Thanksgiving 2011

This year for Thanksgiving we were able to spend some time relaxing at the R&R Ranch! It was so nice to be able to spend time with Casey's family at his Grandparent's ranch. All those who made it to the feast this year were: Our family, Jeff (Yolanda wasn't able to make it because she was sick) Aunt Pam and Uncle Gary, Cousin Rachel and her boyfriend, and of course Grandma and Grandpa. We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with the regular Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Greens Beans, Rolls, and Pumpkin Pie.

Isaiah is definitely getting into a lot more mischief than he was when we were there last time! I think Grandma was ready to have her peace and quiet back by the time it was time for us to go! He loved chasing the dogs (Gunner and Stubby) around the house and looking right in their faces. They are nice dogs, but I was a little nervous because he kept antagonizing them and I was afraid they were going to bite him on the face. Luckily for him he got away unharmed. The dogs were definitely getting sick of him and kept trying to hide from him :) He also enjoyed helping feed the horses (Zinger and Chile). He didn't want to go for a jeep ride or ride the RTV this time though. Not sure why. But I know he had a lot of fun because the whole drive home he kept on saying that he wanted to go back to the ranch! And he is still saying that he wants to go back to the ranch!

Anyway we all had a great Thanksgiving and are glad that we were able to spend the holidays with some family. This year we are especially grateful for our many blessings. We are so grateful for our two sweet children, good health, good doctors, a good job, insurance, that I can be a stay at home mom, friends, a good ward,  and all the other countless blessings that we have! We just feel so blessed! And hope to pass on some of our gratitude by giving throughout this upcoming Christmas season!

We didn't get many pictures this time, but here are a few that I managed to get.

I was so happy/surprised when grandpa asked to hold Brooklyn!  I was even more surprised the next day when she was sitting in the recliner next to his chair and next thing I know Grandpa is holding her again! I guess he is starting to love children even more as he gets older. I don't remember him ever doing this with Isaiah. Maybe he has a soft spot for this sweet girl. She definitely has her daddy wrapped around her finger! Maybe she is working on grandpa now too! Although I really don't know how anyone could resist this sweet girl!

Grandpa and Brooky

Grandma, Case and Jeff

Brooklyn and Case

Brooklyn 4 months old

I can't believe how fast  my little girl is growing up! Today she had her 4 month check up and seems to be very healthy! She is now weighing 13 lbs and 13 oz. And is 25.25 inches long! So she is in the 75% for height and 50% for weight. She is getting so heavy to haul around in her car seat! And since she is so long, her legs are barely fitting in the car seat with her brace on (since they come out at an angle her knees are hitting the sides of the car seat)! So we are going to have to figure something else out as far as that goes because it wont be long before she doesn't fit in it at all! She also got another set of shots today and handled them like a champ! Lately she has been seeming like she is still hungry after I feed her so I was starting to wonder if I am starting to loose my milk. So I would try and give her formula after I was done feeding her. Well she doesn't like it at all and spits it out. Although last night in the middle of the night she was crying like she was still hungry after I fed her. So Case made her a bottle. She gagged part of it down because she seemed like she was starving. The doctor thinks it may be that she is ready to start solids already. So we shall see. If she keeps acting like she is hungry we may try the solids and see how that goes. :) He said not to worry though because she is definitely on track with her weight. Other than this though she has been a super happy baby and smiles at everyone. She especially loves her big brother and he can always get her to laugh if he pays her any attention at all! It is super cute seeing them start to enjoy interacting with each other! Here are some really good pictures of her smiling on her 4 month pictures. She is also starting to drool a LOT! As you will notice in the pictures the whole front of her shirt is soaked in drool! :)

Getting tickled by Daddy

Biggest smile! This girl's smiles make me soooo happy! 

Isaiah and his BIG words!

Isaiah has always loved playing the game, "Isaiah can you say......." Then we think of a big/hard word for him to say. No matter how big the word he would always attempt to say it and his dad and Grandpa Davis love playing this game with him the most. Well now the missionaries (who we have been having over a lot lately or running into them at our apartment complex) love playing this game too. They always ask him to say Onomatopoeia which he says pretty much perfectly every time! Once people see his skills at saying big words they always ask him if he can say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (not sure how it is spelled). He hasn't been able to say this one and was always a little overwhelmed by it. :) Well I have now taught him how to say it and he can say the whole word! It is really funny. I am definitely going to have to get it on video. So as I am feeling all proud of my son and his "big word skills" I am also finding that it is not such a good thing. On Thursday night we were doing a little bit of grocery shopping and while we were loading the groceries into the car there were some people near by cussing up a storm. Well Isaiah heard them and decided to copy. He spouted off a whole string of expletives. I about died! I quickly told Isaiah that we don't say those words and they are naughty. I wanted to yell at the people next to us in the parking lot "Hello don't you realize there are little ears listening!" I guess people like that aren't too concerned about who hears them. Anyway I am quickly finding that there are many things out there that I am already having to teach Isaiah that are not good. For example as we go through the grocery store he sees a can of beer and thinks it is soda.(This has happened many times). So I have to explain to him that it is yucky, it is not good for us, and that we don't drink beer. Then he will see people smoking in our complex and stare at them and point and say, "what's he doing mom." Sometimes he thinks they are eating suckers. I always get so embarrassed and have to tell him that smoking is yucky and not good for us. And that it stinks and will make us sick! I'm sure it doesn't make the smokers like us very much, but I could care less...I'm sure they already know all of the things I am telling him. I knew that the day would come that I would have to teach him about all of this stuff, but I was really hoping it would be when he was a little older. He is only 2 1/2 years old! I guess we can't protect them forever, but I sure wish I could.

Isaiah's Accessories and Brooklyn Update

I took Brooklyn to the Orthopedists today. She got her hips X-Rayed and we were so glad to get good news! Everything seems to be right on track. Her hip is still staying in it's socket and is stabilized. She has to come back in three more months for another check up and if all is still going well she should be able to get out of her brace. But anything can happen and there are no guarantees that it won't regress....so we just have to wait and have faith, hope, and patience and know that the Lord is in control. But so far so good! Oh and Brooky will continue to wear the same brace until she outgrows it. They gave us the next size up for when she does outgrow it so we don't have to drive all the way back when she does outgrow it. :) Also I was so so soooo happy that the kids were good for me because Case wasn't able to go with me to the doctor this time. Zaya was such a good boy and just sat on the chair and ate his little sliced apples. He even did really well while Brooky got her x-ray and sat off to the side in the other room in his chair while mom helped hold Brooklyn's legs. Brooky didn't mind it at all and she even gave the x-ray technicians a great big smile at the end. I got many compliments on how cute my kids are and how well behaved they were. All I can say is that all the prayers I said on the way down must have worked because Isaiah isn't always that patient or good when we go to the doctor. He even took a little nap on the way home, but too bad it wasn't long enough and now he doesn't want to take a nap now that we are home. I guess he will get to go to bed early tonight. I just love these little kids!

I also wanted to post these hilarious pictures of Zaya. He got all dressed up with his sunglasses and head lamp the other day before going to bed. Anyway I just think they are hilarious!

He kinda looks like he is singing a rap in this one! :)

Oceanside Pier

Just wanted to post some of the beautiful pictures we took at the beach. We went on the Saturday before Halloween. We enjoyed walking along the pier, taking pictures, watching the surfers and the fishermen, and enjoying the awesome Diner that is at the end! It was so fun to sit and enjoy your meal while looking out over the ocean! It was beautiful weather and we couldn't believe there was such a cool place that is free (besides the diner part) just 10 minutes from our house. This is the best "beach place" we have found so far. And we didn't even get time to take Zaya to the playground that was on the beach! I guess that will have to wait until our next trip back here. Oh ya and Zaya loved watching the pelican eat some fish that one of the fishermen gave it! So cool! Now every time we read his animal book he points to the pelican and says, "We saw a pelican at the beach!" :) I just wish I could have gotten some pictures of the sunset right before the sun disappeared below the horizon. It was so beautiful!

Happy Halloween

This year for Halloween we had a ward Halloween party on Friday night. They had a yummy dinner at the church with some fun little games and a big blow up spook house. After all of that they did the trunk or treat. Isaiah loved running around and I would turn around to find my little cowboy nowhere in site. Usually he was headed towards the big spook house! He loved that thing! He did pretty well going around to all of the trunks and he had lots of fun but I could tell he was so tired once the night was over.  He got a nice little bucket full of candy (or at least plenty for him).

On Sunday as we were walking in to church Isaiah said, "It's the Halloween church!" "It's the Halloween church, Mom!" I think he thought we were going to another party. :) I had to explain to him that it is not a Halloween church, but that is just where we had the party.

We didn't go trick or treating Monday night because I figured we got enough candy from the ward party. Besides that Isaiah had just as much fun handing out the candy to the trick or treaters that came to our door. He would always get so excited and loved to help hand out the candy. I figure there will be plenty of other years for trick or treating when he is a little older. Why wear myself out when he doesn't care that much?

Here are some of the pictures. We didn't get the best pictures because we were late to the party and Isaiah was not in a good mood right before we left. I think it was because he was hungry...anyway he didn't want to wear his cowboy hat and I couldn't get him to smile. He also rubbed off his makeup mustache. After that he decided to add some of my mascara to his face. :) I had a feeling he might get the idea to add makeup after I tried putting some on him for the mustache. Well at least I got it off, but he didn't get another mustache.

Brooklyn all dressed up for her 1st Halloween!

Wondering why her brother won't cooperate for pictures. :)

"Come on brother you know you want to sit by me."

My sad little cowboy and his cute little cow.

Got one with his hat on  finally! He didn't wear it most of the night. 

Cowgirl and her sweet little cow.

Two cowboys a cowgirl and their sweet little cow.
This is the only picture we got of all of us.

Happy after he ate dinner. As you can see it is all over his face. :)

Enjoying the big blow up haunted house.

Checking out the cool light-up ghost.

Our trunk

Case thought it would be cool to put one of the glow up necklaces as a crown. :)

Picking out a piece of candy at the end of the night.

What do you know he picked a sucker. His favorite. :) You can see in his eyes how tired he is. 

Pumpkin Carving

We each picked a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch to carve for Halloween. I ended up carving mine and Isaiah's and painting Brooklyn's. Case had to leave partway through to go fix a work emergency and he still beat me done with his huge pumpkin! We got his big one really cheap because it had this weird metal piece shoved in it. Because of this it was marked down by a lot which was really exciting! Anyway Isaiah loved helping me get all the guts and seeds out of the insides. We saved the seeds and made roasted pumpkin seeds for the first time. It was lots of fun. The not so fun part was cleaning up the disgusting molding mushy pumpkins after Halloween was over. One poor trick or treater stepped on Isaiah's mushy one and left a big old shoe print in it. Sorry I didn't get any pictures of how awful they looked after they turned all moldy and gross. I had to throw mine away before Halloween even started because it was so gross! Maybe next year we will have to carve them just a few days before instead of a whole week prior.

Here you can see the weird metal piece that was shoved in Casey's pumpkin. Zaya is so excited to start! He had his little pumpkin scraper and couldn't wait to help!

I made some pumpkin chocolate chip bread that day to eat while we carved the pumpkins. Well partway through all of the fun Brooklyn had a huge blow out! So I was changing her and when I came back Isaiah had grabbed a loaf off of the counter and started munching on it.  (Notice all the chew marks around the edges. ) I guess he couldn't wait for me to finish and come cut him a slice. LOL!

Inside the big punkin' (as Zaya likes to call them)

Isaiah decided to take a break from helping me clean out the pumpkins and he went and got Brooklyn's little  bed and  decided to climb in and rest by his sister. :)

He is way too big for it, but he was having so much fun I couldn't help but laugh!

He did get out after a little while though. He just needed a quick break I guess. :) Silly boy. He also loves climbing in her carseat and rocking himself. :

Casey's big one with Zaya's little one.

Isaiah called this one the scary punkin' (this one was mine).

All three pumpkins

Zaya having fun lighting the pumpkins.

Notice the difference in the seeds we got from the big one and the other two.  They were huge! And we didn't even keep all of them. We kept all of the ones from the two smaller pumpkins and there were still more from the big one!  I don't think I have ever seen pumpkin seeds this big before...at least not that I can remember.

After they were all baked up.

Brooky's cute little spider pumpkin.

I think I did pretty good for having no skill at art whatsoever! :)