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January 2010

We didn't do too much of interest in January, so here's the everyday type stuff.

We began making sure that Iv got plenty of exercise. Here he is working the tummy time.


Meanwhile Izzie was still trying to cope with the no nap transition. It was getting to the point where naps would give her too much energy in the evenings, and she wouldn't be going to bed until 9pm or later some times. The obvious answer was no naps. When we first started keeping her awake in the afternoons her batteries would randomly go dead. It wasn't uncommon to find her in the middle of doing something and having fallen asleep. Here she is sleeping in the entry way.


Of course January brought more snow. Here's Nell and Izzie getting out to enjoy it while Iv and I enjoyed the nice warm house.



More tummy time.


Izzie has really gotten into movies now that she has an attention span that can cope with a 90 minute burst of mindless entertainment. If you can't tell, she's watching Cinderella, and let me tell you, the princess thing is becoming big in our house.


After those dresses she got for Christmas and a couple more princess movies in her head it's on. She's a princess, and she reminds you of it all the time. There's dances with Prince Charming (me) and even sleeping spells that require a kiss to wake her up. It's becoming abundantly clear that this child has a very vivid and active imagination, and that makes it all the more alluring to play along.

More tummy time for Iv. He actually really enjoys it. Who knows why. Maybe it's the new perspective on the world.


The other great thing that January brought was Izzie's growing interest in her baby brother. She is starting to do a lot for the little guy. It's small stuff like putting his binky back in his mouth or picking up his toy when he drops it, but the best part is the love that she shows him. She's definitely a tender hearted girl, and it shows when she's loving her brother.




Here's my beautiful wife serving as a horse of some sort to Izzie.


Here I am hanging out with the kids and my phone.


Snack time usually happens two to three times a day.


More random sleeping.


Here's beautiful Izzie watching a movie from a pile of couch cushions that she assembled on the floor.


Sometimes the cushions are piled on the couch.


More sibling time.


Izzie's aunties popped her Jumpoline while they were here at Christmas time, so she wasn't doing much jumping. That is until one day when the cushions were off of the couch serving a sinister purpose deemed necessary by a two year old. That's when she discovered that the couch had springs in it. Here's the result.




One last picture of Iv. He really grew fast, and ever time I hold him and look at him it kind of bums me out that he's the last baby we'll have. Then he starts crying or puking on me and then I'm not so sad.

Sledding in January

On January 10th, 2010 we went sledding with a bunch of friends from Narrate. It was a blast. I won't do much explaining except that Izzie was too afraid to do the big kid hill, so we found a little bank that worked for her. She was as happy as could be with it, and although Lynnell and I became bored and tired of making the same 30 foot trek over and over again our two year old didn't.










Lynnell and I learned something from this little outing. As much as we loath the thought of taking an hour to get us all ready to trudge out into the cold of winter, the reward for taking the risk is far greater than the security and comfort of not doing it. We'll definitely be more proactive in the future with events that require more effort than we might be willing to put in to make it happen.

December 2009

It's time to catch up on the miscellaneous stuff from December. I'll start it off with a cute picture of Iv. He is to the point where he's starting to interact with his environment a little more, so it's becoming fun to watch him and show him new things. I like to refer to it in my head as "he has become aware." He still just basically lies around though. For some reason it's still fulfilling as a parent to watch them go through these stages.


Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley came over to visit us the first weekend in December. It was great to see them and spend the weekend with them. Here's Grandma Shirley getting some good baby time.


Meanwhile, Izzie was two and a half in December. She's become a toddler for sure, and now it's a blast to play with her. Here's Nell doing the Yoda/Skywalker thing from one of those movies.


Then it was Grandpa Chuck's turn to get some Iv time. It's great to see them together because Iv has so many of Chuck's features.


Here's the little guy sitting on mommy's lap showing off his blue eyes and freaked-out face.


December marked the first time Izzie and Nell did the finger painting thing. Here's Izzie watching intently as Lynnell does her best to paint the fidgeting fingers of a two year old. Izzie loved it. She went around to everyone and made sure that they saw how pretty her nails were.


Grandpa Chuck squeezing in as much time as he can. He doesn't get to visit as much as Grandma Shirley does, so I can't blame him.


Izzie's taken a huge interest in everything we do. It's especially entertaining to see her identify more with Lynnell and the things that Lynnell does. She pays attention to me, but not as much as she does to Lynnell. Most of the time when Lynnell is making dinner Izzie will want to be part of it. She'll go grab her stool and haul it into the kitchen, and if Lynnell doesn't find something for her to do she finds it on her own. That doesn't always end well, so Lynnell does a great job at making sure there's something Izzie can do. Here's the two of them making dinner for us one night.


And here we all are eating it.


Since Izzie is getting to the point where she needs something to do and entertain her Lynnell thought it was about time we break out the Jumpoline. We had put it up and packed it away when we moved, so Izzie hadn't played on it for a while. She was pretty happy to have it back out and aired up.


Did you notice the Minnie Mouse dress? Yeah, she still wears it.

We tried to get the kids together to get a couple of good pictures for Christmas. Turns out I'm not really a photographer. It was so dang hard to get the kids to coordinate their looks and smiles. It was even harder with our poor living room light. After about 50 or so shots I only had a couple of good ones to show. Here's one.


Here's a really cute one of Iv after we were done with that picture fiasco. When I saw the face he made in the picture I could only imagine him thinking "Really! Another picture." Well, the answer is yes.


Lynnell, Izzie and Iv packed up and headed to Billings the third week of December to visit friends and make some yummy Christmas treats. Here' Izzie and Joban hanging out. I love Joban's face in this picture. I would like to have come up with a good caption for this priceless look, but the only thing I can think of is "I'm pooping my pants on the counter and you don't know it yet." Meanwhile Izzie is working it in the background.


And that's it for December. The rest was Christmas and a doctor visit which you've already seen.

Christmas 2009

For Christmas in 2009 we spent it in our new house in Helena, and Grandpa Joe, Grandma Tonia, the Aunties and Uncle D came over to spend it with us. They arrive on Wednesday the 23rd so that we could all have a good visit. Here's Izzie hanging out with Aunt Alex. She was celebrating on the inside because her Aunties were visiting.


Thursday afternoon our church had Christmas Eve services. We all went to the 3pm service. I had to stick around until it was all over, but I made it home by 7:30pm or so. It was just in time to enjoy our traditional Christmas Eve personal-pan homemade pizzas. Once again it was awesome; too bad we only do it once a year. After dinner all of the girls got to open one early Christmas present. Unfortunately for them the present was chosen by mom.


This year it was slippers for the Aunties, and Izzie got princess pajamas.


At this point Izzie is two and a half, and she absolutely loves anything princess. When she saw her new pajamas she had to wear them. Once she got them on, it was nothing but excitement.


After that it was off to bed so that we could wake up early to open presents. Early didn't happen, but we did all wake up. First thing was first: open presents.


Here's Izzie opening a present from Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Shirley. It was a princess trunk full of princess dresses. She loved it, and probably wore every dress in there (four of them I think) within an hour.


After the present were opened it was time to enjoy them. The aunties got a Wii which eclipsed any other present they got, so we spent the rest of the day and weekend enjoying it. Here's Uncle D helping the girls set it up and create their Mii's.


Here's Grandpa Joe enjoying Iv's company.


We spent the rest of the day playing the Wii, visiting and eating, but mostly playing the Wii. Lynnell made an epic Prime Rib for dinner. Man was it good.

The next day we played the Wii, took it easy, played the Wii, ate food and played the Wii. Once the big kids (adults) took over the Wii the girls were left with time to enjoy their other presents. Here they are rock'n the Hungry Hungry Hippos.


Meanwhile Iv was getting his first try at the Jonny-Jump-Up. He didn't really jump. He just sat there and soaked it in saliva. It didn't matter though because he was dang cute.


At some point the girls got baths, and Izzie was kind enough to let Alex brush her hair. It was pretty cute because Alex was as careful as she could be to not pull on the knots, and Izzie was more accepting than ever to have her knots pulled. A win-win if you ask me.


With naps in short supply for the previous few days, Izzie managed to crash on the couch through all of the noise and chaos.


More relaxing and more Wii.


Izzie slept for quite a while, and the Auties took the opportunity to torture her. They shoved the new play money from Izzie's checkout/cash register toy in between her toes. The funniest part of all is that they devised this plan on their own.


Saturday came to and end, and then Sunday replaced it. Here's everyone packing things up for the drive back to Idaho.


It was another great year. We had a blast spending time with family, and we can't wait until next year.