Christmas was soooooooooooooooooooo much fun!!!!! I don't even know where to start! My parents and sister and Rodney were in town so we had lots of people around to work on spoiling little Isabelle! She got so many new toys and loves them all....so our house is over flowing now. I will just post the pictures and let them tell the story. There are also a few from our bike ride the day after Christmas.

Isabelle discovered salsa today! It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Cara and I had gone to Freebirds (they finally built one on the Northside of Houston!) well we had both gotten chips and salsa, which was sooooooooo good. So I guess Isabelle had been sitting there watching us dip our chips in the salsa because all of a sudden she reaches over me grabs and chip and dips it in the salsa!!!!!!!! She then sucks it off and keeps going for more salsa. Like mother like daughter!! I just forget that she is watching everything I do and taking it all in! I wish I could have recorded it!!! I finally got her eating something else because you know I don't like to share my salsa :) Well I gave her a cookie....and what does she do....trys to dip it in salsa too!

Ok so this will serve as my promise to be a better blogger. Cara has been much better then me lately so I need to catch up! Here is the picture of our Christmas tree. We bought a 9ft one this year...its huge. I decided not to decorate with our normal ornaments because I am lazy and don't want to spend the next 4 weeks keeping Isabelle out of it. So its very simple. But its my dollar store creation, and I think it came out good.
Isabelle is as fun as ever. She talks German 23 hours a day. Nonstop. Today she just laid in her crib for an hour talking to herself. She carries on conversations with you...but you have no idea what she is saying....she on the other hand thinks she is coming across quite clear! She is still into everything! But I promise to start being better about blogging her funny stories....because trust me there are a lot!

Isabelle's surgery went well this morning. She was really fussy afterwards coming out of fog of the drugs. The nurse said she will make a good opera singer with how high she screams :) The Dr came by and said all went really well and they did have to drain some stuff out of her ear. He also said he wished he could have recorded how good she did and show it to the other babies!!! She went off with the drs (without us) and never fussed and went along with what they wanted until they sedated her. You know sometimes I wonder if she even likes me :) Just kidding! So many praises to God for watching out for our little girl this morning and lets hope this helps the tantrum issue!!!

We got home from a great long trip to Wyoming only to be stuck hard by the stomach flu and the never ending ear infections. Isabelle got the bug shortly after we returned. We even had to miss the MS walk this year. Then I was the lucky one to get the bug...only I got it times 100 and now a week later I am starting to kind of get over it. Its been miserable. I can't say enough bad things about it....can you tell. So here are a bunch of pics I have been needing to post but couldn't make it to the computer. There are some from our super fun trip to Wyoming, her visit to the pumpkin patch, and her first haircut. I promise to write more later and hopefully update with Halloween pictures ....soon :)
Oh and Isabelle is getting ear tubes on Thursday so say prayers that all goes well!

We are off tomorrow on a long trek to Wyoming. We are flying....with a one year old who had a double ear infection....Please say prayers for us :) I am excited but ready to be there. Just thought I would share these cute pics of Isabelle before we take off. Her new favorite pass time is carrying around a purse and putting things in it. She went into my closet the other day and found this purse and just carries it around the house. The best part is she carries it in on her elbow like a little old lady :) Can't wait to get back and share more pics!!!

Two post in one day....I am over doing myself. These are the pics from our Sunday at the Texas game. Daniel was like a six year old on Christmas, he had so much fun, really we all did! My favorite moment was when Daniel says "They look so much bigger in person" Not sure what size he expect football players to be. We stayed until the bitter end...and no the Texans didn't win...if you want my opinion they didn't even try...but don't tell Daniel I said that! I did learn one thing, baseball crowds are much different then football crowds. I think I am a baseball crowd person....the football people hold nothing back!!!

Isabelle is loving school. She will fuss for a min when I set her down in class, but as soon as she sees a toy she is fine! The hard part for her has been nap time. At home, as you all know, Isabelle is a sleep champ, but this is because she is confined to a crib so she just sleeps. Well at school its just a napmat on the floor in a room full of toys. My very busy baby does not appreciate naps that way! But some how the teacher does get her to sleep everyday...well today I go to pick her up and all the kids are awake just sitting on their mats. The teacher said she is teaching them to wait on the mats for mommy. Well Isabelle had woken up a half hour early and had to learn to be a big girl and not go play with the toys...........anyways she takes one look at me, smiles and then looses it!!!! Huge tears and crying so hard I can't get her to catch her breath. It took me sitting with her for a while in the car to calm down! So she was trying to be a big girl at school and not get upset about having to sit on the mat, but as soon as mommy was there she felt safe to loose it :) My sweet little baby takes after me....always act calm and cool in public and if necessary loose it at home (well she almost made it home before she lost it!!!)

She has really turned into a Daddys girl. Once we got home today she went in her room grabbed a book and then walked all over the house saying Da-Di looking for him to read her a story!!!! Poor thing had to wait a few hours for him to get home though!

Well last night Isabelle woke up about 11 and didn't want to go back to bed. Now to be fair we really woke her up checking on her before bed...anyways we were taking turns rocking her and about11:30 I hear her saying HI over and over again and laughing (mind you Daniel is rocking her to sleep at this point) So I have to march in there, Daniel had her down on the floor playing and says "shes not tired she just wants to play!" HAHAHA Babies don't get to wake up in the night and decide they want to play and the parents go along with it. So I explain this to BOTH of them and we put her back to bed. She finally went to sleep, sobbing away about midnight!!! (this is maybe the fourth time in the last year that she has done that...we are toooooo spoiled!)

Isabelle's First Day of School!!!

So her first day was last wed. (sorry I haven't updated in a while) She loved it. I can't get over these pics, this is how my little one wanted to pose. I think she thinks she is 5 already. Her teacher said she played all day long and even tried to eat a rock on the playground! She didn't do well at nap time. It took her a while to go to sleep. I was just impressed she slept at all. They have them on nap mats on the floor. And you know how busy my little one is. She has to be confined to sleep :)
She went to her first birthday party this past weekend. It was a ladybug themed party so being the great mom I am I dressed her up as a ladybug (no it wasn't a costume party!) But I did not take pictures so to prevent her from hating me one day! But she was a big hit none the less!
Her Grandma Sundstrom came in town this past weekend and she had a blast showing off!!!!!
She is really walking now, she walks more than she crawls...now all we need are some more words!

Everyone is saying she is starting to look like me.....but look at t his picture...still alot of Daniel :)
Notice our new favorite hair do....pig tails!!!!















Isabelle has turned into a real walker. She is doing do good. She will walk on her own between things...we used to have to bribe her to walk between us! The pictures of her eating, are from when I let her have chocolate pudding...my favorite is her hugging her spoon with the chocolate pudding on it...:) She really liked it! Wed is her first day of school. I am starting to get sad...what will I do all day with out her??????????

WHERE DID MY BABY GO?????????

So overnight I went from having a baby to a toddler. She is looking so grown up to me these days! We have started pulling her hair back because it was getting so long that she would blow it to keep it out of her eyes.

She has started saying HI. Thank God we finally have a word. So she says hi all day long and half the time waves too. I went to the library to rent her some videos the other day and we had to leave because she kept saying hi to everyone there!

I was getting so frustrated with her for not walking and then tonight she basically walked across the room so maybe she will be a real walker soon! She is just a lot to fun right now, I think if babies were born at this age I would have 10 :)

And if you can't tell from the above picture...she loves her cousin Hudson. She gets so excited to see him!!!!

First off Miss Isabelle has started to walk. Ok she can only take maybe a step or two at a time but we are getting closer :)
The pictures are from our day at the Astros game. Isabelle had a blast, she was clapping and waving her hands the entire time! She even made friends. The lady behind us went a bought Isabelle a stuffed animal flower for her to play with and wave during the game. I wish I knew how to get strangers to buy me gifts :)

The simple things :)

Isabelle can eat a cracker all by herself........Let me explain. If I give her a whole cracker she will take a bite, eat it, then take another bite and so on. This is big for me. I have been having to break everything even crackers into small bits! I will keep doing it with the food, though. The best thing was yesterday we went to the grocery and Isabelle just sat in the front eating a cracker and drinking her juice! Who knew I would be so proud of someone for eating a cracker!

Ok so after a LONG break I am back at the blogg thing! Isabelle is one!!! She had two parties...lucky girl. As we found out she doesn't like vanilla frosting...but LOVES chocolate. She just played with the vanilla, but inhaled the chocolate :) Smart girl!
She is standing on her own but is not walking yet, hopefully we are getting close. She is still not talking and if you know me I am stressed beyond stressed about that but I am trying to relax some. Hopefully we will have some words soon or I will have a nervous breakdown. Really :)
She has a new cousin who she is very proud of Mr. Hudson VahLoh (born 7/12 8lbs 11oz), she always wants to touch him but at the last min gets scared and pulls back!
We have had Roman staying with us this week and she is in love. She chases him all around the house laughing. The good news is he has only tried to bite her once..and it was all Daniels fault! (Don't worry we are not trying to take him back!)
She is also fighting her first ear infection. We made it all the way to a year without one, not to bad!
So anyways I will start up dating this more with all her cute stories...Which I know you have been dying for!

Yesterday I took her to the grocery with me, and she decided that she really enjoyed the "throw your toy over the cart game" So after a very frustrating trip we were checking out and as I am unloading the basket I hear this awful racket. I look up to see Isabelle taking cans off the conveyor belt and throwing them on the floor. The checker just looked and me and said "she is really into things?" Yea thanks! I thought they were supposed to start this until 2 or something.

Update on us...we are in the new house...and still own the old one. The deal on it fell through at the last min and I am so stressed about selling it...I had nightmares about it all night last night. So please pray it sells fast. Daniel wrecked his car but it is well again. Long story short it has been a very stressful past few weeks but we are loving the new house. It amazing. I will have to get some pics and post them.
Isabelle-to add to all the drama of the past few weeks she has been sick. First a UTI (didn't know kids got those!) and now a cold. But she is cute as ever. she has started nodding at everything. I am not sure if she understands exactly what she is doing...but its cute! She is also blowing raspberries constantly. She loves to play the back and forth game where you do it and then she does...but her favorite is to do it right after taking a bite of food or a sip of her bottle. Daniel is not impressed! She still only has two teeth. She is now pulling up on everything and walking along the furniture. She let go the other day and stood there for a few seconds but I don't think she knew that she was because she hasn't done it since.
Yesterday was her first pool day. She loved it. She kept getting mad because we wouldn't let her go in the water. She had a little floaty and was able to walk with it in the shallow water. Lets hope that didn't teach her to much. But she managed to find a rock by the splash pad and put it in her mouth...just to give her father and I a heart attack. And she waves at everything and have I mentioned she gets into everything!!!! We are having so much fun with her...its such a fun age!