A very full beginning of July!

On Wednesday, we joined some of Momma's friends and went to Izzy's very first movie in the theater! (Thanks for the invite, Angie.) At first, she was kinda scared of the big screen and loudness, but soon she had fun and made it through a 90 minute movie!
Afterwards, she enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with Maggie in the parking lot. :) Since we missed her morning nap that day, we had to stay out and stay active before going home to nap in the afternoon. Izzy thought trying on 100 different pairs of shoes at Target was the best thing! She got new white sandals since her others were much too small. It's funny, cause I want her to wear her pink everyday shoes most of the time, but she's just like any girl who gets new shoes--wants to wear the new ones all the time! That evening, we ate dinner (cooked by our pastor's family) at church before our friend Joby led the Wednesday night topical study. I love any time I get to hold Joby and Carla's sweet newborn, Henry, but eventually he was hungry, and I had to give him to his mom!


Thursday evening we drove to Waxhaw to spend the evening with the Weir family. Justin and Cam went to the same high school, but were in different graduating classes. They ran into each other at a trade show in their engineering field of work a couple months ago and reconnected. We had the Weirs over for dinner once, and this week they invited us to their home for dinner. Izzy was very interested in Emory, who is just beginning to crawl and move around. She was so cute trying to share her Lamby with him. It wasn't too hot later in the evening, so we sat on the deck and ate pound cake for dessert while Alex and Izzy played together..
On Friday, Justin didn't have to work! Yay, for a day with Daddy!!! He took us out for breakfast, and then we all went grocery shopping together. It's just being together that is sooooo much fun. Justin started and finished a bunch of projects around the house with Izzy. They put up a ceiling fan in our bedroom together, and then Justin painted Izzy's bed to match her new bedroom. She'll be moving into her twin bed and new room this week! Later, the three of us went to Qdoba for dinner, and while eating there, we ran into the Davenport family, friends of our from church. Izzy had a blast kicking in the big water fountain with little Miss Bonnie Dav. :)

Saturday was just as fun as Friday for our little family. Justin finished the final coats on Izzy's bed, while Izzy and Momma made a Pistachio Chocolate Pound Cake for Sunday lunch. I wasn't paying attention at one point while holding the beaters, and looked over to see that Izzy was standing on her stool licking the beaters that were in my hands. :) The three of us went to the pool right after our very special lunch of peanut butter and honey sandwiches. ;) Every day at the pool, Izzy gets more and more brave. The first time we went this summer, we lasted 20 or 30 minutes cause she screamed the whole time. On Saturday, she was loving being thrown in the air and caught in the water, putting her face in the water and blowing, and even swimming with her floaties back and forth from Daddy to Momma! She walks all around in the shallow end with her very sophisticated toys--cheap tupperware and a $ store ladle! We came back for naptime, I finished making food for our Sunday lunch, and then we got ready to go to the home of the Parsons family (where Justin and I met and had our first real conversation!) for an Independence Day celebration. There was lots of skeet shooting, pipe smoking, fireworks exploding, food grilling, and friends fellowshipping. Izzy looked so patriotic in the dress the Hollinger family (my college friend Naphtali's parents) gave her, and she especially enjoyed the horses, other young kids from church, eating ice cream, playing in the dirt, and watching the loud fireworks. I couldn't believe she wasn't scared of the shotguns and fireworks!

This morning, we gave Izzy some allergy medicine since her nose was surprisingly runny, and then we headed off to church. Izzy looked so beautiful in the new dress Grammy gave her. We are currently training her to sit through worship, and she made it longer today than ever before. It helped that she first saw Pastor Trice giving the welcome, then Poppy led the worship service, and finally she saw my friend Carla Fowler up on the platform. Izzy witnessed her first baptism of her beloved baby Henry Fowler! After church, we had the Surratt family over to our home for a stromboli lunch, but Izzy came down with a 102 degree fever. :( We enjoyed our time with new friends, but we had to stay home from evening worship. Poor little girl!

What a full week and weekend! We will miss Daddy when he goes to work tomorrow, but I think Izzy needs some rest to recoup and Momma is probably not going to have much energy after going, going, going!