Mommy & Izzie go to Idaho Falls

Nell & Izzie went to Idaho falls the first weekend of June to meet up with Aunt Shasta, Devon and Bailey. Devon had a baseball tournament, and since it was about half way between Elko and Billings it was also a good opportunity to see them.

Here's Izzie peeking from behind her blanket while Bailey saws logs on their first night.


I think it was Saturday that they went to the zoo to check out animals and have a good time before the baseball games started. Here's Iz and Bailey checking out a red panda that you can barley see.


Goats.



Giant chickens and eggs.



Lions.


Tigers.



And Bears.


OH MY! (Oh come on. You were thinking it.)

And then when it was time for bed and the only form of entertainment was a single laptop there was a problem. Even though the line was short Izzie couldn't wait. She put pressure on poor Bailey (literally) in hopes that Bailey couldn't breath and would eventually pass out, fall over and leave the computer vacant. I doubt it happened that way, but what do I know. I wasn't there and all I have is a photograph to go off of, so the story can be whatever I want it to be.


Nell didn't get any pictures of the baseball games, so that's the end. They had a great trip and a lot of fun.

May 2009

Most of the things we did in May have already been posted, but here's some of the random things we did.

Izzie got a piggy bank from the bank one day. Here she is filling it with mom and dad's money. She has a cooler frog one in storage, but I'm not sure exactly where it is. It's probably better though because she's pretty rough on this one and would probably break the other one.


Here's Izzie and mom watching some Elmo on Hulu.


Here's Iz trying on a dress. She is definitely a girl because she loves to dress up.


One fine weekend in May we headed to Helena to help out with a fund raiser for the skate park there. Here's Izzie watching people skate with the Huschka boys.



Here she is enjoying a ice cold popsicle.


And here she is showing of her Chronicles of Riddick style sunglasses.


May was a very busy month, but we had a lot of fun.

The Rest of the Wedding Trip

The morning after the wedding we headed to the Silver Valley to say hi to the rest of the family (we stayed at Grannie's in Spokane). We go into town just in time to catch church with Grandpa Joe and family. After church we headed back to their house for some fun. Syd, Hannah and Alex rode with us, and as soon as we got out of the car I noticed that they had a new pool. I couldn't resist grabbing my nearest sister and throwing her into the pool. Turns out Hannah was the closest. Little did I know that the pool was new-new as in no one had even been in it yet. Well, she was the first. Here she is drying off.


Soon Uncle D showed up and the fun began. Here's Iz and Uncle D hanging out playing on the rocks.


Now that it's summer the girls have quite a collection of amphibians and reptiles that they've gathered up in an aquarium. Here's Alex showing Izzie their snake.


After a while we all got bored and decided to go for a walk. I strapped on the backpack and loaded Izzie up.


It didn't take long before she wanted out, so I took her out and let her walk.



She was doing ok until she tried to run like her aunts were. Bummer for her it was downhill and she soon got out of control. She hit the ground pretty hard.


After that she was very cautious. She took it about half speed and soon fell behind.


Then she must have wanted to catch up because she started to speed it up. Yep; she ate it again. I think she fell three times while we walked down that road. The funniest part of it all was what her legs looked like afterwards.


Poor kid.

Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley came over later for dinner and to hang out. Here's Izzie hanging out with Grandpa Chuck.



After dinner Grandpa Joe started a fire so that we could make s'mores. Izzie jumped like crazy when the fire lit. Then she clung to Grandpa Chuck like a baby koala holding on for dear life.


Here's Izzie sitting on Grandma Shirley's lap. They were playing with some jax, and then Izzie decided that they were the perfect size to fit up her nose. Where she got this idea I don't know, but it was comical.



Here's a quick video that shows the fun a bit better.



Of course Izzie still loves to swing, and the swing at Grandpa Joe's is still as cool as ever. Here she is having a great time.


Then we made s'mores. No pictures of that, but if you look closely at Izzie in this picture you can see that half of her's in all over her face.


We called it a night after the fire burned down and headed inside. After a quick bath Izzie came and sat on the couch with Grandpa Joe and I.


Oddly enough the temperamental Chihuahua took a liking to Izzie and jumped onto her lap to lay down. Izzie didn't know what to think because she's always so apprehensive of animals anyway. Notice the corner smile on her mouth. That means that she doesn't know what to do about it. She just sat there clearly uncomfortable about the situation for a few minutes. It was cute.


On Monday (Memorial Day) we got up and started getting ready to head back home to Billings. Here's Izzie burning some energy with her Aunts before we headed out.


And of course we stopped by Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley's house to say goodbye to them. I don't think Izzie wanted to get back in the car for another six hour drive because she wasn't happy to leave. I greatly dislike these moments.


She fell asleep a few hours into the drive and we had some piece and quiet for a couple of hours.


And that was our Memorial Day weekend. A wedding and a lot of playing.

IT'S A BOY!

Yep. Baby #2 is a boy, and we are excited (especially me). Now that I have spoiled the rest of this post I'll just cut to the event.

We headed to the doctors office one fine, late May afternoon to find out what we were having. We were full of anticipation and excitement. Here's Nell and Izzie walking through the parking lot as we went into the doctors office.


Nell checked in while Izzie and I headed to the play area to occupy our time while we waited for our turn to see the doc. We waited and waited and waited. Thirty minutes into the wait I went to the front desk to show them how patient of a person I wasn't. I informed them that I wasn't interested in waiting all day and that they needed to figure out how much longer the wait was going to be. I was perturbed to say the least. Obviously there wasn't much I could do, so I went back to waiting. After a few minutes the lady at the desk emerged to tell us that they were behind and that it wouldn't be long. I was fuming. I mean, why can't they tell you these sort of thing when you walk through the door? At least then you expect it. Instead they make it a surprise.

Here we are playing.



We eventually got called back and it wasn't 10 seconds into the ultrasound that the doctor said "Do you want to know what it is?" We unanimously said yes, and without another second passing the doc said "It's going to be a little boy." Now, I was still fuming from my 40 minute wait to even get to this point in my day, but when I heard "boy" it all changed. I no longer wanted to strangle anyone or cram a schedule down someones throat. I was on cloud nine now and nothing at this point could ruin my day. I was, however, bummed that I didn't have my camera out to capture those words. In fact I debated in my head about having the doctor re-enact it for me so that I could, but I didn't. Here's the doc scanning Nell's innards just after the great news.


And just in case you want to watch a few minutes of the ultrasound event, here's a video.



After the ultrasound it was time to go see our doctor, good ol' Hal. Here's Nell hanging out on the stirrup table waiting (...again...) for the doctor (... another one...).


Then we were off. Nell and Izzie took me back to the office, and I couldn't help but grin for the rest of the day because I'm going to have a son.

Thanks God.