xmas post {finally}.

Christmas was a riot for so many reasons, namely this:

{she is my sweet little sugar and spice!  love my little peanut!}

Honestly I knew that the Holidays would be a blast+ with a little one ..but what I didn't realize is how fun it really would be {and maybe how tiring it would be?}.  Little Isabelle got a slew of toys, from fake food to a bug car to mega blocks to a car DVD player (mommy's #1 gift!!!).  There is nothing like celebrating with a little one vs. with a bunch of older people! :)

The Holiday got started with a little mommy and me time on The Eve (yes I took the 24th off and relaxed with Ibelle and prepped all things for the fam's visit).  My mom and Garner came to visit on Xmas day and stayed the weekend - we had Xmas dinner with all of the fixings!  My mom gave Isabelle the Velveteen Rabbit book and movie (along with a copy I had when I was little).  Everything was wonderful (minus the part where Dyer worked/ was on call ..but alas it the life of the MD folk, although he did get off at a very good time each day).

Dyer's mom, Grammie, and Gma, Gigi, came down the 26th after celebrating Christmas Day in Houston (we missed you Aunt Wynne!).  What fun we had!  Isabelle got plenty of Grammie and Gigi loving!  They even let her hangout with them in their big bed!  I'm sure Isabelle thought she was big girl stuff!  Isabelle got the most precious presents from Dyer's family - a Christmas plate setting and matching tea set (they started the tradition last year with a plate setting).  Once Isabelle is grown, I can't wait for her to have and treasure the dishes. 
(caution: pic overload!)

 {ibelle and I with the Velveteen Rabbit books, aka the most perfectly thoughtful gift.  Thanks mom!}

 {the family Htz.}
{if our shirts look familiar .. it is b/c we wear these same outfits every yr!}

 {G, me and mom eating our yum feast!}

 {g'ma and Isabelle!}

 {Isabelle + uncle G + rowdy + her car.  you can push her around the house a million times to beat an Ibelle bad-mood-bears.}

 {princess ICH and her presents!}

 {isabelle & gigi playing!}

{notice rowdy loving having people to lay with!}

 {a gigi and grammie sandwich!  they just love their girl!}

Love.

Remember how I was just mentioning that ibelle is a huge dog lover?? Here she is with her dad looking through the Dogalog

She will carry around that book all over the place looking at each and every different kind of dog. Adorable? I think so!

Dancing.

Isabelle loves to dance!! Here she is with her dad and her {new} silver dancing shoes. She is too fun! & she loves her lovey.


The best: She gets babies in on all the dancing by picking them up maybe just jumping them around, either way it is the best!! Want to see: dancing babies.

Mansbestfriend.

Isabelle loves dogs.


Even today, at Petsmart, we went in and while dyer picked up a few things for rowdy, Isabelle was able to look at all the dogs (they were brought from a shelter) and she loved it!!

Here is a little glimpse into her favorite, playing, with rowdy. Which takes a lot of coaxing from us to get him to interact with her ;-)

This weekend a little dog escaped from our neighbors yard. Holy cow, ibelle had a bff. She kept saying goggie even after the sweet little dog went home. So precious!!

{yes @ the bottom.. that is her lovie.}

{newbie bffs.}

Ibelle+Skeege.

(Skeege: aka ibelles gpa, dyers dad.)

Dyers dad came for a Christmas visit! He starts his new job in a couple of days so it was perfect timing. Isabelle had so much fun playing with her blocks!! She even got her gpa in on it!!! She would stack the blocks as-high-as-possible while gpa held them in place, it was too cute!!

(Take note of the cabbage patch doll, Reyna, never mind the doll is a spitting image of ibelle, check out her hair!!! Thanks aunt Mimi for the funnest of babies!)

Doghouse.

this picture cracks me up x2.

1. mostly bc rowdy appears to be in a dog house.
&
2. ibelle is playing like mad with the fake food she got for Xmas. no lie, she loved it just as much as I thought she would (only bc I've seen her play with grace's fake food a time or two).

The end.
Time to relish the 20ish hours left of vacay. (although Isabelle has vacation until Tuesday. I know, lucky!!!)

Baby-A.

Last week my bff, Erin, had the sweetest of little boys.
{Erin is Grace's mama.}

Andrew Christopher came in on 12/20 at 7 pounds 15 ounces & perfect!
{seriously, perfectly adorable.}

Can't wait to hold him and give him some kisses!!!
{I can't help but think of little Drew, Grace, their cousin Finley & Ibelle playing together!}

xmas 09.

When wee-little-bitty was only a mere 4 months old:

ACS.

Erin, Chris and big sister, Grace, welcome baby Andrew!

Andrew Christopher · December 20, 2010 · 7 lbs 15 oz

[many, many congrats to the sweetest and most precious of families.]

bags-o-fun.

ICH organization goes a little like this*:

1.  Everyday when Ibelle gets home from school she sits on the floor and gets all the bags together, including her school bag, my purse, my work bag, and our lunch bags. 
All things bag convening at this one area.

& maybe this happens in the morning too, with an old makeup bag and plastic bin filled to-the-brim with everything bathroom related.  everything.  trust me, if it was you + baby + trying to get ready for work ..anything goes.

2.  Then she empties everything out of each bag, only to then put the items back into the respective bags. No kidding, she really does this.  Her fav items?  Pens and paper.

3.  Sometimes she will create her own bag of things that she has collected along the way, as seen here:

{in this case, a lunch bag with school craft projects and receipts. rowdy is nonetoexcited.

in all honesty it is the cutest thing ever!!}

{my favorite part, that is 3 pens and a lip liner that

were all lined up at the bottom of the bag,

& each of those are from different bags. oh yeah, and the balled up/riped candy cane craft.}



The worst part?  When the organizing/playtime is ov-errr.  She becomes a mess of tears and sass.

*sorry for the boring'iest and most detail'iest post ever.  but this is a pseudobabybook and i don't want to forget these cute things.

kiss attack!

 {kiss attacks, b/c she loves her dad.}

o christmas tree,

We had a family outing to get our tree.

We took a trip to

the tree farm

(aka Home Depot).

We had the best time choosing the best, fullest, greenest tree there.

I think that Ibelle had a

wonderful

time too.  Honestly, the holidays

are the best with the wee one.

Our little family

got the sweetest of compliments: 

Us + the fir on the roof of the car = "xmas card." (I'll take it!)

& only because everyone deserves a good laugh:

{take 10.  i don't know which is funnier, my weird chin or ibelle w/ her finger down her throat??!}

d+i=♥

{my l♥ves.}
these two are adorable, most especially adorable together.

santafanta.

Dyer and I had talked about getting Ibelle's pic with Santa, buuuut with our limited time to get it done I figured it wasn't going to happen. 
Well.. you should have seen my excitement when we were in the airport (headed to Lubbock) and Southwest was doing a promotion which included a pic with Santa!! 

I was soo thrilled.
Isabelle not so thrilled.  Either way we got the pic!

{perfect!}

{maybe. aside from santa's closed eyes and ibelle's lovey.}

'bock.

This last weekend ibelle and I had a getaway to lubbock ..thanks to southwest (for the sweet deal, 27$ each way) & the fam (for the FUN time). 
We got to lubbock on Saturday, once we got in the door ibelle headed to bed!  She was beyond pooped from the big plane ride.  We ate and off we were to Belly Couture (my aunt's store) to check it out & WOW! We were impressed.  Holy cow love that place and everything in it!  Not only is it decorated to perfection the clothes are awesome!
Sunday we hung out, which was so very needed after our big week of work/school/airplane, ibelle and I were in need for some down time (I think aunt Mimi and Jack were too!).  Ibelle, cousin Jack and his friends played until there was no more playing was to be had.  Ibelle loved Jack's train!  Ibelle got to have pizza and I think that she LOVED it!  The cutest thing, if Jack would cry Ibelle would also get upset, she would have the saddest of cries!  Precious?: I think so.  After nap time we were off to paint some ceramic pieces for Xmas and head over to the store for some pics.  Ibelle and Jack went to feed the ducks, however, with the 1 million-below-zero weather the ducks were no coming for the bread. 
Monday we did some relaxing and headed back to Dallas.  We already miss the crew!  Can't wait to make it back!

{ibelle in the airport on the way home.}

{ibelle playing in jack's ball pit.}

{ibelle, her friend, jesse and aunt mimi. jack's hanging in the background.}

{sadly i took very few pics.  that is just how much fun we were having!}

fu manCHU.

shoe [chh-ew*]:
1. an external covering for the human foot.
2. the cutest word ever spoken by ibelle**.
3. the thing that ibelle may love the most**. ibelle points out any & all shoes and pulls each & every one out of the basket they are in**.

*chhew: not to be confused with fu manCHU.
**no lie.

thanksgivingtwentyten.

finally.
i'm getting around to posting about TG10.  we had the best time, & I know that i am speaking on behalf of ibelle, but i'm certain she had a blast too. we went to dyer's hometown and got to see the fam + some extended fam. ibelle did so well despite being away from her bed. we had lots of yummy treats and lots of hugs-n-kisses!
{fyi: picture overload.}

1.25 year celebration.

15 things to say about 15 months:

1. says "bubbles" and "ball". really she says most anything. of course, within reason (she is only 1.25 years old).
2. cute as they get.
3. she is funny!! & knows it!! .. just today she was walking in a circle, getting a little dizzy, then she would dramatically fall to the floor on her belly. thennnn she would move her arms & legs as if she was swimming!!! all the while just-a-laughin'! {she loves to do that little move up there in the pic.}
4. loves "nanas", but only if eaten straight from the peel.
5. sassy pants. terrible two's? already? or maybe it is those 3 teeth she is getting in??! (a total of 13!!).
6. airplane ride #2 to Lubbock!
7. Xmas: year 2.
8. Apple of her daddy's {& mommy's} eye.
9. loves to run around naked!! I've heard that before about kids, it is true!!
10. Stats: 24 lbs 2 oz, 31"
11. blows her nose!
12. loves to "clean" things! I can even show her something is dirty, with her towel (usually a Kleenex) she will clean it up!! so helpful when she throws her milk!
13. only drinks from a sippy cup (done & done when it comes to nursing, ok maybe she has been done for sometime now).
14. loves paper and pens!! she is all about "drawing"!
15. Perfect, perfect, perfect. we loves her to pieces!!

Just over.

http://desireeanddyer.blogspot.com/2009/11/sassitude.html

: This is my most favorite series of pics ever. Everrrrrrr.


(thats Everrrrrrr not to be confused with "Everett", silly iPhone keeps defaulting to "Everett")

This was just over one year ago, Isabelle was just about 12 weeks old. Time quit flying.

15 monther.

maybe this is my #1 favorite pic, well second to a pic of a just-born-ibelle.

maybe I looked through 1 million+ pICHtures of isabelle the other night. pics dating back 15 months ago.

maybe I got a little sad looking at all those pICHs. Isabelle is now big girl.

maybe i was reminded by something dyer once told me about isabelle getting older, "someday she'll say, 'I love you mommy'".
{..I know, that husband of mine is the best.}