Christmas so far.......

We've had a lot of family in this past week. Peter's dad came in town from Michigan and stayed with us for about a week and then his sister and her girls came in on Friday night from Illinois. They stayed all weekend and we had Christmas with them at our house. Mattie is 9 and Mary is 6. They had a blast playing with Isabella and she had a blast with them. So much so that she actually slept past 5:30 every morning they were there! Yippee! I couldnt' believe she slept till 7:30 one morning. Never has she slept in that late. I was really excited. I enjoyed a cup of coffee for about 30 minutes before she ever got up. Oh how nice that was. Peter had the day off today and we took a trip out to Opryland hotel. We go out there every year, but this year seemed less thrilling to me than ever. Maybe because it was in the daytime and there was no one there hardly at all. Isabella loved it though. She loved the water, the lights, and the hanging hot air balloons. She just oohhed and aahhed. I guess the less crowd the better for her. She ran all over the place. We did have a good time, but I just wish they would change a few things up each year. Anyway, we've got a lot of Christmas visits coming up for the week ahead. I'm trying to keep all things in perspective though. It's all about Jesus and our greatest love we'll ever know. That's what it's all about. Merry Christmas to everybody that visits my blog. Have a safe and blessed week.

Christmas pictures

Ok, so I finally made it to get Isabella's pictures taken. I picked a last minute place, Sears, and I really didn't care much for their service. I probably will not be back there again. We waited forever and they were so short handed. I'm thinking "Why would you book so many people if you don't have enough workers to help them?" Not a happy camper. Oh well, I got a few shots that weren't so bad. She of course, never smiles when I want her too. I guess I need to teach her the "show me your teeth" trick for the next photo shoot. Anyway, here's what I got.
No smile, then a teeny weeny crack of a smile:




Dad put some old photos of Amanda and me in our birthday cards this year. Here's a few of my favorites. I can really see Isabella in a lot of the ones of me. Especially the one where I'm sitting on the basketball. She makes that same face a lot. I love my old baby pictures.

Don't ya just love the huge eyes in this one. I was smaller than Amanda when we were babies. She always had so much more hair than I did. Not fair!

Computer Time!

I know a lot of you have little ones and they probably try to get on the computer with you. Well, I found a cute website that they may like. It's www.kneebouncers.com. All Isabella has to do is click on any keys on the keyboard and she can play all kinds of games. I found it back in the summer and she's played them ever since. Anyway, just thought you might want to check it out. Here's pictures of me letting her play the games.

Hiding places

Peter and I were talking the other night and we realized we had something in common. Our stuff keeps disappearing and we're finding things in weird places. After talking we realized there's the little culprit that's 17 months old today who is driving us crazy and making us laugh like you wouldn't believe. For instance, Peter put on his shoes for work the other day and Is had stuck cheese puffs down them. Little did he know! He had orange socks after that one. So, she brushes her teeth as she should (most of the time) and she found a way to get to my toothbrush. I could not find it for a really long time. I did purchase another one by the way. Well, I eventually found it in the back of my bathroom cabinet. We've found sippy cups in cabinets and we've lost close to 10 pacifiers, which we have yet to discover where they are. I once found one stuck down her pudding cup when she was eating dinner one night. Luckily I spotted that one before it was thrown away. I was getting Is ready for church the other day and couldn't find her white tights. I remembered Peter telling me he saw them somewhere so I asked him where they were. He said "She put them in your jewelry case drawer and closed it." That was a funny one! So I get home the other day and Peter said she was tall enough to actually pull the drawers out of my jewelry cabinet and got a hold of several pairs of earrings. Peter asked me where I thought they ended up. My heart dropped, I thought where in the world would she put them? He smiled a lovely smile and said "the toilet!". He found about 4 earrings sitting in the bottom of the toilet. Guess I forgot to put the lid down that time! I'm telling ya, we've got quite a character on our hands! Who knows what she's up to next. :)


Well, I was talking to my friend Courtney the other day and told her I'd post a few things I'd learned over the past weeks with Isabella sick and all. I'm sure if you have a child or two you may already know these tricks, but I'm just learning them. I hope it may help someone else in case you ever need to know.

1. If your child is throwing up use a medicine syringe to make them drink water. Even if they throw it up. They're supposed to get at least 1 teaspoon every thirty minutes. (or gatorade/pedialyte) That's for her age.

2. If your child is throwing up, put layers of sheets on their bed. If they throw up in the middle of the night you can always take a layer off instead of having to lift the mattress and change the sheets in the middle of the night. (layer-sheet, blanket, sheet, blanket, sheet, etc.)

3. Isabella threw up pedialyte drinks and popcicles every time she tried them. My doctor told me to let her pick out her own gatorade drink at the store and let her drink that or water. It worked really well to get her to at least drink something.


Well, that's all I can remember to share right now. If I think of others I'll let you know.

Update this week

So far, this week has been going great. We found out today that Peter does NOT have pneumonia! Thanks goodness. He's got a good case of bronchitis. He felt so bad Monday that he went to the doctor Tuesday morning first thing. He had his lungs x-rayed and had blood drawn. He would never have had blood drawn unless he felt really really bad! So good news there. Isabella is all healthy now. We're staying home from church tonight because Peter's recovering and Isabella was up at 4:30am this morning. Didn't think she'd make it until we got home from church tonight. And I'd love to get in bed early myself. I'm hoping I don't lose my voice tomorrow. It started in my chest yesterday and I woke up this morning talking in and out of my normal voice. I guess it's a movie day if I can't talk. Darn! :) Anyway, I hope everyone takes good care of themselves this winter. There's lots of yucky viruses out there.

Girls Night Out

Saturday night Debbie kept Isabella for me so I could go out with the girls for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Peter had a function late at the zoo so I figured this might be a good time to hang out with my girlfriends. We had a great time! I hadn't seen some of them in soooo long! Everyone that went was Amanda (& little Harrison!), Melissa, Shannon, Amanda, Adrienne, and Ashley. We all met up and headed to Green Hills. It was over an hour wait for a table, but the food was so good, it was worth it. Thanks to Shannon and I for killing a bug on our table, we got 2 free cheesecakes for dessert! Bugs: gross! Cheesecake: yummy! If you go there soon, you've got to get the Peppermint Cheesecake. It's their special and newest dessert. You won't regret it.



This was Debbie and Is playing before I left that night. She's playing with her farm animals.

This is me and Adrienne.



Here's all the girls together in a group shot.



This is me and Amanda. We used to go to Word of Life together.

Amanda, Melissa, and Shannon.

We're just playing around. She's very cuddly and loves her mommy!!

This is for Aunt Sandy in Ohio!

Hi Aunt Sandy!! Debbie told me how much you love watching Isabella's videos so you can at least see her in action. I posted one on here with her and her favorite stuffed animals, giraffe and tiger. They're almost as big as she is. I wish you could see her in person. I'm sure Debbie has told you she's quite the character. Peter and I have been talking about coming your way sometime this next year. So, I'm posting this video just for you! I hope you enjoy it. She's such a sweet little girl. You'll love her giggles.

We love you and we're happy to hear John is coming home soon. Love you bunches and Merry Christmas!