It's 2009

Lately, I haven't been very motivated to post anything new.

Christmas was great for us and had quite a few surprises along the way, which one was getting a phone call from my little brother from the mission field in North Carolina on Christmas Eve. We were all at my grandma's house for dinner with my Uncle and his family, my older brother and his girlfriend and my two younger sisters. When the phone rang.. it was my brother, Sean calling to wish us an early Merry Christmas! We all took an opportunity for a few minutes to talk to him, which was awesome! I tried to keep my conversation short, since it was a church member's phone bill racking up. It was a Christmas present to Sean from the family that he's living with until the next transfer comes around. Granted, we also had the chance to talk to Sean again on Christmas morning! I'm glad to know that my brother is doing well and sharing his strong testimony with people. He's always been a big and lovable little brother, and yes I mean big.. he's a lot taller than me and built like a house. I only was able to tease him many many years ago, because now he can slug back a lot harder. He's getting ready to come home, there's been a lot of changes in the family since he left in 2007. In 8 months and 13 days, he'll be back home to Salt Lake. For sure, a nephew to come home to play and get acquainted with for the first time. We love you Sean!

Iszak had a hay day on Christmas with figuring out that wrapping paper can come off pretty easily and makes a wonderful noise in the process. Overall, Iszak was the most fascinating person to watch this holiday.

New Year's wasn't what I was hoping for, since I came down with Strep throat and was miserable. At least I was with my favorite people that day, even though I rung the new year with two sleepy heads. It always seems to happen that way with movies that I manage to stay awake through, but Chris nods off. His excuse is that those are bad movies, yet I seem to watch them to the end. By all means, it's only happened with two movies: Reign of Fire & The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. I can't complain too much.

Then this week, has been a challenge for me personally. January 6th is an anniversary date of my late husband's passing. It going on 7 years now, you'd think I would be over it.. somewhere emotionally, it's still rough and certain memories just flood those gates. I hope as time goes on that it will diminish. It was such a short lived time and for the most part, not the most positive either.

Now, my life is living large and I have the joy of sharing it with Chris and my little Iszak! I'm so proud of Chris for what he's doing for our family. He sacrifices so many things to make sure we're taken care of every single day. Every week, Chris is busy going on appointments to help other people's lives change forever with creating hope and opportunity financially.

Thank you Christopher for being my knight in shining armor and being the best Daddy to Iszak!!

Onto my last thought for this round of blogging.

Iszak has turned 7 months on January 7th, 2009.. wow, he's growing up so fast. He's so creative and has an amazing determination with things. For instance, Iszak is just about got crawling figured out. He basically can get moving in all 360 degrees with his legs and scooting. Now it's just getting those little hands cooperating in the same direction and he'll be all over the house.

At his 6 month and 3 week check and definitely well beyond the 6 month mark. We've got to thank the rescheduling from the doctor's office end for that one, hence another reason why we're shopping for a new pediatrician. Any suggestions, let me know.

Iszak weighed in at 17.1 lbs and 27 inches tall, which is average for his age. It was exciting because Chris was able to attend Iszak's doctor appointment this time. Chris was a little saddened that his hopes of having a really tall star basketball player may not be in Iszak's future. I think it's perfectly too early to jump to conclusions at such a young age.

We still look forward to every new daily adventure with Iszak. Along with the many desires to pull on every ceiling fan's chain in the house to turn the light on as we walk by. Thanks Daddy for teaching me that new trick!

Pictures of these last few weeks will come soon, as the camera is in my car at the moment.

Santa Visit

Two weeks ago, my mom had asked me if Iszak had seen Santa Claus yet.. my response, "ummm no." I hesitated on making anymore comments about the subject. I'm not really keen on the idea of taking a 6 month old to the mall, standing in line for who knows how long for a 3 minute snapshot and paying for it! 

I finally gave in and said, "hey mom, if you go with us.. then we'll go." So of course my mom jumped for joy, okay there was no jumping.. but it seemed like it from the tone of her voice. Off we tread to Fashion Place Mall to go see Santa. What a daughter does to keep a mother happy at times.

We arrive at the mall and get into line.. standing around, my mom gets another wild hair idea that Iszak needs to have a Santa hat for his picture. Okay, granted it would be so adorable... come on, he's 6 months old. Off my mom goes into Macy's to find a hat.. while the line is starting to creep up inch by inch. Finally a little worker, not dressed as one of Santa's elves or anything.. gives me a price list of the portrait packages. Yikes, $29.99 for the BASIC deal of 1 5x7, 2 3x5 and a some wallets. Santa isn't Cheap! 

I was getting frantic that my mom was still not back after 30 minutes of waiting in this horrid line. Finally, my mom  comes back empty handed. No Santa hats for little kids apparently, of course.. it's Macy's. Phew, we get to the entrance. By this time, my  mom has Iszak laughing hysterically, so I bring him over to Santa.  

Warning: Be prepared for disappointment.

Santa was not the jolly St. Nick that we hear about in stories.. rather he was quite lame.. not one Ho Ho Ho came out of his mouth or actually a sound come to think of it. Maybe this Santa is hearing impaired or something, so I brushed it off. Iszak had no interest in Santa, but everything around him.. the lights, Santa's boots, his own toes and whoever knows what else catches the attention of a 6 month old. 

The staff was very polite and allowed us to take our time, realizing that we have a youngster on our hands. The photographer was working so hard to get Iszak to look at the camera, my mom was blowing a whistle from her key chain.. who would have a whistle on their keychain, unless they were a teacher. Yep, that's my mom.

Finally I decided to take some pictures with my mom's camera, while she decided on which picture(s) to order. Santa was being the challenge at this point.. looking away at who know's what. How old is Santa again? Not 6 months I hope, because he was acting more like Iszak without the happiness part. So the personal snapshots basically were a waste.

Finally I pick up Iszak and go to the cashier to meet my mom. My mom started to bring up conversation with the young gal.. she told us that Santa doesn't have a replacement, so 14 hour days makes it a very long day for him. So what,  it's Santa right?  He could have at least smiled in the picture vs making it look like he was about to have a root canal.

An hour and a half later, $42 less in my mom's pocket.. we got this one and only picture from the experience:

Merry Christmas to your families! Have a wonderful 2009!!

Holiday Tag

I was tagged by Andrea.

Top  3 Vacations

 Of course Alaska, but not sure which time.. probably honeymoon trip.

 Capital Reef with Christopher 

 Yellowstone 

Top 3 Favorite Flowers

 Peach Rose

 Gerber Daisy

 Sunflower

Top 3 Comfort Foods

 Mac & Cheese *yum

 Spaghetti

 Cookies n Cream Ice Cream

Top 3 Places To Shop

 Smith's Marketplace

 Scrapbook Store, not sure of a favorite. I travel to about 5

 Carter's Outlet

Top 3 Opinions About Halloween

 Love it!

 Thrilled to dress Iszak up

 Decorating with my villages(s) & all other stuff

Top 3 Opinions About Thanksgiving

 Not big on the whole turkey eating idea

 Relaxing with my family

 Always room for homemade pies

Tops 3 Opinions About Christmas

 New holiday traditions

 Opening presents Christmas morning with long distant family

 True Reason for the Season

Top 3 Things I Look Forward To During the Week

 My time with Iszak to play and read books with

 Christopher coming home from work 

 Friday night trainings at our office with the team

Top 3 Things Happening This Week

 Time off from my JOB

 Partner's Breakout at the office on Friday

 Finishing up Christmas shopping

I tag Alyssa, Kami, Kateka, and Natalie

6 Months have come and gone

Wow, it's been 6 months with having Iszak apart of our lives. I couldn't imagine life without Iszak. He's brought so much joy and laughter to the family. His little facial smirks or just simply laughing at all of the funny noises that Chris and I make at him. Babies are so forgiving too, because they don't hold onto any grudges like adults do. Maybe it's a good thing that they can't talk yet at 6 months of age, because we may not be able to handle what babies would tell us.

I look back at my pregnancy and here I thought it was rough, being sick the entire time, marking plenty of parking lots in Salt Lake after just finishing a meal that I thought was delicious. I think Chris has decided that the next pregnancy, there will be less eating out, if all I'm going to do is puke the meals. All in all, we've been blessed with a very charismatic and dang cute little guy! He smiles at everybody and just loves to be around people. I hope that doesn't change one bit!

Today, Iszak was just making those silly sounds of a velociraptor and laughing at his quirky parents. Except for the occassional spit ups, which we may have to thank grandma for passing a cold onto Iszak. He seemed to enjoy his 6 month birthday! He's starting to sit up for a wobbly minute or so and figuring out how to brace himself from falling over. 

Here's a picture of Iszak enjoying a different place to play.  

Happy Birthday Iszak! Mommy & Daddy love you!

 

Random Thoughts

Tonight, I got home from work to do my usual routine of checking on Iszak to make sure he's tucked in. I always stroke his cheek, so he knows his mommy's home. Then I go in to check on Chris and say goodnight, if he's not asleep at the time. It just comforts me to know that my boys are taken care of.

I get on the internet and check my Facebook account to find out that someone from H.S. is STILL trying to be my friend. Okay, it's a nice gesture and all. I haven't talk to that person since before H.S. graduation. Plus she worked at my place of employment for a little while and just bashed the company after she quit. I realize people have their free speech, but come one.. there's something called a little respect. I've already denied the friendship request once, because I don't have any reason to develop that friendship or much rather acquaintance.  I'm weird that if you can't even include a personal message during the request, then you're obviously just wanting to add more status to yourself with having the most friends vs wanting to actually BE my friend. *honestly, just a pet peeve of mine*

Lately, Chris and Iszak haven't been feeling well, so I've had to play double duty all weekend. On Monday(today), I decided to take Iszak to the doctor. He's been pulling on his left ear for a week now. I spoke to the nurse last Tuesday about it, but there wasn't a lot of concern at the time. Because Iszak wasn't showing any sign of a fever or restless sleep, which are big clues for ear infections.  Behold, Iszak has an ear infection in his right ear. It's not a major infection, since the ear canal is partially clear. Iszak has been prescribed an antibiotic for 10 days, which should help him. This just shows that we're getting into the cold season and need to watch who gets into contact with Iszak for the time being.  I must say that I'm thankful for medical research to be on the lookout for new advancements all the time.

Speaking of other things:  Yes, I'm working on doing more environment friendly things, such as using reusable bags when shopping. I just wish the condo complex had recycling pick up, because it gets hard trying to store things until they can be dropped off. 

Another thing that I've also been doing is using more organic products, because they don't have all of the extra additives and chemicals. It is one area that I wish I had more knowledge about in the area of Organics. I love to go shopping at the whole food stores or wander down those aisles at the grocery store to find different things to try. Any thoughts or ideas about organics, let me know.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did and enjoyed the longer weekend together as a family, even though there was a cold bug in our home. Iszak had his second solid food that day, which he LOVES sweet peas. He got so mad at me for stopping so soon, but I didn't want to overdo the first day on something new.  Thanks Megan for being my photographer that day! 

"Yummy Peas,  but why does Aunt Megan have to interrupt me while I'm eating."

 Iszak's 1st Thanksgiving! 

Halloween in November

I've managed to finally get to my pictures on our old computer.(not actually true, since this post has been delayed) Wahoo! Here's our little white with brown spots cow aka Iszak. Chris on the other hand doesn't like to refer to our son as a cow, more like a bull without the horns, I may add. Apparently a cow is an embarrassing idea, so next year, I will challenge Chris to come up with the costume... which I already see into the future, that it will be the amazing mom(me) piecing it together with my mastery sewing skills. Anyhow, thanks to my mom for the adorable costume for Iszak's 1st Halloween!

Professional Picture, since really our slowly dying computer wouldn't allow me to access the lovely photo of Iszak on Halloween.

So here's another one:

Iszak is just so darn cute in his Halloween costume!

Quick update

I apologize for not posting on here regularly.. really just been playing with my new Mac and being a mommy, okay and a wifey. I wasn't kidding when I mentioned in my previous blog entry that the other PC is ready to die.. because I downloaded all of the wonderful cute pictures from Halloween to it, because the card reader is programmed for that machine. Then I tried to upload pictures not only to here, but to Walgreens to order prints for all of the wonderful out of state family members. And behold, I get a horrible error message that not only stops me from seeing the pictures... but restarts the program on me! I've got to get the pictures off the machine and just back them up before they're lost. Then I will be able to hopefully post them from my lovely Mac real soon! Anyhow, life's been great for the Urinko's!

More to come at a fashionable and sensible time.