A day (or two or three) in the life of...

Since we had the family visiting from OK, we took advantage of the opportunity of having us all in one place to go have a family portrait done. On such short notice (I thought of this about 3 days before they flew out), all we could book was Sears, which I would say is overpriced for the photo quality but beggars can't be choosers, right? Trying to get a good shot of 6 adults and a baby takes many tries and you have to end up settling for one where at least no one looks stoned, irritated and has their eyes mostly open. Done. Anywhow, point was to just get us all in a picture together and that was accomplished. Yay! (disclaimer: I'm not really that much taller than Lisey. If you pay attention to the lower section of the pic, you'll see I'm standing on a lil step stool for effect. I liked being taller for 10 minutes of my life) Christmas morning itself, was awesome. Even with lil Izzy not getting the concept of Christmas yet, it was so fun watching her tear open present...

If you have 7+ minutes to kill and feel like watching a baby... wait, not just any baby. Baby Izzy, eating solids (no more spoon fed purees for this miss independent...) for the first time, feel free to check  out the clip below. She stuffs food in her mouth and grunts and growls at us, yet she breaks it all up with smiles and laughs. She is a strange bird. That, my friends, is my girl.  Here's hoping she eats like this until the day she dies. I'd take her to the finest restaurants in the world and be just as proud as I was today. ps - background commentary and laughter by Cowboy, Tia, Lisey and Grandma Dana. Fun for the whole family.

Cowboy came into Izzy's room as I was watching her try to roll off the changing table w/her legs dangling off and he swooped her up and was saying "That's not good, Izzy. You can fall and hurt yourself" and she laughed. He put her in her crib and said "ok, you'll be safe here in the corner of your crib". Well, she just stayed there in the corner, facing the wall and holding onto the railings. I ran and got my camera and she was still just hanging out in the corner. I would have thought she'd book it out of the corner. ((shrugs)) I don't know why these pictures cracked me up, but they did, so here ya go.   I'm over it.... Get out of *my* room. I'm going to sit here and figure out how to break out of this corner... And then we lowered her mattress and showed her how to stand against the railing. It's all about mixed messages, people...

We tried taking Xmas pics for a card this week and it just didn't really go well so we're accepting that we've failed at the Xmas card sending this year. We'll have to make it up to peeps next year. I love getting cards and love sending them but this year my head is just not on right. On the bright side, here's one of the adorable pics that we took of lil miss Nugget. It's the only one she really smiled in. I have about 15 of her scowling at me. Those would make great grinch card pics! This one could have been good if only we had a better camera, better lighting, happy dog, happy baby, non-pointing me and, yeah, just could have had some potential. sigh. fail. Holy crap, where is the time going? Christmas is just 10 days away! Izzy's Grandparents (and GREAT Grandma!) are arriving in town in a week. Before then, we need to clean, clean, clean. Do groceries (I got us a box of peppermint Jo-Jo's and some choco-orange sticks, MIL!). Get home a pinch mor...

Izzy is in a profound baby thoughts, kinda mood today.  Tia Mish, she would like to see you. Please let us know when you're back at home so we can slip into the rotations to come hang out w/you. Okie? Feel better, stat! Te amamos!

So I've been working out pretty consistently for the past few months. Some weeks better than others but I do go at least 4 times a week and it's now paying off! Halleluah! Man, losing baby weight is a helluva lot more difficult when you're over 35. No_joke. So, I'm finally down to 135! This is huge because my pre-preg weight was 129. So, 6 more lbs and I'm pre-preg. I'm starting to finally see the results though that means my couple of post-preg pants are all baggy yet my pre-preg pants are tight enough to ensure a textbook muffin top. That didn't stop me from wearing a pair of muffin top inducing jeans last Friday into the office. I mean, I wore a flowy top over it so that noone had to witness the chub spillage and I walked a bit slowly, taking short steps due to the circulation constriction but I was in pre-pregnancy jeans, dammit!  So if I can only keep this up during the holidays, or at the very least maintain, I'll be ecstatic. Because I just can...

I've been pushing all of my 'To Do's' out of my line of vision by focusing on Izzy. Every time I start thinking 'oh crap, I have to buy presents... what do I get for [insert anyone here, really]?', I quickly switch to "awww, I love our Nugget. She was so giggly and happy today. How crazy that her gummy smile is no longer..." and then I stay totally un-productive. Woops! That will have to change this week. I have massive amounts of work to do and massive amounts of home stuff to catch up on (make more batches of food for Izzy, laundry, clean, Xmas cards, Xmas shopping, prepping for Cowboy Family Xmas). Lots to do, Peeps... Here's happy baby w/her Mima yesterday. She was all smiles and babbling yesterday morning. We went to Starbucks w/Izzy and Cowboy for brekky and she was just the hit of that joint. People were stopping by to talk w/her and getting entranced by her smiles and one lady came and asked us if she could take a picture of her to send t...

Wow, a LOT happens in 2 weeks! Since last blog post, we went to Mexico (5 days away from our Nugget made for more anxiety than I was equipped with handling), came back to a different baby, discovered her tooth sprout and have fallen doubly in love w/Izzy.  When we dropped her off with my Mom (before our trip), I cried. When we'd call to check in on how she was doing, I'd cry. We Skyped w/her at one point. I cried. I went to pick her up, I cried. It was really just much more than I had ever anticipated. She's such an extension of us and though it was a nice vacation for Cowboy and I, it was just not the fun that I had anticipated. Ah well, we tried. :) So, as we were Skyping with Grandma/MIL last night, Izzy was just doing her usual gnawing on my finger but it was more intense than usual and suddenly I felt a sharp ridge against my finger. O_O A tooth!!! Sorry for squealing into your computer speakers, MIL. :) I was so excited and Izzy was staring at me and my excitednes...

Izzy's officially learned how to shake her head in a 'no' gesture. I don't know that she actually equivocates it to mean 'no' but she's amused that she can do it so she looks at you seriously and shakes her head. If you shake you're head, she'll keep on shaking her head and then start smiling. So, yeah. No. She's also rolling around to whatever her desired destination or object of desire fancies her. She's loving all of her toys and the freedom and ability to start getting around. I still think she's smuggling a lost twin in her cheeks. Look at those cheeks!!!  She's also obsessed with grabbing our faces. She just stares at you, like she's sizing up your face then lunges at you with her hands to start pulling at your lips, nose, cheeks, eyes, etc... Observe the pic to the left for an example. She was obsessed with her Tia Lisey's face. Luckily, her Tia Lisey is very patient and in love w/her Izzy so she had her face pulled a...

4 years ago I married a sweet Cowboy who was first and foremost, my friend. 5 years ago, our romance had just begun and it hit me like a mack truck. 5 and a half years ago, if you'd had told me that I'd be marrying Cowboy, I would have laughed at the silliness of the notion. He was my bud. The guy I'd call up to go on a run with me, hit up happy hour and talk about life, love, nothing, everything.  Little did I know... 4 years ago we exchanged vows and I was officially adopted into an awesome family who make me smile and laugh on a regular and who treat me as if I was born as part of their family. I never imagined my life would take the turns that it did. I'm so happy that life has more imagination that I do.

I've been so remiss at this blogging. I go through phases. Sometimes I have pockets of free time to update and enjoy and other times, this just falls to the waist side.  My goal is to post an update at least once a week. Anything else is just icing on top for me. Ok, so let's start with Going to the Twins B'day party this weekend. I can't believe our babies are 17!!! We all were part of their lives from the womb to now and it's insane that they can go out and buy cigarrettes, (or is that 18?), watch R rated movies (well, I guess they could have done that regarless but still...) and make adult decisions. In_sane! Seeing my Girrlies there was a blast too. Izzy got to catch up w/her Tias and get some good social time in. I'm thinking I need to get her in more social situations so that groups of people and new faces don't scare her. Or at least try, right? Here's one of my favorite pics of Izzy from the party: I can't even stand it. This little Nugget...

Feliz Día de los Muertos, y'all! Here's a little excerpt from an article on abcnews.go.com today on Day of the Dead festivities and the meaning behind it. It's a decent article with some fun pics. " Dia de los Muertos: Day of the Dead If all goes as planned, souls of deceased loved ones will be welcomed home this evening, at least in Mexico, where friends and family have been preparing for their arrival for weeks. Today is Day 2 of Dia de los Muertos, the day when adult souls are welcomed home. The souls of children arrive one day prior at midnight Oct. 31., according to goMexico.com.  Not to be confused with Halloween,  Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead, is its own entity.  Born out of the Aztec festival for the goddess of the underworld, Mictecacihuatl, and the Catholic Spanish conquistadors’ All Saints/Souls Day, the modern tradition has become a Mexican National Holiday and  the country’s biggest celebration of the year." I fell in love with t...

Ok, I've slacked this last week. I feel like I've been busier than normal. Maybe it's this whole 'Working Full Time Mom' gig (don't believe that, I have it way too cush to even try to claim that). I'll just make this a picture post and skip past my babbling. I'll babble more later this week. Izzy's Halloween costume. She went as a reluctant Lady Bug. She literally was zoned out for half the time at the mall (we didn't want to trick or treat outside, plus, it's not like we really were going to get candy... sigh), smiled some in pics and then when we got home, got amped up, giggled, played and said she didn't really dig the crowds. OK Izzy... Here are our two lil partners in crime. Rowdy's about 8 months old at this point so we get to see what fun we may be in for ahead of time. Once they're a few months older, they should be able to have an even playing field. Once they're both walking, we're in trouble. Rowdy loves jus...