HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

We rang in the New Year with friends here on base this year. It was a fun evening of chatting, good finger food and a toast with champagne. Nothing too wild... But when you have kids, not too wild, is a good thing!
Thanks to Kate & Devon for hosting!

Bella was a little trooper and literally slept the whole night long. Even when it was time to move her from Kate & Devon's spare bedroom to her car seat... she stayed fat asleep! Here is a picture of Bella Girl in her New Years attire before the party!

Tis The Reason For the Season

This Christmas Season we are so THANKFUL to God for sending his SON JESUS CHRIST to this world. He came as GOD, but yet a MAN to this earth, so that we may have the opportunity to live with HIM for eternity.

I am so excited that Isabella received so many wonderful Christmas books that tell the story of BABY JESUS being born in the manger. As she gets older I can't wait for her to truly understand the Christmas Story and what it means as apart of her heritage.

"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11

Christmas Day with the Smith's

Christmas Night is always spent with the Smith side of the family.

Gordon & Claudia hosted Christmas dinner. We had Turkey and ALL the fixings! It was a wonderful meal.

Gordon got a ping pong table a few weeks ago... so we had a ping pong tourney! I played my Dad first (He wasn't very nice to me and beat me bad), Ben played Gordon first round and was a little nicer (although Ben thought Gordon was playing his hardest, until I crushed him ping pong playing capabilities and told him my uncle was going easy on him). Stephen won the whole thing!

It was a super fun night spent with the Smith's! Thanks Gordon & Claudia for hosting!

Christmas Morning!

We always spend christmas morning with just our family. It's tradition that we get a kids picture coming down the stairs before going around the corner to see what Santa has brought.
Another tradition is that my Mom has always given us Christmas pj's on Christmas Eve to wear for the morning.

There is just something about tradition... I look forward to my pajamas every year... even now at 27. This is a tradition I will definitely pass on to our children!

Hungarian Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is always with my Mom's Family. Since they are Hungarian, the night has a European Feel to it. We have a 3 course meal (plus appetizer's and dessert), sing a Hungarian Christmas Carol and open presents from that side of the family. It is always a lot of fun to spend the evening with my Mom's sister's family and Grandparents. This year was a little different... as my Grandpa wasn't with us all.
I am thankful to have such strong Christmas traditions with our family. I look forward to passing on the Hungarian Traditions to Isabella as she gets older.
This was Ben's first time experiencing Christmas Eve with my family. I think he really enjoyed it... especially the food!

Date Night!

Ben & I were able to sneek away a few times while we were home. Of course my mom always loves watching Isabella and we sure don't mind the time just the two of us!

We got dressed up and snuck away one evening to The Keg (Ben's favorite steak restaurant in Calgary). It was wonderful to relax over a drink, great food and chat just the two of us! Thanks Mom for taking care of Bella Girl!

Welcome Baby William

Congratulations to our good friends Katherine and John on the arrival of William Robert. William was born on Friday December 19th weighing in at 6lbs 6oz.
Isabella and I got to meet William when he was just 3 days old. He's a cute little guy with stawberry blonde hair and lots of it too!
We can't wait to see you all more when we come to Calgary!

P.S. Isabella is excited to have her first boyfriend!

Mommy Play Date

This afternoon Isabella and I met Jennifer & Claire at the Glencoe for lunch. It was great to see both of them, as it has been a long time since Bella first met Claire in Calgary back in August! It was fun to compare Mommy Notes on our little girls!

Jennifer's younger sister Sarah is one of my oldest friends. We first met when we were 6 years old as mice in our first skating Ice Show together... and from that time until I went away to school we were best friends. All I can say is that whenever Sarah and I got together to play we were trouble through and through!

It's neat that Jennifer and I both had babies at the same time... and both little girls too. I can just see them growing up together. The question is... Will they be as naughty as Sarah and I were? Lets hope not!

Here are Claire and Bella on the couch at the Glencoe Club.

I was trying to get Bella to get Claire's good hair vibes. As Claire knows how to grow hair on the sides of her head... Bella should take some lessons!

It is so clod here in Calgary, that we need to bundle Bella up when we go out. Here are some cute pictures of Isabella is her snow suit!

Rice Cereal

On Isabella's 6 Month Birthday we gave her a little rice cereal to try.
She really seemed to like it... Until she was up at 12:00am throwing it up! Poor little girl. I think I gave her a little too much for her first time with solid food! We will try again next week when Ben is here.

It's That Time AGAIN!!!!

Isabella's 6 month Shrinking Bear Photots had to be taken a few days early (3 days) before we headed up to Canada. She really wasn't too interested in sitting up straight and smiling for these pictures... all Bella Girl wanted to do was eat the bears foot!!

Isn't she cute! She is still out little long and skinny girl. Isabella weighs 15 pound and is in the 50% for weight and the 90% for height. At this point she is still only on breast milk... but that will be changing soon, as we will be introducing some yummie rice cereal this week!!!! We'll see how she likes it. I have a feeling that she is going to LOVE food! When Ben and I are eating she is constantly trying to grab at our food and watches (very intently) as we scoop food and bring it to our mouths.

These days Isabella is:

• Constantly grabbing her feet
• Able to put her feet in her mouth
• Working on sitting up at the moment. If I sit her up straight with her hands forward, she lasts for 10-20 seconds before she falls over
• Laughing more often
• Still chewing on everything she can get her hands on
• Pooping less often :)
• Reaching to touch people (especially faces)
  

  
  
  
  

On the Move... AGAIN!

I can't believe that Christmas is right around the corner.

I feel as though I have run out of time to get evrything I wanted to do before heading up to Canada... And considering Bella Girl and I are heading up to Calgary tomorrow for Christmas, the things that are not completed, will remain that way until the new year!

Ben is staying here another week before joining us in Calgary....

It's cold and it's SNOWY in Calgary and we're excited about spending the Christmas Holiday with the Smith Family...

I WILL be posting from Canada this time... So stay tuned!

A Water Baby Through & Though!

Ever since her very first bath, Bella Girl has always liked her bath time... She even likes the shower too. I can't wait to get her in the pool again and take her swimming!

This is how excited Isabella gets when she hears the shower going and knows that she gets to go in! As soon as we lay her on the bed and turn the shower water on to warm up, her legs start kicking and she gets all excited!

I think it's important for children to know how to swim and be comfortable around water. My brother's and I all learned how to swim on our own at a pool in Hawaii and went through all the swimming lessons as children... and I just know that Isabella will be a little fishy in the water when it comes time for her to learn how to swim.

My Aunt sent me this really cool video on the IRS swim technique for children (I first learned of it from my friend Paige). How cool is this:

Ben and I are going for a walk... will upload video when we return!!!

Sittin' Pretty!

Here are some pictures of our sweet Isabella. Isn't she getting so BIG! We went to the doctor this week and she weighed two ounces shy of 15 lbs.

These are a few samples of my attempt to make hair bows for Bella. I made these two without the help of my trusty bow making buddy Julie (who's daughter Maddie is ALWAYS decked out with cute hair accessories).

I bought a ton of ribbon off of Ebay to kick start my bow making. Bows are actually quite expensive, so I am saving money buying my own ribbon and making them myself.... At least that is what I keep telling myself and poor Ben (who now thinks I have enough ribbon for a lifetime supply of hair bows for our little princess... which he is probably right)!

Christmas in the Park

On Sunday night Ben, Bella and I went to the Altus light display in the park. I wanted to go last year, but Ben and I never got around to it... and I guess it just wasn't a priority without a little one. This year with Isabella I wanted to start a new family tradition.

It was a little chillier than we thought it was going to be... but at least Bella Girl was all bundled up. Ben and I got Hot Chocolate and popcorn to keep us warm as we walked through all the lights.

There is a Santa you can have your picture taken with that is the most realistic Santa I've ever seen... but our sweet girl decided to fall asleep in the car on the way over, so no picture with the Santa in the park this year. Maybe next year we'll wake her up!
Check out Katie Lairmore's Blog to see just how real Mr. Claus looks.

Here is a pic of what the whole park looks like.

A pic of Bella and Peety getting cozy on the chair after the park!

54th Squadron Christmas Party

Last Friday we had Ben's Squadron's Christmas Party. It was great fun this year.

We had a really fun table... we sat with Nick & Julie (Maddie), Tera & Louis (Eva), and Bobbie & Tim. Our table was known as the 'baby' table and also as the 'sneaky stealers' for the dirty Santa game.
I brought the Belly Dancing kit that I won last year at the Sq. spouses Chriatmas Party for our Dirty Santa present... and we took home a cute MEMORIES picture frame.
Isabella, Maddie & Eva graced us with their presence... although Bella Girl wasn't too fond of all the noise, and had a bit of a rough night not wanting to fall asleep. Ben and I even won a 'GREAT' knife set as a door prize... that we will be donating to Good Will unless anyone needs one?!
Here is a picture of our table at the end of the night!

Here is a picture of "THE GANG"...Our friends Klara & JJ, Faye & Sam, Kate & Devon sat just next to us, so they were close by!

Abs of Steel!

Yesterday during Bella's nap I could hear that she was awake and chatting to herself... I poked my head in her door to see what was up, and this is what I found:
Her LEGS straight in the air!
Here is a little video clip of our little sweets working her abs!
What a funny girl!

American Thanksgiving!

This last week we celebrated American Thanksgiving with the Shaub Family.

We drove up to OKC last Saturday to pick up Grammy. We spent the day eating at the Cheese Cake Factory and shopping before heading back home.

Dan, Liz and Grampy all came on Tuesday!
Our week with everyone was packed and we had so much fun!

On Wednesday night we had a fire in our fire pit in the back yard.

After the fire pit we got into Ann's homemade Apple Pie (a night early).... But it was O soooo Good!

Thursday was Thanksgiving Day... The girls cooked all day!

I told the Shaub's that the only way they could all come and stay with us for Thanksgiving was if everyone helped cook the Thanksgiving Day meal. I was a little scared to do the whole meal, as the last time I was on duty for cooking was two years ago when Ann was out on disability due to a foot surgery... Liz and I TRIED to cook the whole Thanksgiving meal and here's how it went:

• The Turkey wasn't fully cooked when we were ready to eat... so we cut off the pieces that looked done. (no one got sick, so they must have been ok)
  
• We had NO stuffing or gravy (because the turkey wasn't fully done)
  
• I was on mashed potato duty and ruined the mashed potatoes by whipping them in Ann's non stick pan... needless to say there were little pieces of the non stick mixed into our mashed potatoes. They ended up in the garbage and luckily we had back up mashed potatoes out of the BOX!!!!

Anyway, this time around was MUCH MUCH better! I think our turkey was the best turkey I've ever had!

On Friday we went for a post Thanksgiving Day hike up at Quartz Mountain. It was a beautiful day... and it was so much fun, not to mention good for burning off all of the calories from the week! Isabella was a little trooper and loved being in the hiking pack! Ann has better pictures... so more to come!

This morning we had to say goodbye to our visitors... It was sad. We had so much fun with all the Shaub's being here over the last week. We are so Thankful for having such a wonderful and loving family. Isabella sure does love her Grammy, Grampy, Uncle Dan Dan & Auntie Lizzy!!!

Thanks so much for coming to visit us here in Altus! We are Blessed!