Happy 7th Birthday Isabella

For this child I prayed; and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him.
1 Samuel 1:27

Behold, children are a blessing from the Lord.
Psalm 127:3

7 years ago tomorrow, February 27, at 5:46 pm Isabella Grace Garza made me a Mommy. I had no idea my heart could have the capacity to love the way it did when I looked at her for the first time. Also, I was not prepared for the fears and worries that came with being a Mommy.

I'm sure the nurses at Medical City Dallas were laughing their bottoms off at me during my stay. I, for some reason, thought I was at Club Med or post pregnancy resort. I had memorized ext. 7171 immediately and would call them everytime Isabella needed her diaper changed. It wasn't until I was telling someone about being nervous changing Isabellas diaper at home for the first time when they asked who changed them in the hospital. I thought it was obvious - the nurses of course! No joke, the nurse would come and either take her back to the nursery or change the diaper in the room for me every time. LOL

2 days old

7 weeks
3 months


6 months

8 months

9 months (this one scanned funky)

1 year

My mom made the overalls for me and Steve was mortified with the hat. LOL

1 year - look at those sumo boobies. :) My little angel

1 year

15 months

18 months

18 months

2 years

3 1/2 years

3 1/2 years

4 1/2 years

5 1/2 years

School Pictures

PreK 3

PreK 4

Kindergarten

1st Grade

Thanks for looking!

Ava's Trashcan

This is behind the family room TV downstairs. Behind it were several valentine sucker wrappers, I swear a roll of toliet paper it seemed, several band aids and several sucker sticks.

When vacuuming I found - no joke - at least TWENTY bandaid wrappers (Thank goodness for JD giving us free bandaids). Ava had decided to throw away the bandaid wrappers underneath the couch.

Now, after a week of Ava posts - is there any wonder why I'm crazy???

Valentines 2009

Here are a few pictures from Valentines Day this year.

First - Ava wearing my UnderArmor gym headband. God help me with this kid as she ages.

Ava excited about her Love Frog from Grammy.

Isabella and some of her Valentines stash.

Ava kissing her Hersheys Chocolate bar. This kid has a serious love for these candy bars.

Heart shape pancake Steve made for the girls.

Steve was crazy busy at work on Saturday for Valentines. He said they had the biggest day dollar wise in the history of the restaurant.

Heaven Help Me

The picture says it all. This girl is a hoot! Back into the cheer outfit again.

It's confirmed!

I am the only one in this house that knows the following:

1. Where the extra rolls of toilet paper are stored.


2. How to remove empty roll of toilet paper.


3. How to install a new roll of toilet paper.

I swear, I walk into a bathroom almost daily it seems only to find empty rolls of toilet paper. Today, I busted Steve - which he tried to deny and say he was saving money because there was still some left. When I ran to get the camera to take a picture of it, he changed his tune.

When Mommy is sick & big news!

Early Thursday morning (1:00 am) I was lucky to get the stomach virus the girls had last week. Steve was home until around 2:00 pm yesterday and took care of me and Ava. When he went to work Ava thankfully went down for a nap. When Isabella came home from school (thank you Kris for dropping her off at the house) I told her I'd pay her to take care of Ava and basically they had free reign to eat whatever they wanted.

This is what I woke up to this morning -

Apparently, dinner was valentines candy, chips and apple jacks. Isabella was a sweetheart and would come and check on me every couple of hours. This morning I woke up feeling so much better. Hopefully, Steve stays healthy - especially through the weekend - he's super busy at work.

So, the big news....we now have a college professor in the house! Steve is going to be teaching a cooking class next semester at the Art Institute here in Indy!!! He has always talked about going into teaching once he retires from cooking - so this was an awesome, surprising opportunity that fell at his feet! He'll teach every Monday morning for 4 hours. The semester starts in April and goes until June I think. I'm so proud of him!!!!!!!!!!

Tired

I'm just now sitting down after a busy day. I don't think I ate lunch today - sad that I can't even remember.

I did 6 loads of laundry, cleaned all 3 bathrooms, dusted the upstairs, cleaned out the master bedroom closet - it looks so good - I just want to sit in it. LOL

I'm happy to say Dave Ramsey has allowed for an "Alisha maintenance" envelope and I was able to go and get my eyebrows waxed. It's been a productive day all around.

Poor Amy has what Isabella and Ava had the other day. I saw Mark at preschool drop off and he said she was in bad shape. I called Kris and found out what medicine she said stopped her daughter from puking and went and picked it up for Amy and dropped it off. I secretly wanted her to get better quick so she would still be able to go to dinner with Kris and I on Thursday. LOL

Off to fold one last load of laundry and then I'm settling in to watch some TV.

I was right!

The nurse called and BOTH spots came back pre-cancerous from the dermatologist. One I have to go back and have some minor surgery on because they didn't get everything. I have to wait for the last biopsy to heal and then they will go back and dig deeper.

So - my tip for the day....have yearly body checks by a dermatologist.!!

Ava

Don't you just love this kid? LOL She is a handful 99% of the time - but she is so darn funny. I love her so much. Last night she was still feeling yucky so she wanted to lay in front of the fireplace and watch TV. She was as happy as can be!

Here are a few Ava-isms from the past couple of weeks.......

• You smell good Mommy. You smell like candles.
• Why you smell like coffee mommy?
• Mommy - my food goes in my mouth, down into my belly and then becomes poop!
  
  

Birthday Evening & Sick kiddos

Self portrait in the car before heading home.

The waiter took a picture of us at the restaurant.

Ava being a cheerleader. It was about 6 degrees yesterday but she insisted wearing this. Check out the shoes!! LOL They are Isabellas old Cinderella glass slippers that are too small for Bella but too big for Ava - apparently they are her cheerleader shoes.

Steve surprised me by calling our neighbor and friend Amy to see if Christine could watch the girls so he could take me out to dinner. She said no problem and the girls went with them to watch Cory's basketball game and then stayed with them until around 9:30 when we got home last night. We went out and had sushi and then saw Slumdog Millionaire. This movie is soooo good. I will never again say we are poor - and if I do - you have permission to slap me. :)

I took the camera and Steve and I had so much fun taking pictures throughout the night and acting silly. It was good times!!

I was woke up this morning at 4:00 am by Isabella throwing up. Ava followed suit at 5:30 am - so I am washing sheets and bedding and scrubbing carpets. Ava has been good to go since her first bout so hopefully she is over it. Isabella is having a little bit more - but hopefully it will pass soon. Me and Steve - praying to God desperately we don't catch it.

Isabella's letter to me......

Isabella just gave me a letter for my birthday. It says:

From a kid who loves you most...me Isabella. Your first kid. I (heart) U.

Followed by a family picture drawing.

Steve was just happy she is drawing him taller now and it's clear who the dad is. LOL Well, plus his hair doesn't flip up like she makes me, Ava and her hair. heehee I love this kid to pieces.

What a Monday!

We were all in bed and asleep by 8:00 pm last night. All of us are fighting colds/upper resp infections and felt like poo so we called it an early night last night.

I had a day filled with Dr. visits. First, an eye appt which I had the pleasure of having my eyes dialated - I can't believe they let me drive home. I couldn't see a thing!! Thank goodness it was only a couple miles away. I did find out my corneas are too thin to ever have lasik eye surgery. I am essentially blind - you can't even say near or far sighted because I can't see a thing without my contacts or glasses on.

After the eye dr I had an hour to eat lunch and rest and then head off (still dilated in the ole eyes and not seeing clear) to the dermatologist. I had 2 areas that I knew were going to be removed during the body check. One area I would bet money is going to come back as something. I had a mole/spot removed a couple years ago when we lived in Cincinnati still and it came back as cancerous (not sure of proper terminology) but the Dr. said if left unattended for a few more months it would have been melanoma. Well, one spot that was removed yesterday is right next to the scar. My Derm back in Cincy had to actually go back and remove more because he didn't get it all the first time and now this spot popped up next to the scar so I wouldn't be surprised if I get a call back.

Its snowing again today and I'm waiting to hear if school is let out early today - I'm guessing it will.

Weekly Recap

Well, I didn't do an update last night after the super bowl because I've battling an upper resp infection and I felt like I lost a lung from coughing. I ended up having to have Isabella sleep with Steve because I kept coughing and moaning. LOL I am feeling better this morning but last night - not so much. Did watch the 1st 3 quarters of the Super Bowl over at JD and Ellens with a ton of neighbors but we left at the end of the 3rd Q because Isabella had school and I wanted to curl up in bed.

Before the super bowl we took the girls to Picture People for their annual Valentine Pictures. If I felt better I would do a recap of years past - maybe later this week. It's cute to see the progression of age. I love having a picture of Isabella with 1/2 of her teeth missing - LOL.


These are the Valentine cards we got printed. Dave Ramsey approved this purchase because we had an envelope for it and with coupon an 8x10 and 12 cards was only $12- yeah!! Click on the card if you want to see close up - Ava's face in the middle picture is totally Ava!

Picture of the front of the house after our 12.5 inches of snow on Tuesday/Wednesday. By the way - we were forecast to get 1-3 inches Monday (got nothing) and then Tuesday we were suppose to get 1-3 inches - for a total of max 6 inches. We got 12.5. I'd love to be a weather forecaster and get paid to be wrong!

Friday I headed down South to say goodbye to one of my BFF - Cindi who is moving to Houston. In the picture it is me, Cindi, Brandy and Jamie. We've been BFF's since grade school. We were only missing Stephaney to make the picture complete.

We had snow days on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. So, Friday the girls and I got to leave early and head down to my moms for the day. We spent all day Saturday hanging out at my brothers house and then the girls spent the night there and i picked them up on Sunday morning to head back home.

I have an eye doctor appointment at noon and then a dermatologist appt at 3:00 so hopefully by then I'll have stopped coughing and feeling like a I was hit by a truck.

Bad Blogger Award...

goes to ME! ME! ME!

It's been a whole week since my last post. Will update tonight after the superbowl - and I'll even add some pictures!