Picture post!

Just a cute picture of Isaac with a random hat! He's such a fun happy crazy little boy!

Aunt Lianna bought the boys this adorable tent for Christmas and the boys are obsessed with it! Especially Isaac. He wants it out all the time!

This was a proud mommy moment! Last Sunday in primary they made CTR shields. In preschool they're learning to write their names. I was so proud of Oliver for writing most of his name and CTR on his own shield!

Our little SUPERSTAR!

At preschool every couple of months each kid gets a chance to be the star of the week. Last week was Oliver's second turn! Miss Sam sends home a little questionaire and they get spotlighted and get to feel special all week! This time they decorated a cardboard gingerbread person to look like themselves. It's so much fun for the kids!

This is the blurb (with Oliver's answers to the questionaire) that was in the weekly newsletter.
This weeks star of the week is Oliver. Oliver's favorite breakfast is waffles and his favorite song is Jingle Bells. Out of all of the holidays, Oliver's favorite is Christmas. He loves to hop with his Mommy, and his favorite vacation was "when we went to Disneyland and Sea World last summer". Oliver has 4 people in his family, and his favorite treat is candy pizza. What makes Oliver happy is "Santa Claus and LOTS of presents." We love Oliver!

It makes them feel so special!

Isaac's 15 month well visit

Isaac LOVES his big Brother!

Isaac is into EVERYTHING!!!
Last week Isaac turned 15 months! This little boy is growing and changing so fast. He walked just after his first birthday and he is such a curious little monkey! Isaac says mama, dada, hi, bye, uh-oh, what is it? and luv you! Isaac is a climber and gets into a lot of trouble. He also wants to do everything his cool big brother does! He is such a crazy boy! We love our sweet little Isaac!

15 month Stats:
Weight: 25.38 lbs 63rd percentile
height: 31.5 inches 63rd percentile

Berto's Birthday

Berto turned 35 this year! We didn't do too much. Just had a quiet day at home with the kids! I made Berto chicken, bacon pasta for dinner (I didn't like it) and a yummy chocolate cake! Berto got the motorolla razr that he's been wanting! It was a quiet day but good! We love you Berto and love all you do for us! Happy Birthday!! (Old man!)

Christmas

The Holiday's this year were great. Oliver really "GOT" it! Not just Santa but also the Birth of our Savior. We had a great Christmas. My mom and sister were able to fly up and of course all of the grandparents spoiled the boys rotten! Christmas eve we had a FULL house. It was us, my mom, my sister and my brother. Everyone slept over so that Oliver (and Isaac) didn't have to wait to open their presents.
We had a special Christmas day. We opened gifts and ate breakfast. Then we all got ready for church. After church we came home and got our Christmas dinner ready. I made gluten free Lasagna with Itallian sausage, spinach, ricotta and mozzarella. It was yummy! Then after dinner we piled into the cars and headed down to Temple Square to see the lights! It was a great day! And we were so happy to have my mom and sister with us from California!

I was especially glad because I came down with a really high fever and sore throat and my mom was here for a few days to help with my kids! It was great!

Halloween

This year Halloween was super fun! Oliver loved trick or treating (even though he was REALLY shy about actually saying trick or treat!) Oliver was Rescue Hero Billy Blazes and Isaac was a pumpkin!
We went to the Trunk or Treat at our Church Building and at Verizon they had a little halloween festival with snacks, a little spook alley and trick or treating through out the call center. It was fun and Oliver loved going around daddy's work!

Oliver's 4th Birthday

Our big 4 year old!

On November 4, 2011 Oliver turned 4 years old! Oliver is such a fun energetic little boy! He is so fun to be around! Oliver's favorite thing in the world right now is preschool. He thrives from preschool. He loves the social and educational aspects of it. Even after only two short months he adores it! And I'm so glad! He is still way into cars, trains, airplanes... pretty much anything boyish! We of course officially celebrated his birthday with Isaac and a fun little party two weeks earlier and since we were right in the middle of finishing up our move (really bad timing darn it!) We had a Costco pizza lunch (O's fave) and some cake! And we of course opened presents. This was a funny day. We ate at our dining table in the middle of the living room surrounded by boxes and bins! There was hardly room to walk and we couldn't find our flame throwers or matches so Oliver had to pretend to blow out his candles. But he was so excited to be 4 and get his presents that he didn't care!

We love our Oliver and feel so happy to be his parents!

Oliver's 4 year Stats:
Height: 3 ft 9 inches Tall 100 percentile
Weight: 53 lbs 100 percentile

Oliver has been consistent since birth! He's our little giant and we love him!

The Move

On October 5, 2011 our landlords gave us 30 days notice to move. The house we were renting was behind a business that they own and they decided they needed to expand some office space into the house! ... So we were on the move again! Moving day(s) were November 3rd and 4th. Moving went pretty smoothly and we found a cute apartment in Holladay, Ut. We really love living in Holladay. It's in a beautiful neighborhood, with a great (pretty close) view of the mountains and very close to a library! I'm especially loving apartment living right now because there is so much less to clean! :) We haven't lived in an apartment since we were first married and I'd forgotten what a cinch it is to keep up an apartment! We were really sad to leave the ward we were in because it felt like home! I guess though there are new people we need to meet and things we need to do here in Holladay!

Isaac's Birthday and our 5th Anniversary!

1st Birthday Boy!


The boys with their cakes!


Anniversary flowers!

Ok, our computer has been down for way too long and I'm happy to report that we have a brand new computer and I am officially (for real this time) back to blogging! :) I have quite a bit of catching up to do so I'm starting with Isaac's 1st birthday and well visit!

We really didn't get to crazy for either of the boys birthday's this year. We were in the throws of moving (which will come in another post) so time didn't allow for anything too big!

On the day of Isaac's first birthday we had our family pictures taken and that evening we had a couple families from our ward at church over to celebrate. We did a kind of combined part for both boys. My friend Wendi made this AMAZING Thomas the Train cake for Oliver and I made a little turtle cupcake cake for Isaac. It was a fun evening we ate pizza and cake and let the kids run wild! It was a good day!

Isaac at age one was already saying mama and dada.

Isaac's 12 month stats:
Weight: 23.44 lbs 60 percentile
Height: 30.22 inches 65 percentile

We love our Isaac. He is such a joy and so much fun to be around. He's a great eater (which is a HUGE change from his big brother)!

As I mentioned before we were in moving mode this year so our anniversary (which is Isaac's birthday) was pretty low key. We exchanged cards and Berto got me some gorgeous flowers.... and we had a party for the kids! We didn't have a chance to do anything exciting even on our 5 year milestone anniversary! Oh well there's always next year! I can't even believe we've been married for 5 years. We've done a lot in five years. We've had two beautiful boys, lived in 3 states, moved (after this one is finished) 7 times! And that is just the tip of the iceberg! I am so grateful to have such a loving, hardworking, kind, generous, fun loving, funny, handsome husband. I love you Roberto! Here's to a million more anniversaries to come!

ok blogging world..... I'm back!

I'm so happy to say that I just got my early Christmas present. Since our laptop has been acting up I haven't been able to get much blogging done. Well I just got a tablet and will be able to get all caught up! Be warned!

Big News

Well, we got an email (yes an email) from our landlord yesterday. The business they own has grown quite a bit and they need to expand... into the rental house! We are going to be moving again in 30 days... now for packing and home hunting! AAAHHHH!!!!! I cried a lot yesterday. But now I'm in action mode. Here's to another adventure!

Aunt Lianna's Visit

Lianna came for conference weekend. We had a fun time! She had some mission friends over and went to conference on Saturday. On Friday we took road the trax and dragged her to Gardner Village which is all decorated with Witches for Halloween! We had a fun lunch and got some yummy fudge and wandered around! It was a great time! Come visit soon Auntie!!

A first

The pictures are out of order!

Getting Casted

The bent arm!

Waiting to leave the Er!

Getting the splint

The Cast!

Well it happened. We have officially been inducted into that part of parenthood. The part that all parents dread happening ... And secretly wonder just how long it'll be before they get there. For us we thought we would have that dreaded ER visit a long time ago. We were pleased that we were six weeks shy of four years.

That's right, on September 19, 2011 Oliver broke both bones in his left upper wrist lower forearm. We were out in the front yard. I had been doing a bit of yard work. I had given a 5 minute warning so we could go in and have dinner. I turned around to put some clothes in the dryer and heard a smack on the concrete followed by lots of crying. I knew it was not good right away. Oliver doesn't cry over every skinned knee. He cries if he's truly hurt. We went inside and he sat on the step in between the living room and kitchen. Oliver was chalk white. For anyone who knows my O man at all you know his cheeks are always rosy! I cleaned up his scrapes and looked at arm. I could tell it was bad because there appeared to be a bend in his arm. I called a friend of mine who is a nurse at a pediatric orthopedic hospital. Her and her husband came right over and with their insight I decided a trip to the ER was in order. Our sweet friends drove the boys and me (since Berto was at work with our car).

After X-rays we found that he had in fact fractured both the radius and ulna bones. As soon as it was splinted the color came back in his cheeks.

We had to wait a whole week for his cast. He picked blue and to my surprise the cast is waterproof which is amazing! He has to wear it for four weeks, and it could take up to a year for his arm to appear straight again.

Our other first was on Saturday September 24, 2011 our sweet Isaac took his first steps. He was holding onto Berto and took three steps to the couch! He's not walking yet... But I am afraid it will be any day now!!

Parental Question and Advice PLEASE!

Ok, I have about 5 posts that I've written and need to get pics cropped and uploaded for... but this is going to take a priority. Oliver is in his 3rd week of preschool. He comes home everyday and is bouncing off the walls, is mean to the baby and does not listen. What do I do? Nothing seems to help. I've threatened, put him in time out, spanked, try to give him love and attention. I'm at my wits end and considering (gasp) pulling him out of preschool. I don't know if it's normal for a kids to behave like this. Is it just a faze? On the days he's NOT at preschool it's business as usual. He's not nearly as hyper and disobedient. Of course there is some of that. He's not quite 4 years old. BUT on preschool days it's out of control. I don't know what to do.

Isaac's dreaded Iron

At Isaac's 9 month check up they tested his iron and it was LOW. :( We spend the next six weeks making sure he had BEEF at least once a day to try and bring those numbers up. Last Thursday September 8, 2011 we had his follow-up appointment and to our dismay his iron was even LOWER. It was such a bad morning. After rushing Oliver to preschool and rushing back to pick up Isaac, on the way to the pediatrician I got into a little fender bender. There was no damage to either car but it was still nerve racking. Then to have to doctor tell me his iron was even lower. I was on the verge of tears. I had to take him directly to the outpatient lab at the hospital for some blood work. That was awful. They stuck him THREE times before they drew any blood. They were doing a more accurate hemoglobin test and testing for lead poisoning. The pediatrician called back Thursday evening to let us know that his iron was a bit higher from the blood test. It was basically at the very low end of normal. So we only need to give him a multi-vitamin with iron each day. PHEW. It will take a week for the lead test results to get back. In the meantime I contacted our landlord to find out how old the house we rent is. Thankfully, it was built in 1981 and they worry about lead in homes built prior to 1978. That is a huge relief. I'm not nearly as concerned as I was about the lead poisoning. Just a little more stress than any mom wants. But a multi-vitamin everyday I can handle if it gets his iron levels up so he's not anemic anymore!

Preschool

Oliver and his friend Anya in front of preschool on the first day!



Oliver and Anya with Miss Sam!

Oliver started preschool on September 6th. He was sssooo excited! He has been going for a week and a half now and all last weekend he begged to go to preschool! I asked his teacher how he did after the first day. She said " Oliver did fine today. I know that he had a blast because he was REALLY excited and happy throughout the class. He had a lot of energy and I am excited to help him learn to channel it. Please don't ever hesitate to email or call me, I am happy to help and reassure in any way that I can."
My sweet little ball of energy! Ha! He loves it! His teacher's name is Miss Sam. She's just awesome with the kids. I am so happy that he's having this time to learn and grow! And Isaac is loving having a couple hours of time with mommy and daddy and NOT having toys yanked out of his hands every time he gets a new one!

Oliver's teeth Follow-up

After a second visit to the dentist for Oliver's face plant his teeth have not changed (which is good). I guess we are supposed to look for signs of trauma for up to a year post accident. But as of now they are fine and good and DON'T NEED TO BE PULLED!!!

9/11/11

I have a ton of catch up blogging that I'm still working on... but I felt like I needed to get this written down. On facebook on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th a friend of mine posted what she was doing that dreaded morning 10 years previous and asked to share what we were doing. So I shared what I was doing and felt like I should write it down here.

I can remember that I was at home getting ready for work and my mom called me in to her bedroom to watch the news with her. I was horrified and spent the rest of the day (next couple of weeks) listening to talk radio as I worked out of my car. What really hit home to me was the fact that two weeks prior to 9/11 I had turned in my mission papers. I was waiting for an envelope that could send me anywhere in the world. I know it's nerve racking for anyone waiting for their "call" but I felt especially terrified because of the state of the United States and of the World at that moment in time. I received my mission call that Thursday. It was signed and dated by President Gordon B. Hinkley September 11, 2001. That said so many things to me about the importance of the missionary work I was about to do. It told me that it is so important that the world was falling apart around us (at least it felt that way) and President Hinkley the latter day Prophet didn't stop to watch the news, he kept moving forward. He kept issuing mission calls. I felt like that said that now more than maybe ever before the work needs to go forward.

Thank you Jaclyn Snyder for encouraging me to write this down for my kids to read in the future.

Vacation 2011

Sea World

Disneyland

Airport seeing Lianna!
Well, we went to California in August! It was a nice vacation and the main reason we went was to celebrate my sister Lianna's return home from her mission to Omaha, NE! It was so much fun to see her! We flew which was the best idea I've ever had! We arrived in CA on August 18th! Lianna arrived home on the 19th! We had a whirlwind of activities. We met Lianna at the airport with signs of love, went to her open house the following day, listened to her wonderful homecoming report on Sunday, ate dinner and celebrated Lianna's birthday at my moms on Sunday, Went to Disneyland on Monday, rested on Tuesday (ha ha), went to sea world on Wednesday and flew home on Thursday! PHEW I'm still exhausted thinking about it! It was a super fun trip! Oliver loved Disneyland and Sea World. Isaac LOVED Lianna! Which I'm so glad he did because she hadn't met him yet!

We also stayed the entire trip with our dear friends Greg and Carol Ann! They are so amazing to put up with us for so long! Our boys play so well together, 4 boys ages 5 years old down to 10 months and I think we had one little argument in an entire week! We are always so grateful for their welcome home!

So that was our vacation in a nutshell! Enjoy the pictures! I figure there isn't a whole lot to say! We barely blinked the whole week we were so busy with things to do! But it was a great time! I think two weeks later my kids are still recuperating! :)

5K

No, No we did not win $5,000! But on August 6th Berto and I ran a 5k! It was fun! I am still trying desperately to get rid of some of, any of this baby weight that will not fall off of my body from my dear sweet Isaac. I had only ONE goal for this race... it was TO NOT FINISH LAST! And I didn't so I was happy! We just did a fun run with the Salt Lake Running Company... the one thing we learned about doing a free 5k... You HAVE to wear their hideous free shirts WHILE you run! We also WON an awesome New Balance Backpack in their raffle! It was a great experience and Berto and I have decided to run the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in the spring! WOO!!!