Thirty Shmirty

I've been a member of the 30's club for almost a month now, but I'm just now getting around to this post. I actually handled turning thirty better than I thought I would, and so far, so good...

My birthday fell on a Friday, but we celebrated on Saturday. Griff did a great job with my birthday plans this year. He planned a fun day for me and a few friends, and it was supposed to be a surprise until my plans were going to interfere with the surprise, and I unintentionally forced him to spill the beans. Oopsie. :-/ So, on Saturday morning Griff took Izzy to spend the day with his parents before he went to work, and I met my girlfriends for manis, pedis, lunch, and shopping. Fun fun!!

Katie talked us all into buying Sanuk sandals. If you haven't tried them on, you must! The soles are made out of yoga mats and they feel like heaven. We found a Griff-size flip flop on the way out and had to get a picture with it. On Saturday night, a big group of us went to out to dinner for my birthday dinner. Things were all fine and dandy, and then out comes the cake... My super talented ex-friend (kidding), Tracy, made this: Do you think he's laughing at the rocking sweater I'm wearing or my killer mullet? I can't put all of the blame on Tracy though. After all, this must have been Griff's idea, and my sister worked to get the picture from my mom, so as you can see, there is a long list of people to blame. Paybacks are hell, people. Watch your back.

After dinner drinks. Good times.

As an added bonus, I scored some great gifts this year. My sweet baby girl gave me a gift certificate for a massage, and Griff listened very well this year and gave me shopping money. Other gifts from family and friends included money, another massage certificate, a year of candles gift set, some sweet new kicks, cute pajamas, a fun wine glass, a bottle of bubbly, a new scarf, some super cute clothes, some yummy smelling Bath and Body Works stuff, a really pretty necklace, and a Starbucks gift card. I'd say it was a great birthday! Bring it on, 30's. You don't scare me.

Little Lady Turns Two

My baby is two years old. How did this happen? I think I can honestly say that these were the quickest 2 years of my life. I can also say that they have been the best 2 years of my life. She is just the sweetest little thing with the best personality. I am constantly asking Griff, "Is it just me, or is she the cutest baby you've ever seen???" Of course, he always agrees with me.

As I've posted recently, her vocabulary has really taken off lately, and she is just a little sponge these days. We saw Izzy's neurologist for a check-up last month, and he was very pleased with her progress. He said to her, "How'd you get to be this way? There are so many reasons why you shouldn't be doing this well. " I think we all know how she got to be this way. She has a rockstar mom. Kidding!! Not a day goes by that we don't thank our God for all of the obstacles He has carried Izzy thru. I think it is safe to say that Isabelle is a normal 2-year-old with normal 2-year-old behavior - good and bad. ;-)

We had her birthday party at The Little Gym this year, and she had a blast. She goes there once a week, so naturally, she ran around like she owned the place.

There wasn't much in the way of decorations, but I did make this little banner.

I made way too many cookies, as usual, and mom helped me decorate them. For our first actual attempt at decorating sugar cookies, I think they turned out pretty cute, especially from a distance. Upon closer inspection, you might guess that Izzy decorated them. :-/

The party favor bags. I told myself I wasn't even going to mess with party favors this year, and then I saw this adorable idea for favor bags online, and there you have it. Hubs was an excellent helper with these bags.

And here is the most adorable cake on the planet, made by the very talented Tracy Agren. It tasted even better than it looked, if you can believe that. We ended up with some leftover cake (even after sending family home with some), and after picking at it all morning following the party, I told hubs to get it out of the house before I made myself sick. Izzy cried as he took it away, and I may have shed a tear or two, too.
My big girl! Thanks for the adorable shirt, Auntie K! And thanks for the super cute piggy bows, Becca!

She's finally getting comfortable on the big balance beam. When we first started, she wouldn't even put her feet down on it.

Loving being the center of attention!

She can do the little beam all by herself. Show off!

Bubbles!

Her favorite snacks - strawberries, blueberries, and goldfish crackers

Here she is clapping for everyone as they sing happy birthday to her. Such a sweetie pie.

Mmm....cake
Gothic baby

We decided not to open gifts at the party so that the kids would have extra playtime in the gym.

Kinda glad we did. This is what a 2-year-old opening gifts looks like.

Happy birthday to the best girl I know!

New Words

We have seen a lot of progress with Izzy's speech in the past week. She has a few new words to add to her previous list:

Meme

Nana

Pop-Pop

KK

Baby

Ball

Poo-Poo (didn't know she knew this one, and I asked, "Izzy, did you go poo-poo?" Sure enough, she repeated me. ;-)

Fly

Night Night

Dog

Star

Go

Choo Choo, which she pronounces as caca :-/

Car (sometimes Go-Go)

There are probably a few more I can't remember right now. It's so exciting to see her finally figuring out this whole speaking thing! She started calling us by name in the last week, too, which is just precious. In the past, she would name us if asked, but now she just goes around saying, mama and dada all day without having to be asked or prompted. She mostly says mama, to be honest. And she especially likes to call for mama when she is unhappy or from her bed when she wakes up. I have to say, hearing mama from her sweet little voice has definitely improved my response time. ;-) I'm woking on teaching her how to say "I'm two" in time for her big birthday next week!

Fingers crossed that these videos work...

Hello, my name is Jennifer and I'm addicted to holiday clearance sales...

I went to Target today to pick up some fruit snacks for Izzy's birthday party. This is what I came home with...

Jackpot!

If you look closely, you can see the box of fruit snacks. All the Valentine's stuff was 75% off, so I got a ton of stuff that doesn't necessarily look Valentine-ish. I don't know what it is about these clearance sales, but I just can't resist. I should mention that this photo was taken after I gave my mom a few things I picked up, and that there were a handful of other impulse purchases that didn't make it into the photo like some $1.50 leggings (clearly I'm still hitting the Nutella hard), a clearance cardigan, and a few other random things. Oh, the shame!

These throws were $2.50. I bought 8 of them. The show Hoarders comes to mind...

I'm pretty excited about this. A shower curtain, bathroom rug, and 4 hand towels for $10! Might have to give Izzy's bathroom a makeover. (Not sure why this photo is sideways, and I'm too lazy to figure it out...)
Stupid fruit snacks.

Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

I told myself I wouldn't do this, but after tonight's episode, I can't think of a better place to jump on The Bachelor blogging bandwagon. Michelle being sent home made for the perfect Valentine's Day present. I know this show isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I just can't resist!

We'll start with the ones who didn't get roses...

Britt: Still trying to figure out how she lasted this long. I don't get it. at. all. Yes, I'm sure she is a very sweet person, but she hardly said a word, and on a reality show where you are among 25 women fighting for 1 dude's attention, a voice is kind of a necessity. To be honest, she seemed way too normal to be on a dumb reality dating show. How sad was it when she had to ride the inflatable boat back to shore while Brad watched on from the million dollar yacht? I can't believe they made her walk back to the house and pack her stuff in front of the other girls. Awful! And not to beat a girl while she's down, but aside from this photo, in which she looks gorgeous, she has displayed some very questionable fashion sense. Bad hair, bad make-up, bad clothes, bad shoes, bad heart-shaped accessories. Just bad.

Michelle: Ugh...so glad to see her go. This girl was just mean. Nasty and mean. She thinks she is pretty hot stuff, and I have a feeling we will be seeing more of her in some form or another - let's hope not as a Bachelorette. I think it's fairly obvious from my Bachelorette posts that I'm just about the biggest cynic when it comes to this show, and I watch solely to be entertained, but I will say that I was very happy to hear Brad admit that he knew his strong physical attraction to her would fade and he was scared that things would go down hill from there. I honestly thought we'd have to listen to her nasty attitude for a few more weeks. Thankful for the surprise! Oh, and who mysteriously wakes up with a blackeye for no apparent reason?!?

On to the final four. Next week is hometown dates where Brad will meet their families. I can only hope for some crazy realitives to keep things interesting!

Shawntel: I think I like her. Still not exactly sure why she talked at length about her job as a funeral embalmer on her one-on-one date with Brad a few weeks ago - awkward! She seems fun though, and I'm so jealous of that shopping spree she got. Didn't you love how the girls were hating her when she got home and showed them all her designer purchases? I know I would have been hating right along with them. I think of all the girls left, Shawntel seems the happiest, and she doesn't create much drama, which is nice.

Chantal: She has been one of my favorites all along, but I cringed as I watched the scene with her crying after Ashley got the rose on the group date tonight. This is not the first time she has had an emotional breakdown with Brad. Pull it together, girl! One thing I like about Chantel is that she is not stick thin. That's refreshing to see. Can't even imagine having to be on television in a bikini...scary thought!

Emily: Super pretty, very sweet, great clothes, but I think she is going to bail soon. I'm okay with that though, her dates with Brad are kind of boring.

Ashley: Don't really get this one. She is another emotional wreck. She and Brad had a one-on-one date early on, and they seemed to have bonded over the fact that neither of their fathers were ever in the picture. They appear to still have a strong "connection" - quite possibly the most overused word on the show - but I just don't really see it so much. I will say that she won some points with me when she put on her swimsuit and yelled, "no boobs" with her arms in the air. Now, that's a girl I can relate to. ;-)

It's That Time Again...

Get your calendars out, friends: March for Babies 2011 is Saturday, April 16th at 9 a.m. I hope that you will join us again in the fight for preemies! Here's the link to join our team, Izzy's Angel: http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1501113



Another date for your calendars: The 2nd Annual Golf for Babies Tournament is scheduled for the morning of May 14th. I think I've avoided scheduling on the same weekend as any major holidays, so we're already off to a better start than last year, right?

Please help us spread the word about the golf tournament. We are in need of hole sponsors, t-shirt sponsors, goody bag sponsors, etc., as well as raffle prize donations. If you have any contacts or leads, please let us know!

Here are the details:

I'm so excited to see what we can do for babies this year! I may be a huge nerd (I'm pretty sure of it, actually), but this kind of stuff just feeds my soul! Thank you in advance for your continued support!!

You know you have a problem....

....when your mom gives you this as a gift. Yes, my friends, that is a yard-sized tube of licorice.