Finally made time.....

Ok, so I finally sat myself down to write on my blog today. Let's just say the past several months have been so super busy and I have been beyond tired to keep up with this lately. I will be 12 weeks tomorrow and I have never been more tired! This pregnancy has been very different than with Isabella. I guess the timing of going back to work with school starting and having to be on my feet all day long and coming home and being mommy has made the difference. I've been putting Isabella to bed and off to bed I go! I have felt sick to my stomach the whole time, but I'm praying this eases soon. It's even kept me up at night a lot. But I know it should not last too much longer thank the Lord! My class this year is really wonderful. The children are so precious, with only a couple who try to push the limits. But that is totally expected with 20 five year olds. Overall they are so great and I am so happy to have them this year. I just hope my energy levels go back up soon so I can keep up with them and give them all the attention they need. I've also started a devotional at school for any teachers and staff that want to attend. It's very unlike me to lead any type of Bible study or devotional like this for adults, but I felt like that's what God was asking of me all summer long to do for our teachers. He has definitely blessed it. I've had anywhere from 8-15 teachers in it since I started. It's only about 5-10 minutes right before school on Tuesday mornings. It's been so beneficial for me to encourage myself and at the same time be able to encourage others in the things of God. We are blessed to have a principal and school that allows that to happen. Isabella is in a new mother's day out program at Bethel Baptist near our house with her cousin Tessa. She still does not like to be dropped off, but she always ends up having a great day. I have to brag on her a little bit though, she knows all of her colors, can count higher than some of my Kindergarteners, and has been talking in complete sentences now! Just today she said, "I want a hot dog, Mommy." I was like "awwww!" I totally understood every word and she continues to keep adding more and more words to her sentences. We are going to see the Wiggles in concert tonight! It was a gift from her Gigi for her birthday. We are very excited about it. We've watched them on DVD for so long and it'll be nice to actually see them in person. How fun! I'll hopefully post pictures soon. Peter is still at the zoo working on catering events and managing their food/beverage department. He still enjoys it and we love visiting him too! In fact I think we're going to go tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be so nice. Well, that's about it for now. I think I'll go rest before the Wiggles! Hope everyone is doing well......enjoy this nice week coming up!

Isabella's Birthday and her Birthday Party!

On Isabella's birthday, July 11th, we woke up and had some special visitors come over bright and early. Tessa couldn't wait to give Isabella her birthday present so they came by for a minute that morning. She got her a Backyardigan book and DVD which she loved!

Later that morning we met some friends and took her to Chuck E Cheese for the first time. I don't know why we haven't taken her before now, but it seemed fitting since she's old enough to run around and play. She loved the horse carousel and the climbing area where she could slide down the slide. Of course, I had to get her up in it since she couldn't quite reach so I had quite an interesting time wiggling my body through all those small spaces. But it was so fun to watch her smile, laugh, and hear "momma come!"

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Here's the cake I made her for her actual birthday. It's very simple, strawberry cake with strawberry icing. She says "cake" REALLY well!

It looks like she's not quite sure about the candles, but after we showed her how to blow them out she kept saying, "again, again, again" so we practiced about 5 times before she finally ate into the cake.

Having one of the cupcakes.

Making circles in the icing with her fingers.



She had quite a day without a real birthday party. We booked First Baptist's Family Ministry Center in H'ville this past weekend to have her official party with her friends. They didn't have her birthday weekend opened so we just make it the next one. I don't think she really cared. :)
She had 20 of her family and friends come and had a blast! It was the Backyardigan theme and she got so many presents it was like Christmas in July. I am so appreciative of my family and friends for loving her as I do. I have the best group of people in my life! Thank you to everyone who came and partied with us and showered her with a gift. We love you so much! (and Aunt Amanda, Uncle Greg, Ron (Paw Paw) and Uncle Shawn too! even though you guys couldn't be there. We missed you!)

The group picture was a little hard to get. Everyone did great except, guess who!, the birthday girl. She kicked and screamed and cried. She did not want to sit down and take a picture. She hit Mikayla, poor thing, by slinging her arms around. I felt sooooo bad! Poor Mikayla, I'm so sorry! And then the kids were just so pooped, they looked so tired in the picture. I tried really hard to put on a smile, but I was thinking "OMG, this is sooo not working and Isabella is driving me nuts right now!" :) I got over it very quickly since we went straight to the party room for pizza. Much better! Her cake turned out ok. I wasn't thrilled with two of the characters faces, but everyone else loved it. I guess it was just me wanting everything to be perfect. But it did taste really good!

Angie and Harrison playing.



Peter talking to Abbie and Lillie.


My friends Susan and Krista.

My nephew Alec looking very red faced and tired!

Jackson and Isabella. She loved this area to climb up and down on.

Mom helping Brock get his shoes off and Tessa watching every move she makes.


Hi Tessa!

Smile!

Mom, me and Isabella (not looking too happy). Can we say tired and ready for bed!

Luke and Eli

Jeremiah and Adrienne

Isabella thinking what should we do? Mattie thinking, hum, how about take a break? Mattie was such a great helper with her in that big play area!


Mikayla and Leshia

Gram Gram and Aunt Stephanie



I could add about 100 more pics on here, but that's about all for now. Sorry if I left anybody out. We had such a fun night and I hope everyone else did too! Happy Birthday Isabella! I think you've had quite a bit of partying this year. I hope you loved it my precious!

Since Isabella will be 2 on Saturday we decided to go ahead and give her her birthday gift. Back in the early Spring I found a KidCraft dollhouse with an elevator in it and loved it! It reminded me of when Amanda and I would play with our plastic barbie house that had an elevator in it when we were little. So, I know she's a little too small for it, but I decided to turn it into a bookshelf/dollhouse until she was old enough to use all levels of it. The only problem was finding a place for it in her room! Here's her playing with it the day I got it in her room.

2 year pictures!

Well, I decided to go ahead and get Isabella's 2 year pictures done before school starts next month. She is just 11 days shy of being 2. I was so sure she would sleep at least until 7:00 like she has been all week and be super happy for her pictures, but unfortunately she was up at 5:45! Not the way I had planned it. :) So, her appt. was at 9:00 and I was praying the photographers would get at least 1 good picture of her. That's all I cared about was 1 good one! Thankfully she cooperated somewhat and we got a couple of good ones. After I picked them up I could not believe how drastically different she looks from last year. She went from a brunette to total blonde in a year! I can't imagine what she'll look like in another year. She's changed so much! Here's her from last year and here's a few from today. Hope you like them. I sure do!

New Hair Do

So, I've heard from all my family members that Isabella's hair is just like mine was when I was her age. I had my step-sister cut her hair this week and the only cut that would work with her fine, thin hair was bangs and blunt. So, here's the comparison. I think her new do looks so cute on her, but of course I would. Anything would look cute on that sweet face! She's definitely got her daddy's eyes!

Isabella a few weeks shy of being 2 years old.

Me and my precious!



Another side view of her hairdo.



Me at the age of 3.

Family Reunion & fun pics

My mom's father's side of the family has not all gotten together for a reunion in about 11 years! And some didn't even come to that one 11 years ago, so it had been a really long time since I've seen some of my family and very distant family members. I had Great-great Uncles, 4th cousins, and too many more to count at Mom's house yesterday. She worked her hiney off getting things together for it and it was awesome! The whole family appreciates everything you did Mom to pull this off for us! You're amazing! There were about 90 people there and a lot couldn't make it. It was a full house when it rained, but thankfully it stopped many times for us to enjoy the pool and outside patio for the kids to play and the adults to eat. What a great time we had!

Everybody eating great, yummy food!



The kids looking over the patio.



Mom, the photographer, took over 600 pictures!


Isabella and Tessa eating their popcicles. Or as Isabella calls them, "goggles".


Another pic of everybody eating.


My last post was about how much Isabella loved the Backyardigans. Here are some more pictures of her LOVING on them and then some precious random ones of her. She also loves her "choo choos". She sleeps with them at nap time and bed time. My little sweetie is getting so big!








Peter took Isabella to the zoo the other day on his day off. Not much of a day off for him if he's going to the zoo huh? They had a great daddy daughter day!

Worn out after the zoo trip and fell asleep on her Princess couch.