Baking with Babies

Isabella has recently decided to name some of her baby dolls. This morning we made a banana cake, and these two babies had to join us. Their names? Jody, and Isabella Ann Two!

I think she may have gotten in to some of the batter.

Isabella quote of the day

"Mommy, would it be alright if I fed my helicopter some grass?"




She was referring to the ride-on helicopter on her swingset. It seemed to enjoy the grass.

My Love of Little People

I was never into Little People as a kid, but Isabella has just a couple Little People things, and they are the ONLY things she's been playing with lately. I think they are so neat, and some of the playsets out right now look like SO much fun! And I really like that she likes them, because while some people may think it's completely appropriate for her to play with Bratz dolls and the like (sorry if you like them - I don't, and they are not allowed in our house, besides she's not even THREE yet), I think Little People are just nice. They're fully clothed, they don't appear to have had any type of plastic surgery recently, etc. Today's Little People are even posable, making them more fun for even the older preschool set. We're getting her this for her birthday coming up in November, and one set of grandparents is getting her this. Every time we go to Wal-Mart she wants to go look at that Little People treehouse, and push the little girl on the swing for a couple minutes. She even tells me every time (since everything is tied to the box), "ya, I can't take this stuff out of the box until I get it for my birthday." I took that as a hint that that's what she wants for her birthday! :) She's also getting some other Little People things for Christmas along with the playmat to tie everything together. I hate to say that she actually needs toys, since we have a whole house full, but it seems like most of her toys are getting so babyish for her, I really need to clean out her toy box. And her birthday and Christmas are close together, and then there's a long time of nothing, so I'm also looking forward to some different things to play with around here. :)

Great Fall Day

Wow, I think I have set an all time low for myself this month in terms of blog posts! It seems like sometimes I feel like blogging every little thing, other times I have no desire to blog at all. After a few days of rain, we are enjoying the beautiful fall day today. I have NEVER liked fall, it's always been my least favorite season . . . until this year. I don't know what happened, but all of the sudden I LOVE fall! The busyness of the summer winding down, getting out warm clothes, picking apples, delicious apple and pumpkin desserts, homemade applesauce, hot chocolate, apple cider, warm fleece sleeper pajamas for my girl, cuddling up with a blanket and a good book in the evenings, ahh I love it! Today Monte and Isabella pulled out the rest of our garden, so our garden is officially done. They also got rid of some of my flowers that were starting to not look so great, and I got ALL of our windows washed, inside and outside, what a great feeling that is! Isabella wanted to wash something too, so she decided to "wash" all of the solar lights in our landscaping, it kept her very occupied, the girl LOVES to clean. She's always cleaning her toys, especially her play kitchen, and she loves to help me clean, too. I have a list of projects I would like to get done this fall and winter, one of them is going through all my recipes, and organizing them. I started going through all my Taste of Home type magazines a few days ago, and am making good progress. I'm not sure what to do with all of the magazines when I'm done with them, I hate to throw them. Is anyone interested in them? I would mail some if someone really wants them. Another project is going through all my pictures, but that's going to be a big undertaking!

Monte has been really busy with work lately, and working most Saturdays (at least in the mornings). But he had the day off yesterday, we went to the mall (not his favorite place, but he's a good sport). :) We also went out to eat. I was looking for something to wear to my nephew's baptism and for some upcoming family pictures, but decided to go back sometime when just Isabella and I can go, then I can take more time and try things on (we didn't go until later in the day).

A Great Visit

Our dear friend, and only babysitter in town, Sister Mary Edwin, moved away a few months ago. We were so sad to see her leave! But today we got to go visit her, and what a visit it was! She lives on a farm now with two other Sisters, and this was even WAY better than a visit to the zoo for Isabella. She got to see a lot more than she gets to see at visits to both sets of grandparents' farms. Monte's parents have cows, my parents have sheep and one dog, Sister has ducks, chickens, goats, cats, dogs . . . And oh my, did Isabella fall in love with all the cats (there were about 20 of them)! I guess she takes after both Monte and I because we both love cats, although I don't think we're ready to have one of our own quite yet.

She thought these goats were SO funny, they put on quite a show for us too!

We all loved the chickens, this one even let Isabella pet it.

This is where you will start to see a common theme, a certain cat named "Ginger Boy". She loved this cat, and I think he liked her too.

We were commenting all the way home about how much fun it was. Isabella said her favorite part was - "seeing the goats, and the chickens, and the kitties, and Sister." In fact, she didn't want to leave, she said she would just stay there with Sister! Thank you, Sister, for having us, what a great day!

Mini Vacation

Monte had a Dr. appointment yesterday afternoon. Since it's a couple hour drive, in a much bigger city, we decided to go the day before and do some fun things. The zoo there is bigger than our local zoo, so it was fun to see a few more exhibits there. After the zoo, we headed to see the waterfalls, it was so much fun, Isabella loved it! We also got some shopping in, mostly browsing, but I did get Isabella some things for fall/winter. And of course we had to go swimming in the hotel pool. Monte's appointment went great, he's doing GREAT, it was basicly just a check up with some lab work.

We had the stroller with, but she wanted to walk everywhere. After an entire day of walking at the zoo, and then all around the waterfalls, she had blisters on her feet. Thankfully Daddy saved the day, and carried her at the end.

Last Days of Summer

After a cool summer, we've had hot September days . . . weird, but I'm sure these hot days will be coming to an end soon. We went to our State Fair last weekend. My timid little one didn't want to go on any rides, but LOVED just watching them. We even asked her several times if she wanted Daddy to win her a stuffed animal, and she always said that she didn't. Hey, she knows how to save us money. Although, we definitely spent enough on fair food! Here we are posing with my favorite animals.

She missed out on a nap that day, and by mid afternoon was in need of her blanky. Here she is showing the sheep her blanky.

We've been getting some good sandbox time in.

Here she is playing with her daddy's loader, from his childhood.

Our garden is coming to an end. We just have cucumbers, onions, tomatoes, and peppers left in it.

Most of my flowers are still going strong.

Isabella is obsessed with playing frisbee, or "crisbee" as she calls it.

And who needs toys - she's thrilled with just running around in the backyard!

Grumpy Bear

I was cleaning out Isabella's closet a couple of weeks ago, and found this costume that was given to us as a hand me down. I thought I would try it on her to see if it would fit for halloween. As you can tell, she was NOT a fan!

Lessons On Lights

The other day at my sister's we ventured out on a little shopping trip, it was the first time my sister had the new baby out. I thought I would help out a little by taking my niece in my car with me. The following conversation took place in the back seat.

My niece Rachel: " Angela, why are you stopped?"

Isabella: "Rachel, my mommy has to stop because we're at a red light. Red means stop and when it's green she can go. My mommy can also turn right on red, though."


Well, I'm glad she's got that all figured out.