Getting Caught Up But Still Behind!

Boy am I WAAAYYY behind in the blogging world! My last post was the 23rd of Jan and it was about the first of December and here we are now, well into May. Goodness!! I had 4 entries started over the past few months but none finished so I just decided I would do a little (try not to be boring) catch up in one post instead of trying to make each individual a separate post. So I apologize in advance for the long post!

For a moment let’s jump all the way back to Christmas…
We had a very nice Christmas. Unfortunately we were not able to head to Sonora like we had hoped for a visit with Alan's mom and sister due to a stomach bug they had lurking around their house. This allowed us to see and spend a little bit of time with my brother and his wife that we probably otherwise were not going to be able to do. We had Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and opened presents that evening before they left. The change was welcomed and it was actually nice to just be able to hang around Christmas Day and play with Isabella and all of her new toys. She was so excited to discover that Santa had delivered just what she had continually asked him for (Roller Skates). She was so fun this year. Everything was just what she wanted or needed or what she had seen on TV and exactly like what Caitlin has.
I'll spare you the pictures of us eating and the multitude of gift opening pictures and I'll just share a few cute ones from throughout the holiday.



My first try at a pumpple cake - Not pretty and became known as the pumpple dump but tasted pretty good.



It wasn’t very sunny at the Sun Bowl…
New Year's Eve Alan and I headed to El Paso to the Sun Bowl to watch Notre Dame dominate Miami. Despite freezing our booties off, we had an awesome time. We had so much fun at the game that we passed out and totally missed ringing in the New Year! Before leaving El Paso we had lunch with Ashley (friend of Alan's) and her son Braxton.

2011…
The new year was started off right with a Texas Tech Red Raider Bowl WIN and a few days later Isabella got to see her baby for the first time, claiming, “there’s a dolphin swimming in mommy’s tummy!!” We also found out the wonderful news that Isabella’s baby dolphin would be wearing PINK come May. Yes, Isabella will be having a baby sister!! She is super excited about being a big sister and especially to a baby girl. She said before we went into the appointment that it wasn’t a baby brother and if it was she was having a baby sister too! She was right…there is one baby and that one baby is a girl!
Since we weren’t able to visit Grandma and Aunt Kari in December they came for a short visit in January. A good time was had by all. Isabella kept them busy playing.

Frosty February…
For the first week of February, Isabella and I spent our time in Wilson because I was suppose to have a dr's appoint on Tuesday that got cancelled due to the weather and took my dad to the dr for his back & went to the baby specialist for an ultrasound on Thursday. All was well with our little girl - she was curled up in a little ball behind my belly button so unfortunately for the first time after an ultrasound I walked out without a picture....I wasn't a happy camper.
For those of you who didn't know, Winter was FINALLY here!! Isabella had told us all winter that it is not winter until it snows! Well heading right into the end of winter/first part of spring...to Isabella it was just then winter because we received snow February 1st and had snow off and on and below freezing temps for a little over a week. We were getting a little cabin fever. We had played, colored, slept, watched movies, read books and played in the snow. Isabella wanted to build a snowman ever since it started snowing but the snow was too dry and powder like till it finally started melting a little and we used the melting stuff mixed with the dry stuff to build our wee little snow girl. We had lots of fun throwing snow around, making snow angels and we even made some snow ice cream that was Yummy but a tad bit sugary because the little girl that was helping me dumped too much sugar in, trying to be such a big helper.

Mady even LOVES the snow!!

Kisses for the snow girl

Mady chasing snow balls

Happy 30th to me!!! Despite being pregnant and not being able to have a drink to get through the 30 blues…I made it and had an amazing birthday. A special thanks to a dear friend (Jennifer) who brought me supper and cake on Friday and then met up with a group of us on Saturday with a DELICIOUS homemade Italian Crème Cake!!! Over the weekend Isabella and Alan served and shared with me pancakes in bed. Thank you to everyone who helped make my 30th a special day!

March Madness...
March was filled with just that….Madness! I went to weekly Non Stress Tests (NST’s) in Lubbock for baby girl and to the OB every other week. We signed on our new house March 4th, we got the keys March 18th and have spent our days nights and weekends working on the house when everyone is feeling well.  We've also been passing lots of sickness between us, cold, stomach bug, you name it-we've had it, ALL OF US and at different times through out the end of March and April.

We have experienced a first with paint peeling right off the wall, we pulled paneling off of one room and found old termite damage and a very (for lack of a better word) crap job of remodeling done and now will have to call in an expert to prepare the wall for us to paint in Isabella’s room. Hopefully I can keep up with the blog and I will write an entry about the house and post pictures (Before, During & After). Unfortunately the “after” will not be complete before baby girl decides to make her debut. 
More madness….In February I was having major pain in one tooth, then part of the tooth chipped out, I ended up with an infection and when I finally got into the dentist I had a very bad infection and he did a pulpotomy to tide me over until mid March when I went and had my first ever root canal.

Baby Sister...

Playdates…
Throughout the past few months we have had several play dates. Isabella LOVES play dates and always hates to leave when it’s time to go home. She definitely LOVES to play, LOVES her friends and enjoys making new ones. In fact mid-March Isabella finally got to meet some new friends in Monahans and was extremely excited about that.



At Christmas we got to spend some time with Baby Layla - We all just love that baby and can't resist giving her smooches!  Isabella loves to hold her and can't wait till she can play.



Firsts…
Isabella also experienced a few first the past several months. Papa fixed up one of my old bikes with training wheels and she has been riding it like a pro and loving every minute of it. She also ventured outside a few times on her roller skates….not quite as good at the roller skates as she is on the bike but she is definitely padded and will some day get the hang of it. Alan and I also took her to her first Hockey Game. She had a blast but what kid doesn’t when popcorn and cotton candy are involved!! She was so excited she even had her own cheer revamped from Special Agent Oso, “Go, Go Skater, Fight Fight Fight – Front Step Back Step – Fight, Fight Fight!” She caught a T-shirt…well actually I did but we let her think she did and she was so proud of it!!

Circus Gatti also came to town and although way over priced, Isabella enjoyed it.  She experienced her first pony ride (twice) and even got to ride an elephant!! 

For my birthday my mom purchased me tickets to the George Strait/Reba concert.  Although I have seen George countless times and would see him every time he's in town if I could I had never seen Reba.  It was an amazing concert and WELL worth the money spent on the tickets!  Thank you Mommy for such a wonderful birthday present!

April Flowers...
In April we signed Isabella up for CDO at the Methodist church for next school year.  Hopefully we will find out sometime the first of June if she got in.  If so it will be two days a week and I think it will be good for both of us..probably even for baby girl. 
Isabella also had several birthday parties to attend this month, one was her best friend (Caitlin's) My Little Pony party.  We all had a really good time.
She has continued her weekly dance lessons, her costume came in for the recital in May and the girls all had their dance pictures made.
Alan spent a week in Houston for a conference for work, I continued weekly NST's and started weekly visits to the OB so definitely keeping the road to Lubbock HOT.
We finally got our big furniture moved and the house almost livable.  It will be awhile before the house is in perfect condition and we are completely moved in but we got the gas turned on and are looking forward to spending out first night in our NEW HOUSE!!  My hopes are to have the house all set up and painted like I want it by Isabella's birthday party the 2nd of July because we will be having lots of company seeing our house for the first time.
I think this about has us caught up. I’ll try to keep up better but can’t make promises with working on the house and trying to get moved in, making weekly trips back and forth to Lubbock and preparing for baby girl to make her debut. But for now I will leave you with a few of my favorite pictures of Isabella over the past few months.

First time for Isabella to write her own name

Coloring with Grammie

Hanging with Grandad

Isabella has gotten into a phase about horses...she eats, sleeps, breathes, and pretends horses...she loves riding and playing with the wonder horse when we are in Wilson.