Izatt Family

Family Days

2009-12-24T15:45:00.001-07:00

The same weekend as Ashley’s birthday our nephew Eric had his farewell for his mission. He left at the end of October for the MTC and then Dec. 28th on to Texas, Spanish speaking. We were able to go listen to him speak and then visit with family after at Blake’s sister Marta’s house. We had a little luncheon there and Eric had invited some of his friends from school. I have never seen anyone try to feed so many teenagers before. There was probably 60 friends that showed up. They chased some of our family away. It was fun though. Marta made tacos and nachos for everyone. Amazingly there was even some left after the swarm of teenage appetites got through. We will miss Eric, but are so proud of him and his decision to serve the Lord for 2 years.
A few weeks later we got a call from Marta telling us that Barry (her husband) was being put in as 1st counselor in the bishopric. So Sunday we went back to Marta’s ward and got to support Barry in his new calling. While we were there Marta was introducing us to some of the ward members and the stake leaders, and she almost made me cry. She was telling everyone this is my brother and his wife and these are MY girls Kenzie and Ashley. It wasn’t these are my nieces or these are Blake’s kids, she called them her girls. That made me feel so good to know that she feel that way about them. I know they sure do love her and her family. They love it when we are able to visit them and love it even more when Marta and Barry babysit them. It’s so nice to have family that loves us so much so close. Thank you Marta, Barry, Bryan, and Eric!

Ashley's 3!

2009-12-24T15:39:00.001-07:00

Ashley’s birthday was quite an event this year. My mom had the Swine flu and bronchitis and was very sick the day before they were suppose to come she had been taken to the hospital by ambulance because she was having a hard time breathing. She was released the same day and claimed she was feeling a lot better so she convinced my dad to still come for Ashley’s birthday. We were kicking Ashley out of her toddler bed for her birthday and my parents had her “big girl bed.” We have been trying to potty train her for a while now and she keeps insisting she’s a baby and babies wear diapers. So we decided that we were going to try to convince her that 2 was a baby but 3 was a big girl. We took away her “baby” sippys, her toddler bed and kept repeating that 2 was a baby but when she turned 3 she would be a big girl. My mom felt it was important to have her new bed there for her birthday to reinforce this concept. So my dad came bringing the bed. Blake’s mom and sister, Jill also came for Ashley’s birthday. We had homemade pizza and then chocolate cake and ice cream. Right before dinner one of my parents neighbors called and told my dad that they were taking my mom back to the hospital, so needless to say my dad stuck around for dinner and presents and then headed back to Idaho. It was kind of a stressful evening, but we tried to make it as fun as possible for Ashley. It was nice to talk to my mom the next day and hear for myself the improvement in her voice. That was the worst of it. It will be a long recovery, but at least she’s recovering.
Ashley has turned out to be such a fun loving girl. I remember a time when she was little that I really worried about her because she was 10 months old, still waking 5-6 times a night and cried so much. Now I look at the laughing go lucky girl she’s turned out to be and am so grateful. She is such a tease and loves to both get it and give it. She often begs to be tortured by her dad. She has so much love in her. She’s the first to give hugs and kisses when someone feels sad or hurt. She also is the must stubborn person I’ve ever met! If she doesn’t want to do something there’s no way to make her (like potty training). We have to make a lot of things sound like it’s her idea so she’ll go along with them. I know I had a stubborn streak when I was little, but nothing like this. I blame Blake and his sister Jan. From all the stories I’ve heard Jan was just like Ashley. But I look at how Jan turned out and think there may be hope for Ashley after all.
The day after Ashley’s birthday she woke up and told me she was giong to wear panties. There was no convincing her otherwise. So off went the diaper, on went the panties. She had a few accidents for 2 days and has been diaper and accident free ever since. I knew she was ready to be potty trained, but it had to be her idea. I’d like to claim that it was the whole 2 is a baby and 3 is a big girl scheme we came up with, but I’m not sure. I’m just glad to be done with diapers at least for a while.

The Fair

2009-12-24T15:30:00.002-07:00

This year we were able to go visit my parents in Idaho for the Idaho State Fair. Blake and I had tickets to the Demolition Derby, but we took the girls with my parents the day before the derby. The girls loved the fair and the time they had to spend with their grandparents. They loved the petting zoo, and the cotton candy. They were also able to ride rides for the first time. Ashley my adventurous, brave one of course was sad that she was too little for the big rides, but Kenzie seemed relieved she had to stick to the kiddy rides. I went on the carousel with them which made me a little queasy, but was still fun to do with them. There was a little roller coaster that an adult had to ride with them in order for them to go, but I said it was Blake’s turn. Blake declined, but my dad graciously agreed to accompany them. They loved the ride and especially that it was with their papa.
After the fair we took a funnel cake to my grandma’s house (my mom’s mom). We were able to visit for a while and the girls got to spend some time with her. We don’t get to see her very often so it was nice to spend the time with her. We also got to visit my dad’s mom at the assisted living center where she lives. We see her even less than my mom’s mom so it was nice to see her again and how well she’s doing. The girls spent the time we were there trying to coax her cat Babe out of hiding. The next night my parents watched the girls the next night so Blake and I could go to the derby by ourselves.

News

2009-12-10T19:41:00.000-07:00

Visit the very bottom of our blog for some interesting news from our family.

Best Friends

2009-12-04T16:21:00.001-07:00

You know, sometimes these girls can be each others worst enemies, but at other times, they are the best sisters. Ashley was feeling sad that Blake and I were busy and she couldn’t sit on our laps at the time so Kenzie got Ashley’s blanket and sat down on the couch and let her sister sit on her lap.

Water Sports

2009-12-04T16:18:00.002-07:00

So Blake came up with this family activity that the girls LOVE! He turns the sprinklers on in the front using the timers so you never know when one is going to go off or on. Then we get these water balls and soak them in the sprinklers and have a water fight. We did it once kind of on accident, with everyone still in their clothes, and the girls begged every day after that, so we put suits on and did it again, and again. They love it, even if it’s cold they still think it’s the best family activity. Kenzie’s the sneakiest in getting you with water, but Ashley has a good aim and can throw pretty far.

2009-12-04T16:12:00.001-07:00

Kenzie started kindergarten this year. So far she’s loving school! Her favorite things are reading and all the new friends she’s made. Her first day she was so excited she was ready to go an hour early and kept insisting we leave so she wouldn’t be late. Kenzie’s teacher is Ms. Kanz. She really nice and does a lot of art projects which is great for Kenzie. She’s also 8 months pregnant. She ended up having her baby the day after Labor Day a month early. So Kenzie has had a sub since, but it’s one of our neighbors so that’s been good. Ms. Kanz was able to return to work right before Thanksgiving, and Kenzie had loved having her back.
Ashley and I took her to school and walked her to her class so we could see it. I don’t think Ashley understood Kenzie was staying until we walked away. Ashley spent the rest of the day crying because she missed her sister. It took a few days, but Ashley finally figured out that she could play with the toys when Kenzie was gone by herself without having to share. Ashley also discovered that she loves cooking with me. She begs to make cookies or bread almost everyday.

The Zoo

2009-12-04T15:58:00.002-07:00

We decided to get a pass to the Hogle zoo this year since we’re now so close. We’ve been a couple time since. Here’s some of my favorite pictures.

Kenzie's 5!

2009-12-04T15:41:00.003-07:00

This year for Kenzie’s birthday we decided to just have family over to celebrate. I say just, but that still was a lot of people. Our niece Marion had just had her baby the week before so our niece Jennifer brought Marion’s girls Gracie and Carlie over with her 3 kids, Izaak, Bryson, and Morgan. My cousin Shelley also came with her 2 boys Kasen and Aiden. My mom’s cousin Heidi came with her son Noah. Blake's sister Marta also came with her husband Barry and son Bryan. It was a full house but a lot of fun. Being July we thought it would be fun for the kids to play in the pool in our yard, but being in Utah with the unpredictable weather the wind was blowing and the kids got cold as soon as they got wet. So we dried them all off and sent them to the playroom to play. Kenzie had requested homemade pizza and snicker salad (yes it’s a salad with candy in it, we justify it by adding fruit, thanks Marion and Jennifer for the recipe!) for her birthday so I had spent the day making up 4 pizza that I could just throw in the oven for dinner, but thanks to an accident somewhere, we ended up being without power when I needed to put the pizza in. Blake and our nephew Dave went into Tooele and got $5 pizza from Little Ceasars. Not quite home made but still good when you have a house full of starving kids. So over all, not quite the day I had planned, but it was still a great day. Kenzie loved playing with her cousins, and I had a great time visiting with my cousins and nieces.
That weekend we were also able to celebrate Kenzie and my mom’s birthdays. My parents came down and we tried to surprise my mom with a visit from my brother, but she figured it out before he arrived. Thomas brought his girlfriend Sam. It was the first time I was able to meet her. She’s so sweet, we all fell in love with her right away. She spent the better part of an hour Saturday helping the girls make a rock garden in the back yard. It meant so much to them! Hopefully someday we can call her part of our family. My dad took everyone out to Benni Hanna’s for dinner. It’s this really good grill where you get to watch them cook your food right in front of you. The girls loved it and were so good even though it wasn’t geared toward kids. We also found out that Ashley LOVES shrimp. She ate all her own and Blake’s and kept begging everyone else for theirs. It was so good to have the whole family together again! That doesn’t happen very often since we moved to Utah and Thomas moved to Boise.
It’s hard for me to believe Kenzie’s 5 already! It seems like such a short time ago we were struggling to bring her home from the hospital. Now she’s all grown up at 5 going on 16. She’s an amazing girl! She such a great big sister to Ashley and so smart. She loves learning and then trying to teach Ashley what she just learned. She has such a tender heart which serves her well, but also causes a broken heart often when someone says something mean. She understands some things at the age of 5 that I as an adult still don’t completely grasp. Her concept of death has over whelmed me from the time she was 2 and my grandpa died. She’s dealt with my grandpa’s death, Blake’s dad’s death, and the death of a friend of Ashley’s without ever shedding a tear over the loss. She has always been the one to comfort others through the loss and remind everyone that they are in a better place and it’s just their body we’re saying goodbye to. When she was 2 and my grandpa died we went to the hospital right before to say goodbye and be with my grandma. We all had tears in our eyes which Kenzie didn’t understand she walked up to the hospital bed, and held my grandpa’s hand and told him, “Great grandpa it’s Ok, just close your eyes and when you wake up you’ll be with Jesus.” She’s never faltered from this belief.

Happy Birthday Princess! I love yo so much! Thank you for letting me be your mom!

Moving

2009-07-21T14:53:00.002-06:00

Well, I guess now that we've been in our house for 2 months, it's about time I started posting again. I kept telling myself after I unpack I'll get back into posting, but my garage is still half full of unpacked boxes (most of which need to be stored ie. Christmas stuff, baby stuff, etc.).

Our move was quite the adventure. Blake and I were alone loading the truck most of the day. We had quite a few neighbors around, but they just stood around and watched and talked to us. We finally took a break for lunch at about 1 because the girls were starving and getting cranky because of that. I took the girls to pick up Arby's while Blake kept loading. When we got back, Blake was eating a french dip sandwich when Ashley spilled his au juice and Blake tried to stop her, but unfortunately had a huge mouth full of sandwich at the time and inhaled it. Luckily he swallowed when he inhaled, but unluckily, the food hadn't been chewed too well and lodged in his esophagus just below his wind pipe. He spent the next hour trying to throw up or swallow the lump but wasn't able to, so finally I ended up taking him to Insta Care (because we couldn't find the ER) where they checked him out and then gave us directions to the ER (the ER entrance is 2 blocks away from the main hospital on a back street). We went to the ER and spent the next few hours there. They finally were going to give him an IV with medicine to relax his muscles, and went off to order it. Blake HATES needles, they make him pale and sick when he even see them. But before they got back with the IV Blake was finally able to throw up the mess that had been stuck. I think that them threatening him with a needle is what finally got him to give it up, but he disagrees. So after them making him drink some fluid, they sent him home. I just need to mention that the whole ER trip we had the girls with us. They were so good!!! Kenzie was given a picture to color and sat the whole time in the waiting room chair outside Blake's door coloring the picture for her daddy. Ashley who usually would have been all over the place, split her time between coloring with Kenzie and sitting on my lap in Blake's room asking when daddy would be OK again. (I had decided that if Blake had an IV I was going to call Blake's sister Marta and see if she could come get the girls, but I was literally looking for her number when Blake started screaming he had done it.

So by the time we got back to the town house, it was time for the girls and I to go to the new house so our fridge could be delivered that night (it never showed up, and when I called upset, they said it wasn't even on the schedule till Monday, I lost my temper a little at this point because I was so tired and upset by everything that had happened that day and we had been promised our fridge Friday night because we had food that needed to be kept cold. They finally promised to have it to us first thing Saturday morning. It showed up at 2pm Saturday, but at least it came.) Blake finished packing with the help of his boss Todd and a friend from church that came over after they got off work, and showed up at the house at about 7:30. Unpacking started out as the two of us again, but a neighbor from across the street came and helped, and then our nephew Dave came and then another neighbor came a little while later. Blake was still not feeling well and when it was just the 3 of us at first, we just threw everything into the garage, as our nephew and other neighbor came a few things made it into the house luckily it was the big heave things that needed to go up stairs like dressers, beds, etc. We finally at about 9:30 realized nobody had finished lunch or eaten since Blake's adventure that afternoon, so we finished the last few boxes and ran to Maverik for something quick to eat so the girls could go to bed.

So we've been moving into the house from the garage ever since. We can now fit one vehicle in, but have a ways to go before both will fit. It was such a long day but we made it through. Thank you so much to Todd for calming me on the phone when Blake was in the ER and offering to take the girls to your wife and then finish loading the moving truck for Blake. Thank you to Dave M. for your help and being such a great neighbor that first night and bringing your daughter to entertain the girls while we were unpacking the truck. Thank you to our nephew Dave for coming and bringing your positive attitude and help (and Jennifer for watching their kids so he could come help). And also thank you to Clark and Jenny for coming over to help us unload when you yourselves had just done that less than a week before. We appreciate all the help especially after the day we had had and Blake was really not feeling well from it all. Thank you!

Where do these ideas come from?

2009-07-21T14:42:00.003-06:00

I got a bathroom kit a few years ago for Christmas and in it was a sleeping mask. I've never used it, but for some reason never threw it away. Shortly after moving into our new house Ashley came across this mask and her imagination made keeping it worth it.

She calls it her bra, and since finding it is rarely seen with out it. She even gets up in the morning, finds it , puts it on, and then will get dressed with her bra under her clothes. I think this is so funny! How does a 2 year old come up with something like this? Then when I tried to take pictures of her new invention, she got all cute and posing for me, she looks like a model trying to pose. Blake and I still laugh when we see these pictures.

Kenzie's Kidneys

2009-04-23T12:55:00.002-06:00

So some of you know about the problems Kenzie's had with her kidneys over the last few years. The last episode was by far the worst. On January 4Th she woke up with a fever over 105. I of course freaked out and was really upset. We took her into the InstaCare, they did a urine analysis and discovered she had another kidney infection. She's had so many of these that we decided it was time to demand to see a urologist. But first because we had just moved here and didn't have a pediatrician for the girls yet to give us a referral to the urologist, we had to find one and get her into her to get the referral. Luckily we got a great recommendation from on old family friend who has 9 kids and takes her kids to the same doctor. We got her right in, and the doctor was shocked that no one had given Kenzie a referral before after she saw Kenzie's history of problems. She gave us the referral but told me call right away because it could take up to 8 weeks to get her into the specialist. Luck was on her side though and she got in January 20Th. They did a VCUG (I forgot what it stands for) and a ultra sound. The VCUG was a hard test for her and for me! They were suppose to sedate her, but the medication they gave her just made her loopy, you can tell in a few of the pictures. They told me even though she wasn't asleep, she still wouldn't remember anything because of the medicine. They were wrong! We got her into the X-ray room and onto the table and she was happy as a clam to look at the toys a nurse was holding up her her to look at. Then the radiologist started to place the catheter. We both started crying. She was so upset that I was letting him do that to her and she kept trying to pull the thing catheter out with her toes. Me and another nurse had to hold her top half down and they called another nurse to hold her feet so she couldn't use her toes. Eventually they got all the dye in her bladder got the pictures they needed and pulled the awful thing out and let her pee (she started screaming that she had to pee about half way through them getting the dye into her bladder, apparently her bladder is quite large for her age and they had to use 2 bags of dye on her instead of 1, lesson learned, don't let your child stretch the walls of their bladder by holding their pee too long). After all that the test results were negative, she doesn't have kidney reflux (that's when your urine goes from your bladder back into your kidneys, it's only suppose to go from your kidney to your bladder. They thought that might the cause of all the infections). The ultra sound wasn't bad, she thought it was funny that the lady kept tickling her with the magic wand and looking at her insides. They found there that her left kidney was about 1/2 inch bigger than her right, which I guess is significant for kidneys. They thought that it may be left over inflammation from the most recent infection so they scheduled a repeat 6 weeks later.

Six weeks later Kenzie and I headed back to Primary Children's Hospital, this time with Ashley in tow. We had the ultra sound repeated and found that it was inflammation before. Her kidneys were just about the same size again, though big for her age. I was told that her kidneys being big wasn't really a problem and that sometimes (just like other body parts like feet) the kidneys grew before the rest of the body but the body would eventually catch up and everything would be in proportion again.

So after all that we still don't know what's causing all the problems. We have her on a sulfur antibiotic for 6 months. The doctors are hoping that this will get her body out of the habit of infections and she will be infection free for the rest of her life. Hopefully it works. It's so hard to see your little girl be so sick and then go through so many tests and doctors. She's been a trouper though. She just is very careful to ask which doctor we're going to before we go and if she has to have another catheter (she doesn't want to be taken to "the wrong doctor" again). She's constantly telling anyone who will listen to her that catheters are "awful and mean to me" and hurt really bad (she remembers every minute of her ordeal, unfortunately). Poor baby, I hope she doesn't have to have one again any time soon, I don't think I could handle it.

We're Moving!!!

2009-04-23T09:37:00.002-06:00

Well, I think it's safe to now announce that we're moving into our new house May 8th. It's been a long road to get here, but it's going to worth it. I'm so excited to have our own place! Our house is brand new and has 5 bedrooms, 2 1/2 bath. It's in Stansbury Park, UT. We have a great view of the mountains, and we can see the Stansbury Lake out our front window. Our house is on 1/4 acre. The front yard already has the sprinkler system and grass with landscaping. We will be planting the back yard and putting in the sprinkler system. I am in love with our new house! I love teh kitchen, I love the carpet, I love teh neighborhood (it's new adn still being developed, so not much traffic, we also have a cul-de-sac across from us so the girls can ride their bikes and play with teh neighbor kids.), I love my pantry, adn I love that the laundry room is upstairs with most of teh bedrooms. In Stansbury we can't have a basement because of teh high water table, but our house has a 8 foot tall crawl space, so we have 700 sq ft of storage that we can stand up in under teh house. We've talked about some day adding windows adn making our own basement, but just not telling the city, we'll see though, it's not exactly forbidden to have a basement, it's only discouraged.

It's amazing how we got the house also! We had looked at this house a while ago and loved it, but knew it was out of our price range, so we kept looking at others. We kept coming back to this house though. It had originally been built for a family who had it designed, but part way through they lost their loan program, so the builder then owned it. A little later another family tried to get it, but couldn't for some reason. We had decided to make an offer on it because it had been sitting for a while, adn we thought the buolder might be willing to deal. So we made our offer on Thursday. They came back to us adn said no (we think because they knew they had another family coming in Saturday that wanted to make an offer, full price). We decided to wait and see what happened with this other family, we decided that if they got it great for them, we would be a little sad, but keep looking elsewhere, it wasn't meant to be. So anyways they got their full price offer adn called to tell us. We were sad, but made an appointment with the same builder to talk about having them build us one. We met with them Tuesday adn they told us that teh family who had offered Saturday didn't qualify for the loan so were we still interested. We said yes, started making counter offers back and forth adn finally settled on a price and deal that Thursday. So I guess it was quite a process, but we had prayed about it and knew the max we could and would do, so we just told ourselves, if it worked out how we wanted we would do it, if not it wasn't meant to be. I guess it was meant to be!

The World Acording to a 4 year Old

2009-03-15T19:27:00.003-06:00

We ate at McDonald's the other day and that night Kenzie had really bad gas, so we jokingly told her that she wasn't allowed to eat at McDonald's any more if she kept that up, she gets really big eyes and throws back, "Mom, it's not McDonald's fault it's just my poop loading!"

Interview with McKenzie Lynne age 4 1/2

2009-03-13T15:45:00.000-06:00

I dare you to ask your kids these questions :)

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Not to hit my sister

2. What makes mom happy?
not hitting, and not doing bad stuff

3. What makes mom sad?
me hitting Ashley,and her

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
by tickling me, right?

5. What was your mom like as a child?
I don't remember

6. How old is your mom?
14, how many are you again?

7. How tall is your mom?
40- 50 foot tall

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
wash dishes and play with us

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
miss me and stick with Ashley

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
sharing

11. What is your mom really good at?
making crafts and paper chains

12. What is your mom not very good at?
sometimes, ummm...carrying plates, sometimes you dropped one

13. What does your mom do for her job?
computer work and keeping me and Ashley from hitting each other and taking care of us when we're sick

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
banana bread and chinese food

15. What makes Mommy proud of you?
remembering my alphabet letters

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Dora with the wrong hair

17. What do you and your mom do together?
make chains, crafts and bracelets

18. How are you and your mom the same?
we're both girls, we both like to do crafts, we both like to do cooking

19. How are you and your mom different?
I'm little and you're bigger, I get to go to Primary and you're too big to do that, you'd bonk your head

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
She says I'm a child of God, and tells me good stuff, and you says you love me

2009-03-13T15:39:00.003-06:00

I know I'm way far behind on posts, and I have no excuses. I'm hoping to get caught up real soon. Just a little update real quick, we're in the process of looking for a house to buy, Kenzie's latest tests went a lot better than previous tests, went to Star Valley last weekend to visit Blake's family, trying to potty train Ashley (I HATE potty training), spent a great day with my cousin Shelley and her 2 boys, and basement flooding (very minor, maintenance guys fault). Also something cute that Kenzie said, I asked her that if we got a house with an extra bedroom if she would want her own or still want to share with Ashley, she didn't even think before she said that she wants to share with Ashley still because, "Ashley is my favoritest sister and I love to share with her, we can't be apart."

Cookies

2009-01-15T14:34:00.003-07:00

Last Friday my cousin Shelley came over with her two boys Kasen and Aidan. Kenzie and I had made sugar cookies the day before, and we attempted to decorate them with 2- two year olds. Kenzie did really great and loved it, she was even able to frost her own cookies. Ashley and Kasen were a little confused about this new game. Kasen just wanted to eat the cookies, and candy, and Ashley would put candy on her cookie after I frosted it just to pull it off and eat the candy and lick the frosting. I think she thought the frosting was for dipping the candy. She loves to dip anything. That's how I get her to eat her meals a lot. It was great to have Shelley and her boys here for an afternoon and to let the kids play. It's nice to be close to her and her family and for our kids to be able to know each other.

Happy Birthday to me.

2009-01-15T14:22:00.003-07:00

My birthday was Jan 6Th. It was a long but good day. Kenzie's fever was finally starting to break, and She was feeling a little better. That night Blake decided to take me out to dinner at Red Lobster. We debated whether to go or not because of Kenzie, but went anyways. I got a lobster from the tank. The girls picked it. It was 3 lbs!!! I shared with the girls and they both decided that they like lobster. Ashley got a paper cut from her menu color page and had to get a band aid from the waitress (paper cuts sure can bleed!). Then she wanted a picture of her band aid. When we got home I opened my presents. I got a Tupperware drawer tower from Blake and the girls, and Mario cart and an extra pink wheel for the girls for our Wii from my parents. Kenzie went to bed with a fever again that night. She's getting better though.

Sorry!

2009-01-15T14:12:00.003-07:00

A few posts ago, I did a lot of complaining about our new house. I was really tired and stressed that day and needed to vent. Our house isn't that bad. Once we got it cleaned and a few things fixed, it's been great. We have an extra bedroom in the basement that has been great to have as a play room. We also have a 2ND bathroom (1/2 bath, but still a 2ND toilet). It's 3 levels and about double the size of our apartment in Rexburg. We really like it. We're hoping to find a house of our own in the next few months and be able to buy while the market is still so good for buyers.

All grown up

2009-01-15T13:59:00.004-07:00

Well I finally gave in and gave Ashley her first haircut. She's so wiggly, I was nervous about cutting her bangs, but she looked like a shaggy dog with them hanging in her face. I trimmed the bangs, and took about 3 inches off the back. Now that her hair is cut, I think that she lost her baby face. She looks like a little lady now. What do you think? Also anyone have any ideas on what to do with straight hair? Kenzie's and mine are very naturally curly, so I'm at a loss at what to do. Using a curling iron is a new adventure for me.

What a Month!!!

2009-01-04T12:06:00.004-07:00

Well, we it's been quite a month! We started it by moving from Rexburg to Salt Lake on Dec 2ND, which wouldn't have been too big of a deal because I was very ready for this move, but the day before we moved we had to take Kenzie into the doctors with breathing problems. Come to find out she had Pneumonia. 4 days after we moved in, we had to back to Idaho to take Ashley to the doctors with the same symptoms. We didn't have our new insurance in Utah yet so we had to take her to her old doctor in Idaho. To make that week worse, before we moved in we were told that our new home would be professionally cleaned before we moved in. It wasn't. It took Blake and I 4 hours to clean the kitchen just so we could put our dishes away. We spent a few more hours cleaning bathrooms so I felt safe letting my kids use them. There was also a lot of damage from the people before us. They had tried to fix some stuff but it was a half-hearted effort. They had repainted the whole place, but besides the walls, they also painted the carpet, the towel racks, the toilet paper holders, and the mirrors. They also put down new linoleum, which was ripped at about every cabinet corner, and a big rip under the dishwasher. Oh, and don't get me started on the dishwasher! But we're still getting things cleaned and trying to get fixed what we can.

New Years Eve Kenzie started complaining of a stomach ache, News Year's Day she started a fever, by this morning it peaked at 105.2. That scared me to death! She's only been over 103 twice before when she was having kidney problems, we took her to the doctors again this morning, and guess what she's having kidney problems again. I wish we could figure out why this keeps happening to her.

Lessons to learn from

2008-11-09T21:47:00.006-07:00

So the other day I thought I had a great idea to let the girls paint their pumpkins instead of carving them. It was a great idea to start with, but then I had to go to the bathroom and left them alone for a minute when I came back this is what I found.

This was the end result.

This was the clean up.

Halloween

2008-11-09T21:26:00.003-07:00

Well, now that I'm not so stressed about getting the bills paid and Blake getting a job I have a little bit of free time to catch up a little bit. Until I have to start packing and cleaning to move next week. For Halloween this year, I decided to make the girls costumes (well I bought their black pants and shirts, but made their tails and ears). I was going to put whiskers on them but thought smears wouldn't look so good on them. They decided that they wanted to be cats. They constantly are pretending that they're cats so they wanted to dress like them. The Tuesday before Halloween, we went to a ward party. We had hot dogs, hot chocolate, and then they had a bunch of carnival games for the kids. The girls loved it. The did a cake walk, a fishing pond, got their faces painted, and had a bean-bag toss. It was a lot of fun and inside a ward members farming garage, so it was warm. For Halloween we took the girls to my parents house to go trick or treating. I think that it was the warmest Halloween night I can remember since I've lived in Idaho. We were out in our short sleeve shirts. It was really nice. Kenzie was more interested in getting compliments than candy. She'd knock on the door say "Trick or treat, don't I look cute in my kitty costume?" She did this at almost every house. Ashley didn't understand that she had to knock on the door and wait for someone to answer, she kept knocking and then trying to walk in on her own. It was fun though. We brought home the candy picked a few favorites and tossed the rest.

WE'RE MOVING!!!!!!!!

2008-11-09T14:41:00.003-07:00

What Blake may be dressed as in a few weeks HEHEHEHE!

Well, we finally did it! Blake got a job, and we're moving to Salt Lake City on December 2nd. Blake has been hired by Boeing as the Industrial Hygienist and Safety Specialist. He starts work on December 5th. It has been a long time in waiting, but it has finally happened. It's turned out to be worth the wait because the job is better than we expected. We are so EXCITED!!! We're going to SLC tomorrow to look for a place to live. Hopefully we come back with a new address.

Name Game

2008-10-15T15:42:00.001-06:00

I found this on a friends blog and was curious. It didn't surprise me that there wasn't anyone else with my name, but what did surprise me is that there are 2 Ashley Izatts in the US.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
1
or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

24Th of July

2008-09-12T13:54:00.002-06:00

The 24Th of July weekend we decided to stay home for once. Instead of going away for the weekend, we took the girls to the zoo in Idaho Falls and the to the carousel in Rexburg. At the zoo my chicken-little Kenzie who's afraid of everything actually touched a snake, only after Ashley did, but she still did it. They also loved petting the goats in the petting area. Kenzie had fun brushing them and Ashley kept chasing them calling then "horsee!" Both of their favorite part was the monkey house. Since this trip Ashley has been obsessed with Curious George. We also took them to ride the horses on the carousel. Lo-and-behold, we finally found something Ashley's afraid of. She hated it, kept calling it scary and wouldn't remove her head from my side when it was in motion. I had a hard time getting her to pose for these pictures when it wasn't moving. Of all the things to be afraid of, it's the mechanical horses. Silly girl!

He Made It!

2008-09-12T13:45:00.002-06:00

Well Blake made it to graduation! YEA HURRAY!!! He got his BS in Health Science, his emphasis being Corporate Health and Safety. He clustered in Biology and Physical Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, and Geology). Thank you family and friends who have been so supportive the last too many years, and helped him get through this. He's now talking about going on to get his Masters someday, and eventually before he dies his Doctorate.

Now we're going through the process of finding a job. He's put out about 100 resumes, had 3 job interviews, and 0 job offers. The problem he's running into is everyone wants someone with 5 years experience, no one wants to give the experience. So, we're still looking and praying.

Again, sorry for all the pictures!

Kenzie's Birthday

2008-09-12T13:22:00.002-06:00

Yea, okay so I know that her birthday was back in July, but I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures. Sorry! I'm also sorry that there's so many pictures. I should have weeded through them before posting.

Kenzie's birthday was kind of crazy this year. She has bad allergies and once in a while this will cause her tear ducts to clog and become infected. Her birthday happened to be one of these times. So ignore her puffy, gooey eye in all the pictures. Her birthday was actually Monday the 14, but we celebrated it on Saturday the 12Th. She was suppose to have a friend birthday party that afternoon, and then a family party that night. Her friend birthday party didn't turn out so great. She had invited 12 kids and then our good friend Aaron and Melissa's little boy Isaac whose closer to Ashley's age. None of her friends came. The only kid there was Isaac. His parents brought him and Aaron and Melissa visited with me while the kids swam (Blake had to work for most of the party). We did manage to get a couple of Kenzie's neighbor friends to come over for cupcakes though, she was excited about that.

For her family party, my parents and my little brother Thomas came. We had pizza, Little Mermaid cake, and ice cream. She got a My Little Pony rollerskating cake toy from my brother, My First Leap Frog from us, a digital camera from my parents, and then a nursery rhyme story book from her great grandma along with a pink hand made photo frame for her Jesus picture in her room (she had requested this because the old frame was brown and purple and she didn't like those colors). We ended up calling it an early night and taking her into the doctor for eye drops and found out she had yet another bladder/kidney infection. Poor girl! She thought it was a great day though, so no harm done. Monday we took her to Wingers for dinner and she got an ice cream cookie. She loved it.

Conversation with a 23 month old

2008-09-12T13:09:00.002-06:00

Ashley was playing in her room and then came running out to sit on my lap. She smelled pretty ripe so I asked her thinking that this was the reason for her sitting on my lap (she hates having a dirty diaper and will ask you to change it as soon as she's filled it). I asked her if she needed to be changed, she smiled huge said, "No, just gas!" and then ran away laughing. She was right of course, but the fact that she knew that means she's past the time to start potty training. She's such a tease, she's going to be a hand full when she grows up!

OUCH!!!

2008-09-10T12:19:00.003-06:00

Well, a couple of weeks ago I had (as Kenzie puts it) a little trip down the stairs. Anyone who knows where we live has seen the cement stairs in front of our apartment, well one day we were in a hurry to get some things done so we could go to Salt Lake for the weekend, I was carrying Ashley down the stairs, Kenzie was already at the car yelling at me to hurry up, and I some how lost my balance and fell all the way down the stairs. I was just lucky that Ashley some how didn't go down with me. I think that she must have had a guardian angel with her because she somehow managed to stay at the top. I ended up in a puddle on the sidewalk. (The sprinklers had just gone off and the sidewalk was wetter than the grass of course.) I just closed my eyes and laid there too scared to open my eyes and see Ashley laying next to me, but when I heard her start crying and screaming from the top of the stairs, I finally realized that I hurt in a few places. The worst looking was the line of bruises going down my left leg, and the bruises covering my back and bum. Then I had a little bump on my head, a bunch of scrapes and bruises on my arms, and I hurt my ankle on my right foot pretty good. It's been three weeks and my ankle still is killing me. It was finally decided that I should stay off of it and see if the swelling and pain would go away. So, now I'm on crutches, which kind of sucks, but my girls have been great helps to me, especially Kenzie.

These were taken about 8 days after I fell, things were starting to look better by this point.

4th of July Reunion

2008-08-08T10:24:00.002-06:00

Over the 4Th of July weekend, we went to the annual Erikson reunion in Star Valley. It was a lot of fun! Ashley had a hard time taking naps while we were there, and one of the days she was very cranky so Blake threw her and Kenzie on his brother Wade's 4-wheeler and drove them around. Ashley fell almost instantly to sleep. She had to be pretty tired, because she's one who will only sleep in her own bed and occasionally in her car seat and she;s usually a light sleeper but Blake said that her head was flopping all over as they hit all the bumps on the dirt roads and she had the wind in her face the whole time. It was so cute, but as soon as Blake came back and stopped she was awake screaming again. This was also the first time that Kenzie went on a 4-wheeler voluntarily. In the past she's been afraid to even get close to one when it was off. She loved it this year and couldn't get enough of the 4-wheelers and Rangers. This year has also been a tough year for some of the Eriksons financially, so we had a silent auction to help raise money for those that needed it most. Each family was to bring something that could be auctioned. I took a bunch of bracelets and hair bows. To my surprise they all sold. YIPEE! It was great! On the last day there, we borrowed, Blakes cousin's Ranger (a kind of 4-wheeler that looks more like a car with side by side seats and seat belts) and went Geocaching with the girls and Blake's sister Jan and her kids Justin and Emily. We made it all the way up the mountain, found the treasure, and then on the way back, Blake tried to show off and got the Ranger stuck in the still remaining snow that was there. It took some dirt, rocks, sticks and a lot of pushing power to get us out. I just had to roll my eyes and keep Ashley calm (she didn't like being stuck). We also slept in a tent this year. We finally out grew Blakes mom's trailer and had to use a tent much to Blakes dismay. The girls thought that it was the best part of the reunion. Over all it was just a great time to visit with family and relax in between chasing the girls all over.

Farewell to Good Friends

2008-08-08T10:04:00.002-06:00

Recently, we had our next-door-neighbors, Megan and Devin, move away to Washington state. He had graduated last December, and got a job with Microsoft, so off they went. It was a sad day, but exciting for them to be able to move on and start Devin's career. Megan and I kept each other sane and laughing, especially when we had kids trying to sell magazines door-to-door. They have a little girl Emily who's just over a year and my girls love her. We watched Emily once so her parents could have a date night, and Kenzie and Ashley wouldn't leave her alone. They had to show her every toy they own, they tried to feed her, hold her, and just love her to death. She was a good sport though and put up with quite a bit from them before running to be picked up and saved. It was fun though, she's a cute girl, we miss her and her parents a lot!

Relay For Life

2008-07-30T16:51:00.002-06:00

For those of you that don't know what Relay For Life is, it's an overnight fund raiser for cancer. Different teams sign up and for the entire event from 7pm Friday night to 12 noon Saturday, and there has to be at least one person from each team walking around the track the whole time (including all night). Our team was mostly family. There were a few of my nephews friends that joined. It our first year doing it, and it was a blast. One of the fund raising activities was a kiss-the-pig contest. 4 prominent people from the community are picked and then jars are set around town for people to put money in. The idea was for you to pay for one of these people to kiss the pig. Which ever person had the most money in their jar at the end had to kiss the pig, or match the amount in the jar to make someone else kiss the pig. They kept saying it was just a little baby pig, but you can see for yourself that she wasn't that little. Her name was Christmas. My girls loved her. Someone found out how much money was in the jars at the end and wrote a check to make it a 3 way tie. They were able to raise almost $1000 in just 1/2 hour for this contest.

They also had a hot air balloon. Kenzie started screaming for her aunt Jill as soon as she saw the fire go into the balloon to heat the air and raise it. Ashley was brave though and loved it. Ashley, Blake, and I were able to go up in the balloon. It was so cool! We took the girls back to Blake's mom's house to sleep there, and then Blake and I went back to take our turn walking from 1-2 am. At 3 am they had a Fear Factor game. That was interesting. Blake and I went back to his mom's house at 3:30 and finally fell asleep to be woken at 6 by the girls. It was a great night, we can't wait for next years activities!

2008-07-25T22:07:00.002-06:00

I know that it's been a long while since I've updated this, it's been a crazy few months. We've had Relay For Life, a family reunion, Kenzie's 4th Birthday, Blake's Graduation, and our 24th of July celebrations. I'm going to finally have some time next week so I'll spend a few days catching everyone up. Sorry about the delay.

I'm a Big Girl Now

2008-06-10T12:57:00.002-06:00

Ashley's growing up too fast! She's not my little baby anymore. She's going to nursery now without a glance back at me, she wants to go potty so bad in the big potty, and I think that she's outgrown her crib. She climbed out of her crib when she was 9 months old, but fell on her head and hasn't really done it since. Now she's mastered not only getting out of the crib, but getting back in it also. There's been quite a few times she's been playing on the floor in her room and started screaming for someone to come get her out of her crib. The other night, after we put the girls to bed we could hear Ashley talking to herself and then a toy start making noise. I went in ready to yell at Kenzie for getting out of bed and playing, just in time to see Ashley's bum go over the rail of her crib where she had thrown the toy making the noise. I was so shocked, I didn't know whether to laugh or not. I'm not ready to put her in a big bed!

Cinco de Mayo

2008-06-10T12:42:00.002-06:00

Well I know that this is a little late, but back on May 3rd, we had a Cinco de Mayo celebration with my family. My parents, brother, and both of my grandmas. We had steak and chicken fajitas, 3 kinds of salsa, and we had a pinata for the girls. It was really fun to see the girls try to break the pinata. Kenzie was afraid to hit it because it moved when she did and she didn't want it to hit her. Ashley had no clue what was going on, but was happy to hit something and not get yelled at. They both loved the candy flying out of it when Blake and my brother finally broke it open. There were little champagne party poppers in there (where you pull the string and it makes a loud pop and shoots out streamers) that made Kenzie cry because they were too loud (I think she needed a nap by this point in the day, because the noise makers that she was blowing everywhere were louder). There was also little princess dolls in there that the girls love. It was a great day, but I think it was a little too long for my mom who was still recovering from surgery. It also gave us an excuse to celebrate and keep my grandma Robison's mind off the 1 year anniversary of my grandpa dying.

So Far Behind

2008-06-10T12:11:00.002-06:00

I feel like I'm so far behind in everything. Here we are middle of June and I'm still wondering where May went. Blake is getting ready to graduate July 18, and is also doing his internship this semester, which makes him very busy. He also has become certified to teach CPR and first-aid. So he's been gone a few nights doing that. Then a few weeks ago we went to Green River Wyoming for a job interview. For some reason all this has made me feel busier than I really am. Blake's the one doing all the work, but I'm exhausted just watching him. We're also going to be putting a fence up for my grandma this weekend, doing the Relay For Life (a cancer awareness, fundraising walk-a-thon) the 26Th of June, Blake's family reunion 4Th of July weekend, Kenzie's 4Th birthday party the weekend after that, and Blake's graduation the 18Th of July. That should keep us busy, but I can't imagine taking out any one of these things. In between all this Blake's still trying to go to school and job hunt. Good luck to us!

My New Hobby

2008-06-10T12:03:00.002-06:00

For a while now I've been making bracelets for my girls, their friends, and friends babies. Recently I started making bows also. It's been a blast, but now I have a tote full of bows and bracelets. One of my friends Cami, has an online store and I was asking her about it, and ended up starting my own. It's taken a bit to get it up and running, but I finally did it. These are some of the pictures I've taken of things I've made. My store doesn't have everything listed yet but this is an idea of what will be coming. My store address is www.girlcreations.etsy.com. If your interested in anything, e-mail me and I'll let you know what the family and friends discount is.

We're Moving to Mexico!

2008-05-01T08:01:00.002-06:00

Well, as you can see it has once again snowed during the night. We woke up this morning,the first day of May to find all this snow sticking to everything. Kenzie wanted to know when Santa was coming. She also wanted to put her snow pants on and go make a snow angel. Ashley just kept saying "brrr, brrrr!" As for me, I made an executive decision, we're moving to a Mexican beach where spring has already started and there's NO SNOW! Hope your day's warmer than mine.

The Gucks

2008-04-30T13:05:00.002-06:00

Well, our girls have discovered a new favorite thing to do. They love to go to the Skate Park here in Rexburg and feed the "gucks" as Ashley calls them. The last time we went we took the camera and we also ran into a very friendly-tame squirrel. We had it eating right out of our hands. It also would come right up to the girls and sit at their feet until they would squeal and start clapping their hands with excitement. This obviously scared her. It was definitely a momma squirrel.

We had also taken Kenzie's bike to try to help her learn to ride it. She has a really hard time pedaling and steering at the same time. It's either one or the other. When she pedals, she's watching her feet, when she looks up so she can watch where she's going and steer, she quite pedaling. We're working on it. We have been for 2 years now. She must just be very blond or extremely uncoordinated. Time will tell. Hehehe.

5 Years!

2008-04-30T13:02:00.002-06:00

Well April 26Th we almost celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We had planned to go out but our babysitter had surgery and we had a sick baby we didn't want to leave her with anyone else who had kids. So we just ordered Applebees to go, brought it home and ate with the girls. When they went to bed we watched Harry Potter. Here's to another 5 years.

1st Yellowstone Trip

2008-04-30T12:20:00.003-06:00

We went to Yellowstone on opening day this year. There was still quite a bit of snow, but it was fun to be there with out the summer crowds. We went to Old Faithful and Mammoth. That's all that's open until May. The girls loved it! Kenzie was excited about Old Faithful, Ashley loved that we let her run around a bit and didn't have to be in the stroller the whole time. We stayed at my uncle's cabin in Island Park the night before and then drove from there Friday morning. Kenzie's favorite part was we saw a brand new baby buffalo with it's mom. It couldn't have been more than 3 days old. So cute! These pictures are from our trip last year, but still fun. We forgot our camera this time, so weren't able to get new pictures of the snow covered attractions. We did get a season pass though so we'll be going back hopefully with the camera next time.

Star Valley

2008-04-29T10:40:00.003-06:00

We got up Sunday morning and decided, hey, Ashley's been sick this week, coughing all last night, and we just have stake conference today, let's go to Star Valley for the day. So we did. The girls had a blast! Kenzie calls her Aunt Jill her other mommy and loves to go visit her and her aunt Jan along with her uncle Bryan and cousins. Recently her favorite person to go see is her grandma Izatt, because she's been letting her help wash the dishes (without the aid of a dishwasher) and water the plants. Apparently these things are great fun to a 3 year old. She also loves helping her "other mommy" feed the dog (a Dalmatian named Patch). It was a really warm day and there was still a fair amount of snow next to the house, so of course the girls couldn't play outside without throwing the snow. Grandma Izatt stayed in the house and watched from the window so Kenzie tried to throw snow balls at the window, most of them going backwards. Ashley just loved that she had a yard to play in and kept eating the snow. Ashley also got brave enough this time to go into the pen with Patch. He's as big as her, but she did good and wasn't afraid. The bad part was Patch got a drink from his water bowl and then Ashley got down on her stomach and drank from the dog's water bowl also. Blake started gaging, but everyone else was laughing. On the way home we stopped in on my parents for a minute, and then got home late, at least for the girls. It was a fun trip, even if it was just for the day.

I'm a big girl now!

2008-04-28T20:51:00.001-06:00

Today was Ashley’s first day in nursery. This face sums up her reaction to her first day. Luckily our neighbor is her teacher so at least there was a familiar face for her. She made it about half way through before breaking down and having to be brought to Blake and me.

Spring Break

2008-04-28T20:38:00.003-06:00

Blake had a week break from school before he heads into his last semester, so we tried to spend some time as a family before he disappears back into the library for the next 14 weeks. We decided to take the girls to the sand dunes for the one day it was actually nice and not snowing. It was a bit breezy but about 55 degrees. The girls loved it. Kenzie sat down and right away tried to make a sand castle, but was upset when it didn’t work. She then proceeded to go around finding any and all garbage she could that she thought would make a great collection, including an old-rusty bed spring wire that she used to turn herself into a helicopter and in the process cut her head pretty good. I think her favorite part was throwing the sand and watching the wind blow it away (or into Ashley’s face, which ever was more convenient). Ashley loved to just run. She wouldn’t let go of her sippy though. She carried it all over the dunes, would sit down put it in the sand and gross me out when the top became covered in sand and she didn’t care and drank it anyway.

Winter Olympics

2008-03-18T12:27:00.003-06:00

Kenzie's gymnastics class had a winter olympics last Saturday. Kenzie was able to show us all teh things that she's learned over the last 8 months. She was also thrilled that her grandpa (my dad) was able to come and watch along with her dad whose usually at school when she has her "dance". Her favorite part was the giant foam pit that they practice their jumps into off of the trampoline. Her most improved skill is the balance beam. When she started she was afraid to do it and wouldn't let her teacher let go of her, now she even goes on the high beam by herself. It's been amazing the improvement in her balance and in her hand-eye cordination since she started gymnastics last year. At the end she was given a metal for showing what she could do.

Egg-cellent Work!

2008-03-14T14:51:00.004-06:00

Kenzie and Ashley had our neighbors (Leah 5, Anavey 3, Corilyn 2, Ryker 6 months, and mom Stacie)over yesterday to have a egg coloring party. It was quite the party! Kenzie spilled the yellow dye all over the floor and still has yellow bum cheeks. Ashley kept trying to drink the colors saying "juice!" She would put an egg in a color, use the spoon to try to drink the color, and take the egg out with her hand and taste the colored egg's shell. Corilyn was too interested in the toys to color any eggs. We had tattoos that were intended to stick to the eggs after they were colored but they wouldn't stick, so they became tattooed on the girls faces and hands.

Lindquist's Visit

2008-03-13T20:40:00.003-06:00

In January we had the opportunity to have my cousin Shelley and her husband Mikah and son Kasen come visit us when they came to go through the Rexburg temple open house. It was great to see them and to let the kids play together. Kasen and Ashley are only 10 days apart. Kasen and Kenzie played really well together, but Ashley and Kasen had a rougher time getting along. I'm hoping that as the kids get older they'll be good friends like Shelley and I were growing up and still are.

Meet Our Girls

2008-03-13T17:18:00.000-06:00

Well, Here they are. McKenzie Lynne is 3 1/2 now and if you ask her what her name is she'll say Kenzie McLynne. We're working on it, but She thinks that she's funny so it's been a hard habit to break. She's in gymnastics (she calls it her dance class) and loves it. It's also been really good for her balance and hand-eye cordination. She's starting to write her name and recognizes the letter of her name in other words. She loves to look through her books and find all the "K". Then she'll tell you how many of her "K's" Horton took.

Ashley Jae is 17 months now and her goal in life is to climb anything attached to the floor (ie cubbards, counters, chairs, entertainment center, crib from the outside, table). She also loves books. She can't be read to long enough each day. She also pulls the funniest faces. So in light of those two things I give you a picture of both. We've also discovered that Ashley is a lactose addict. She's like people that drink coffee. She wakes up in the morning screaming and cranky until she's had at least one sippy of milk, then she smiles and goes about her day.