Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had a great time, although very busy. We attended Christmas Eve service at my parents' church in Hadley. Then we headed back home where Jason and I exchanged our gifts to each other that night. Then in the morning we had the chaos and joy of watching Isabel open all her presents and then we headed back to my parents' house to open more gifts and have brunch. My sister and her husband and Rowan joined us there and the kids had a blast checking out their new toys and clothes. I've posted a bunch of pics of Isabel with her favorite new stuff. We got her the huge Pooh chair which she loves to snuggle and pounce on. My parents gave Rowan the Tonka truck that Isabel is perched in, but she couldn't keep her hands off it, I guess we'll have to get her one of her own sometime. My mom made sticky buns that morning and I got very few pictures of Isabel that didn't include her stuffing her face with a bun. They were very very yummy. After spending time at my parents' house we all headed out to my Grandma's to join the whole extended family where the little ones proceeded to get even more loot. It was a very nice and very exhausting day. It was so much fun buying things for Isabel and Rowan this year, knowing that they'd have fun opening their gifts and playing with their new toys. They were definitely a bit overwhelmed, but they had a good time. I hope everyone else had a wonderful day also and has a Happy New Years also.

Finally allowed to pull everything out of her stocking.

She loves her Pooh Bear chair.

This is her special Christmas outfit picked out by Daddy. She just couldn't leave the Tonka truck alone. See how perfectly she fits in it!

Evidence of yummy sticky buns all over her face as she checks out her new farm toy.

This is Rowan's funny new grin with his eyes all scrunched up. Isabel is busy pulling all the ornaments of the tree.

This is Rowan and my cousin's son, Austin, playing the organ at Great-Gramma's house. Austin is 8 months older, but Rowan actually weighs more and is the same height, what a tall boy he is!

Christmas is coming...

This past weekend we went and got our Christmas tree. We went to a wonderful place that let us pick out our own then they cut it down for us. Isabel wanted every tree in the lot, especially the ones that were her own size. But we settled on a big gorgeous tree and we're all very happy with it. Isabel had such a blast running through the trees and falling in the mud. She had a fit when we put her back in the car. She kept taking off and trying to hug all the trees. She's pretty fast for such a tiny tyke, I'd turn around and she'd be three rows over in no time at all. This place also had a device that they put the tree in to shake it out and get rid of all the junk before you take it home. I'd never seen that before and thought it was pretty cool. But Isabel hated it; she thought they were hurting her tree and was very mad to see it being shaken so roughly. She also had a rough time with the decorating of the tree. All the non-breakable ornaments were put at the bottom of the tree, but she kept taking them off and hugging them and crying when i tried to put them back on the tree. One snowman she kept putting on and taking off again. At least she got to feel like she was participating and had fun, that was all i cared about. She's been really great with the tree, just saying hi to it in the morning and cooing whenever she sees it all lit up, but not messing with it too much. I don't have any pics of it all decorated yet, but I'll take some soon and post them. The other pics I've posted here are just of one day that we were hanging out with Rowan and Sarah. Isabel climbed in Rowan's wagon and he pulled her all around the house. She giggled the whole time. For the most part they play so well together. They give each other lots of hugs and kisses which makes up for all the fighting over toys that occurs. I'm so glad Isabel gets to spend so much time with her cousin. Christmas is going to be so much fun this year with these two little ones. And getting to spend the first Christmas with my family in 6 years is going to wonderful also. I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season and all the preparations. Merry Christmas to all!

Ooh, trees!

"I want to hug them all!"

This pic is a little blurry, but I though I'd post it anyway cause it shows how happy she was picking out her tree.

Thanksgiving, Bears, and more...

So it's been quite a while since I posted anything here, so if anyone actually reads this then I am sorry for being such a slacker. I think it's been about a month since I last wrote and quite a lot has happened since then. Isabel and I still spend two days a week at my sister's house hanging out with Rowan while Mark and Sarah are at work. I love to watch the two of them run around together and entertain each other. Their favorite things to do are to play with blocks, play peek-a-boo around the chairs, and take turns climbing in the toy bin. We have a lot of fun on those days and I'm so glad that I get to spend so much time with my nephew and have such a great bond with him. Plus, I get completely crazy if I spend too much time at home with just Isabel!

We spent Thanksgiving at my sister's house with my parents and Mark's mom and brother and another of Mark's brothers and his family came over later in the day to hang out after dinner. It was such a fun, relaxing day. It was the first time our whole family had been together for the holidays in 6 years and it was especially great since Mark is just back from Iraq. It was a really special time with family. I'm really looking forward to more of the same at Christmas.

The pictures you see below are of a couple different times. The first ones are of Rowan and Isabel playing Ring Around the Rosy. My sister taught that too Rowan, and he taught it to Isabel. All they know is to hold hands and move in a circle, they don't know the song yet, but I think it is so adorable to watch, so we took a bunch of pictures of it. Then there are pictures from the big Bears vs. Patriots game this past Sunday. We went over to Sarah and Mark's house to watch and ate all sorts of junky football food, yumm! This game was much anticipated since my whole family are Patriots fans and my husband is a staunch Bears fan. Please notice Isabel's Bears jersey, thank you so much Suzanne for sending us that! She loved wearing it and will wear it for all the rest of the games. And Jason was so proud of his little Bears fan! So I guess that is the update for now. I will try hard to post a little more often. I hope everyone out there is doing well and having a wonderful holiday season. God bless.

Auntie, Rowan, Isabel, and Caesar hanging out in Auntie's kitchen.

Ring around a Rosy

Little Bears fan lounging in the chair

Crashed out on daddy towards the end of the game.

Doing her little dance and showing off her jersey.

Isabel loves hanging out with Uncle Mark and eating chips.

Some cute new pics

We've had a pretty exciting couple of weeks in our family. My brother-in-law, Mark, arrived back home from Iraq after being gone for nearly a year and a half. They purchased a house and are in process of moving in and fixing it up a bit. The pics I have posted below of Rowan and Isabel are from a day that I watched him while Mark and Sarah did some painting. Isabel lvoes to sit in the papasan chair; so much so that now we all call it hers. There's a set of bongo drums at the foot of the chair that she uses to climb into it. She loves to bring books or toys up there to read or play. On the day that I took theses pics Rowan decided to climb in there with her and bring a book with him also. I didn't pose them, they were both "reading" their books and just playing so cutely together that I couldn't resist taking some photos. Isabel's other new favorite thing is to drape all sorts of things around her neck like a scarf. So I just gave her a couple of my fuzziest scarves to see what she'd do. She proceeded to parade around the house with them both on for the rest of the evening. She loves anything fuzzy and fluffy, whether it's a stuffed animal, real animal, or just my swiffer duster. We didn't do much for Halloween, just stayed home and handed out candy, but Isabel had a ball. Of course all the tiny kids dressed in animal costumes were her favorite. She wanted to pet them all. She loved handing out the candy and seeing all the kids. Next year we'll have to take her out and dress her up. She's also having a vocabulary explosion lately. She still doesn't have too many words, but she's really working on it. Some of the ones she does say are: mommy, daddy, kitty, doggy, all done, down, go, oh boy, cracker, auntie, hi, and uh-oh. She's so entertaining lately, we can just spend hours watching her and laughing. She's definitely a little character.

Our new blog

Hey there everyone. I just decided to create a blog page to keep friends and family updated on our lives here in Massachusetts and to post new pics of Isabel as i take them. This weekend was a big one for Isabel. She got to play in her first leaf pile, go to her first Umass hockey game, and pick out her own pumpkin. The leaf pile was a big hit with both her and Rowan, they instinctually knew just what to do as soon as i created it. They ran right for it and jumped right in. It was so much fun to watch them. The hockey game was a big hit also. We left after the 2nd period, but Isabel had a great time. On sunday we went to pick out pumpkins. Isabel wanted to bring home every one that she could live and insisted on keeping her little pumpkin in her lap the whole ride home. It was a fun time for all.

Isabel and Rowan in the leaf pile.

I love this pic!

This is the first picture I have of Isabel walking.

I hope you all enjoy this blog and it keeps you up to date on our lives. I'll try to update it as often as I can.