This little piggy...

...likes to chew on books!

Isabel has discovered that books are fun to chew on. We have several books that have the soft/squishy covers that she loves to chew and suck on. I was trying to read this story to her, but everytime it got within her reach she attacked it like a starving Ethiopian! I think she is starting to get closer to cutting a tooth, but I think we are still a month or so away. I can't see anything changing in her mouth, but she is always sucking on everything she can get her hands on, especially her toes. She loves her feet, just like her daddy did when he was a baby. Everytime I change her diaper, those feet go into her mouth and i have to pry her hand off her legs to get the new diaper on. If she is fussing, she will grab her foot and shove her toe in her mouth, I guess it is just her own personal binky that goes everywhere she does! At least she is learning to "self-soothe"! There is never a dull moment when she is around, she can make me laugh almost as much as David does.

Who's hungry?

Isabel loves her rice cereal! She gives an 'mmm' every now and then to let us know she likes it! I think we will start her on some veggies this week because she has been doing so good at eating. If I don't keep the cereal coming fast enough, she will either start sucking on the high chair tray, or one of her hands. And with such a messy mouth, it becomes quite a sight with food getting all over. She is always so interested in what we are eating. She will watch as I get a bite of food off my plate and follow it all the way to my mouth, and then give me a look that says "I can't believe you won't share". It is the same with what we are drinking, she is always grabbing at our water bottles. So we got her a sippy cup a few weeks ago and she is doing really good at that. She just drinks water out of there, but she LOVES it! I can't believe how big she is getting.

Our Purple People Eater

So many toys...

So little time! Isabel plays so well in her saucer outside the bathroom while mommy showers in the morning. It is so fun to hear all the noises she makes with it while I am in the shower. She has discovered the little mirror on it and becomes very determined to get the baby she sees in it. She knows how to spin the ball rattle and make the animals teeter-totter. Her legs finally reach the bottom of it and she loves to push off it. Just this week, she figured out how to spin in the seat to move to another toy. It is amazing to watch her learn and see her figure things out on her own. She is our little miracle baby and we couldn't imagine life without her.
Doesn't she look so focused on making the teeter-totter to go?

Just layin' around

Isabel was getting her "tummy time". It isn't her favorite thing in the world, but on this day, she was having fun and squealing lots. Lately, she has been pumping her legs under her. She hasn't got anywhere, but she is practicing for scootin' all over.
She can almost sit up on her own, but sometimes gets stuck folded in half like in this picture. She will see a toy in front of her and just fall forward to reach it, but she doesn't have enough core strength to straighten back up. Maybe I should help her out instead of just snappin pictures, but hey she sure looks cute!

Daddy = FUN!

Our little yellow "deer"

Here we are before church a few weeks ago. Daddy says that Isabel is so cute, he can hang her on the wall with his other deers. But she is too much fun to hang up, I have to be able to cuddle with her. Her hair is getting pretty long, and when we try and do the mowhawk, it usually ends up falling to one side of the head with some curls, but it is still adorable. We are all trying to get adjusted to the 3pm church time. Isabel does pretty good, but she wants to stay awake the whole time at church cause there is so much going on. She is getting pretty big and vocal. Last Sunday she let out a loud squeal in Sunday School, so we will work on teaching reverence I guess.

Sittin' on the big bed

Here is Isabel a few weeks ago practicing sitting up. She is getting pretty good at it and can sit for a few seconds before toppling over. She likes to shake her teddy bear rattle and will fold in half as she reaches for it in front of her. In these, she was sitting on our bed so I could get dressed. She likes to play on our bed and look up at the ceiling fan. What a doll!

My first ponytail!

This is Isabel's very first ponytail. She doesn't have much hair, but it sure is long and she cooperated enough to let mommy put in a ponytail, although it is a little lopsided.
Here we tried pigtails, but they didn't work out so well. We need more hair to get them to stay up. She was having fun playing with her toys in the high chair though.
I think she was done with "beauty school". I was just getting in the way of playing and thus got the look of "are we done yet" from her. She is such a doll and I love spending my days with her.

Back to School

Today was David's first day as a Sophomore, how exciting. You can see he is a bit sad to go! There is a dress code at this dental school: slacks, collared shirt, and a tie. Oh yeah, and he has to have a clean shaven face everyday (hey, I'm not complaining:) Last week, we hit a huge sale at JCPenney's and got him some more colored shirts and ties for $6! So now he is looking pretty sharp and you can see. He is glad to be back in school, but a little sad to leave us girls. He promised he would see us again at Christmas:). This year will be pretty hectic with 55 credits this semester, plus he has to study for the first part of the dental boards next summer. I know he will do great, he is such a hard worker. Isabel has the best daddy around!

Sunday Dress

Isabel loves to get all dressed up and pretty (translation: Mommy loves to get Isabel all dressed up). Our ward starts and 3pm (I know, its pretty crazy!), so we have all day to pick out our clothes and fix our hair and play before church. This Sunday, if you can believe it, we even had some spare time to have a little photo session. Of course, it was also time for Isabel's nap, so she wasn't happy for very long, but we got some cute ones.

Random pics of Isabel

Here are some random pics of Isabel that were taken a few weeks ago. She is such a happy baby. She will squeal and laugh and smile, but when we get the camera out, she just looks at it and wonders what in the heck is going on, hence the serious face in some of these pictures. She is learning so much everyday. Isabel has really discovered her voice. She loves to scream. She just does it when she is bored and no one is paying attention to her. She especially loves it when Daddy pushes on her belly while she is screaming so it makes a vibrato sound like an opera singer! She is so funny! I think she may be getting closer to cutting her first tooth. We can't feel anything, but she is drooling even more than normal and she likes to bite on her fingers. Plus, she is a bit more cranky, but we love her anyway.

Her hair is getting much longer and I may just attempt to put it in a rubberband one of these days if she will hold still. She loves to grab her feet and try and put her toes in her mouth, just one more thing to suck on.

We are so happy to have Isabel in our lives and love to watch her learn and grow.

Our first home!

The Bailey clan is all moved into our home. Grandma and Grandpa Bailey and Aunt Rachel helped us move out here and tend Isabel so we could get all settled in, it was so nice to have some family help us out. The drive out here was pretty long, but Isabel handled it so well, she just wanted someone sitting the back seat to smile at.

It is nice having a place that is a little bit more our own and someplace we will be longer than a year. We are all unpacked and settled in and learning our way around the town. David starts school next Monday, so we are enjoying our time together as a family before he starts hitting the books.

I think we are finally getting aclimatized (sp?) to the humidity. On any given day it is in the upper 80's/low 90's with 80% humidity, which means it is HOT. But we really enjoy it and are having fun hanging out with all our friends that have moved out here as well.

All tuckered out!

Isabel was so tuckered out from the heat and playing at Grandma's house, that she didn't care where she fell asleep, she was tired! You can see in the first picture, that her legs are propped up on the back of the chair, she wouldn't sleep unless they were propped up! This girl knows what she wants.

Bear Creek

Well we are finally out here in Nebraska and we have internet! We got it a week or so ago, but the modem was a lemon and it took 5 minutes to load a page. So needless to say, I haven't posted anything for a while. So now I can post pics again and gush about my sweet little Isabel.

These pics are from up Ephraim canyon on 4th of July. Isabel looked adorable in all the purple mountain flowers and she was very interested in them too. She had lots of fun with Grandma and Grandpa and Rachel. We love it up there and are starting to miss the mountains a bit, even though it is beautiful out here in its own way.