The Girls at 1 year

When Isabel was first born, I did little side by side pics of her and Lily at the same age, so I figured I would do a year 1 side by side as well.  Here it is, some people really think they look alike, others don't really think so, Izzie is sucking on her bottom lip (which she does alot) so you can't really tell mouth wise, but what do you think?

Getting to the present

So, this blog is going to catch ya'll up to today :) Aren't you proud of me??  I can't believe that I am actually completely catching up here.  I never keep a journal so it is no suprise that I tend not to be a very faithful blogger, but I have decided that my blog kind of IS like a journal (the kind you are ok with people reading after you are old and gray-not the  Dear Diary kind) so I am trying to be better about it!

As I said in my last couple posts, during Isabels birthday I was sick with a nasty cold.  Which I then gave to Isabel and she then gave to Lily.  It was HORRIBLE.  The girls were SO miserable (and so was I) and Matt wasn't great either.  The girls temps got scary high (like 105 people), so we were of course piggybacking meds, and giving lots of cold baths.

so cold!

When Lily was really sick the baths were horrible for her, she was so miserable, but as she started feeling better (but her fever stayed high) we could convince her to get in by letting her play with her soap paint that Santa gave her.  {side story: she is now no longer allowed to use this in the tub due to sneaking it in her room durning nap time, unscrewing the lid, painting all over herself, her clothes, the floor, Izzie (especially her face), Izzie's clothes and Izzie's sheets.}

After a couple of weeks we were all finally feeling better!  HOORAY! Then last weekend Matt had 5 days in a row off so we were planning on going home to visit my family, its been like 6 months since we were there and it was also my mom's birthday so we wanted to be there for that, BUT the day before we were supposed to leave my mom called to say that her and my sister's son were diagnosed that day (my mom's actual b-day) with Strep Throat.  Which was devastating.  SO sad.  We had all been healthy for like 2 days, so we decided not to risk it.  It was the right choice. but it really made me sad.

Matt took the opportunity to hole up in our room for the weekend and work on homework.  Since the girls and I were on our own (and it was raining ALOT) I tried to think of fun things to do.  One afternoon we made pudding and I let them eat it themselves, in the bath tub where it wouldn't be so bad to clean up.

Then on Tuesday we decided to go on a family outing to the zoo.  We didn't have any plans since that is the day we were supposed to be driving home, Matt had been a good boy doing school stuff and decided he could manage a break and I needed to feel like we did something fun during the time off, so I could stop feeling sorry for myself that I couldn't go home.  We had SO much fun at the zoo.  Lily LOVED it, and so did Izzie actually.  Isabel loved all the birds and Lily loved it all.  I also got to puch a squirrel.  It was great.  It actually was accidental, he (or she) was hanging out under our park bench during luch begging for scraps and I dropped a lid and reached to pick it up at the same time he darted for it, and my fist and his face collided.  He returned after only a minute and remained for the rest of our luch break, so I don't feel too bad about it.  Here is a slide show of our day at the Zoo.

Warning there are 30 pics in here so get comfy :)

After the Zoo we went out to dinner with our friends Sara and Jeremy, it was fun and delicious.  I'm so glad they asked us!

Anyway, that is what we have been up to THIS WEEK!  Matt has been paying for the time off by having the craziest work/school schedule ever the last half of the week, when he finally gets some sleep after today he will have been awake and at school or working for 40 hours straight, if you don't count a 3 hour nap then you can make it 50 hours.  So if you see him, feel sorry for him, or at least cut him some slack :)  He is working SUPER hard and doing lots of tedious and un-fun things right now.  Yet he is still helping out and being a GREAT dad.  He is my best friend and a wonderful man, I just wish that I could take some of his load right now.  Anyway, he is taking it all like a champ and I am SO grateful for him and super proud of him, so I have to brag at least a little right?

Ok, wow!  I did it!  I am caught up through this very day!  Hooray for me!  :)  Thanks to YOU for reading this!  You get a pat on the back!  But only if you comment.  Not that I really mind blog stalkers (i am one too) I just LOVE comments, because I am self absorbed I'll admit it.  So if you don't comment then you should remove the pat that you may or may not have just placed on your back.  I withdraw my invitation for said patting, unless of course you comment.  In which case, pat away my friend, pat away :)

Happy Birthday Isabel

I CAN NOT believe she is one.  REALLY??  Where did that year go and how can I get it back?!  Actually 2009 was not a great year for me.  It was actually overwhelmingly difficult and frustrating and sad, BUT at the very beginning of the year the Lord blessed me with a beautiful ray of sunshine that would make complaining about the year very difficult indeed.  I can't even express the happiness that she has brought to my life and to our family.  She is such a sweet and vivacious girl and I am SO happy she is a part of our family.  Here are a few things about her:

She was the sweetest/most snuggly baby.

She started sleeping through the night regularly at 2 months (SOOOO much sooner than Lily)

She is just starting to learn that laughing doesn't ALWAYS have to turn into crying

She is a bit of a control freak, she is incredibly daring and curious but does not like ANYTHING forced on her (or to be tossed or held high, etc) Oh, she will climb up on something and try to get off of it by herself without a second thought (again SOOOO different than our timid Lily), but SHE has to be in control. I don't know where she would get that.  Oh.  Yeah. That's right, it's me. Definetly me.

Due to the daring and curiosity, she has also had alot more bruises and bumps than Lily has ever had, probably about 10x's as much.  I'm serious.

She loves to give what we call head snuggles, where she wants to push her face (very firmly) against yours.  Matt says they are just head butts, which they do resemble, but they are given with love.

She LOVES her big sister. (and her big sister loves her, they are great together and it makes me SOO happy)

She loves babies.  Real babies, pictures, dolls, even the baby in the mirror. :)

She is usually all in.  Her emotions are something she definetly doesn't have control of.  When she is good she is VERY very good and when she is bad she is horrid.  She is a passionate little girl who is shy and sweet, but when she is mad or sad the whole world knows it.  Again, kind of like me (which scares the heck out of me people), and I am terrified for her teenage years.

She is very loving and affectionate and I absolutley adore her.  I am one of those annoying parents who is completely infatuated by the wonderfulness of their own children.  Sorry about that, but it is true.

For her birthday we had a small family party with Matt's immediate family and his Grandparents, my brother who lives here and my mom and Hank drove down for it, which was great of them.  We had a good time and Izzie made out like a bandit.  She needed clothes and boy did everybody deliver!  Also she got some new dolls/toys/books.  Other than me being totally sick it was wonderful.

New Years & The Earl Family Reunion

This is matt and his cousins from the reunion (no spouses or kids)

This year was our family's turn to host the Earl reunion.  It was the week of New Year's and we kicked it off with a big new years eve party at the church.  We had rooms with toys and dress up and games for the kids, in the over flow we set up our Rock Band game and Barry brought their new wii.  We had lots of food, kiddos sleeping in pack n' plays in classrooms and a talent show, that was lots of fun.  At 11pm (all the parents voted not to wait until midnight) we did a countdown and opened the stagae curtains and pushed TONS of balloons out into the gym and the kids had mardi gras beads and noise makers and we yelled "Happy New Year", then we got to clean up and head home.

It was a pretty fun night and Lily stayed awake the whole time!  I was SO suprised!  Contrarily, Izzie slept the whole time (from about 6:30 pm on), so that was nice!  Matt and I played our guitars and sang "lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colby Callet (I don't remember how to spell her name??), Lily sang the 'wise man' song, and wanted to sing another, but we cut her off. I wan't sure how she would do because sometimes she is pretty shy, but she totally got up there and sang out right into the mike and didn't want to get off stage.  She couldn't be our kid, could she??  Anyway, she did great, and I think that she was inspired by her cousin Langley who is 3.  She got up before us and sang "popular" along with the wicked sound track, she knows all the words and is a bit of a ham, so it was hilarious.  she stole the show.

Langley, Tom & LilyMatt & Me singing "Lucky"

The next day we hung out at matt's parent's casa with all the relatives, well really I ended up with all the boys (mostly inlaws) and Matt watching the Oregon vs Ohio State game.  We are big oregon fans, so it was a bit of a devastating loss for us.  One of Matt's cousin's family is living in Ohio right now, so they were happy...grumble, grumble. Anyway, we ended up watching Football for alot of the time instead of socializing, but we had a good time.

Saturday morning was the 'family olymipics', which I was solely responsible for.  They turned out great, and I am SO glad, cause you just never know how those kinds of things will go.  We played the spoon game, had a funny relay race where you had to pull out a funny thing to do beofre you could run back or else a fun way to go back, did a board walk, classic 3 legged race (which matt and I TOTALLY would have won had we not been DQ'ed!) and then parent/child blindfolded pudding feeding.  Everybody was great sports and participated and said nice things to me about it being fun, so I was really happy with it.  I made gold medals for everyone and my mother-in-law bought a big bag of candy to hand out afterwards.

Later that day most of the guys went golfing and us girls sat around and gabbed for several hours, it was lots of fun.  That night was a girls dinner, since the guys went golfing, but I skipped it because I am lame.  No...Well...ok, yes.  But I was really worn out and the boys didn't get back from golfing until 7, which is when the girls normally go to bed and we had to take them home and bathe them and I still had all my Primary stuff to prepare for the next day, plus I was really tired and worn out from setting up/running/stressing out over/cleaning up the family olympic stuff.  Anyway, maybe next reunion when I am not in charge of anything I'll go.

But hey, I stayed and visited with all the people ALL DAY when matt was golfing.  I didn't go home at all, which is huge for me.  I don't come from a big happy/loud family that gets together alot [they are loud, just not happy or at least not big] :) and it has taken me a long time to get comfy with Matt's big family situation. I LOVE them, but lets face it, it is kind of intimidating to be left alone with them with no spouse as a buffer :)  They are a big crowd who all know each other really well, and I tend to get quiet and just kind of shut down when faced with big groups of people (I am much better in small groups).  But I am finally pretty comfortable with all of Matt's family.  I have always really loved them and appreciated them, but like I said the first 5 years I was a little scared of them.  I guess that I am just too used to dysfunction :)

Anyway, in general it was the most comfortable I have been at an Earl family reunion yet.  I had a great time and LOVED getting to know people more.  I am actually really looking forward to the 2011 reunion in UT.

As soon as the reunion was over I got the stomach flu.  Yuck.  Which I then gave to Matt and Lily.  Non-stop puking for 2 days followed by intermitten puking as you clean up your 2 years old vomit (including having to wash it out of her hair) = MISERY.  Right afterwards I got a sore throat, which I was hoping was just from the ridiculous amounts of throwing up that had been happening (I still don't know where it all came from) but then it turned into a full blown cold just in time for Izzie's birthday party.  Which is what my next post will catch up on.  Not the cold.  the birthday party.  and maybe the cold.  a little.  but mostly party.  Stick around folks, cake covered 1 year old baby pics coming soon!

Christmas

Ok, so I am a little overwhelmed at the fact that I haven't blogged in over a month and during that time we had Christmas, new years, a family reunion, Izzie's first birthday (I know I can't believe she is one!) Matt started school full time, and switched to a full time night shift schedule so he is crazy busy, Matt Lily and I got the stomach flu following which all of us (and Isabel) got colds.  So yeah.  Lots to blog about.  And I haven't posted pics in over 2 months, and when I went to download pics off my camera, ther were hundreds.  Over 300 pics to sift through with all the family stuff that has been going on.  So right now I am going to post on Nov-Christmas, then I'll do a new post for the family reunion, then a new one for Izzie's birthday, etc.

Anyway, we had a great Christmas.  I still wasn't feeling great with what they now believe was probably severe Labrythitis (the vertigo/dizziness), which I am FINALLY better from!  I even started driving again 2 weeks ago, which I hadn't been able to do for almost 2 months, so it is great to be feeling mostly normal again!

Anyway, back to topic!  CHRISTMAS!  Matt had to work on Christmas day so we had Christmas on Christmas Eve (you can do that when your kids are still so little), and since it was Christmas Eve and not Christmas (Santa's sleigh only works on Christmas), Santa was Awesome and gave my mom (who has been one of Santa's official helpers as long as I can remember) all the girl's stocking stuff.  So she came down on the 23rd and brought her gifts for the girls and also all the stocking stuff from Sants, which was SUPER wonderful of her since I was still feeling bad and couldn't drive and had done NO shopping, except for buying a couple DVD's online. I got the girls a movie each and Matt and I got movies for each other.  The rest of our christmas money went to buying a new laptop for Matt for school.  Wonderfully my fabulous sister-in-law Heather gave us a TON of toys that her family had outgrown (she has 4 kids and her youngest is 1 year older than Lily) that were perfect for our kids.  She gave them to us a couple weeks before Christmas, she was purging in order to make room for new Christmas stuff.  So we wrapped all of that stuff up and gave it to the girls for Christmas and they LOVED it.  It was a great morning we had so much fun!

this is lily plaing with some bath soap/paint from santa. it was a big hit!

That night we had a family dinner at Matt's parents.  It was SO much fun!  It was everyone else's Christmas eve and we had a delicious dinner followed by cookie decorating for the kids to decorate for santa.  The kids also acted out the nativity while Boopah read the Christmas story.

One hilarious part of the night was the gift that we got from Matt's brother Barry and his wife Janeal.  Every year we exchange gift witht them (Matt's sisters exchange and he and his brother exchange), anyway we usually do movies or something for each other, but this year we hadn't really told them what we were interested in (we usually give them a list of movies we would like and they pick one), so when they brought out our gift we had NO idea what it could be.  It was huge.  And they said they were so excited to watch us open it.  They made us sit on the couch in front of everyone and they stood right in front of us with the camera while we opend it.  When we were handed the gift it was clear that it was some kind of art in a big frame.  It felt very sturdy and we had no idea what it could be. Matt's brother warned us that it was mostly for matt in a seriosu voice.

Then we ripped it open.

And laughed.

It was pretty funny.

It was this.

(our real gift-a video game-was taped to the back)

Barry said he took it out from under a teenage girl who was standing oogling it and probably actually really wanted it.  It was so random and the fact that something like this actually exsists is pretty great.  I think I'll bring it to the next white elephant party we go to!  Here I am being obsessed with Edward.

One of the funniest parts was that after we opened it and first turned it around to show everyone what it was Lily was right by it and stroked his face very gently and said, "Its a little boy. He's beautiful" in an awed voice.  It was pretty funny.  She is saying the funniest things all the time and I am LOVING the almost 3 year old faze!

Now the only question is, what do we get for them in return next year?

On Christmas Day I rode over with my in laws (at 7am) to Heather and Tom's house.  We had breakfast with them (waffles and bacon and eggs and OJ and eggnog..pretty amazing.  thanks guys) and then watched them open their gifts, which Lily was really great about.  I was a little worried how she would do watching and not having anything to open, but I reminded her that she already opened her presents yesterday and we brought the puppy "goldie" that Santa gave her as a reminder of her new toys.  She did pretty well.   Though I did feel a little awkward.  (side note: lily LOVES that puppy.  almost as much as her woobie. seriously alot.) Then Nana & Boopah (matt's parents) left and I satayed and spent the day with Heather and Tom's family.  It was alot of fun and nice to just kick back and relax.  And it ws great of H & T to invite me out and let me invade their family Christmas.  That night after Matt got off work he came over and we sent the boys out to get some Jack in the Box (a yummy christmas dinner for us grown ups :) and then we stayed up too late and watched 2 movies "just friends" which H&T hadn't seen and "startrek" which matt and I hadn't seen.  It was Awesome!  We love those guys and miss living close to them in the East valley where we got to see them alot more often.

Tommy also randomly decided to give Matt a gift (even though we don't usually exchange with them...SUPRISE!) and it was...

GOLF CLUBS!  Can you believe that!  What a nice gift!  And some galf balls and a cleaner brush.  It was so crazy!  Tommy got new ones and decided to give Matt his old ones (which he probably could have sold, so thanks for thinking of us!)  He even tied a bow on the clubs for Matt (tom's a man's man, so i was impressed).  Anyway, now Matt is hooked on golfing and I am just sad that he won't have more free time in the next year to go.  And I am happy that it is much cheaper/less time consuming to go to the driving range and practice and that he won't be paying for full out golfing very often this year! 

During our family reunion 5 of the guys went golfing and I was glad that matt got to go and do boy stuff and that he has a new hobby.  Also, my dad and my papa both golfed alot.  I remember my papa watching golf on TV all the time and going out golfing.  He loved it and I always wanted to learn how.  I have been to the driving range but never been actually golfing (unless you count mini), so I am excited that Matt is getting into it so that he can then teach me and it can be a fun outdoor activity for us in the future!  :)

My brother Charlie came and visited us several times during Christmas Break, it was great to hang out with him and he is always so sweet to drive over here (it's like 40 minutes people) a few times every months and be the girls' play slave.  Seriously he indulges them way too much, but they sure love him!  And after all what are uncles for?!

Anyway, that was Christmas.  We definetly felt the spirit of Christ this year, even if we didn't do alot of our traditional Christmas things, due to me being sick.  We feel SO blessed to have such wonderful & generous friends and family. We love you guys!