A Chance To Make A Difference

Check out Maggie's story.

Ever since it became apparent that the economy was heading down hill I have made it a point to find ways that I can to serve and help others. It was my little way of creating insurance through karma I guess. Well, I won't go into details but I will just say it works and highly recommend it.

For those of you that would like to start your own karma insurance program here is an opportunity for you:

Maggie is a little girl in my friend's neighborhood. Some people in the neighborhood are holding a fundraiser on May 15th & 16th to help Maggie's family out with the overwhelming expenses involved with her medical care and also to help her get to Boston to see the specialist she needs to see. This trip involves getting a ventilator while on the plane among many other things I am sure.

So what can you do?

• Donate to the yard sale. I will even come get your donations just email me or call me. If it's easier, you can bring the donations to me.
  
• Donate to the bake sale and/or boutique sale, again I would be happy to pick things up for you.
  
• Come spend some $$$ at the fundraiser.
  

Copy and paste this to your own blog to spread the word about helping this little girl!

Thanks,

Jessica

A believer in that good goes around.

Baby Jaws

This is what my sister does for fun, while babysitting my child. 

Now Iszak is our little star in the making.

Countdown to Alaska

Yippee! Only 27 more days, until our little family boards an airplane to head to The Last Frontier! It's been less than a year ago that we were in Alaska visiting. Iszak was only 2 months old during that trip, because of course the family had to meet their first grandson/nephew sooner than later! 

As we were flying back home last August, we decided that we weren't going to go back for a few years.. 5 to be exact! There's plenty of places to see in Utah and neighboring states that  Chris hasn't seen and the excitement to show Iszak as well for the first time. It was less then 2 weeks of being home, that we found out that not only 1 sibling... but 2 got engaged. Darn it, back up to Alaska! Our plan so far hasn't worked in our favor.  A wedding on May 22nd and another on August 9th. 

I imagine that someone else had a hand in this plan to make sure their grandson was getting the attention and love from Baba! As it has been 11 years this month of Chris' father's passing. 

As I think about Chris interacting with Iszak and developing their father/son relationship, it's amazing and priceless to watch them. I'm thankful to have such a loving husband that would do anything for Iszak and myself on a daily basis.  I can only imagine how Chris' dad was as a father with unconditional love, nurturing and admiration for his own children.  A wonderful father,that I'm sure of, as all of the 3 kids are very respectful as adults. 

 

Thinking about it more and more.. I'm excited for Iszak to see his daddy's side of the  family more often  as we currently live in different states. Plus who wouldn't want to go to Alaska, right?? 

I really enjoy spending time with the family too, as I haven't gotten to know them as well as I've hoped, with the long distance between us. I do have to give myself kudos for doing a better job in keeping the phone lines busy talking to mom in Alaska. 

One night, Chris had called his mom to chat as they usually do on the weekends. We put the phone up to Iszak to "talk" to his Baba (Babushka is grandma in Russian) and he actually made joyful sounds and laughed with her. It was priceless! I'm sure once Iszak is talking non-stop, then learning the phone number.. we won't have any say  in what our child does when the phone is dialing to Alaska! 

Congrats to Patience & Mike!  

Congrats to Josh & Jennifer!

Here's some pictures of Iszak's 1st trip to Alaska, August 2008:

Expressions that Iszak made while riding in the car.

Iszak making faces at his toys in Homer, AK.

Chris, Patience, Josh (siblings)

and a bundled up Iszak

Baba and Iszak

A Tie Dye Easter

A glance of our Easter Weekend. 

There are captions on many of the pictures, just have to hover over them with your mouse.   :)

Chris came up with the idea of tie dying t-shirts as a family tradition  vs dying hard boiled eggs for Easter. An odd idea coming from Chris as he's not into tie dye whatsoever. I was so excited that I was instantly thinking of all of the many possibilities.  I have always loved tie dye with the bright colors as it shows personality and the uniqueness with every creation. I love how Iszak's shirt turned out the best! 

Next year, I will do a better job with finding more color mix and intense colors, as the red went more pink after washing the shirts. Chris stayed pretty moderate with using one color, but he was proud of how his turned out for being the 1st tie dye experience. 

The project only cost us $25, so it's definitely a keeper.

Tooth #2

Hooray! Iszak is no longer a snaggletooth. He finally has a companion that came in just next to the other little one.  It's been a rough couple of days with Iszak waking up in the wee  hours of the morning  and being  cranky. He's definitely shy to show them off yet, so I haven't snapped a picture to show off how adorably cute it is. So I borrowed this one to show the next step in the TEETHING ADVENTURE:

Daddy & Son Game

This is a game that Chris and Iszak play together. As you can probably tell what it is by watching. 

Just in case, Chris will make the same sound or tone and Iszak will do his best to match it. Iszak really gets into it and sometimes just goes and goes without taking a breath. Especially watch his eyes as they go really big and eyebrows raise. This is probably one of the best videos of their game. It really starts at about 11 seconds into the video. Enjoy!

                 

What would anyone be doing at Midnight?

BATH TIME! Too bad for any sort of routine with Iszak these days, while daddy is in charge at night. That's right, I got home from work and guess who was wide awake and going strong... Iszak. He was crawling up the stair (yes we are lucky to only have 1) to meet me in the front room. I just took one look at Chris and knew that he was done for the night and needed to go to bed. Since I knew that he had to be up at 6 AM for work.

I took over the task of deciding what to do next.. well, let's get Iszak in his pj's to start out. As I was getting Iszak ready for bed, I decided maybe a bath would wind him down for the night.  At first, I didn't think it was going to happen.. because the splashing began, then onto the drinking from the faucet, and then more splashing. 

                                              

Iszak was dressed and ready for bed after having a playful time in the bathtub. He had a bottle, then started to snuggle in my arms.. Hooray it worked! I put Iszak in his bed and within 5 minutes, he was snoozing. Poor little guy had a rough day and 4 hours of non-stop errands that we had to do. I have to admit, shopping for baby clothes for someone else's wedding is a nightmare of it's self. Even though I'm excited for my sister in law's wedding and seeing the family in May!

  First picture of Iszak showing off 1st tooth.