Sleeping in the warm sun...

This was Isabelle just days after coming home from the hospital.  She loved to be swaddled and I think she looks so pretty with her pink bow and the sunlight kissing her face.

It is hard to remember her being this little.  With the pacifier there it makes me remember just how tiny she was.  When she'd suck on the pacifier it seemed to take up more than half of her face.

What a precious little baby from day one until now.

Until next time
Angie

One week...

Isabelle happened to turn one week old on Valentines Day and it was a Valentines Day I will never forget.  The past week had truly been a whirlwind and we were walking in the clouds with overwhelming happiness.  We were also walking around half with is, as the lack of sleep was something were told to prepare for, but had no clue how we'd feel.   I think until you go through it, one has no idea.

One story, which I've debated about sharing for the last five months, I'll share with you today.  It is just an example of exactly what craziness can happen when someone is so over tired.  I don't think I slept soundly for the first few weeks of Isabelle's arrival in our home.  I'd fall asleep and then wake up, scared that she'd stopped breathing, that she'd been crying and I didn't hear her or that she needed me and I wasn't responding.  As a result, I think I just pretended to sleep.  One nightmare that I continued to have over and over again was that in my daze of semi-consciousness and nighttime feedings, one time I had fallen asleep while feeding her and thus she was still in our bed.  Given that the nurses had stressed over and over and over to never sleep in the same bed as your baby, I guess that was one of the many many instructions they gave me, that stuck in my mind.

So back to my semi-consciousness.  Multiple times over the course of multiple days, Jarrett would find me, still asleep, scratching at his back and butt, looking for our baby.  Still unconscious, he tells me I was freaking out looking for Isabelle.  I guess I kept saying, "Jarrett get off of Isabelle she's under your butt, get out of bed."  Turns out, every single time, she'd be sleeping peacefully in her bassinet next to our bed, while I was thrashing through our bed looking for our baby, I was worried we had rolled on or slept on top of.  That's just one example of the silly things I did over the course of the first few months.

While we adjusted to being new parents (again), Isabelle continued to be such a joy and love to have around.  Here's are some pictures of her at one week old!



Nana and Papa gave her her first valentines day outfit!



And Michael made Valentine's Day cards for Mom and Isabelle.



He was very excited to show them to her.



I enjoyed feeding her every few hours.  In the first few weeks, she'd only drink a third to a half of one of these in each sitting.  Crazy to think she'd have an ounce at a time, now she has 6 ounces (at almost 5 months).



And Jack... Jack was still trying to figure out what this moving, crying thing that got all the attention was doing in our house...

Most of the time when she would cry, he'd go sit by her, and give me the look of, "Okay, Mom, can you please help this thing.. I don't know why it keeps making that noise."

Until next time,
Angie

Going home from the hospital...

With less than 2 days to prepare for bringing Isabelle home to her forever family, we quickly prepared as best as we could.  Thankfully we have an amazing group of friends and family that rallied around us, letting us borrow so many things, showering us with many many gifts, and providing support in all the ways we needed.  We still can not believe how blessed we are.

And in continuing in the flood of sharing pictures for the past 5 months, I now proudly share with you the story in photos of us bringing our baby girl home from the hospital.



While dad and the boys put together Baby Belle's bed, Mom cleaned feverishly... most moms have a few months to nest, I had a few hours...

What great helpers they were as they were as excited as mom and dad (only they weren't nervous).

The last picture in her hospital bed.  All wrapped up and cozy.

After going through three car seats to find one that would actually secure her little body safely, we were ready to go home!  I told my family after first meeting her that she was so tiny, my fist was bigger than her head.  This pictures shows, I wasn't exaggerating.

Some of the wonderful nurses who took great care of her. 

Where are we going Daddy? I'm wide awake and ready to take this whole new world in!

Daddy getting to rock his baby girl after first arriving home.  I was so excited to record us bringing her into our home, except in the whole process I decided to leave the diaper bag with our video camera inside at the hospital. 

Thankfully Nana and Papa went to retrieve it for us and Nana brought it to us the next day.  Here's Nana meeting and getting to hold her baby Granddaughter for the very first time.

Getting cozy at home sleeping in her bed.

 From the very first day, Isabelle loves sleeping with her hands up above her head.  I can only imagine this is how she was most comfortable inutero.

 And the visitors started coming.  Aunt Anita and Cousin Andrea excited to meet baby girl.

And Mom took every chance possible to hold her as much as she could.

Even in her first day home from the hospital, she go to participate in a competitive game of sequence.

Her brothers were so excited to meet her....

They couldn't wait to hold her.  Somehow in the excitement, Michael lost his balance, tripped and cut up his nose.  This is his self repair job of covering his injury.

We have many many pictures of this.  They were/are so excited to be big brothers to their baby sister.

We think Isabelle likes it here too, here's the first glimpses of her smile. 

Until next time,

Angie

its beginning to look...

a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go...

So, anyone who knows me, knows I LOVE Christmas.  As in, I love it so much, it sometimes looks like Christmas threw up all over our house.  I've talked about our lovely "crack" in our garage ceiling that has developed over the last few years as the weight of our Christmas decorations in the attic continues to grow and grow.

Yet, each thanksgiving eve (okay I'm one of those people who get Christmas on the brain before Thanksgiving officially occurs), I happily start unboxing the Christmas decorations and overdosing on the happiness this season brings.  As I do, I reflect back on when I was little and the wonderful memories I have about Christmas.  The nights my mom and I would stay up all night long baking Christmas goodies and listening to our local radio station that played Christmas songs.  I remember going with my parents to pick out the perfect real pine tree that adorned our living room from a few weeks before Christmas until well into January.  And I remember the Christmas Eve candlelight service we'd always go to before driving home and watching for Santa and his sleigh in the starry night sky.  I'll always remember the year my mom spotted him on that brisk December night and how, even though I looked out my window the moment she said she saw him, I was to slow to spot him and his magical sleigh.

Oh Christmas, it really is a special time of year and I hope that when the kids grow up and have their own families with their own traditions, that they reflect back to their youth and remember their childhood Christmas's with as much love, magic and happiness as I do.

As so, when Jarrett and I unload box after box after box of Christmas decorations, and he asks me if we HAVE to put all of the decorations up, I smile and say yes.  Because in each and every decoration that adorns our house, is a special piece of the Christmas magic we all relish in and enjoy.

 Who would have thoughts our stockings would total 5 this year? 

Our biggest surprise and blessing of 2012.

 Our annual holiday cards from the past 9 years.  Each year, I enjoy looking back to see how our lives have changed in such a short amount of time.

Until next time,
Angie

Proudly introducing... Isabelle Grace PT 2

It is with great pleasure we share with the world our little girl...

Isabelle Grace Haskovec
9 days old...



One of my favorites... I put her in the baptismal outfit I was baptised in.  It is a beautiful gown and I feel lukcy my little girl was able to wear it also.



Mom, I'm so bored with this...



oooohhhh I think I'll just go to sleep.



awe...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

It would be fair to say that she slept through most of her photo shoot.  I suppose she figured with the way I like photos, there'd be plenty more to stay awake through in the future.

Until next time,
Angie