They Look so Peaceful When They Sleep

I am so excited that it is May.  We had lovely weather this weekend, the school year for Brian is over at the end of this week, and the craziness of April is over. 

I keep thinking that I should take pictures of Isaac when he is asleep in his La-Z-Boy and I always forget to take something upstairs with me to take a picture with.  I remembered my camera earlier this week and here is Isaac sleeping, in one of his more normal positions:

Then, of course, I took a picture of Mackenzie as well: 

Mackenzie has made a canopy on her bed (really her dad made it) by putting a fitted sheet over her headboard and footboard, thus the extra flowers over her.

 

This weekend we opened up our new tent.  I ordered it and it is an 8 person tent.  I knew that an 8 person tent would need to be large, but I didn't realize just how large.  Here is a shot of it set up in our living room:

Even Brian can stand up in it which means it is over 6 foot tall and although I would argue that 8 people couldn't sleep well in the tent, I guess they could lie down next to each other in it.

 

Here is a shot of the kids lying in it:

 And here is a shot of them sleeping, finally:

 

As an example of my practical oldest child, Mackenzie went into the tent with blankets, a pillow, kleenex, a flashlight, a book as well as about a dozen stuffed animals and baby dolls.  Isaac on the other hand has his sleeping bag, a pillow and about 4 stuffed animals.

 

They thought that sleeping in the tent was pretty fun.

 

Today I divided up my huge mum plants.  I divided one into 8 piece and the other into about 6.  I am hoping that all of the pieces survive and look nice.  Hopefully I did it right.  Our blueberry and strawberry plants also seem to be coming back nicely, so hopefully we will have homegrown strawberries this summer (or at least the birds will).  The blueberries are supposed to take one more year before they actually produce berries and to be honest I am not sure I have prepared the soil properly.  So we shall see next year. 

People keep asking about Nero, so here is a shot of him just a few minutes ago.  We wore him out this weekend.  Our obedience class yesterday was supposed to be 2 hours long and we were there almost 3 hours, so he didn't get much sleep in the late morning and early afternoon and we were pretty busy until dinner time, so he was pretty exhausted by then.  Today Mackenzie walked around with the dog  most of the morning putting together a show and then they performed the show, which seemed to really wear him out and then this afternoon he was napping when Mackenzie came in to say the neighbor dog, Lily was out so he went out and played with Lily for a while.  So here is a tired 40 pound Nero on the kitchen floor:

He is going in for surgery (nuetered) on Wednesday.  I am feeling a bit guilty about it already, but everyone suggests we do it, so I am following the advice of those more knowledgable.  Hopefully it is the right decision.

Typical Isaac

This is going to be a very short post.  On Sunday we went to a park that is basically adjacent to Shannon and Doug's yard.  So Shannon, Gavin, Nathan and Carson joined us at the park for a while.  Afterwards Isaac and Mackenzie stayed there for a little while.  Later Shannon sent me this picture that Isaac asked her to take:

I think that this picture captures the true essence of Isaac, from the tongue and the hand motions to the sandals that are way to big from him (at least they appear to be on the right feet).  So I thought that I would share this picture of my boy!

Isaac's Fifth Birthday Party

It took me a while to get this posted.  Isaac's fifth birthday party was a success.  The kids had fun playing Imaginext and although it seemed a bit crazy at times, I think that everyone had a good time.  Isaac loved all of his new toys.  He got a lot of Chima, Imaginext and even some Octonauts.  He enjoyed everything.  Although at the time he didn't seem too excited about the clothes, that night he wanted to wear his new pajamas and the next day he asked me to wash everything so that he could wear it.

Here are some shots from the Toy Story photo booth:

Here is a shot of the snack table with the Imaginext cupcakes (and Mackenzie in the background):

 

 Here is a shot of the birthday boy waiting to blow out his candles:

Things are going well with the puppy.  The kids and I took him to a socialization class on Tuesday and I thought he did pretty well.  He wasn't super comfortable, but he tolerated it quite well.  The only time he growled was when the trainer asked the kids and I to leave him in a room with some other puppies and he evidently went into a corner and felt trapped.  Since then we have been trying to socialize him as much as possible.  He has met a lot of the neighbors and neighbor dogs now that the weather has gotten better.  He met a 1 year old Labradoodle today, Lily, who I think is his favorite.  She has an 8 year old "sibling", Caleb as well.  Hopefully we can all hang out more.  He also got some quality time with Grandma Linda last night, when Brian and I went to a dedication for Nils at Ohio Northern. 

We all went to the park tonight and Nero did quite well there as well.  It was packed since it was the first Saturday that we have had nice weather.  Isaac ran into a friend from CDC that is about a year older than him and a head taller.  Isaac felt that he could do anything his friend could do, including the monkey bars and jumping off a large rock.  I am starting to learn more about active boys and I think I may need to do some research on the closest emergency rooms.

Happy Fifth Birthday, Isaac!

Isaac turned 5 today.  He is registered for all-day kindergarten in the fall (not next year as Mackenzie likes to point out to me).  I can't believe that he is five!

He chose french toast for his birthday dinner tonight.  Grandpa Butch came and joined us for dinner and then Isaac and Brian opened their birthday presents.  Brian's birthday is tomorrow, but he will be working late so he opened his presents tonight.

Mackenzie got Isaac an Iron Man mask (paid for with her own money):

 

And he got Skylanders Swap Force from Mom and Dad:

I didn't have the camera on video, so I didn't catch the jumping for joy.

Brian got a Bass Pro play set from the kids that included a truck, boat, jet ski and ATV:

He also got a Disney Infinity but I didn't get a shot of that one.  There was also a lot of jumping when that one was opened :)

Nero is doing well and adjusting to our house.  We have a trainer coming to the house tomorrow to help teach me how to train him not to bite when playing and how to feel more comfortable with strangers as well as many other things (we will attend 6 classes at her training center starting in May).  If I could get him to stop biting while playing though, I would feel pretty good.

Grandma Kathy and Lexie came and stayed with the kids last weekend while Brian and I were at a conference in Dallas.  Grandma took this shot of the kids in Nero's cage with him:





 I like this shot of him stretching:

 And this is how he often lays down, which does not seem comfortable to me:

He has grown a lot since we brought his home.  The breeder told us he was 15 pounds the last time he was weighed there.  At his first vet visit a week later he was 20 pounds and at his visit last Thursday (a mere ten days later) he was 26.6 pounds.  So although he always seems hungry and I worry that he isn't getting enough to eat, he is growing by leaps and bounds.

 

That is pretty much my life right now.  Isaac's birthday party is Saturday.  He chose an Imaginext theme.  Pictures of that to come . . .



New Addition

We have a new addition to our household and his name is Nero:

He is a Bergamasco, which is an Italian breed, so we named him Nero which is Italian for black.  He is adorable (of course, he is a puppy) and very good natured allthough he is quite timid right now.  He recently started barking at my shadow when I take him outside and he isn't too fond of visitors at the house. Mackenzie loves having a dog and is a little overly affectionate with him right now, but I am sure she will calm down.  She is being very responsible with him and takes him out (when it isn't too cold) and feeds him in the mornings (even though she doesn't like being woken up to do so) and when I tell her after school  that he has been waiting all day for her and she needs to show him some affection she is happy to do so.  Isaac was disappointed at first that he didn't fetch.  Bergamasco's are herders by nature and aren't prone to fetching.  However, we found a soft ball that he likes and we are working on that, which makes Isaac happy.  He is having less accidents, mainly because we have a better schedule and we are taking him out frequently, which makes me happy. 

He is however barking alot the last couple of days and biting.  He seems to be playing, but it is starting to scare Mackenzie a bit so we are trying to nip this in the bud.  So if anyone with experience has any suggestions, please let me know.  Tonight we are trying to shake pennies in a can when he barks to see if we could get him to stop, which is something a coworker suggested to me.  I am also going to get us signed up for some training classes that came highly recommended.

The kids are doing great.  Isaac is registered for kindergarten and we are looking forward to that.  I don't think that I am going to be one of those moms that cries when all of her kids are in school, but we will see.  Mackenzie brought a homework book home this week that has the word submersible in it.  I was shocked that she has books with words that long in first grade.  Obviously I believe she can read 10 letter words, since I am her mom, but I was still amazed.  I feel like I was still working on 4 and 5 letter words in first grade.

Isaac turns 5 in 2 weeks, amazing!

My Kids Crack Me Up

We had an awesome weekend this weekend in Midland.  The kids and I drove up Saturday morning and Grandma Kathy, Uncle Mike, Lexie and the three of us went to Snow Snake and went snow tubing. We did this last year as well.  It is a great way to get outside in the winter and enjoy ourselves without having to put in the effort to ski or snowboard (both of which I am not good at).  Uncle Mike told Mackenzie that he would teach her next year though.  The kids had a great time hanging out with Lexie at dinner and at Grandma's house overnight.  Then they got to go see Copper at Uncle Mike and Aunt Misty's today (Aunt Misty hurt her ankle so she couldn't go snow tubing with us).  They got to see Copper which they loved.

Here are some funny stories:

Isaac is really into Lego's lately.  He has a problem with the word instructions though and often asks us about his "constructions".

Mackenzie's reading is improving rapidly and her vocabulary is improving with it.  Lately she comes out with sentences that make her sound like an adult.  For example, the I bought two new Kids Bop CDs for the kids.  They each had one to listen to and I was getting pretty sick of hearing "I threw a wish in a well, Don't ask me I'll never tell . . ."  So I bought them new ones.  One morning I went upstairs and heard Mackenzie say, "Mom, I need to speak with you."  I went into the room to see what she needed and she informed me, "A song on this Kid Bop is inappropriate for children."  She then looked at the CD case for a minute and informed me that "Gumball Style" uses the word sexy which is inappropriate for children.

Isaac knows that his name means laughter and he thinks it means that he has to tell funny jokes.  The problem is that he is 4 and his jokes often don't make sense.  He finally let us in on the secret that his name means laughter so we are supposed to laugh at him.  Now he will make a comment and we just ask him if we were supposed to laugh and if he says, "Yes", we laugh.  Then he laughs.

Mackenzie has a friend named Sahdiya.  She is actually Mackenzie's locker mate.  The other day Mackenzie told me that Sahdiya calls everyone, including boys "Lady".  I informed her that some boys might take offense to being called lady.  So now she calls me lady (as well as her friend Payton).  However when she says "Lady" I think she must be copying how Sahdya talks because she says it with an accent and doesn't sound like herself.

Isaac had his underwear on backwards one day when Brian was getting them ready for school.  So Brian had him strip down by the door to the garage to change them around.  There is a large window there that goes almost to the floor.  Mackenzie exclaimed, "Isaac you can't be naked in front of the window, you could get arrested!".   She also informs me that I can't leave my children (which I threaten to do when they are dawdling) because it is illegal and I could be arrested.

Late Post on a Great Vacation

It has been a long time since I have posted anything.  I have been over-scheduling the family quite a bit, I believe. 

We went to Disney World after the new year.  We all had a fantastic time.  Grandma Kathy went with us on the roadtrip down to Orlando and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch met us at Disney.  I won't bore you with the details of the trip, but it went about as well as possible aside from getting back home during the polar vortex.  Poor Grandma Kathy was stuck at our house an extra day at the end of the trip.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Grandma Kathy took Isaac to lunch at T-Rex Cafe in downtown Disney:

 

and Mackenzie to dinner at Cinderella's Palace:



 

While Grandma and Isaac were at the T-Rex Cafe Brian and I took Mackenzie to Pollo Campero.  Mackenzie was in Heaven:

 

 Brian and his mom got to ride Dumbo together:

Mackenzie's favorite princess:

 

Isaac's favorite character:

 

 

 A family photo at the Country Bear Jamboree:



Crystal Palace is still the perfect character lunch for our family:

 

We loved the new Be Our Guest Restaurant and Gaston's Tavern.  The cashier in the tavern told us Gaston was outside and the kids waited quite a while to see him, but it was absolutely worth it.  He was the most animated character with the kids and they both loved him:

 

Mickey:

 

Cinderella:





 

The castle lit up for the holidays:

 

It was definitely a magical time for all of us.