Dear Isaac, You're 4 years old!

Dear Isaac,

You're 4 years old now.  You're so cute.  You tell me and Daddy randomly that you love us. 

You make your own sandwich creations.

You like to sneak cookie dough, frosting, or Great Grandma's big plastic jar of chocolate covered almonds.  It's so cute finding you sitting on the floor with a big spatula or your hand caught in the cookie jar as you sit in front of the fridge.

You're really sweet with the babies and help them be happy.
You sleep on your tummy at the edge of the bed, like almost ready to fall down on top of Dylan, which has only happened once or twice.  You dislike covers on your legs once you're asleep, and usually your pant legs are pushed up too somehow.  

You can write your name and lots of letters.  You can draw people and various things.

You like your Tag reader, computer games, and watching YouTube videos.

You wear your Captain America costume w/o a shirt under it pretty much every single day.  Dylan's Tae Kwon Do master commented the one day you were NOT wearing it (The day we took the above photo because I picked out your clothes.) 

The other day, we were eating dinner and Noah was over because he was going to spend the night.  He told you that you should have a sister.  I told HIM that he should have a brother.  He didn't skip a beat and had the best come back.  He pointed at you and said "I DO have a bother.  Right here!" Touche, Noah. 

 Here's a picture you took of Noah at the candy kitchen when we went after going to Gator's when Luiz and Uncle Martin and Aunt Katy were here.

This is a cute picture.  You like your picture to be taken so you jump in when I'm taking pictures at Dylan's tae kwon do or of your baby brother learning to sit up.  You're not in focus (well nothing is) but it's so cute. 

You help me a lot with baby Tyler.  You like him and it's a good blend of brothers when you, he, and I get a day to ourselves.

I saw a happy and sad face popsicle stick from your Sunbeam class today and asked what it was.  He said it's for happy things and sad things.  Upon further investigation, you said that choosing the right, playing with the bag of give-away toys, and playing on the computer make you happy. You then re-emphasized the choosing the right part and smiled your smile that you do when you try to make me happy. You were stumped with what makes you sad, so Dylan helped with "like when Daddy doesn't come home," and you agreed.  (Daddy just came home from an overnight SCUBA trip. I guess you missed him!)

For your birthday, you had a couple of fun celebrations even though we didn't have an official birthday party for you this year.  I think we'll do parties every other year.  On the day before, we had Joy school at our house.  So we celebrated both your and Sadie's birthdays.  Emerson brought you a present and you opened one from us too!

 Then the next morning, you opened a present from us - a Green Lantern tower and another Tag Leapfrog book.

 I had to work, so you had a fun day at Noah's.  Remember, we took you to see Les Mis on your birthday eve, so Dylan stayed home from school on your birthday.  I liked sleeping a tiny bit later.  You boys needed your rest, and Raphael was sick so we didn't have a ride home from school for Dylan anyway.  It was a perfect day for you boys to get to have a party day at Corrie's.  I took off at lunch time for 3 hours so I could get you McDonald's then stay with you while Corrie picked up Malia.

 Noah got you presents:)  A Spiderman web shooter, a pirate "Isaac" sign, and a batman notebook.

 After your happy dirty play day, we had your requested Chicken and corn on the cob on the grill for dinner.

 Daddy told you that you could have ANY treat/cake you wanted.  You chose to have a sprinkle cake with sprinkles and "Happy Birthday Isaac" written on it.

 Your Grandma and Granddad came over and brought you . . .

 Superhero duplos!!  You play with the web daily.

 Andre and Barbie came over with gifts for you, but also for Dylan even though his birthday wasn't for almost 2 more weeks!

 Then we had cake and ice cream.

 Little did we know, they were trick candles!

 I like these kinds of parties. And so do you:)

You're so sweet and silly and I love you lots and lots and LOTS.
Love, Mommy

Q: Do you use the bouncy balls we got you for Christmas?

A: 

I told the kids that Daddy caught the mouse that was in our kitchen last night.  Actually, he trapped it then took it outside.  Dylan said. "That's a good thing you said that prayer last night.  That's what you said, that you didn't want to kill it."  I had prayed that we would catch the mouse, then added to my little boys' ears that we didn't really want to kill it, we just wanted it the heck out of our house. And Dylan remembered.

Dylan's 6th and Isaac's 4th Birthday celebration

2/11/12

Instead of spending money on a party, we spent money on Sea World passes! We got them through AAA, which isn't much of a discount, but it's something. Dylan and Isaac got free preschool passes for there and Busch Gardens so Steven got the pass with the parking included. We invited Mom and Don and had so much fun!

 We started at the touch tank and bought food to feed the rays.

 We went under...

 then over the dolphin tank. So close!

 Our first show was pretty amazing with lots of big sea mammals and splash zones and flying/swimming trainers.

 The Shamu Rocks show was amazing too!

 Isaac has a phobia of these cargo nets. I went with him. Look how far he came! But then we had to go back down. Oh well.

 The boys loved the ship/play area!

 We met my mom's sister and her husband at a Mexican place in Orlando for dinner. It had been years and years since I had seen Uncle Brad! Since I was a freshman at BYU. I get to see Aunt Peggy more, they're both amazing people. Uncle Brad was there for continuing education. I think he's an anesthesiologist  He puts people to sleep - as you can see from the picture, he's quite good at it.

(And since I'm over a year late on posting this in March 2013, we went back to Sea World with the kids once ourselves and my parents took the boys back themselves once too while Steven and I ran in the Savage mud race. Steven used his dual pass for Busch Gardens a couple of times too.)