Princesses, Pirates, and babies...oh my!!

So we have been living a life of "princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs" to pull a line from Taylor Swifts song "Best Day." Isabella has exploded into the princess scene with amazing dedication. She wants to watch and be Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Belle, Ariel, or Jasmine each and every day. She has the Cinderella, Ariel and Tinkerbell costumes so she enjoys being those girls and I would be lying if I said Nick and I weren't having a blast being a part of her new fantasy world. She also enjoys Peter Pan and made our living room and ocean the other day where our chairs were pirate ships and the crocodile was coming for us. It is just so much fun!!


Swimming like Ariel...

Last week we drove down to FL to visit our friends down there. We were able to see Yentz and Col Nardo and Christine Clark, all former teachers of Nick. Isabella had so much fun seeing each of them.

We are so blessed to have friends who were able to get us in to Disney World for free so we went the the Magic Kingdom while we were there and had a ball with the kiddos. Isabella was over the moon. I think it was so much to even take in for her. Around lunchtime we realized it was time for lunch so she could take some time to process all she had done and seen. We went to the park at 9 o'clock when it opened and we rode Snow White, the teacups, and Dumbo and then waited to get in to Toontown so we could see the Princesses. We did get a glimpse of Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters while we were waiting. We were second in line to see the princesses and Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Belle were there. Isabella was so excited to meet them. My favorite was Cinderella, she was so sweet to Isabella.



Here we are after the Dumbo ride.

Then we went and met the princesses...



Here is the moment when Cinderella took Isabella out of the line and spun her around. We were second in line and waiting our turn. She was so sweet to Isabella. As you can see Isabella was pretty interested in Sleeping Beauty over the others princesses.



And later in the day we caught up with Jasmine and Aladdin...
She loved riding the carousel so we did that several times. She also loved the Jungle Cruise and the "Yo-Ho ride" also known as Pirates of the Caribbean. I wish we could go there every week...it was just so fun to go somewhere where we could all be kids and have fun. We will definitely be planning a trip in the future.
At the end of a very wet but fun day...

The rain kept people away and it was already during the least busy time of year, so it made no lines and we were able to ride all the rides and many of them 2 or 3 times in a row. We had a blast! Thank you so much to Mike and Robert for saving us the price of tickets!!

One of the main reasons we went to Florida was to meet the newest member of the Strobridge family. Ben and Lisa welcomed little Elizabeth Victoria Opal Strobridge to the world on January 18, 2010 at 7:21 pm. She was 8 lbs 1 oz and 21 inches. She is a sweet little baby. I think we heard a little cry once or twice but it was just to tell mommy she was hungry. And of course, I love her name! :)

She did a lot of sleeping of course...

Watching Nick's funny face...
Congratulations guys!!

Well this post is already long enough. I am going to do a separate one for Jack and everything he has been up to.

Isabella's Half Birthday song!

So Nick thought I should post this video here since some of you who read the blog don't do Facebook so here it is. Isabella loves to bake and cook so she begged me to make a cake this day. I had some mix and icing in the pantry so we went to it. We made a tray of cupcakes and then a small cake. Isabella was saying happy birthday over and over to herself during the baking process so when the cake was done we decided to celebrate her half birthday since she will be 2 1/2 on January 16 (so we celebrated a little early). Here she sings Happy Birthday...the fact that she sang the whole song was a surprise to me because she normally would sing just the first two lines over and over again, which is why I try to help. I was also surprised at the high note ending! She keeps us laughing every day.

Holiday fun!!

We had a great holiday! The kids and I started a bit early and had Nick bring us up to VA in early December so we wouldn't have to drive by ourselves and then Nick flew back. It was a lot of fun and I think Nonna and Pop-pop loved having the kids around for so long.

Aunt Jenn and Jack
Isabella loves to bake so she was a good helper for Nonna with all the Christmas baking.
Then we took a couple days and went up to Harrisburg, PA to visit Chris, Cristina, and David. That was a short trip because we wanted to get back to greet Katie, Doug, Gianna and Mark when they returned from Germany. We surprised them since we had told them we would not be in town. It was so great to see them after being away so long, but honestly using Skype on the computer really did help keep us connected. Thank goodness for the internet and technology!!

Nonna and Mark
Jack and his cousin Mark meeting for the first time. I think they were really excited!
Gianna and Isabella making silly faces.
I got these cute shirts for the kids that said "Naughty" and "Nice" on them. Of course, Isabella got the "Naughty" shirt. :)

Then the big snow storm hit VA. I let Isabella stay up late that night in hopes that we would catch the start of the snowfall. I am a sucker for moments like this. She had her pjs on under her coat.
Pop-pop and Nonna with the girls on Christmas Eve
Isabella and Gianna
Then on the Sunday after Christmas we were so blessed to be able to share the baptism of our son Jack with Katie and Doug's son Mark (just as we were able to do a double baptism for the girls). It was performed by Father Jude De Angelo who came up for the occasion. It was a beautiful mass that was held in the De Angelo home and then we went to "Nonna's church" as Isabella calls it for the baptism itself. What a wondeful occasion and we were so happy to be able to share it with Doug and Katie again!

Mark being baptized. Doug is holding Mark and I am the godmother. Doug is godfather to Jack so it got confusing at times. :)The girls had beautiful matching dresses that I found at Carter's. They looked so cute!

Shortly after Christmas we headed up to Binghamton, NY to introduce Jack to his great grandparents on Nick's side. Here Jack is with Great Grandpa Ray.
and here with Isabella
We were also happy to visit Great Grandma De Angelo in the nursing home.
And Great Grandma Betty.

Then when we returned from Binghamton we got a bonus snowstorm on New Year's Eve day. Isabella loved sledding with Nonna and Daddy.

Nick is about to push Nonna and Isabella down the hill. Brave Nonna!
We also were able to build a snowman this time since the snow was more packable than the first time it snowed.


For New Year's Eve Mom and Dad got live lobsters and Isabella really enjoyed playing with them...seriously, she got her guys out and played with the lobsters. Then when we sat down to eat them she said "Don't eat my lobsters" not because she was sad that we had cooked them but that she could no longer play with them. I must say it was harder to eat them after my daughter had played with them. It was a great end to a great year! We were blessed with a sweet boy in Jack. We are having so much fun with our little family of four, but we hope the coming years bring us more baby blessings! We are looking forward to the surprises and fun that 2010 has to offer us! With these two kids I am sure we will have a lot of both!! Happy New Year everyone!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was spent at my Grandpa Penny's house. We had a great time with him and my parents and my brother and his family. Jack slept through the actual Thanksgiving dinner, but I was fine with that, since it gave me more time to stuff my belly with delicious food. :)
Jack is really getting big. He is starting to talk so much to me now. He smiles a lot and coos. He doesn't laugh very much yet. I remember Isabella really laughing a lot at this age, but he isn't quite there yet. Occasionally I can get a giggle from him, but I really have to work for it.

Here is a picture of Jack and Isabella laying on the floor together.
And another...

And here is a family photo. It was really tough to get everyone to cooperate. So this was the best we could do.
Isabella loved playing with this toy drum that was at my Grandpa's house.
Chris, David and Cristina were also able to come up to my Grandpa's house for Thanksgiving.
Isabella loved her Great Grandpa and had fun playing with him in her own way. She brought such joy to him. I think she has such life in her and really lights up a room. She certainly did that for him and I was so happy we could be there.

Here is Isabella in her new hat and gloves.Here is a cute picture of Isabella and Jack. This was only the 3rd time she has ever asked to hold him. It is such a rare occasion that I had to snap a picture.So things are going well for us. We are looking forward to Christmas and Jack's baptism. I am so excited that we get to share that with Katie and Doug again as they baptize Mark at the same time. I also can't wait to meet my new nephew...they should be home in less than 2 weeks. Hopefully I will get some time to post pictures again soon and it won't be so long in between posts.