Ike

Isaac understands everything we say, but still has a hard time communicating himself. He has the right tone to things, but leaves out a lot of the consonants, so we end up guessing a lot of the time until he says we are right.

Tonight, as Ike and I were making cookies, I started to chat with him.
Me: Do you love that? (as he's licking a spoon with batter)
Ike: YA!
Me: Do you love the cherries?
Ike: YA!
Me: Do you love pickles? (This went on- pb & j sandwiches, peppers, carrots, avocado...)
Ike responding to each one: YA!
Me: Do you love .... Um......
Ike: Shooosh.
Me: Oh. Do you love juice?
Ike: YA!
Me: Do you love....?
Ike: (mouth full of batter at this point) sheesh.
Me: What?
Ike: (doing the baby sign for cheese) sheesh.
Me: Do you love cheese?
Ike: YA!

The End. I know that's not the greatest story written down, but I'll remember how it looked. :)

Happy Holidays!

New Pictures! Scroll down....

Santa

So, last year before Christmas, we kept reminding Cal that Santa was not real. We didn't want to celebrate Santa for these reasons:
1. Santa really isn't real (gasp).
2. We wanted the focus of the holiday to be on Jesus' birth and what his God-man life means to us, as believers.
3. We didn't want some bogus fairytale man to get all the credit for the presents (yeah, selfish, I know).
4. We didn't want our kids to be devastated when they found out the truth.

This year, however, I haven't told Calvin that Santa is not real. Although he does not come to our house, we just don't really talk about him. They got to see Santa at the mall, but we decided not to really mention him for these reasons.

1. We didn't want him to tell all of our friends' kids who believe in a bogus fairytale man (you know who you are).
2. We don't remind him all year long that Micky, Frosty and Barney aren't real.
3. We are trying hard enough to get the focus off of presents (for me, especially).

Today, on the way home, Cal yelled, "Guess what?! God is like Santa! God gives us presents, too!" I was speechless and didn't know how to respond, but my husband calmly replied, "No, Calvin. Santa is like God. Santa is a story that shows us how good God is to us and how people can do good to eachother."

I'm not sure if Eric read that somewhere, but I was impressed by his response. I like him.

God answers prayer

* We got to see Dr. Leann's dentist office in Rockford on the way back to Minneapolis. She let him pick a prize from her treasure chest, which ended up being a parachute-man. He started off the trip mumbling in the back, making him talk and stuff. Eventually, he got quiet for a few minutes and then shouted, "Hey! My parachute man got tangled up but I prayed to God for him to help me and He did!"

Xmas pictures

Christmas at the McElroys...

I don't think I took any pictures during our time in Chicago. However, my mom just sent me these from Christmas at the McElroys (Barb, if you send me your pics, I promise I'll post them!).

Here's Scott (Tom's son). Eric and I got him the hat and book. He said that he didn't know he was a hat person but that this hat is now "his thing." We were proud. Eric's goal with presents is always to buy someone something that they never knew they always wanted.

Ike with a headlight on. He looks like a creepy pirate, though.


For those of you that don't know, Tom had a small speaking role in the Dark Knight. He got this fancy screenplay (script) that included his lines. (From Richard and Kari, I believe.)

I saw these in Target and shouted out how cool they were. Becky and Cheryl got them for me, but they weren't exactly comfortable. I had jeans on under these- that's why I look so lumpy (ha).

My boys climbing all over me.

Becky, Cheryl, Richard, Kari, Eric and I thought it would be funny to bring this over-priced wine-filled knight to Tom and Sally as a present. Unfortunately, Tom never got to see the thing with any wine in it.

Eric, me, Jason, Stef. I'm holding a present from Stef, who's known for superior present-wrapping skills.

Aunt Becky, Cal, Me, Ike. Eric got Isaac to say "Booger Becky."

The girl cousins. Rachel, Sarah and Kristy are my dad's brother's girls. Our families were really close growing up and we still do xmas together.

My mom and Tom. They just celebrated their 9th anniversary together.
Cheryl and Becky. Cheryl asked for sweater vests for xmas and ended up getting five. Jason shouted, "This is the vest Christmas ever!" I still think it's funny.

Tom's boys, Scott and Richard, with Richard's wife, Kari.

Stef is obsessed with I Love Lucy and Golden Girls and this made her "Christmas complete."

Scott and Ike

I like this picture because it looks like I was actually helping put this 1000 piece jellybelly puzzle together. I think I got about 15 pieces total. Eric was the master. What a dork (anybody that can do anything better than I can is a dork).

Ike and Grandma Sally. Isaac has been an all-around happier baby since he's turned two. He loves to talk, do things himself, play with trains and trucks, and wrestle.

I don't think we've ever gotten a picture together. Here's the first, I guess!

Cal's Shiner

Calvin and Isaac ran smack into eachother at church on Sunday. It sounded like two rocks hitting eachother. Ike has no damage.

Day 1

Day 3

Photo Shoot

I don't know why this one is sideways. It's not sideways on my hard-drive. What's up with that?

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my main man. The most handsome man (as you can see). The most photogenic man.

Beginning of December...

The new addition to our wool pants. Jess made these. I need a better picture- this doesn't do it justice.

Right before church. My mom made the sweater Ike is wearing. I think it looks better on him than it did on Calvin- maybe because he's ... wider.

Isaac has a very innocent looking face. Don't be fooled.

Cal was pretending he was a potato head, too. Now whenever he sets them up, he asks me to take a picture of them.

Boogers

Cal is not ashamed by his new habit- picking his nose and eating his boogers. I am desperately trying to get him to quit using any and all tactics- threatening spankings (really?), saying he won't have any friends if he continues, acting disgusted and leaving the room in haste, and most recently, reverse psychology:

I got a huge booger out of Isaac's nose today. I showed Cal and asked him, "Do you want to eat it, Cal? Look, it's right here! Go ahead and have it. Why don't you just stick your whole tongue right in his nose. It'll be great!"

He laughed at me and said, "Just my boogers taste good, mom."

New Food

On the way home from an errand, Cal said, "What are we going to have for dinner tonight, mom? I hope we have something I've never had before." As I silently congratulated myself on raising a son who wants to try new food, he added, "Like pop."

In Chicago

I didn't take very many pictures of the Chicago trip this time. Here's a few-

Every time we go to the Miller's, they order our favorite pizza from Pizza House. This time, I requested Stone Creek pizza since it's been about ten years since I had it. It was extremely tasty. Barb has been cooperating with the camera lately and looking at it while smiling. Hooray for Grandma Barb! Grandma Klemm has been staying at the Miller's while she's been recuperating from pneumonia. And then there's Steve. He paid for the pizza.

Isaac has become extremely attached to his blanky and sucks on the corners. It's practically impossible to wash since he drags it around everywhere. My mom commented on how smelly and dirty it was, so I asked her to cut it up and make four different blankies. Isaac loves them! Grandma Klemm and Cal. Calvin is showing off his flexibility skills.

We drove a friend home from Chicago with us. It took us 10 hours to get there because of Thanksgiving traffic. Calvin started sucking on his big toe (from boredom?) and Isaac immediately took off his shoes and socks to do the same. Doofuses.

Check out the next post for pics from April's wedding.

April's Wedding

April and Kevin's wedding was beautiful. We had lots of fun dancing.
Becky and me

Cheryl and Beck- not sure what's going on here...

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I'm thankful for...



* Eric arriving safely to celebrate with us.

* Calvin's amazing artwork (That's Calvin with trees and clouds).


* My church family

* God's goodness and provision in our lives.

* My mom, sister and brother

* Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection.

* Staying at home to raise my boys.

* One dog.

* The color green.

* the promise that summer will come again.

* Isaac's energy and excitement for all things big and small.

* Forgiveness.

* My amazing friends

* The unknown future that will surely be filled with more good things, more growth and maybe more babies. :)

For what are YOU thankful?

Jelly Belly

We're in Chicagoland for Thanksgiving.

Eric's family took us to the Jelly Belly Store that had tours. It had a lot of videos about the history of Jelly Bellys and the other candy they make. It seemed directed toward adults, but the boys loved the train ride and free candy afterward.

Longies

My mom (after much prodding, pleeing and begging from me) knit these wool longies for Isaac. They are used as a diaper cover, but he can wear them once he's potty-trained, too. He really likes them.

And just because he was saying "cheese."

A Note on Lola

As many of you now know, we had to surrender Lola a couple months ago. She has been in a foster care and I checked the website yesterday and she was no longer listed. I wrote the woman who had her and this is what she replied:

She finally did find a home, thank goodness! Her anxiety here was worsening, to the point she chewed through a door and killed the Guinea Pig when we were gone... at that point I asked around, found a friend of a foster home to " foster" her, and there she has stayed for good. They are retired and she is hardly ever left home. They absolutely adore her, and being older, feel very safe having a big dog in the home. She also has 5 acres to run on so gets plenty of exercise. She was a hard dog, but the patience won out in the end! I can see though how you could not live with her, with the kids ... but she is exactly where she needs to be now.

So I'm feeling pretty good about the situation and hope you do, too!

Curtains

My friend, Sara (Kate, Ella and Luke's mom), is helping me make curtains. I do not even own a sewing machine, so it's actually been pretty fun. Except the cutting. I hated the cutting. Here's one window done. We still have 10 more panels to do on 7 windows left. I'm hoping by Thanksgiving they'll be done.
How ugly is this?!