CHRISTMAS!

I've been putting this post off because I know it's going to be a long one, but I may as well get it over with while I'm still on vacation.

For Christmas this year, Dad, Tonia, the girls and Derek came over to our house. It was a blast. We had a lot of fun hanging out with them and visiting. It was nice to be able to see the girls for a few days and build those relationships.

They got here Saturday the 22nd and left on the 27th. Grandpa didn't waste any time having fun with Izzie. He pulled her around the house for a short while on a blanket. She didn't know what to think at first, but once she realized that she was still alive, she started getting into it.


Here's one of Izzie hanging out in her Rain Forest Jumper.


Here's Grandpa, Derek and the girls posing for a picture on the couch.


The girls got to open a present on Christmas Eve. We strategically let them open one present from us as well so that we had a new game to play. We got the three of them Trouble, and it proved to be hours of fun during their stay. Here they are playing a game while Izzie watches. I could just see the wheels in her head spinning. All she wanted to do was get her hands on one of the pieces so that she could see what it tasted like.



Then before we all knew it, it was Christmas morning and everyone was ready to open their presents. We propped Izzie up on the ottoman so that she could see what was going on.


Then we gave Izzie a present to open. Yes, I know she doesn't know how, but we got it started for her. Then she marinated the wrapper in baby spit.


She gave up on trying to unwrap them and then just decided to hang out and watch for a while. It sort of looked like she was just zoning out, but I'm pretty sure the was soaking it up like a sponge.


Here she is checking out her new Mother Goose book. After a few minutes it was more like a mother sponge. No worries though because that's what it was made to do. Thanks Grannie Ali.


Grannie got me a Joby Gorillapod and while we were playing with it we discovered a new use... a baby cam. Of course I couldn't put the camera on it because I needed to take a picture, but I know that Izzie knew it was there because she kind of froze for a second and then looked up for a picture. Cute kid.



It didn't take too long for Izzie to tap out. She had been up for a couple of hours with major stimulation going on, and with all of the excitement still happening she just couldn't bring herself to go lay down. So we left her sitting there on the ottoman until she zonked.






About an hour later she woke up, and while her and I were hanging out, she discovered my chin. Apparently it was very interesting because she couldn't get enough of it. Either that or she was trying to nurse from it. I hope not.


After breakfast we ventured down to the Two Moon Park in Billings. The park is right next to the Yellowstone Rive, and we found a finger channel from the river that was frozen over. We ventured out on it for a little fun. We did a little curling with rocks, and I pretented to be Apolo Ohno. It was fun. Here are Nell, Izzie and I posing for a picture on the ice.



Then we stopped for a quick family photo. Izzie isn't in the picture because she was sleeping and we didn't want to wake her up, so we parked her stroller and put the camera on it.


When I was a kid, my dad used to hold me in one hand and let me balance in his hand. Somewhere someone has a picture of it. I don't have it, but here is Grandpa holding Izzie.


Izzie and I have a new thing... flying, and she loves it. We started out slowly and then worked up to a full toss. I saw a guy at Wal Mart throw his kid up in the air and spin him 360 degrees at the same time. After I saw that Izzie was comfortable with the straight toss, I decided to give it a try. She laughed twice as hard and twice as long with the spin than just a normal toss. It was hilarious. The only person that didn't laugh was Lynnell. She was clearly disturbed that I was throwing my baby girl.




It was a great first Christmas for Izzie. She clearly had a lot of fun and excitement. She loves all of the gifts that she got, and she had a lot of fun hanging out with Grandpa Joe, Grandma Tonia, Aunties, and Uncle D. Here she is playing with her new stuff just before bed.



Thank you Dad, Tonia, Derek and girls for coming to Billings and making Izzie's first Christmas a memorable one. We had a blast.

December 2007

I thought it would be appropriate to show some random pictures from December that haven't been posted.

Here's Izzie and Mom relaxing on the couch just before bed. If Izzie looks ridiculously enormous in the second picture, it's because she is.



Izzie and I laid down one afternoon for a cat nap. She's really good at cuddling in close, and it seems that she always sleeps longer when it's with mom or dad. Lynnell's favorite thing about this particular moment captured in a picture isn't how cute it is, but how Izzie's hair smelled like my deodorant for the rest of the day. That's right she smelled like Gillette.


Here's Izzie looking as gorgeous as can be. She finally knows when we are getting ready to go somewhere and seems to get excited about it. That's a good thing because I dread getting in the car with her sometimes in fear that this might be the time that she screams her head off non stop the whole way. Luckily it's never happened, and it probably won't ever happen. It's just one of those first-time-dad fears that I have to get over.


Here is Izzie taking her first self portrait. She finally learned how to push the camera button half way to let it focus and then squeeze it slowly for the money shot.


Ok, I'm kidding; I took the picture. Who am I kidding... I take them all. I love pictures. When I was a kid, I used to hate (read that HATE!) it when my dad took pictures. I always found them so annoying and embarrassing, but now I'm glad he did it. And now that I have a kid, I find it just as important as he must have.

Here's one of Izzie on the second night we tried to feed her food. You already saw the one where she was squeezing her mouth shut; well, she didn't do that for long. Here is her beautiful smile.


Here's Izzie standing by the couch. Yes standing. She's getting really good at balancing. She's no Olympic athlete (...yet) but she can lean against something for a while and just stand there. She likes it. It's something new for her, and it always gives her a kick.


And of course a bath picture is a must. Izzie is really starting to love bath time despite my attempt to let her drown the last time I gave her a bath. It wasn't major, so don't freak out. She just leaned too far forward and dunked her face under the water. She came up looking like she won the lottery (mouth and eyes wide open) and then she followed it up with crying. I did my best to console her. Here she getting a bath from mom.



And that's it.

Izzie Tries Cereal for the First Time

We figured that it was about time for Izzie to give cereal a try. She was coming up on the six month mark, so why not. Nell went and bought some cereal, and when I got home that night we gave it a try.

First things first; I went and picked out her first bib to wear. As I was digging through her drawer I found one that I knew would be perfect, so I tied her to it.


Obviously the next step was to mix the cereal. I left that to a professional and did what I do best... you guessed it: take a picture.


Then we sat Izzie in her high chair (Donated by the Renos. Thanks guys!) and started shoveling it in. It's important to note here that for the past month or so we have been sitting Izzie at the table with us when we eat, so the she can see what it's all about. She usually sits there mimicking our mouths when we open them to put food in. Then when we put the fork or spoon down Izzie will usually stare at it as if to say "WHAT IS THAT?" This is another reason we thought it appropriate to start feeding her. The greatest part was when Nell went to stick the first bite in her mouth. Izzie knew exactly what she was supposed to do. She opened her mouth and closed her lips around the spoon. It was cute. BUT... she didn't like it. She made a horrible face and shivered like she just took a bite out of a piece of dog poo. It was hilarious. Any ways, I won't write too much more about it because I took a video of it.



I know that a lot of you enjoy the pictures, so I'll post some of those too.




We didn't want to make her hold out too long for more, so the next night we strapped her in for another round. As soon as she hit the chair she did this...


In case you don't know, that's the "I don't want any" face. The greatest thing was the wicked shiver that Izzie had after Nell put it in her mouth. Here's the video.



In the end everything turned out good. Izzie isn't allergic to cereal, so we'll be moving onto other foods soon. Hopefully they are received better than the cereal was. Unfortunately we have to stick with the nasty foods like vegetables and grains for now.

Izzie's First Thanksgiving

Here's Izzie hanging out and sitting up just fine on her own.


And here she is hanging out on her uber sweet blanket with Wormie. I actually don't know what Izzie has named the worm. She can't talk yet. So, I call it Wormie.


For Thanksgiving this year we went to my mom's house. It was fun, and we always enjoy making it back to visit family. I took the Wednesday before off from work so we could drive over and not be in a hurry. It worked out well. My grandpa & grandma came over for the day, and so did some of my mom friends. Here's Grandma with Izzie. Notice Izzie's cute dress. That's also a first.


And here's Alan with Izzie. I lobbied against the head band, but since I'm the dad I lost. It might still be cute, but I can't tell because I don't know where the baby cute line is.


Here's one of my favorite pictures thus far. Uncle D was holding Izzie and playing with her for a while. Then he noticed that she hadn't moved for a while (he could obviously feel her breathing. She had fallen asleep in his lap. I would say that is cute.


Here's Nell and I at dinner (Izzie was sleeping).


And here's Mom, Nell D and I.


Alan's kids all had Thanksgiving with their mom, so the couldn't be there on Thursday, but Friday morning they all came over for breakfast and to visit. By far my favorite part. I really enjoy all of them, and it was great to get to see them. They all live in Seattle, so it's a little difficult for us all to get together. I was really glad that we got so see them.

Almost all of them have kids; 4 total with one on the way. We've only seen two of them, so it was particularly fun to get to see the new ones and see how big the other two have gotten. Maybe even more fun was showing off my baby girl. I could try to explain the pride I have for Izzie, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't do it justice. I would guess that I'm not the only one that has that problem though.

Here's Shane & Shannon holding Izzie.



And of course we had to do a picture of all the kids together. It took a few shots, but I finally got a good picture. Everyone had their camera out. It looked like the paparazzi was after these kids.


After spending a few days at my mom's house we headed back to Idaho to hang out with Lynnell's family before we headed back home. Since Irelynn is a few months older than Izzie we always experiment with her toys. Here's Izzie playing in Irelynn's Johnny Jump Up. She loved it, so we put Izzie's up as soon as we got home. Here she is in Irelynn's at Grandpa & Grandma Longley's house.


And here's Izzie playing in Irelynn's Rainforest Jumper thing. Irelynn was curios to know why there was someone playing in her toy, so she crawled over there to check it out. They hung out and laughed for a few minutes. It was fun to watch them interact.


And then we figured that since Izzie can sit up on her own that we would stick her in Irelynn's high chair to see how that went. It went well. Izzie seemed to like it a lot.


And of course we stopped by my Dad and Tonia's to say hi and hang out with my little sisters for a while. Alex was totally in to it. She hung out with Izzie almost the whole time. Here is Tonia and Alex playing peek-a-boo with Izzie. Izzie dug it.


And then Alex wanted to hold Izzie, so we set them up on the couch. Izzie only lasted a few minutes, but Alex had fun.


And then we came home on Monday. I think Izzie was glad to be home. I know I was. Traveling to see family always sounds like a good idea, but for some reason it usually turns out to be more stressful that I think it should be. Don't get me wrong. It's fun and I love seeing them all. I just wish it could be less stressful and more relaxing.



By the way, it's Nell's birthday today. Happy birthday Mom.