It's the most wonderful time of the year

Chrismas 2011 has probably been the best Christmas yet. Isabella was completely into the whole Santa thing. We put out cookies, left a key for him since we don't have a chimney, sprinkled magic dust across our lawn so he can find our house, the whole nine yards! We had a blast this Christmas season and did so many things to celebrate.

A part that I loved (and Isabella loved, too) was the dressing up part. We had different Christmas outfits for you for every Sunday. I couldn't get a picture of all of them but here's a few . . .

We went to Lights of Lakeland for the second time this year and we loved it just as much. It's amazing how much effort goes into that event but they make it so special. We met up with the Rogers clan and Isabella had a great time playing with Wesley and Anna Kate.  Christian tried to play with Carigan but that didn't go so well. 



I was so proud of Isa when she saw the Marine. She went up and told him, "Thank you for protecting me." He smiled and his eyes filled with tears. It made me tear up a little bit, too. 

We took full advantage of our Disney passes.  Christmas at Disney is like no other. We met with Layne's family to see the lights and we were all blown away by how beautiful they were. Seeing that definitely put me in the Christmas spirit.  Layne and Isa had a ball together, too.  The next day Layne came up to me and asked, "Is it okay if I marry Isabella?"  Before I could say anything Isabella chimed in and said, "Of course we're getting married!" It was precious.

Of course the kids liked playing in "Pizza Planet" from Toy Story as much as anything. Christian got in on the action, too and kept yelling "BALL! BALL! BALL!"  He's all boy!

Our next event was the Christmas party at school. Ms. Libson goes out of her way to make every event a special one. The kids started by decorating the classroom. I think they loved the idea of helping and contributing. It was a great way to get them involved. Isabella is in a great class. Riley and Alexis are some of her best buddies. It will be heartbreaking to have them seperated when they go to kidnergarten next year.

Christian had a gift exchange in his class, too, but he loved the eating part more than anything!

Christmas Eve was at Mimi's and it was a blast! After a few pictures in the official Christmas gear the kids changed into something more comfortable and the madness began. Isabella was so sweet when she opened presents. She was so grateful and enthusiastic. With each one she'd squeel, "This is what I always wanted!" Christian meanwhile just threw stuff around. He's going through a throwing phase right now and I hope he outgrows it fast! He earned his Mr. Destructo nickname that night for sure.

One of the things my sweet girly girl Isa had been begging for was Dr. Dreadful's Zombie lab. It's like an Easy Bake oven but it makes zombie brains, zombie throw up, worms, etc. Auntie Autumn was proud to get it for her and they had a ball using it that night.

And then Isabella and Christian decided to wrestle Auntie Autumn. . .

Isabella slept in until 6:30am on Christmas Day and she peeked her head in our room and asked, "Do you think Santa was here?"  We ran downstairs to check and the mayheim began.

Isabella was a good big sister and always made sure that Christian had something to open. He was only interested in the bubble gum machine toy the entire time. We couldn't pry him away or entice him with any other gift. It had balls so we should have known!

This year Christmas fell on a Sunday so we headed to church after opening presents. I wish it was like that every year. Getting to go to church and worship our Lord was such a beautiful way to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

I took two weeks off at Christmas this year. The week before Christmas Mimi and I cleaned the house from top to bottom. The week after Christmas was spent doing crafts, going to the park, to Family Fun Center and cuddling in the bed together. This has been such a wonderful time for me. I have loved every second of my vacation with the kids.

As the year closes I am constantly reminded of how Blessed we are. We have the most amazing children in the world who bring us constant joy and laughter, we have too many presents to count, our family close by, everything we could want and more. God is good!

Away we go

We fell in love with the mountains when we vacationed there a few years ago and were so excited to go back in October.  Mimi rented a huge cabin for all of us, Aunt Autumn and Uncle Kelly but they bailed at the last minute. So it was just us, along with Mimi's friend Marilyn on the trip.

We had so much fun on our first family vacation with Christian.  Whenever we go to North Carolina we always make sure to stop in Madison, Georgia. It is the cutest little town and as luck would have it, they were having their fall festival!  Isabella was excited to have her face painted, along with EVERY OTHER KID there. I waited in line for two hours while Mimi kept Isabella entertained at the bounce house.  The face painter had a ton of adorable designs - fairies, butterflies, princesses.  What did Isabella pick?  Spiderman!  She was so excited to be Spiderman and was the cutest Spiderman I've ever seen!  Of course, Isabella fell asleep the second we were back in the car.

Isabella was so excited that we were going to the "cabinet" as she called our cabin.  Poor thing, she was so scared when we got there because it was pitch black outside and so dark.  Luckily, she was excited when she woke up in the daylight. We took daily walks around the cabin and explored our surroundings. Isa was hoping she'd see a bear but we never saw one.  As we were walking around she'd whisper, "Shhhhhhh! We don't want to scare the bears!" 

Isabella was her Daddy's shadow the entire trip.  If he went outside, Isa went outside. If he went to the porch, Isa went to the porch.  If he went to the bathroom, well, you get the idea. He loved every minute of it!

You can still see the Spiderman facepaint from the day before.

Mommy and Daddy had a day to ourselves, too!  Mimi watched the kids while we went zip lining and river rafting with Marilyn.  We had a blast! I am usually a scaredy cat when it comes to stuff like that but I did it! I wanted to do zip lining since we honeymooned in Costa Rica, where it is super popular.  But, I chickened out.  I wanted to do water rafting when we were in NC last time but I chickened out.  Not this time!!! I was so proud of myself.  Jose was a great help, too. He was very encouraging and helped ease my fears. 

The highest one was 175 feet!

Isabella had a fun time, too.  Mimi completely spoiled her, of course!  We also had a lot of family time. The waterfalls were amazing and one of my favorite parts of the trip.  Making the walk with Isabella down behind the waterfall was so much fun. She was so excited which added to my excitement even more.  It's true what they say that having children allows you to see things through eyes.  On top of that, we were seeing some of God's beautiful country - the mountains, the waterfalls, creeks, everything was gorgeous!



Yes, that's Christian under the blanket.



Something I thought Isabella would love was ruby mining.  Not so much. I think I hyped it up too much.  Isabella looked at us like, "you want me to play with that mud?  Why is that exciting?"  She was a trooper though!  What she really loved was the petting zoo and horseback riding at Dillard House.  She was adorable as she was feeding the animals.  One goat kept following her because well, she had food. Isabella was convinced it was because she was so wonderful and kept saying, "He likes me! He likes me!" or "He must really love me a lot!"  She also let the animals know who was boss when she'd tell them, "You've already had enough food.  It's someone else's turn."

She LOVED riding the horse which prompted several requests for a pony.  According to Isabella, she NEEDS one. 

On the last day we went to Tallulah Gorge and went on a hike to see some more falls.  I am so glad we stopped because it was a lot of fun.  To get to the bottom we walked down 1000 steps.  That means we had to walk UP 1000 steps to get back.  Jose carried Isabella on his shoulders on the way down but she insisted on walking back up. She was a speed demon on the way back and kept saying, "I exercising."  If only I had that same amount of energy!

Where's Christian????
Although he's not in many of these photos, Christian was there, I promise! He's at the phase where he's still sleeping a lot. He was happy, as usual and full of smiles when he was awake.

My sweet, happy boy!

We brought the portable bed for him. We kept calling him Dracula because he looked like a vampire in a coffin!

It was a great trip and I was sad when it was over. We're already planning it for next year.  Even as I go back through the pictures I think of how Blessed we are to be able to do things like this.  Just being able to spend time with one another and have Mimi there is amazing.  I love you two so much.

And two became three . . .

Your Dad and I were married for a few years before we decided it was a right time to have kids. There were a few times that we were close to starting a family but something came up and we decided to wait.  In the fall of 2006, we finally decided it was a good time.  I immediately became pregnant, which caught us by surprise that it happened so fast.  Even after seeing a positive on a home pregnancy test, we were sure the test was wrong.

On Sunday, November 19th, I went to church as normal.  During church everything smelled so strong and I felt nauseous. The smell of Cool Water, my absolute favorite perfume, made me sick.  I went home, slept on the couch for the rest of the afternoon and woke up with a hunger for mustard.  Yes, mustard. I sat on the couch eating mustard by the spoonful until your Dad came home.  With being tired, sensitive to smells, and having crazy cravings, I went out and bought a pregnancy test.  I tested that night and had the faintest of faintest lines but a LINE IS A LINE!!!

We were so excited and I was so grateful that God Blessed us so soon. Mimi was in Scotland so I had to wait a few days for her to come home before we could tell her. Waiting until Wednesday night seemed like an eternity.  We made a cute card for her that had a poem that read:

I do not have a face to see,
Or put inside a frame.
I do not have soft cheeks to kiss.
I don't yet have a name.

Not yet can you hold my tiny hands,
Nor whisper in my ear.
It's still too soon to sing a song,
Or cuddle me so near.

But all that will change come this July;
When they say I am due.
I am your newest grandchild;
And I can't wait until I meet you!

All I ask between now and then
Is your love for me to grow.
I promise I'll be worth the wait;
Just think of all the joy we'll know!

So as you're waiting patiently,
Please pray lots of prayers for me.
I cannot wait to be a part
Of this wonderful family!

She teared up before she even started reading it and was so excited.  She called EVERYONE to share the news.  We gave the same card to Abuela on Thanksgiving and she was just as excited. 

All of our family and friends were excited for us.  We were together and I for so long before having a child that many were just as anxious as us.  We were Blessed enough to have four showers!  Mom, Aunt Debbie and Aunt Kandi planned one, Vivian planned another, Hannah, Lori Irwin, Kristi Lawrence, Betty Douberly, and Peggy Brown gave one for the church and my pal at PwC gave a surprise shower for me, too.  So there were a ton of celebrations!! 

Mimi went to every single ultrasound with us and cried along with me at the first sight of Isabella.  She went crazy shopping and I could barely control her. We headed straight to Babies R Us after finding out the we were having a girl.  That was the first of many shopping sprees and the beginning of Mimi's obsession buying things for you and later Christian.

 

At the time of my pregnancy there was quite the baby boom at Highlands.  Hannah and I announced our pregnancy the same night at Monday night ladies Bunco.  At the same time Hannah and I were pregnant the other mommies to be were Susan Griffies with Jonah and Claire, Molly Cote with Kaden, Dana Bright with Logan, Kelly Hoyt with Emma, Beth Abrams with Kendall and I'm sure there's some that I'm missing!

My due date with Isa was Saturday, July 21st.  I worked up until that Friday but because I'm a huge procrastinator I still had a ton of work to complete that I was planning to do on Saturday.  My plans changed when I started having labor pains Friday night.  I had to get in gear and finish up my work.  I was sending out emails until 3am, dealing with contractions. 

We drove to St. Joseph's Women's in Tampa around 8am on Saturday.  We called Mimi on the way there and she got there before we did and was waiting for us. Unfortunately, I jumped the gun and was sent home so the labor could progress.  We waited the day at Mimi's and went back to the hospital later that night.  Isabella Adair Cano was born at 4:48am on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007.  That, along with the day Christian was born, was the best of my life.  Isa was so sweet and I couldn't hold her enough. 

We came home a few days later and Mimi stayed with us for the first week.  She was a lifesaver and walked us through everything from changing diapers to her first bath.