Hy-Vee shop Hy-Vee

Isaac and dad have been enjoying running errands together on the weekends. Saturday morning we went to the hardware store and Sunday we went to Hy-Vee. Isaac got to push his own little green cart and was great at filling it up. He's gotten much better at and now only runs into a few other shoppers. After shopping, Isaac enjoyed riding on the electric horse - Henry the Horse.

Saturday Morning Snuggles

One of my favorite things about Saturday mornings is snuggling with our babies in bed.  Isaac always comes in our room about 6:30 each morning and wants to snuggle.  Michael joined us this morning as well.  Isaac is so kind and patient with Michael.  He loved snuggling in bed this morning and watching Disney Junior (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) with Michael.  Isaac loves to give Michael kisses and tells him that he is a "good boy".  We are so proud to be parenting such wonderful boys.  Our hearts are so full of love and joy!

P.S.  These are Isaac's favorite pajamas ... DINOSAURS!  And he knows every dinosaur by name and what makes them different than the others (such as a fin on its back, three horns on its head, plates on its back, a long neck, long trunk like an elephant, etc)...dimetron, triceratops, stegosaurus, brachiosaurus, and woolly mammoth!  Way to go buddy!

Trip to Omaha

This November, we took a trip to Omaha to visit Ryan, Mikhael, Maria and Emily.  Isaac had a great time playing with his cousins, and Michael loved snuggling with his God-parents.

Here is a picture of Emily, Isaac, and Maria in front of the aquarium at the Omaha zoo.  Maria and Emily loved showing Isaac around the zoo.  We saw a bear (with a crooked nose) climbing a tree, tall giraffes,  alligators, lions, tigers, and many other animals.  Isaac loved seeing the animals and making their "sound".  He especially loved roaring like a lion!

All the kids loved climbing on the giraffe statue. Good thing we found this statue, as Isaac fell midway through our zoo trip and got a "bad owwie" on his knee.  He would point at it about every 2 minutes and ask one of us to kiss it.  Finding this giraffe finally distracted him enough to forget about the owwie for a while!

Here is a picture of Isaac in the car on the way to Omaha.  He thought he was so cool to be wearing sunglasses like mommy and daddy.  And the fact that they were Spiderman sunglasses made Isaac even more excited!

We are so grateful that we live close enough to family that we can spend time together and watch our children grow up together.  I enjoyed just watching the interactions of Maria and Emily teaching Isaac and snuggling with Michael.  It is very special how much they already love and care for each other.  Emily was especially sweet in helping feed Michael his bottle.  :) What a wonderful weekend!

Fun Times

This is how we spend a typical evening after work.  Mommy and daddy get home, put on some comfy clothes, and we play.  Play, play, play.  In this picture we are doing some tummy time together.  Isaac loves showing Michael how his toys work.  He is a wonderful big brother.

We also spend lots of time reading.  Isaac has already learned his letters, numbers and colors.  He even loves reading some of the books to mommy.  Isaac is really good at reading "Blue Hat, Green Hat".  I will always remember how early on he started to understand letter, words, and reading.  What a smart boy!

Halloween 2012

Isaac and Michael had fun getting dressed up for Halloween 2012.  Isaac originally was going to be a farmer, but the farmer costume from aunt Colette was too small.  So then we borrowed the lion costume from aunt Colette instead.  Isaac was excited to wear the lion, as his cousin Brayton had been a lion in previous years.

It's funny how particular little two year old boys can be.  Isaac was SO excited to wear the lion costume, up until it was time to put it on.  Then of course, he refused.   We finally convinced him after an hour of trick or treaters arriving at our door.  Isaac wore the costume long enough to visit a few neighbors houses and then it came off.

Michael, our precious baby, was all decked out in a jack-o-lantern costume.  This is the same costume Isaac wore for his first Halloween.  Michael looked so sweet and pretty much slept through the entire evening.

It was fun having Nana and Papa over to help with the kids as well as answer our door when we took Isaac to the neighbors. 

Our boys are growing up!  I'm sure next year Isaac will be THRILLED to wear his costume...we probably won't be able to get him to take it off!  :)

A long overdue night out...

Audra and I rarely get the chance to get dressed up outside of the occasional wedding-but last night we were able to attend the bras for the cause black tie gala. The theme was old Hollywood. Audra found some black gloves and a new dress, she looked great. Its nice to enjoy each others company without any distractions every now and again.

Michael, Our Angel Baby

I LOVE this photo of Michael.  He is so beautiful!  He is getting the longest eyelashes, and he is always so calm and peaceful.  We love our little Michael!  :)

Fall Fun

 Michael doing some tummy time at 10 weeks old.

 Uncle Mark, cousin Emory, daddy and Isaac trout fishing at our annual Barn on the Bluff trip with the Olson family.

Isaac playing with his red hat that he got from aunt Colette as part of a Halloween Costume!


Michael on the right ------------------------>>>
12 weeks old!  What a smiley boy!

The Meyer brothers just hanging out.  As you can see, Isaac is glued to watching the t.v.  He loves "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on the Disney Junior Channel!

The Boys

Here is Michael at two months old.  He is growing so big so fast!  Michael has been a pretty easy baby thus far.  The first six weeks, he had some trouble with gas pains each night, so we ended up switching to a gentle ease formula.  This seemed to help.  But, as you can see in this photo, he is a happy child and of course he is SO cute.  Looks a lot like his brother did at this age!

Isaac loves giving baby Michael kisses on his head.  Before Michael was born, we purchased a baby doll for Isaac to practice holding, feeding a bottle, changing a diaper, and giving kisses on the head.  Isaac is SO good with his little brother.  He loves to help mommy and daddy get diapers, get the burp rag when it's time to feed Michael, and throw diapers away in the garbage.  We know Isaac will continue to be such a positive role model for his younger brother!

Isaac's Second Birthday

Isaac turned two on October 1, 2012.  We had a birthday party for him at our house and invited Isaac's cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to join us for the party.  Isaac had a great time decorating his "dinosaur" cake with grandma Cindy.  Together they mixed up frosting colors and put "dinosaur eggs" on the cake and cupcakes.  Isaac was very particular in putting matching colored eggs on the cupcakes.  For example, we told him to put 3 eggs on each cupcake, so he chose 3 black jelly beans for one cupcake, 3 red jelly beans for another, etc.  He did not like to mix his colors!  :)

Here is a picture of his finished cake.  We had a great time making the cake ourselves and letting Isaac help.  He LOVED licking the frosting!  And of course he loved putting his toy dinosaurs around the cake.

 Daddy set up a tent in the back yard and filled it with balloons.  The kids had a great time throwing and sitting on the balloons.  They especially loved popping them at the end of the party!

We also had a pinatta that the kids broke open with a bat.  Of course it was Brayton's swing that broke through to the candy!

One special feature to our party was the dinosaur tracks that Matt spray painted in the yard.  When the kids came over, Matt told them a dinosaur had been in our yard the night before.  Lauren was amused and also a little anxious at the same time.  She told Matt "Dinosaurs lived a long time ago, so how could one be in your yard?"  She was so nervous at one point that she went into the house to play in order to stay away from the dinosaurs!  Matt finally told her the "secret" that he spray painted the tracks.  The secret didn't last long, as Lauren told everyone that came to the party, "Uncle Matt painted the tracks on the lawn.  They're not real dinosaur tracks.  Uncle Matt spray painted them!"



Here is a picture of Isaac and his cousin Emory eating their birthday cupcakes.  It was so cute when Isaac went to blow out his candles on his cake ... Brayton, Lauren, and Emory all blew his candle out too!  They were all so excited.  So then we gave each of them a candle on their cupcake so they could ALL blow out their own candle!

Happy Birthday Isaac!

Introducing Michael Joseph

Michael Joseph was born on August 1, 2012 at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.  Mommy, Daddy, and Isaac were so excited to welcome our new little guy to the family.

Michael's birth story was much different than his older brother's.  Isaac was two weeks late and mommy was only in labor with Isaac for about six and a half hours.  Michael was 11 days early and labor was much longer...a little over 15 1/2 hours!

With Michael, mommy started having contractions at about 8:00 pm on July 31st.  It happened to be the night of the 2012 women's gymnastics team competition.  We stayed home until a little after midnight watching the Olympics.  The women's gymnastics team won gold!  My contractions started to become closer together so we made the trek to the hospital.  They continued to progress, but very slowly.  The doctor had us do lots of walking to encourage the contractions to become stronger.   So, we were up pretty much the entire night trying to get things moving.

 At about 7:00 AM, contractions came to a stand still, so the doctor came in and decided to break my water.  This made me a little nervous, but within minutes, my water was broken and we started to rock and roll!  Contractions increased and became consistent once again.  Michael was born at 11:41 AM.

During the pushing stage of delivery, Michael's heart rate started to drop.  The doctor and nurses were anxious to speed up the delivery.  I remember the doctor looking at me straight in the eyes and saying, "You need to get this baby out with the next push.  I need you to really focus."  Of course I got anxious as any mother would, as I did not want to have to go into an emergency c-section.  Luckily, Matthew coached me through it and Michael was delivered with the very next push!  The cord was wrapped around his neck, but the doctor quickly took care of that and within seconds he was in my arms crying.  What a beautiful experience!

We love our Michael Joseph!  Isaac really loved coming to the hospital to see his big brother.  Thanks to Nana and Papa for caring for Isaac while we were in the hospital.

Michael was 8 pounds 3 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long.  Michael shares his birthday with his cousin, Maria Loots!