Trick or Treat

I am not a fan of Halloween, but I could not resist dressing up my two little pumpkins this year! Isaac's outfit cost me a total of $3, so I was pretty happy with how it turned out. We already had the black pants and white shirt as well as the bandana. I was able to find the hat and and eye patch, necklaces and red scarf I used as a sash at the dollar store! Just add a drawn on mushtache with my eyeliner and voila...instant pirate! He actually had the option to be a pirate or a cowboy and he chose pirate :) Beau's was a little pricer. I found it at Carter's for $11, but I still think that is a good deal! I heard they were doing trick or treating at the mall for small children during the day and I thought that would be a good option for us. We could stay out of the cold and I could avoid all the gorry decorations people put out at there houses. We had so much fun! All the different stores had employees out giving the kids candy and there were so many cute costumes to see on the kids! Isaac still did not quite "get" it, but he had fun. I told him to go up and say trick or treat and then say "thank you" but he needed a little help. After getting a grand total of 4 pieces of candy he was ready to look for a seat so we could sit down and eat it! After walking around for a while he sort of lost interest in going up to get candy and he wanted to go to the play area they have upstairs. So we played for a while and had some lunch before heading home. Thankfully, there were no meltdowns and everyone had a great time! Success :)
Do you think we brought a big enough bag? ;)
Enjoying his sucker in the massage chair...(or lolipop- as everyone here says)
We had to go in the Disney store!
Do we look alike?
My sweet baby girl??? Everyone thought Beau was a girl! It does not bother me, I corrected the first person and then just went with it.
Playing in the play area.

Fun at the Farm

Playing in the "corn box" it's like a sand box, but with corn. Beau could only stay in for a minute because he kept trying to eat it.

He loved the pony ride!

First tractor ride :)

Big boy toys!

Looking at some antique tractors in the barn.

He had to go over and check this out!

8 Months Old!

I am 8 months old today!

A few snapshots

I can't believe this boy who is not even 8 months old is trying to climb stairs! He is my little monkey!

I wish this photo wasn't so blurry, but I put Beau in the "doll" stroller and let Isaac push him around for a minute! Don't worry, no babies were hurt during this photo shoot!

Up to no good...look at that face!

Contemplating his next move...

Hi Mom!

Laundry Day

The brothers playing together in the laundry basket while I try and get some work done :)

2 1/2

Isaac is officially 2 1/2 years old now. It is amazing how much a child can develop in just 6 months. When Isaac turned 2 in February he was just starting to string one or two words together, now he is talking in full sentences and can carry on a full conversation with us, which is always amusing! He is so smart and such a joy to be around! He is learning so much everyday, he already can recite his ABC's, count to at least 19, and knows all his colors very well. About a month ago I purchased a puzzle of the United States for him, all of the states are individual pieces and some of them are quite small, so I knew it would be a challenge for him. I wanted to be able to show him on a map where daddy was when he goes on his trips. It seems I am always telling him where daddy flew to on a plane so I thought it would be neat to have something to show him as well. He has just amazed me how much he has learned from that puzzle. He can pick out a large number of the pieces and tell what state it is! I can pick up Kansas and ask him, "what state is this?" and he gets it! He remembers if Daddy went to work at a certain state and where we live and where all our family lives. What a smart boy we have!
Right now some of Isaac's favorite things to do are play with trains and cars and race, as in race ME! He always wants me to run with him and says mommy, let's race! I have him to thank for losing all that baby weight. He really got into the Disney "Cars" movie my dad got him for his second birthday and likes for us to pretend we are the different characters. He will say, Mommy, I'm Lightning (Lightning McQueen), you Doc, start your's engines! He has a wonderful imagination and is very good at entertaining himself. Andy and I love when we catch him having little conversations between his cars, who "talk" to each other. Some of Isaac's favorite show's he likes to watch are, The Bernstien Bears, Bob the Builder and Rory the Racing Car.
He is not really into coloring very much yet, but loves when I "trace" his hand or foot on paper.
Isaac is also now fully potty trained! We started with him a few months ago and he has done great! He only wears a diaper at night which has been nice to our wallets, not having to buy so many diapers.
He is a good listener and doesn't give us too much trouble yet, but of course he is at the age where he is always testing us. I am just so thankful for this wonderful boy!

Hurricane's and Earthquakes- Oh my!

We are getting ready for the hurricane here! I went out and got 3 cases of water at Sam's Club yesterday as well as some soup, granola bars and nuts. Hopefully if we were to lose power that should be enough. The store was nuts, you would have thought it was Christmas! Every single line was full and everyone had there carts full of water. My friend went to the grocery store this morning and said they were all ready out of water and batteries. Where we live in Old Bridge is only about 10 miles from the ocean, not that the waves are going to reach us that far, but we are in an area prone to flooding. Allot of people in our neighborhood and this area have problems with there basements flooding when there are bad storms. We don't have a basement, but live in a tri-level so I am not sure if the lower level could be a problem. We are still keeping our options open with the possibility of just heading back to Indiana, but we are going to wait until morning and make a decision. Lower Manhattan has started to evacuate and many of the beach towns surrounding us. I have started packing us bags if we need to leave. Just trusting the Lord right now!

Sushi Roll Bowl!

Here is a fun and easy dinner we had tonight. If you like California rolls you will like this! It is pretty healthy too! I got it out of Parenting magazine and was drawn to it because it sounded like something Isaac would like as well...he ate it up!

4 cups Cooked Brown Rice ( I always use the boil in bag kind)
1 cucumber diced
1 avocado diced
1 package crab meat

Just fill your bowl with rice and top with each of the other ingredients and lightly mix it. Top it off with soy sauce, ginger or wasabi and voila...a light a yummy meal.

6 months old

As of August 8th, Beau is a six month old and weighs 15.4 pounds and is 26 1/2 inches long. He is just a little guy, at least for now! His weight puts him in the tenth percentile compared to other babies his age and he is in the fiftieth for height, so he is average. I was a little worried to hear he was only in the tenth percentile, but my doctor was not concerned at all and said he is growing just fine I am doing everything I need to be. My honest opinion is it is because he is so active he is not gaining allot of weight. We have started him on solids and he is doing pretty good with them, so I am hoping this will help fatten him up a bit!

Here are some of Beau's milestones he has reached so far...I think all that is left is walking and talking...oh my!

11 weeks old- rolling over

4 months old- gets up on hands and knees

5 months old scooting and rocking back and forth on hands and knees

5 1/2 month- starting to crawl
6 months- crawling and pulling himself to stand (on furniture, the tub, me...anything! Usually when he wakes up from his nap he is standing in his bed when we go to get him! That is all Beau wants to do is stand right now. He has not figured out how to get back down once he gets standing though so he will just stand there until someone gets him or else he just falls. )

With all these big feats being conquered in such a small little package makes me a nervous mama! The poor little guy is constantly falling or bumping his head on something because he is still not quite stable. When Isaac was a baby we didn't have this much space or things/places to get into...so it's totally different. We have stairs here and hard floors, we had to move our coffee table into the garage for now because it has so many hard edges and he was getting under it trying to stand up to it to it. I can not leave him for a second cause you never know where he may end up! There is no stopping him now! He is ready to take on the world and I think he is going to be a real go getter and will be able to do anything he sets his mind to! He is going to need lots of prayer! He loves his big brother Isaac and his whole face lights up when he sees him! You can tell he wants to be just like him and is doing a pretty good job trying keep up with him! I didn't envision them interacting this much until Beau was at least a year old, but Beau plays with all Isaac's toys, crawls on him and tries to be a part of whatever Isaac is doing. It is so amazing watch these two! I pray that they remain forever friends!

Godzilla baby!

Beau is crawling like a mad man! He likes to make lots of noise and is VERY active! As you can see the baby gates have gone up! Beau is not even 6 months old and he is crawling all over the place. I can not believe how much he is getting around...this is not something I have encouraged, he is just a very determined little boy and is constantly trying to keep up with his big brother. He is past the little baby phase which make me kind of sad. He is rarely interested in "baby toys" i.e. soft, cuddly things and goes for the big boy stuff. He is trying to get to Isaac's cars and trucks and blocks which makes Isaac a little frustrated sometimes, but he is a great big brother! Here is a little glimpse into Beau's personality :)

Summer days

Trying to enjoy every moment with these wonderful boys. This summer we are spending allot of quality family time together as this is Andy's slowest time of year he is home weekends and even some weekdays with us! As I think back on the long winter and all those weekends I wished he was with us I am savoring this time together. One of our favorite things to do in the summer is go to the beach and while it is a whole new ballgame with 2 children and allot less relaxing (haha) we still have managed to get there 3 times already this summer. We are taking full advantage of living by the shore and taking the boys to the ocean! Isaac is intimidated by the waves and it takes allot of convincing to even get him to put his feet in, but he gets excited seeing them come in and then runs away squealing. He likes to play in the sand and push his trucks around in it. Beau equally likes the sand and got his first taste of it at only 4 months old! We just lay him on a blanket under an umbrella, but it doesn't take long and he scoots his way off the blanket and right into the sand. This boy is going to be taking off crawling before we know it!