Isabelle's Birthday Party

Waiting for my guests to arrive!

Sassy little cowgirl

Eating dinner with her friend Myers from church

It was a nice day, the kids got to run around outside and play

Sweet girls Gigi and Bailey from church

Having cake with her besties!

Time to open presents

Isabelle loved her shopping cart

This was the afterparty!! lol Izzy and Annorah playing in her crib

For Izzy's 2nd birthday we had a little party at the house. Between her cousins and friends from church and life group there were actually about 7 kids here and 14 adults. That was plenty because in our little house we were busting at the seams! I decided to have a fall food theme. I made chili, sweet and sour meatballs, hot dogs, taco dip, cheese and pepperoni and I made a pumpkin roll. Due to Izzy's egg allergy, we had to go with an ice cream cake. Isabelle chose Tinkerbelle as her theme. It was a nice day so the kids were able to play outside some. Isabelle got some nice gifts and we were so thankful for everyone who came to celebrate with is, I think we all had a good time!

Isabelle's 2nd Birthday!

We started off the day with a trip to Toys-R-Us

Next, Chick-fil-A for lunch!

After naptime, we spent the afternoon riding kiddie rides at Broadway at the Beach...Isabelle had a blast!

Izzy and Daddy on the car ride, she even put her hands up!

Riding the ferris wheel with Aunt Nikki (Izzy called them buckets)

She rode the carousel about five times, this time was with Uncle Tanner

Opening a few presents with Grandma

What a good girl...she even takes time to read the cards!

As you can see, Isabelle had a jam packed day on her birthday. Isabelle enjoyed all the activities and had a really great time. Since the prior weekend was so busy with Halloween and all, we decided to have her party the next weekend after her birthday (pics and post of her party soon to come!)

I can't believe my baby girl is 2!! She has grown up SOOOO much. She talks a ton these days. She says 3 and 4 word sentences and can pretty much repeat anything you ask her to. She says some of the funniest things and keeps us laughing all the time. She loves to play and be silly, and really loves to play hide and seek. She loves Wonder Pets and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She's also into princesses, balls, crayons, and loves to play with baby dolls. She's opening door knobs now and is into everything! Her tantrums are in full swing, but we try to keep ignoring them and hoping they pass soon! Otherwise, she can be very defiant and strong willed at times. We have been using the time out method and it's been pretty successful.

Isabelle is able to count to 10 and say most of her ABC's. She's starting to recognize the letters and we're working on colors. She loves to sing and dance. Her eating habits are erratic. She'll eat great one day and hardly anything the next, which my pediatrician assures me is normal. She likes to snack a lot though and is still eating a good variety. At her last appointment, she was 34 1/2 inches tall and 23 lbs. 2 oz. She's jumped up to the 50th percentile for height and the 10th for weight, which is more than she's ever been! As always, tiny and petite but very healthy. She remains a pretty good sleeper. She takes an afternoon nap after lunch everyday for about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. She's in bed between 7:30 and 8:00 and up by about 7:30-8:00 in the morning. We're so thankful for our precious Isabelle Faith

Halloween 2010

Pumpkin carving! Isabelle was so funny, she didn't know what we were doing. I kept scooping out the seeds and she would put them back in the pumpkin! Silly girl :)

This is the finished product...we decided to do something a little different this year

We had trunk-or-treat at church the Saturday before Halloween and Isabelle was Tinkerbell for that event

Isabelle playing one of the many games at trunk-or-treat

Izzy and her friend Annorah...how cute are they!

Robert was Lebron James and Karli was minnie mouse

Isabelle's Grandma came into town for Halloween and Isabelle's birthday, boy are they a pair!! haha

Had a little cookout at a friend's house before trick or treating

Ready to go get candy!!!

We had a very busy Halloween weekend this year. On Saturday, we had an event at church called Trunk-or-Treat. Basically, several of the life groups from the church parked in a big parking lot in the shape of a U. The trunks of the cars are open and full of candy and each car has a game that the kids have to play in order to get some candy. We also had free hot dogs and awesome entertainment. The whole event was free to the public and it was such a success, we expected 5, 000 and had 7,500 people come through!! Most importantly we got to reach out to the community, love them, and invite them to our church. Jeremy helped with the set up of the stage early that morning and I was one of the people walking around and inviting them to a free pancake breakfast at church the next morning. Later we brought Isabelle back to enjoy the festivities. The next day, Jeremy and I worked at the pancake breakfast at church and later took Isabelle trick or treating. She was so hilarious trick or treating. She didn't really get the concept at first. She didn't understand she had to go up, get her candy and go on to the next house. She wanted to hang out at each house, talk to the people, walk around their lawn, check out their pumpkins, etc. Each house was like a 20 minute ordeal! After a few house she got the hang of it and had a blast. The whole weekend was action packed but a lot of fun!!

Chris Tomlin Concert

We were in the third row!! Great seats!!

This year for my birthday, Jeremy got me tickets to see Chris Tomlin, my favorite Christian artist!! The concert was awesome, we had a really great time. It was like 2 1/2 hours of solid praise and worship music and we loved every single song. Thank you to my sweet hubby for this awesome gift...not to mention a night out with him!!

Watch...What's that...Why??

This post has this title because these are words that we hear Isabelle saying all day long now! I always knew that kids get very inquisitive, but I didn't know it would start this early!! She wants to know what everything is...everything she sees, everything she hears, everything we are doing, etc. She also does little tricks and stuff all the time and she'll say "watch" so she knows everyone's looking at her and whatever it is she's doing!! Sometimes I find it hard to answer her questions when there's no easy way to explain why, or what something is in a way she will understand. She also like to play tricks on people, like the other day she was eating peas and held one in her fist and kept saying..."where did the pea go??" She has such a personality and talks constantly these days, I find myself having full conversations with her! She's my little shadow lately and always wants to know where Mommy is. She's such a special little girl and it's so neat to see her constantly growing and developing.

Almost 2....

Isabelle loves kitty cats lately...she calls them "meows"

Here we go Steelers!

Isabelle absolutely loves when I push a chair up to the counter and let her "help" me :)

Adores her big cousin Karli...this was taken after we went to the Dixie Stampede, they had a blast!

I can't believe that in a little over a month, my baby girl will be 2 years old!! It can't be true!! As this bittersweet moments nears, I can't help but to reflect on how much she has grown up this past year. She is talking like crazy, she'll repeat you and say anything you ask her to. She's putting several words together now and she's doing really well with her numbers and letters. She loves to dance and sing songs, and she's really starting to develop an imagination. I feel like I say this about every age, but I'm really enjoying her at the age she is now and so wish that I could freeze time! We have so much fun playing together and she is constantly making us laugh. However, the "terrible twos" are definitely rearing their head, but we're dealing with it :) She's definitely a very strong willed child (aparantly I was the same way at her age!) but she has a very sweet and sensitive side as well. We thank the Lord every day for our precious Isabelle

Trip to Erie

Riding on the train through the Erie Zoo, Isabelle loved it, she kept saying

choo choo!!

We spent one day at the Erie Zoo with some of Jeremy's cousins. Izzy's really into animals right now so she really like it, especially the monkeys.

This is Jeremy's cousin's little girl , Lilly. She is 3 weeks older than Isabelle, but much taller! They had a lot of fun playing together.

One day we took a ferry on Lake Erie, we had a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful

I love this picture, Isabelle is waiting patiently on the pier for the boat to arrive

Back in August we drove up to Erie, Pa to bring Jeremy's mom back home and visit Jeremy's family for a few days. The drive wasn't bad. We recently got an '08 Nissan Pathfinder so it was a pretty comfortable trip and Isabelle did really great. We were busy most of the time visiting people and going to places around Erie, but we had a really nice time. It's so important to us that Izzy gets to see her extended family whenever she can as she's growing up. She was really well behaved had a great time!