A Good First Christmas

Little 'squeekerela' in her Christmas Eve outfit (with Baby-leggings and all). Izzy was still pretty sick over Christmas, so she wasn't herself, but we did plenty of cuddling and she ate all of the bows she could get her hands on.

Grandma Lucy gave Izzy a little piano for Christmas, so when we got home last night from our trip north, we scooted her bumbo chair up to the piano and she started going to town! Will she be the next Mozart?.....kidding - our child is normal and average - but I still think she's the best!

On our way to Nana's house (Grandma Margaret), Christmas Day Morning

Daddy and Izzy giving big smiles at Nana's

house after the big gift opening. Here is Izzy and Auntie Meghan on Christmas Day!

Here is the grand finale - Izzy was a very good present opener, she got right in there and went after the wrapping paper so she could gobble it up!

We're staying home for New Years ~ and we wish everyone a very happy, safe, and healthy New Year!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Inspite of being sooooo sick this past week, The Peanutbutter still has the best spirit ever - she still manages a smile and a little giggle...with snot running down her face and a fierce cough.
I like to call this pic...santas lost reindeer

You'll see more of these antler pictures after Christmas posted on here, but I wanted (or Izzy wanted...this IS her site afterall) to wish everyone a
VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

So we upgraded...goooo vikes!

We had our friends Sarah and Mike down to visit this weekend and we went to the Vikings game on Sunday. Dave and I had to upgrade Izzy into a new Vikings outfit as the other one is officially too small. Izzy kept wanting to eat the shirt, so she doesn't have the entire outfit on here, but Auntie Sarah and Izzy-bear had fun in their vikings apparel before the game!

Thank you Chris for babysitting Izzy during the game, she told me she had fun and would love for you to come back again if you like!

Here is the 'whole get-up' - it'll likely fit her when she's 2 - it's huge on her now, but we'll just get more wear out of it!

Happy Friday!

My name's Izzy....I just left study hall and am heading to English - catch you on the flipside!
(Little preppy girl in her cartigan...)

Mommy dresses me in clothes that she would wear, I'm a 'mini-me' of Mom in my mock turtleneck and matching snazzy red shoes! I think it's funny though, I go with the flow...
I'm ho-ho-huuuungry!

Have I told you how excited I am for Christmas??? I'm SOOOO excited to eat wrapping paper, I can hardly STAND it!

Have a great weekend everyone - Izzy's trying squash and prune juice this weekend, nuuuummmm!

Funny Video & Christmas Picture Preview

Dave and I were feeding Izzy peaches for the first time this past weekend and I was playing around with my iPhone taking pictures of her. I showed her a picture of herself and she had quite the reaction to it! (click on the video below to see) She's such an animated little girl, it's just amazing to see her smiling non-stop and so very happy! We got a big kick out of her reaction. This thing should be sent into America's Funniest Videos - it just might have a shot!

We also had our favorite photographer in the world (http://www.chelsiekrafka.com/) take Christmas Pictures of Izzy a few weeks ago. Click on Chelsie's blog to see a few favorites of little Isabella!
We chose to have Chelsie capture our wedding memories in October of 2007, now a few years later and she's taken Maternity pictures, newborn pictures of Izzy (which were just published in 'Her Voice' magazine up north), and now Izzy's Christmas pictures. Chelsie, you are sure to see Izzy grow up through your camera lens, as we plan to have many more fun memories for you to capture for us, and can't thank you enough for the wonderful work you do!

A Giggling Girl

Dave is so incredibly awesome at making Izzy laugh, this was during her dinner last night. She tried avacados for the first time and LOVED them!

Got some new pics for you!

'I just wanna be your teddy bear'....lil elvis for you from the bubble queen.

Look Ma - I'm sittn up like a big girl! (However Mommy dressed me like a boy today....) You can't see it, but there's a little pink horsey on the outfit, I bought this prior to knowing if we were having a boy or girl...had to use it while it still fit her!

Izzy's first time eating sweet potatoes and boy was it a success! She has now learned to spit and sputter her mouth, so it goes everywhere - never thought I could have so much fun getting sweet potatoe spit in my face!


Mommy dresses me in these silly hats...so I go with it...but then Daddy makes me look like a little thug and puts it to the side....what's up with that Daddy?

I love my baths almost as much as Mommy loves putting bubbles on my head and making me look funny!

I heart my 'winkel' (http://www.fatbraintoys.com/) - the site has super cool educational toys for kids, this teething toy is one of her favorites.

That's all for now...stay tuned for pictures of Izzy trying mashed potatoes for the first time at Thanksgiving next week! I'll try and get a video or two to post.

Izzy's 1st Halloween was a Good one!

K, so we're going backwards in how these pictures posted from the weekend. Izzy was so confident the Vikes would win yesterday, she took a lil snooze and knew they had it in the bag!

This was Saturday night after our FULL day of trick-or-treating - she had a good nap and then was up and ready to play!
Here is Nate and Logan Erickson with Izzy and Dave - Logan was the little boy off of 'Where the Wild Things Are' - absolutely adorable, we give Nate and Marisha 1st prize for creativity with their 7 week old B-E-A-utiful little boy!

Izzy didn't get scared of Auntie Meghan's Vampire costume, she tried to kiss her fangs!

This was at the end of the day at Auntie Sarah & Uncle Mike's house - Izzy was a tired chick!

On our way up to Brainerd on Saturday morning...Iz was making some important calls...gettn' some work done. ;o)

Here's the 'cutest chick in town'!

Izzy's thoughts: Mom...you're gonna have 10,000 pictures of me by the time I'm 2, give it a REST already!

Trick-or-tweeeeet!
Auntie Jody and Cousin Jack (as Megatron) snap a quick pick.

BOO!

That's all for now - we had a wonderful weekend seeing everyone! We hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween!

SO Excited for Food!

Izzy L-O-V-E-S her food. We put bananas in her rice cereal so she gets SUPER excited to eat it...as you can see here!

Last Week of October

Dave and I just got iPhones and taking pictures on these phones is amazing - this is Little Miss Isabella in her carseat coming home from Daycare on Friday afternoon (in her new winter hat...yep, it was snowing on October 23rd!)

Here is what half of the state of Minnesota was doing after this past Sunday's game...
Have a great week everyone! More videos to come of Izzy, she loves to talk, so I'll get a video posted on here of her babbling away, it's too cute!

Halloween just around the corner!

Halloween is right around the corner, so to get in the spirit of things, we carved pumpkins this past Sunday. I baked some nummy pumpkin seeds to snack on and we'll light these pumpkins up on Halloween (and hope the neighbor kids don't smash them...)

If Izzy would have been born in July, as planned, this outfit would have fit her perfect. We all know things never go as planned with kids, but that's part of the fun of them! She is quickly outgrowing what was supposed to be her Halloween costume (don't worry....I have back-up, just you wait and see!) So we dressed her up and took these pics the other night. A smiley little moo-cow! (It looks like something's REALLY funny and she's slapping her knee with laughter).

Izzy can ROLLOVER!

K, so I still can't get the sound to work on these videos when I download them to our PC and then upload them to this site, but all you're missing is Dave and I giggling, or cheering Izzy on...so here's the video of Izzy rolling over for the 3rd time ever! She just started doing this today! She's now done it a few dozen times because I keep putting her on her belly and she keeps rolling over....we're just in awe of her learning this new thing, it's so much fun!!! And I was so glad she did it for the first time at home rather than daycare, we would've been sad to miss such a 'first' like this!

Izzy's first taste of food

Izzy had her 4 month check-up today and the Dr. said we can start feeding her a little bit of rice cereal at dinner time. This is the video of her trying her first few bites of food, you have to love her reaction...'what the heck is this stuff?'
She weighed in today at 14 pounds, 8 ounces (68% for weight), and 23 inches (9% for height...hee hee...lil shrimp!)
She's talking so much more now and it's so much fun to hear her voice and see all of these new expressions she comes up with daily. Once I get this video thing down I'll post a few more, still working through the kinks of posting videos to this blog.
Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - we're carving pumpkins and hanging out, I'm sure I'll post some pics of the pumpkin carving soon.

Growing Growing Growing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE TONY!
Miss 'Peanut-Butter' and her Uncle/Godfather cuddling at a bonfire last weekend. Izzy looooved stairing at the fire and got some good sleep that night after getting some fresh air (10 full hours strait of sleep, wow!)

We met with our friend Melissa for breakfast last Saturday morning. Izzy looks like she's going to the gym to pump some iron with the 'sweat band' looking deal on her head....but it came with the outfit, I couldn't resist!

Ok...I really couldn't resist this one. I found this headband in Stillwater on a department outing at work, and it was just too hilarious not to buy. And it didn't bother Izzy at all, which was surprising!

'Hey Maaaa, get me dressed after bathtime, I'm freakin freezing!!'

We call her 'Izzy-bear' when she has this jacket on...all bundled up ready for daycare with Miss Mary!

Busy Busy Izzy!

Izzy's Daves lucky charm for the vikes. We've dressed her in her litle cheerleading outfit the past two Sundays and they've won! We're a little supersticious, so Izzy will be wearing her cheerleading outfit every Sunday for the rest of the season.

We had some family and friends over to the house this past weekend, and how often do you see everyone, including the baby, looking at the camera and smiling! Izzy's already trained to pose for pics! Thanks for coming over Pam, Jonah, and Val, it was great to hang out with you!
The beautiful Kavanaugh ladies have some bonding time with Izzy, aren't they all so pretty?!

Goooooo VIKES! Izzy's a true cheerleader, with her fist raised cheering them on during their first game a few Sunday's ago!

More Fun with the Fam

Isabella went to her first wedding, (congratulations Tim & Lisa Hoglan), on August 28th and was dressed to the nines for it (see her grinning face and outfit below). She didn't say a peep in the church and was all strapped into her bjorn with her Dad carrying her the entire time. She was in awe of the church lights and ceiling, it was really cute. We have another wedding coming up this weekend for Lindsay Kephart and Izzy's excited to check everything out and smile at everyone she meets!

Izzy is without a doubt Daddy's little girl, she lights up when he walks in the room, it's adorable!

This pic was just too cute not to post, she starting to like her swing more, which helps when I need to get some cleaning done around the house!

Auntie Kelly got some cuddle time out at Kavanaugh's with baby Izzy over Labor Day weekend...Izzy looks like she's storing acorns for the winter! :) The chubbiest, most kissable cheeks ever!This was cousin Cole's second time seeing Izzy and he recalled that 'she was a lot more tired last time I saw her!'...and that she was. She's checking everything out now and is taking it all in! She finds every window in the room and loves to look outside.

Cousin Karly Jean got to meet Izzy for the first time out at Kavanaugh's over Labor Day weekend! Izzy Looooved Karly's fancy bright green glasses.Izzy and I watched the Andres kids get their pictures taken on Labor Day and hung out in their yard while they were snapping pics. She loves it so much outside, it's going to be tough to keep her indoors when she gets bigger!

Lucy was incredibly excited to kiss Izzy's cheeks whenever she saw her...she has the most kissable cheeks and Grandma Lucy is head over heels in love with her 'little friend'.