The IZ Factor

i have seriously neglected posting about my second munchkin lately.  i was looking back on my posts and mae has a much more documented life than little miss iz. 

this is one happy little munchkin.  she smiles all the time, and anyone and everyone, and it's a whole body experience.  i think the biggest smile is when she sees her sister.my testimony of forever families has grown in seeing how these two interact.  i know that they knew each other before they came here, it's a pretty amazing thing to witness.
she's just starting to find her voice.  i hear lots of squawking from her crib.  she's started to be less content lately.  i think it's because she can't sit up by herself yet, or move around.  she also has started to cry if i put her down and leave her.

she loves the water, which is a good thing because we are at the pool a lot.  bath time is one of her favorite recreational activities.  

i think she looks like a miniature cody (only prettier), with blue eyes.  She's the longest leanest baby around.  mae had some good chubs, but this girl is a bean pole.  

we got out her jumper, and she was really excited about it at first, but she quickly realized that when she gets put in there, mom walks away, and she doesn't like that.  her favorite spot is in her bumbo on the kitchen table where she can see everything.

she's a little jet-setter.  you can totally tell she's a second child.  with mae, we were on a very strict schedule, and i rarely if ever, deviated from it.  but this one rolls with the punches.  i think heavenly father knew she would need to be that way for my own sanity.

these are some long girlies.  i have a feeling i'm going to have a hard time dressing these girls modestly...i guess i better get a sewing machine and learn to sew some stuff!

even though there are some rough days with these two, i am so blessed to be their mama.

Houston

i've been wanting to get down to houston this summer, but have been a little nervous to make the trip with the girls by myself.  i finally sucked it up and went last week, and i'm so glad that i did.  as always, we had a great time.  the girls were great in the car.  i may or may not have exceeded the speed limit in order to make the trip as short as possible.

we met up at the "world's largest indoor mall playground".  i'm not sure if i believe that after having been to it, but it was pretty cool.  the kids had a great time, so that's all that really matters.  maybe one day we'll get a picture where every kid is looking at the camera and smiling...that day will probably not be for many years to come.

 most mom's put their kids in bright clothes when they go places like this...but i just have to look for the big poof of hair.  it's usually pretty easy to spot, especially since it just grows as she gets sweaty.

here's a great story.  so, after we got to brittany and matt's house, we took the kids for a walk.  there's a little lake/pond near their house, so we headed over there to let the kids ride bikes/ explore.  well, this lake is man made, and is concrete for about 5 feet before you get to the mud.  and the concrete is covered with a good inch or two of scum.  brittany and i were talking and all of a sudden she goes "nash!" and he trips, hits the scum and slides right in.  it's not too deep, but obviously he can't swim. so she runs to get him. and then she slips on the concrete and slides right in.  she finally grabs him, but can't move because it's too slippery.  so i go to help, and what do i do? yes, that's right, i slip on the concrete as well.  now all three of us are stuck.  it was so slippery, we tried several times to climb out and we kept sliding right back.  finally we start to scrape off the scum on the concrete to try to get our footing.  i get my balance, take nash and pretty much roll/push him up to the other kids.  then i grab brittany and push her up, and she pulls me up.  we were in that stupid pond for at least 7 or 8 minutes.  i didn't know whether to laugh or cry...so i think i did a little of both.  

this picture doesn't do the nastiness justice.  our backs were pretty much covered in pond scum.
 the whole time we were in there, the kids were yelling "oh, no" or "you're stuck", and noah was my favorite "don't step there, it's slippery".  i'm glad that brittany wasn't by herself with the kids, or she might not have made it out.  and i'm glad i wasn't by myself in a nasty pond covered in scum.  it's always better when you have someone to commiserate with. 

this guy is a total sweetheart.  he was so kind with mae and izzy.  mae asked if she could watch something with him and he said "of course you can mae".  love him.

these girls are too cute.  tessa is a little nurturer.  and it was so sweet to watch her play with mae. they had a great time together.

nashy!  he finally warmed up to me.  we spent some quality time together.  he has the sweetest faces.  

 and of course friday we got icees before we went to the pool.

we had such a great time.  i'm so glad that we live close enough to family that mae can grow up with her cousins.  and, i'm so glad that my sisters-in-law are so much fun. 
thanks brittany for all of the pictures, i am such a slacker parent!

mom: "don't eat the poo poo candy"

cody requested that title.  we have candy in a jar that mae gets to have when she goes poop on the potty.  hence the name poo poo candy.  i heard cody getting some the other day and i told him not to eat the poo poo candy.

i feel pretty confident saying this girl is for the most part potty trained.  and so, she was finally awarded the big prize that she helped me pick out at the beginning of this whole process...the minnie jet. it's actually pretty cute.  and what makes it even better is that it was on sale for $8 at walmart.  love me some walmart.

this kid. i never know what she is going to come down wearing.  she makes so many wardrobe changes in any given day.  the other day, she came down wearing izzy's headband.  it was so freakin tight on her head, she seriously could not move her eyebrows. 

 my string bean.  she loves to eat her toes, and has no problem getting them in her mouth because her legs are so long.  she's even choked herself on them.  she's still my happy (for the most part), smiley baby.  she's actually been great when we go to the pool or park.  she'll play for a little while and then conk out.  she eats like a champ, two solid meals a day.  and three (sometimes four) bottles.  it's hard to keep all these tall people in my house fed!

summer is fun with kiddles.  it's fun to relive all the things you used to do as a kid with your own kids.  mae's favorite treat this summer is popsicles, which i only let her eat outside, pretty much just in her undies because she is ridiculously messy when she eats them.  but, that's part of the fun right?

i watched my friend's kids the other day, so we got out the slip n slide while they were here.  they had a blast.  

 izzy and i had a great time just watching them.  i'm so glad that one, mae has some good friends, she has learned a lot from being around other kiddos. and two, that i like their moms because it's more fun for me!

 mae got a little more adventurous this time!

we had a baby shower for my friend the other day, and i made cupcakes to bring.  this girl wants to be part of everything in the kitchen, so i let her help me.  and of course we had to taste test!

still hasn't really felt like summer...and it's already half over!!  but, we've been having fun.  i'm already wondering what the heck i'm going to do with my kids when the pool closes!

summer days

hard to believe that we're already half way through the summer!  crazy.  this summer has been so different for us.  we didn't have our annual beach trip with my mom's family.  i think this is the first year that no one has gone in my whole life.  it's been kind of sad not having the build-up and excitement of getting everything ready to go.  we had our big trip in may, so we've pretty much just been kickin it around these parts.

we spend a lot of time at the pool.  mae has finally been brave enough to venture into the water herself (with her puddle jumper on of course), and we've only had one incident where she went in without it on.  i've started taking izzy in for a little bit, and she loves it. 

we've also done lots of fun things with our friends.  mae plays so well with other kids, and loves when we get together with friends.  seriously, anytime we go someplace she always asks if her friends will be there, even when we go to the grocery store.  we went to zilker park last week to ride the train, and these kiddos had a blast!

 i'm so grateful for the friends that we've made since we've been in austin.  mae has some great buddies, and it's nice to meet up with my friends and have adult conversations as well!

mae got this awesome hat and cape while we were in VA, and it took her a while to warm up to it.  but now she loves it.  she put it on the other day and said "i backman mom".  so she runs around "saving" the day.  and always wants me to sing the batman song while she's wearing it.

 we're still going strong with the potty training.  and my sanity is in tact...it was pretty touch and go there for a while.  this munchkin has been number 2 accident free for three days!! we just decided not to stress about it (easier said than done if you know me), and to make it a pretty big deal when it happens.  so, when it finally did happen, we busted out some sparklers. 

 i'm still not completely confident to go out for a long time without mae in a pull-up, and it has seriously been over a month that we've been working on this.  but, the end is in sight! (i hope).

my sweet friend got my girls matching jammies when izzy was born.  and because munchkin number two is such a long lady, she's wearing 12 month clothes, and was able to wear her jammies.  i love these pictures.

 mae still adores her sister.  and is so sweet and helpful.  whenever i play with izzy, or do something like blow raspberries on her belly mae always says "mae too mae too!"

case and point.  izzy eats in the bumbo seat, and so mae waited patiently until she was done and said she wanted to eat her "oakmeal" in the bumbo seat like izzy.

oh my little string bean.  the long one.  these were 9 month jammies that she busted through during the night because she's so long.  she's even managed to weave herself into the bars at night.  not just her legs through it, but through around the bar and back in towards the bed again.  crazy kid.

hard to believe that she's already five months!  where did the time go?  she's still my sweet happy baby.  her little smile lights up the room.  we're so incredibly blessed.

4th of july

this year we invited the baldwin clan and some friends over for the fourth of july.  pflugerville does a huge pfirecracker pfestival (yes, of course that's how it's spelled in pflugerville!) at the lake each year, and for some reason they had it on the third.  so, everyone came up for the weekend.  it was so much fun!  i love cody's family, and we are so blessed to live close to them.  it's especially fun for the kids.  cousins make the best of friends.

i had a great time getting ready for everyone to come.  mae and i made blue and red cupcakes. and of course we had to test the batter. all week long mae was asking when her cousins were coming. and when we would see the fireworks.  i would tell her not until friday and she would cry and say not friday, now!  to say she was excited would be an understatement.

we also bought a slip n slide for the kids to play on.  it was so much fun to watch them!  mae didn't really run and slide.  she mostly walked across the tarp...my gentle giant

 these kids get along so well together.  they always have a great time when they see each other.  i love it.

 after the kids played for a while, we headed down to the lake to check out what they had going on.  they had lots of different vendors, and a couple of bounce houses for the kids.  i didn't think mae would actually get in the bounce house, but she did.

 then we came home and played some more.

 cody bought a bunch of fireworks to set off for the kids.  in pflugerville fireworks are illegal, but we live right outside the town limits, so cody went ahead and bought some.  i'm not going to lie i was a little nervous.  this was mae's first year seeing the fireworks, so i wasn't sure how she was going to handle them.  but, she loved them!

 every fourth of july should have sparklers

the first firework...

 the second...seriously i had a better time watching the kids than the fireworks.

 i think cody had a pretty good time picking out the fireworks and lighting them

i'm not sure why the roman candles had to be taped to a baseball bat, but they did.

 mae and tessa were brave and helped cody hold the bat when the fireworks went off

the next day we took the crew downtown.  these sweet girls!

 and of course made a stop at in n out. these kiddos are so fun.

 tessa loved izzy.  she was so adorable with her. 

 this little cutie.  finally got him to smile for me!!

we had such a blast.  we're so grateful to live close to family, and that they drove up to see us this weekend!  i love when we get together, and i especially love when our kids get together.  i'm so glad that they will be able to grow up together.