Isabel loves to play in our closets. If she sees that we have left a door open, she takes off towards it to see what sort of things she can get into. While making dinner one night, she saw I had left the pantry open and had some fun with this box of pop. She kept trying to reach in there and get the cans out, but they were too heavy and akward to get out of the opening.

One of her most favorite things in the world is her Winnie the Pooh pacifier string. It is meant to attach to her clothes to keep her binky from getting lost, but she always plays with it. She swings it all around and frequently knocks herself in the head (at which point she scowls to see who hit her), sucks on the string until it is saturated with slobber and then sucks that up as well (pretty gross, I know) and chews the heck out of it.

Getting some good snuggle time in with Daddy. He doesn't get to do this very much since he is so busy all the time, so I let her fall asleep on David instead of in her crib. She loves to snuggle with him and can't help but fall asleep in his arms. He is such a good Daddy, we are so lucky!

Playtime

Isabel having some good 'ol playtime. She sometimes crawls under this end table, and then gets stuck, bonks her head from trying to sit up, gets mad and cries cause she can't move under there, then I take her out, and she tries it all over again:)

Usually she will find a book and jabber and make all sorts of sounds while she flips through the pages, it is pretty cute. She likes to slap the pages and if I try and turn the pages in order for her, she goes back and forth between pages so fast and out of order that I can't keep my hands in there for fear of injury.
Who knows what this face is. This day she did it at least a dozen times. I think she had a tickle in her nose, cause she kept stretching her face down, trying to stop her nose from itching.
She likes to play with her see n seek bag. It has lots of fun things to find in a bunch of beads. She doesn't understand the concept, but she likes to shake the bag!

The stairmaster!

No, we didn't get a new piece of exercise equipment, but our munchkin did

finally figure out the stairs. I was hoping to avoid that one. For the past few weeks, she has just figured out how to climb up the first step, and then she kinda just hangs out there until she calls for me to come rescue her. I was doing the dishes, and I thought she was playing in the living room. I heard some sounds, and then she called out for me. I came in and saw her and got really scared, then started laughing, cause I thought it was so funny. Making sure she was still safe, I took a few pictures. Now we are just trying to teach her how to climb down them. A few days later, she took off to the stairs without me knowing and fell from the first step. She is okay, but the sound of her head hitting the hardwood floor definitely makes your heart skip a beat. She is one tough cookie though!

Our little chipmunk

Isabel has discovered the joy of eating bananas! She no longer lets me feed them to her in small bites. Now when she sees the banana, she starts kicking her legs and flapping her arms. If I try and give her a bite, she shakes her head and tries to take the banana from me. The problem is that they get slippery and it is hard for her to grab and hold on to. So what usually happens is I turn my head for a second and she has shoved half the banana in her mouth and chomps away. So the second picture she looks like a chipmunk, hoarding food for the winter. She is learning how fun it is to feed herself. Now if we can only get her to drink whole milk, she avoids it like the plague, any suggestions?

I swear it wasn't me!

Well, in our downstairs bathroom, there is no storage, so we keep our tp in a cute little basket under the sink. Well our little explorer discovered that basket the other day, and while I was cleaning up in the dining room, this is what she did. She had lots of fun making a mess and got mad when I took it away (I know I am a mean mom).

We got her to pull some funny faces as well. She is showing off her pretty teeth. She now has 5 and I think she is working on a few more as we speak.
David doesn't like this face, but I think it is hilarious and totally shows what HAM she is, plus it's a good shot of the teeth (click on the picture to see a big shot of it)

Hangin out

Well, I haven't posted in a while. We have been pretty busy. On Valentine's Day I went with a friend out here to the Children's Museum. It is so awesome, I can't wait for Isabel to get a little older and see how she enjoys it. For now, she is content to just hang out in the baby room. She found this piano there and was just pounding on it for the longest time.
Here she is with the rain stick. I think she was calling to the rain god's to get some moisture out here. She liked watching the beads fall down the tube and would shake it really hard after I showed her how it worked. Daddy decided to share his chocolate cupcake with her. Too bad he didn't hide the evidence very well. When she really likes something she eats, she gives a really loud "mmmmmm" as she is chewing. The other day, he was in the living room with her and I was in the kitchen. He had a brownie and I asked David not to give any to her (because I didn't want her to get a tummy ache). So he said okay, and then I heard a big 'ol "mmmmmm" from her. A few seconds later I heard another one and then David said "Isabel you have to eat quiet so mommy doesn't know you are eating" (he said it so I could hear, which made it even a little funnier).

My special Valentines

Since David's birthday is today, I wanted to let you all know how much I love this man! He is my best friend and the love of my life! I am so grateful to spend eternity with him. He can make me laugh so hard, everyday! He is the best husband and father. I love him more today than the day we were married. He has given me the best gift ever, Isabel, and I couldn't be happier.

I love you so much David. Thank you for making life so special and fun.

My friend, Lisa posted pics of her favorite days, so I thought I would share mine. It was so touching to see him hold Isabel in his arms and give her the sweetest blessing, she is so lucky to have a daddy like him!

Miss Sparkle Pants

I was trying to make dinner tonight and I needed to find something for Isabel to play with for a minute. So I grabbed this little headband with sparkle hearts on it. She was having lots of fun with it, and then I looked over and realized she was sucking on the sparkle hearts. I thought that was so cute, until I took it away and saw she had red glitter ALL over her mouth. Yikes! Am I going to see the glitter again in a day or so? I am kinda nervous, hope it doesn't upset her tummy. I need to do a better job at supervising her, I guess

My big smile!

Well, Isabel has learned how to give a very big, cheezy grin. When she sees David and I laughing about something, she will give a little giggle and then make this face. It looks strange, but it is so cute to watch her do it. It is so fun to see her little personality come out and see that she has a sense of humor. She loves to scream and then make this face, like she is laughing at herself
She was eating pieces of a cheese stick. This is her new favorite food. I got her to open her mouth and show me what she was eating. What a little firecracker she is! She is learning how fun it is to feed herself. Sometimes when I am trying to feed her a jar of baby food, she will refuse it but still want something to eat that she can do herself. So we are starting to broaden her diet. The problem is that a lot of time she will like what she is eating so much, that she just keeps shoving pieces in her mouth. She won't chew the food, so she has a cheekful of food in her mouth that she just lets get really soft and soggy until she can just mush it with her tongue. But she is getting good at chewing some of the food if I can keep her on a good pace and not get too much in there at once. I can't believe how fast time is going by. I need to be better at cherishing each day with her.

Ole!

La Mesa is one of our favorite restaurants- we love Mexican food! Isabel is so amazed with all the commotion there, she just sits and looks all around.

This was pretty much the one face she gave us all night. I think she was a little overwhelmed with the noise and scenery that she didn't know what to do.

She did enjoy some of the rice and beans and did her usually "mmmm" of approval while eating. Isabel LOVES to drink water out of our straws. She will drink a whole glass if you have enough patience to sit there long enough. She is such a good little girl!

I think next time we go out, it will be to go and try The China Buffett. Has anyone been there? I guess it won one of "Best of Omaha" awards for the best buffett, so it should be pretty yummy. Plus, I can't turn down a chance to stuff my face full of lots of great food. Anyone wanna go?

My Man Tag!

Okay, so my friend Janel tagged me, and I have been so lazy, I figured I better do it now. Thanks Janel! Hope you enjoy getting to know my hunk of burning LOVE.

What is his full name? David Glenn Bailey

-How long have you been married?4 1/2 Years (Aug. 16, 2003)

-How long did you date? Dated 1 year and engaged 6 months! Yuck

-Who eats more sweets? Totally me! He is amazed at how much I love sweets (twizzlers, cookies, chocolate, anything baked, desserts, you name it.) Although he can put a big hurt on any of his mom's baked treats I have him beat in this one

-Who said I love you first? He did. We had dated for 3 weeks and I was about to go home for the summer

-How old is he? almost 28. Feb 14, 1980 -yep, he's my love muffin

-Who is taller? He is by a few inches, but nothing that my heels can't fix:)

-Who is smarter? I know more weird and random things than him, but he is definitely smarter. I am not ashamed to admit that I couldn't last a day in dental school, but he is working so hard. Yay for a smart man to let me stay home and play with Isabel.

-Who can sing better? Oooh, I will say me, but he is totally not afraid to belt out the tunes. He is convinced he can win American Idol. So I won't spoil his dream.

-Who does the laundry? Me, but I sure don't keep up on it very well

-Who pays the bills? I will go with Janel on this one. I pay the bills, but I am also very good at spending the money (I know he will not argue me on this one)

-Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does, cause the left side is closer to Isabel's room (how thoughtful of him)

-Who mows the lawn? No lawn chores right now, but when we have a house, he will definitely do it.
-Who cooks dinner? I do dinner. He is in charge of the Sunday roast though, and thank goodness, cause he does a fabulous job of it. I always have to ask him what to cook cause he is great at it and I run out of ideas by Wednesday.

-Who drives? He does

-Who is more stubborn? Oh for sure ME! He will definitely not argue on this one, cause he would lose (haha) He is always saying that Isabel got my stubborn streak, which annoys me cause I get frustrated when she gets stubborn. But I think I am way too stubborn about some stuff, but I can't admit that I am wrong:)

-Who kissed who first? He says him, but my stubborness says me. He kept saying that he wanted to kiss me, so I finally just leaned in and did it, then my roomates threw water balloons at his car. There's a way to kill the mood.

-Who asked who out? He asked me out. I only knew him as Dave Bailey and he signed a note with flowers in my room "love David". I didn't know any David so it took me a while to figure out it was him. Ooops

-Who proposed? Me, just kidding. He did. He had a guy in our bishopric take us up in his little plane for my birthday. Then we flew over his uncles farm and he had shoveled out in the snow in the field "Amanda Marry Me". It was amazing. But he jokes that he had to ask me in the plane so that he could push me out if I said no. Sorry hun, you're stuck with me.

-Who has more siblings? Me, I have 5 brothers and 2 sisters. He's got 2 brothers and 2 sisters.

-Who wears the pants? He is definitely the patriarch of the house, but he lets me be in charge most the time (again, because of the stubborness)

He is my best friend and I am so lucky to be by his side. He makes me laugh way too much everyday and treats me like a total queen. I love you so much Hoodle!

This is definitely where he feels at home. He is so much fun to watch him work on the farm.

Our little jabber mouth

Here is a cute little video for Grandma's and Grandpa's to enjoy. We miss you guys.

Super Bowl gal

So on Sunday we had some friends over to watch the superbowl. For me, it is just an excuse to hang out with people and eat tons of food. It was great fun and it was a pretty entertaining game to watch (at least the last 5 minutes that I actually paid attention). Well we had Isabel decked out in her Bronco outfit (yeah, they sucked this year, but David is a devoted fan).

She is doing her best cheer! Go team GO! She had lots of fun chasing after the kids and tasting lots of yummy food.

What a great football fan. She is so much fun.

Crazy Dream

I am a random dreamer. David will manifest to that. So many times I tell him about dreams I have and he is just speechless. I can't explain it, I am just weird like that. So last night was one of those times. One of my dreams, I was back in school and I had to write a 22 page (why 22 pages, you ask. I dunno, what is wrong with an even 20?- need I say more about the weird dreams?) report on anything. Well, me being the procrastinator I am, left it until the night before and I was freaking out. I couldn't decide what to do my report on, and the only think I kept comingback to was Joseph Smith. Should I really do a school report on Joseph Smith? Of course, I never can remember how my dreams end. So I don't know if I ended up doing the report, but it got me thinking. Do I need to learn more about Joseph Smith. I know it has something to do with the fact that we are studying him in Relief Society, but maybe there's more. Maybe I need to get to know him as a person more so I appreciate him better. Of course I know he was a true prophet and he is the reason the church has been brought back on the earth today, but maybe I am not doing all I can to get the most out of my lessons. Who knows what these dreams mean, maybe nothing. But this one has motivated me to want to know Joseph Smith a bit more. I guess we all have a few things to learn from such a wonderful man. I am grateful to be studying his teachings in Relief Society and hope that my testimony will grow because of it.