Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Time at the Park

It was such a beautiful day out and I wanted to try and get some pictures of Izzy for her 1 year party invitation. Here are just a few fun shots.






A little busy

I've been a little busy watching a lot of this lately. And the blurriness proves the hightened activity around here!




Thursday, July 8, 2010

No more 80/20

Yeah, So I thought Izzy would transition into walking full time over maybe a course of a week or so, but no! She decided to take yesterday as her practice day and now she gets up and walks everywhere! All over the house with a big smile on her face! She rarely crawls now. In fact, I think I've seen her crawl twice in the past 2 days.
She's getting so big!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Izzy's walking!

Yup, Izzy is walking! She has been taking a couple steps here and there since about 9 months, but she took off walking on the 4th of July at the water park! She gets up now and walks a lot, but still chooses to crawl 80% of the time because it's quicker. But it won't be too long before she is walking all the time.
These were taken at church Monday night.

The 4th of July

After church on Sunday, we went to a church family BBQ at a nearby park/water park. It was hot, but we had a good time! Izzy enjoyed playing under the spicket and she also took off walking for the first time there! Yes, our 10 month old is walking now! She get's so excited! I'll post the pictures I have so far of her walking after this post. Enojoy the pictures!









Monday, June 28, 2010

Love letters

So I write this because I help a friend out with their marriage today with an idea that I didn't even think could help other people. So because this friend of mine was so excited and found that this totally help, I thought, I would share it for others to try in case it might be something fun and helpful for someone else.

OK, so when Bud and I started dating, we started writing letters to each other. Just for fun, about whatever, love letters. I ended up buying a notebook so that we could keep track of all our letters and they would be in one place. It kinda almost made us feel like kids in high school again passing notes!

You see, one of us would take the notebook home, write in it and then when we would see each other the next day, we would swap. It sounds so cheesy, but it was actually really exciting. We would talk about everything in person, but writing to each other was just another way of communicating and it made us even closer.
We obviously don't do it everyday anymore, but we do still do it from time to time. But now, they are kinda a little more then love letters.

You see, Bud and I are both stubborn people and at the beginning of our marraige, our arguements seemed to not really get very far (as far as resolving goes). There were times that either of us (mostly me) didn't feel heard. So, I would walk away and grab the notebook. This was not only a stress release for me (because I love to write), but it also gave me a chance to really think of the right words to say and get my point across without being interupted. This was very healthy for us because I won't ever write anything I would regret or not mean (unlike sometimes when you are so angry and sometimes speak things you don't mean).

These letters weren't just filled with my point of view on how I felt, but was also very positive reinforcement on how much I love him and all the things I love about him. I made sure to make him feel so loved and wanted. Because that is the truth.
This really helped us with a lot of things. It helped us to move apart when arguing and take a breather, then reconnect and resolve things in a mature manner.

At this current time, we haven't written letters in a while. Mostly because it has taugh us to talk and act differently with each other. That also comes with being married for a while and learning when to pick your battles, and also with making Christ number one. We are not at all perfect, but we have found a lot fun and surprising help with writting to each other.

Not only is it helpful, but we've found it to be really fun and exciting. Writing love letters is a totally different way to talk with one another. It gives us a chance to tell each other things that might sound really cheesy to say out loud. Or to say things that you haven't in a while. Plus it's so private and intamate.

I had a chance to help a friend out today with this idea. He didn't know what to do because he and his wife had just stopped talking. They just never talked about anything anymore. So I told him to try that because it's a way to open new gates. He sat down right then and wrote 5 pages to his wife. He sent me a message later thanking me for such a brilliant idea. He said "IT WORKED" "She LOVED it"!

I was so happy to be able to help out a marriage, that I thought I'd post it one here. A fun way to reconnect or start a new spark. So if you and your special someone need something new to do, or want to surprise them with something or need help with fixing the arguing problem, cause let's all face it, it happens. I don't care how perfect you think you are! Try it out! Might be more fun then you think!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The dog bone

Izzy has started to do this really funny thing. We are not encouraging it, but we are laughing inside every time she does it.
Our dog, Princess (some of you may remember my cute little doggie from high school), has 4 of these Nyla bones that are made our of hard nylon so that dogs don't eat them since chewable bones are empty calories for them. And in the long haul aren't good for them.
So of course Izzy has gotten a hold of these in the last month or two and have found them to be so interesting. She started by picking them up and inspecting them, and then started to watch Princess chew on them. So then when she would pick them up, they of course would go toward the mouth (since EVERYTHING goes in her mouth). We would tell her no and have been telling her no over and over again. This past week or two, I have noticed that when she grabs one, she holds it up to me as if to say, "can I Mom?". We tell her no, that it's the dogs and to give it back to the doggie. She holds it in her hand and starts to wave it around in the air. Then when she thinks you're not looking, she puts her head down just a little and slyly glances back at you while slowly drawing the bone toward her mouth. As if she's thinking, "if I do this slow enough, she won't notice". Of course we notice and yell NO! She jumps and throws the bone.
She totally knows she's not suppose to eat it and that it is the dogs, but is also aware that she is allowed to hold it. She's testing the waters to see what all she can get away with.
Can we agree the we're going to have our hands full with this one come the terrible 2's? Oh boy! It's all funny to us though. We just never show her that!

On and even cuter note, She has also started giving Princess kisses and loves. She leans in as close as she can (usually Princess is on the couch and Izzy is standing on the floor) and with an open mouth gives her a kiss whether she can reach her or not. Then she turns her head to the side and lays it down next to her (or Son, the cat) as if she's giving them a hug. AW! She's so cute! Such a love bug.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Updates

OK, I just posted 3 new posts, so make sure to scroll down to see them all!