Some finger paints and my little tourist

These first two pictures are just funny to me. Isabella put on this Washington Nationals baseball cap and made Ken take pictures. She is too goofy.




So we've had these letters to spell out Isabella's name on her bedroom wall since she was born. We never did get them painted and put up. Well, Ken doesn't like having any "dead space" on the walls in her room, so he dug them and the paint out and decided to paint them last night. Of course, Isabella had to help. She was very upset when they were done. So after dinner, we pulled out the finger paints that she got for her birthday and let her go to town. She had a blast.





I couldn't help but laugh this morning at this picture. We recently were given a bunch of kids toys from some friends at church. Isabella quickly became attached to these binoculars, which she calls her camera. She figured out that she can hang them around her neck and carry them with her. I just had to laugh though cause she looks like a little tourist.



And I figured I'd add a couple pics of the "baby." This is me at 36 weeks. Only 4 more weeks until our due date. I'm hoping to go before then though.

What is she gonna do when this baby is actually here?

So we've still been slowly doing some things to try to get ready for the baby. Yesterday Ken pulled out the infant carrier and pulled the cover off so it could get thrown in the washing machine. We also have a bassinet that belongs to my brother and his wife. So we pulled the cover off of that and threw it in the washing machine too (its been stored in an attic for 5 years, so it was a little dusty). When we put the cover back on the bassinet, Isabella decided she needed to try it out.



This afternoon, she had a pillow at one end and was sitting in it watching TV. Crazy kid!


On a side note, the Redskins won last night!!! I know its only pre-season, but they WON!

Where's my baby?

Funny story. We went to the fabric store last night to get the fabric to make the curtains and such for the nursery. While I was waiting in the cutting line, Ken took Isabella over to sit at the Pattern Book tables. Isabella loves to look through the pattern books. Evidently, they came across a picture with a baby in it. Ken says to Isabella, "Look at the baby." Isabella looks down, grabs her belly and says, "Where's my baby?" Too funny!

Unfortunately I can't do that. My belly is too big to hide the fact there's a baby in there. But he will be out soon. Only 5 weeks until our due date!

Pictures

So we went and took some family pictures and some of Isabella now that she's two years old. We went to a local park and my sister, Linda, took the pictures with her fancy camera. They turned out really good, I think. Here is a link to the album on Facebook with some of my favorites.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23756&id=1635972909&l=5f1007911d

You do not have to be a Facebook user to see those. We're still working on editing the photos and such, but I couldn't resist sharing some of them. Especially some of the ones of Isabella. She is just too stinking cute. Not that I'm biased or anything.

On the previous subject of Isabella's new bed, she did awesome the first night and for her nap yesterday. Ken said she went down really well last night too. (I wasn't home, I was at Girl's Night.) But I couldn't help but laugh because this is what I saw when I woke up this morning (sorry its not a little more clear, this was taken with my phone).

Isabella's New Bed

So Isabella got a new bed yesterday, courtesy of Aunt Teresa. She was very excited when Aunt Teresa and her cousin, Mike, brought it over. She had lots of fun crawling all over it, and of course, jumping on it.

Exploring her new bed before she got ready to go down:



She actually went to bed quite well. We were a little surprised. We half expected her to get up and try to come find us, but she crashed in about 5 minutes. Good thing she was super tired when we put her down. We started out with the safety rail on the side, but Ken wasn't sure how sturdy it actually was. Combine that with the fact that Isabella thought it was a handle to help her jump better, we took it off before she went to bed. The mattresses are just on the floor right now anyways until she gets used to the bed, then we'll move it onto the frame. So if she had fallen out, it wasn't a long drop and we put a couple extra couch pillows on the floor next to the bed just in case. But she did great! She didn't even fall out of bed. We thought she had, but evidently she just smacked the wall with either her hand or her head, but she slept right through it.

On her way to bed:



She thought it was pretty cool that she can just climb out of bed in the morning now. But she didn't even try until she saw me at her bedroom door taking the following picture. Who knows if she'll keep that up, but one can hope. She even slept until 8:30 today, which she hasn't done for the last week, so Mommy was very happy.


Can you believe how big my little girl is getting?


On a side note, Ken got super excited while they were bringing the bed in the house. He walked out with Isabella and found an itty bitty garter snake on our front steps. He was so excited about it that he didn't even think to have me grab my camera for him. He's been excited all summer because we've had little blue-tailed lizards all over the place. Its been quite a dry summer, so we're seeing things we don't usually see. Usually we only get frogs. Thank goodness he didn't try to bring the snake in the house though. He knows my rule on that.

Is there anything better than Peanut Butter and Chocolate?

So I really haven't had any major cravings during my pregnancies. With Isabella, I wanted Slurpees a lot and with this one, I do want Fruit Roll-ups a lot. But nothing really in particular or even off the wall. But this week, I have been wanting Peanut Butter and chocolate. And not like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, but the homemade Peanut Butter balls, both plain and dipped in chocolate. So today I decided I was making some. Thank goodness for my Kitchenaid mixer, otherwise, who knows when or if the powdered sugar would all get mixed in. And let me just say, they are yummy. I'm still waiting for the ones dipped in chocolate to set, but once they do, woo hoo!

Sorry to a certain sister-in-law of mine, I know you're not a fan of the peanut butter/chocolate combination, but I had to share.

Happy Birthday Ken

Happy Birthday Ken! To my sweet and wonderful husband - you are the greatest husband a girl could ask for and I know that Isabella thinks you are just the best Daddy ever. Thank you so much for putting up with me and my nuances and for always being there. I love you and look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you.

Ice cream anyone?

So, we decided to go to JoJo's Ice Cream for Family Night last night. We actually got Isabella her own Kiddie Cone and let her have at it. It was funny to watch her with it. We did end up having to strip her down before we put her in the car. But she sure did enjoy the ice cream. And luckily, all the chocolate ice cream came out of her outfit.

Isabella's Second Birthday Party

We had Isabella's Second Birthday Party today at our house. It was fun with all the family. Surprisingly Isabella did great through the whole party despite not having a nap today. She did however, crash not too long after everyone left. We thank everyone who came and was so generous to Isabella and to Ken and I as well. We have great family!

Here's my little luau girl (since that was the general theme of the party).


Here are some pictures from the party.

I got ambitious and made a "Sand Castle" cake. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself. (Unfortunately the icing didn't work out right and tasted a little funny. Oh well, the cake looked cute.)