American Idol Concert

The winner....Kris Allen


Danny Gokey


Everyone was loving Anoop since he's a North Carolina boy



We made t-shirts. I wrote "Go Gokey." I also had to write #1 Lamskank in honor of my friend Alicia who couldn't come. She's an Adam Lambert fan (yuck!), and the girls who like him are called Lamskanks...yeah, nice I know!


Casey wasn't even a big American Idol fan, but decided to make a t-shirt for
Kris Allen since he won!



Believe it or not, I actually had the opportunity to go to the American Idol concert a few weeks ago. My good friend, Alicia, got tickets for her birthday and invited me to go see the concert with her in Charlotte. However, at the last minute Alicia's mom had to have surgery and she wasn't able to go. Alicia insisted that I use the tickets anyway so they wouldn't go to waste, so I invited my friend Casey who lives in Charlotte to go with me. Normally, I wouldn't initiate on my own to see an American Idol concert, but when an opportunity arose to see it for free and get to see my friend Casey, I was all for it. Not to mention, Jeremy's mom was in town still and was available to help take care of Isabelle for the day. Casey and I ended up having a really fun time. We decided to go all out "7th grade style" and try to blend in with all the teeny-boppers. We pretended like we were die-hard American Idol fans. We made t-shirts, had glow necklaces and wore blue and purple fake hair on headbands with side ponytails! The concert was entertaining. Each of the top 10 sang songs alone and then there were a few group numbers. If anything, I had a blast being silly and hanging with my oldest friend Casey.

Our Big Girl

She's pulling up on everything now, her new trick is to stand up in her crib




She used to just sit nicely and splash in her little pool,
but now she climbs over the edge! Time for a bigger
pool!


I know it looks like she's standing on her own, but
she's really just leaning against the couch. However,
she's very strong on her legs and will stand forever
as long as she has something to hold on to or lean against.



For the past couple of months, my new favorite thing to
do is give me and Isabelle matching pedicures! As long
as she has a toy or book or something to distract her, she
is usually pretty cooperative.



We still hold her and feed her formula bottles, though she
will help a little sometimes. For her daily juice bottle, we
prop her on a pillow and she'll hold it herself.

9 Months Old!

August 1st marked Isabelle's 9 month birthday. At her 9 month well visit, she weighed in at 16lbs 7oz and is 26 1/4in. long. As always, still tiny and petite, but very healthy and growing just right for her. This past month Isabelle has come a long way with eating solids. We've now worked our way up to 3 meals a day. She's also doing great with her formula as well, she'll have 4 bottles a day each 5-8 oz. When we first started incorporating meals into her daily schedule, I couldn't believe how much we had to fit into her day! She wakes up around 7:30 and goes to bed around 7:30 or 8:00 at night. So, basically, in 12 hours we had to squeeze in 3 meals, 4 bottles, 2-3 naps, and a bath! Not to mention, play time, chores around the house and running errands. At first this new schedule was pretty overwhelming, but now it's become second nature just like her previous schedules. We also learned how to be flexible enough to bring her food and bottles with us to eat on the go. She learned a couple new tricks this past month. When we say "how big's Isabelle?" she lifts her hands in the air while we say "SO big!" She also has been clapping almost constantly. I'm really loving the age she is right now, she's so much fun and has such a personality. We're so thankful for our precious baby girl!

Welcome Leah Madison!

On July 22, my brother and his wife welcomed their new baby girl, Leah Madison, into the world. She weighed 7lbs 10oz. and 20 inches long. Elise did amazing, just like her first delivery with Thomas, she had no pain medicaton...what a trooper!! The baby is home and doing very well. They say she's a very good baby and she's eating and growing well. Thomas loves his baby sister, he just has to learn to be gentle with her : ) They are only 18 months apart, so my brother and Elise will definitely have their hands full. However, they are great parents and I'm sure will adapt to having two young children very well. Leah is so beautiful, I love her so much already. We hope to get up to NY in the next few months to meet her.

Crawling!

In the last few weeks, our little Isabelle has gotten pretty mobile! About a month ago she started scooting a little bit on her belly, forward and backward. A week later she was getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth. Next, she was doing the "army crawl" and getting around pretty well with that. Last week, she started officially crawling and now there's no stopping her! She's all over the place and getting into everything. We've had to do some rearranging and babyproofing for sure! She's already getting daring and is trying to pull up on things. Gone are the days that I can sit her down somewhere and know that she won't go anywhere! Oh well, it's so fun to watch her doing new things all the time.

Swim Class

I know you can't tell by her face, but she's having fun....really!








This summer, Isabelle took a swim class at the rec center. Obviously, she didn't learn how to swim, but we played fun games and helped her get used to being in the water. However, we did get to the point where we could dunk her under the water without a problem. We would sing "London Bridge" and when we got to "my fair lady" I would blow in her face, which caused her to hold her breath, and dunk her under the water. She actually did really well with it. She never cried, coughed or sputtered at all. She definitely had a surprised look on her face when she came up though! We plan to continue with swim classes so she'll be really comfortable in water and learn to swim at an early age.

Trip to Erie

Isabelle meets Jeremy's Aunt Linda



Hanging with Jeremy's cousin PJ, his wife Jenn, and baby Lilly


Niagara Falls


They're only 3 weeks apart, but Isabelle looks so little!!


A couple of weeks ago, me, Jeremy, his mom Mary, and Isabelle made the 13 hour drive up to Erie, Pennsylvania. We had a very busy 5 days while we were there. We made our rounds visiting all of the family members. We also went to a few family get togethers and a graduation party. One day, Jeremy and I made the 2 hour trip up to Niagara Falls. The falls were beautiful and we really enjoyed ourselves. Isabelle also got to meet her 2nd cousin Lilly. Isabelle is only 3 weeks younger than Lilly, but much more petite! It was fun to see them play together. I wasn't sure how the driving would be, but it actually was much better than I thought. We decided driving through the night would be best for Isabelle in hopes that she would sleep a large portion of the trip. She was really good the whole trip, but it definitely helped that Mary was in the back seat entertaining her and giving her snacks the whole time! We had a good time, but it was still a pretty exhausting trip. However, we know Jeremy's family was anxious to meet sweet Isabelle, so we were glad to be able to get up there this summer.