Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. A whole day dedicated to eating and relaxing - what could be better? I've spent the 2 out of the past 3 Thanksgivings pregnant and I must say that a whole day of eating is perfect :) And after you eat, you get to start putting up Christmas decorations!! This year we had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We traveled to Haleyville to spend time with Adam's family. My sister tagged along with us and we were so excited to get to spend some time with a bit of my family too! We didn't see the rest of my family and Adam's brother didn't make it to Haleyville this year so we did miss seeing several family members.

Caroline got to watch her first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year! Although she's a little too young to sit and watch, she did get into some of the musical numbers and stop to dance. It was precious. She spent the rest of the time the parade was on running around the house. We had the most delicious meal and I know that I ate enough for about 3 adults. Caroline didn't eat everything, but she loved the sweet potatoes, ham, and Mama Lou's rolls. After wearing herself out and then stuffing her face this is what happened:




Looks like a perfect Thanksgiving to me! I didn't get a lot of other pictures since I spent the day relaxing and enjoying family time.

Sadly, I got sick Thursday night/Friday. At first I thought it was normal pregnancy sickness but when it didn't get any better I began to think I may have picked up a bug. That messed up our plans to spend Friday decorating the house. On the bright side - we decorated after the Iron Bowl on Saturday. We were so excited about the great win and had a great time getting our house Christmas-y so it worked out beautifully. Pictures to come soon! I'll also be posting C's 18 month pictures and 16 week belly shots and 17 week info soon. Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving Snack

Today at school, the parents were invited to come and have a Thanksgiving snack with the kids. I am so thankful to be able to go to all these fun things!

Each class made a Thanksgiving craft. Caroline's class made little Mayflowers.


Each class walked in together. C was the line leader for her class.


Once she realized that the snack had M&M's in it - she was ready to eat!


Being the awesome sharer that she is, she decided to feed her friend Cohen the items that were not M&M's. I love his face here - he's so confused why she's feeding him!


We were so excited that our friends Sarah and Sydney were sitting across from us!


The placemat that Caroline "made." It says that she is thankful for Mommy and Daddy, Daisy, Baby Israel, books and Mickey Mouse...sounds about right to me!


I can't wait for Thanksgiving next week. Since she was only 6 months old last year, this will be the first time where she can actually eat some of the Thanksgiving meal. I know she's going to love it!

Friends

Caroline and her sweet friend at Wee Flip yesterday. Caroline is modeling her new "cheese" face.

No Doubt

When Caroline was an infant, almost everybody said that she looked like Adam. One lady said to us, "Well we know who the father is, but who is the mother?" Very funny lady... Her baby pictures really do look just like Adam's baby pictures. As she gets older, we get more comments that she is a mix of us or that she looks just like me. Some things I can see - she gets her hair color from me and her nose from Adam. Other than that, I have no idea who she looks like - she just looks like Caroline!

Personality wise, there is no doubt who this child belongs to. We would often joke that Caroline is just like Adam over small things. Every night I get Adam a big cup of ice and I put a piece of ice in C's mesh food holder. They sit together and eat their ice. She likes to stay up late and sleep late in the mornings - certainly not something she gets from her early to bed, early to rise mommy. But now I can confirm that she is fact just like Adam. Ever since I have known Adam, people have joked that he was going to be president one day. When I would visit his hometown, people would ask if I was ready to be politicians wife. His elementary school teachers told me that even as a young child they knew he would go into politics. Last Sunday I took Caroline to the nursery at church. When I went to pick her up, one of the nursery workers said, "She's quite the little politician." I had to hold back laughter to find out what she meant. Apparently, she made the rounds to all the workers, volunteers, and children - waving and blowing kisses to everyone. As parents would come in she would wave and blow kisses - even trying to SHAKE HANDS with some of them!!! They were joking that she was campaiging for cutest kid in the nursery (she clearly would have won)! Like I said, there is no doubt who this child belongs to...

More new posts below!

Lately

Here are some pictures of what Miss Caroline has been up to lately.

Caroline has been a great help with the laundry. She especially loves when you get to wear hangers as hats!




She's been dancing with daddy.




Finding a new favorite seat in the house. (In preparation for Project Big Girl Room, we moved a chair out of the guest room and into the living room and she's loving the ottoman)



She's been a very good eater lately - notice not 1, but 2 yogurts! :)




It sure is fun with a toddler around!

Another new post below.

Pigtails!!!

How cute is this little girl in pigtails??


Love it.

Project Big Girl Room

I feel like it's going to be very busy around the Israel house for the next several months... We've got to get Caroline's big girl room done and her moved into that so we can start on the nursery! My due date is less than 6 months away. Caroline decided to come almost 3 weeks early. I'm trying to be conservative in my planning so I've got about 5 months to get things done around here. Throw in Thanksgiving and Christmas (and all that shopping) and that cuts down on my time (and money!) to devote to getting bedrooms done. Yikes.

I figured that we should start Project Big Girl Room. To me, this is going to be the harder of the two bedrooms to do. Baby girl rooms are easier. Pick some pink paint, toile or damask fabric, add a chandelier and voila! You have a beautiful nursery. Or you could go the ready made room route - Pottery Barn Kids, Serena and Lily, etc. Not that either of those options aren't fantastic (that's what we did for Caroline and are still so in love with her room) - it's just that they are for babies. You design a room before you ever meet your child. Their personality and preferences aren't taken into consideration because they aren't here to be considered. Toddler rooms are much harder. I want a room that reflects her personality, a room that is hers and not just what I think is pretty. Her room has be sweet and girly (like her) but fun and functional (since it will be a place for her to play and store her things) and the big one...versatile (since it's also the room that out of town guests will stay in). I know I've got to get moving or it will never be done in time!

I have found bedding that I really, really like. I haven't ordered it yet because I'm not sure that I love it. I wanted to do something white and then have the color in the curtains, pillows, and a painted piece of furniture. I looked high and low and finally found some white ruched bedding for a very good price. It's vintage looking and very girly. Before I bought it, I thought I would look a few more places. I found some beautiful bedding at Restoration Hardware and Serena and Lily that I really, really like as well. They are certainly more expensive! Now I'm stuck! Which option do I choose - white bedding with color and pattern in other elements of the room or patterned bedding with white/solid color accents elsewhere in the room?

I found a chandelier that I love. That will also add some girly-ness to the room. I was thinking about going with grey walls. They are "in" for nurserys/kids rooms these days and you can put lots of other colors with it. I could do grey and pink, grey and yellow, etc. Grey is a more versatile color so guests wouldn't feel like they are sleeping in a doll house.

Decisions, decisions... If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, feel free to pass them along. I think we're going to bite the bullet and pick out paint this week and possibly paint the room next weekend!! Hopefully it will turn out well and I won't change my mind 8 thousand times!