Izzy Grace these days

Well Izzy, is so different from Ell. It takes getting used to everyday almost. It's like we're still getting to know her more and more. She is a great nurser (she eats in 10 mins) but is not a fan of baby food really. There are good days and bad days. She's pretty good at swatting the spoon when she's done. I try to teach her the sign language for "all done" and "more" but she would rather swat the spoon when it's coming at her like it's a fly buzzing around her face, then she arches her back and flexes her body until her face turns purple...that's when she's done and sometimes that's after two bites. She has recently discovered baths with sister with no seat! She splashes and squeals the entire time, seriously the entire time she's in there. But she is now sitting up good on her own and rolling all over but hasn't figured out how to sit from laying down (no rush on these milestones), which is fine with me because my house is not baby proofed in any way!

She is none the less a joy everyday! She has some allergic reactions that we are still trying to figure out. There is some eczema issues on her face which we are figuring out and are finding it's possibly a corn/gluten intolerance. Being a baby can be so hard sometimes...LOL

She is still in my room with me (Britt's in our guest bedroom) since she wakes up a few times in the night I don't want to put her in the room with Ellie. Which is such a bummer because I have matching bedding and furniture in there but Izz almost never sleeps in the crib. When Ell is in school I put Izz in there for her morning nap otherwise it's just a cute bed that no one sleeps in. Because she wakes up a few times at night I have not had a solid night of sleep since I was pregnant:/ There are some days that I really feel this too. Daddy will be home in about 9-10 weeks so hopefully she doesn't accomplish too many of her first year milestones without him!!!

Jax Beach for the weekend

We took a trip to the beach a few weekends ago. It was fun to get out of Valdosta and shop at a real mall and see the ocean and drive around. We made it down to St. Augustine too. Ellie was fascinated with the waves!! She squealed with delight the first time she saw the ocean and then did not want to get out. We took a break from "surfing" to make a castle and look for shells...It was such a fun opportunity to teach Ellie about new things like the salty water, the undertow, seashells, and what fun things the sand can do...too bad we're leaving the coast soon.

Izzy's new friend

Meet Natalie! She is the daughter of a friend of mine who has gone back to work. We watch her on Tuesdays and Thursdays and she is such a good baby. It has been a little challenging working her into our day and schedule, especially seeing that she is a month and a half older than Izzy and she has just started crawling! So two days a week it is a little crazy here but we are glad to help Steph out. Natalie's dad also is with Ben right now. Keep them in your prayers if you think of it!

Jessica is home!!!

Well Jess has returned safely from Iraq for her I don't know how many times it's been...like 8 maybe???? A LOT!! Anyway, she hopped right in her truck and drove down for a long weekend and as always it was so nice to see her and have her around. She was a little behind on our sleep and we all know that my house is not the place to catch up on sleep, especially if you are on the couch...it's pretty much the opposite effect here (you get behind on sleep). So we are so glad that she made it home and we are looking forward to see where God will use the AF to take her next:)

Juicing

Brittany and I have started juicing as well. My refrigerator is about half full of fresh fruits and veggies. I'm talking about kale, spinach, cucumber, beets, celery, carrots...we stuff them in the juicer and mix it all up. In the picture is half a cucumber, 2 celery stalks, 2 carrots, 2 cups of kale, half of a lemon and an apple. It was surprisingly very good. I went for a run about an hour later and I felt like I was running on clouds...I could've run forever! My energy levels were out of this world...

Felling good:)

Beyond Gerber and Earth's Best

Well it's been about that time with Izzy now for awhile. I made my own baby food for Ellie so naturally I would for Izz too. She is not quite as good of an eater like Ellie was. She is much pickier. I have to mix the veggie bites with the fruit bite. If it's a bite with plain veggies she gags. Literally gags like it's going to choke her and kill her. It's so ridiculous and dramatic. My reasoning for making baby food are as follows (many people ask): in commercial baby food they cook the food at such high temperatures in order for it to be stored and stay preserved as long as it does that it loses almost all of the nutrients. So pretty much all it's doing is training your child to eat food and help create their palate for new flavors. There is not much nutritional value to it at all... The other reason is it's cheaper and so much more less wasteful. If i bought this stuff, my recycle bin would be overflowing.

So I keep my eye out for Organic fruits and veggies on sale here (there's not much) and i buy a bunch of it or if I can't buy Organic for a food that I'm wanting to introduce I soak it in the sink in a teaspoonful or so of citric acid. Citric acid helps kill the fertilizers and pesticides used on non-organic produce. I steam it or cook it just until it's tender. If you over cook it then you start to lose vitamins and minerals. I then put it into the food processor and puree it to the proper texture. I add the cooking juices to make it smoother if needed. If I have leftover cooking juices (which is where the nutrients end up)i usually keep those and make rice or oatmeal cereal out of it or add it to other fruits or veggies. I then freeze it in trays with one ounce portions and store some fresh stuff in the fridge to test on the Izz.

Izzy's faves these days are nectarines, sweet potatoes, plums (she says mmmmm, while she eats these), pears and she's not too pumped about asparagus or zucchini and i left the peel on the crookneck squash so she wasn't to sure about the texture (she of course gaged) about the texture. Peas with shells were a little gritty so we only tried those once.

Anyway, just a little something that i do. Every mom has their thing, mine is food. What my kids eat is super important to me. Teaching them healthy eating habits and manners and to have the desire to try new things is important to me.... It worked with Ell so we'll see how Izz turns out:)

Summer 2010!

Alright, so a lot has happened. We went with Ben to Albuquerque for a few months for his Pilot Instructor upgrade. We had amazing family time there. The girls are growing like crazy. Izzy sits up and eats babyfood now and Ellie has gotten tall and lean and talks CONSTANTLY. We got home in time to see Ben off to Afghanistan for the rest of the year. Scott will also be there for the rest of the year. So it’s just the girls. Also, Brittany and Scott were blessed with some very surprising news…they are going to have a baby! Sometime in January is when the blessed event will take place. The pictures will pretty much tell the story of our summer. Thanks for caring and sharing in our lives.