The Gummi Bear

Well, okay it's really Izzie's blog. It consists of updates about her little life (of course lately I have had no time to keep up with it). Once a month updates might become more frequent, but I can't keep my fingers crossed. We do have big news that might cause the name of the blog to change. As you can see in the picture, we are expecting a gummi bear! ;) The little bean is due mid July, the 16th to be exact. We are a big 9 weeks pregnant. Izzie is going to be a great Big Sister! I'm so excited this time next year we will be a family of four.

I'm thinking... what should our new little blog be called. I guess we will have to wait and see.

She's Just Growing Up!

Izzie is growing up way too fast. She's no longer a baby. She is a toddler. I get so sad knowing things are changing, but I am looking forward to the things we will be able to do together in the future as well. I guess in a way she will always be my "baby."

She can do so much now. I sometimes forget what I have said in previous posts, so excuse repeats. Here we go:

She adds words to her vocabulary all the time. Her favorite words of the moment are dog and daddy. I love how she says "Dah-dee." It's clearly two syllables for her. The other day at the grocery store, Todd would walk away from our cart to grab something just feet away. She would yell (in a cute way) "Dah-dee!" She would do it every single time, like "hey look at me daddy." She likes to say "uh oh," too.

I think I might have told you all about her fake cough. She figured this out a couple of months ago. She will cough and once she realizes that we give her attention by patting her back or asking "are you ok?" She continues to give this poor little, weak cough. She is a comedian. If she hears anyone sneeze or cough, we get the same reaction from her. She decides she is going to cough, too.

Izzie is running. Forget walking. Izzie is a girl on a mission. She has no time to waste. She also likes to run when she knows she is doing a "no no." For instance, touching the plug-in air fresheners. She knows this is a "no no." I will hear her walk towards it. I will turn around, look at her, say "no no." Before I can even start to walk towards her she decides to run in the opposite direction avoiding all eye contact with her mama. She is also stubborn. It takes at least two or three times of saying "no no" and chasing her before she gets the point.

She likes her bottle. I know we should be off the bottle. However, we just weaned not too long ago. I don't want to make life really difficult for all of us at this point. It will probably be another month or two. She only gets a bottle of whole milk at bedtime, nap time, and sometimes in the morning. On the plus side, Izzie has never had a pacifier... so we don't have to worry about that.

Izzie loves Yo Gabba Gabba. I don't let her watch too much tv. One day, I just turned it on Nick Jr. and this crazy shoe was on. She loves it. We let her watch this and Sesame Street.

Izzie dances. It's more of like a head nod with sometimes an arm thrown up in the air, mixed with an occasional stomp of the feet. Pretty funky stuff. She's got to learn some better moves ;).

She claps and high-fives.

Her favorite toy would have to be her play kitchen she got for her birthday. I would include the shopping cart in there, too. She loves to open and close the doors to the stove and microwave. She pretends to eat and drink as well. She is so smart.

Izzie loves cell phones. I would give her dad credit for this. She even knows when its "off" or "on." On is when the phone is lit up. She clearly know the difference and gets very upset if you hand her the phone when it is off. She holds it up to her ear as if to talk. Now, sometimes you can hear her say "ello."

She likes to play with clothes and dress herself. Ok, she really doesn't dress herself, but she will find something in the closet or room she can put over her head and wear. Most of the time (embarrassing I know) it's a bra or bathing suit top.

There are so many little things that she does everyday that I am astonished by. I have no clue how she learned so many things in such a short time. There is always something new I notice. I will tell Todd or Todd will tell me something she is doing new. We sometimes look at each other like we are crazy until we see it with our own eyes. I love this little girl. She is amazing. Thank you God for sharing her with all of us.

Birthday Weekend Celebrations

Saturday, Todd returned from the hospital. He seemed to be doing much better and even got to spend a little time with his daughter. I know he was dying to see her. I got a little rest that morning while my awesome mom (gammy) cleaned our house. I don't know what we would do without her sometimes. Izzie's great grandparents were coming that afternoon. Sunday was going to be her big birthday celebration, too. We had a lot to do.

That afternoon the Gamecocks beat Alabama, and the great grands arrived! It was a great afternoon. We all hung out and ate dinner together. They gave Izzie her birthday presents. Izzie actually tried to open them herself. I was really impressed. She got a cute old fashioned jack-in-the-box and doll. She loves her jack-in-the-box so much. She doesn't quite have the coordination to turn the handle, but would sit on the floor next to us for an hour as we did it for her. We went to bed that night, knowing we had a busy day coming.

We had lots of family help and got everything ready for her party at 3pm. It was at our house. We are lucky enough that our house is able to hold that many people. It almost didn't. We had about 30 people there. It was also warm outside, so of course people wanted to stay in. I don't blame them. It went by so fast. Izzie wore her little pink tutu made my her mama :). She also wore a monogrammed shirt that matched with silver glitter shoes and a big bow. A girl always has to have a bow. Well, this mama at least makes sure her baby does.

We had family and close friends there. Ate finger foods and pizza. Izzie's favorite food is pizza by the way. She got lots of needed clothes and toys. We were running out of toys. All the ones she had were getting old and boring. It was hard keeping her interested in them. I was probably just as happy as she was getting them. She really sat by me and looked at every present. She would grab one and hug it. SO SWEET! She kept hugging them over and over... even her clothes, haha! Next, was cake. Izzie was a professional with her cake. It was literally demolished in minutes. She needed no help figuring it out. However, she did not like the bath that came after it. We quickly got her cleaned up. She went right back out and started playing with the other kids and her toys.

What a day. It was wonderful. I'm so thankful my family was there to help with the setup and cleanup.

So far behind with the blog. Her FIRST Birthday.

Izzie turned 1 on October 8, 2010. To be exact around 3:24pm. It was an anticlimactic day. Being the horrible mother I am (jk), I scheduled her first year appointment at the doctor's office on her birthday. I should have been a good mother and scheduled it maybe for the following Monday. However, I did not think of that and it takes about a month to schedule an appointment at her ped's office, so off we went to the doctor's office. Todd was literally deathly ill with some sort of food poisoning, so he was quarantined in one of the spare bedrooms. Izzie's Gammy was nice enough to come with us to be the official "hold-her-downer" (don't you like that word I just made up?). My mom was not fond of the idea, but gave in. Izzie was 23lbs and about 30inches long. Big, healthy girl. Then, the horrible nurse came in to stick her. My mom did her job valiantly and held Izzie down while I sobbed in the corner and covered my eyes. We've been through this process so many times at the doctor's office and I still can't handle it. Oh yah, did I mention I'm a nurse? I stick people multiple times each day I work. I don't like seeing my little one in pain though.

Izzie then took a trip to the mall with her aunties and gammy. I went home to check on her daddy. He was still really sick, running a fever. I still made his stay quarantined to his little room.

Gammy brought Izzie home. She had bought a little birthday treat. We all got to enjoy watching her dig into a double doozie (the cookie sandwich with the cream icing in the middle). Well, her dad didn't get to see it. I did feel bad for him. He didn't even get to see Izzie on her birthday, but it was all in order to keep her from getting sick. Izzie then left the house and went back to her gammy's for a little spend the night party.

I had to go to work that night. I only work Fridays and Sundays. I got to work and within an hour Todd had called me from the Emergency Room. He ended up staying all night in the CDU (clinical decision unit). The CDU is a part of the hospital where they put the patients that they aren't sure if they need to be admitted or not. It's like a step above the ER. I left work about 11pm to be with him down there. He ended up getting discharged Saturday morning around 1oam.

Anyways, that was my poor Izzie's birthday. I know she still enjoyed being with her gammy, poppy, and aunties. However, it could have been better. We just had some unexpected developments which happens when you have a family. Don't worry this is just part one of the story. It gets much better for her. It ended up being a wonderful weekend full of celebrating Izzie's first year of life. We all love her so much.

Weaning

It's bittersweet, but we weaned Izzie this weekend. Izzie has been a breastfed baby, since day one. If that offends anyone you can stop reading now, because I'm going to continue to talk about our breastfeeding. It's natural, it's healthy, and it might be the best gift a mother can give their child. We had our moments during feedings and we both (Izzie and I) learned from each other how to make it work. It wasn't easy. It was hard work at the beginning. Not only did she reap the benefits of the milk, but it's great bonding and cuddling time.

Todd and I knew we needed to wean soon. We have a Disney World trip lined up in October and we are going to be on a plane. Nursing for us was a very private thing. We weren't big into doing it in public. So, we definitely knew that being on a plane for a few hours would not be good for Izzie. When Izzie is hungry she means business... and if she doesn't get what she wants when she wants it then well it's complete meltdown mode. Not to mention, Izzie is getting a little too big to handle when it comes to nursing.

This past Friday, we just decided it was time. We also decided that cold turkey was the best way for US (we know this is not the best way by the book). It was definitely painful for me. Izzie handled it pretty well, since she spent the first night at her Gammy's (my mom). I also had to work that night, so it didn't matter to me. I didn't get to see her till Saturday night. We used a lot of distraction techniques. If she started getting fussy and acted like she was wanting me then we would find something quick to get her attention. Todd also did some hard work by putting her to sleep and fixing lots of bottles.

I'm sad it is over. However, I'm happy we have it out of the way. I miss my cuddle time, but I think we are learning how to cuddle without the nursing part. She still loves me which makes me relieved. Izzie is officially a full on bottle/ sippy cup drinker. I think she is doing a lot better than I am at this point. I guess this feeling too shall pass...

11 Months Old... well at midnight.

Izzie is sound asleep in her crib. So, I am taking this quiet moment for a blog update. Izzie will be 11 months old tomorrow!!! The picture above is one I took of her for her first birthday invitations. Oh, I have so much more to do and just a month to get it all straight. It's a lot of fun though. I know she is going to dig into her cake like a professional, no assistance needed. Izzie has a sweet tooth or 6 of them rather. There is going to be so much going on in the next 2 months. We have another first birthday to go to this coming up weekend. Izzie's birthday will be the first week of October. Then, we have the fair to look forward to. After that, we are leaving for Disney World!!! There is just too much excitement contained in one tiny month. Not to mention, Fall is the Kirkland's favorite time of the year.

I'm getting so sad and happy at the same time thinking about all that is happening. Izzie is walking, well more like running all over the place. She started taking steps a little over a month ago. We are now busy trying to keep up with her. Izzie likes to be chased, too. It's so funny. She intentionally will walk away, try to sneak, and wait for you to come get her then hurry as fast as she can out of your reach. She does this while squealing and giggling. She's too cute.

You can tell in the picture above that she has these little flyaway curls. Notice on the side of her little noggin. I wonder what it will be like when it grows longer? I'm sure that strawberry blonde shade will get darker with time.

Izzie doesn't have a very big vocabulary, yet. We are working on it. I guess some kiddos accelerate in other areas faster. She does ma, da, dog (well what we think is dog).. I think that's pretty much it right now.

Her new favorite things to do are clap and point. She points at everything!!! It's a good way to communicate though. The pointing sometimes makes it easier to figure out what she wants.

Favorite foods: anything with tomato sauce, noodles/macaroni, pizza, cheese, gerber graduate puffs, goldfish, and chicken. Of course, you already saw the sweet tooth comment. Unfortunately, she is about as picky as her parents. She will occasionally eat a carrot.

She is currently wearing 12-18 months (more like 18 months). She is a size 4-5 shoe. She just keeps growing. I think it is starting to slow down a bit.

I think that's it for now. Izzie is asleep and it's mommy's bedtime, too!

10 Months...

of Bliss. Okay, so there have been some trials and tribulations. However, this has been the best 10 months of hard work and love Todd and I have ever had. I am going to make this sweet and to the point.

Izzie is WALKING! Yes, it started about a week or two ago with just a step away from whatever she was holding onto. Now, we have counted 6 steps at a time. I think it's official. I might need to start working out, so I can keep up with this munchkin. It was hard enough when she started crawling all over.

The Zoo with a Friend.

The start of a wonderful friendship.

Izzie was more interested in this big hairy "guy" than the camera.

Izzie appears to be "cheesing" for the camera lately. Don't you love that big toothy grin?


We headed to the zoo on this hot early morning in Columbia, South Carolina. This is Izzie's third, maybe?, trip to the zoo. Oh! I have forgotten how many times we have gone. It might have been her fourth. The zoo is one of Izzie's favorites. We invited Ansley and her mommy Amanda to come with us. This was Ansley's first trip to the zoo. Ansley is Amanda and Bill's daughter. Bill is one of Todd's very good childhood friends. Ansley was born one month almost exactly before Izzie. Follow? Anyways, we all had so much fun. :)

Sometimes...

As a mom, you just have to take a ton of pictures (ok maybe you don't have to). I have taken so many pictures; I think I might be driving Todd a little crazy with them. However, everyday I find myself snapping pictures of Izzie. I just can't help myself. Most of them are pictures of just her beautiful face and she's absolutely doing nothing- just melting my heart.

Icecream and Popsicles

I Spy a Popsicle Stick and Chocolate (and 6 visible teeth, but she has 7)

Occasionally, we let Izzie have a popsicle or an icecream in the bathtub. No worries, I don't let her pig out on the whole thing (even though this picture may look like I do haha). She really likes almost anything sweet, but popsicles and icecream the most. She doesn't only lick the icecream... she will bite chunks off. It's just one of the moments of the day, I enjoy most with my daughter.

Oh! How She Loves Her Wagon..

Izzie with Aunt Brooke on 4th of July


Feeding Izzie some yummy whip cream and strawberries Aunt Brooke made.

"The RED WAGON" ...

Izzie loves this wagon. Nina bought it one day sometime maybe last month. I thought she was still a little young to be riding around in this, but she did so good! It has these nice little seats with straps so Izzie stays put! However, it is not like we really have to worry about her going anywhere, because she loves sitting in it. The wagon does not even have to be moving and she would just sit there forever. I remember one of the wagons I first rode in. The old radio flyer. It was all wooden with the removable panel sides, not quite as safe as this newer model ;). Every time we go to the pool in our new neighborhood, we take her in her chariot. She is also our official pool key holder until we get to the gates to unlock it. We do the same routine every time.

9 Big Months Old!

Our darling Isabelle Grace is 9 months old! These past 9 months have flown by, mostly due to being so in love with this child on loan from God. Her 9 month check up will be on Tuesday, so I will have to update then with all of her "stats" :). I'm sure they will all read "big, big, and bigger."

I should be asleep right now since it is 0132. However, it seems Izzie is keeping us even busier lately. I thought as she grew older things would get easier, but that's not exactly true. I think we just do our best to learn how to adjust to being busy with her. I love every second of being her "maaaaaa" (as izzie would say it these days), but oh my she is one big handful. Unfortunately, she does not have her dad's personality. This is something I think I prayed for, since maybe the day of her conception. I see more of me in her all the time. Oh! How I wish she was layed back and carefree. I guess she can be at times of course. Most of the time she is not though. She is full of energy and always into trouble the second you take an eye off of her. She is officially crawling all over and her little engine seems to never run out of gas. She keeps us on our toes at all times. For some reason, she likes to touch everything she is not supposed to... like electrical outlets, anything heavy, sharp, or metal. Thank goodness, I think God made her with an extremely hard head (haha, in more than one way).

Izzie is still an extremely picky eater which she inherited from both of her parents. Today, we went to IHOP. I ordered some eggs and thought that I would give her some since they were really soft. She seemed to love them! I was feeding her a good bit and the second I would stop she would whine for more. Todd then gave her a little bit of her formula. Todd decided to give her the tiniest bit of pancake. She seemed to like it, too. Well, then the gagging started. I'm sure the people that saw me could read the expression of "Oh my gosh!" written all over my face. It didn't take but one more second for Izzie's strong gag reflex to kick in and all the eggs, formula, and bit of pancake went right down the front of her, into the highchair, in typical Izzie explosive throw up fashion! I was so embarrassed. No worries, Izzie was completely fine. She did not shed a tear. In fact, I think she was more upset we wouldn't give her the rest of her bottle. Needless to say, we left promptly. Oh the joys of being a parent, haha. You see... Izzie has a very strong gag reflex and it is common that when she does not like something she gags promptly. I would really hate that gag reflex if it were not my daughter's :).

On a brighter note, Izzie is so close to taking her first step. Todd and I are hypervigilent right now so we can both witness it. She has been standing on her own, not touching a thing for at least a month. I promise you the baby is not scared of anything, well she is actually scared of the vacuum and I don't blame her. She pulls up all the time on whatever she can get her hands on and just lets go. Izzie stands for a minute or two at a time. Our daughter is growing up too fast.

One more thing before I wrap this blog session up. Izzie says three words from what we can tell. Her first was "ma" and then "da." Now we are pretty sure she is saying "dog." The "G" sound does not quite come out like it should, but its close enough to count. :) She loves her Barkley and Bentley. For those of you who have not met them, they were the first members of the Kirkland family. They are both yorkies and half brothers. Izzie loves them to death. We are trying to teach her how to be gentle, but she gets so excited and either pulls their hair while petting or pats a little too hard and it becomes a hit. Poor boys.

Good Night!

7 Month... Almost 8 Month Update...

Oh my! It's been kind of busy around here. Ok, it's been really busy! We have had so much going on. We are still in the process of moving. Our closing is this Friday. It was supposed to be last Friday. Some things got messed up with the paperwork. Anyways, we have been packing, rearranging, scheduling movers, rescheduling, trying not to live out of a box, and trying to keep the house in a halfway decent shape all while working and trying to take care of and raise little Miss Izzie. Wow! Overwhelming to say the least. Oh! I also got a new job at Lexington Medical Center. My last day at Richland is the 11th, so we have also been trying to get things together for that. It feels like we have just been struggling to even take a breath.

Ok, on to Miss Iz. I can't begin to explain how much she has changed over the last 2-3 months. She is so fun to be with (not that she wasn't before, but its completely different). Her little personality is just shining through. Not only is my daughter beautiful on the outside, I can clearly see how beautiful she is going to be on the inside as well. It makes me tear up just thinking about the future and how much fun we are going to have together. Here are a few things that we have started to notice over the last weeks:

1. Izzie has not started crawling. However, she scoots backwards. She will attempt to crawl, but then gives up and will lay on her tummy and scoot backwards. She will go about 10ft back at a time.

2. Izzie does not like baby food (the Gerber jars). She gags and spits everything out. However, she likes red licorice (she just sucks on it), lemons, and she likes a few of the Gerber puffs and yogurts. Of course, she is still a breastfed baby. However, we will be weaning soon. We are going to continue to try to feed her the Gerber baby food. We do not want her to be a picky eater like her parents.

3. Izzie has two teeth, both on the bottom.

4. She is a mama's girl. She loves her dada, too.

5. She has said her first word. Todd and I are pretty sure that she is saying "mama" and we know she means it. She just started making a "mmm" sound and started saying "maaaaa." She started saying it last week. Todd and I were both laying on the bed. I asked Todd to hold her for a minute. I was sitting right next to them. She started reaching for me and saying "ma" over and over until I held her and then she was quiet again.

6. Izzie has started pulling up on things to stand. She needs lots of supervision, because she falls. We have caught her doing it all by herself a few times.

7. She loves her Nina and her Gammy. At times, I believe she might love them a little more than me ;).

8. Izzie got in the pool for the first time a few weeks ago. She loves the water and likes to splash.

I'm sure there is a lot more, but I tried to hit the major highlights. We will hopefully be moved into our new home this weekend and things will start slowing down. Then, I might have more time to keep this blog updated.

.. 15 Days ..

Until the big move! Oh my word, we have so much to do. However, we could not be more excited to announce that we are moving. We have been waiting what seems like forever. May 14th is closing and as long as everything goes as planned with paperwork then its official. Here are a few pictures of the new house and Izzie getting all packed up. One way to keep a 6 month old busy is to let her eat her way out of a box ;).

6 months old!

Oh my word. This is a couple weeks late, but I was trying to wait till her doctor's appointment tomorrow so I could post stats. I also wanted to share some of her 6 month pictures. However, they are not finished either. Anyways. Izzie is getting so big. She is sitting all by herself. When she sits, she is now leaning over her tummy and putting her hand on the floor trying to move forward (crawl). Most of the time she just ends up laying on her tummy instead. She is so close. We have not been feeding her a lot of baby food. Izzie likes breast milk a lot more. We have tried sweet potatoes and green beans though a couple times. She eats them and opens her mouth wide for the spoon. We, Todd and I, are thinking about weaning her from the breast (yes this is a joint decision for a few reasons). I think we are going to wait a little bit longer though. It is going to be a very tough process, one that only other exclusive breastfeeding moms could understand. She is attached to my hip and will probably be a very angry little girl when that day comes. Izzie enjoys playing with her "ruff ruffs" (puppies) more than anything else. Whenever she is upset all we have to do is call her "ruff ruffs" in the room and she is all smiles. Izzie is still reaching and putting anything she can get in her mouth. You have to keep a close eye on her.. you never know what she can get her hands on. She is officially wearing only 9 month sized clothing. I need to clean her closet out from all the 6 month items. Her hair is growing at a steady pace. It's still not long enough for ribbons alone. She has to use her headbands still.

I could ramble on and on. I think I hit all the high points. Blogging is tough lately. Our family is so busy. We are trying to sell our house still. We have had a few contracts put through, but they all seem to fall through for different reasons. The Kirkland family needs more space! We are currently trying to workout a deal with a builder and will hopefully know something soon. Unfortunately, this does not look good either. Anyways, hopefully our lives will slow down soon so we can document more of Miss Izzie's happenings. We shall see. I will post pictures and stats later. :)

A Few More ..

Izzie's First Easter

Don't worry, I let her know the candy wasn't for her. ;)

Yet another first! Don't you just love all these "firsts." I guess you have to be a mommy or daddy to really know how important and exciting they are. You just get to see your baby do all these things; you get to do all these things as a real little family for the first time. We celebrated Easter with my family on the weekend of my birthday (March 28th). Today, Easter Sunday, we went to Todd's parents to eat and then to his aunt and uncle's house to go Easter egg hunting. Izzie was a little too young for the hunting, but we still had fun going through her Easter basket. It was also nice, quality time with family. More importantly, the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord. Hopefully, Izzie will get to know the true reason for all the celebration when she is older and will be able to know how much He loves us.

Another first...

So, Todd and I decided that we would give Izzie sweet potatoes about a week ago. Yes, we know you should wait till 6 months. We just had the sweet potatoes already in the cabinet and she's close enough to 6 months. I think she really liked them. She even started opening her mouth deliberately to eat them. :)

Izzie's 5 Months Old!

Izzie is now a big 5 months old! Oh my word, time flies. We celebrated by going to the zoo. She really, of course, didn't understand what was going on. However, it was just nice to take a walk and be outside in the gorgeous weather. She was asleep for the first little bit and then decided to wake up and look at all the stuff going on around her. Izzie was such a good girl. She took her bottle (which something really big of her to do.. she doesn't like drinking from a bottle when mommy is around) and only cried for about 5 minutes the whole 3-4 hours we were there.

There are a few things that she has accomplished or at least started working on. She has been reaching out to be held. It's so special to come home from a night of work and she just stretches her arms out to be picked up. :) It's nice to know that she really "wants" to be with you. Izzie has also started working on sitting up. Right now, her "sitting up" is more of a leaning forward on her tummy. We are still working on the cereal with a spoon, too. My mom (grandma for Iz) has walked her in the stroller without the carseat as well. Right now, Izzie likes to grab everything she can reach and put it straight in her mouth. She is still drooling a lot, but no teeth have popped out yet. She is also a fan of bath time and loves the water. Iz has also just discovered how to eat her little feet.

Here are a few pictures from the zoo. On a quick little side note, we still haven't sold our house. We had one offer, but it just was not meant to be. We would love to sell our house. We are blessed to have it, but we are going crazy in this little house. It's getting full fast and we don't want to overflow! So, any little prayer would be much appreciated if it can be spared.

Eating Cereal!

At Izzie's four month appointment, the doctor told us we could start feeding Izzie cereal with a spoon. This is kind of exciting for us. I have no clue why. It's just that we have hit a new stage. We have attempted to feed her only three or four times this month. She doesn't quite get it yet. However, we are in no rush. It's just fun getting her to try the spoon out. Here are a few pictures from Izzie trying it. She still has her "tongue thrust" going, but she does manage to gulp some of it down. Most of the cereal still ends up on her bib or face though.

Great Grandma Russell

Great Grandma Russell came to visit and see Izzie for the very first time over Valentine's Weekend. This would by my Grandma (my dad's mother) and Izzie's Great Grandma. A lot has changed since I've seen my Grandma. I saw her last about a two years ago or so. She now walks with a cane and is not as fast as she used to be, but she is still Grandma and hums all the time. I'm so happy that our baby girl got to meet her. Izzie might not remember this visit in the future, but I have a picture to prove they met at least. I hope they get to have many more. :)

It snowed!!

Bentley in the snow.

Izzie is still recovering from her RSV, but we needed to get proof that she was here to witness it snow in Lexington. We took only a couple (not so great) pictures and scooted back in side with her. I did spend a few more minutes outside with Barkley and Bentley playing. Izzie was inside with her daddy, since he is not too fond of being out in the snow. Here's a few pictures from our day. After laying around the house for a while this morning, we went over to my parents to see Izzie's Great Grandma Russell and eat dinner. It was great.

Just a couple pictures taken last week...

Miss Izzie is four months old!

Izzie at four months old.

Izzie at one month old.

Izzie turned fourth months old yesterday! Since the very first month, I have been taking pictures of Izzie in the same chair with the same teddy bear so we can see how much she has grown. I will post pictures, so you all can see the difference. I took her four month picture today. We stayed in jammies, since Izzie is still not feeling up to par. It's hard to tell everyone exactly what has changed in a month, but I will tell you a few things I notice now more. Izzie now smiles a lot more! You can almost get her to smile at any moment. We do raspberries and it makes her grin all the time. I guess she thinks the noise is silly. She also laughed for the first few times this months. The first night she laughed was in the bathtub. I was pretending to eat her feet while making all sorts of silly grumble noises. She started chuckling. It was so sweet! Todd could not believe it. Izzie is pretty hard to impress though. She has only laughed about three times since then. She also grabs everything. Anything she can reach, she grabs and tries to put it in her mouth, definitely teething. We think she is starting to reach out to be held now, too. It's not a full reach, just a partial holding her hands out. It might just be coincidence. Today, she rolled over! It is about time! No one actually saw her do it though. I had her laying in the middle of our bed doing tummy time. I quickly ran to dryer to take out a load of clothes. I came back and voila! presto! Izzie was on her back. Izzie hates tummy time by the way. I attribute her hatrid for tummy time to why she has not rolled over yet.

Izzie's poppy, my dad, also went to Providence Hospital today. He had to have two more stents placed in an artery to his heart. Please pray for him and our family. It would be greatly appreciated. I know every time I think of my dad, I think of how I want Izzie to be able to play with her poppy some day when she is older. I pray she has that time with him. I remember my poppy, my dad's father. He died when I was nine or ten. I wish I had more memories though.

Anyways, enough blogging for now. Enjoy the pictures.