Happy Birthday!

Sending some birthday love to a wonderful husband and amazing father! We love you so much and we are so thankful to have you!!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Just wanted to share some Valentine's love from my favorite little Valentines!

 

December

I can't believe December has come and gone and we are already halfway through January! I know I'm late again but I wanted to try to catch up and get January done on time :)

As usual the month was really busy with school and work. The semester ended for me and Noah so we had papers to write and finals to take. We got our Christmas decorations up and started a new tradition with Charlie the Elf coming to visit our house. We had a great time hiding him all over the house and the kids loved waking up each morning to find him! I'm sure he'll be returning to our house for many years to come!

Our Elf on the Shelf - Izzy named him Charlie

Towards the middle of the month Noah and I went up to D.C. for the Redskins/Patriots game! We went with his sister Theresa and her boyfriend Peter and we had an amazing time. It was my first pro-game and I loved it even though it was freezing. We went up the night before and stayed with Humaira which was great. Then we got up and tailgated at the stadium. We ended up near some great people and had a blast. Our seats were in the end zone but only 6 rows up! The Patriots won, but it was a close game and we were nervous. To me, close games are way better anyway! This is definitely on our list to do every year!

I wrapped up work for the month early and started my holiday break with surgery on the 14th. The details are not important here, but I basically spent the last half of the month in the recliner with Noah and my parents doing pretty much everything. I am doing much better now and pretty much back to normal. I am super thankful for my family and my husband who took such great care of me! 

We celebrated Christmas here with my parents and siblings. My parents spent the night so they could be here when the kids woke up. We went to Christmas Eve service and it was beautiful.

Not great but the best I could get in their Christmas outfits

The kids got to open their new Christmas jammies after they put reindeer food on the lawn and cookies and milk out for Santa. Santa had made an early delivery with Izabel's new bed! She looks like such a big girl sleeping in it and I know she loves. Both kids are super spoiled and got way too much. Noah and I both got watches and we all had a nice day hanging out together!

The view Christmas morning

Izzy's new bed!

She loves sleeping in it!

Daddy made a special Christmas breakfast

Again not the best pic but the best I could get in their Christmas shirts

The month ends with me hanging out with the kids and trying to get the house organized and clean. We are making our resolutions and working hard to have more family time before life gets crazy again! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Izzy hanging out with Baby Rowan

Baby Jackson born Christmas morning! Congrats JK and Jackie!!

 

***When I find the battery charger for my camera I will have to do a photo post - for now you will have to live with the pictures from my phone :)

November

Obviously I am way behind since it is the end of December as I am writing this post, but I figured a month at a time was enough to catch up. I visited California for the first time at the beginning of November with a trip to Anaheim. I went with a group from work for the National Career Academy Coalition Conference. We had a pretty good time and got to go see the Hollywood sign, Walk of Fame and Chinese Theater along with Disneyland. More than likely I will be back there next year with students for a DECA conference so it was nice to scope it out and see what I could do with the kids. 

ODU Basketball was in full swing and we try not to miss any games!

While I was in California my beautiful niece Rowan Olivia was born. I was devastated not to be here on her birthday, but my sister did great and I've spent lots of quality time with Rowan since! She is perfect and I love her so much. I am so excited to be an Auntie!!!

Introducing Rowan Olivia Myers born November 3, 2011

Izzy loves her cousin!

Another grand baby for grandma to play with!

The month was pretty busy with school and work and of course it ended with Thanksgiving. We had dinner with Auntie Ann, Theresa, and Laurie and then had our annual scavenger hunt. Everyone ended up back at my house for dessert and I was the judge of the contest. It was very stressful and I think next year I will play instead of judge! 

An attempt at a family picture

Tanner fell asleep before dessert!

Just part of the desserts we shared :)

We spent the weekend with my family in Williamsburg and went to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens to start out the holiday season! We even started our shopping at the outlets and got some great deals. 

Izzy and Granddaddy waiting to see Santa

Penguins!

Listening to music and warming up!

October!

IZABEL IS 4!!!

These are a few of her favorite things :)

We started off the month by heading to Disney's Princesses on Ice. Noah and I just took Izabel for a special night to start her birthday celebration. We met up with her friends Evie and Lily for dinner and then went over to the show. Izabel was feeling pretty yucky but she enjoyed the show a lot and we all had a great night.

Izabel, Evie and Lily at the Hampton Coliseum

Izzy and Daddy!

Izabel turned 4 and Tanner turned 2 1/2 on October 8th. Unfortunately they both had strep throat the whole week before so we ended up canceling the big party we had planned and only had a little get together at the house instead. We filled Izabel's room full of balloons the night before and they ended up being great decorations for the party and the rest of the weekend. Of course Izabel woke up in the middle of the night and said she wanted them out of her room! 

So much fun!

Noah's Mom, Aunt, Cousin and Grandma were all in town and got to celebrate along with all of the local family and close friends. We had lemon cupcakes opened presents. 

Izabel's new Leapster Explorer from Mommy and Daddy

Tanner got a little something too!

Strawberry Shortcake!!!

Busy coloring before bedtime

Mimi got Izzy and Tanner their very own bounce house so most of the party was spent outside jumping!

Jumping and Sliding

They had a blast and then we went to Izabel's favorite restaurant, Friendly's, for dinner. She got lots of great stuff and I'm pretty sure she had an amazing weekend surrounded by the people who love her the most! Thank you to everyone who came. 

P.S. Thank you notes will be coming soon now that I'm done with mid terms :)

Finally a good picture of both of them together and it was taken at school!

In other news - Tanner had his speech evaluation this month. We've been waiting forever for CHKD to get to him so we finally went with the city's early intervention program and they have been fantastic. They brought a team of people to the house and tested Tanner in every area. They tested him at a 3 year old level and he passed every test with flying colors. He is doing a great job in everything except speech. He makes sounds, but not words. He definitely expresses himself and makes what he wants known, he just can't quite form the words that we do. A speech therapist will be coming to the house once a week now to work with him and hopefully I'll finally get to hear his sweet little voice soon!

Tanner at 2 and a half

At the end of the month both kids had their check ups with our new found favorite Dr. Carson! If you need a pediatrician in the Hampton Roads area she is absolutely fantastic and we couldn't love her anymore!!! Both kids are doing pretty well. Izabel is 34lbs (42nd percentile) and 39 inches (37th percentile) and Tanner is 35lbs (90th percentile) and 37 inches (75th percentile). We talked about Tanner's asthma and the fact that he is back to coughing all the time and using the inhaler. For right now he is on a one-a-day allergy medicine but I am thinking he will be going to the one-a-day asthma and allergy soon. Since it looks like he probably has asthma he couldn't have the flu mist so he ended up getting the one shot. Izabel is doing great other than her sleeping habits. We have great routines in place and bedtime always happens at the same time every night, but she will lay in her bed awake for so long that she ends up getting less than half of the recommended amount of sleep for age! It's obviously a problem for all of us so we brought it up and the Dr. recommended melatonin. It's a natural supplement to help her sleep and so far it's been working okay. She has started falling asleep a little earlier. Hopefully we will start seeing a change in her soon as she starts to catch up on some rest! For most kids this is the visit before starting kindergarten next fall so she ended up getting four shots. My drama queen was very unhappy and limped around the rest of the day!

Finally, the month ended with Halloween! I like to coordinate costumes which was hard this year because Izabel wanted to be a princess. Disney really needs to work on their selection of boy costumes! I finally figured it out and they were The Princess and the Frog for trick-or-treating. They had a blast and definitely did not want to come home even though they filled up their buckets numerous times :)

Izabel just wanted to get going - not take pictures :)

Our friends Evie and Lily came too