Isaac's New Do

As you know, Isaac has this totally crazy hair. Every bit of it sticks up in the back. It is one enourmous calic. We love it! One day I decided to do it up. It turned out pretty cute, but I have to say he still mostly sports the crazy hair because I like it just a little bit more. But here are picks of his handsome new do. Man I love this kid!

Here's the front...




The side...

And the back!

How You Know You Are on Vacation With a Baby: Our Experience

We just took our very first vacation with our sweet baby Isaac. We went to the Oregon Coast: a hidden paradise and a favorite of Josh's family. My brother-in-law made the comment that "it's a place where it doesn't seem like very many people have discovered it yet." I have to agree. I felt I could walk down miles of beach with no one around or have my own private cove. It was really fantastic, but with that said we did bring Isaac. And vacationing with a baby is really a different story. I thought I would write down a few of the funny experiences we had while traveling with Isaac.

#1-Prior to going on this trip we were trying to decide between flying and driving. Not only is driving cheaper, but everyone assured us that Isaac was young enough that he would sleep for most of the journey...after 14 hours of trying to entertain with "woowoowoowoo"sounds, contorting our faces into any shape we could think of, shaking any or all objects(ramen noodle bags, sun flower seeds, chip bags, toys, etc.) in front of his face, and stopping every two hours to play and nurse...we were beginning to think flying might have been the better option. It ended up being a fun adventure, though and I might even do it all over again just for the laughs we had.
This picture is my favorite: Isaac loved stopping and looking out the car window. Don't you just love that face! I can't get enough of it!

#2 Isaac did finally manage to fall asleep for awhile at which point I began navigating us through Portland, Oregon while Josh was driving. Josh's phone has a GPS system which we were following. After taking several different exits toward Salem, Tiggard, and Beaverton;coming into town and driving in circles through one way streets;we were stopped at a stop sign and Josh asked me for the next direction. The GPS only said: "Beaverton, OR." We had put the end point as Beaverton so rather than going through we had driven straight into town adding about another hour to our already very long drive! Back on the freeway we went. Oh, and did I metion that this was all during rush hour traffic? I guess you had to be there on that one.

#3 By the time we were about half an hour from the coast Isaac woke up screaming for some food. I fed him, but then immediately jumped out of the car to use the bathroom. I couldn't hold it any longer. We weren't at a rest stop, just in a little secluded area so I just had to go and find a place in the trees. However, I wasn't sure of what wild life there was so I decided to just go right behind the car. Midstream I realized I was crouched down right behind the exhaust and was breathing that in so I tried to waddle away, but in doing so I managed to pee all over myself.(I know, gross) I came back into the car and began changing Isaac's diaper who was aimed right at me and peed all down my front. For two days I had managed to keep myself clean from all bodily fluids and in the last half hour became covered in it!

#4 One morning we were headed south to check out Cape Perpetua and some light houses. I was making some peanut butter and honey sandwiches for us(try keeping yourself clean doing that while driving) and upon finishing I looked into Isaac's carseat. For a second I wondered if I had spilled peanut butter all over him, but then my wisdom got the better of me and I realized what all of that orangish/brown stuff really was all over him. Isaac was sitting in a puddle of pooh. We pulled over into a pasture to clean up where we were being swarmed by bees and Isaac was wearing a bright and colorful shirt. Ugh.

Josh is cleaning up Isaac after the major pooping in the carseat. I am in the back cleaning the carseat! What a mess!

#5 Wednesday morning it was drizzling rain outside. We decided to head up North towards Ecola State Park and Oswald West. We drove into the state park and thought we would just take a little walk around. When we got there it was no longer just drizzling it was pouring/dumping rain. Why we didn't just begin heading home I will never know, but I guess we thought we could still manage to have a nice stroll in the rain. We bundled up Isaac, got on our coats, pulled out the umbrella and began to head out. A soon as we were out of the car the umbrella went inside out. Isaac began screaming. What baby likes being cold and wet? You would think at that point that we would have gotten back into the car...but no. We trudged on. About 20 feet later we realized how stupid we were being and went back. We are still amazed we made it 20 feet!

#6 The last day we were there we decided to go to Oswald West and Ecola State Park again because we didn't get to do it before with the rain. Now to get to Oswald West there is a little mile hike down to the beach. We didn't realize that part of it was fairly rocky and difficult to get through. It wouldn't have been so bad, but we had brought with us a baby bjorn, a carseat, and a stroller in an attempt to get Isaac down comfortably. I ended up carrying Isaac in the bjorn while Josh hoisted the carseat and stroller over the rocks, logs, and muddy turain! I wish I had a picture of this but I don't. It was hilarious to watch!

This is on one of our walks down a beach that no one else was on! My two handsome boys!(Notice in any picture where Isaac is in the bjorn he is sucking on the front of it: classic Isaac!)

This was on the drive home. We had gotten out of the car to watch Multnomah falls. I think Isaac was getting pretty fed up with being in a carseat.

Watching Multnomah falls.

Our hike down to Oswald West! It was really gorgeous despite lugging so much with us. The beach there was spectacular!

And there he is sucking on the front...


This was at Ecola State Park. It was really incredible! We had a little family picnic right at this spot! Can the view get any better?

And there is Isaac sucking on the front of the bjorn yet again!

My sweet little family.(Oh and check out Isaac sucking on the front of the bjorn =0)

This is one of the light houses...actually the tallest one on the Oregon coast! My legs were burning after that long flight of stairs!

What a handsome guy!

We found this sign on the way to Oregon and had to get a shot by it!

Excuse me?

One thing that having a blog has made me do, is notice things about life that I could write on here. Yesterday I was standing on one side of a wide path talking to a friend. A little girl in a flowery little dress walked up to me and said, "Excuse me,"...she said this several times before I noticed (my bad)...Anyways, I finally looked down at this little girl wondering what she wanted. I assumed that she had something to say, but instead she said, "excuse me," again. Finally I realized what she wanted...so with half of the path unobstructed I moved over so that she could walk on the part that I was currently standing on. This caught me as ironic...so here I am writing about it. Isn't it true to life, though? We feel entitled to things, whether or not they should be ours. It seems that this is what we as parents are trying to teach our children: that they are not entitled to everything they want whenever they want it. And then even if we spend all of our time trying to teach them that, there is still a feeling of entitlement even into adulthood. I think my mom did a pretty good job of teaching me this principle and here I am as a 23 year old adult still feeling entitled to things. I feel entitled to a break at the end of the day when Josh gets home from a 12 hour grueling work day! Or how about this, I feel entitled to a "thank you for dinner," when all I did was slap two weiners into a premade bun? In the mornings I am the one that deserves more sleep, because I was the one up nursing all night...when in fact Josh stays awake to keep me company, changes the diapers, and even goes and gets me a drink most nights. A little girl wanting to walk on the part of the path I am standing on is beginning to seem less ironic now. I just want to say thank you to my sweet husband Josh for taking the baby so that I can relax a little, for making it sound like even my hot dogs are the essence of fine dining, and for letting me be the one who gets the extra hour of sleep in the morning. More simply said, "Thank you, Josh for being the one to move so that I can walk straight on the path."



Funny side note: When I walked into Isaac's room last night, I was met by a high-pitched note... sung by Josh this time!(Read previous blog) We are well on our way to having an unspoiled child who never expects anything from us!

Here is me feeling entitled to something: a break...some sympathy? Who took this picture anyway?

Isaac Sleeps in the Bathroom Now?!?!

Sometimes I only feel like I can write on here if we have done something interesting recently. But I figured that isn't true...why not write about what I do with Isaac on a daily basis? Why not tell where you can find me at any given moment? The anwer to that is upstairs, in the corner of Isaac's nursery rocking him in our big oversized rocking chair. While doing this I am singing a high-pitched note as loudly as I can, (yes one single note that sounds similar to screaming but isn't) trying to soothe my baby. I know, it's wierd that that is what soothes him to sleep...even wierder is that I discovered it. In an attempt to be less disturbing to my neighbor's I am trying something new suggested by one of my friends. She told me I need to put him in a pitch black room so he won't be distracted by the light. The only room that this happens to be in my house is the bathroom...either that or the closet and shutting my baby up in the closet just doesn't sound as good for some reason. This is only temporary until I go by some black-out blinds for his bedroom, but in the meantime I spend my days working on getting my child to take a half-decent nap in his pitch black chamber.


Here are my two sweet boys. By the look on his face I am not sure that Isaac is liking this.


Here is the large, oversized rocking chair in his bedroom. Doesn't he look tiny in it?

And here is Isaac sleeping. One very exhausted little baby.

The Tulip Festival

This last week Isaac and I went to the tulip festival four times! It was so much fun! One of the times I got my sister-in-laws and their kids together to go. The kids had a blast rolling down the hills and playing on the grass. It made me excited to think about when Isaac will be doing all of that, too. Later on that day I took Josh back to it so that he could see how spectacular it was. There was so much color. It really was incredible...a sort of romantic paradise. We saw dance groups there for prom, and lots of couples on dates. It was raining so Thanksgiving Point handed out lots of huge umbrella's for everyone to use. And then to top it off there was a huge waterfall in the middle of it all. It really was so picturesque.


This is my neice and I standing next to the bagpipers. They were just walking around playing their bagpipes to give the gardens an Irish/Scottish ambiance.


These are some of my sister-in-laws and mother-in-law taking pictures of the kids rolling down the hill.

Isaac woke up to nurse while we were walking around so I kept him out of his stroller and took a few pictures with him!

These were my favorite Tulips in the garden.

Isaac looking out from his carseat! He is just SO cute!

Now I just wish I could go to Holland and see the beautiful Tulip fields there!

Isaac's Blessing

Isaac's blessing was a lot of fun, but also very hectic as well! We decided to combine with Josh's brother who also had a baby two weeks to-the-day after Isaac was born. With three families combining together and one of them being Josh's family we had well over 70 people there. I guess that in the church hand book it says to bring your baby before a body of the church to be blessed and Josh's brother Johnny pointed out that this was a body of the church! I prayed and prayed that Isaac would not cry through his blessing...and on cue, right at the end of the blessing Isaac began to cry. Josh and his brother Danny joked that it was due to the high velocity bouncing arms of the 13 men surrounding the circle. I had to take Isaac out for his cousin's blessing...not just out in the hall, but OUTSIDE where his crying wouldn't disturb the reverence. That kid has got a good said of lungs. Like mother, like son as the saying goes I suppose.

All in all the blessing was an incredible experience. Josh and I have blessed our first baby... Definately a milestone on our path to raising up a righteous family. My grandma came down for the occasion and we were able to get a four generation with her, my dad, Isaac, and myself. Isaac is the first great grand baby on my dad's side and that was a neat experience to watch my grandma holding him.

Here is Josh, his dad, and Isaac in a three generation picture.

Here is the four genereation picture. I got one of these with my dad, my grandma, and my great grandma when I was a baby, so I really wanted to get this one to match it.

And this one was just for kicks. I don't know if you have noticed in the pictures yet, but Isaac came out bald on the top with tons of hair around the sides. Everyone calls him the "little highcouncil man." We decided to get a picture of him with Henry B. Eyring who shares a similar hairstyle.