Some Christmas goodies

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday. Ours isn't quite over yet with two more Christmas gatherings to go we are only half way done. Not to mention a few other social engagements and then leaving for a week long trip to Colorado on Sunday morning!

What we had done for the past two days however has been wonderful! Here are just a few pictures to make you smile.

Here is our Izzy in her wonderful one piece sweater that we are finally getting to enjoy. I think she looks like those snow babies collectibles that hallmark used to sell.

I know she looks tried in the picture, and she should be she squirmed and wiggled and could not sit still through church. Todd and I just laughed at her the whole time. At one point she laid her head down on my shoulder and let out a HUGE burp. Todd & I couldn't even look at each other for fear of falling apart into puddles of giggles. The best is that wearing such a cute dress like this and looking so perfect and then she lets out a huge burp, so not lady like Isabelle!

And finally here is a picture of Isabelle and her new horse! Isn't it a riot! She loves this and all of her presents that she received.

As for my list about a week ago I still have not finished the scrap books. I got 2 done but I have 1 left to do. Which is OK. I think I would rather be able to enjoy giving the gift one on one to the great grands instead of in front of everyone else. At least this is what I'm telling myself. Other wise all the gifts were wrapped. Todd and I decided together not to put of a tree because we wouldn't have any time to take it down before we leave. As for the packing for Colorado I'm half way done. Just Todd and I to pack for now. Hopefully everything will fit in the suburban!

As I said before we will be gone for a week in Colorado helping some very special friends join their two lives into one. I think we will have Internet out there so I might have time to update you on how we fare the 14 hour drive with an child... or i might just wait until we get back. Either way I hope that you all have a wonderful rest of this Holiday Season!

The Best Time of the Year!

TADA-
The new lay out! It's actually been up for a couple of days however, I was too busy enjoying the holiday to get around to writting a wonderful blog about The Blog Fairy.
She was wonderful to work with and came up with exactly what I was looking for! So I hope that you all enjoy the new look of things around here. It still be filled with my random ramblings, home improvements and ofcourse pictures of Isabelle!
I can't say thank you enough to The Blog Fairy. Please go and check out her website and look at all of the wonderful things she does!

Christmas Eve Morning

I was like a child this morning. I couldn't sleep I was too excited for the events that the next few days will bring.
I woke up at 3, 4 and finally said that 5 was not an unreasonable time to get out of bed. I've been able to enjoy the last few hours in the quiet of my house with Christmas music streaming from the computer and busily trying to get those dang scrap books done! I think tonight might be a late night, but I cannot wait to see the look on my grandparents faces when they open the books.
It will be well worth the time put into them.
In other news Isabelle got her first hair cut last night! It's so cute, just a little bob. Mostly to get rid of the baby mullet. But it was well worth it! It's adorable. I don't have any good pictures yet but I will get some today and post them.
Also in the very near future the new look for the blog will be in place. It's beautiful! I can't wait to see what you think. It also shows me how much I need to learn about technical writing so I can put together fun backgrounds for myself. I'll just add it to the list of things to get done.

a tale of two tires

This little story will represent how me week so far has gone.

I went in the ditch on Saturday. No damage and everyone is OK, however, at that point I realized that the tires that I hoped were going to get me through the winter were not going to do the job. So we happened to have some snow tires in our shed from my old car. We were not sure if the tires would fit because they were on different rims and quite possibly could have been a different size but after 2 calls to Tire shops and Todd letting his fingers do the walking on the Internet we found out that they should work. Which was great news.
Monday morning I called a local tire shop and said " I need to have a "set' of tires put on my car. Is there anyway you could fit me in today." I was informed that if I could drop the car off they would have it done by the time I finished work. I even was offered a loaner car. This is where things begin to fall apart.
The loaner car is a MONSTER TRUCK. No even joking. It's a Jeep Cherokee with HUGE TIRES that are just barely road legal. JUST BARELY. I somehow hurl my round little bottom up in tho this machine and drive it in to work. At the end of the day I proceed to throw myself and my stuff into the monster truck and drive back out of town to the tire shop. I was in a hurry because I'm always in a hurry. I luckily make it safely back to the tire shop. Run in and ask how much it is and swiftly pay the owner and proceed out the door.
The owner yells after me, "Do you want your copy of the receipt?". Being trusting and naive I say "Nope, Thanks though and have a merry Christmas!" SO I hurry home to pick up my child from her grandmothers house and head home to feed her dinner. As I'm getting back in the car at my in laws house I notice that the back tires on my car seem to not have been changed. "That's Odd" I thought to myself. Maybe the old rims didn't fit so they put the snow tires on the current tires, which would have been OK. But then I glace to the front of my car. It's rim from the old car with the snow tire on it. It dawned on my at that moment what had happened.
There were two tire in the back seat of my car and two tires in the trunk. The people at the tire shop had only put on two of the 4 snow tires on the car because I did not specifically say "THERE ARE 2 TIRES IN THE BACK SEAT AND 2 TIRES IN THE TRUNK!" However what is even worse is that I suddenly was reliving the scene from just a moment ago, "DO you want your receipt?" DAMN DAMN DAMN, I could hear my fathers voice in my head, "Always take a receipt, and look at the work that was being done before you leave the shop." Stupid, stupid, stupid!
So this morning I called the tire shop again and they were able to fit me in right away.
Moral of this tale, listen to your fathers voice in your head!

I have exciting news

No Mom I'm not pregnant! My blog is getting a "Head to Toe" make over! YEAH!
First I would like to thank 30 Days for having so many drawings. This blog is one woman's jumble of thoughts about crafts and fun products. I should not say jumble because it is beautifully laid out! I love it. I feel like she is my craft brain in over drive! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Secondly I would like to thank The Blog Fairy for allowing 30 days to have a drawing. Take a look at The Blog Fairy and all of the wonderful work that she does.
I must say that this holiday season 30 Days and The Blog Fairy must be working with Santa to make my Christmas wish come true!

Best Gift Ever!

When I dropped Isabelle of at her daycare this morning we gave our daycare person her gift and then she comes out with a gift for Isabelle and I gift for Todd and I. This is what she brought out:

Isabelle has the best day care ever!

Quiet Evening

Amidst all the hustle and bustle my family sat down last night and just vegged. Isabelle finally got her 8th tooth and was a little tried from the whole ordeal as we Todd and I. So for the whole evening we cuddles and played and just enjoyed each others company at home. It was delightful! Thank you Todd & Isabelle for a wonderful evening. It's evenings like that that ground me and help me to realize that even amung my to dos and should dos there is a place I can always go to escape... Into the arms of my family.

10 days and counting.

So there are only 10 days left until Christmas. Here is a list of things that need to get done

1) Finishing Christmas gifts (SCRAPBOOKS Specifically)

2) Wrap Christmas gifts

3) PUT UP CHRISTMAS TREE

4) Clean house

5) Pack for Colorado trip

A few of these deserve and explanation.

1- Finish gifts- SCRAP BOOKS- I finished 1 book last night and have the photos laid out for the other two books. The worst part is even after these books are wrapped the work won't be done because I will only have pages up though early fall done. The idea was to do a page for each month of Isabelle's life thus far. However I realized that I won't have Christmas ones in there, and I don't have Halloween or thanksgiving pictures printed yet. So I decided that I will mail each great grand those three pages when I finish them. However you will find below pictures of some of the scrap booking:

This is where I scrap book- Our house at one time was split into a duplex with an upper and lower unit. This is the old upstairs kitchen. It was at one time a catch all and now Todd and I have made it project central. However as you can tell by the B-E-A-UTIFUL gold "marbling" on the wall board it has not been redone yet. So please excuse the ugliness of it. I promise you can be creative in an ugly environment! I also now realize that I need a bulletin board above where I work so that I can put little bits of inspiration up there.
This is the first page for all of the books. Because I'm making 3 I thought it was OK to do the same things on some of the pages.

This is one of my favorite pages. I was able to borrow a lot of punches from a wonderful friend and I hadn't really used them until last night when I came up with this little creation! I know the pictures are not that good- the lettering says, "little swimmer"

2) Wrap Gifts- Self Explanatory

3) We have not had time to put of the Christmas tree yet. We decided last night that we would only put up a small tree. We usually have 3 Christmas trees in our house, this year with Iz being into EVERYTHING we decided to opt out of the big tree although she has done very well with all trees at other more organized peoples houses.

4)I feel the need to have a clean house around the holidays because we always bring so much stuff back from where ever we visit if it's not clean it just adds to a mess that I don't want to deal with until next year.

5) We are leaving for a 7 day road trip to Colorado for a very special friends wedding on December 28th. I'm excited and cannot wait for Jessica and Justin to get married however I have to pack for three people for 7 days and on top of that we are driving out (Hence road trip) which is a 14 hour drive according to google maps. SO I need to start packing NOW!

To top it all off the joy of the season is also in visiting and catching up with people so every night this week and pretty much until the day that we leave for CO we will be running somewhere. I just keep telling myself I can relax on the drive out to CO. I can relax on the drive out to CO.

Also as a side note- I love this time of year all the hustle and bustle. It's my favorite so please don't mistake this post as complaints, they are not, merely observations into my life.

Isabelle Looking at Snow

Isabelle got a good look at the snow this weekend.

HIPPOS

My most favorite animal in the WHOLE WORLD is a hippo. They are fascinating! So I have been collecting hippos for about 10 years now. When I saw this a few weeks ago I meant to put it up to share- just saw it again today... Isabelle is about the only thing cuter than a baby hippo!

Shoveling

When ever it snows it is my duty to shovel the sidewalk in front of my office. This is a chore that I never knew I could love so much. I get to work before our little town has woken up for the day, there are a few cars that pass and sometimes one with a friendly face. I love the quiet cold, the sound the shovel makes while scraping the sidewalk and the soft thud of a shovel full of snow landing in its designated place. What a great way to start the day just me and the electric blue snow shovel.

At home we for some reason didn't have a shovel so yesterday on his day off Todd bought a new shovel for our house. We don't have alot to shovel but I look forward to a snowy satruday morning when I can go out and just clear a path for any surprise visitors or just to be used by us as we unload the car for child and groceries.

Shoveling is a place of peace and quiet where I can clear my mind.

Sleep

We have had quite the last few weeks at out little abode. With 2/3rd of the family having brochitis and some new teeth coming in it feels like we are back at month 4 having to get up every night with Isabelle. Until last night....

Isabelle slept through the night. It was amazing. I feel like a whole new person. Its amazing what a continuous 7 hours of sleep does to a person. I also awoke feeling refreshed because of the relaxing weekend with Todd and Isabelle. We watched White Christmas and Christmas Vacation. Essentially destroyed the living room because we were actually home to LIVE in it this weekend. It was great! I hope that everyone enjoyed their weekend as well!

She doesn't want me.

Isabelle has started a new trick this week. We have found that if I leave that room between 8 and 9pm she will wind down from her day and fall asleep by 8:30 PM. Which is wonderful for Todd and I. That is a whole hour and half to get things done around the house, spend time together, or just snuggle on our couch. This is all great and wonderful until I really thought about it. It's wonderful that she wants to stay up and be with her mom but am I doing something wrong that she doesn't want to go to sleep with me around.
When I say she doesn't want me around I mean I can't even be on the same level of the house. If she knows I'm even in the next room all she does is cry for me and then wants to play if I come to take her from Todd because I can't handle the crying. And just for clarification I'm a wimp when it comes to Isabelle crying. I mean a real wimp. All she has to do is shed one little tear and I'm giving her candy and soda and what ever she wants that will make her happy. OK no candy and soda because she is 11 months but you know what I mean.
So now I have had a week of no bed time snuggles, no sweet soft giggles as we read books before bed and no weight of a sleeping child in my arms. I was not prepared for this. How does a child go to sleep with out her mom? I know that it is a phase and she has only wanted me for the past 2 months so I need to understand it's all a part of her growing up but as my husband often says, "Isabelle you are getting TOO BIG! Stop growing right now!"

New Bathing Method?

I know that Isabelle cannot bathe in the dishwasher but her climbing in was hilarious! It would really be easier if she could bathe in there instead of the sink. She is almost too big for the sink and we are still short a bath tub in our house... puts us in a predicament. However if you ask the grandmas this is all to their benefit. Isabelle was so proud of herself when she finally made it up. Unfortunately the storage space was full when I took the picture of her on the door on all 4's and when prompted her to crawl in again she would not have anything to do with it. Apparently we climb on our own time, not moms. Dually noted.

Admit it after seeing the above picture you said, "Awww."

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

We have found a bath tub!

Now we just need to special order it and it will come some time in January. Yes I am completely admitting defeat. I told Todd when we started this in AUGUST I wanted it done in OCTOBER. Now I will be lucky if it's done in March. However for this whirlpool bath it will be well worth the wait. Other new revelations that came with the bath include the fact that we will be doing a tile surround. not something we really wanted to do however I think it will be the best choice in the long run However that adds a whole new set of decisions to make. What kind of tile? What color? What size? But we finally have some progress! YEAH!

Two Things...

I never thought I would have happen...
1)Wiping puke out of my butt crack
2)Being asked if I knew where to get a dime bag.

1)Iz has had a cough this past week. She is fine however coughing none the less. Which in turn wakes her at night. Last night at 1 am I was up with her and in an effort to get her back to sleep I gave her a bottle. This usually does the trick with a little rocking. After the bottle she coughed so hard she puked EVERYWHERE. Both her and I were covered. It was like I had been at the beach all day and there was sand in places no one could have imagined. WOW the beauty of motherhood.

2) Yesterday evening I received a text wondering if I "knew where to find some fun" and a second text that specified "a Dime" from a completely strange number. I laughed alot because in all of my 27 years I have never done anything that included the word "Dime" unless we are talking about currency.

Snow Globes

I thought we all might find this amusing!

Who Am I?

It's a new month and I have a great attitude. This little post card that a friend gave me by Allison Strine. It will be my reminder this month to stay motivated in a number of areas.