26 weeks and Christmas.

All smiles because we made it safely on Christmas Eve!

All the stockings hung at Grandma and Grandpa K's. Isabella got her first sock here.

Izzy on Christmas morning with Chicco the traveling turtle.

Christmas Day! Here 6 mos birthday.

Mommy and Iz.

Second day opening presents. She's getting the hang of it.

Grandpa and Isabella

Great Grandma and Grandpa Brown on Mommy's side.

Great Grandma K.

Grandma Doering(Mark's mom)

Back at home in Elkhorn playing with all her new toys.

Daddy was so happy Isabella was home.

Playing with daddy and the new toys.

We decided to try solids when we got home from Christmas. She had sweet potatoes and couldn't get enough. She would attack the spoon.

All done.

Well we made it. I had to work Christmas Eve until 10:30 a.m.. I headed home with the thought in mind that we were just staying home. The roads had gotten pretty bad and Mark was on call and unable to come with us. I was really bummed but knew that was the way it was going to be. Mark didn't know if he would get called out or not so he didn't want us sitting alone if he did. We hurried and packed the car and off to GI went Izzy and I. We did pretty good from Omaha to York and then from York to GI was a bit to be desired. My dad couldn't take it anymore that Isabella and I were on the interstate so he made us pull off at York and met us there. He drove the rest of the way in front of us to give me an idea of the road conditions.

Izzy enjoyed Christmas. She got a little off schedule but is doing fine. She is sitting up really well in her Boppy now so she sat up and kind of tore at her packages. She needed a little help though. She was the world's slowest present opener. She got all kinds of neat toys and clothes. She was spoiled but she sure is not rotten. This little girl just melts my heart along with her daddy's.

Back to the old grind on Monday. Isabella's 6 month check up is on Wednesday. We'll let you know how she is progressing. Happy New Year!

25 weeks!

Happy Santa!

Tuckered out after a long day at school.

Our friend the goose that camped out on our front porch for a day.

Mr. Goose from inside the window.

Daddy feeding Izzy while sitting up. Such a big girl.

Well, I'm officially done nursing. Mark and I got deathly ill on Thursday the 17th with the stomach flu. We took Izzy to daycare for the day so she wouldn't get it. Mark started feeling a little better and went and got Lysol to dysinfect the house before we subjected Izzy to it. My mom and dad came down that night and took care of Izzy. Mark and I quarantined ourselves in our bedroom and didn't come out until the next day. I really appreciate my mom and dad coming down because I don't think I could have taken care of Isabella. We spent the whole next day deep cleaning and trying to recover. It ruined the whole weekend because my mom and I were suppose to finish up our Xmas shopping and we only got a little done on Sunday. I was also suppose to take Izzy to see Santa and never made it there. Ugh. First Christmas and no Santa picture. What kind of mom am I?

The rest of the week we were all feeling better and anticipating the bad weather that was headed our way. We were praying that it would hold off so we could make it home for Izzy's first Christmas. We'll let you know if we made it. Have a great holiday.

24 weeks and counting

She loves her Jeep!

Getting ready for Santa!

Our buddy napping.

Daddy and Is.

As the week went on Izzy"s congestion and cough got worse. I thought something just wasn't right. She has been in good spirits and smiling, but I just couldn't take it anymore. Morning feedings have been a bear because she can't breathe. I had to work on Saturday so Mark took Izzy to the doctor. Diagnosis.....double ear infection and sinus infection. Ugh!!! Izzy is now on an antibiotic and takes it like a champ. I hate putting her on meds this young but I want her to get healthy.

I am slowly moving Izzy to all formula. It has been 6 months and I'm ready for a piece of pizza and some ice cream. With the holidays upon us it has been hard to stay out of the candy. It has been very mentally challenging for me to wean her, but all-in-all I think it will be good for all of us.

I bought her first jar of solid food and we are going to try it this weekend. Because of her MSPI, the doctors adivise against cereal so we are to start with orange veggies and then move to green. I'm getting excited to see how she responds. I will let you all know and post pictures of her first solid foods. Hope you are all healthy and doing well.

Ariann

23 weeks

Izzy and her pal Cletus

Izzy loves her new Jeep that the Launs gave her. She honks the horn with her mouth.

Mom was two days late with the picture. Hopefully she didn't change too much in 2 days.

Mommy's photoshoot with Izzy.

This is where people were driving through a vacant lot instead of down the street because the snow was so high. You can see the stop sign in the upper right hand corner where they should have been turning.

After Mark snow blowed 3 times in 12 hours.

Our little snow bunny wasn't sure what to think of her snow suit.

This is taken out of our bedroom window. It's kind of cool to turn out the lights and look out the window with the Christmas lights and all the snow.

Our tannenbaum.

Chillin' watching the Huskers.

For Izzy's 23rd week we did what we've been doing for quite a while. We watched Nebraska football. We were sad they lost but they played hard. We went to our friends', Mandi and Brandon Hoys', to watch the game. Izzy did great and went to bed just like if she was at home.

On Tuesday we had a bad snow storm and daycare called and said they were closing at 2 o'clock. Mom was really excited she got to leave work early and hang out with her girl. Also, all of mom's patients cancelled for Wednesday morning and she has Wednesday afternoons off. So....WE GOT TO SPEND TWO DAYS TOGETHER!!

Now we quickly roll out of and into another week of Izzy's life.

TTFN

22 weeks and Thanksgiving.

Cheering on the Huskers as they beat the Colorado Buffalos!

This is 22wks and 1d because with the hussle of the holiday I didn't get one picture of her first Thanksgiving. Such a bad mommy. I will have to get some from the relatives.

Izzy turned 22 weeks on her first Thanksgiving. She finally rolled from tummy to back again but it is still hit and miss. I think I'm going to have to accept she is not going to be a roller.

For Thanksgiving we went to Mark's Aunt Joni and Uncle Rick's in Hastings. It was nice to see everyone. For some of Mark's family it was the first time they got to meet Izzy. Everyone was very excited to meet her and she did very well with all the new people. She did have one melt down because she was hungary. Otherwise it went great. Next we went to my mom and dad's and we had a lot of cousins and aunts and uncles in town. Izzy got to meet fourth cousins. Yeah, it really goes back that far. It was just great getting together with everyone in our family like we use to. Our holidays were huge and I knew my third and fourth cousins well. But things change and people start to get busy with their own families and we just don't get together as often.

This weekend Mark and I went on our first date night in a long time. It was a really fun time and we really needed to have us time. Izzy stayed with Shannon. She is one of the girls from her daycare and she does a good job with Izzy.

We got our Christmas tree up and a few odds and ends maybe next weekend we can shoot for a few more things and work on finishing the Christmas shopping......wishful thinking.

Towards the middle of this week Miss Izzy really started to pull her head up. She is trying to sit on her own. Also she is grabbing everything. When I'm reading her a book she likes to touch the pages and flip them to the next. I can't believe how big she is getting.

At the end of this week Izzy could sit for a few seconds on her own and then topple over, but it won't be long and she'll be doing it on her own. Talk soon.

PS: Mark and I lost another old friend this week. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Neal Grummert's family.

21 weeks!

Loves the jungle gym.

flexibility!

Oops same picture twice and I don't know how to get rid of it.

Took picture in the dim light because she didn't like all the flashes.

Didn't like all the flashing.

This week Izzy is just a jabber jaw. Lots of talking and she is making her "O" sounds over and over again. I just love it. When you make the "O" sound with her she loves it and you get a huge smile back. Izzy has also really started to pull her feet to her chest. Oh, to be that flexible again.

Gamma came up this weekend to do a little Christmas shopping because Grandpa was deer hunting. Gamma's friend Cathy came with her too. They were some shopping fools. Izzy and I had to finally call it quits at about 6 o'clock, but she was a trooper the whole time. She didn't sleep much so she was beat when we got home and went right to sleep. Daddy was at the football game. Weird....

The next day daddy got to stay with Izzy while mommy finished up some shopping. Daddy is sure getting the hang of things and they have a lot of fun together. He is even braver about getting out with her and taking her places than I am.

Hope this is finding everyone well and we'll talk soon. Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving.

20 weeks!

Lounging around.

No smiles...they're hard to find when it comes to the camera.

Oh, maybe a little one.

Fingers in the mouth are much more fun then rolling over.

Our buddy, Cletus, lounging with us.

Mommy and Izzy

Holding head up= strong enough muscles to roll; Tummy time = sucking on fingers instead.

Another week past. Do we count this as 5 months or do we wait until the 25th of Nov. I think I will go with the 25th, because she still hasn't rolled over again and that will give us more time:).

Saturday Izzy spent the the morning with Daddy and then we all watched the Huskers win. Yeah! Otherwise things were pretty uneventful.

Izzy is still really watching her hands and trying to put her hands, blankets, carpet, etc. into her mouth. She has more interest in that when lying on her tummy, then figuring out how to get to that random toy by rolling over. Can you tell I'm forcing the subject? Everyone keeps saying she'll do it when she wants to.....Be Patient!!!