Visit with Mimi Yarnall

Here are some pictures of our visit with Mimi Yarnall last week. We went to the Atlanta aquarium and hung out in Athens for her visit. Isaac loved introducing Mimi to his preschool/teacher, going to the playground, visiting the bookstores and decorating Easter eggs. On a developmental note, Isaac has learned to ride his tricycle on his own. Although the hills are still tricky for him, he enjoys biking on the sidewalks are our complex.

Re-Cap of Visit to Indiana

Here are some pics from our visit in Indiana last week. First, we headed to Auburn to help our nieces (Ella and Emerson) celebrate their 1st birthdays. Then, after dropping Donavan off at the airport on Sunday Isaac and I went to Lafayette (hometown) for a 3 day visit with all of Isaac's grandparents, and great grandparents.

Isaac just loved being with his cousins. He loves sharing with them and particularly enjoyed "helping" them open the gifts. It was helpful that Ella and Emerson have another cousin who is about Isaac's age and they were quite the team when it came to opening presents.

I always take a zillion pics when we get together with family. Here is a smattering of my collection from our trip.

Week in Review

Another week has flown by and I've neglected our blog.

This past weekend Mimi Yarnall came to visit. I don't have many pics as the visit was 24 hours long and Donavan and I weren't here for most of it. We really appreciate her coming to take care of Isaac. Donavan and I went to a work related dinner/mass in Atlanta. We spent the nite and came home on Sunday to find Isaac having a great time with Mimi. They went to Chick Fil A, Barnes and Noble, played in the sunshine with his trucks, rode his trike and went to church together.

Isaac had a great time playing with his buddies Ryan and Connor while the moms ran in a 5 k race on Saturday at Sandy Creek park. I have decided that running in cold weather is much more difficult than a more seasonable climate. Our time improved by 4 minutes which I was really excited about. I look forward to the next one.

Donavan and Isaac enjoyed cheering the Steelers to a victory in the Super Bowl. Isaac has learned the "here we go Steelers" chant, but will only sing it if he has the terrible towel in hand.

We just got back from lunch with Donavan at Clocked in downtown Athens. What a fun dive. I've now had enough grease to last me the next month. The reuben was delicious and Isaac particularly liked the tater tots (haven't had those since high school).

Christmas 2008

Here's a re-cap of Christmas 2008 at the Powell-yarnall house. Santa came a day early to our place in Athens. Isaac has been asking for a fire truck and pumpkin which Santa delivered. Santa also thought Isaac would enjoy an easel so one of those arrived, too. This was the first time in 7 years that Donavan and I have been home for the Christmas Eve service and it was really, really nice to attend the St. Joe's children's service. Isaac slept through half of the service which was nice for mom and dad. I was actually able to focus on the service.

We hit the road on Christmas eve for our annual holiday trip to visit family in Indiana. We arrived on Christmas day, after spending Christmas Eve night in a hotel, and had dinner with Mimi and Poppi Yarnall. We spent the next 4 days celebrating Christmas with the Yarnall and Powell families. It was especially nice to have my brother home from Hong Kong for a visit. We ate very well and can definitely tell it's time to get back into the work out routine by the way my pants are fitting today. Our car was packed to the brim (as it always is) with an abundance of gifts. We've been pulling out the gifts one by one since coming home and Isaac loves all of his new goodies. Isaac especially enjoyed spending time with his family and LOVED his 10 month old twin cousins (Ella and Emerson). He was so gentle, kind and shared the toys very well.

Today is boys last day of vacation (Donavan returns to work on Monday, Isaac's preschool resumes on Tuesday). We thought it was time to put away the Christmas decorations. We've been talking with Isaac about this for about 4 days--the fact that the tree has to come down so we can make room for his train table again. He keeps telling us it's okay for the tree to "go away" until next year. I started to take down our mini 3 foot tree and Isaac had a fit. Then, when the larger living room tree starting to come down, he had an absolute breakdown. Tears, tears and more tears. Sometimes I wonder if we involve and communicate with Isaac too much. I know that if we tear down the tree during his nap, he'll still be devastated. At this point there's going to be tears one way or another.