The Holidays

Our holidays were wonderful and very busy and so full of different stories and tons of pictures. I am amazed at how much one can do in the span of only two weeks.

Each episode of our time has a bi-gillion pictures

**Christmas Tea

**Three Christmas' and a White Christmas

**Brewster

**New Years

A true English Christmas Tea

Every year a bunch of girl friends and I have this most amazing English style Christmas Tea. This year my grandmother also joined us this year, up from California. Not only is the company great but the food is to die for. Homemade English scones with REAL whipped cream and fresh jam.. oh yum!!! There are also finger sandwiches, stuffed mushrooms, little smokies and of course all kinds of tea to enjoy. We also have an ornament exchange which is always fun. All the presents go in the middle and we each take one, according to our number. Each ornament can be stolen up to 3 times... that is a standing rule to the game... of course Sheryl makes up other rules as the game plays out, and those rules change every year. :)

Isabelle at the tea, opening an early christmas present.

Three Christmas' and a White Christmas

Our first Christmas with Isabelle... How wonderful it was!! Though it may have been one of our busiest ones to date. We started out with a wonderful 4 day visit from Great Grammy staying with us. She and Isabelle had a wonderful time together, bonding and playing!!

Isabelle's 1st Christmas began the day before Christmas Eve day, at our house (day1). She got to open all the presents that Eric and I got her. She had a blast tearing the paper and playing in the boxes. She really loved the 'little people' toys... which we plan on embelishing on at her 1st birthday.

We decorated Isabelle's room with her own tree and garland with lights.

I'm peeking!

Before she really got the hang of opening the presents, she tried eatting them. :)

Got one!!

Ready...

Set...

Open!!!

Christmas Eve day, we headed to my parents house in Gig Harbor (day2). We had a blast. Isabelle had tons of presents to open, she learned that a piano makes fun sounds when played with either hands or feet, and we had a wonderful, family tradition dinner of beef fondu.

My Christmas Dress

My Great Grammy made my first Christmas stocking ... needlepoint... with my name on it!

Let's play

Eatting is always so exciting... but this night I got to enjoy squash for the first time...

Christmas is a big day!!!

Too much Christmas!

Christmas morning, we awake to find that there are now 2 bottom front teeth.

See?!?!!?!

Chrsitmas morning we packed up, ready to head home to drop off our goodies from Santa, and pick up the gifts for Eric's family. On our way home, it began to snow. :) By the time we got home, there was about an inch of snow at our place. Yeah!! Baby's first snow. And even though it was a simple pit stop (drop off and repack) we HAD to get Isabelle out of the car seat, plop her in the snow for some photos.

Then we got back in the car, and headed to Eric's parents house for Christmas day.

For me??? Christmas Day at the Morceau's (day 3) was like sensory overload... so many presents. But lots of practice tearing things open.

My Snowman!

Brewster and New Years... next post

Two More Firsts

This weekend Eric and I went and bought Isabelle a new car seat... seeing that she has now out grown the one in my car... big girl. While out we enjoyed a family lunch and though it was at Red Robin, Isabelle sat in her first restaurant high chair.

On the way home we went and got our Chrsitmas Tree. I will be spending most of this week decorating it. It may take all week since half my time is now chasing a rolling baby. She can get to places so fast, and she isn't crawling yet.

Girl'sWeekend

A few weekends ago, 3 of us went up to Lyndon to visit a friend and have a girls getaway. So after a 4 hour science test (to try to get endorsed in this area, simce getting a masters in that areas wasn't good enough), I headed up north.

Besides good company, there was good wine, tea, scrapbooking and apple picking. Let's start at the beginning. I met up with the girls at a sweet Tea shop where we enjoyed some tea and shopping.

















After tea (and shopping) we headed 'home' to Elizabeth's. There we just had fun...












LOOK!! The first scrapbook page I ever did. 'Spish Splash'
















The next morning, we headed out to BelleAcres apple farm. I got to drive the golf cart around the orchard... and no, I didn't get stuck in the mud or tip us over. I did however somehow end up on a busy road and lost in a neighboring farm... but the lady told us to follow the fence and that is were it led us. In the end, I made it back to the store front and picked up a hitch-hicker on the way. The apples delicious!

































An AMAZING weekend!

In Remembrance

This last weekend Eric and I went out to find that Parrot and all the hens had been killed. Something had dug under the gate and had gotten in. Nothing was left but feathers.

One of Many

There are so many 'firsts' that we get to share with Isabelle, though she won't remember any of it, we get to have these memories, and we get to share them with her in the future.

This Thanksigiving was nice. We shared it with Eric's family, parents and sisters and all their families. Unfortunately my parents are down in California visiting my grandmother and were not here with us. But yeah, they are planning out their trip for coming up here to spend a first Christmas with Isabelle. We are excited too that Isabelle's Great GrandMother will be coming up too! We can't wait to see her.

Wow, in just the past few days, she is spinning on her tummy and scooting backwards to get something she wants, (I'm scared of how fast she is going to be crawling... it is too soon!), she can get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth. She is making it almost impossible to type and add photos with her kicking the keyboard drawer and grabbing at the mouse... She is so cute though, she smiles everytime. hehehehehe

Here are some pics from our Thanksgiving


Play time in the garage, watching the turkey fry.






















Carving the bird.









Close up of our table and center piece



Isabelle's 1st Thanksgiving



Karen with Isabelle, and of course football in the background. Surprisingly, no one yelled at the TV this year.


Kristy with Sophia



Ahhh... Sweet potatos

Ahhhh.... Turkey, gravey, peas, potatos, and .... Zzzzzzzz







Hope everyone had a very wonderful and family filled Thanksgiving.

---Gobble, Gobble

More Pics

Cousins

All of Us

Sleepless Nights

Giggle, Giggle

The title says it all... though we are getting sleep again now. Isabelle started teething a little over a week ago, so we got very little sleep this last week. However, on her 7month birthday, her two little bottom teeth popped through. Unfortunately, they have gone back down. First time teeth tend to do this. The good thing is that if we put our finger in her mouth we can feel the little teeth there, just below the surface.

Her new foods are carrots, sweet potatoes, prunes and bananas. She loves to eat! She now scoots backwards quite well and can get up on her hands and knees. We put a picture of all of us in a little babyproof carrier, and she loves to look at it. I am in awe that she can recognize that a picture is us...

Work is great for all of us... busy. On my busiest days I get up at 4:30 every morning (think about those sleepless nights when Isabelle finally fell asleep at 4), go coach, go teach, (on Thursdays) I go back to coaching, then pick up Isabelle and go home. My easiest day... get up at 4:30 to coach then go home, back to bed and wake up later to spend a fun day with Isabelle. I like those days. :) Eric is doing good at Microsoft, in his eyes, its just another day.

I have also started Scrapbooking... but that is another post later.

Im ready for some pics...

We got Isabelle a duck bath tub... She loves to kick and splash in the water. Check out her hair.

Bananas... need I say more.

7 month B-day pics

High 'e'


One of my teething faces...


See my tongue