July 9

Daniel's brother and his family came for a visit today. Audrey was so excited for them to come, and kept asking all morning, "When my cousins be here?"
Audrey and our 9 year old niece Mariah were best buddies all day long. Audrey just wanted to hold Mariah's hand and lead her around the house from toy to toy and room to room. Mariah was so patient and willing to play with Audrey; it was just too sweet. Audrey wanted to copy everything that Mariah did. I wish Mariah lived a little closer so they could play together more often!

We had a fun, busy day: lunch and play time at our house, I went to a baby shower, then we went to Scheels, had dinner at Bennigans and ended with swimming at their hotel pool. Now, it is time for bed!

July 8

Continuing with our ice cream theme this week, we did make homemade ice cream tonight. When I told Audrey we were going to make it, she asked, "It's pretend?" Obviously, she was very excited to find out that the ice cream we were making tonight was real!
Isla seemed to be more content today. She slept more and ate more, which helped both her and I to feel better! It's been a few days since she has made an appearance on this blog, so I figured it was about time for some new pictures of her. She's pretty cute, if you ask me!!!I think she looks a lot like Daniel. I told Audrey that the other day. Her reply: "No, she not look like Daddy. Daddy's not a baby. Don't say that, Mommy!"

We got out the baby toys this week to see if baby Isla would be interested in them yet. Baby Isla didn't seem to care much for them, but Audrey was thrilled to have a whole new box of toys to play with.

July 7

Isla has been more awake and alert this week, which means she has been more fussy. I don't think she quite knows what to do with herself when she is awake. Up until recently, she ate and slept and didn't do much else. Now, she is more awake and alert. Then she doesn't know how to fall asleep when she gets tired. These are tricky things for a tiny little baby to have to figure out!

Plus she is still eating every 2-3 hours, which would be normal if she was breastfed. But since she is formula fed, I expected her to eat less frequently by now. She still is not eating that much at each feeding. She usually eats between 2-3 oz every 2-3 hours. Normal for her age is 4-6 oz every 3-4 hours. I think she is still eating enough, but she is just eating in smaller portions. That makes her hungry more frequently, and therefore more fussy.

Anyway, all of that was just to say that Isla has needed lots of extra love and attention this week! And I have needed lots of extra patience (and Diet Dr. Pepper) in order to maintain my sanity.

I feel Audrey has been getting a lot more negative attention from me lately. I'm always telling her "no" or "stop doing that" or " be quiet" or "go play by yourself." This afternoon, Isla took several good naps, so I decided to use the time for some positive, quality interaction with Audrey.

We picked up with a new letter of the week: I. (It's going to take us three years to get through the alphabet at the pace we are going!). Ice cream was the main focus of our activities today. We made this lovely ice cream I.
Then we made pretend ice cream sundaes. When it comes to pretend food, Audrey has come a long ways since this incident last year when she was so upset that the ice cream was fake. Today, she kept coming up with different creations, then she would pretend to take a bite and say, "Yum. Yum. So delicious. Mmm, mmm, mmm."

We also found a couple of ice cream books at the library this week that Audrey has been enjoying: Curious George Goes to an Ice Cream Shop and Ice Cream. I'm thinking that as a finale for this ice cream theme we need to make some homemade ice cream tomorrow!

July 6

I decided I didn't want to mess with a little kiddie pool in our yard this year. So instead, I bought a sprinkler, which I found at Wal-mart for $6.

When Daniel got home from work tonight, we decided to try it out with Audrey. Audrey wasn't too sure about the water splashing in her face at first, and she refused to walk through it. So Daddy helped her out and carried her through the sprinkler (in his clothes!) to show her how much fun it is.
Then, Audrey got brave enough to do it by herself. She made the best faces as she was walking through the water. And as soon as she was done, she wanted to do it again.

Unfortunately, the $6 sprinkler from Wal-mart sprung a leak and stopped working. So Audrey had to stop playing in the sprinkler shortly after she was starting to have fun.

Time to buy a new sprinkler...hopefully it will last more than 10 minutes this time!

July 4

Happy 4th of July! (Just pretend like it's still the 4th...I meant to post this yesterday but didn't get it done.)

I took these pictures on Sunday, when the girls were dressed up in their red, white and blue outfits for church.


We had a nice 4th of July. We celebrated with a cookout and swimming with friends, though I failed to take any pictures to prove it.

After our sun-filled afternoon, we were all pretty tired...especially Audrey who had missed her nap. We were thinking it would be best to skip fireworks and stay home and go to bed early. I wasn't sure that Audrey would like fireworks. She hated them when we saw them at Disney in February.

But then I started thinking about what a nice evening it was and how the 4th of July only comes around once a year. I decided we should be festive and celebrate. So we joined some friends from church to watch the fireworks show.

All was going well at first. They were giving away free cookies and ice cream, which made Audrey happy. Audrey sat with me and we talked about watching the fireworks way up high in the sky. She seemed excited.
Then the fireworks started, and the disaster began. Audrey immediately started crying and saying, "I want to go home" over and over again. Then Isla lost her pacifier and we couldn't find it in the dark, so she started crying too. After trying to get them both to be quiet for a few minutes, we decided to pack up and go home. At least, we would be able to get out before getting stuck in traffic.

However, this was like the shortest fireworks show ever, and they were over before we even got halfway back to our car. So, we still got stuck in traffic on the way home.

Oh well, there's always next year!

July 2

Our trip to Iowa was very quick, but we managed to squeeze in a few fun things while we were there too.

Daniel took Audrey to her very first movie in a movie theater. They went to see Cars 2. Daniel said it went well for the first hour or so, then Audrey started talking and singing and getting restless, so they decided to leave. I think Cars may be a little much for her attention span. There is a Winnie the Pooh movie coming out in a few weeks that I think she will do better sitting and watching. We might try to take her again then.

Aunt Elisabeth got to meet baby Isla for the first time!

We also had a little pool party at my dad's house with the family. Audrey wasn't quite as brave as the last time she swam, and she refused to swim by herself. She did have a good time getting pushed around by Daddy and Aunt Nancy on this raft.


It was a pretty hot day, so we didn't stay out for long. Isla and I found a spot in the shade, where we hung out with a fan blowing on us trying to keep cool!

July 1

Today we bought our mini van. Kellie, you can make fun all that you want, but the convenience of it is totally going to outweigh the uncoolness of it!

It is a 2008 Town and Country Limited. It only has 7,000 miles on it (seven thousand, that is not a typo!). It is way fancier than anything we would ever buy or be able to afford (leather seats, two TV screens, all the fancy options!). I feel the need to explain to the world how we were able to buy it, just so people don't think we went out and spent more than we could afford on a minivan. So here's the story:

My mom and stepdad own a funeral home, and they have a gazillion white minivans. They take very good care of their vehicles, and Daniel has always asked them if they have any they want to sell.

When they heard we were looking for a van, they told us about this one that they were leasing. The lease was up, and they were willing to sell it to us. We were able to buy into their lease and pay just their remaining balance on it ($16,800). The van originally retailed for $36,000. It is three years old, so it's not new. But since it only has 7000 miles on it and it is in pristine condition, we feel like we are getting a brand new van at half price. It was too good of a deal to refuse!