The Izzi Family...living under Grace

Monday, November 16, 2009

Carving Pumpkins

Remi just played with her pumpkin the whole time...

...and tried to eat it

Grandpa Izzi, Raife, and Daddy

Daddy demonstrating the face he was going to carve in Raife's pumpkin

Sunday, November 15, 2009

We took the kids to the pumpkin patch last month. They had fun picking out their pumpkins, playing on the hay, going through the corn maze, sitting on tractors, and Raife even rode a pony. 'Course he didn't enjoy the pony ride. That mean thing actually bucked him off! It heard some kind of a loud noise which startled it and next thing you knew, Raife was on the ground. He was so scared of the pony after that. Matt eventually made him get back on but Raife was crying at that point so it didn't last very long. But regardless of being bucked off a pony (who gets bucked off a pony?!!!)...the kids had a great time.
We have SO many cute pics from the pumpkin patch that I had a VERY hard time picking out my favorites to share. So while I won't share ALL of our pics...here are a lot of them:

Our future Tiger Woods

Raife is continuing to work on his golf game. Matt and Raife didn't golf quite as often this year as last year due to Matt not having a golfing partner...but they still made it out to the course pretty often...and spent lots of time playing in the front yard as well. Raife has a pretty sweet swing for a little guy...

Raife and his guitar

I played in a worship concert at our church a few weeks ago. Leading up to the night of the concert, the band and choir practice for a couple hours every Tuesday and anywhere from a couple hours to several hours on Saturdays. This lasted for several weeks. Raife accompanied me to all of the practices and by the end, the poor kid thought he was on the team. He actually thought he was going to play on the stage the night of the concert. Of course he didn't get to. Instead he had to stand in the back with his dad...this didn't last long. He was so upset that he couldn't play on the stage that he ended up throwing a fit and Matt had to take him out of the concert. They missed nearly the entire thing. That kid loves music. Right now he wants to be a drummer and a guitar player. He has an electric guitar at Grandma Young's house (she gave it to him for Christmas 2 years ago, but the thing drove Matt crazy and it wasn't long before he sent it back to Grandma Young's house!). He has an acoustic guitar and 3 drums at our house. The drums are just downright loud. So I'm trying to encourage him to just play his guitar these days. Thankfully, he's happy with the guitar. Here's my little musician...

Catching Up Time

Well...I suppose it's time for me to hop back on here and catch up. I've been to my blog several times over the last month and considered writing a post, but I felt like leaving the post up with Angeliyah's pictures just a little longer. I just love looking at her pictures and I hope you all do too. And I've had lots of moments in the last few weeks that my heart has ached for her. It seemed fitting to leave her post on top for a while since she's been on my mind so much.

We have been busy. My job has been VERY busy lately...lots of changes...which means lots of work for me, and a little more stress on my plate. Matt travels a lot these days. He's working 4 days a week all over the state...from Ocean Beach to Colville...for those of you out of state, that's basically one end of the state to the other. And sometimes he has to work those sites back to back. It makes for some long days...one day he left before 4am and didn't get back til after 9pm. But he gets 3 days off a week which we all love. Raife especially likes the extra day when he gets to hang out with Matt and work on the jeep or the yard or go golfing or something.

The kids are doing great. Remi is just growing up WAY too fast...quickly becoming a toddler instead of my little baby. Raife is in preschool 3 to 4 days a week and LOVING it! I just have to figure out what I'm supposed to do with the zillion papers he takes home. For now, I'm putting them all in a huge rubbermaid container in our storage shed. My plan is to go through the whole thing at the end of the preschool year and pick out my favorites to keep. I saw an idea on Opera a year or two ago...you save your child's favorite crafts/pictures all year and then at the end of the year you take a picture of your absolute favorites...then upload them to SnapFish and make a photo book. For those of you who don't know what a photo book is, they're super cool. I have one for Angeliyah and I LOVE it. And I made them for the grandparents last year as well, one of each of my kids. So anyway, that's my plan. And of course in addition to the photo book, I'll save a few of my favorites well.

Having so many crafts from Raife reminds me of a story from when I was little. I don't remember how old I was...part of me thinks I remember this happening, but it may be that I've heard the story enough that I just think I remember. Anyway, my parents have a woodstove in their living room...one with a door on the front. One night, I awoke to the smoke alarm and I came running out of my room to discover that my mom had been burning my school papers in the stove. Evidentally they'd fallen out of the stove before she had a chance to close the door and smoke filled the room causing the smoke alarm to go off and wake me up. She was caught red-handed.

Now I'm the one trying to figure out what to do with all these pictures. I feel guilty throwing them away. And I love everyone of them. Just can't figure out what I'm supposed to do with all of them!

Well the last month in the Izzi family has included a trip to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving, Halloween, roasting hot dogs and smores on our new fire pit and Raife learning how to ride his bike. And I have LOTS of pictures...so let's get to it! (starting with the next post) :)

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Wave of Light for October 15

Today, October 15, is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. Today, our family is joins families in all times zones, all over the world, by lighting a candle in memory of our babies who died during pregnancy or infancy.

Our family will light 4 candles for our babies plus 1 extra candle for my friend Heidi's son who died the day after he was born. As families across the world each light candles for 1 hour at 7:00 pm, there will be a continuous wave of light all around the world today.

Today, we remember:

-Raife's twin whom we lost at 9 weeks, 5 days gestation.

-Angeliyah's twin whom we lost at 9 weeks, 3 days gestation.

-Angeliyah, who lived in my womb for 29 weeks and 2 days and lived in our arms for 32 minutes.

-Reed, whom we lost at 12 weeks, 2 days gestation

-Cody, whom Heidi lost at 1 day old

We also remember Angeliyah's friend Faith who lived for 9 days on earth before joining Angeliyah in heaven, and Faith's little sibling AA who went to heaven just weeks before our little Reed.

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.