Family Day

Since Tim and I started having once a month date nights, we decided that it would be good to have a once a month special outings with our boys.  A few weeks ago, we sat down with them and came up with a list of fun activities in the area. March's activity was bowling at Big Al's.

Isaac slept through almost all of the bowling.

Beniah came up with some interesting bowling techniques.

But nothing compared to Elijah's running up to the bowling hill so that he "could get a head start".

Then again, he did get a strike with that method.

While I mainly gutterballed!

 We were there long enough that the bowling alley turned on their afternoon cosmic bowling lights and disco music.  We found out during the first song, Boogie Oogie, Oogie, that Isaac is terrified of disco music and wailed the entire song.

When we got home, Beniah asked to hold Isaac in the bjorn like I did. So, we decided to let him try (yes, those are my hands supporting Isaac).  He told us that he had to close his eyes so that he could hold the weight of Isaac.

 All in all, it was a wonderful day!

Watching the Rain

This past weekend was predicted to be rainy, so I decided to finally make the weather chart that I had been eyeballing on Pinterest and talk with the boys about rain and other Pacific Northwest weather.

They love the chart and have come up to me and said, "Mama, I think the weather is somewhere between cold and burning hot!"  Yeah, an outside thermometer is next on my Home Depot shopping list.

Since the weather app on my tablet said that we should expect 1"-4" of rain over the weekend, I made our own rain gauge using one of my canning jars, a permanent marker, and a ruler.  The boys were so excited to watch the jar slowly fill up with rain.

Monday morning, I brought in the jar to see how much rain we collected.

We collected 1 1/2" of rain over the weekend. Beniah begged me to put the jar back outside so we can collect more rain. I'm thinking a rain gauge is going to become a permanent fixture in our garden.

Date Night

This year for Valentines Day, I scoured Pinterest to find a fun yet gift to give Tim when I came across this pin that had free printable cards. So, I printed them out and planned out some fun dates that we could do in the area. 

I had the year start out in March and planned a dinner at Orenco Station Grill. We were given a Groupon certificate for the restaurant almost 2 years ago and have yet to use it. We did go there for our anniversary 2 years ago, but forgot to take the certificate with us. It's been on our bulletin board ever since.

A couple of Saturdays ago, we packed up Beniah and Elijah and took them over to their grandparents house for a day with Grandma and Grandpa. They were super excited! 

Unfortunately, Isaac and I were feeling sick and I had no desire to drive 45 minutes to dinner, so we stopped off at Safeway for some soup, ciabatta bread, and Catching Fire.

This sick little stinker refused to nap and wanted to be held for a lot of the movie.

He seemed so sorry to interrupt our date.

It wasn't the date that I planned, but it was nice to have a sick day with only one child demanding my attention.

4 Months Old

I can hardly believe that my baby boy is 4 months old. 

Isaac is getting really good at holding his head up and finding new friends.

(For those of you that don't know, the bump on the back of his head is a hemangioma. 

It doesn't seem to bother him at all. It just looks like it would.)

Isaac gives the best smiles...

...and reactions to Daddy's weird high pitched noise.

Whenever he is tired, he grabs his ear. Every once in awhile, he'll wake himself up when his hand relaxes and lets go of his ear.

Isaac is so tall and chunky, he barely fitting his 6 month clothes. I'm going to have to switch over his clothes in the next couple of weeks. It seems that I am always going through his baby clothes and switching them to the next size.

Did I mention how much I love his expressions!

Isaac Thomas Whittaker.

17 lbs. 7 oz. (85th percentile)

25 1/4" long (53rd percentile)

17" head circumference (98th percentile)