Isabelle, or is it Elvis?

Izzy is 10 1/2 months old now, and for the past few months, I have been searching for sleepers for 12 month olds, with feet. They are surprisingly difficult to find! So, I decided to put her in a footless outfit that she had never worn before, and then put some socks on her. When I was done, she looked like Elvis. But asian. And smaller.

Here she is, with Chris holding her up in the background. The socks are super cute, and were bought for Izzy by her Grandma Boo and Granddaddy Don.


Since she looked like Elvis, and we needed more pictures to show her prom date, we gave her a guitar.


Here she is again, rocking out on the guitar. In both pictures, notice Chris, trying to give weird Elvis faces. We no longer wonder why Izzy is weird.

A Late Intro

For all of you who don't regularly check the links on the side of my blog, Chris has started a running blog to talk about how it's going. It's pretty funny and well written and interesting (and I'm not just saying that because I'm married to him). Check it out at packmanruns.blogspot.com.

Our Hike from 2 weeks ago

Back a few weeks ago, Chris and I and Isabelle went up to Garden Canyon to hike around. Now, back before we left on our vacation, I sprained my ankle pretty bad, but I was still running on it. But while I was in Wisconsin, my knee really started bothering me. I think it was a combination of changing my gait to favor my ankle, and the fact that there are all those darned stairs to go up and down. Regardless, my knee was killing me whenever I had to step up on something or step down from something. I had told Chris it was hurting before we decided to hike, but I didn't tell him that it hurt a lot. So, all that to say I looked pretty stupid hiking, because I was so gimpy. I also didn't realize that the trail was SOOOO rocky and steep. Anyways, up sucked, but down wasn't too bad. I actually enjoyed that part. Izzy was great. She looked around and stuck her face out the side. And towards the end, she fell asleep. Chris said he could tell when she did, because she would become dead weight, and her head would loll to the side. It was pretty funny to see, but I couldn't get a picture, because whenever we stopped to take one, she would wake up.

Right when we got there, we saw this cute little lizard. He was super quick, and he had tons of cousins around.


Here he is again, after he popped up behind a different rock.


Here are Chris and Izzy in front of this awesomely huge rock. See how happy she is? It was hilarious how much she loved it.


And here are the loves of my life in front of a twisty tree.


This is the twisty tree, artistic style. It was pretty cool.


Here is scooter bump, looking cute.


I don't know how she got so photogenic...


Chris said that the leaning didn't bother him, but when we were done, he needed a V8.


And here we are as a family....refer back to that photogenic comment.

Happy 4th of July, my little french children...

Well, obviously the 4th of July came and went, and I am only getting to post those pictures now. First of all, I claim the right of being a busy mother, and that is why I am about a week late on all posts. Second of all, I declare that busy-ness includes reading books and watching TV.

In previous posts, I have talked about how much the dogs love Izzy, and how much she loves them right back, but finally, I have incontrovertible proof. She and the dogs have gotten to first base. According to teenadvice.about.com, first base = kissing; second base = kissing and touching over clothes; third base = kissing and touching under clothes; home = sex. Other websites give other meanings, but for my purposes, I'll use these definitions. Of course, that means that since the dogs don't wear clothes, Izzy might be getting to third base. Anyways, the gist of it is that she and the dogs have begun showing mutual affection by trying to eat each others' faces, specifically using the tongue and aiming for the mouth region (to include the nose and cheeks). And if you say, "ewwww, that's gross!," we agree. It is gross, and we try to stop it whenever we can, and use antibacterial wipes on Izzy's face and hands whenever dog mouths are involved. But sometimes, we have to take a step back and pull out the camera. Plus, sometimes, they (including Isabelle) are just too darned quick to stop it all. Anyways, here are some pictures of the kids "getting some" on the 4th of July. Please note the adorable outfit that Izzy is wearing, compliments of Papa and Yaya (my parents).

In this one, it's hard to see, but Rai is licking Izzy's cheek.


And here, Eden has taken advantage of my being soooo far away on the couch, to give Izzy a truly whopping lick. You can see her giant pink tongue just sliming up Izzy's cheek.


And you say to yourself, oh, but all dogs like to lick! Well, so does Izzy. Here, she's trying to make out with Raisin. We wouldn't mind so much, but we know that he is a proven poop eater. Gross.


And this one is of Izzy and her amazing tongue. She can flip it over in her mouth, and stick it out really far, and generally use it for all kinds of mayhem.


Oh, and the night of the 4th of July, we went to Wal-Mart to watch the Sierra Vista fireworks, and Izzy watched them a bit, but mostly ate her cracker and rubbed it all over us.

Izzy, going crazy in her jumperoo

Since we got back from vacation, we've realized that Izzy must have gotten taller, because we had to raise the height of the jumperoo. And now, when she's in it, she jumps really high, which is funny and scary all at the same time. Another thing she started doing was crazy head shaking. She gets all excited, and starts shaking her head while she laughs. At first, I was worried that it was a symptom of some scary disease or something, but my parents reassured me that it was just something babies do because it is fun and probably feels good. So, now, when she does it, we just laugh, and funny enough, once I stopped worrying, she stopped doing it so much.

But in this video, she's jumping like crazy, and right around 15 seconds, she does a weird jump/head shake. You'll notice it because I start laughing, which makes the camera shake. So when you see the picture shake, go back a few seconds and watch her. She's pretty funny!

Why Isabelle and the dogs love each other...

One of our favorite places to put Izzy these days is in her pack n play. She has tons of toys, a soft floor, and 4 walls, so she can roll, and flop and play as much as she wants. She loves to eat crackers in their too, and often will play with a toy in one hand, and a cracker in the other. But one of her favorite things to do with her cracker, is try to share with Rai and Eden. She rubs the cracker all over the sides of the pack n play, and the dogs will try to lick it off.

This is a picture of the side of the pack n play. All the tan lines are cracker swipes. All 4 sides of the pack n play get like this, as she rubs the cracker all over it!


Here's her trying to feed Rai through the wall.


And here's how it looks from the outside. Usually Rai and/or Eden will sit there while she's got a cracker, and just wait for her to start "coloring" and for me to not be looking.


This one is of Eden doing a quick drive by...trying to pretend she's not looking to lick the sides.

Tagged...

I got tagged again by Jennifer, and then the last question asked who would respond first, and Jennifer said it might be me. So, the question becomes...do I want to do it first, and prove her right? I said to myself, why not!


1) LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER? Juno...I think...it was pretty long ago.

2) WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING? Eragon

3) FAVORITE BOARD GAME? Scattergories

4) FAVORITE MAGAZINE? Self

5) FAVORITE SMELLS? an outdoor fire

6) FAVORITE SOUNDS? Izzy's laugh

7) WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD? Like I did something wrong, and still have to face up to it.

8)WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN U WAKE UP? Was that Isabelle?

9) FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE? Qdoba

10) FUTURE CHILD'S NAME? Don't know yet.

11) FINISH THIS STATEMENT—"IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY..." I would find Chris a new job.

12) DO YOU DRIVE FAST? sometimes

13) DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? no

14) STORMS–COOL OR SCARY? Cool as long as it's not too windy

15) WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR? Plymouth Sundance

16) FAVORITE DRINK? Fresca

17) FINISH THIS STATEMENT-IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD blog more!

18) DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI? yes

19) IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY OTHER COLOUR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE? I wouldn't dye all my hair

20) NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.
Wauwatosa, WI
McNaughton, WI
Durham, NC
Central Valley, NY
Miami, FL
Seattle, WA
Fairbanks, AK
Mililani, HI
Sierra Vista, AZ

21) FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? College Football

22) ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? She knows a lot about kids!

23) WHATS UNDER YOUR BED? Baby clothes, and shoes

24) WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN? yes

25) MORNING PERSON OR NIGHT OWL? According to Chris, I'm neither.

26) OVER EASY OR SUNNY SIDE UP? scrambled

27) FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX? on a clean floor

28) What happened to #28?

29) FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? strawberry or mint chocolate chip (as long as it's green!)

30) OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU HAVE TAGGED, WHO IS THE MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST? Do I actually have to tag anyone? I don't know too many people who blog, so I'm not going to tag anyone.

And our lives will never be the same...

We're BACK!!! And ready for some fun!!!

So, here's what happened...we left for Virginia on June 3 for a week in Richmond to join in the celebration of Grammie's 90th Birthday, and Don and Ronnie's 60th Birthday. It was tons of fun, and Max took all these great pictures...but I left the disc with the pictures in my parents computer, so all I have is the one that Chris saved to our computer...but it's a good one

Here she is...sitting while we watched her. We did a lot of just playing with Izzy, which she totally LOVED. She and I both had a hard time with the heat (which was record breaking!!!), but we both had fun, and she loved meeting the Pack relatives.


Then, on the 9th, Izzy and I moved on to Wisconsin while Chris returned to Arizona. She did great on the plane when Chris was there (going to Virginia), but of course, she had a hard time when it was just me. She didn't cry the whole time, but she left out enough noise to be noticed (and to annoy) the other passengers. I was glad when we got to Milwaukee.

While she was there, she got to meet and say hello to her great grandpa Lou! She actually let him hold her and sat there pretty happily for at least 10 minutes. Grandpa seemed pleased to see her, too, which was awesome! So, here they are, chillin' together.


This is a picture of my newest nephew, Josiah. It was taken at my cousin Mike's wedding to a great girl, Katie. Their nickname is Mike and Ike, so of course, their party favors were Mike N' Ikes. This picture was taken right after Josiah found a stash of them, and had just shoved one in his mouth...this kid is so fun!


Chris and Izzy got to do some dancing at the wedding, too. It was wonderful to see them get to enjoy some time together. One of their favorite things to do is dance, so the reception was perfect for them.


And this one is Izzy sleeping. We were dancing on the dance floor while she was in the sling, and then I looked down, and she was sleeping. She took a 20 minute power nap and then woke up ready to dance some more.


All in all, we had a great vacation, but we're happy to be home, and especially happy to have Chris back. And now that we're home, we'll try to keep up with the blog!