This past weekend we spent it celebrating Izzi's 3rd birthday at Monkey Joe's. It's a huge place that has about 7 or 8 inflatables, where kids jump, play and basically get worn out! I ended up having to take a later opening in their schedule than I would've initially wanted, which was from 12:30-2:30. Izzi is usually down for her nap at 1-1:30, so I was just planning on bringing her home right after and putting her down. Well..as life happens, her nap didn't. We didn't end up getting out of there until about 3ish, and Jason's sister Heather ended up keeping Izzi there for another hour. By the time she came home, it was close to 4. I was still planning on putting her down for a little cat nap, but I was talked out of it. UGH...never ever again will I let her go without a nap. She was fine until it was bedtime. She pulled the now usual getting out of bed several times, finally stayed in bed, fell asleep right away for only about a half hour, then was up for another 45 min. or so crying and getting up. She finally fell asleep again around 8:45ish...and then was up from 1am until 3:30 am crying and getting in and out of bed. Needless to say, I'm exausted today, which also seemed like it was the LONGEST DAY EVER! Izzi and Sophie were on total different sleep schedules, so I had no down time, and J was on call so he wasn't home a whole lot today. Oh well....what are you going to do, right?



I am blessed that Izzi likes her sister. She has never been mean to her, and always loves to make her smile and giver her hugs. Too cute.



Izzi had fun on this blow up chair in the room her party was held at. Here is a picture of Izzi with her two cousins and my friends daughter (from left to right: Annie, Izzi, Elena and Abigail).



Here's another picture of Izzi and Elena...it was hard to get them to sit long enough to get a picture..there's a whole lotta energy in those two!



And finally, here is Izzi in her birthday outfit, which I picked out a few weeks ago and fell in love with. I think it's stinkin cute, however, I've had a few people tell me that it's "ugly" and "interesting". I don't think I'd ever tell someone that I thought something they bought was ugly, I was just amazed how honest people can be. Oh well, my kid, my taste, I loved it!

Looking forward to going back to work tomorrow, it's been a hard weekend and I need to get back to adults and normalcy. ;)

Fun with the girls.....

Man did the weekend fly by! Izzi, Izzi, Izzi....how do I not duck tape you to the bed? We have been having MAJOR issues keeping her in bed as most of you know. So...on Wednesday night, Jason had to run an errand and I was home alone with her. She, as usual, gave me a run for my money with staying in bed. After about 45 min., I had to walk away from her to compose myself. I decided to put the baby gate up in front of her door....she rammed it until it came off. I decided to put it in the inside of the door frame, she climbed over it (after ramming it several times and having no luck). Then, I decided, that's it, I'm going to put two baby gates up, one on top of another. It's about 4 feet high. I did this, then went downstairs to cool off....I could hear her ramming into it over and over again. Then...it became very quiet. I went up to the landing to watch from the stairs to see what she was doing. I sat very quietly on the stairs peeking through the stair rails at her door....when I see out of the corner of my eye...Izzi walking out of my bedroom! She had scaled the 4 foot baby gate fence I put up and jumped over it!!!!! I wanted to laugh and scream at the same time...there is some determination! I took the gate down at that point, if she could climb it, she would do it again, and possibly hurt herself. What a little...well, I'll let your imagination run with that one.





Every Monday night, Jason is at class work, and his sister comes over with the girls and helps me with dinner, and lets Izzi get some much needed energy out playing with her two cousins. Here is a picture of them from the other week. They were taking turns jumping off the couch onto some cushions, over and over. The energy...if I could just have an ounce of it!!


This is Kylee



This is Izzi



And this is Abigail

Hope everyone has a great Monday!!!!

Happy Birthday to my Izzi-bee!

Well, it's Izzi's third birthday today...wow, ok, that really did go quick. Everyone always says how fast it would go, and I never really felt it at the time, but I do now. This was one of Izzi's favorite presents. It is from her Grandma and Papa (my parents). A very cute rain coat, with a matching umbrella and boots. I had a hard time getting them off of her. Boy did she look cute in them. Now, all I have to do is wait for warmer weather and some rain.


I still don't think she really understands what "birthday" means other than cake. She enjoyed opening the presents, but she didn't really get "into" it. She loved being sung to, so everyone who called and sang to her, thank you!!! Her little face just beamed with the phone pressed up to her head. Too cute. So, here's to a year of growth, hopefully to a year of learning how to stay in bed and to a year of giggles.


The other morning Izzi really begged to get into bed with Sophie, who just smiled and smiled at her. She just loves Izzi, especially when she talks to her. Speaking of cribs, I would love to put Izzi back in one. She, every night, gets out of bed several times. We've tried just about everything. The whole "silent walk back to bed" (over three hours one time), taking her beloved luvies away, trying to reason with her, spending more quality time with her, put baby gates up in front of her door (she rammed them down or climbed over them)even spanked once(never thought I'd spank my child). I don't know why, but she just wont stop. We dread bedtime every single day. She never used to be like this, and I can't remember if it started before or after Sophie was born. All I know is that I can't WAIT for it to stop. So, if anyone has an adult sized crib, let me know, I might just buy it from you!



Ah yes, my little Sophia. My peanut...she has finally learned how to flip over from back to front. I've been working on it every day since the past weekend, and tonight, she was able to do it several times, so maybe now she'll start sleeping at daycare....oh please oh please start sleeping at daycare. This whole getting her home at 4:15 and being asleep for the night by 5 is sad..I miss my little girl. I'm glad I only work part time or else I'd be having major withdraw from her! Well, it's been a LONG day and my headache doesn't seem to be getting any better, so I think I'm calling this an early night. To bed, to bed, to bed I said.......

What a nightmare!

Where to begin....

When I was setting up this blog, I wanted it to have a fun background...to be authentic, well, that went and bit me in the butt. For the first time ever, I somehow downloaded a virus onto our computer. Four days later (and several hours from my neighbor) our computer is back up. However, we pretty much had to strip it down to the bare bones, so I will be without our pictures still for a few days. At least now I know what site I can use to change my page, but man, every time I do it part of me will hold my breath to hope I don't ever get a virus like that again.

I don't really understand the point of them for personal computers. I mean, I know that with big corporations to break down a computer system would wreak havoc on a business, but I don't really "get" why someone would want to do that to a personal computer. Just for fun? Really? I digress.

Izzi will be 3 years old in two days. Boy did that go fast. Yet, in the same breath, I am already looking forward to her getting out of the stage she's in. There are nights where she goes to bed without a problem, then, there are nights that she gets out over 40 times in a row. I've tried just about everything to prevent this...walking back in silence (after the 30ith time though, it's hard not to scream at her), reasoning with her, yelling, taking away her luvies (and if you know my daughter, this is sacred!!!!), I'll even admit to spanking once or twice, baby gate her door, until she at first climbed right over it then decided once I made it higher to just ram it down....at times like that, it's hard not to laugh. My sister has a phrase that I never had appreciation for until recently. We now like to coin her phrase as ours as "The Izzi Show". This show goes on almost nightly. She is slowly starting to learn that she can stay up as long as she stays in her room. We will be downstairs watching TV and then we'll hear singing, laughing, talking, you name it coming from her room (she insist on leaving her door open "just a little crack"). Last night has to be one of the funnier times for this "show". There is a french children's song called "Fara Jacka", most of you know it; well, last night I heard her singing this to that melody: "I'm not sleeping, I'm not sleeping, no I'm not! No I'm not! Iiiiiii'm not sleeping, Iiiiiii'm not sleeping. No I'm not, no I'm not". I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard.

Over the weekend, I was working on rolling over from back to front with Sophie. She did it twice on Saturday and then that was it. She gets herself about 95% of the way over, but her arm keeps her from getting that last little bit. I keep trying every day and she gets closer and closer each time, so pretty soon she'll have it and then daycare will let her sleep on her stomach finally.

I had to run to the grocery store after work today, normal right? Well, there I was, standing in line, and I get up to the cashier and her name was Babette. Really? Does someone seriously name their child that? (She was probably in her 50's)Or, is it like strippers, they don't want people to know their real names so they make one up. Just so odd, one of those stupid things that you see that makes you go..hmmmm... So, here's to having my computer back, and to hopefully have it running fully by the end of the week.

After a long hiatus of blogging, I am back. I was sad when my old blog was closed down and didn't think I wanted to start again after that. However, two children later, and reading everyone else's blog, I've decided to begin again.


This is Isabelle dressed up for her New Years Eve party at school. I can't get over how much she's grown over the past year. I never realized it until Sophie was born. It was like all of a sudden, she wasn't this toddler anymore, she was a little girl. I felt like it happened overnight.
We were driving the other night, and she shouts out of the back seat "Hey guys, look up the head!" Jason and I looked at each other trying to figure out what the heck she was trying to tell us, and she said it again followed by "the lights, the lights"; she meant to say "Look up ahead", we were laughing so hard. The funny things she says... Another thing from a week ago when it was a bad snow/ice storm out was "Mom, look at all those bycicles on Bob's house"...she mean icicles. Funny.


This is my little Sophia. I shouldn't really call her little though. She was born in August, and will be 5 months already at the end of January!!! She started formula back in October, and has really beefed up since then. She has more rolls in her theighs than the rocky mountains! She is a pudge monster!!! I just love her to death! Izzi was very hard to get to smile when she was a baby, this one however smiles ALL the time! All I have to do is look at her and she beams! It melts my heart. She transitioned into daycare last week when I finally went back to work (after a 4 month maternity leave), and is having a bit of a hard time. She is a tummy sleeper 100%, and they will only let infants sleep on their backs until they can roll over themselves. Well...she can only roll from the front to the back, not the other way, so she only gets about 30 minutes of sleep the whole time she's there (about 8-9 hours!). She is so hoarse when she comes home, probably from crying so much, and crashes for the night around 4:30-5pm. I feel like I hardly see her. I hope she either learns to sleep on her back or rolls over soon.

Well, after spending WAY too much time trying to figure this whole blogspot out, I am off to feed Izzi lunch and put us all down for a nap! Glad the weekend is here.