Cooling Off

There was a heat advisory today, which of course means it's Hotter than Hades around here!!! So what better way to cool off than to go for an after-dinner dip in our brand new alligator pool?

This was Sam's first time in the pool. Although it took him a few minutes to relax and actually enjoy himself, eventually he did; well,... at least until Isabella inadvertently splashed some water on his face.

Hey, how about that comb over???

Anyway, I'm thinking we might be doing this more often, although maybe next time I might just join in.

I WON!

A few of the blogs I stalk, or read rather, often offer a chance to win a giveaway, which usually consists of scrapbooking goodies. Well, I never, ever, ever win. NEVER,... Until today that is!

I just noticed I won some Sweetwater 4th of July themed scrapbooking goodness from Margaret Scarbrough's blog. You can check out my loot here. This might just be the push I need to sit down and scrapbook, which I haven't done in months.

Woo Hoo!

Birthday Extravaganza

Today marks the end of Isabella's "Birthday Week Extravaganza",... and thank goodness, because I'm totally drained.

The festivities began on Tuesday with dinner at El Porton, our favorite Mexican restaurant which she picked, where she was surprised when all the waiters serenaded her with Happy Birthday in both English and Spanish. They put a sombrero on her and actually, she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. Afterwards we went home and met up with her cousins to enjoy some yummy Baskin Robbins Chocolate Chip Ice Cream/Chocolate cake and presents.
On Saturday we had her birthday party at The Little Gym. To tell you the truth I was a bit worried about how they would be able to entertain a group of 14 children ranging from 1 year to 11 years old, but somehow they did, and they did it beautifully. The kids had a blast and they were all so good! They ran and they jumped as long as they could. And just when they were about to pass out from pure exhaustion, we served them cupcakes with lots of sugary icing to get them nice and wired before it was time to go home. Isabella specifically requested a "Pablo" (better known as The Backyardigans) theme for her birthday party so we ordered some Backyardigans balloons, played a Backyardigans CD throughout the party and served Backyardigans cupcakes ~ she was quite pleased.
Today, we closed the birthday extravaganza with our first ever visit to Build-A-Bear. Isabella absolutely loved it; she thoroughly enjoyed every single step of the process. She picked a white and pink bear, who she named Ally, and dressed her with a very preppy pink and white golf outfit (which included a sleeveless argyle collared shirt, skort, and visor), pink and white socks, pink sketchers sneakers, and roller skates. I've been wanting to take her there for a long time, and I'm so glad we did; it really was so much fun!
After it was all said and done and paid for (YIKES!), she decided the best way to end this week-long affair was to have the mother of meltdowns. It was as if she was thinking: "What? No fireworks? Don't worry, I'll take care of the Grand Finale." And that she did ~ she threw a fit of epic proportions. Good times!

Anyway, I'm glad to report that all is under control. We're all still alive and well and getting ready for Scott's birthday week which starts this coming weekend. Oy vey!

Say hello to my little friend

Guess who can now cook and clean and do oh so many other things while keeping her little one content, contained and near by? Yep, I can!
Thanks to my little friend the Graco Bumper Jumper.

I love that last night I remembered we had gotten this jumper for Isabella way back when she was an itty bitty little thing.

I love that it is unbelievably portable.

I love that Sam is old/tall/big enough to fit in it.
I love those huge juicy legs of his. In fact, I love them so much that not a day goes by I don't want to bite them. And I'm not talking about taking a little nibble. Oh no, I want to bite into them as if they're a big ol' hamburger. Hmmm,... is that weird or wrong?
And finally, I love that although he hasn't entirely figured out this new contraption, he seems to like it enough to "hang out" for a while, allowing me to get some stuff done around here and that, my friends, is a good thing!

Happy Birthday, Peanut!

Thank you for three wonderful years.

We love you so much!

104°

Nope, that's not the name of a new up and coming geeky boy band, it's the temperature my van said it was today while the kids and I were out running errands: 104° F. Holy Cow! It was unbearable, but we had to go out and get some stuff done before Isabella's birthday.

First on our list of to-dos was going to Babies-R-Us to pick up a new toddler booster seat for Isabella, not because she's outgrown her car seat, but because Sam has almost completely outgrown his infant carrier and now has to move the car seat Isabella's using. Last week at Sam's 4 month check-up Dr. Senter suggested that, for my own health, I should stop carrying Sam around in the infant carrier (yeah, he's now up to a hefty 20 lbs, still totally off the charts with his weight, he's at 90% on height and head size, and he wears a size 12 months). As hard as it is carrying Sam in his infant carrier these days, I cringe at the thought of not having the convenience it offers, especially when he's fallen asleep while we're out and about.

Afterwards, we went to Baskin Robbins to get Isabella a yummy cake for her actual birthday, which is tomorrow. Although she specifically requested Backyardigans cupcakes for her birthday party on Saturday (which I already ordered from Miss Muff'n ~ YUM!), for tomorrow she wanted a chocolate chip ice cream cake ~ bonus for us!

Then it was on to take her to get a haircut. On a whim (or maybe it was the heat) I decided to tell the girl to cut it short, and I absolutely love how she looks:

Such a sassy little thing, isn't she?

The last stop on our blistering hot tour was Party City, for some last minute things to add to the goody bags for Saturday.

Then we came home and passed out on the couch from heat exhaustion; well, Isabella and I did while Sam enjoyed his swing for a while.

Oh yeah, that's drool, not sweat, on our boy's shirt.

I know it's not even August yet, but boy am I looking forward to cooler days. Geez!

She's a big girl!

As of last Tuesday we've started potty training at the Butler household. In order for Isabella to be able to attend preschool, she has to be fully potty trained by September. Needless to say as important as her preschool is to me and as fun as it is for her, you know the pressure was ON!

If you would have asked me on Tuesday or Wednesday I might have told you my child was going to be wearing diapers and/or pull-ups well into the 9th grade. You see, I am not a very patient person; I can be very nurturing and affectionate and loving, but patient I am not. That is a virtue I struggle with and pray for on most days. I was so frustrated I was begging to go back to work and place her in a daycare center until this whole process was over.

Then suddenly on Thursday I had an epiphany ~ I realized that my lack of patience is my problem and not Isabella's, and that she's not quite 3 years old yet, and that as laid back and easy going as she is, she's such a quick learner when she's willing and ready. That was the turning point for me; that's when I decided to readjust my expectations (and my attitude) and empower her with this process. And lo and behold, things are going great ever since.

We've been able to leave the house without any incidents, she hasn't had any accidents today, and right before nap when I was getting ready to put her pull-up on she looked me in the face and said: "No Mama, big girls don't wear pull-ups." She must have seen the look on my face because she immediately followed it with: "It's OK Mama, I'm a big girl." Wow!

I'm not sure what I'll encounter when nap time is over but to tell you the truth, I'm so incredibly proud of her right now, I don't really care. How's that for an attitude adjustment?

Happy Birthday, Baby Brooke!

I absolutely love the sight of a baby digging into and enjoying a piece of their first birthday cake.
But seeing her follow it up with a tasty rib, now that was pretty hilarious,...
Isn't she the cutest little thing? Happy birthday, sweet girl!

It's a Compliment,... no really, it is!

This morning I left the house to get a WAY overdue and MUCH needed haircut. Between the nasty Memphis heat, the ridiculously excessive shedding, my inability to comb through it after a shower and just the plain lack of any style, something had to be done, and pronto.

So I went to see a new girl at a salon I had been to before because supposedly she has a lot of experience working with naturally curly hair,... and well let's face it, I need all the help I can get. I think she did a good job. Right now it's kind of hard to tell because she went about it like no one ever had before. She did a dry cut, which basically means that my hair was washed, dried and straightened with a flat iron before it was even cut. Wow, I had no idea my hair could look so straight. It is freakishly straight, like not even the Memphis humidity was a match for this lady's flat iron skills. She claims that by doing it this way it looks good straight as well as curly. Sure, whatever, you're the expert.

Anyway, she cut about 4-5 inches which now puts my hair right about shoulder-length. Again, I think it looks OK, but the true test will be when I wear it curly, which is about every single day, because I don't really have a spare 45 minutes to an hour every day to spend on straightening my hair.

Moving on ~ so I come home, walk through the back door and Isabella's head instantly pops up from behind the couch. Her eyes show how surprised she is as she excitedly exclaims:

"Oh Mommy! Your hair is beautiful! You look just like a doggy!"

Hmmm,... thank you? I guess since she really does love dogs, that's a compliment, right? It's gotta be.

I know she really loved the straight hair since she spent about 30 minutes combing it with a brush and normally the sight of Isabella coming towards me with a brush gets me running faster than most anything else in this world. On any given day, the result of her using a brush on my thick curly hair usually leaves me looking like one of those crazy-haired troll thingies,...
Anyway, I was all excited about posting a picture of my new do today, but needless to say I'm not exactly feeling "pretty" right this minute, with my "doggy" hairstyle and all. I might wait and see what it looks like when it's curly and then I'll post one.

For now, you'll just have to use your imagination: picture a doggy with freakishly straight hair. I don't know, maybe something along these lines:
What do you think? You like?

Fun on the 4th

* Running through the sprinkler
* Making drool bubbles
* Eating yummy grilled food
* Playing hopscotch in the backyard
* Wearing red, white and blue
* Playing with your brother/sister
* Watching the fireworks downtown
* Going on an impromptu picnic with cousins

There's no better way to spend the 4th of July weekend!

Hello July!

Wow, it's hard to believe that the month of June is over. Is it just me or is time just flying by these days? Well, we welcome July and all if has to offer with wide open arms ~ all the cookouts, sprinkler fun, swimming in the backyard, 4th of July celebration, and most importantly,... Isabella's third birthday.

We closed June out with quite the celebration. Our baby boy got baptized last Saturday night. Although his baptismal outfit was sent to him by his Tata before he was even born, luckily it fit (barely) and he looked quite handsome. Pastor Eli did the honors, which was great since I absolutely love him and he was also the one who baptized Isabella a couple of years ago.
Sam did great during the ceremony. We are so proud of our sweet angel, what an unbelievable blessing he is. Afterwards we hosted dinner at our house and had an awesome time with our friends and family.

On Sunday we headed to downtown for a Redbirds game with Scott's sister and her family. It was a very hot, sunny day and unfortunately our seats were not under any shade. At one point Scott asked Isabella if she was having fun to which she replied: "NO". Then he asked her if she liked baseball, which was met with another unenthusiastic: "NO". It was a scorcher and I decided it was probably time to take the kids out of the sun. Fortunately the game wasn't sold out so we were all able to relocate to other seats under the shade. This made for a more enjoyable, or less miserable, experience, depends on who you ask.

The highlight of the day for Isabella was definitely watching the ducks swimming inside the Peabody Hotel. She couldn't get enough of it and we certainly weren't complaining while we cooled off in the beautiful air-conditioned hotel.