Isaac's First Haircut

Isaac was so serious during the whole ordeal. I was not so excited about him getting a haircut but some lady in the grocery store thought he was a girl so Mike is making me. He looks so much older and like a little bigger boy now. When Isaac is unsure of what's going on around him, he gets really quiet and still, like when he got his haircut. It makes it nice for the stylist and for people looking in his ears =) Of course, last night at a basketball game Isaac wasn't so sure about the mascot. The mascot (a knight) tried to give him a high five and he started crying. Oh well, we'll work on that one.

Kitchen Remodel

Here are some detailed pics of the kitchen. Now I know that you all are going to be fighting over the saloon doors and bungee kitchen table light, so we'll just have to go with the highest bidder ; ) Feels much homier now!

Michael's Remodeling Company

Here are a few pictures of what we (Mike) has done =) We are mostly finished now except for Bubby's bedroom and our bedroom. Hopefully you can tell what is old and what is new or else we didn't do a very good job! The bathroom had carpet in it (ick!!) and Mike put down the tile in the photo.

Inspirational Video

Enjoy this video! It's one of my new favorite songs and the lyrics are so beautiful and meaningful.

Giggle Monster

One more thing!

Since I really should be studying for Boards which I take on Tuesday next week (prayer, yes, always a good idea) but am prefering to blog instead I have one more thing to say. I just turned 29 over Thanksgiving, really, and got a camera from my parents for my birthday. So you can thank them that we now have lovely pictures to blog with!!! Yaaay!!

Best Food Ever Award

So not only did I get to see my family over Thanksgiving, but I also went home last weekend for a wonderful wedding reception for my long-time friend Molly. We ran cross country/track together in college and now she's married!! Yaay!

I really thought that I wasn't going to make it there though. We had alot of snow early Friday AM and I couldn't get to Detroit where my flight was leaving from. So Mike was so underestanding that I really wanted to go, so I showed up at the little airport in Grand Rapids to see if I could get a flight. I got there at about 9:30am and the attendant said I could get on the 9:35 flight if I didn't check any bags. Done!! I was so happy and who needs hair stuff and face wash anyway ;)

It was wonderful. A small reception at the Kansas City Culinary Institute. Seriously, one of the best meals I have ever had with excellent wine pairings chosen by my foodie friends with by far the best port wine I've ever had. The culinary people also gave all the guests the recipes! Aside from the food, it's wonderful just to see your good friends married who waited for just the right time. God has truly blessed me with a wonderful friend in Molly and I'm sure that their marriage is just going to be all sorts of wonderful.



Friends from Alpha Chi and their hubbies: Micah, Melissa, Me, Scott, Molly, Lauren, Andy

Gobble Gobble

Well the Manions have had a glorious time lately =) Lots of family fun! Over Thanksgiving, my sisters, niece, nephrew, brother-in-law, and parents all came over for Thanksgiving in Michigan. Only my parents have ever been to our house so it was fun to have everyone stay with us. I fixed my second Thanksgiving dinner in a week. We had a group of about 16 friends over the weekend before Thanksgiving for a real thanksgiving dinner, since alot of my friends were away from family or had to work on turkey day. Thanksgiving has always been fun for me, maybe because I was born on it, I feel a certain kinship to the turkey.

We celebrated Christmas with the Jones' since they won't be seeing us this Christmas. Jodie made me pajamas, yes, on her sewing maching-and they were sooo cute! She also made Isaac a little bathrobe with dog prints all over it that is very cozy. I have a super talented sister =)

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. We feel so blessed that God has given us Isaac and lots of family that we love to be around. We're also thankful for my job. It's hard right now for a lot of people and we feel fortunate to know that we don't have to worry about ever losing it. Our house is starting to feel like home. I'm thankful for a husband who works so hard late at night and got it finished all while taking care of Isaac during the day!! We are truly happy people =) We also are thankful for our church. If anyone ever visits us, you have to visit it. It's Mars Hill which many people have heard of. It's just so refreshing and simple and just about Christ. The worship is awesome and the pastor is gifted with such good ability to deliver the message.

Enjoy the photos from the apple farm, a VERY cold day on the beach in Holland, and hanging out =)

Bita Bita and Nimi Nimi

For our next piece, it will be a duet (Isaac's friend Maddie)

Gotta make sure this floor is even!

The boys watching some football

So I (Mike) am finally done with the house stuff for awhile. The goal was to have it done before Thanksgiving and our parties. That's me, Dad by day and renovator by night (usually I would work on our house after Isaac went to bed at 9 and would work until 230 am which worked out pretty well). At our party the other day, one of Kristi's friends told me that I might be able to use my new skill to find a daytime job...I just laughed and said "umm...I'm actually an optometrist."

As for my favorite job, taking care of Isaac is so much fun! I've written down a list of things that he does, since I have been a slacker with my video posts, so here is a brief list:
-He often walks around saying "bita bita and nimi nimi" to which I have no idea what they mean, but obviously they are important phrases

-He is a big fan of any mode of transportation: he waves at school buses while we are driving; stops what he is doing to look at airplanes flying over(then makes a whooshing sound); hears a truck while inside the house and will run to the door to go look at them

-Imitates so many things that I do: one morning I was drinking my coffee and went "ahh" so of course he picks up his milk, takes a drink and goes ahh with a big smile on his face!
also wants to brush his teeth anytime I do and will cough after I do

-He carries around a little frog that he sleeps with and calls it "Mun" which goes back to when he used to have a monkey in his room and has decided that the frog shoud be called mun?!? Anyway, he will pat Mun on its back just like I do to him when he hugs it :) If he can't find it, he will look around the house and call out loudly "Mun, Mun" until he finds it and then will give it a hug and say "Hi Mun"

-Isaac absolutely LOVES any type of ball to which he says "ball, ball, ball, ball" until he picks it up. He does this when we drive past the sporting goods store that has a picture of a basketball and soccer ball on the outside, which conveniently enough is next to Home Depot. He also tears apart my sports illustrated looking for the ball pictures.

-He also likes to pick up his bat and ball and give me the bat to swing. He will then pitch a ball to me and then go chase it and throw another pitch. We'll see how long that lasts inside the house!

-Whenever I would work on things during the day, he would "help" and would climb over my legs to sit directly in front of what I was working on so that he could see all the action and help me, occasionally grabbing the tool and doing what I was.

-One day I was raking the leaves and he was sitting in the big pile, I stopped and put down the rake to go play with him, to which he got up, picked up the rake, gave it to me, and went back to his seat in the leaves to watch me continue working!

-He eats pretty much anything put in front of him, but is a big fan of apples and blueberries (which is good here in Michigan). Most of the time I have to cut him off from having too many!

-He is a big fan of books, especially sports, animals, and truck books; but he hasn't figured out the concept of only reading one at a time and will bring me 2 or 3 to read to him.

-He likes to listen to music and play the piano along with it. If the music isn't on, he will come get one of us and request that it is turned on, by repeating "muh, muh, muh" (which is different than the word for Mommy ("Mah-meh") and milk (meah)). Obviously different requests!
One thing that is really great is he follows commands and directions really well, which makes my like easier. He will also occasionally tell me things like "per" which means he needs his diaper changed or that he is ready for sleeping and will hug Mun and walk to his room!

I could go on forever, but I figured I would give a couple of stories about his life here in the great green north. So much for all the snow hype! Apparently this has been a very mild fall, but the snow is on its way, as evidenced by our neighbors putting up snow marking sticks in their driveways and on fire hydrants!

I'm working on getting the house before and after pics up in a little bit. So until then, Happy Thanksgiving!

What Isaac is learning this week

We feel like he's become such a bigger bear this week. I was watching him play this weekend and he was doing pretend play for the first time, moving his trucks around on the floor and making them go places instead of just throwing them, and making his airplane fly with a whooshing sound. I had a midafternoon break today and at the same time Mike texted me and said Isaac and him were at the park by my hospital. It is such a beautiful day here and we had so much fun at the park, again, watching Isaac show off his new tricks. He was actually catching balls today and holding his hands out and interacting with a little friend he met there. I felt so fortunate to be able to spend part of the day with them at the park.

What Mike is learning this week . . . well he's learning how to strip and refinish our bathroom and laundry room cabinets, cut baseboard trim, reinstall closet doors correctly, and much more. Our projects seen never-ending and while he's doing all the work, it's very stressful to both of us. Our goal is to have most everything major done by Thanksgiving for a party we're having for some of the residents and for my family who is coming to visit. He's definitely an old pro now at painting =) I will enjoy having time together at night again.

What Kristi is learning this week . . . how to drill a temporal bone (bone in the head), how to cook a turkey without having to buy an oven bag, and how to read a sleep study. Not quite as interesting to you all (but useful to me) =)

Anyway, hope you all are doing well!!

Happy Pumpkinween!!

So we really had a really great time this year with Isaac on Halloween, especially special for me since I had to miss it last year. A guy in my class was nice enough to trade me call for a Saturday! so that I could spend time with my family. AND not only that, it was turn back the clock weekend so he had to work an extra hour. AND our hospital did the big bang in the middle of that night where we transferred the entire hospital over to electronic medical records. That deserves another whole paragraph in itself but I wouldn't want to bore you but this week has been extremely crazy with the transition. Nevertheless, I brought him dinner that night at the hospital =)

One funny thing, Isaac and I were sitting at the front door handing out candy and this little boy comes up with that Scream costume on and Isaac gets really scared and starts crying hard core. Poor bear. It was freezing cold so we just trick-or-treated at a couple of neighbor's houses and then had fun going over to our friends house for yummy brownies and to show off Isaac.

I don't just love these pictures but our camera broke now, boo-hoo, so I kind of just point and shoot and hope it looks good b/c we can't see it on the screen anymore. At least you can kind of see what it looks like though, I sewed it for him and it made me feel good to see him wear it and like it =) We're going to a kids Halloween party this weekend so maybe I'll get some better pictures.

Manion Clan

Here is Isaac playing with his cousin Nick, Mike's brother's son. He was the big kid of the bunch.

I just love these picture of little Ella, our niece on Mike's side (his sister). I think she and Isaac had fun destroying Grandma and Grandpa Manion's house =)

Bubbyisms

Isaac did the cutest thing last night. I had been playing the piano for awhile last night and Isaac likes to "dance" to it, which is just adorable to me. Then I went over to talk to Mike and Isaac comes up to me like a big bear and pulls on my leg and says, "meh, meh" (which is how he says mom) and wants me to go back over and play the piano for him. How special for me =)

Here's another picture from Mike and Isaac's visit to Kansas, from Left, Charlotte Jones, Ethan Jones, and Isaac working on a masterpiece! I just love this picture of the cousins. Charlotte and Ethan are my sister's two kids.

Our Little Wildcat

Weekend Fun

So while daddy was working really hard this weekend, Isaac and I had fun. I can say for certain that Mike will never ever buy a house that has old wallpaper on it again. When Mike and Isaac went home for a few weeks in September, I decided I would be helpful and try to take down some borders. I lasted about 20 minutes, became frustrated, knocked over my ladder, and then realized my husband was/is a saint to have depapered the entire kitchen and bathroom. And then I decided since he was so good at it, that I would let him finish. You know, marriages are about sharing your strengths and weaknesses. ..

So Mike decided to tackle the second bath and the borders this weekend. Yes, it took him two entire days to take of two simple bedroom borders and one half bath paper. Now our house smells new though, like drywall and oil based paint. I actually kind of like it. Anyway, maybe I"m weird. Isaac and I took off to go pick some apples at Moelker farms. We picked a whole peck. Now if you're like me, you have to ask the people on the farm how much a peck is , it's a little less than a grocery size bag. But we got the whole peck for $4!! Apple pie anyone? Yum!!

I had to keep Isaac busy out of the house while Mike is working on it because he really prefers Mike over me right now. It's kind of sad to me but I have to realize it's a phase. Mike just ordered the kitchen floor and will be putting it down so we'll have another mom and bubby weekend which was good for us. It's one of those interlocking wood floors so hopefully it won't give him too much trouble! I'm excited because we bought a new mitre saw which he says I don't get to use b/c I might cut off my fingers and then how am I going to do surgery w/o my fingers? Humphf. We'll see. I'm sure we'll post photos of his great work when it's done in a few weeks =)

Yes, my child is eating a rock.

visiting mommy!!!

Fun in the Sun!

Since I haven't updated you all in awhile, I'm adding in a few old photos from early September. September was a busy month for us. My long-time friend Jenny Brouhard came to visit us from Albuquerque, New Mexico with her son Hayden. He's only a few months younger than Isaac so it was cute to see them play together. Isaac doesn't quite play well with others yet, it's more parallel play and keeping him from bonking the other kids heads or biting them. We really had a wonderful time just catching up, taking the boys to the zoo, and visiting the beach.

One funny thing Isaac does, is how he gives us "kisses". He opens his mouth huge like he's going to bite us and then licks us. It's so funny but kind of scary b/c I'm always afraid he's going to bite! Here's a photo of Jenny and I with Hayden and Isaac.

After 3 months of renovation. . . .

here's our final product!!!

We wish . . . .So when I lived with Jodie and her family during my first 6 mos of med school, I always went running by this home. I called it my dream home, though I've never seen the inside of it. Mike and I have both always loved it and still talk about it sometimes today. So Yoda (Jodie) e-mailed me and saw that it was for sale!! Unfortunately, it's about 3 million dollars(+) out of my price range =) But now I can finally see the inside of it and it's just as gorgeous as I thought it would be! So unless anyone has had recent visions of the next lottery numbers, I don't think we'll ever end up in this house . . .

Enjoy! Click on the Virtual Tour button on the site to see all of the photos, the house is just very unique.

http://www.reeceandnichols.com/Listing/ListingDetail.aspx?Listing=41972925&Image=1&edit=

Pumpkins and Potty

How's that for a lovely title for our first blog post in 2 months? I bet you all are hanging on the edge of your seat wondering what this is about . Well, nothing too exciting really. Just a quick update before I head off to surgery. I was on anesthesia last month which was nice to get more comfortable with the airway and intubating but I just do not see why anyone wants to go into that! I don't think I have any anesthesia friends reading this . . . but it's just so not exciting to sit there and watch a machine for hours on end.

So back to what's important, Isaac. We all went to the pumpkin patch this weekend. I tried so hard in Ohio to find a real pumpkin patch where you could actually go to a patch and pick a pumpkin. Shouldn't be so hard but I never did find a good one. Well Mike found this awesome one in New Salem. It was perfect! Isaac had fun seeing all of the farm animals, it reminded me of my Aunt and Uncle' s dairy farm. Good memories. Then we went on a wagon ride and picked some lovely pumpkins. I'll try to see if I can teach Mike how to put pictures on here or else they'll never get done =) It's fun to have a little boy who thinks everything is fun and the world is all exciting. We'll definitely go next year. They even have a great corn maze that I guess becomes a spooky corn maze at night that apparently is really scary. Not my thing but the decorations around the farm are pretty cool.

So we're thinking Isaac will be potty trained early. He's 14 months, tomorrow, and already seems interested in poo. What a lovely boy. He will poo his diaper and say "per" which is his word for diaper and lets us know he needs changed. What a genius?! He also loves throwing toilet paper in the toilet which unfortunately causes us to go through a lot of toilet paper when we're not paying attention.

He's definitely a joy!! I hope everyone is doing well!! I'm still trying to think of what to make Isaac for his Halloween costume. He might just be a pumpkin b/c he's awfully cute and round to me still =)

Explorations of an almost 1 year old

Ahh...If I use my own spoon, I can make a bigger mess!!

The beautiful bathroom..you have to come visit if you want to see the final result.

Two little sleeping bears


Isaac absolutely LOVES the water and sand... up next, bodysurfing!



What state/country am I in again????

Where the wind goes sweepin' down the plains...err dunes

Here is just a collection of pics from the past 2 weeks. We all went to Warren Dunes State Park (a little under an hour and a half away) for part of our anniversary and ate at Bob Evans...anniversaries are a little different with little bears!!

Kristi is still busy, but happy she is getting to do new surgical procedures and looking forward to ER where she doesn't have to take call. She definitely misses us during the days and long call nights. Isaac and I (Mike) have gone to visit her a few times which definitely helps her day go by better.

Isaac is really quite a mobile bear these days. He is starting to stand unassisted for longer periods and cruises all over the place. I walked out of the room today and left him in the family room and within less than a minute, the fridge was open and he was talking to the mustard. He is definitely a fun little guy and loves exploring EVERYTHING!!!!

His birthday party is coming up soon and we are excited that a few of Kristi's resident friends are coming since we still don't know many people here. One of the residents is making an amazing cake for Isaac which I'm sure Kristi will write about on the next post.

As for me, I have been redoing the master bathroom with new tile, paint, fixtures, and faucets. HGTV makes it look so easy and fast, but I guess that's b/c they don't have 1-2 hour increments restricting work schedule (thank the Lord Isaac is a good sleeper!). Actually it hasn't been that bad aside from changing our mind on the paint choice 3 times. It definitely going to look much better than the 80's decor it used to have.