Birthday Breakfast

 When we were kids my mom always took us out to eat for our birthday (one year she took me to a restaurant and I ordered fruit loops for dinner. I was 15), so in keeping with that tradition she took me, Rick, & Josh out for breakfast. Cooper & Isaiah came along and we had a great time!

To see all the pictures of my trip to Bremerton, go here

Off to the Emerald City!

 No, not the one in the Wizard of Oz. Rick & his boys joined Isaiah & me for a day trip to Seattle. We went over on the ferry and the boys did their reading homework on the way there, which seemed mean except for the fact that they were allowed to skip school just to go to Seattle with me. When we got there we walked up to Pike's Place Market and looked at all the great little shops. We even bought Isaiah a tie-dyed romper that is just darling. I will save Jerel the effort of logging in to the blog by stating right now that Jerel thinks it is hideous. I'll post a picture later so you can decide for yourself. After Pike's Place we found a really neat restaurant to eat in. It is actually a restaurant/pub so I guess now Isaiah has officially been to a bar. After lunch we headed back to the ferry for the trip home. We had a good time and Asher & Mason fought over who got to carry Isaiah in the baby bjorn and push him in the stroller, so that took care of my fears of having to lug him around all day! They are great cousins for Isaiah and played with him and just generally kept him happy. I'm thinking of having them move in!

The ferry ride was good for me...next summer we are going on a cruise courtesy of my grandma and I am pretty much convinced that Isaiah is going to somehow fall off the ship into the ocean, so this was a good way to ease myself into the baby-on-a-boat situation.

The night before we had a Rick-Josh-Mandy birthday party at Theresa's house and it was lots of fun. We had a potluck dinner and I made rolls to bring. I used Jerel's mom's recipe and I thought it was for 2 dozen rolls so that's how many I cut the dough into. It must actually be for 4 dozen or something because my 2 dozen were the biggest rolls on earth! Jerel suggested we could take just one of them and feed the entire starving population of Africa...Oh well, they still tasted good. I got several hand-turned wooden crochet hooks, some great yarn, and gift cards to JoAnn's to buy more yarn so I was delighted with all of that!

Matchy-matchy Cousins

 Isaiah bought a special present for his cousin Clara. He has a onesie that says "Say hello to Mr. Adorable" and he got her one that says "Say hello to Miss Wonderful." Of course she crossed her arms in the picture so you can't tell how much they are cute little twin-stars, but I promise it was adorable...and wonderful! Isaiah is 3 months old and Clara is 8 months old but Clara is only 1 1/2 pounds bigger than Isaiah! What a little chunker we have!

Clara was in a very sharing mood as well and she is letting Isaiah borrow her Exersaucer and her Bumbo chair. He is enjoying both of those, and Jerel & I are enjoying not spending $100 on them!

I'm a hat-making fool!

 This week I spent a few days up in Bremerton. Before I went Theresa asked me to make a new hat & scarf set for Monroe because the one I made him last year was getting too small. I love to crochet and have made myself lots of scarves, but I almost never wear them because I'm always hot, so I was excited to do it for her. Plus I love to make things for people and have them actually use it. Then I decided that I wanted to make a set for Eve too so she'd have accessories to match her new winter coat. And if I was going to make them for the two of them I couldn't leave out Clara. Then I heard we were having a birthday party for Rick & me & Josh while I was there so I made hats for them too. Monroe & Clara's hats both turned out too small so I'll be making new ones for them, but they still looked cute!

Now I'm working on an extra-special hat for Theresa. She has a gigantic noggin and always has to buy men's hats so they'll fit, so I am making a really girly one for her. I ran out of yarn & had to order more online so she didn't get her hat with everyone else, but it'll be worth the wait!

Video of Isaiah's Cute Little Laugh

Okay, I'm trying to figure out how to put video from my iPod on the blog. This is a bit advanced for me so let me know how it works out!

Birthday, Part Two

 Friday night my friend Stephanie brought over homemade cinnamon rolls. We baked them in the morning and there is just nothing better than cinnamon rolls for breakfast on your birthday!

Saturday night Jerel had church so a bunch of us girls got together. Someone brought a cake and they sang happy birthday and we all had a good time hanging out. Isaiah was really good which made it a low-stress night for me, so that was wonderful! It is always fun hanging out with the girls. You get to find out who has to wax their husband's back and who is mad at her husband for not putting his laundry in the hamper and whose husband refuses to buy feminine hygiene products. Fortunately for me Jerel doesn't fall into the first two categories. Category three, he has told me, is something he would only do in an extreme emergency situation. I asked him for an example of such a situation and he said "I can't think of anything that would qualify." At least he is honest about it!

Best. Birthday. Ever

 On Friday we went to Red Robin for my birthday and Jerel just begged to have a picture taken so I grudgingly complied. Or, more accurately, I snuck in my camera and waited until dessert to have someone take our picture because that way I didn't have to eat a whole meal with Jerel annoyed with me, just dessert. Isaiah came to dinner with us too and was very well behaved.

One of my birthday presents was that Jerel changed all the diapers on Saturday. Now I know Isaiah totally has my back because he had an enormous blow-out and I laughed and laughed while Jerel worked on changing it, "How am I supposed to get this onesie off without getting poo in his hair." Then when he was just about done he peed all over himself. Isaiah, not Jerel. Nice work Isaiah!

Jerel got me a new iPod Nano for my birthday. I have had my old one for a few years now and LOVE it. I took it with me to the hospital when we had Isaiah so I'd have calm music to listen to (as a side note, now whenever I hear the calm music we listened to it reminds me of horrible labor pains) and I remember bringing it home, but I can't find it anywhere. Jerel and I both looked and looked and it's just disappeared. I used to bring it to Primary and my class would listen to music at the end of class while they waited for their parents. They asked about it and I told them it was lost and one little girl said "Oh, well all you have to do is pray and Heavenly Father will help you find it." A great suggestion, but when it didn't work Jerel offered to buy me a new one for my birthday. I am fairly certain that now that I have a new one I will find the old one is a perfectly obvious place.

The new ipod takes video so I'm going to try to get smart and figure out how to post a video on the blog. Isaiah has started laughing and I think it's pretty cute. Almost as cute as the things Jerel is willing to do to make him laugh!