Christmas in the 'burbs

I woke up 5 times in the middle of the night so excited it was Christmas I had to force myself back to sleep. Once I could finally wake up Mike and Izzy with out it being obnoxiously early I did. We had our traditional pumpkin cinnamon rolls (they were AMAZING this year) Then we opened up our presents.. or rather laughed watching Isabel learn to tear them open. Since I woke everyone up so early, Izzy took a 4.5hr nap which helped Mike and I relax some more (she's teething again).
Mike's family came up for dinner, we had a great visit and opened up some more presents with them. Eric (Mike's dad) bought Izzy a bug book, for those that know me well, I was a little squimish and I have thought about tearing out the pages with the spiders....
We have some CUTE pictures of Isabel and if you can guess which parent she looks most like.....it's really not hard, she is her daddy's girl....

Miracles of Christmas

While sitting at home with my baby today I was looking under the tree and had to laugh at how an infant babe only 7 months old about doubled the presents that her dad and I have under the tree. I don't mention this out of envy but out of the kindness and love that a little one brings out in people. Isabel and I had a heart to heart about the meaning of Christmas and why we give each other presents. Here I was thinking I'm making wonderful profound statements (or really just practicing for when she's older and can understand me) and she started chuckling. Now I'm not talking about little noises but really chuckling. Now one can take this two ways, either she was laughing at me because she thought I was silly or she was laughing because she already knew this information. I prefer to assume the latter. I really believe that Heavenly Father gives us infants unable of vocal communication because if they could talk they might spill all his secrets! Or maybe not secrets rather but the information that is lost when we pass thru the veil. Either way Izzy's display of emotion was one of the funniest things I've seen her do yet and I wish I had a camera to post it for everyone, but as such you'll just have to live thru my joys!
I hope that all who truly understand why we celebrate Christmas can take a step back and really focus on the miraculous events of the season and for those who don't believe in the Christ Child, I hope you at least can retain some of the joy you felt when a child and learned about Santa. Either way bringing more joy to the world thru your appreciation of the season and the traditions the come with it will help enrich the lives of those around you.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The beginning

So...my sister while visiting me for the week talked me into beginning this blog. If you're wondering why the lemons, you know the old adage, "when life gives you lemons make lemonade" I have found that to be the refreshing way to approach the insane times in ones life. Hopefully this will turn into a more exciting way for me to keep everyone informed of my families life and selfishly keep me from emailing 20 people at once when I have news to tell, they can just read my blog! I'll leave you with cute pictures of my daughter with her Auntie Leslie for now!