She's here!

Carol had her baby girl today! Babies are such miracles. I flew up to Atlanta yesterday so I could be here for the birth. What a wonderful experience. I actually wrote a short blog on Carol's blog and created a slide show. So if you are interested you can visit Carol's blog. I am so proud of Carol and thrilled for her and her family.

Thanksgiving...a time for thanks

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We certainly did. We had two delicious Thanksgiving meals. The first one was about a week before Thanksgiving at Ma's house. She was going to be off in California and Nevada over Thanksgiving, so she decided to have a feast before she left. It was wonderful to all be together. This Thanksgiving we have much to be thankful for.

My mom and Ma

Nana and Isa

The Saturday before Thanksgiving Charles, Isabelle, my mom, Roland, all the kids and I drove up to Carol's house in Atlanta. We went up and stayed in a cabin up in the Georgia mountains. The trees were all so beautiful. We miss the fall and changing of seasons living down in Florida. We had a great time relaxing at the cabin, playing games, playing family football, and spending a day shopping in Blue Ridge, GA. We were planning on driving back the following Saturday, but Carol started what we thought was early labor so we stuck around. Sunday morning everything had stopped so we packed up. A word to the wise...don't drive anywhere the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It took us 10 and a half hours to drive home, compared to 6 hours on the way there. Not so fun, but we just tried to laugh and enjoy the time together.

Shopping in Blue Ridge

We had to bring Isabelle's favorite princess chair. It's a good thing we drove up to Georgia.

Mikenzie, Laila, and Isabelle

The view from the cabin

Happy Birthday Isabelle!

Two weeks ago Isabelle turned 1!!!  I can't believe my baby girl is getting so big.  Of course we had to throw her a birthday party, even if she won't remember it.  We decided the best place for a party would be at Chuck E. Cheese's since I had my birthday there almost every year for the first 25 years of my life (and no 25 is not a typo).  And since Isabelle is my little princess we had a princess theme for the party.  Everyone had a great time, especially Isabelle.  

At  our favorite grocery store, Publix, they give a free individual cake for 1 year olds when you buy a bigger cake.  I expected it to be the size of a cupcake, but it was much bigger.  

Before we were done singing "Happy Birthday" Isabelle already had her fingers in the frosting. How do 1 year olds even know to go for the frosting?

As tradition goes, we allowed Isabelle to dig into her cake.  It got everywhere!  But she loved it. She seemed more and more amazed with every bite.  

Mmmm...this is good stuff!

There was no sharing of the cake!

What was left when we finally took the cake away!

One of Isabelle's favorite presents was her new princess chair from Mamie and Papy.  Isabelle absolutely loves it and goes to sit in it whenever she sees it.

Isabelle even got to play on the slides and rides.

All in all we had a wonderful first birthday party!

Grandpa also came up the day before Isabelle's birthday and took us out for a nice birthday dinner.  Thanks Grandpa!

A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT ISA ON HER 1ST BIRTHDAY!

Favorite foods: Cheese, cheese and more cheese, I guess she is half French after all.  Isabelle also loves fruit, especially bananas and grapes.  We are still having a hard time with her veggies, thank goodness for Juice Plus.  Isabelle also loves anything sweet as you can see from her birthday cake.

Words: Mama, Papa, Nana, Tata, num, banana, cheese (sounds more like eese), up, more, mmmm, ewwww, ouch, yuck, eat, no,  and nez (french for nose).  There are probably others that I am forgetting or haven't been able to recognize yet.  

We have also been working on signing with Isabelle.  She has really caught on fast. I think everyone should do signing with their babies, it is so helpful to have Isabelle be able to communicate what she wants or needs.  We are learning new words each day, but so far she can sign the following:  cheese, water/drink, eat, nurse, please, thank you, more, all done, all gone, hot, pretty, dog, I love you, chicken, hi, bye, licorice, apple, banana, yes, no, 1 (for her age), star, spider, brush teeth, and blows kisses.  One thing we are really happy about is that we can be speaking to Isabelle in either French or English and she will sign in response.  That gives me a lot of hope that the French is sinking in.  

Mobility:  Isabelle is walking everywhere.  She is also a little monkey.  She likes to climb on everything and climb down from everything, even our really high bed.  

My favorite things:  Isabelle's smile, when Isabelle signs I love you without me even saying it, cuddling with Isabelle in the morning, Isabelle's hugs and kisses, her many facial expressions, the sound of her voice, when Isabelle asks for nums and does the sign at the same time just in case we didn't understand her, Isabelle's rolls, dressing Isabelle, and watching Isabelle dance.

Stats: 21 lbs and 10 oz., 29 1/4 inches in height (finally over the 50 percentile mark on height!), 4 teeth and 4 more coming in.

Isa's Favorite Songs: Hips Don't Lie, Closer, Low and anything else with a little rhythm, she loves to dance.  

It has been the best year of our lives and we are looking forward to many more wonderful years with our little princess.

End of an Era

For anyone who knows Isabelle, they know she loves her pacifier.  Not any pacie, only hers.  I began giving Isabelle this pacie when she was born (thanks Janice!).  We started off with two identical ones but my mom's dog chewed up the other one.  I searched high and low for more of the same kind, but came up empty.  I found the same kind but much smaller (newborn size). Isabelle's was the size of a ring pop!  I finally called Gerber and they insisted that they have never made any other sizes and that they just expand as the child sucks them.  There is no way that the tiny newborn pacie could become this big.  So with all my hopes shattered of finding another pacie of the same caliber you can imagine how the world stopped whenever we couldn't find Isa's pacie.  Well two weeks ago I went into Isa's room in the morning.  She was standing in her crib looking at her pacie on the floor.  I picked it up and found that it was split in half.  I knew those teeth were sharp!  Talk about instant weening, poor Isabelle!!!  The first nap, going to sleep at night and long car ride were tough, but since then she has done really well.  

Mystery Tooth Part II

You may remember a few posts back where I told you about Isabelle's mystery tooth, you know the really ugly one that came and then disappeared. Well a couple weeks ago we had round two of the mystery tooth, but this time it was the other front tooth. Once again it was not cute and then it disappeared and a new normal tooth came in. Strange!

Epcot Get Away

While Becca is having fun in Arizona, I went to Epcot with my co-workers for a team-building event. Just like we did last year, we decided to go to the Food and Wine Festival. We all took the whole day off so we could go on the rides in the morning and then enjoy an evening of international food (and wine for those interested). I really enjoyed the experience and got to taste quite few things from the following countries:

New-Zealand: Kiwi and custard tart

Spain: Churros with chocolate dipping sauce.

United States: Strawberry Shortcake

Greece: Spanikopita

Australia: Shrimp (on the Barbie) and Lamb

Germany: Sausage on pretzel roll with sauerkraut and Apple Strudel

Morocoo: Kefta

France: Quiche

Chile: Empanada

Argentina: Chimichurri

Poland: Kielbasa and Potato ravioli

International Cheeses: Goat cheese from Holland, Asiago, Spanish Cheese.

Puerto Rico: Guava and Custard Roll

Turkey: Pistachio Baklava

I had to use quite a few bottles of Evian to water down all of this food.

My favorites: Germany, Poland, and Australia

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween everyone!  We love Halloween, not only for the candy corn, but because it is the beginning of the Holiday Season.  I love pulling out decorations and getting festive.  This year we had a little Halloween get together over at Ruth and Adam's house.  We had about 15 people, so it was a nice size group.  We played games and ate and ate and ate.  After going through many options, Charles and I decided to go the more comfortable route and dress up as island people.  The other costumes varied from vampires, to a 50's couple, to a deviled egg (very clever- he had a white shirt on with a big yellow circle in the middle and had his hair spiked up in two horns like a devil) and so on.  It is fun to see adults dress up on Halloween since it is usually just the kids doing the dressing up.

Ruth and Adam in their 50's attire

Halloween is a whole new experience when you throw a child in the mix.  We had so much fun making sure Isabelle's first Halloween was one to remember, well at least one we will remember.  I got Isabelle's costume last year before she was born.  Of course I had to get her a lady bug costume since we have that theme going on.  Last weekend I thought I was going to have to buy a new costume for her since it has been so hot here, but this week we were pleasantly surprised by a little cooler weather (not Chicago weather by any means) but it has been really pleasant.  Last night we went to the church's Trunk or Treat. For those of you who are not familiar with Trunk or Treating, everyone decorates their trunk and the kids go around and get candy.  Isabelle got a hang of it quick and would race off to the next car as soon as the candy was put in her bag.  We all had a great time.

Isabelle, mommy and our little friend Michaela making rounds at the Trunk or Treat!

How do I look?

Isa and Mommy dancing around in the costume parade!

Notice Isabelle's matching baby doll and backpack?

What? It's cold in Chicago?

Charles is off on another business trip, this time he is in Chicago.  Last night I was driving him to the airport and I mentioned something about the weather being cold in Chicago.  He seemed totally surprised.  As I stared at him in shorts and a t-shirt I asked him if he brought anything to stay warm.  Of course his answer was no,  the one time I didn't pack for him!  He had brought one short sleeve shirt and two long sleeve, thin cotton dress shirts.  I proceeded to tell him how I had just seen forecasts of blizzards somewhere in the middle of America and how most places aren't 80 degree weather at the end of October like Florida.  He said he could handle it, it was too late to turn around and go home, so I dropped him off.  Of course as soon as I got home I looked up the weather and sure enough it is COLD in Chicago.  Lows in the 30's and highs in the 40's most of the time he is there.  Charles called when he got to his hotel and said it was freezing.  He said he nearly froze in the thirty seconds it took to get in the cab and out of the cab.  Everyone was dressed in thick jackets and scarves while Charles had on his t-shirt and shorts.  His meetings are at the hotel he is staying at so we thought all he had to really handle was going to and from the airport...WRONG!  The story gets even better.  At 2:00 am the fire alarm went off in the hotel and everyone had to evacuate.  Charles had to stand outside in the freezing cold air for a half hour!  When does the fire alarm go off in hotels????  Only for Charles!   Poor Charlie!  I told him to go buy a jacket or sweater but he said he is too cold to even go shopping.  He now understands why they call Chicago the windy city.  Hopefully he will survive till Wednesday night when he flies home.  I bet he wont make that mistake again.

The Pumpkin Patch

This week for our Family Home Evening activity we decided to go to the Pumpkin Patch.  Last year we went to pick our pumpkins with our friends Adam and Ruth and their three kids.  So we decided to make it a little tradition and we went again.  It is funny thinking back to last year at Halloween and how my belly looked like I had a big pumpkin under my shirt.  It is a lot better this year having Isabelle with us.  Isabelle was amazed by all of the weird orange balls on the ground.  She tried bouncing some of the small ones, but learned quickly that they didn't bounce.  

I like this little one Momma!

This is so fun!

Isabelle and her little friend Kayla

Isabelle with Austin and Ethan, they are just like brothers to Isabelle

Mystery Tooth

So Isabelle has been teething for a couple weeks now.  Last week one of her top front teeth graced us with its presence.  It was fully in... and it wasn't pretty.  It looked a little more like a fang  pointing in an awkward direction than a front tooth.  My beautiful girl now had something not so beautiful about her.  Fortunately when she smiles you don't usually see the top gums.  Charles was still in Atlanta at the time, so I made sure I prepared him for what he was about to come home and see.  Well Thursday night I put Isabelle to bed early (6:30) and she didn't get up till 8:30 or so the next morning.  To my amazement the tooth had vanished.  Completely gone!  I called my mom and asked if that was possible.  Her theory was that maybe the other front tooth was coming in and it was pushing the gums down back over the tooth or maybe the gums were swollen.  Well now we are about five days later and that tooth is still gone, but a new tooth is coming through in the same spot.  But I am positive that it is not the same tooth because this one looks nice and flat, not pointy at all.  I guess we'll see when it comes all the way in.  In any case I still wonder what happened to the mystery tooth.  Any thoughts?

Back from ATL

Some of you may already know that Charles has been working up in Atlanta since mid August.  His company had a big project up there and they needed some extra help.  They started off by flying him home on the weekends.  But by the time he got in late Friday night, slept Saturday due to exhaustion and then went to church on Sunday it was time to fly out again.  For any of you who have had your spouse travel for work, you know it's not fun.  Well, we decided that instead of Charles flying home every weekend, Isabelle and I would go up and stay with him in Atlanta.  So Isabelle and I went for a month and stayed with Charles at the Ritz during the week and then we would check out on the weekends and go stay at Carol's house.  The Ritz was, well, Ritzy.  They treated us so well.  When we first got there there was a gift bag for us.  It was a little pink kid shirt that said the Ritz Carlton.  Then when we got up to our room there was another bag in the crib with all sorts of gifts and toys and safety stuff for Isa.  It was so thoughtful.  Isabelle got to know all the workers at the hotel and they all loved her of course.  Isabelle and I spent most of our mornings on walks around downtown Atlanta and then we would have lunch with Charles.  We took the MARTA (subway) to Carol's house in the afternoon.  It was great!  We got to see Charles a lot and we got to spend a ton of time with Carol and her family.  While we were there Carol had a baby shower, which was great.  We also got to go and see Les Miserables, which I absolutely love!!!  I will never get sick of that show.  Of course we watched all of the Gator games, one of which we won't mention.  We went to the corn maze, a pig pickin' at the bishop's house and lots more.  One of the best things we did while we were there was we got to go and do my Grandma's temple work as well as many others on my dad's side of the family.  It was a really special time.  Carol had been working hard on our genealogy and so we had 22 or 23 names that we took to the temple.  Also, while I was there I read the entire Twilight Series.  I am not one to read, but I absolutely loved it and I couldn't put the books down.  I can't wait for the movie to come out next month.  Oh and did I mention shopping????  Yeah.... we did a lot of that too.  But don't worry I saved a lot of money!  I think we hit up all of the sales in Atlanta. Well fortunately for my checkbook Isabelle and I came home last week.  Charles has one more week and then he will be home to stay.  Maybe he'll go back to Atlanta next year and we can go again and have another month of fun.

Isabelle had a great time at DSW, I'm not surprised, what girl doesn't love shoes? 

What do you think of these shoes mom?

One of our many outings was a day at the Atlanta Zoo.

Isabelle was completely fascinated by all the different animals.  She really took a liking to the Panda and I think it liked her because it kept coming right up to the glass next to her.  

The petting zoo was also a lot of fun, Isabelle didn't shy away from the animals one bit.

After the petting zoo, we all had fun playing in the park.

We got to go to a couple of Chloe and Cassie's soccer games and practices while we were there. Isabelle loved watching them play.  The twins have gotten a lot better since the first time we saw them play.

The day after Isabelle turned 10 months she started standing on her own.  She had done it a few other times, but it seemed more like an accident before.  My mom and Mikenzie had come in town for Carol's baby shower so we were excited they could share the big moment for Isabelle. Once she started, she got a hang of it quick and wanted to keep standing.  4 days later I stood Isabelle up to show one of Carol's friends her new trick and she took three steps.  We were all shocked.  Sure enough, she figured out how to walk and kept doing it over and over.  After a half hour or so she had taken 13 steps in a row.  She is a pretty driven child.  Everyone back home was pretty bummed to miss her learning how to walk, but I was glad that we were with Charles and that he didn't miss it.  Now she is walking even more and she does it on her own rather than being prompted to do so, but she still finds the quickest way from point A to B is crawling.  I'm sure that will change very soon.  I took some video of her progress, I just need Charles to come home so he can put together a video of it to show everyone.  

First day standing, she was so proud of herself!

Did I mention she loves to eat?

Carol needs to work on baby-proofing her house, Isabelle found lots of places to play.

Isabelle's new favorite face