Christmas Day

The boys were pretty excited to be able to finally open their gifts that had been sitting under the tree for over a week. Here is some video.

The big gift the boys received was a train set. Shawn and I worked about 2 hours to get the thing set up. Of course, Isaac had the top track destroyed in about 5 minutes, but they have kept the lower track pretty much together, so far.

Here is a picture of it all set up before the boys got to it.

Here is a little video of their reaction. Sorry, it is kind of short. My camera ran out of memory, but the boys really are enjoying their new train set.

Christmas Eve, part 2

After we left Dave and Linda's, we went to my aunt Sue and Uncle Jae's house for the Smits' gathering. The boys had a great time and spent the majority of their time down in the basement playing with the train set. The little while they were upstairs to open gifts, I was able to get their picture of them with their gifts. (Actually they were both for Brady, but Isaac helped.)

Isaac's first sledding experience

Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Today was a busy day as I can imagine it was for most everyone. This morning we went to Dave and Linda's for their Christmas. It was a good time and everyone got some wonderful gifts. After we ate lunch, Isaac and Collin went outside to play in the snow. Grandpa came out with a little sled for the boys to ride on in the back yard. Brady would have gone out as well, but he was to involved in watching Polar Express on TV.


Here are some pictures from gift opening.

Ready to go

We were getting ready to go out for the day and this is what Isaac and Brady wanted to wear going outside.

It wasn't even that cold for it, since it was 43 degrees, but Isaac was determined to wear the scarf and Brady had to wear his as well.

Isaac's always looking after his little brother and mother, as momma had to wear her hat as well.

Christmas cookie

Tonight, my mom came over to help decorate Christmas cookies. Brady sat with it the entire time and did a really good job. Isaac didn't really do much. He was more into playing with the decoration bottles than anything. Towards the end, he got into actually doing his own version of frosting the cookies. Here are some pictures.

Below are Isaac's cookies.
And here are some of Brady's.

Roller Coaster Ride

Today when I came home from work the boys were up because the speech therapist was coming to visit them. While we were waiting, the boys were sitting in a laundry basket at the top of the stairs and they kept saying "mom, help!" I didn't know what they needed help with, but then Daddy said they like to ride down the stairs in the basket. This is what daddy showed them to do.

Speech therapy

The boys are in the middle of being evaluated by the school system for their speech therapy. Isaac is done being evaluated and Brady is in the middle of it. It's looking like Isaac won't qualify for treatment from the schools. His speech has come a long way in just under a year. Brady probably will qualify as he is just a little slower than Isaac at this point. He is very smart, just doesn't verbalize it at the moment. If we choose to continue on with the treatment, I think he will end up going to King Elementary for half hour once a week. We will know more on January 9.

Watching Isaac be evaluated really made me realize just how far he has come along. The speech therapist said he was doing things that 3 year olds know. I was surprised to see how much he really knew.

Brady's evaluation should finish up tomorrow.

Decorating the tree

Today the boys (all 3 of them) decorated the tree. The boys were pretty good at helping trim it, but of course, they still want to un-trim it all of the time as well. The tree had actually been up a couple weeks before we got around to decorating it. I was hoping that by having it up earlier would help them not want to play with it, but I was wrong. Once the ornaments got put on it, they wanted to play with them. Isaac thinks they are all balls that he can play with and icicles he can eat (they are hard plastic ones). Maybe next year they will be better with it (one can only hope :) ) I will post a picture of it later when we get some presents under the tree and I put some finishing touches to the tree.

Barrel of fun

The boys had a lot of fun rolling this container back and forth to each other. I think they played with it for at least half hour to 45 minutes. This video is a little longer than normal, about 2.5 minutes. Hope you enjoy.

TIme to go out?

The boys went into the closet and got out some hats and mittens. Here are some pictures of the fun they had.

Laundry time

Isaac and Brady really enjoyed playing in my laundry baskets. Of course, Isaac made them into a choo choo train. Everything can be made into a train in his eyes. He's so cute. Here are some more pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Today we went over to my mom's house for Thanksgiving. It was a packed house, but was very nice. I didn't know how Brady was going to do because we wasn't feeling well. He had a slight temperature the last couple of days, including today, so we gave him some Motrin and hoped for the best. It took a little while for it to kick in, but about half hour of being there, he warmed up and had some fun.

What made the day also great was that the Packers won against Detroit. The Packers winning made them 10-1 so far this year. Amazing!! Bring on Dallas next week Thursday.

Another quick remixed video

This one is pretty cool too.

Sample video file I can create

Isn't this cool? I just learned about it from work and did a quick sample. I'm going to create more of these with better themed pictures in the future. This one took me about 2 minutes to make.

Fall leaves

Since today was such a nice day outside, I brought the boys out while I raked up the leaves. I raked all the leaves from the front of the house into a pile and told the boys to jump and play in them. Here are some pictures from their experience.


This one Brady is really in the picture, he is just underneath his brother.The whole pile swallowed up Brady here except for his arm.

Isaac just laying in his bed a leaves.
They really had a great time. I got the whole front lawn raked and some of the back before it was time for the boys' nap.

Halloween 2007

Wednesday was trick or treating. Unfortunately, I was only able to take Isaac out. Brady was taking a nap when I got home and we didn't want to wake him because he was fighting a cold as it was. Plus, the night before he kept waking up so he didn't sleep well. We just thought we would let him sleep. So, I took Isaac out while Shawn stayed home to hand out candy to those that came to our house. The first house we went to the owner opened the door up pretty wide and Isaac thought he was to go in, so he started in. I told him that we were to stay outside, and then he received his candy. He didn't quite understand the concept at first, but we went to the next house and I told him to ring the doorbell and say trick or treat. He didn't really say trick or treat, but he was starting to get the idea. By the time we got to the third or fourth house, after he would get his candy and we would start leaving he would say "more?". I told him that we could continue to go to other people's houses. He loved ringing the doorbell. He was starting to get the trick or treat saying down as well, but I think it sounded more like trick treat. He had a wonderful time. We got a TON of candy as well considering we were only out for an hour. I think we have enough for both the boys.

Here is a picture of Isaac. He didn't want to wear the hood up, so he was fighting it, but Shawn was able to get somewhat of a picture.

Here is a cute picture I took of Isaac looking out the window.

For those that might not know, Isaac was a bear.

When Brady woke up from his nap, I tried putting his costume on him, but he didn't want to have anything to do with it. So I figured I would wait and do it when he was in a better mood. Tonight I tried it again, and at first he didn't want to have it on, but he warmed up to it quickly. Here are some pictures of him.



Since I had put Brady in his costume, I also put Isaac back in his in hopes to get both boys in a nice picture. That didn't work out, but here are some more pictures of the boys just having fun.


Grandma Fonder took this picture of the 3 of us.

Empty box?

I was going through the hand me down clothes that Carrie had given the boys. I was pulling out all of the 3T winter clothes. I had brought up 3 boxes of mixed 3T and 4T clothes. I had gone through them awhile ago, but they were still mixed up between the different sizes and different seasons. As I emptied the boxes, the boys really enjoyed playing with them.

Check this out to see what is going on.

Playing in the driveway

Today Andy Chitko (Shawn's friend from grade school) was in town from California so we went out to lunch with him. The boys really enjoyed going out for lunch. We just went to iHop. then we came back home and the boys played outside since it was such beautiful weather. The boys just loved riding the bikes down the hill of our driveway and then walking their bikes back up the driveway. Needless to say, they took really good naps after that. Here is some video of them playing.

Playdate

Tonight the boys and I went and visited with Nora and her kids. It has been a long time since we got the kids all together to play. I think it was summer when she came over here last, so we finally set a date for all the kids to get together. The boys were very good playing with Nora's kids. Nora has twin boys who are just over 2 and a daughter who is 4. We went over there for pizza and play. Fun was had by all. Sorry, I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures.

New car seats

The boys have upgraded to the last car seat. They are now in boosters. My little boys are growing up. They look so small though in the car with their new car seats. Here they are sitting in them in the house just after I put them together.

Shopping cart 1, Isaac 0

Last night I took the boys to Walmart so that I could pick up a prescription I needed. Everything was going fine. I had Isaac in the big part of the shopping cart and Brady was standing behind it helping "push" the cart. We were standing in line waiting to pick up my prescription. Isaac was standing in the cart, but was behaving himself pretty well. I looked away for a second, and then looked back to find Isaac falling face first out of the cart. Needless to say, it scared the crap out of me. He started crying almost immediately. I tried calming him down and looked him over. At first I couldn't see anything, but then after a few seconds, I saw blood starting to form in his mouth. I then started to look to see if any of his teeth were loose or determine what it was that was bleeding. He was crying so hard and I couldn't get him to calm down, so I took both boys to the front of the store by the clinic so that I could at least get the boys to sit down and I could take a closer look at Isaac. I couldn't really see anything seriously wrong, but he was just looking worse by the second. Brady was very good this entire time. He just stood by me or sat on the chair the entire time. I ended up taking Isaac to the emergency room just to be on the safe side. On the car ride over, he had calmed down and by the time we got to the ER he was almost to his normal self, which was a good sign. I just wanted to make sure he was alright. That kid is a tough kid, because he was just fine. He had a fat lip and I bruised his nose, but other than that was fine.

What you making?

The boys were in the bath tub, and I had given them some bowls to play with. Here is what they did with them.


Ingredients for fun

2 bowls
tub full of water
some blocks and toys
2 boys
Unlimited imagination

This is what you get:

Potty training update

Sorry, it has been awhile since I've posted. Its been busy around here. The potty training had been going fairly well, until recently. Now Isaac doesn't seem to interested in it at all. He will maybe go once a day, if we are lucky. The last few days he hasn't even gone in the potty at all, but he did go in the tub after his bath when I told him to go.

More evidence that Isaac is growing up

This morning Isaac decided he didn't want to be in his crib anymore. I could hear some noises, but couldn't figure out what was going on. I just thought maybe they were throwing things or just doing weird things in their cribs.

I was just about to go get them out of their cribs when all of a sudden the door opened and in walked Isaac. I guess the noises I had heard were of him getting out of his crib. Shawn said he heard Isaac say bye to his brother, so he had wondered what was going on as well until the door opened up. I am going to still leave them in their cribs until the next time Isaac decides to get out. Then the toddler beds will come out. I guess it is pretty good to make it to 32 months before having to get out the toddler beds.

Isaac's potty training is doing pretty good. He was dry for several hours after I had changed him in the morning, so I brought him back to the bathroom to see if he had to go and he went. Then when I came back home after shopping I brought him back to the bathroom again. His diaper was wet this time, but not much. I asked him to go again, and he went. I have just bought some Pull Ups, so we shall see how well those work. They are the cool learning ones, so if he goes to the potty in them, they will feel cool to the skin. I told him to tell either mommy or daddy if he has to go potty before he goes in his diaper.

I'm a big boy!!

Guess, what?!? Isaac went potty in his toilet tonight. I was getting them ready to go to bed and he was acting like he needed his diaper changed. I took his diaper off and he was dry, so I put it back on. Then we was like, potty, potty. So I took him out of the crib and brought him to the bathroom. I took his diaper back off and he sat down on the toilet. After a few seconds he started going and he went quite a bit. It was so exciting. My little boy is growing up :( I figured he would be the first to actually go, because he keeps saying potty all the time.

Bath time potty

The boys were taking a bath tonight like any other bath night. When we were just about done with it, Isaac stood up and it looked like he had to go potty, so I told him to go and he did. This was the first time when he actually went when I told him to go. We shall see when the next time he goes.

Back from Myrtle Beach, SC

Last week our family went to Myrtle Beach, SC for our annual family vacation. This year however, we had more people with us. It was Linda and Dave, as usual and then Shawn's cousins Michelle and her husband Shannon, Luke, Pete, Justin and his wife Kristin. We drove out there, and surprisingly, the boys did a great job. We drove straight through and only had to stop a couple of times for food and gas. The boys did a wonderful job.

The boys really enjoyed being out in the water and playing with the sand. Here are some pictures from the trip.

More Myrtle Beach pictures

Here are some more videos and pictures from Myrtle Beach.


Shawn took this video. He was kind of far away, but you can kind of see what the boys were doing and it is a great video of the beach. Brady was the one closer to me and Isaac was kind of roaming around. Brady just loved laying down in the sand and waiting for the water to come get him. He would sit up right before the water would hit him. Isaac had enjoyed being in the water the first time we brought him out there, but then the second day we went out to the ocean he was afraid of it. We don't know what happened that scared him, but he became very afraid of it.

Here is a closer video of the boys.


I guess towards the end, Isaac has trying to imitate his brother by laying down in the sand, but he didn't lay down very long and only did it once or twice.

On Friday, we went to Broadway on the Beach which is a great area. It is a shopping area, dining, bars, play land. Basically anything you think of, it is probably there. The boys really enjoyed riding the rides. Here is a picture of me and Brady, well, mostly Brady while we were riding on the cars. The boys really loved that ride. I think they rode it 4 times, they went on 8 rides total.

Play time

Tonight we went shopping at Shopko in Bay Park Square mall, but before we went there, we stopped in the play area just outside the entrance to Shopko. The boys didn't really want to play in the play area, but they had a great time playing on the machines outside the play area.

They loved playing on the train and driving the ice cream truck as you will see in the video below.

Steve & Lynn's Wedding

Last night was my uncle Steve's wedding. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures taken, but here are some of those I did. The boys had a great time playing with their cousins and I think their cousins had an even better time playing with the boys.

Mitchell, Lily, Krista and Isaac.

Krista loved carrying Isaac around. I don't know how she could do it for so long.
Krista, Lily and Isaac dancing.

Isaac and Krista dancing

VIsit to the Zoo

Today I had taken the day off of work, so Shawn, Mom and I took the boys to the zoo. Isaac attempted to feed the animals, but as soon as the animal would touch his hand he would freak out and then the food would drop to the ground. Brady didn't even want to attempt it.Brady and grandma looking at the Bald Eagle.