Dearest Isabel

My Dear Isabel. You certainly are a child of God. A blessing from above! If the name had not been taken, you would have been named Grace because when you were born you were dad and I's saving Grace in so many ways. Your dad and I hold your birth dear to our hearts for reasons that only the two of us will ever know about. But my sweet beautiful daughter, know that you are one of the greatest things in our lives. I will probably repeat this story each year on your birthday, but I will never get sick of it. I had the greatest time carrying you. I have never felt so good in my life. I don't know if this will be the case with all my pregnancies but I felt so beautiful. The doctors decided to induce me at 39 weeks because you decided to stop growing and I had actually lost a pound. Just as the pregancy was easy, so was your delivery. You came out wide-eyed and weighing a whopping 5.7 pounds. All the nurses told me you would be very sleepy and a poor eater. Boy did you prove them wrong. You stayed awake for 8 hours after you were born and ate like a champion. Things have not changed. You continue to hate sleep. You don't want to miss a thing. You love food and have so far been blessed with the metabolism to down large quantities of it and still maintain your little figure! You continue to be the highlight of our lives. While I want to strangle you sometimes because of your extreme independance and stubborness, you are perfect to me in every way. You have been blessed and cursed with my personality. While I worry about you, your father finds much joy in it. I think you will always get to him because of it. When we were waiting your arrival, your dad would constantly say how he wanted you to be just like me. Well, with the exception of our looks, we are definitely two peas in a pod. Your father is not a very emotional person except when it come to us. I believe it was he that cried when we left you for the first time, not me.

Isabel, you are so vibrant. I love the way you light up our home. Your little face is so full of expression. Your dad and I are constantly laughing over the faces you pull. You are so smart. You constantly amaze us. You have known your ABC's and many other songs since you were 18 months old. You really think for yourself. I feel like I can hold real conversations with you. I love how determined you are. If used right, it will take you far in life. I love that you like being a girl and all the 'girly' things, but that you aren't afraid to follow dad around and do all the 'guy' stuff. I hope you know how much dad and I love you. Although I am saddened that one more year is gone, I'm excited to see what you have to bring to this world as a 2 year old! Happy Birthday beautiful!

Birthday Fun.....

Tinker Bell is her all time favorite character. She has a tinker bell blanket, a tinker bell cup, tinker bell socks, and tinker bell pajamas. Needless to say, she had a very tinker bell birthday. She loved it!

Can we say trouble? Actually, trouble and spoiled. She's got the whole house wife thing down- apron on, jewelry on, cooking and talking on the cell phone. That's my girl!