Happy Birthday Granny!

Happy Birthday Granny! Sorry this is not Iris' best performance and that Isabella tried to eat your sign before we got a good video or picture. If you listen closely you'll hear that Iris sings happy birthday to herself on the 2nd verse too. Hope you have a great day! Love, Brad, Kim, Iris & Isabella

5 Months old!

Isabella turned 5 months old on Tuesday. I'll go ahead and confess that this picture was not taken until two days later.

Sorry Isabella but Tueday was a bit crazy. You fell asleep before I could take your picture earlier and then when you woke up your daddy called to say his truck broke down and we had to go get him. Then Iris was a bear on Wednesday because she did not take a great nap at school Tuesday and was up late because of going to pick up daddy. The day was just done and over by the time I thought about it again. I promise you looked the exact same on your actual 5 month birthday.

You are still just a little squirt but you are growing. You are not rolling over yet. I think you have the ability. You just lack the motivation. I'll have to find something to make you want to twist that body just an inch more and then you'll have it. You do great holding your pacifier and putting it in and out of your mouth. I've been pretty impressed with that. So far you have had rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes and butternut squash. You haven't had any of the jarred stuff either. I baked, blended and froze a bunch of homemade baby food for you and Ms. Courtney gave you a bunch so you're pretty well set for the next few months. You are still in mommy and daddy's room in your bassinet but I plan to remedy that this weekend and move you upstairs to your crib. Then we are going to work on giving up your 3:30am feeding. I know you're hungry but I seriously think you can make it at least until 6 or 6:30---PLEASE, for mommy!!!!

First Dentist Appt.

Iris had her first Dentist appointment on Monday. She did great! We practiced saying "Aaahhh" all last week so she would be ready. She wasn't too excited about the big chair so in the picture below she is actually sitting on my lap facing me and then we just laid her back into the hygienist's lap. I stole the sunglasses idea from my friend Courtney's blog (thanks Courtney!). They did the trick! She was a bit hesitant but once we put the shades on she was just fine and let the hygienist examine and clean all of her teeth. She was licking the cherry stuff off of the "spinning scrubby thing" they use to clean teeth faster than the lady could get them cleaned. She also did really well when the Dentist came and examined her teeth. All her teeth looked great.

She got a new Dora toothbrush and "real" toothpaste. I'm suppose to teach her how to spit with the toddler toothpaste we are currently using and then switch to the real toothpaste. If anyone has any advice for how to teach her to spit only when brushing please comment below! The appointment ended with a Dora sticker and a pinwheel. Good job Iris!

Fun Filled Sunday

Sunday started with an indoor picnic.

Then we moved things outside while Isabella took her nap. Iris loves mowing the lawn. Too bad this thing doesn't actually cut the grass. It would save daddy a lot of time. Iris loves to kick a ball so I decided to see if she could grasp the concept of soccer. We used daddy's tailgate extender as our goal (redneck, I know, but it was all we had and it worked well). .....and score!!!!! Yeah Iris! She got the general idea but she'll have to loose the hairbow, sandals and sunglasses for the real game. Then it was off to Nana and Papa's house for some more fun. We let Iris play "mommy." She was about as careful with Isabella as one of her baby dolls so this game lasted all of the 20 seconds it took to get this picture.

Isaboo Found Her Toes!

YEAH!!! Isaboo found her toes today! She was being so quiet I went to see if she had fallen back asleep. Nope, she was just as content as could be playing with her toes.

All About Iris

Iris was assigned her very first school "project" last week. Her class is making an "All About Me" quilt and each child had to decorate their own square to be tied with the others and made into a quilt. Here she is with her square...

We included family pictures and some of her favorite foods such as cheerios, goldfish, cake (could only find a cupcake) and ice cream. I also included shoes and a purse because she loves to accessorise. There are also stars on it because her favorite song to sing is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I've been playing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoons each day and now she loves Mickey and Minnie so I found a picture of Minnie and of course, we could not leave out Elmo. It's hard to fit your child's life into an 8x8 square but I think it turned out pretty good.

Kindermusik Class Begins

Isabella started Kindermusik classes today. I almost did not sign her up because I thought she was a little bit too young. To my surprise, about half the class is younger than Isabella. There is even one baby who is about 6 weeks old in the class. It's impossible to take pictures in class when she can't sit up by herself and I'm holding her the whole time so we took this picture at home with all of her Kindermusik "home materials" to commemorate the event. Then she just looked too cute in her outfit and this big smile so I had to take and post these as well...

ABC's

We were at my parents house yesterday when Iris started playing the piano and singing her ABC's. I swear the first time she sang them they were perfect. I had to run outside to the car to get my camera and this was about the 4th time she sang them in a row so she was getting a little sloppy. My favorite part is at the end when instead of singing "now I know my ABC's..." she sings "No, No, No, My ABC's..." She has always sang the end that way. As you can see from what she asks at the end she is still obsessed with Birthdays and cake.

Day of Dora

Dora The Explorer was at the Aquarium today. Iris already had the orange shorts, pink t-shirt and purple backpack so after picking up some yellow socks we were all set for the occasion.

(I swear the socks are yellow)

Isabella didn't have the t-shirt and shorts but I thought this dress was pretty close and I threw some yellow socks on her as well. I just knew there would be a number of little girls all decked out in their Dora attire---WRONG!!! Mine were the only ones dressed like Dora. Oh well, I'm sure some moms thought I was crazy but I thought it was super cute.

Iris and Julian colored their Dora pictures while we waited for Dora to arrive. We also decorated little purple backpacks--I forgot to take a picture of those, sorry!

When Dora arrived Iris was super excited. I could barley contain her as we stood in line to wait and get our picture taken. When it was finally her turn she ran towards Dora waving and saying "Hi Dora" then all of a sudden she stopped and looked at me. I told her to go stand by her so I could take her picture but she got scared and would not go any closer. Therefore, I also got my picture taken with Dora.... After pictures they handed out maps and we followed Dora through the aquarium. After Dora left we stayed for a bit and watched one of the Scuba Divers swim around in the tank and give a presentation about caring for and feeding the fish. It was pretty interesting and Iris seemed to like watching him and the fish. As we were leaving she waved to him in the tank and said "Bye Scoobey." It was a ton of fun and a great morning. I held Isabella up to the tanks and she really seemed to enjoy watching all the fish. Both girls were fast asleep on the way home.

Then after her nap, Iris insisted on wearing this rain jacket. Here she is explaining to me how it was "waining and fundering" outside. It was a beautiful day outside--GO FIGURE?!

Mountain House

On Sunday we opted to not go back to the Festival. It was hot and after the apple ice creams, apple slushies and the apples themselves we had our fill of apples for the weekend. Instead we drove to Brevard for lunch. Then we vistied O.P. Taylors toy store where Iris loaded up a bunch of loot. Then we came back to the house for a lazy afternoon. John Howard and Isabella kept each other company.

We took some family pictures on the deck. I felt guilty because Iris was napping so she didn't get in these photos. I doubt Isabella will ever catch up to as many photos as we have with Iris though so it's OK. I pulled out my sewing machine again and made this little dress for Isabella. It turned out very cute. I'm going to try to make a matching one for Iris as well.

Iris saw Isabella "exersaucing"and didn't want to be left out. It was quite nice actually because Iris could not get out once she got in so they were both immobilized. It would have been perfect if Iris didn't keep screaming "Help! I Stuck!" over and over and climb right back in after we freed her.

Apple Festival

On Saturday we met Misti, Matthew and John Howard at the mtn. house. Then we headed to the Apple Festival in Hendersonville. I looked back in the crowd and saw these two dads pushing strollers together. I couldn't resist getting a picture.

Iris and Daddy enjoying some Apple Ice Cream... This is an airplane/train thing that Iris rode in. It's being pulled by a guy on a bicylcle with wings---kinda weird. She wanted to ride but was also a little scared. Luckily she was seated with an older girl who loved playing "Big Sister" so she made it through and had fun.

You can't leave the Apple Festival without eating an apple. Brad thought I was crazy to give her a whole apple. Normally I cut them in slices and remove the skin before giving them to her. I told Brad to just wait and see what Iris could do to an apple....

and here are the remains, she even ate the core!

Always in Style

On Friday I was trying to get us all packed for our trip to the mountains. I told Iris to go draw so I could concentrate on packing without her running around me in circles and pulling everything back out. She obliged but not before putting on her winter coat and sunglasses.