Christmas 2008

Wheeewwwww.........Christmas this year came and went in such a rush!! Isaac had a very good Christmas and we got to spend time with everyone in the family. Christmas for us started last weekend. We went to my Dad's (PaPa Murf and Mama Hope) last Friday night for both a late Thanksgiving and early Christmas. As soon as we got there, Isaac found the stairs and of course, wanted to play on them the whole time!


Isaac loves his PaPa Murf, as you can tell. They were reading one of the books that Isaac got for Christmas.

As you can tell, Isaac had a big time and it was good to spend time with Dad, Hope, and Amanda over the weekend. We'll hopefully be back to visit them again soon!!

As for Christmas, we did things a little bit different this year. I have always stayed at my Mom's house on Christmas Eve and then gone to my Dad's later on in the day on Christmas Day. Darren and I agreed that we wanted Isaac to wake up Christmas morning at his own house so he could see what Santa brought him. So here's what we came up with. Like I said earlier, we went to my Dad's the weekend before Christmas and did Christmas with them. Then, we went to my Mom's on the 23rd to stay the night. On Christmas Eve, the whole family on my Mom's side goes to my Grandmother's house for dinner and then we just sit around and visit, and sometimes play cards or the guys play their guitars. We were able to go and eat and visit for awhile before hitting the road back to Savannah.

We were glad we got to do Christmas Eve with my family and we're always glad to see Grandma, Uncle Patrick, and Moms. We'll be back soon!!!

We got back here around 10:30 that night and in order to keep Isaac from getting up at the crack of dawn, we let him stay up and play until around 11:15 or so. As it turns out, Isaac slept better and longer that night than he has his entire life!! He slept in his bed until around 8:15, then I brought him into our room. I wasn't sure if he'd go back to sleep or not, but he didn't and didn't even budge until 10:15!!! It worked out nice though because we were able to get up first and have the video camera rolling when he got out of bed. This is a shot of him while he was still snoozing. He fell Christmas Eve at my Grandmother's. He was playing with the other little ones there and wasn't watching where he was going and ran into one of those metal folding chairs that go with a card table. We were so afraid his whole eye would be black, but it was just pretty swollen and not nearly as bad as we thought it would be.

After we did Santa stuff at our house Christmas morning, we got dressed and headed into Savannah to go to MiMi and PawPaw's house. Uncle Derek, Aunt Jill, Jakob, and Ethan came in too and we all swapped gifts. As you can tell, Isaac LOVED the matching sweater and hat that Uncle Derek and Aunt Jill got him!!!

This was Isaac and Jakob just being silly. Isaac has started saying "cheese" whenever he sees a camera, but it's still hard sometimes to get him to actually look at the camera!!

Me and my sis-in-law, Jill, tried our best to get a decent picture of the 3 boys, but this was about the best we could do! It's nearly impossible to get them all to look at the camera at the same time!!

All in all, I will have to say that we had a wonderful Christmas. We got way more things than we needed, but we are grateful for everything, especially the time we got to spend with family. It's definitely hard being away from home, but it sure does make for some good times when I get to go back. I love you all and hope to see you again very soon!!

Make yourself comfy....

Ok, ok.......I know it's been a LONG time since I've posted anything. The truth is, between my new job and the holidays coming up, my spare time has been cut drastically. I have a lot of photos with this one and several updates so we can be completely caught up on things.

First, my Mom came to visit the first weekend in November. Isaac was very glad to see Grandma and as you can tell from the picture below, they had a big time playing. We're always glad to have grandparents come and visit!!!



This is a shot of Isaac on the rhino. He absolutely loves riding this thing and gets on it any chance he has. Even with it being cold out, Darren will let him ride from the garage onto the trailer, which is where this shot was taken. As you can tell, he's very happy to be there!!

This next one was taken after coming in from riding the rhino. I was pretty excited to get him looking at the camera, especially with a smile!! He's to the point now where if he sees me with a camera, he will completely ignore me until I put the camera down. I'm hoping he gets out of this phase very soon!!

This one was taken at Grandma's house over the Thanksgiving weekend. Me and Isaac went to Carthage for the weekend while Daddy stayed home and spent his time in the deer woods. Poor little Isaac still doesn't have very much hair at all, but we're slowly making some progress!!!

I took this next one at my grandmother's house after church that Sunday. This was the picture I had wanted to put on our Christmas cards, but Darren didn't like the outfit (he said it was too babyish) so I let him pick out the photo, which is how we ended up with a rhino photo on our cards!!

I'm afraid little Isaac is going to have a thing for shoes, just like his Daddy. If he sees a pair anywhere on the floor, he puts them on and tries to walk in them. He really likes Mommy's shoes that go "click-clack" when he walks on the hardwood. These pictures were just too cute not to post!!

I'm also afraid we have recently gotten into a bad habit. It started when Isaac was sick and he would wake up in the middle of the night. Me, being the softie that I am, couldn't stand to let my sick baby cry it out in his room so I would just put him in our bed. Well, it seems Isaac has picked up on this and even though he is now completely well (Halleighlujah!!!!), he still wakes at night and instead of making him stay in his room and losing sleep while he cries, I just put him in our bed. I love cuddling with him, but he tosses and turns so much in his sleep that none of us end up sleeping well except for him!! It's a habit we will soon have to break and I dread it so bad, but I know we will all be better off when we do. If you have any suggestions on doing this as smoothly as possible, please share!!! I took this shot one morning right before I had to get him up. Doesn't he look nice and comfy???

This is another new trick of Isaac's and I'm so glad that I got it captured in a photo. You can ask Isaac to show you his teeth, and this is what he does.....

Isn't that just the cutest?????



We took this one at his MiMi and PawPaw's house in front of one of their trees. He was trying to show his teeth in this one too, Mommy just wasn't fast enough with the camera.

This one was taken over the weekend at his MiMi and PawPaw's house too. I can't believe how big my little guy is getting!!

This one was taken Sunday before church and I can't believe how grown up he looks!!!

That's all that I have for now. We are going to my Dad's (PaPa's) this weekend to do Christmas so I'll try and update first part of next week with some more photos. This will be a big Christmas for Isaac since last year he really didn't have a clue what was going on. Also, our sitter, Ms. Michelle has started a blog for the daycare so you family and friends out there can keep up with us that way too. Her site is http://littlepeopleplaycare.blogspot.com so you'll have to check it out.

Catching up.....

I know, I know. Once again, we have to play catch up on here, but things just always seem to get kind of crazy around our place. Let me start from back when......This picture below was taken right before Halloween and at that time, my little man was once again struggling with a snotty nose and sinus mess. You can't tell it by the smile on his face though, huh??


So Halloween finally gets here and we're still battling the snotty nose. Nothing seems to work!! Anyway, he had a big time doing the whole trick-or-treating thing. The costume was a little warm (I hadn't anticipated it being 70 degrees outside), but he did really well. I was afraid he migh be scared of some of the other costumes, but he did fine. He just wouldn't smile for his Mommy when she was trying to take his picture!

This was after trick-or-treating and as you can tell, he was thoroughly enjoying some of his treats!!

So in the meantime, we are STILL battling this runny nose business and it's getting to the point where he's coughing and beginning to tug at his ears, so off we go to the doctor and sure enough, we have an ear infection. We're on meds for this now so hopefully soon, I'll have a healthy little guy again!! Also, the weekend before last we had a nice surprise. Grandma came down for the weekend and we had a ball. We really didn't do anything big, just hung around the house and visited. I'll post those pictures soon. Glad you got to come Grandma and hope you will visit again soon!!!

Also, there has been a nasty stomach virus going around here and they've even had to close the schools to try and get people well. Isaac's sitter Michelle and all the other kids there except one have had this yucky bug. I thought we were going to miss it, but last night, it hit me and let me tell you, it's bad stuff!! So far, Isaac and Darren are both still good so please keep your fingers crossed and say an extra prayers that my guys won't get this thing!!!

OK, so I'm trying to do better. It hasn't been nearly as long since my last posting, but once again, things have been kind of crazy around our house lately. First, we went to middle TN this past weekend to visit with PaPa Murf and MaMa Hope. As always, we had a good visit. I took a ton (and I do mean a TON) of photos this trip, but of course I can't post them all so I tried to pick some of the best. This first one here is just Isaac playing with some blocks and as you can tell by his expression, he's having a pretty good time!!



He also discovered the new coffee table at their house and loved how he could crawl under and fit just perfectly. I know you can't see it, but the top is a football and it's a really cool table. Should have taken a photo, but I didn't. Oh well, maybe next time....

This is one of Isaac's favorite things to do. Anytime we're at home and he hears Darren's tractor running outside, he runs to the door saying "DaDa" because he wants to go out and ride. PaPa Murf's tractor was no different. He absolutely loves being on it and of course he cried when it was time to get off...

On Saturday afternoon, our nephew Jakob had his 3rd birthday party. It was pretty chilly outside, but we had a good time. Jakob decided to take Isaac for a ride on his little John Deer and he had a ball. They just kept going around and around the house and was just the cutest thing!!

Here's where the fun starts. On Sunday, I decided to try and have Isaac's pictures made at Portrait Innovations in M'boro while we were in town. We got ready and went and had to wait awhile. All this time, Isaac was happy and playing around with no problems. Then as soon as it was our turn and we got back there, he started crying up a storm. I tried and tried to calm him down because I really wanted to do these pictures. The more I tried to calm him, the more he cried. Finally, I just gave up. I apologized to the folks there and said maybe we'll have better luck next time we're in town. Meanwhile, I started noticing these red bumps on Isaac's legs and wondered what it could be, but it didn't look too bad so I didn't think much about it. Well, as the day went on, the spots got bigger and redder. In this picture, it had just started so it didn't look too bad just yet......

Well, as the day went on, the spots just got worse and worse. It looked like he was having an allergic reaction, but we had no idea why. So, we decided to stop and get him some Benadryl on our way back to Savannah. He was asleep by this point, but I was able to get a dose in him and he slept most of the way home. Darren and I both watched him like a hawk the whole way back just to make sure he was breathing. By the time we got to Savannah, he looked even worse and you couldn't tell the Benadryl had done a thing for him. As you can tell below, he was feeling pretty good so we didn't worry too much, gave him another dose of Benadryl, and put him to bed. .....

He woke up in the night and it was time for another dose, then he just went right back to sleep. When he got up that morning, he looked awful. He was swollen all over and covered in splotches. His face was swollen, his hands and feet were swollen. He didn't even look like the same child!!! I , of course, panicked and Darren and his mom hit the road to Jackson to his doctor. She checked him out from head to toe and said everything was ok, he was just having a reaction to something. Finding out what that something was, would be like finding a needle in a haystack. She said just continue with Benadryl and she increased his dose to 1 teaspoon (we were giving him 1/4 teaspoon). This seemed to work the first day, but when it came time that the medicine started wearing off, the splotches would come back, as you can see below.....

So, we have just continued the Benadryl and yesterday was much better. He was a little splotchy yesterday morning, but much better by the afternoon. Last night, the splotches were gone, but I gave him Benadryl before bed just in case and decided to see what he looked like today. Well........Isaac slept all night long and there were no splotches this morning. Yay!!!! Hopefully, my baby is finally well and will stay that way for a little while......

Hello all! I truly haven't forgotten about this thing, but it has been kind of wild in our world. All 3 of us have had this sinus/head cold mess for at least a week now and it's about to get the best of us. Isaac had been sleeping so good until all this hit. Then, he would sleep til around 2:00 or 2:30 in the a.m. and I just didn't have the heart to make him cry it out when he was coughing and didn't feel good.......SO ( go ahead, just call me SUCKER!!) I would end up putting him in the bed with us which let him sleep better, but not Darren or me. Now that he's finally getting over most of this, he's doing much better at night. He's been waking up around midnight or so, but I can get him back to sleep without picking up AND without any tears (yes, i'm pretty proud of myself) and he'll sleep until around 7:00. I'm still pretty stuffy myself and Darren is still coughing, but all in all, we're much better than we were.
As for updates, Isaac is just changing so much and it seems he learns something new every day. He's picking up a lot more words and it still just a little ham, as you can tell by the photos below. This weekend, we are heading to Readyville (just outside the Boro) to spend the weekend with Papa Murf and MaMa Hope. We also have our nephew Jakob's birthday party to go to on Saturday afternoon so Isaac should have a big time with that! We hope to take lots of photos and will be sure to share them when we get back home.


Isaac is getting at a stage now where he really doesn't like to be fed anymore, he thinks he can do it all himself and he actually does pretty good sometimes. He usually just eats whatever we happen to be eating for dinner, but I still have several jars of baby food that I'm trying to use. I hate to just throw them out! As you can though, he got a little carried away though one night with some bananas and just had the best time playing around with his food. I wish I'd had the video camera though because as he was playing, he was singing too. It was just too cute!!

These were just some cute ones I took while we were at MiMi and PawPaw's house one afternoon. He absolutely LOVES to be outside so he always has a blast. As you can tell from the 2nd photo, he's quite the little climber and his new fascination is light switches so that's what he was doing on the chair.

These last 2 are some of my very favorites. My Dad does a tv show about high school football on Thursday nights at 8:00 on News channel 50+. We were watching it last week and Isaac was just waving at his PaPa Murf and couldn't understand why he wasn't waving back so Darren called in on the show and was able to talk to him on the air and he made sure to wave and say hi to Isaac!! Also, for some reason, Isaac has taken a sudden interest in hats and wants to wear one all the time. That same night after I put his pj's on, he found this fleece hat and just had to wear it. I thought it was just the cutest thing!! He sometimes won't look at me when I'm trying to take his picture so I had to trick him and was able to get these shots. I just love how big his eyes look and of course, you know I think he's just the cutest little fella!! Hope you all enjoy and look forward to posting more pics after the weekend.....

Catch up.......again

First, I want to say Happy Anniversary to us!! We celebrated year #4 on September 25. We've changed a lot and our lives have definitely changed since that day and I wouldn't trade these years for the world. I love my husband, our child, and our lives together and look forward to many more to come....

Well, we're still here. Seems like the month of September has been a rough one at the Howard house. Between the hand, foot, and mouth mess with Isaac and then the croup, things are just now finally trying to get back to normal. Isaac and I are spending the weekend in Carthage with my Mom and visiting with my grandmother. It's definitely nice to come home!! Here are just a couple of fairly new photos. This one is Isaac wearing BOTH of his new hats. He's all of sudden really gotten into hats and loves to wear them now.

Some of you may have already seen this photo, but one morning after a pretty rough night, I went in to get Isaac up for the day and all I saw were his 2 little feet sticking out of the crib. I thought it was just precious!!

Anyway, maybe things are starting to get back to normal around our house now, although I do see at least 2 teeth that are about to pop through. Hopefully, that won't be too terribly bad though!!

photos....

Here are the photos that i promised........This first one is Isaac just having a good time before bath one night.....

This is Nathan's birthday party that we went to last Saturday. At first, Isaac wasn't too sure about the jumping inflatable, but as you can see, he later warmed up to it just fine....

Isaac and Daddy before church last Sunday in their matching outfits.......

Isaac once again enjoying one of his favorite things......a popsicle.........

Have a good weekend and we'll be back soon with another update.........