Flush

Isabel has found the bathroom! Doesn't matter where we are at in our house...she will make a bee line for the closest bathroom. Depending on which one she is in, she will either go straight for the toilet paper, open the cabinets and pull everything out, or open all the drawers and investigate THOROUGHLY. It was cute the first and maybe second time, but since then I'm tired of hanging out in the bathroom. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before she starts flushing something I value down the toilet.

"Privacy Please"

"oh, look at all this tp"

"hmm, what's this?"

"bye bye toilet paper" (note the empty roll)

Daddy's Day

These pictures and stories are a little dated, but I had to share them. Back in June we spent a long weekend up in Michigan with the Korman's, O'Neil's and Wiegman's...total 8 adults and 5 girls (all under age 4). We rented a big six bedroom house that was just a short drive to Lake Michigan. In theory, it was the perfect plan, but things slowly unraveled. First, Ben couldn't get the day off...so Isabel and I headed off a night early and Ben drove separately the next night. Kind of a bummer...but what could we do.

We started off the first night with a success...all the girls went to bed at a normal hour and we enjoyed cocktails out on the patio!

Beer and baby monitors...life after babies!

The next day we had a great day at the beach and then we checked out the pool. My pictures are limited as I was having difficulties keeping up with my mobile daughter, all of our stuff, the other kiddos and then all the typical hazards that you find at the beach or the pool. I think Isabel only ate two or three good handfuls of sand!

Mya, Ella, Isabel and Addie enjoying the sunshine (and a snack) at the beach.

Isabel loved the sand!

Then, we got a storm. No ordinary storm...it was a straight-line winds of 80 mph storm. Needless to stay, we lost power and the chaos began. Ben was in transit on his way to Michigan and had no clue the war zone he was driving into. We sent some of the guys out for flash lights...but they couldn't go far because there were trees down everywhere, including in the pool. Life with babies and no power is a challenge. So we cut the weekend short and went home the next day.

Trees down across the street...between the neighbors cars...another was on their house. A huge mess.

The rest of the girls...Kylie, Mya, Ella and Addie. Isabel was off taking her morning nap.

Even though our planned Michigan fun didn't work out, we were blessed to have a plan B. Ben's parents were having a get together to "break-in" their new patio! So we headed out to the farm with along with my parents and celebrated Fathers Day with all the fathers. It was the perfect end to our weekend.

This picture is kind of a mistake, but it turned out so neat, that I had to share. It was nice and cool inside in the a/c, but I walked outside and my camera instantly steamed up. Here is Miss Iz showing off her blanky!

Staying Cool

One of Isabel’s favorite ways to keep cool in the summer sun! What a fun summer we are having...does it get any better than this?? More blogs to come on all our summer adventures :)

Isabel's Digs

When I told people I was pregnant there were a couple standard questions I would expect to hear from friends and family…

1. When are you due?
2. Are you going to find out if it’s a boy or girl?
3. How are you going to decorate the nursery?

Well, one and two are long since answered questions, but her nursery was sort of a work in process. We painted the walls green and hung a decal tree on the wall…very unisex. The crib and dresser were in the room when we brought Isabel home, but she hardly used her room the first couple months. Since then, I added a couple of fun feminine touches to make it girly for our baby girl. It also took FOREVER for the chair and ottoman to come in (note: don’t buy from Nursery Nook in Bloomington) and I finished hand painting (and hanging) the letters on the wall! So now, it’s officially Isabel’s room or at least until any other Funks come along! Take a look…while its clean!

Nine

Sorry, I've been slacking on my blogging. We have been having so much fun this summer...so it's hard to find time to blog! Here is a quick recap of Isabel's ninth month...hopefully I can keep all the facts straight since she is now almost 10 months.

I think the motto for this month is "mischievous". With Isabel's new found mobility she can find all sorts of trouble! We could probably prevent some of the trouble if we chose to baby proof the house more...but I really don't want to turn my house upside down. Ben asked me today, "So when does the NO means YES stage end?" HA...

Here is the link for her nine month pictures to see all of our fun.

Modeling her new hat from Meema

"Taa daa" - Isabel's new pose

One of the greatest inventions since I was a child...a water table!

Taking a bath with Miss Mya after an afternoon swim at the Jannusch farm!

Playing on the couch with Daddy.

"No mom, I'm not playing with the cable box."

Pulling up on EVERYTHING.

Climbing on/over EVERYTHING.

One of her favorite things to do is dive/somersault off of the couch... One of these days she will learn not to do this.

Thanks to the Babysitters!

We are super spoiled that both of our parents live about 15 minutes away from us. If you ever have the option to live close to your parents when having children...I would highly recommend it. I'm not sure how I would manage without Grandparents (and I'm not sure how they would manage without Grandbabies)!

Within the past month Isabel has had a slumber party at both sets of Grandparents! First she spent the weekend with Meema and Papa while Ben and I went to Chicago for the night. I packed a ton of toys to keep Isabel occupied...and she had taken over a room or two by the time we got back. She also had the chance to go to church with Meema and Papa...apparently she loved checking out all the other babies!

Here are some cute videos of my noise maker that I took with my cell phone when we were picking Isabel up. Who knew I could leave all the toys at home and let her simply play with a cup?!

This past weekend Isabel had another slumber party with Grandma and Grandpa while Ben and I went to a wedding. The wedding was in town, but it was incredible to sleep in for a change...not to mention sleep THROUGH the night. Too bad I was up and cleaning the house by 9 am. I just kept thinking...oh it would be so easy to clean this without Isabel...oh and I should clean this too...oh and just one more thing. We were so excited to go pick her up. I know it was only a day, but the little girl seriously grew while we were gone. She was standing up playing with her push toy when we picked her up. G & G spoiled her with attention while we were gone.

I didn't have the chance to take any videos at G & G's this time...but I do have this a recent video of Grandpa taking Miss Isabel for a ride on the golf cart.

A HUGE thank you to both Grandparents for giving us a little break! We greatly appreciate you taking care of our little munchkin.

Eight

What a busy month we had for month EIGHT! It was a month of a million new things... Isabel started crawling on April 13th...and in no time at all she was crawling fast. It only took her another couple days to learn to go from a crawling position to sitting back up! THEN she started working on standing up. That took another couple days and she was constantly pulling on up everything. Now she prefers that we help her walk everywhere...but has no problem crawling into trouble either. I can't believe how quickly these things all happened!

She also started eating all kinds of new foods...lunch meat, chicken, puffs, melts, biter biscuits...you name it. Puffs are probably her favorite. One day I was holding one in my hand and I wasn't quick enough to get it to her mouth, so she grabbed my hand and moved it to her mouth. If I put puffs on her tray, she will grab them and shove them into her mouth. She also figured out how to make a smacking noise when she eats...just so you know she is eating!

We also found a couple toys that Isabel DOES NOT like this month. When my brother lived in Australia, he brought back a koala bear that plays the Australian anthem...so I added it to Isabel's toy basket. Well...that didn't go over so well. Here is a video of her showing me how much she doesn't like the Koala!

With a baby on the move, pictures are definitely getting interesting...it's hard to manage the camera when she is crawling away from me...or about to find something she shouldn't! Here are all of her eight month pictures.

On the move!

"I'm going to get you!"

We made a house for Isabel out of a box...she loves her new toy!

Daddy is patiently helping Isabel learn to walk...something I think he will come to regret.

This is the only way I could get her eight month picture and have her looking at the camera.

Striking a pose in the walker.

Miss Mischievous!