Computer Power issues!

Hello everyone! I'm finally getting back to the blog to do some posting! Tuesday was a hellish day full of bank issues and crying (on my end!) and then I went to post something on Wednesday afternoon, but our computer battery died and the powercord is no longer working! So...luckily a friend from school, Taylor, let us borrow his charger and we charged the computer up last night, so I'm at least getting a chance to post some info and pictures today and who knows when it'll work out for me to post next, since we'll be trying to borrow a charger until Kevin gets out to get us one and sends it down to us!!!

Sleepy boy

Anyway....There are plenty of cute pictures to post today! Some are just of Isaiah that I've taken over the past few days here at home. He's so darn cute and I feel like I need to get it all on film so we can keep a record of his childhood (that's passing by too quickly already!). On Monday while Josh was studying at school, Isaiah took an almost 3 hour nap and got very comfortable finishing it up on our bed! I can't believe how long he's getting! I'm going to be excited to see how tall he is when he goes to see Dr. Foor in December when we get home...he's just growing like a week and getting so skinny!

Look how much room he takes up on our Queen sized bed!

We also started watching some Elmo songs on Youtube a week or so ago and now he's become more fond of his "My first Elmo" that My Mom (Mimi) bought him for Christmas last year. He even cuddled up to it the other night as I was putting him to sleep and Josh took a couple of pictures of us!

Zay, Elmo, and Me!

Not much new is going on here. Josh had his first exam of the second round on Wednesday and got another A! Now he's busy studying for the big anatomy exam which is on Monday morning, followed by his Physiology exam on Wednesday. Then he gets a little break to study for Nutrition the following week. So hopefully 2 weeks from now we'll be able to breathe again and relax a little bit and hopefully get Josh to the beach again!

It's been raining here alot lately.....I know that probably makes you all at home a little happier! It's funny though...when it rains here, it usually rains really hard for 10-20 minutes and then the sun is back out, but today it's really rainy. We've had a couple bouts of sun, but since Isaiah and I got up at 7am it's probably rained 4 different times and one of those times it rained for probably 30 minutes really hard! I don't know if this is the "rainy season" but it sure seems like it!

In closing, I'll leave you with this adorable picture of Isaiah wearing his "Baby Banz"! He doesn't usually leave them on anymore, so we've started using them to play a new form of peek-a-boo and he'll let them on long enough for me to ask, "Where did my Zaya go?" and then off they come and we usually get a big smile! Hope you're all happy and healthy at home. Please say a prayer for my Pap, Mack McCahan, who is in the Altoona Hospital after a fall at home on Wednesday morning. He's doing okay, but we're awaiting some test results to see if something is going on with him. I'm sure he's getting restless being stuck there, but I know they'll take good care of him....I just wish I could be there to visit and make sure he knows I love him and am thinking of him! Have a good weekend everybody! Love you!

P.S.- Isaiah's Mimi and Pap sent him a Halloween costume, so look forward to pictures of Isaiah the swashbuckling pirate to come! We're going trick or treating with some of the other kids tomorrow evening! :)

Lazy Sunday :)

View from the Sunset Cafe

Sorry that I didn't get a chance to write yesterday...I was too busy relaxing! :) We went to church yesterday morning and then to brunch with our friends, Autumn and Kristen, at the Sunset Cafe at the Timothy Beach Resort. We had a good breakfast and enjoyed spending time with one another. Isaiah fell asleep on the trip from church to brunch, so I held him until our food came at the restaurant and he woke up. He was so cute sleeping with his mouth open while I held him when we first arrived!

Josh, Isaiah, Kristen, and Autumn at the Sunset Cafe

Isaiah at the Sunset Cafe...such a cutie in his little Polo! :)

After brunch, Isaiah and I came home and just relaxed and played around while Josh went and studied for a bit at Kristen's place for their upcoming microanatomy exam on Wednesday for a couple of hours. Then he came home and we headed to the BEACH for a couple of hours! This is becoming a very rare occurrence in our household with Josh always studying and catching up on the weekends and I figured out that it had been a month since we had made a family beach outing, so we were long overdue! We headed to the Marriott, which seems to be our favorite place to take Isaiah. They have nice beach chairs and plenty of shade and the water usually isn't too rough, so we can easily take him in with us. Yesterday was one of the most beautiful, perfect, clear days I've seen in my entire life and I felt so blessed that we got to go out and spend time at the beach to enjoy it!

The Marriott Beach

Perfect Day!

We were there for a while by ourselves relaxing and loving it and then some friends showed up, so we got to spend some time with Jakki and Joe and then Jen and her daughter Ava came too! Isaiah loves any little kids, but especially loves Ava and Damon, his new friends here in St. Kitts, so he was so excited and wanted down to play with her in the sand. I reluctantly let him...I hate sand, but I figured that we need to let him be a kid and get dirty every once in a while! He ended up covered with sand everywhere and was even putting Ava's shovel in the sand and then putting it in his mouth! But the moral of the story is that he had so much FUN!

Isaiah and Ava on the beach blanket

Isaiah playing with Ava's Sand toys

Isaiah's Sandy Behind!

Josh went to school shortly after we got home from the beach to study and Isaiah took an amazing 2 hour and 40 minute nap for me, so I got to watch a movie! The only reason he woke up is because I took him out of his crib finally at 6:40 so we could eat dinner and because I wanted him to sleep last night!!! All in all it was a perfect Sunday for me....church, fellowship with friends, family time, a beach trip, a great nap for Zay and a movie for me! :)

All I can say is that GOD IS GOOD!!! Enjoy your Monday everyone! Love you!

Bug Bites and Crab Walks...

So I have a lot of pictures to post today, most of which I took this morning and one from last evening. This first one almost makes me want to cry. We have a picture of Isaiah sleeping with his hands almost the same way at about 8 days old and that's what this one made me think of this morning while he was sleeping in our bed! He's doing a tad bit better with sleeping and is taking better naps for me again most days! Last week for a few days in a row I was lucky to get him to sleep for 30 minutes, but this week he's been back to taking 1+ to 2 hour naps for me, which has been a nice break for me during the day too!

Last evening we went to Godfather's beach and Jakki and Joe brought their grill and we all brought things to cook. We had a pretty good turnout with us, Jakki and Joe, Autumn, Erin, Harley, and Damon, and Jen and Ava. Josh and Harley found some wood and built us a nice big fire on the beach as it started getting dark soon after we arrived. We got to see our first good sunset from that beach last night and it was so beautiful! The only problem of the night was that the bugs come out around dusk and they love to bite me!!! I haven't done an official count, but I think it's at least 15 with 5 on the back of each thigh alone! We didn't stay very late as Isaiah was starting to fuss and bat at his ears and we were afraid that he was getting bitten too. He had a few little red spots by his ears last night, but they're gone now, so hopefully they won't bother him at all, although I've been scratching all night and all morning! My favorite part of the night was as we were leaving to drive home and I spotted something small crossing the road, but didn't know what it was and Josh yelled, "It's a crab!" This may not be interesting to anyone else, but my family will remember from our first Cayman Island trip the "crab crossing" on the road and this was one of those same kinds of crabs. Josh jumped out of the car to get a picture....

The last thing I have to include today are a couple of "teeth" pictures for my Mom who has been dying to see Isaiah's new collection of teeth. I had to tickle him with one hand and take the picture with the other, so forgive me if they're not very artistic, but here they are.

The infamous "Fang" teeth

There's the 2 middle and the newer one on the right of those 2

Hope all of you have a wonderful Saturday and remember...8 weeks from today we will be in Everett!!! :)

Yay for Friday and Friends!

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago when Isaiah and I spent a day at the pool at the Frigate Bay Resort together. I think he thought I was playing peek-a-boo when I got behind the chair to get him and the pool in the picture, so I got this really great smile complete with his adorable dimple! We rather enjoyed ourselves at the pool on Wednesday with Harley and Damon and are planning to go again this afternoon with Jakki. Jakki made lasagna and is going to bring it over to our place for lunch and then we are going to head to the pool! It's always nice and relaxing there and gives us a chance to enjoy the nice weather for a change. (Usually we're cursing the heat because we're inside with no AC in the living room!)

Jakki and her husband Josiah also invited us to a cookout at the beach this afternoon and I think we're going to go to that. Josh has class until 5, but hopefully he can just meet us there if he can catch a ride with someone. I'm trying to think of what I should make to bring along, so we'll see what I decide! I like having something fun to do as a family and with our friends on the weekends. It's nice to get Josh away from the books a little bit and for all of us to spend some time out somewhere on the island together!

As an update...our water heater has been replaced and the termites have been sprayed, so hopefully there aren't any other huge issues to deal with here! Our landlords were great in taking care of the issues, so at least I feel like we're in good hands here! Our landlord, Shaun, does think there might still be some groundwater leaking through the foundation which may be causing some of the dampness and the musty smell in Isaiah's bedroom, so we are going to keep an eye on that the next week or so and see if something else needs to be done, but at least all the major problems have been taken care of. For now, we're happy with Isaiah sleeping in his crib in our bedroom at least part of the night and then with us in bed the rest of the night! He seems to be doing a little better at night sometimes....out of the past 6 nights I think we've had 3 where he only got up twice (which is really good!) and 3 where he got up four times (not so good). I can't seem to make sense of what makes him sleep better or not, so who knows....I think right now we're just trying to do whatever we need to get some sleep, so that Josh isn't sleeping through his classes during the day and hoping that Isaiah will someday grow out of this phase and learn to sleep through the night!

I hope everyone has had a good week and wish you all wonderful weekends! We love you all and can't wait to see you! From today, it is exactly 8 weeks and we'll be HOME!!!!!!! :)

Pool time! :)

Isaiah napping on our bed yesterday

Taco Night was a great success last night and not only gave us an opportunity to have some great food, but also to have some good time to fellowship with our new friends here, which was a nice break from all the students' studying! Us VIP's (that's what Ross calls any spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends/fiances, etc) get to spend more time together relaxing during the day, but it was nice to have our significant others included as well!

Today we have planned to join friends Jakki, Harley, and Harley's son, Damon (almost 2) at the Frigate Bay resort pool around 11 when Isaiah gets up from his nap. The pool there is nice, it's a little secluded and is never busy, so it's a great place to have the kids. We are usually the only ones there, so the kids can be loud or splash or whatever they want without us having to worry about offending someone!

Then later today Isaiah and I are headed to campus for cake and ice cream for another little boy's first birthday party. His name is Jaziah and he is one today. His father, Gabe is a 2nd semester, and his Mom, Jazmin is a VIP here like me with a little boy. We got a cute little hat with a shark on it for Isaiah to give Jaziah and it's also a good excuse for us to get out of the house a little bit too, which will hopefully be fun!

We've also been having an issue with water pooling in our utility room off of Isaiah's room and Isaiah's room has had a musty smell since we moved in. We have currently moved Isaiah's crib into our room in case of any mold or anything in the air and the landlord and plumber have determined that our water heater is the problem, so they will be coming tomorrow to install a new one. Hopefully then they can get the room cleaned up and get that musty smell out of here! Our landlords have really been great with staying on the problem everyday and talking with us to help figure out a solution to the problem, so we very much appreciate that!

I hope you all aren't too cold there at home! Honestly, we find ourselves missing the seasons here a little bit....fall is such a pretty time of year in PA! Love to all of you back at home!

He's getting so tall!

Taco Night!

This picture is one that I took on Sunday during our Catamaran trip and is a view of the beach at Nevis taken from on our boat as we were leaving. Sometimes here I get so involved in the day to day that I forget to take the time and actually be thankful for this beautiful tropical paradise that we're living in. This morning Isaiah and I went to the grocery store to pick up a few items (Baby crackers being on top of the list since we had friends that found them at the store and Isaiah loved them when Lynne sent us some a few weeks ago!). We had a good trip. Isaiah was very well behaved even though he was getting tired and he even rode in the cart for the entire trip which really saved my arms from getting worn out too quickly! Anyway...when we pulled in to our driveway, I looked out over the island and from up there you can see the Atlantic ocean in front of the Marriott resort and you can also see the Caribbean sea at Timothy Beach. I just took a few deep breaths and thanked God for the beauty of this place and asked Him to help me appreciate it a little more! Like I've said before...God is providing so well for us here and we're finding our way now after several weeks and I really feel that this is where he wants us to be right now and that makes it a little easier to be away from all of you. Now....don't get me wrong, I miss you all like crazy and I especially can't wait to get my hands on my two adorable little nieces in December!!!

Isaiah has taken a couple steps a few times yesterday for us and we even got him to take 2 steps for us last night, so that Lynne and Mark could see it on Skype. They were very excited and we were glad they could be included in watching him change and develop. We're going to try to Skype with my parents tomorrow on their day off and see if I can convince him to walk a little bit for them to see it too! Even without the walking, his balance is getting so much better and he stands alone and plays with toys now too, so I know it's not too far away when he'll be trying to run away from me when we go places! I'm excited that he still seems to be thriving and developing well. Now I'm trying to work on teaching him some basic body parts and their locations (eyes, nose, mouth, tongue, ears, that kind of thing). So we'll see how that goes. He's still not talking a lot, but babbles all the time with new syllables every few days. Right now he's very into saying "Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba, ba" over and over again in different tones which is cute. Last night for Lynne and Mark he did say Mama, Dada, and something that sounds like Isaiah when I asked him to, so it's coming along as well.

Tonight we've invited all of our friends here over to our place for Taco Night! There isn't much mexican food here on the island and we're all big fans and missing it a lot, so we decided we'd make our own! Josh and I are making tacos with all the fixin's with other people bringing some side dishes and drinks to finish it out and make a great meal. Hopefully it'll just be a fun night and give us an opportunity to have some nice time to relax together!

Hope all is well with everyone at home! We love you and miss you! Less than 9 weeks until we get to come home and see all of you!

Isaiah napping on our bed wearing an outfit that Pap McCahan bought before we left!

Catamaran FUN!

So I missed my first day finally (I knew it was only a matter of time) and didn't get to post anything yesterday. That's because we were quite busy as we left in the morning for the 1st semester Catamaran trip with the other Ross students and spouses. We did have some excitement in the morning before we even left for the trip as Isaiah took his FIRST STEPS! He took one step towards me and did it again to show Josh and then right before we left, he took 3 steps for me to get Josh's car keys! We were so excited and at the same time a little sad because we know now that it's only a matter of days until he masters this walking thing and our little baby will be a baby no more!

We then left on our catamaran trip a little before 10 am yesterday and got back to Port around 3pm, so we had a nice chunk of the day out on the water in our boat named the Irie Lime! (Irie means Good and Lime means Party) We stopped to snorkel about a 1/2 hour in Shitten Bay on the southern part of the island. Our captain, Antonio, told us the name and said, "And no...I'm not shitting you!" Josh got to snorkel and Isaiah and enjoyed floating around on a funnoodle during the stop. Isaiah took 2 naps (one before snorkeling and one after) on the boat and was so well behaved never crying at all during our trip! He at lunch with us on the boat that was provided and right after conked out for his 2nd nap of the day as we headed to Nevis where we got to get off the boat at a beach and relax for about an hour. He slept through our entire stop including getting off and back on the boat, so Isaiah missed seeing Nevis completely! He slept about half of the trip back to St. Kitts and woke up for the last 1/2 hour or so of our boat ride. It was very nice trip and we had a great time relaxing with our new friends here on St. Kitts!

We got home and got showers and Josh headed off to school to study in the anatomy lab for a bit, while Isaiah and I Skyped with my family and Josh's cousin, Jess, at IUP. When Josh got home, we headed up to Jason and Jen's house (the street above ours) for pizza and some time for the kids to play together. They had a great time and it was a nice end to a perfect day!

View of St. Kitts from our boat.

Our Snorkel Site: Shitten Bay

Happy Family! :)

Lazy Day

Today has been a pretty good day for us. We made pancakes together and had breakfast which was a nice change and Isaiah and I went to Jason and Jen Chin's to hang out with some friends and take a dip in the pool which we enjoyed. Then we came home and Isaiah is taking a nap. I'm going with Jakki to see a movie this afternoon and Josh is going to keep Isaiah and have some guy time. We are getting very excited for our catamaran trip tomorrow. I hear Isaiah crying which must mean his nap is over, so we'll keep this short today. Hopefully I'll be able to write something good tomorrow about our catamaran trip and snorkeling!

Love to everyone at home! :)

TGIF!

So today I am thankful that it is Friday. Even though Josh will be at school for a good portion of the day tomorrow, hopefully it won't be quite as long as usual and maybe we'll get into something fun tomorrow evening. The big excitement for the weekend will be our Catamaran trip with Ross on Sunday. All 3 of us are going which will be exciting. It will be Isaiah's first time on a boat and we think he will absolutely love to be out on the water and interested in everything going on around him. We are supposed to get a chance to swim at a beach as well, so he will enjoy that part too and Josh and I are excited to do a little snorkeling for the first time since our move here!

Our good friend Jakki is coming over for lunch and to hang out today. We're stuck here because there is water in our utility room and someone is hopefully coming by today to check it out....possibly a water heater leak? Anyway...it's smelled a little funky in Isaiah's room since we moved in and now we're thinking that maybe this has been the culprit all along, although this is the first time we've actually witnessed the water! Our landlords have been great...Shaun came over to check it out last night and said he'd be sure to get someone here today to figure out what's going on and what needs to be done! Josh also might come home to have lunch with us, so hopefully with having some company here, we won't be bothered by having to stay in all day! Maybe we can hit the beach with friends tomorrow while Josh is studying!

I'm really missing my brothers and their wives and kids (just Steve's!) this week. I haven't talked to them in a while and hopefully we'll take care of that soon! Kevin has been terribly busy with medical school, but who can blame him right? And Steve has been working 12 hour days like crazy with his other pharmacist needing some time off, so I haven't gotten to talk to him for a while either. We're planning to Skype with Kevin and Sara tonight, so hopefully that will help me miss them a little less and Steve is off on Monday I think, so hopefully I can talk to him and his family soon too! Well...Isaiah will be up from his nap shortly, so I better get some things done while he's still sleeping!

Sorry I haven't taken pictures of Isaiah in a few days, so I just posted this one taken at the beginning of the semester from Ross' campus with a view of the caribbean sea at sunset. Hopefully it will help to warm you all up at home! Sorry it's so cold and rainy there! Although not really looking forward to so much cold, we're definitely looking forward to Christmas break and seeing all of you....after today only 9 more weeks! :)

Some R&R

This is a picture I took a couple of mornings ago of Isaiah eating some waffle for breakfast! He know eats at least one waffle by himself in the mornings and this morning he ate almost 1 1/2 waffles for breakfast! He's such a goofball when he eats and loves to force giggles to make us laugh! He was very good last night (just kind of whiny) last night for Jakki and Joe who babysat for us so Josh and I could go out to dinner together. We had a very nice time together enjoying the food, company, and conversation! Josh commented that it was nice for us to both get to eat our dinner at the same time for a change! Usually one eats while the other one helps Isaiah eat and then the other one gets to eat while one of cleans Isaiah up after eating, so it was a nice change of pace to just take our time and enjoy dinner and each other!

Today it is a bit rainy here...still sunshine poking through at times, but it's raining right now and I think this is at least the 3rd time it has rained since I woke up this morning. I know it's nothing compared to the cold you are facing there in PA, so I apologize! Remember...anytime you want to come and visit you are welcome to come and stay with us! Isaiah had a bit of a rough night...we're trying to figure out what we can do at night to get him to stay asleep and not keep waking up all the time and now I think we're just confusing him with trying something different every couple of weeks when one approach doesn't make a difference! If anyone has some advice on what we should do, I'd love to hear it!

We've been out of the house everyday this week going to friend's for lunch and going to a couple of different pools, so since it's a little rainy today, I just decided that we're going to have a nice relaxing day at home and hopefully we'll get Isaiah a couple of really good naps, so he'll be in a good mood this evening when Josh gets home!

Hope this finds you all doing well at home. We love and miss you!

Date Night here we come! :)

Today I am excited for several reasons. Josh and I are going on a date tonight and our good friend Jakki has volunteered to babysit Isaiah, which will be the first the I've been apart from Isaiah since before our move! While I love spending time with him...taking care of a 10 month old 24/7 is very mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausting, so I'm looking forward to a couple of hours of peace to enjoy with my husband at dinner tonight! Hopefully Isaiah will behave for Jakki as I know that he can certainly survive without Mama for a few hours! The other activity on the calendar for today is a couple of hours at the pool here shortly with some of my new friends, Jakki, Kori, and Lindsay at Lindsay's apartment complex which has its own pool. We're pretty much checking out all the different pools we can while we're here! We also got to enjoy a nice family night last night with dinner together and then hanging out and Skyping with Josh's parents. It was nice for Josh to not be totally stressed out for a change. He thinks his exam went "ok" but said it was really hard, so we'll keep our fingers crossed that it went well for him! He should probably find out at some point today!

The pictures today were taken yesterday afternoon behind the prep school on Ross' campus. Isaiah was playing with his buddy Ava Chin (who he kissed 3 times...and she kissed back!). We were at the prep school for the weekly gymnastics and cheerleading groups I help with and Isaiah was there for part of it with me while Josh went to an exam review. It was really HOT yesterday, so we're hoping it's a little cooler out today!

Hope everyone is well. We love you all and miss you, but we'll be seeing you soon! :)

Pool fun...relaxation here we come!

I picked this picture to post because my Mom really wants to see all of Isaiah's new teeth. I haven't been able to get a picture of his "fang" but in this one you can see the two bottom teeth and a little white spot to the left of them which is the newest tooth to break through. As you can also see in this picture, Isaiah has recently begun drooling like a fool again, so we're thinking that means a bunch more teeth coming! He's working on his other "fang", there are two bumps for the top 2 middle teeth and the bottom tooth to the right of the 2 you can see in the picture is trying to break through too. He's been a little fussy the past couple of days just being a little clingy and crying when he bites down too hard on a toy, but other than that, he's his normal happy, content, and smiling self! He still isn't sleeping through the night, but at least he's pretty good during the day for me when I'm home by myself!!!

So....the creepy story from last night is that there was a HUGE cockroach in our apartment! Apparantly that isn't something to worry about eradicating in your home here as the cockroaches have WINGS and can fly in and out of your house! Josh was at school studying last evening with a couple classmates and I had put Isaiah to bed and wanted to watch The Big Bang Theory on TV. Just before the show started I saw the cockroach (which Josh later named Doug) on the wall just sitting there. It stayed in the same place the entire way through the show until about 45 minutes later when Josh finally arrived home and promptly squashed Dougs guts and was my hero for the evening!

The plan for today is to head to the pool at the Marriott once Isaiah wakes up from his nap with our good friend Jakki and maybe Kori. Then hopefully we'll get back here for Isaiah to take a little bit of an afternoon nap before we head to campus so I can help with the gymnastics and cheerleading groups at the prep school starting at 3:15. Josh had his nutrition exam this morning. I haven't heard from him yet, but hopefully it went well and he's now finally done with round 1 of exams for the semester!!! That means that we can just relax and cook a nice family dinner together this evening, which I am super excited for!

I hope this finds you all well at home. Please send me an email or facebook message when you get a chance to let me know how you all are doing! We love you!

XOXO

Another week begins...

So...as promised here is a photo of Isaiah actually IN the TV stand. I've been telling my Mom and Lynne about it and they wanted a picture, so I got one yesterday! I actually took a ton of pictures of Isaiah at home just playing around yesterday, so I'll post some here and then you'll have to look for the rest at some point in the near future to show up on facebook. Isaiah and I had a pretty good evening last night. Josh left about 12:30 yesterday to head to school to study and got home around 8:15. He had 2 different nutrition mock exams (1 by a teaching assistant (TA) and another by his tutor, JackJohn) and said that they went really well, so hopefully that means that tomorrow's exam will also go well for him.

We're both looking forward to a little bit of a break finally after this first round of exams with him planning to spend some time with Isaiah tomorrow after school while I help with the gymnastics and cheerleading after school groups at the prep school. Wednesday night Josh and I are going out to dinner and our friend Jakki is going to babysit Isaiah for a couple of hours to give us a little time alone! And then hopefully I'm going to take some time to myself this weekend and Josh and Isaiah will get a little more male bonding time for themselves!

Isaiah is starting to help with some of the chores around the house including washing dishes and helping me fold the laundry as seen here! Haha! He's just so cute that even when he does something you didn't want him to and you want to be angry...it's kind of impossible to stay that way for long! Anyway...Isaiah and I are headed to campus to pick up my passport (which has been approved and stamped with my VISA stamp!) and then we're going over to Jakki's for lunch to hang out for a bit. We like spending time with her and it's a good excuse to get Isaiah and I out of the house for a bit!

I'll leave you with this final picture of Isaiah and his beautiful hazel/brown eyes! He still has those wide eyes and explores everything around him to learn all he can each day. It's such a joy to be his Mama and I'm so blessed to have such a sweet and handsome little man! Love to all at home! We miss you!

Friends :)

Here it is Sunday and I find myself being very thankful for our new friends here. These are some pictures from our get together last evening at Jen and Jason Chin's house (Ava's parents) of Isaiah with his new friends Damon and Ava. I think the kids had a great time chasing each other around and playing with each other's toys and the parents definitely enjoyed watching the kids interact with one another. We're all very thankful that there are other small children here for the kids to play and hopefully develop friendships with! We went to Jason and Jen's and everyone brought something to eat. We all hung out together and even took a dip in their pool, which Damon and Isaiah thoroughly enjoyed! Josh took last evening and this morning off from studying for our dinner at the Chin's last night and we went to church and then brunch with some friends this morning. Our church is a group of other people like us from campus that just get together to pray and learn lessons together. We're currently watching a series of video lessons from a minister out in Texas who is talking to college freshman about assessing what goals they have for their lives and who they are really living for, so it seems to really resonate with where we're at in the beginning of this journey and reminding us that we're not just here for Josh to go to school. Helping us remember that our ultimate goal is to live our lives according to how God wants us to. It helps us that we feel like God has worked everything out for us to be here in this situation, so I really feel like this is where He wants us to be at this point in our lives, so hopefully we will be able to grow and our relationship together, but also our relationship with Him during this time. Isaiah did really well during church today even though he was tired and he also made it all the way through our buffet brunch at the Marriott. Joe and Autumn came along too, so we had a very nice time visiting together after church. Isaiah finally crashed in the car on the way home and we came right in and put him down in his crib, so hopefully he'll get a good nap in!

I'm really missing home and all of our family and friends (especially hugs from my Mama!), but I do feel like I'm handling living this far away much better than I expected I would, so I'm proud of myself in that aspect. I am excited that yesterday was 6 weeks that we've been here and in only 10 more weeks from now we'll be home and getting ready for Isaiah's 1st Bday party! :) The last 2 weeks have really flown by, so I'm sure the next 10 will go more quickly than when we first arrived! Below is a picture of Isaiah eating some shredded cheddar cheese as his appetizer for lunch yesterday. He loved it and all I could think was..."He truly is my son!" Mom...you'll have to make sure Cindy Black sees this! Hope you all had fantastic weekends!

Hugs and Kisses!

A new kind of family....

So....this picture is a picture of most of our orientation group (minus Jen, Ava, Erin, Harley, & Damon) including our Orientation Leader (OL), Amy--in the middle holding the sign she made--after the 1st semesters white coat ceremony. Through this week and last night, some of us were talking about having a cookout at the beach with our orientation group and are planning something for later this afternoon (either at the beach or possible at Jen and Jason's place) and I'm just excited about us all getting together. During orientation and still now, we've become a sort of surrogate family for each other since we're all in the same situation and at least a thousand miles or so away from our homes and families! It's been really nice having people around us that we can count on and spend time with...so far it's made being away from home and loved ones bearable and sometimes we even have a lot of fun together! There are also a couple of families with kids other than us, so it's nice to have people to talk about the kids with and to have other kids for Isaiah to play with sometimes. So...hopefully our little potluck group cookout will work out and we'll get to have a nice evening together!

I guess this is going to be a short post because Isaiah woke up early from his nap and is now crawling on me and trying to kill the laptop! I'll post soon and let you know how the "new family" get together goes this evening!

Love to all!!! We miss you! :)

A Day at the Beach! :)

Isaiah must have been pretty worn out from something yesterday. He slept in until 7:30 (usually he wakes up between 6 and 6:30) and I actually woke up before him. This is how he ended up sleeping between Josh and I this morning upside down. I just looked at him sleeping this morning and couldn't believe how big he's gotten! I mean...look at those legs!!! At least he hopefully won't be cursed with short legs like his Mama! He was so sweet when he woke up and always has smiles for me first thing in the morning!

Our big plans for the day were to hit the beach. This was kind of a scary undertaking for me since I haven't ventured to the beach without Josh since our move. It's just a lot of stuff we have to take to have everything Isaiah might need or want and it's a little difficult to do it on my own, but I decided that we could do it! We met our new friends Jakki and Kori at the Marriott and had lunch at one of their outdoor restaurants. I ordered Isaiah a meal from the kids' menu (a first!) and he was completely orange from the Mac-N-Cheese by the time he was finished, but he ate over half the serving! I think he really enjoyed it! Then we did go to the Marriott beach for a couple of hours. It was a little cloudy, but that was actually nice for Isaiah to not have so much sun. He absolutely loves to be in the ocean! When I was holding him in the water today, he kept reaching down for me to put him in the water and once he's on his belly in the water he kicks his little feet! He was also enjoying jumping waves with Kori! He did fall off the low beach chairs once and cried just a tiny bit, but didn't hurt himself at all. The worst part was he was COVERED in sand!!! His back looked like a cinnamon sugar pretzel from Auntie Anne's! So...we had to take another dip in the water (which I think maybe he planned) to rinse him (and ME!) off. Overall we had a very nice time. We came home, got cleaned up, watched his baby DVD, and now he's down for the count! Nothing like a little sun to wear the little guy out!

Anyway....hoping the weather isn't too bad where you are. If you need a getaway with some guaranteed sunshine and salty ocean air, just let us know. We'd be glad to have the company!

Love you guys!

Isaiah's explorations...

I thought this picture of Isaiah was cute. This was yesterday morning when Josh was getting ready for school and I was getting up and ready for the day. Isaiah finds new ways of exploring things everyday, which at least keep things interesting. Yesterday it was climbing in and out of drawers, this morning it was putting the pots and lids out of our bottom kitchen drawer and shaking them and listening for the banging when they'd hit the floor. It's just so amazing to watch him and you can tell that he's thinking and learning everytime he tries something new. I think it helps me look at the world through new eyes sometimes when I see him look or discover something for the first time! I guess your kids do help to keep you young.

We had a wonderful afternoon yesterday after we picked Josh up from school. Our power was out for a couple of hours in the afternoon (this happens three time a week now starting this week all over the island due to our power system needing replaced/repaired) so after we picked Josh up we stopped at the Caribe Cafe on the way home and had a couple of drinks. It's the only place on the island you can get coffee and tea drinks like you can get them at home (the closest thing we have to Starbucks). It's right across from Port Zante and you can see the water, so we sat out on the patio and enjoyed some family time as well as the ocean breeze. Isaiah didn't cooperate with an afternoon nap, so we ended up getting takeout, but Isaiah did sleep so Josh and I could enjoy a peaceful dinner together, which was nice. All in all it was a very nice and much needed family evening together.

Josh is hopeful that his physiology test went well yesterday and hopefully he'll get the scores for both of his tests by tomorrow! We're just keeping our fingers crossed that he'll keep doing as well as he has been so that all our time apart since moving will be worth it!!!

We miss you!

Until next time.....

Hooray for a free day!

So....Isaiah and I are very excited because Josh is taking the afternoon/evening off from studying and the 3 of us are going out to dinner together! (This is a rare occurance since our move if you're wondering why I'm so excited about it!) Josh has his 3rd of 4 exams this afternoon and his 4th one isn't until Tuesday, so I think his brain needs a bit of a break and Isaiah and I need some Daddy/Josh time!

It's finally starting to cool down here a little bit which is making it a little more comfortable to live here! Isaiah and were out in the kitchen/living room (no AC) for about 2 hours this morning and I didn't even sweat! I know...it's a little sad that these are the things that excite me in life now!

Isaiah almost took a step for me this morning. He got so close and looked like we was going to take a step towards me and he lost his balance and down on his butt he went! He seems to be getting a little more adventurous, so hopefully in the next week or so we'll actually see a step or two! I'm so proud of all the things he's learning to do and I can't believe that in just 2 short months he'll be a year old! Now I know how my Mom felt when she used to complain about us growing up too fast. Where does the time go so quickly?

Well...I hope all is well with everyone at home. We think about you all often and are excited to come home....I think we're at 79 days now (Thanks Ash!), so we'll be home before we know it! I'm really excited for Isaiah's big birthday bash after we get to Everett!

Love to all!

*Note: The photo collage at the beginning of this post was created by Isaiah's Aunt Jessica (Hann)...thanks Jess!

A new adventure...

So...I had this idea to start a blog, ran it by Josh and he was so excited and thought it would be good for me to have something to occupy my time and to let people at home know what is going on with us a thousand or so miles away from PA. Just FYI...I have no idea what I'm doing, so I apologize if this is boring or it takes me a while to get good at adding pictures and all of that kind of stuff! This is really for our family and friends to have another way to keep tabs on us and keep up to date with all of the new Henry family happenings here in St. Kitts.

Josh had his first exam last Monday and got a 98% so we were super excited about that! He had his first anatomy exam yesterday (we're still awaiting results) and has his first physiology exam tomorrow. The final round of first exams will be over next Tuesday with his first nutrition exam. He's doing well and spending lots of time at school to make sure that he does well in his classes. A lot of people in his class want to go to UPenn for their clinicals, so he's trying to do really well, so hopefully we'll be able to come back to Philly after his 7th semester here on the island! He's doing a really great job so far!

Isaiah and I are getting used to being around eachother 24/7! At first it was a complete shock to me to go from working full time to being at home full time and especially in a new place. The last few days though I feel like we're understanding each other a bit better and he's just the sweetest little guy! Last night and this morning before his nap I got 4 open mouthed baby kisses just because. I didn't ask for them or anything and it's just the sweetest thing to get a kiss from your 10 month old without asking! He's doing very well...starting to say some words and learning hand gestures. He's started pointing the past few days and this morning he pointed at Josh coming out of the bathroom and said "Daddy" so he's figuring things out! He was 10 months old yesterday...I can't believe it that it's been 10 months already! It made me happy for the new things to come, but also made me sad that he's growing up so fast!

That's probably enough for now. Hopefully I'll remember to post often with updated pictures to keep everybody in the loop! If anyone wants to, feel free to email, facebook, Skype, or call anytime. We have an 814 area code, so you at home in Everett should be able to call without incurring long distance charges. Our number is (814) 201-9003.

P.S. We all miss you guys and home and can't wait to come visit at Christmas time! :)