Thank you Lisa

You rock!!! I love the background choices. They make our blogs so cute!!

Daddy's Little Girl

One of my new favorite photo of Daddy and Isabelle... Just by luck too. She was such a wiggle worm by the end of the shoot.




















This was taken in the barn... no cropping or photoshop editing done yet.

Apples

Or more commonly known as ap-pools. These are a new favorite food of Isabelles... and since she has to do everything herself, she must eat the apple... whole. No more mommy cutting it for her into small bites...

The other day we took a walk up the road and Isabelle stopped under the apple tree... sat down and started munching... Quickly I had to find an apple that was not rotting, moving or was too bruised so that she could enjoy eatting it. And yes... again she is in white clothing on our property... what can I say, she looks so cute!

As we started walking back to the house with her apple, she decided she wanted some more, so she sat right in the middle of the road to take a few more bites. In order for us to get back, I had to carry her. But it was a Super good, fresh apple!!

The Pumpkin Patch

Last week Isabelle and I took our first trip to the pumpkin patch with our neighbors. We had a blast... We played in the corn box, went through a hay maze, saw some animals, played in the kid zone... Isabelle loved the big red tractor!... took a hay ride and of course picked some pumpkins. Isabelle even picked out her own pumkin. Of course, Easton helped her pick a good one. It was such a blast!! Enjoy!

The view of this place is gorgeous!! Since it is open through Thanksgiving... I think we will be going back ... and many more times in the years to come!

The costumes

This year, Isabelle is going to be a "Little Lady Bug" for Halloween. We went over to try and get some cute pics of the girls the other day, though the day was nice, the girls just wanted to play... Sophia was a super cute little bumble bee, though after wearing the costume and getting cute pictures in it, she has changed her mind and wants to be a princess. We did get some cute ones of the girls seperately, even though the goal was to get shots of the two of them, together, looking at the camera at the same time. Good luck to us with that.

We had a pile of leaves for them to play in, we got out the slide... eventually we played chase in hopes of getting a good action shot.

Enjoy the ones we did get.

I'm done!

18 months

I don't know where the time has gone, but it needs to slow down!!! Isabelle is already eighteen months old.

OK, I am the mom so I get to brag... I don't do it too often, but it is time. We went to her 18 month check up with her doctor and well, they said a lot about how 'awesome' our little girl is! First, they were amazed at her language skills... they said she was talking like a 2 year old and that she is putting together 3 word sentences and that is a much older skill. :) They were amazed at her ability to hold a crayon so well and color with it, and that her fine motor skills are so developed. She was connecting some kid of toy together with out much of a problem. The biggest one though, that the nurse and the nurse practitioner were both amazed at was Isabelle's 'toughness mixed with sweetness.' When they came in to give the flu shot, Isabelle wanted to watch, so I held her arms and she watched them do the whole shot right into the leg, as they do for all of them. Isabelle gave them a look of 'ouch' but never made a peep. When it was all done and the band aid was one, she wanted to give them 'high-5's.' It was so cute! When we were leaving the office a bit later, she blew them all kisses.

Also, we went in about two weeks earlier to get a hieght and weight check... she only gained 6 oz since that trip to this one, but she grew 1 and 1/4 inches in that two week time... no wonder her pants are all high water.

Tis the season, the holidays are here... pictures will be a coming.

HipHip Hooray!!!

We did it! We have successfully had a fire in our new wood buring stove and it was good and warm... at least in that part of the house. :) It took a while, but that is because we are new at this fixer upper stuff, but we did good. All the kudos though, should go to Eric and his dad, since they are the ones that did the amazing job. I did help paint at the end, but nothing major. Enjoy the beginning, during and ending pictures. It is such a massive improvement to this house. :)

This thing was such a death trap, we had to blockade it so that Isabelle wouldn't get anywhere near it.

We took the old "fireplace" (if you can all it that) to the dump... just over 600 pounds of uselessness.

Drywalling is getting easier with every room that we do...

Once the drywall was done and the platform was built, it was time to cut the tile to place on the platform (hearth).

Tile Done, Time to Grout.

Isabelle loved to 'help' and with grouting that was easy... just make a big mess.

Next we painted... The color is way prettier then it is captured in the photos. The contrasting color on the other walls will be a very very soft gold.

We were now ready to install.

We did not do the actuall install ourselves... that would be nuts. We had people do it for us. First they took out all the existing pipes and the top of the chimney out and off. That is the sky up there... funny, it was raining that day.

It's installed... but still so much more to do.... finishing painting, two new types of floor molding and of course, fencing.

Done, at last. Now there was just one thing left to do....

... Our first fire. We were so snug and warm. Bring on the winter.