Happy Birthday Papa Buck!

We love and miss you!

Video featuring Korey Isaacs and Eli and Cora Judson :-)

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year! I love the excitement of Jesus coming to the city and getting a King's welcome. I was so thrilled for Eli to be old enough to experience such an exciting day at church. Last week Korey and Eli did a couple Palm Sunday crafts and we talked a lot about it, so they understood the concept. Sunday morning Brandon played the donkey and the kids took turns pretending to be Jesus while I waved towels at them. Both Eli and Cora loved it! Our church has the kids wave palms and walk around the sanctuary during worship on Palm Sunday. Eli got to participate! He loved it! In the lobby, he was waving his palm singing "Hosanna, Hosanna" over and over again. He walked in with all the kids and I was beaming with pride!!! Cora and I walked with him because he was a little confused at first ;-). He loved watching Dad lead worship. I love that Eli is getting old enough to experience all the wonderful aspects of life! We had a wonderful Palm Sunday celebrating Jesus and a wonderful afternoon with each other bike riding, walking, and just being a family.

Botanica

We finally started our membership to the Botanical Gardens right by our house! I am looking forward to enjoying many walks around the beautiful grounds and spending time as a family there! The kids absolutely loved feeding the fish and watched them for a long time, so I think we'll be there often! Both kids also love butterflies, and they have a big butterfly house you can walk through and see all the beautiful butterflies hatching and landing on you! I can't wait until that opens up! They are in the process of adding a children's garden that is going to be amazing. It will open up this Summer. It has forts and a little farm that Eli will love. Botanica definitely has a special place in my heart, considering that's where we had our wedding reception 6 years ago!

Riding bikes!

I am thrilled to announce we took our first bike ride as a family of four yesterday! I haven't ridden a bike in years because I've either been pregnant or stuck at home with baby Cora while the boys went riding. Cora is finally old enough to join Eli in the bike trailer and loves it! Eli was so excited that I got to go with them and kept saying, "Cora going too!" I can only go so far with the stroller, so it was nice to venture out into farther places in our Riverside oasis. The lame part was that I couldn't keep up with Brandon (and he was the one pulling the kids). I'm looking forward to many bike rides enjoying the beautiful weather and our lovely neighborhood! Eli's very into "building bird houses" right now. Brandon worked with him in the garage one day building a bird feeder and ever since then he gets his stack of wood pieces and builds "bird houses". According to him they are for "baby birds and mama birds". It is so cute! Once he's gotten them arranged to his satisfaction, we all have to look at it, then he knocks it over and starts again. He had a speech screening, and the woman agreed with me that he just has an articulation issue (not a language problem). We will go Tuesday for a hearing test and to talk with a speech therapist so I can get some ideas on how to help him improve his inunciation. I'm already seeing improvement every day just from working with him myself. Having miss Korey around has been great. He has a constant playmate and will copy things she says. The other day he said "dookie". I wonder where he learned that??? My sister went home for the weekend and it has been kind of quiet around here without the little chatterbox around! I miss them both already! I don't want another baby, but I want a 4 year old!

11 Months

Eleven months have come and gone since my little sunshine arrived! One more month and it will be a YEAR! Parenting Cora is just so easy...I feel so lucky! She is happy and sweet and brings a smile to my face all day long. At eleven months she:

1. Has started saying more words all the time. She now has added "dog", "tricked ya", "bippity, boppity, boo", "Eli" , "yeah", "yes" etc. to her vocab

2. Nods her head "yes" all the time and gets really excited for snacks, books, food, or music.

3. Loves music, singing, and dancing

4. Takes her bath with Eli now and sometimes laughs and tries to play bite him in the tub

5. Is getting a lot better about not eating things outside, but instead throws them and then claps for herself

6. Loves the playground. She loves running across the bouncy bridge and sliding

7. Is running a lot now.

8. Finally has all 8 teeth in...four on top and four on bottom.

9. Is completely on table foods and has to feed herself. She is eating things like lasagna, mac and cheese, waffles, eggs, casseroles, grilled chicken, steak, etc. It makes my life a lot easier to be able to make one thing for everyone.

10. Loves nursery at the church and playing with the other babies.

11. Has moved up to the convertible car seat and loves it!

12. Still puts everything in her mouth and has choked scarily several times on little things like dirt, carpet threads, or things tracked in (even threw up from choking this past weekend and the finger sweep has come in handy several times). I have to sweep ALL floors once or twice a day to be safe.

13. Still gives tons of kisses and hugs and will smack her lips now towards you if she wants a kiss!

Sesame Street Live

One of Brandon's coworkers was so nice in giving us four tickets to see Sesame Street Live! We took both kids and Korey. They LOVED it! Eli can't sit still for very long, so I thought it might be a disaster, but he did great. I was smart and immediately bought a popcorn for the kids to share during the first half, and then Brandon and Eli went and grabbed some sno cones for the second half. All three kids sat through the 1 1/2 hour program and clapped, danced, and had a blast. I was thrilled to see that we might be able to enjoy more kids programs like this now that Eli can sit for that long...with food. Cora loved it! She sat on my lap mesmerized, danced, and ate some of her snacks. I spent the whole time just enjoying the kids reactions to the show! The whole show was about being healthy (eating well, brushing your teeth, etc.) and was all singing and dancing with a lot of crowd participation. Eli kept saying, "REAL Elmo" and if Elmo was off stage he would say, "Elmo getting ready". Now if he sees a stuffed Elmo or poster he points and says, "pretend Elmo". Last night he wanted to sleep with the "REAL Elmo" and not his stuffed one. He gave his imaginary Elmo friend a big hug...so cute!

Sunny days are here to stay

I am happy to report that I have fallen into a groove now dealing with three kids intead of two! Eli and Korey are having fun (especially now that the weather has turned nice and we're spending all day outside). I have been doing a "preschool" time during Cora's nap, so that Korey won't get behind in her schooling. It actually is a lot more fun with both kids. I plan a craft, some writing exercises, and of course letter/number learning. It's going great! Our amazing photographer friend Jessica Rozof came over with her little girl Sammy for a playdate and she snapped some great shots of the kids playing! Brandon got some free tickets to Sesame Street Live tomorrow. Both Eli and Cora are big Elmo/Sesame Street fans. I'm curious to see if Eli will be able to sit still during it, or if I'll have to bribe him with popcorn...either way it should be fun!