The One Girl Tornado...

My daughter, Isabelle Faith, can completely destroy any room in about 3o seconds flat! We find ourselves calling her tornado quite often. Her little hands start grabbing stuff and things start flying all over. Sometimes we're both trying to get ready to go somewhere at the same time and Isabelle will completely be destroying our room without us realizing it! Other times when I'm trying to cook or wash dishes I let her play in a cabinet to keep her busy, and again another mess is made. Not to mention, she loves pushing the kitchen chairs all around the kitchen too. I've always been one to like things to be neat and in order, but I've learned to let go of that some since having a toddler. Every night I go around and clean up all the messes she made, just for her to do it all over again the next day! Why do I bother?? Oh well, I wouldn't have it any other way : )

Mother's Day 2010

Me, Isabelle and Karli at brunch

Sisters and their kids outside the restaurant

Mother's Day brunch with family

Thank you Izzy for making me a mommy :)

Mother's Day '09

I had such a wonderful mother's day this year. The day started with gifts and cards from my amazing husband and sweet baby girl. Isabelle and Jeremy got me a gift certificate to get my nails done with a pedicure. They also got me an awesome book by Dr. James Dobson, Bringing up Girls. I'm looking forward to reading it and learning a godly perspective on raising my daughter. We went to church then came back home for Isabelle to have a nap. After her nap we headed to Jeremy's restaurant, New York Prime, for a special Mother's Day brunch they were having. We went with my sister, her husband and two kids, and her husband's mother and grandmother. Jeremy's brother also came since his wife was working. The food was awesome and we had a really great time. With full bellies, we came home and relaxed the rest of the evening. I absolutely love being a mother. I love my daughter so much and can't imagine life without her. It was a great day, Jeremy and Isabelle made me feel so appreciated and loved.

18 months old!

I can't believe our baby girl is officially closer to 2 than 1...sniff sniff! In these past few months, I've really seen her turn into the vibrant little toddler that she is. Three months ago she was barely walking, but now she is running all over the place, climbing on furniture, and she just recently mastered walking on her tippy toes. She loves to play constantly, especially outside. She enjoys playing with her baby dolls, she loves books and balls, she's really into animals lately especially dogs (or dogdog as she says!). She also loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Special Agent Oso.

Her vocabulary has really been flourishing recently. She has about 15 words she uses regularly, but is trying new words every day. She can point to pretty much all of her body parts correctly and recognizes many other things. She likes to point out things in books as I say them.

Isabelle's eating habits vary from day to day. Some days she eats decent and others she eats hardly anything. At her 18 month appointment she was 20lbs 2oz and 31 1/4 inches tall. The doctor said she's still tiny, but she's staying on her same curve she's been on. We continue to give her a Pediasure everyday for the extra calories. At her doctor's appointment we also discussed the issues she's having with eczema on her face. We've tried many creams that didn't really work. The doctor was concerned that it wasn't getting better and that it was so bad during this season, when it's typically worse in the winter. She gave us a prescription cream that's working really well. However, she still is referring Isabelle to an allergist to make sure it's not caused by a certain allergen.

Isabelle's sleeping habits are great. She takes one nap a day after lunch. She'll usually sleep around 2 to 2 1/2 hours, sometimes 3. She goes to bed around 7:30 at night and will sleep till about 7 or 7:30 in the morning. When she's teething, she doesn't sleep as well. As of right now she has 10 teeth and I think she's cutting her bottom two molars.

These days, Isabelle's tantrums and meltdowns are becoming more frequent. We realize the terrible twos actually start around 18 months! We've been discussing lately that we think Isabelle is ready for the timeout method...we'll see how it goes! All in all, we are having so much fun with Isabelle. She's so playful and so funny, we are laughing constantly. She has such a personality. We love our sweet baby Isabelle so much and thank God daily for her. Above are some of my favorite pics from the last few months.

First time at the beach for '10

Loving the beach!

......and she's off!

Pointing at the waves and saying "oooooooh"

Last year Isabelle was still a little baby during the summer. We took her to the beach a couple of times, but she was too young to enjoy it. Since the weather is getting warmer, I'm getting so excited to bring her to the beach this summer. I think she'll have a lot of fun in the sand and playing in the water this year. A couple weeks ago we went down to the beach just to let her check it out a little bit. She just took off running around in the sand and just kept pointing at the water. I know she was amazed with the waves. Looking forward to a fun summer!

Easter 2010

Loves her Easter presents!

Pointing at her singing Easter bunny Grandma got her

All ready for church!

After a long day, our little bunny was a little grumpy!

We had a very nice Easter this year. The week leading up to Easter we had some really great services at our church, one of which Jeremy played a disciple sitting at the table for the Last Supper! He had no lines, but still did a great job! Easter Sunday morning we hid Isabelle's baskets and let her find them. She loved all of her Mickey Mouse Clubhouse themed gifts and had so much fun finding them! We bought her plastic eggs a couple of weeks ago and she loves playing with those too. We went to church, followed by a really great meal at home with family. It was beautiful weather and we got to play outside for a while too. Jeremy's mom was in town for about 10 days and it was great having her for Easter. Easter is definitely one of my favorite holidays. It's so important to always remember that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected 3 days later...I think that true meaning of Easter gets so lost in the commercialism of the holiday. In all, it was a great day.

Look Closely....

Isabelle is going through a phase where she likes to put food in her ears. On this particular day, she put a noodle in her ear and left it there the entire meal! She's so funny, but man, we have to watch her every second!

Silly Girl

Our pretty girl on Valentine's Day

Isabelle's favorite thing to do...get into the cabinets! This is the face she makes when you ask her to show you her teeth. At the same time she shows you she's saying teeeeeeeth!

Isabelle walked around for an entire day with this monkey strapped around her neck!

No matter what she's doing, if you tell Isabelle to go "night, night" she lays down right where she is

She wore this skirt on her head and just laughed and laughed...she knew she was being silly : )

Lately Isabelle's personality is really coming out. She does funny stuff constantly, and we find ourselves cracking up at her all the time. It's hysterical because she really knows what's funny now and she does it just to make us laugh!! We are having so much fun with our silly, funny, loving, precious, full-of-life little girl!!