Happy 3rd Birthday Isabella!

June 29, 2010

Sweet Baby Girl-

From the moment you were born I fell in love with you and I continue to fall more in love with you each day. "It's a beautiful day outside!" are the first words you speak as you look into my eyes each morning. I hear those words over and over again each morning and can't imagine another way in the world I would like to wake up.

I smile because I am in love with you, dearest daughter. You make my heart laugh out loud.

You make us laugh because everything you experience is so not age appropriate.  You are amazing. Everyone that stumbles across your path confirms what I believe. Your love completes us.

At three, Isabella, you are much more independent than you were a year ago. You still let me know that you love me, you want to spend time with me and you still tell me, "Hold You".  Being home with you all day is truly so much fun. I love it when you talk to me in your sweet little voice, sings along to your favorite songs, “read" your favorite books to me, and quote entire scenes from your favorite TV shows. Although I joke at times about renting you out for the day, I wouldnt' know what to do without you.  I love your sweetness, your stubbornness, your smile, your touch, and your silliness. I love the way you’ll prance around in a tutu while playing with dinosaurs. I love the way you ALWAYS try to climb UP a slide instead of going down. I love your knock-knock jokes that make no sense at all but still make me laugh. I love the way we have nose play dates. I've only named a few things of what I love about you because I could go on and on and on but MOST OF ALL, I love, love, love, love being your mommy.

You love.... dolphins, dinosaurs, swimming in the pool, playing basketball, riding your roller coaster, swinging and playing on your swing set/tree house, leotards, tutu's, helping out in the garden, chasing frogs, watering your flowers, playing with your babies (you are such a good mommy to them), going next door to wake up your great grandmother & Sandi in the mornings, to say your prayers at night and have us kiss and tell each stuff animal or baby (you choose for the night) goodnight (complete w/ a kiss and I love yous!), tag and hide-n-go-seek are your new favorite games and there is so much more.  May you hold onto you glorious imagination and incredible tutu dances for the rest of your life. I will always be there watching you my sweet sweet incredibly sweet baby girl...

At 3 years old:

~You weigh 40 lbs on the dot and are 39 1/4 inches tall
~You Still find comfort in your paci

~Your are on our way to being potty trained but you get too busy playing and don't take the time to go

~You love sleeping in your big girl bed (see previous post)

~You are still taking a 2-3 hr nap in the afternoon/evenings

~You know your name, that you are a girl and that yesterday you were 2 but today you are 3, you know that you live in the country in Wilson and that Monahans is where Daddy works, Grammie & Papa, and Grandad live

~You are learning the difference in near/far, short/tall, on/under, yesterday/today/tomorrow--among many others

~You are the most stubborn/hard headed person I know and I know some very stubborn women including myself!

~You ask more questions than a district attorney--sometimes catching us off guard and throwing us for a loop

~You love to be outside-despite the skeeters eating you up

~You have a huge imagination and sometimes even imaginary friends

~You know some Spanish and a little Chinese

~You can count to 10 and almost to 20

~You know most of your colors

~You are starting to color/paint in the lines

And there is so much more....So Happy Birthday, Isabella. You’re my favorite girl, my sweetheart, and an amazing gift from God.  I love you and I am so very proud of you!

With All My Love,

Mommy

Happy Anniversary to my Parents!!  Hope you have an amazing day and many more years together.

Big Girl Bed

Since Isabella was 2 I've been debating the big girl bed.  She stayed in her crib and never tried to climb out until she was about 2.5.  I have continued to just let her climb in and out.  She has a queen size bed in her room but I just haven't been ready to move her to it yet and am still not.  My mom kept (go figure) a youth bed from when my brother and I were kids.  I thought it was a twin mattress and she thought it was a crib mattress but come to find out it was a youth mattress that I'm not sure you can even get anymore, plus when I measured I really don't have room for it.  With Isabella's 3rd birthday fast approaching I decided that she needed a change, either the purchase of a toddler bed or moving her to the queen bed.  I LOVE her crib so I got to looking at it and decided to take the side off that raises and lowers and while she was in Monahans last week for dance lessons I turned her crib into a toddler daybed.  So when she came home she was so excited to find her room rearranged, allowing for more floor space to play in and a BIG GIRL BED.  She has showed and talked about her BIG GIRL BED to anyone that will look and listen.  She has done really good, a few nights we have had to put her to bed in our bed and transfer her but most nights she has gone to bed in her bed and stayed the whole night there.  She even convinced Sandi to carry her home one evening and read her 5 books before nodding off to sleep!

I can't believe that tiny baby that was born 3 years ago is so grown up already!!

Summer in a Jar

Along with our multitude of squash we also have buckets among buckets of apricots.....

we halved some to freeze for a later date....

Alan "tried" dehydrating apricots but ended up with good smelling & the potential to be yummy flavored potpourri...

And I tried my hand at making & canning preserves....

By the amount of Mason jars on my grandmother's table, I do believe this process was a success.  Now I must confess - I am not a big fan of fresh apricots. While they smell like heaven, to me their texture and taste are inferior to that of their cousins, peaches and nectarines. Cooked apricots are another matter though. Once they are heated, the fruit turns golden, fruity and luscious. 

We have enjoyed the warm goodness on waffles, cream cheese pound cake and even had apricot chicken one night.  DELICIOUS!!  I'm wanting to but have yet to make homemade apricot ice cream or maybe just top some vanilla with this deliciousness. The fruit and vegetables we have growing on the farm are definitely getting me in touch with my domestic side.

Holy Squash Batman!!

If you plant seeds, they will grown and when they grown, they will become plants.  These plants then produce copious amounts of produce.  We and our friends might be squashed out by the end of the summer.  If you are coming to dinner at our house this summer you might as well get your taste buds ready for squash!!!
Sunday we filled a 5 gallon bucket with squash and radishes....here was our first squash harvest:

Monday I found this:

Tuesday I found this:

Wednesday I forgot to take a pictures but there were 2 green and 4 yellow.
Unfortunately I wasn't available to pick on Thursday and Friday.  Saturday I had the following waiting for me in the garden!

I can't wait till our tomato plants start producing like this!!!  I LOVE ME some home grown tomatoes, plus the large bushes of cilantro aren't doing me any good if we don't have peppers, onions or tomatoes yet!!
Isabella's pumpkin's are really starting to grow.  We have probably 10-15 baby pumpkins growing now and many more on their way.  I'm a bit afraid that we will have more pumpkins than we know what to do with since I've never baked with anything other than canned pumpkin.

 
Lots of blooms on the cantaloupe and several tiny watermelon.

We also pulled up some onions that were delicious and I put them in our potato stir fry we had for dinner.
I put together a small bag of red potatoes, snow peas (from the garden), green & yellow squash (from the garden), jalapeno (from the garden), garlic, lemon juice, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning....YUMMY!!! They were soooo good.

Maybe I'll start trying to sell the squash for $.25 each....what do you think??  Maybe I'll try the sell with Sandi's co-workers first and then go from there.
And for the finale...here are a few of my flowers that are FINALLY starting to bloom...

Kitchen Floor Mani/Pedi

Ever since the paint has been chipping off from Courtney's wedding, Isabella has been begging me to paint her finger & toenails green.  I don't own green nail polish but Sandi does, so Saturday night after a hard days work outside we decided to turn my grandmother's kitchen into a nail salon after dinner.  Isabella had so much fun.  I scrubbed her feet, cleaned, trimmed and painted her nails.  She also got to paint daddy's toenails and had a blast.  After convincing him to do one foot green and the other purple she went with a little less shocking color of lilac with a touch of glitter for herself.

Daddy is THRILLED about his GREEN & PURPLE toes!!

My feet soaking!

Child Labor!

The Finished Product - Alan, Isabella & Ricky

P.S.  I always knew that one day the hospital wash basins they sent home with you would someday come in handy!!

As Seen On TV

So I'm not generally a person of As Seen On TV products but Carol Wright Gifts suckered me in for a few things. Our family LOVES strawberries and they had in their magazine KING KONG STRAWBERRIES. They were advertised to be the size of peaches. Well, we shall see. I ordered 12 plants and here is how they looked when they arrived.

I planted 6 in a hanging basket, their suggestion, and then I planted the remaining 6 on our strawberry mound in the garden. Who knows, I'm hope for strawberries small or large but I hope even more for a growing thriving plant!

I also was suckered in for a Mosquito Repelling Plant, actually 4 of them. I did my research and yes they are a real thing, it just so happened I got mine mail order. Hey, if you get bites like my daughter and I, you would also be willing to spend your money on ANYTHING if you had the slightest thought it might actually help repel the mosquitoes the teeny tiniest bit. So they also arrived yesterday. They looked much sadder than the strawberries but I have faith.

A Note included with the Mosquito Repelling Plants read: A trip through the mail is not always easy. If your Mosquito/Citronella arrives with some leaves showing a yellow color or have fallen off. DO NOT BE CONCERNED. The plant will green up after a short time. WATER THOROUGHLY UPON ARRIVAL. After that, water only when it feels dry. This plant does not want to be kept wet.

SO, lets hope it greens up a bit cause it looks more towards knocking on deaths door right now and that it is the cure all for mosquitoes. If so, I may be buying an orchard next year.
I did pass on the fruit salad tree that I so desperately wanted but in my research I didn't find much positive feedback on them and this late in the planting season I decided in my infinite wisdom it was probably better to save my $25 for my orchard of mosquito bushes next year.
Give it a month and I'll report back on how my as seen in Carol Wright Gifts magazine plants are doing.

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

This is how OUR garden grows...

Although it is taking LOTS of time and LOTS of hard work, I think the payoff is going to be awesome. It is so cool to go out after being out of town over the weekend or after a good rain and see how much the plants have grown. We have already had a small harvest with the anticipation for a much bigger one. I can't wait for more tomatoes...we split the one we've gotten so far and it was the best tasting tomato I have had in a LONG time.  We should have quite a few yellow squash and zucchini coming off in the next few days and hopefully another delicious tomato.

Isabella and Papa taking a break from Gardening

Most everything is coming up...3 grape vines have survived and are vining out...we may not have grapes this year but hopefully next year. Corn, Radishes, Okra, Carrots, Onion (white & purple), tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, squash, eggplant, pumpkins, cantaloupe, watermelon, cilantro, and strawberries are all making pretty plants!