My Birthday

Well, I finally started feeling good on my birthday! Peter's birthday was Monday, the 1st, and we all were still feeling pukey still. I felt bad for him. He didn't really have that great of a birthday this year, but we kind of celebrated both of ours together on mine. We had a cake brought up to us from Debbie. (Yes, his mom's name is Debbie too!) Isabella was VERY interested in our cake so she decided to jump right in it. Peter also surprised me and brought Isabella to my classroom yesterday! I was SOOO very shocked and happy! I never thought he would do that since we've been so sick and the house is such a mess. I thought he'd stay home and rest, but he didn't. He's such a thoughtful husband! It was so much fun to see her in the classroom walking up and down the halls and climbing in the loft. She looked adorable too. Way to go daddy! Later on we went to Kohl's and I spent a gift card I had then we headed to Texas Roadhouse. I LOVE that restaurant! Although I hadn't eaten a real meal in a week I was determined to eat something from there. I got a grilled chicken and baked potato and I didn't get sick at all. I was so glad I didn't feel sick afterwards. Isabella got a hold of the crayons and she's just now starting to color and "draw" on paper. She still seems to eat them though. When we got home she played with my balloons that Peter brought to work for me. She LOVES balloons! She talks and talks to them like they're the best thing she's ever seen. I took a video of her playing with them. Too cute. Thank you for all the great gifts from my family and friends. I love you guys so much!!

Here's my tag response from Amanda and Mom. It's the 4th file and the 4th picture in that file. It's of Isabella and Maddie (her cousin). I guess this was when they were playing at Uncle Shawn and Aunt Kim's house when the girls were in town. "Is" (my short for Isabella) was about 9 months old in this picture. They ended up going to the zoo and having a lot of fun that weekend.

I tag Leshia, Jennifer, Alison, and Courtney!

As of today...

As of today, we're all feeling much better. Thank you for your prayers and sweet comments. I really appreciated them so much! I think I'm the one with the most sensitive stomach right now, but I think I'm getting out of the woods soon. So, as far as we know, it wasn't a "bug" it was actually the stomach flu. I took Isabella back to the pediatrician last night and she said there's nothing else that I could do but let it run its course. I must have looked pretty rough because Dr. Johnson told me I needed to take care of myself :) She ended up giving me a prescription for nausea and told me to get Isabella some gatorade. That was about it. I figured that was what she was going to say, but I'm sure glad I got me some medicine while I was there. Anyway, here's how our Thanksgiving day went.

Since it was so nice outside I decided to let her walk around and push her pink stroller around. The stroller officially belongs to her now. She kind of took it over from our neighbor Gray. I told Krista I'd give it back but she said Isabella could keep it. She loves that thing. It doesn't even have a seat on it, but she doesn't care. She pushes it everywhere! We even took it with us to Chicago. You can tell in some of these pictures that she's pale as a ghost from being sick all night and day. Poor thing didn't eat until 7:00pm that night. She finally had mashed potatoes and a couple of chicken tenders which she scarfed down. I'm glad she ate something, although it did come back up about 3 hours later. I put a flashlight by her bed so we could look at her sheets through the night.

Here's Peter eating his Thanksgiving dinner that Amanda brought to us from Granny Beach's house since we weren't able to go. Thanks Amanda! It was good food. Our tree is up and has lights, but no ornaments yet. We've not been able to get that far. Maybe tomorrow. Our snow village is up. I love Dept. 56's Snow Village. Each year we visit Gatlinburg we purchase a piece or two. We don't have too many yet, but I still love putting them out every year. This year we bought a pet store. Since Isabella loves puppy dogs, we thought that fit us best this year. Two years ago it was a baby store since we were expecting and didn't know the gender yet. That's actually where we came up with the name Isabella Faith, in Gatlingburg. I remember riding in the car with Peter, Shawn and Kim and talking about names. The name Isabella sounded so pretty and I didn't know anyone with the name. I thought I was being unique until she was born which is when I started hearing her name everywhere it seemed!
Go figure.

I don't know about anyone else, but I sort of think she looks like me in these two pictures. She sure has her daddy's eyes, but I think she's resembling me a little more these days.

Here's my Great Grandmother's (Isabella's Great-Great Grandmother) snowman I got out of her attic last year. She passed away several years ago and Peter and I went through a lot of her and my Great Grandfather's Christmas things to remember them by. This is one of our favorites. It's very old as you can tell. We had it outside last year, but it kept falling over so we moved it indoors this year. I think she likes it.

Since she seemed to be feeling a little better after watching Thomas the Train about a million times, I decided to catch her in dance mode. She loves to dance to any tune. Here is a short clip of her dancing a little. She just bobs her head from side to side. It's the most halarious thing ever. She's definitely not being herself in the video, but she sure did try to liven up a bit later on. Enjoy.

We need prayers....

Now we're all sick vomiting and diarrhea. Please say prayers for us that this passes very quickly. Too tired to write anymore. Just wanted to ask for prayers. Thanks so much.

still saying "Happy Thanksgiving"

Well, I woke up this morning to Isabella talking as usual. I get her out of bed and it's still dim in her room because of her window shade so I didn't notice anything interesting. I got her a bottle as usual and she drank most of it. As soon as we got up off the chair she throws up everywhere! I make it to the hallway to get in the towel closet and she throws up again, I make it halfway to my bedroom to holler for Peter to help and she throws up again! By now our house is really stinking on this wonderful, beautiful, sunny Thanksgiving morning. So, I'm thinking....maybe it's the milk. Although it doesn't expire until next week it might still be bad so I threw it all out. I had to give her a bath because she smelled. After her bath she had a funny look on her face. I thought "oh no" here it goes. She throws up and throws up as much as she possibly can yellow bile from the deepest part of her stomach. With her face turning red and her laying right on me just puking away. Finally Peter says, have you checked her bed to see if she threw up last night? Of course I haven't, why would I think about that right now. So I ran into her room and sure enough she had puked ALL night. There was throw up all over her sheet in her bed. I just started crying because I felt so bad that I hadn't known she's laying in puke all night. She never once cried so how was I supposed to know? By now we've gone through 5 outfits and cleaned everything we can clean. Definetly need our carpets cleaned now. She's sleeping right now so I'm hoping she got it all out of her system when she wakes up. This is the first Thanksgiving where I've gone nowhere. Seems kind of weird to be home, but I'm just making the most of it. Just made myself a sandwich and some mac' n cheese out of a box! My Thanksgiving lunch :) Hope yours has been more enjoyable than mine. I think tonight may be an early to bed night for all of us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everybody has a blessed Thanksgiving. I was reading in Parents magazine about how a mom has a routine with her 3 year old at night: first they read a couple of books, sing two songs, and then tell each other some things they are grateful for. They did this every night of the year. I hope to do the same with Isabella when she's a little older. Children these days just don't seem to appreciate the beauty of life (colorful trees, the wind blowing their hair, the stars at night). Even teaching Kindergarten I can see how early children develop this sense of under appreciation for the things around them (the things that don't cost money). Appreciating life doesn't mean we always enjoy every moment of it. I had to take Isabella back to the doctor yesterday to find out she had pink eye in both eyes. And she had to get the other half of her flu shot. Not fun. What I didn't realize would be the worst part is getting the drops IN her eyes. Let me say NOT FUN! Most of it just runs down her face and into her eye lashes. I just hope it gets in there somehow. Even through all the doctor visits and myself not feeling up to par lately, I am still so thankful and grateful for everything in my life. Every moment that passes is one I'll never get back again. Sometimes that can be a good thing too. No matter where you are in life, be thankful. I once heard "The angels stand in awe of us on earth. For all they know is God. They don't know what it's like to live on earth and trust in an invisible God. They respect us for that." What a thought to think about. I guess this goes with the verse in the Bible that talks about it is more blessed to believe in God and not have seen than to have seen and then believed. There's always a reason to be thankful. Mainly because we have a God who loves us unconditionally. Love, love, and Happy Thanksgiving.

Too long!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted. If you only knew what I've been up to lately you'd understand why I haven't posted lately. I wasn't able to go on vacation this past year so I've kind of made up for it these past 3 weekends. Three weeks ago Peter and I took Isabella to Gatlinburg. We had so much fun visiting the Aquarium, Dollywood, and shopping in Pigeon Forge. It was a little chilly, but Isabella did great! Peter and I have never taking her on any type vacation together as a family so this trip was extra special to us. We bought an ornament at the Christmas store with all 3 of our names on it. That's one of my favorite places in Pigeon Forge. Dollywood was absolutely so much fun! It was cold by the time we finally made it out there, but that didn't stop us. I put Isabella on the little kiddie rides and she loved them! It was so cute to see her ride rides.


She loved the duck pond, the bumble bee ride, and the little piggy ride. We also had a lot of fun at the aquarium (way overpriced though!).


Here's just a few pictures of us around Gatlinburg.




After this trip I had a ladies retreat the next weekend. I was so pumped because I hardly know anyone except the ladies that work in the nursery and I really wanted to meet new people and connect with them. Shannon, the nursery director that had the birthday bash a few months ago, roomed with me that weekend. She's so sweet and I just really loved getting to know her. Isabella has had such a hard time in the nursery (with little bullies) and Shannon never hesitates to make it better for Isabella. Here's a picture of us at the retreat. I wish I had taken more, but I forgot my camera when we went hiking. This was at Barren River Lake Resort and it was gorgeous outside with all the trees. Later one night we had a 70's-80's room where some of the ladies dressed up as their favorite rock star of the decade. I got my picture with Kathy Wills, a friend that I also teach with at MCE. We had a blast and she looked halarious with her pink hair. As you can tell in this last picture I was FORCED to sing rock star song?! Not my thing to get up in front of a bunch of girls I don't know and karaoke. But whatever, they will never remember it anyway. At least I hope not :)


So, on Friday of the retreat (our retreat is from Thurs.-Sat.)Peter calls me and tells me Isabella is throwing up!! She's never, ever thrown up and now when I'm out of town she does! OMG, what was a mom to do? Thank goodness my mom came over to Peter's rescue and helped get her cleaned up since they both had throw up all over them and she was screaming so Peter couldn't put her down. Not fun for daddy, huh? I decided to stay since she only did it once. I got home Saturday afternoon and she was ok. Not acting herself, but not terribly sick. Sunday was a different story. She woke up and whined all morning. This is not like her at all. She wimpered and just layed around and had a fever, so I thought I am not waiting another day. Mom picks us up and we all go to Urgent Care in Rivergate and wait an hour until a nurse comes to tell us we probably should go to an ER! Not fun to hear that, so off we go to Vanderbilt ER. We wait for about another hour and finally see a doctor in pediatrics. They started sending all patients to the 8th floor for pediatrics if the ER is completely full and it was. The doctor checks her out and all her symptoms and says she has an upper respiratory virus and there's NOTHING they could do for her!! UGGHH! None of us were happy when we left, except that she didn't have to have blood drawn or stay overnight . Thank goodness! Needless to say she's still coughing up a bunch of phlegm and has a massive runny nose, but all in all, she's ok.

The next weekend (which was this past weekend) Isabella and I went to Chicago! Mom took us girls and our girls. There were a total of 9 of us that went. Mom, Me, Isabella, Amanda, Tessa, Jennifer, Alyssa, Elizabeth, and Heather. Our main purpose of this trip was to go to American Girl and have dinner and shop! Thanks Arles for suggesting this trip for all us girls! We had SOOOO much fun! Here's pictures of Isabella's first airplane ride. She did an amazing job! Tessa and her did great there and back. We couldn't beleive it.



After we left the airport we rode in a limo to the Hilton. That was an adventure in itself. But we got there and everything was fine.



That night we went to the American girl store. I've never been in one until this weekend. Gigi (mom) bought Isabella a Bitty Baby and and outfit for the doll for Christmas. I bought the table chair and a teaset for her. The dinner was so much fun. Isabella kept giving her baby a drink out of the tea cup. So adorable! Tessa, Heather, and Alyssa also got dolls. So sweet!


Ok, I've been posting for about an hour now so I'll come back and finish it later. See you soon!