Amy and Ray's Wedding Weekend

We had a busy couple of days as Kevin's older sister Amy got married to Ray on Saturday in Des Moines.  It was a wonderful weekend and we couldn't be happier for the two of them.
Friday evening, Kevin had the wedding rehearsal and Isabelle and I met up at the rehearsal dinner at Noodle Zoo in downtown Des Moines East Village.  I had never been there before and I must say it looked beautiful inside.  Isabelle had a great time seeing everyone and especially enjoyed walking around (although I don't think she was too fond of her socks I made her wear to keep her feet clean :)   Isabelle and I had to cut the evening short as it was past her bedtime, so we headed out early.  As Kevin was walking us to our car we realized we hadn't taken any pictures at the actual rehearsal dinner.  So here are some of us outside Noodle Zoo!

Classy black socks :)

Our attempt at a last minute family photo with a very tired little girl :)

Saturday the wedding ceremony was at 4:30 at Capitol Hill Lutheran Church.  The ceremony was beautiful and Amy looked beautiful as well (I loved her dress!)  Ray and Amy wrote their own vows from the heart, which made the ceremony even more special.  Isabelle did great at the ceremony (despite me having to wake her up from her nap to make it on time) and made sure she let out several happy screams to daddy up front to make sure he saw her, which of course he did!

 

Isabelle and Uncle Dan

Our little family

After the church was cleared, Isabelle was a big helper crawling down the aisle and picking up the flower petals!

Isabelle with the flower girls (and her newest cousins) Elaina and Emily

The reception was at The State Historical Museum which was actually right next to the church.  Isabelle enjoyed her dinner I brought from home of spaghetti and meatballs and green beans with rice.  She LOVED crawling up the carpeted stairs over and over and over again!  As soon as she got to the top I would take her down again and up she would go!  Isabelle started getting very tired after dinner so I made an early exit to get her to bed. 

Isabelle with her Aunt Amy and now Uncle Ray!

Holding on tightly to Elly!

Grandma and Isabelle

Me and my munchkin

Sleepyhead

We finished the weekend off with brunch and gift opening at the newlyweds home on Sunday.  Congratulations to Amy and Ray Seidelman!  We had a wonderful weekend celebrating you!

Down to Two and Up to Five

I never thought that Isabelle would be a baby on a schedule.  At least not if you looked at her sleeping and eating patterns the first 6 months of life. :)  But she is definitely on a little schedule now and she definitely sticks to it!  She was taking three shorter naps for months, but the past two weeks we now have her down to two naps a day.  She wakes up like clockwork promptly at 7:00 am and then naps again at 10:00 after her morning snack and sleeps until almost noon!  Her second nap is now at 3:00 after her afternoon snack and she will sleep until 4:30 or 5:00!  She seems to be loving getting two long naps in now and always wakes up standing up in her crib, smiling and refreshed!  Today I was about 10 minutes late for her afternoon nap since her snack was taking longer then normal and she was doing some serious eye rubbing and let me know she was past her nap time. :) 

My little Isabelle.....I love you to pieces

Up to Five:  Isabelle now officially has 5 teeth!  Two on bottom and three on top!  The fifth tooth finally broke through yesterday.  She looks so cute, and much older, with her mouth full of teeth!  And it appears we have a sixth tooth on the way! 

And speaking of teething....Isabelle has decided to use her crib rail as a teether!  I am not sure how she manages this considering we get her the minute shes awake.  She must wake up and immediately stand up!  

Good thing I just ordered a crib rail cover to protect her mouth from the paint and the crib from her teeth!

So Ready for Fall

I don't know about you, but I am ready for fall.  I have been talking for weeks about how I want fall to be here!  The heat we have been having is terrible.  It seems we are constantly under a heat advisory and combined with the humidity it makes it miserable outside!  Isabelle and I have been spending lots of time playing indoors in the cool air conditioning, some days it even seems to hot to venture out to run errands!  Today we were lucky to get a nice early morning wagon ride in after breakfast before the heat really set in.

Playtime indoors...not really sure what was going on but she is having fun!

During a quick errand run.....smiling despite the 105 degree heat index

Cool weather, colorful leaves, pumpkins on the porch, light sweaters, fall decorations, the smell of autumn candles, (and football for Kevin) can't come soon enough!  Good thing I always decorate for fall on Sept 1st, that only makes it half of a month away before its fall in our house!

Perfectly Healthy

Isabelle had her 9 month check up with her pediatrician today.  Kevin and I were pleased to hear, once again, that she is perfectly healthy!  I am so thankful for her continued good health.  She has made it over 9 months now with out even an ear ache, a runny nose, or a stomach bug.  She is the picture of perfect health!  She did great at her appointment today and luckily only had to get 1 vaccine.  I was hoping they would have her flu/H1N1 shot in so she could get that today, but they said to check back at the end of August.  Little do the doctors know I will check back every day at the end of August until I have an appointment for her to get it! :)  Isabelle now weighs 19 pounds and is at the 53rd percentile for weight. She is 29 inches long which puts her at the 90th percentile for height!

Refreshed from a nap after the doctor

Also, the past week Isabelle has refused all bottles.  We have tried and tried to keep giving them to her so she can get her formula but she just will not drink an ounce!  We asked her doctor about this today as well and it seems that some babies will give up the bottle between 9 and 12 months.  She is just on the early side.  The recommendation was to try her formula in her sippy cup and see how that works.  I tried that for her afternoon bottle and needless to say, she wasn't too impressed by that idea either.  We will give it a couple more tries, but assuming we get the same reaction then she will be done with her formula for good.  She is such a good eater with her solid foods and loves eating breakfast, lunch and dinner in her highchair.  We have started doing two small snacks a day as well to replace the formula she isn't getting and she eats those well too!  Looks like our little girl is growing up so fast.  I always thought it would be hard to wean her from the bottle at 12 months, but it seems Isabelle is done at 9 months!  We will continue giving her water in her sippy cup and we got the okay to try some juices as well.  Today we tried white grape juice and she loved it! 

Very happy after her afternoon snack and white grape juice

We love you Isabelle Ann! We are so proud of how well you did at your doctor appointment today!

Relaxing Weekend

We had a nice relaxing weekend around here!  Yesterday Isabelle enjoyed some fun play time and pool time, as well as a shopping trip to Target with Kevin and I.  We are lucky we got some outdoor time in yesterday as today it was unbearably hot! 

Cuddled up.....playing peek-a-boo under the blanket.  And found the remote of course :)

Yesterday I also had to take Simba to the vet for his annual check up.  This is always an interesting trip as he does not like the car and especially does not like being put in his carrying case.   He does surprisingly well once he is there though and wants to cuddle with me the whole time.  He had a good check up and the vet said he was a picture of good health (except for his slight weight problem).  Simba checked in at 17.8 pounds....up exactly one pound from last year.  Whoops!

This morning, Isabelle took almost a 2 1/2 hour nap!  After her nap and lunch, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's for a visit.   Isabelle loved crawling around the house looking for new things to explore!  She also enjoyed showing off her ever improving walking skills by walking up and down the hallway holding on to a walker and our hands!

After a busy day of playing it was time for another long afternoon nap when we got home!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Cousins and Kitchen Fun

Today Isabelle and I drove up to Ames to use a gift card at The Shoppes on Grand that I have had for over a year now! It was expiring next month so it was about time to get used! I bought some Christmas decorations for the house and some fall ones as well! (Can't have too many of those!)  On our way back home we stopped at my sister Amy's house in Slater to visit.  It is always so much fun to get the cousins together and play.  Ava and Isaiah love showing Isabelle things and handing toys to her to play with.  (Although I realized I didn't get any pictures with Isaiah as he was busy playing with his toy tool bench.) I am so thankful my sister and her family live so close to us.  I grew up very close to my cousins and I know that Isabelle will grow up close to her cousins as well. 

Ava and Isabelle playing

Riding cousin Isaiah's car

Fell asleep on the way home....with Elly in her mouth :)

Kitchen Fun:  While Isabelle has been busy crawling from room to room and opening cupboards I thought I should give her something she can actually play with when she opens the cupboards.  Some measuring cups seemed to make her very happy!

And one more picture.........doesn't she look like she is up to something?  This was after her morning nap.  So cute. :)

9 Months

Happy 9 months to Isabelle!!!!

We can't believe it has already been 9 months since she was born.  She has grown and changed so much and is such a blessing to us. 

At 9 months here is what Isabelle is up to:

• Crawling all the time.  She crawls all over the house, pulling up to stand on anything and everything she can.  The past week she has got really fast at crawling and smiles as she gets around the house now on her own.  She loves to crawl to cupboards and open them up (daddy needs to put the baby proofing cabinet locks on!)
• Walking.  She loves walking holding on to her stroller, her Disney princess car and most of all our hands.
• We are in the process of transitioning her from baby foods to adult foods.  We are slowly trying to phase out stage 3 baby foods and introduce more adult foods.  So far she eats: whole grain bread (preferred toasted), cottage cheese, shredded cheddar cheese, bananas, cantaloupe, strawberries, mashed potatoes, ravioli, multi grain cheerios, and a fruit cereal bar.  Her favorite stage 3 baby foods include: turkey with rice and mixed veggies, spaghetti with tomato and meat sauce, lasagna, chicken noodle soup, and green beans with rice. 
• She still has her 4 teeth and seems to be working on more coming in.
• She loves to play and especially loves to play outside on a blanket and crawl off of it and pick grass.
• Isabelle loves being read too, and really likes touch-and-feel books as well as pop-up and peek-a-boo books.
• Cuddling.  She has always been a huge cuddler with mommy and daddy and could cuddle for hours with us.  She loves to give us hugs and kisses now and it melts our hearts.
• Talking.  So far her list of words include Mom :)  She seems to have skipped the "mama" and went straight for mom.  I love hearing her say this....now we are working on Daddy :)

Isabelle has her 9 month check up next Monday and I will be sure to update with her newest height and weight statistics!

We bought her a wagon today (call it a 9 month Birthday present).  And so far she loves it!

It was so hot this afternoon so we tested out the wagon inside

Went for a short ride out in the shade after dinner

We love you with all our heart Isabelle Ann.  You are the best thing to come into our lives  You have taught us so much about love, determination, strength and family.  We love you more then we ever dreamed possible.  Happy 9 month Birthday munchkin.

A New Job and A Stair Climber

Congratulations to Kevin for his new job as a Loan Adjustor Specialist for Wells Fargo Personal Credit Management. As you may know, Kevin currently works for Wells Fargo Financial, which announced the closure of this part of Wells Fargo in July. Kevin's department was unfortunately one that was impacted by this. He interviewed for the Loan Adjustor Specialist job last week and we were very excited when they offered him the position today. He starts there on August 16th and we are very happy that he is able to stay within Wells Fargo. His new department is actually the one that I worked in for over three years before leaving to stay home with Isabelle, and I am confident he will have much success at his new job.

Isabelle on the phone with daddy telling him congratulations!

We also have a stair climber on our hands now!  Isabelle has been very busy crawling around the house non-stop lately; opening cupboards, pulling up rugs, standing up on anything and everything she can.  However she was never interested in the stairs, thank goodness.....until today.  While crawling down the hall from the living room to the kitchen she decided to stop, turn and climb the stairs.  Of course we were literally right behind her, but she climbed 3 stairs all on her own!

While it was so cute, it makes me very nervous! Time for the baby gate to come out....maybe. :)

Disney Baby

Isabelle loves Disney already! (Well at least we like to think she does!) Here she is sporting her new Minnie Mouse outfit, courtesy of cousin Lilly! 

Checking out her shoes

Her Minnie outfit made her one happy little girl :)