really great interviews -one in particular that seems to be panning out. Most of all, Adam is a very hard working, resourceful guy and I know God will grant him a job soon. As for me, I am going to pick up jobs babysitting and doing various other random things to bring home extra income. Though Adam losing his job was awful to us financially it still hasn't deterred us from our goal to have me stay home with Isaac. Raising our son is most important to us.

We are also blessed with the most loving and amazing family and friends that will and do help us at a moments notice. So through it all God has truly blessed us and we are so thankful to Him for our lives and all the blessings in it!!!!

I promise that remaining postings will not be so serious!!! :)