Hold on Tight, Cause Here We Gooooo...

We celebrated Isabella's 2nd birthday this weekend. Her actual birthday is Wednesday, but was easier to do the whole celebration on Saturday.

Izzy really loves Little Einstiens. We are sure to watch it every day. I was determined to make her a "Rocket" Cake for her b-day. I did a search on the internet and discovered it was doable, even with my non-cake decorating skills. It turned out really cute and Izzy knew who it was right away. Yeah, I'm really, really proud of it.

Summer's Over??

Our weather has been so nice this week! It's much drier and the high today is suppose to be 72 degrees or something like that. I love the fall! I love waking up to a house that's 68 degrees and the fact that my air conditioner doesn't turn on. Don't worry, it's suppose get back into the 80's again this weekend. Yeah, I'm a little disappointed.

Anyway, here are a few picts left over from Izzy this summer. They are a little old (pre-potty training), but very cute. On a side note, Izzy is doing great with her potty training. We did have one accident last night, but that was the first one all week. We went shopping today and she went potty in the restroom twice! I'm so proud of her. She is still in diapers for sleeping. I'm just not ready to deal with that yet, but other than that she is doing great.

Watering the plants and daddy's tree. She loves pointing up to the sky.

Playing with sidewalk chalk has become one of our favorite out door activities. She like to keep all the colors for herself

Excuse My Potty Mouth

So I have been really bad at reading others blogs and updating my own this month. Really I have only one explanation: POTTY TRAINING!

Every book and article I read said to wait to potty train until your child is older and exhibits so many "signs" that she is ready. Well, Izzy is almost two and showed some of the signs. But I just really, really wanted to get a jump on potty training so I wouldn't have to worry about it when I'm super pregnant or when our baby comes. My sister, Amy, is the one who inspired me to go ahead. So on September 1st we put Izzy in panties. I was pretty patient the first few days. I got especially excited, when after three days, she seemed to get it and she was telling me when she had to go potty.

I feel like now she has reverted from that. The only time she tells me she needs to go potty is when she needs to poop. As a result, I spend the day trying to anticipate when she needs to pee and cleaning up pee-pee messes when I'm too late. I'm mostly okay with this, but it's starting to get very frustrating. I've tried various forms of positive and negative reinforcement, but it just doesn't seem to work. Please, please let me know if you have any ideas!! I'm so willing to try anything at this point. I definitely don't want to quit because she has come so far, but I can't live around her pee schedule forever. Thanks in advance to those of you who comment with your great mothering tips!

One plus of potty training is watching Izzy run around in panties all day. Her bum is so stinking cute, I can't even stand it. Am I exploiting my daughter if I put this picture on my blog?

Tag, You're IT

So I'm pretty sure I've read this tag on nearly ever one's blog, but I've never actually done it. At least I don't think I have...I was tagged two times, so I figured, why not!


These are the rules: list 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 surprising facts and then tag 5 other people. Leave a comment for the people you tag so they know they have been tagged.


Joys....

1. Going to bed early with Justin home.
2. Hearing the sound of Izzy going pee pee in the potty and seeing the big grin on her face cause she is so proud. (Yeah, we are starting to potty train.)
3. Hearing Isabella say I love you and blow me kisses when she goes to bed.


Fears....

1. Anyone who knows me and has lived with me knows that I can't handle spiders in my house.
2. Justin actually having to use one of his several guns because someone has broken into our house in the middle of the night.
3. I'll never be able to eat cold cereal again. I can never eat it the first trimester, but it still makes me nauseated.


Obsessions/Collections....

1. I love to scrapbook cute pictures and if I collect anything it is my scrapbooks. I'm very proud of being scrap booked to date. (my website in case you care--there are really cute new products: www.mycmsite.com/sites/abbywilson)
2. Right now I'm obsessed with thinking of and looking at toys for Izzy for her upcoming birthday and Christmas. I'm so excited to celebrate holidays with her this year.
3. I play this stupid game called Peggle and Spider Solitaire on the computer every day. Yeah, I need to quit.

Surprising facts.....

1. I never thought I would be like this, but I talk on the phone A LOT!! I feel like I can't clean my house without calling a sister or my mom. Thank goodness for unlimited long distance!
2. I can be pretty dang moody when I'm pregnant. Fortunately I having a very loving husband.
3. I don't believe in going outside when it's hot and humid unless it's absolutely necessary. Justin even has to get the mail because I won't go out to get it.

I tag my sister, Amy, my sister-in-law, Amanda, and anyone else who has never completed this tag but has a great desire to.

A Family Vacation...Finally!

We haven't been anywhere as a family for a really long time. We would always talk about going somewhere on one of Justin's weeks off, but it just never worked out. Well, Justin had this past week off and I really wanted to go somewhere. He picked up an extra moonlighting shift so a vacation would be feasible.

We went to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga and we had a great time! Izzy loved the touching pools, the butterflies, all the fish and the sharks. She was really good the whole time. The aquarium was super impressive. It was especially nice that it was not crowed at all because school started.

Isabella playing in the touching pool.

This is where you dry your hands off when you're done.

Looking at butterflies.

That's me, trapped in a shark cage.

Daddy and Daughter in front of the HUGE aquarium.

They had a couple displays where you could crawl under and climb up into the aquarium. Izzy thought that was pretty fun. Especially when we saw the Nemo fishies.

After the aquarium we drove down to my sister's in Athens, GA. We stayed for three days and nights. I loved seeing the Carter's. It's nice that they are a little closer than they used to be. The Carter's we so hospitable and very fun to hang out with. Amy and I are both pregnant with boys about three weeks apart (her actual due date is December 25!), so one afternoon we went shopping for maternity clothes. It was nice to leave the kids and it was seriously the most fun I've had shopping in a long time. The boys went and shot guns afterward. We really appreciated the time together.

I'm really grateful to have such a great sister whose kids I love to death. Isabella had so much fun with her cousins. I know that she can't wait to see them again.

We're Having A...

...Baby and its a BOY!!

I've been meaning to post the fact that we are having a baby for awhile because it's really not a secret at all, but I wanted to get a picture of my belly and then I knew we were having an ultra sound today, so I figured that I might as well do it all at once. Our due date is January 15, so that puts me at 19 weeks. Almost half way there!

Me with a little bump. I'm definitely bigger now than I was with Izzy.

Baby boy was very cooperative at the appointment today and was not shy at showing his stuff off. When it came to taking a picture of his face, he kept burrowing into the side and turning away. We finally got a few good shots. Justin and I were both very impressed with the 3-D picts. We didn't have those with Izzy.

I'm really excited to know that we are having a boy. I admit I was kind of hoping for a girl because we are so girly at our house, but I really love little boys. I think they are hilarious and so much fun. Justin is excited to have a son to mess around with. Izzy is lots of fun, but sometimes she's a wimp and kind of moody.

On the drive home I couldn't stop thinking about boy names, boy toys, boy decorations, boy, boy boy...I think I will have to switch my brain. Overall, I'm just grateful to be blessed with a healthy baby.

He has a cute little profile.

3-D images.

All curled up. I'm hoping he will be a cuddler.

Crazy EIGHTS!

Happy 08/08/08! Not only should you be excited that the Olympics start today, but you are also about ready to read some possibly entertaining facts about the number 8! Thanks A LOT wikipedia.com! Let me know your favorites or if you think of something else that refers to the number 8.

• 8 is a composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2, and 4. Eight is a power of two, being 2^3, or two cubed and is the first number of the form p^3.
• The number 8 is a Fibonacci number, being 3 plus 5. The next Fibonacci number is 13.
• A polygon with eight sides is an octagon.
• A figure 8 is the common name of a geometric shape, often used in the context of sports, such as skating.
• As of 2006, in our solar system, eight of the bodies orbiting the Sun are considered to be planets.
• The atomic number of oxygen.
• There are eight known B vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism.
• All spiders, and more generally all arachnids, have eight legs. An octopus has eight tentacles. (Most of you know my love of spiders...)
• In the human adult dentition there are 8 teeth in each quadrant. The 8th tooth is the so called the wisdom tooth. (that's for you Bryce)
• Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that humans are responsible for their actions by the age of 8. Before that age, children lack sufficient knowledge to commit sin and are therefore exempt from judgment for their actions.
• The number of Beatitudes. (And President Hinckley's "B's")
• In Astrology, Scorpio is the 8th astrological sign of the Zodiac .
• An octave, the interval between two notes with the same letter name (where one has double the frequency of the other), is so called because there are eight notes on a western scale between the two, including the notes themselves .
• "Eight maids a-milking" is the gift on the eighth day of Christmas in the carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas."
• The 8-track cartridge is a musical recording format .
• "Eight Days a Week" is a #1 single for the music group The Beatles.
• Eight ball billiards is played with 15 balls; the black ball numbered 8 being the middle and most important one. Magic 8 Ball is a randomized process of predicting the future or answering various questions, packaged to resemble this ball and often sold as a fortune-telling device.
• A byte is eight bits.
• A figure eight is a type of knot frequently used by climbers.
• In liquid measurement (US customary units), there are 8 fluid ounces in a cup, 8 pints in a gallon, and 8 tablespoons in a gill .
• There are 8 furlongs in a mile.
• There are eight vegetables in V8 juice.
• "Section 8" is common U.S. slang for "crazy", based on the U.S. military's Section 8 discharge for mentally unfit personnel. (Think Klinger on M*A*S*H*)
• Eight babies delivered in one birth are called octuplets. The first set of eight surviving babies, the Chukwu octuplets, were born in 1998.
• October was the eighth month in the Roman calendar; currently August is the eighth month .
• 8 is one of The Numbers - 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 - featured in Lost.