Warning: Picture heavy post!

I realize this post is more for me, and my need for reminiscing right now. One would think that after seven months of being back in good 'ole Virginia, I wouldn't miss Idaho so much (or the West in general) ... but I still do. 

Good news: we get to visit for an entire week in September! Yay!

Here are some pictures of places we loved out west, and people we thoroughly enjoyed!

 Packing the jeep back up to head down the mountain. June 2010. 

I was 3 weeks pregnant with Izabella then and didn't know it!

 Kevan & Lindsay, September 2010. The Oregon Coast with friends.

Yes they are crazy wet.

No the water is NOT warm.

McCall Thanksgiving 2010!

 Stephanie came to visit end of January 2011 to meet Izabella (still cooking)!

 Stephanie and Joshua doing what they do best. Work it.

 I think this is McCall, February 2010? Lake monster. Yes we are standing on the frozen lake.

 Hiking 2009? It was a looong but gorgeous trail that lead to a lake with geo-caches on the way. 

It was breathtaking.

 Big blue. Don't tell Joshua but I do miss her.

 Best.Picture.Ever. Summer 2009 Vegas and Grand Canyon trip with Steffi.

 Isn't she beautiful? The canyon is too I guess ... :) 

 Hiking with Kevan & Lindsay. Yes, our men are that strong!

Baaleefoospahkey Memorial Day camping 2009 I believe. Wolves howling in the middle of the day, severe thunderstorms in our (incorrectly put together) tent at night. Awesome!

Joshua's parents, Grady & Carolee. To be honest, this picture wasn't taken in Boise, but in NYC, but I think it's a great picture and we sure do miss them!

♥♥♥

Playing, exploring & getting messy

 Some new words Izabella uses:

bottle

"ide" = slide

Wee! when going down the slide

potty

pay = play

nite nite

mine = we hoped this day would never come

mama = yay, Izabella now has a mom and a dad!

and a lot more I can't think of right now

She is the happiest, most lovable little girl. She gives huge open mouthed (with some teeth and occasional tongue) kisses. She runs to the door squealing with delight when her dad comes home. When she does something she is not supposed to she puts her hands on your cheeks to get your attention and very cheerfully says "Hi!" to you because she knows she can't be resisted. We are having so much fun in this stage.

Izabella having fun playing in the "sand" at the Childrens Museum of RIC

Izabella drawing on herself, her chair, her notepad (in that order). 

Yes, she has her very own Poang IKEA chair!

A lined zippered pouch that I made to store Izaiahs things in 

once inside my pit of a purse.

Gots some catching up to do

Westmoreland Park: Dad, Sally, Joshua, Izabella & Me (photographer)

Richmond Zoo: Izabella & Me (photographer) 

Fun with a toilet paper roll! Isn't she beautiful?!

A (somewhat) functioning sewing machine = a new manly boppy cover!

♥♥♥

16 months going on 30

New words for Izabella include:

Uh-oh

Ta-da!

Backpack (thanks Dora)

This

Old words that continue to get used all.of.the.time:

Doggy

Bankie (blanket)

Dada (for Joshua or me)

No

Yesh (Yes)

Titty (kitty)

Ba-ba (bottle)

Body parts she can say and point to:

Eyes

Cheeks

Teeth

Nose (working on saying it)

Belly (she says bey-yee)

Just pointing to:

Feet

Hands

Head

Fun things we do:

Play dress up with mommas clothes

Pretend play with her stuffed animals (feeding, loving them, clothing them)

She can "shhh" you with her finger to her mouth

When I say "night night" she grabs her blanket and lies on the floor

When I say "Let's eat!"she goes to her seat and waits to sit down

Izabella can open any type of door now ...

Any other command I give she shakes her head no. Haha. No really, she does :)

Nicknames for Izabella:

Izzy

Izz

Poop monster

Ba-dunka butt

Sweet cheeks

Baby girl

Pick-a-tures

Up & Coming events for the Zicklefeesters:

July 27: Baby Doc, will be 20w3d

July 28: VA Beach!

August 8: Ultrasound, will be 22w1d

September 8-15: Boise bound!

♥For your viewing pleasure♥

 Getting ready to go for our only bike ride of the summer so far, and boy was it a beautiful ride! This just happened to be on the only night where the temperature fell below 90 before 9pm. I just can't ride in the heat /humidity while pregnant, I'm a wimp, but only for the sake of the baby :)

 Izabella sporting her NYY onesie purchased in NYC while shopping with Pappy. Super cute! Just wait until I get her to stay still long enough to take a picture of her in her new NYY hat. Cuteness from head to toe. AND, yay for CC coming back and doing a great job, now everyone stay healthy ya hear me!

Izabella's band of choice is Collective Soul right now. She is gettin' down with the help of her dad. I love every second of it, which is evident in my hand-that-is-holding-the-camera dance.

♥♥♥

It's getting hot in here. So take off all your clothes.

These past few weeks have made me think of those lyrics often. Sweaty, sticky, eew.


Crazy. This past weekend most certainly warranted those song lyrics. Not the song, just those lyrics. 
Friday night we had an intense storm pass through, crazy intense. Our power went off at around 10pm. No biggie, right? Not for the first night. As we all got up for the day to survey the damage outside, we quickly realized that our apartment was the same temperature as the muggy, toasty outdoors. Gross.
So we thought, "Hey, why don't we spend the day in Richmond, walking around in air conditioned places, and come back after dinner, our power will surely be restored by then ... ". 
Man, we thought wrong. We came back at around 7pm to find our complex empty and dark and waaaarm. 
I politely suggested to Joshua that we get a hotel room for the night so his pregnant wife could get at least a little sleep. After driving to every hotel in Fxburg, we quickly found out that they were ALL booked due to a swarm of people from up north scrambling down here to find room and board after their hotels were without power. Yay for a northern invasion. Ugh.
We then thought, "Hey, I bet Richmond has vacancies, lets go there for the night!"
Wrong. Again.
After driving around for most of the day and then sleeping in our 85 degree home, the next day we woke up nice and sweaty, a tad cranky, really thirsty, but very thankful that our car had AC that kept us cool for most of the previous hot & miserable day.
Our power came back on on Sunday morning at 5:45am. How do I know the exact time? I had been awake since 3am, rolling around in my own sweat, praying for a cooler day. Prayer answered!
I am, however, very thankful our power was out for only that short time. Some people are still without power, and not expected to get power back until this Sunday. Over.A.Week.In.This.Heat.  Yikes.


We had yet another day over 100 degrees, but still ventured out for the fourth!

 Little Lady Liberty!

 Trying to get Izabella to try the water tent ... 

She ended up loving it and getting soaking wet!

Joshua and Izabella waiting for the trolley, and sweating, a lot.

This post is a little, (a lot) later that I wanted, but, here are some pictures from our PA family vacation to see Joshua's parents and siblings and Izabella's cousins!

 Cousins, cousins everywhere!

 Two zonked out babies at Knoebels amusement park!

 Joshua won a prize because I guessed how fast he could throw the ball!

Izabella with her "I'm free!" smile.

♥♥♥

Ssssslacker.

So I haven't kept up with posting at least twice each week. Oops.


This past weekend was fun! This past weekend also made it very clear that I need to get a new phone with a suuuper cool camera.


Saturday we went to the berry farm to pick strawberries. Izabella thought it was cool to eat the smashed/half rotten ones on the ground ... yummm! She also would copy us "picking" by swooshing her arms around in the plant, like she thought we were doing. We covered the bottom of the flat with strawberries, as I knew things would get pricey pretty quick. Pictures to follow (must get them of Joshua's phone).

Sunday dad and Sally came up and we drove to a neat park that had a Ferris wheel, small train, playground, a lake, walking trails, AND an ice cream bar! NIIICE! We rode the train, and unfortunately sat behind a VERY sweaty & smelly man so we were rewarded with his heat-related perfume the entire ride. We picnicked, let Izabella run around, and had fun. We then went farther north to see the Rappahanock falls. It is a very pretty sight. It's a series of rock falls where the river falls 40 ft (big for the east coast y'all). It was super crowded, took 40+ minutes to get to the ticket booth to get in, yet only 2 minutes to drive out when we were done, weird how that works.... :) (Pictures to follow, must get them off dad's camera).


Izabella is a little monkey. Seriously. All in the past 2 weeks she has:

1. Climbed on the sofa
2. Climbed on the side table
3. Climbed on the computer chair and typed on the keyboard
4. Climbed into her toy boxes while they were still partially tucked into their shelving unit ?!?
5. Climbed into the bath tub/fell into the bathtub
6. Climbed on her rocking chair and "read" a book, all by herself!

She is craaaazzy. And I love it.


The weather here is very humid. I have no idea why I have seemed to forget just how humid it is. But, don't worry, I am reminded of the 90-100% humidity level the second I open the sliding glass door for fresh air, or, the moment I step outside thinking I can get a nice walk in before night without breaking a big sweat. VA=sweat. It is making my non-antiperspirant wearing self feel very um, yucky.


Tomorrow, Friday, we go to Cville to hear baby #2's heartbeat for the first time. I'm excited!


So, like I said, I have some pictures to get from people to make this entry more complete. 

Have a great rest of the week, and a great Memorial Day!

♥♥♥