April 2011 Vacay

Alex got April off this year and it was spent in Vegas. By far, the longest time we've spent there as "visitors" and we had a fantastic time. This one month off each year makes residency tolerable and is one of the few things I'll miss about it when it's over (2ish years to go!!).

We went to The Wicked Spoon buffet at the Cosmopolitan with the fam and it was AMAZING. Everything was laid out so fancily and a lot of the items came in mini pots, fry baskets, take-out boxes, skillets, etc. The dessert bar was crazy. A huge gelato bar, chocolate covered what- have-you's and cobbler, among others.

Lizzie even had a blast! She ate polenta with gorgonzola and truffle mashed potatoes. Although, on the way home, she threw it all up:( Poor girl, I felt so bad for her. And then there was her skin- she was as dry as an elephant.

Easter was wonderful. We had dinner and an Easter egg hunt at the Stratton's.

Back at the Isom's, we attempted a quick photo session....

Lizzie had the best time with her cousins. Tristan especially got some good belly laughs out of this girl!
And DOGS! A major hit. Obsessed.
Andrea drove down from SoCal for a weekend. This was one of her *many* adventures.
Kelly and I got to see each other a couple times. Oh how I miss her. And not just because she knows my hair perfectly ;).Alex and I even got to go out together! We headed to the Wynn and admired all of its elegance. One day I will stay there.

Andrea and I discovered this fun little frog show at the Wynn, so I had to show Alex. Garth performs there, so this was in honor of him. It is awesome. If you get a chance, it's by the parasols- check it out.
Lizzie did amazingly well on our drives. We were smarter on the way back and left early in the morning. MUCH better than leaving at 8pm and almost not making it awake 8.5 hrs later.
I'm ready to go back.

Disneyland Test-Run

This past weekend, we decided to be spontaneous. Alex got home Friday afternoon and asked what we should do. As usual, I said something to the effect of "I don't know, it doesn't matter to me". Since living in the Bay Area we had never driven to SoCal. So we did. I called Andrea to make a few arrangements, we gave Lizzie her necessary bath and pjs, loaded up and took off. She slept the whole 5.5 hrs, it was perfect.

Andrea was the most hospitable host. Saturday we did Disneyland for as long as Lizzie allowed. It was fun, and it taught us we're not ready for Orlando quite yet.

This face seemed to be what we got most of the day. Lizzie seemed interested in what was going on, but a bit confused. Maybe in a year or so, we'll get more smiles *fingers crossed* :) We made it on 2 rides- It's a Small World and Winnie the Pooh.

Since Andrea lives in Burbank, we just had to get a pic on front of this. And, it smelled so delicious here, I could've stood there all day.



At California Adventure, there used to be the "CALIFORNIA" blocks sign out front. It's gone, and apparently not returning :( This temporary structure is here instead. It's cute, but I want the letters back!
Lizzie did get her 2 naps of the day in one way or another...

And then we ran into some familiar faces, just in time to head on home. We came back Sunday late morning. Lizzie definitely prefers bedtime road trips over middle of the day.

Bye, bye Aunt Andrea- we miss you!

A Churrascaria

Last night we went with Jeff and Shao to Pikanha's in Richmond. None of us were quite sure what to expect, being in Richmond especially, but it was delicious and fun! Lizzie was quite excited to discover what the next tasty item would be on the skewer (is that what they're called?).

Roasted pineapple with cinnamon. This was a favorite. Along with the chicken breast wrapped in bacon, juicy pork sausage, tri tip, parmesan sirloin. Oh, all right, it was all good.

Lizzie stuck with mashed beans. She seemed to approve!

Guarana was the drink of choice, naturally. Unless you're me, the most typical American with her Diet Coke :) Lizzie was a bit distracted by that Brazilian bottle.
Getting out some of her wiggles.
2nd try at the family shot. Much cuter! This was actually our first venture out to a full-on restaurant with the babe. Yeah, we don't get out much. Here's to dining out!

7.5 Months

The past 6 weeks or so have brought about some big milestones for Lizzie. Who is this baby? It's crazy how fast she's growing; I feel like she's a whole new little human sometimes. Here's a little rundown of the latest happenings.

Bottle feeding: Not happening. I had one day this week where I got quite frustrated and tried to go cold turkey with a bottle and formula. Dumb idea. Today she did drink about 5 oz in a sippy cup which is major news. If I get my way in this, I'm hoping that once she's used to it in a sippy, we can then try the bottle again...?

Crawling: Lizzie can get around! Upon returning from a bathroom break, I found her in this spot. She's an army crawl pro and almost has the full-on crawl down. She also just figured out how to get herself sitting from being on her belly. And, she loves to stand with us holding her. She can lean against a mirror standing for about 3 minutes.

Favorite toys: the alarm clock on the floor in her room, Laugh n Learn pup and any cord/electronic that she shouldn't have (naturally).

This photo is just to show how she pulls her bumper down when she's ready to get picked up. It's quite funny to us that she figured this out. Poor thing.

Sleeping: She does pretty well. Putting her down at night is a breeze. We do bath, pjs (which that, along with getting the diaper on has become the hardest part of the day), sometimes a book, feed, then into bed. Lately she's been waking up around 2am to eat, but it seems to be more of a habit thing, then goes right back down. So, I'm trying to wean her off of this small feeding. She wakes for the day around 8am, happy and ready to play!

This photo was taken at Beth's. I just had to put her in a bumbo because Alex is not a fan so we'll probably never own one. She didn't last long there and squirmed out of it pretty fast.

Teeth: She now has 2 pearlies on the bottom. They came in a week or so ago, and with a vengeance. She screamed quite a bit. And, she had a nasty cold, so it got worse, along with a fever, vomiting, the whole deal. It was short-lived, thankfully.Although, I hear the tops are worse....

Eating: This has its ups and downs. She loves sweet potatoes, green beans and carrots, all pureed baby food. I want to start making my own, but we may just move on to table food soon anyway. We'll see. Chopped avocados aren't her favorite :( Pears and apple sauces she tolerates. Bananas mashed are yummy. She likes to play with the puffs and can get them in her mouth, but doesn't like the taste. Loves playing with her spoon and really loves water in her sippy. As far as chunky stuff, she hasn't gotten the hang of it and just kinda plays with it and moves it all over the place (see above pic).

So that's Lizzie these days. I really can't complain, she bring us a lot of joy and laughs. A happy little treat she is :)

Living Space

Our living room has recently gone from this,(or a usually somewhat-cluttered version of this):

To this:

After 7 years, we decided it's time for a change. Thank you, Craigslist, for making our place barer a bit quicker than expected. See that rolled up rug? It's waiting for the couch to arrive in another 7-11 weeks so that we can unveil the new arrangement all at once. But, until then, 2 people can "relax", while one ellipticizes :)
I will definitely be posting the final product in 2ish months! Although, then, apparently, we have to move *somewhere*, thanks to our apartment's latest construction. So, who knows what will happen....

8 Christmases

The past few days I've been thinking about Christmases past, perhaps more than usual due to the fact that this year is the most different than any other. Here's a little chronicle of how we've spent the day since we've been married.

2003- Living in Vegas. Had been married 4 months and lived in our condo. I was working at Nordstrom and Alex in school at UNLV. Spent Christmas at the Isom home. Cornish hen dinner on Christmas Eve. I remember indulging on Ethel M chocolates from 2 huge boxes Alex's mom brought out. We got our coffee table!

2004- Christmas Eve in Vegas, since I was still at Nordstrom. Tasha (Alex's sis) announced she was pregnant with Wesley. My family was in Minersville, UT with my grandpa, so we drove up there Christmas morning to spend the day with them. Drove back that night to be ready for work the next day.

2005- First Christmas without Alex's mom. Still living in Vegas. Flew up to WA to celebrate with my family.

2006- Living in San Francisco. Had driven to Vegas for Thanksgiving, so went up to WA for Christmas. Bobby back from his mission.

2007- Living in SF. Flew to Vegas for Christmas, then back to SF, then New Years in WA. I remember playing lots of Rock Band.

2008- Living in SF, last year of dental school. Christmas in WA.

2009- Alex's 1st year of residency, living in Emeryville. Took a last-minute flight to WA on Christmas morning. Stayed at the Courtyard Marriott since the Kaler house was quite full. Freezing cold. I was almost 3 months pregnant. Alex went back the following day, I stayed through New Years.

2010- Living in Emeryville. Alex on trauma rotation, so he's working all day Christmas until the 26th. He was off Christmas Eve, so Lizzie opened her Santa gift (Laugh & Learn pup) and some cute gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Kaler that morning. Hung out in San Ramon for the day, did some window shopping. Lizzie and I spending Christmas day home in our pjs.

Merry Christmas!!!

Gingerbread Houses

Gingerbread house decorating is a must-do in the Isom home. Usually, we do it up in WA, but it's time to move along with that. Guess what, now Costco sells the houses already glued together, tree and a resident included. Oh Costco, you keep outdoing yourself and I absolutely love it.

The Heddells joined us for some fun designing. I have to admit, theirs was much more creative than ours- Santa even stopped by, along with a hidden snowman!

Lizzie supervised for the first half or so of the night, until bath and bedtime took precedent. Here she is getting used to her high chair.

Us all admiring our finished products. We are definitely making this a yearly tradition.