happy third birthday my sweet boy

hooray for pinterest!  the pirate party was a blast!

these pirate ship cupcakes were vanilla with chocolate icing (the deck) and had a hidden peanut butter cup inside (treasure below deck).  The flags and sails were printed off a pinterest web site and super easy to stick on the straws.  so cute!!

he's so stinkin cute!  i just love this kid!

"pin-the-eyepatch (and moustache) on-isaac" :)

izie didn't want to wear his pirate costume, so reesey did

lots of help opening presents

first try...

take a breath...

second try...

third try...got it!!

spring time

these pictures have been nesting on my camera and phone for some time now...time to share our spring time events.  the one above was about two weeks after isaac's surgery.  you can tell he still wasn't quite his normal self but trying to hard to help elise, papa and daddy as they mulched oma and papa's yard.  below, even reese got into the action!  our two maurices :)

 the boy loves to eat!

 out on our mama/daughter date

 elise's new thing is to pose like this for every picture!  here justin was sharing our boatload of sand with oma and papa's sandbox...she was "helping"

 i know isaac is practically strangling maurice in this pic, but i love izie's face.  these two are becoming friends as well as brothers and i love it.  maurice will run up to isaac now, trying to instigate him into a wrestling match or a game of chase.  it's hilarious!

 elise's first trip to the dentist.  she was awesome.  the hygienist was amazing.  and loodle had no cavities!!

 did i mention he loves to eat?!  he fell asleep on the way home from church with food crusted to his face and hands.

 a playground date with two families very dear to us.  

 so you can tell he's our third child...the kids always get lollipops for finding the monkey in trader joe's. maurice is now old enough to want one though i was certain he was too young to have one.  so we just let him hold it.  sure enough...about half way home, he got the lollipop out of the wrapper and victoriously showed it to all of us.  before i knew it, he was slowly tasting his new found treasure and it didn't take long for him to be coated in stickiness.  way to persevere little man!!

 we took a field trip to the fire station with a bunch of other families.  here are some of my favorites...

thirty-two

it's hard to believe, but today i turned 32.  hard to believe mostly because i still talk sometimes like college wasn't that long ago.  hard to believe that i have a family of five, soon to be six.  hard to believe that a  number that once seemed so far off, is here, and i don't feel that much different.  today was a nice day of running errands, multiple birthday wishes from my kiddos, and a wonderful dinner brought to our house (and dinner clean up) from my parents.  what a gift!!  as my mom left, she said it's hard for her to believe that she has a daughter who's thirty two.  i look at this picture and realize that one day i will be celebrating my daughter's thirty second birthday...now that will be hard to believe.  thanks to all for the well wishes.  i felt quite loved today.

isaac

i am so relieved and encouraged to report that isaac is doing so much better.  his tonsil and adenoid surgery were a success but recovery was rough, as we had been warned it would be.  you know it's going to be hard when the doctors and nurses are all saying, "are you ready for this?"  his recovery path was not what i expected...more ups and downs than i had thought it would be.  but the last two night's sleep have been more normal as far as the amount of times he's woken up.  he's been off pain meds for days now.  the hydrocodone served him initially, but after a while the side effects seemed to be masking what pain he was or wasn't feeling.  i couldn't tell what was from the surgery or what was from the meds.  at the 11 day mark, we stopped the hydrocodone and as i read, it took a good four days for it to clear his system.  he was still waking with night terrors until day 15.  but like i said, we're doing better now.  God has been gracious and faithful.  and our boy is breathing with his mouth shut, not snoring, and hearing better.  thank you Lord.

easter