Let's Rodeo San Antonio!

The San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo is something we look forward to every year! This year we figured we better get tickets for the first weekend since we weren't sure how much longer we would be a family of 3! Lucky for us, Tim McGraw was the Saturday matinee concert so after a little bit of time enjoying the rodeo grounds, we feasted on "rodeo food" and watched the 5th-time in a row Large Indoor Rodeo of the Year! Grandma and Grandpa came with us and Isabelle decided she wasn't interested in participating in the Mutton-Bustin but rather preferred the Calf-Scramble! What does she think we would do with a calf in our backyard?


*Concert picture taken by Isabelle.

Honest, trustworthy and a bit of a tease!

As baby girl #2 is quickly on her way I have recently reflected about my baby girl #1 and just what a good girl she is! We have great trust in Isabelle and always have. We never really "baby proofed" our house when she was just learning to walk, instead we just explained to her what she could and could not do and she almost always obeyed. Of course she has a bit of an adventurous side like all toddlers and we have caught her standing in the window-sill or sitting behind the couch eating an entire candy she didn't think we would want her to consume, but 9.9 out of 10 times, Isabelle makes the right choice! I pretty much trust her in every situation and find myself doing things constantly that I would have never guessed I would be doing at age 3. For example, I get out paints and paper for her to create a masterpiece while I shower, I hand her full big-girl cups of apple juice in her carseat and I let her cook with me almost every time I prepare any meal. Accidents occasionally happen and most of the time it is me consoling Isabelle for feeling so bad about the mistake rather than disciplining her. Now, what are the chances I will get another mini-Isabelle who is so trustworthy at such a young age? Please let baby sister be just like Isabelle...except nap sometimes!

However, Isabelle has also turned into a little tease. One night when I tried on a pair of Ben's mesh shorts to see if they would be any more comfortable with my big pregnant belly to lounge in, Isabelle thought I had lost my mind and died laughing. She then ran into the closet and put on a pair herself and cracked up teasing her mom! What a little comedian!

Brrr, January in review!

Although we were excited for the start of a fresh New Year, I can't honestly say that I am disappointed to see the first month of the year already written in the history books. Being in my last several weeks of pregnancy and with the weather being chillier than I prefer (even in San Antonio) January is one month I am happy to say goodbye to. Despite the cooler weather and the aches and pains of pregnancy, we managed to stay busy all month and to have some fun along the way.

Isabelle is always ready to play make-believe and often is found in dress-up clothes with an audience of "friends" all set up and ready to watch her performance. They too are often in dress-up clothes of their own and if she can fit a costume on mom and dad, we are ready to perform as well. This month she enjoyed reading Dr Seuss's If I Ran The Circus several times and I believe we put on as many as three cirucs' a day for weeks.

We also spent a few nights this month at the SBC Center first cheering on the San Antonio Rampage followed by a night with the San Antonio Spurs. We were fortunate to have great friends attend the Rampage game with us and then Grandma and Grandpa made the trip over to watch their hometown Rockets beat our Spurs. Isabelle of course loved staying up late and eating lots of junk-food but her most favorite part was watching the mascots!

Mid month, little Jelly woke up and literally could not walk. Her left leg didn't seem to work all of the sudden and after watching it get worse for 24 hours we made the first trip to the pediatrician where we were then sent on a wild-goose chase to try and figure out what exactly was affecting Isabelle's leg. After more pediatrician visits, X-rays and a stint at Methodist Children's Hospital for ultrasounds, etc, the doctors finally ruled out most everything they could easily come up with and made the diagnosis of most likely Transient Synovitis. As bizarre as a hip virus is, if anyone would catch it, it would be Jelly. We were told to treat it with an anti-inflammatory for a few days, keep her off it and pray that a fever did not show-up. We luckily were able to avoid an MRI and extensive lab-work as her leg seemed to slowly improve over the next 7-10 days. It was a really scary and weird experience and we are grateful that both of Isabelle's legs work just as they should and that she is such an agreeable patient.

Only a few days after the diagnosis, we were desperate for Isabelle's gait to greatly improve so that she would be ready to walk down the aisle and be the flower girl in her Aunt Katrina's wedding in Houston! We had a great time visiting with all of the Cosby family in Houston for a short couple of days and participating in the union of Katrina and Gordon Meldrum. We loved getting to know Uncle Gordon's family and friends from Michigan and feel lucky to live just a few hours away from the new couple.


Isabelle happily marched down the wedding aisle tossing her petals very carefully and even walked on beat with a little shuffle in her step after the ceremony was complete. We all had fun dancing and eating and mingling with all of the guests until both Jelly and I were too tired and left the rest of our group to finish with the post party clean up.


Since the wedding Jelly has been "married" herself several times or has been a bridesmaid or flower girl in a variety of her "friends" weddings at home. My favorite part of each ceremony is after they dance and then depart for what she calls their "honey-do!"

I was hopeful that after all of the busyness and long hours on my feet that the new baby Cosby may possibly greet us just a bit early, but good or bad, here we are a week into February and we still have a week or two left! Either way, we had a fun, busy, scary and chilly start to the 2010 year and look forward to more excitement to quickly follow! There is never a rest for the weary!

Our little ray of sunshine!

Today was Isabelle's first day of Sunbeams! After clawing my arms while I carried her to her seat, she finally sat quietly on the front row with the other 3 year olds and folded her arms quietly. She loved her new teacher, Miss Kayla, and meeting a new friend, Madelyn, and her first words when she saw me afterwards were I stayed the whole time by myself! What a big girl!

A budding Picasso

Jelly loves arts and crafts! She asks several times a week if she can create something of some variety. Naturally, she was thrilled when Santa Clause brought her an easel for Christmas and this week she finally was ready to paint! She quickly decided that this particular painting was for her Uncle Nick's office and the minute that her dad walked into the door from work she said Dad, look at my painting...but it's NOT for you this time! I am sure this is just the first of many wonderful gifts!

A Texas GRAND Christmas!

After asking Isabelle if she would rather have Santa come down our chimney or Grammie's chimney, we were quickly on the road to Houston for Christmas Eve! We were greeted by Grammie and Grandpa as well as Aunt Tara, Aunt Alee and Uncle Nick who were ready for a Texas Grand Christmas. Belle was thrilled to begin the festivities and spent the next week reading our GRAND itinerary and beaming with holiday spirit!

After keeping Isabelle in our bedroom upstairs until 7:00am we finally let her down the stairs to find all of Santa's surprises. She was excited with each and every gift she received and especially loved her "REAL" guitar from Grammie and Grandpa. She was also equally excited to pass out all of the gifts she had purchased and wrapped by herself and was more than eager to help everyone put them to use right away. We enjoyed a yummy Christmas dinner as well as our traditional Nativity puppet show before putting a very tired and overjoyed toddler to bed.

The next several days we enjoyed playing games, seeing movies, ice skating, working on puzzles, shopping, bowling, Grandpa's birthday, making funnel-cakes and anything/everything else we wanted to do. Since Jelly was actually 20 years younger than the next family member there we played with her all day and then put her to bed early and enjoyed some adult time in the evenings. Ben luckily was able to fairly easily close two deals over the holidays so even he was able to join in all of the traditional fun!

Although at moments it seemed like we were running a hospital with Dad's liver disease, Tara's eye-surgery, Belle's ear infections and me being 7 months pregnant, the rest of the crew was able to keep the festivities moving and we never skipped a beat. We were even able to meet up with Ben's parents and Uncle Jake and Aunt Katrina and Gordon for a few moments of Christmas cheer while they were passing through Houston to finalize a few more wedding plans for this month's big event!

We rang in the New Year with our friends the Meiers and a bbq and fire outside before a wild game of bunco. Little Jelly enjoyed her small fireworks and counting down to the New Year while banging pots and pans with a wooden spoon at about 7:45pm. Lucky for us, she never questioned that it wasn't actually midnight and she just assumed the rest of us went to bed shortly too!

It was a wonderful week long of parties and games and even though we were able to stay in Houston for the entire holiday, Isabelle still cried to leave her favorite place! We ended the fun with a New Year treasure hunt and Belle putting out the Grand Christmas torch before we packed the car as full as we could and made the trek home. We are thankful to everyone for all of their generous gifts this year and especially loved spending this special time of year with the ones we love!