Jolene

I'm still here. Monte's been working from home A LOT lately, every day until about 10:00 at night, so I haven't had much access to the computer. A quick break every now and then, but not long enough to actually post something, so here I am finally. I'm finding I actually really like not being able to be on the computer for very long periods of time.

Monte has an aunt named Jolene, she lives on the east coast. She comes to our area about once every 2 or three years, so when she was in the area a few months ago, we went out to eat with her and her husband. Isabella really liked her, so every once in a while I would sing that old Dolly Parton song, "Jolene", to her. She thought it was funny, and started singing it herself, I finally caught some of it on camera. And pay no attention to her "crying" baby, her poor baby is always crying, she must be colicky. :)

Happy Girl!

Today was a lazy day. I feel a little guilty for not getting much done other than cooking, it was just one of those days. Isabella is on a book binge lately, that's about all she wants to do, so I guess I spent the majority of the day reading to her, and will this girl ever play by herself again?! She seems to go in spurts where that's all she wants to do is go off and play by herself, followed by a period of time of not playing by herself at all! And right now we are in that time where she wants to play with Monte or me all the time, not that it's all bad, but really, I think she is capable of sticking her doll's passy in it's mouth. It's just more fun to have Mommy do it 1,275 times a day!! And here's some pictures from our morning. She was being her usual goofy self.

First Haircut

We decided to give Isabella her first haircut this past weekend, my mom did the honors. I've never even trimmed it before, and her crazy baby mullet was really getting to us! At least the hair on the top of her head is finally growing, it will be a while yet until it catches up with the rest of her hair, though. Her hair has lost a lot of it's curl, but it still has waves, and does some weird flippy things.

Before - Looking a little scraggly!

After - Front and side veiws.

The Last of the Celebrations

We celebrated Isabella's birthday with my family on Sunday. It was great to have my parents stay overnight with us, it's been awhile. Also, my sister and her family came. My brother and his family were not able to make it. She got Clipo, a Veggie Tales electronic toy, a Veggie Tales CD, lots of books, stuffed animals, markers, and coloring books. I made, what I thought would be, a simplified version of her previous cake. It ended up taking me just as long to make it, though.

Snow Day!

We were snowed in today, and it was the perfect snowday. Monte was home, and instead of catching up on housework while Isabella napped, I decided to drink hot chocolate and read my Taste of Home magazines. It was a relaxing day, we kept saying that it felt like we were in school, and were home on a snowday.

Good Books

Check out Connie's blog if you are interested in buying any Usborne books. If you haven't heard of them, they are awesome! These books are so much fun, and reasonably priced. I've bought them a couple different times, both times I have ordered online and they arrived within a few days.

Happy Golden Birthday to my Sweet Girl!

We've had a fun weekend around here! This girl is definitely not lacking in birthday celebrations. We celebrated with Monte's family a couple of weeks ago, then yesterday we met Monte's mom at the zoo, and went out to eat. Today, just the three of us are celebrating, and next weekend we'll have her party with my family! Oh, and also on Friday night two sets of neighbors gave her birthday gifts. She got an easel from one neighbor, with a chalkboard on one side and a white board on the other side. She was SO excited about it, that she woke up at 3:30 this morning. I was worried when she got up, because that's not like her, I thought maybe she was sick or something, but the crazy kid got up because she wanted to play with her easel! I explained to her that it was still nighttime, and then rocked her for a while until she fell back asleep. Then, this morning after Mass, we took her to the store and said she could pick out whatever she wanted to eat. She picked out bananas and doughnuts. She was so proud of those bananas, carrying them all around the store. We then let her open a couple of presents from us, she got a little banjo (which, for some reason, she thinks is a potty for her dolls) and a Waterbaby, which she is now in love with. We also got her some books, but I might save those until her party next weekend.

I cannot believe what a big girl she is now! She's becoming more independent all the time. She can say anything and everything, and is talking in complete sentences. She does get me, you, and I mixed up. She always says "you" when she is talking about herself. She loves to say the words to the sign of the cross, and is getting better at the actions. She loves to play ring around the rosie, especially with her cousin, Rachel. She is counting to ten, and knows just a couple small parts of the abc's. She knows all the basic colors, this winter I'm going to work on shapes with her. She still loves to read, right now her favorite book is "Momma, Will You?", we read it about 20 times a day. Some of her other favorite activites are playing with Play-Doh, and coloring. Her favorite toys are her baby dolls and their accessories. She loves going to church, and gets excited when we tell her that's where we're going, we found out a long time ago that if we bring nothing for her to do in church, she doesn't think it is playtime, and will sit really still and pay attention (thanks to my sis-in-law for that tip). Her best friend (other than her cousins Marie and Rachel) is a little girl named Katelynn. She calls her "Kay-haan" and Katelynn calls her "Canbella"! She can be very shy around people she doesn't know, and has a very tender heart. Sometimes just telling her the word "no" will break her heart. She has been the greatest joy in our lives, we are so blessed!

At the zoo - Three generations.

Her new easel.

Can't hardly wait for Daddy to get the baby out of the box.

Giving baby a kiss.

Her new banjo (aka doll potty!?)