The Howe Family

Worlds Worst Blogger Update

2010-08-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

(Can't move the pics where I want them so you will have to just imagine them next to the part of their posts )

So much for attempting to stay on top of blogging. Life is crazy, we've traveled and done a lot this summer and now getting ready to get back into the craziness of fall....that about sums it up.

We traveled to Houston the end of May for my brothers graduation. We missed the graduation with a trip to the emergency room at Texas Children's Hospital for William (he was a..ok) but enjoyed getting to visit with family.

We spent most of the summer at home after that. Steve was busy working for Monte Shadwick and Tracy Mann on their campaigns this summer. The election resulted in neither getting elected but a fun process none the less.

Dance classes continued over the summer but with me teaching a little less...yea! We've enjoyed a lot of walks outside this summer, eating fresh food from our garden, learning how to can those goodies, baking bread and trying to keep up with the boys.

Isak starts preschool in a couple weeks. Can't believe he's already 3! His birthday was early August and we had a toy story themed party. I attempted a buttercream transfer and it turned out pretty good. I will have to try it again for the next event. After he celebrated his birthday, it seems like his vocabulary has increased ten-fold. He has enjoyed playing at the library this summer quite a bit and loves his new dinasaurs from his birthday. They have replaced his cars obsession. We will see how the fall goes with that. I've been working on teaching him to read and so far so good. I've been reading a book this week called "Teach Your Baby How To Read" and it talks you through how to go about it. We've been doing flashcards a few minutes each day with some words, and I can tell he is learning the words as he read the word teeth off his chore chart today and I hadn't even said what the word was yet....we'll see how it goes!

William had his six month appt this week and is 17 lb 9 oz and 27" long. He's growing so fast! We've started eating solid foods. I made some squash the first week, peas next, we are on sweet potatoe this week and green beans after that. With Isak, I had wanted to make all of his food but didn't have the time/resources/drive to do so. With Will, I thought I should give it a shot, and it's been really easy and cost effective. I use a lot of frozen veggies, just cook them and blend them with a little water or veggie broth and then put them in ice cube trays to freeze. So easy and yummy too....tastes so much better than the brands from the store. I gave up rice cereal as it seemed to not like him so much and he seems to be doing better as a result too!

Will has been pushing up on his hands and legs quite a bit the past week. He's doing the rocking movement which is too cute and even pressing out into a push up position. I have a feeling he'll be crawling in the next couple weeks. His teeth keep coming in a bit and then going in....just wish they'd come in so it wouldn't bother him so much.

Well that about sums up our comings and goings. Dance starts early September so we are gearing up for that. Fall should bring new adventure and stories as we continue along the way. Hopefully I can be better about updating everyone. Enjoy the pictures!

The art of being Sneaky!

2010-05-13T21:29:00.000-07:00

The pictures are at the start as I can't get them to go down where I need them...sorry!

Trying my graham cracker treat.

Eating homemade popsicles

As I've been home more this month, I've enjoyed cooking again. Maybe it's the nice weather or maybe it's just all the free time, but either way I know my husband and son enjoy it :) As I start cooking more, I'm paying more attention to really how picky my son has become with what he eats. I realize he is only 2 and that it is totally normal but I had a huge awakening this morning at my MOPS meeting. We had a guest speaker from the K-State extension office who came to talk about fun cooking ideas, how to save time money and get your kids to eat more. Boy was it great and I am just having a grand time discovering new ways to be sneaky!

As stated earlier, Isak has become quite the picky eater. His diet consists of peanut butter and jelly, apples (which is a good fruit), peas, chees triangles (cheese quesadillas cut into triangles), and apple juice. He hasn't ever liked milk since he gave up his bottle and won't really eat any other fruits/veggies. Somedays he will surprise us with what he trys but then he'll revert back. I know some of it is his ability to control something since his little brother was born but I'm finding ways to work around it after this morning.

Below are some of the things I've learned, reciepes to share and web-sites I've found. They will probably be sporatic and a little random so please bare with me. You'll have to let me know how your sneaky habits go. I don't know if it's bad that I get so excited about it but it feels good to know that I'm giving my son what he needs. Now just for the head slap going....why didn't I think of that earlier.

1. So last night I started with homemade popsicles (Thanks Joanna for the recipe).
You take 4-8 oz vanilla yougurt, 3-6 TBSP crushed pineapple, 1 TBSP milk (optional) and honey to sweeten (optional). I poured that into popsicle molds from Target and he loved them! That was the only way I've ever gotten him to eat pineapple. My next goal is to try it with strawberries and other fruit. The possibilites are endless here.....plus I think they taste good too.

2. Since Isak has never liked milk, I got a great suggestion at MOPS this morning. They recommended taking non-fat powdered milk and mixing it into whatever I'm making him that day...brilliant! She said to mix it with peanut butter, put it in casseroles or whatever he will eat to add in the calcium. I'm so trying that this next week.

3. My new adventure started with snack time this afternoon. There is a web-site called http://www.wholesometoddlerfood.com/ also one called http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/ On the toddler site, they had a reciepe for energy balls under the snack tab. I amended the recipe a bit as I didn't have wheat germ or carrots (I added grated zucchini instead) but they kind of tasted like no-bake cookies...just healthier. I thought I was doing pretty good but I found out quickly, he doesn't like raisins. Isak is a kid that once he doesn't like something, he won't eat anything else. I was determined to make it work and so I took out the raisins, grabbed some graham crackers and tried spreading the mixture in between that. It worked for about 2 bites and something about the texture just wasn't working for him. So as determiend as I was I thought I'd break it down a little further. I took another graham cracker, spread peanut butter on it then mixed in some zucchini and put another graham cracker on top and smushed it flat so he couldn't see what was in it and...........he ate the whole thing! Now I know it was only a teaspoon or two of zucchini but it was progress.

4. Dinner tonight I was excited to try it again and see what else I could come up with. On a side note..I have a great fruit dip receipe to share (1 sour cream tub, 1 - 6 oz can strawberry/banana yogurt...not fat free, 1 instant french vanilla pudding mix....mix all together)......

I shredded some yellow squash and thought I could add them to his cheese quesadilla triangles. It worked!....almost. It took him a while to even eat the triangles...I reverted to telling him not to eat them which ended up with him eating them. He ate quite a bit of them until he noticed that some texture was different. At least he ate over half of them.

5. Some other great ideas are:
a. Fruit smoothies - 1 small frozen banana, 1/2 c. low-fat yougurt plain, 1/4 c. OJ - blend
- With the smoothies you can always add pureed carrots/juice of a carrot

b. Banana sandwich - hotdog bun, spread with PB, peel a banana for the "hot dog"

c. Puree/Blend any veggie and add it to pizza, sauces, casseroles etc....

d. Add pureed veggies (carrots/zucchini/squash) to pancakes

e. This one is great....add baby food vegetables to anything you are cooking! Baby food is mostly just the vegetable and water so it can be added to anything and no one would know....I'm going to try this with pizza sauce as my son can tell the different textures so this is a great way to be sneaky.

f. Use spaghetti squash for spaghetti noodles

g. Mix in cabbage with lettuce for tacos

h. Mix grated veggies in with ground beef

6. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes with peanut butter/jelly, sandwiches etc... Isak loves when we do this as he gets to pick what shape he is eating, plus I get to use my cookie cutters more often. Our favorites are gingerbread man and stars.

7. Add grated veggies to breads and muffins

So that was probably a little overboard, but I have been so excited all day. It's like a little light bulb went off. I've been thinking...man why I didn't I think of this sooner. It's been like 2 years! Isak used to love to eat all his fruits and veggies and meat and was such a good eater, then we hit 2 and I know Isak will overcome his food pickiness, just in time for William to start his but in the meantime I can make sure he's still getting the nutrients he needs outside of relying on his vitamins. So..hope this gets you excited too! You'll have to let me know if you come up with more arts of being sneaky :) There is a lot of info available on-line. I just have to remind myself...it takes a least 7 times of introducing the same item for a child to try/like the food. Best of luck!

Rock N' Roll!

2010-05-07T21:12:00.000-07:00

The past month has been full of fun for the Howe's. Isak is talking more and more each day. He has so many fun new phrases that it's hard for me to remember them all. I always say I'm going to start a journal of them, but I've yet to keep track of them all. Yesterday we were getting ready to go and I asked him if he was ready and he looked at me and said "Let's Rock and Roll!" It was too cute. Steve and Isak were talking the other day and Isak told Steve "It's awful". Isak is constantly repeating lines from his videos and TV. I'm not sure where he heard this one but he told Steve the other day "Blue and Green. It's a camoflouge." It is fun to watch his personality develop more and more.

William is growing by leaps and bounds as well. He is 3 months old today! I'm not quite sure how I feel about that as it seems to be going so quickly. He is such a happy go lucky baby. Quite calm and always taking everything in. He isn't easily startled by the tantrums of his brother which is a good thing. He only really cries when tired or hungry. He has the best little smile and laugh too :) I've added a video of him laughing today below. He is quite strong for being so little. He loves to practice standing and talks up a storm throughout the day. He has this new little squeal to get your attention. He'll squeal and then look to see if you are paying attention. It's fun to see him more interactive and social. He is still waking up every 3 hours at night which wears me out a bit. He has one good 5-6 hour stretch from about 9 - 2 or 3 but then after that every three hours he is hungry. I've been really happy that we haven't had to buy formula yet. I didn't think I'd make it 3 months straight nursing without supplementing so I've been excited about that. With Isak, I had to supplement a little while working. I looked at formula prices yesterday and am hoping I can keep nursing for as long as possible. I'm not ready to pay 30 dollars again for formula!

We've been enjoying a week of just family time :) We had our 3rd annual recital "Let the Good Times Roll" at the historic Stiefel Theatre in Salina KS on May 1st. It was a wonderful success and I'm looking forward to another wonderful year. I take the month of May off and we've been enjoying a lot of homebaked goods and dinner and I'm crossing off my list of house to dos that I'm never able to get to during the year. It's been fun spending more time at home at night and being able to spend more time with the boys. The weather has been so nice...70's...and so we've been able to get out more to take walks and play outside. I even took in some garage sales today!

We hope everyone has a wonderful mothers day! We are looking forward to our first annual studio cast party on Sunday to celebrate such a wonderful year. Hopefully I can post some pics later. Below are some recent pictures of the boys.....rock n' roll!

William hanging out in his swing. I love his little polo shirt that he got from one of my dance kiddos :)

Isak loves walking around in daddies shoes!

William at 3 months

Isak loves eating his food cut out in different shapes. The favorites are gingerbread man and stars.

One of Isak's many funny faces.

Isak and his buddy Caden at Caden's 3rd Birthday Party at Church.

Isak and Daddy hanging out wearing the same shirts.

Growing and Going!

2010-04-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

I took pictures of both William and Isak at about the same age and in the same clothes and boy do they sure look alike. The top is William and the bottom is Isak. William is just a little more filled out than Isak at this age but they resemble one another quite a bit.

William at 6 weeks

Isak at 6 weeks

We had a lot of fun over Easter weekend just hanging out and doing some much needed resting. So much resting in fact, that I forgot to dye Easter eggs. So Monday morning after Easter, Isak and I dyed our Easter eggs. He had a lot of fun telling me which colors to make the eggs and was quite eager to drop them in himself.

We were up bright and early Easter Morning as Steve had to Usher at the 7 am service. I don't think we've all been up and ready for church that early. We had a nice breakfast at church afterward and headed home by 10:30am! We still had an entire day left. I had fun dressing the boys up for their first Easter together. I attempted to coordinate their outfits even :)

We've been able to spend some beautiful weekends at the park lately. Steve and Isak have fun taking "senior" pictures by a little pond. Isak just loves water and everything that he can do with it. If he could jump and throw things in water all day...he'd be a happy guy. We have to work on the throwing things in water though.....it's getting a little messy.

William was enjoying a little nap in the park.

Steve and the boys. They always have a lot of fun hanging out together :)

April is gearing up to be a busy month with dance recital and appointments etc.... I am attempting to get Isak registered for preschool this month so we have some visits to some different schools we have to make this week to get him all ready to go. Now just to finalize potty training...hmm...another post for another day.

Here's hoping you had a blessed Easter holiday spent with family and friends.

Northern Bound!

2010-03-13T23:29:00.001-08:00

(Pictures are first today as for some reason, I couldn't move them down or move the text up)

Ahh...the good ol' Spaghetti Pictures :)

My little professor :)

First Smiles

Thompson/Kocher Grandkids in North DakotaM

My brothers and I (Brian-left and John-right)

The beginning of this week started with a trip to Bismarck, ND to attend my grandfather's funeral. William and I flew from Hay's to Denver and then to Bismarck. It was a quick trip up and back but it was good to see family. I only get to see them all once every couple of years so it was good to catch up. It was quite interesting as now there are all these little guys running around everywhere. It was fun having all the little kids around again :) I've added some pictures of my brothers and I and one of all my cousins and I. It's not often that we are all in the same place at once.

William began smiling the day of my grandfather's funeral. He had smiled before but I could always tell it was the little gas bubbles making him smile. He's been smiling a lot lately and the little tounge that sticks out with his smile is too cute.

William is growing so fast. I picked him up today and realized that he is getting heavy. Five weeks goes by quickly!

Isak is growing by leaps and bounds. His vocabulary is increasing everyday (thank you Little Einsteins and Leap Frog). Yesterday he lined up his toy animals on the floor, pointed at them and said, "Wow....they are beautiful". Too fun.

Cuteness....

2010-03-03T21:31:00.000-08:00

Isak was too cute when I came home from work tonight. He was sitting across from me on the sofa and looked at me and said "I'm so proud of you Mommy" :). Whenever he does something well or is brave I usually tell him I am so proud of him...especially after the 3 stiches in the ear. Just cute sayings from a cute little guy.

2 week visit

2010-02-24T08:42:00.001-08:00

William is growing so quickly! I took him in for his 2 week visit on Monday and he already weighs 9 lb. 9 oz and is 22 inches long. He's almost a pound heavier than Isak was and is 1/2 an inch longer. I can't believe how much he's changed in the past two weeks. I was a little sad yesterday when I started putting him in 3 month clothes and the length fit him.

He's been such a good baby. I started back up at the studio this week and he's slept most of the time and been really good when I have to take him into class with me. I wasn't quite ready to leave him at home yet, not that I don't think Steve would do a great job with the boys, just not being around him for that long would be really hard for me.

Isak is growing by leaps and bounds too. He loves to do Karoke/lip syncing to his favorite songs. He does sing to William. The other day he sang his ABC song and Twinkle Twinkle. Right now he is infatuated with the Little Einsteins videos. He repeats entire sections of the shows. He's a great big brother who loves giving his little brother kisses and hugs. They are going to be great buddies as they continue to grow :)

Fun Times with the Howe's

2010-02-18T10:13:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited today as we just got our photos back from the hospital. Wesley Medical Center in Wichita is really neat in how they do newborn photos. I was expecting for a nurse to come in with a camera like they did here in Salina for Isak and take a few photos for the web-page and ones that you could order, but in Wichita, they had a professional photographer come in with props and everything and do photos right in your room. These are just a few of my favorites. I love the little toes picture especially :)

Deep in thought. William is quite the thinker. He studies his surroundings quite a bit.

Bundled in the bunting bag and matching hat :)

So tired...quite a big yawn.

Fun family shots here at home. Thank you to our friends the Parry's for loaning us their little bouncer seat. It is now Williams favorite place to take a nap :) I'm going to have to see if he likes sleeping in it at night too. Somehow, he wiggled himself all the way down the seat during his nap yesterday.

Smiling for the camera.

Isak now old enough to sit "still" for a picture and while saying cheese too :)

Brotherly Love....my favorite photo :)

Williams' first bath....seconds before the screaming commenced. He doesn't mind having water poured on his head, just doesn't like it on the rest of him.

I took William in for his one week weight check on Monday and he already weighed 9 lbs! When Isak was born, he had just gained enough weight back to reach his birth weight and William has surpassed him! He does like to eat....all the time. We'll see how much he weighs again on Monday when we go in for his 2 weeks visit. William is quite a content baby. He only cries when he is hungry or sometimes when he is wet. He doesn't mind his brother throwing things around the house, although he is quite a light sleeper so that doesn't always match up well.

Isak has gotten a little louder and more rambunctious (sp?) since we brought William home. He is very gentle towards his brother which is great, just likes to throw a lot of things and talk really loud to let us know that he is still here. Steve has been really great though about taking Isak out to the park,riding around the block in the wagon and playing around in the backyard.

I go back to work next week teaching....well probably still sitting quite a bit but need to get my classes going again. We'll see how the first week goes. I may have to bring William with me a couple nights, I'm not quite ready to leave him home so we'll see how that goes.

Better go calm one down and get the other fed. Have a great week!

The Boys Meet

2010-02-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Steve and I enjoyed an extra day at home before Isak arrived. It was great to catch up on a little sleep and spend some more one on one time with William. Isak arrived home today to meet William and was just enamored with him. He kept saying "Hi William", "I love you William", "Where's William?". The one that scared me the most is when William would be in the swing and he would give it an extra little push and say "Weee!!!". I'm going to have to watch him around the swing.

We had a great day with the boys today and with Grandma and Grandpa Howe visiting. The boys both took a nap at the same time and have been really good this evening. I know challenging days are ahead, but Steve and I have really enjoyed our experience this time around.

Steve and I are truly blessed with our two healthy and wonderful children. We can't be more thankful than we are right now. I've added some pictures below of our fun day!

Mom and the boys

William hanging out in the hospital.

Peek a boo

Grandpa and Grandma Howe and Isak

Kisses for William

Grandpa Howe and William

Grandma Howe and William

The Howe Family

Dad and the boys

High Five for William

Welcome William Joseph Howe!

2010-02-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

We are very excited to welcome William Joseph Howe to our family! He was born Sunday February 7th, 2010 in Wichita (successful VBAC...yea!). William weighed 8 lb 13 1/2 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. When he was born, I thought he only weighed as much as Isak (7 lb 14 oz) but was a little surprised when he was bigger. We are so blessed to have two wonderful boys and are looking forward to them meeting one another this week. Mom, Dad and baby are all doing well. Labor lasted quite a while...approximately 29 hours so we are all a little worn out.

William a couple of minutes after delivery

Mom, Dad and William.

Who can resist little toes?

Dad and William

30 hours later and tired.

Isak loves his letters!

2010-02-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

Isak loves the Leapfrog videos and has picked up the phonics from the video. I thought it was pretty cute and wanted to share. Unfortunately, the seated video doesn't have the actions he normally does with the letters, but you get the idea.

Bathroom Renovation Time!

2010-01-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

Bathroom when we bought the house...yikes...pink and blue and gross carpet.

Steve's mid-gutting process in December.

Gutting complete...now repair on electrical and plumbing.

Yea! New tub and flooring going in.

Almost done! We now have all the fixtures in, just waiting on the top for the half wall and for me to finish picking out a mirror, shower curtain and accessories. We'll have to put up a final picture in a couple weeks.

It still feels a little weird having this new space. The tub is wonderful and a huge soaker tub...no whirpool jets but it is wonderful none the less. Isak loves his new "swimming pool". Another check off of our renovation checklist!

Almost 37 Weeks

2009-12-30T19:15:00.000-08:00

So this is actually the 1st belly picture I've actually had a chance to take this pregnancy, which I'm a little sad about but still got one done. Thought I would post that along with some more Christmas pictures from Grandma and Grandpa Howe's house. Enjoy!

Steve at 37 weeks gestation :) LOL

37 Weeks Pregnant

Isak excited for Grandpa Howe to open his present

The Howe Boys all watching a video

Christmas Time at the Howe's

2009-12-30T14:09:00.000-08:00

Isak's new big boy bed!

Graduated from the toddler bed.

Fun Playdough Time

Working at the office with dad :)

Isak's Magic "Gwasses"

MMMM....snow is good.

Putting cookies and milk out for Santa Claus.

Steve, Isak and I on Christmas Eve

Isak opening presents on Christmas Eve

Isak in front of the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve

(Note: Sorry for the influx of pictures at the beginning, it wouldn't let me move the pictures or turn them around)

This year seems to have flown by very quickly for our family. Isak continues to grow and baby #2 is due in just a short couple of weeks!

I am currently almost 37 weeks pregnant. Steve and I have decided to try a VBAC this round and in order to do that we've been seeing a doctor in Wichita every other week as I don't "qualify" for that delivery here in Salina. To help prepare us a little further we've taken Bradley Birth classes this go round and have really enjoyed what we've learned. True to Howe child history, this little one wanted to let me know that he was calling the shots and last week decided to turn breech. I think I tried everything under the sun to get him to turn including hip lifts, hot and cold packs, acupunture and moxibustion (a chinese medicinal herb that has shown great success in turning babies). Luckily at my ultrasound today, baby has finally turned and we are a go ahead once again for the VBAC. It was quite an exciting day!

Isak is continuing to grow and change everyday. He is fascinated with his new Mr. Potato head that he got for Christmas and his toy airplane. It was really fun to see him get into Christmas this year and understand more of what it was. Steve and I spent Christmas Eve here in Salina by relaxing, going to church, and opening presents at home. On Christmas Day we drove to Manhattan to spend Christmas at with Steve's family and his brother's family. It was nice to relax and enjoy some great food...thanks Roxana! Isak has also graduated to his new "big boy bed". The new baby needed the crib so Isak was moved from his toddler bed to the guest bed. He was pretty excited to get his new bed and sleeps a little better through the night...which Steve and I both love.

Steve and I have been busy this break crossing off our to do list :) We are in the process of remodeling our main bathroom and so we are hoping to get it all finished before the new little man arrives .....hopefully. It has been nice to have some down time to accomplish all the little things we never have a chance to do.

The new year is sure to bring fun and excitement to our house. We've lived in our house for a year now and time has just flown by! Steve has demolished and gutted almost our entire basement (except for the storage shelves I insisted he keep until we purchase new ones we can put up). He's gutted the bathroom and cleared the mini forest in the front and back yard. While at the time it doesn't seem like we got as much done as we wanted, looking back, I think it's a pretty impressive list.

Most rewarding this Christmas break has been the time with family. I've enjoyed a couple afternoon naps with Isak, some evening dinners with family (at normal times I may add), and time to spend with Steve. I hope this finds everyone having a wonderful Christmas holiday. I'm savoring the 4 more days until work starts back up again but am looking forward to all the new adventures it will bring.

Weekend Family Fun

2009-09-19T21:19:00.001-07:00

I haven't had a chance to upload any new pictures so I will try to do that in a week or so here.

Isak is getting his four two year molars.....so that has been quite a fun week. Needless to say, we've been working on switching him to the toddler bed and while he may start out in there asleep, he usually wakes up at 2 or 3 to join us which turns into me sleeping on about 6 inches of mattress. Hopefully the teeth poke through soon as I can tell they are just painful.

We made a trip to Wichita to get some new maternity clothes todaywhich was great! Spent a little too much but needed some clothes that fit. I should be set through January. Since when did maternity clothes become trendy and cute. I had fun shopping and enjoyed spending time with Isak and Steve today. Steve taught Isak how to squeeze the peanut shells to open them and eat the peanuts at dinner tonight. They both had a fun time and I got some cute pictures....still on the camera of course.

Steve is headed down for another day at the State Fair. We won't be joining him tomorrow as there is a lot to do around here to get readyfor our trip to Montana next week! We are going to wedding in Missoula and will be seeing my mom in Billings. It should be a great trip.

It's hard to believe I'm already5 1/2 months along. I keep looking around thinking, man I need to get a move on with getting things ready. We still need to get a changing table and some other fun items and moveIsak into a different bed and put the nursery together. The list will always be there of things to do, it's just amazing how fast time is going this time around :)

Long Time Overdue

2009-08-26T08:57:00.000-07:00

I feel like I haven't posted in ages. So much has happened and we've done so much in the past few months that it's hard to know where to begin.

Isak is growing so much everyday. He loves to dance and sing his songs and talk up a storm. He is running galloping, counting, coloring and doing all of the things that rambunctious toddlers love to do. He has become quite independent.....unless we are walking up stairs then I am supposed to "hold you".

We took a trip to Disney World this summer with 35 of my dancers and their families and had an absolutely wonderful time. It was hotter than hot down there, but the dancers didan amazing job and we will definetely make a trip back again. Isak had a blast seeing and taking part in everything. I think we came home with a new son as his vocabulary increased and he just seemed older.

I've attached some pictures of our trip.

Isak enjoying Lego Land in Downtown Disney

Isak and Steve with Donald at Chef Mickey's Breakfast. Isak liked the characters from faraway....just not close up. He was too excited to even eat.

Chasing after the bubbles in Magic Kingdom.

Enjoying a 2nd birthday treat at the Coral Reef Cafe in Epcot. Right across from us was huge wall long fish tank....Isak loved the fish.

Of course we had to visit Mater and McQueen in Disney Hollywood Studios. Isak just wanted to stay and look at them for about 15 minutes.

Playing in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground at Hollywood Studios. Isak loved the slide and all the tunnels you could get lost in. One note if you ever go...the tunnels were definetely not made for adults to travel through...ouch.

Isak and Steve on the plane ride home. Despite Isak's ear infection prior to our trip, he did a great job on the plane. He was a little upset when we got off the last time...he wanted to stay on the "airpwane".

On an exciting note, Steve and I found out earlier this summer that we are expecting #2. An ultrasound last week confirmed it was another little boy. We are pretty excited to have another little one around. Isak is excited to have a "brodder". I'm due sometime mid-late January so it should be a great time of year. Steve has been busy painting the guest room while I've been busy deciding how to decorate :)

Well, a busy day calls. I will try to update more often.....hopefully. I hope this finds everyone doing well!

New Pictures :)

2009-02-12T12:49:00.000-08:00

Little man during his bath. He has the greatest smile. You can see he fell and scraped his nose pretty good in our drive way.

We visited the zoo last weekend. Isak loved feeding the animals.

Our living room. We are getting settled in well and have finally gotten all of our furniture and are putting curtains and everything up. We love hanging out in our living room :)

Isak and daddy having fun running around the house.

Isak loves hanging out in the laundry basket and was trying to fit himself in the basket without scrunching up. I love the hair standing up.

Sorry for the short post. Hope everyone is doing well! Happy Valentine's Day! Steve is off for the next couple days judging a barbeque comptition in Great Bend so I am excited to get to taste some of the samples he brings home. We are hosting a baby shower on Sunday at our house for two church families in our bible study group that are going to have new arrivals here in the next couple of months and so we are working to get the rest of our cabinets painted and the kitchen curtains up. Work, as always, is busy. We are gearing up for the spring recital and I am finishing up putting a workshop together for my students. It's an exciting time of year!

2009-01-20T21:55:00.000-08:00

So much for being better at updating over Christmas...It's been a little crazy.
Short update:

We are moved in...it took three days...we love the house :)
Steve has fixed a lot and torn out a lot and we've both painted alot.
We'd love visitors...but give us a few months...the guest room is currently the storage room and we've discovered it has wallpaper...so that may take a while to fix knowing my schedule.
Isak is loving learning letters and has about 7 down now and will shout them out whereever he see's them and loves his letter flashcards too.
He is growing too fast...as I say every post....and loves playing outside so much that he throws a fit when he has to come in.
Work has been busy for both Steve and I as Steve has been traveling and organizing his committee at church and I've been working to plan a Disney trip and trying to get recital organized. Hopefully this weekend will slow down a bit :)
So that's the long and short of it. I've attached a lot of pictures as I know I'm a bit behind.
Have a great week!

(he loves his new vacuum...see the video ...I know it's sideways...I did it wrong)

Lots of house pictures

2008-12-13T14:39:00.000-08:00

The house without bushes in the front....Steve was busy today.

Laundry room pic 1
Laundry room pic 2

Downstairs bedroom

Basement workshop....later will be a bedroom.

Basement bathroom....needs gutted.

Downstairs Family Room

Stairwell. Don't you love how the carpet and wallpaper match :)

Living Room looking down the hallways. We've kept the carpet foam down so we don't damage the hardwood floors while we paint/move things around/tear out etc...but you can see down the hallway how pretty the floors are.

Secret storage room #1

Safe in the secret storage room. The previous owner stopped by today and visited with Steve and said the safe had was there when they moved in in the 80's and he was never able to get it open either....this should be interesting.

Secret Storage room #2...trying to get the doors off so we can open up the space.

Main bathroom....very pink indeed.

Master 3/4 bath.....lovin' the blue.

Isak's room. The only room with a white door in the house....very strange.

Living Room Fireplace

Our great backyard.

Master bedroom. Steve is going to remove the built in cabinets...that will open it up a lot.

Kitchen...the z-brick will be painted cream.

My new kitchen.....needs a little sprucing up.

That is basically every room in our house except for the small guest room upstairs. We'll post pictures here in a couple weeks when we are doing our small renovations before we move in. I'm excited to meet with someone on Monday who is going to help me with paint colors. I attempted to figure it out on my own and ended up getting a little overwhelmed so I called in the experts....probably better for me in the long run .

2008-12-12T12:15:00.000-08:00

Steve and I closed on our house this morning. I took a quick picture this afternoon while we were there making a check list of what we needed to do. I'll add some before pictures later this weekend so you can see what it looks like before we do some fixes before we move in.

We plan on pulling on the trees in the front and redoing the landscaping. You are welcome to visit as now we have a great guest room!

Long Overdue Update

2008-12-10T07:17:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone,
This blog update is long overdue. I haven't been very good about getting on and updating pictures and stories. So I will have to summarize and try to catch up from where I left off.
So many new and exciting things have been going on around our house. Isak has learned how to climb very well. He climbs over the couch, likes to go head first off the couch, can climb up into his high chair, on to the coffee table, into the toy box...you get the idea. I've said with every month...boy this is sure a fun age...I hope he stays here for a while. But each new month brings a new adventure and I am really enjoying watching him learn and grow.

Yesterday, Grandma Howe sent him a new Silent Night book the plays Silent Night and the lights around baby Jesus twinkle. He LOVED it. He sat and played the book all day! He even took and nap with it and was holding it when he woke up this morning. This morning he was walking around with it while it was playing and he started trying to sing Silent Night. It was really cute.

Isak is talking more and more every day and developing the desire to try mom and dad quite a bit. His mischevious little smile is hard to get upset at though. He runs all over the house and loves to play tag. Steve and I have taken him to visit the playground at the mall a couple of times now and he never wants to play, but he does LOVE the fish. He about goes into convulsions before we even get to the door because he knows the fish are inside. I may have to put a fish tank in our house somewhere!

This Thanksgiving, Steve and I spent the afternoon with Steve's parents in Manhattan. They are in the process of adding onto their new home so we are so very excited for them. Isak had a great time eating the wonderful Thanksgiving dinner that Roxana made. I think he had 3 or 4 servings of everything before we had gotten through one.

Some exciting news from the Howe household is that soon we will have a new house! We close on our house this Friday. Steve and I are very excited to have a place to call our own. The house is in a great neighborhood with a wonderfully large backyard. Isak will have his own room, plus room to spread out all the toys and books. Steve and I plan on remodeling portions of our house over the years as the house is dated to the 1960's. If you love z-brick in kitchens, you can have your fix in our house :) I'm especially fond of the pink and blue bathrooms...complete with pink and blue toilets. I didn't know they made those but after some research, you can get toilets in a lot of different colors.

Our holiday season will be spent, painting, cleaning and decorating. We are really excited to get in and get to work. We spent a majority of our Thanksgiving holiday packing up our house so at least we have a lot of that done.

Below are some updated pictures of Isak. At his last appt. he was 33 inches tall and 27 lbs. Still in the 90th percentile. I didn't realize how tall he was until he was around some other children at church. He is almost as big as some of the 2 year olds. Someday he'll be able to clean all of those high cabinets for mom :)

After 3 1/2 years of living in the same place, only 2 weeks before moving, vandals hit our area of town. 2 kids decided it would be fun to go around town and shoot BB guns/air guns at people's car windows and homes. They apprehended the two kids but this was the damage left behind on my car. So a Monday morning that was going great, turned into a long day. Steve came home and took care of a lot of the details in getting car fixed. It was just annoying to get it all done. I've put a picture below of the damage done. Luckily, the place the fixed the window had it done within a day, so that was great. We now have two vehicles again.

Livin' in a box.....

Watching' my favorite show...without moving.

Mash potato mouth #1

Mash potato mouth take 2

My GQ pose

Balancing act...or learning by osmosis.

Silent Night Book

Thanks for the book grandma!

Climbing on the coffee table.

Have a wonderful week and hopefully I'll be able to update a little better over the holidays.

Say Cheese!

2008-11-09T21:03:00.000-08:00

Overnight Isak seems to grow and change. He woke up earlier this week with what seemed to be a new smile. He presses his lips together and the raises the sides of his mouth up. I could sit and watch it all day and he knows how to use this smile to his advantage as well :)

Just wanted to post some new pictures of little/big man. I bought him his first pair of tennis shoes this weekend....size 7! I shed a little tear in Target. I tried on the fives and his toes wouldn't even go in, so I thought maybe a 6...maybe 6 1/2...nope....a 7! He looks like such the little boy now when he wears them. He's not quite used to the hard sole yet as I've had him in moccasin type shoes (Robeez and Pedipods are awesome)...but he still runs pretty quick.

Right now, Isak is asleep holding his book, cuddled with his bear and blanket. I think he has a book in his hand everytime he takes a nap/goes to bed. Below is our little reader with his new crafty little smile.

(Picture Note: Dad helped to eat the wings pictured....but Isak sure did like them. Isak and dad love game night dinners when mom is working :) )

(Polly Wanna Cracker.....I gotta tell you, I love this hat....it is too cute)

(The new adorable smile)

(ha - cha........Isak's new game of trying to get you to make the same face)

Happy Halloween and more!

2008-11-03T09:37:00.000-08:00

Isak seems to be changing over night at times. He is growing and learning so fast that I can hardley keep up. Below are our updates of pictures...there are quite a few as I am not too good at keeping up with the blog.

We've discovered that Sonic has a fun little playyard. Isak loves corndogs...and the play cars. He gets a little upset when they don't work as they should but loves to stay in and ride. This was his first time in the car. Watch out drivers!

Isaks new favorite thing to do is to crawl and look underneath things. He likes to throw his toys underneath and then tries to find them. This time, he decided to crawl through the coffee table. It was pretty cute and he was pretty proud of himself for finding the way through.

When you ask Isak "Where is Isak" he will cover his ears and he thinks that you can't see him. It is pretty hilarious. Here he is playing along with mom. He didn't think I could see him sitting there. When he puts his hands down, he laughs quite a bit thinking that he fooled you.

(getting too big too fast)

For Halloween, I handed out over 2000 pieces of candy at our downtown BooRama. Isak dressed up as a Pirate. We didn't really do any trick or treating with him as he really doesn't get any candy, but he had fun trying his first sucker. Steve said that he was drooling so much from it that his entire shirt was drenched.

Steve and Isak were downtowing strolling around in the wagon. The pirate hat is pretty cute...it didn't stay on very long but was adorable none the less. After the downtown event, we went to a friends house for some chili and conversation. They live on a street that is packed with trick or treaters all evening. Isak had fun running up and down the sidewalks. He was so excited and hyper. He finally crashed around 7:30 while hanging out in the sling.

(I know he will look back at this and think....seriously mom....a pirate.....what were you thinking)

Steve and I took Isak to a Pumpkin Patch just south of town earlier in October to play and pick out some pumpkins. He loved pushing the wagon around and running through all of the pumpkins. It was such a beautiful day. We will definetely have to go back next year!

(Isak found the perfect pumpkin....it was just a little heavy)

Isak was enthralled with the ducks at the pumpking patch. He loves ducks and kept running over to them saying duddy (aka ducky). He stood there for about 5 minutes and just watched them.

We hope this finds you all doing well. Hopefully I can be a little better about updating the site. Have a wonderful week.

New pictures!

2008-10-14T08:39:00.001-07:00

Here is even more pictures from this weekend!

Group meltdown before nap time

Isak the mathematician at the park

Hugs by Lukas

Swinging at the park....again!

Thought of the day!

2008-10-14T08:21:00.001-07:00

Just wanted to pass this fun little 3 minute clip along to you!

http://www.ajoymovie.com/?SRC=POIJOY&utm_source=Walk+the+Talk+Master+List&utm_campaign=ac5db8c9a4-POI_10_14_08&utm_medium=email

Have a great day!

Updates

2008-10-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

So I thought updating this blog would be a lot easier for me to do, but it's just been a little crazy this fall with only more craziness to ensue. In other words, a lot of updates are needed.

The city of Salina celebrated it's 150th birthday in September. My dancers danced in parade and we had such a great time. We had about 40 dancers all dancing to "some day's you gotta dance" by the Dixie Chicks and the crowd loved it. The girls looked great and my husband had a great truck loaned to us. You can't really see it in the picture but it was a brand new 2009 Ford F-150. I was a little sad when we had to give it back because it had so much room inside, but didn't want the 10 miles per gallon fuel bill.

Isak has just been growing so fast over the past couple weeks. His new favorite word is what. He has discovered that if the wagon is behind the couch, he can climb up on the wagon and climb up over the top of the couch to crash on the other side. He loves to climb and to try to see what he can get up on. That is not necessarily a good thing.

(Isak reading his menu at the restaurant)

(mmm...styrafoam)

Isak has spent the last couple of weeks not feeling so well. He's working on cutting some teeth and it's been about 6 weeks now and they still haven't come through. On top of that, allergy season has been in full swing. He's finally starting sleeping more through the night so that has been great as Steve and I really hadn't slept a full night since the beginning of August.

We traveled to Manhattan last week to visit Matt and Julie and the boys who came down from Nebraska. We went over for the afternoon and we all took the boys to the new park at City Park. It was an awesome park....there were just a lot of children at the park on it's grand opening day. The boys had a great time but all were a little tired after the trek. You can see from the group picture that it was nap time.

Isak's love for books continues to grow. He is constantly reading and sitting on top of his pile of books. He now will turn to the pages when you ask him where things are and will point at the animals and sometimes I hear him reading to himself in the corner. It is too cute.

(Isak swinging at the park earlier this summer)

(Reading with dad before naptime)

(First time down the slide by myself!)

On The Road Again.....

2008-09-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Isak loves to read. Everytime we get home from being out and about, he picks up his books. Last week when Steve and Isak went to Manhattan, Steve said that he just held his book the entire trip. This week when we were running errands, he looked at his book the entire time. It was really cute and I happened to get a picture. Have a wonderful day!

Whew....What a Week!

2008-09-21T11:50:00.001-07:00

Boy it has been a busy week. Steve enjoyed some downtime on a day golf trip this week and Marsha Fay Knight came down from the University of Wyoming to do a ballet workshop with my students. She set two small pieces which are going to be a lot of fun to perform.

Last weekend, some of my rhythm company students did a fundraiser for our Disney World Trip. We have a vineyard right outside of town and they offer a fundraising program where your group can come and pick grapes for a set amount of time to earn money. We had 40 people who workd 4 long hours and cleared out almost 5 rows of grapes. It was a long four hours, but I found it to be a lot of fun. I can check owning a vineyard off of my list of accomplishements in life as I don't think I could do that everyday. It was a facsinating experience though going through the process of actually harvesting/picking an actual item, watching it go through the presser and knowing that next Christmas, the grapes we picked will be sold as wine. We had a wonderful lunch afterward provided by the vineyard. It was a great time for the students to get to know one another better and good for them to work for their trips.

Marsha Fay Knight was here from the University of Wyoming to do a workshop for my students. It was so wonderful to have her here. I feel reenergized with ballet. I feel like my brain has been put back on track as far as the direction I need to go with some of my students. Owning a business, trying to teach all the classes, and putting it all together sometimes clouds my mind and I lose focus on foundation of what we are doing. She is just such an amazing teacher to begin with and was so instrumental in my training. Hopefully we can make her visit an annual or bi-annual event. Next time, she'll have to stay longer than 2 days!

While Marsha was here, we hit an antique shop and I found this great little toy horse for Isak. He loves it. If you say, Isak where's your horsey, he'll run right over to it. He can get off of it but can't quite get his leg over the top yet. He can almost say horsey as well which is pretty cute. New toys always make the day exciting :)

Thought of the Day

2008-09-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

With football season in full swing....I thought this might be a nice inspiring start to the day.

http://www.thenumberonemovie.com/?SRC=POIONE2&utm_source=Walk+the+Talk+Master+List&utm_campaign=b4d7023198-POI_09_16_08&utm_medium=email

Isak Gram First Edition!

2008-09-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone,

I thought it would be a lot easier to post on here rather than sending out mass e-mails. This way you can check it at your own convienence.

This fall has been going by pretty quickly already. Isak is growing faster than I can keep up. He loves to run around the house and to sit and read. It is so fascinating for me to just sit and watch him. He loves to sit and read for minutes on end and loves Steve and I to read to him. You can see from the picture below that the books get spread all around the house.

Isak has been developing quite the personality this fall. He loves to say hi to everyone and laughs quite a bit during the day which is such a wonderful sound. His love of running developed quite the knot on his forehead when he toppled into the cement in our driveway. He loves to watch his feet underneath him and gets a little top heavy at times. It probably didn't help that I hadn't cut his hair because it was so soft and I didn't have the heart to cut the curls off. You can see how long it was below. Note the key word was...... Steve took the initiative one night and gave him a nice trim while I was at the studio. He did a pretty good job as you can see in the picture right next to it.

Steve had to work the state fair this month and so Isak and I took a trip down on the first day to visit. We had a great time. Isak really enjoyed eating the grain sorghum and visiting all of the animals. It was a lot of fun to travel and do something fun as a family. Isak did great both there and back. He napped the entire time.

We are enjoying the last warm days of fall as the colder weather is setting in sooner this year. I'll close today with some more fun pictures of Isak and Steve. We hope this all finds you doing well and enjoying the fall weather!