A visit from Baba and Bebe

Jamie's parents were with us last month. We lovingly refer to them with Malagasy names-- Baba (grandpa) and Bebe (grandma). They've been on an extended "break" from their work in Madagascar as Bonnie's breast cancer has returned and once again, treatment is under way. Though in Phoenix, we're thankful for quick flights so we can spend time with them and create lots of great memories. Here's a couple of highlights from our time together.

Snuggles, snuggles, snuggles

checking each other out

some touristy fun

any resemblance?

13.1 miles

Last weekend Jamie and I ran our first 1/2 marathon. It was something planned a year ago when we were inspired after my mom walked the SB 1/2 marathon with Team in Training. So for the last four months or so, Jamie and I with girls in tow have been running a few times a week. This wasn't a new practice for us, just a lot longer one than we were used to. It became a welcome addition to our sometimes chaotic schedule... just us and the pounding of the road... well and a double jogging stroller, 2 kids, potty breaks, "milky", snacks, "oh mommy- I dropped my baby"... you get the picture! But it also served as a great time of talking, planning and coming together at the end of the day for a little debriefing.

13.1 miles later

Sweet victory

Partners in life, love and running!

I call them pests...he calls them fun!

Jamie has been asking me to share this with all of you for quite some time. Several weeks ago just before crawling into bed, we heard a bunch of commotion in the backyard just outside of our bedroom window. Upon pulling up the blinds, we found a mama raccoon and 5 juveniles having a hay-day in our garden and on Isabella's toys. Here's one such character! We still disagree, I call them pests, he calls them fun!

some favorites...

Just a few random favorites to share with you...

Isabella looking for sand crabs

Thumbs are good...


...but toes are even better!

Making banana bread is tasty!

A proud mama on her 32nd birthday

friends, friends, friends

This summer has been full of friends, family and fun. Here are a few pictures of the little ones enjoying the care-free life.

Isabella and her most favorite friend, Elias Leon (they're also betrothed since the womb)


Isabella finally meets Oliver Casurella

Oliver, Eliana and Isabella

The start of a friendship? Oliver and Eliana

good girlfriends, Olivia Bates and Isabella

Crazy cousin Faly

Cousins Isabella, Tanya, Faly and Cosi

Cousins Faly and Tanya

The three P's

It's official, Isabella has consistently achieved the three P's that go together so well... "peepy, poopy and potty"! This has been a long time in the making. It started over a year ago when she was just 18 months or so. We introduced the potty and she would use it and love it. Then of course, the novelty of it wore off and so we backed off. In the beginning of the year (when this picture was taken), she started using it again and had great success when she was naked, which in our house, for her at least, translates to almost all the time when she's home. Again, we didn't push as we were awaiting Eliana's arrival and didn't want to experience regressing with the potty. So a few weeks ago, we made the giant leap and started just using panties and made a big deal of it...went shopping for "special panties" with grandma created a potty chart, had a song and dance "Happy Potty Day"...you get the picture. And now we are proud parents of a potty-trained 2 1/2 year old! It's fabulous!

Viva la Fiesta!

Last week in Santa Barbara was Fiesta! A 75 year tradition of celebrating the Mexican, Spanish, American Indian and early American culture that decorates our awesome city. Essentially, it's a 5 day party full of festivals, parades, music, dancing, and good food! The past three years the cousins on my side have gotten together to participate in El Desfile de Los Ninos or the children's parade. Almost 30 years ago we cousins excitedly strolled the parade route and so we're keeping the tradition alive.

El Guapo

Confetti always is part of the celebration!
The dogs get in on it too
Viva la Fiesta! (grandma Wuertz)
Waving at the crowd (cousins Isabella and Cassidy)

Cousin Kaden on his trike (his pic got in the newspaper!)

Who's walking who? (grandpa Wuertz)

Matty, you're a trooper

The best part...ice cream for the chillins, grandmas too!

Sigh...

Life is sweet when babes are asleep

Time for cleaning

Jamie and I are not car folks. When I say this I mean that cars just aren't super high on our priority list. We've never purchased a new car. In fact, our "newest" car was already 10 years old when we bought it. I once had a car, the old faithful "blue bomber" a 1984 ford escort (a hideous car) that I actually had to drill holes in the bottom of the hatchback to let the rain water that managed to get in escape. We don't "soup" up our cars in any fashion. Jamie's work truck was a great purchase but it also came with a rather obtrusive dent to the front driver side corner. I admit I'd love to get it fixed yet Jamie cares even less about cars than I do and seeing as he's the one to drive it....you can bet whenever we sell that car the dent will go with it. You get the picture I think. Since the most important thing about our cars is that they get us from point A to point B, we rarely wash them. I'm a little embarassed to admit it's only about twice a year that they get a hose down... ouch. There's so many other things that need to be washed in life, like clothes and dishes and babies. And finally we're both too cheap to pay to get them washed, though after today the idea appeals more and more to me.
This afternoon while Eliana was asleep, Isabella and I ventured out to our driveway to wash the "white wonder", a 1995 Volvo sedan. Isabella was really quite into it, helping scrub down the car and rinse it off until she spotted her tricycle and decided it too needed a cleaning. She was quite meticulous about the whole process. Hopefully this is a good indication that she'll be better with washing her vehicles than her daddy and I.

Play-by-play

Jamie's away at school this week....
Here's a little play-by-play of our first night alone:
11:40pm- go to sleep.
1:30am- jump out of bed to hear Isabella screaming...faintly (the monitor was off)
Isabella is scared of the sharks (again)
Ask Isabella if she wants to sleep with me. A mistake?
She says "yes".
Put her in the middle of the bed with her pillow, titi (blankie), baby, blanket.
Put a pillow next to her on edge of bed.
30 minutes later, both of us fall asleep.
4:30am- loud THUMP-crying.
Isabella rolled over the pillow, off the bed and is now on the floor.
Eyes wide, jump out of bed, scoop her up, head to living room so Eliana doesn't wake up too.
Comfort Isabella.
4:40am- build Fort Knox at edge of bed with back of rocking chair, pillows, bench to keep in place.
5:15am- adrenaline finally leaves, able to fall asleep.
5:45am- Eliana wakes up, hungry.
Bring her into bed, on the other side of me, feed her.
No pillow needed, she doesn't roll over yet.
Sleep as though I'm in a straight-jacket, either girl right next to me, can't move.
6:30am- Eliana starts to stir, quickly give her "nono" again, don't want to wake Isabella.
7:30am- Isabella awake, starts jumping on bed.
Where's the gun, I'm ready to shoot myself!
Jamie...it's time to come home.

A tribute to my husband....

One for the books.

Today was a first; a memory to write in baby books and journals... and on a blog. Isabella played "this little piggy" with Eliana's toes. They both loved it!

A lesson learned

The other morning, I let Isabella watch Finding Nemo, she's watched it in the past and has always enjoyed it. Sometime into the movie she ran into the kitchen and said, "mommy, it's scary!" So I went in with her and decided it was time to turn it off. No problems there. The next night, it started. She was in bed falling asleep when she started crying and calling for me and saying, "no mommy, the sharks can't get me!" What??? This happened twice that evening. Then it hit me...Finding Nemo! She has come into the era of being very impressionable by such things. I'm so thankful kids are forgiving of their parents, at least when they're two. And a lesson we have indeed learned!

"I'm all better now"

These were Isabella's words this morning after we experienced our first bout of the "stomach flu" and the vomiting that comes with it. Yesterday she woke from her nap in cheerful spirits then suddenly screamed for me. I came into her room shocked but perhaps less mortified than she was at the stinky substance all over her dress and crib. This continued every 15-20 minutes for a few hours throughout the evening. Amazingly, it slowed down and we all got a good night's sleep, well relatively. After a 10am wake up call, she was pretty much back to her bouncing-off-the-walls-Isabella-self. Here's a picture of her and her (clean) "V" bowl!

Hawaii or bust...

We're doing it! We're actually going on a vacation...one in which we're not working in Madagascar or visiting friends and family. Of course, we love those things too but we haven't been on a REAL vacation since our honeymoon over 5 years ago. We think it's time! Our sites are set and our tickets are purchased (with miles!) for Poipu Beach, Kauai. 2 whole luxurious weeks of rest, relaxation, surfing, snorkeling, scuba diving, hiking, sleeping, sunbathing, and playing! Are the kiddos coming you may ask? Yes, but so are grandma and grandpa....Hallelujah! The only hard part about this trip...it's not until May 2009! The waiting will be hard but the payoff should be awesome!

Running to Madagascar

Tonight on our way home in the car, Isabella started up a conversation with us from the back seat. It went a little something like this...

Isabella: "I'm going to Madagascar"
Jamie and Alissa: "You're going to Madagascar? How are you going to get there?"
Isabella: "I'm going to run. Let's put our running clothes on."
Jamie and Alissa: "We're going to run to Madagascar? "
Isabella: "Yes, it'll be fun. Then we'll have dinner. I'm two years old."

Wow, if I could only be a fly on the wall of my daughter's brain to see her thought process, I think I would be constantly entertained as well as amazed.

I can't remember from who, but we've been told that when God calls a family somewhere to serve Him, He calls the whole family. Is this God's way of saying He's calling Isabella to Madagascar also or is it because she likes the movie... hmmm. Perhaps a little of both.

feet and smiles

Feet say a lot about a person... in Madagascar in the remote fishing village we've worked in, someone's foot print left in the sand is hugely important, it tells others if that person has passed through an area and about how long ago. Our friend Josy, has everyone's footprint memorized. If you're a new comer to the area, chances are likely he'll have it imprinted in his mind within the first 24 hours.
All this to say and without any correlation, Isabella got her toes painted for the first time complements of her mama. The color... why hot pink of course! She was in love and oh so proud.






Eliana has got some time still before her first toe painting. She's such a joy to our family. She's been a super mellow baby, quite the opposite of our exuberant 2 year old. She's full of sleeping, eating, pooping and smiling! Life is good!

Talking to Jesus

Isabella loves talking on the phone, on the home phone, on our cell phones, on her play phones. Tonight she had grandma's cell phone and was happily talking away, when asked who she was talking to, she replied, "Jesus".

This is my attempt...

to follow in the footsteps of all you friends out there that keep me entertained by reading about what's happening in your lives. I'll soon discover if there is enough hours in the day to fulfill this endeavor, but funny, somehow I always make time for the computer (despite my not being a computer person!)
Full is how life has been with a hilarious 2 year old and a precious 5 week old. Yesterday Isabella had me laughing out loud all day. So my mom and I and the girls went to the Nordstrom half-yearly sale in hopes of getting a good deal on running shoes, but struck out. We decided to eat lunch at the cafe which was completely full as it was the first day of the sale. Half way through our meal, Isabella proudly proclaims, "mommy, I have to go poopy!" over and over again!! Now she's not potty trained (except when she's naked) and we're waiting a little longer for the dust to settle before giving a valiant attempt at this feat. Of course, this got the attention of those around and as I tried to hush her and ask if she wanted to use the potty or go in her diaper, she kept repeating "mommy, I have to go poopy" louder and louder. So off to the bathroom we went and after insisting she didn't want to sit on the potty, she found a corner behind a chair in the "mother's room" and sternly said to me, "bye-bye mommy" the famous words that she's about to take care of business and doesn't want to be bothered by anyone. Fortunately I was too focused on Isabella to notice too many stares my way as folks were trying to enjoy a nice lunch out.
For those who know me well, it probably doesn't come as a surprise that my first entry is about such a topic...