Ok...it has been way too long since I have updated this blog. I have been updating on Facebook , and I am sure overloading everyone's newsfeed with my pictures and videos. I have decided to to start back up this blog. Not only do I want a place where I do not dominate newfeeds, but I want to be able to, at some point, print this blog into a book so my girls have a "scrapbook" of their childhood. So, here it goes. A new beginning in blogging for the McNab family!

More than 9 months have passed since I last blogged. In that 9 months, my Morgan turned 13 and Bella turned 3! Wow! Talk about craziness in our household. Here are some pics of birthdays.

Summer has been great so far. we have gone to the pool, NJ, I went to Florida, celebrated a birthday, went strawberry picking, blue berry picking x2, and blackberry picking. Cannot believe that it is almost August. August brings great things in our house......Mine and Greg's Anniversary (15 years!), vacation to NJ to see family, and preparation to structure :)

Morgan has had a pretty laid back summer. She participated in a few swim meets and achieved a few personal bests. She has discovered that she loves reading books about ghosts and has already read 2 books this summer, working on her 3rd. And to think she didn't like reading before ;) Last week and this week, she is attending a Leadership Camp. It is a Jr. version of a Counselor in Training camp. She seems to really like it and says that she wants to be a camp counselor in the future :) She is still into forensics and wants to also attend a summer forensics camp next year designed for high schoolers......yes, next summer, Morgan will be a high schooler! OMG!! Oh, and i forgot, Morgan has discovered Buffy the Vampire Slayer series on netflix. She has watched every episode and now is moving onto Angel.....funny how shows from the 80s are still around and strong.

Bella, our little devil...I mean angel ;) Bella continues to keep us on our toes. She is far to smart for her own good and for ours, as well...LOL. Bella turned 3 a few days ago. Today she said to me, with a sad face, "it isn't my birthday anymore." We still have the decorations up and she is still playing birthday party, though. On her birthday, we went to Paradise of Fun indoor bounce place in Frederick. She had a blast. Yesterday, we went to the Maryland Science Center. We had alot of fun, although it was HOT! Bella starts preschool in August and will also be attended a PEP Pilot class in my school 2 days per week for 2 hours each day. She will have the opportunity to be in a regular classroom setting with some kids who she will transition to kindergarten with and also with some children with mild disabilities, a great opportunity for all!

Greg and I are GREAT! I cannot believe that we will be celebrating 15 years in a few weeks. Our journey, so far, has been full of ups, downs, bumps, curves....but we always seem to find our way to that beautiful road that continues to take us on our journey of life :)

Until next time, which will not be long.....

Bella did it again!

Bella pee peed in the potty again. Last night she asked to sit on the potty. She sat and sat, got up, sat then pee peed!! Wooohoo!

BELLA PEE-PEE'D IN THE POTTY!

Bella pee pee'd in her potty tonight for the first time. We went into the bathroom to brush her teeth at night night time and she went to sit on her potty. She usually does this with her clothes on. Well, TMI alert, I had to go, too so I said to Bella, "let's go pee pee." I unzipped her pjs and took off her diaper and she sat and I sat. She stood up and I saw pee pee!!! She was like, what?? I was so excited and then she looked in potty and was so proud of her self. YEAH BELLA!

Ok....now for snow news. We have 30" on the ground and are expecting 16-26" more. Craziness. We are out of school through next week. Will post snow totals tomorrow night...

before I forget

17 months:
Bella says "fotion" for lotion is a sweet little voice.
Bella now calls her Lovie "Wuzie." Too cute.

The other day, I said to her, want a bath? she said "bath." I told her to tell mommy to come on. She replied "come on mommy."

The other day, I put a courderoy dress on Bella. It was too big so i took it off and put on a jean one. She tugged at the jean one saying "off...off." I said, "you dont want this one?" She replied "dont want this one."

Christmas 2009

We had a really nice, relaxing Christmas this year. We did not go overboard with presents, we stayed in MD (although we missed all of our cousins and in laws :( ), and Omi, PopPop, and Aunt Joc spent the holiday with us.

We opened our Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. We made cookies for Santa. Morgan made sure that not only Santa was fed but the reindeer, as well. She put carrots and reindeer feed outside for them :) Morgan was up until midnight! She checked on Norad.com to see where Santa was before going to bed and saw that he already came through MD. She was devastated. We assured her that if kids are still awake, he always comes back. She went to sleep right away, hoping for Santa to return. Bella was in bed by 9ish. We were having too much fun for a 7pm bedtime for Ms. Bella.

On Christmas morning, Bella was awake at 4am....come on, she is far too young to understand that you need to get up early on Christmas Morning...hehe. Morgan woke by 8am and came running into our room saying, "Santa came, Santa came...he brought the Julie doll!" She was so excited. Santa brought Morgan the American Girl Doll, Julie. The girls woke Omi and PopPop and we began opening presents. A very relaxing morning...relaxing day. We all stayed in our pj's ALL DAY!!!

Bella would have been happy with one present, as she played with her fork and spoon stocking stuffer all morning. She wasn't too into opening presents. But she had a lot of fun.

Here are some pics...great pics taken by sister, Jocelyn (check out her website www.eieiphotos.com )

Last Night of Hanukkah and Blizzard 2009!

Last night was the last night of Hanukkah. Morgan lit the candles and said the blessings so beautifully. Now it is time for Christmas. Since we are snowed in by the Blizzard of 2009, we are going to decorate the tree today. Pictures to be posted later.

So far, we have over 12 inches of snow....probably more like 18 inches and we have several hours more of snow to come. We are expecting a total of 24 inches!!!!!! Woooo! We havent ventured out yet.....with everyone getting over being sick, we may wait until tomorrow when the winds die down and it stops snowing. Should be fun to see Bella sink in and Morgan build a big fort!

Til next time....

Great Santa Picture

Morgan went to the Olney Swim center to meet with Santa while scuba diving...how cool is this??? It was to benefit the Manna Food Bank.

Bella is 11 months old!!!

A few recent Bella milestones

10 1/2 months
says "uh oh" when something drops or pretends to drop something

10 3/4 months
says "hewo" when holding a phone to her ear
lets go for about 5 seconds when standing

Bella's Likes and Dislikes

Did this on one of my mommy forums. Thought I would add it here...

LOVES:
Mommy and Daddy
Her big sister, Morgan
Her afgan with taggies on it (thanks Omi!)
All food, esp carrots and watermelon
tickles
crawling and climbing over things
standing
looking at her self in the mirror
brushing her teeth
eating paper and anything she can get in her mouth
falling asleep to music
her Nouna (her daycare staff)
singing twinkle twinkle
reading Brown Bear Brown Bear...her favorite!
Pretend talking on the phone
saying "uh-oh"
playing by herself but enjoys playing with others
Peak-a-boo


DISLIKES:
Going in her tent to play - TERRIFIED
the pool - depsite enjoying it at 6 mo.
Any moving toy (like Elmo dancing...forget it!)
being fed by a spoon
holding still for a diaper change
drinking from a sippy cup
snuggling :(
being held like a baby

We have a Middle Schooler and Two more teeth!

Lots going on here at the McNab household.

MORGAN GRADUATED FROM FIFTH GRADE!!!! I cannot believe that my Morgan is growing up. She starts middle school in the fall. Not only did she graduate, but she received the President's Education Award. This is an award the is award to students who among other things, maintain a 3.5 grade average. 25 out of 70 fifth graders received this award and Morgan was one of them!! She received a letter from Barack Obama! She also received the School Safety Patrol Award of Merit for outstanding Patrol duty. Only 6 students out of the 30+ patrols received this. We are so proud of Morgan. Here are some pictures of our graduate!!







Morgan's walk at the clap out...this is where everyone in the school and parents clap out the fifth graders as they exit the elementary school one last time :(








Let's start with Bella. Bella is working on two more teeth. She is teething hard and has not been happy about it :( Aside from the teething, she is so much fun! Her new things are pretending to talk on the phone. She says "HEWO" and when either she drops something or sees/hears someone drop something, she says "UH OH." She is so much fun! She is crawling, standing holding on, walking holding on and walking holding one hand. Full blown walking is just around the corner; I can feel it!

Bella is getting some hair, although most is in the back...kind alike a mullet :)hehe.....She eats mostly anything we eat. She prefers to eat finger foods, not baby food. She loves Spanakopata (spinach pie), hot dogs, carrots, and pretty much anything else! Can't believe she is almost 11 months old!

Bella walking and talking

Two more teeth for Bella.....

BELLA NEWS
Bella started cutting two more teeth (her top two front teeth) on April 20th...3 days before turning 9 months old. She seems slightly bothered by them coming in but not too bad. Since the last post, she is crawling really fast everywhere in the house. She has three kinds of crawls....crawling on her knees, a crab crawl on all fours, and a crawl on one foot and one knee. She is a trip! She also started pulling herself on furniture and cruising about. On Thursday, on her 9 month birthday, she said "MAMA." It wasn't babble, either. She was upset and crawling to me and said "MAMA." It made me melt. Let's see........

Milestones:
8 1/4 months crawling
8 1/2 months pulling self to standing position
9 months says "MAMA"
9 months signs "More"
Oh...yesterday she tried to say "CHEESE" when she wanted more cheese...

This past Friday, she got sick with Croup, again. We wound up in the ER Saturday evening. She had a visit with her pediatrician who thinks we might want to to talk with a Pulminologist. She has had croup 3 times since January. While he thinks it is nothing to worry about, he just wants to be certain that there is nothing going on with Bella's airway. I kept her home from daycare today just to be sure she was ok, but she will be going back tomorrow.

She is a little thing, by the way. She only weighs 16 pounds 11 ounces. The Dr. is not concerned. She is a light one.


Bella in the ER in the tiniest little hospital gown


MORGAN NEWS
Not much to report since the last post a few weeks ago. Morgan continues to do well. She is preparing to Bridge over to Cadette's in Girl Scouts.. She is very excited. Recently, Morgan had to deal with a really tough situation but pulled through, making us proud as usual. We had to put our dog Lucky to sleep. Morgan loved Lucky and it was really hard for her. She said that when she is an adult, she is going to have two Shetland Sheepdogs (like Lucky) and name them Lucky and Lucy. I love her :)





Until next time....

We have a crawler!!!!!

Can't update now as Bella is crawling around and getting into everything. Will post more tonight! Here is the video of her crawling. She just started today but has been trying for about 2 weeks now. Look at her go!!!

Isabella has learned how to clap...

While playing with a battery operated ball toy, Bella started clapping. it is too cute...Watch the video.

Also, she is cutting her second tooth. She will now have two bottom teeth...

Isabella cuts her first tooth

Last night we saw...A TOOTH! We did not even see that it was on it's way, but there it was, sticking though her gums. No wonder why she has been making snags in her socks!

SHE DID IT! PROMOTION TO PURPLE BELT!!

We are so excited and proud of Morgan. She got promoted to Purple Belt tonight in karate! GO MORGAN!!

DADADADADA

Well, I came home from work the other day and Isabella was standing in Greg's lap saying "dadadadadadada." It was so sweet! She is chatty all of time, sitting up, and has the neatest personality. She loves to hear herself talk. Don't say it...........

Her laugh is infectious! I have a video here of her laughing while Morgan is being silly with her.

Getting ready for the holidays! Happy holidays to all!
Love, Char

Isabella eats real food!!!!!!

Well, they say to start solids anywhere between 4-6 months of age. Well, we waited until Isabella was 4 months and 3 days old. We could wait no more. While we were in Pennsylvania at my sister-in-law, Deanna's, we introduced Isabella's first solid....PEAS. She loved them! She ate them all up, even sucking her lips so hard. She ate peas for 4 days and did really well. Last night, we introduced GREEN BEANS. She loved them, even more than the peas! She ate an entire container of string beans! Tonight, she was pulling my hands to her mouth and even opening her mouth for the spoon. Pretty impressive for only eating solids for less than a week! I think we have a miss piggie :)