my bella... such a little mama

so i am recording this now so i remember for later... sweet bella in her 2 and 3/4 yrs of life never fails to crack me up... yesterday was more of the same. she & i went to do some errands/shopping and had a great time. we went to tuesday morning where she quickly found multiple "treasures" she wanted to buy. some of those treasures includes bright pink flip flops w/ polka dots for her and a "lovely" bright yellow pair of flip flops at least 2 sizes too small w/ 2 in. heels that she insisted were for mommy... when checking out i snuck the yellow ones to the cashier and he tucked them away so as not to let her know that mommy wasn't a huge fan of her fashion choice... bless her heart : )

then later while en route to pick up sissy's cake for her dedication the next day, i began hearing her making this sweet little noise with her mouth... i kind of looked in the rearview mirror and couldn't figure out what she was doing... well after about a minute of this noise, i finally turned around and asked what she was doing... she quickly proceeded "feeding my baby my booby... she hungry, mama"... sure enough her shirt was up (she had managed to pull it up under her carseat straps) and she had assumed the position w/ her baby doll. after running in to grab the cake and getting back in the car, she proceeded to tell me "she all done... her night-night"... and pulled down her shirt, patted baby doll's back and acted quite sleepy herself. HA! i couldn't contain my laughter and had to call jason to share the sweet story... my sweet girl... such a little mama : )

nani's birthday part 2

then on saturday we all headed up to nani's residence in buckhead- atria... we brought cake, flowers, balloons and celebrated with her and some of her friends from atria. side note on the balloons- bella & i went to pick out the balloons earlier in the day and bella insisted on getting nani the princess balloon... needless to say we selected it for her and then decided on some others for nani : )

bella thoroughly enjoyed the festivities- esp. helping nani blow out her candles and then eating the cake. afterwards bella spotted a georgia bulldog statue in one of the courtyards and made a beeline to give it kisses and hugs : ) go dawgs!

nani's birthday part 1

nani (my grandmother on my mom's side) turned 83 on Nov. 4th... my mom and her two sisters worked hard to make it a wonderful celebration for her! on her actual birthday we went to Emory's Hotel & Conference Center for a ladies luncheon in her honor. we all had a wonderful time and nani seemed to really enjoy herself!

nyc

we had such a fabulous time over labor day weekend. jason & i had decided that we wanted our family to do something "out of the box" so we booked (3) tickets to nyc and did just that... and now, i am hoping it becomes a family tradition!

david (my brother) is in his 2nd year at NYU law school and then jason has family (his aunt lois, uncle joe & cousin chris) who live in long island and then many more family members who live in CT... so we decided we would go and spend time with everyone.

we left on thursday morning and the girls did really well in the airport and on the plane... cousin chris picked us up at the airport and they both took great naps on our way to aunt lois' house. mommy & daddy were so thankful!!

friday we woke up and took the train to nyc to meet up with david... we had a GREAT day... jason and i kept saying it was like "a kid's dream day on steroids"... first we walked around central park, then we went to FAO Schwartz and looked all around and played on the life-size piano that is in the movie "Big"... then we had lunch, headed to the petting zoo in central park where bella had no fear- she petted each of the animals, gave them kisses and fed them non-stop... then teri (david's girlfriend) met up with us and we headed to dylan's candy shop (ralph lauren's daughter's shop) for AMAZING sundaes, candy, etc... the decor in this place was so fun!! i wish we lived there so i could have the girls' birthday parties there. after finishing our heavenly treats we headed to the village to see NYU, walk around some more and then eat some pizza. at that point our family of 4 headed back on the train to long island.

saturday david and teri headed over to us and we all went to some local outlet malls. we really enjoyed our time and found some fun things... in addition we found bella's halloween costume- an adorable minnie mouse costume. can't wait to share those pictures! we took bella to a play ground at the pier near aunt lois' and then went back to their house and ordered greek take-out.

sunday we headed to port jefferson to meet up with our family from CT... we enjoyed a delicious brunch on a patio area and then walked around the downtown area. afterwards everyone came back to aunt lois' house where we enjoyed hanging out more and then ate dinner together. after everyone had left to head back to CT i suggested that we go to friendly's... cousin chris was immediately on board : ) friendly's is one of my most favorite places... i was so excited to go- i always remember my childhood fondly when digging into a friendly's sundae : )

monday we headed back to atlanta... it was such a great time. we are so thankful for such amazing family!!

where to start

i am noticing a theme... i keep thinking/saying that i am going to get back on this blogging train and somehow it keeps leaving the station without me... somewhere between raising (2) little girls, attempting to love my husband well, doing a weekly Bible study, a weekly small group, working multiple hours a week, laundry, cooking dinner, play dates and more, blogging just seems to take a backseat.

anyways, i am looking thru the pictures that are still not up on the blog and thinking i'd like to catch up a bit tonight.


my sweet bella starting at Decatur First United Methodist Mother's Morning Out


ava just along for the ride : )

the house

before ava's arrival i went crazy (as some might say : ) with organizing as well as redecorating, etc. some of the rooms in our home, but i THOROUGHLY enjoyed it & have even done a little more, which i will post about soon... you can see some of the before pictures here:http://theizzyfam.blogspot.com/2009/12/redecorating.html>

and now, here are the after pictures:


our master bedroom- love the new sitting area

master bedroom- jason built our bed!

the girls' bathroom (had the shower curtain made)

the guest room converted to bella's big girl room

another view of bella's room

my birthday celebration

my sweet mom arranged a little birthday celebration for me... one of my all time favorite desserts is strawberry pie so she made one for me, along with a nice dinner.

jason was out of town so it was great to be with my family and have some extra hands- esp. considering ava wasn't even a month old yet.



my mom & i with the girls

4 generations ~ my mom, her mom (the girls' nanni), me & the girls

nanni enjoying her time with sweet ava

getting ready to enjoy dessert!

one word ~ yum!!

bathing beauty

one of the weeks i had poppa's camera daddy & i took pictures of sweet ava during bath time...

back with a vengeance

well... where have i been you ask?!?! and i ask too : ) between our family growing to 4 with this sweet babe ~



and the business continuing to stay busy, hiring a project manager, having lots of family in town throughout the summer, going to the beach, our camera needing a new part (was at the "camera doctor" for 2 mths and is still not fixed- a big shout out to poppa for letting us borrow his camera so much!!), etc. LIFE HAS BEEN FULL! Not to mention that i have had a complete blonde moment w/ the blog the last few times i have considered updating- i couldn't seem to get pictures to upload... but i have figured it out ~ yay!! i am determined to be more consistent with updating. life just passes by too quickly and i want to remember these sweet moments & capture our memories as much as possible!

so with this whole preface- here comes a lot of catching up!

powerful quotes

so the other day we went to the outlet malls. my brother is in town for just a few more days (on a break b/t finishing his first year of law school and starting his summer internship) so he and i went along with my mom and ava. upon meeting up my mom gave me an email that i sent her back on 2-16-07... and any of my JFBC friends know this is right after our annual women's retreat... anyways my email included 4 quotes that i were shared at the retreat that really spoke to me... and now more than 3 years later they still do and i want to document them and share them...

~ "Pain & suffering legitimize our testimony. Authentic compassion is often formed in the kiln of ache."

~ "Suffering gives you something to share."

~ "On my worst, whiniest days, God doesn't leave... He is not a fair-weather Father."

~ "May we not go through the Refiner's fire coming out burned and smelling of ashes, but rather smelling of the sweet aroma of Christ." ~ LOVE this one!

thanks, mom, for sharing these with me again...

her story

so around 2:45 am tuesday, may 11th, i started having contractions... i couldn't tell if it was just back labor so for a few minutes i tried to endure the pain myself... about 15 minutes later, i decided jason needed to be awake with me : ) so... we started timing and the contractions seemed to be very regular. at 3:20 am or so he was sure we needed to call becky (aunt becky to bella, our fabulous neighbor who had middle of the night duty), my mom & his mom... i was a little nervous about the phone calls as i didn't want to wake anyone if this wasn't indeed true labor... well, thankfully jason was thinking clearly and insisted he was calling... about 10 or 15 minutes later becky was at our house, jason was showered and we were finishing our packing for the hospital... becky said we needed to hurry as it seemed my contractions were closer than every 5 minutes... i was sure i was fine and said we'd leave in just a minute- i just wanted to make sure everything was where it needed to be for jason's parents who were coming to get bella, etc...

we'll we got in the car and jason seemed to be "hauling bananas" down dekalb avenue- i asked him to slow down as i felt like i was on a roller coaster- his response "babe, i have one job to do- get you to the hospital in time"... how does one respond to that?!?! other than clutch everything in the car in severe pain as yet another contraction comes.

eventually we arrived at the hospital and i still had thoughts in the back of my mind that they were going to say i was in false labor- HA! were we in for a surprise! i was 8 cm dilated, fully effaced, etc. my first question/concern was what about the epidural... the nurses assured me that there were no concerns- i would still be able to have one and that they would start the bag of fluid immediately... well that was a funny joke- it took (2) nurses, one of whom seemed to dig for over 5 minutes to find a vein for my IV... they said i had "tiny veins"... whatever that means ~ all i knew was that i was in INTENSE pain and that time was of the essence... something it felt as if they were missing... i believe it was when the first nurse left to find another nurse to find another to locate my vein, i said that i was pretty sure i needed to use the bathroom- however, that was actually my water breaking- upon making the nurses aware of this they began to seem a bit concerned/unsure of whether i would really be able to get an epidural- one of the nurse's responses to me was "i don't know" regarding the epidural... talk about being nervous and upset... i literally didn't know what i was going to do. before i knew it the dr was in the room, i was told i was 10 cm, her head was coming and there was NO TIME FOR AN EPIDURAL... WHAT?!?!?! this was NOT MY PLAN!! i was quick to tell them that i didn't want to do it... i didn't know how... and that "damn it, i want my epidural" ~ the last comment was followed up w/ an apology to the nurse- i told her i don't talk like that normally and feel so awful to be so rude, but this was completely freaking me out... and in jason's words i became possessed for the remainder of the delivery... the dr did do a great job helping me (thankfully she had delivered her 2 children naturally so she knew first hand what i was going through)... when asked if i wanted to touch ava as she was being delivered, i quickly answered, "NO, i just want her out of me!!!!!!!!!!!"

when all was said and done i had delivered a beautiful baby girl and jason and i agreed he can never, ever, ever say that i don't have a high pain tolerance : ) and now we like to joke that if we go for #3 (and please note, that is a HUGE if) we will just need to leave for the hospital the minute my first contraction starts if i don't want jason delivering him/her on the highway!!

she's here!!

we are so blessed!! God is SO good!! the story to come tomorrow. In the meantime, see her sweet picture on the right.

toe toes

yes, that is what sweet bella refers to her toes/tootsies as ALL the time ~ and i just LOVE it!! she cracks me up when she says it : )

anyways, on easter sunday i polished her toe toes for the first time and she loved it... then this past sunday while we were getting ready for church she spotted the polish underneath my vanity... she proceeded to take off her shoes and say "toe toes mama, toe toes mama"... i told her we'd have to wait as we needed to leave... but i am planning to make time in the next few days so she can enjoy them being polished again ~ doesn't every girl love a fresh pedicure?!?!

(i am bummed b/c i have the cutest pics to post but there is some sort of error message ~ have to get the hubs to help me out later)

easter

only a few days late : )

we had a wonderful easter! we attended the Good Friday service at buckhead that was phenomenal ~ as always! then we had dinner with teenie & poppa...

saturday we headed over to my parents in the late afternoon to enjoy an easter celebration dinner with my mom & dad, grandmother & my parents' neighbors. the food was delicious and the company was great ~ we all enjoyed our time!

on sunday we were ready in record time and picked up becky, grabbed coffees and headed to church to make sure we were able to get a good parking space, get bella in her class and save great seats all before the big crowds arrived... thankfully we were fairly successful!

after amazing praise and worship and a great message, we all- jason, me, bella, becky, teenie & poppa, todd & staci, christian, noah, emerson and jonathan & elizabeth- headed to wahoo grill for a delicious brunch buffet. by the looks of bella's dress after eating, she thoroughly enjoyed it too : )

precious bella just waking up

her easter goodies ~ notice the picture of her on the right side w/ the bunny ~ so sweet!

finding her dora ball in her easter basket

me & my hubs

our family

ava's sprinkle

my sweet friends got together on saturday at the swan coach house to celebrate ava's coming arrival!! we had such a wonderful time and i am so blessed by God to have each of these precious friends in my life. we laughed, talked, ate LOTS of wonderful food and received some wonderful gifts.

**and the sweet picture of bella & aubrey is right before ariel & i left and they were enjoying their "special cups" that ariel & chris brought them back from their cruise**

heather franklin & me

me & heather hayes

kirstin & me

mary & me

me & ariel

me & katie

a little babymoon in savannah, ga

is what jason and i just got home from... and we had such a wonderful time!!

we left friday around 9:30 am and met teenie half-way to drop bella off... then jason and i made two stops- one at a motorcycle store for him- and the other at a local store that has the BEST snack ever ~ peanut butter filled pretzels... can you say yum?!?! jason ran in and came out w/ 4 big containers : ) should hold us over for a while...

we arrived in savannah around 4 pm... we checked into our bed & breakfast ~ olde harbor inn...

me & my man

our inn~ loved the location ~ we could walk almost anywhere...

after unpacking, we headed out to river street where we walked around for a while and then had dinner at the cotton exchange restaurant. afterwards we hit up savannah's candy kitchen for some fabulous treats ~ they had ice cream, homemade salt water taffy, old school candy (pop rocks, fun dip, etc.) and all kinds of fudge & "heaven dipped chocolate"... we headed back to the room, watched a movie, ate our goodies and hit the hay by 10:30 pm...

saturday we woke up, ate breakfast at our inn & went for a great trolley ride throughout the entire city... we saw some beautiful architecture, gardens, etc... it turned out our friends, kathi & louie, where in savannah for a weekend getaway too, so we met up w/ them for lunch after the tour at a little greek place.

following lunch, jason dropped me at the savannah day spa for a prenatal massage, while he went cycling throughout some historic neighborhoods... when we got back to the room we enjoyed some downtime and i napped for a bit and then we browsed through some antique shops before dinner at cilantro's, a little mexican place. afterwards we shopped for a little bit, and then went back to get our car ~ which wasn't there!! we quickly realized it must have been towed, which made NO sense... we had a special city parking pass from our inn & there were cars parked in all the surrounding spots ~ none of them had "special permission" and they didn't get towed... needless to say, the guys who had towed it were pretty sketchy, so we just paid the fee and were glad to get our car back! and, of course, because i couldn't live w/out it, we hit up the candy shop again : ) and, since it was our last night, we went BIG... jason tried chocolate covered oreos & a "gopher" as they called them... i got a chocolate covered s'more... and some jelly bellies... we enjoyed another movie and our goodies... it was a GREAT day!!

today we slept in and jason went cycling again before we met kathi & louie for brunch. afterwards we drove around a bit more to take in the city and then headed home to pick up sweet bella bean... boy we missed her!! but we also had such a wonderful time away and are so thankful that we had the opportunity before our family grows to 4!!

7 weeks from today, sweet ava is due to grace us with her presence!!

petite & perfect

basically sums up bella's 2 year appointment... thank you Lord for your blessing of this precious girl!!

height ~ 2' 8.25" & weight ~ 25 lb 6 oz

she did great and didn't even cry when she got her shot... the drs & nurses were amazed! but we did all get laughing b/c about a minute after the shot all she kept saying was "ouchee" and letting everyone know that her leg hurt : )

come on spring!!

we are all so ready for spring ~ between the unusually cold atlanta winter and all the rain we've had, we are so ready for sun & temps that are a bit warmer... when spring decided to give us a sneak peak this past sunday we all headed to the park, including max, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

pure joy!!

LOVES the slide

so proud of herself for being able to climb without any help!

bella's friend, abby, who lives in our neighborhood