St. Patrick's Day Fun 2014

I'm not even one bit Irish, but my kids are (not a lot but a little bit, which is more than enough on St. Paddy's Day).  I love that all clothes makers make clothes for every holiday because I love buying my kids clothes and holidays give me an excuse ;)  My new camera also gives me an excuse to take a ton of pictures (not that I don't normally) just to make sure it's still working lol.

The thing I like best about my new camera is how fast it takes pictures.  With my old one, you never knew if it was going to do one flash or three and half the time, I would miss the great shot because of it.  This one can take rapid fire shots and I get so many more great smiling pictures!  That's so important with both of them on the move full time.

We pretend with her play camera all the time and the "say cheese" aspect of it.  She's latched onto it and will actually say cheese and cheese it up for the camera. 

The "cheese" in full force.  They crack me up every day. 

Both kids love the minions from Despicable Me and Izzie loves any kind of hat.  She will say "hat" and then attempt to put one on. 

Playing around with the new camera.  Loving the crystal clear shot of Izzie, while Brady is more unfocused in the background. 

I like to keep busy with the kids and don't like to be cooped up inside, especially after three months of day to day uncertainty of whether or not I'll be snowed in (which happened one day last week).  I like to run errands when Brady is in school so I just have Izzie and other days, we'll go to the gym where the kids can play and I can have some alone time to work out.  Today, we didn't have either of those things to do, so I started looking around for something to do.  We've done the mall a bunch this winter and I'm kinda getting sick of it, so I found the open bounce/play time at an indoor soccer field that I knew the kids would like.  Turns out, we were the only ones there, so they had the whole place to themselves.

Her favorite thing was the lawn mower.  We have a bubble mower and I know Izzie will spend countless hours pushing it around this summer.  Now all we need is the snow to melt! 

Izzie's first time in a bouncy house.  She was a bit apprehensive of standing up, but bounced on her bum and loved when Brady would bounce close to her and shoot her up. 

Getting in a little T-ball practice.  He got a set for Christmas, so more summer fun ahead! 

There are days when juggling two kids is exhausting, but on days like today, I can't imagine only having one.  Brady is an amazing big brother and Izzie adores him.  He pushed her around on the car and she was so cute, lifting her feet so they didn't drag like she's been doing this for years.  I love knowing they'll always have each other. 

Now that Brady's older, I like doing fun things for holidays.  I decided to make our pasta for dinner green by adding food coloring to the water.  He was a little apprehensive about eating it which was funny, because Izzie gobbled it up!

So much has changed in a year.  Last year, Izzie had just turned two weeks old and as you can see, was very expressionless and kinda just hung out all day long.  Now she's full of personality and can do almost everything!

Brady's 4 Year Stats

I normally update the kids' height and weight stats in their birthday posts, but with the kids' birthdays being so close, it doesn't make sense to trek to the doctor's office twice in two weeks, so they go at the same time after Izzie has had her official birthday.  That means, Brady's will have to be updated after his official birthday post from here on out.  He's a healthy boy and passed his eyesight and hearing tests.  He had been playing pretend doctor all week with my mom and knew all of the things that were going to happen (including the shots).  He kept telling Nana that they would check his eyes, ears, mouth, and belly, but that he didn't want the shots.  Both kids needed shots, so we let Brady go first because if he saw Izzie go first, there would be no way we could restrain him.  He certainly put up a fight and kept telling the nurse to be careful.  The poor kid cried long after Izzie had had her set of shots and stopped crying herself.  He got lots of stickers and a cookie at Subway for lunch afterwards to make up for it.

He's very lean and taller than a majority of the kids in his preschool class.  He's certainly all muscle and you can tell how dense his body is when you pick him up.  He moved into 4T pajamas in the fall, but the shirts are getting a bit short on him (remember he's got a long torso and short legs like Andy).  He just moved into 4T shirts and they're huge on him (pajamas tend to run small so they're snug and flame retardant).  He still wears all 3T pants and when I buy 4T shorts and pants in anticipation of him going up in size, the waists are huge!  He still wears 2T bathing suits and sometimes even then, they start to slide down.  He had big feet and just got size 11 sneakers.  These are his stats compared to last year.

Last Year:                                               This Year:

38 inches (65th percentile)                 41.25 inches (75th percentile)
34lbs (75th percentile)                         38.8lbs (70th percentile)

I knew he was slightly under 42 inches from our recent trip to Great Wolf Lodge where that was the cut off for some of the rides.  He grew 3.25 inches in a year, increasing his percentile, and if he grows less than an inch to reach that 42 inch mark he can ride some of the really big rides at Disneyland like the Matterhorn.  He already reaches the requirement for the fun ones like Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Railroad, and Tower of Terror.  They've changed the photo pass options to allow you to have to rights to all your ride photos as well, so I can't wait to see his face on some of these rides!  He gained less than 5lbs and is now in the 70th percentile, but you wouldn't know it to look at him (as I said, he's all muscle).  His doctor said his BMI was perfect and he's very proportional.  As long as he's healthy, that's all we could ask for.

Izzie B's Owl Themed 1st Birthday Party!

Yesterday, we had Izzie's 1st birthday party here at our house.  I had fallen in love with owls while pregnant with Izzie (as you already all know) and decided before she was born to do her first birthday in an owl theme.  I have been pinning ideas on Pinterest since then and had amassed quite a lot.  I had to pick and choose my favorites.  Above you can see the cake (again another cupcake creation).  We invited all of our friends and family and almost everyone invited near and far was able to make it and create an amazing memory for all of us.

These were the individual cupcakes to go with the main cake.  Lauren, Alex's girlfriend, gets major credit for helping me put them together.

Izzie's godmother, Jenn (aka Dunny), came up from Pittsburgh to be with us and she did a ton of the prep work with me the night before and morning of the party.  She and Lauren, put together these owl s'mores.

It was all hands on deck that morning.  My brother, Alex, even got to work and made the veggie pizza.

Party guest starting to arrive and play.

The happy birthday girl.

I put Chaleece (Andy's brother, Patrick's, girlfriend, and Izzie's godmother), in charge of the craft.  I had put together the owls the night before with lots of help from Dunny, and then the kids put their handprints on them to make the wings.

Nana with the birthday girl.

Andy's brothers Chris and Patrick, with Chaleece looking at Izzie's 1st year scrapbooks.

Andy's dad, Joe (aka Pap), and step-mom, Lori (aka LaLa).

Dunny and Andy's step-sister, Kathryn.

Brady, in addition to some of the kids and even an adult or two, really got into the owl theme and sported owls on their clothing.

Time for presents!

Books and a My Little Pony from Sam and Ainsley.  We asked friends and family who didn't have any gift ideas already for summer pajamas and books as we are overflowing with toys and having Christmas so close to both kids' birthdays.

Summer jammies from Izzie's baby friend, Leila.

I know my eyes are closed in this one, but the Minnie clothes were too cute not to share.  They were from Izzie's Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Kat.  They know how excited we are about our upcoming Disney trip.

Getting ready to open Brady's present to Izzie.

She loves all of the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn toys Brady had as a baby and she got a bunch of the more girly ones for Christmas.  They came out with a few new ones after Christmas and I was dying to get her that lamp.  It took quite a bit of convincing to get Brady to pick it at the toy store.

Brady also got her a talking Izzy (not spelled the same, but she doesn't know that) from Jake & the Neverland Pirates on Disney Junior and we got her a hooded owl beach towel.

The big present from us.

We had decided to get her a Cozy Coupe because Brady got his Power Wheels last year and they would each have a car their own speed this summer.

Time for cake!

She was so happy when we started singing to her.

I helped her blow out her candle.

It took no convincing to get her to eat her cupcake.

Her 1st birthday balloon.

Andy bought Izzie flowers for her birthday while he was out getting the cake that morning.  I love the colors and thought it was so sweet that he got his little girl flowers.  He's certainly setting the bar high for any boyfriends down the road.

These were some of the favors that we handed out to the kids at the party.  I got them handmade from a seller on Etsy and am in love with them!

The aftermath after everyone went home.  In addition to the presents show, Izzie got lots more books, some beautiful summer clothes, an Ariel castle, a potty, more pajamas, and a play picnic basket.

Chillin' out after the guests had gone home.  My mom, Dunny, Alex, and Lauren were staying at our house, so we just vegged out, watching TV and snacking.  Alex and Lauren took Brady to the fish store where they had ordered a new fish to take home with them.

Owl bum bum pants!