Hou Hin, Thailand Vacation

Gabriella- Gettin' her Snorkel On

All Ready to Go!

Isabelle... Ready to Eat

Pool at the Dolphin Bay

Gabby Playing in the Corner

Loved that Water Slide!

Beach is Just Across the Street

View of the Beach

Relaxing...

Isabelle and Mama

Time to get my roots done. Ha!

All Dressed up and Ready to Swim!

Isabelle and Caitlin

Waiting to get her her Braided

Braids!

Night Market- It was so hot!

Karissa and Gabriella- New Buddies 

Tebo Family Portrait

I love family beach vacations, and I have to say... We seriously deserved this break. We work our booties off at ISB so we needed some quality family time.

We had a driver pick us up at 4:30 am on Saturday, which means we woke up around 3:15... I know, brutal. The plane ride was uneventful... Moments of hell mixed with relief. When we got off the plane we had another driver pick us up and we drove four to five hours to a place called Hou Hin and we're staying at the Dolphin Bay Resort. I'm a bit mixed about the place. Now that I've seen awesome beaches, I'm a bit of a beach snob now.

The positives... Our room is right next door to the massage room. You know I love that! It's super cheap to stay and the street food is good. The pool is absolutely perfect for both Gabriella and Isabelle. It's clean and has a water slide and a huge pool that's not very deep. Our room has a kitchenette (a must now with G's diet) and two rooms, so we can still hang out while Isabelle either takes a nap or goes to bed. The massages are amazing and super cheap and I only have to walk next door- yay!

The negatives... The food is just so-so. I love Thai food so this was disappointing, but to be fair, we were warned. The beach is not the beautiful blue of the islands and there are a lot of broken shells so you need to be careful where you walk. Everything closes down early, so if I wanted to party with friends we'd have to hang in our room.

Since we're Tebo's, we've met some people and Gabby made a new buddy. The family we met are also also teachers and work in Japan. We went to a night market last night and Travis is taking Gabby to ride the elephants today. Loved the night market! Lots of Thai crap but I love what they sell. I bought Gabby and I a dress. Also, our friends, the Armstrongs, are here and they have kids Gabby and Isabelle's age. In fact, Jack and Gabby are in the same class. All in all, I would actually go back, mainly because it's cheap and the pool is great for my girls. Our days have pretty much consisted of pool time, eating, hanging out, massages, and more swimming. Not too shabby for a vacation. Tomorrow we leave for Bangkok. We're staying at my favorite hotel... The Shang Ri La... Aaaaawe, I just go to my happy place just thinking about it...

Tebo Girls Dancing!

I seriously cant believe how much I love these girls... Travis took video of Gabriella and Isabelle Dancing. At the start, you'll see Gabby fall down and Isabelle goes over to her and gives her a hug. That's Isabelle. She's a total sweetheart. Very loving and already showing empathy. :)

Life is Full!

I won't bore you to death with how busy we've been... Going on play-dates, Gymnees on Sundays, swim lessons, and work/school. It makes for a full day. I'm literally "on-the-go" from 5am-7:30pm and go to bed around 8:30... Cant wait for Thailand in 2 1/2 weeks!

Update on the girls...

Isabelle
-She says "ayi" for everything! And says, "uh oh,"and "dada or daddy"
-LOVES Travis. I mean ADORES her daddy. She loves me too but they really have a special bond that is super sweet...
-Claps her hands when she us
-Gives us kisses, which is basically just opening her mouth and pressing it on our mouth or cheek. So delicious!
-Loves cheese, yogurt, blueberries, and avocados. She pretty much eats everything which has been fun, except cow's milk. It's too hard for her to digest right now.
-She has a thing for playing with panties (Beth's favorite word) and puts them on her head, wears it as a backpack. Every morning she does this, which has been a little routine.
-Getting more teeth!
- Ayi calls her "Isa" pronounced "Is-ah" without the "z" sound, more of an "s". This is now in the race for the nickname war that Isabelle will decide. I still just call her Isabelle- it's really not that long.

Gabriella
- Says she's going to be a "Barbie-Fairy-Doctor-Mom" when she grows up. Makes sene.
-LOVES her little sister and gives her cuddles
-Keeps bringing home "Fancy Nancy" books from the library
-Doing well in swimming and was the kid that demonstrated different strokes for her PreK-4 class. They're in the middle of a swimming unit.
-Loves anything to do with art and brings home awesome creations. She has a great imagination
-I can see her emotional development starting to blossom a bit... she's showing empathy and becoming a little more patient. The teacher says she works well with others and asked the new kid to sit by her on his first day. Dont get me wrong- we still have tantrums now and again and it mainly has to do with clothes. I know, she's only four!

Whoa! Look at these Genetics

LaNita Tebo (Trav's Mom) and Isabelle Tebo

We received some old pictures from one of Travis' family members and came across one of LaNita when she was a baby... You can really see the similarities between her and Isabelle. Like I've said before, those Ihlenfeldt genes are strong!

Chinese New Year of the Dragon

Gabriella in her Chinese Dress

The Chinese Parade at School

Holding her Homemade Chinese Lantern

She's so happy to me!

Waiting for the line to go again...

Miss Chatterbox talking to me 

while I'm snapping pictures!

Daddy and Gabriella

Strike a Pose

Isabelle and Scary Chinese Performer!

There are my lil ladies

The Twin Towers- Reagan and Gabriella

They really look alike here!

Mama and her Girls

Daddy and his Gabby

Personally, the year of the Dragon is my favorite year and clearly superior to the cock and pig. I may be a bit biased since I'm a Dragon but still, it is a cool year. Chinese people think so too, so there will probably be even more Chinese kids being more in 2012.

Every year, the whole school does a parade and the best part is seeing the little kids and the dragon dance. I bought Gabby a cheap dress (which promptly ripped, good thing it was 3 bucks) and her class made red lanterns to hold while they walked in the parade. She was SO proud of herself and my friends thought she did great too.

What's even better is that we have a week off of school. We basically hibernated because Gabby got sick but we went on play dates here and there and hung out with some friends. It was SO COLD that none of us really wanted to leave the house. The negative is that we had no ayi so we actually had to clean. I know, poor me.

From Baby to Toddler...

Doing better and better w/ the finger foods

Big smile!

One Year Old Today

Love her!

Gluten Free Cake for Bella's Birthday

Still impossible to get a good picture!

Where did the year go? Isabelle is officially one years-old! At times, I felt like Isabelle would always be a baby but now she is a full grown walking, talking toddler. Okay, maybe not totally talking but she's understanding things... 


We had her one year check-up and she's 31.5 inches in height (97%) and 22 pounds (75%). She's tall and strong, much like her big sister!

New Years Eve 2011

Beth and Cara

As with most of my New Years Eve's with kids, I didn't do a whole lot. I did get to spend the night with my BFF, Beth, and she had a little shindig with kids and their parents. I had a good time catching-up with people and eating yummy American snack food. Everyone left around 8. Afterwards, we watched TV and went to bed at about 11:00. I know-I know, lame! But since I didn't have kids with me I actually got to sleep-in. Yay!