Party Party Party

We have had several celebrations over the last month...it all started with a trip to San Antonio to celebrate my dear friend Cathy's upcoming arrival of her first baby! Hudson Grant to be specific- dont you love that! Ellie accompanied me on the trip and did a great job. She slept on the drives and was a trooper when I needed her to be and she had fun at the Bass house. It makes such a difference when we can stay with people that have kids. It was sooo great to get to spend some time with Carla's lil ones too, especially letting Ellie and Andrew get some good face time. I am pretty sure I even remember a make-out session. She knows a cutie when she sees one!


I love seeing my girls as always! We always want more time and we miss the ones that are not there.


This was at Cathy's Baby Shower. Ellie was kind enough to let Jenny hold her for a minute. Other than that the girl stuck to me like glue.


We celebrated cousin Kalyn's birthday at the begining of December. Ellie was a mess that day. It was nap time and she ended up falling asleep on me at the party- unheard of!


Its fun to be at something with babies Ellie's age.
Kalyn was a pro cake eater! Just the way it should be!
Happy Birthday precious girl! We are so blessed to have you in our lives and get to watch you grow! I know this is the first birthday party of so many more to come and we can't wait! We love you!!!
We also went to Ella Kate's first birthday party but I was on my own with the two kids so I didn't get any pictures. I was lucky to survive and throw a few snacks in my mouth :). BUT Leah threw a precious! adorable! cute cute cute! Paris Poodle party! (btw, great theme for my college poodles) Check it out!! Happy Birthday to the sweetest neighbor that is sure to be Eliana's best friend! We have loved getting to see you grow up this year! And steal all your fashion ideas! ;)

We also celebrated sweet Emma's 3rd birthday with our old playgroup. It was kind of a reunion since we never get to see them anymore. I miss these girls and their sweet little ones! (Baby Abby needed a holder so mommy Kristen kindly obliged.)


oh, if only they all just sat there, like this, again

Meg is saying that she likes her shoes. oh wait, I have those too! :) Ellie is asking to borrow her adorable skirt.

soccer break for snack

mommy's new haircut

best party favor ever! :)

And this wasn't a party but it very well could have been :) My Aunt Beth came through on a quick visit with her youngest two, Ryan and Alyssa. They are like cousins to Alex and we always have a great time playing! Well, Alex loves them. I think they get a little annoyed with him since he is all over them excited!

wordless wednesday

so what have we been up too?!

a little movie watching


a little shopping (well, this was the reward for putting up with mommy and daddy shopping)

a little park-ing
a little swinging
a lotta playing

and a lot of partying...thats coming next!

videos

here are some videos I have been holding on to!

Nani was kind enough to let us do stomp rockets in the house on Christmas since it was crazy cold and windy outside.



this was just a few days after he got the scooter



how do we keep from going crazy when we cant get outside



this was alex yesterday. he has gotten sooo good at the scooter! he loves it too! I swear the scooter is part of the reason why he is so good at it- it came by recommendation and we sure are happy with it! The other reason is that he practices in the house. The wonderful Wills family was soo right with both of these suggestions! (Here is the link to the scooter) We got it at Kaleidoscope Toys with a coupon right before Christmas- great deal!

Christmas 2 and our beloved Grandot

We did Christmas with Travis' family the next day. Sadly, and understandably so, Honey needed to rush to Houston to be with her dying mother. We missed her greatly. We were pretty low key and we didn't do a very good job of taking pictures. We had a nice afternoon with Scott, Leah, Matt, and Grandpa Steve. The day included some no-kidding delicious honey ham, football, and testing out Alex's new soccer goal. Alex was super present crazy...he had learned about it all the day before and this time he wasn't going to slow down for anything. He was opening every gift in sight before we could stop him! Eliana had caught Alex's cold and was not feeling well along with a neverending runny nose. She actually ended up going to bed for most of the celebration.


Ellie did get some stellar girly gifts like a stroller walker, a purse, and this Cinderella baby...she was oh so excited about her and her shiny crown


Grandot did end up passing away on Dec. 28th. She would have turned 93 on Jan. 21st. We can find peace in knowing that she is now with her Lord, pain free, maybe playing a little tennis with the angels, sneaking her pal Dexter some of her dinner.

Here she is with her children at Leah's Wedding (May 2009), looking just beautiful

And this is when she met Alex for the first time. This was October of 2008 so Alex was 5 months old. She actually had 16 grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren.
Here is an excerpt from her obituary that I really love...

Grandot lived for God and her family. She taught her children to live their faith through her example. She was a former parishioner of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Odessa and St. Simon and Jude Catholic Church in The Woodlands. She attended mass regularly until it became too difficult to move. After that, God came to her.

Travis made his way to Odessa to the funeral on New Year's Eve. I hated that I had to miss out but taking the kids just wasn't an option. He said it was beautiful and so very special, as I can only imagine.

Christmas 2010

This years Christmas got off with a rough start. Alex got sick and it quickly became another wheezing episode. We rushed in to the doctor Thursday afternoon right before they closed for the holiday. Thank goodness too because it was pretty serious. We got him on breathing treatments and a steroid. This time they realized that we are looking at asthma (since we just did all this a month ago!). Well, they still won't give him the label "asthma" but thats pretty much what we are calling it. So they put him on a preventative inhaler that he will do two times a day everyday. We are praying this is mainly a winter problem.

So, needless to say we were just hoping he would be well enough to celebrate Christmas. He did get better fast but was still sick- bad cough, tired, just not feeling good. On top of that the meds make him crazy. Like really fidgety crazy. And moody. grumpy moody. And the first night it made him have sleep issues where he was up every hour almost. Poor guy took like the longest nap ever on Christmas Eve and we had to wake him up to go eat dinner at my parents house. Church was not even an option. It made me so sad that he didn't feel well, because I know on normal circumstances he would LOVE everything about Christmas. So, I guess I just feel the need to preface all the photos with that- he was NOT feeling well. And it showed. His answer to any question was "nope." simple as that. I have had to come to terms that God doesn't always have the same plan we do.
Besides all that junk, we had a wonderful time and just a wonderful Christmas! Just another reminder of how God has truly blessed us!

We made it over to my parents' house for Christmas Eve. We celebrated with some rousing renditions of Christmas Carols- Alex insisted on "playing" (aka banging) on the piano with Nani as my Dad played guitar. This was probably the highlight of his holiday he loved it so much!

Daddy and Ellie, already dressed for bed in her Santa pjs
I didn't get many pictures (well, in my opinion) because it was quite difficult to find the hands to pick up the camera this year, between the two kids and everything else. And a certain two year old was not even close to going to cooperate for pictures. I didn't even really try.

We spent the night over at Nani's house and it was fun to have everyone all together like old times. And we got to have the kids walk down in order (its a tradition, youngest to oldest) in the morning to see what Santa brought.

Santa brought Eliana and Kalyn matching princess bikes. Because as we all know, the girls will always want what the other has- right Brie? :) And even if you give them the same thing, they will find a way to want the other one's.

Santa brought Alex a scooter! and a Cars helmet! He was so excited (even though this doesn't really show it) and wanted to do some test drives right away! More on this scooter later.

checking out his stocking loot, which by the way- isn't it beautiful! thanks nani!! (she has one down and two to go!)

Ellie got toothpaste and toothbrush in her stocking, just what she wanted!

it's really the little things that make this one happy

We got Alex a fire station/truck and rescue guys set (Fisher Price Imaginex- highly recommend it!) This was him actually jumping for joy as he chanted "open it! open it" as Auntie Jo and Daddy frantically tried to open the set. Seriously, do they have to make those things so difficult!?!

this is what Alex did pretty much the rest of the day. and everyday since.

Ellie got a fun lion activity table, the perfect toy for lil missy who loves to stand and play right now

and then the girls took naps and it was a little quieter...ah.

cousin kalyn was cute and cozy, and into EVERYTHING :)

my brother Chad, looking oh so handsome, with Grandmother. I just love this picture.

and this one. its a classic sight. we all wanted to do this by the afternoon but we were not all that lucky. poor grandmother always sleeps on the couch and so we end up playing in her "room"

a special time with Papa

lets playand one more guitar session

and to prove that I was actually there...greasy hair and all. you know its a rule that you cant shower on Christmas right?!

oh christmas tree oh christmas tree

and yes, I realize that I am really into Christmas songs as titles. I really like Christmas music.

This year we decided to NOT get out our behemoth of a Christmas tree. We just don't have the space and Eliana would just want to be all up in it anyway. So we opted to buy this Charlie Brown of a tree and put it on the end table. Much easier than the big tree but not as pretty at all. It made me sad but I know that it is just a season. We will get the big pretty tree out again someday.

One week before Christmas Day we decided to have dinner by candlelight. We lit up the Christmas windmill (yes, just like on Christmas Vacation. ha.) Travis grew up lighting one like this on Christmas day but I always feel like you don't get to really enjoy it because it is so crazy opening presents and all. Anyway, Alex LOVED it! It is fun to watch it spin and, because it has Christ's birth story on it, it made for another good discussion. and it made for a very peaceful dinner actually along with some beautiful Christmas music (no, this time Fruitcake was not on the playlist, Celine Dion all the way). We are thinking it would be a great tradition!


My friend Leah shared with me that she does a really fun advent "calendar". She has 25 Holiday activities planned for the month, types them up, and clips them on a festive clothesline. Some are little things like watching Christmas movies and some are big like going on a carriage ride downtown. If you keep them secret (like folded up) then you could just move the activities around based on your schedule since it is hard to plan out everything in advance. The kids wont know. I think it is just a great idea! Next year when Alex is a little older it will be perfect! Here is a list of ideas you could use (she always wants to add that she got the list from a friend, but I keep telling her that we all steal ideas, right?!)

Decorate the/a Christmas tree
Get out the Nativity Scene
Christmas Movie and Popcorn Night (this is such a good one, it may have to go twice!)
Make paper snowflakes (or another craft- this is another that could be specific crafts and could be done multiple days)
Eat dinner by candlelight
Make cards for teachers
Buy presents for family
Buy food for food pantry and deliver it
Make treats for neighbors and deliver them
MOPS Christmas playdate
Write letter to Santa
Read special/new Christmas books
Eat Pancakes for dinner
Sit on Santa's lap
Go out for ice cream or hot cocoa
Chrstimas Program at school
Take carriage ride
Go to live nativity
Make cookies for Santa
Visit nursing home
Roast Marshmallows in backyard (they let us join them for this and it was so fun!)
Visit Dad at his office
Wear PJs to school
Go look at Christmas lights
Christmas Eve Service

A little Merry Christmas from Team Isaacson to you! Our devoted readers!

We are so glad that you stop by!

(on a sidenote, since I clearly talked it up like I worked at shutterfly, I was not as happy with these cards. I felt like the printing was not as clear and color off. you may think I am crazy. that's ok. next year it will be Tiny Prints for us I think!)

and one of the littlest reindeer to wrap it up

our actual Christmas post coming next! promise!!