Santa finds us in St. Johns!

2015 Christmas letter!

Christmas Letter 2015

As I sit here to write this letter, I cant help but think that letters are kind of a thing of the past! Now a days everything is out there on social media for everyone to see!  I go back and forth on whether to write one or not! I need to remember the importance of writing this letter! I write these letters to help me reflect on the positives in our life and help put us in the Christmas spirit! With all this negative in the world it is good for me to look back and reflect on the good! I hope that when you read this you try and remember the good in your world! We all have blessing in our lives and it is good to sit back and think about them!
This year has been a fun eventful year for our family!  We started the year with looking for and finding a house, then we added to our family, and finished it with Tyler taking on a new job!
Tyler is Tyler and is a bright positive light in the house! He is like my 4th child and the kids favorite!  He works really hard for our family and when he isn't working he enjoys going fishing and playing with his dogs! The kids have all learned to love fishing also and Cutler begs to go! I am so lucky to have a man that enjoys doing dishes and is the go to guy with homework and reading! He doesn't get much choice in that department because Ronnee prefers his help! He is loving having a house to work on outside and is working on being Clark Griswold in the lights department! We hope to get a back yard put in this next year for the kids to enjoy!
I am enjoying the new house as well! It is so fun to be able to paint and decorate and make it a home! It is a slow process but we all know that it takes time and money and we will get there! It is an adventure having 3 kids but we are having fun with it! When I can I get to help at the school! It is fun seeing Ronnee and her friends! I feel like a celebrity when I walk around because kids are yelling "hey Ronnee's mom!" I help the PTA often and have gone into the class a few times! I love watching Ronnee interact in class!  The boys get to go with me to PTA stuff and Cutler gets excited to go to school!
Ronnee started SCHOOL!!! She loves it!  She got the highest marks in behavior and is learning so much! Homework isn't always fun but we are getting the hang of it!  Like I mentioned she loves doing it with her daddy!  She loves her teacher Mrs. Henson and has lots of friends!  She is still such a character! Tyler picked her up from school and asks her what she did and without skipping a beat she said "It was just Layla and I and we just stared at the wall!"  This girl cracks us up! When isn't at school she loves her doggies! She loves to cuddle with them and sings and tells them stories!   It is pretty sweet! She is also a really good big sister to her brothers! We are so grateful for this sweet girl!
Mr. Cutler is funny little man! He is 3 but tells me he is 5 and needs to go to school with Ronnee! He gets a little bored at home with mommy! Good thing Hayes is getting more active and is starting to follow  him around! Cutler is seriously the best big brother! Hayes thinks he is hilarious and even loves him when is used as a test dumby!  Cutler is all boy and when he isnt throwing things, building things and yelling, he is telling me how much he loves me!   He sure knows how to work that cute little face!
Mr. Hayes Raymond was born on May 24th after an eventful drive home from AZ!  He weighed 8.6 lbs and is growing so fast! He is now 6 months and the happiest kid ever! He knows no stranger and smiles at everyone! He takes after Ronnee in that way! He looks a lot like his older brother and I am sure will learn to act like him since they spend all day together just the 2 of them!  He is learning to crawl and we are quickly learning that nothing is safe anymore! Time to child proof the house!
We sure have had a blessed year and we hope that you are able to remember all the blessing in your life as well!  Life is Beautiful if we let it!

Beautiful Ronnee has her 1st school performance!

And Hayes figured out the crawling!

Thanksgiving in Colorado!

6 months for Mr Hayes

16.10 lbs and 28.5in tall
Which puts him just a few ounces bigger then Cutler at that age and a couple lbs bigger then Ronnee was! He is my biggest baby that is for sure! I thought for sure he would be bigger then 16.10lbs!   He is a tank and has the cutest rolls!
He is an active little man so I am sure his weight gain will slow down. He loves to jump in his jumper and gets pretty crazy in there! When he isn't jumping he has figured out how to army crawl and roll everywhere! The Christmas tree is not safe this year!  His 2 older siblings like to put whatever he wants just a little in front of him and make him work for it! Good thing he loves them and thinks it is a fun game!  Drives me crazy but it is good for him to get moving! I think he will be full on crawling by the end of the month, he is really working on getting there!
He doesn't like baby food! It is quite funny to watch! We have tried so many things and he sticks out his tongue! He does however like finger foods like puffs, teething biscuits, and anything I feed him with my finger! Looks like we will not be wasting money on baby food! Maybe one of these days he will decide food is good!
He is a pretty good sleeper at night especially when he is cuddled up next to me! Naps are like hell! Lol he sleeps only like 20 minutes at a time!  But he is a happy little guy and is pretty content hanging out on the floor so we will keep him!   We sure love this little man he brings so much joy!

Pics to come!

Little miss Ronnee

We officially became parents of a soccer player! Ronnee finally got to try out a sport and she loved it!  Her first goal she scored was against her own team! Haha  She loves to run so she basically just runs around the field! She would get the ball and dribble and would 75% of the time run to fast for the ball and lose it! Haha it was entertaining and frustrating to watch!   The first game all the girls were crying because they didnt understand why the other team was stealing the ball from them! All their lives we have been telling them to share and be nice and now we are wanting them to be aggressive and steal the ball from the other girls! Haha as the season progressed they got the hang of it! Bribery works wonders! At this age they play 3 on 3 and it was an all girls league!  We are looking forward to next season!

I went away for a weekend because my sweet Grandma Mickey passed away and while I was away Ronnee lost her first tooth! And within 2 weeks she lost 3 more and shortly after that she lost 2 more!  They all just fell out and now she has the goofy no teeth grin!

Visit from Friends for the Balloon Fiesta!

What a blessing it is to have great friends! They are so hard to come by and I am so blessed with one of the best around! She lives so far away from me but still is one of my best friends!  She tells me she wants to visit and is actually a friend that follows through and visits!!!!   Kathryn and Daniel her 1 yr old came for a week long visit to see the beautiful hot air balloons! It is a pretty amazing site to see! We had a pretty fun time and I learn that i need to prepare myself for a busy 1 year old because my house is far from child proof! But lucky for us Daniel had a fun time exploring the house and for the most part was never in danger! Poor Kathryn probably needed a vacation from her vacation because everytime she went to sit down Daniel was running somewhere else!  
Besides seeing the balloons we also took a drive to AZ to spend a couple days at my parents house!  She got to check 2 states off during her visit!  It is always fun to take people to see where I grew up! Probably helps them understand why I am the way I am!

Thank you for being you and coming to visit! Cant wait to see you in June! Love you!

Baby Hayes is 4 months!

Weight 14.13 lbs
26 in tall
 So far he is the biggest at this point! At least a pound heavier then the other 2 at 4 months!

He finally discovered how to roll over! He is a slow one! BUT we are good with that! His big brother is busy enough for the whole house! He loves his jumper and jumps like a crazy man! He loves his big brother and sister and watches them all the time! He thinks Cutler is the funniest thing on the planet! He will have to be pretty tough kid with Rough Cutler around! The other day Hayes was sitting there touching one of Cutler's trucks and Cut jumped off the couch and kicked him!  Poor Hayes was screaming and when I finally got Cutler to tell me what he did he said " He was touching my truck so I kicked him. Not a lot just one good one!"  Poor Hayes will soon be big enough to defend himself!  Besides the occasional bumping of the noggin, Cutler is a good big brother. I must say there is nothing cuter then Brotherly love!
He is an okay sleeper and needs work in the nap department! He is more like Ronnee in the nap department. Cutler was the best and would sleep for hours at a time and then go to bed early! Hayes doesn't need as much sleep I guess because he takes cat naps and still remains a happy little guy!

Grandma Mickey is on to a better place!

We lost our Sweet Fiesty Grandma Mickey! She has been struggle with oxygen levels and her mind for the last few months so it is sad to see her go but I know she is in a better place! I am sure she is running around up there bringing joy to so many! I hope I am as fun and loving a she was!
On Sunday Mick and I were driving home from AZ and I got a call from Aunt Janet saying that Grandma was dying and they couldn't get a hold of my mom! She was in church and we finally got a hold of her so she could talk to them and make plans to head up there!  Well Grandma was a strong lady and took quite a few days of not eating to finally pass over to the other side! I am so grateful my mom and her siblings were there with her!

9 of the us 10 kids were able to make it!  Sam of course is on his mission so couldn't!  It was really fun for all of us because we rarely get all together without kids and spouses! Kennis, Lavinia, and Hayes were the only extras that came! We visited all the place in Pocatello that brought back fun memories of visiting Grandma in the summers! Her fun pool at her Condo, the playground there, Great Harvest Bread Company, and another park!  It was fun just visiting as siblings and cousins and I am sure Grandma loved it!

She was buried in Beautiful Preston Idaho! The cemetery has a great view of the mountains and the old barn and house that Grandma grew up in!   She will be missed greatly but what a blessing it was to be her Granddaughter!

Ronnee turns 6!

Miss Ronnee start Kindergarten!

Can you believe it, my baby girl is in school!?!  We have been talking about it with her for a while and when we would ask her about it she would say "I don't want to talk about it!" So I wasn't sure how she was going to react when the day was upon us!   A couple weeks before it started we had to go to the school for testing and placement and did really good! And then she was super excited about meeting her teacher. She was worried about her teacher loving her! When meeting her teacher she had all the confidence in the world when answering the questions the teacher was asking her! Even when she was giving the wrong answer you wouldn't have known it because she had so much confidence in her wrong answer!  This girl is something!
Then comes the night before the first day of school... she insisted on putting curlers in her hair so she could be beautiful for school! She went to bed pretty easy, just a few tears about how she was going to miss us, but didn't sleep very well. I think it was a combination of nerves and having curlers in her hair! But surprisingly she woke up pretty easy! She is not a morning person so this was a good surprise!  We packer her lunch got her dressed in her cute little green shirt, her class/teacher were all wearing green shirts so they could find eachother, and headed to school! Her school starts at 7:30am!  We got to the school and it was chaotic just like the first day of school normally is I hear!  She was so brave and gave us a hug and we handed her off to her teacher Mrs. Henson! We sat there and watched her follow her teacher around like a little duckling, You could tell the kids that had never gone to any kind of schooling because they didn't just run to the play ground, they stayed right
 with the teacher!  Then came time for all the kids to line up and go into class! She got in line and waved at us and blew us kisses and went into school!  No tears were shed by her, I cried but kept it together when she could see me!  The kids that were crying was so heartbreaking! So glad that she is a brave little thing!
We went home to and it was so quiet we missed our Ronnee especially Cutler! HE was pretty mad at her for leaving him and insisted that he was now 5 and I needed to take him to his school!  He then decided he wanted to go bowling! I said we would wait for Ronnee and Daddy to get home and he said no way, we can go just us they cant go!  Haha  He is so funny and was so excited when it came time to pick her up!
We were all so excited to pick her up! She was so excited to see us all! She said she had  a really good day but didn't make any friends because they already had friends! Lol No worries we know that will change because she is the friendliest kid!

Later that day to celebrate we went BOWLING!

End of Summer fun!

Visit from Brandi, Ashley, and Brooklyn

Going to Colorado

Swimming with Audrey

Mr. Hayes is 2 months!

Weight : 12.9lbs
Height : 24 in

A week with Sam before he flees the nest and leaves on his MISSION!

Visit from the Texas Fam!

Happy 4th of July!

1 month with sweet little Hayes!

He is already  11 lbs! He is a good little eater that is for sure and my boobs could tell you that!  We are so lucky that he is an easy going baby and is content most of the time he is awake! He does have his cranky times in the evenings and when he first goes to bed he gives me a nice 4 to 5 hour stretch! Man it feels good to get that sleep! We are adjusting pretty well to this sweet little boy!

Father's Day in Colorado!

Hayes is only a couple weeks old and he has already been in 3 states!  It is so easy to travel with a brand new baby so we decided to head to Colorado to get the dogs and to celebrate Father's Day!   While there he got to meet his cousin Brooklyn and Aunt Brandi!  It is always fun time when we are visiting family!

Welcome Hayes Raymond Ortiz!

I couldn't sit at home and wait for this baby while I could be in Sj with my family for Sam's Graduation so I decided to go!  Well I made it through all the festivities of the Graduation and  a little reception to celebrate Josh and Ashley getting married and then Sunday came!   Well we needed to go to Grandma and Grandpa Isaacson's house to go get the last of our stuff from the shop, so I hopped in Jacob's old Dodge truck to go down there (only a short 4 mile drive)! I had been told that riding in the old truck might trigger labor but who really believes those ideas! WELL as soon as Jake stopped the truck and I got out and had a hard contraction that stopped me in my tracks. Jake looks at me and said " Stop that!" Haha Once it stopped I watched them finish loading the stuff in the trailer hooked to my car. After I decided I better not ride with Jake back to the house and got in the car with Ike. We got back to my parents house and we sat around visiting mean while I was still having contractions. I should have known I was in labor but they weren't really consistent and really I didn't want to be  because I was far from the hospital!   So I just kept to myself and didn't tell anyone that I was having contractions! Around 2 pm we left to head back to Albuquerque, trailer in tow! We left Ronnee with my mom because we figured she could come with my mom whenever she came for the baby!
~Side story. My in-laws went to AZ with us and had left really early that morning to drive back to Colorado!
So we are driving and just passed the power plant I start timing my contraction and realized they are pretty consistent and strong! We make the turn to go toward Zuni and Tyler tells me to call my mom and at least let her know the situation. So I call her and she doesn't answer because she is napping. So I call Rachel and tell her. Now it seems real! Rachel goes over and wakes my mom and the rest of the house and they load the cars. Mick and her fam and Hannah and Sam in their car. Rachel my mom and Ronnee in her car! I am now in so much pain and the bumpy ride because we are pulling a trailer isn't helping!  We get to Ramah and decide we better ditch the trailer so that we can go faster so we dont have this baby on the side of the road!  Cameron and all his kids load up in his car and go pick up the trailer for us in the LDS church parking lot and take it to our house for us!   While Tyler is getting the trailer off I am having some severe contractions. Poor Cutler was so confused. He kept asking why I was crying and asking what was wrong so I was trying to keep it together so I wouldn't scare him! (He is already afraid of hospitals and doctors)  We just get on the road and MY WATER BREAKS. We stop at a gas station in Ramah to make sure it was in fact my water breaking and I wasn't bleeding!   WATER is broken and thank heavens for leather seats! We searched the car for clothes for me to sit on and clean up a bit and hit the road!!
Thank heavens for Tyler's driving and all the prayers for our safe travels!  We made it to Grants and decided we could make it to ABQ because having  a baby in Grants would be so inconvenient and it is just and hour drive! We made it in record time! Meanwhile my family and Tyler's parents made it to there house in Colorado and then Tyler called and said I was in labor so they hopped back in the car so they could be there to help with kids and see the baby be born!  
We made it to the hospital and Tyler dropped me off at the doors and I walked  wet pants and all in and got checked in! Thankfully my pants were black so you couldn't tell how wet I was but I am sure I smelled bad! Lol I get in the elevator and these 2 ladies get in and ask me if what I was I having and I said we will see in a little while!   I get out and get to Triage to get checked out and make sure if I am really in labor which I already know that I am!  They were so slow and I was dying!   Cutler and Tyler get up there finally and they get me in a room and they either dont believe me or are just doing things slow.My blood pressure was High but of course it was, I had just had a drive from hell!  I had a contraction and more stuff came out and they finally said I needed to get to Labor and Delivery! Cutler just kept looking at me and telling me he loved me! Haha Tyler was giving him candy and having him look out the window!
I got to labor and delivery and my family made it!  Aneron, Rachel, Hannah, Mickey, and my mom stayed in the room with us and Sam and Albert watched the kids until my mother in law got there to help with them!  I was dying!  I got to take a shower which felt nice! I was having some bleeding the contractions were on top of eachother! Mimi and Snakes made it and Snake came in the room with all of and Mimi watched the kids! My mom and sister were putting oils on me and rubbing my feet and legs! It was a nice distraction but man was I in pain!  I was kind of annoyed because they wouldn't check my dilation because my water had broken!  I just wanted to know how dilated I was so I knew how long to expect!   After what seemed like forever they finally checked me and I was an 8 nearly a 9! I wanted some drugs but they said I was to far along!  So instead my midwife decided that with my contractions she would push against my push to get me to dilate the rest of the way! OUCH!!!!!!  This is when Snakes left! NO man besides the father needs to see this! I was so tired from not getting any sleep the nights before and I was in so much pain. I just wanted to pass out!!  So we went on doing this pushing thing and then my midwife was chatting with the nurses and I just pushed with all I could muster up and out came the baby! My fam was a little annoyed that she wasn't paying attention to me pushing!  Sweet Baby Hayes Raymond Ortiz ripped his way out of me and was immediately put on my chest!  The sweet little boy pooped all over us! It was comical and a good distraction for what was going on downstairs! Haha I made sure someone helped me hold the baby because I honestly couldn't hold my own arms up let alone a baby!  He was so dang cute with all his black hair! He looked a lot like his older brother! He latched right away and went to town!
I had so good tears and so they had to get a doctor to come in and check me out and help get me all stitched up! He tore me both up and down and man did I feel it!  I had a huge hematoma(sp) and was bleeding a lot!  An hour later they got me all fixed up and were kind enough to let the kids and family come in a see the baby even though it was way past visiting hours!     After I had him they had taken some pictures of Hayes and took them out to show the kids! Cutler said "HE LOOKS LIKE ME!"  And when the came in to see him it was love at first site! Ronnee was a little hesitant to hold him but Cutler said put him on my lap!! IT was the cutest thing! This sweet baby Hayes is already loved so so much!

May 24, 2015  8 lbs 4 oz  and 20 inches long!

So glad we made it to the hospital safe and sound and got this sweet baby boy here!  Thank you to our Heavenly Father and all the prayers we received!

Sam Graduates High School!

The youngest of the 10 Isaacson graduates High School! we are so proud of him and it is so weird to think about the fact that he is 18 and leaving the nest! Makes me feel old!  Most of us made it there to support him and the rest missed out!   He leaves for his mission on July 29th and he has been called to serve in the Resistencia, Argentina Mission!  Tears were shed when he got his call! Why does he have to go so far away! Pics to come and remember I am 9+ months prego so I am huge!