1 month

Isaac was one month old last Saturday! Obviously, our hands and hearts are very full right now!

Here are a few pictures from his first month :)

Isaac is a very alert baby. He is generally quiet when he is awake, but he is always looking around to see what is going on and he loves staring at big bro and sis. He has just started smiling and "cooing" to try to be involved in all of the action.

He definitely has the Arceo cheeks and he is currently working on his third chin!

Isaac had his one month appointment earlier this week. He currently weighs 10 lbs .5 oz and is 21.5 inches long. He has continued to be a very easy baby and is eating and sleeping well. That is all you can ask for at a month!

Our Cubbie

Nathan started AWANA in September and has really been enjoying it. They play games, hear Bible stories, sing songs, do a craft and they work with their parents to memorize a verse each week. Thankfully, Nathan has a really good memory and usually learns the verse quicker than I do! This is a good thing as I'm teaching him in a sleep deprived state these days.

He has a wonderful teacher named Mrs. C who does such a great job with him. She told me that she raised a "spirited" little boy as well and Nathan reminds her a lot of her son at that age. She assures me that God will specially use his spirit, determination and strong will. We are very thankful for Mrs. C!

Nathan really loves to sing and the Cubbies song is one of the house favorites these days. Here is a little video of the Cubbie in action.

Emie is looking forward to next year so she can be a Cubbie too. But she is rather insistent that she will have a pink Cubbie vest, so we'll have to see about that!

Livin' it up!

Our mission in early September was to pack in as much family time as we could before Isaac's arrival. We spent a ton of time outdoors, skipped naps in the name of fun, and laughed until we cried on many occasions. Here are a few pictures of some of the things we found to do.

We went to a fall festival at the county nursing home (where Gus and I met!) and went to a wild petting zoo. There were WAY too many animals in this small area, but the kids still had fun.

Our neighbors gave us their old wagon. Gotta love freebies! The kids like their new ride.

We dressed up in random costumes just for fun!

And after realizing that the zoo closes at 6, we spent an evening at the mall. We played in their arboretum themed play area and got some frozen yogurt!

We also met some friends at Enchanted Castle and the kids got to experience some arcade games, a huge climbing structure, and go-karts.

There was plenty of other fun, but we are pretty bad about taking pictures. We were so glad to have had a lot of fun adventures as a family of four and we know it will be more fun with five!

A visit from Tita Grace

Backtracking a bit . . . We had a wonderful visit from Gus' sister Grace over labor day weekend. Our kids love Tita Grace and always have a ton of fun with her! She wanted to take us to Cracker Barrel for breakfast on Saturday morning and we gladly obliged :) It was a beautiful weekend and the kids enjoyed the big rocking chairs and store quite a bit.

Gotta love this pose from Nathan! What a ham :)

Grace bought the kids some really adorable sock monkey costumes that they like wearing around the house.

Emie is always thrilled to find anything she determines to be "Emie sized".

After that, we headed to Ikea to get some bookshelves for Grace. We had a great time! They had a balloon maker who made the kids swords and pirate hats so they could sail around in our pirate ship (a.k.a. cart). And then we ate our fill of Swedish meatballs :)

We were all sad to see Tita Grace head back to Iowa! But we did get to see her again after Isaac was born, which was another special treat. Emie asks regularly if we can drive to Iowa to see Tita. Hopefully sometime soon!