7 years old!

This past weekend we celebrated Isabella's seventh birthday!  She is really in to American Girl, and all she wanted to do for her birthday was get her doll's ears pierced at the American Girl store.  Although the American Girl store is hours away, we were on board with the idea, and made it a fun little vacation.  (It was also a lot less work than having several girls over for a birthday party!)

 

 

Isabella and her American Girl doll, "Star".  I swore she would never have an American Girl until  they had a super sale on them for a very short time right before Christmas last year.

 

She was amazed!

 

We even had a snack at the American Girl café, where they had a special seat for her doll, and special "food" for her doll as well!

 

We spent quite a bit of time at the indoor amusement park as well!

We even brought Grandma with.

 

When we checked into our hotel room that night, they asked what brought us there for the weekend.  We told them we were celebrating Isabella's birthday, and about an hour later a delivery man came to our door with a birthday cake and coloring books and crayons for the kids!  We couldn't believe it!

 

 It was even a rainbow cake!

 

Our present to her was a horse for her doll, she was pretty excited!







First Day of School Today

I'm reading a bunch of facebook posts about people being excited their kids are going back to school today... I've been on the verge of tears all morning.  Can't wait for her to get home!  Once again, I am SO thankful for our four day school week, there was talk of changing it back to a five day week, but they decided against it, thank goodness!  I can't wait to hear about her day, she once again didn't get in the same section as her best friend, but at least they get to eat together and have both of their recesses together.  She was really hoping today would be a "music class" day (takes after her mother!).  Just like last year, I know I'll get used to it, and Jaymes and I will have fun hanging out together, but today, I'm sad. 

 

First T-Ball Game

We're still waiting for summer weather to get here!  We still have our heat on almost every day, I have a feeling this is going to be a very short summer.  Due to our cold, rainy weather, Isabella's first T-Ball practice got canceled, and they had their first game without having had any practices!  Isabella is so excited about T-Ball, I'm very glad she likes it, since she has it three days a week.  We were pretty proud parents at her game, she hit the only home run of the game!

 

 

Jaymes had fun, hanging out, watching "Sissa" play.

Out of the mouth of a five year old

Last night Isabella and I were talking about how God gives everyone different talents.  She told me that she thought God made me a "good cook, good cookie baker, good singer, good at playing piano, good at teaching piano, and good at taking care of people."  I asked her what she thought God made Daddy good at, her response - "Um (long pause), he's good at backing the vehicles out of the garage."

I couldn't help but laugh, but then I helped her come up with some more, because Daddy's good at lots of other things, too!

18 months

What started out as just trying on the kids' new Easter outfits to see if they fit, turned into an impromptu photo session yesterday. That's what I love about taking their pictures myself, it saves on time, money, and in my opinion, a whole lot of hassle! :) Our little photo session took no more than 10 minutes.

I know I always say this, but I can't believe he's 18 months already! At his 18 month check up last week he was 23 pounds (15th %) and 32 and 3/4 inches (60%). He just started wearing some 18 month clothes in the last two weeks, but still wears quite a bit of 12 month, too, especially pants - he's got short little legs. He is a very mellow, easygoing little guy who can keep himself entertained (much better than his sister ever could, she always wanted us to play with her). He's very soft hearted, just like his sister, it absolutely breaks his heart if you tell him, "no". He experimented one time with climbing, and decided that was not something he should do again! About 4 months ago he climbed on top of his toy box, fell off, landed on his head, and went to the chiropractor to get his head back in proper alignment. He still loves his sleep, and transitioned from two naps to one nap about 6 weeks ago. I can always count on at least a good 3 hour afternoon nap from him everyday, but we have had to wake him up after 5 hours on occasion! At night, he sleeps from 7-7. He absolutely adores his big sister, and I'm surprised (because of their age difference) how well they play together. The big differences I have noticed between him and his sister are that he throws everything (is that a boy thing??), and he is not talking at all like she did at this age. He says an occasional word here and there, but mostly talks gibberish (which I think is adorable!). He still communicates his wants/needs with baby sign language, other than when he wants to go to sleep, he will tell us "nye nye" over and over again. He is completely attached to me, which is also different from Isabella, she's always been attached to her daddy. He is also a picky eater, which is quite frustrating at times! I didn't realize how nice it was to have such a good eater with Isabella. I'm always trying different ways to sneak vegetables in him, and he really likes my spinach muffins! His favorite things are looking at books, having us read books to him, and playing with tractors and trucks, and everything still goes in the mouth - all. the. time! He's starting to get a mouthful of teeth, and by the way he's been chomping on toys lately, I'm pretty sure he's working on some more. He was on antibiotic for the first time two weeks ago for his first ear infection.

I had to take some pictures of my little lady, too!

Christmas 2011

My kids are terrified of Santa! (Yes, even Isabella at 5 years old!) We spent an early Christmas with Monte's parents, where we went to Santa Claus Day. Isabella was worried and nervous about seeing Santa, Jaymes was terrified, and a dog (don't know why there was a dog there in a school gym!) came up to Jaymes and took his beloved blanky away from him, which left Jaymes even more traumatized! But, it ended up not being a total disaster because . . .

Isabella's name was drawn to win these dolls! She loves them, she named the big one, Isabelle. :) Oh, and in the picture above she's demonstrating her nervous habit of twirling her hair, that was the closest she wanted to get to Santa.

We spent Christmas Eve here, just the four of us. I love it when it works out that we can spend Christmas Eve alone, just our little family!

Jaymes got a Little Tykes car and wagon for outside play, it should be perfect for this summer. He's not too in to opening presents yet. He enjoyed playing with all of the wrapping paper, though.

Isabella received the much longed for Strawberry Shortcake Market, among other things, including a kids digital camera. Monte says now he knows what it's like to be followed by papparazzi all the time! :)

We met up with my family at my sister's for Christmas day. Jaymes and his cousin both came wearing the same outfit! This was the best picture I could get, neither of them wanted to sit still, imagine that!

Birthday Bash

According to Isabella, "It was the best birthday party ever!!". I'm so glad she had so much fun, and it's not even her birthday yet! I have to say I was relieved when she requested a cupcake party, since cupcakes are easy to make. I've made some extremely time consuming birthday cakes in years past, and although I enjoyed it then, I really didn't feel like doing it this year.

My big girl! Can't believe she'll be 5 in a few days!

The birthday party set up.

I made an ice cream cake, too . . . so I don't think even one person tried a cupcake.

Opening presents . . .

Her cousin showed up in the same outfit, just different color!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

We decided, spur of the moment, to take a trip to a pumpkin patch this evening. It was great fun for all of us!

I LOVE this picture of my sweet little guy!

She's trying to get him to look at the camera, but he was too involved with the dirt. Don't you love her sunglasses? :) She had to use mine since we forgot hers, and she's obsessed with sunglasses.

This picture makes me chuckle, I had no idea she was doing that.

Me and my kiddos.

All grown up?

I look at this picture and think, is she really only four!? My babies are growing up too fast!

Some of the walls in our new addition are looking a little bare, so I thought in addition to the one year pictures I just took of Jaymes, I would take some of both the kids. It was not good timing, Jaymes was tired and hungry, but I did get at least one good one of both of them together.

First day of school!

Monte and I dropped Isabella off this morning for her very first day of preschool. Don't let the picture deceive you, she was not very happy! She has been excited about starting preschool up until the last couple of days, she got really nervous. She cried last night and this morning because I couldn't go with her. She was crying a little bit when we left, but as we were leaving I saw her teacher giving her a hug. I felt so bad, and was worried about how she was doing. We really like her teacher, we know her from church, and she's been teaching preschool for 27 years. She had told us last week that we should send a picture of our family with Isabella to keep at school. She also said that if it didn't work out, she would call us to come get her and we would just try again another time. Not long after I got home this morning her teacher called with good news. She said she was doing great, talking up a storm, and adjusting better than most! *Huge sigh of relief* Her teacher wondered if she was in gymnastics because she recognised another little girl, and was playing really well with her. I'm so glad she is in gymnastics so that she knows some other kids. There is also one other little boy in her class that she knows from my Mom's group / Bible Study. I am so thankful that the teacher took time to call and let me know how she is doing! I was nervous for her because she's never done anything like this, except for gymnastics, but I always stay and watch her there. We're sending her 3 days a week instead of the 4 that it is offered - Mon, Tues, Thurs, and it's from 8:00 - 11:30. Jaymes naps almost that whole time, so now I am going to have to adjust to actually having some free time during the day! The possibilities are endless, I think I'm going to try and get as much prep work for supper done that I can do ahead of time, clean, hopefully get back on a workout routine, and maybe I'll have more time to update the blog!

The teacher asked that each child bring their favorite stuffed animal on the first day. She's all about Clifford right now!