What's Going On

I'm happy to say that we've had a drama-free life for a few weeks now.

The pregnancy is going great; we have our 12 week visit this Monday.

I have more energy and less nauseous days.

And somehow our sweet Isabelle turned 2!?

She was plenty excited for her "par-tay"!

She woke up at 5AM day of asking for it..lol

We had close to 20 kids under the age of 10.

It was loud, it was chaotic, and it was a blast!!

We also took her to see Disney-On-Ice the day before her actual birthday.

Life is good once again.

Tomorrow we are going to church for the first Sunday in years.

(Thomas' schedule is temporarily Mon-Fri)

Then we are off to visit the Easter Bunny.

Will there be tears or squeals??

Lots of other fun things,

but (I'm at work..tee hee)

I'll be better about blogging now that life is a normal state of chaos..

And *tons* of pics on Flickr..

Where oh Where Have We Been?!?

Well Disneyland of course..

Working On Valentine Gifts..

A sneak peek at what Isa is cooking up

for your Valentine gifts..

(P.S. doing crafts with a cranky toddler

only makes mommy cranky..)

So what's the word..

No baby this month,

but all that means is Thomas & I can reserve our vacation in Vegas for our 5 year anniversary!

It will be our very first night away from the Isa-pie.

And of course we're scheduling it so hopefully

"What happens in Vegas.. is delivered 9 months later"

Not too much else to blog about.

Thomas' shift is back on nights,

and our little darling is having a very rough time with the change.

In other news, we will get to visit with my family over

the Sundance Festival

AND DISNEYLAND!

Isa-pie is going to go ape when she discovers she gets to visit

Toodles (Mickey Mouse) so soon.. and with her cousins that she misses terribly.

Everyday she asks for Max and Coco (Chloe)

What a fabulous January we have to look forward to!

So what's the news??

Sorry ya'll...

For those of you on my Twitter and/or Facebook, you've been checking my personal blog for

some juicy tidbit..and still I have no news..

Later this week hopefully I'll have some news,

until then go check out

Flickr for a taste of our Christmas.. more pictures to come there as well!!

Thomas tracking Santa on Norad with: Max, Isabelle, and Chloe.

Hands down my favorite Christmas picture this year!

I love how our stinker is just peering out to watch.. such the Drama Queen!

See Ya'll Next Year!

Happy Holidays!

I shall return with more blogging the first week of 2010.

Isabelle send all of you a big wet kiss!

Knowing When To Say When

This past week has been a barrel of stress. From Isabelle's canines that are just sitting on her gum line and causing random spaz outs to my never ending work pile, it's been rough. I know I do more than the average person. I'm not looking for a badge of honor, it's just how I'm wired. Ask my folks, they will tell you I've been this way since I could write a to-do list. I bite off more than I can chew, and 3 months later I'm crawled up in the fetal position boohooing my eyes out.

And honestly I look at the list and there is absolutely nothing I can or want to give up. From play time with Isabelle to making home cooked dinners, that's life. But honestly I can't do it all. I've been feeling like a failure, like everything I do is half assed. I've accepted I can't clone myself and I can't do it all.

So in 2010 I'm making some business changes. And we're hiring a cleaning crew. Thomas & I go round and round on this one. Honestly my time is better spent with Isabelle or Thomas, or working for that matter... And by hiring to do someone to do the cleaning, I'm helping someone else earn an income.

And.. we will be hiring someone to watch Isabelle for 1 day a week so we can play catch up. Right now when we really need to get something done, she'll watch tv for a little while and then wants to play..and rightly so, but we don't always have time to get everything done and read "Monkey & Me" 5 times in a row. We just don't. And I hate the seeing her zone to the tv. She's so dang smart and I feel like Dora is sucking her brain cells out (don't get me wrong, I do need a certain amount of Dora in our life!)

I feel better now. The house is a mess, I'm at least 1 work project behind, and my hair looks like crap.

But I have a plan.

And a plan makes that to-do list less bothersome.

Isa Owns The Joint...

Our kiddo has more character in her littlest finger than most people I know, and she's not even 2! We seriously are going to have our hands in full about 14 years...

At Gymboree this past week, one of the mothers told me about the Grand America's Gingerbread Village (did I mention it's *free). Holy cow, this hotel is the creme de la creme!! Decked out in her finest fake fur, our sweet Isabelle stomped around the place just like a princess. She was pretty interested in the Gingerbread village, but was howling for Santa. Sadly,there was no Santa to be found.

However, they did have a very fun teddy bear exhibit on the 23rd floor. A full suite chock full of teddy bears, candy, and playing a "Winnie the Pooh" movie on the TV. Let's just say Isa was ready to unpack and stay!

And of course.. many more photos on Flickr..

The Tiniest, Sweetest Baker Ever

Our Snow Bear

#2 is #1 !

Isabelle went #2 in her potty chair today!

It just about scared her out of her pants when she realized she had actually

gone #2 in her pretty princess potty throne.

I don't know how many times I told her

*what a big girl

* mama and dada are SO proud

on and on..

Her just rewards was a Dum-Dum lollipop.

Tomorrow at Target we'll get a reward chart and some M&M's for more rewards.

What to go little girl.. I mean big girl!!

Christmas Pics!

I've posted all the Holiday pictures so far with the exception of the picture we will use for the Holiday card.. I wouldn't want you to pass out from the insane cute factor.

Go to my Flickr!

Isabelle and the Chocolate Advent

Holiday Rush

We had a holiday bonanza today! My parents told us about this fabulous Festival of Trees that they read about in Sunset magazine. It's a big deal here,but somehow we had never heard about it. There are tons and tons of trees that have been decorated and are sold to benefit the Children's Primary Hospital. So beautiful and just a fun family outing.

At the Tree Festival, Isabelle met Santa for the first time (last year we waited till the last minute and it was a pure disaster.. so don't ask..) She was SO excited. She was decked out in her fur coat and had her hair looking super duper cute. While we waited in line, she kept asking and signing for "Santa". She learned his name and our sign for him pretty quickly; she knows who butters that bread! And of course when it was our turn to have pictures with wonderful Santa, we had a full freakout. But we all need those pictures of our kids screaming with Santa..right?

Later this evening we traveled out to Heber for the "Polar Express". In jammies and the beloved fur coat (this girl has thing for coats..) She loved it for the most part. At times our train car was a tad too boisterous in their singing and freaked her out. She loved meeting Mrs. Claus, reading the "Polar Express", and looking at the Christmas lights outside the window. Again, asking and signing for Santa. Where was Santa?!? And another freakout during the great visit. Granted she was less scared and mustered the courage to take the gift bell from his outstretched hand.

I have TONS more pictures, but you just have to wait :o) I'll be working on the Christmas card this weekend and once they are mailed, I will post the rest of pictures on Flickr for all to enjoy.

Hope your Holidays are as much fun as ours. There truly is nothing like watching your child enjoy the magic of the season!

Holiday Decorating With A Busy Toddler

We love the holidays around here. In fact we put the decorations up as soon as we can and are quite poky about putting them away.

Isabelle cried when we put the Halloween decor back into storage, so I knew Christmas was going to be heaven for her.

Alas we need the toddler gate as her fascination much akin

to the curiosity of a cat, and leads to an equal amount mischief.

Her favorite part of the decorations?

A Dora or "D" ornament

that we had a couple years before her...not sure why we have it, but it gives this little girl a never ending supply of joy to point to the Christmas tree and shout "D".

Her other favorite was trying to eat the "snow" for the Christmas village. Eerily similar to her Daddy's favorite part in the holiday movie "Elf" when Will Ferrell's character munches on cotton balls.

Sammy's Friends

When Isabelle was born and

we discovered she had symbrachydactyly,

I read everything I could on it and joined a couple online forums.

Sammy's Friends is a Yahoo group that discusses the ins and outs of being a family with a limb difference. They have seen me through so much; and I know I don't tell them enough but I'm so grateful for these wonderful people. They helped me over the initial shock, questions about the best surgeons, and even just run of the mill extended family issues.

They have a CafePress site where

you can buy items with the logo.

The little bit of money that is made

goes to helping group stay afloat.

This Christmas we are spreading the joy with their

2010 calenders.

Isabelle is in May - isn't she adorable?!

I know money is tight this year,but if there is someone special

on your list that has everything. Please consider

buying one of these calenders.

We've bought a bunch for those close to Isabelle.

We hope they especially enjoy seeing Isabelle's face in May,

but it's really much more than that.

This purchase is helping a group that has helped us

and so many others.

Our culture is so caught up in one

definition of beautiful and perfect.

I double dog dare you to look into these faces

and not see God's perfection.

Thankful For Childproofing?!

While Thomas and I would never discourage childproofing gadgets, we have found they have done harm inadvertently. Those foam corners for coffee tables were ripped off in a matter of seconds and shoved in the mouth. The drawer locks allow just enough room for a toddler to shove her hand in and close hard..

Here is the latest childproofing escapade...

The goal -> to open a childproofed entertainment cabinet

The result -> a nice welt that will be a lovely lavender and black in family Thanksgiving photos

Ask the munchkin, and she'll tell you it was worth the pain (about 5 minutes of sobbing and cuddling)

Yes, folks this was a safe re-enactment.. I don't sit around with the camera waiting for moments of pain to capture on film.. Well, not most days..

Mr. Incredible

Apparently Mr. Incredible Is Not So Incredible

Thick as Thieves

Doing the Potty Dance

Quite a few months ago Isabelle starting to show a lot of interest in the potty. Excited over the prospect of being diaper free, I ran out to Target and bought her a fancy pink throne that plays music when you "go".

Well she does love her throne, but has yet to "go". Our little angel loved having a dirty diaper. If she was all of a sudden really jubilant, you could be sure she had a super stinker waiting for you. Finally this past month she decided that having a dirty diaper really wasn't all that grand. She began to grab her diaper after she went and then started to tell us that her "foo foo" hurt. We are so close I can feel it! Yesterday she grabbed my hand and led me to her potty right after she had done the deed in her diaper. We've yet to do any kind of formal training with her, but I think when we get back from our Thanksgiving trip, we will try to.

It's an odd thing to be excited over pee & #2, but honestly each step your child takes is such a miracle and fascinating. So bittersweet to watch Isabelle move further into toddlerdom, but what a wonderful ride. Being a parent really does teach you that life truly is all about the ride and the little details.