Santa Baby

I may be a little bias because I am his mother but I think

he is the CUTEST baby ever.
Love , love , love those cheeks!

Disney On Ice

Izaak's first class field trip was to Disney on Ice - Toy Story! Boy, was he excited to go. Zak and I decided to come along for the show. I cannot deny that I was super excited too.Izaak's hero was Buzz Lightyear. When Buzz was not on stage Izaak asked when he would come back. We had a great time and loved watching Izaak's reaction to all the lights, music and to the best toys in town.

(Sorry for the blurry pictures - I forgot to charge the battery.

I'll try to be prepared next time)

What did you do?

Wednesday was boys only night while mami was at a RS activity. This is what happened while I was away...

Before

After

Remind me to hide the scissors next time I set foot out the door. Yes, Zak is in trouble!

Is it too early for Christmas?

Our boys think not!

They had their pictures taken at daycare and I think they did an amazing job. I am just in love with this one. I have two handsome boys, agree?

8 months

I can’t believe my little bear is 8 months today. I feel so blessed to have Izaiah in my life. He is so cuddly and just a wonderful baby. His laughter is so contagious and it makes all those that hear it just smile! Zak and I are trying to encourage him to crawl since he can get into crawling position (on his hands and knees) but has not quite got the moving part. He is just content scooting. It’s pretty funny to watch him just drag his body from one side of the living room to the other. Izaiah’s favorite toys are now whatever Izaak happens to be playing with and big brother does not always like that. We do enjoy the moments when these two buddies just make one another laugh. For example when we are in the car driving back home after work and all of the sudden Izaak makes a weird noise or screams and Izaiah just starts laughing, well in turn this makes Izaak laugh too and encourages him to make the noise again, which again makes Izaiah laugh. They can go for quite a while on the same routine. Zak and I just smile at each other and think how amazing it is to have our two little boys and what fun the future holds for us with these two boys of ours. We love them and are so happy to be the parents of such amazing little bodies.

Happy Halloween

We had so much fun this Halloween weekend. We started out our celebration on Friday morning getting Izaak ready to wear his SWAT team member outfit for a trunk or treat at daycare. As you can imagine he was super excited. Something about handcuffs, dark shades, a whistle and a flashlight makes this little boy really happy. Izaak looked great. We were also super excited to pick up Zak from the airport that afternoon. Zak was in Texas on a business trip and we sure missed him tons. Zak brought back some presents for us too and that made us extra happy!
Saturday we had our Ward’s trunk-or treat. It was so much fun. We enjoyed a taco dinner, showed off our costumes and Izaak won 2nd place on the children costume contest (Zak may or may have not pulled some strings for this since they asked the bishopric for votes and guess what? Zak is in the bishopric! J). We enjoyed all of our wards families costumes! Then the fun part began at the trunk or treat. Zak and I took turns taking Izaak around to pick up some candy and handing out candy to our little friends in the ward. It was fun. We managed to entertain Izaiah with a glow stick while he sat on the trunk of our car. He is such a good baby! We had to make a stop at the grocery store after the trunk or treat and people there enjoyed our boys all dressed up in their costumes too. I enjoyed all the cute comments my boys were getting.
For Sunday Zak and I had decided to keep it low key and wanted to enjoy just a fun time together as a family, so I made a special dinner for us. I made a stop at the Dollar Tree (which I love especially for the holidays… you can find great decorations there!) during the week and some fun items to entertain our boys. Hubby also showed another talent of his which the boys and I really enjoyed… he is a balloon artist! He made Izaiah a puppy, Izaak got a crown and sword and I got a beautiful flower! (I am kicking myself for not taking pictures of those wonderful treasures) My man has so many talents besides being a wonderful husband and a great father. I love him! Izaak also enjoyed handing out candy to the few trick-or-treaters that stopped by. He was so excited about handing out candy and he kept digging in our bowl for more and more candy to hand out. All in all it was a fantastic day!

Our little Tigger Izaiah and his cute cheeks

Zak being silly

Our decorated dinner table

Watch out! This SWAT team member is on duty

My chick magnet

The astronaut

(Gracias abuelo y abuela!)

6 months

Our baby had his 6-month check up today. Stats are as follows:

Weight: 20 pounds 6 ounces (90%)
Length: 27 1/2 inches (85%)
Head Circumference: 44.1 (60%)

Izaiah is growing very quickly which is makes me a little sad, but I am very thankful for his wonderful health. The physician lifted Izaiah while examining him in an upright position and Izaiah proceeded to jump and she mentioned that he was certainly a strong baby. Poor baby got four shots today. He managed to not cry through the first shot, but then it all went down hill after that. He curled his bottom lip and the tears came down his face and all I wanted to do was just hold him. I tried to remain strong for him, but it was really killing me inside watching him. I wanted to stop the nurse and pick Izaiah up and take him home. We don’t like shots!

Rolling and teething

Izaiah is growing so fast. It is all so amazing and sad at the same time. My baby is changing so fast right before my eyes. It is a little unfair that their infant stage goes by so quickly. We have some news to share. We discovered some pearly whites on our baby. That’s right there are two teeth making their debut. This explains the blowouts and the constant drooling. Every time we pick up Izaiah all he wants to do is grab unto our hands and nibble on our fingers, chin, or arms. He also chews on all of his toys and if he is not wearing a bib you know that you will need to change his shirt because it will be soaked in a matter of minutes.

3 already?

I woke up this morning anxious to hug, squeeze and kiss my little birthday boy Izaak. As I teased him and sang happy birthday in silly voice tones to wake him up the thought that I have a 3-year-old boy started to sink in. I begin to understand more and more why people say that time flies by. I have truly enjoyed learning how to be a mami with this amazing boy. Izaak has the best personality ever and is a sweet, sweet boy.

My Izaak,

Happy Birthday buddy! I feel so privileged to be your mami. You have taught me so much throughout the past 3 years. I love you so very much!
You are so special to me. There are times that I ask myself whatever I did to deserve you. Every hug and kiss from you just brightens up my day and makes me feel so good. You are so smart and I am amazed at how much you are learning each day. You have learned the ABC song and are starting to recognize letters, numbers and shapes. You are a pro when you play the pre-school games that papi downloaded for you on his ipod. You know how we sing you are my sunshine? Buddy you are truly mami’s sunshine!
I love our reading time and our playtime. You don’t like bedtime too much right now but if we decide to read a book together in bed it makes you so happy. I love when you call out “Mami play me, play me.” This is your current way of asking that we play together. I have tried correcting you but your way of saying this is much cuter.

Here is a list of some of the things you do now:
- You are fully potty trained; no more pull-ups at all! You are doing a great job even during nighttime. I must admit that I was a little hesitant to let you sleep in your big boy underwear but you have surely shown mami. Great job!
- You love to help mami set the table when we are getting ready to eat. You could be in the worst mood ever but when comes to setting the table you are the happiest boy ever. You use your counting skills to make sure you have the right amount of cups, plates, utensils and napkins for everyone.
- You really like Thomas and Friends and want to watch their videos on “the red” (Netflix) almost every day.
- Izaak you are a great big brother. You try to be so careful with Izaiah and we can just see all the love that you have for him with every hug and smile you give him.
- Your vocabulary is expanding everyday. You are getting better at using “please” and “thank you” and “may I.” You are awesome!
- You have had a love for Popsicles for sometime now, but you recently tried ice cream too and now your request is “can I have some ice cream please, not Popsicle, ice cream.”
- You like to offer others a snack/treat whenever you have one and you get so excited when they accept to have one with you. Super cute!

Our little beaner

While window shopping with my mom and Amanda,

Izaiah found a way to get all of our attention too.

This is what we came across to ...

(Amanda - thanks for the laugh!)

Four Months

Here are the stats of our chunky monkey, Izaiah.

Weight: 18 pounds 2 ounces
Length: 24 inches
Head circumference: 16.75 inches

He sure is a chubby boy and we are enjoying every single roll!

Sickie Poo

Our baby boy has been sick for a few days. What we thought started out as just a cold has been terrorizing our baby’s body. We have been really blessed to have my mother stay with us and she has been watching over our Izaiah while we are back at work. There is nothing like the care of a grandmother… don’t believe me? Just ask Izaiah who giggles and coos when he is near his abuela. I called the doctors office and took him in today for a check-up. I must say that I feel like such a bad mother whenever I take my kiddies to the doctor’s office because they are sick. It always makes me wonder what I did wrong and what I could have done to prevent the illness. Yuck!
The doctor’s assistant directed us to the exam room and while walking there she commented on how heavy car seats are (she saw me struggling while carrying Izaiah in his carseat) and after I set the carseat on the exam table and she took a look at Izaiah she said, “now I know why you were struggling, he is one healthy boy.” By healthy she meant chunky. Izaiah is now weighing 16 lbs and 12 ounces. I have an almost 17 pound baby and he is not even 4 months yet! I am not complaining I am loving it; I wanted a chubby baby. I might just end up with beautiful toned arms to wear all the fabulous tanks I own ;-)
Dr Cummings checked Izaiah out and after listening to his chest he stated that we needed to get him started on pulmicort. This is a preventative breathing treatment for asthma. I just kept wishing Izaiah did not have to go through this. Zak and I have experience with this since our Izaak was also diagnosed with asthma and had to be on breathing treatments too. The doctor also asked that we get an x-ray of Izaiah’s chest. Not fun at all. Pictures of when Izaak had to get this done ran through my head and I was dreading it more and more. Have you ever seen what contraption is used to get a baby’s chest x-ray done?

It is called a Pigg-O-Stat. I call it torture. My baby was crying once he was placed in this device and all I could do was just hold his hands. Horrible right? Izaiah was a lot happier after I got him dressed and back in my arms.
Thankfully the results came back negative, which meant no sign of pneumonia. Thank goodness. So we started him on some antibiotics and we are just hoping for a speedy recovery.

All within 24 hours…

Our little guy has had it rough. Let me tell you what happened starting Sunday. We were blessed to have Elder Bednard visit Greensboro and we had a special stake conference where we had to the opportunity to listen to his words. It was amazing. Now Greensboro has not had a general leader visit for the last 27 years, you can just imagine how many people showed to this event. Our stake center was crowded and really warm, not a good combination. By the end of the meeting I was in the mother’s room with Izaiah and then started the search to find my family. Well I found Zak but Izaak was nowhere in sight. Zak had turned for a few seconds to speak to a friend and in no time Izaak was gone. Talk about the worst feeling in the world. The search began. Zak, Anthoinette, Alex, Amanda, Bishop Lee, myself and others looking from room to room including bathrooms and closets all and any little space where we thought that a little kid could hide was searched. It seemed like eternity and with every passing second my thoughts turned to the worst. Next time I saw Zak I couldn’t hold it in anymore and I started to cry. I imagined that someone had taken my baby away from me. It was miserable. We probably searched for over 10 minutes, which once again felt like forever, and then finally some relieve after my brother-in-law, Alex, had found him. Zak and I asked where he had found him, but in reality neither one of us really cared, all that mattered was that our baby was back in our arms, safe. Izaak had a big smile on his face… this little boy had no clue of what papi, mami and others went through. Zak and I wanted to make him understand how unsafe it was to leave our side but deep inside of me all I wanted him to understand was how scared I was to lose him. After talking to him and explaining to him that this cannot be done; we believe he understood that this was a serious matter after he began to cry. I am thankful nothing worse happened.

Monday comes and we are getting ready for work and school. I was extremely excited because we were actually almost ready before 8 am. Zak decides to go ahead and get the car started and the boys in their car seats while I finished fixing my hair. Next thing I heard is Izaak screaming. I ran out of the bathroom and poked my head out the front door (I had no shirt on) and Zak explains that Izaak had fallen down the stairs. Since Zak and Izaak were at the bottom of the staircase I assumed that he had missed a couple of steps, but in reality he had lost his balance and fell down about 10 – 12 steps. I started to freak out a little after receiving this piece of information and I asked Zak several times (poor guy, I drive him crazy) if we should take him to the doctor. Izaak looked fine, only but a few scratches on him. Heavenly Father was really protecting him, no doubt about it. So we set-up an appointment and Zak took Izaak in to get checked out. The doctor was even impressed that he was doing so well even after such a long fall. My big boy is tough and strong. Zak called me after the doctor’s appointment to let me know how everything went and also told me that he felt bad for our little guy so he decided to treat him to McDonalds. I was once again reminded of what an awesome husband I have and what an amazing dad he is. This was not his fault but yet he felt like he had to make it up to Izaak. Izaak you are one lucky boy with a very special papi.

Future chef

Izaak loves to help out mami. He has papi's talent in the kitchen.

He will not only be a heart-breaker, he will also be a great cook.

Ah only a girls dream come true!

Madre Mia

It has been amazing having my mother here for the birth of Izaiah. I was really anxious for the day to come when she would be here in NC. I adore her and the distance between us is just not fair.

Mom stayed with Izaak while Zak and I were at the hospital for the delivery of our new baby. I knew that Izaak was in great hands and that made me feel at peace. She is a great mom and grandmother. She knows just what to do to make us feel better and take good care of us. Mom was even potty training Izaak while we were staying at the hospital. She is awesome! Izaak had a great time. I was anxious to introduce Izaiah to his abuela. It has been a blessing for Anthoinette and I to have our mom close to us after the birth of our children. Izaiah is mom’s fifth grandchild and she is so happy to be around all her grandchildren.

I appreciate my mom more every day. Being a mom myself has made me realize what an amazing job my mother did. I sometimes ask myself how she was able to handle us four kids, each with a 2-year difference or less. I sometimes think that I may not be able to handle it with my two boys, but her great example keeps me going. Gracias mami por todo tu amor y por tu ejemplo. Te quiero mucho!

Our new routine

This is my first week back at work and Izaiah’s first week at daycare… I was a little sad to leave my baby already. But things have gone pretty well this week and Izaiah seems to be enjoying his teachers and new baby friends. I shed a few tears the first day, but Izaiah was all smiles when I dropped him off and that is the image that kept me going all day. I love my little boy!

Great news… Izaak is potty training and doing so well! He started having dry pull-ups last week and we decided to keep him in big boy underwear throughout the weekend. He does wear pull-ups at night for bedtime but other than that he is super excited to be in his underwear. I tend to worry a little whenever we are away from home, but he has managed to keep himself dry and I try to carry an extra set of clothes just incase. He has had a few accidents, especially when it comes to poop (he likes to hide whenever he has to go #2 so we knew this would be a challenge), but overall he has done great. Yesterday was his first day with no accidents at all and we just had to go out and celebrate so we went out for dinner at McAlister’s (this also felt like a reward for mami because it meant she did not have to cook) and now Izaak is the proud owner of Thomas the Train big boy underwear! Trust me this is a big deal for my little boy. His life is so much happier when you mention Thomas the Train anything. A great milestone for my big boy, hooray! Papi and mami are also so excited that we will not have to buy any more diapers for Izaak pretty soon… hey that is like a $50 - $60 saving a month… double hooray!

Zak and I have managed to survive this week. It has been a change now that we are both back to work and now our mornings consist of rushing around getting ourselves ready and two little boys all dressed for the day. Trust me this calls for great teamwork. Zak is Mr. Incredible usually carrying Izaiah in his car seat in one arm and his backpack and sack of lunch in the other and I am the Bag Lady carrying my purse, breast pump bag, lunch bag, Izaak’s bag with extra clothes, and Izaiah’s bottle bag. Thank goodness Izaak has learned to go down the stairs on his own because if not I would need to grow an extra set of hands for him to hold on to. By the time we set foot out of the house and get everyone in the car it feels like such an accomplishment. I know that things will get easier for us because at the moment it still feels like chaos and I would give anything to sleep a straight 8 hours.

We are definitely enjoying being a family of four and though it may be hectic it is totally worth it. It is so rewarding to see Izaak and Izaiah happy. We love them so much and they are the biggest blessings that Zak and I have received from our Heavenly Father after our union. I am eternally grateful for my husband, who is absolutely a wonderful companion and teammate in this journey and he is also a loving father to our children. He is my inspiration and the one that keeps me going. Thank you babe!

Blessing Sweet Izaiah

Blessing our babies is a wonderful event. Hubby has such a sweet spirit

when it comes to blessing our children.

You are such a great father to our sons, babe!

One Month

One Month




Izaiah stats:
Weight: 10 pounds 2 ounces 50 percentile
Length: 21-½ inches 25 – 50 percentile
Head circumference: 38.6 cm 50 percentile

Izaiah and I went for his first month check-up eight days after he had turned a month old… oops, this was mami’s mistake. I called the doctors office to set up the appointment two days after he had turned a month old and the earliest spot available was for the following week. Everything went well and our baby is doing great.

Baby Love

Our first picture together... just a few seconds after his arrival


One of the wonderful nurses that stood by our side and cheered me on. My husband was wonderful too; he was so supportive.


A mother-baby nap after all the hard work.


Proud papa



Izaak came to meet his little brother, but he had to give mami a hug first... she missed him too much


Abuela and Izaak meeting Izaiah for the first time, precious!


Izaak is a great big brother already! Loving his Izaiah.


Izaak enjoyed the hospital food. Chocolate cake is delicious anywhere.

Welcome to the family Izaiah, we love you so much already!