Cheeseball

No, I don't have a new great recipe for a cheeseball. This is how Isabel has been lately...a little cheesy cheeseball. We'll be out and about and she'll give complete strangers the cheesiest smile, and if they happen to respond back to her she typically starts laughing them (so polite I know):). It's been fun to see her personality start to come out. I was going to write that this side of her totally comes from Lee (typically the funny man) and his side of the family...

...until my brother sent me this picture of my nephew from his recent promotion ceremony.

I guess it comes from the Carlson side too:)

9 months

Isabel had her 9 month appointment about two weeks ago now. Time seems to just be flying by. She is doing great. The Dr. said to expect more teeth soon. She is still following the tall and skinny pattern. Weighing 16 lb. 1 oz. and 27 3/4 in. tall.

So what happens when you leave a 9 month old by herself for a minute?

Memorial Day Celebrations

We had a nice long Memorial Day weekend.

First, I'd like to say congratulations to my brother Dave who was promoted to Lieutenant (he's a chaplain) in the United States Navy right before the weekend. We are proud of you! Thanks for serving our country. What an impact you get to have on all of those Marine Corp Recruits!

Here are two little buddies on Memorial Day

What Memorial Day hot dogs do to Isabel:(

Laundry helper

Janelle trained Noelle to be her nanny (although it backfired on her:)), but I thought...hmm, why not try to train Isabel to be my maid:)...here she is "helping" with laundry...if only she really was big enough to.

Driveway Project: Week in Review

Day 1 - the fun begins Day 2 - muddy mess
Day 3 - things are coming together
Day 4 - congrete is on the way
evening of day 4 - we have a driveway
A HUGE thanks to my parents who did 99% of the work and did an AWESOME job! We love you!

Half way into day 1

What have we gotten ourselves into?

My dad assures me all will turn out well...I hope he's right.

Unexpected Visitors

Yesterday afternoon we got a phone call from Lee's Uncle Jim and Aunt Trudy saying that they were passing through and called to see if we could meet up with them. They live in Texas, but just returned from a trip from Thailand (they work for Wycliffe) and were taking a road trip from North Carolina to Seattle in a moving truck to move Jim's mom. So we met up at a local coffee shop in Hebron for about 30 min. It was quick, but nice to see them. It's kind of funny because they weren't planning to stop to see us, but then saw the Creation Museum sign on the highway and were like...oh this is where Lee and Candace live. So thanks to modern technology, cell phones, we were able to connect.

In other Nordine news:

My parents arrive sometime late this evening. My dad is going to help us (I should say Lee) widen our driveway so we can park more cars when we have visitors and such. Here is a before picture.

Also, Isabel is cutting her first tooth. Which suddenly explains a lot of things about her behavior, especially last weekend.

Bye bye infant car seat

Does anyone have any input on a toddler car seat that they really like or don't like? Isabel has almost outgrown her infant car seat so we are researching for a new one. We basically want to go with the best for the cheapest price.

After 9 long months...

...Isabel got to meet her Lolo and Lola (cebuano for Grandpa and Grandma) Nordine!:) Our trip to MI over the weekend. The pictures say it all!

There was even some dancing involved:)

Oh yes, and Isabel gave mommy, me, the most wonderful Mother's Day present. Let's just say I plan to soon be visiting Mi Salon for some well needed pampering:) A great weekend!

Learning peek-a-boo

Thanks for many of you have said you have prayed for Isabel. Today she seems a little more like her happy normal self. Still not 100%, but definitely doing MUCH better.

I've been working on teaching Isabel peek-a-boo. I put my hands in front of my face, then open them and say "peek-a-boo." You know how it goes. So then I try to put Isabel's hands in front of her face and then open them. The only problem is every time I put her hands in front of her face she looks at her hands, so then when I open her hands up she is cross eyed for a couple of sec. It's really quite hilarious. I'll have to try to get video of it.

Croup and 3 hours of sleep

So I'm pretty much exhausted today. Isabel was up most of the night with what the Dr. said is croup. The worst part was that Lee was out of town so I had to endure the sleepless night myself (I don't know how you pilot wives do it). I prayed pretty much the whole night long and asked the Lord for wisdom in what to do. When the Dr. asked me what I did to help her, he said I did exactly the right thing (and I didn't even know what I was doing). What an answer to prayer. Another answer to prayer: The Dr. I saw was so nice. I posted several weeks ago how Isabel's Dr. was moving and we loved him and wanted to find another good one.

On a brighter note: Lee's parents should be on their way back to the states. It will be a long 30+ hour trip for them. We can't wait to see them and can't wait especially for Isabel to see them (she never has).

Worst card I have ever seen

So I was browsing the Mother's Day card section and this is what a card said that I came across under the "religious" category:

"God couldn't be everywhere at once so he created mothers"

I literally stood in shock for a minute.

I pray for the writer of that card.

Conversations with Lee

Lee is so quick witted and just makes me laugh all the time. Here is a conversation we had yesterday. To give context, Lee was telling me how he's been working on some videos for church and how slow his computer has been.

Lee: Can I just buy like a $5000 computer (Mac of course).

Candace: Um...NO! Not unless a check magically appears in our mailbox for $5000.

Lee: Can I write myself a check for $5000 and put it in the mailbox?

(of course the answer was 'NO' again):)

So Proud

How Cydney found Isabel when she got up from her nap yesterday

She was SO PROUD!