Playin in the Rain

Sunday afternoon found the kids outside playing in the rain. Poor Izzy couldn't find her rainboots (I think I gave them away?) so she decided to wear her snowboots.

For all those who have been asking, her walking has greatly improved! We are hoping by the time our trip to Disney arrives she will be running to greet her favorite characters :)









Examining a daffodil

Boys and Boogers

Me (noticing Drew has something in his mouth): "Drew, is there something in your mouth? What are you eating?"

Drew: "It's okay Mama. I just eatin my booger."

Last week Izzy said Drew got sick cause he swallowed a "bug". Now she says he got his cold cause he swallowed his booger.

Either way the kid is gross!

Doughnuts With Dad

Friday was a very special day for both Isabelle and Pete. It was Doughnuts With Dad day at school. Pete took Izzy to school and then stayed for doughnuts.

Izzy was BEYOND excited for this day. In fact, she insisted on Pete helping to pick out what she wore. She picked her shirt and then asked him to pick the bottoms.



When I was getting ready to do her hair, she wanted pigtails because that is how she wore her hair when she went to the movies with Pete once. She remembered him telling her that he really liked her hair in pigtails. How cute is she.



Pete brought several things home from his morning: a green construction paper tie that had frogs on it made out of Izzy's fingerprints; an I Love You Bunches picture which had a bunch of grapes on it made out of Izzy's fingerprints; a self portrait of Pete in which Izzy put Pete in a green shirt (his favorite color) and gave him light brown hair (even though Pete still thinks he has blond hair); a DADDY bingo game; and a questionnaire regarding Pete.

Here are the questions and Izzy's answers:

1. My Dad likes to: play Little People
2. My Dad is good at: Wii Memory
3. My Dad and I like to: play tag (but I'm faster)
4. I love it when my Dad: scrambles eggs for me
5. My Dad likes it when: I tickle him
6. My Dad is great because: he's the best Dad ever!

When I picked Izzy up from school she was all a flutter about how much fun she had with her daddy at school. She is certainly his little princess!

I was dreading our Friday afternoon because Drew was showing no signs of napping and I was not feeling well. I decided to make a quick run to the grocery store (triple coupons) and pick up a Redbox movie for the kids. Side note: Since we are having triple coupons currently at our grocery store I have been twice this week. The first trip I got $46 worth of groceries for $16. The second trip I spent $14.18 (and bought a bag of Cheetos for which I did not have a coupon - that was $3) and saved in coupons $31.71. I am totally getting this coupon thing. So, once back at home we watched our Eloise Goes To Hollywood movie and then decided to bake a cake! We got a near free cake mix and frosting at the store, so why not?

Beware, some may not like that the kids are eating cake batter...so if it bugs you then don't look!







Pete surprised the kids by bringing home Mario Kart for the Wii. Our weekend calls for lots of rain, and with 3 out of the 4 of us feeling crummy we figured it might be a fun way to pass the time. So far Mario Kart has been a huge hit!

Last Sunday

I spaced and completely forgot to write about last Sunday. Last Sunday Izzy sang at church. She did great! ...and was way cute doing her pageant wave to us from the stage.





Drew did not do so great. He was fine up until the sermon then at that point Pete left with him. They went for coffee, put gas in my car, and then came back for us. After church we headed to Costco for a lunch of samples. I love that we can eat our way through that place.

Once at home we got to work. Drew, still in his church clothes, was in charge of cleaning out our sand/water table.



as well as the rocks and a bucket


Doesn't he look handsome :) And so big! He is just a few days shy of 2.5 years old :(


Izzy was in charge of cleaning off the sand/water table toys. She did this in our kitchen sink.



Pete was in charge of his newest project. He is installing some shelves in our playroom as well as putting in a pocket door. I LOVE that he is so handy. I didn't even know this when we got married - it is just a nice added bonus :)

This is where the pocket door will be:


And this is the wall the shelves will go along:

They will be to the left and right side of the door.

We really really really need some storage options in this house so I am super excited for the finished project. It will house our craft stuff, vacuum, iron, laundry stuff (the laundry room is just across the hall from where the pocket door will be - it really is a laundry closet!), kids toys, and books. Izzy refers to it as our own library. I like that I can keep the puzzles up higher so a little man, who shall remain nameless, can't dump all the pieces forcing me to spend time putting them back together.

You may wonder what I was doing while the other members of the family took to projects? I supervised, of course :)

Potty Training Drew

Much to my dismay, Drew is showing interest in going on the "big potty". I turned this task over to Pete since they are made up of the same parts :) Onto some excerpts of our experiences with Drew and his potty training journey.

I came home from shopping one day and Pete told me that Drew went on the potty. I was shocked, since he has only ever peed on the floor for me, and asked how he did it? Pete told me that he had to go to the bathroom and said, "Drew, wanna come watch me?" Drew ran back to the bathroom to meet Pete, and Pete asked him if he wanted to try to. Drew declined, but watched Pete. A little while later Drew said, "Daddy, wanna watch me?" and then took off for the bathroom. Sure enough he went in the potty.

Another time Drew was running naked and I asked him if he had to go potty. He went back to the bathroom and attempted to go. When nothing came out he looked up at me and said, "I can't do it. It's broken."

Most times if I ask him, Drew will tell me that he doesn't have to go potty. So one time I just said, "hey, can you show me how you go potty?" That was just the challenge he needed as he was off and running for the bathroom. When I got back there he said, "First, I move da stool right here (and pushed it in front of the toilet). Den I pick up the seat yike dis. See Mama. (good boy lifted the seat - he couldn't have possibly learned that from Pete!) Then I take my p3n!s (starts with a "p" and ends with an "s") and I pull it yike dis! (He proceeds to pull apart the tip of his wee-wee)." He got the funniest, hardest look of concentration on his face and then he peed! Hooray, he peed!!! Notice that I didn't say where he peed :) With those little fingers in the way streams of pee were flying all over the bathroom. I think I scared him when I tried to reach in and adjust his sprayer.

Finally, Drew was in the bathroom watching Pete pee one day and looked up at Pete and said, "Wow Daddy, you have a really big p3n!s". When Pete was retelling me the story he said, "It doesn't matter who says it honey, you never forget the first time you hear that!" :)

Another Izzy Update

We are currently 11 days post cast. Progress has FINALLY been made. When I picked up Izzy at school on Friday she came "walking" out. A teacher held each hand, but by golly that girl was finally upright.

Sunday, Izzy sang at church, and we ran into Dr. J. He asked how she was doing and I said, "better, but not great." I asked if he would take a look at her after the service and he agreed.

So, for Dr. J, Izzy demonstrated how she could jump, balance on her "broken" leg then kick with her other foot, and also kick with her "broken" leg. Dr. J reminded Izzy that her leg was no longer broken and she just needed to work to make it stronger again. ...wasn't this what Pete and I had been telling her? Regardless she now refers to her broken leg as her "old broken leg" ...kind of like the artist formerly known as Prince.

Sunday night rolls around and Izzy wants to go to the grocery store with me. I tell her that she can't because I am tired of carrying her. "I will walk. I promise." Good to her word, slowly but surely she held onto the cart and walked. Once we got home I dug out the kids walker from the deepest darkest corner of the basement. I presented it to Izzy and told her she learned to walk with this walker once, and would learn to do it again.

I wish I would have thought to use this earlier. Here she is this morning getting ready for school.


Look, no hands! (and I had yet to do her hair for school)


On the drive to school this morning I said to Izzy, "won't your teachers be so surprised when they see that you can now furniture walk? You can show them how you can hold onto the table to walk around and balance." Do you know what she told me? She told me that her teachers had already seen her walk the last day (meaning last Friday) when she walked around in the play kitchen. I was shocked and said, "You did this at school last week and didn't come home and show me? How come you did it at school, but not for me?" Wanna know what that little bugger said? Do you? She said, "cause my teachers asked me to." Yup, her teachers asked her to stand up and try walking. That is why she did it. Excuse me, but I have been trying to do that for over a week?

On a scary note, once we got home from school I put Izzy in the kitchen and went back out to the car to get some stuff. When I left her, she was standing. When I came back upstairs she was in the family room, crying and clutching her left ankle (broken leg side). She said she was walking on her own and then fell down and hurt her foot. I assured her that it was not broken again, and that it was just weak which is why she fell. Sheesh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Izzy update: we are on day 6 post cast and she still is not walking. In fact, she is not even attempting to walk. Pete and I are trying to encourage movement, but I think we are both frustrated with how cautious she is being. We are supposed to head to Disney soon and might need to really rethink that plan if she doesn't show some major improvement quickly! We already postponed the trip when she broke her leg so we won't postpone it again, but rather cancel. I spoke to Dr. J when he dropped his daughter at school the other day and he said not to worry until the 2 week mark. I will try not to worry, but I might not continue to be so understanding with the little miss and her lack of motivation.

So, today both kids got dressed in green and we headed out for some errands.

Izzy making us some green pancakes


Add little food coloring and the kids inhaled an obscene amount of food


Drew in his new favorite spot - in front of my computer!


So today the kids and I went to Stride Rite to buy new shoes. Drew officially has passed Izzy in shoe size. Drew is a size 9XW and Izzy is still and 8.5 (no longer a wide though). I knew this day would eventually come, but really I didn't think it would be quite this soon. So, both kids got new tennis shoes, only Izzy's are also a size 9 so she can wear them in the fall (heck, her 8.5 still fit).

After shoe shopping we went to lunch with some friends. Both kids were so well behaved! I never worry about Izzy, but Drew I never stop worrying about! I feel as if he could crack at any minute, anywhere. He always keeps me on my toes.

After lunch we made a quick stop at the pet store to look at fish. Pete has told the kids they could get a fish after we get back from Florida. Izzy wants a pink one to be named Cassie and Drew wants a blue and green one to be named Zak and Wheezy. Both names are from Dragon Tale characters, the kicker is that Zak and Wheezy are a two headed dragon. So, we did find a pink fish, but not a two headed blue and green fish.

Once home Drew took a nice nap and Izzy watched a movie. Pete came home and I went for a run. While on my run I found $5! I looked around to see if anyone was around who may have dropped it but there was not, so I picked it up. I then looked around to see if I could find anymore money! No such luck.

...guess who is treating herself to a venti mocha from Starbucks tomorrow after she drops Izzy at school :)