Photo Shoot

After seeing Maren's Photo shoot on Anna's cute blog and her cute pictures of Maren. I thought, "that is a grrrreat idea!" So I'm going to do what I always do and not come up with my own idea. (Thank you Anna for the great idea :)) So I took advantage of Pacific's beautiful campus (especially in the fall) and took some pictures of Isabel on campus. I wanted to do them before all of the leaves were gone and while the weather was still nice. Since Robbie is studying studying studying. I brought James with us. He did great. Only a little crying towards the end, probably because he was hungry.

I realized after taking pictures that I can't ask Isabel to say cheese. The results were a scrunched nose and big teeth. Instead I would have her tell me she loves me :) Ha. It actually produced a much more natural smile.

So after 120 photos (thank goodness for digital). Here are some of the ones I favored. 

I can't decide which one I want to print to put on the wall? What do you think?

 

But of course no photo shoot would be complete with the funny face pictures:

Trick or Treat

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

 

Halloween 2008

 This was Isabel as a pumpkin and I was a pumpkin farmer (ha ha!) 

Yes...James and I repeated the same costume from 2 years ago. Poor James is already subject to hand me downs...

Experiment 626

Isabel dressed up as Stitch for Trunk or Treat and our PAVA (Pacific University) Party. 

 Isabel dressed up as "a little lady" when we went Trick or Treating at Robbie's school. This was actually my costume for my first dance recital.

Spiders

When I put Isabel down to bed I either sing her, "Baby Mine," or "Hush Little Baby." Robbie sings this song instead..."Going on a treasure hunt, X marks the spot. Line, dot, line, dot, line, dot. Spiders crawling up your back, bit you in the neck. Blood Shivers coming tumbling down. Cool breeze. Tight squeeze. Now you got the chills." The original song includes blood, but we changed it to shivers because blood grossed me out and I didn't feel it was appropriate for a 3 year old...

She loves it. He also does all of the motions to go with the song, so now when I ask what song she wants me to sing her to sleep she says, "Spiders." Nice.

Isabel was holding James the other day and decided to sing to him. It was the funniest and cutest thing ever.

 

As you can see from the video Isabel is head over heels in love with James (we all are). He is such a great sport, as you can see his sister can't keep her hands off of him. It reminds me of the bug who can't stay away from the zap light. She's just drawn to him. 

We were nervous we'd have a hard baby, since Isabel was such a good baby, but we hit the JACKPOT twice and have ourselves another miracle baby! He's been sleeping 12 hours through the night since week 6 (knock on wood). He is always smiling, cooing and blowing bubbles. We are so grateful for our happy baby boy. Now what kind of toddler will he be? Uh-oh! 

Jack-O-Lanterns

This year we finally sat down and carved our pumpkins. In the past we've just left the pumpkins outside for decoration.

 

Here's Isabel with her pumpkin before we started cutting it up.

 This is what James did while we carved pumpkins. Yup, we have ourselves another thumb sucker...

 Isabel pulling all of the seeds out of the pumpkin. She had a hard time with "making a mess." I guess I've taught her well. Or maybe I'm such an OCD FREAK, that I've ruined her. I had to keep telling her that it was okay to make a mess.

Proud of her pumpkin. She chose the shapes for the eyes and nose and Dad cut them out. As you can see she's trying to get back inside, because it was a very cold Halloween this year. Brrr..

Pumpkin Patch

Isabel's Preschool class went to a local pumpkin patch. 
Robbie was on fall break, James and Daddy came along too!

 

This is the fam getting ready to leave for the Pumpkin Patch. Dressed in our wind/rain jackets, because you never know when living in Oregon. This is Isabel's new "smile." It totally creeps me out, but at least she's looking at the camera...

 Mom, James and Isabel in the Pumpkin Patch

 Daddy and Isabel searching for the perfect pumpkins

And they found it! The perfect pumpkin!



 The Pirate Ship at the Pumpkin Patch. Isabel refused to go on it, because somebody (Robbie) let her watch Pirates of the Caribbean, so she was scared...

Playing in the haystack maze. She spent a lot of time here.

They had Halloween cookies. And of course Isabel picked the bat with BLACK sprinkles...

Kiddos

Getting used to having to multi-task 2 children has been very interesting. Especially when one of them is so dependent on you. I've been so used to Isabel getting what she needs and being very independent. We love every moment of our dear little James. He's growing up so fast and gets cuter and cuter everyday. 

James is sooo tired

James is growing up too fast! Slow down!

We received a Halloween care package from my Mom at the beginning of the month. (Thanks Mom!) and inside were some fun Halloween favors and some awesome animal magnets. Here is a cute video of Isabel playing with them. Yes, it's like super long, but it was too cute. 

The best is her version of what a pig says.

Preschool

Our baby has grown so fast. She started her first year of Preschool this year.

 Isabel with James outside of Preschool before classes start.

 

Of course our social butterfly already made a friend :) She hadn't even entered the building yet. She came running up to all the kids saying "Hi Friend." She took pictures with her new friend Madison. 

 Isabel in front of her mailbox. She was so excited.