Izzy's 2nd Splashin' Celebration!

Our baby girl is two years old! What? When did that happen? Well, none-the-less, it happened and we celebrated at the YMCA Splash Pad last night. There were lots of guests, but not as many as last year and since it wasn't at home, I wasn't nearly as stressed. We were able to spend a nice leisurely birthday at home until it was time for the PARTY (which Izzy can say party, birthday, two, presents, balloon, etc courtesy of this event)! Tons of presents, tons of fun and tons of wonderful memories! We got Izzy a Disney Princess dress-up trunk, shoes & jewelry, two books, two outfits, two Backyardigans DVDs and a stinkin' cute backpack with her name embroidered on it. Forgive me if I forget somethings...she also got about 30 outfits (j/k but I'm not too far off), a toddler bball goal, a huge playdough set, finger-paints & apron, the Little People Fairy Tree House (two actually, but tis ok one went down to Pap & Nanny's house), a Little People Magna Doodle (which Mommy loves just as much as Izzy does), a travel Magna Doodle, about 10 books, a Backyardigans CD, a 150 Preschool Songs CD, Candy Land shape sorter game, a bath time baby doll, the Little People for her farm, her two year-old Hallmark doll & two year-old Precious Moments train piece, a pink froggy backpack, a dress-up puppy, a Dora seatbelt pillow (which Mommy is really excited about so Izzy's head doesn't end up in her lap when she falls asleep int he car) and about $60 in cash and gift cards. Whew! She's such a sweet girl too, she loved it all and no one thing any more than the next. I tried to catch a pic of her with her "Cinderella" dress & jewelry on, but I was putting the pics on here. I'll catch one soon though! Thank-you for all the wonderful, sweet gifts...we, whoops...I mean she loves them all :)

You win some, you lose some...

Loss: Monday night I finally received a letter for the state office stating that my program had been eliminated from NC's budget. Of course, I am upset, but I had come to expect it. So I've been absolutely scrounging, trying figure out what to do. My staff and I have been attending school open houses, talking with school officials, talking to parents, you name it, we're doing it. We've upped fees, are picking-up the two city middle schools and bringing them back to the Y, and keeping two county sites (maybe if I have enough kids to participate at each site-it might be just one county site).
Won: In the midst of all this drama & insanity, I checked my Y mail first thing this a.m. and received email from the JCPenney foundation. First let's back track approx. 8 weeks back...I spent the first couple of weeks of camp writing a grant for YMCA after school programs through JCPenney. There were 287 grants of $5,037 available, but there almost three times that many applicants. Also, I've applied for this grant for the last four years without any luck and I wasn't feeling very hopeful this time around. Well, I was WRONG...we got the grant! I was squealing, jumping, crying, hugging people...I didn't really care if I looked like an idiot...this was the best work-related news I had received in months!
What's Next: There's another local grant I'm going to apply for that's due in a few weeks. Hopefully, we can get that one too and help make-up some of the loss of the SOS program. Wish me luck...the good kind ;)

Potty Time!

For the last several months we've been introducing Izzy to the potty; what it is, where it is and what we do there. She has been going to the bathroom with MeeMaw, YaYa and myself of course and I try to get her to sit on the potty when she goes with me. More than anything we've been talking with her about recognizing her bodily functions. However, she wasn't ready before summer camp started (which was 9 weeks ago-yeah-only 1 more to go) and with camp going on I haven't had the time to commit to training her. I had actually decided I would train her in a couple of weeks when camp was over. As the weeks have flown by though, she has gained a better understanding of pee-pee & poopy and can communicate better to us about pottying. So, Monday night we were in the den playing and Izzy just stopped, put her toys down and said "pee-pee, pee-pee" and went walking, very determinately down the hallway to bathroom. Clark ran quickly after her and asked her did she want to use the potty and she started pulling her pants down, so Daddy assisted and took her diaper off, she sat down and pee-peed in the potty!!! Yeah Izzy! I think what's funny is my child pretty much potty-trained herself. What more could a mommy ask for?

A couple of pics, just for fun :)

N. Myrtle Beach Vaca!

So we've been on vaca for the last week at N. Myrtle Beach. We've been straight up chillin' like villians! All we did was swim in the pools, play on the beach, eat and nap. It was a wonderful trip! For us, it was just nice to be together as a family. I know there are families that get less, but we get so very little time together, just the three of us, b/c Clark & I work so much and then Izzy is still so young and she needs her rest & goes to bed early. Thus, an hour a day is about what we get together if we're even that lucky. So just even waking-up all together and eating supper all together was a true blessing. We did go to Alligator Adventure one day, which Izzy really enjoyed and Clark & I had never been either and we thought it was pretty neat too. My mom & dad came down for a few days, so Clark & I even got to go out to eat and do some shopping one night. We also got some time at the pool, just the two of us, one afternoon. It was sooo nice, we haven't been out, on a date, since last September 4th, I know the date so well b/c it's our Anniversary. After a baby comes along you forget how important it is to get a little time with each other and what a difference it can make. I've added my first album with more pics of our vaca to the right of this post. It was truly a fantastic, much needed getaway and I'm already counting down the days till next year!

Izzy's 1st Haircut!

Now that Izzy's hair has finally started growing, it's pretty much a hot mess (see below).

Then, because it is such a hot mess, we are losing countless hairbows (which adds up) and can't keep the hair out of her eyes. The last straw was a couple of weeks ago, Izzy almost ate the floor, face first, when her hairbow fell-out and she couldn't see b/c of all the hair. So, Daddy suggested a haircut. At first, I said "absolutely not", I mean she just got hair, I'm not about to cut it off! But after thinking about it and watching Izzy struggle with it, I decided to let my girl, Sharon (my hairdresser) take a look at it. Now, she is not the one in the pics, the owner Sharon works for just opened a new shop and they were VERY busy last Saturday morning when we went. However, Catherine, one of the newest hairdressers (at the station next to Sharon) had a small break and she offered to trim it. Sharon told her what she thought it needed some shaping-up and some bangs. I agreed and commented that it doesn't seem to even know how to grow. It's just everywhere, I didn't even know if I was parting it correctly! Haha, the best part is those curls are not just baby curls, it's the real deal-naturally curly hair! What in the world am I going to do with naturally curly hair? Thank the Lord I have James, who has Lindy who has naturally curly hair, and KK (Kaylee, Marshalls GF) who also happens to have naturally curly hair, b/c I have naturally straight as a stick hair and I have no idea how to manage naturally curly hair. The good news is, the haircut has definitely helped with the seeing difficulties, hairbow placement issues and hair management, not to mention it's super cute! I couldn't have asked for a better child either. She sat there good as gold! Not one time did she whine, cry, whimper, reach for me or anything of the sort. She was a perfect angel and everyone was complimentary of how cute and good she was, of course I was more proud of her behavior than her looks (but her cuteness gives me a big head too ;)