Silly Izzy

There are two things that Izzy has been doing lately that have been cracking me up.

#1 She loves trying to put on shirts. I will go to get her out of her room when she is done sleeping and she'll have like three shirts pulled over her head. She pulls them out of her laundry basket and her drawers. What a funny girl!

#2 I don't know why, but Izzy loves sleeping on the floor. One day I was on the computer and she went downstairs. It had a been a few minutes and I hadn't heard any noise. I went downstairs to see what was going on and found her in my bedroom sleeping amidst my piles of dirty laundry.

She will also get up and play or something when it's time to go to bed. Then when she is ready to sleep, she moves her pillow and blankets to the ground. When we in to check on her before we head to bed, there she is, sleeping on the floor. I guess she is ready to go camping.

Purple Toes

I painted Isabella's toenails for the first time today. She was a little hesitant at first, but then when she saw her pretty toes she was very excited. She keeps looking at them and saying, "purple, purple." They are kind of a silver purple, but it is hard to tell.

After I was done, she wanted to hold the bottle of nail polish. I thought there was no way that she could get it open since I struggle half the time. I turned my back for a second and next thing I know, Izzy is trying to paint her fingernails. Luckily I caught her before any damage was done besides a few drops on my carpet. She is much stronger than I realize. She must work out in secret.

Happy Independence Day!

The 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday. I love the parades, cookouts, family time, and fireworks. I love the reminder that the United States allows us freedoms that are so rare in this world. Even when I think about being on a budget and no being able to do everything I want to do, I stop and look around and realize that I have clothes even if they aren't the most expensive, I will never starve, and I have an air conditioned roof over my head. I have a husband who works so hard to support us so I can stay home with Isabella. I am so thankful that I live in the "Land of the free and the home of the brave."

We had a great July 4th. Justin actually had the day off, so we did a little shopping and chilled at home. Justin's grandparents came over and took us out to eat at the Cracker Barrel and then joined us for some fireworks. We got rained out a little bit, but managed to light some fireworks off between cloud bursts.

White House did some bigger fireworks at 9:00 so Izzy had a late night. Luckily she loved watching the fireworks. She kept saying, "More, more." After about 20 minutes of watching the big show I asked her is she wanted more and she said, "All done." Poor girl, she was super tired and went right to bed. We were able to walk up the street to watch the fireworks. It was so nice to not be stuck in a car for an hour afterwards. Even though the show was small, I still loved it. Fireworks completely mesmerize me. I seriously could watch them all night.

Long Time, No Blog

Okay, Okay, I've been a huge blogging slacker. But I really had the craziest June. See my next few posts if you don't believe me. Now that things have calmed down and my house is in order, I promise you I have some great posts coming up.

Some Updates on the Bennett Clan

There are a lot of you who know the members of my family and those of you who don't have heard me talk about them before I'm sure. This posting is a quick (I hope) update on what my family is up to. I feel like there have been a lot of changes in my family and I enjoy knowing what your families are up to, so I hope you don't mind. If this gets too long and boring, feel free to skip it.

Ben and Bonnie are still living in California and had a recent addition to their family of four. Congrats to the Bennett's! In Bonnie's own words, here is the quick story of the birth of Emily:

"This will be old info for some of you, but I wanted to let everyone know that Emily Darci Bennett was born June 14th at 6:05 PM. She weighed 6 lb. 4 oz. and was 20 inches long. She came 5 days late, just like her older siblings, but nothing else really went according to plan. Emily was all wrapped up in her cord so she had to be delivered by C-section. 3 days in, she got to take a helicopter ride down to Cedars-Sinae Hospital where she hung out in the NICU for a few more days. She had some respiratory problems that had to be checked out, but she was eventually given a mostly clean bill of health, with the assurance that she'll grow out of the minor problems she has. :) We're happy to have our little girl home. The kids love her and always want to be holding her. Emily's eating and sleeping well, just trying to bulk up a bit. :)"

Amy and Bryce deserve a huge pat on the back. Bryce finished with dental school in Baltimore in May. In June they moved to Athens, GA (only 5 - 6 hours from me instead of 10-12) where Bryce got a new job. My parents flew out to help them move and I drove down with Izzy to see everyone for a few days. Amy and Bryce went on a cruise for a week and left their kids with Grandma and me (see my next post).

Amber and Brian continue to live in South Weber minutes away from my parents. They are enjoying their two boys Logan and Jordan.

Daniel tried his hand at selling home security systems in Philly this summer and found that the business didn't suit him. He moved home last week and found a job really quickly. He will be attending U of U in the fall for the second year.

Aubrey moved to CA for a month working in a pest control office, but that didn't work out, so she moved home also. She does have a job for the summer and I believe will be attending Weber in the fall (I seriously can not get either of them to realize the greatness of USU).

My parents are staying super busy this summer. My dad is working for Power School this summer and is flying all over the place. My mom will be gone from home about a month by the time she returns after her adventures. She flew to Baltimore, drove to GA, and drove to TN with me. She left from Nashville to go to Texas where she is reffing at the Junior Nationals Volleyball tournament for a week. Afterwards she will meet my dad at Ben and Bonnie's for the baby blessing. Then she gets to go home.

Well, that's my update. Questions...? Comments...?

1 + 3 = 4

That's the number of kids I had at my house for a week (June 19 - June 26). Thank goodness I had my mom here to help me out. I loved having Madison (age 6), Preston (almost 4), and Jackson (14 months) here. It was great to reconnect with them and get to know them better. Yes, my house was a little more chaotic then I like and certainly not at the cleanliness level I enjoy. But the kids were very well behaved for the most part and very fun. It took Isabella awhile to get used to all the craziness. Once she did, she loved having her cousins here and missed them when they left.

We were able to do several fun activities throughout the week. Here are some of the fun pictures:

Playing Around at my House

Preston


Jackson


Jackson and Madison

Playing at the Greenway after a two mile Stroll

Grandma and Maddy are the best of friends

Izzy loves to smell flowers

Preston and Maddy showing us some tricks

This next group of pictures is from some fountains by a new out door shopping mall. We went to the movies and then played afterwords.








After the Carter's left Friday morning, I packed up to go on a camp out with four young women for a stake youth activity. I really wanted to go, but I was pretty wiped out from the week. I had a great time with the girls despite getting only two hours of sleep on Friday night. A big, fat, huge thanks to Becca for meeting Justin (he unfortunately got called into work) at 7:00 a.m. to pick up Izzy and keep her all day long so I could go!

That's it! Now you are all caught up on the month of June.