A Very Larson Weekend...

Callie and Carter came and spent all last weekend with us.  We had lots of fun watching movies, baking cookies, playing with remote control cars, and just doing some big kid stuff.  Izzie was attached to Callie's hip--she chooses Callie over Mommy every time--and thought everything that Carter did was pretty cool.  They were super big helpers with Izzie and we had a great time!

Carter was very patient with Izzie when she thought his ramp needed rearranging...several times!

We had a "birthday" party for Callie at Carter's request.  Complete with decorations and pancakes of
all shapes and sizes--birthday cakes and hearts for Callie, Mickey Mouse heads for Iz, and
semis and tractors for Carter.  Yes, I said semis and tractors.  I am a pancake artist.  

We managed to come up with a matching outfit for these monkeys.  Pretty cute!

Morning Emails

Bryan gets Izzie up and ready every morning except Wednesday.  So that means the four other days of the week I don't get to see my bitty girl before I go to work.  Bryan makes up for this by sending me pictures of her every morning.   Here is a collection of some of my favorites over the past few months.  What a wonderful way to start the day!

(Bryan often turns his phone around so she can see herself while the picture is being taken, and she likes this a lot...hence the good pictures!  She loves looking at herself.)

There are some really good shots in here.  I like the ones where she's making funny faces or doing her "beeg smile".  There is one in the middle where she is holding up a bottle of lotion--this was a collection of like 8 photos of her holding up each item on her changing table and posing with it.

 


 

      
     

Izzie-isms

My darling is doing and saying things these days that I find quite entertaining, so I thought I would share.  Here are some popular Izzie phrases, songs, and activities...

POPULAR PHRASES

• "I hold you." (Will you hold me?)
• "Job, Mommy!" (Good job, Mommy!)
• "Mere! Mere!"  (Come here!)
• "See you yater!"  (I love that her "l" sounds are "y's".)
• "Yuv you."  (Melt my heart.)
• "I ready go."  (She announces this firmly whenever she decides she's done somewhere.)
• "I no yike pictures!"  (And now you know why there are less cute pictures around this blog these days.)
• "Do yike dat."  (Do it like this---when she wants us to copy something she's doing...like laying down on the floor or shoving a fist in her mouth.)
• "Band-aid" (Not that cute, until you know that she is trying to say "headband".)
• "More Daddy?  Sure?"  (She asks "Sure?", "Yeah?", "Kay?" all the time when looking for approval.)
• "You.  Are.  GORGEOUS."  (Daddy says this to her all the time, and now she returns the favor to us, the dogs, random people in Target...)
• "So pitty.  Punzel's hair so pitty."  (Grammy bought her a Rapunzel doll and she loves talking about how pretty Rapunzel's hair is.  She also says the same thing about herself as she stares into the mirror stroking her own hair.  She's pretty fond of herself.)
• "So funny!"  
• "I wun!"  (Followed by her "running"--which is kind of just a quick hop stepping with straight arms, hair bouncing, and big smiles.)

One of my favorite conversations from recent days.
Me:  "Time to go to bed, Iz."
Iz:  "No, I yeavin."
Me:  "You're leaving?  Where are you going?"
Iz:  "Da beach."
Me:  "Deal, I'll join you."
Who knew she even knew that word???

She also sings lots of songs.  Izzie has perfected the ABC's (except it's "double six" instead of "W, X").  She knows all the lyrics to "Twinkle Twinkle", "Bye-oh", and has her own versions of "Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee" and "You are My Sunshine".  She has also turned one of my mom's lullabies into "Sweetheart, Yuv, Angel, Yord."  Not all the lyrics, but a general summary!  :)

Isabel's favorite game right now is hide and seek.  "Hi Seek?" she'll ask.  Then she'll put her hands over her eyes and lean her face up against a wall.  She is so excited to play the game that she usually can only make it to six, so once she starts counting we have to book it pretty fast to find a hiding place.  She giggles hysterically and says "Again, again!".  We can hide in the same place every single time and she still thinks it's funny.

Here are some pictures of her from school the week of Halloween.  Doing some pumpkin painting.  She was pretty excited about her finished product!

Nananananananana...BAT GIRL!

Mini bat girl had a lovely Halloween.  I tried to make a big deal out of her costume so that she would want to wear it.  Clearly I did a good job, because she gasped and said "Oh my goodness!" every time she put it on.  (It's unsettling how good she is at mimicking me.)

We did Trunk or Treat at church the night before Halloween which was a blast.

The next day was a party at school, and then we just visited family on Halloween night.  We were planning on making it an early night, but when we saw Caden at Grammy's he begged Izzie to go trick or treating with him.  I didn't think she would enjoy it, but I consented because he's so adorable.  About 20 houses and a jack o lantern full of chocolate later, I realized that I was wrong.  Izzie was a little nervous at the first house, but caught on and walked up to the door with Caden by herself by the 3rd or 4th house.  By the end of the night it was clear she is destined for a life in politics--boy, does that girl know how to sell herself!  "Dank-yew!  See you yater!" as she is blowing kisses through the door at them.  Everyone was so enchanted she got 3 or 4 pieces of candy per house...girl knows what she's doing!  The best part was she didn't actually know what she was getting in her bucket until someone finally gave her a bag of M&M's.  She looked shocked and turned around to show me, "Yook, Mommy!  Tandy!"

A Very Pumpkin Weekend

We went to Rocaberry Farm last weekend for some kettle corn eating, pumpkin picking, goat feeding, train riding, hay climbing good times.  The highlight of the whole event for Iz was the animals.  We stood and stared at the pony rides for awhile.  She was not interested in getting on them, but insisted we stay and watch them ("No, I look at horsies!" when we tried to walk away).  Then there were some pigs and chickens that held our interest for awhile.  But, the goats.  Oh, she loved them.  We fed them, petted them ("I touch.  Mommy touch.  Caden touch."), and then just sat in the stroller and watched them.  Everyone else ventured on to bigger and better things, but Iz and I stood in one spot watching one goat on a bridge for quite awhile.  It was difficult to drag her away, but once we did her and Caden found a Disney "haunted" house (only haunted because it was slightly dark) and they managed to run through that quite a few times to help her forget about those goats.  (How we managed to get through this whole affair without a picture of her by a goat is beyond me, but she loved them nonetheless!)

Look at how tall my girl is! 

Pretty little flower! 

Next time our directions will need to be more specific.
"Look through the flower and say 'Cheese', Iz."  Well, she
said "Cheese" as we took a picture of her backside...

Not sure what I'm doing...but she's having fun!

Chillin' with my cuz...

A quick pic before we ran through the "haunted" house again 

Out of 4,000 pictures, this is the only one where all three were looking.  Sort of...

Iz finally found the perfect pumpkin!

Another attempt... 

We love Grammy and Popper!  (I don't know if I've mentioned it yet, but
that is Izzie's pet name for Grandpa.  Not quite sure where it came from,
but I am a fan!)

**UPDATE**  Grammy sent us some goat pictures she had taken.  Thanks, Grammy!

Foooootball!

We've had a lot of fun this Husker season.  We have had the chance to visit the new arena several times with Daddy to see where he's been working, checked out some pre-game fun (and the adults have gone to a few games), and watched some games at home.  Our littlest fan requests to watch football with Daddy sometimes now.    

Checking out the arena with Daddy

Check out his hand around her neck...melt my heart

Go Huskers!

A cold day...and we forgot Izzie's coat.  So next time you see
us, tell us this sweatshirt was totally worth $35...yikes!

Cutie pa-tooties

Checking out the Farmer's Market one lovely Saturday

We Count to Ten!

Isabel has given up her battle against the number 8.  At first, her counting was sparse at best - "1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10!"  She soon picked up four and six, but five was a bit of a struggle.  It wasn't long before  she had them all but the number eight, and she was pretty firm in her insistence that it not be included in the line-up.  Suddenly, on Friday, she sat in Bryan's lap and counted to 10 perfectly without any prodding or help.  (I'm inclined to believe that her resolve weakened when she realized her teachers at school did in fact use the number 8 as well.)  Regardless, it's been an exciting weekend and we've probably made her do it a hundred times!  Getting it on camera is another issue--of course the little monkeys don't perform when you want them to--but I finally got it (sort of).  I just love her sweet little voice!