Bye, Grandma!

We were lucky enough to have Grandma Venita stay with us for the last week-and-a-half. It was so fun to have her here. Isaac is going to miss her (as are we)!

Flying Squirrel!

Okay, this is a random post, but we had all just gotten back from a bike ride when we heard some crazy noises from our rain gutters (our unit is 2 stories).  We looked up and saw a squirrel going wild running around inside the rain gutter (only his big fluffy tail was showing) when he suddenly made an unexpected departure.  He started falling, spread eagle (or flying squirrel style?) until he hit the ground right in front of us.  He landed on his feet, but I'm not sure who was more stunned, him or us. 

I grabbed Isaac because the squirrel was obviously stunned after his 2-story plung to the pavement and he just stood there for a while and had no idea where he was going.  Our storage closet was open outside so I guess he figured that was the safest and most comfortable place for him to die (or that is what I feared) so he ran in there.  I kept checking every 15 to 20 minutes to see if he had left the closet (he was curled up in a ball on the bottom shelf), but he wouldn't budge.  I tried poking a prodding him multiple times, but he refused to move.  After several separate attempts he finally moved, but he ran to the farthest most inaccessible corner of the closet instead of outside like I planned.  I could just imaging finding the dead rodent when we started packing up in a few months (or even worse, smelling it first).  After a few hours Lance was able to get him out.  Just as he was finished putting back all of the things he had to take out to get the squirrel out, the squirrel ran back in again!  It was only a few more minutes before Lance finally got it out for good.  I'm glad he won't be dying in our closet;  it was certainly a very unfortunate identity crisis for a regular squirrel to think he could fly!

Fall Creek Falls

We had a mini vacation a few weekends ago. We took a hike in Fall Creek Falls State Park and saw several waterfalls. Even though it was over 80 degrees the week before we went (and we had to start up the A/C for several days), it felt pretty frigid in the humid 40s during out hike on Friday, and we managed to get rained on, too.



Lance and Isaac crossing the very bouncy suspension bridge.



 Fall Creek Falls, the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies at 256 feet.

It was nice to spend some time outside as a family. I don't think we will miss the residency schedule in the future!

Tennessee Aquarium

We spent the second day of our vacation in Chattanooga, TN. It was a great day to spend indoors because it was pouring rain outside. Luckily, the Tennessee Aquarium was on our agenda. It was very impressive! We enjoyed touching sturgeon, horsehoe crabs, stingrays, and butterflies. There was so much to see and do there!

Lance 'caught' a butterfly in the Butterfly Pavilion!
Those blurs on the right are actually fish. There were 2 divers in the tank and they kept swimming up to Isaac and making faces at him throught the glass....Isaac thought it was the best! What a fun trip!!!

Singin' in the Rain

We had a pretty huge rainstorm today (that included a tornado warning). Before the worst of it came through I let Isaac play in the rain and puddles to his heart's content (well, almost...we had to go inside SOMETIME). It makes me so excited for summer. I hope there is a splash pad around here somewhere!

What a Mess

How could one chocolate graham cracker make all of this mess?

Personal Hygiene

This is what Isaac has been up to lately...so much to teach, so little attention span!

Isaac Walks!

This is about as far as Isaac can walk without a crash landing. He is getting better at it every day!

Still my baby...

Sometimes Isaac seems so old to me, but he's still just my baby! Isn't he
cute?!

Isaac goes down the slide

Isaac is so clever.  I just put him on the bottom step of the playground equipment and he climbs up all of the stairs up to the slide and he goes down all by himself.  He can't walk yet, but he figured out that he can go down the slide just like he does the stairs at home.  In this video I had to point him in the right direction because he was a little distracted, but usually he just goes straight to the slide.  We have had so much fun at the park with the warmer weather!

A Grand Day Out

It was finally nice weather again, so Isaac and I took the bus to the downtown library for storytime...he enjoyed riding on the eggplant toy they have there. Next we took the 2-3 mile walk to daddy's office to say hello. It was a great day to be out!

Isaac's First Birthday Party

A little homemade banner made of cardstock, scrapbook paper, and paperclips

The happiest face Isaac had while 'eating' his cake.  He was in a bad mood and barely picked at the frosting until he demanded we take him out of his chair.  I took video footage, but it isn't too exciting since he never really ate any of it.

His 'doggie' birthday cake.  I tried to make it look like the dog he sleeps with at night.

The cake for the grown-ups.  A dark chocolate cake with ganache frosting from Martha Stewart's website.  It was devilishly good.

We enjoyed having a few of our neighbors and one of Isaac's friends from church (and his parents) over.  He was pretty cross the whole time because he didn't sleep well the night before and had a morning nap that was much too short.  The funny thing was that after his party he took another nap and was a complete angel the rest of the day and even loved his birthday cake and kept crawling back to me for more.  Kids.

Look Who's ONE!

Isaac turned 1 year old today! He is such a sweet boy and we have loved having him in our family. A few fun facts about the birthday boy: His favorite word is 'uh-ho', his favorite color is blue (he always picks the blue ball over the red or yellow one), his favorite animal is a dog (he sleeps with his every night), his favorite foods are string cheese and Cheerios, and his favorite person is Daddy (he always gets so excited when he comes home and says "hi Dad!"). He still has a few more weeks at least until he is ready to walk, but I can wait. He also loves to get into everything that he shouldn't. Since we don't have any family around, we are having a small birthday party with some neighbors this weekend, so more pictures to follow!

First Haircut/Shiner

Before: look at those shiny red locks!

After: he lost a lot of the red and had much more coarse hair underneath (and lots of cowlicks in the front of his hair...and one in the back that won't stay down...little rascal)

A better view of his 'shiner'.  Learning to walk means learning to fall more gracefully?

I'm a Soul Man...

Nice yogurt soul patch, Isaac...

Have you seen the Christmas Story?

Part II

We went to see the lights on Temple Square the day we arrived.  We were a little worried when we got there because the lights weren't on, but shortly thereafter we were able to watch ALL of the lights come on at once!

The tree at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (trying to stay warm until the rest of the Lindbergs were able to meet us downtown to see the lights)

Grandma Leone (his paternal maternal step-grandmother??) and Isaac

Lance, Isaac, and Kohl near the fountain in the Wishing Room (?) at the Make a Wish building.

Isaac surprisingly didn't do much damage to Grandma Venita's Christmas tree.

Four generations of Lindbergs! Lance, Isaac, Elva, and Randy


My brother Greg let us borrow their new snowshoes so we could go snowshoeing. It was so nice to be up in the mountains (and exercising!)

Christmas in Salt Lake City (part I)

So, I hauled my camera around with me everywhere I went, but unfortunately didn't get around to taking many pictures.  We had so much fun with friends and family...it was sad to come home to Tennessee.  Who knows where we will be next year for Christmas!

Isaac, Lance, and Grandpa Caylor

At Lauren's Make-a-Wish Star Raising Party

Isaac needed a LOT of help opening gifts...I'd have to say he didn't really enjoy it at all.  I'm sure that will change.

The madness at the Lindberg Christmas Eve party

Lance, Isaac, and Grandma Lindberg

Lauren, Taya, and Erica during the Gatrell Family Nativity

Kylie, Eli, and Bennett during the Nativity

Teach 'em Young

Isaac seems to do a lot better with a bike water bottle than a sippy cup...go figure. He'll be on a bike in no time now!