2 Months

It's hard to believe that little Belle is 2 months! She has been a dream baby and I can't imagine our family without her!

Her big accomplishments this month are:

-Smiles very easily now

-She has slept through the night on several nights now!!

-Rolled from stomach to back. (I was trying to take pictures on her on her tummy and she decided that that wasn't going to fly, so she rolled over. I flipped her back and she didn't it again. The next day I tried again, and I pretty much had to hold her on her tummy to keep her there!)

Both of the boys adore her and fight over who gets to give her a pacifier when she cries. It makes me so happy to see how much they adore her!

1 Month Old

Isabella is 1 month old. It's hard to believe that 1 month has already passed!

She still sleeps a lot, (which works in my favor as she has a lot of modeling gigs that she needs to be sleeping for) but when she is awake she is very alert and checking everything out. She smiles now, although she will really make you work for them! But when she does smile all the prodding is worth it.

This picture is one of my favorites that I have taken so far!!

New Arrival

Our newest is now 2 weeks old, so I suppose it is about time to introduce her to the world of blogging. 

Isabella Macy was born on December 27 at 1:20 PM. She made quite the entrance into the world! Contractions started at about 7 AM, I told Chris he might want to keep his phone near him at work as I was thinking that it would be the day! My mom was here and had been since Christmas day. I wanted to keep the contractions coming as I was scheduled to be induced on Friday the 28th. I wanted to avoid that if possible so my mom and me decided to take the boys to the mall, so that I could walk and keep things moving. 

Before we got the boys in the car the contractions were getting strong enough that I had to stop what I was doing and let it pass. They weren't very long though and so I pushed to stick with our mall plan. Once there I held onto the stroller and my mom followed the boys. We stopped to look at the fish and let them run for a little while and finally I decided I wanted to be home for a while. My mom grabbed lunch for the boys and her and we headed home. On the way I called the hospital, as I was sure they would tell me to labor at home for awhile longer and come in later (that's what they did with Corbin). Sure enough I was told to try taking a warm bath and seeing what that did to the contractions. So I called Chris and let him know it was time for him to come home. While I was in the tub, Chris came home and packed up the car. I made it through 3 contractions and decided that it was time. 

I had secretly hoped to have a completely natural birth, no pain meds, but on the way to the hospital I threw that thought out the window and decided that I wanted a shot of pain meds. We got to the hospital and they took us up to a labor room. I had time to get into the gown and asked them if I could have the pain meds. I got an IV put in (I hate IV's and this was the reason for wanting to have a natural childbirth, no IV!) and they ordered the meds. When checked I was 8-9 cm, so they let the Doctor know. By the time she got to the room I was ready to push! It turned out I was to far along to get the pain meds. I guess I got my wish for a natural birth. I had to hold about 4 pushes while they got everything ready and after about 3 pushes Isabella made her appearance into the world!

I really didn't think that I was as far along as I was! Turns out we were only in the hospital for 15 min and she was born! The nurses all guessed at her weight, but were all in shock when the scale read 9lbs. 12 oz and 21 1/4 inches long.

She is beyond perfect and a wonderful addition to our family!

One VERY proud big brother! The first few days Corbin didn't want much to do with her. He has since warmed up.

Jack and Corbin in their big brother shirts.

Isabella with the flowers that daddy had delivered!

He's Back....

No poltergeist here, just our lovable elf Kiki! Kiki stopped by on December 1st to help Santa out and keep his eye on the boys. In case you have been living under a rock lately Kiki is our Elf on a Shelf that comes to stay with us during the Christmas season and reports to Santa each night on whether or not the boys have been good. He seems to get into some mischief himself each evening and the boys have to find him in the morning. Below is what Kiki has been up to this past week.

On Sat. the 1st, Santa mailed him to us and he brought along some magical tree seeds that he instructed the boys to plant in a bowl of sugar before they went to bed that night.

 On Sunday morning when the boys woke up, those magical seeds had transformed into Christmas tree cookies. I very neat trick I might add! The boys were amazed and even happier when they got to eat a cookie before breakfast!

On Monday, Kiki had turned our milk green. I've never seen Jack drink so much milk in one day. I had to give their teachers a heads up as to what our elf had done at home so they didn't wonder when the boys started drinking green milk.

On Tuesday we found Kiki drinking the syrup in our pantry through a straw!

On Wednesday, we found that Kiki and rolled down the stairs in a roll of toilet paper.

Thursday, we caught him playing a game of candy land with Alvin, Boots and the Ogre.

Friday he had written out a message that said "Be Good" in M&M's on our kitchen table.

During the day Kiki spends his time in the top of our tree. This way he has a good view of what the boys are up too so he can report back to Santa!

Halloween Tradition

For me, this Halloween tradition is almost more important than carving pumpkins. As most of you know I LOVE to bake, so it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that this tradition includes cut out sugar cookies! These are nothing fancy, just cut out pumpkins, decorated in orange frosting with M&M's for faces. This is something that I remember making with my grandma when I was little and I loved it. I think we used candy corn instead, but I like chocolate way to much not to use that!

This year the boys decided that just pumpkins weren't good enough, so we threw in a few bats, cats and ghosts as well. There was also a fresh layer of snow on the ground outside, so I really felt like we should be listening to Christmas Carols and cutting out trees and reindeer instead. Alas I stuck with the correct Holiday, knowing that Christmas is just around the corner and I will probably be making whatever goodies we want for the holidays soon and freezing them. With the baby on the way, I am going to attempt to be prepared early this year. My original goal was to have all Christmas shopping done by Thanksgiving, but looking at the calendar I'm not sure that's going to happen! Wish me luck!

 This photo says it all! I think Big ate more of the cookie dough than we baked.

Below is the final outcome

Trick or Treating at the Zoo

This weekend our local zoo held an event called "Boo at the Zoo". The kids could wear their costumes and trick or treat around the zoo while seeing the animals. It was a lovely (not) 37 degrees when we went. I waited as long in the day as I could so it would be warmest. And to top it off, it was snowing! Not enough to show up in any photos, but nevertheless it was snow. 

We are members of the zoo so the event was free for us, which was a good thing as I would not have been the happiest if I had paid for it. Except for a few local businesses that had tables set up and were handing out candy, the boys got 4 pieces of candy and Halloween tattoo. Trust me, my kids are sweet enough and wild enough that they really don't need that much sugar, but I really thought there might be a little bit more to it.

I was able to sneak in a few photos though. Little wanted to wear his monkey costume and Big had on his Hawkeye costume, although it was too cold to actually see it.

Big turns 4!

Big recently turned 4 on the 17th! It was kind of a crazy time for us. I had been out of town for work the week before and then that weekend we ended up driving to SD for my Grandmothers funeral. The funeral ended up being on the 17th, but we still tried to make Big's birthday special. 

One of the things he had been asking to do for quite a while was to stay in a hotel. So for his birthday and the fact that we were out of town, he got his wish! He didn't get to swim because there was no time but I still think he enjoyed it! Plus Grandma and Papa were in the room next door, so for that little one it doesn't get much better!

Before we left town to head back home, we stopped and let the boys pick out some pumpkins at a local stand.

We drove home that night and stopped at the store when we got home to pick up a cake. It pained me a little to be giving my 4 year old a store bought cake for his birthday, but he didn't seem to mind much!