Downtown adventures

For a couple of years we have gone downtown with my dad to the Crystal Bridge. The admission is free on Sundays in December.

We got downtown a little early, so we walked around the canal.




Hi Papa!


There was a lot for Isabella to see inside with the lights, carolers, water falls, and plants.


My sister, the cooking wizard, brought me some of her homemade marshmallows. YUM!




Isabella checking out the lights with Uncle David.


Headed home.

And on our way out we came upon this great chair.

Isabella was much happier in it than with a scary Santa!


Merry Christmas!
I had a small list of Christmas adventures for us to go on this year, and we have done almost all of them.
One more day of work for Michael! I still have some gifts to buy, baking to do, presents to wrap, and lazy pajama family days to have.

Sunday

Michael took these pictures of us after church this morning.
I love this little girl so much!
I can't believe there is just one week left until Christmas!

I don't know what she's thinking here...but I love the expression on her face!



Corn makes me happy


YUM! Thank you Nowakowski corn farm for your great corn!

Thursday night, before Michael's wisdom tooth removal, we went out to celebrate National Cupcake Day.

How cute is this guy?!


Michael did great, and we were grateful to his dad for accompanying him so I didn't have to entertain Isabella in a small room for an hour and a half!

One thing about living in Oklahoma is the crazy weather. Although it is December, we had one day this past week when the temp was 68. So Isabella and I took advantage of the great weather and went on a walk at dusk. The sunset was amazing!




And lastly, we had our first of seven Christmas gatherings this weekend with my Dad's extended family. Isabella loved playing with the toys there and pushing this double stroller around.

She's getting so big!

We had a second round of "picking a quilt" since we were all together. My grandmother had so many quilts.

I love how different they all are, each with a different story to tell.


This was the one I ended up choosing. I loved all the colors.

Merry Christmas!

My sunshine

I have some friends who say people only tell the bad stories about their kids and it makes it very discouraging for those on the fence about having kids. So here is my favorite story from this week:

At one of my showers, my sister made advice cards for people to fill out and she put them in a book for me. One of my favorites said "Give her cuddles and sing the same song every night before bed. It will be SO amazing the first time she sings along with you". So every night I sing "You are my sunshine", as we rock before naps and bedtime. One day this week, I said "Isabella it is time to go night-night." And she went and picked up her blanket, came over and held up her arms to me, gave me a hug and started saying "shine-shine, my shine-shine." (Which is how she says sunshine). She is nowhere near singing the whole song with me, but it was very sweet.

Now, I wont tell you about what happened for the two hours following, because it would ruin this being a sweet story about how great having kids is! ;)








Even with the not-so-great-parts, I think being a parent is the best!

Santa Baby

2010


2011


What a difference a year makes!
2010: This is a little weird, but who cares. 2011: GET ME OUTTA HERE!!!! But it seems the screaming Santa picture is always part of the line up in a child's history of Santa pictures.
And I love how Santa is still trying to smile like its going to be a good picture! :)

Lately...

How lucky am I that I get to spend my days with this sweet girl?!


I came out of the bathroom one day this week to see Isabella doing this. The broom is huge and awkward for her, but she has been sweeping several times this week! I'm going to have to find her a kid size one. I am loving starting to see her in imitative play!

We went to Smashburger Friday night. It was delicious!

Isabella kept pointing at my ketchup and wanting to dip her fries in it. I love it, so I let her. Then she moved from dipping fries to dipping her fingers in it to eat it.


I can't blame the girl, we use lots of ketchup around here.

We hung out with our friends the Andersons.

Beth makes the best spaghetti!


Isabella enjoyed playing with Milo's felt Christmas tree.


I need to figure out how to make her one!


She loved trying my peppermint chocolate chip milkshake.

She finally let Michael get his finger in her mouth and he could feel molars coming in both sides on the top of her mouth. She woke up crying every 20-30 minutes last night. That was awesome. She is also so congested now she can't breathe well. This always seems to happen when she has teeth coming in. We were all tired and spent as much time as we could resting today.

A favorite Christmas decoration.
Michael's Mema made this Christmas tree 26 years ago. I put it in our room on the dresser every Christmas. It makes it feel cozy.

I had plans to run this afternoon with my cousin. But after terrible sleep last night, the cold, and light rain I was not feeling it.

So I indulged in the runner's drink of Champions right before heading out the door. Just a few sips to pump me up. Probably not the best choice, but I'm not the most serious runner...

the rest of our weekend...

Saturday morning I was supposed to be in a race, but with a downpour of rain, opted out. So having some unexpected family time, Michael whipped up some waffles for us. He added some cinnamon to the batter, which gave them a really good flavor.

Isabella was a fan.

That night we drove to Yukon and ate at Alfredos.

(Proudly sporting OU gear regardless of the outcome!)

Then we headed to over to the Yukon Christmas lights for more December fun and to cross it off my 30 list. You should know there are three ways to enter the lights and each section shows a different part of them. It is worth it to see them all. Since we were driving about 5 miles per hour we let Isabella get out and ride on my lap so she could see better. She was very impressed! When she sees lights she says "ooooo".







Their lights were great. It's been a couple of years since I have been to the lights in Midwest City, but we will have to go to compare them. One thing that is better in MWC is you drive through the whole thing on one rode rather than going around to three different entrances.

After getting ready for bed Iz opened her 3rd of December book. She is getting better at opening the package each day.


Sunday was a bit crazy with Isabella unrolling a whole roll of toilet paper and breaking the toilet paper holder in the bathroom before we left for church. Then having some horrible diapers throughout the day, that shouldn't be mentioned- I've already said too much- and some fussiness. I think she might be starting to get some of her molars. Merry Christmas to us!

The end cap of our first weekend in December was going to the Canterbury Christmas Concert. I was nervous about how Isabella would do after her day and she was pretty tired. She was very wiggly, but mostly quiet.

Watching the show with my Mom.


They have the biggest Christmas tree at the Civic center. It must be quite impressive to someone that is 2 and 1/2 feet tall.
The weekends always go by so fast and I was kind of hoping for a snow day today so we could have another day at home together. Michael gets two weeks off for Christmas and we are looking forward to that. But there is no snow, and Monday is here. So I'm going to get geared up. Bring it Monday! Have a good week!

Friday adventures

Friday Heather and I got together for our "2nd Annual pioneer woman cinnamon roll make and freeze fest". I just made that name up.

This year we decided to forgo the maple flavoring and use vanilla instead.


We now have delicious cinnamon rolls in our freezer ready to go for later this month. YUM!

The girls were a little wild during all of this.

But they looked cute in their matching pjs that we both picked up last year on clearance without knowing the other got them too.


Wild. "Don't take my picture mom! I'm in the middle of trying to do something you asked me not to do!" We went with it and had fun anyway. This is our season of life. :)


We also molded these birds out of clay to make these birds from a tutorial Heather had seen. We were both happy they actually look like birds as crafts I try many times don't work out.

Friday night we bundled up and headed out to dinner and the Orr Family Farm with Michael's parents.

Isabella checking out the goats with Daddy.


Isabella spots Santa.


Checking him out, but not sure.




I'd rather give him a high 5 than sit on his lap.

We went on a hay ride and a train ride around the farm.

They had the farm all decked out with lights for Christmas.


One thing to know is that the train & hay rides just run at certain times, so if you are particularly wanting to do one or the other go around that time, or you will have to wait. And your child will be VERY sleepy by the end. Thanks for a fun evening Nana and Cappy!