Unbelievable

Typically every morning when Isabel gets up she has a cup of milk and then Lee changes her diaper. Here's our conversation from this morning:

Me: Isabel, you need a clean diaper. Daddy will change it.

Isabel: (in a very whiny, pathetic voice) Mommy change the diaper

Me: Unbelievable

Later that morning Lee and I were talking about it. He jokingly said with laughter in his voice, "I taught her that."

A day at the park

The weekend seemed to come and go too quickly. Lee was busy working for various things at church this weekend so Isabel and I spent a good portion together. On Sunday afternoon it was nice to finally have daddy around and spend some time together. We went to the park and Isabel had so much fun. It was funny cause I told her we were going to the park and she kept saying, "parking lot?" Lee was like, Candace she thinks we are going to a parking lot. At first she was a little apprehensive, but by the time we left she had graduated from the baby slides to the big ones. She loved every minute of it. Here are a few pix.

I think she looks like she's like 4 in the first one.

The slides made nice hair with static

Here favorite were the tunnel slides

Saturday, we also went to the zoo with the Pie's. We had a fun time. It was hot and crowded, but still a good time. I think Cydney will put a few pix on her blog so you can look there.

Welcome Baby Gabriel!

Congratulations to our good friends/family, Ale and Audrey, on the birth of their baby boy - Gabriel Tomas! Gabriel was born Thursday, April 23 and was 7 lb. 10 oz. We love you guys and are so happy for you!

The dizziness of life and more

About twice a day this is what Jacob and Isabel love to do, spin in circles. They do this for about 5-10 minutes, until both of them get so dizzy they can barely stand up anymore. I have told them how this is how I feel about my days sometimes...crazy and running in circles!

I feel like along with Spring every year comes projects. The weather is nice, things need to get done, etc. Here is one project Lee and I have slowly started.

We got Isabel this nice little dresser from the Florence Antique Mall, but it needs a little work. Something Lee and I enjoy doing (refinishing furniture), but never seem to have the time to do. Here is the before picture and I'll post an after picture sometime in the future, hopefully near future.:) We plan to paint it and put new drawer pulls on it. Also on the agenda is to paint her "big girl" room.

This is not really a "project" per say, but it is something fun we found for Isabel, and a good learning experience. At Target in their $1 section (they must make so much money off of that area) we found these little pots that came with seeds to grow different kinds of flowers. We got Isabel one and she has been watering it/watching it grow everyday. I was a little worried at first that it might take to long and she would get bored with the idea, but the flowers are already popping up just after a few days and it's been fun for her. We had enough dirt and seeds left over to put some in another cup too, so she has two to take care of.

In other news, after a very long evening/night with a very fussy child we took Isabel to the Dr. today. She has another ear infection. I guess it wasn't that long ago that she had one, although it seems like ages ago (maybe cause I feel like I've been pregnant for ages)...anyway, so the Dr. wants to see her again in a few weeks to make sure her ears are healing up ok.

It's a part of life...

Growing-up, after every summer came the dreaded day of Dairy Queen closing. Yes, I mean this is a dreaded day in the small little tourist town I grew up in. Though they have a famous ice cream place, called House of Flavors (delicious too), the Dairy Queen in my hometown is more than just a Dairy Queen, it's a part of life. So of course, every spring, on opening day people are celebrating. You see this Dairy Queen is not like all others. It's only open in the summer, there is no inside restaurant, only picnic tables to sit at, they don't serve the typical "Dairy Queen" food, they have the world's best Coney Dogs/Chicago Dogs (not Cincinnati chili people), and only teenage girls work there, no guys (I'm sure there are some laws against this, but in my small hometown it's just the way it is), and they will make you something that the typical Dairy Queen might not carry anymore (aka: Frozen Hot Chocolate...yum). Families are often found gathered there for small reunions or they get their DQ to go and head down to the beach to watch the sunset. I know, I know I bet your saying to yourself, can Dairy Queen really be that magical? Any other place I don't think so, but there it somehow is.

So I was craving Dairy Queen for the past 4 days, but resisted the urge. Finally last night Lee said, let's go out for icecream! Hurray!!! I love how Isabel's face lights up when you mention the word "icecream." We didn't end up going to Dairy Queen, but went to Brewster's. It was nice. We sat outside on the picnic tables, enjoyed each other, the nice day, and the icecream. It wasn't quite "my" Dairy Queen, but it did the trick!:) Oh, they have free baby cones too. This was taken on Lee's phone so the quality is not the best, but you can see Isabel enjoying her icecream.

Top 6 reasons you should not take your 1 year old to the post office alone

1. You must carry your child across the parking lot while juggling your packages to mail them
2. There are no child restraints (shopping carts) at the post office
3. There are too many fun amazing things (packages with Mickey Mouse on them) for a 1 year old to look at (grab) while you are trying to fill out an address label
4. There are too many little notes of paper to fill out for specialty packages that your child can grab while you are trying to fill out an address label
5. You must wait in line (again with no child restraint) to mail something
6. The top 5 should be enough reasons not to go to the post office with a 1 year old alone
   

Easter

We had a nice Easter remembering our Lord and Savior! Here are a few photos I got of Isabel before she passed out after a long/exciting morning at church.

We had our friends the Pie's over for Easter dinner and the egg decorating went from the eggs to Kate. Poor Kate!

S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E!!!!!

This past week has been one of the best! Lee's parents leave the end of this month to head back to the mission field (the Philippines), so they came down and had one last visit with us. We surprised them by having Lee's brother and sister (Will and Mart) also come down to visit. Mart leaves in May for a year in Amsterdam, so we will all be spread apart for some time. We both took off work, so it was nice we could be home and do some fun activities together.

The first day we were all together Isabel was SOOO excited! She played hard, and I mean hard. So the next day this is what happened when we went out for lunch!

I don't think she has ever done this. She was OUT!

We did many fun things together, went to Jungle Jim's, the zoo, Starbucks, etc. It was just a great time. Here we are all together.

While at Starbucks, we found these cool mugs that you can write on with a white marker pen and then bake in the oven and then the markings are permanent. We got a couple and had everyone sign them/write a message as a memento until we see each other again. Cool idea I thought.

While they were here, my Uncle and Aunt from MN happened to be in town, so one night we all went out to dinner with them as well. It was so great to see them also.

Will and Mart unfortunately couldn't stay the whole week, but we were so grateful for the time we got. Isabel adores them both so much and misses them.
After Lee's siblings left we had a few days with just Lolo and Lola. They were a huge help to us. They helped almost finish staining our deck (a project we started last fall and never quite finished). They helped us find a dresser for Isabel for her soon to be "big girl" room. I'll talk more about this project later. They helped us color eggs. They helped take Isabel to the library. They helped read to her.Lolo and Lola, thank you so much for coming! We will miss you SO much (we already do)! Will and Mart, thanks also for helping to surprise your parents. I know it meant a lot to them, and us as well. Friends, if you think of it, please pray for Lee's parents as they adjust to life back in the Philippines and get back into the routine of their ministry there, and also being away from family here (including missing the birth of their second grandchild). We are thankful for blogs, email, Skype, etc. that will allow us to stay in touch over the next year or so.

I feel like this last week has been somewhat of a dream and now reality is about to hit again. I'm sitting in the house now and everything seems so quiet (beside the pounding of the neighbors getting a new roof). I just noticed on my Lily Pie ticker I have less then a 100 days to go until baby Nordine #2 arrives. I can't believe it! We feel so blessed by the family we have and by the family God has given us. Thank you Lord for our many blessings!

A little mixed up...

Isabel:

"I will fear no evil...for my food. Amen."

This would be Isabel combining her memory verse and prayer she says before she eats.

Pregnancy thoughts #2 and Isabel's words

Pregnancy thoughts...

• Can someone really be this tired all the time? It's not even a question if I'm tired anymore, it's just plain fact
• Can I really feel/look 40 weeks pregnant when I'm only 24?
• My back hurts...I did something to it 3 days ago. It usually is fine in the morning and then gets worse as the day goes on. Hopefully this will heal soon.
  
• I have my glucose test tomorrow. Praying I pass so I don't have to do the long test.
  
• Still working on a name. Nothing final yet.
  
• Isabel's going to be a great big sister. I already have her practicing changing diapers on her baby doll.
• Baby's kicks are getting harder

Isabel's words...

Isabel has an amazing vocabulary for her age. At 15 months they said she should say like 5-10 words and she was saying over 50. At 19 months she is now forming sentences, memorizing verses, singing songs, etc. I used to keep track of some of her "words" but I've lost count. However...sometimes she gets lazy and slurs things together in pronouncing her words or just has her own little way of pronouncing them. Here are few examples:

Ladybug = Bay-kuk
PJ's = Chi-ves (I'm sure it means something in some foreign language)
Yes Mommy = yes sah me (although she can same mommy perfectly fine on it's own)
All done = all dunt (for some reason certain word's she adds a 't' to the end)