Happy Boy-

Hi! Isaac is a champ waver. Lately he has especially loved waving at Matt when we've video chatted with him in China. He gets so excited and points to Matt on the computer then waves a lot which is then sometimes followed with the excited pose like in the next picture. Isaac has loved Skyping so much with his Dad he even signed "more" for the first time from Matt showing him through the computer. Even though I've been trying to get him to do it for months.

Today we got the awesome news that Matt gets to come home a day early!

I know! Crazy exciting right?

We've definitely kept ourselves busy while Matt has been gone. A few days into it Owen commented, "We've been so busy with fun stuff I haven't even had time to think about my Dad." Which is good because the night before Matt left we were talking about Matt leaving at dinner and Owen kind of got teary and was wiping his eyes and said, "I'm just going to miss you so much while your gone Dad."

Isaac just learned how to blow kisses in the last couple of days. It's so cute with his chubby little hands still figuring out where his mouth is.

Mom! Isaac's Awake!

Ava is usually the first one awake at our house. As soon as she hears Isaac waking up she asks but mostly tells me as she runs off, "Mom, Isaac's awake, can I go play with him?" Then she jumps in his bed to snuggle and play with him. It's super cute and Isaac loves it.

Small Things-

Isaac has discovered our piano and he loves it!

The other day I was ironing Matts shirts while the kids were playing near me. Ava was getting all dressed up for a ball with her dolls and stuffed animals. While she was putting a dress on her doll she told me that she wasn't excited to go to the ball because it's kind of boring getting married. And there's going to be a wicked stepmother there. Luckily she worked it out so all the wicked stepmothers were going to a different ball and I told her that marriage is fun and only boring sometimes like when you are ironing.

My Grandma Nelson used to say that a healthy baby sleeps with their arms up.

A nice morning ride in a dump truck.

Owen is not a milk drinker. We are working on it but in the mean time I often fix him chocolate milk to get some calcium in him. Last week I fixed him some Ovaltine chocolate milk to go with his breakfast. When I offered it to him he informed me that he only drank TruMoo chocolate milk now since he'd seen a commercial about it and learned it was a "delicious snack with a healthy amount of sugar to make it a yummy treat" or something bogus like that. Since we are always looking for more healthy sugars in our diet & because Matt's in China we decided to get some to help us through the week.

We woke up to some snow! Ready to go shovel.

This morning Owen taught Isaac how to make his little guy walk on the tub wall. Isaac paid close attention and did it! Exciting stuff.

A-V-A

Ava has figured out how to write her whole name! On paper it's pretty cute and she gets the letters in the right order but it's a little trickier on her own cheek.

Falling into the Pit of Foam-

Isaac gets to do an awesome gymnastics class with the Up to 3 program. He loves falling into the giant foam pit. Just try not to listen to my voice- my efforts to sound less dorky made it only worse :).

December-

Pictures from before Christmas -

Loving each other up.

Isaac is still happy.

Apparently you become very funny when you wear me & Matt's shoes. Matt & I must be hilarious.

I chuckle sometimes how normal it is for Isaac to have his foot just comfortably hanging out by his face.

Got to watch & help my mom do her chocolate making magic.

Enjoyed a morning of dipping chocolates with my sisters (missed you Lexie) where I realized again what a talent it is to make beautifully dipped chocolates. Luckily for us, they still taste good when they aren't so pretty.

Isaac loves to interact by making eye contact with people then laughing. Whenever anyone is looking at him or talking to him he politely responds with a big fake laugh. People love to sit behind him at church.

Owen had a cute Christmas concert with his kindergarten class. He did such a good job and even sang the songs.

On the 22nd of December Isaac got tubes in his ears and his adenoids out. This picture was taken before the surgery cause he wasn't so happy after. The surgery took longer than expected and he had some laryngospasming but thanks to the breathing tube made it through just fine and came back from the surgery ticked as ever. Because of some fluid that was behind his ear drum he probably hasn't been able to hear well for months but with the tubes he can hear! Although it's hard to imagine cause he is always happy he seems even happier now.

First Sign!

Angel-

Ava was so excited to play one of the angels at our ward Christmas party earlier this week.

What a great day-

Ava turned 4 years old on Saturday. She was sweet all day and a little excited-

The first thing she said to me was, "Mom, am I this many now (holding up 4 fingers)."

Breakfast was good with a starter course of a rainbow doughnut with candles from Aunt Cat-

Followed a little later by pink pancakes that she requested for her big day-

We opened up presents in the morning from us so she could play with them throughout the day. While Owen was helping her put on some ear rings she yelled to me in the kitchen "Mom, Owen is making me georgeous!"

She picked out her own outfit that luckily was cute & went together pretty good-

In the morning we started fixing her cake and had planned to do this fancy cake that we found online with cookies all around to make it look like a princess crown but when we went to make the cookies for it she said, "Mom, actually I just want a plain purple cake that says Happy Birthday Ava." I didn't argue with that and she couldn't be happier.

For her party Ava had planned that she wanted to play duck, duck, goose but with a princess twist so we played that and a couple other games. After cake she came up to me and quietly said, "Mom, it's present time." So that's what we did.

Because my mom and a couple sisters are crazy & awesome Ava got some fun princess dress-ups from the day after thanksgiving sales. They were a big hit with all the little girl cousins running around.

Lucky girl.

It was a great day that I think we maximized on everything Ava was hoping for. We sure love our fun, sweet, spunky, exciting Ava girl.

Owen's Christmas List

Owen has written a few Christmas lists with lots of pleases that are really cute but today this was his Christmas list.

Pretty smart kid.

First Day of Kindergarten!

Owen had his first day today. He was excited in a cool, calm sort of way. When we got there he acted like he was ready for anything. He loved it. On our way home when I was asking him what he did he said mostly the teacher just talked a lot.

Doing the wave-

Isaac has figured out waving and it's pretty cute.

Isaac's Turned 1!

Isaac is happy to be 1.

This picture was taken on his actual birthday when he wasn't feeling so good. Because he was sick on his birthday we postponed the celebrating a couple weeks but we did eat some ice cream for his birthday which I think could be Isaac's favorite food.

Isaac with his little cake. He kept looking up at everyone staring at him wondering why we wouldn't pick him up.

It has been fun to celebrate the joy he is in our family. There is a lot of happiness in that little man.