isaac...

this beautiful sunday afternoon is going something like this...

isaac: please davis

isaac: davis please

isaac: davis please don't do that

isaac: please davis don't do that

davis: no!

and all i have to say is that i am so grateful for my patient, loving little isaac. there are days when i have tried everything to settle davis down. i give him what he is screaming for which leads to more screaming. i cuddle with him and play with him and read to him, and nothing seems to work. and then isaac shows up and gives davis a "back" (piggy back ride) or takes him to his room to play legos and davis is the happiest thing ever.

thank you, thank you, thank you isaac.

just a few things about my isaac...

he doesn't know how good he is... we are reading the new testament this year as a family (almost done so we can read and try to finish the book of mormon too) and he is continually making comparisons between the new testament and the book of mormon. he catches things that i couldn't even imagine. he does his chores without being asked. he makes davis happy. he does what ky and i ask him too and doesn't expect anything in return. we have rules at our house, and i know that he won't break them (he has a tv in his bedroom and he has never even turned it on without asking us).
he loves his little brother... and his little brother loves him! he has so much patience for davis and he really loves him. he hates to hear him cry or be upset at all. he hates when i have to punish him. he gives him his own treats. i don't think he has ever told him "no".


he doesn't have as much patience for reagan and ethan as he does for davis... they just love isaac so much that they always want to be playing what he is playing with and doing whatever he is doing. reagan loves to be in "isaac's bubble".

he turned 10 in march... i can't believe it has really been 10 years since he was born. he is a good 10 year old. i don't know how that works exactly, but he is a good 10 year old! he is cruising through webelos. he should have his webelo by september and his arrow of light soon after. he is driven by "getting done". either way, he loves it, he does it and he is working hard to finish it.

he loves soccer... doesn't love to go out and play / practice by himself. but loves it enough to play at every recess. he is playing on a new league this year - a fall / spring league. hopefully this will give him some fun new opportunities to learn, get better, and make new friends.

he is awesome on the piano... he again doesn't love to practice, but he loves to sit at the piano and go through his books and just play and play and play. he is flying through his lesson books. he is driven by learning all the songs in the hymn book, so he can quit piano lessons.

he is a bit of a pessimist... he gets nervous about "real world" topics (money, politics, etc.). we have to be careful what we talk about with him and around him. he probably gets this from me!

he loves playing with friends... but is more comfortable playing ticket to ride with mom and dad. he gets nervous calling his friends and would much rather they call him!

he loves learning... he took a summer math class from one of our neighbors and loved every minute of it. he is looking forward to going back to school. he especially loves science, math, and history. but does good in all of his classes!

he is just a good kid...

i love you isaac. thank you for being you. thank you for being such a good kid. thank you for being such a good example to your little sister and brothers. thank you for loving your mom!

i love you is!

happiest place on earth...day three

day three - green day! again the adults didn't exactly get the memo. day three was all about getting in all of our favorites as many times as we could.

we started off the day at california adventure. the "big kids" ran to tower of terror. reagan went with them this time. and loved it or at least survived it. when she gets in her mind to do something she does it 110%.

we met up with everybody at the monsters inc ride. we didn't ride it on the first day we wer here, but it was fun and cute. not a long line so we rode it a couple of times while waiting for the "big kids". and then they were off to california screamin' as many times as they could squeeze it in on this morning.

we ran into woody again and this time davis did much better! it helps when his big cousins are brave and excited to see the characters.

loved these cars characters. no moving, no talking but fun anyways. these are right by soarin over california, so while everyone else got to go on the ride again and again, davis spent his time with lightening and mater!

handy manny - surprisingly was davis' favorite, he didn't want to leave him.

and safari mickey. love this pic of ethan. doesn't he just look happy! he really was. the kid was in heaven. and was so patient and kind the entire week. he grew up and was just a good, fun kid. we didn't hear as much from him as the other kiddos. it wasn't until we had been home for a couple of weeks and ethan was telling aunt brenda about everything we did and then we saw the real ethan. he was so animated and excited and told her about all of his favorites.

and back to disneyland for the afternoon and evening. everyone ran to the matterhorn while davis and i waited for them.

kyle, reagan, sarah and davis on the tea cups. again - i love this picture. notice kyle has a smile on his face.

cute girls really shouldn't wear such ugly wigs ... and still look so cute. these two were the best of friends this week! lucky them to have each other with homes full of brothers!

and this is why kyle didn't have a smile on his face for a while. reagan was so excited to go to pixie hollow and see tinker bell. she isn't really into princesses and stuff but she does love fairies. so we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but we waited in line for an hour just to see three fairies. kyle was not happy - the "big kids" were over riding thunder mountain and he was stuck waiting with us to get two pictures! what a good daddy!

we are so blessed to have such a fun, loving and selfless family. grandma lady and papa lee spoiled us rotten. the whole week was such a fun experience. the weather was beautiful, the company was fun and the surroundings were great. thank you grandma and papa - we will cherish these memories forever!

the happiest place on earth...day two

day two was blue day (i will admit that i fought this color day idea until i heard it from the third person - it was so nice to be able to block out every other color and it made finding our eight kiddos so much easier!)

so blue day was spent at california adventure. this was a first time for many of us. i think the lowders were the only ones that had been there. the "big kids" ran right to tower of terror, while grandpa lee, sarah, reagan, ethan, davis and myself went to spend our time in "bug's world". so you will notice that i have lots of pictures of our "little" group, and not so many of the "big kids". and just for the record ... "bug's world" is the best place ever. they totally catered to the little kids and we had such a great time.

finally - the whole orton family at california adventure. do you like how merritt didn't get the "blue day" memo? we weren't really concerned about the adults, but if we could play along we did.
look at these three handsome fellows! love that this is what the whole trip was really about. so much fun and sticking together and loving each other.

visiting with woody. davis loves woody and buzz, but for some reason, he got scared of all the characters after the first day and had to have mom, dad or papa in the picture with him. but the characters were all so cute and patient with him.

again - missing one of the kids. but how cute are these guys. all the "big kids" came to "bug's world" and went on a couple of rides with the younger kids. they all loved the fliks high flying adventure. but we didn't stay here for long ... we had to get over to california screamin' ... the favorite (by far) of the week.

i love this picture - davis in mid-cheese! but this is my favorite too because reagan absolutely hated this 3-d movie. she hated the huge bugs, she hated the feel of little bugs crawling under her bum, she hated it so much. and i am a terrible mom - all i could do was laugh! sorry reag - i love you!

with chip n' dale - we don't know who was who, but we're not sure that they even knew who was who. reagan kept asking and they couldn't give us an answer. and notice - davis with papa!

with minnie mouse - waiting outside the best ride of the week (or so i think) soarin' over california. i loved this ride. and i am so glad the pregnant women can ride this one. i went on this one so many times, it is just well done and fun and beautiful. loved it!!

cute boys waiting for grizzly rapids (or something like that?) they had a contest to see who got the wettest or who stayed the driest!

and the best ride of the week (says isaac)! he can't even remember how many times he rode this. which is so funny because isaac being isaac he was convinced that we would spend the whole time at disneyland waiting in lines (he is a bit of a pessimist). but they literally ran up and down this ride. they figured out that they could go up the single rider line and go again and gain. this is the only picture i could get, but it turned out pretty good. they all ended up in the front of the coaster. you can't see isaac, but he is behind jack and next to kyle.

i got this picture off of the picture screen. not bad for a picture of a picture. can you tell these hams knew right where the camera was?

we loved california adventure. great park! great day! loved every minute of it. there was plenty for the little ones and lots of crazy adventure for the big kids.

after dinner back at our hotel, we all went back to disneyland for the evening. kyle, isaac and ethan went on splash mountain while reagan, davis and i spent our time on the winnie the pooh ride. we also went to the tiki hut - which reagan loved and isaac hated. love individual personalities! and then we watched the lazer / water show. they do such a great job! we met up with merritt and her boys and went into some shops. we lost isaac for a little while, which was absolutely terrible. disneyland at night with 1,000's of people. yes, i freaked out and kyle stayed calm and had a plan and then our logical little isaac walked up to us. i think he was a little freaked out as well.