Road Trip!!

Joe and I are insane! We decided to take a road trip with our 2 1/2 year old and 3 month old. Where to? Beautiful Pensacola, Florida. Yes, that would be a 12 hour drive...with, let me remind you, a 2 1/2 year old and a 3 month old. Overall I can't really complain too much. Considering how looooong the drive was, both kids did really well. I had all kinds of new entertainment for Isabella, as well as the DVD player! And Andrew really just slept the whole time, only really waking up when he was hungry-of course the drive home was harder on everyone. But Joe did a great job getting us there and back safely :) He did all the driving and I did all the entertaining. Not sure which was the harder job!

We left early in the morning while it was still dark outside, which was quite confusing to Miss Iz. But she was so excited to go. The plan was to just kind of scoop her up and put her in the car in her jammies, but when I opened her bedroom door, she sat right up. I told her we were going to the beach. She said, "with Daddy?" clearly she needed some Daddy-daughter time :) And I told her yes, to which she replied, "Mama, I happy!" She insisted on getting dressed- not that I should have been surprised by that these days.

Looking at a new book in the car

Catching up on some sleep

We're here!

We rented a condo from a friend of Joe's but there was some miscommunication so we ended up having to stay in two different places. Yes, it was a major pain. BUT each place was great for its own reasons. The first 2 nights we stayed at the Hilton. I believe this was the first night there.

Goodnight kisses!

Baseball jammies!

This was the view from the balcony of our room. So, it was just a simple hotel room, but the beach was RIGHT there and they had two really great pools, or "cools" as Izzie called them. She woke up every morning asking to go swim. That's Joe and Izzie down there at about 9 am. And see that bridge to the right? I'm pretty sure I've seen Sam Champion in front of it a few times.


Izzie in the wading pool.

Andrew trying to say out of the sun!

She loved these little balls that sprayed water.

At the beach! This year Izzie was such a GIRL! Last year, she loved the sand and didn't mind getting dirty. Well, this year she wouldn't even touch it! Joe had to carry her the whole time, or she sat with me on a beach chair. And she freaked out if she got any sand on her at all.

Living the life!

Look at that hair do!

3/4 of a family shot!

Daddy getting her lotioned up!

Chillin in style!

Our second place- a view from the beach. Totally drawing a blank as to what the name of the place was! But it was really nice.

Eating out! Eating watermelon in her watermelon dress :)

Andrew and me

One day we went the naval base and visited the museum. It was really cool and Izzie LOVED it there.

We have about 50 pictures of Izzie and Joe sitting in different airplanes, but I included this one because it is the Blue Angel. Pretty cool!

There were so many planes there!

And sleeping, naturally!

My pretty princess :) She got that little model of the Blue Angel and didn't put it down!

I swear, she had shoes, but they were flip flops and she kept kicking them off.

And...still asleep!

Izzie kept calling the anchor a slide.

Chillin in bed with Alice in Wonderland. Her new fav.

View from our balcony to the left...

and to the right. We were on the top floor so we had some pretty amazing views.

Relaxing in the condo. Joe was so excited when he saw they had a PS3.

My sweet guys:)

And I had to include this one of Izzie napping. It was the only nap she took the whole time we were there and she was pooped!

We had an amazing trip where we made lots of amazing memories :)

Andrew 3 Months

My little guy is getting bigger and bigger! I really cannot say enough of what a good baby Andrew is. He just continues to be laid back and super sweet. He is soooo happy and smiley.

Isabella adores Andrew...

and vice versa!

He still cat naps most of the day, not really falling into much of a routine yet, but I feel it coming. He wants to be rocked to sleep or held to fall asleep for naps, but he will usually fall asleep on his on for nighttime. He still wakes up once a night, however he did sleep through the night 4 times this past month. Those were bonus nights! He is eating pretty well and those little legs are starting to fill out. He doesn't really want to eat much in the morning, but eats much more in the afternoon and evening. He is wearing 0-3 months clothes comfortably now.

He is starting to really coo a lot and has found his little voice. He is reaching for toys on the activity mat and for my face when I am holding him. It's pretty sweet. When I lay him down with his paci, he always puts his little hands around my wrist. I feel like that's his way of saying "Don't go mama!" And speaking of pacis..he loves it. BUT he is searching mighty hard for that thumb of his. NOOOOO!! I think I will have another thumb sucker on my hands He keeps that little thumb tucked into his palm and just searches and searches for it, moving his hand all around his mouth.

He isn't rolling over yet (he can on the bed, but that doesn't count!), and up until a few days ago I said that he had no desire to- because he didn't. He would just lay there content with kicking his little arms and legs. But, in the past few days he has started to pull his knees up and wiggle around more from side to side, so maybe he will roll over some time this month. He is also starting to get a little better head control. His eyes are still gray but they are starting to look a little hazel in the center. I still think they are going to be brown. His hair is getting a little thicker in the back and it is working its way forward- still light brown. I hear a lot that he looks like my dad and my brother.

Andrew's big sources of entertainment are Izzie, of course, his activity mat and his little Fisher Price aquarium. He LOVES it. If he is fussy or upset, I just turn that thing on and it instantly calms him down. He even knows how to turn in back on when it turns off. And he is also included in nighttime-storytime. Anytime I read a book to the kids, he just stares at my face and smiles :)

What a sweet little man!!

Round Rock!

In my quest to be more like Jenny May, I packed up my kids and headed to Round Rock for some play time with my sweet friend Cassie and her little cuties Alex and Eliana. Eliana and Andrew were born 24 hours apart (off by about 30 minutes I think!) and it was high time Cassie and I met each other's babies. I set up the DVD player, loaded up on snacks and hit the road. Both kids were so good all the way up. And while I was driving I thought to myself, now if I really were Jenny May, I would have handmade all of the kids coordinating outfits for pictures. So this proves that hard as I may try, I will never hold a candle to her :) But we made it up successfully, played, had lunch and Cassie and I compared notes on our babies and what it was like to be a mommy to 2.

I didn't take nearly as many pictures as I should have, but I did get two important ones!

The BIG kids, Alex and Isabella

And the babies, Eliana and Andrew

We had lots of fun and it was really great to see Alex and Izzie play together. They both played so nicely :) I'm pretty sure neither of them wanted to part ways, but we promised another play date in the near future.

It was so great getting to spend time with you guys! We miss you already!

Izzie's First Day of Mother's Day Out

That's right :( I can't believe she is old enough to be doing this already. I was really nervous about taking her (having nightmares the night before about myself being lost at school!) because the open house/meet the teachers didn't go so well. I basically had to drag her in the room then, so I anticipated the same response.

For weeks, we talked a lot about school and the fun things she would do there. I even kept telling her a story that I made up about a baby mouse and his mama mouse, and how he got sad when mama mouse left him at school, but he ended up having fun, blah, blah, blah, she came back and they hugged and were happy.

She willingly got dressed in her bathing suit, or baby suit as she calls it, because Wednesdays are always water days. How much fun is that?! Here she is all ready to go. I wanted a picture with her backpack, but she didn't and I didn't want to push it and upset her!


So we got to school at the same time that Jack did (he is in her class) and she was happy to walk up with Jack and Brandon. But when we got to the classroom door...just as I expected, she put the brakes on. I had to pull her into the room :( She started whining and fussing and I tried showing her the little book nook, and I got her to even smile a little bit. But when I stood up, she wrapped her arms around my leg so tightly that I couldn't even walk. Break. My. Heart. I started to tear up but had to try and regain my composure. After all, if mommy is crying then the place must be awful, right? Oh, but alas! A few tears slipped out while I had my back turned. The teacher suggested I leave but gave me her cell number so I could check on my princess after a while. It was so hard to walk out of that room while she was calling after me.

I waited outside the door and just listened to her cry for a bit. Then I went and paid tuition and went back to the classroom to see/hear if she was still crying. I couldn't hear anything so I peeked in and saw her sitting on one of her teacher's laps just kind of looking sad. I called to check on her 30 minutes later and was told that she had calmed down and was fine.

When I went to pick her up I learned that the air conditioning had gone out and they had to move the kids to another room. A pretty crazy first day! My sister had gotten there before I had, and of course Izzie spotted her in the hallway. So, by the time I walked up, my sister was holding her (Jack was still napping). She gave me my favorite, "Mama! I missed you!" and gave me a tight hug around the neck. The teachers said that she stopped crying at the beginning of the day, but did need to be held a lot. She even took a 40 minute nap, which really surprised me. But my mom pointed out that if she fell asleep there, she must have felt safe and secure. It was so chaotic with the switching of the rooms that I didn't really get to talk to the teachers as much as I wanted to. Its just so weird to go from knowing every single move that she makes to knowing virtually next to nothing about her day. Oh, to be a fly on the wall!

She painted me this little fish. I could not get her to look at the camera and show me the fish at the same time. These pictures pretty much sum up how tired she was!

While I had my mommy time, Lisa and I went to the mall. After not even three months of having two kids, it was really weird to be out with just one. I felt like I was missing an arm or something. We stopped by Disney and I got her this Ariel dress. I wanted to have a surprise for her when we got home. At the end of the day, she said that she had fun, although I do anticipate her crying pretty regularly when I drop her off. When I asked her what she did during the day, she just kept repeating: little nap, no running and stopped crying. I think she kept repeating the stopped crying part because she heard me ask her teacher about that. One time she even said, "stopped crying like the baby mouse". So maybe baby mouse helped after all :)

Saved for a Rainy Day

I bought Izzie this princess dress a while back and saved it for a rainy day, which is exactly what today is. So, I brought it out. Here she is modeling.

Smiling Pretty

The Profile Shot

Over the Shoulder and So Serious

Is one arm better...

or two?

And finish with the twirl...a classic Izzie move.

She came up with all of these poses mind you. I think she's a natural :)