Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Pictures from Today

I took these first two with my camera phone. Now whenever we go in the garage Isabel has to go see the motorcycle and sit on it. Daddy has already got her hooked on a motorcycle. I am sure that makes him smile.

Some people have a sand box, well, we have a dirt box. This is the box of dirt I had setting out from when we planted at our Earth Week Celebration, but there is a lot of dirt left and Isabel loves digging in it. She does get quite messy afterwards.

Here is a picture to analyze. The three of us did some painting this evening. Isabel painted two of them and I painted one and daddy painted the other. Mine started out as a rain cloud & tree, but then with a little help from Isabel it changed into a tornado. Daddy made the volcano. Here are my thoughts on what Isabel made....(bottom left) looks like a pitbull wearing a halo riding a horse that is talking to a cardinal....and (top right) it's a landscape picture that has a bridge, a red poppy, a mountain, a tree & a field, but hidden in there is a face smiling.....I guess our daughter has a more friendly view of our world.....daddy & I seem be feeling like we have been hit by natural disasters.....what do you think?

Sunday, April 27, 2008

PPH Spring Festival Pictures

We went to her spring festival for her Preschool Power Hour. We sang songs on stage (See YouTube link on side for video) and had a snack and they got to play in a bunch of different areas that were set up for them.


After that we came home & I picked up the babysiter for the night. Brooke did a great job with Isabel. Isabel didn't even care that we were leaving because she was too busy putting together puzzles with Brooke. It is nice to have found a sitter.

As always, remember that you can click on the picture to enlarge it and see more detail.


Saturday, April 26, 2008

Family Fun Fair

I did something fun here with this print. This morning & for lunch time we went first pick up daddy's car from work because last night he drove home a motorcycle that he gets to use. He is pretty happy about that. Then we went to this Family Fair at the Child and Famliy Centers of Excellence. It was nice. They had activities for the kids and there was lots of free stuff they were giving away, including lunch. Isabel saw her friend Drew there with his parents as well.


Later this afternoon we are going to the Spring Festival for Preschool Power Hour. It will be sabel's first school program. They will have some of the kids's artwork on display, games for the kids & snacks as well, and then the moms & kids go on stage and sing some of the songs we learned for everyone else. So, stay tuned for pictures from that.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Earth Week Party Slideshow

I knwo you've been waiting for it......Now here it is......

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Our Last Preschool Power Hour Class

Well, today was our last class of this session of Preschool Power Hour at St. Mathew's Church & School. If we are here in the fall, we will definitly enroll in it again. We did like it. Our friends Michelle, Noah & Olivia took the class with us. This Saturday, we have our Spring Festival, which is the cumulation of the class and they will have some of the art work made on display and the moms & kids will get on stage and perform for the dad & grandparents that came to watch.


The class was divided into 2-30 minute segments. Our first segment was the story/singing/art/gym time and then our second segment was singing/dancing/musical instrument time.
Tomorrow we are hosting an Earth Week Celebration for our playgroup. It's supposed to rain, so I guess we'll be transplanting broccoli plants & planting bean seeds in the house. It should be some messy fun and I am sure I will take a ton of pictures and will probably have to make a slide show of it since there will be quite a few pictures.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Feeling Better


Isabel's tummy has been upset and the past couple nights she has puked. So, we've been laying low the last couple of days. This morning we planted some flowers in a pot and also made a apple-cranberry cake. This afternoon we plan to meet Carrie & kids at a park to play. Tomorrow is our last preschool power hour class and then Friday afternoon we are having a playgroup over here. Hopefully it is nice out because it would be better to play outside and have the kids do their planting outside.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

23 Months Old Today!

Today is daddy's birthday & Isabel was admiring the present she gave him. She also had presents to open from grandma & grandpa, as they will be in Spain over her birthday for her cousin Andres' First Communion. Grandma made her a sundress and a matching one for her dolls, as well as about 5 other outfits for her dolls and a new doll as well. The doll looks just like Isabel. They have the same kissable cheeks.


We all went to church this morning and then out for brunch at Saxe's Casual Fine Dining. They have a buffet brunch on Sunday that was really good. I recommend it.The best thing about a buffet with kids is that you can can them fed right away and then get out when you need to, so I am happy we found this place.


Grandma & Grandpa were here for a short weekend visit. We played outside this afternoon & grilled out. It was very nice. It was the first time this season that we grilled out & had a picnic outside (both at the same time). We hope the weather stays beautiful like this because Isabel & I are having an Earth Week Celebration playgroup on Friday here.



Here are some pictures I took that I thought looked great as black and whites. Well, I need to go, it's time for cake!

Pictures from Making Daddy's Present



Saturday, April 19, 2008

100 Weeks Old

Putting on the party hat she decorated.

(Top Left to Bottom Right):

Sliding down bounce house; Decorating party hat with mom; Playing in sandbox; Playing with toys.



She gota little frosting on her face. Just a little.

We went to a birthday party this afternoon. Of couse, she loved the cake. She had a lot of fun sliding with her friend. It was really cute when her friend was saying, "C'mon Isabel, you can do it! You did it!" Tonight grandma & grandpa babysat while mom & dad went and saw the movie Leatherheads. It is daddy's birthday tomorrow so he got to choose the movie.

Concord Zoo Slideshow (2 or maybe 3)

Not sure what number of slideshow this is to the Concord Zoo, but we love this place. We met some families from our playgroup here on Friday and had a great time.

Today, we went to Good Harvest Market for their Earth Day Celebration and bought some yummy food and were able to sample lots of yummy treats. Now we are just waiting for grandma & grandpa to get here for their visit this weekend.

Friday, April 18, 2008

It's OK to Have Cake for Breakfast

Sometimes you can't sweat the small stuff, like your daughter wanting cake (I'll tell you about this later) for breakfast. Because cake for breakfast is pretty minor compared to having no clue where you will be living in about a month (for several months or more) and whether or not income will be coming in.

If you haven't heard, the company that daddy works for is laying off 10% of non-production workers (6.5% of production workers). He's a non-production worker. They aren't actually going to decide who is laid off until the end of June/ beginning of July after voluntary retirement requests are due in.

So, here we are, with a house in MN waiting to be sold so we can move here. Now what happens if our house sells? We certainly are not going to buy anything until after the layoffs have been completed. But then all our stuff could be in storage. It just all seems like a big mess. And then there is the possibility that he could get laid off (which we do want to stay here) and granted we do have a house to go back to, but we'd never be able to sell it if it hasn't sold because we could not afford to sell it at the price we lowered it to. Why, you ask? Well, the company pays the realtor commissions as part of the relo package, so we lowered it as far as we possibly could to try & get it sold finally. But if we move back & daddy has to find a new job in the Cities, well, we couldn't take the loss of the relator commissions and daddy is back to commuting a long distance.

And there is nothing we can do now to figure anything out. We can't even have a Plan B or C. We had come up with some ideas, prior to yesterday, regarding where we would live on June 1. I have some friends here who have graciously opened up their homes to us while they are on vacation in June or July and we may have to take them up on it because I am not sure that we can afford to use our savings to stay in a hotel for 2 months. Any bit of time we can stay other places is probably what we have to do.

I thought th stress before was as much as I can handle. Now with this new turn of events, I just don't know. I thought there was nothing I can do before.....well, now there is really nothing I can do because all we can do is sit & wait.

My poor sister is in a similar situation with the income thing for one of them & uncertainty, but they have a permanent house, but are EXPECTING! I just don't think I could handle having to find a job right now & daycare for Isabel. I don't want that for our family. It is working well for all of us with me as a SAHM.

So, now I am turning in our 30-day notice to the Y for cancelling membership on the chance we might not get to use it during June or July. I can still renew it at anytime before 60 days without having to pay a new joiner's fee. It sucks. And I think our playgroup attendance is going to just be at parks & homes until July when we know what is going on. Well, we did buy a zoo pass, so we can still go there (& will to make sure we get our money out of it). It just feels like we have to save every little dime now. I hate this.

I wonder if the reason our house has not been sold is because God knew we had to go back.

Ok - enough dwelling on something I can do nothing about but sit & wait.

Anyways - the cake was a little experiment. I made a half a box of white cake mix (per directions), then mixed in a half package of raspberry kool-aid and a half cup of frozen raspberries and baked as directed. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it is great! The cake is very moist and tasty. After it cooled I just put vanilla frosting on it, although I don't think you really need the frosting.

In other news -- I have a sinus infection I am trying to get rid of. I don't like drugs, so I am trying some natural ways. It might actually be working because this morning I don't have the throbbing sinus headace anymore.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Faves from This Afternoon


Outside Slideshow

This one does have music and only a little text to read at the very beginning and very end.

I will also post a collage of my favorite pictures from this slideshow and I have a couple of videos on YouTube as well. Just follow this link to my YouTube page and see the new videos of her throwing rocks and exploring a worm. Sometimes the videos take a while to process and get on there, so just check back if they are not there yet.

Fort Cushing Park

The slideshow is only pictures & words. No music to this one.

We met some members of our playgroup at Fort Cushing park. It's a fun park, but because of all the nooks & crannies it is hard for the moms to have a conversation & keep an eye on their kids. The place was super packed and all the spots in the parking lot were taken. She had a good time. We ate lunch there and then stopped at the library on our way home to turn in her Culver's coloring sheet (for National Library Week) and got her certificate for a free ice cream cone. We didn't end up sharing the cake we brought. It seemed like everyone was on different snack/lunch schedules and it was just too busy. I gave Isabel a piece in the car and she fell asleep while eating it. She got up about 30-40 minutes too early this morning, so consequently her naptime is now 40 minutes earlier. Plus, running around at the park probably helped tire her out.

Making Daddy's B-day Present

This morning we made daddy's birthday present. His birthday is on Sunday. I had to crop the picture so you couldn't see exactly what it was that she made. Those pictures will be revealed at a later date. Isabel also helped make her waffle this morning and helped add the ingredients for a cake we made to bring along to our playgroup date at a park today. We will leave for that soon. It is going to be so nice outside today!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Interesting Things.....

* We just checked out the book "A is For Art" from the library. It is an alphabetical tour of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Very neat book. I read it to Isabel tonight and she was interested in it, mainly because she knew the letters, but I think someday we'll go to the museum so she can look at the paintings in real life & compare them to the book. Very cool. This might be a book that we even buy at some point.

* We also checked out the DVD, Word World: Rocket to the Moon. Isabel likes it.

* Isabel said to me the other day "See how tall" and backed up against the height poster on her bedroom wall. As of Monday she is 35 inches tall. It's only a few more days until 23 months, so I am not sure if she'll be any taller then.

* We have 2 more weeks left of our Preschool Power Hour class. We like it and plan to continue taking it. Isabel is one of the younger ones in the class and can't sit still very well, but she enjoys it. It is pretty fast moving, which is good because you can't stay too long on one thing with toddlers. Isabel loves the singing & dancing & art time & physical activity time. As long as we make the Mke area our permanent home, we do plan on signing up again in the fall.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Playtime at Stonefire Pizza

Today we met some friends for breakfast & lunch at Stonefire Pizza. Isabel had a great time. She fell asleep in the car on the way back and actually transferred well and ended up taking a 2.5 hour nap. Yeah!

Saturday Picture

She is all set in the car wearing mama's hat as we head out to go visit family in northern WI. We went up for cousin Blake's baptism. It was a nice visit and auntie Razz & Uncle Shane took us out to eat at Uncle Shane's dad's restauranta nd we had a very good meal. Isabel was playing with a little boy there who kept chasing her around with his toy car.

She is 99 weeks old in this picture.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

It's Cold.

She makes her body shiver when she says cold. Funny girl.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Rain Gear


Isabel got a chance to get outside a bit today and play in the puddles with her new rain gear. Today we went to the Y for mama's yoga class and then grocery shopping and then later on we had a playdate over in the afternoon. Tomorrow we are picking some baby stuff up for Auntie Phanie that I saw on craigslist for a great price. It's here in our town, but we'll see her this weekend to give it to her. Then we are off to a playgroup.

Monday, April 07, 2008

Outside Pictures

Daddy taught her how to throw rocks in the lake, so now we have to be right on top of her because she wants to go throw stuff in the lake. Darn daddy.

Check out her rainboots she just got. We're supposed to get some rain tomorrow afternoon, so maybe Wednesday morning we can go out & play in the puddles, or even tomorrow afternoon if her rain coat will fit over here winter coat.

The ice finally all melted on the lake last night. It was so warm this weekend & last night, but now it is chilly again. I don't like it.

Drinking Tea

Sometimes drinking tea, is just that - we are drinking tea. Othertimes she pretends to drink tea out of a watering can at the pool at the Y (she did that today), or out of her play cups just filled with water from the water cooler, or out of a play tea pot in tub with watershe just peed in (she did this last night, I know - gross!). But she thinks drinking tea is yummy. Usually she gets either peppermint or chamomile.

Just last week she started saying a ton of 2 & 3 word sentences. Right before I took the sideways video she said, "It's good tea.", but of course she wouldn't say that again on camera. Yesterday when we were playing with bubbles & daddy was picking her up she says, "I'm flying." It was very cute.

She got her second 2 year old molar on Saturday when she took her super long nap. This one is the lower right 2-year molar. So, now she has both on the right side and is still waiting for the ones on the left to poke through.

Sideways Video

Sorry - I forgot and taped it sideways. Whoops!

Saturday, April 05, 2008

98 Weeks Old

Well, today we went to an open house and then we went to church (after she took a super long nap - 3.25 hours.) We played outside quite a bit as well. It was Soooooo nice out. Tomorrow, I am having a Norwex party here and daddy & Isabel are going to get out for a bit, maybe check out a couple more open houses or find something else to entertain themselves with.

Isabel has been feeling a little under the weather. Her appetite has been very finnicky and she has been very sensitive & a little cranky at times. She still has a cough and a runny nose (although it is clear.) And most times she is in really good spirits. But we have been trying to keep it a little more low-key than usual and didn't go to the storytime last night.

She always squints her eyes and smiles big when I tell her to say "Cheese!"

Nevermind mommy looking disheveled; it is kinda a nice picture regardless.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Zoo Slideshow

A Couple of Zoo Pics

I don't normally have pictures with me in it because normally I am the one taking the picture. But today I asked someone to take a picture. Here we are on the train ride. We also went on the carousel as well.


I think this picture is funny. I told her she needed to make sure a bird didn't poop on her head (there were lots of birds flying above us - it was indoors.)

We went to the zoo with our playgroup. I will post the slideshow in a bit. It was a lot of fun. We carpooled with Lori & Rachael. The girls on the same nap schedule, but it didn't work out so well. She napped for 15 minutes in the car and then about 15 minutes in the house and that as it. Maybe I'll get her to go down for a later nap.

She loved the fish again. I have a feeling that someone may be asking for a goldfish in a couple of years. She really liked the elephants too. She liked seeing all the animals, but the elephants & fish were her favorite.

Tonight we are hoping to take her to the Books & Co. Pajama Party storytime. Although, lately she has not been good about public storytimes. She doesn't want to sit still and just wants to run around.

Apparently, we made national news because a church downtown blew up. It was about 6-7 miles away from our rental here. And speaking of our rental here, the neighbors just put their place up for sale for $1,375,000. Crazy. We don't know the neighbors, but my theory is that it is a divorce. The guy would yell a lot at the wife & kids.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Wednesday Camera Phone Pics


Woohoo! It's Nice Out! Let's Go Play!

I didn't remember to get out my camera until she was having a snack, but we did get out today and went with a bunch of other moms to a park. It was so nice to get outside & play. Afterwards, we joined some of them at Pizza Hut for their lunch buffet and then we came home and Isabel & I started getting out her outdoor toys. We got our one of her slides, the swing & basketball hoop. Really, all we have left to get out is the other slide and ride on toys.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

Her New Ride



Not the most exciting video, but she is still cute.

April Fools Day

Remember - you can click on the picture to see it larger.

We got outside for a little bit today after dinner and it was good for all of us. We are sick of being inside so much and sick of it being cold. Isabel & I went to St. Vincent's today and we picked up some new toddler books for her (some really good ones too!) and her new "ride", that's what she calls it -- "my ride". She was just loving it. So, we were outside for a while watching her ride around and swinging on the log swing & picking up sticks. Tomorrow it will hopefully be nice and we can meet some friends at a local park and play.


Here is Isabel & daddy in front of the lake house rental. Every time I would tell her to say cheese she would squint her eyes and then look down. Guess I have tohave her say something else.

Oh - and Auntie Phanie called and tried telling us she is pregnant. We're not sure that we believe her and are waiting until we see the proof in a couple of weeks. Her & Uncle J have this thing about playing April Fools pranks, so they are not to be believed. She thinks I will feel foolish when she proves she is, but I will just be happy for them.