A lazy day at home

Gerald caught up on sleep today, and Izzy and I stayed around the house most of the day. I took a couple short videos that I thought were kind of funny. The first one was Izzy discovering the camera - she got all excited and tried to grab it from me... typical these days. Anything electronic gets her full attention! The second one just made me laugh - she decided to put her burp rag in her mouth and crawl around with it. It reminded me of a dog with a bone. Kids do the funniest stuff...

Christmas with the Beltran's

We headed to Bremerton on Saturday to celebrate Christmas with Izzy's Lolo, Lola, Aunties, and Cousin Alex. Of course a feast was served-up and then we played and opened a few gifts. Alex & Izzy are 2 spoiled kids!! They had fun - and Izzy & Alex really enjoyed playing together...

Izzy on Lolo's lap with Lola looking on.

Izzy, Alex, Gerald, Jessie & Marie

Gerald, Marie, Celerina, Apollo, and Alex (Izzy was napping!)

Alex smiles with is Star Wars Lego set from Auntie Jessie & Uncle Gerald

Alex shows Izzy how to drum on the bowl.

Christmas Dinner

Paper, boxes & ribbon, oh my!

Izzy opens a gift from "Aunt Ler" (aka Heather)

Uncle Mark & Izzy

The Vinson's came over for Christmas dinner - Prime rib, mashed potatoes, orzo cassarole (click here for the recipe), green beans, salad, and LOTS of appetizers & desserts. Thanks to my Mom for making the dessert and to Kristi for the salad. And of course, to my Dad (the recent cook in the family) for the salmon pate and half-baked chocolate chip pie ;-) A merry christmas was had by all...

Christmas Morning

As can be expected, Izzy was nice & spoiled on Christmas this year. The day started with opening a few gifts with Gerald & me. In the late afternoon, my family came over for dinner (our first chance to host Christmas - and it went well!). Izzy got the motherload of gifts (more photos to follow on another post).


Here's a video from my new flip cam (I LOVE it!!) of Izzy opening a gift from family friends, Suzanne & Marty. She didn't really care what was inside, but man was the bag & tissue paper fun!

Here's a photo of one of the gifts inside (a horse coat - very cute!). Thanks, Suzanne & Marty!

Christmas Eve at the Wilzen's

As usual, Bob & Barb hosted a beautiful Christmas Eve dinner & gathering. We arrived early after church so that people could enjoy Izzy while she was still happy. She normally goes to bed around 7:00 PM, so we didn't have long... ;-)

A few photos - I wish we had captured one of Barb & Bob with Izzy. Hopefully next year!!

Our family near the tree

Grandma & Grandpa

The girls - Kristi, Jessie, Izzy & Heather

We tried to get one with Cousin Tom, but Izzy was much more interested in the toys...

Blackberry

Is it ever too early to start training your child on how to use electronic devices? Izzy has a love of all things with buttons right now - particularly the telephone, tv remote, computer keyboard, and apparantly Gerald's Blackberry. Now maybe Gerald can use the excuse at work that "my daughter ate my blackberry" to get him out of work? Ok, maybe not, but it was worth a try...

Snow Suit

Kristi, Heather, Izzy and I went to West Seattle yesterday under the guise of "baking Christmas cookies". We of course made virtually no cookies, but we had fun visiting & playing with Izzy. Izzy's Grandma & Grandpa had a "sled scene" all arranged out in the snow - complete with snow suit and matching penguin toy. We all had fun watching her topple over in her bulky suit. Once she finally got the hang of sitting up on the sled, she started to enjoy it. Truthfully, I think she liked the attention the most and the fact that all of us were falling over laughing as she nearly fell into the snow... But hey, whatever gets her to smile!!

Here's the link to all of the photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/jessieb79/Snow?feat=directlink

For the Love of Coffee

Starbucks Sirena Espresso Machine

So I got an espresso maker as "an early Christmas present" and used it for the first time this morning. Can I say heaven in a glass?? I've been spending an ungodly amount of money at Starbucks lately, but this machine will end that. I know, I know ... all of you espresso machine veterans out there are probably saying, ya that'll last a week - but I'm telling you, it's so easy that it's actually faster than going to a Starbucks with a 9 month old! I'll be brewing myself a cup every morning before I hit the road. Yippee!!

Jumparoo!

So several people have been on the phone with me to hear the jumparoo in the background along with Izzy squealing in delight. Well I finally got it on video. The resolution isn't great, but you get the idea...

Snow Day

Izzy and I have been stuck at home for the last two days straight. Gerald is on a business trip and we're home bound by the snow. I think I'm starting to go crazy!

The highlights for the day were these:

1. We woke up to snow - and then it kept snowing, and snowing, and snowing until 6:00 PM.
   
2. I tried to take Izzy out in the snow again to see if maybe she'd like it a little more than the first time, but as you can see from the video below, it paralyzed her like a statue. Maybe next year...
3. Our company party (that I was supposed to host) got cancelled. Then I had to make a million phone calls and write a ton of emails, but on the bright side I don't have to get all dressed up and drive down to the Seattle Golf Club when it's 25 degrees out tomorrow night!!
4. Izzy might have said mama. I say might because I tried to get her to repeat it and she wouldn't. Again, I could be going crazy at this point. But really, she's been saying Dada for months now (even if she doesn't know what it means yet)...don't I deserve a Mama given that I've spent the last 48 hours cooped up in the house with her??

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

We had a beautiful snowfall on Sunday. We took Izzy outside to test out the snow - she wasn't so sure about it... which was fine with us because we were cold! We took a few photos and headed back inside! Notice, we finally got some photos with Daddy!!

Grandpa Santa - take 2

We gave the Santa photos another try on Saturday - and Izzy was in better spirits so no tears this time (ok, a few but not too bad!). She wasn't so sure about the whole thing, so we couldn't get a smile, but she was very curious about Santa as you can see in the second photo. After the picture session, Grandpa walked around the house in his Santa suit and Izzy watched him - I think she finally figured out that it really was Grandpa in a silly outfit. He eventually got a few smiles. Ho, Ho, Ho!

Santa & Izzy
Who is this man? Grandpa??

Cat toys

Apparently there's really no need to purchase expensive kids toys when cat toys are available. Izzy's new favorite toy is a small ball that's wrapped in string and kind of looks like a mouse. When you shake it, it rattles. She'll throw it around the room and chase it for a long time! And then there is this toy (in the video below - bad quality video, but you'll get the sense for it). I think she'd play with it for hours if we let her!

Grandpa or Santa?

(I don't like Santa!!)

Izzy sat on Grandpa Vinson's lap yesterday afternoon - oh wait, that's not Grandpa Vinson, that's Santa. In that case - I don't like it - Waaaa! We'll try again later this week when she's well fed & rested and see what she thinks then!

She's a crawler!

It's official - Izzy has started crawling. While we're really excited about this new phase, we've also got a lot of work to do to get the house babyproofed! It should be a fun Christmas - I think Izzy will be able to crawl to her own gifts and rip the paper open!! I can't wait.