Sleepy-bye baby.

This is one of those videos of Isabelle that we will keep and show at her graduaton/wedding/any public appearance. We had just returned home from the park and I guess she ran herself ragged. She was sleepy in the car, but I thought I could get lunch into her before she went down since it was quite a bit earlier than her normal nap time. You can see I was not successful. And of course, the award winning mother that I am, I taped it!

 

Half Full

Some days I wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

 Which is hard, because I sleep right in the middle.

Today was not one of those days.

Today was a full-glass kinda day.

Could it be because there is no more rain? Sun shiny day!

Maybe it's because Jazz left for work, then snuck back with orange juice and cough drops.

(I have contracted the plague.)

Or possibly the amazing eggs and turkey sausage for breakfast?

How 'bout that my fancy babychild slept through the night?

Oh I know, it could be finally getting my pinterest invite.

Or because tonight is the premier of the king's speech, sorensen style.

Maybe it was a very happy moment on the scale this morning.

Or smelling my husband's cologne in our bedroom long after he left.

Throw in a sweet-smelling fluffy-haired baby?

Was that it?

All I know is that the whole of my day was greater than the sum of it's parts.

And there were a lot of good parts.

The Easter Post

Of course there is a post about Easter. How could I claim to be a proper blogger without posts for each specific holiday! With tons of pictures! And clever captions! Ok how about two out of three.

Friday: Cute baby alert. Cute baby loves being outside. All. the. time. I love it too, except this time of year in Redding is all of the tiny bits of pollen get together and stage a REVOLT. My eyes/nose/face do not appreciate this and it makes me want to itch my skin off.

 

Saturday: Horrible nasty weather. Superfun egg hunt moved inside. Hats required.

Isabelle loved finding treats around the house, but she didn't really get it. She found the first egg and plopped her bum down on the ground like SWEET I found a TREAT. We had to motivate her to find more.

 

This is Isabelle's new thing, and it totally kills me every single time. When something is missing, or she is looking for someone, she turns her hands over in the air and makes a big O with her face and says "Oh! oh! Oh nononon!" She looks all surprised and sweeps the room looking for the object in question.

Her first peep...it was a no go. The carpet enjoyed it thouroughly.

More of her (blurry) "looking for something" face.

Sunday: Actual day of Easter. We had nice morning together before church. Honestly, it was less "rest" and more "prepare." I played an Easter medley on the harp with the primary children, so I was polishing that up and getting the harp over to the church to tune before the program started. Plus Jazz had a lesson to prepare for the young men, and I had a lesson to get ready for my primary kids. I had ten nine year olds. High on Easter sugar crack. Add a tired baby to the mix and it wasn't the relaxing morning we were all hoping for.

But really, could this dress BE any cuter? Ruffles just have a special place in my heart.

Aaaand after all the festivities, I realized we didn't get a family picture. Or a picture of Isabelle really smiling. It's tricky when she's hungry/tired/fleeing the scene.

Friday, Friday.

Today is Earth day/Good Friday/Kick off to Easter Weekend. But really, it is just another day of baby food messes and bathtub time and errands run around our town. A lovely day, really.

I'm back to the debate about my bangs. Isn't this so stupid? They are excessively long now to be straight across, but they won't swoop to the side yet either. They fall into my eyes and it makes me want to grab the kitchen shears and head to a mirror. HERE IS THE PROBLEM.

Option 1. I let my bangs grow, despite looking like a creature from where the wild things are. If all goes well, I will have swoopy bangs at sumsion wedding numero uno. in three weeks. Keep them like that for tropical vacation, and for sumsion wedding numero dos early June. My plan is to cut them back to straight across after weddings are complete, so as to not have trendy hair in very important photographs.

Option 2. Cut bangs. Trendy bangs are awesome. Even for weddings and tropical vacations.

Aaaaand the curve ball: about two weeks ago, we scheduled family pictures around Isabelle's 18 month mark- so we could get some of us as a family, and then do her individual ones as well, because let's face it I need more giant pictures of my baby plastered on my walls.

I spent about three days furiously running around town trying to find coordinating but not too matchy outfits for the pictures. The weather was gorgeous, so I planned accordingly. This was also the same week as Sabrina's bridal shower, so you can imagine I was not stressed out at all. Not at all! Wednesday came, I ironed all of our clothes, made sure Isabelle had an epic nap and was full to the brim, and we set out to meet our photographer. If there is anything I am good at, it is being prepared.

We started taking pictures and Isabelle was uncharacteristically not cooperating. Then I realized that it was freezing cold and very windy. and she was dressed for 90 degree weather. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING. I seriously didn't have a single pair of pants for her- everything was skirts and dresses. We took a few photos but after about ten minutes called it quits with a plan to reschedule.

However, my bangs do not have time to reschedule. They must grow. And now they are too long for pictures. I have missed my bang window of perfection.

My family is so sick of hearing me talk about my bangs. I know! Who cares! It's just hair! There are people around the world that don't even HAVE bangs! Be grateful!

SO hellllllllp me. Do I cut my bangs to get perfect family pictures? Or let them grow and forfeit pictures in favor of cool wedding hair? The good news is that our photographer Katie did get a some amazing shots even though we had a fusstastic child. Katie is very talented and also happens to be a wonderful friend of mine.

I love this first one because it is SUCH a typical Isabelle face.

And I looove this one of me and mr. sorensen.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time. It's already framed and ready to be hung in our room.

All images taken by Katie Luther. 

getting down and dirty.

Isabelle is doing a great job feeding herself. You can see here the majority of the rice krispies made it to the tray. And her bib.

Isabelle, how big are you? Sooooo big!

Yogurt in her hair. A daily occurrence. She thinks it's hilarious.

More of the yogurt.

If I ask her if she wants me to help her, she says, "NONONnononono" and yanks the spoon away from me. Fiesty.

Here you can see she cleaned the whole bowl of mac and cheese out.

Sleepy-bye baby.

One day she was eating in her chair and I noticed she only had one sock on. One cute socked foot, one cute nekkid foot.

On a totally separate note. Sunday was Isabelle's first time in the nursery at church. Nursery is for all the little children at church age 18 months to 3, at which point they go into the Sunbeams class in Primary. I have been counting down the weeks until Isabelle hit 18 months- not because I don't love hanging out with her... but because Jazz and I both teach classes and it makes church sort of a three hour tap dance.

The last month or so, we have been visiting nursery to to get her acclimated- to meet the women and the other babies and get comfortable. I thought the best thing to do would be to go cold turkey- drop her off, tell her we love her and we'll be back in awhile and that in the mean time she will have lots of fun with her new friends.

Are you laughing yet. Jazz was in charge of dropping her off on Sunday because we were doing a song rehearsal for Easter that I could not miss. After a few minutes, I pop my head out into the hallway to see how it's going. It's not. Jazz is pacing. I can hear Isabelle screaming in the nursery. You can also hear my heart breaking into a million tiny bits. A few minutes later, a sweet sister brought Isabelle out and handed her to us.

"I think she got a little upset. She threw up...on me."

Perfect! So let's recap. Isabelle likes church. She likes seeing Grandma and Grandpa. She likes running through the gym. Aaaaand she projectile vomits on volunteer nursery leaders! She clung to Jazz for the next two hours, and when he even MENTIONED the word 'nursery' she would burst into tears. Poor thing, we have ruined her.

I have to say I did not see this coming. She is usually so friendly and outgoing...but it dawned on me that she really hasn't been away from close family really ever. Except once, when my sister in laws parents (and they are basically close family anyway) watched her, and Madilyn was there. And when Madilyn is around, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS.

Hey Scott and JaNae, looks like Madi is coming to church on this side of town for the next few weeks!

Showering Sabrina

I mentioned that last Saturday we threw a bridal shower for my sister, Sabrina. Now here is all the fantastic proof you were all looking for! The theme was "April Showers Bring May Flowers," mostly because the shower was in April and Sabrina's wedding is in May. See what we did there? Since it was sort of earlyish (10 am) we did brunch food. And by brunch food I mean cupcakes and whipped cream.

After reviewing my pictures, I have decided to reward myself with a C for documentation. I failed to snap photos of the most time consuming adorable invitations ever, also the outside banner/balloon configuration, and some close up of the finder details of the party. Maybe more like a C minus.

Also, if you are allergic to pictures, stop here. HEY SABRINA here are the photos I promised!

Here is our lovely bride-to-be and the spread of goodies (minus a ones that were still warming). Morgan was in charge of all things edible and she whipped up some amazing things. Custard and jam fruit tarts, tomato basil bruschetta with fresh mozzarella, mixed greens with gorgonzola, candied walnuts, and asian pears, fresh crepes with strawberries, nutella, and home made whipped cream, vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting.

Are you drooling yet?

These were our favors.. homemade strawberry freezer jam. We made ten batches for the occasion- ten! (My sister in law is so awesome..) We stamped out coordinating scrapbook paper for the top of the jars, and wrapped them with die cuts from the invitations. The cute little green thank you tags were found pre-made at Michaels.

All of the banners in the house were made from scrapbook paper and ribbon... I made some new pom balls for the table and did the two topiaries on either side in tea candle jars. JaNae did the double sided hanging circle fans, again from the same paper.

I know this is blurry but I don't care.

JaNae, where are you?

This is Whitney.  She helped throw the shower as well- she and Sabrina have been best friends since we were all little. Whitney said it best, their relationship is the perfect example of "opposites attract."

I think she made out like a bandit! Her kitchen will be well equipped with four hundred spatulas and twelve sets of measuring cups. We did a picture wall just like at Isabelle's birthday, just swapped out the ribbons. There were some classic pictures hanging...Sabs, I will spare you.

It was so nice to see how many people love and support Sabrina. She really deserves just the most wonderful life and this was a nice little send off into marriage. Although, I felt a bit... abused. As we went around the room introducing ourselves, a few people said stuff like, "Oh yeah, I knew Micci first and we all know shes kind of, well you know. And then Sabrina came along, and she is wonderful" or "Micci was the loud/obnoxious/loud/aggressive one and Sabrina was just peaceful and sweet and.. wonderful" or "After the trouble Micci caused, I didn't know if I could handle another one but then I met Sabrina... and she was so loving and kind and wonderful." Thanks everyone, I appreciate that.

What you can't see (and what I failed to photograph) are the hanging origami swans from the windows. JaNae learned how to perfectly fold about 30 of those suckers, and then we had questions written on them about Jared that Sabrina had to answer as she was opening gifts. The tie with origami is that Jared used it as a flirtation method when he was trying to ask Sabrina out. He would make her little shapes and leave them for her to find. Isn't that cute? Anyway, they look so springy in my living room, I haven't taken them down yet.

And this is a classic, classic Zeus face.

 These were part of my gift... I did seasonal holiday decor for her new apartment with her new husband. Presenting, Miss February and Miss December.

 The Adelman ladies!

And our dear neighbors, the Parrs

And here are the lovebirds..complete with Sabrina's giant bow bouquet.

Thanks again to everyone who came and brought such wonderful gifts for Sabrina and Jared, I'm sure thank you notes will be heading your direction soon. If not, don't blame me because reamember, Sabrina's the "nice" one. Just teasing. 70/30.