I'm Still Weeding Through Pictures (120/365)

But here's a gem or two from Izzy's actual birthday when she was eating birthday cake. We had so much fun that day. (click to enlarge)

More Spring Beauties (119/365)

I am just now getting around to editing the pics I took the last time we went to go see Dad and Cindy. I'm working remotely from our Mac to our PC so it's not the fastest, so you'll have to take these two pics (and the new header) that I have done for now. I'll come back and edit the post with more pics when I get them done. Hey, I started this, so I make the rules and as far as I'm concerned this isn't cheating.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
(click to enlarge)

Hanging with Uncle Ry. Miss you.

Grandma Susie's tree.

Alice being a crazy girl and pretending to be a door-to-door salesman.

88 is Great, Grandma! (118/365)

The Kid Knows What She Likes (117/365)

All day long Izzy has been obsessed with walking with her walker up and down the hallway. Several times in fact she took 5+ steps without holding on to something to get to her walker! I thought I'd try and get that on video before she went to bed this evening, but unfortunately she was more interested in the computer than her walker. Here's the video that resulted.

I Wish You Sweet Dreams of Your Grandmother (116/365)

Today Alice informed me that she had a dream about Grandma Susie during her nap. She normally dreams about sheep, teddy, or recently, the bow to her flower-girl dress (the kid's excited, what can I say?) so this is really something different for her. I'm not sure what happened in the dream, but I, for one, hope she never stops having them.

I'm off to bed. Maybe I'll get lucky and dream about Mom too.

Five Things About This Photo (115/365)

1) Alice's new skirt from JJ and Tori reminds me of my favorite Barbie
from when I was a kid.

2) Yes, those are fish maracas. Thanks, Cath.

3) Alice was dancing to a terrible Hawaii Scooby Doo movie starring
Mario Lopez. She gets her taste in entertainment (if you can call it
that) from her Father.

4) Say hello to Izzy's butt down in the lower right corner.

5) Alice's outfit is a GIRLS size 4/5. Skirt is loose, shirt is ALMOST
too short. The girl is a freaking monster. There must be Miracle Grow
in the milk.

Can You Guess Which Came First? (114/365)

It's not what you'd think.

This kid was up so much last night that she fell asleep in her lunch
and we had to wait for her to wake so we could eat cake! We had a
FABULOUS day. The only thing that could have made it better is if all
of you could have been there.

By the way, do you even recognize Matt? He's looking pretty skinny
these days! We have about a week left of our challenge, and as of
last week Matt is in the lead.

Horrible Allergies + Preparing for the Party= (113/365)

I'm going to lay on the couch and wait for Charles and Erin to get
here, then go to bed. Sorry for the cheap post. I'm really spent.

See you at the party!!

It May Not Be Perfect (112/365)

But I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. This is what I spent
the majority of my day doing, and I can't wait to eat it!

And yes, that's chocolate buttercream. Mmmmmm...

Apparantly it was Teddy's Bday (111/365)

And he and Izzy's new babydoll, Claire, went out to eat to celebrate.

No word if meat was served.

Please Tell Me We Don't Have a Vegetarian on Our Hands (110/365)

The following is a conversation we had at dinner tonight. This is an ongoing conversation ALICE has at dinner every night about how things are made, but this time it took an interesting turn.

ALICE - Daddy, how do they make chicken?

DADDY - Well, chicken is a bird. We don't really make chickens like we do bread...

ALICE - (yelling) BUT DADDY, WE CAN'T EAT BIRDS!!!! THEY'LL DIE AND GET KILLED!!!

DADDY - Well, we eat a lot of meat, and all meat used to be an animal and...

ALICE - BUT DADDY, THEY'LL DIE!!!

DADDY - The animals we eat are made to be eaten. We need to eat meat to make us healthy.

ALICE - Well I don't want to eat a bird.

Oy vey. Where the heck did that come from?!

In a Benadryl Induced Haze (109/365)

And I'm having a hard time functioning.

And I need to function this week as the house is a wreck and I, to be quite honest, haven't planned a damn thing for Izzy's b-day party this weekend. To think I used to think when, as a kid, Charles was laid up on the couch drugged up on Benadryl with a washcloth over his eyes that it couldn't be that bad. How could I know, I never had allergy issues until I got pregnant with Alice.

Boy was I wrong. Now if I could just find a drug that could get rid of my symptoms with out knocking me out at the same time I'd be set. Unfortunately I know a lot of you can relate to me right now!

Highlights of Our Weekend (108/365)

• The Embassy Suites is a fabulous hotel! I would stay there again in a heartbeat. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the breakfast, but I was still able to find something to eat.
• The best part was that we, apparently, had the board room suite. Based on the outside of the hotel, it looked like the rooms in the middle of each side of each floor of the hotel are a bit longer than the others. This allowed us to have a bigger front room with a table that could seat six, plus a hide-a-bed, arm chair, tables, tv, and more space than I knew what to do with.
• Had I known we had the large room I would have happily allowed the girls to congregate in there!
• We all ended up with rooms next to each other. Which made this super easy and convenient. For that I am glad as I would not have wanted a room next to one of the many noisy teenagers who were there this weekend!
• I can't wait for pool weather to get here! Alice really took to the pool and was such a little fishy!
• Izzy's bday cake was the lesser of two evils. Walmart had two to choose from that were big enough and the ugliest one was purple and black! Ick!
• The day of the race I took 13,526 steps. Needless to say, we did a lot of walking that day!
• And no, I did not count them myself as I went. I wore a pedometer, Tony. He he he.
• My allergies have been obnoxious this weekend. My sinuses are blocked, my ears are fluid filled, eyes feel like they have sand in them, the list goes on and on. The worst part was waking up several times last night feeling like my throat had closed up and I couldn't breathe. If this keeps up, I'm definitely going to have to call the doctor.
• The kids all got along great. I'm pretty sure most of them didn't want to go home this morning.
• I found out this morning that Claire asked her mommy if Alice could come to her four year old birthday party. Can you say BFFs?
• Including Alice. She was a perfect angel the whole weekend. The moment we walked out of the hotel she got very upset because we didn't walk out the revolving door (despite having said seconds before that she didn't want to walk out of it). I knew she was really just upset to be leaving.
• Pretty much one of the cutest things ever was when we were getting ready to leave and Alice wast trying to say goodbye to Anya. Anya kept avoiding her and Alice chased her up and down the hallway. When we finally got to the point where I told Anya goodbye and told Alice to come sit on the potty. Anya seemed to have realized right then that Alice was leaving, and she stopped running and gave Alice the biggest hug.
• On the way home, Alice was trying desperately to stay awake. When she saw me lay my head down (Mommy was very tired and felt like crap) she immediately laid her head down and promptly fell asleep.
• And all of us, but Matt, of course, slept the majority of the trip home!

I can't tell you all enough just how much fun we had this weekend! My only complaint is that it went by too fast! Miss you girls already.

Well That's One Way to Spend Your 1st Bday (107/365)

Today was the Race fo the Cure with my MoGo mommy friends, and I must
say I think we all had quite a blast! Everyone is so incredible and
would you believe it I don't think there was one fight has amongst
them if you don't count siblings.

We had a few setbacks due to traffic jams, but we all walked together
in the end and then spent the day at the zoo. Alice and Claire (who
coincidentally reminds me very much of Kaylee) hit it off SO well and
spent the day holding hands, sharing snacks, and sharing laughs. They
really are quite the pair!

After the zoo we had pizza, cake (for Izzy, Dani, and Ian's
birthdays), and lots of socialization for the kids and parents alike.
Duck duck goose, tag, hide and seek, were some of the favorite games
played. The adults took advantage of the open bar.

Afterwards, we swam, and right before the girls went to bed we let
Izzy open some presents. All in all it was a very good day, spent with
very good friends, made all the sweeter for me because of a certain
little one year old.

Happy Birthday Little Girl. Momma loves you.

Let Me See if this Works (106/365)

I'm going to attempt to post two pics from my phone as there is no
free WiFi here at the hotel, and the last time I tried this it only
posted one.

Anyway, we made it to Indy safe and sound. The room we have is HUGE
and the conference table/room Matt says is bigger and better than the
one at work (we're staying at the Embassy Suites). As soon as we got
here we met up with some of the girls and their kids and went
swimming. At the moment I'd love to sneak out and join a few of them
down the hall (we are mostly on the same floor), but Izzy is NOT happy
and won't go to sleep, Alice is "not sleepy," and so far everytime a
door opens Izzy becomes restless and angry.

Sooooo, I decided I have all day tomorrow to spend getting to know the
girls and with the LONG day we have ahead of us I'd rather they get
some sleep.

These pics were taken on our way here about five minutes apart. Both
girls slept for a good portion of our trip, thankfully!

If both pics don't post you'll have to wait until I get home. :)

Thanks, Dad (105/365)

I didn't forget, I am just so damn busy getting stuff together for our trip tomorrow and hadn't yet had a second to sit down at the computer to write (unless you count finalizing plans with my friends, printing out directions, figuring out schedules, etc). I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for the kind and generous donations you made. Thanks to you, I went from having $0 in my donation pot, to having $400 in just one day! You all make me proud to call you my family.

Now, I'm off to do some more packing. Hopefully I get to actually go to bed tonight!

I Would Love Any Last Minute Help You Can Offer! (104/365)

This weekend I am walking in a Race For the Cure event in Indianapolis with a bunch of my online family in honor of one of our own. I've totally forgotten about needing to raise money for this, so at the last minute, here is a link to my fundraising page. Any little bit you can offer would be very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Edit:

Cindy, I love you. Thanks. :)

Is She Really Old Enough? (103/365)

Today we signed Alice up for preschool. It seems like there is no way
she's old enough for this, she is still a baby afterall, isn't she?
She's actually 3.5 going on 30 and oh so ready to be in school! Of
course this means that Mommy finally needs to get her license, which I
am oh so ready for! This should be good for both of us.

Anyway, her school is part of (yet separate from) the church we
occasionally attend, and they far exceeded my expectations when we
visited today. Due to her birthdate, she technically doesn't qualify
for the older class (needs to be 4 by September 6th), but based on how
she behaived today, they think she's better suited for that class
despite this. It's hard to believe my baby is getting so big, but at
the same time I welcome the change.

We May Have a Walker! (102/365)

Izzy took her first step not holding on to anything on Friday, but
today she intentionally took two steps toward her Daddy! She might
have got further had she not tripped on the chair! I have a feeling
my life is about to change!

I Sure Hope This Helps (101/365)

A few weeks ago I decided it was about time I did something about the cat hair issue we have in this house. What finally sent me over the edge was waking up one morning to several piles of hair, less than 24 hours after having vacuumed. I had had enough and decided we needed to either spend the money and send Charlie to the groomer to be shaved for the spring (which I was afraid of doing as it stresses some cats out and I definitely did not want a cat peeing all over my house), or finally spend the money on a pet hair brush I've heard so much about, The Furminator.

It's incredibly expensive for a grooming brush, but let me tell you, it is so worth every penny! I've bought every knock off available on the market, and not a single one removes the hair like this brush does. I can spend ten minutes grooming Charlie and for once in his life I can pet him with out sending loose hair flying. It'll probably take me a while to get him to a point where I don't have to do it every day, especially since it's spring and he's shedding like mad, but I'm already seeing a difference in the amount he leaves behind on the floor, and in the amount of hairballs he's had, which is a very big problem for him. The absolute only issue I have with the brush is that it electrifies the hair and causes it to stick to me, which I remedied by brushing him on the carpet. It sounds counterproductive, but the hair sticks to the carpet and not my hand and I can then brush him faster. To clean it up all I have to do is pick up what I can, then use the brush lightly on the carpet to get the rest. Don't even need to vacuum!

Accept no substitutes, this brush is where it's at as far as deshedding tools are concerned!

Beauties in the Spring Beauties (100/365)

You'll get more pics when I can get home and can get on a computer that has Photoshop, as iPhoto was annoying me like crazy. When I have some more time to sit down and figure out how to get it to save how I want it to, I won't have this issue the next time I come to Jville. Anyway, we're home this weekend to see Ryan before he heads off for California on his latest Marine Corps excursion. It was a gorgeous day and so the girls played under Grandma Susie's Redbud tree in the spring beauties. I was quite glad that Dad hadn't mowed the lawn yet, as one of my favorite parts of spring is the spring beauties, and we don't seem to get them up by us. Tonight we (everyone but Matt and Izzy, anyway) are off to see The Leader of the Pack, a musical that Grandma Cindy is directing at North Greene High School. She's been working her buns off for the past month or more and I'm sure she's ready to get this weekend over with. We'll let you know how it goes.

By the way, notice the blog post number? 100 posts, can you believe it?! I think I may just make it to 365!

That's What Uncles Are For (99/365)

Dilly Bar before bed had better not equal up all night long, Ry. Or we
will not participate in your schedule tomorrow.

Do You Have a Facebook or Myspace Account? (98/365)

Please go and vote for my sister Tori as she tries to win a guest spot on one of the best shows on TV, Glee! You can vote multiple times, so please, go and vote for her! She's an amazing singer and an amazing person!

Please go here to vote!

If you have trouble voting: either sign into myspace and then vote; or click the facebook connect button that is right above the second video, approve the app, then vote. Thanks!!!!

In Just Ten Days (97/365)

My little baby will no longer be a baby! Can you believe she's nearly
one?! She's getting so big so fast. She's nearly walking, talking,
coloring with crayons, and she's getting into everything! Before I
know it Izzy will be as big as Alice and making me pull my hair out
just like her too.

Easter Fun (96/365)

Izzy dying eggs. All she really wanted to do was play with the egg catcher.

Alice, on the other hand, would have dyed eggs all night if she could.

She later went on to play mad scientist with all of the colors.

The end result. I have no idea what we're going to do with them

though since Matt and I don't want to eat them.

(click to view larger)

Growing up Matt always searched for his Easter basket and it was a tradition he wanted to pass down to our kids. This year Alice is actually old enough to go looking.

Here's where the Easter bunny hid hers this year.

Izzy's was in plain sight on the coffee table. Alice was glad to help Izzy see what she got.

Also, see how it was still dark outside? Yeah, I got up at 5:30am in order to not be rushed getting ready. Alice must have heard me because she got up and joined me in the bathroom. I thought I'd be able to get her back to bed, but Izzy woke up a few minutes later and there was no point anymore. It made for a very long day for both of them, but they did pretty well.

The best gift? Well this wasn't from the Easter bunny at all, it was from Alice.

When we were at Kohl's the other day, Alice saw this book and said that

we had to get it for Izzy. With as crazy as Iz is about Alice's book like this I couldn't argue.

Of course, Alice is having issues letting Izzy have her own book.

We met Annie for mass, and afterwards we went back to Annie's house and had a very yummy breakfast, and Annie set up an egg hunt for the girls. Needless to say Alice was very excited!

Duckie bubbles that later, due to the crazy wind, got in her eyes.

Recognize the cross, James? Alice insisted on wearing my

Happening cross since we were going to church.

Izzy actually left these ears on for much longer than we thought she would!

The kid hates to have anything on her head!

The kids totally trashed Ann's living room. Thankfully she didn't mind.

Hope you all had a great Easter too!

It's Uncle Ry Ry! (95/365)

Ry was in the area today so he decided to stop by and see us while he was here. It was a great visit, and one that involved some book reading, some suntanning, and lots of mud. Thank you, Ry, for helping out while I cleaned my baby, and then my bathroom. See you Friday.

Happy Easter (94/365)

I'll get some proper photos up when I'm not tired to the bone (I can
no longer stay up till 12am and then get up at 5:30am). We had lots of
fun with the family starting with mass and breakfast with Annie. The
girls enjoyed tearing her house apart, and I enjoyed taking a quick
catnap on her awesome couch.

Later we went to Mom and Dad's where eventually the whole family got
together for good food and good times. It had been a while since all
of us had been together so it was very nice to see everyone.

Both girls woke up when I got up at 5:30am, so needless to say they
crashed when we got home around 9pm. And I hope they both sleep well
tonight!

Talk About a Shopping Spree! (93/365)

Alice and I went to Kohl's today and, as you can see, I dropped a
pretty penny! I got a few things for me, Alice's entire spring/summer
wardrobe (including a pair of oh so cute sandals), a kids lawn chair
(ok matt, rub it in), nightgowns, and an "MP3" player book just like
the one Alice got for Christmas (except Dora) for Izzy since she is in
love with Alice's.

I spent a lot, got a lot, and definitely SAVED a lot! Just about
everything was on sale for 50% off or more and nearly every item I
bought for Alice was $4.80! I sure had a hell of a time checking out
though! I made it a point to write down all the sale prices as I
shopped and at checkout nearly everything rang up for too much. The
poor clerk had to scan and then manually discount each item that was
incorrect! Thankfully she was very helpful and understanding and said
that the computers went down earlier and probably caused the issue.
Oh and I walked out with $70 Kohl's cash too!

It was a productive trip, but needless to say I was glad when our 3
1/2 hour adventure was over!

Today Was a Blah Day (92/365)

So here are some pics of the beautiful day that was yesterday. We went outside and played until Matt came home. It was SO gorgeous that we decided to stay out and play even longer. We played with Play-Do until our neighbors came home and the kids wanted to play. The day couldn't have ended better!