Happy Birthday to Isabella Aubrey!

Isabella is officially 4 going on 14. She has been dying to be 4 for months now, and well, it has come and gone. Andrew and I were sick on her birthday, but she had a great day anyways! We had a visit from Grammy, and made her birthday cake and celebrated with Mimi and Paw Paw.



Here are some pictures from her big day!

Everyone was in on the party hats

And she shared a party with Jack a few weeks ago at Pump It Up...where else?! She was so excited to see so many friends!

There she goes!!!

Pretty sure this is against the rules:

Sara

Everyone was asking if Aaron was related because he looks like Andrew! So cute!

Happy girl!

Greg and sweet Hannah (no, they are not related!)

Playgroup love :)

Sweet Andrew Bean

Not gonna lie; its a really fun slide:)

Kim was so sweet to come out with Hunt, in the rain, when she had a 3 week old at home! Doesn't she look great?!

Daddy and his babies

Phil and Mia

Mimi and Grammy with their granddaughters

Me and my baby...sniff, sniff

Some love from Uncle Steve

Izzie and Evie

Ethan and Ray

Group Shot

Izzie had Hello Kitty theme...

while Jack had Star Wars. Gotta keep everyone happy!

The birthday kids

He just kept staring at her. I think the hood was throwing him off.

Opening presents at home

Such a lucky girl!

Some things to note about Isabella at 4 years old:

-She is suddenly afraid of things :( she sleeps with her door open now because of this, but a BIG step is that she will now get out of bed on her own to come downstairs or go to the bathroom

-She dropped naps a few months ago- the plus, she goes to bed at 7:30 now, the downside, she's dropped naps. She will take a nap every week or two. I will realize it is quiet in her room and find her in bed, fast asleep with the light on!

- She still loves school and is always upset if she doesn't have a job each day. She adores her teachers and is always asking what they are doing. If we are eating dinner, "Momma, is Ms. Pam eating dinner?", etc. She talks about school all day once she's home.

-She is working on writing her name. While she seems to be naturally left handed, I sometimes see her trying with her right. She is very stubborn about how she holds a pencil, so I feel like we have a lot of work to do.

-She wants her hair styled daily. Over the summer, it was double French braids, but now she wants her hair curled everyday, just like Taylor "Slipped". I know this sounds high maintenance, but I really don't mind because it only takes a few minutes and she looks so cute with her hair curled :)

-She is a great helper- picking up toys, putting things away and getting things for me. But, when I ask her to change Andrew's diaper, she refuses.

-She is an actress more than ever- literally acting out scenes she remembers, or just being plain dramatic :)

-She loves to sing.

-She really loves playing with Andrew. She wants me to wake him up from naps to play and if she asks me for something special, she usually asks for one for him too.

-She still sucks her thumb. She doesn't do it at school, but she does it a home occasionally and ALWAYS when she is tired or sleeping. It's a tough battle, but one day, she'll stop!

-She still adores Daddy and can't wait for him to get home.

-Still loves to dress up and changes several times a day among her dress up clothes. She even wants me to dress up her stuffed animals.

-She is kind and caring. She is good about apologizing.

-She is starting to wear 4T, but only tops and some of those are too big. She needs a 3T pant with an adjustable waist still. She wears a size 9 shoe (and the shoes usually have sparkles)

-She is so creative and I love watching her play with dolls and listening to how she has them talk to each other. Her Daddy is very kind about playing Ken these days.

-She loves to play tea party and make me "food" and she will bring me something wrapped in a blanket and tell me its a present from her.

-She loves Lucky, but does not want him kissing her.

-If I ask her for a kiss, she will tell me "Just one, Momma." I guess I've been going overboard :)

-She is still not a good eater. I wish we could switch eating habits.

I'm sure I could go on for ages. Isabella has made me better just by being herself. As I say every year, she has truly taught me patience, courage and love. She amazing me every day and life would just be so boring with my sweet little buddy.

Rainy Day

With the weather being so gross today, or all week rather, I decided it was a good day to do some sewing projects that I've been wanting to do.

First up: ruffle scarf! It was kind of hard to get a picture of, but you get the idea. I think it turned out pretty cute. Isabella even asked if I would make her a little one- so if the fashionista likes it, it must be a winner!

And I'd really been wanting to make a new camera strap with a pocket for the lens cover. Here's the inside with pocket:

And outside with ruffles :)

And while I'm blogging about crafts, I thought I would include my alphabet wall so you out of towners could see it. Joe went on a long hunting trip, so each night after I put the kiddos to bed, I rented a chickflick and went to town creating.

After living in this house for a year with nothing on the walls, I finally decided to get to it. I had always planned to go to an educational store and buy something teacher like, but then I joined pintrest and was so inspired, that I decided to just use up some materials that I had left over from other projects.

I bought the wood letters from Hobby Lobby and just mixed paint to get the colors I wanted- just really had the primary colors. I also had to buy the apple, elephant, lion and jellybeans :) Everything else, I already had on hand.

And I used a lot of scrap book paper. I keep meaning to find a pencil and glue it on there with the paper for P.

It was a really fun project to work on and kept a loney weekend busy. And thanks to my sis for helping me come up with some ideas :)