Happy Birthday, Isaac !

We celebrated Isaac's first birthday in the U.S. on a cold Dec. 21. (His birthday is actually on Christmas Eve.) We wanted to help him understand the difference in his birthday and Jesus' - he has a big enough head as it is. We had a small party for him at Marty's parents house. We invited our friends - David, Wendy, Cole, and Katie Lee, and Raygan.

Marty's dad hooked a trailer to his tractor and covered it with sleeping bags and blankets. He also built a bonfire. Papaw drove us around for a while - just until the frostbite began to set in. We sang lots of songs and did a lot of laughing. After we returned to their house, we roasted hot dogs over the fire. Then, we promptly went inside to eat them along with all the fixin's. (For our friends who "aint' from around here", that means chili, slaw, and onions - along with barbeque beans and potato salad.) We had a birthday cake that was made from cupcakes and made to look like a tractor in a field. Isaac loves tractors! We braved the cold again and went back out to roast marhsmallows and make s'mores. You know, you can't let a good bonfire go to waste.

Next, we opened presents. He loved his Hummer set from Papaw and Nana, the Hungry Hippos game from the Lee family, the tractor from the Thompsons, and the basketball and goal from us. But, the gift that got away with him the most was the bag of Sweet Sixteen powdered sugar doughnuts from the Griffins. See the picture above where he is hugging them. When he pulled them out of the gift bag, he screamed and kept jumping off the floor with both feet. He was also yelling something in Vietnamese. It was priceless. I have to brag in him and say that he did share them with the three of us for breakfast the next two mornings.

He loves for us to sing "Happy Birthday" to him. He sings along and then pretends to blow out candles. We have sung it for days.

We have now celebrated his birthday again with Grandma, Pop, and Aunt Rachel. He received a Playmobil fire truck set. He and Anna Claire played with it until bedtime and couldn't wait ot get up and play with it some more. He also received a stuffed dog from Germany, a truck, and some dinosaurs from Aunt Rachel.

In a few days, I'll do a post on Christmas. We are getting together with Marty's side of our family on New Year's Eve to celebrate. We hope you all had a wonderful holiday and we're glad you checked back in on our blog. God bless.

FINALLY!!!

OK, we realize that we stink at this blogger thing. Also, like with two children is very different than life with one. So....for various reasons, we have failed miserably at keeping up our blog. Life at the Ingram house could not be better. Isaac has adjusted just fine and Anna Claire has done much better at having a little brother to bother her! We had our second of three social worker visits yesterday. That went well and Isaac showed off! He sang one of the songs he has learned in Pre-school choir (Ho, Ho, Ho, Hosannah, ha, ha, ha, le lujah) which he loves..... and he said two blessings for her (God is Great, and God our Father). Life in Pre-school is good. He has the best teacher, Mrs. White who finds no fault EVER in him, and the school as a whole is wonderful. We could not have been more blessed in this area. I know this is going to be short and sweet, but bedtime is here and work is tomorrow. We just can't thank people enough for all they continue to do for us. God has really blessed us and we know we don't deserve it, but we are thankful for it. Christmas is here and we are in the throws of decorating. Isaac is in amazement and loves to "touch" all the more breakable things. He has a tree in the dining room and he wanted his train around it, so we put it there. He loves the Polar Express movie and then we brought out the train to put under our big tree, he had a fit! He will go and just sit on the floor and look at it for the longest time. He seems to be so happy and laid back. Anna Claire is wonderful at being the big sister and they have really grown on each other. I think they could get together and over take us at any minute! In case we don't get to post again before, we hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Take care. We will post again.