My baby sister

now has a baby of her own..

Sometimes its still hard for me to believe that he is actually hers..

And she is now responsible for keeping another human being alive
which is kind of frightening to think about.. (just kidding ;o) )
She is doing so good..she has always been so good with Isabelle and Schuyler so I just knew she would be a good mom...and she is.
It's been so fun watching her as a mom, but so crazy all at once. I mean, remember her being born.. it makes me feel all mushy gushy and old all at once. ;o)
She is so young and has so many things going against her but she isn't letting any of them bring her down.. I am so proud of her for how hard good she is doing..
Now my little baby sister has a beautiful little family of her own... so CRAZY!!!

Sweet, Sweet Baby

Meet my new little nephew, Jaxton Mitchell


Seriously, he is so stinkin' sweet...so sweet! And what a good baby (so far ;o) ). He never cries. Never. No exaggeration. Happiest little newborn baby, ever. Of course he could be happy because in a house full of people there is always someone ready to cuddle with him.

And he smiles all the time.. they say its gas, but I know its because he loves his Auntie Jen.. afterall I am pretty much the most awesome Aunt ever! ;o)

And those sweet baby lips...

And look at all that strawberry blonde hair!

And those tiny, wrinkly feet. Do they get any cuter??

Don't let me fool you though, he has a stubborn streak. For example, have you ever heard of a newborn that does not like to be curled up in a ball...at all?? You try to curl him up (like most newborns absolutely love and prefer to be) and immediately out goes his little right leg and I get a pang of pain in my ribs knowing that little foot probably kicked the heck out of my little sister's ribs. Then out goes the left leg..all sprawled out just the way he likes it! I had all of these ideas for photos I wanted to take and he wouldn't cooperate at all. I'd curl him up in a little ball and position him and he would start grunting and then out would go the legs and then the arms. Jeesh. He's lucky he's cute.

See the resemblence??

Our Christmas

There were so many pictures from Christmas that I just couldn't pick a few so I did a slideshow of them all.

Christmas Eve we continued our tradition of going to Chops for dinner. When we reminded Isabelle where we were going to eat she said, "Oh Pap LOVES Chops!" LOL! Apparently he was really raving about it at Thanksgiving! She doesn't miss a beat, that's for sure! We had a great dinner and then headed home to unwrap our Christmas Eve jammies, sprinkle reindeer food on the front yard and get cookies ready for Santa. We also had to say goodbye to Chester our elf as he was going to be hitching a ride on Santa's sleigh back to the North Pole. Isabelle was completely taken in by the magic of Christmas. She was a little difficult to get settled down and into bed, but a reminder that Santa wouldn't come until we were all in bed settled her down pretty quick. ;o)

Isabelle woke up at her normal time between 7:30 and 8:00.. not sure when we will start getting woken up at the crack of dawn to open presents so we treasured still being able to "sleep in". Opening presents was so much fun...even Schuyler got into it! He was a natural at present opening! He loved getting some new boy toys but I think was a bigger fan of crinkling the wrapping paper. Isabelle opened each present and then took it out of the box and played with it for awhile before moving onto the next. She wouldn't even sneak a peek to see what a present was until all of the wrapping paper was off of the box. We would say to her, "ooooh what did you get?" and she would say, "I don't know.. we will have to see!". She just had a big ol' pile of gifts and when she was done playing with what she had opened then she would open another.

Isabelle must have been a very good girl because Santa brought her everything she asked for - the bitty twins, their stroller and the sweet lily castle. She had been such a good girl that Chester had suggested a gift for Isabelle for Santa to give her from him that he just knew she would love...and she sure did!

Christmas evening, Brad, Nicole, Adam, Mindy, Adan and Blair all came over. Isabelle was very excited to get to play with Adan on Christmas and show him all of her presents! And as always Sky was excited to get to see his buddy, Blair!

What happens when Jason and Isabelle are left alone for too long...

Sky at 6 months on his 7 month birthday

Yesterday Schuyler discovered he was the one in charge of moving his feet and toes. It was rather funny to watch. He bent over to eat his foot (naturally, because why not?) and it moved away from him.

He shot back up and just stared at his foot with his shocked look on his face. He sports this face a lot. I am not quite sure what that says about his personality yet. What I do know though is that I am really glad he isn't a female who will one day enter the world of eyebrow waxing and plucking only to end up with that shocked look plastered on his face forever. Whew..you dodged that bullet buddy!

Anyway, he just started at this foot that he has been chewing on for months now as if he was seeing it for the first time. Then he arched it back and seriously gasped when it moved. He just kept moving it back and forth, back and forth. All the while never taking his eyes off his foot (probably for fear that it was going to jump up and attack him..you really never know what those feet are going to do, you know.).

Then he started moving his toes. This was all just too much for him to handle (not to mention he had been sitting still for entirely too long) so he started doing the "Schuyler squeal" (which closely resembles that of the sound we imagine a pterodactyl would make) and resuming his normal, constantly squirming self while continuing to stare at these feet that he can now move.

Along with his newfound love for moving his tiny toes, he has also discovered the joy of tossing toys from the highchair and watching Mommy, Daddy and Izzy take turns picking them up.
The game's getting old Buddy, real old.

Still no teeth have broken through but that doesn't mean he is working on them. I was a little skeptical with how the teething experience was going to go because he seemed to be taking the same route as Isabelle (very whiney..not sleeping..just flat out AWFUL!!!) but a detour seems to have been made. At least for the time being. Boy are those gums swollen. I am wondering if we will have a gummy baby for much longer.
He sure is a happy little guy and boy oh boy does he love his sissy and Daddy! He goes nuts when Jason is in his line of sight and he will twist himself every which way when he hears his voice. It is so dear though. He loves when Isabelle sings and plays with him. She has been so great at including him in her little make believe world. I am sure that will all change when he develops an opinion or doesn't do exactly what she wants him to do or sit where she wants him to sit. But for now we are enjoying how they get along.

Sleep is going well too. Hallelujah! It's about time. We've had some rough goes with sleep for what feels like a really long time. Either he was up at night or she was up at night or one of them wouldn't nap well in the afternoon. It was a tired time in the Koons' house but Isabelle has been sleeping until 7:30-8:00 and so has Sky. He finally has his naps figured out as well. We turned the corner at around 6 months with some sleep normalcy and I hope we can continue forward without looking back. We'll see.. I shudder when I remember the run of sleepless nights we endured.

I don't remember his 6 month stats from his appointment...I would have to look at the paper and I am not sure where that is. I do remember he was still 25% for both height and weight and developing right in line with where he should be. We go back Weds for his second seasonal flu shot so I am going to have him weighed then. Hopefully I will remember that number. We'll see.

Will post pics from Christmas soon. I have to upload them all from the computer..maybe today.. we'll see.

The Queen of Questions

Isabelle has always been a talker. She started talking early and she hasn't stopped since. She falls asleep talking...she wakes up talking. I have become one of those people that sometimes doesn't even hear my own kid talking. You know, the ones where you are in public and the kid is saying, "Mom....Mom...Mom...MOM" over and over and you just want to say, "OMG LADY ANSWER YOUR KID". Yep, that's me. I now understand those those people though. When you hear a sound 24/7 for 3 years sometimes it becomes white noise. Lately, I have had the inability to tune out this constant babbling. Most of the time it was her singing or talking with her dolls and didn't require me to constantly be listening. Now it is questions...a lot of them.. most of them I am not even sure what the answer is supposed to be.


Why is my doll going to bed?
Can I watch a movie?
Can I have a drink?
Why did Santa send an elf to our house?
Why do my pajama's have pockets?
When can I watch a movie?
Why is Schuyler sleeping?
Why does Schuyler look like a statue when he is sleeping?
Why are you standing up?
Why are there Little Ponies in with the Snap and Style dolls?
Why did Daddy let me watch Scooby Dooby Doo?
Why is it cold out?
Why did Grandma Sipe want me to wear a bib?
Can we go on vacation with Gammy and Papoo?
Can we talk about when I can watch a movie?
Did Aunt Courtney get a new house?
What is Emily's brother's name again?
Where is Aunt Jess's baby?
Where are we going?
Why are we getting dressed?
Why are you putting my clothes away?
What is this?
What is making that "squeak" sound?
Can you tell me about the doorknocker in the Christmas Carol again?
Can I play with Schuyler?
Can you ask Mel-Mel if we can have a playdate at her house with Jack?

*Beating head against wall* AHHHHHHHH!!! I could go on and on.. most of these questions were just asked within the past half hour. The more tired she is the more questions she starts asking. I should have asked for ear plugs for Christmas!!


I don't even like being asked or answering questions...too many questions gives me anxiety. It was one of the (many) things that drove me crazy in the working world..all of the questions that would be asked....most of them questions that didn't need to be asked...the worst kind in m book. The past 3 years have been nice being away from the constant asking of questions but now I like with the Queen of Questions. She is lucky she is cute.