Hawaii 2012

Our camera is broken and blogger seems to have made some changes do that is why this has taken so long and will probably be such an unorganized post. But, at least it will be blogged! We went with my parents to Hawaii this year and had so much fun! It was Bella's longest flight she has been on and I would say for the most part she did great. Ultimately she is still a busy 2 1/2 year old on a 6 hour flight but we didn't have any extreme meltdowns during the flight (only one during our layover) and she only yelled at the top of her lungs "I need to poop!" a handful of times during our flight so.... I'd call it a success. :). She absolutely loved Hawaii and still asks to go back frequently, or just assumes that, of course,we can go to the beach today. Shelved staying in a condo with my parents, and I really think she believed we were all just going to live together forever, which I think would be ideal to her :) I mean, who wouldn't want grandma to make you french toast each morning and have grandpa to take you on walks and play on the beach with each day?! Ok, I'm sold, let's all just move to Hawaii together:). We really just had such a great time relaxing, going to the beach, going to the beautiful pool, eating, eating and more eating ;). Rowdy and I also celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary while there with a wonderful dinner at the Four Seasons. The view was AMAZING, as in, we were basically on the beach, and the food was delicious. Since I can't seem to figure out how to label each picture right now,the pictured just the beach at sunset was literally our view from our table. So gorgeous! We had such a great time and can't wait to go back next year, wink wink, lol! Ok probably not next year, but maybe the year after:). Thank you to my amazing parents for making this trip possible for us. We truly loved every minute!!!

We love Shutterfly and Contests!

We use Shutterfly all the time for prints and photo books and always love what we order! Shutterfly contacted me with the opportunity to share a promotion they are currently running on Facebook. Here is a little more information about the promotion: "Long Live Summer – Facebook Photo Contest details - 7/9 – 8/12 Multi-week summer sweepstakes with instant win prizes. Go here to submit! Win a trip for four to The Bahamas and a professional photo shoot so you’ll remember your vacation forever.  All you need to do is upload your favorite photo and caption based on the theme of the week.  Get a gift from Shutterfly just for entering! You can enter at any point during the 5-week sweepstakes period." PHOTO THEMES •       Week 1(7/9): Americana •       Week 2 (7/16): Great Outdoors •       Week 3 (7/23): Water Fun •       Week 4 (7/30): Sports & Activities •       Week 5 (8/6): Parties & Celebrations PRIZES •       Instant win prizes just for submitting a photo! •       Weekly prizes (contestants can enter one time/week) •       Weekly featured photos: up to 5 weekly entries will be selected from the gallery and featured on the Facebook fan page and awarded a $500 gift card on Shutterfly and a copy of the new Lonely Planet travel photography book. Follow this LINK Submit your photos and hopefully win some fun prizes!!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

My dad has a birthday on Tuesday April 24th and Bella and I decided it would be fun to take Grandpa out for a date. We took him to As You Wish to make popcorn bowls for when Bella is over at their house (which is often). We figured they can have special bowls for when they watch movies and play together. Grandpa got a big bowl and Bella got one more her size, and I made an extra in case they allow guests, like Grandma, to have some popcorn too! I knew Bella would be into the painting part because when we paint at home (which is multiple times per week) she can paint for a very long time. Well.....what I didn't really anticipate was that we would be walking right past the splash pads, and all the kids running and playing in the water. I think that was when our whole plan got derailed. She liked painting for a few minutes, until she realized she could still see all the kids playing in the fountains through the window. Then, she only wanted to do one thing, play outside. So we quickly painted our bowls and Grandpa took Bella outside. I finished up the bowls and tried to decorate them so they all had some cohesive look to them but I left Bella's painting on the inside of the bowl (pretty much the only part she painted before getting distracted). I think they will look really cute though. So then we played in the fountains for a while. I have never seen Bella so excited about anything. She absolutely LOVED playing in the water and she just loves to watch other children play too. It's so cute to see her interacting with other kids. After our fun in the sun, we went and got some ice cream, enjoyed our treat, and headed back to Grandma and Grandpa's house so that Bella could tell Grandma all about her day. I think we had a lot of fun and we may have to make this an annual thing. Grandpa/Momma/Bella day!

Grandpa and Bella painting their bowls

More painting, Bella was decorating her bowl with dots of purple and pink

Our crazy table after the bowls were painted, you can sort of see them. They are mostly purple, blue and brown.

It's true :-)

Pouty face because I asked her to take a picture before going outside to play in the splash pad

As you can see....she cheered right up as soon as she was allowed to play in the water. The next few pictures will display just how much fun she had. Just imagine her screaming with joy as she moved from each fountain to the next and giggling when one of the little girls kept splashing her, that pretty much sums up the next few pictures :-)

I realized this isn't the greatest picture but I had to document her cute little whispy hair getting longer

Since she went in the fountains with her clothes on, and we weren't really planning on going in the fountain, we didn't bring a change of clothes, so Bella worked the "nothing but my diaper" look while eating her ice cream. These are definitely some sleepy eyes in this picture!

Bella took Grandpa's ice cream from him and kept it for herself!

Such a silly girl, she had so much fun with her Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!!

Happy Easter!

We had such a fun Easter this year!! Bella was at a great age for an Easter Egg Hunt and looked so adorable in her little dress. We started the morning with church, and celebrating that Jesus rose from the grave. We had a wonderful morning of worship at our church and then we headed to my parents house for Easter brunch and an egg hunt. It was Bella's first year doing an egg hunt, as she wasn't walking last Easter, and she caught on immediately as soon as she knew there were goodies inside the eggs. Even after we were done she asked us to put more eggs out so she could look for them. The eggs had M&M's in them....Bella's favorite. Bella took a nap and we headed out to have dinner with the whole family. We had such a great day and everyone was exhausted by the end of it! Bella has loved going through her "eggies" to look for treats today. She is so cute! We had such a wonderful and blessed Easter this year!

Our beautiful girl. I just can't get over how incredible she is!

My handsome husband and I. We somehow didn't manage to get a family picture with Bella....so terrible!! I don't know how we didn't get one!


Bella enjoying some after church snacks with Grandpa

Cute girl sitting ont he rock outside of church

Bella's bestie Maya trying to hold her her hand. Of course, Bella was not having it :-)

Bella and her Grandma, she loves her!

Setting up Bella's Easter gift. She recently became obsessed with Chuggington and so she got two trains and a train track. She was beyond excited! I love seeing my girlie girl in her pretty dress playing with the trains!

Grandma showing Bella how to use the train track

Bella very excited because she found her beloved M&M's

Reading a book with Grandpa

She found a marshmallow in one of her Easter eggs, and, of course, she loved it

My silly girl making a goof ball face

She was very good at finding her eggs :-) Sometimes I would put an M&M in with two Annie's cinnamon bunnies and she would just get the M&M out and dump everything else.....girl was clearly on a mission!

Had to show Grandpa her treasures!! So cute!

Enjoying her findings from the hunt

Happy Easter 2012!