His 1st year...

Isaac's 1st birthday is approaching much faster than I can hardly even stand. At the end of the week we will be celebrating the last 1st birthday of our children. Oh say it isn't so! Truly I feel so very blessed to have healthy, happy children that have hit all of their milestones without any problems. What a great blessing to have them here beside me to celebrate their birthdays- I don't discount that at all. Still, I find myself a little melancholy at the thought of Isaac already being one. They grow and change so quickly...our time with them is so short in comparison to their life and all that they will experience and do. I pray that the time we do have with them will prepare them to be God's workers, to love others, and to know that they are loved. We will have family in this weekend and I don't want to miss documenting the things on my mind so I am going to do this a little early. If you know me then you know picking out pictures to showcase is SOOO hard for me to do but here is a month by month picture review of my precious almost 1 year old! What joy he has brought to our lives.

On our way to the hospital...last family of 4 picture!

1st family of 5 picture-he was brand new and Ben and Lizzie

couldn't keep their hands off their new baby brother!



Sweet little man weighed 8lbs 1oz and was 201/2 inches long

Month 1- looking around, smiling and cooing

Month 2- getting stronger and loving tummy time.

Month 3- He loved laughing and talking! He was rolling from front

to back by now. This was a fun day at the splash pad.

Month 4- Hanging out with his big bro :) full-out belly laughs, playing with toys,

looking at books, 1st time to bible class, eating cereal...lots of 1st's!

Month 5- Trying lots of new foods, everything goes in his mouth, pops

his paci in and out, talking all the time, sits with a pillow behind him...

and my favorite, he started reaching for me!

Month 6- rocks on his knees, plays with toys, say momma and bubba,

loves church class, and sits up alone.

Month 7- talking all the time..dada, momma, bubba, and lots of

squeals. He loved to play with Ben and Lizzie and laugh with them.

Month 8- Exploring everything, starting to crawl, everything in the

mouth, daddy gave him his 1st bite of fudge :)

Month 9- Really crawling now, eating some real foods,

playing and interacting with anyone nearby, he loves to

swing and play at the park.

Month 10- So much fun, experienced his 1st snow,

loves to play with balls, boxes, and toys..this

is when I really started having to watch him getting into things-or

at least try to prevent it :)

Month 11- so playful, sweet, and cuddly! Walking along anything

he can pull himself up on, eating anything he can find...including

non-edible items, drinking milk, drinking out of the toilet, talking like

 crazy. He loves for his brother and sister to hide from him and jump out.

It scares him to death but he absolutely cracks up laughing afterwards~

Month 12- standing up without help, talking a few guided steps, so

happy and fun. Still eating everything and still a cuddler. He points to

everything and tries to repeat what your saying. Uses sign language to

communicate if we aren't getting what he is trying to say :) Stopped nursing on

his own.Can make it up the stairs and loves to play in the bedrooms up there.

Most recent family of 5 picture :)

Happy 1st birthday my sweet Isaac Lucas!

Basghetti Fun!

Awe...who doesn't enjoy watching a baby try new foods? Isaac LOVES to eat! Up until now he has been choosing non-edible items (or a least they are suppose to be). Wipes, cords, toilet paper, toilet water, Kleenex, fuzz off the floor, shoes, dryer lint, toys, grass, dirt...basically anything he can get his hands on. We have all (including Ben and Lizzie) fished many gross things from his mouth. Sometimes its best to not even try to figure out what it was! Now he is also choosing edible items and it is so much fun to watch as he tries new things. Recently, he had his first spaghetti dinner. It was a huge success and I wanted to share some pics of it with you!

"No man is lonely eating spaghetti; it requires so much attention"- unknown

No fan of Charlotte..or her web!

Today was spent mowing and cleaning up the backyard. Many of Jason's family are coming into town this weekend to help us celebrate Isaac's 1st birthday! Oh, sweet Isaac...1 already! :( Yes, we are celebrating a few weeks early but that's the way our schedules worked out! Anyhow, back to my story...mowing, cleaning, and discovering all the wildlife that live in my very backyard! Ick! Ok, so it isn't really "wildlife" but after being in the city for 9 years it seems that way. Now, I am not typically scared of bugs and such BUT I really do not like snakes and spiders. Last week while cleaning out the flower bed I found a snake....and was much to slow to actually grab the shovel and kill it. It was more of a high pitch yell "SNAKE", and stumble backwards, hesitant to continue my work. So that threat is still out there! Today I found many "creatures" in my backyard..

The Beloved Rolly Polly

This sweet, now albino, frog. He was found in the closed mailbox below.

I made this for the kids a while back...somehow Mr. Frog

found his way inside. It was closed so I was a bit sad for him.

He was still alive though.

A creepy centipede-y thing

The following pics are what totally ended my yardwork back there today! Thank goodness I was pretty much done!

I trapped this monster because I knew someone would need to kill it!

Then I thought, this thing is huge! It should be documented. I put the

quarter down, pulled the glass away, and snapped a shot-quickly!

I woke Jason (he was home sick) and he confirmed it being a black widow!

ICK! ICK! ICK! I am NO fan of this Charlotte! Jason took care of

killing her..which did make me sad~ she is a mother after all...Jason

replied.."yes, a mother who ate the daddy"

Guess our next step is to put stuff out to make sure we don't have anymore of these unwelcomed guest! That will be Jason's job!

Busy!

I don't have much to say just lots of fun pictures to share. We had a really full and busy weekend and it seems that will continue for us until mid-May. That is when I go back to work and say goodbye to many fun weekends with my family. It is what is best and an answer that we prayed for...still I am trying to grab-up and cherish these last few weekends I will have with Jason and the kids :) OKAY, enough of that...Here we go!!!

Thursday

My sweet Mae-Mae (Lizzie's nickname) had an art show at school!

Friday

Friday we were very busy but I don't really have pictures to show for it...too busy for that as well :) Greg and Teresa came into town for Elizabeth's art show and for Benjamin's 1st baseball game so they were able to take part in our- hurry up and get ready for school routine. I am not sure how many times I heard from Ben that morning about it not being fair that Lizzie gets to stay home with Namaw and Papaw...but eventually I got him to school- or so I thought! Anyway, I came home after dropping him off and straightened up (Jason was on his way home from a week in Dallas), left the kids with the grandparents and headed to my hair appointment (got it all chopped off). While under the dryer I missed a call from the school (can't even get away from them to get my hair done when I DO have someone to watch them :)). When I finally was able to retrieve the message it was from the school. This next part I would completely expect from my Elizabeth but I just was shocked that Ben had this in him. It is amazing...all of a sudden his stomach was hurting and he had a temperature. By the time I called the school back they had already gotten ahold of Jason, who called Teresa to run up there and get him. So as I drove, I was thinking.."what time was that call?" So I check, well...of course....Friday was a beautiful day...so beautiful that I am sure he was running and playing on RECESS just before he had his temp taken! Seriously...now, I don't believe Ben is good enough to have planned the temperature thing out BUT I am shocked that he pulled this one over...more shocked that he had the nerve to even try! As soon as he got home he was fine but got to lay on his bed for a bit and "rest" for a while. We spent the rest of our day grocery shopping, buying baseball pant/socks, enjoying Teresa's chicken and noodles (Lizzie helped) and welcoming a very missed husband and daddy home.

Saturday

Saturday started off with garage sales. Now I must say, if you are going to go garage sale-ing, you must have someone like my mother-in-law with you. She has the absolute best luck at finding stuff and she can talk ANYONE down. :) Below are some of our finds.

To say that I love this mirror doesn't come close to explaining!

We are going to paint it black. Marked $40, Sold for $20!

We got several books for a quarter. The one below we laughed

because we thought it would be perfect for Elizabeth!

These Baby Gap outfits totalled $1

You know you've done good if you can come across our next finds...

Step 2 toys! The toy box was marked $20..She said she couldn't

take less than $15...Sold for $12! NICE :)

We are going to use it to hold outside toys!

Last..and probably the most shocking buy...

for $1

Can you believe that? AND it was filled with all sorts of sand and water toys! AND

it actually recycles the water through and it can be pumped! So fun!

Next we grabbed some lunch and got ready to go cheer for Ben's 1st baseball game. It was lots of fun and he looked adorable in his uniform. I think I may have failed a bit on preparing him on the basics of the game. He did hit the ball and he did score. When I went to the dugout to tell him "good job, you scored" he simply looked at me with a puzzled look and said "I did?". Guess we will work on that some :) He nearly got a boy out at third. His team, The Giants won! 

So cute!

Not thrilled with left field!

Ben's Fan Club!

We finished that night off with playing outside and pork chops. And then enjoyed church together on Sunday~



Jason making Pork chops

Isaac and me...my short hair :)