Happy Birthday to My Baby Girl!

Isabelle is 2 tomorrow (the 29th)! I can't believe how fast time has gone. I can hardly remember a time without her. She is the love of our lives. She makes us laugh every day! She keeps us on our toes. Isabelle has been such a blessing in our lives.

When I was pregnant with Isabelle, I was positive she was a boy. James was sure she was a girl. We chose not to find out what we were having, so I was absolutely shocked and thrilled when she was born! I would have been happy with a boy, of course, but my little princess was what I always hoped for.

The past two years have been so much fun. It's so exciting to see Isabelle learning new things each day. I'm grateful for her sweet smile, her giggle, her pats on the back and strokes on the face, her cute little voice, and for her ability to make all of those around her smile. I wish I could pause time and keep her at this age for a while longer. She truly makes us so happy!

Happy birthday Belly Boo! We love you!

Above is a slideshow of how Isabelle has grown. There were about a million pictures to choose from, but here's a few.

December Festivities

We've had an exciting Christmas season so far! There's always so much to do in December. It's my favorite time of year, and as with everything else, it's so much more fun with Isabelle around. Kids just make everything seem more exciting!

We kicked off our holiday season with a trip to the North Pole via the Polar Express! We had such a great time! Isabelle was so excited to ride on the train. The kids had a blast! The elves served us luke warm hot chocolate and Mrs. Claus gave us some of her famous store-bought chocolate chip cookies. In other words, it wasn't quite as spectacular as the book or movie, but the kids could've cared less. They got to wear their pajamas and we sang Christmas carols while riding on a train to the North Pole- what could be better than that? Isabelle loved when Santa came through and gave her a special bell. We really had a fun time! Isabelle is still talking about her train ride. Every time we see a train or cross the tracks by our house, she says she wants to ride the train, and gets so happy!

Isabelle loves Santa! I wasn't sure how she would react to him this year, but we've visited with him probably ten times now. I don't know why I worried, because she loves old men. Everywhere we go, she makes friends with them! It took her a couple of times to warm up to Santa, but now she walks right up to him, jumps on his lap, and tells him what she wants for Christmas! Sometimes she gets a little stage fright, and just smiles and stares at him, but most of the time now, she could chat with him forever. She tells him she wants a baby doll, a dog, and a slide. She came up with the slide all by herself when she was flipping through a toy catalog. She told me that she was going to tell Santa she wanted a slide (not with those exact words, but well enough that I understood). Isabelle is constantly talking about Santa. She also loves to play with the nativities around the house, and has started talking about Jesus a lot lately too, which makes me so happy!

We've been to see both the lights at Temple Square and at Christmas Village so far this month and Isabelle has loved them! She especially loved Christmas Village because of the little houses. Everything is just her size there. I know we'll be visiting there at least a couple more times this month because she was so dang cute running around to each house with her little hat and mittens on!

This is just such an exciting time of year. Everything seems so magical around Christmastime! I love the holidays- the parties, the shopping, the decorating, the candy-making. It's definitely easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of the holidays and I just hope we can all remember the true meaning of Christmas and the birth of our wonderful Savior. I hope that James and I will be able to instill this in Isabelle's perspective of Christmas. Though she doesn't understand much yet, I think she already knows the importance of Jesus in our Christmas holiday- at least I hope so!

Waiting for our ride on the Polar Express

Isabelle waiting patiently

Cousins- Jill, Isabelle, Gracie

Waiting for Santa with Emma

Isabelle made friends with the guy across the aisle

Waiting at the mall to visit Santa

A little nervous this visit, so Mommy sat on Santa's lap

Standing in front of the big tree at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Grandma and Papa with all of the grandkids- this is as good as it gets

Daddy and Belly Boo

Cute girls! Isabelle and her cousins

Mommyy keeping Isabelle from falling in the water

This is the place we call "our spot". This is where James and I got engaged. My brother constantly makes fun of us because we always have to have our picture taken here when we come to the temple grounds.

Twirling!

Looking out at the beautiful temple

Family Pictures

I've been going to post these pictures for about a month now, but I just haven't gotten around to it. We had a friend, MJ Morgan take our pictures for us. This is the fifth time he's done our family pictures and he is awesome! He is so creative and so very good at what he does. I am always happy with the outcome. If your're in need of an excellent photographer, check out his website- mjmorganphoto.com!

My Hobbies

So, if you've seen my daughter, you probably know that she is always wearing a bow. I love bows in her hair! The bigger the better! I love to make these bows. I started making them a few months back, becuase I could never find what I was looking for, and now she has a million! I have so much fun coming up with new ideas and seeing how cute they look on Isabelle. She is an excellent model! Anyway, I pretty much make her a new bow for every new outfit she gets. I'm a little obsessed I guess. I also like making tutus for her to wear. They're so big and fluffy and I love all things girly. These tutus are so cute for pictures and dress-up. I just love making girl stuff! It's a good thing I have a daughter because a little boy would look pretty silly wearing my creations!

Here are some of the bows I've made. There are tons mores since this picture was taken. I have to say, Isabelle makes them look a lot cuter!

Twirly Tutus- I love them with a flower clipped on them.

Here's one of the tutus on Isabelle. SO sweet!

October, in a Nutshell

October is always such a busy month! Besides the fun Halloween festivities, we also have a billion family birthdays. We had a very fun October.

It started out with a milestone birthday for me- the big 25! I know that's not really old, but 24 sounded a lot better. I had an awesome birthday spending the day with James and Isabelle shopping in Salt Lake and eating at my favorite restaurant, PF Chang's. We had a family party that night, and I got everything I asked for!

We've had the chance to go on a few fieldtrips in October with my two neices' preschool class. We went to the pumpkin patch/corn maze in Syracuse, to their Halloween carnival, and also, this last Friday we got to go to the children's museum at the Gateway. Isabelle loved the pumpkin patch. They took us on a hayride out to pick a pumpkin, and then they had all sorts of toys and fun things to do. She went down the slide about 50 times. She got to go on a little ride where the kids sat in pigs and cows and were pulled around by a tractor. She had lots of fun with her cousins at the carnival. They had tons of booths to go around and play games at and get lots of candy. The Discovery Gateway Museum was tons of fun for her. She especially loved the grocery store, because her favorite thing to do lately is play store. She uses our calculator or adding machine (or anything with buttons) as a cash register, and swipes our credit cards through the buttons. She loves money! I can't believe they learn the concept of money and credit cards at such a young age.

Halloween was lots of fun this year, now that Isabelle understood it more. We went to a trunk-or-treat and she was just crazy. She would sift through each person's candy until she found the treat she wanted, then she'd tell them "thank you, welcome," and run to the next car. We ended up with lots of suckers and M&Ms. Her favorite treat was the bag of Doritos the Frito Lay guy gave out! She loves chips and she had to eat them immediately. She was dressed up as a little 50s girl with a poodle skirt and she looked so cute!

So October was great for us and November is already keeping us busy! I can't wait for the holidays. I'm the person who wants to start listening to Christmas music the day after Halloween. If only I were allowed to listen to any music in my car besides Shrek and Enchanted. I'm ready to start the Christmas season. I'm looking forward to shopping, of course. A couple of other exciting upcoming events- the Twilight movie (YEAH!) and the Polar Express at Heber Valley Railroad! I love the holidays!

My 25th Birthday!

Isabelle in the pumpkin patch

This is the slide she loved.

Here are Ike and Isabelle riding the little train.

Isn't this such a cute little ride?

This is at a pumpkin patch in Farmington.



With cousins at the Halloween carnival

The costume parade

Halloween- Isabelle and Jill

Isabelle, Jill, Gracie

The trunk-or-treat

Isn't she cute?

This is at Discovery Gateway. He could so be a news guy!

The little cashier in action!

A fun horse ride

Crazy driver- just like Daddy!

She loved playing in this water thing.

Me & my girl

Just had to throw this picture in- I love it!