Isaac's day at preschool

Isaac had an exciting day at preschool this morning! Because he has a summer birthday, he got to celebrate his half birthday today. He loved the attention, even though he was a bit disappointed mom and dad didn't have any "half birthday gifts" for him!

New video of the boys

I went to a crop with my friend Marie this weekend. Here is one of the pages I did- I love how it portrays Isaac's personality! I'm also throwing in a token picture of my sweet baby since he does not get nearly the blog time his big brother does!

Isaac through someone else's eyes

"Serious" "Meticulous" "Coming out of his shell" "A perfectionist" "Polite" "Wanting to follow directions exactly"...These are some of the words Isaac's teacher used to describe him at his parent-teacher conference this morning. I felt like saying, "Are you sure you have the right child? MY child is Isaac...Isaac Buck." Funny how someone else's experience of your child can be SO different than your own. What I expected to hear were words like "creative" "imaginative" "talkative" "social" and "bossy." The thing I kept thinking about after the conference was how much Isaac will probably be like his daddy! I pray God will help us be the kind of mom and dad to Isaac that we need to be, tailored exactly to what he needs for his personality, strengths and weaknesses. I know God has a plan for him, and I can't wait to see what he will be!

This was my conversation with Isaac last night as we were laying in bed:

Isaac: Mama, does God have the whole world in His hands?

Mom: Yes, he has the whole world in His hands.

Isaac: But, He still lives in our hearts at the same time?

Mom: Yes, if we ask Him to.

Isaac: Does He have our house in His hands?

Mom: Yes, He has our house in His hands.

Isaac: Does He have all of US in His hands?

Mom: Yup, we're in His hands too.

Isaac: So, that means we don't have to worry about anything, right mama?

Mom: Yes, that's right.

Out of the mouths of babes! God uses my little boy to speak to me so many times!

The other day Isaac and I were driving in the car and I told him we were going with daddy later that night to help him pick out some new glasses. He excitedly askied, "Oh! does that mean I get his old ones?" To which I told him no. After a few moments of quiet contemplation, he asked in a very serious voice, "When daddy gets eaten by a bear, can I have all his stuff?"

Isaac is in the process of learning rhyming words, and he started following the last word of every sentence with a word that rhymes (i.e. "What's that smell, hell?" and "Yes, Bess" and "Hey Mom, bomb!").

Here's some pictures taken with my new camera which I got with Christmas money. I really love it, although there's lots to learn. As always, double click to see better :)

"Why I love this picture"

I did a little bit of scrapbooking this afternoon and wanted to share this page with you. Remember to double click to see it really well. The journaling is extra special to me!

On Watching My Babies Grow

Well, Graham is officially in 12 month clothes, I can hardly believe it. He is still wearing a few bigger 6-9 month things, but just barely. I cannot believe how much he has grown lately and I am anxious to take him into the doctor for a well-baby exam to see how big he is. It is so important to a mama to see her baby grow. That probably sounds really silly because, OF COURSE parents would want their children to be healthy and grow. But, I think it is even more important for a mom because there are so few things to tell us we are doing a good job, and seeing our babies grow and be healthy is a big one (although sometimes it is out of our hands, but we still feel guilty about it anyway).
I remember going to a "mommy and me" breastfeeding class when Graham was a couple of weeks old. The room was filled with new moms-most of us had struggled our way in for the class, barely managing to get our teeth brushed. Part of the group time involved weighing the babies, and I watched as each anxious mom stripped her baby down and placed it gently on the scale and held her breath. Some were very obviously disappointed and concerned, others couldn't wait to return to the place they had been sitting to brag to the other moms about how much weight her baby had gained. I so often think of mothers living in poverty throughout the world that are not able to feed their children, and especially their babies. How absolutely heartbreaking that must be for those mamas. I think we de-humanize them and automatically assume they love their children less than we do, but they don't. I love feeding my babies, and not just feeding them, but nourishing them.
Isaac is growing too, but more in ways you cannot visibly see. Sometimes I can hardly believe he is only four and a half and not fourteen. The other night I peeked in on him in his room and there he was, sprawled out on his bed listening to his music on a portable CD player with the headphones that he got for Christmas and flipping through the pages of a comic book. He looked just like a teenager. I felt a little tug at my heart the other night when he crawled up on my lap and as I was goofing around with him, I happened to really look at his feet. They are SO big, and I got a flashback of his little rectangular chubby baby feet and felt a little sad. I feel like the time has already gone so fast, and I know it will continue slipping away from me at a breakneck pace. I read a line from a book the other day that said something about how the minute they are born, you begin to let them go, inches at a time. It makes me want to hang on to Graham even tighter. It already breaks my heart to think about the day he will take his first steps and walk away from me. Right now he is so my baby, but I know he won't always be.
Only a mama could come up with all these ramblings simply based on her baby jumping up to the next size of baby clothes!

Christmas Recap 2007

(remember to double click on the pictures if you want to see them a little better.)

Well, Christmas is over for another year and once again it's time to get back to normal life. I always slip into a little bit of a funk after the excitement is over and then, after I bounce back I am ready to start tons of new projects. For one, I have so many things I want to do in my house- from big projects to simple reorganizing/redecorating. And, I can't wait to use all my new scrapbooking things I got for Christmas and get back into the swing of scrapbooking again. When I think of 2008 I am both excited and nervous. I am so hoping 2008 brings a move back to ND for us, and I am nervous that something would happen to change our plans (stop praying for that Marcia! :) I will be very glad when we have the final OK from Dave's job and we can start making our "for-real" plans. When we were back home over Christmas, it felt very surreal to both of us (as it has since we moved away). In one sense, we feel more at home there than we do here, yet in another sense, we feel like we are fully living here too. To say it another way, we just feel like we are living in two worlds. I so want to move back and fully invest myself in living there, without the fear of leaving. But, does anyone ever really have that security? After all, as Christians this world really isn't our home anyway.

I can't say this Christmas was my favorite on record. However, I did get a chance to spend some time with my 94 year old grandma. She absolutely LOVES babies and had so much fun playing with Graham. She is totally NOT 94, if you know what I mean. She gets up and down from playing with the baby on the floor better than my mom and I combined. It was fun listening to all her stories and I really need to write them all down so I can remember them someday.

Santa paid a visit to the farm. Although, if the kids didn't WANT to believe so bad, there's no way we would have pulled it off because we kept referring to him as "papa" accidentally. Cunning and sly we are not.

All in all, it was a good Christmas and as always, a wonderful reminder of why Jesus came to Earth in the first place...to die for our sins and set us free.

Here's my top five favorite memories of Christmas 2007 (in no particular order):

1. Staying up until 2am talking with my sister in laws

2. Watching the kids all sing Christmas carols while Grandma Shirley played piano (and listening to her make the same mistakes she makes every year!)

3. Listening to my grandma's stories and watching her play with Graham

4. Reading my book by the light of my mom and dad's Christmas tree and eating cookie dough

5. Watching Isaac's reaction to seeing Santa at the window (both times)

Happy late New Year!