The beautiful weather that we enjoyed this spring meant for lots of trips to the zoo, the park and time spent in our back yard. But in order to truly enjoy our little space out back, we had to put in quite a bit of work. When we moved in to our house I was pumped that our backyard consisted of thing else besides rocks and a few bushes. But once Izzy got a little older and I realized how much she obsessed with being outside, I knew we would need to give her a little oasis where she could play anytime she felt like it. It took a few long weekends of shoveling rocks, hauling in sand, loading up bricks and and dirt and plants. We exhausted our poor families and worked really really hard, but I'm so happy with the end result. We have a cute little cobblestoned courtyard, and an adorable garden, and Izzy has her pool, and sand box, and water table, and picnic table and a new little slide we just scored at Goodwill, and she asks to go out there 10 times a day. She love to water the plants with her "watercan", and i just love that she loves being outside
Our membership to the zoo has paid for itself over and over again. We have used it up as much as possible (one time we even went 3 times in one week!) We love to take different friends with us every time, and Izzy knows her way around, and knows where we are from the minute we turn into the parking lot. She loves the orangutans, and the tiger and of course, the elephants. I'm so glad that we live so close to such a fun zoo and that we are lucky to have a membership!
We celebrated Valentines day with our little sweetheart, with breakfast at our favorite little french restaurant. We got crepes and eggs Benedict, and fruit and the yummiest muffins, then headed off to the Sea Life aquarium at AZ Mills Mall. We also snagged some annual passes to the aquarium since we won't be using our zoo pass much in the summer, we wanted a fun, cool place to spend those hot AZ days. We weren't surprised that Iz loved every second of the aquarium, and didn't want to leave any of the displays, especially the fun tunnel where the turtles and sharks and fish swim all around you.
The best thing about living close to both sides of the family, and our best friends is that we get to have everyone over a lot, and it isn't a huge inconvenience to everyone having to drive all the way out to San Tan where we used to live. We also love that our house is small, but the front room/kitchen area is huge and perfect for entertaining. We had 21 people in our house the day of the superbowl without a problem. It was so fun and I love that our house is a place for people to gather and feel loved and create memories. It may not be big, but it's making lots of memories!
In march we went to Hawaii for our anniversary (read about the whole thing here and here!). But the quick recap is that we had an absolute blast, and that bringing Isabel with us was the best decision ever.
We took Izzy to her first real movie (she'd been to a few before, but she didn't really care or make it through the whole thing) We saw Zootopia and she LOVED it. She especially loves the song that Shakira sings in it. She asks for the 'fox song' all the time, and the second it starts playing shes dancing and bobbing and just getting her groove on. She also sings it to herself constantly, and it might annoy some, but I think it's the best.
She's definitely a musical little thing. She has great pitch, and knows the words to so many songs. She is always humming or singing, especially when she is playing or coloring by herself. I think it's great, and I can't wait to see what other musical talents she picks up throughout the years.
In April, we were really bust getting ready for Auntie Abby's wedding. We also missed Grandma, Papa and uncle Brennan for a few days while they went back to New York for a little belated graduation present. We Facetimed with them a few times so Izzy still got her fix of Grandma and Papa. Heavens knows she can't go longer than 24 hours without seeing or talking to them.
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| Brennan opened his mission call. Veracruz Mexico. August 9th. SO proud of him. |
May was the busiest getting ready for Abby's wedding on May 12th. We had bridal showers, bachelorette parties, planning meetings, temple nights and crafting sessions. The wedding day was beautiful, although a little hot. Izzy didn't appreciate the heat, but had a blast at the reception at night. MY dad and mom (and their friends) did a fantastic job setting up for the night, and the food was delicious and the dancing was a blast. Izzy and Abby danced together to the "fox song". They had a donut cake which was so cute, and Izzy probably ate 4 or 5 donuts, which she obviously loved. I also ate way too much bruschetta. amazing. so so amazing. The setting was great with the temple in the background and it was overall just a lovely day.
Iz has grown so much in the last few months. She's always been smart and advanced for her age, but it never ceases to amaze me when she does something new. Her speech is amazing, and she is talking in full blown sentences. She doesn't have a ton of 'baby' words... like she just says things like they are. Haha. A lot of times what makes it cute is her inflection, which is hard to capture in a blog post, but i'll do my best.
- When she is looking for someone she will say, kinda sing-songy "Mommmmmyyyy, are youuuuu!?"
- When she wants to be picked up she says, "Grandma hand you"
- She loves to admire things and when she sees something she really likes she will say "Oh look! How preeeeeety"
- Izzy is so kind and polite and will say hi, bye, and sorry to everyone and everything. If she bumps into the table she'll say "sorry table!" and if we are at the store and she is playing with something but we aren't going to buy it, i just tell her so say bye to it, and she will put it down and say "bye ball/candy/hat" It's adorable.
- She loves to give kisses. And the newest thing is giving BIG kisses where she will grab your face and push her lips against yours as hard as she possibly can for a good 5 seconds. Then she releases and swings her head back making an exaggerated "MWAH" sound. Then she wants to give you a tiny kiss, and she comes up so slowly and barely touches your lips and does it really fast.
- Along the same lines as above, she recently came up with this trick all on her own and it's so cute. She makes a really cute elephant noise, and one day did a really loud and long elephant trumpeting sound, and then said "Daddy elephant!" Then did a tiny little trumpeting sound and said (in a high pitched voice) "baby elephant!" It was so funny and unexpected, and i love it.
- She calls my bobby pins, mommy pins <3
- She's still stellar with going to bed/down for naps. She is in a big girl bed now, which was a super smooth transition, and she loves that we can lay in bed and snuggle and sing songs with her. She doesn't take a milk to bed anymore, and loves to brush her teeth every morning and night. seriously.
- Any little kid her age is a 'friend' and anyone younger than her is a 'baby' and she always says "baby sad. crying" if she hears or sees someone crying in public.
- Flowers are her favorite, especially lantana, because it breaks off in a lot of small pretty flowers, and she will cup them in her hand and smell them, then blow them out of her hand.
- A funny quirk is that she hates carousels. She always begs to ride them, and then we get on and she just cries and wants to get off. The key that i learned is that she loves it as long as she sit on an animal that doesn't move up and down, or just sit on a bench with me or alex. Funny girl.
- She loves all the hats and sunglasses. We probably pick up a new pair of glasses or a new hat every time we go to target or the dollar store. She wears them all day long and when we go outside she says, "too bright (covers her eyes) need glassses!"
- I have a few cute nicknames for her, and she started calling me them too and it makes me so happy. She'll say "come mere Angel pie" "Hi love!" "good morning sweet heart!" "hello sugar plum!" how cute is that!
- She loves baseball. Talk about a dream come true for me and alex. She asks to watch it every day, and the second she sees the dbacks logo, she yells "GO SNAKES! GO D-BACKS!" She also recognizes the sound of the radio announcers, and says "baseball! hear it!" within seconds of us turning it on the radio.
-She's such a good mommy. She takes her baby dolls everywhere, and will tuck them into her bed, and feed them in her high chair, walk them in the stroller, and dance with them. It's so cute.
-She's obsessed with water. She wants to play in her pool every day, and we have gone to the lake a few times already and she is always asking to "go fast! papa's boat, so fun! on da tude (tube)" She also loves the splash pad, and i'm so glad we live so close to a really fun one (Riverview Park). I think we will probably live in the water this summer.
- most of all she is just so curious and is always asking "whas that?!" and wants us to tell her the name of everything around her. She will mimic us and she pronounces things really really well. It's awesome.
She's truly a blessing and a joy. I'm just so lucky to be her mom.
