Thanksgiving Holiday 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!  We spent a great Thanksgiving Day at my parent's house!  My sister flew in on Wednesday night, and it was so fun to see her.  Isaac was so happy to see "EmEm" and wanted her to play trucks, trains, and airplanes with him right away.  :)  My mom made an incredible Thanksgiving dinner.  Here she is as the master hostess carving our turkey (or, as Isaac says, "dobble dobble tur-tee").  

The Macy's Parade is one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving, so we had a lot of fun watching it on Thursday morning.  While Dave & I were busy baking pies for Thanksgiving dinner, Isaac kept himself busy.   At one point, we looked up & saw him watching the parade like this!  (Never mind my ironing board!)  ;) 

After a great Thanksgiving dinner, everyone hung around and either napped (us) or played games (mostly everyone else).  :)  Later that evening we all ate leftovers and watched old family movies.  After just a few scenes, my stomach hurt from laughing so, so hard.  Isaac was in awe of the home videos and stood in front of the TV like this:



On Friday morning, my sweet husband willingly offered (without coercion or even suggestion on my part) to put up the Christmas tree.  :)  Isaac thought it was a blast and wanted to help the entire time.  He helped Dave drag the boxes out of the attic and down the stairs, pull the tree branches out of the box, and set them up.  The best part was when we got out all the ornaments.  For the past 3 Christmases, we've given Isaac a special ornament.  I was surprised when he remembered his Fisher-Price airplane ornament from last year.  This year, we gave him a "dodo" ornament.  :) 

My friend Meghan gave me a sweet reminder that it's okay to have an "imperfect" tree when you have a little one.  Isaac had so much fun hanging the ornaments on the tree that morning.  For nearly an hour, Isaac hung ornament after ornament and named every one, at least as best as he could.   Granted, most of the ornaments he hung are all in one section of the tree.  :)  But, it was a sweet time together, and Meghan's right--someday I'll miss his little hands helping me decorate...so for now, I'm enjoying my tree with clumped ornaments.  :) 

On Saturday morning, we headed out to Decatur for a morning of four-wheeling.  My cousin Nate bought one this year, and then he decided Isaac needed one too.  Most recently, my dad's gotten in on the fun.  :)  I had no idea it was going to be SO cold & windy, so after one lap around, I spent most of my time in front of the heater in our car.  But, Isaac was a trooper!  I love how he's standing up on his 4-wheeler in this picture. 



See the huge star hanging from the crane in this picture?

If you're driving on 287 in Decatur this Christmas season, you can see it lit up at night from nearly a mile away! 

 Our last big family event for Thanksgiving weekend was celebrating my dad's and Nate's birthdays!

Though it isn't easy, God is showing me that it is possible to have joy even while my heart is hurting. 

A few days before Thanksgiving, I was overcome again with sadness for the babies we lost earlier this year.  But, through my tears, God was so sweet to remind me of all the things I do have to be thankful for...and,  even in the midst of my sadness, I don't want to miss those sweet blessings.  

Whether your heart is heavy or happy this Thanksgiving holiday, we hope you too had a sweet time of remembering the blessings in your life.  Love, the Rinns

Tot School: Thanksgiving

This week I'm linking up with 1+1+1=1 to share some of the Thanksgiving activities Isaac and I did recently.

  We traced Isaac's hands to make "turkeys." Then, he glued tissue paper onto his "fingers" for the feathers.  Later we glued googley eyes on, too.   

(Apparently, tracing his hands for projects has made such an impression that he even wanted his hand traced inside my cousin's birthday card that he was decorating.)  :) 

Yesterday afternoon Isaac colored 4 turkeys that I found in this Preschool Pack.  There were several other turkeys to make other colors, but for now we're working on red, blue, green, & yellow.  :)

I've noticed that Isaac uses both hands to eat with a spoon or fork, but I didn't realize he uses both hands to color until I saw these pictures.

Once he colored them all, we glued them onto construction paper and practiced counting.

Dave got in on the action of "Tot School" tonight after supper!

On one end of the bridge, I hung a rope and attached the turkeys with clothespins.  Dave and Isaac were at the other end of the bridge.  Dave told Isaac which color turkey to go grab--and Isaac was off! 

He thought this was so fun!

We've found that it helps Isaac to associate each color with something he recognizes...

yellow like a bus

blue like the sky

red like a stop sign

green like GO!  :)

I had a much harder time finding Thanksgiving books at our library. The two that Isaac liked the most were both about Biscuit.  (Have I mentioned how much he likes dogs right now?) 

We also sang "5 Fat Turkeys," "Over the River and Through the Woods" and "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come."  (Yes, I was a music teacher.)  :)

What's next?  Christmas!  There are so, so many fun ideas!  I can't wait!

Isaac: 2 Years

I have no idea how it's already a month after Isaac's 2nd birthday and I'm just now sitting down to write this post.  Oh wait, I do know why--because I spend my days keeping up with this busy, busy boy! 

(And, I absolutely love it!)  :)

How did we get to this so quickly?  I feel like it was just yesterday he was this size....

At his 2 year appointment, Isaac was 28 1/2 pounds and 34 1/4 inches.  I'm pretty sure he's over 30 pounds since that appointment.  Sometimes it feels like it takes everything I have to lift him!  Ha!  :)

A few of Isaac's favorite things right now...

• FRIENDS!  Isaac gets so excited when I say we're going to see friends or that friends are coming over.  Most morning while I'm changing his diaper, I ask him what he thinks we're going to do that day.  Usually he says "see friends?" or "friends come?" 
• TRAIN TRACK  We gave Isaac this train track for his birthday, and it's the first thing he heads for every morning.  I hear "Mommy, train track?" several times a day.  If you ever come over and are anywhere near the train track, Isaac will insist that you hold at least one "Thomas train" (his favorite kind of engine).  Even if you don't play with the train track, you have to hold an engine.  :)  (And, even I have to admit that I'm getting pretty good at building different train routes!)  :)
• SINGING  The songs Isaac most likes to sing right now are "Jesus Loves Me," "Little Red Caboose," "The BIBLE" (which he calls the "Bibo" song), "Old McDonald," and "Holy, Holy, Holy."  We just started Bible Study Fellowship last month, and Isaac has learned "Holy, Holy, Holy" in his class there.  Whenever he sings it, it sounds like "ho-e, ho-e"--so, so cute. 

Each night before bed, we sing "Jesus Loves Me."  When we sing "Yes, Jesus Loves..." on the chorus, Isaac used to fill in the blank with his name each time.  Lately, though, he's started filling in everyone possible's name!  It's hilarious--and takes quite awhile!  :)  Some nights it goes like this:  "Yes, Jesus loves Momma, Isaac, Daddy, Isaac, Daddy, Isaac, Daddy, Isaac, Mamo, ManMan, Papa, Nana."  It's so funny when he gets stuck on two names and sings them over and over.  I love hearing his little voice!

• BEING A BOY Just the other night, Isaac threw his huge stuffed dog down from the landing on our stairs, and before I realized what he was doing, jumped all the way down onto the family room floor! Yikes! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!  He goes down the slides at the park head-first, and he also started sliding down our stairs on his belly head-first too. Before Isaac was born, I prayed that Isaac would be an "all-boy" boy...just the other day, my mom said, "I think God answered that prayer more than you ever imagined!" ;)

• BEING OUTSIDE  I think he would live outside if I let him.  He loves to ride his bike and play in his new rock box.  The other day I caught him outside hammering with his Viking helmet on!  :)
• TALKING  Some of my favorite little words that he says are....Bibo (Bible), hammie (hammer), dobble dobble (gobble gobble), baby (usually means his blankie, though he sometimes means a real baby), hubble hubble (hubba, hubba--yes, Dave taught him to say that everytime he kisses me)  ;), hovel (shovel), bulldodo (bulldozer) pee-pee (pizza), ni-ni (broccoli).  It's been so fun to hear him put words together and start to say sentences.

"Can I be done yet?"  :)

Family Fun: Forest Park Miniature Railroad

On Saturday morning, we drove downtown to check out the Forest Park Miniature Railroad.  Several months ago, one of my friends posted about this on Facebook.  I asked her about it, and she said it was a great outing!  We loved it, too! 

Isaac was so excited to ride the train.  We told him about it at supper on Friday night.  When he woke up on Saturday morning, we said, "What are we going to do today?"  Right away he said, "Ride the train!"  So fun!

The weather was perfect--it actually felt like fall!  :)

CHOO-CHOO!

We left from the Trinity Park Depot and headed south to the Forest Park Depot.  There were several bridges along the train route that were fun to cross. 

When the train ride was over, we had a picnic by the depot.  Then, Isaac ran up and down the train tracks and played in the leaves.

 

Isaac's Two Year Portraits

My dear friend Jenny, of Jenny Sawyer Photography, took Isaac's two year portraits last month. 

She found this vintage Ford truck that was a perfect backdrop for these shots.

When I first saw the pictures, I kept saying over and over, "Is this really Isaac?"  He just looks too old! 

I love how sweet Isaac looks in this picture...

but this next one is my favorite of all!  Oh, I love this smile!

Jenny's boys couldn't miss out on the opportunity to check out this awesome truck, either. 

I think they would have stayed in it all day.  :)

To check out more of Jenny's awesome work, visit her website!  Last fall, she took our family portraits, and they are some of my very favorite pictures.

Tot School: Fall Fun

This week, I'm linking up with one of my new favorite blogs, 1+1+1=1, to share Isaac's and my new "learning" adventures.  Several of my friends have RAVED about all the ideas on the Tot School/1+1+1=1 websites.  After checking it out, I see why they think they're so awesome! 

There is so much information on these websites that it can be overwhelming.  But, it is well worth it to take some time to explore everything they offer.  I've found so many fun, easy ideas to encourage meaningful learning for your little one!

Over the past few weeks, Isaac (currently 24 months) and I did several fall-themed "lessons."  One of his favorites was this fall sensory bin!  I filled it with things I found around the house...mini pumpkins and apples; apple and leaf-shaped cookie cutters; acorns; artificial leaves; and, lots of pinto beans.  :)

Another afternoon we went on a leaf hunt.  Granted, it was nearly 90 degrees.  :)  And, most of our leaves here in north Texas are brown from our drought, not autumn-like weather.  But, Isaac still had fun hunting for leaves in this field in our neighborhood.

Isaac gets so excited when I say we're going to do a "project," so I traced his hands to make this leaf project (which I found here). Then, Isaac glued leaves onto his "fingers."  (This was his first experience with glue.)  We also counted the fingers on each hand and counted the leaves.

Isaac loves pumpkins, or "pun-kins" as he calls them, so we did an activity with pumpkin sizes, too.  Isaac found "all" the pumpkins he could in our house and put them on his picnic table.  We lined them up according to size.  Isaac was enthralled with putting all the "little" pumpkins into the jack-o-lantern.  To him, every pumpkin, except for the jack-o-lantern, was "little."  He even tried stuffing his trick-or-treating pumpkin into the jack-o-lantern.  :)

I also took some of the book recommendations on the 1+1+1=1 website and reserved these at the library. Isaac is just now beginning to enjoy reading "non-board" books.



This is one of my favorites that I used to read to my students at school.  So fun to be able to read it to my own little one now!



It was a lot of fun doing these activities with Isaac.  I think a little bit of the elementary teacher in me may be sneaking out again.  ;)  Next up for Isaac's Tot School is Thanksgiving activities!