Friends are friends forever

Izzy and I met up with our close friends Jil, Avery & Landen at the mall today. We had lunch at Ruby's Diner at Alderwood Mall - as a belated birthday lunch. Landen chose Ruby's because they had "Choo-choo trains" there. Izzy and Avery made fast friends sitting side-by-side in highchairs at the diner. They even shared food - each stealing from the other's lunch. It was so cute - and people kept asking us if Izzy & Avery were twins! Not twins, but I bet they'll be life long friends!

Izzy snarls at the camera while Avery leans in for a hug.

Our little princesses.

Jil & Landen - he's showing off his power ranger pose.

Heather & Jenny Visit

Sunday afternoon, Heather & Jenny visited us for a bit - Izzy had a great time playing with the girls. We tried to get a photo, but Izzy wasn't in the posing mood...

Horton Hears a Who

I wasn't feeling well on Sunday, so in my attempt for a lazy day at home, I turned on the movie Horton Hears A Who thinking Izzy might like it. She's never one to sit still for long but she actually cuddled with me - and fell asleep on my lap. She's getting so big now that this is a rare occasion so I enjoyed it! Gerald couldn't resist snapping a photo...

Stairs

Izzy finally started pulling herself up onto furniture and climbing the stairs over the weekend. She's pretty fast too - she can climb both flights of stairs in about 2 minutes. I'm thinking that she'll be walking in no time since she went from only crawling last week to pulling up and climbing everything almost overnight! I know everyone says it makes life more difficult, but I can't wait for her to walk because she'll get to use her independence that has been frustrating her so much lately - she wants to be a big girl but without the walking part she struggles to do things on her own. I think she'll love being able to walk!!

Hanging with Elmo, Rocky, and Shadow

We made a brief visit over to Auntie Kristi's house on Monday morning - I needed a little break from the house. Since both Kristi & I were working from home on MLK day, I figured a quick "coffee break" wasn't to big of a deal.

Izzy had a chance to visit with Kristi and her boyfriend, Mike... oh, and the cats, of course. Rocky is the striped cat and Shadow is the black cat. They were both very curious about Izzy and she liked trying to chase them around. And we were all entertained (or rather annoyed) by Elmo for a bit too!

Groceries

Look what Gerald brought home from the grocery store!

We headed out in the freezing cold this afternoon to get Izzy some time on the swings at a park in Lynnwood - it's a 10 minute drive, but it seems to be the only park I can find with swings near our house. What's up with that - aren't swings a requirement for a park. I bet some annoying parent sued the park system for a kid falling from a swing and now they won't take the risk...

Grilled Cheese

Ok, so this is silly, but I was so excited yesterday because Izzy had her first grilled cheese sandwich - well kind of, I ended up cutting it into tiny pieces and mostly pulled the bread apart so that they were individual pieces rather that two pieces together, but still ...

Sneakers, can we be friends?

Since Izzy started crawling, she's been a bit of a menace towards Sneakers the cat. They're getting along reasonably well, but Sneakers knows just how far away she needs to stay in order to be safe. Sneakers has recently taken to sleeping near the back of the seat cushions on the couch, just out of reach ... but adding extra incentive for Izzy to learn to climb up on the furniture.

Ninong Jason

Izzy's godfather, Jason, stopped by the house on Tuesday night to deliver Christmas presents for Izzy. Rachel made her two beautiful blankets and they gave her her first baby doll. She loves to play with her eyes - and actually loves to snuggle with the baby's teddy bear most! Izzy wasn't really that excited to sit on Jason's lap, but we were going to get a photo regardless!

MMM...pasta

To Gerald's horror, I let Izzy eat pasta with speghetti sauce on it. She loved playing with the sauce and spreading it all over her highchair and the table. Mmm...

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!