Potty Training

I feel I must post something about our potty training experience. To all my fellow mom friends, I wish someone had properly warned me about this stage! To all my friends without kids- consider this your warning. Potty training is a LONG GRUELING PROCESS! It does not happen quickly or easily in my opinion/experience. Finally, after months of working with Vivi we are getting somewhere but we're still not there yet! However, as of late, she is pretty self-sufficient. I had to post this shot because it cracks me up. Nick didn't even realize how far Vivi had come until he walked down the hall and saw this. I think I'll "remember" this for awhile. This is Vivi reading her Nemo book- her favorite bathroom read.

Chloe's Monkey Party

Happy 2nd Birthday Chloe! We celebrated all weekend as I mentioned before Jillian's brithday was on Friday, then Saturday we joined my niece for her monkey birthday. It turned out so precious with all our little monkeys. Here are some shots from the party. Vivi talked for over a month about getting to wear this monkey t-shirt and heart shaped socks. WOW! I'm glad she got to break them in, now the problem will be getting them off her to wash. She wore them for three straight days! Thank you for a fun time and the continued celebrating for the rest of the day too.

Jillian's Zoo Birthday

Last weekend was a weekend for the parties! We joined some friends at the zoo for Jillian's birthday. What a fun time! We noticed that all the girls had pink or purple on-dressed to impress. I was really glad when the Pfeffer's showed up because poor little Isaac was way outnumbered by the girls! As mentioned before each trip to the zoo brings something special and unique. This trip was unique because it was Jillian's birthday and so we got to be there with many friends but we also got to enjoy the sandbox which we've never done before. Although most the girls enjoyed it, I think Vivi could have passed as she kept complaining about how cold the sand was. Oh well! She was in a mood that day as you can see from the carousel shot. Either way, we had fun and really appreciate the ice cream sandwiches and time to play with friends. Thanks for letting us be a part of your special day Jillian!

Happy Valentine's-sorta!

Happy Valentine's friends and family! It seems the holidays are becoming synonmous with sickness in our house. This Valentine's we got the fun stomach bug- we being Vivi and mommy. Wednesday night it hit us like a mack truck and we probably went through 9 loads of laundry that one day! WOW! Fortunately, it was short-lived so we were able to celebrate a little. Isaac and daddy also did not get it-so that's a HUGE praise. Thursday Nick stayed home half day to take care of us. THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Friday, I dressed up Isaac in his little onesie as I nursed Vivi back to health. By Saturday, everyone was healthy. Nana came to sit the kids so Nick and I could sneak away for a short daytime date. She brought some sweet books and a My Little Pony for Vivi. We ventured to the Modern to enjoy some lunch and a quick tour through the gallery. It was a nice time. When we returned we let the kids open some small tokens from us-a V-day book for each of them and a pair of heart shoes for Vivi. We ended the night with leftovers and a great renter- "Fireproof". If you haven't seen this one, you can borrow it as my parents got us a copy. I would HIGHLY recommend it for any married couple. It's excellent and provides lots of good conversation.

Double Duty

Here's one of my favorite shots recently taken of Daddy doing double duty on the night time routine. He has been great with me and the kids lately pulling more than his fair share of duties. There's been some adjusting and sleep "issues" in our house-mainly our daughter doesn't want to sleep anymore. I guess this is a stage...at least I hope so! As I type she's knocking on her door and talking to her imaginary friends in her room. Oh boy! Soon Isaac will have his own room and I'm hoping that will help everyone get more sleep. Check out his grin!

Polka Dot babies

Here's a few shots of Vivi and Isaac laying on the ground enjoying a conversation. Vivi really talks with Isaac and now he is cooing back and smiling at her. She comments that his eyes are smiling at her. It's really sweet! This was a polka dot day.

Good news

I wanted to say "Thank you" to all who "remembered" to pray for our family over the last two weeks. We have been thoroughly blessed and I hope you see God's faithfulness to answer each of your prayers! Here are a couple of quick updates.
1. I got my results from my diabetes test- negative. I do not have diabetes! In fact, my blood sugar went the opposite-low. Basically, no cutting out food any time soon for me! He encouraged me to eat, and try best to keep it healthy but to not worry too much. PRAISE GOD!

2. We think we have discovered the culprit for Isaac's face rashes- peanuts. We saw a slight improvement the week I eliminated them. Then we eliminated dairy and brought them back, the worst week yet- last week! This week, in 2 days his face almost completely cleared. It is a HUGE DIFFERENCE! One more item to try and figure out- almonds. Either way, we are peanut free in our house now. I also noticed a little improvement in the feeling of Vivi's skin since she's off peanuts. Probably around Isaac's 1st birthday we'll have him tested for allergies and maybe Vivi too. I'm so grateful it's not dairy!! Peanuts are a lot easier for us to cut out. One sad face, no more Chickfila for awhile but at least I don't have to give up mac-n-cheese!

3. In the midst of a tough economy we have been blessed financially. We are now able to get a piece of furniture for our computer to move out to the living room and give Isaac his own space. This was another big concern laying on my heart. God completely took this one out.

I hope this encourages you to continue to pray fervently friends. We are so blessed. One picture of me and my little bundle of joy from this morning.

Isaac's 1st Zoo trip with the girls

Last Friday we ventured back to the zoo (this time to find it open yeah!). It was a great day to go there with cooler weather but not cold. The clouds scared most of the people away but the animals loved it! It's a little crazy trying to coral three kids there (I have a whole new respect for you Holly!) but there were lots of hands to help as I went with my sis and mom. Every time we go to the zoo there is always one special and unique occurence. This time I thought Vivi made a new friend with the meerkats. One was literally following her up and down the the length of the window. She also got close and personal with one of the chimps who sat right next to her. It was a nice end to the week.

Ride 'Em Cowboy!

Ladies day planned a night out to the rodeo and Isaac and I joined in for some cowboy fun. I just popped him in the bjorn and we trucked it to the Will Rogers Auditorium where we saw the cowboys rope up steer, ride bulls, and beautiful horses. We really enjoyed visiting with ladies and the cotton candy! YUM! Friends were so sweet enjoying Isaac and a good friend Tracey even took a shift holding him and playing with him. Check out our pics. Thank you to our great-Granny Van for our fun cowboy outfit. Thank you to Mrs. Parkhurst for mommies new haircut-I'm loving it!

Cry cry Baby!

This week has been a tough one as mentioned to some of you. This morning I had my retest for glucose to make sure I'm not diabetic. I won't know results until next week, but I can say there were some praises already to be reported- #1 Isaac slept pretty much the whole time #2 My mom took the day to come with me and support me (and keep me distracted) #3 When I got there they informed me it would only be a two hour test not 3 hour! This meant a shorter time I had to be there and one less prick! YEAH! Still, in the midst of all of this I've felt a little overwhelmed. On top of this, we've noticed some face rashes in Isaac that have had us concerned. We mentioned it to our pediatrician and he has me maniuplating our diet to make sure it's not food allergies (since he's nursing this means I diet too). Also, Vivi has had bad eczema since birth so we have her on the same plan too. So far no noticeable changes, but this week will be tough as we are giving up dairy! If you read this, say a prayer for our family. I think this picture of Isaac says it all.

"Do this in rememberance of me"

As some of you loyal readers have read, I've decided to post a word of the year which is "remember". I find there is truly little irony and mostly God's hand in things which can be construed as irony. This past Sunday, we attended big church and Ken, our pastor, spoke about communion. The theme was titled "remember". He spoke about how Jesus told us to break bread and drink from the cup in rememberance of Him and how His body was broken and his blood poured out for us. The subject of repentance was also brought up again that we are to bring our sin to the Savior's feet so we can communion with Him. It was a nice sermon and a good reminder for me to remember Jesus' sacrifice and in order to stay in communion I must continually confess and repent of my sinful life. I feel God is working this in me over and over. I feel His grace over and over too, and that is the sweetest! In the midst of a tough week, I needed to hear this.

Family Reunion

This past Saturday we had a mini-reunion. Some of my mother's family drove in from Austin to spend a day hanging out. The group included my Aunt Becky, cousing Beth, her baby Breyah, and my cousin Kelly. My grandad also surprised us with a visit. Em brought Chloe as well. We sent all the other guys over to Em's so it was a mostly girly day. Unfortunately, due to crazy circumstances we missed out on almost all that we had planned to do. Fortunately, we still enjoyed the visit and time with family. Thank you to Beck and the crew for trucking it up here!

Secret Bounce House

My sister discovered a bounce house facility near her that has a secret "toddler" room. I guess it's not a real secret but it was so not busy that it felt like we had a special little vip pass. All the bounce houses were short so the parents could see over them and not have to climb up them. It was a real treat. Included are a couple of shots of Vivi and Chloe and little Isaac enjoying it too. Check out the shot of Isaac locked in on Elmo. He made a new friend that day! It was a great playdate during the wintertime! Vivi and I attended a party recently at a bounce house facility and it was way too big for the kids. I ended up climbing up a tower holding on for dear life and pushing my 25+ pound daughter's behind straight up yelling "Grab the white bars Vivi! You can do it!" Needless to say it was a MAJOR workout but not one I would want to repeat again soon. I think I'll stick to the toddler room!