Friday, May 27, 2011

This is without the stroller...

Going out of town for 9 days...looks like we packed for 9 months!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

thankful thursday

I began this post while watching the news. I was about to pull from my journal the little things from my week that brought me smiles and joy. Then a press conference came on for Ryan Hamil announcing they had found his body. His dad got on to thank everyone for their help in searching for his boy. :( I can't even imagine what they are going through loosing both of their boys. I am in a puddle of tears right now, and want to go pull my sweet baby out of her crib from her nap and just love on her.

*Awkward transition*

My list:
-Rain
-Date nights
-Michael's sweet daddy heart
-a messy house to clean
-clean sheets
-good friends
-safety of all of our family during the storms
-My mom

Here we are headed out to the Bloom Brunch at church last Saturday

-Thankful I will not spend until late tonight doing treatment plans and paperwork for end of month deadline the night before vacation!!
-church family
-powerful scriptures

Have a great Thursday and holiday weekend everyone!

Monday, May 23, 2011

8 months











8 Months today! First teeth are coming in, desperately wanting to crawl, separation anxiety and stranger awareness has peeked- my baby keeps changing and growing every day! Love you to the moon and back, Isabella!

Saturday, May 21, 2011

A diaper and pearls


What more does a girl need?! :)




Friday, May 20, 2011

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Thankful thursdays

A book I am reading and some recent conversations have inspired me to pick back up my gratitude journal. The practice of calling to mind blessings I am grateful for is a good one for me.

There have been a handful of times in my life when looking over a situation it feels impossible to see a blessing or purpose in it at the time. The kind of times where you have to cling to the thought that "someday this will make sense", and knowing if it never does to cling to faith that God's plan is greater. But, typically, even during hard times small blessings can be found, and always the assurance of God's presence.

Every day there are obvious things to be thankful for, but I want to increasingly note the small, seemingly minuscule, gifts of each day. And then work to make a habit of writing a few down each day in my journal. Beginning and ending the day with my heart and mind focused on thankfulness, and what I do have vs. what I don't. I love this quote from one of my favorite bible study books: "Two women looked through prison bars. One saw mud, the other saw stars". What a difference our perspective makes!

On Thursdays I will share one from that day or a few favorites from the week. Please feel free to join me on your blog or start your own journal.

Some favorites from this week:
-swimming
-A rare quiet moment to myself in the morning as Isabella slept in longer than usual.
-birds singing
-double caramel magnum bars
-Michael's job
-Isabella's smile

Have a great day!

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Weekend Highlights

Highlights of our weekend are as follows:
-Having lunch with one of my cousins I haven't seen in many months.
-Michael's beautiful Fridays have started for the summer where can pick two fridays a month to work a 1/2 day.
-We FINALLY saw the most recent Harry Potter movie. It did creep me out in some parts, but it was really good. Glad we barely saw it in time for the second part coming out this summer!
-Isabella has been spinning in 360's, rolling like a pro, but still not quite crawling. It will be soon.






-Michael said it was time to lower her crib to the middle setting before we go in some morning and find her standing. I allowed the twinge of sadness to wash over, the same I feel when I pack away her tiny clothes and pull out bigger ones, before I moved on. Each stage is full of new joys.

-I had my last mother's day celebration with my family, at my S-I-L's annual MOAB (mother of a brunch). My mom was out of town for mother's day this year, and Michael's is still out of the country. So it was a weird mother's day being that I was the Mom celebrated this year and we didn't see our Mom's. It still feels like it should be about my mom. Michael did many things to make me feel special over the weekend, but I missed my Mom. We did celebrate with pedicures before her trip. Anyway, the brunch was great as usual, and my parents gave me a plant that I hope to be able to keep alive! :)

-We headed out to the zoo Saturday evening hoping to catch a peek at Malee the new baby elephant. Malee was the name I had voted for!

Isabella checking out the elephants.
We only had to wait in line about 18 minutes. Asha and Chandra pretty much guarded Malee the whole time. When she walked, they walked with her on both sides. Malee was so cute!! I hope they will start spending more time outside soon and we can see them better.


We love the zoo!


Isabella in the nursery class.
Isabella has been coming to class with us on Sunday mornings, but she is starting to get too loud and restless. So today she went to the nursery class like such a big girl! (Ah...crib lowered, nursery class, sitting up on her own...she's growing up so fast! :)


Isabella at our dinner picnic.
-We ended our weekend with a picnic with the young adults class from church. It was a bit chilly, but fun to be outside!
Happy Weekend! Have a great week!

Saturday, May 14, 2011

List update

I have checked off the list "go through the boxes in the garage". We significantly reduced the amount of stuff we had in there and Michael reorganized everything. Some of it went to Good Will, some was trash, and then I had a garage sale with my best friend from 5th grade.


Our load to Good Will after the sale.
I know some people think garage sales are a hassle, but I got rid of lots of stuff, made $130 to go toward our summer vacation, and had fun spending time with a friend. So it was a win in my book! (And many thanks to Callie for hosting and doing a big part of the work for the garage sale. I decided a nursing mom is the worst person to have a garage sale with, as they will show up late depending on when the baby wakes up, and leave you to go feed the baby.)


We went on a date to the Paseo Grill. We had a Seize the Deal coupon of $20 for $50 worth of food. Food was great and the dessert was even better! We did not get seated in one of the curtained booths, but those looked fun. Check off new restaurant 7 of 10.


-For our 8th place we tried ND foods right by our house. Our food was nothing special (sandwiches), but their cupcakes were A-Mazing! Some of their other foods looked good and we may need to give them another try with different food or different sandwiches.

-I memorized two new verses.

-I did not read any books, which is 1. very sad and 2. really puts me behind on my goal of 30 books! Luckily, at the end of this month we leave on vacation with my family and I usually can read several books in one week. We will see if it is different with a baby this year!

I am looking forward to summer coming, enjoying some of our family rituals, and accomplishing the things on my list that are summer activities!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Our little fish

We are doing a swim class at the Y this month. We want Isabella to love swimming as much as we do, so we figured we should get her started.


Waiting for our class to start


Kicking her legs


Our swim class buddies


Hanging out with Dad


I'm not sure who loves it more! :)

A little video-


Now to call it a "class" is a bit of a stretch as there is no instruction really. But the main point for us was exposure to the pool, and she seems to really like it!

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day 2010

Mother's Day 2011



A lot has changed from last mother's day to today's. I have loved the honor of being Isabella's Mom and the joy of staying home with her over this past year. Happy Mother's Day to all the special Mom's I know!

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Still working on it...

Starting solids continues to be a slow process. We are still only trying once a day and not getting too far. She puts everything in her mouth and chews on it, she just doesn't want to do it with food. Occasionally she will do good and seems to get quite a bit down.


Sometimes she clenches her lips closed like this...

Or just smiles at me until the spoon gets to her lips...then see above.

Still wearing more food than taking in.

And eating fingers is just better.

So here I am being silly, trying to get her to laugh and open her mouth so I can get a bite in.



Sunday, May 01, 2011

Downtown

We were downtown several times this week.
First up we trekked down to the survivor tree Wednesday night for the final class of the semester with the college class.

It was pretty chilly, but the sky was beautiful!


As was the majestic survivor tree!


Thursday night we went down to the Arts Festival. Downtown was so alive and such a fun place to be!



Friday Isabella and I went back for lunch and more outside time.

Playing with Mom's water bottle


Hanging out in the windy city!
From what we could see the updates to the Myriad Gardens look really great. We will have to go back exploring some day!