Birthday, pool, & a fish fry...

This was quite a busy weekend for us...felt like we were constantly on the go. Sometimes I just enjoy having nothing on the calendar, but this weekend I was pumped for every activity (minus my 12 miles on Saturday morning). Swim lessons Saturday morning followed by some time at the pool. You'd never know that we actually saw Jaime & Luke, as I forgot the camera (this is unlike me, as I average about 50-100 pictures a week!). But we did. See them, I mean. Very briefly (too briefly, in fact). Anyway, we went home for naps (while I snuck away for a hair appt and some quick shopping) and woke up to go to Christopher's 1st birthday party.

Was fun to spend the evening with good friends and good food. As I was saying goodbye to Katie I became choked up talking about how quickly the year has flown by for both of us. We both struggled with infertility for several years each, and now we have such blessings with our littles. I remember when we used to talk about fertility procedures...now we talk about poop. Ha!

Laney Bug & Christopher
Playing with the birthday balloons
Mike & Bug

Laney looooves to swing!

Singing

Happy Birthday!

Another craft...I'm really enjoying making these!

Sunday morning while Laney napped & I did laundry and bathroom cleaning, Mike worked in the yard with Izzy (this is becoming their routine: Mike pulling weeds or watering the garden while Izzy tags along - super cute).

Mike stayed home to work more in the yard while the girls and I escaped to the pool. (I know some of you are thinking - and secretly judging - Izzy eating her apple sauce through a straw...this is what happens when I forget a spoon!)

Sunday evening Brenna & Scott had us over for a long-awaited fish fry. Brenna and I have a VP that has a lake house and her husband fishes...long story short, she gave some of their lake perch to Brenna and we decided we HAD to fry it up! When we arrived the girls were surprised to find a bouncer in the back yard...so fun! Izzy took to it immediately while Jack and Laney were a touch more hesitant. I'm hoping we can borrow it for Laney's birthday party, as it was such a hit!

Crawling; Laney's rendition of bouncing

Izzy bouncing while Jack looks on

We all enjoyed the deep fried fish (way to go, Scott & Mike) and were moving on to dessert when we noticed that Jack had a blow-out. Scott swifly scooped him upstairs to the bath and no sooner was the water running than Izzy announced that she pooped, too. Mike checked....yep, blowout. Cleaned her up and then Laney ALSO had one. Um, only a parent can appreciate this haltingly fast stop to a dinner party. It was comical to say the least, especially since we left their house with unclothed children. Here's to hoping we get invited back again!

4th of July with the Tynans

Sunday morning we headed to Lake Tippy to do our annual 4th of July visit with the Tynans. I don't think we were there for more than 2 minutes before we got into our swimsuits and were in the water! We joined Aunt Nance, Big Joe, Andrew/Suzanne/Max, and Sam/Bridget/Luke/Maggie/Grace for lots and lots of festivities.

Izzy experienced her first water balloon (among many over the course of 48 hours). Do you not just LOVE Izzy's face? She is quite the drama queen and has hilarious facial expressions.
Laney Bug & mommy

Maggie & Grace putting on a dance recital

After dinner

Izzy experienced her first sparkler...

...and was simply enamored

Daddy & Izzy watching fireworks

The neighbors put up a huge jumbo-tron and play music videos...Izzy & Mags danced the night away

The crowd watching, complete with light-up cups

Izzy & Grace watching (and tuckered out - it was past 10 when they finally went to bed!)

We did lots of jumping

And the 4th wouldn't be complete without the putt-putt out back

Daddy just got back from playing 18 holes and then taught Izzy how to putt

Izzy also got to experience tubing for the very first time!

She loved everything except the sun in her eyes! She's such a big girl!

Floating

Enjoying a cold treat

Bathing in the lake

Heading in for a 4 hour nap!!! Love the lake, as it wears her out! PS-Another first for Izzy girl is that she slept in the kids' cold dorm on the bottom bunk! Again, BIG GIRL!

After naps and before dinner the kids watched Toy Story 2 on the big projection screen

Aunt Nance organized an impromptu parade after dinner...singing happy birthday to USA complete with flags

Of course more jumping!

How I miss this girl!!!!! Love her.

Sunday morning TURTLE HUNTING!!!

Izzy & Gracie girl on the lookout

Big Joe caught two!

Izzy posing with "Hairy" the turtle

Big Joe doing what he does best...snuggling with the babes

And we capped the 5 day vaca off with a pinata. Another first for Izzy (she's the one with the bat). I must say we had an absolute blast with the Tynans. Loved visiting and catching up. But loved even more watching our kids play together and become buddies. Wish this could have lasted another few days, but there's always next year! Happy 4th of July everyone!

Family 4th of July

Friday morning the girls and I spent the morning at the pool and then we drove up north to visit with Mike's family for a few days. The day was HOT so Izzy did some sprinkler time before dinner. I just love the pic above b/c it captures Izzy's sheer excitement!
Saturday morning I was able to get an 11 mile run in 55 degree weather - it was my best run yet! Then all the girls went to get pedicures and quickly headed to the lake to enjoy the humidity-free weather! We spent the day visiting with aunts, uncles and cousins. Was so much fun and we didn't get home until midnight! Thanks to Mike's dad and Laura for taking the girls home so we could make a late night out of a very fun day.

Laura kayaking

Laura & Madelyn - I have been waiting for months to meet this little peanut! And I loved spending time with Laura catching up. She had lots of baby sleep questions and I had lots of marathon training questions (she's run 3!!!). Wish we lived closer, for sure.

Lovies Amanda & Steve

The two-toofer Laney Bug!

Bobo & Bug

Grandma Laura & Bug

Laura, Amanda & myself

Of course cornhole was played

This is what happens when you apply spray SPF and don't rub it in...you get a striped tan. And I'm only posting this pic b/c 1. I love Steve and he's like my brother (don't siblings do this to each other?!) and 2. I don't want anyone to do this to themselves!

Delaney is 10 months old!!!

Delaney is 10 months old today and growing before our eyes! She's no longer happy with just crawling. Rather, she wants to cruise and walk (assisted) all the time like her big sis. She's starting to stand unassisted on her own...she just hasn't gotten herself TO the standing position from all fours. I bet by 12 months she's walking, but who knows. She's 100% weaned from both me and bottles. As soon as I weaned her, she also gave up bottles. So Delaney drinks from a sippy full time. She's a girl who is determined and knows what she wants...and a bottle is NOT what she wants. She also is doing lots of talking and mimicking our sounds. My mom got her to start waving when we say hi or bye. And she eats everything we eat...and LOTS of it. Laney Bug still naps 2-3 times a day and sleeps for 12 hours at a time at night. She also loves to wrestle her big sis and often times instigates the wrestling. Oh, and she always wins :)
So big!

Chicken pox?!?!

Ahhhhh!!!! That's what Izzy is saying in this pic...as we've been quaratined since Friday night. We're not 100% positive, but we believe both girls have chicken pox. They both have spots that look exactly like the real thing (I only know b/c 1. I have an official Dermatology Desk Reference from my derm selling days and 2. I occassionally get shingles and unfortunately know what they look like) and both had fevers last week. However, neither girl is actually itching or irritable. Don't think that we didn't stock up on Calamine lotion, oatmeal baths and Ben.adryl! Anyway, this is our initial conclusion and to be safe, we're trying to keep away from everyone until the week is over. Good thing this was a weekend with ZERO plans and not next weekend when we're visiting friends and family for 4 days!
We had to be creative in how we spent the entire weekend at home with beautiful weather. We made popsicles, played on the playset, splashed in the kiddie pool, rode bikes in the driveway, watched (LOTS of) movies & ate popcorn until we all went stir crazy. Was a good weekend to do some serious potty training; however, we're not any closer to staying dry. Izzy surely goes EVERY single time she sits...but just still doesn't get the DRY portion of training. Let's just say we had the potty outside with us for hours all weekend for training...and there were accidents from both girls. Lots. What a loooong weekend we had.

Gave up on the swimsuits & expensive swim diapers

Mike brought Izzy home a new Dora chair for lounging

By this evening, we all had ants in our pants!!!

Nanny Diaries...

I can't even type these words without crying...but our beloved nanny is going to be leaving us in another month as her husband got a new job. Out of town. We hired her knowing she'd be with us for no more than a year or so, so why does this hurt so much that she's leaving us a few months early? Because she's absolutely amazing, that's why.

Mike and I knew we didn't want Delaney in daycare as a newborn; we didn't put Izzy in as a newborn (I stayed home with her the first 6 months) and that is what we were comfortable with. So we started the search for a nanny. It was a long process and took many months to find just the right fit. We knew we wanted someone with an education background and someone who was a mother. We interviewed many. We were heartbroken by a few. And then came Elissa.

We met Elissa and knew immediately she was the perfect fit. Her energy, enthusiasm, spirit, teaching background (also a fellow IU grad) and being a parent was just spot on with our needs. It felt right. Simply put, we had found our nanny. Elissa started part time while I was home on maternity leave so as to ease her (and Izzy and her own son) into the transition that would become their daily routine. I slowly let go of my fears. Slowly let go of Izzy and Delaney. Slowly eased into my new routine: working outside of the home once again.

Surprisingly, my transition was quite seamless; going back to work was a breeze (adult time, gym time, ME time!). Elissa had the hard part as I left her home with a 12 week old, her 11 month old and my 2.5 year old. She quickly learned how to juggle all three and made it look easy. I soon became envious of how she managed to get all 3 of the kids to pre-school drop-off and back without any major incident to report. Bottom line, she had a tough job to start and quickly made it an old hat.

We report back and forth daily via a journal (I rarely see her, as Mike is the one here when she comes and goes) about daily poop habits, potty training success/failure, nap times, feedings, tantrums, milestones, and outings. As the months went on the routine became more and more comfortable and familiar and simply second nature to our household. We relied on Elissa and knew we could count on her not only to care for our girls, but to unconditionally love them as if they were her own.

This is where my heart breaks.

After a long week or weekend of Elissa off, Izzy will constantly ask when she can see Tyler & Elissa. They are her buddies. They have play dates, picnics, pool time, library story hour, concerts, open gym...she misses them when they aren't here. In fact, Izzy oftentimes calls me Elissa. Initially my feelings were hurt, but then the more I thought about it the more my heart would melt; Izzy loves Elissa. And you know what? We do, too.

Elissa was instrumental in all of Delaney's milestones: taking her first bottle (after a week-long bottle strike!), getting her on a nap schedule (getting her to nap somewhere besides her swing!!!), sitting up, rolling over, crawling and this week standing on her own. I realize Delaney would be doing all of these things in daycare; however, knowing that my baby has had all this amazing one-on-one time to hone in on these skills has meant the world to me. Elissa has just been there. For it all.

In the past few months several people have told me how wonderful our nanny is: fellow pre-schoolers' moms have told me they admire how much energy she has even with her hands full with 3 kids, my neighbor told me she sees and hears the kids playing in the yard with her and how great she is with them, and even a girlfriend of mine said she saw them all at an outdoor concert and that Elissa made it look all-too-easy juggling the 3 kids. In fact, my girlfriend said her heart melted to see how wonderful our nanny was with my girls. Now THAT melted my heart. Hearing from these third parties about what an amazing job Elissa is doing simply validates what I already knew: we are so incredibly fortunate to have found her.

We've had the joy of having Elissa for 10 months and have 1 more month with her. I'm so very sad to see her go, but happy for her family that they are embarking on a new adventure of their own. The selfish side of me doesn't want to give her up, as I know the girls have had so much fun at home with her. But after having such an amazing nanny...I'm not sure there would ever be a good time to part.

Here's to new beginnings. And the best childcare a mom could ask for.