Warner Baby

Christmas 2011

2012-01-22T18:27:00.000-08:00

This post is long overdue, but necessary since Christmas is my favorite holiday and I could not brush right past it on the blog.

We spent Christmas in Virginia with Chris' parents and his younger brother Matt and his wife Savanna. Izzie loved spending time with her family as usual and Chris' parents do a great job at making the time they spend with Izzie special and wonderful for her. She had a fantastic Christmas in all ways.

Some of my favorite Christmas memories of her are:

Izzie almost having a breakdown because Grandpa touched her elf, Max, when he was helping unpack the car. Grandpa was trying to hand Max to her and Izzie was horrified that he was actually touching her elf, her bottom lip started trembling and she asked us if Max was going to lose his magic.

Izzie performing a mostly solo rendition of I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas in the annual Christmas Eve talent show. In the process she totally upstaged the Olsens who had coincidentally picked the same song.

Izzie as Mary in the group performance of the Nativity on Christmas Eve- she took her role very seriously and wasn't very happy when the little boy playing Joseph was distracted from his role by the toys.

And then Izzie asking Grandpa on Christmas day to read her the nativity story again from the scriptures and telling him that she would be Mary and Chris would be the angel and I would be the shepherd.

We also took Izzie ice skating for the first time and she loved it.

After the Christmas celebrations we ventured into DC to see the botanic garden, check out the Eastern Market, stop by the Shake Shack and finally try out the cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake (Sprinkles is still my favorite).

We also went to the Udvar Hazy air and space museum out by Dulles and I loved it. Growing up, I always had to take people into DC to see the original air and space museum- generally in the summer when DC was at its busiest and hottest so I grew to greatly dislike that museum. But I am happy to report that the Udvar Hazy museum was awesome.

Chris and I went to the DC temple with his parents one day as well- I always love going back to that temple since it is where we were married and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

Matt and Savanna took care of Izzie while we were at the temple and when they were done they said that Izzie was really well behaved for them and listened well but they were still exhausted.

We also had a couple of girls outings where we checked out a bunch of antiques stores and went shopping. And we ate at some of our favorite places like Tony's, Potbelly's, Cafe Rio, and Rio Grande.

And then we rang the New Year in by shooting shotguns off the back deck at midnight.

Hello 2012.

Dandelions

2012-01-10T17:13:00.000-08:00

Today after we went to the gym, Izzie found a dandelion in the parking lot. The following conversation ensued.

Izzie to my friend Jennie: Look, I have a dandelion

Jennie: Do you know what happens when you blow that dandelion?

Izzie (very matter of fact): It makes magic.

Christmas Countdown- 2 days 14 hours

2011-12-22T07:01:00.000-08:00

Our Annual Afternoon Tea

2011-12-18T11:50:00.005-08:00

This weekend Izzie and I went out for afternoon tea, which has become an annual tradition. I was excited to find a hotel in Charlotte that offered an afternoon tea, and it was fun to try a new venue since our previous teas have been at the Grand America in Salt Lake.

Izzie was delighted to have another occasion to wear her Christmas dress to; she would wear it every day if she had her way. She has also decided that she now needs a purse to go out, with her phone it it- pretty sure that is a little commentary on me.

We sat in a mini booth across from each other so even though I spent half the time worrying about her upending her hot chocolate all over the table, emptying the contents of her honey pot inappropriately, and encouraging her to get back in her seat after satisfying her random urges to dance next to the table, I still loved taking her.

It was fun to see the things that she notices like the fact that there were no tongs for the sugar cubes- as soon as we sat down she commandeered the sugar cubes and kept asking where the pinchers were.

Also of note, was the enormous gingerbread house in the lobby which Izzie was alternately intrigued and frightened by. I am pretty sure she was wondering if a witch was going to pop out of the house any moment, like in Hansel and Gretel, because she was vehemently opposed to knocking on the front door when I suggested it.

Christmas Around the House

2011-12-12T06:42:00.000-08:00

This is the first year in three years that we have actually not been packing up our house during Christmas, which means that I have had a great time getting our Christmas decorations up and doing some Christmas crafts with Izzie.

I love the Christmas season and I love having our house feel all merry and cozy to go with it.

Thanksgiving Week

2011-12-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

Last week Chris' family all converged on Charlotte so we could celebrate Thanksgiving together. Mike, Britney, + kids flew in from LA on Tuesday night and the rest of the family came in stages on Wednesday and Thursday.

It was a busy holiday, we whipped up a massive feast, ran a Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, went to the Lazy 5 Ranch, took family photos, had a gingerbread house contest, and celebrated Grandpa Warner's birthday.

We did so much that it would be a very long and detailed post if I wrote it all down, so I am going to be succinct and say we had a great time.

Now for some photos:

Zoey wins the tot trot!

Thanksgiving Prep

The feast:

Helping Grandpa open presents

Cousin Time

Lazy 5 Ranch

Family Photos

Our gingerbread house

Thanksgiving Napkins

2011-11-22T06:01:00.000-08:00

Chris and I are hosting Thanksgiving this year, it is the first Thanksgiving we have ever hosted and had at our house. We have the menu set, a week of activities outlined and family starts flying in today! It should be fun, and even though I have had people say they are glad they aren't hosting a house full of guests, I am excited and thinking those people probably aren't overly fond of their family members.

Planning things is kind of my passion anyway.

As part of our table settings for Thanksgiving I decided to stencil some napkins, inspired by this one at Terrain.

I got some Martha Stewart stencils from Michael's, a little stencil brush, and some fabric paint, followed the instructions included on the paint and stencil set and voila.

My own custom napkins.

I am already thinking I want to do a Christmas version with red napkins and white lettering.

I can't wait to set the table for Thanksgiving- I love setting the table, weird? I don't know, but it has been my job ever since I can remember. If I am home for any holiday, my mom always lets me pick out the dishes, linens, flatware and centerpieces.

The Good, Bad, & Ugly

2011-11-16T13:46:00.000-08:00

Contemplating world domination

The Good:

Izzie is finally napping after a 4 day nap strike.

I've made a huge dent in my Christmas shopping- packages are arriving daily.

My Christmas cards have been printed and shipped and will be in my hands tomorrow.

The Bad:

The past 4 days have been a serious power struggle between me and my 3 year old dictator in training and after yesterday when I thought things couldn't get any worse she came into our room at 3:30 in the morning and kept me awake until 5:00.

Our house is pretty much a wreck.

I had to endure dealing with various customer service representatives today.

It is raining- I don't mind the rain but I do mind that it is interfering with the run I wanted to go on today.

The Ugly:

I resorted to tying my toddler's door shut with the tail of her monkey backpack (you know the leash part that attaches to the pack and your arm) after a fruitless search for the childproof door lock. All so she realized she could not just get out of her room if she did not feel like napping.

The week is only half over.

I mostly wanted to make this list the Bad and Ugly but forced myself to add some "Good" items.

This Week

2011-11-11T14:47:00.001-08:00

I got to observe Izzie's ballet/tap class from the inside, instead of the little window in the waiting area. This tapping choo choo was seriously adorable.

I realized that we desperately need to rake the leaves in our yard.

I took Izzie bowling for the first time with some of her friends from preschool. She is an impatient bowler just like I am- I remember that when I was little it seemed like it took forever to wait for my turn.

Izzie obviously felt the same way and knew when everyone's turn was and whether or not they were on their first or second roll.

Christmas Cards

2011-11-10T06:18:00.000-08:00

I just ordered our Christmas cards for this year! This is a feat since in past years I have always wanted to do Christmas cards but we have generally been dealing with the craziness of packing up and moving during the holiday season, so it has never happened.

Anyway, I got our cards from minted, they have so many cute designs to choose from and I like the whole premise of the company.

Also, I really liked that pretty much all of the fonts were customizable, so if I loved the card but it said Happy Holidays I could change it to Merry Christmas or whatever I wanted. They also have a feature where you can insert your image into all the holiday cards so you can get an idea of whether or not it will work before you go in and actually get everything perfect.

And for anyone who is interested, right now they have a $25 off plus free shipping deal on their holiday cards with the code SNOW25SHIP good until 11/14/11.

Can you believe there are only 45 days until Christmas?

Logoworkers

2011-11-08T17:31:00.000-08:00

All you logoworkers out there, do any of your remember this?

I was looking through old photos and saw this and started laughing...

The Warners in Cross Stitch

2011-11-08T06:37:00.000-08:00

I completed my first ever cross stitch yesterday, mostly. I still want to do some lettering which I need to research.

But I am pretty much in love with it.

Even Chris was impressed when he came home and saw it.

He is used to me working on projects and has learned to not express doubt or dislike until he sees the finished product, and I can always count on him to admit when one of them turns out much better than anticipated.

Thank you Martha Stewart for the idea and these awesome templates. After seeing the templates they have, I did kind of wish Chris was more of a cowboy so I could put boots and a hat on him.

Tonight

2011-11-07T17:59:00.000-08:00

When I put Izzie to bed tonight she told me that,

"When I get older I will get married and have a baby in my tummy."

"I'm going to have a girl and name her Charlotte."

"And we will make her a pink bow because pink bows are cute."

This was all spurred on by the picture of a baby zombie in the book we were reading before bed.

Seriously, this girl is so adorable.

Antique Show

2011-11-06T14:50:00.000-08:00

I am a huge fan of the antique show, and this weekend there was a giant one in Charlotte at the Metrolina Expo center. They have one the first weekend of every month, but twice a year they hold a "classic" which means the show has more vendors, more people, and lasts longer.

I would love to go to one of these with an unlimited budget, as it was I definitely went a little over the budget I had set for myself. Which I fully justified by knowing that the stuff I bought would not be something I could just come back and get another day.

There was every sort of furniture, lighting, accessory etc at the show, ranging from actual high end antiques to vintage, industrial etc. mixed in of course with all sorts of other "junk."

Here are few snap shots of stuff that caught my eye while I was on the hunt for accessories.

How pretty are the colors on these seltzer bottles?

This guy had a bunch of old charts and maps that were really cool for good prices ($65-$100 before any bargaining).

Beautiful marble lamp, it was in amazing condition.

Gorgeous leather trunk

I really like vintage industrial accessories and these metal baskets made it home with me.

Vintage gym baskets (I have wanted some of these for years).

A vintage olive basket- apparently these came from some farm in Turkey and the vendor couldn't believe people were actually willing to pay for them. He also priced them low because of this, which was great since other vendors had them priced at double what he had.

Check out these giant letters, so fun.

How cute is this little car?

A couple of the Christmas items that came home with me, I couldn't resist the mini vintage ornaments.

Halloween

2011-11-02T19:36:00.001-07:00

It was nice to be in a neighborhood this Halloween. We took Izzie out to a handful of houses for trick or treating and she loved it. She came back with a completely full bucket of candy.

My favorite part was the family who had their golf cart out fully decorated with everyone in full costume- they were also handing out candy to kids in between trick or treating. I could definitely get behind that method of trick or treating.

I got into the Halloween spirit this year with my costume and even put on the green makeup- Izzie directed me on exactly where I needed to put the makeup since she wanted me to look exactly like the witch pictured on the bag of the costume. Izzie was Snow White for several Halloween events this year, including all day on Halloween for her school party, but then she decided a wardrobe change was in order and put on her Rapunzel dress for trick or treating.

Our Week in Photos

2011-10-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

Felt Bows

2011-10-22T15:42:00.000-07:00

I have seen these felt bows online and I think they are adorable, so now that Izzie has short hair and I have my craft stuff mostly organized I decided to break out my felt stash and make some.

I was all set to experiment with how to make them but then I found this great tutorial via Pinterest. These are super easy and I am pretty much making one in every color for Izzie.

If anyone decides to try this and is wondering where to get specific colors, I ordered a 98 color sample pack from here a few years ago.

I also decided to do a couple two tone, which I saw here first.

Here is Izzie modeling her Halloween bow, don't mind that she is topless. She had just finished "doing the dishes."

Izzie: Book of the Month

2011-10-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

We recently added this book to our collection. Izzie and I both love it- the illustrations are so fun and perfect for Halloween.

Anybody have any good Thanksgiving themed recommendations that we can add to our collection?

Izzie on Instagram

2011-10-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

Still loving her ballet class. I think she may be the most enthusiastic one in the class.

Hanging out at the park.

Practicing her jumps.

After donning this skeleton mask at Target she decided to stand by the entrance and growl at people in hopes of scaring them.

How cute is this "grocery list" she made while I was telling her the ingredients we needed for Chris' birthday cake?

Office Projects

2011-10-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

I finished a few of the projects I was working on for my office, but the room is proving hard for me to photograph. If the lighting isn't right the pictures are less than awesome.

But I do have some individual details to share.

Like this chair, which looked like this before I got my hands on it.

I found it at the Goodwill for $5, fun detailing on the legs, totally solid, with the cane back in great condition- sold.

After several coats of high gloss midnight blue paint and some new foam and fabric on the seat, it is now the perfect chair to sit on at my sewing/craft table desk.

For those of you interested in process details, I was going to spray paint the chair and started out with a spray primer, then remembered that I am pretty horrible at spray painting anything larger than a picture frame, so I went back to home depot and returned the spray paint and purchased some high gloss behr and went the brush route.

I love the combination of the navy and the turquoise houndstooth.

As for the table desk, I really wanted something simple and kind of modern looking and I even went to Ikea with the intent of buying one of their tabletops and some trestle legs but when I got there I decided I should look on craigslist one more time before I bought a table at Ikea that I thought was kind of overpriced for what it was.

When I spotted this table for $35, I drove out to the middle of nowhere to look at it in person. By the time I arrived I had already pretty much convinced myself I was buying it no matter what since it took me so long to get there.

After paying for it and then trying to figure out how to get it in my car, I almost had to leave it. But then someone suggested we take the legs off and voila- the table was wedged in next to the car seat just in time for me to pick Izzie up from preschool.

Once I inspected the table in person, I realized it is actually a Steelcase table circa 1982. Bringing the 80's back.

Chris spray painted the metal part of the table a bright turquoise and I love how it turned out. I am also especially fond of the drawer with the built in dividers.

Stormy

2011-10-05T15:08:00.001-07:00

Uploaded pictures from my nice camera.

My two favorite people + an overcast beach = my new favorite picture.

A Quick Visit & New Projects

2011-10-03T13:34:00.000-07:00

My mom came for a quick visit this weekend, and it was so much fun to have her come out and check out where we live. She flew in Friday night; Izzie and I picked her up from the airport then we all headed out for a girls dinner and some "fancy" dress shopping for the littlest girl.

My mom with my little brother, Nick, whose birthday was this weekend.

Chris would have joined us but he got stuck in California for the night after wrapping up some project meetings with Facebook. I wasn't feeling too sorry for him though because he got to hang out in San Francisco.

On Saturday all of us girls spent the day at the Charlotte antiques show and the fabric store. My mom helped me workout some ideas for our "office"- I was struggling and she is one of those people who can just walk into a room and instantly have a bunch of great ideas for the space.

At the antique show we snagged a couple little items and then head over to the fabric store to add to the fabric I already had picked out for the space.

I loved having my mom to chat with and brainstorm house ideas with since she is super creative and will talk about that sort of stuff for as long as I want to.

I am so excited to start working on some projects this week. Here is a little peek at what is going on in the room:

I know this looks really feminine but a lot of what is in the room already is more masculine so I think it will be a good balance.

Tiny Dancer

2011-09-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

I enrolled Izzie in a ballet/tap class which she has been doing for about a month now and she is in love with it.

She has it once a week on Tuesdays, and every Tuesday she is incredibly enthusiastic about going to class. From the time we get up in the morning until it is time for class, she will repeatedly ask, "Is it time for ballet now?" until it is actually time for ballet.

We regularly show up early for class since she badgers me until we are in the car and on our way.

I am interested to see if this is a long term love or something she will grow out of, so far she seems to be much more gifted with dance than I am.

I actually took several dance classes while at BYU, in my ballet class the instructor laughed at me when I was trying to coordinate with a partner some sort of skipping movement across the floor and in the modern dance class I took no one wanted to be my partner for some big choreography project we had to do.

My poor partner was the only guy in the class, luckily he didn't seem to mind too much when I forgot most of the moves for our dance and then made up a bunch of stuff.

I definitely fared better with sports.

Outer Banks 2011

2011-09-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

We spent all of last week in the Outer Banks, NC for our family vacation. Izzie and I have been galavanting all over the place without Chris and it was nice to go away with him for a whole week of family fun. Elise, Dan and their girls flew out to meet us and we had a blast.

We rented a beach house together and the whole thing made me feel very adult.

Back at BYU when I was dating Chris and hanging out and taking classes with Dan I never would have imagined that we would all be going on vacations together with our children.

But here we are and it is awesome.

Izzie was fearless about the ocean this trip, she wanted to run right in even though the waves were much bigger than last time we were at the beach.

The waves were so strong that I was unexpectedly knocked down several times while in the ocean- one of them while I was holding Izzie and we both went under and got tossed around. She was fine with it and went right back in with Chris.

Izzie and Madeline interacting with each other was seriously adorable- the fact that these too little people can carry on conversations is so entertaining. Izzie has also recently decided that she is a WWF wrestler and while hugging Madeline she took it upon herself to wrestle her to the ground. Luckily, Madeline weathered the take downs pretty well and we got some cute pictures of the girls.

One day we put them out on the screened porch together and gave them lunch and left them to their own devices. They decided to make potions out of their lunches and drinks and then figured out how to escape from the porch to the deck with all the cushions off of the settee. We had been watching them to see what would happen next and when Izzie finally noticed us her expression was priceless. Kind of an, "Uh oh, what are they going to do to me?"

Izzie also loved Baby Olivia- she was so gentle with her and always wanted to hold her and hang out with her. Pretty much every time Izzie got to hold Olivia she had the biggest smile lighting up her face, like she had been given a special prize.

Other highlights from the trip included, climbing to the top of the Currituck lighthouse with the girls, crabbing, getting a bushel of crabs from Gene the Crabman, playing at the beach, wagon rides for the girls, running with Elise, going to the fudge store and all that goes with having a fun relaxing time together.

Dining Room: Table and Chairs

2011-09-15T12:29:00.000-07:00

This summer I acquired a few pieces of dining room furniture for our formal dining room. I was thinking about making it a craft room to do projects in, and while I was looking for a table on craigslist, I found this ridiculously inexpensive mid century dining table and chairs.

Here they are in all their craigslist splendor:

When I say ridiculously inexpensive I mean it- it was $100 for the table and chairs- seriously. I loved the look of the chairs and figured the table was just an added bonus so Izzie and I drove out to who knows where and picked up most of the set in a crazy storm and Joseph kindly drove "his" green truck over to get what wouldn't fit in my car.

We replaced the foam and recovered the chairs, (we included: me, Chris, Joseph and Megan- probably not what they hoped to be spending their time doing but they gamely pitched in).

After a few trial and error attempts, Chris and Joseph ended up doing the bulk of the work recovering the chairs and basically had a good system going by the end of the project.

I love that this little change made the whole thing more updated.

The side chairs

The arm chairs- these are my favorite, I love how the black and white stripes turned out. On a side note, when we were at the fabric store getting the fabric cut the woman cutting the fabric had a fun time telling us to stare at the fabric while she jiggled it. Pretty nauseating.

My goal for the fall is to have Sunday dinners in the dining room so we actually use the space, and my china which we have been moving around for 3 years but have not used at all.

In this picture, if you look closely you can see the front door- our dining room is right off the entryway.

Next up is creating some artwork for in here- I really want to try doing a large graphic painting. We'll see how that goes.

A 3 Year Old

2011-09-12T10:55:00.001-07:00

We officially have a three year old on our hands.

Saturday was Izzie's birthday and we celebrated ALL day. Chris' parents came down Friday afternoon to celebrate with us. We all went out to dinner together in Charlotte, then I got to work baking the birthday cake.

I tried out this Fluffy Vanilla Cake with Whipped Vanilla Bean Icing that Izzie and I picked out together, and it was indeed fluffy and delicious. It was the perfect birthday cake- made me think about childhood birthdays.

On Saturday morning Izzie opened up her presents from me and Chris.

The only thing she was interested in for breakfast was cake, but it wasn't assembled yet so she had to settle on toast.

After breakfast, we headed out to the Lazy 5 Ranch.

This has been on my list of places to go for a while now and I am glad that we went for Izzie's birthday. The ranch is an animal park full of exotic animals. An individual started it and then decided to open it up to the public. Apparently, some of their animals are famous- one was recently on the Rachel Ray show and their giant cow made an appearance in The Last of the Mohicans. Celebrity animals aside, this place was a blast. We reserved a spot on a horse drawn wagon which took us all over the ranch to feed the animals. They place buckets of food on the wagon and the driver will tell you how to feed the animals when they approach. Some of them will eat the food off of your hand and others, like the birds, you hold out the bucket for them to peck out of.

We also go to pet a baby giraffe, a baby camel, and of course we pet a bunch of the large animals as we were feeding them.

It was a hit with Izzie as well as the adults.

On our way home, we stopped at Izzie's favorite place, Chick Fil A. While she attempted to take a nap, I worked on getting the cake together. I think she was too excited that it was her birthday to actually nap so she eventually came downstairs with no nap so we could eat cake and open the rest of her presents.

the cake in it's pre-Izzie glory- she went back and forth on colors for her cake but finally decided on yellow.

little finger marks from where she dug into the cake

she couldn't wait to open this "big" present from my mom

At the end of the day she wanted to say the prayer and she said the cutest one. She said thank you for my wonderful birthday and thank you for Grandma and Grandpa coming to visit, in addition to the other stuff she usually says (thank you for all of our blessings, etc).

I love this little girl so much and was so glad that she had a wonderful birthday.

Schoolgirl

2011-09-01T18:43:00.000-07:00

Izzie enjoying her special first day of school breakfast- homemade cinnamon rolls, chocolate milk and a giant fruit plate.

Izzie had her first day of preschool last Friday and is going to have her first show and tell tomorrow. We still need to determine what she will be taking with her but she is excited and adjusting pretty well to going to school. The first day she ran around the house like a crazy person because she was so excited and then when we got to school she was a little overwhelmed.

This week she has been getting the hang of things and is always excited to see me when I pick her up but doesn't actually want to leave school.

Chris had a first day of school photo shoot with her and I can't believe how grown up she looks. She is such a little ham for the camera.

Of Note

2011-08-25T15:00:00.001-07:00

I have been seriously neglecting my blog lately, and not returning phone calls or emails very promptly- I think I have felt that I needed to enjoy the last few weeks of summer so I have been taking things very slowly.

Since Izzie starts preschool tomorrow I thought I should get on the ball and catch up.

Some things of note:

We went to a Panthers pre-season game as Joseph's guests at a firm sponsored event- mostly as stand ins since Megan wasn't here that weekend. A fun time was had by all. I definitely prefer watching sports live and I do like going to a box for football games.

I turned 30 last week and had a great birthday. I love birthdays and was excited that this milestone birthday was a good one. Chris went above and beyond this year with a homemade birthday banner, sending flowers during the day and then getting me some awesome gifts.

I pretty much spent most of the day making a rather decadent birthday cake for myself- Chris wanted to get me something but I was a little skeptical of the selection near us (I am a cake snob especially when it comes to a cake for my birthday). Also, I haven't really had the opportunity to bake much lately so picking out a more involved cake and taking the whole day to put it together was fun for me.

Izzie was my trusty assistant and we made this Salted Caramel Chocolate Fudge Cake.

After a celebration which included said cake and opening presents with Izzie's "help," Chris and I went out to dinner because Joseph had kindly volunteered his babysitting services (he is an excellent house guest). We went to The Cowfish a sushi burger bar in Charlotte- we both opted for sushi- which was delicious- the burgers also looked good and we want to go back to try them.

Izzie went in for allergy testing and we found out she is allergic to cats and some nuts but not peanuts. She was such a good sport about the whole thing. Nobody warned us how long the appointment was going to be (it took 2.5 hours) so I came totally unprepared to entertain her. All we had was a bag of cheerios (which were her breakfast and snack) and a stuffed dinosaur.

Izzie also went in for her 3 year check up and is back to being average height instead of below average. She actually keeps telling me she wants to be tiny forever and I keep telling her she most likely will be.

Megan came for another Charlotte visit and we had a girl's day on Friday while Chris and Joseph worked. Our girls' day included some fabric shopping, a girl's lunch at Dean and Deluca in Charlotte followed by some Pinkberry. Izzie loved when we were all in the car together chanting, "girl's lunch, girl's lunch, girl's lunch!"

Izzie doing her "grumpy face"- she really wants to do this grumpy face in all her photos lately.

Apparently, she gets this from Chris. Who is on the far right below. Every time I think she is looking more like me I compare pictures of a younger me and a younger Chris and she definitely still looks more like Chris.

Me for comparison

We also got a babysitter one night and went out on the town with Megan and Joseph- although I love Izzie, I also love going out without her. It is so nice to be Chris and Sarah instead of Izzie's mom and dad every once in awhile.

In other Izzie news, we picked up her potty training prize of a princess dress yesterday. I took her to the Disney store and let her pick which one she wanted. After trying on EVERY dress in the store she settled on a new Snow White dress. I was covered in glitter the rest of the day and now get to play the role of witch, while Chris is the prince. It is hard not to laugh when she is directing me and saying things like, "watch me and the prince spin, witch." But I dutifully obey and try to stay in character.

Izzie's New Haircut

2011-08-18T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today Izzie decided to butcher her hair while she was "taking a break." I was outside with her and she said "mommy I need to take a break" and went inside. Usually she will go in for a minute and then come right back out. When this didn't happen I went inside called her name and she came running. She responded so quickly that I new she had been doing something naughty. When I asked her what she had been doing she said "nothing" until I asked her several more times and then she whispered, "cutting my hair."

As I walked down the hallway I saw a little chunk of hair and then more closely inspected her head and realized she had more than one small chunk of hair missing which is when I saw the pile of hair on the floor in our office.

She pretty much hacked off most of her hair and after going in for some professional salvage work has a new mod toddler haircut.

Art Camp

2011-08-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

We spent the first week of August in Virginia at Art Camp. Chris' mom put together an art camp for Izzie and Avery and found some other little girls to participate with them. They did art projects each morning and then we went on excursions in the afternoons, like venturing into D.C to visit museums and the zoo, going to the neighborhood pool, fishing in the river and making mud pies with grandpa etc. Basically, the whole week was dedicated to fun.

Swimming

Friends

Picnic in DC

Carousel on the Mall

National Zoo

National Archives

Trying out some binoculars

Sprinkles DC

The Capitol

National Zoo

We both had a great time. Every time we visit DC I remember how much I love that particular city. And of course I enjoyed spending time with Chris' family- some of my favorite things we did were an adult girls night and an adult sibling dinner at Cafe Rio followed by a game night where we pretty much laughed all night.

Balloon Factory

2011-07-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

Izzie's birthday is still over a month away, but I always feel like when I want to order something from Etsy I never do it in time for the actual occasion.

So yesterday I decided to be on the ball and order this little balloon factory for Izzie's collection shelf.

This seller has some fun miniature things- my favorites are the factories and their witty descriptions:

Ever wonder how rainbows are formed?

They are made in factories by robots and machines.
It's a conspiracy. An extraordinarily beautiful conspiracy.

Put down the science books.
Clouds are made in factories.

Antique Egg Prints & DIY Art

2011-07-28T07:04:00.000-07:00

At the Antiques Show they have here monthly, I found these egg prints. They are wood blocked and then hand colored from the 1800's and were in a pile of $10 prints from one of the dealers at the show. They were by far the least expensive ones she had since they were not matted, which was perfect for me because I wanted to add my own mat. I love going to the antiques show, but Chris does not. He calls it the junk show, which is valid because there is a lot of junk mixed but that is kind of why I like it.

For example, they have a dealer there who has tables of old hardware- boxes of keys, handles, doorknobs that look like they could be from anthropologie etc. I find it all fascinating.

Anyway, I picked up a couple of white pottery barn frames for these prints and decided I needed to find some other things to group with them.

I had the two square frames from a craft day that Britney and I had forever ago and decided to put a shell and sea urchin in them; I found both these items on a sailing trip Chris and I went on when we were first married.

The sea urchin is one of my favorite found things from that trip and I have never really known how to display it before now. I am also surprised it has survived all of our moves in tact.

I watch Secrets from a Stylist and in one of the first episodes this season she had this giant piece of art that was basically a bunch of different knots all framed together. I can't find an image of it but it was cool.

Anyway, I googled framed knots and this came up, which I used as inspiration for making this:

I picked up a frame at goodwill that I liked the shape of (I think it was $2) then painted it with leftover paint from my nightstand project and figured out how to tie some knots on youtube. The howcast videos were by far the best videos- very easy to follow.

One of the other goodwill finds I forgot to mention on my last post was this fish dish that I have on top of the desk for random stuff:

I bought it the same day I got the ship art but I wasn't really thinking about putting it in the guest room until I got home and then I decided it was perfect for miscellaneous stuff like change etc.

Historic 4th Ward: Charlotte

2011-07-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we went with Megan and Joseph to walk around the 4th ward of Charlotte. It is a section of uptown Charlotte (they call the downtown area "uptown" here) that is super close to the city center and has some amazing historic homes. We found a little guide at one of the park areas and toured the fun neighborhood.

Of course this was during the heat wave, but since it has basically been in the 90's here every day since May it was just another hot day in my book.

Izzie and her best friend cooling off by a fountain.

For several months now Izzie has been telling either me or Chris that we are her best friend if she is especially pleased with us. She mostly says it to Chris, especially on the weekends when he is home with us. She will tilt her head and smile up at him then go, "Daddy, you're my best friend."

She only says it to me if Chris isn't home- such a daddy's girl.

Guest Room: Some Details

2011-07-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

I love that we have an official guest room in this house because making it an inviting space has been fun for me and although there are still things I would ultimately prefer to have in the room (like drapes) they are pretty low on my list of house stuff.

Since I wanted some things with character in this room but did not want to spend much on acquiring them, I searched Craigslist, went to our local Goodwill, and tried to use stuff we already had around the house.

I found this framed engraving of a ship at the Goodwill, it was on sale for $17.50- total score. Once I got home I found this version of it. Pretty sure my version is from an earlier set since the company that makes them has been making them since the early 90's. I love the rope detailing on the frame.

I also picked up the brass lamp on the nightstand from Goodwill for $6.00- I really liked the shape and the details at the top of the base- then I got a basic white shade at Target to go with it.

The vintage campaign style desk was a Craigslist find for $50- it came with a massive hutch and seriously tarnished hardware. I removed the hutch since it was a little overwhelming and then polished the brass hardware. I thought my fingers were going to fall off at one point, then discovered that if I covered the tarnish with a baking soda paste (baking soda and water) and let it sit for about 10 minutes then used Brasso on it, it was not as difficult. The polishing process was still a lot of work but the tarnish seemed to come off quite a bit easier by using this baking soda soak method.

I was looking for a chair to go with the desk when I decided to call Chris' mom and see if they had one they weren't using- she said yes and sent us this one. I think it goes with the whole eclectic look.

The chest at the end of the bed came from our closet- it is a really beautiful knotty chest that Chris' dad made for him. I love all the knots and the grain of the wood and had initially planned on putting it at the end of our bed but there wasn't enough space and since it is too pretty to be stuck in a closet it got relocated to the guest room.

Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: Charlotte

2011-07-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

We have been sampling a few of the spots featured on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives around Charlotte with various visitors and with each other.

The first place we checked out was Cabo Fish Taco, with Matt and Savanna. Savanna and I got the BBQ Mahi-Mahi tacos while Chris and Matt tried the Tuna Tacos. They were both good and had unique flavor combinations but I preferred the tuna.

Next, we went to Dish on a date night- this was on the comfort food episode and it was definitely delicious comfort food. I got the pot roast, which came with two sides, a biscuit, and a deviled egg. I chose the mashed potatoes and something called squash casserole as my sides. I wanted to get smoked lima beans as a side because I love lima beans but they were out which was disappointing. Also, the mashed potatoes were fine but nothing special- it seemed like they needed some more seasoning.

Chris got the chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and pinto beans as his sides. He said the gravy was delicious and it was a great chicken fried steak. I said that chicken fried steak reminded me of hot lunches in elementary school, Chris agreed and said that is what he loved about it.

We also got a piece of chocolate pecan pie for dessert, it was super sweet, which I had forgotten since it has been quite a while since I have had pecan pie but a fitting end to our southern style comfort meal.

Definitely a fun little place with a quirky ambiance.

When Megan and Joseph came down last week we decided to try another place on the list- Bar-B-Q King. But had to change plans when we realized it was a drive in which would have made for some pretty uncomfortable eating with Joseph and Megan crammed into the back seat with Izzie.

So we headed over to yet another place on the list,The Penguin, for some burgers, fries, and various other fried items. We started out with some fried pickles and fried mac and cheese bites and we all ordered various burgers- I got the Freak Flag Fly burger which had homemade queso, bacon, slaw, lettuce and tomato on it with a side of sweet potato fries. My burger was delicious and everyone else thought the same of theirs- we even tried The Penguin burger which had pimento cheese on it (something all of us were a little wary of getting) and it did not disappoint.

The fried pickles were also so good, especially with the homemade ranch dipping sauce- who
would have known.

Izzie even sampled the onion rings but instead of eating it right off the bat she put it on her arm and said, "look a bracelet."

My only regret is that we were so full from our meal that we did not get to try the Funnel Cake Fries on the dessert menu.

I love trying out local places.

Project Complete: Pillows and Nightstand

2011-07-17T16:56:00.000-07:00

I finished the decorative pillows for our guestroom this weekend. My philosophy with the guestroom was to make it a welcoming room but not spend a lot of money on it. We've already had a lot of family come visit us and I have completed a couple of projects to date, but the fact that Megan's husband Joseph is coming to stay with us while he does a six week summer internship has spurred me to action on getting some final projects done.

I am definitely a novice sewer but I decided that I was going to make these pillows with invisible zippers and found this awesome tutorial that I watched about a billion times as I was sewing the pillows. The last one was definitely the easiest and had the best looking zipper.

We also had a nightstand that my mom gave us, which we put in the guestroom. The wood was a light honey color and the top was water damaged so we knew we wanted to paint it but it took me a while to decide on the color. I finally decided on Martha Stewart's Artesian Well, but had some Behr high gloss paint matched to that color since I have not been impressed with the actual Martha Stewart paint.

Here's a before shot of the top:

And an after of the whole piece:

I have painted a couple of pieces of furniture now and definitely like this method recommended on Little Green Notebook. For this nightstand I primed it with a mini foam roller and only used a paintbrush for some of the corners and then did two coats of high gloss paint again with the foam roller and a nice paintbrush and did not bother with wax or a sealer since she recently said on her blog that with high gloss paint you don't really need a top coat.

I have a few more "to do" items that I want to get done by Wednesday, which is when Joseph and Megan come, so I will post some more photos as I get some more details pulled together.

The Butterfly Dance

2011-07-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

At the end of ballet camp, all the girls put on a little show. Izzie was the youngest and smallest girl at the camp, and I was curious to see how well she was following along. When it came time for the girls to put on their "show," I was totally impressed by all the steps she remembered. She was by far the most entertaining and the cutest.

For your viewing pleasure here's one of her numbers:

Ballet Camp

2011-07-12T11:45:00.000-07:00

Izzie is doing a little ballet camp this week and it is ADORABLE. I am dying. Who knew I would find it so incredibly cute watching my child skip around and work on pointing her toes.

The camp is technically for 3-6 year olds but they said she was welcome to come if she was okay to be in there by herself and luckily she is.

The theme of her camp is Fancy Nancy and she is loving it- today as I peeked in the studio I saw all the girls with fancy dresses, gloves, jewelry and lacy parasols. I am dying to see the little show they put on for us tomorrow.

Here she is on her first day, with the outfit she picked out for herself.

4th of July

2011-07-07T18:52:00.001-07:00

On the 4th of July we ventured into South Carolina for some peaches and fireworks- both things which that state is known for as I have come to find out.

I looked up some info on peach stands in South Carolina and learned that South Carolina is #2 in the nation in its production of peaches (#1 being California).

So we stopped near this giant peach water tower which is actually named the Gaffney Peachoid and found a stand- and got some freshly picked peaches. Delicious.

We also stopped at what claimed to be the World's Largest Fireworks Warehouse. While I think that may be a bit hyperbolic, the selection was amazing.

People were leaving the warehouse with shopping carts full of fireworks- they had bins and pallets of everything you could imagine. While I went for the little stuff, like tanks, hens laying eggs, and random spinning things Chris went for the big stuff like rockets and mortar shells.

We also picked up some poppers and rainbow sparklers for Izzie. This was her first year where we actually did fireworks with her and she had a love/hate relationship with them. I think she will grow to love them more in years to come if she is anything like her parents.

Over the Weekend

2011-07-06T11:18:00.000-07:00

We had a great 4th of July weekend, Chris' brother Matt and wife Savanna came to visit us and we had a lot of fun with them.

Matt and Savanna trying to find some shade.

Izzie loves having visitors as much as I do and she completely adores Aunt Savanna- she cuddled her while watching shows, wanted to play with her constantly, and pretty much wanted to be doing whatever Savanna was doing.

For example, we went to the park one morning and one of the kids on the swings wanted a push so Savanna obliged and as soon as Izzie saw her pushing someone, she walked over to a random kid on a swing and started trying to push her. I say trying because the little girl she was pushing was probably 4 or 5 and Izzie was a bit too small to actually get her moving much. It was pretty cute watching her try.

Swinging

While they were here we went to a little small town carnival and tried some fried oreos, stopped at Cabo Fish Tacos for lunch, hung out at the pool, played games and Savanna and I even did some antiquing.

Pointing the way to a ride

Balloon hat

We all agreed that the fried oreos were delicious

We also tried our hand at making some southern dishes like shrimp and cheesy grits, red velvet brownies and some smoked chicken and potatoes.

The red velvet brownies were a hit.

We loved having them visit and hope they come several more times while we are living in North Carolina.

Water Balloons

2011-06-30T06:00:00.001-07:00

We picked up some water balloons this week at the Dollar Store. On a side note, I have never seen as many dollar stores in my life as there are in the south- they are pretty much in every shopping center you drive by. The one close to our house is actually pretty awesome.

Izzie loved the water balloons and I am sure we will be going back soon for more.

Playroom

2011-06-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Last week, both Izzie and I spent the week adjusting to being back home, where we are still trying to widen our social circle. Since social engagements are a work in progress, we have been spending a lot of time in the playroom.

I am incredibly happy that our place came with a bonus room that we could make the designated playroom. It is fabulous to have a dedicated space for all her toys.

So, while we don't have a lot of play dates yet, we at least have a space to play in.

Izzie's Colllection Shelf

2011-06-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

Chris' family introduced me to the idea of collection shelves and I love the look of these old printer's drawers filled with little memento's of experiences and places. Chris and his siblings all had them growing up, and Chris is still incredibly fond of all of his collected items.

I really like the idea that it gives Izzie a visual of moments in time, whether it was picking up some small souvenir of a trip or finding something while we are out and about together to put on her shelf.

Izzie's shelf above her dresser

Close up of the beginning of her collection- the Pluto figurine is on loan from Chris.

I envision us looking at the shelf when she is older and talking about where each little item came from.

This Weekend

2011-06-27T11:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend we took Izzie to see Cars 2, which turned out to be only okay. I thought the best part of the whole movie was the Toy Story short they had at the beginning and I think Izzie did too considering she was asleep in my lap by the end of the movie.

We spent most of our weekend getting things done around the house. Chris came down with a case of what we think was Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever right before Father's Day, (I say we think because they didn't test since the antibiotics need to be given pretty quickly if you have it and he started recovering once he was taking the antibiotics) and we had both been out of town for a while before that so our yard was looking rather sad and neglected.

We spent Saturday afternoon trimming hedges, mowing the lawn, killing weeds, getting the chemicals in the pool back in shape and doing those sorts of things.

We also realized it was time to harvest the garlic in our garden.

I am a novice gardener and even though Chris is the more experienced gardener, he has never grown garlic. This weekend, I happened to flip to the garlic section of our gardening book after I was reading about pumpkins (we have a patch of volunteer pumpkins coming up) and it turns out that the garlic was ready to come out and start the drying process.

I didn't even know you had to dry garlic when you pulled it out of the ground and I guess we also missed getting our hands on garlic scapes, which are apparently a delicacy.

We are learning all sorts of new things about growing food.

We have also managed to kill off all our sweet peas and a bunch of herbs through neglect, but we have high hopes for the tomatoes, melons, pumpkins and other things just starting to come up.

The Power of Mints

2011-06-27T11:20:00.001-07:00

Izzie loves mints so when we were at Costco this weekend, I saw a giant tub of the soft peppermints and decided to get them as potty training incentives. So far, they have been working well and she has been telling me when she needs to go to the bathroom so she can get her hands on a mint.

Before discovering the mints I promised her all sorts of things if she would start potty training, like a new princess dress, various toys and treats (lollipops, marshmallows, m&m's) and none of it worked.

Such a funny girl.

Utah: Bean Museum and Princess Festival

2011-06-22T20:06:00.000-07:00

The last two days of our trip we were all over the place. Izzie had a dentist appointment and managed to actually get through a whole teeth cleaning and fluoride treatment without crying or biting the dentist. Definite progress from her previous appointments which have ranged from her throwing up all over me, to biting the dentist so hard that she had drawn blood when he took his glove off.

This time she thought about going back to get her cleaning by herself, she insisted I stay in the waiting room, but I followed behind her and then she got a little nervous and decided I could come with her.

She did ask me to lay down on the dentist chair with her, so I was basically the chair for whole cleaning. But it made her totally comfortable and she did a great job. I was totally impressed and proud.

After the dentist we met up with my friend Jandee and her two boys at the Monte L. Bean Museum in Provo. I had never actually been inside in all my time at BYU, which I thought was kind of random since I lived in upper heritage halls almost across the street from it. But anyway, the Museum was totally interesting. It contained a huge range of animals from exotic to barnyard animals and bugs etc.

Then we walked over to The Creamery for lunch, it was a gorgeous day and definitely brought back memories from going to school at BYU. I have not been back to campus since Chris graduated and it was fun to see all the changes and to catch up with Jandee.

On Wednesday we met up with Grandpa Alba for an early Father's Day breakfast at Market Street Grill, and then headed to The Princess Festival at Thanksgiving point. Izzie of course loved wearing her princess dress for the occasion and had a lot of fun with Madeline, Bella and Lucy.

I was glad that Izzie liked the festival but I felt a little bit like I was at a Quill and Sword Club extravaganza. The princesses and other characters were incredibly patient and great with all the kids but slightly overzealous about the roles they were playing so I wasn't too sad when it was time to go. I was actually trying to rush Izzie through it because my attention span for the whole festival was rather short.

I finished off the trip with a girls night out with my friend Amy, while my little sister kindly watched Izzie and put her to bed. It was so nice to go out and have uninterrupted adult conversation for a night- Amy and I went out to dinner and chatted until the restaurant closed.

Utah: Monday-Thumb, Alpine Slide and Bakery

2011-06-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

Our last week in Utah, I tried to fit in some of our favorite activities plus a couple of doctor's appointments for Izzie.

We saw her pediatric orthopedic hand specialist (or as Izzie says, the Thumb Doctor), who diagnosed her with trigger thumb in the fall/winter, and as of this visit has declared her "cured."

We are participating in a research study he is doing on trigger thumb in children- the study being whether or not a wait and see approach works. Usually people opt for surgery right off the bat since it is a quick and easy surgery and most kids don't come in about the issue until it starts actually hurting them.

Because Izzie was so little and her thumb didn't seem to bother her I was all for the wait and see approach and apparently it worked in her case. We will still be going in for follow up visits when we are in town.

After her doctor's appointment, which she did really well at (read no screaming, or crying or kicking) we went back up to Park City and rode the Alpine Slide, did a little kiddie ride at the resort and then went to my favorite Park City bakery, The Bakery at Windy Ridge.

Izzie is getting so grown up, she rode the lift up to the slide sitting right next to me and just held onto the bar, she didn't really want me touching her but I kept my hand nearby just in case she decided to attempt an escape off the lift. She also really wanted to jump on the trampoline (the one where you are in a harness with the bungees attached and you can do tricks) so I had to explain to her that she could not do it until she was quite a bit taller. She didn't really like that explanation.

After our fun at Park City Mountain Resort, we headed to Windy Ridge where we each picked out a treat to enjoy.

I love the stuff they have at this bakery, the eclairs, the fruit tarts, the cookies (homeade star shaped oreos filled with vanilla bean frosting and glazed with dark chocolate) the pies etc.

Delicious.

Utah: A Baby Blessing and a Birthday

2011-06-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

When we were in Utah, Izzie pretty much had non-stop fun so now that we are home she has been requesting that we go back, saying things like, "I want to go back to Nanny's house" and "can you call Madeline's mommy to see if she can play?"

She also keeps mentioning seeing Andrew again- like when I mention what is on our agenda for the day she likes to tack on, "and we'll see Andrew."

Two of our fun-filled days were back to back with a trip to the movie theater to see Kung Fu Panda 2, Madeline's birthday party and Olivia's baby blessing.

We saw Kung Fu Panda with my mom, Aunt Julia and Sasha- Izzie was slightly nervous at the beginning because of her experience at the 3D dinosaur movie. But once she realized it wasn't scary she seemed to enjoy it.

Izzie was very excited to sing Happy Birthday to Madeline and we practiced several times on our way to her party. She also had a blast with all the other kids at the party, running around The Little Gym and then having yummy cupcakes and pizza afterward. It was a great party.

The birthday girl

After Olivia's baby blessing, she was having so much fun with the other kids there that I totally blew off her nap so she could stay longer and play with them. I of course paid for this as she screamed all the way up the canyon to Park City, but it was worth it because she was having such a good time.

Little Miss Olivia

This is one of my favorite pictures of the Andrew and Izzie- both running around with abandon. I love it.

Curls

2011-06-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ever since Izzie was born Chris has been claiming most of her genetic traits. So it should come as no surprise to me that when someone asks where her curls come from he is always quick to claim them as well. However, I have countered his claim by mentioning that there are curls in my family too. But Chris must be pretty convincing because no one believes me after he lays claim to them.

Since I am at my mom's house, I decided to dig up some photographic evidence of the curls on my side of the family.

Exhibit A- My Mom

Wasn't she a cute little girl? And she definitely has curls.

Exhibit B- Jacob

Not only does he have curls, but they are dark blond curls. Everyone in my family was blond when they were little except for me- so in theory we could also have a blond child, which I am sure Chris is going to try to claim as his sole genetic makeup as well.

Exhibit C- Lauren

Lauren had the curliest hair in our family. Check out her curly toddler fro:

Now, it is probably only fair to show you some pictures of the alleged curls in Chris' family.

Michael and Courtney

Baby Chris

They look pretty wispy to me. What do you think?

Utah: Elise, Madeline and Olivia

2011-06-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

While we are in Utah we have of course been hanging out with Elise, Madeline and little Olivia. We had a relaxing play date at their house to plan out some fun activities while we are in town, and the girls definitely seemed to enjoy playing with each other. I love seeing how playevolves between kids as they enter different stages.

At lunch time they both had matching lunches, and sat right next to each other. Izzie even wanted to be in a kids chair with a bib, which she generally rejects, but since Madeline was in one she had to be in one too.

I got to catch up with Elise and see first hand how life is with a toddler and a newborn, Elise makes it look easy.

We hung out and played all morning and Izzie was exhausted at nap time which was perfect.

Yesterday, we all met up for a picnic lunch at Wheeler Farm followed by checking out the animals, and taking a tractor pulled wagon ride. It was a gorgeous sunny day- blue skies and puffy clouds while we were out.

These pictures of Madeline and Izzie crack me up, they are both such independent and opinionated little girls and I feel like you can definitely see it in the pictures.

Utah: Afternoon Tea

2011-06-09T21:01:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend, we also went to Afternoon Tea with my mom. I think this afternoon tea is such a fun thing to do, and I loved having a girl's tea with my mom and Izzie.

Izzie was excited and kept talking about which fancy dress she wanted to wear to tea.

The tea started off with some strawberries and cream and then we ordered from a selection of teas and hot chocolate. Afternoon tea is held in the lounge area of the Grand America hotel and it is the perfect space, with floor to ceiling windows, crystal chandeliers, and a mixture of gilt and brocade-like fabrics on the chairs and sofas. There was also a harpist there again providing background music.

Izzie ordered mint hot chocolate, the two things she currently prefers above all other candy are peppermints and foil wrapped chocolates, so this was quite fitting for her. Then they brought us out tea sandwiches and scones and we finished off with a variety of pastries.

I loved the little details- they provided child-friendly tea sandwiches, peanut butter garnished with fresh raspberries, turkey and cheese, and strawberries and cream cheese without us asking.

They also place a glass with a jasmine tea flower on the table and once you order they fill it with hot water so it blooms. This fun little glass became the perfect place for Izzie to put sugar cubes in.

Izzie wouldn't let the sugar pot out of her sight, she wanted it to be next to her at all times and took every opportunity to place sugar cubes into any glass she could, the flower glass, my mom's tea and of course into her hot chocolate and her mouth.

Utah: Dinosaurs

2011-06-08T21:27:00.000-07:00

We have been keeping busy while being in Utah, because I am one of those people who likes to always be doing stuff. I like to relax as well, but I generally like to be out and about or getting stuff done. Which means that I feel like we need to take advantage of seeing people we don't normally see and to do all of our favorite Utah things while we are here.

Luckily, my mom thinks the same way. So last weekend we ventured out to Thanksgiving Point and The Museum of Ancient Life with Izzie to check out the dinosaurs.

I didn't really do much research into the museum before we went, and once there I thought that Izzie would definitely enjoy some of the exhibits more when she was older. But she still had a lot of fun, looking at all of the different dinosaur replicas and doing some of the interactive things.

I liked wandering around and reading all about the different types of dinosaurs and looking at some actual dinosaur eggs, bones and those sorts of things. Dinosaurs are one of those things that I find totally intriguing when I take the time to think about them.

We also briefly watched a 3D dinosaur movie which scared Izzie, so we made a hasty exit a few minutes into it, although I think we had already seen the scariest parts by the time we left.

Izzie's favorite part was digging for dinosaur bones in the sand pit area. She loved telling us when she found some bones.

We followed our dinosaur outing up with a little shopping, which included Izzie getting a build a bear cat and lunch at Nordstrom Cafe.

Chris totally made fun of me about getting Izzie a build a bear since I have expressed dislike for Build a Bears every time we walked past one.

I think my dislike stemmed from the fact that my little sister was obsessed with making them and when my parents wouldn't let her make anymore for herself she wet on a rampage making them as gifts for us older siblings, complete with outfits and sounds, of course.

But when Izzie looked at me with her big brown eyes and said she wanted to make one I didn't have the heart to say no, especially since she told me she wants a real kitty for her birthday and that is definitely not happening. No matter how adorable her big brown eyes are.

Utah: A Wedding

2011-06-08T20:46:00.001-07:00

The wedding we came out for was for one of my high school friends, Alyssa. She was part of a group of five of us girls who all went to different schools and who varied in age by a few years, but because of church we hung out all the time and we called ourselves The Fab Five. Oh yes, that's right, The Fab Five.

The last time most of us saw each other was at my wedding so it has been a while and 4 out of 5 of us were childless at that point.

Even though not everyone made it here for this wedding, it was still a lot of fun to see each other, catch up and see Alyssa get married. I can vividly recall all of these teenage moments with these girls, all the time we spent talking about various boys, hanging out at each other's houses, sleepovers, girls camp, birthday celebrations etc- and there we were as moms with our kids running around together while one of us got married.

The bride and groom

Izzie and Vita

Utah: The Flight

2011-06-06T19:24:00.000-07:00

Izzie and I flew out to Utah at the end of last week to attend a wedding and hang out with friends and family we miss.

Traveling solo with Izzie seems to be what I do, so I always like to mentally prepare myself and have a little pep talk about it being a long day but totally doable, which it generally is barring any delays.

As Chris drove us to the airport I also tried to impart to Izzie how important it was to behave and listen to me on our trip together- and she decided to break out her negotiation skills and said, "if I behave I want a new Mickey Mouse and a watch."

Chris and I were dying as she said this- she said it so nonchalantly. We just looked at each other and started laughing.

For the flight, I loaded up on Hello Kitty stuff from the $1 section at target. She loved having a bunch of new stuff in her backpack to explore- a coloring book, sticky notes, mini pens, stamps, stickers, etc. She was so excited about all the new stuff that she wasn't really interested in watching any DVD's- which was good and bad when I wanted a little break from playing and she wanted to keep playing.

On our flight, she did watch a little bit of a movie and some Curious George, simply because she wanted to try out the pink headphones I got her when we stopped in Atlanta.

I have tried to get her to wear headphones on previous flights but she refused. This trip, she saw pink headphones at the headphone store and promised she would wear headphones if she had the pink ones.

So we got them and she did wear them.

She is such a girly girl in a lot of ways.

America's Favorite Pastime

2011-05-31T13:33:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend we went on our annual camping trip, this year we went to Sherando Lake, which is hailed as the jewel of the George Washington National Forest.

Izzie and Matt, floating in an inflatable raft.

Camping seems quite patriotic to me- we slept in our tent, roasted marshmallows, played at the lake and had a generally good time being out in nature.

Izzie loved the camping so much that she refused to nap or go to bed on time which led to a fairly grumpy child at the end of the holiday weekend.

Happily, she slept the majority of the 4 hour ride home and woke up revived.

The Pool is Open

2011-05-25T15:58:00.001-07:00

Another benefit that comes with living in the South is that it is already pool weather- it has been in the 90's this week and humid. Chris opened our pool last weekend with the help of our incredibly nice neighbors-who are the pool gurus on this side of the neighborhood.

Now we are just waiting for the chemicals to balance out before we get in. Izzie is patiently waiting and likes to go out with Chris when he gets home to test the pool and look at the robot cleaning it.

Jekyll and Hyde

2011-05-20T09:38:00.000-07:00

This week, I dealt with a demon child half the week and then a very sweet Izzie the second half. Right after we got back from our trip Izzie was not a happy child- I know she was adjusting to getting back to a routine but she was being one little argumentative creature that was driving me crazy.

In spite of this we still went to our art class, went to Monkey Joe's and played around in our yard during her more Hyde-like moments.

I am still in love with our yard, and this week it provided us with many distractions. We have a blueberry bush that is actually producing blueberries, a garden that is full of herbs, and vegetables. We actually need to do some major thinning in the garden this weekend and some more planting but I am excited to do it since things have been growing really well here with minimal effort.

In addition the birds and squirrels we usually see, we saw a lizard crawling up one of the hanging planters and some snails this week.

One of Izzie's new favorite activities is to go out in the yard with her small scissors and cut things- like grass or weeds, or flowers. Whatever she sees.

Coloring with crayons also got a lot more attractive to Izzie once the activity involved being outside. Previously, she has preferred to color exclusively with markers.

Lastly, I can't wait until our hydrangeas are all in bloom and I can cut them off and bring them inside. We have been going out and checking on them together and I am sure Izzie can't wait to take her scissors to them when the time comes.

The Last 10 Days

2011-05-17T07:02:00.000-07:00

Chris and I celebrated our 6 year anniversary Saturday May 7th, neither of us were in the mood for anything fancy so we tried out Big Daddy's Burger Bar in Charlotte- a burger place that did not disappoint. Chris got what they called a bacon cheeseburger on steroids (it had two different types of bacon, six pieces total and a little something called baconaise as well) with a side of tots. I tried the turkey burger with bacon, brie and slices of green apple with a side of sweet potato fries. And we got some Oreo shake to go along with our meals. Delicious.

Then we went out shopping for some anniversary gifts for each other.

When we came home we both had to prep for talks we were giving in church the next morning and I needed to finish packing for the beach trip Izzie and I were leaving for right after we gave our talks. So Mother's Day was a bit of a rush.

Chris cooked a quick Mother's Day breakfast and we gave his mom a gift then headed off to church.

Luckily, Chris' parents were there to sit with Izzie during sacrament. She did stand up in her pew and wave and say hi really loudly though which made me laugh and as soon as our talks were over with she ran up the aisle to sit with us.

Right after church we came home and got the car packed up to head down to Alabama and the beach for a week with The Warners.

The beach was awesome, we stayed in Fort Morgan which is in the Gulf Shores area of Alabama. Where we were at was pretty secluded which is what I like when I go to the beach. From the house, it was a short walk down the street to the beach- where there was white sand, dolphins, fish jumping out of the waves, a crazy heron that hung out near us on the beach every day and calm warm water.

I have to say that going to the beach for a week with a toddler is a great trip- there is so much to do at the beach and it is fairly relaxing hanging out in the sun and water all day with tons of stuff to entertain a toddler like drawing with sticks in the sand, or playing with a beach ball from the dollar store.

We spent the days out on the sand with an array of umbrellas and an army of beach chairs only taking lunch/nap breaks and then coming back for more. Izzie built sand castles, played in forts that Uncle Judd built, tried to play with Avery- sometimes successfully sometimes not, flew kites, played in the ocean, searched for shells, watched grandpa catch fish, floated on the noodle that grandma and grandpa got her and pretty much had the time of her life with her Uncles and Aunts and cousins- she actually really liked holding baby Reese who is possibly the most laid back baby ever.

I enjoyed going on morning runs with Megan and Joseph and hanging out with Chris' siblings and parents who we have not seen as much in the last few years since we have been on opposite coasts from each other.

At the end of the week we were both ready to go home though- I missed Chris and Izzie had been so overstimulated all week that she was wasted by the time the weekend rolled around. She actually had one of her worst meltdowns outside a restaurant with a large crowd where we had just finished eating dinner.

I am talking about throwing herself on the ground and screaming at the top of her lungs type of meltdown, where it took all of my strength to pick her flailing body up and get her to the car.

The poor thing was so exhausted that she literally could not cope anymore.

Luckily, we have some time to recuperate before a few upcoming trips we have planned.

Terrace Cafe: Red Velvet Waffles

2011-05-05T10:55:00.001-07:00

We are slowly but surely exploring more of Charlotte- as part of our exploration I researched some good breakfast places and found the Terrace Cafe which we breakfasted at a couple of weeks ago. I was torn between getting the s'mores french toast and the red velvet waffle, but since I love waffles and do not generally like french toast I went with the waffle. It was really good- great red velvet flavor in a waffle with a delicious cream cheese drizzle.

However, Chris and I both agreed that we have had better breakfasts at the same price point elsewhere. So I give it a plus for some interesting menu items but overall I walked away without a burning desire to go back.