Happy Holidays!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Love,
Alicia, Jason, & Isabelle

Isabelle's 1st Birthday!

Well, it took me a while to post pictures from Isabelle's special day, but they're finally here. Isabelle's 1st birthday was so much fun! I still can't believe that my little baby is one year old now. We had a birthday party at our house with family on December 7. She celebrated the actual day on December 9! I took a personal day so that I could spend the special day with my special little girl and we had so much fun. Hope you enjoy the pictures!How can you not love this adorable mess?!

I made Isabelle a butterfly cake (which you can't see here) but she had no qualms about digging right in! She made a huge mess and loved it!

Isabelle was spoiled with many gifts from Mommy and Daddy, grandparents, great grandparents and aunts and uncles. She is holding her new baby doll in this picture that she got from Aunt Bekah, Uncle Justin and the boys. Ayden also had to get her a tractor!

If we've learned anything lately about gift giving when they are this age... it is that tissue paper is just as much fun as the actual gift!

This is one of the gifts that Jason and I gave Isabelle. She now has her very own "big girl" chair. She loves it but has no fear of leaning (and falling) right out of it.

Mischief!

Isabelle will be one in less than a month and she is getting into everything now! She loves to explore everywhere... especially places she shouldn't be!
Shortly after this picture was taken, she tipped and fell out of the basket... oops!

She loves Mommy's shoes!

Grandma Karwal let Isabelle play with Christmas beads and she loved them!

This is my old rocking chair from when I was young- she thinks it is so fun to rock in. Check out her wild hair. It is getting difficult to tame these days. :)

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures from Isabelle's 1st Halloween. She wasn't so sure about the costume bit, but did love her light up Halloween socks and the pumpkins on our fireplace! Now that she is crawling we can't keep her away from them. :)

Isabelle, Emma, and Elizabeth (neighborhood friends). Laura, Deanna, and I all tried getting a picture of them actually looking at us but it just didn't happen! Maybe next year!

Cousin Jayda and Kaela came over to go trick-or-treating. They had lots of fun!

Isabelle in her froggy costume!

Happy Halloween!

Fall

Isabelle hanging out in our front yard and exploring the pumpkins!

Isabelle's new favorite food is shredded cheese. She loves it and it is the perfect thing to occupy her while I make dinner.

Isabelle likes to get into mischief. I have some Halloween lights out and she loves them. We can't wait until Christmas... I'm going to have to rethink how I decorate now that I'll have a little one that gets into everything!

More mischief!

Isabelle's discovered a new way to sleep. When I put her down to sleep, she likes to get herself back up to a sitting position and play for a while. I guess she finally tired and decided to put herself to sleep. I can't imagine it is too comfortable.

A rough few weeks...

Isabelle has had a rough couple of weeks. As I've shared before, she was battling ear infections. The weekend before last she had a high fever two days in a row even while on antibiotics for the fourth time for her ears. We took her in to the doctor because the fever wouldn't break and they confirmed that her ears were not getting any better. First, they gave her two shots of Rocephin (antibiotics) that were so painful they dosed her with lidocaine simultaneously. (Not fun!!! She was so sad it made me cry!) Then, they referred us to an ENT and they got us in later that afternoon. The ENT doctor didn't want to waste any time and scheduled her to get tubes the following morning. I was very nervous about the anesthesia but she did great. By that afternoon, she was much happier. Her fever finally went away the next day and we thought we were on the road to health. Then, I noticed that the few red spots on her face from a few days prior had spread to her tummy and back. So... I called and they told me that it sounded like measles. So, needless to say, I was a bit panicked. We spread the word to everyone she had been around. The next day, the doctor had us come in again and they ran blood tests. They eventually ruled out measles and determined she had a virus. Her white counts were off so they had us come in the following day for another blood test. That was Friday and things finally started turning around. Needless to say, Isabelle is not so fond of the doctor's office, although she LOVES her doctor. No matter how yucky she feels, she always seems to have a smile for Dr. Stoll. So... last week she made it to daycare 4 days in a row before her fever came back. :( I was just sure that I had gotten water in her ears during bathtime and it was another ear infection, but when they had us come in, they said her ears looked great. She had caught a run of the mill daycare disease. She seems to be doing better today so we are really hoping her immune system is going to fight off anything else that comes her way!! Isabelle the day before her tubes were put in. You can't see them well, but she has band-aids on both legs from her Rocephin shots. Her legs were so sensitive, I kept pants off of her. She still has a bruise from the shots a week and a half later. :(

Isabelle and Mommy at home after her surgery to put tubes in. She was a trooper!

Isabelle spent much of the week in her jammies. She was entranced by Baby Einstein in this picture!

Fall is almost here!

It's hard to believe that it is the middle of September. We have been very busy as usual. Isabelle has been enjoying football with Daddy (both sporting their ISU gear on Saturday) and we are trying to take advantage of what is left of the nice weather. Isabelle had her 9 month check up this week and is still battling an ear infection. :( She weighed 19 lbs. and 15 oz.

This is Isabelle's princess shirt... as if she needs a shirt to be a princess. :)

Isabelle is ready for fall.

Mommy and Isabelle at Grandpa Dennis' new shop.

Grandma Deb came for a visit and she and Isabelle made a bit of noise!

Isabelle enjoying a favorite new treat... frozen bananas. They're a bit messy but very yummy!

Mohawk Baby!

Showing off her style...

We laugh a lot at Isabelle's stand-up hair. We get many comments on it (and people wanting to feel it too). In many of her profile pictures, it appears that she has a mohawk. Rest assure- I would never do such a thing to my baby, but apparently her hair will do what it wants. :)

You can barely see it, but we've started using barrettes to tame her wild hair! I think it's adorable, but I'm a bit biased!

8 months and growing...

I am a bit behind on our blog! August has been a busy month. Isabelle is now completely sitting on her own and starting to act like she wants to crawl. She definitely has a way of getting the things she wants- even if it means she has to do the splits and reach so far that she ends up on her tummy to get it. She just recently got tooth #3... and it was a rough one. Along with that she experienced her first ear infection. It was not very fun for her... or Mommy and Daddy! Isabelle also started daycare last week when I went back to work. She is loving it! This picture was taken at 8 months. I used one similar in our district's beginning of the year slideshow. She was a star!

Isabelle loves Grandma's big pool best, but this pool was pretty fun too.

Getting ready to swim in the big pool!

Isabelle still loves to read her books... and chew on them too.

Isabelle had her first pedicure this weekend! Jason is in Memphis for work. We'll see what he thinks when he gets home. :)

Vacation to Lake of the Ozarks

In July Jason, Isabelle, and I were able to spend a week in the Ozarks! We went with my family and stayed in a house right on the lake. It was very fun and we even managed to relax a little!

Here are the girls in their matching digs from Barbados.

Swimming at the lake for Isabelle meant swimming in the little kiddie pool. I was a paranoid mother and because we couldn't find a life jacket that would fit her, she only went as far as the dock... and then Mommy had a super tight hold. Cousin Jayda loved her swim suit-life jacket combo so much that she liked to wear it everywhere!

Isabelle, Jason, and me at the lake house.

(Jason just loves taking pictures!)

Grandpa and Isabelle hanging out on the dock.

(Grandpa's not so fond of pictures either.)

Isabelle learned to play poker while on vacation. Daddy was so proud! :)

7 months old

Everyone always asks if she is really this happy all the time. We can easily say that most of the time she is a happy little girl. She is absolutely loving summer!! We head to the Ozarks tomorrow so we should get some good pictures of her first vacation to post soon.

Isabelle sporting her sarong from the Carribean...

On July 9, Isabelle was 7 months old. Aunt Bekah, Uncle Justin, and the boys gave her this bear for her baptism. She loves it! The bear is exactly the size she is right now.

4th of July

Isabelle had a great first 4th of July! We had family over for grilling out, Olympic games ;-) and fireworks. Isabelle actually seemed to like the fireworks. She sat quietly watching them on my lap. Grandma Linda bought her this bib... her very own... not a Jayda hand-me-down! (Not that we don't love the Jayda hand-me-downs.)

Isabelle enjoyed swimming with her cousins Jayda and Jace. She liked it up until the point when the other two started splashing and she got water poured on her head. Oh well, that is what big cousins are for! She is almost sitting up on her own now!

Isabelle is always grinning... even with a bad case of diaper rash!

Isabelle's Baptism

Isabelle was baptized at St. John's Lutheran Church on Sunday, June 29. Pastor Rachel performed the service. Pastor Rachel married us in July 2006 so it was very special to us to have her baptize Isabelle. Isabelle was great... she didn't even cry when she was "dunked" as Jason puts it.The dress that Isabelle is wearing in this picture is the same one that my mom and I were baptized in. After two generations, it is a little worn, but is still beautiful. She wore her own dress for the actual baptism on Sunday.

Isabelle being blessed by Pastor Rachel.

Isabelle looking out at the church...

My mom and Jason's mom were her sponsors.

We had family come over after the service to celebrate with a special lunch and cake of course!

Isabelle and her cake! Yum!