Surprise!!

Here are the first photos of Isabel's baby sister or brother. Yup, I'm pregnant! I'm 18 weeks tomorrow, due July 2nd. It looks like another girl, according to the ultrasound tech, but it was a little early, so she wasn't 100% sure. Isabel has been convinced all along that it's a baby sister. I'm doing pretty well, although I'm super tired. And I'm in pregnant clothes a lot sooner this time! Amazing how your body just remembers how to be pregnant.;) I guess I'll have to change the name of the blog when it's no longer mostly about Isabel! ;) Enjoy the pics of the little alien child. :) 2 little feet.
Right in the middle is a hand and arm.

And here is the alien baby profile shot. :)

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, all a bit late...

Well I've been a bit lax about my blog updates as of late, sorry about that. The day after Christmas Jason and I both got hit hard with a horrible cold, one of the worst I've ever had, and we were pretty much out of commission for most of the next week. Now we're all recovered and so far Isabel hasn't managed to catch it, so all is well again. Jason and I, with help from my parents, bought a new camera for Christmas and took a million pictures. I'm only including a small selection here. We had a lovely Christmas this year, Isabel and my niece and nephew are just the right age to really enjoy it all. The week before Christmas Jason and I took Isabel to Yankee Candle to meet Santa there. Isabel was excited about it, and then a bit intimidated when she actually saw him. It took 2 tries, but right before we left she actually talked to him and told him her Christmas wish list. He was a great Santa, one of the best I've seen, I wish we could've gotten better pictures of her with him, but below is one where at least she is facing him. ;)
Christmas morning was quite eventful. We had gone to the candlelight Christmas Eve service the night at my parents' church with them and my sister and her kids, then stayed up late assembling gifts and wrapping presents. It was all worth it the next morning though. Isabel loved the dollhouse that Jason had spent hours assembling. She woke up at 7:30 and came in to our room asking if Santa had brought her any presents. She didn't even see the dollhouse at first when we went downstairs, but the next picture captures her response when she saw it: I just love that enraptured look on her face, such excitement. 3 year olds are awfully fun on Christmas. :)She got a bunch of rather girly gifts this year, we got her a tea set as well as the dollhouse. I do love that in the above picture she is serving tea to her Lightning McQueen car. That's my girl.

She doesn't wear dresses very often, so she was very excited about wearing this one and looking so pretty. I just love how she's holding her chin up and looking so proud of herself as she prances around the living room. She looks so grown-up to me in this picture too.

I just love this close-up that Jason got of her at my parents' house on Christmas morning. After we did our presents at our house it was off to my mom and dad's for brunch and more gifts. My sister and brother-in-law and Rowan and Sophia were there as well.

Rowan and Isabel pulled out their rocking chairs to sit in while checking out their stockings, so cute. After opening many more gifts there we headed off to my Gramma's house for lunch and even more gifts for the little ones. It was a very busy day! When we got home it was naptime for all of us.

Isabel got her first set of cross-country skis from my parents. I think that was my favorite of all her gifts. We had snow before Christmas, but it rained on Christmas day and didn't snow again till the following Wednesday. That morning Isabel woke us up saying "It's snowing out, can I go skiing?" We managed to wait a few hours and then took her out. The above picture is her practicing in the living room, I wanted to make sure she could stand in them before sticking her out in the snow on them. I am so proud of her! As soon as we went outside she headed straight for the hill down our backyard! She did great, fell a bunch, but never got frustrated and really loved it. The skis are really the cutest things ever, my parents got them from LL Bean and they're a whole lot nicer than the yellow plastic ones I had at her age. ;) I'm just so happy that my little girl loves the snow and skiing so much. I kept saying to Jason "This is one of the proudest days of my life". He thought I was crazy. ;)
Doesn't she look so cute on her skis? I wish I'd gotten a pic of her headed down the hill, but I wasn't thinking ahead enough to have the camera out right away.

So a late Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you! It was a crazy busy season for us, but a very enjoyable one. I hope you all had wonderful holidays as well. :)