{Park City}

I decided that since David had last week off of work we needed to do something fun together as a family. This was David's last week of vacation for the year, and Isaac was starting school that Friday, so I thought it would be our last chance to do anything before the craziness of Fall and Winter begins. All day Monday and Tuesday David was digging up some grass and sprinklers where we are having cement poured for a sidewalk to our man-door on the side of our garage. He had to re-route the sprinklers so they wouldn't be buried under the cement. He was working hard, so I called my dad and asked if we could use his Park City timeshare for a day or so, knowing that we had to be home by noon on Friday to take Isaac to school. He checked it out and booked us for Wednesday and Thursday at the condo.

So, off we went on Wednesday afternoon, following Isaac's 5 year check-up and shots at the doctors office. The poor little guy was limping for two days because of the shots. The plan was for us to chill on Wednesday night and then go to the Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster and zip line on Thursday. When we got there Isaac was so excited. We decided to each get an all day pass for unlimited rides on everything and it also included mini golf, rock wall, trampolines and several small carnival-type kid rides. Yahoo! We had a blast! David and I switched off riding the slide and coaster with Isaac while the other stayed with Eli. David and I each also rode the zip line once (Isaac didn't weigh enough to go on it). I took Eli back to the condo that afternoon for a nap, taking the diaper bag with sunscreen in it with me--oops. Poor Isaac got so sunburned. Anyway, Eli was a good little boy even though he was stuck in the stroller the majority of the time, and the rest of us had so much fun!

David and Isaac waiting for the chair lift.

Isaac on the Alpine Coaster sled with me on our way to the top.

Going up the big mountian on the Alpine Coaster.


David and Isaac going down the Alpine Slide.

Isaac and me at the end of the Alpine Slide.

Sunburned Isaac. Doesn't he look so cute in David's hat?

David on the zip line.

Poor little Eli--he was such a trooper.

{Dinosaurs!}

We have been pretty busy lately, so I am a bit behind on my blog posts. I'm going to try really hard to catch up this week! I'm such a slacker!

Here are some pictures of Isaac, Oakley, Aspen, Slade and Vanessa at The Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving point.

Isaac and Oakley digging in the wet sand--trying to create new land.

From the left: Isaac, Oakley, Aspen, Vanessa and Slade

Isaac digging with Oakley in the dry sand--trying to dig up dinosaur bones

Posing with the T-Rex skeleton


Two weeks ago I took Isaac and Eli to the Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point. We met my good friend, Vanessa and her kids there. It was pretty cool. Isaac LOVED it. Eli, not so much. Poor kid gets stuck in his stroller everywhere we go, it seems. He loves to run around and climb on stuff, and I just can't have him doing that when there are so many people and so many things for him to destroy. Anyway, it was a fun day for Isaac to see Aspen and Oakley (his favorite girls in the whole world), and it was great for me to be able to visit with Vanessa.

{Freebies}

This week I got a special delivery. Back in June, on Facebook, I had entered a giveaway for a set of personalized plates from a company that I am a HUGE fan of. It's called Em Tanner Designs. She was giving away a set of 4 plates with the last name as well as first names of the family members on them. I entered the giveaway, and was the WINNER! Yippee!

This is what is so cool about this company. First, Em is very involved with her customers, and especially her Facebook fans. She gives discount coupons to her fans, and does giveaways just for the heck of it. She answers questions and asks her customers and fans what kind of products they would like to see on her site. Second, these plates are a brand new addition to her products and were only available in one color. She emailed me with my coupon code for the free plates, and asked for a photo of the family. When I responsed I asked her if there was a way for me to change the colors slightly (I think they were teal, tan and black in the stock photo). I wanted them to match my kitchen color scheme a little better. She not only gave me these plates for free--original cost with tax and shipping was $89.90--but, she added red instead of teal, just for me! AWESOME!

{Isaac's New Bike}

Here are some pictures of Isaac on his new bike that he got for his birthday. He LOVES it! It was a lot of fun to surprise him with it when David got home from work (notice him in his 'browns' in one picture). It was torture for me to not tell Isaac that it was in the basement, knowing that we needed to wait for David before giving it to him. We took Isaac outside right away and let him try it out. He thought it was great!

I'm not sure why this picture is so dark...sorry.

Isaac--when he first saw the bike sitting in the Living Room.

{Happy Birthday, Isaac!}

This is a long post...Isaac's birth story and all...Happy Birthday to my little guy!

Isaac in the hospital nursery

Me and my precious little guy

Daddy and Isaac--still in the nursery


Isaac and me--December 2008


David and Isaac, Father's Day 2009

Today is Isaac's 5th birthday. WOW! I can't believe he is 5 already! We are planning on just having a nice relaxing day at home, since we will be having a party at Cowabunga Bay on Saturday with family. I made him a special breakfast this morning, and now he's counting down the hours until David gets home so he can open his presents from us. He's gonna be really excited. We got him a new big-boy bike and helmet. We found a bike with mostly green on it, which is his favorite color. I can't wait to see his face!

Since I shared Eli's birth story, I thought I'd share Isaac's as well--hope you don't mind. I found out I was pregnant with Isaac on November 21st, 2003. It was and interesting day--we had been at the hospital with David that morning and found out that he had kidney stones. Big ones, that ended needing surgery to help break apart. I had been feeling kind of strange and knowing that we had been trying to get pregnant I had a feeling that I was. It was still on the early side to get an accurate test result, but when we got home I took a test anyway and saw the faintest of lines on it. I was pregnant. Yay!

The pregnancy was pretty great. Other than a little nausea and fatigue I felt great the entire time. I worked up until the day before Isaac was born, and even went golfing the week of my due date...go me! Well, my due date came and went, and no progress had been made and no signs of labor. My doctor was seeing me every two days after my due date. A week past my due date it was determined that Isaac was simply too big and wasn't going to be coming out on his own. I went in to the doctor expecting him to say that I could finally be induced, only to be told that I would need a c-section. I had told my doctor that my mom had big babies--Jarrod being full term and weighing a whopping 10lbs 3oz. I was concerned from the beginning that I would end up having big babies, too. He didn't think it would be an issue. Well, a week overdue and it became an issue. Dr. Barton asked David and me at that appointment if we wanted to have Isaac that day, or the next. Yikes! Holy cow--it became real so fast! We decided to wait until the next day. I was a nervous wreck that night. I couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight--which was horrible. We had to check in at Cottonwood Hospital at 10:30am and we were put in a labor and delivery room where I was monitored until the operating room was available. A couple emergency c-sections pushed us back a bit, but around 1:00 they were putting in IV's and getting David in a funky outfit to wear to the OR. Then, they made me walk to the OR...I was so scared! Once inside they gave me a spinal that numbed my whole body from the chest down, set up the curtain, and began the c-section. It took about 5 minutes before I heard the doctors say "There he is." Then, "Holy cow, he's huge!" Then I heard a loud cry. My little baby was out and crying. Isaac's stats were 9lbs, 11oz and 21.5 inches, born 08.04.04 at 1:29 pm. He had a full, thick head of black hair and a scrunched up little face. I was in love. After being in recovery for close to an hour we were taken to our room where we had many visitors, including my brother Jarrod, who was diagnosed with Leukemia the very next day. My mom and David's mom as well as my sister-in-law, Valerie had all been waiting while we were in the operating room.

Later that night the nurses came to take Isaac to the nursery for the mandatory check-up. They did it at 8am and 8pm, every day. After a while we called the nursery because they hadn't brought Isaac back to the room. The said they'd bring him in, but didn't. Finally, I sent David to the nursery to get him. He came back without him and said that they had to keep him under observation because he was breatihng more than twice as fast as he should have been. We weren't given any other explanation. I just knew that I couldn't have my baby with me. They ran some tests and took cultures. They thought that most likely he had pneumonia or possibly menengitis. They had to put him under an oxygen tent and he had to be fed through a tube. It was horrible. Finally, the day before I was to be discharged, Isaac was doing well enough to be in our room constantly. They found out that he had swallowed some amniotic fluid and some had ended up in his lungs. His lungs eventually absorbed it so he was allowed to come home with us when I was discharged after 4 days in the hospital. It was an incredible experience, and I am so grateful for my little Isaac. I call him my best little friend.