The Due Date

I am officially 2 days overdue.  I'm mostly okay with it but would really like to meet this little boy.

What I am definitely done with is all the "oh your still here" comments when I show up places.

I'm thinking it would be cool to have this baby tomorrow though...12-1-12.  Sounds like kind of a fun birth date to me.

Here's to hoping!

Isaac is a Comedian

Three stories to share:

Isaac woke up Thanksgiving morning wanting yogurt which we didn't have.  So he looked at his dad and said "Buy yogurt Target."

We are mostly just so pleased that he is becoming a fan of Target like his parents.

Jacob told me that one of his favorite things about my family is our love for looking at the ads in the newspaper.  And it's true, we Carter's do love our ads.  So he pulled the Toys R Us ad for Isaac to look at and said "Show me you are true to your middle name."  Isaac took the ad, ripped through it oh-ing and ah-ing, and then said "Let's go this place!"  He found the scooters and was ready to get to that place, whatever it was.

Fast forward to bath time that same night.  Jacob asks Isaac if he'd like to go shopping with him at 3 am on Black Friday.  Isaac's response:

"Buy yogurt 3 am."

He must have really wanted that yogurt.

22 Days of Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving!

We kept ours pretty low key.  Isaac got sick yesterday and was throwing up and running a fever so we canceled our original plans to have Thanksgiving with some friends in the ward.  Thankfully he was better this morning and everyone seems to be healthy, fingers crossed that Jacob and I don't catch whatever it was.

So we spent the day together, just the three of us.  And, also thankfully, baby didn't decide to arrive today to make it the four of us.  He is now officially welcome to come any time now.  I'm rooting for Saturday or Sunday but think it will probably be a bit longer than that.  I am ready to be done with pregnancy though.


(I used my timer and tripod for the first time...I thought we needed to document our first solo Thanksgiving)

We threw a turkey breast roast in the crock pot this morning as a last minute option since our friends were cooking the turkey in the original plans.  Turned out great.  Super moist and cooked from practically frozen to deliciously done fast.  We also had gravy, potatoes, stuffing, zucchini  and cranberries.  Since we didn't have rolls we settled for garlic bread toast.  And we also had a special beverage, cranberry juice and sprite.  All in all I think we did pretty well.

Later on we ate pumpkin pie.  It was delicious and I'm not even much of a pumpkin pie kinda gal.  Isaac called it "Thanksgiving pie."  Cute.

Don't you love how he is eagerly folding his arms for prayer so he can start eating?

Now Jacob and I are both so tired we are just hanging out.  I think he's planning his shopping strategy for the Black Friday madness and I'm blogging.  And I'm pretty sure I'll be heading to bed shortly.  I don't care that it's only 7 pm.  I am done.  Happy and Thankful for much, but tired too.

But, our 22 days of Gratitude wrapped up today and must be shared:

I saw something, probably on pinterest, where a family had a gratitude board for the month of November.  I decided to try something like that with our family this year but didn't want to be as crafty as the cute board I saw.  So I did something a little more practical and bought a cheap photo album and filled it with note cards.  We had one for each day up until Thanksgiving.

When we first began I was skeptical about how much Isaac would understand it.  Turns out he caught on pretty quick.  It helped to review some of the things we had done that day and to have Jacob and I say what we were thankful for first.  It has been really fun to hear Isaac ask for the "thank you book" and get excited to read over the things we have written.

So, for your reading pleasure, a list of daily thanks from a 2 year old boy.

1.  to color

2. costco, eat pizza

3. helping Daddy rake leaves

4. Nursery

5. Nursery time

6. Nursery time; first Sacrament time

7. couch

8. rake leaves w/daddy

9. Jesus

10. food and grocery store

11. family games (meaning we played candy land or chutes and ladders)

12. popping (meaning he was playing chase with Dad while he pushed the popper toy)

13. play toys, diggers, reading

14. for boy scouts too (Dad was grateful for scouting after attending our wards court of honor)

15. for corn

16. date night (I'm not sure if he loved spending time with the babysitter or what but I would bet he was copying his parents this evening)

17. Maxwell and Sarah and Riley and Kevin

18. home teachers and reading book (they brought him a new book and read it to him that night)

19. for park

20. Dad

21. family

22. to play toys

And there you have it.  I love it!

Boys Watching Basketball

 

2 Year Photos

Isaac looked really cute today and I remembered that I had wanted to take some "2 year" photos.  And...even better...the weather was beautiful.  So we headed outside after his nap and snapped a few.  Most of them didn't turn out really great but they do capture who Isaac is at 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, he's so cute!

Voting

Jacob's sister, Sarah, stopped by after voting on Tuesday so Maxwell and Riley were both wearing "I voted" stickers.  Isaac was interested in Maxwell's sticker so we talked a very small amount about voting.

Later that day I was on the phone with my Mom talking about voting and Isaac overheard the conversation.  He chimed in with "Isaac voted too!"

So I asked him who he had voted for.  His response was a very enthusiastic "Ban Shaars!"

I wasn't aware either of the Van Shaars (a family in our ward that Isaac LOVES) were running for anything.  But they sure got Isaac's vote.

What Do You Do All Day- Part 2

Remember when I posted about hating the questions "what do you do all day?"

Well, the answer to that question lately would be this:


Isaac has loved his new birthday toys and will often play independently with them.  However, I gave him some dried pinto beans the other day to use as dirt or rubble to move around with his diggers.  I didn't want to leave him too much unattended in case he tried to eat them, or shove them up his nose, or any number of other things he might do.

Ever since that fateful afternoon, all he wants to do is "play beans."  And usually he wants an adult playing with him. So, this is what I generally do all day.

Load 'em up....and unload.

 

Jacob and I both laughed yesterday morning when we asked Isaac if he wanted to go downstairs for breakfast and he replied, "No, play beans!"

But mostly I really am grateful that my "job" is to play beans with my two year old.  I recently re-evaluated my priorities and came to the conclusion that all the house decorating and other ambitions I personally may have are not for me to do in this stage of life.  Surely there is room for some personal creative outlet, don't get me wrong.  But, my kids are only this young once and I want to be available to them now.  This little cutie won't always want me to "play beans" and painting the bathroom or putting up a board and baton treatment just doesn't seem as important anymore.

Happy Halloween

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 2nd Birthday!

This is a very long post.  I know it already.  But what can I do?  He is just so cute and I wanted to document his special day thoroughly....


We began this Birthday morning with a special Birthday breakfast.  Isaac loves his bacon!

And then we busted out the Brunson family tradition of the "Birthday snake."  The idea is you get to open each section of the snake periodically throughout the day.  Spreads out the Birthday fun for sure.

 

He loved all the new cars and diggers.

 

And then, after his nap, we went to our church Halloween party (that's also why he was in his construction overalls all day).  But I totally left the camera behind.  It's a bummer.  He got to color, do a cupcake walk, decorate sugar cookies and other fun carnival games.  He loved getting all the candy and treats.  This kid sure does have a sweet tooth.

And then it was present time.

 

 

 

 

 

After dinner we did cake and ice cream with Sarah and Kevin and kids.  Isaac loved his construction cake.  I mostly liked making it.  I think it turned out okay but not as cute as the pictures I'd used for inspiration.  

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Isaac!

We LOVE having Isaac in our family.  He is typical 2 with his independent ways and his tantrums but he's also such a sweet and happy boy most of the time.  He keeps us laughing for sure.  He says the funniest things all the time.  Jacob and I love that he has taken to saying "I think so" and "probably" and "actually."   He is also very polite and anytime Jacob burps Isaac chimes in with "Moosee Daddy."  Except he has started to say it more accurately so it's more like "scewsee, Daddy."  And some of my favorite moments are still snuggling up to a good book.  He has started sitting on laps again and if he's next to us on the couch he wants an arm around him.  It's really cute.

He is also pretty smart if you ask me.  He counts up to 14 but he actually has one to one correspondence with about 3 objects.  He can say the alphabet and sometimes Jacob and I wonder if he actually knows the letters in his name.  He knows those letters arranged that way are his name.  He loves to sing.  And I love hearing him sing.  I especially love when he just randomly busts into song while he's playing.  His favorites to sing are: "I love to see the Temple," "I am a Child of God," "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and "Call Me Maybe."  Awesome!

I absolutely love spending my days with this little guy and am just a little sad that in a few short weeks we are going to have to share our time with a baby.  I think it will be a hard (but good) adjustment for the both of us.