A Party!

Uncle Brenton got married yesterday!  We are so happy to have Auntie Karina join our family.  Mommy and Daddy were both in the wedding, so Iz had a date with T and Grammy (and T curled Izzie's hair for the first time!).  All Izzie really understood about the day was that there was going to be dancing and cake--but that's all she needed to know to be excited!  She had to be escorted out for the ceremony (it was just too hard to see Mommy and Daddy up front without causing a scene), but she was back in action once the reception started.  (I forgot my camera and we never actually ended up with a pic of the bride and groom...so we'll have to add one when we get it!)  Congrats Brenton and Karina!

Just chillin'

Look at that hair!

A kiss for Mommy...

And a kiss for Belly...

She got sick of pictures pretty quick (you can catch a glimpse of the lovely couple in the background)...

...But everything was better when she found the cake pops!

Her Big Smile

 
Izzie calls this her big smile.  "Mommy!  Mommy!  Beeg smile!"  It's one of my favorite things about her right now. 

The other thing I love about her is how good she as at giving hugs.  It's a process.

She declares it first:  "I hug"

She throws her arms open wide

She turns her head

She goes in for the kill

Her teeny little pudgy hands pat your back while she does it

And once she give one to one person in the room, everyone else present is fair game. 

19 Month Maniac

This 19 month old has changed so much!

*Izzie's constant conversation has been present since basically birth, but the exciting thing now is that we can understand her most of the time!  She still will say certain things over and over and over--getting in our face and looking really serious--and we have no idea what she's trying to communicate, but those times are fewer and farther between.

*Isabel counts..."one...two...three...four...sixsevennineTEN!  We're missing a few numbers, but her enthusiasm makes up for it.  She went shopping with Grammy at Walgreens and found a puppy she wanted.  "One, two, four, seven.  Moh puppies peas Gammy."  Shock of all shocks she came home with two puppies instead of just one.  I was actually surprised she didn't have seven.

*Izzie reads books to us now--even turning them around to show the pictures like they do at school.  But  "myself" means she's going to read to herself and you should find something to do to keep yourself busy.

*Isabel describes everything:  "Birdie is high", "Rock is heavy", "Chickie is hot", "Bible so funny" (no, I did not make that one up--she was reading to herself and laughed as she said it--so we have some work to do).

*Munchkin LOVES her babies.  "Uh oh, she poopy.  I change."  She is so sweet and tender-hearted as she takes care of her dolls.  It is precious.

*Izzie has an opinion on most things now.  The shoes she wears, the show she wants to watch, the baby she wants to play with, the food she wants to eat...  Though it's occasionally exasperating, it's really exciting to see her coming up with her own ideas and seeing her little personality develop.

*Iz has turned into a tall and skinny little girl!  The only remnants of the chubbalicious we once knew are the little pouches of unnecessary fat on her inner thighs (but who doesn't have that...?).

 

 

A Funny...

Auntie Em sent me this picture while Iz was at her house one day.  You know how sometimes you have a day where everything seems to work out perfectly?  This day was the opposite for poor Emily--3 unhappy kids who refused to take naps and were generally grumpy.  The culmination of this lovely day was a half-naked Iz running through the sprinkler with Caden while holding Jerry and sucking on a binkie (normally reserved for bedtime only).  On those kind of days, though, it's all about survival.  Whatever makes them happy and gets you through the day.  God bless you, Auntie.

"Will work for food"

That's My Girl...

She's sassy and classy and I couldn't love her more.

Can we just take a moment to examine this pose...?

Another one so you can see how high the heels are.
And she rocks them, no problem at all!

Summer Summary, Part 2

There were too many fun summer pictures for the last post.  So here's another.  And forgive me -- they got mixed up and aren't in chronological order (and I didn't care enough to fix it!).

Family Adventure Week at church

Cousin picture at Carter's 5th birthday (he gave her really specific instructions on posing!)

Her first donut

Awesome, cheap homemade toy.  Pipe cleaners and an old parmesan cheese container.
Kept this chica busy for long periods of time and it was great practice for those fine motor skills.

Check. Out. The. Sticker.  Mommy could have died from happiness.
She got a library card and we checked books out together.  Ahhhh.  Bliss.

We spent a good portion of our summer with at least part
of our clothing missing, though we rarely neglected accessories.

Another fun one--cardboard tubes and a muffin tin.  I had to take a picture because I handed
her the bowl of tubes and asked if she could put them all in the pan.  She grabbed the bowl,
set it on the pan, and looked at me like, "Was that really that hard?".

Apple juice popsicles.  YUM.

Avery and Izzie still rocked the Infant Room at school together on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

She fell in love with crayons this summer.  But they ended up a lot of unnecessary
places and had to get cleaned up (though that was hardly a punishment for her!).
Her love of cleaning and broccoli make it very clear that I am not the only contributor
to her gene pool.

She loved play doh!  We had exciting times at this high chair.  She learned the word "snake" and
now demands one get made anytime the play doh is out.  And one time, I asked if she made a
ball and she held one up in each hand and said "Two".  Who knew she could count?

Celebration for Uncle J after his first successful triathlon!

I wish I knew what this game was.  Wear a hat, throw fuzzy balls on the ground,
wipe them up with a blanket, all while singing a song.  

Our own version of Where's Waldo?  Our friend Gracie was over
and she kept piling on animals and Iz kept saying "Moh!  Moh!".

Summer Summary

Our summer was amazing.  Izzie and I had so much time together, we got to spend so much time with other people we love, and we just got to have fun being a family and having adventures.  I made a bucket list for us at the beginning of summer of 40+ things I wanted to do with Izzie.  I didn't want to waste a second of our summer, and I was afraid it would fly by too fast (which it did anyway, but at least we have lots of fun memories!).

Our list had projects, activities, places to go, games to try, toys to make...  It wasn't so much about checking everything off the list (because we didn't!) but just having new experiences with her.  Some things were quick and others took more time, some were huge successes and others were a total bust, some were about learning and others were about making a mess, but we had FUN!  We learned a song and danced in the rain and decorated sugar cookies and built a cardboard house and saw an airplane and had a dance party and went to the library and learned to play hide and go seek and played with fake snow and had a pajama day and went on a picnic and played with slime.  We still have 7 items to check off (why won't anyone let you feed ducks anymore?!?) and then it will be time to make a new list!

Storytime with Caden and Aves (at the beginning of summer--look what a baby she is!)

Turns out Izzie's rules for dominoes are way better

She loves the zoo!  We had a membership so we went lots!

First baseball game

Don't worry, folks.  We still had plenty of chillaxing time!

My homemade finger paints turned into a gloopy disaster, but that didn't stop her from enjoying them!

We visited her school one Friday to celebrate International Mud Day!

Izzie developed a passion for cleaning ("Moh keenin', Moh keenin'")

We spent time with Great Grandpa

So...the decorating was a little uneven, but the cookies were still delicious! 

Reading books with Grammy.  This summer she really got into reading books out loud herself.  

Colored ice cubes make for fun driveway paints! 

We had several swimming parties at Grammy's

Family reunion at a cousin's farm.  She sat in the dirt forever and literally rubbed clods of it all over herself.

She became a swimming maniac!  Two six week sessions completed and she goes underwater without crying or choking.  Success!  (And her first sucker as a reward!)