Stubborn

Our kids go through the weirdest eating phases. One day they'll love something, and the next they won't touch it. This can become a nuisance as you might imagine. I swear, Jack has gone a full day with hardly a bite of food. Threats don't really work. Rewards don't really work.

Aren't kids fun?

A glimpse into dinner time with the Isaacs family:

Post-Christmas Interviews

Isaacs5 Photo Shoot

Santa's Little Helper

My family and I had a great time at this year's Christmas Soup Potluck. I was definitely the star of the show! Mom dressed me up so I would look just like Santa - it was awesome.

Check out this picture of me and Santa sitting together:

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hooray for Weddings!

We all had a great time in the Central Coast a couple of weekends ago for Brett (Briana's brother) and Vicki's wedding! We drove down to Paso Robles on Friday, got settled into our hotel room (yes, all five of us in one room), walked through the wedding rehearsal, then went to the rehearsal dinner. It was a very long day, and we had some very tired children on our hands, so it was actually no problem getting them all to sleep.

Saturday was another long day: getting ready for the wedding, attending/participating in the wedding, then partying "all" night long.

Here are some pictures of our adventures!

getting ready for the wedding...

Briana's brother (Uncle Brett) is getting married in a few weeks, and Olivia and Jack have the wonderful privilege of being the flower girl and ring bearer! They're really excited - especially since we already picked out their wedding outfits. Here they are modeling their new threads...

...at the park...

(Posted by Jack)

We had lots of fun yesterday at the park. Daddy let us bring our tricycles this time. Sissy la-la has a princess bike. I have a Thomas bike. For some reason Sissy always tries to ride my Thomas bike; even though she has a perfectly pink princess bike. What the heck?!

Anyway, we went to our new favorite park which is just down the street from our new house. It's called George Paige Park and it's really cool - except I heard Mommy say, "It's great but it has no swings and no bathroom."

But I can't figure out why a park would need a bathroom?

Okay, here are some pictures of us playing (plus some bonus shots of Josiah sleeping in his sling)...

Strike a Pose

Hi everyone, it's me, Livi. Since dad created this new family blog, I decided to not waste any time in putting together a slideshow of all my favorite modeling pose pictures. I figured this blog was pretty boring without ME ALL OVER IT.

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

Kitchen Baths and Dodgy Nookies

Posted by Josiah:

It's not easy being five days old. You think we five-day-olds just lie around sleeping, eating, and crying - you think this must be the life. You think, "I wish I could lie around sleeping and eating all day." But trust me -- it's not easy.

Try not having any control over your arms and legs and neck; try having people poke you and prod you all the time. Try having to rely on other people (who you can hardly see) for everything you need. You'd be crying too.

I can't wait until I'm like, two months old or something like that. Ah, that'll be nice -- enhanced motor skills, better vision, chubbier thighs.

Okay, enough complaining. Here are some videos of my first couple of days at home...

This is Scotty trying to give me my pacifier. Okay Uncle Scott, here's how it works: I open my mouth and you stick it in. Easy. Right?


Here is my first sponge bath on the kitchen counter (one of the few perks of being five days old).

The Isaacs 5

It's 12:01pm and all is quiet (except for the neighbor kids playing Rock Band at an obscene volume level, the airplanes descending overhead, and the phone constantly ringing with sales calls). Olivia and Jack both woke up this morning (6am) having thrown up in their beds... literally. Then it was tag team vomiting for the next couple of hours: Livi throws up, we clean her up, Jack throws up, we clean him up, repeat, repeat. The 6am "mommy!" cries did not wake us up, however, since we were tending to our 4-day old baby boy, Josiah. Brini was up throughout the night feeding Josiah every couple of hours.

Back to Livi and Jack: by 9am, after multiple vomits and clean-ups (lots of towels, bedding, 3 loads of laundry, etc.) they were both "starving" and ate huge breakfasts. Throughout their breakfast time, I sat on the couch holding Josiah while Brini rushed around making beds with clean sheets, doing laundry, keeping sippy cups filled with milk, refreshing cereal bowls, etc. After breakfast, we promptly sent them upstairs for a rare morning nap. They conked out instantly. Once the two sickies were asleep, I took Josiah on a walk (his first walk, by the way) to the local coffee shop for two large coffees. Brini went straight to bed.

When I got home, everyone was still asleep (and they still are); so I figured I'd write the first post on our new family blog: the Isaacs 5. If you were a fan of Livi and Jack's blogs, bookmark this blog. All of their future blog posts will be here.

In the two days since Josiah came home from the hospital, we've already had some extremely challenging episodes. Livi and Jack are adjusting to a new attention-stealer, ahem, baby. They are more whiny, clingy, pouty, and naughty than usual. Brini and I are both on edge because of lack of sleep and the kids' shenanigans. But we've also has some wonderful moments together as a 5some. Lots of hugs and love and cuddling (and praying!).
The next few years (heck, decades) will be full of challenges; but I know we're gonna get through it.

We love our BIG family and we're looking forward to many years of laughter and tears and craziness.