Our poor dog and reading to Emmie

Last year Isabelle got a toy veternarian kit for her birthday. Sophie is now getting very regular checkups! Teeth, eyes, ears, heartbeat. Dr. Isabelle is very thorough.

Isabelle has a ton of fun with her friend Emerson. We visited the Fogarty's on Saturday and she took the opportunity to read Emerson a book. It was pretty cute. She is also going through a little phase where she likes to pretend she is a Mom. Sometimes she will tuck us in on the couch and sing us songs and then get frustrated if when we dont fall asleep...its pretty funny.

Isabelle's birdhouse

This weekend Isabelle got to spend some time with her friend Emerson. Isabelle had a great time with Emmie and it was a fun to watch how well she itneracts with babies.

Last weekend we went to Home Depot and they were holding a toddler craft time. Isabelle got an apron with her name on it and we got to put together a birdhouse, for free. It was a pretty fun time. Isabelle loves making crafts so this project was right up her alley. When we brought the bird house home we painted it to match our house and now it hangs out in front.

There is nothing very exciting going on around here. We all enjoyed the recent warm weather but todays blizzard is a reminder of how far we have to go until spring...way to long. Isabelle started swimming lessons this winter and is getting much more comfortable in the water. She started wearing goggles last week and now we are practicing wearing them in the tub.

Craft time....

sweet treats

Isabelle had a pretty fun filled pre valentines day weekend. On Friday she went to the Elk River ECFE Vday carnival with the Greenwalds (Dane and Cash). They had fun playing games and eating pizza. Dane won the cake walk on his first try and they all got to eat cupcakes. Isabelle was a little scared and wouldnt walk in the cake walk. On Saturday Isabelle got to hang out at Nanna's with Cousins Kaylee and Blayne. They put together a valentines day craft and got to decorate cookies.

Big Girl Bed!

So we finally made the move from Isabelle's crib to a big girl bed. She had never shown any interest in climbing out of her crib so she probably could have stayed in the crob for a while

longer but she is getting a little old for her crib. She has now spent one nap and one night in her big girl bed without too many issues. She defenitely likes her routines so it could take a while for this to be the new normal routine.

One of Isabelle's new favorite activities is reading books to her babies, just like we read to her at night...

What a Christmas!

Christmas has now come and gone and what a fun time we had. I remember being disappointed last year when Isabelle didnt really get into it very much, she didnt know what was going on and satisfied just playing with the wrapping paper. This year she was excited to open gifts and really understood the fact that santa was brining her more toys...if she was good! Santa brought her a kitchen on Christmas morning and she has played with it quite a bit since then, Gina and I get to eat pretend lunches several times a day. Thanks to everyone that made this such a wonderful Christmas.

Santa made an extra stop to visit with Isabelle and her cousins Will and Keegan on Christmas morning. Isabelle was excited to see Santa and gave him hugs and said thank you. Last year she was terrified of Santa.

Buried in one of her many mountains of gifts....

Isabelle is really getting into her new kitchen and accessories. She has a blender and regularly makes us fruit juice. Below you can see she is putting some pizza's in the oven.

a visit with santa

Isabelle had a really good visit with Santa last weekend. She wasn't the slightest bit intimidated and jumped up on his lap and chatted his ear off about the toy kitchen that she wants him to bring her for Christmas. She even gave him a great big hug and thanked him in advance for the kitchen. It was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen.

tis the season

Its early in the Christmas season and we already recieved one really big gift. Sophie spent two nights in the hospital and returned to us a much happier and healthier dog. Her red blood count is still below normal but her body is now creating more red blood cells and eventually she should be back to 100%. She may be on the medication for a long time (or forever) but at least she is back at home. What more could we want under our tree....?

Isabelle had a pretty good time baking sugar cookies with Mommy and Me. Putting on the sprinkles was her favorite part.

Now that we are out of our townhouse we actually had the space to buy a real tree. It isnt the biggest tree in the world but it sure smells like Christmas.

Bowling

Isabelle had her first trip the bowling alley last weekend. We celebrated Cousin Kaylee's 4th birthday at a bowling alley in Big Lake. She seemed to have a pretty good time but got upset when she misseed all the pins...she pouted for a while but got back into it.

Our first baby girl, Sophie, is struggling against an immune disorder that almost took her from us last night. The disease is causing her immune system to destroy her own red blood cells. We went to the vet and she had critically low red blood cell counts. From there we went to an Emergency Vet in Eden Prairie and they gave her a blood transfusion and started her on medication that we hope will get her immune system under control. Gina and I were able to spend some time with her this afternoon and she seems to be getting better but the doctors warned that this situation will get better and worse over the coming days and even weeks. We are hopeful that she pulls through. We arent ready for her to leave us yet.

Santa and the City Council

Isabelle and her daycare group were honored by the Champlin City Council last night. They participate in the adopt a park program and spend some time on almost every nice day walking around Clyde Andrews park picking up garbage. The kids got a kick out of the city council meeting.

Last weekend Isabelle went with Cousin Will and Keegan to see Santa at the Woods in Maple Grove. They had santa and his reindeer, story telling, other activities and a fire truck. Apparently Isabelle thought it was pretty cool to hang out in the fire truck (see below).

Doctor Isabelle

Isabelle decided that she wanted to be a doctor for halloween. Not sure where that came from but it turned out to be pretty cute. We had a fun halloween in our new house but we underestimated the amount of candy we needed. We were out by 7! I had to make a run to walgreens to buy more and we gave out a ton of that. There were so many kids in the neighborhood that it looked like a parade. Isabelle couldnt get enough of the kids. After she was done trick or treating she ran to do the door everytime and greeted the other kids. She was very excited about the whole thing.

Doctor Isabelle

Grumpy Doctor Isabelle

Isabelle still wasnt to interested in carving pumkings she thought it was fun to watch for a while but eventually left Mom and I alone in the kitchen to do it ourselves.

Fall farm fun!

I guess summer is now officially over. We had a very fun and eventful summer, hopefully winter will be equally as enjoyable. This afternoon we went to Dehns Pumpkin Patch in Dayton. Isabelle was pretty excited for the trip and seemed to have a blast.

It was a little colder and windier than we would have liked but
Isabelle didnt seem to mind. Isabelle looked at a lot of pumpkins before finding just the right one.

Isabelle loves animals and the Dehn farm happened to have about 70 cows and two goats. I didnt think Isabelle was going to let us leave. She couldnt get enough of the animals.

I havent been posting very much lately so you think I would have more to write about but there really isnt that much going on. Isabelle is now pretty much potty trained. She still wears a pull up at night time and nap time but thats it. We are pretty proud of her. It seems like we just started trying to go potty and we are already done. Amazing.

We play a lot of play-doh at our house. Isabelle loves it. Her favorite thing to do is make food we pretty much always make pizza, pasta, fruit and other food.

Love the look...

We went to the zoo a few weeks back. Isabelle loves looking at the animals. She thinks the stuffed animals at Cabelas are cool so she thought the zoo was amazing.

She had a good few of the Giraffes from my shoulders.

second haircut...

Thankfully our second trip to the "salon" was much easier than our first. We went to the Pigtails and Crewcuts in Champlin. This place iks pretty awsome. They have a waiting room with toys and coloring books and kids movies playing all over the place. Isabelle really enjoyed it. She didnt get very much cut off, just a trim.

Isabelle continues to talk more and more. Sometimes I feel like we are talking to a teenager. Lately she had very little interest in listening to us but she is starting to understand the consequences a little bit. We are having a blast in the new house. Picking plums, apples and pears has been a pretty fun activity.

Here is a video of her singing one of her favorite songs. She also sings pretty solid versions of Old Mcdonald, twinkle twinkle, itsy bitsy spider and more...