Happy Half Birthday Isabelle

Yesterday was Isabelle's half birthday.  Anyone who knows me well, knows that half birthdays are very important to me.  So of course we had to make the day special for Isabelle.  In order to celebrate we took Isabelle to have professional pictures done.  I will be getting them back in about two weeks so we will post them when we get them.  She had a great time posing for the camera.  We also took a couple family pictures.  I can't wait to get them all back.  I absolutely love the stage Isabelle is going through.  Her big thing lately is climbing.  She loves to climb all over me and grab my face to give me big wet kisses.  She isn't crawling yet, but I think she will be soon.  She is getting the scooting thing down (but mainly in reverse), now we just need her to lift that big belly off of the ground.  Isabelle has also learned to wave.  She did it for the first time the other day when we were talking to Charles on the phone and I was saying bye bye and I noticed she was waving bye bye to Charles on the phone.  It was so precious.  She is now working on mastering the delicate beauty queen wave.  Isabelle has her first word down... Papa. That is what we call Charles.  Who knows if she is saying it intentionally or not, but it is exciting when she says it.  Now if only she could say Mama... 

Last week we celebrated my first Mother's Day.  What a special day it was.  I have an all new appreciation for my mom and all other moms now that I am a mom too.  Charles and Isabelle really made my day special.  First Charles gave me a night out with friends on Friday so I could have a little break.  We went to get pedicures first.  But after waiting a half hour with our feet soaking in cool, verging on cold water, we decided to leave.  We went out to PF Changs for dinner, and mmmm it was good.  It was fun to have a girls night out while the boys stayed home with the kids.  Ma and Aunt Jenny came in town Saturday so we got to spend some time with them too.  Ma made a scrumptious dinner for everyone on Mother's Day. For the rest of my Mother's Day gift Charles and Isabelle got me two little Gardenia trees.  Gardenias always remind me of my childhood because Ma and Pa had a huge Gardenia bush outside.  It is my absolute favorite smell.  We planted them out back and also planted some sunflower seeds, which just started to come up.  We had so much fun planting that we went and got a Bougainvillea tree (one of my other favorites) and various seeds for veggies and more flowers. I hope these trees will last a long time to remind me of my first Mother's Day.

Here is a Sunflower for my mama...Happy Mother's Day

Our first Mother's Day!

Isabelle with Aunt Erin and her boyfriend Ben

I love to play in Nana's pool

Well for those of you who don't know, my sister Carol is PREGNANT!!!!  We are all so excited. I am especially excited for Isabelle to have a cousin close to her.  We have all wanted Carol and Brian to have more kids, especially since they make such perfect children!  So they were finally ready and the baby will be here in December.  But as many of you know, pregnancy is not always a walk in the park.  Carol has been really sick... something that I remember all too well. So Isabelle and I went back up to Atlanta for a little over a week to help out.  I wasn't sure how much of a help I would be since I had Isabelle with me, but it all worked out.  I did some cleaning, driving, grocery shopping, and cooking... yes I did cook.  I even coached Chloe and Cassie's soccer practice.  I guess my one year of high school freshman soccer finally did me some good.  Overall we had a nice low key visit.  Isabelle did great again on the plane.  On the way there the flight wasn't full so I was able to bring her car seat on the plane, but on the way back I had to hold her.  But she was nice and cheerful and the once fearful faces of people seeing a baby on a plane turned to many people complementing on how good she was.  

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

While in Atlanta we got to go to a Braves game.  Isabelle loved all of the excitement.  Here she is with her Aunt Carol!

Isabelle's first time playing at the park.  She loved the swing!

You gotta love this face

Mommy and Isabelle at the game

Isabelle and Cassie

Having a picnic downtown with Daddy during his lunch break

Already behind the wheel...learning young

Queen of our house

Roland had his birthday last month and my mom had a fun party for him.  They had a big talent show, so everyone came with a talent.  They ranged from singing to comedy to baking to art work and so on.  Charles, Paul Hemingway, and I posed as Randy, Simon and Paula and judged all of the acts.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.  Little Isabelle even danced to Shakira's Hips Dont Lie, her favorite song.  

My mom and Laurie Hemingway serving yummy carrot cake