My Dad is Awesome!

this went downhill fast. but Alex watched the video after making it and laughed at himself so hard. he thinks this "pa pa" junk is hilarious.
Alex and Daddy have read this book about a million times before bed (one of Travis' nightly daddy duties) and therefore Alex has memorized it.

My Dad is Awesome from Cassie Isaacson on Vimeo.

Happy Fathers Day Travis!! We love you!!
and we think you ARE awesome!! You are strong like a gorilla, fast like a cheetah, you can sing like a rockstar, you tell the funniest jokes in the world, you are great at fixing things, you are never scared, you play "babies" like a pro, you make the everyday fun, and put your family and kids first!

Florida or Bust

The weekend after Alex's birthday, Travis and I headed to Marco Island Florida for a little weekend getaway.
Top 10 things I learned

1. Marco Island is beautiful. A shell beach- covered in the coolest shells! Big and little! Hurts the feet but so fun to hunt!

2. If you are thinking of taking a "weening complete trip" be sure and actually complete weening. It is no fun to leave the beach to pump.

3. If your kids get a fever the week of your vacation, you will get it ON vacation. And its no fun to have a fever on the beach.

4. The upside of being sick on vacation- no kids to take care of. The downside- the airport and airplane are not places to cuddle up and sleep.

5. No matter what, I LOVE being with my husband. We have so much fun together! and I LOVED getting to talk with him and be with him and laugh with him.

6. Bridesmaids was a funny movie. Very funny.

7. The weekend was long enough to make me cry (when Alex says "I want you Momma" on the phone) and really miss my kids but oh so not long enough.

8. Apparently Marco Island is "Babymoon" central- I have never seen so many pregnant women at one resort!

9. A spray tan is awesome. Having to give your kids a bath with rubber gloves on that night so that you don't ruin it, but ruining it anyway (in weird spots)- not awesome. And then getting to the beach and you realize you have weird patches, not awesome. And thinking you were tan but realizing you still look pale, not awesome.

10. The day is sooo long when you sit around all day and do nothing! It is fantastic.

sunset dinner night #1

dinner and a movie night #2

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

laughing at Ellie putting turkey on her head

helping make muffins

and I think Alex fell in love with Hockey all over again watching it with Grandpa Steve! and then playing it all day!

The kiddos could not have had more fun! and everyone survived!! :) Thank you for making this truly happen Honey and Grandpa Steve!

he keeps me laughing

This is a list of thing Alex says that I have been adding to every once in a while.

he was crying and crying one day for no good reason. it got hysterical. he stopped after a while and said "why I crying again?"

he said "lets hurry to buy Finn McMissle before the other children buy them all!" We were in the parking lot pulling in. this was his prize for filling in a sticker chart.

new cars2 character Holly Shiftwell- toddler pronunciation "holly shitwell" (Really Disney?! You knew what you were doing?! )

Travis talking about the girls he saw walking around in Vegas. Travis says "I just kept thinking what is she wearing?!" Alex says "maybe she was wearing underwear pants!" and laughing hysterically!

he told me one night fighting bedtime " but I dont know how to close my eyes"
and often he will say " I can't. I don't have hands." when I ask him to do something bc he hears me say that I can't carry things because I dont have the hands for it. my hands are full.

he told honey (while we were gone on vacation) "dont be ridiculous. I want my prize!" (for earning a sticker on the sticker chart but it wasn't full).
He tends to tell me this too- "your ridiculous!" along with "I'm tired of this!" and "its not a choice" Of course none in correct context. but wow. didn't realize how much I said those phrases.

on the way to church Ellie was crying hysterically in the car seat (which is unheard of). Alex said "her being crazy!" and laughs really hard

"isn't Ellie a-dor-able?!" (took me a while to figure that BIG word out)

"mom, that cars movie surfboard sure is tool (cool). it sure is!" (it was a boogie board that the big boys at the pool had, love the way he says tool for cool)

"Ellie fall and I wins." (guess who learned about pushing to get ahead in the race)

"that was so nice of honey to come over. right momma?!"

"you go to the grocery store!" (his way of cussing at me when he is mad)

at HEB "there's the broccoli for the mommies and daddies!"

at the lake, Matt complaining about sleeping on the couch. we were discussing the other options of where he could sleep. "I know! why don't you sleep on the boat!? that's a great idea!"

momma's car

A: where's momma's car?
me: we are in it. what do you mean?
A: no, the black and white one?
me: oh, our old car? well, when we got the new car, we left the other car at the car store. we did a trade. and this is our new car.
A: well, lets go get it.
me: we cant bubba. we had to say bye bye to it. we can't have it back.
A: Noooo. But momma, I LOVED that car!
me: I know. I loved it too. But I like our new car. Don't you?!
A: no. lets go get it back. I really liked the old car!
me: the new car has movies. the old car didn't have movies.
A: yeah. the new car has movies. the old car didnt have em.
quiet.

this was after a month of having the new car.

13 Months

Really, it is almost time for me to write the next month so this is way way late! Not sure if I remember much about that exact month and not things that she has done this month but I will try and be as accurate as I can. I will make up for it with my next one!

I know one thing....she has taken off! Walking everywhere! It was like one day she just decided she wanted to go! and off she went! Seriously, she went down the street and never looked back.

this is classic Ellie smile. love it. You can really picture the "Frankenstein" walk here. It doesn't look pretty but she can get where she wants to go.

You can often hear me say "where's Ellie?!" as I seem to loose her in the house all the time! She is a little explorer! I love it...its nice that we are out of the "attached to mommy's leg" phase.

You can kinda see the shoes in her hands- she picks up all our shoes and carries them around the house! Plus she is in my fav pjs ;)
We started weaning....didn't go so well. She wasn't really into soy milk as I had hoped. So here we are trying a straw cup (since we tried them all!) and it worked for a little while. She looks so big though right?!

What she really likes are Alex's cups! Its like forbidden fruit! I went and got her cute pink cups and she really liked Alex's boy cups....so, you do what you gotta do, and I let her. I even would have Alex drink a sip and then pretend like she was taking his. Here we are double fistin' it... with a ghetto one leg up and one leg down...thats how we roll. There may be milk in those cups, maybe gin and juice??She likes to "talk". Its more like "dat dat dat" aka. I want that! that! that!

so pretty and so cautious

This is my favorite stage...I love it! She is getting to be so independent, yet still like a baby just sweet and cute as a button!

Patio Party for Papa

Like I mentioned, Alex had to go through several other birthday's before his own. Including Papa Wes! We celebrated with hamburgers on their new patio! It was a fun lil night!

Race! Come on girls!

Happy Birthday Papa! We love you!

(this was from a while back but I never got around to posting it and thought it was cute)

News Flash

I just want to have some things on record that have been big in the news!

The Wedding of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton....love the classic love story! It was truly amazing to watch the wedding and think about the history that was happening. As a side note- we were looking through People magazine at the wedding photos and telling Alex about the Princes and Princesses. Out of all the guys he pointed at a guy in an ice cream cone add and said that it looked like Daddy. And it kinda did. But Travis, you are a prince to me! :)


I must add that Osama Bin Laden was killed. What a relief.

there was the final Oprah Winfrey Show. You may be laughing but its a big deal. I love this woman and have watched her show since I was a teen. I think she is a true role model, inspiration, and wise wise woman. And I thought so in 6th grade too when I did a biography report on her. :)


and most importantly... Travis Isaacson received a Federal Highway Administration Award (this is national recognition) for his engineering work on Toll 130 (the project he has worked on for the last 3 years). Officially titled-2011 Excellence in Utility Relocation and Accommodation Awards Program. The ceremony took place at the Arc in St. Louis.

We could not be more proud of you babe! Way to go!!

Calling all Space Rangers!

We had Alex's party at a jumpy house place and it turned out perfect! Super fun and easy! I think everyone had a great time! Especially Alex....which I was kinda worried about since he sometimes refuses to go in jumpy houses and sometimes he loves them. He was timid but warmed up after a few trips down the slide with Daddy, Papa, and Uncle Chad.

We decided on a Toy Story party because Alex, at the time of planning, was obsessed with Buzz Lightyear. He still loves him, don't get me wrong, but for a while there it was Buzz Mania. It was great to just go to the store and get the party stuff right off the shelf and be done! Including the invites! No fancy shmancyness. :)

So I made a spaceship cake...fancy right?! :) Haha, I know it looks completely kindergarten made but that's the way cakes are supposed to be right?! I learned a lot and I think next years cake will be way better! I had fun with the idea and totally stole it off the internet down to the sparkler candles (that were all hype and not much show, btw) and finished this baby the morning of! whew! :) The red outline is licorice, star sprinkles, and ice cream cone boosters. The Stars are store bought cupcake toppers.

I promised myself (and Travis) to not do any craftiness on this party. Just to keep the stress level to a minimum. So all I did was the name tags on the gift bags. They were easy and I think turned out cute. The bags had fun toy story stuff- the water gun was actually from the dollar store! Score! and bath book from Target dollar spot! love it! mini Slinky dog toy, fruit snacks, and some lollipops.



Alex refused to look at the camera. But these shots are the boys coming out of the pirate ship slide. They all jumped their lil hearts out!





Party peeps



the boys. we invited girls but none could come, so it worked out in the end.a little goodbye group hug. such sweet friends.
Alex really got some REALLY great gifts and he loved them ALL! but his favorite has to be this really cool weed eater. He is really into yard work! Seriously. The key to good weed eating is a wide stance ;)

I love this shot of all the kids, including Ellie, totally checking it out!
Alex loves Uncle Chad so much!