Simon is 2!!

Simon turned 2 yesterday. We are having a little party on Saturday so we just took him out to dinner yesterday on his actual birthday. There was a balloon maker there so we decided to get one for him. We decided on an Elmo (rightfully so since his party theme is Sesame Street). At first he was interested in watching what was going on but he didn't really know what he was making. Then it was amazing to watch his face light up as Elmo began to take shape and he recognized what was being created. Once he had Elmo in his hands he was in heaven. He danced with him (like the dancing Elmo at daycare), hugged him, and was just thrilled. Here is a picture of him hugging Elmo.
I can't believe my little guy is already 2!! On the other hand...I can't believe he's only 2 and I already have an almost 4 month old! We sure have loved watching Simon learn and grow and we're excited to watch what this next year will bring in his development.

Here are some pictures over his 2 years of life:

One week old

2 months old and already flashing his adorable smile!

Almost 5 months old and already taking after Daddy!

Simon on his 1st birthday

We love you Simon!! As a side note, I sang to him when I woke him up in the morning and he was so excited. I said yeah and clapped after the song to get him excited for his birthday. Then I sang to him several different birthday songs several times during our car ride to work and after each one, he would clap and say "Yeahhhh". It was adorable!! I love that he was so excited for his special day. I can't wait for his party on Saturday and hope he has a good time!

I love my boys!!

Isaac has been smiling and cooing since the very end of July. He has the cutest dimple, just like Simon! I haven't taken nearly as many pictures over the past 2 1/2 months as I should so I'm trying to do better. After a rough first day at day care (more to come on that soon) on Monday, August 22nd he was extra smiley Tuesday morning when I was getting him dressed and ready for Day 2. I got out the camera to see if I could capture a smile, but with no success. He was still happy, he just gets distracted by the big black thing Mommy is pointing at him so he just gets wide-eyed and stops smiling. But I love the pictures I got anyway.

I just want to hold this little guy and cuddle him all the time!! Those cheeks are so adorable!

When Simon saw me taking pictures of Isaac, he didn't want to be left out so he climbed onto my bed and laid himself down next to Isaac. It was too precious!! I love these two little ones of mine.

That night he was happy and smiley again so I tried to capture a smile. This was the best I could get because I had to just hold the camera away from me and hope he was in the frame! The best smiles were the ones where only the top of his head were in the picture. I think I need to get someone else to be the photographer so he doesn't get distracted.

Even blurry he's still adorable!!

Say Cheese!!

Simon has been so smiley!! He was going through a phase recently where he would cover his face or hide whenever I would get the camera out. That resulted in very few pictures being taken the past couple months. So on Sunday he was looking extra cute in his Mickey sweater vest church outfit and Brian suggested I take a picture of his cute outfit. So out came the camera and on the first shot I got this big smiling face...

I love that face!!

Wow...he sure looks like a big boy now.

He sure was cheesing it up for us!

Better Late than Never

(I have no idea why the spacing is off in this post but every time I fix it and repost it goes back to being weird again...sorry.)
So I am way behind on my blog, but finally I have a few minutes where the house is quiet and I just don't feel like doing any cleaning so here I sit looking at the TONS of pictures we've taken over the past 2 months.

Isaac Brian Chapman was born on June 2, 2011 at 8:29 am. He weighed in at 7 lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long. He looked smaller than Simon when he was born so I was sure he was going to weigh less, but to my surprise, he weighed 4 ounces more than Simon had. He definitely looked different too. They had some similarities but from the beginning my Mom said he looked a lot like my baby pictures.

This labor and delivery was much different (and way better recovery) than with Simon. I went into labor on my own in the middle of the night. Luckily my mom had just arrived the afternoon before so we were able to just walk out of the house and not have to call anyone at 2 am to help us with Simon. I don't want to really get into all the details right now because I want to get to bed relatively early tonight. I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that we are happy with our new little addition and share some pictures I took when he was 1 week old.

This last picture with the red background is of Simon when he was one week old. Simon got this teddy bear from my dad when he was born so we used it as a growth comparison in his pictures over his first weeks and months. We had to take a similar picture of Isaac in the same position with the bear for comparison sake. Differences but still adorable!! Isaac's animal is the elephant the previous picture. I have been terrible at photographing him each week but will at least do the monthly shots!! I can't believe he is 8 weeks old already and will be 2 months old next Tuesday!! This time is flying by and unfortunately I'll be back to work before I know it. I've been lucky to be able to take the summer off to be home with my boys and we've been having fun and taking advantage of my time home. More updates to come as I sort through all the pictures. When my boys are so adorable, it's hard to narrow down all the pictures so I don't overwhelm you or myself to post them! :)

3 weeks to go

I had my check up with the doctor this morning. I am 37 weeks today so there are only 3 weeks left. Not much news as of yet, but the past 2 visits they said I'm measuring a little small, but I'm carrying him pretty low so I'm not quite sure what all this means. I'm hoping I'm not going to be late and that the baby is just low and smaller and ready to come by June 1st. Only time will tell.

I still have a long to do list that needs to be done before the baby comes. I'm slowly making progress, but my little spurts of energy lately are better than the non-existent energy of the past several weeks! Now it's a race against the clock...

Sunglasses in the...SNOW!

On April 29th I turned around to find Simon had found my sunglasses! He has his own pair but doesn't get to wear them very often because he takes them off and plays with them too much. He looked too cute so I let him keep them on for a few pictures. Simon found these glasses in my purse at church 2 weeks ago and sadly, they no longer exist in one piece. Good thing they were only $5 Walmart glasses.

What a stud!

I'm pretty sure the sunglasses helped him watch the snow falling outside...I was not ready for snow on April 29th.

Easter

Simon didn't sleep well after a day full of Easter egg hunts and it didn't even have anything to do with candy, because he didn't eat any. So the Easter bunny had to wait and come to our house while we were at church. So after church Simon got to see his Easter basket (which was overstuffed with random things we pulled out from our Easter decorations box and the stuff he got from daycare in a little tin. Then Simon went outside and found all the eggs that were hidden in the backyard. He had so much fun finding them all and he actually found almost all of them without any help. Daddy helped him reach the high ones though!

Exploring the basket

Not even staged. Brian was showing Simon the different things in his basket and as he held up this chocolate bunny, Simon just went in to try and eat it! It was hilarious and I was so glad I had the camera ready even if it is blurry!

The egg hunt begins

Oh, I see another one...

He knocked it backwards as he was trying to get it down.

So pleased with his basket full of eggs

Simon got these ears from daycare and ran around that night trying to put them on his head. They're pretty cute (and yes, that is his very own (dead) cell phone - but he prefers mine because it lights up...)

Opening an Easter package from Grandma & Grandpa Chapman

It had a little stuffed bunny rabbit and a plastic monkey oven mitt. He LOVES the monkey!!

Even though Easter didn't start off as well as we would have liked, it ended up being a very nice day and ended with a lamb and potato dinner that evening. Most of the eggs that were hidden for Simon were empty and he didn't care at all. He just loved finding them and putting them in his basket. After all the eggs were found we opened them inside and he was delighted to find goldfish crackers and puffs in some of them...that's his kind of treat!

The Day Before Easter

The Saturday before Easter we took Simon to some Easter egg hunts. The first one we went to was done by Spanish Fork City. We were running a little late and still walking from the parking lot when the horn sounded for the hunt to begin. Luckily, Simon's age group was the 2 and under so they were slower so by the time we got over there Simon was still able to pick up several eggs. It took him just a minute to realize what was going on but he picked up on the concept really quickly. I was impressed at how well he did with picking them up and putting them in his basket and going for the next one.

Easter egg hunts require a lot of concentration and sticking out the tongue really helps!

Look at how well he did all by himself!

So proud of his bucket of eggs

He has the best smiles ever!! So happy!

Our next stop was the Provo City egg hunt. This was even more packed than the Spanish Fork one. We were a little early to this one so we got to watch them throw all the eggs around the grass. This is a picture of just the 2 and under group waiting. It was pretty crazy honestly.
I think Simon was tired by this point and about ready for his nap so he was a little slower during this one. Daddy luckily fended off the crazy parents and guarded Simon's little patch of grass so he could pick them up by himself. He really loved the whole process.

(Daddy's hand protecting Simon's eggs)

I think he wanted to do it again!

We got to meet Zippy the Provo Parks & Recreation mascot. Simon was so excited when he first saw him but when he got close to him, he wasn't so sure anymore and wanted nothing to do with him.

Me and my little man having so much fun!

This huge pixi-stick was his favorite prize. He kept whipping it around so we had to hold it still and shield our faces most of the time!

Just some funny/cute pictures of Simon on our way back to the car. He has the best facial expressions ever!!

We sure had a fun day hunting for eggs! His smile tells it all!!

Creativity

Simon is a little copy cat! He loves to mimic the things he sees us do. Which is cute, yet keeps us on our toes to not do things we don't want him to copy. He has put on my extra apron before when he's pulled it out of the kitchen drawer but on April 14th he wanted to wear Mommy's nice apron after I took it off. Yes, it's frilly and girly, but he was adorably handsome in it regardless! He walked around the house with his big spoon for quite some time with it on.
Then I showed him the pockets and he was in heaven! I think this means he's ready for a tool belt soon!! Much more manly but still can be adorable.


The weekend of April 16th, Simon got really sick. He woke up from his afternoon nap with throw up in his crib. He threw up several more times that evening and into the night. It is so sad to see him that sick. I can't tell you how much laundry I did that weekend trying to keep up with all the dirty sheets and clothes he went through. Sunday he stopped throwing up but had bad diarrhea which also produced lots of laundry. He wasn't perfectly better by Sunday night so I enlisted my sister, Maria, to watch him on Monday during her spring break. She is such a great help to us and so willing to watch Simon any time. She watched him in the morning and I took the afternoon off work after I finished with meetings. He sure was super cuddly, smiley, and fun to play with even with not feeling well. When I was with him that afternoon he decided he wanted to wear his hats...yes, two hats at the same time. It was too funny and cute so I had to document it. Even with a runny nose he looks adorable!! I was so glad I was able to spend the afternoon with him and help him get better.

He loves to cheese for the camera!
Then he wants to see his picture right after.