Has it already been a year?!

Hello blogger world. I fell off the face of the earth for the last year in the world of blogging. My last log in was May 24th! Today is the 2nd of May! What the heck?! OK. Truth be told my computer died a LONG time ago and while living in Nicaragua we decided to wait until coming back to the States to get one. So...this week or next I should be getting a new one. No excuse for not blogging!

Since my last post I'm sure I've done a whole lot of a lot of things but two most important things, 1) Have a beautiful son, Oliver Stephen Elmer born February 2, 2010. He's 3 months today! and 2) Move back to the USA! So now I will have to change my name on here! WOW.

Will post more very soon. I promise, I'll be back and have photos to share.

zero to twelve like that!

One of my friends did something like this and I really liked the idea! It's Isaac's first year of things I enjoyed and didn't enjoy! Ha! Of course the entire year was amazing...I thought I would show you his progression:) I love this boy!

1st month

enjoyed: seeing a child that had been growing inside of me for 9 months in real life! a beautiful creation of God!
didn't enjoy: feeding every 2 1/2-3 hours and lack of sleep!



2nd month

enjoyed: watching Isaac smile for the first time! (6 weeks!) and him sleeping trough the night (8 hours) at 8 weeks. praise the Lord!
didn't enjoy: not being able to fit into my old clothes right away. ha! working out 5x a week again.



3rd month

enjoyed: more interaction with Isaac and him finally looking at me. VERY rewarding!
didn't enjoy: more spit ups!



4 month

enjoyed: his laughter. he laughed so much at this age and had such a great sense of humor! also his sleeping patters of 10 hours at night!
didn't enjoy: starting solids and burping. he was a hard burper!



5 month

enjoyed: watching him start to scoot around more. he really was anxious to start moving around on his own.
didn't enjoy: trying out veggies. he wasn't (and still isn't really..) a big fan.




6th month

enjoyed: watching him crawl around
didn't enjoy having to start baby-proofing everything!



7th month

enjoyed: watching his personality form. he was obsessed with textures. he loved taking his fingers through the sand. touching buttons...zippers, etc.
didn't enjoy: my son growing up so fast!



8th month

enjoyed: Isaac having the eating solids thing down.
didn't enjoy: teething!!




9th

enjoyed: taking him home for Christmas and spending time with family! Hearing his laughter through out the house
didn't enjoy: taking him back to Nicaragua :(






10th month

enjoyed: him sleeping a great solid 12 hours every night! watching him cruise and say "mama and dada"
didn't enjoy: him getting into everything!




11th month

enjoyed: his sweet personality and starting to be more cuddlier.
didn't enjoy: his strong will starting to show...



12 months!

enjoy: seeing him walk for the first time! him saying funny words like "doo-dah, dat, poo-yah.
haven't enjoyed: starting to throw food overboard! mama doesn't like that!

Isaac's First Birthday ( Cat in the Hat!)

Pre-party shots...





It's amazing it's been an entire year ( and then some ) since our sweet baby boy was born. April 22 was his birthday and I am just now getting around to blogging about it! There are so many changes that take place in the first year it's so much fun! Looking back now...it all seems like a blur. I'd have to say that this past year has been the best of my entire life. Not only am I married to an incredible man of the Lord but I have a beautiful and healthy son. I'm so thankful once again for God giving us this most precious gift. My Mom was able to come down for a week and get ready for the big party. I don't know if you guys know this but one of my closest friends here had a son two weeks prior to Isaac being born. His name is Isaac ( eezak )if you were to say it in Spanish. We decided to throw theirs together because they were so close in age and had the same name! :)

My first cake!



Sweet Mama and Mom



My Dad and Mom



I love it!













the cat in the hat!







The last of the fun!

My 28th Birthday

Well my birthday as most of you know was last month but I felt like I should have blogged about it. Mike and I left Isaac with a great friend over night and we went with 5 other couples to a place called Somoto Canyon that is really close to the Honduras border. It was an amazing birthday and Valentine weekend. There is one thing I think I should share though..

On the way home we had two friends in the car with Mike and I. Some of our best friends here ( Dane and Julie). The roads aren't overly amazing here but they are good in a lot of parts. Mike was driving and we got to a point where we needed to pass a semi-truck. Mike took a pretty big risk by passing this truck and there was another vehicle on the opposite side of the road. We all got pretty freaked out but made it OK. Not but 5 minutes later did we realize that the vehicle that was coming on the opposite side of the road was now behind us and on our tail! We got a little freaked out but not too bad. Everything seemed OK but we didn't know what this driver wanted and why he was now on our tail. Mike slowed down and we wanted to see if he just wanted to look at us and pass? We were pretty confused. So..Mike slowed down and the car came up along side of us and rolled down the passenger side window and...pulled out a GUN! Yes. They waved a pistol at us! The guy motioned for us to pull over ( pointing the gun). Needless to say we were all really freaked out!

So I said a prayer and asked for God's protection. I mean..wouldn't you? Well I did because we really needed His protection over us. He gave it to us too! Mike pulled over and told the guy who was irate that we were terribly sorry. We'd never been on that road before and we didn't realize how dangerous it was. He saw we were scared out of our minds and let us go! You just never know what can happen. Here or anywhere! It really made me think about my life though. I couldn't see Isaac soon enough! I was so thankful God did in fact protect us. The guy could have literally asked anything of us and we would have done it. It's happened before and will happen again. Praise God for safety! It was a weekend I'll never forget. Here are the pictures!




floating down the river



mike's turn :)



standing proud!



mike jumping off a cliff!



dane and julie plus mike and i at a gas station.

International Princess Project

We know a family here in Nicaragua that is highly involved with the girl who started this project. It's amazing and beautiful work and these girls are able to support themselves with out being on the street selling their bodies. Please support them by buying a pair of awesome $30 PJ's.

So cool...

http://www.intlprincess.org

Cousin Time!

When we were home for Christmas we were able to get together with a lot of our cousins from my Mom's side of the family. There were 8 of the 11 all together at one time. There were a few additions to the family this year. Isaac being the first, Oscar being the second, and Haden the third. The 3 boys had a great time together. We were a few days short of Bekah's son Eden showing up. I'll post pictures of him later!

Isaac's first Christmas

I know I've been a terrible blogger. I don't know why either. There really is so much that goes on a daily basis here in Nicaragua. Here are a few shots of Isaac's first Christmas.




Isaac got the snowman PJ's from his Grammer. We got them in Ireland!







Isaac got this amazing wagon from my Grandmothers husband, Wayne. He hand made it!