Friday, October 22, 2010

Birthday/Halloween Pictures

Yesterday we had Izabel's 3 year, Tanner's 18 months and both of their Halloween pictures taken! Izabel was really cooperative and Tanner was a little more difficult, but we got some good shots. The new online picture system will not let me download anymore (which is a little upsetting but understandable) so you have to click this link if you want to see them! Enjoy!

Link

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

A Very Fairy Birthday Party!

Sunday we celebrated Izabel's 3rd birthday with lots of fairy fun! Tinkerbell invaded our house and my little fairy couldn't have been happier. She put on her Tinkerbell costume and danced around the living room pretending to fly. We had lots of friends and family come to help us celebrate.


The food spread included Pixie Punch, Stardust Sandwiches, Toadstools, Fairy Berries, Magic Wands, Tink's Garden and of course Fairy Cupcakes (unfortunately the wings fell off before the party)! Everything was very yummy and super cute if I do say so myself.


After eating we got to the business of opening presents. Izabel was a very lucky girl. She got tons of games and puzzles, a Tinkerbell blanket and pillow, cute clothes and jammies, a new movie, a computer game, dress up clothes and shoes, and some books. She also got three months worth of gymnastics lessons from Mommy and Daddy and she already loves it! Every gift was perfect for her and everyone knew her so well. Thank you so much for to everyone!


After presents Izabel blew out her candle all on her own and ate her cupcake before heading outside with the other kids to play. She had a great time and LOVED all the attention she got! She's already beat Daddy at Candy Land twice and she begs to play her new games from the moment she gets up in the morning to the moment she goes to bed at night!



Our fairy festival was quite a success or as Tinkerbell would say....flitterrific!

Friday, October 8, 2010

3 YEARS OLD and 18 MONTHS!

My babies are not really babies anymore! I know in the long run they are still really little, but looking back over the last 3 years it's hard to even remember them being infants.


Izabel is THREE!!! I can't believe it. She seems so grown up now and so much more like a little girl than a baby/toddler. She's so tiny and still wears 18 month clothing. That is getting harder now since she needs pants and 18 month pants are too short so she is wearing a lot of leggings and boots!


Izzy started school this past month and has been loving it! She's spent plenty of time in time-out but she seems to be getting the picture that you have to share and be nice! Hopefully some of those lessons will rub off at home too :) Other than the sharing she has been doing amazing with her lessons. She is the head of the class when it comes to knowing all her shapes, colors, letters and numbers. She always has advanced work on the back of her worksheets because she finishes them before everyone else. I love that they keep teaching her new things instead of waiting for everyone else to catch up. Right now she is working on writing her name and she is so close! I'm sure we'll start seeing it soon. I started hanging up some of our favorite pictures in the kitchen and she loves coming in and showing us her art hanging on the wall. She is so proud and it's so cute to see!


Yesterday Izabel started gymnastics. I bought her a leotard and she liked it but when I tried to put it on her before class she started screaming that she didn't want to go. I thought it was going to be a really rough hour at the gym, but once we got there her attitude changed completely. She walked right in with all of the other kids and did everything the coach asked of her with ease. She was all smiles the whole time and it was so funny watching her because she is about half the size of all the other kids in her class! She will now go every Monday evening for the next three months and we'll see how much she likes it after that and decide if she wants to continue.


She has gotten so chatty and asks why about everything she can possibly think of! She also sings all the time whether it is something she learned in school or something she made up. She loves to play with her babies and color and she loves Tinkerbell (hence the Tinkerbell birthday party and costume for Halloween)! She also loves football and is a big ODU and Kecoughtan fan! We take her to most of the games and she cheers the whole time! She's doing real puzzles now and she loves to read stories. Her favorite books right now are Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat and the Hat. Her speech has really improved, but we are having that assessed next week just to be sure everything is good. For now she is doing amazingly and I couldn't be prouder to be her mom!


Izabel - You are getting so big so fast and we love how grown up you have become, but miss our little baby girl! You are so amazing and smart and we know you will grow up to be a wonderful and beautiful person! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL - MOMMY AND DADDY LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!

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Tanner is 18 months old today! The beauty of having a scheduled c-section is that you get to pick the day so we had them on the same day 18 months apart. Tanner is of course a toddler now and he gets into everything. He also has a crazy temper that we're really going to have to work on. He's started to get really fed up with Izabel taking all of his toys so we break up a lot of fights. He loves that Izabel goes to school every morning and he gets all of the attention to himself half a day! I think it is going to be really good for him and I am happy that he is getting this time.


He is such a snuggler and I can't get enough of him! I literally just want to squeeze him when I walk in the door, he is so cute! He's started dancing and running which are both hilarious. His eating has really slowed down and he is still in between 12 and 18 month clothes, but I've been moving him to 18 months as the weather changes. He loves to go anywhere and still enjoys riding in the wagon for family walks. He watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs the other night and laughed out loud through most of it. We enjoyed watching him more than the movie!
He'll pretty much play with anything, but of course Izabel's toys are more appealing. He has also started doing the peg puzzles and is getting pretty good at them. He loves to be outside and play and pretty much go anywhere. He also loves reading books whenever he can read one without Izabel interrupting him!


Words can not express how cute and loveable this little boy is! We'll love you forever Tanner!!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

First Day of School!

I can't believe I am even typing this but today was Izabel's first day of preschool! This was the first time she has ever been away from one of us and in a structured school environment and she had a great time!


I took her to school this morning around 7:00am and walked her in. Of course we took some pictures (that I will add to this post soon) in front of the school first. I took her in and tried to get her to sit down and eat breakfast but she just wanted to cling to me. Then I tried to get her to play but she wasn't interested so I told her to sit down for a minute so I could go give her teachers her shot records. When I came back she was eating with a little girl named Sadie (love that name) and doing fine. I said goodbye and gave her a kiss and walked away. She never cried but I came pretty close! It's never been so hard to leave her before!

My mom and Tanner picked her up at 11:45am and I talked to her on the phone to hear about her day. She colored a great apple (staying in the lines), played with play dough, played outside, went potty, ate apples for snack, and made some friends but she couldn't remember their names. She said she is excited to go back tomorrow so I'm really happy it's going so well so far! Here's to hoping tomorrow goes well too! My little girl is so grown-up now!!!

*Question for the moms out there - Izabel came home with the schools fall fundraiser catalog. I don't mind buying something that I can actually use, but Noah has a big problem buying and selling stuff for a school that we pay a fortune in tuition for every month. What are your thoughts on fundraisers for expensive private schools?

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Updates and Random Pics

Sooo...I know I promised updates and pics but I don't know where the cord is to download the pics from my camera and I hate posting without pictures. I finally sat down and got a few posts up so scroll down when you are done with this one and check them out. We had a nice summer with lots of exciting happenings but at the same time we had a lot of laid back days. It was a nice balance.


Izabel is so grown up now and I can't believe she is starting preschool on Tuesday! I don't know who is more nervous but we are also excited. She's never been away from us, my mom or a close family member so it will be interested when I drop her off Tuesday morning and try to get to work on time! We went to her open house last Tuesday and it really helped me and Izzy feel better about this transition. For the longest time she kept saying "I don't want to go to school, I just want to stay home" and even on the way to the open house she was saying "you're going to stay with me right? you're not going to leave!" When we got there she was really shy and clingy but after we started showing her around she started playing. By the end of the evening she didn't want to leave and we had to practically drag her out of there. They have some really cute stuff planned and her class only has 9 kids and 2 teachers so I think she'll be just fine!

Izzy and Tanner...please excuse the outfit, she was insisting on not getting dressed!
Izzy loves reading and her favorite books right now are The Giving Tree and I'll Love You Forever. She can recite each one and pretty much reads them to us now. It's so funny listening to her read the exact words as we turn the pages! She is doing real jigsaw puzzles now and she has gotten really good at every color, shape, letter and number. she also loves to color or paint on her new easel. She's even started saying some things in Spanish. She drinks out of a big girl cup but still doesn't eat very well. She just picks at her food. I guess she's going to stay little, not that it's a bad thing! She loves Tanner but gets annoyed by him very quickly. She's been using the big potty for months but now we are working on making her go by herself. It's still a bit of a struggle because she wants help with her clothes or wipping but she's getting there. She is completely out of diapers and pull ups. She's been sleeping in undies for at least a month now and she's only had once accident. She even wakes up to go potty sometimes in the middle of the night. She's started dressing herself and she can be really helpful around the house. I think she's really ready for preschool and she's going to do great!
Our little artist...again please excuse the outfit!

Tanner is more and more of a toddler everyday. He can almost keep up with Izabel now and they are pretty much the same size (although Izzy's a few inches taller). He really enjoys having a few moments to play by himself since his sister takes everything away from him. He babbles all the time and says a few words. He's started answering yes and no questions although the answer is usually no. Izabel calls him "buddy boy" now which is really funny. He likes to climb and best of all he likes to snuggle! Izzy was never a snuggler so I really enjoy anytime I get to snuggle with Tanner. His appetite has slowed down a lot and he rarely finishes everything on his plate now. He's gotten busy and has better things to do once he's full! He's shown a little bit of interest in the potty so I think we'll pull the little potty back out soon just for him to start being introduced. We have no plans to potty train him for a while longer but the dream of having both of them out of diapers is so exciting!
Tanner snuggling with Daddy
Sleeping during lunch
The next few months are going to be crazy busy but there will be lots of exciting things happening. I will try really hard to stay updated with lots of pictures! Enjoy back-to-school and the beginning of fall!!


Our 5th Anniversary

Noah and I celebrated our 5th anniversary weekend on August 20th. For our anniversary we were lucky enough to stay in the same condo at the beach as we stayed on our wedding night. My mom was planning on staying with the kids but she ended up being very sick. Luckily Theresa and Auntie Ann stepped in and saved our weekend so we could still go.
We headed down to the beach Friday afternoon and got settled in and then headed to the grocery store to get some snacks for the weekend. Then we got dressed and headed to the Melting Pot for dinner. It was my first time and I thought it was great. We had a really nice time. Then we headed back to the condo and turned on a movie.

The view from our condo!

We were both exhausted from a long week so it was nice to go to sleep and not get up until we wanted to. We turned a movie on in the morning and just lounged around for a while. We played games and sat out on the balcony people watching. Then we went swimming and water felt amazing. Saturday night our friends Candace and Matt and Candace's sister and her boyfriend came down to hang out. We went out to dinner and then out to Peabodys. I know what your thinking, I hadn't been to Peabodys since I was a teenager, but we actually had a really great time and it was nice to all be able to drink and not worry about someone driving home.

Noah people watching

Me and Candace at the club!

Sunday my mom was feeling better so my parents brought Izzy and Tanner down and Candace's parents brought Drew down. They played for a while and we went back in the water but it was cold from the overnight rain. Then Noah and I cleaned up and headed home. We had a great weekend and it was nice to relax and just be together. Thank you Mom, Dad, Theresa and Auntie for making it happen for us!

Princess Party

Izzy's friend Evie celebrated her 4th birthday a few weeks and she had a princess party! Evie, Izabel and Evie all dressed up as Disney Princesses and Tanner even got to be a dragon. They decorated crowns and had yummy snacks. I think the girls and Tanner had a great time!