Laura is AWESOME!

My good friend Laura of Watermelon Photography http://www.watermelon-photography.com/ took some family pictures for us this month to give as Christmas presents. I have not been allowed to shared (Dave forbid me until after Christmas), but now that Christmas is gone here they are:

(Thanks Laura you are awesome)

Dave as Santa

For those of you who don't know, I run the Social Committee for our home owners association. When your wife runs the committee and they need a Santa you can guess who gets volunteered, Dave! I have to say that he was an awesome Santa, all of the kids loved him. The event was a lot of fun but did not go off without a hitch. I had hired a train to tote all of the kids around to see the Christmas lights. The morning of the event the train company called to let me know that they had to cancel because the driver had hurt his leg. I ended up whipping a limo bus out of the thin air and had them drive everyone around to see the lights. This worked out so much better, mainly because it was climate controlled. Of course the night that the event was planned had to be one of the coldest nights yet, 26 degrees! Needless to say I slept in three shirts and sweat pants that night just trying to thaw myself out.

Isabelle's facial expression and her hair is awful in these pictures..LOL This will be a great picture to show at her wedding! Thank you Mom-Mom for watching Isabelle in the heat while Dave (Santa) and I froze, I was so happy she did not have to be outside with us.

By the way, Isabelle was fine with Daddy playing Santa we told her that Daddy was just pretending like she pretended to be Abby Cadabby for Halloween.

Playing the Jesus Card

We are at Blockbuster the other day, and of course they have all kinds of candy and other kid appealing junk right at the check out line. Isabelle runs up to the candy grabs a box of gummy bears and said:

I- I want these
M- No Isabelle put them back
I- Can I plleeeasse have these (thinking a long please would do the trick)
M- No Isabelle put them back
I- Can I have them for Christmas
M- No
I- But Baby Jesus would want these for his Birthday
M- Baby Jesus does not eat gummy bears

I couldn't make up something this funny if I tried! She cracks me up, just whipped out the old Baby Jesus card.

Our Thoughtful little girl

I have to say that I was so proud of Isabelle this Christmas. I always wonder if we are raising her right, if we are teaching her how to be a good person and she confirmed it for me yesterday. I have to say that Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday, and nothing brings me greater joy than Isabelle opening her presents. Dave and I decided that we wanted to enjoy every moment of watching Isabelle open her presents so we waiting on opening ours. Isabelle excitement grew with every present she opened, she was just so pleased. All of the sudden she stopped and asked, "where are your presents Mommy and Daddy?" How sweet of her to stop right in the middle of all of the magic to take note that Daddy and Mommy weren't opening presents. We explained that we were waiting for her to open hers first, but how thoughtful. What an angel!

Isabelle also carefully picked out present this year for both Mommy and Daddy. While shopping with me she decided that she needed to get Daddy something for Christmas, whiskers! Let me explain, Isabelle loves for her Daddy to make her pancakes on the weekends. When he makes them he uses one of her "special cups" and always whisks them with what she calls "whiskers" (your average whisk). So she decided that Daddy needed new whiskers for Christmas to make her pancakes. Daddy was out of town when we bought them and Isabelle is HORRIBLE at keeping secrets so when Daddy called you better believe that he could hear her yelling in the background, "I got you whiskers Daddy, I got you whiskers". When we got home she wrapped them and made a name tag special for Daddy. Here is her wrapping job, I guess she didn't take in to account that you could see through the side of the present =)


When it came time for Isabelle to get a present for Mommy she was once again very thoughtful! Dave asked her what she wanted to get Mommy, she said clothes but later narrowed it down to pajamas. So Dave and Isabelle are in the pajamas section of Target when the run into thermal underwear for women. Isabelle asked Dave what they were and he told her they were things that you wear under your clothes to keep warm. Isabelle explained, "Ohhhh, warm pajamas, Mommy need those". Dave claims to have tried to talk her out of those and into something different but it didn't work. So for Christmas I recieved a lovely pair of thermal underwear. I tried to go along with the whole thing and wear them last night but I cannot express to you how unattractive thermals are. Seeing as how we are trying to make a baby, the last thing I need is thermal underwear! So we went and exchanged them for some different ones that Isabelle helped Mommy pick out =) LOL... I love Dave and Isabelle they are the best!

The Wink Family Elves

I saw this Elf Yourself on someone's blog and it is adorable (thanks Monda). Isabelle is asleep but I know she will get a kick out of it when she wakes up in the morning.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Playing with Photoshop CS3

While Dave is away I though that I would play, with Photoshop that is. I found a really neat website with a bunch of free actions and started playing with some of Isabelle's pictures. The three actions I played with last night were a retro action, a star action for lights and an action that blurs all around one image. The retro is my fav!

(click on the images blogger makes them so small)

The things that really matter

With the hustle and bustle of life we start to loose sight on what really matters most to us in this world. We worry about picking out the perfect gift for everyone on our list, getting our Christmas cards out, paying the bills, and what we are going to wear tomorrow.

I found out today that a very close friend of the family died yesterday in a fatal car accident. All of the regular worries I have about my day to day life are gone and reality strikes me that I am so grateful to have my family. My beautiful daughter, loving husband, our health, our safety, and a roof over our heads. Who cares about whether or not you get the latest and greatest whatever for Christmas, when you still have each other. I would give up everything I have without a moment of hesitation to be with the people I love.

As you are getting wrapped up, stressed out, and overwhelmed with the Christmas season remember what really matters in life, the rest is just details!

Mark you will be missed by many!
http://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/johnsoncounty/local_story_350133020.html?keyword=topstory

Where are my flowers??

At the dance recital on Sunday my mom and I were talking and mom said that she should have gotten Isabelle some flowers for after her dance. I told her that Isabelle would never know that she didn't get flowers. Mom was convinced that she would see other girls with them and be sad. I told her she was only 2 and would be completely fine with the cupcakes awaiting her at home. Well, I was WRONG! After Isabelle's performance we were sitting there watching other kids dance when Isabelle noticed that everyone else had flowers but her. I tried explaining that we had cupcakes at home for her instead, but she was not having it she needed flowers. Thanks to Grandma (my mom) she stopped at Market Street on the way to eat cupcakes at our house and picked up the diva some flowers. Here is a picture of Isabelle and her treasured flowers:

Gingerbread House (aka The Candy House)

Last week we made our first ever Gingerbread House, or Candy House as Isabelle likes to call it. We let Isabelle do the majority of it with the guidance of Mommy and she did an awesome job. The kid is creative just like her mommy, she had to take something from me since she doesn't look a thing like me. Now the trick is keeping it out of reach from Tootsie and Isabelle until after Christmas.

Isabelle making sure that every piece of candy is in perfect position

Her first finished product, a gingerbread man- "Eww I get to eat a piece of candy?"

"This is so stressful"- Isabelle and her completed Candy House

Ahhh, already trying to sneak a bite!

1st Dance Recital

My little girl is yet again growing up way to fast. Sunday was her very first dance recital! I was a little worried because she went on smack dab in the middle of nap time. When I went to drop her off backstage she was being a little clingy but ended up doing a wonderful job. No tears when I left her, did her dance moves, and even sang! I am going to try and get the video off of our digital camera, so stay tuned. Meantime here are some pictures of the dress rehearsal and the morning of the dance rehearsal. (click on images to enlarge, the actual dancing ones are a little hard to see on the blog)

Christmas Pictures

Dave went out of town on business today, so on the way home from dropping him off at the airport Isabelle and I decided to stop at the Gaylord Texan to take some pictures in one of her Christmas outfits. She did so good, and if you know me at all you know there are a million pictures to share. Here are just a few of them:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

If you want me to send you a copy of any of the pictures let me know and I will be happy to share =)

Dance Recital

This weekend is Isabelle's first ever dance recital and I can hardly contain myself, I am so excited. The other morning I was putting makeup on in the bathroom when Isabelle asked for some. She asks all of the time and I have to tell her that she can wear makeup when she is older (much older!). So the morning that she came in asking about it I told her that she was going to be able to wear makeup at her dance recital and the rehearsal as well. She yell, " Yeah Mommy, I am finally older"!! She remembers absolutely everything, what a cutie I cannot wait for her recital. I should be posting pictures soon, stay tuned.

Thanksgiving Part 2

After coming back from the farm on Friday, we went to Aunt Jackie and Uncle Mike's house for a left over feast. Everyone was there, we had a great time and watched the Griswold's Family Christmas.

We called this table "The Fire Table" of course all of the kids wanted to sit at this table because it had real fire (aka candles) on it. Dave, Chris, and I were the fire table monitors. We heard all kinds of interesting stories and views on life from the kids at the table, the kids are way more interesting than adults.

Isabelle, Jackson and Uncle Chris


Isabelle and Jackson getting into the candy on the table, they were so sad when it magically disappeared.


Aunt Jackie and Isabelle sat down to do some coloring. Aunt Jackie told Isabelle that they could put one of her pictures on the refrigerator. I guess Isabelle could not just pick one so she told Uncle Mike to put the whole coloring book on the fridge. So Mike busted out the duct tape and stuck the whole darn thing on for her. This is a picture of her trying to show off what she has done. Later that week we were in the car driving when Isabelle out of nowhere says, " Mommy we need duct tape"... LOL, great looks like Isabelle is getting duct tape for Christmas =)

These two pictures looked so fun I could not resist. She loves her Daddy and her Pop Pop, look at the smile on their faces. (Sorry Daddy about the belly shot)

Pictures with Santa

So last year pictures with Santa was an absolute disaster, like most 1.5 year old Isabelle screamed through the whole picture. This year I was pleasantly suprised to see that The Picture People got Santa to come and take pictures with the kids. It was great, now I can pick the screaming picture that I like the best vs. only have the one option with the mall Santa. All week I work on Isabelle telling her how we are going to get her pictures taken with Santa and how fun it will be. All of my hard work payed off, as soon as we walked in the door to the Picture People Isabelle ran up and gave Santa a big hug. She even sat around and chatted with him while we waited for our turn for pictures.

So here they are, our first non-screaming Santa picture!