Cozy Cousins

Here is a picture taken at Grandma's house while Dave and I were in San Fransisco. I forgot to post it.

Isabelle and her cousins Conner and Collin

Potty Day 2

So yesterday went really well and I was so excited! (notice the was) Isabelle went potty in her big girl potty all day yesterday with no accidents.

Today a little discouraging =( I am trying not to let it get me down but it is not working, she went potty in her panties.. Urghh! Yesterday she was bare bottomed all day long and did great. For some reason when she has panties on she thinks it is ok to go potty in them. I explained to her how we don't want to pee pee on Belle (thats who is on the panties from Beauty and the Beast for you non Disney watchers). Next thing you know Belle was DROWNING!

We are now wearing the monkey panties, and I hope that they can stay dry. This potty thing is tough. The worst part is I am stuck at the house, I hate being forced to be cooped up inside the house. Will someone please come visit, bring wine and sushi. Both of those things would really cheer me up.

Here is Isabelle's potty dance from yesterday when she was doing so well, also reffered to as "the good old days". The brown stuff on her face is her potty candy (Hershey's kisses), she had just ate it for going on the potty like a big girl.

Potty Party

Today was a big Potty Party and I have to say that I am so proud of my little girl.

So the other day I asked Isabelle if she was ready to ditch the diapers and start wearing big girl panties and her response was, "Maybe some day Mommy". Great at least she gave me a little hope!! So this week I have been working her up for her Potty Party and telling her how fun it was going to be.

Last night we went to get some movies out of Redbox (our favorite cost effective way to rent movies), and get some potty candy to reward Isabelle with. Our plan was to sit in front of the tv all day long while on the potty. It started out kind of slow this morning and I thought she would never go but EUREKKA my little angel pee pee'd on the potty. I thought I was going to cry, you should have seen the look on her face it was the happiest day of her life. She was so proud of herself. After she went pee pee we went to the bathroom to dispose of the evidence and she gave it a proper farewell. Yelling, "bye bye pee pee, bye bye pee pee" as she flushed it down the potty. It is 3:30 now and the pottier is napping but she has gone 5 times already with no accidents!! I am hoping that she keeps up the good work.

I will have to get a video of her doing her potty dance and post it on the blog.


Isabelle eating her breakfast on the potty and watching the Bee movie, which she later told me was yucky! (The movie not the eating on the toilet.. Isabelle gave the Bee Movie 2 thumbs down!) Sorry for the mess in the background but Potting can be quit messy!! And I promise she is not as scarred as she looks.

Videos of Dance

Here are a few videos of Isabelle tapping after her first day at dance =)

First Day of Dance

Today was Isabelle's first day of dance class and I took so many pictures. She did so good!! She did not cry for Mommy, which I was scared about, and she listened to the teacher so well.


Outside before dance, taking the standard Mommy picture but she loves it.


She decided to start her dancing in the yard, she just couldn't wait for class.


Sitting on the couch waiting for Daddy to get home so we could all go to class, she was so excited when she got home that she barried her face in the couch

Isabelle and her new friend Avery

They had to stretch before dance, you wouldn't want them to pull any little baby muscles.

The choo-choo train

Our Week

We have big exciting plans this week that I want to share with everyone.

I am so excited to say that tomorrow is Isabelle's 1st day of dance class. I am so excited!! I think that I am more excited than she is, so I cannot wait. She starts at 4:15, and she will be taking tap and ballet. You can guarantee that there will be pictures of her in her cute little outfit very soon on this blog.

Thursday- I pray this will be a good day!! We are having a POTTY PARTY!! Isabelle is going to sit upstairs in front of the tv on her potty chair all day with a cup of water. I cannot get her to pee/poop in the potty, she keeps waiting until after to tell me. The girl will sit on the potty, no problem, as a matter of fact she loves it but she will not actually go potty on it. So Thursday we are going diaper-less, and are hanging out on the potty all day long until she figures it out. I guess I had better call my carpet cleaner and get an appointment setup. So if you try to invite us somewhere this weekend we probably cannot come because we are becoming professional pee-pee er's... Wish us luck, I think we are going to need it!

Conner's 5th Birthday

This weekend was Conner's 5th birthday, Isabelle has been so excited to go to the party all week. The day finally came and she had a great time. I made Conner a Batman cake, and I think it turned out pretty decent. Check out some of the pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Frustrating Day

What a day it has been already, and it is only 3:00. I am beginning to think that everyone in my home is against me. I have a 2 year old, there is not much more I have to say than that. I hate our dog with a passion, and I believe that she hates me. Finally my husband loves our dog, therefore completely against me. What to do when you are all alone with no one on your side. Of course there is a story to why I am having a frustrating day and here it is...

Isabelle and I had a lot of errand to do today, we had to go to the cake store, 2 grocery stores, Walgreens, and Target.. This in itself is a lot of ask a toddler to do but she did quite well until lunch at Target. This is where the frustration begins because Isabelle refuses to eat. After pouring squeeze yogurt down her throat and shoving hot dog in her mouth every time she opens it to tell me something, we finally leave. When I get home I have to unload all of the groceries, I put Isabelle on the ground and of course she takes off. I finally manage to rangle her up, get to the door, put some of the groceries on the ground and then Tootise escapes (have I ever mentioned to anyone that I HATE THAT DOG!!). At this point the alarm is going off, Isabelle has disappeared AGAIN, I have my hands full of groceries and then I hear kids screaming!! I yell for Isabelle she has managed to make it into the living room, I turn off the alarm and run outside to find kids screaming as Tootsie is running full force toward them. As much as a can't stand the dog she would never hurt anyone, but as a child seeing a 80lb dog running at you can be a little intimidating. So I yell for Tootsie, as if she would really come to me, and she just keeps running around. Then one of the mothers starts to yell at me, all I want to say to this lady is that I can't stand this dog, I have no control of her so quit getting on to me. I finally manage to get the dogm groceries, and Isabelle in the house. What a cotastrophy, I am sure that was turned out to be a delightful first day of school for the kids as well.

You know this morning Isabelle and I were watching Blue's Clues and they were talking about being frustrated and how you should just breath. Blue's Clues is clearly a bunch of crap, they have no idea what they are talking about!!

Why did no one tell me you need A TON of patience to raise a toddler, don't you people know I have no patience at all!!

Terrible Timing of the Fire Alarm

Dave and I are still in the process of making a baby with no luck yet, but we are currently in our week of prime baby making time. So it all started last night, Dave was pretty excited about our baby making coming up. (Sorry if this is to much for you guys, but we all know what has to be done to get a baby come on!!) So he was anxiously awaiting Isabelle to go to sleep. She finally fell asleep when we start hearing a chirping sound from the monitor. We both ignored it at first then Dave heard it again, and claimed that it maybe coming from Isabelle's room. He went to investigate and came down with a look on his face like, "no baby making for me tonight". Come to find out it was the fire alarm IN ISABELLE'S room that had run out of batteries and was chirping all night. Isabelle had not even budged she was prepared to sleep through the whole thing, so I told Dave he should sleep through it as well. Dave is a pretty light sleeper and there was no way that he could sleep with that chirping going on. This is when Dave proposed the impossible, go in Isabelle's room with a ladder and change the batteries!!

At this point I am in hysterics at the situation and have a feeling that this will never work. But he is my husband so I will support this crazy idea. We go upstairs and Dave decides that he will practice on the alarm in the hall before going into the danger zone (Isabelle's room). He takes the battery out of the hall unit and of course it then starts to chirp. We then take the battery from the hall into Isabelle's room. As I open the door, of course it creaks so I swing it opne fast. The first thing I see is 3 of Isabelle's babies in a row on the floor with their bare bottoms pointed at the door. All I could do was laugh at this already hilarious situation, even though Dave saw no humour in it. We manage to change the battery and Isabelle does not move an inch. As we leave the room high fiving each other we hear a loud crack of thunder, and the look on Dave's face was priceless as he says, "there is no getting around it she is sleeping with us".. LOL Sometimes storms wake up Isabelle. Dave decides to just take the alarm in the hall down that way it does not beep and we can get a battery for it tomorrow. Just as he says, "eww no more beeping", the alarm goes bazerk and is beeping like crazy. I thought Dave was going to throw it down the stairs but instead he runs down the stairs smuthering the thing the whole way.

It was just hilarious that a battery that has been in the smoke detector for over 3 years now pick 11 at night to start going off in the babies room!

Our Last Pool Party of the Season

Papaw and Mamaw had everyone over for what could be the last pool party of the season. At least I am hoping so, I would love some cold weather.. Anyway, here are some of the pictures that Dave and I took. They include Isabelle and Collin playing, and my favorite was Conner doing his version of jumping in the pool. He called it his "new jump", he said his Daddy taught him. (I sure hope that Seth doesn't jump in the pool like this, or the boy has more issues than we thought)

(I am not terribly impressed with this slideshow but I did not feel like recreating it, so sorry)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We have Isabelle working for the $$$

As many of you know our office has been an on/off disaster since we moved into the house. We have finally come to the conclusion that one of the biggest issues is that we have WAY to much furniture in there. So last week Dave and I took out the big executive desk and we are selling it on Craigslist. We kept the credenza, but this gave us the room to make a desk for Isabelle as well. She is always wanting to, "work for the money". So we brought in an old coffee table (AKA Isabelle desk, don't tell her), strung up a keyboard and a mouse for her and now she is working for the money. She was so excited, and now I can get a little (and I do mean a little) work done while she does her art work, and computer work at her desk. She is just so tickled!

Isabelle's Bed

Isabelle needs a new big girl bed soon, and I just saw this one one a commercial for Rooms to Go. I have got to get this for my little princess, I just love it.

Our hotel in San Fransisco

The hotel we stayed at in California was nice, it is called The Orchard. (http://www.theorchardhotel.com/)

Here are a few pictures of the Trolley outside of the hotel, as well as the view from the hotel.





This was a fountain in the lobby and I love the sign that was hanging on the wall in the restaurant inside of the hotel. It didn't really make me one to hurry up and order anything from the kitchen or the bar =)

Fisherman's Warf

Here are some pictures that we took at Pier 39 (The Fisherman's Warf). It was so cold outside, I could not believe how unprepared Dave and I were for the weather.



Alcatraz from the Pier.. Seals of the Pier




One of the hills from our taxi... Hills were the worst in San Fransisco

More on San Fransisco

I finally uploaded the rest of my pictures from San Fransisco so I thought I would share =) One night Dave and I got reservations for a restaurant called The Stinking Rose, we saw it on the Food Network and had to try it out. Everything in the restaurant is centered around garlic. It was pretty neat but I think you could smell our breath all the way back in Texas when we were done. Here are some pictures and what we ate while we were there. www.thestinkingrose.com

Here is a picture of the appetizer that we had the Bagna Calda.

Our Appetizer- The Bagna Calda
Garlic soaking in a hot tub
Garlic cloves, oven-roasted in extra virgin olive oil and butter with a hint of
anchovy. A wonderful treat for spreading on our house-baked focaccia bread.
Served at your table in an iron skillet.

Dave's meal:
Garlic Roasted Prime Rib
100% USDA certied prime, Midwestern beef
Served with Garlic Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and creamed Swiss chard

My meal:
Forty Clove Garlic Chicken roasted on the bone (actually served with 40 cloves of garlic)
Served with Garlic Yukon Gold mashed potatoes

For desert, you will never believe this one:
GARLIC ICE CREAM- I personally thought it was as nasty as it sounds, but Dave actually liked it.
_______________________________
The next night we went to a really cool place that I learned about through one of our taxi cab drivers. I know it is going to sound a little weird but it was a Transexual Show. It was at a placed called AsiaSF, it was a little like the movie Bird Cage. The food was absolutely wonderful, and the show was pretty neat. It was so funny because we were sitting right next to the stage the "girls" kept picking on Dave, rubbing their fingers through his hair. Here is a shot that I got if him just before he started to ask me to switch seats with him. http://www.asiasf.com/index.php

The place was a blast, we had a lot of fun. It was definitely part of the whole San Fransisco experience.

The Girl is Smart

So tonight Dave and I were trying to show Isabelle how to hold up 2 fingers, for her age. She keeps holding up three of them (pointer, middle and thumb). We worked with her for a few minutes when she said, "I haven't figured it out yet Daddy". We showed her again, but she kept holding up the three fingers and told us, "this is fine Mommy". So it looks like I am going to have to settle for her holding up three fingers instead of the two.

Most of our dinners turn into a negotiation when it comes to Isabelle eating. I always have to tell her to eat two more bites and then I will give her some sort of surprise. So tonight at dinner she spouted off and said, "Mommy, I will make you a deal. You no cry, and I will play with you". Wow, thanks Isabelle!! Now I know that I am negotiating her way to much, when she starts trying to work out deals of her own.

Painting at Grandma's

Here are some pictures and a video of Isabelle painting at Grandma's house last week while Dave and I were in California.




This is the calm before the storm. Grandma setup a painting station for Isabelle before she woke up and began her path of destruction.



As Isabelle would say, "I get messy".


All cleaned up after a long day of creative arts! She leans back in her chair like she owns the place..

Alcatraz

While Dave was at his training class I decided to take a tour of Alcatraz. It was awesome, and I am sorry Dave did not get to go. If you are ever in San Fran be sure to make Alcatraz one of your priorities.

The island is beautiful, with the exception of the prison part. I made a slide show of some of the pictures but there were over 100 so I could not out them all on here.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Isabelle at Grandma's House

While we are gone Isabelle is having a blast, you call to talk to her and she tells you that she is to busy. How rude! She is staying with my mom, Grandma, Tuesday through Friday and then going to my Dad's, Pop, Friday through Sunday. She is having such a great time at Grandma's house, she has been taking daily trips to visit Great Grandma and Great Grandad. This has been wonderful because we never make it out to Benbrook to see everyone, at least not as much as we would like. According to Grandma she has been eating like a pig, but as grandparents do she is way off her schedule. This is fine but I fully expect her to sleep for two days straight when Dave and I get her back =)

Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Randy came over to visit as well and are helping with the spoiling frenzy! Last night they took Isabelle to the park, where Isabelle made Jeniffer play on the playground with her. Then they took her to Red Lobster and then out for ice cream. Grandma said she should have known better than to let Isabelle order ice cream in a cone, because she was covered in strawberry ice cream when they left. =) he, he, he!!

Tonight Jennifer is coming over to paint with Isabelle. Grandma said when she asked Isabelle if she wanted to paint she told her, "I get messy"!! Hey at least she is honest!

I am so glad that Isabelle got to stay with Grandma for a couple of days. It gives her an opportunity to spent time with the Great Grandparents, second cousins, Grandma, and her Aunts and Uncle. Now they all get to see how truly sweet, amazing, and smart little angel is. I miss her =(

San Fransisco Here we Come

Dave and I were discussing and we have not been on a trip (just the two of us) in about 3 years. With us planning on having another baby (no luck yet), we decided that we needed to get away alone. Seeing as how we are now living on a single income we had to do something relatively cheap. Dave ended up getting an opportunity to take a training class in San Fransisco for work, and I decided this would be a perfect opportunity for me to tag along.

When we first arrived in San Fran on Tuesday I thought we were staying in the ghetto! Our taxi cab driver was taking us to our hotel and the town was very "colorful" to say it nicely. I was beginning to think I would be spending a lot of time in the hotel alone, because there was NO WAY that I was going out on these streets alone. Thank God as we got closer to our hotel the surroundings became a little nicer. Our first night we went to a restaurant called the Metropol it was wonderful food, but horrible service. I guess the food made up for the lack of attention by the one waitress that they had. I would definately recommend the place to anyone who visits just be sure to stick your head in first and make sure they have more than one waitress that night =)

On Wednesday Dave went to his training and I decided to try out Union Square, what a hear to be a shopping mecka! So that morning I look up Macy's on the internet, check it out on mapquest and I am pretty confident that I know how to get there. I stop by the concierge office and ask him if Macy's is within walking distance, he tells me that it is only 2 blocks a way and should not be an issue. I walk out the hotel and see the street that I have to go on is not a street, but a MOUNTAIN! Oh my gosh, I thought well the concierge said that I can walk this and I guess I will be ok. So start climbing the hill, then another hill until I feel like my heart is going to explode and I am going to pass out. S0 I stop by this nail salon and ask one of the techs were Macy's is. You will never believe what she told me... AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL!!! Ahh, so I have now walked up this hill, almost died, and damn near passed out for abolutely nothing. At this point I am seriously second guessing my map reading abilities becuase obviously I am an idiot! Not to mention I am really starting to hate San Fran and all of their dumb hills!! I finally find Macy's (eureka) and right in front of Macy's there is a beautiful heart with a picture of San Franisico in it. I decide to take a picture when all of a sudden this man jumps into the picture and sits right in front of the heart. I thought someone maybe taking his picture so I look around to see who he is posing for. When I discover that the only person pointing a camera at him is me, so I ask, "is someone taking your picture?". He then jumps out of the way and I finally take my picture. After the picture is taken the man walks up to me and says, " I have been following you for the last couple of blocks, and I have to say that I am a stereotypical black male and you look marvelous from behind". Great, now not only have I climbed an unneccessary mountain, almost died, but now someone has to point out the fact that I have a big butt! I finally loose the guy, but I cannot believe my first impression of San Fransisco!!

This first picture is half of the dumb mountain that I climbed (trust me it looks much bigger in real life, and at the bottom of this hill there was another one that I climbed as well) urgghh! The second picture is where the booty incident took place.

So Macy's was very cool, it was 8 stories high and takes up an entire city block. Most of the stuff was very high end, so needless to say I did not get anything (Stay at Home Mom= no $$). All of the stores in Union Square were all high end stores so I didn't really visit any of them (Saks, Nordstoms,etc.). I ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express Cafe for lunch, it was wonderful!



When Dave got back to the hotel we decided to go take a trip to China Town, it is only 2-3 blocks from our hotel. China Town was pretty cool, and filled with lots of neat stores. We ate at this wonderful place called the Empress of China that is a rood top restaurant in the middle of China Town. http://empressofchinasf.com/ The food was wonderful, expensive but I am thinking that is just how SF is. The scenery was wonderful and I took some picture from the top of the restaurant.


The entry to China Town and some images of the streets of China Town


This was from a Bank of America in China Town (if you click on the image you can see the stock prices written in Chinese). Dave posing on the way up to the Empress of China restaurant.


Great view from the top of the Empress of China

This was a beautiful Catholic church in China Town

On the way back from the hotel we stopped at a tea bar and learned a lot about tea, it's heath benefits, how not to put anything in your tea (sugar, cream, etc.), and how tea bags and tea balls are the devil. We ended up getting two different kids of teas and one is allegedly going to help Dave with his cholesterol and is suppose to also help with blood pressure and cleaning your system. I cannot believe we spent $65 on TEA, bright side is it should last you for 6 months!