Isabelle's Birthday/Birthday Party #2

On Isabelle's birthday our original plans fell through so we ended up spending the day at home and having Heather and Andrew come over for dinner, presents and dessert. Curt came home early from work to spend the afternoon with us (and to relieve me...I was having horrible dizzy spells). It was really the first time in four days that Curt spent any time outside of middle of the night feedings with Isabelle. She was so thrilled to see him. He even took her out on a little Daddy/Daughter outing to WalMart to pick up her present from him: a swing.

While at WalMart, Curt also picked up a ball for Isabelle. Apparently as soon as she saw the metal container she got all excited and started clapping.

After playing outside we had dinner. Isabelle's favorite foods right now are macaroni and cheese and corn. So she pigged out when we prepared her both. Following dinner we opened presents. She did much better than she did at Christmas time. We got her a baby doll. 

Grammie and Papa got her a toy...

And of course I made her a cake. It was Chocolate Zucchini cake. She liked the frosting more than the cake...

Don't you love how she has to have a fork?

We had a wonderful day. I can't believe my baby is ONE! Happy Birthday, Little One!!!

Vote For Me! PLEASE!!!

Okay...blog followers...both people I know who read my blog and everyone else too. I need your help. I just finished this SUPER cute layout...and I'm super stoked about how it turned out. I'm really excited about it. I entered it into a contest last night and I need your votes to win. It's a little annoying because you have to do a SHORT registering process in order to vote, but I would do it for you! I'm number 30. Go here. To register go to the bottom of the page. Once you register if you get a "Restricted Access" page, click on the "Layout Contest" link at the top of the page. To vote...click on the star at the bottom of the page. You can only vote once per email address, so if you have more, register that email to and vote twice! :)

Everything used to make this page is SMJ's Rock Star Girl kit and GG Digital Design's Clip Its.

Normal blogging will resume at the close of this contest on MONDAY at midnight. Upcoming posts include: Isabelle's birthday, parties #1, #2 and maybe #3 (#3 hasn't happened yet...), cloth diapers update/review, more scrapbooking news (this is exciting to me even if it isn't to you... :), Isabelle's new outdoors toys that she loves, exciting future plans for our family and whatever else I can come up with. 

One Year

Here we are... Who would have thought a year can go by so quickly. Okay...maybe all of us, but really...how has it been a year since I was in labor? Hmm...I guess I should write that story for journaling purposes, but well...even though I was physically there, I wasn't there for her entrance into the world. I wasn't there for the following 24 hours either, so it is discouraging to write. Maybe one of these days.

The past year has been filled with such high and lows that in some ways I can't believe I've made it through. It has been the hardest year of both Curt's and my life...and not just because of Isabelle. Thank goodness for my parents...with out them and their support I don't know how we would have survived or even feed and clothed Isabelle. However along with the really really tough times, we've also had such joy. Every night in our couple prayer we thank our Heavenly Father for our little girl. She brings more joy into our lives. Her laugh makes it all worth it. Even on the really bad days (like almost this whole week...she's teething), when I'm reduced to tears by the end of the day, she still manages to make me smile. She is the bright spot in our lives...not always, but I really can't complain too much. She is SOOO much better than she used to be. I'm so glad those first couple of months of nothing but crying are over...too bad the whining has set in. :)

Here are some things about my beautiful LITTLE GIRL at ONE YEAR:

• She can say: Hi, Bye, Bo (bow wow or dog), Ma (more), Baby (she says this a clear as day...perfectly articulated), and she used to say Pretty, but she won't anymore.
• She loves the lights...any kind of light. When we walk in her room after she wakes up, the first thing she does is points to the light for us to turn it on. She's kind of funny though because she doesn't like to be lifted up close to them.
• She loves being outside. This past week we inherited some outdoor toys (I'll do a post soon) that she LOVES. Seriously LOVES. She throws tantrums when we take her out of them.
• Her favorite person is still my dad.
• She's picked up walking a little more again. Once she started she walked for about three days, but then she refused to do it. On Sunday since she was in a dress, she decided walking wasn't so bad after all. So, now she'll do it a little more again. If she's ever on a mission to actually get some where though she still crawls. 
• She either loves men (my dad, Curt and her uncle Seth) or she is scared of them. There are very few exceptions to this. She gets very shy and if they approach her too soon she will run away from them or if she already has me, then she'll claw at me to get as close to me as possible. Her uncle Andrew has finally become not scary to her, but she still won't let him hold her. She will touch him and play around him though.
• She still loves books a ton. 
• If she wakes up in a good mood, she'll play in her bed with her toy that's attached to the crib. If she wakes up grumpy, she cries immediately. I know before I ever walk into her room how the rest of the day is going to go.
• She was transitioning to one nap, but she's kind of reverted. On Saturdays and Sundays she almost always just has one nap, but during the week we aren't busy enough to keep her entertained and distracted so she generally has two. Two nap days are shorter naps but on good days they are still an hour to an hour and a half long. Bad days are 30 to 45 minutes long. 
• She love the "Five little monkeys sitting in a tree..." song. She'll clap her hands to do the "SNAP" part. So cute.
• If you start the "This little piggy went to market" rhyme, she finds her toes and plays with them while you say it. She really likes this rhyme too. My dad taught her.
• She loves the dog next door. She still stands at the window and yells at him and gets so excited when she catches a glimpse of him. 
• She is currently cutting her sixth tooth. You can feel a tiny bit of one corner. 
• She is climbing even more. She's always loved to climb, but now she's getting good enough to climb on top of toys and such.
• She loves to eat what we eat. Her favorites are baked beans, corn, hamburgers, macaroni and cheese and ketchup. You can put ketchup on anything and she'd eat it.... Okay we haven't really tried this on anything but eggs, but I think it would be true. 
• She attaches herself to one word. Meaning, one word makes her really happy and will often make her laugh. Currently it is, "Boing!" I bought a random little googly ball that has tentacles and so we started pulling them and saying, "BOING!" She thinks it is hilarious. Other words she has done this to are: Wow, Woah, Eww and others that I can't currently remember. 
• She now has to feed herself with a fork. She's actually decently good at it. She doesn't do it the entire time she eats cause she gets impatient, but every time is surprises me at how she can stab the food and get it into her mouth. My mom bought her toddler forks yesterday. I'm excited. It will be less nerve raking now. 
• She will still do her "Mowgli" walk every once in a while. I love it and I will really miss it some day soon. 
• She has eczema. The flare ups are horrible. It keeps her up at night because she itches so bad. We went to the doctor on Monday and they gave her a prescription anit-itch medicine. Hopefully that helps next time it flares up.
• At the doctor she weighed 22.2 pounds! Holy chunk of meat! I swear about a month ago she gained all five of those pounds in a week. She is SOO heavy to lug around.

Okay...that's probably enough that most of you aren't reading anymore. :) 

P.S. It isn't too late to vote for me! Please do! I really want to win and I'm behind...by a lot. So please help me out and vote. (Link is on previous post still.)

Huh? Really? Are you sure?!?

Can you believe this billboard is advertising a CHURCH?! I don't even know what point they are trying to make...or what they are saying...or what the guy is doing in the picture. I do know that when I first saw it, I thought The Upper Room was a gentlemen's club... Hmmm....I don't think the marketing department did very good research or held enough focus groups or polled enough people... Then again, maybe it really is a gentlemen's club and the church is just a front. I'm just saying...

What is this Advertising?

Okay...so I've been meaning to write this blog for forever now. I just don't pass this billboard as a passenger and with camera in hand too often. I actually know what this billboard is advertising...but the first time I saw it I had no clue what it was ACTUALLY for. I definitely know what I THOUGHT it was for though. Do you know what it is from this advertising? Don't cheat and go to the Web site either... What's your guess? (People who live in the area and who know what the actual answer is, don't spoil the answer.)

Walking!

So last Tuesday Isabelle started walking. While she only did it really once that day, on Wednesday and Thursday, she totally took off. On Thursday she totally got to the point where she could walk all over the game/toy room. She would carry this electronic snow globe Christmas ornament around almost like a lantern all day. It was so cute. Thankfully though she isn't really secure in her abilities yet so she didn't venture out to the room. She would turn around and come back. Yay! However, each day since Thursday, she's been digressing in her walking abilities and interest in it. She really doesn't do it much since then. She'll only take a couple of steps then she just crawl the rest of the way. The videos are pretty good examples of what I'm talking about. The first was last Wednesday and the second was taken on Saturday. If she does walk, she generally won't do it unless you are holding both her hands now. Oh well...I can't say I'm super supportive of this new development. I'm afraid it will be even harder to keep her out of stuff and from climbing stuff even more.

Chubby Legs

Yesterday I put shorts on Isabelle for the first time in I don't even know how long...October maybe? I don't know...I do know that it's been so long that I forgot how cute Isabelle's chubby little legs are. Of course I've seen them since then, but not while she's had clothes on...we very rarely have her just in a diaper. Anyway, aren't they the cutest chubby legs? I couldn't help but be happy all day because of her outfit. It was just such a happy outfit. Apparently Isabelle thought so too, because while she had a rough morning, once I got her dressed for the day she had very few grouchy / whiny moments. She played and played and played with her toys. She didn't even demand much attention...she just played on her own. Of course she'd come over to me and "check in" every 30 minutes or so, but she had such a good day. She was so happy and squealing and laughing and exploring and inventing new games. Like throwing her paci in the doll house to where she couldn't get it and then "call" me to come and rescue it just so she could do it again. Or climbing on the bean bag chair. She hasn't done that in well over a month. She used to love that...I don't think I ever blogged about it though. Maybe I'll have to do a couple back-blogs soon. She spent a ton of time (seriously...a TON of time) trying to put her socks on. She totally gets the concept and even opens the hole at the top to put her foot in it, but she has no concept of how to get her foot in that hole. It is so cute though. She finished the day off by starting to walk! Yep while I was talking to my sister-in-law she totally stood up and took 15 steps and then sat back down. It's almost like she didn't even realize she was doing it until half way through. Then she got really proud. When Curt got home from school (so sad he missed it...) she took two steps for him, but wouldn't go any further or even try anymore. Overall, yesterday was one of those days that at the end of the day you can say, "That may have been one of your best days yet..."

Day at the Park

On Friday, Isabelle and I met some friends at the park to enjoy the super pretty weather we've been experiencing. Isabelle loved it there. She loved the wood chips. She dug several "holes" to expose the dirt and get it under her nails... Fun... :) She also gathered the wood chips and threw them up in the air. She also loved the slide. She loved going down the slide and she loved watching people go down the slide. She would laugh at my friend's daughters going down the slides. There were also duck that the older kids fed...she looked at them for a little bit, but then she was just concerned about getting in the water and playing. Overall, it was so fun to get out of the house and play outside in the beautiful weather. 

Thanks Sarah for the super cute pictures of Isabelle!

Surprise

So, I'm a little bit on cloud nine right now. I'm sure I'm like a lot of you...my daily ritual includes looking at all of my favorite blogs and friend's who have updated their blogs. I'm naturally a nosy person, so once I figured out the who blog world, I was hooked. Anyway...I'm especially addicted to digital scrapbooking blogs...well, because I'm addicted to digital scrapbooking. (Seriously, it's an addiction!) Today, while going through my blogs I found this post. Now for everyone out of the digital scrapbooking community, this is a big deal. This doesn't happen very often...at all. Considering there are only a handful of posts featuring one scrapbooker and thousands upon thousands of scrapbookers...well you get the point. To make things even better, the blog I'm featured on is the blog of my favorite designer! Like I said, I'm totally on cloud nine. Okay...enough tooting my own horn. :)

New Favorite Magazine

It all started in Idaho when my grandma showed Isabelle a food magazine. Ever since, she has loved magazines. Her first love was the food one...then she moved on to American Girl...then she moved on to any magazine that she could pull out of the magazine basket and tear up...and now we are to a small Carter's catalog. She loves it. She points to all the pictures and says, "Baby!" Yep, we have another new word... It is so cute. She's gotten really good at pronouncing it too.

Right Now

I couldn't blog this picture any faster... This was Isabelle literally two minutes ago. I heard her saying, "Ahhh...ahh....ahhhhhh..." so I turned around from the computer and saw this:

She LOVES her stuffed animals. (All ten or so that she has now...Heather had quite the collection.)

Am I Insane?

Look what came in the mail today...

And so I ask: Am I insane? I don't know. I do know that disposable diapers are expensive and I can't afford them. Stay tuned though, I'll let you know after a week or so if they are wonderful or a waste of money. I have high hopes...