Happy Halloween!!

Isaac helping me pass out candy at the church "Trunk or Treat" activity.

He was much happier without the headdress.

Attempting to steal a Snickers in the trunk.

Isaac the lion with Brinley the bee and Addie the ballerina. Addie is 2 days older than Isaac. She has helped him with his crawling moves since she's perfected them.

Isaac and his buddy Alec. It was impossible to get them to smile at the same time so of course I chose the picture where Isaac was smiling.

Having a Crawl here in Des Moines

The Bear's hibernation is over. Little Ike has finally gone from bear crawl position to real locomotion. After a couple months of practice and a lot of face planting, Isaac is crawling!! Our excitement level is through the roof. We have gone into full baby proofing mode. Here are a couple of the highlights. Happy Halloween everybody!---Ryan and Sara

Just a Spoon Full of Sugar (or at Least a Syringe)

Unfortunately for Isaac he inherited my ugly Roundy toes, and with those come the inevitable ingrown toenails. The poor kid isn't even 8 months old yet and he's already got his first one. Luckily it hasn't bothered him at all, but it has been all red and swollen so we didn't want to take any chances. We took him to the doctor the other day and they gave him an antibiotic to get rid of the infection. It must be loaded with sugar because Isaac has had no problem sucking it down for the past 6 days. All he has to see is the little syringe full of medicine and he starts to freak out. Here is a little video clip. Notice how excited he gets every time I squeeze a little bit of medicine in his mouth.

Kiddie Swap

Tonight Ryan and I went on our first date since moving to Iowa--it was great! We have a little kid-swap going on with a couple of other friends and tonight was our night to go out while our friends watched Isaac for a few hours. We took advantage of the time and spent a gift card that we had to the Cheesecake Factory (thank you Devin and Krystal!). I love this restaurant and would have run over there last month when they sent it to us but Devin said we had to go on a real date, so I made Ryan take me their the first chance we got. Meanwhile, Isaac was having fun taking crawling lessons from Chase at the Pluid household. Here are a few pictures from our night.

Me eating a monstrous Asian Chicken Salad. It was a gorgeous afternoon so we ate outside.

Ryan and his jumbo breakfast burrito.

Raspberry-Lemon Cheesecake, which came very highly recommended and did not disappoint. We got it to-go but ate it about 5 minutes after getting home.

Football Training Camp

When Ryan envisioned his son loving football as much as he does, I don't think this is exactly what he had in mind. Here is another one of Isaac practicing his bear crawl in nothing but his diaper (he loves to be desnudito). He's getting closer! (Can you sense the excitement in my voice? I can't wait for this boy to crawl even though I'm told I'll regret it!)

Bless You!

Well this week has just flown by, hence the lack of posts. Ryan is still as busy as ever with school. It never seems to slow down; if anything, they just keep piling more and more work on him. He always seems to keep up with his studies and is doing very well in all of his classes. He is a trooper and is able to balance his time very well. He makes time for Isaac and I every evening and we have fun eating lunch together during the day. Before we know it Christmas will be here and then he'll be halfway through his first year of school (but who's counting?)! We love Iowa more and more each day, but we hear that will change as soon as the temperature drops and the ice storms start pouring down. We're enjoying fall in the Midwest while it lasts.

Isaac and I started going to "Baby Story Time" at the library on Tuesdays. It is for children 0-18 months. They sing songs and read a couple of books. Isaac just gets ecstatic to be around other babies. They give the kids little rattles and other noise-makers and it's pretty much just pure chaos, but he loves it.

We started a little babysitting swap with a couple of other families here in Iowa. Last week was the kick off week and we volunteered to watch the kids. Tonight it is our turn to take Isaac over to another families' home while we go out on a date. I am so excited!! I think it's more because we have an excuse to go out to dinner than anything else (you all know how I love food), and it will be fun for Isaac to play with his little friends.

Here is one of the latest video clips of Isaac. He sneezes exactly like Ryan--no holds barred.

Comatose Baby

• We love to go on walks as a family (hence the many pictures of Isaac in his stroller). It has been cooling down a little bit here, so we have to bundle Isaac up so he doesn't get too cold. Something happens to this kid when we take him outside. He could be totally full of energy and rolling all over the place and squealing his lungs out in the apartment, but then we take him outside and he goes all comatose baby on us (at least that's what Ryan calls it). He gets so calm, it's crazy. The only sound he makes, if any, is a little humming noise like he's singing to himself. Sometimes we try to draw his attention to something and he won't even look our way. It's like he's saying, "leave me alone, I'm in the zone right now." Ryan and I don't mind because it's kind of our "alone" time. We almost feel like we're out on a date (except for the baby in the stroller that we're pushing around).

• Here is the latest video of Isaac squealing. I think it's super cute, but it's becoming a little bit hard to handle. Sometimes he just decides to open his mouth at inappropriate times...like this morning...at church...in the chapel...while a baby was being blessed. He seems to like the sounds he makes more than anyone, so he just entertains himself and squeals all the time. He doesn't particularly enjoy when you try to talk back with him, either. It interrupts his groove or something, and he stops babbling if you try to babble back. He prefers to have an entire conversation with himself.

Laugh it Up

The following video is music to my ears (I know, I know, I keep out-doing myself), but I can't really take credit this time since Ryan is the one responsible for making Isaac laugh.

High Fives

My sister tagged me (again), so here are a few things about me you may or may not know:

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. - Going to school at Weber State.
2. - Missing my sister who was on a mission in Argentina.
3. - Recently returning from a rockin' trip to Las Vegas with some high school friends (can you believe that was 10 years ago, Sally?)
4. - Working for a billboard company in order to have money to pay my college tuition.
5. - Trying to decide whether or not to apply for the Elementary Education program at Weber.

5 Things on my To-Do List Today:

1. - Plan my RS lesson.
2. - Read Eclipse, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and Mastering ESL and Bilingual Methods.
3. - Apply for my Iowa state teaching license (which seems to be an impossible feat).
4. - Cut Ryan's hair.
5. - Eat some pumpkin ice cream with Oreos (again).

5 Songs I know the Lyrics To:

1. - The entire Wicked soundtrack (hey, even Ryan and his brother are in-the-closet fans)
2. - Cuando Me Miras Asi by Cristian Castro
3. - My Stupid Mouth by John Mayer
4. - Everything by Michael Buble (my favorite song right now)
5. - Bubbly by Colbie Caillat (my other favorite song right now)

5 Things I Would Do if I Had One Million Dollars:

1. - Tithing and charity of course.
2. - Pay for Ryan to get through school.
3. - Buy a rockin' house with enough room for people to come and visit (and give them plane tickets so they would).
4. - Get myself a stellar Canon camera like Becky has and sign up for a Photoshop class.
5. - Put some of it away so we could start up our own practice if we want when Ryan is finished with school.

5 Things I Will Never Wear Again:

1. - M.C. Hammer Pants
2. - claw bangs
3. - braided belts
4. - tapered pants (they just don't look good with the Roundy thunder thighs)
5. - banana clips in my hair

5 Favorite Toys:

1. - my ipod nano
2. - my cell phone (it's how I stay connected with my family)
3. - Ryan's laptop (it's the other way I stay connected with my family--you're reading this, aren't you?)
4. - Isaac's exersaucer (it keeps him entertained when I can't)
5. - Isaac himself--he's the most fun of all to play with

5 People I’m Tagging: (ok, so I couldn't decide on just 5)

1. - Kyra
2. - Kelly
3. - Ashley
4. - Lisa
5. - Lynn
6. - Devin
7. -Krystal
8. -Becky
9. Shannon
10. Mary-Ann
11. Sally
12. Kandis
13. Andrea (if time permits, of course)
14. Brookie (as soon as she gets her blog set up)
15. Ryan (it's a stretch but we'll see if he loves me enough)

Or just whoever wants to!

Spiders, Lights, and Bear Crawling

Hello all, Life is moving along here in the Mid-West. School is going OK. Sara keeps herself pretty busy with a lot of things and really busy with Isaac. We liked some of the pictures from the last couple of days so we thought that we would share them with you all. Just today Isaac went from getting up on all fours to propping himself into bear crawling position. He doesn't really get anywhere once he is up there, but we think that getting into that position is a feat in itself. Whenever we help Isaac stand up he gets pretty happy and is proud of himself. That makes for a good photo-op. One of the parks here in Des Moines has a bridge that spans a lake. The bridge lights up with a bunch of different colors. It is a pretty cool sight. We couldn't get a real good picture because it was so dark, but this is a little glimpse. On the bridge by all of those colored lights there were huge webs on every light. In the middle of each of the webs were these big, ugly spiders. I haven't seen that many spiders ever. Here is a picture that I hope turns out.

These Shoes Were Made for Walkin'

We bought Isaac his first pair of real shoes--they have soles and everything! He'll probably grow out of them before he learns to walk, but we figured they would help keep his feet warm this fall. They make him look so old when he wears them, but as you can see from the pictures, he prefers to play with them rather than put them on his feet. He has already figured out how to untie the laces, so keeping them on his feet is a challenge. I should have gone with Velcro, but they match his cute camouflage jacket so well that I just couldn't resist! On a side note, isn't my Halloween background cute? I'd like to take all the credit and make everyone think I'd suddenly become digitally savvy, it's simply not true. Being as it's conference weekend and all, I cannot tell a lie about this one. My fab friend, Ashley, told me about another blog that allows you to download templates for free. I decided to give it a try since Ashley and I have pretty much everything in common (including our blog templates--until now!) and thought it would be healthy to seek my own identity. Here's the blog address in case you're interested: http://www.matiekay.blogspot.com/ Happy Friday and Happy Halloween!

Attack of the Nose-Eating Baby

Lately Isaac loves to attack my face with his mouth--particularly my nose and cheeks. I don't know why he has such a fascination with my nose, but he never does it to Ryan (although he tried to do it to an Elmo toy at Wal-Mart the other day). Here's a short video of him in action. I promise I feed him regularly! We have all been a little bit under the weather with a sore throat, so for the first time in his life Isaac is coughing because he needs to, not because he's faking it. Usually the boy loves to fake cough. In fact, last week I took him to the pediatrician for a check-up. The doctor's office has two waiting rooms, one for sick kids and one for kids who just need check-ups an immunizations (which is what Isaac needed). So there I was, waiting in the well-child waiting room, when Isaac decided to start fake-coughing. All of the parents were giving me dirty looks, wondering why my sick child was contaminating all of their healthy kids. One mother even glanced at me as she went up to the receptionist and asked "Is this the healthy-child waiting room?" I was so embarrassed, I just pretended not to notice her.