Dec 26 - Sleepover

My little sister, niece and nephew stayed the night the evening after Christmas.   What's great about the ages that they are now is that they pretty much entertain themselves AND Izzy :)  And when they weren't entertaining Izzy, she was doing a find job entertaining herself.

I got a new Wii Ski game...it's a lot harder than it looks!

I'm not exactly sure why everyone decided to give me such funny faces, but it works!

The boys spent a LOT of time in these spots

Yes, a hurricane officially hit inside my home.  The mattress was turned over because they were building a "fort" under it.

And then they started using Izzy as their toy.....dressing her up in all kinds of different outfits from her Dora present.  What's funny about this one (besides Taylor's silly face) is that Izzy's pretending to be asleep....standing up.

You can't see this as well, but THIS particular outfit cracked me up because her little skirt was mesh, and her diaper looked a little strange with the outfit...

Here's the kiddos ready for bed...

And breakfast the next morning.  She looks like such a big girl when she's eating her breakfast now...normal bowl...normal spoon.........time is flying........................

Easter 2010

Izzy woke up EARLY on Easter morning (and by early, I mean 7:00am).  It was my turn to get up with her, and I gotta say that it wasn't easy to drag myself outta bed :)  After we had breakfast (and once Joacim woke up) we could begin the "festivities" :)

I don't think she really understood why she was getting all of the gifts, but that doesn't stop any kid from enjoying them, now does it? 

Later on in the afternoon, we went up to Fishers for a family Easter dinner.  Izzy's cousins LOVE playing with her, and I think they were pretty excited to get to see her. 

My nephew, JT....lookin' cool

and helping Izzy look cool too

Izzy and Auntie hunting eggs

she looks completely focused on the task at hand...didn't take her long to figure out this whole egg-hunting thing :)

JT is always so helpful with Izzy..LOVE this about him...

Signs of spring...as Joacim said..."it's like the trees blossomed overnight."

My niece, Taylor, finding a very well-hidden egg.  It's funny...when I look at how tall and lanky she's getting, I think back to when she was a baby and I nicknamed her "beefcake" because she was short and had the BEST chub!  Chubby babies are awesome.

Izzy kept seeing this dandelion and thinking it was an egg, so I picked it for her

Here she is with her papaw, Jessie

Izzy LOVES JT.....it's written all over her face here..

My sister, Andrea, is feeding Izzy sour-patch kids, and she LIKED them!  I can't figure this kid out :)

Here she is with mamaw Deb

I think Izzy had a great time with family today.  It was fun to watch her have so much fun.  Makes me think we need to hang out with family a bit more.  Glad summer's coming up!

Once we got home, it was still nice and warm out, so we broke out the sidewalk chalk and got to work.

This is her first experience with sidewalk chalk, and she was more concerned about getting to color with each piece of chalk....see...

It was truly a great day!

The day after Christmas 2009

So this year, I hosted Christmas with my immediate family, which included my Dad, stepmom, both sisters and my niece and nephew. I made turkey and all the fixin's (since I didn't end up making one for Thanksgiving) and it was delish!!! (kinda surprised myself :) And after dinner, we opened presents. With 3 kids aged 9, 10 and 11, this is a pretty quick task. They don't spend too much time looking at the gifts at first...and it's utter destruction in the living room :)

Izzy was very focused on the task at hand...

Not quite sure what happened to my nephew's pants, but had to capture it!

Love the hat!

A little time with Grandma

And a little time with Grandpa

My nephew LOVES Izzy....since he's the only boy, I think he appreciates it when he gets to do things with her..cute!

All of the kids ended up spending the night at our house that night, which was no small feat for us. We (Joacim and I) were a little worried because we'd never had more than 2 of them at a time (sounds silly, I know, but I've heard from very reliable sources that they can gang up on you!). The great side-benefit of this is having 3 great little baby-sitters :) JT spent some time with Joacim playing the playstation, and Taylor and Brianne played with Izzy:

We had a great time....made hot chocolate and popcorn and watched Polar Express.

It was a GREAT day!!!

Brianne's Birthday

Ok, so I'm TOTALLY behind on this one, but I wanted to make sure I posted this because I know that my little sister looks on here, and I want her to see the photos.

So, her 11th (yikes!!! can't believe it!!!) birthday was back on September 20th. We had a nice little party with family at my parent's house. It was a little chilly that day, but you'll see that it didn't stop the kids!

Here's the birthday girl and her niece...

The girls (Taylor and Bri) were having so much fun playing with Izzy, and from the looks of the smiles on her face, she was having just as much fun!





This is my nephew, JT..trying to look like a thug..:)

Opening presents....of course there had to be SOMETHING in regards to the Jonas Brothers!

I have no idea what she was doing here

Here she is trying on JT's trucker hat

So, even though the pool was only 78 degrees, the kids wanted to go swimming. Amazingly enough, they stayed in there for quite a while!

Here's JT doing a somersault...pretty nice

Why do Cheetos and swimming always seem to go together for kids???

Here's a little mommy time

She was eyeing that water though..she REALLY wanted to get in

Joacim got this one...nice expression, JT!

Then, of course, they wanted Joacim to throw them into the pool...I think this is Taylor flying through the air

And now Brianne (this was a LOT easier when they were younger...they're almost too tall for it now!)

Finally Izzy gets her turn

Here's Bri's yummy cake!

And here's Izzy with her Grandpa....she LOVES her grandpa...doesn't matter how much time goes by between visits...

This MIGHT be part of the reason why :) (look at the expression on my dad's face!)


It was a great day!!!