Splash Pad!

Bella has always been a water baby. Water has calmed her from her very first bath (well her first at home, the one at the hospital made her mad :-) ha!) We have been taking her to the splash pad now that the weather is warm enough and she absolutely loves it! I think she would go every day if she could. It's so cute to watch her get so excited. We definitely need to bring some toys for her though next time, a few kids had buckets and beach toys and she kept crawling over and trying to take their toys! Good thing we have a bucket and beach toys for next time thanks to her Easter basket from Grandma and Grandpa Julia! Here are some pictures from recent trips to the splash pad.

Isn't she just gorgeous?! :-)

Um....giving me a LOOK! Apparently she was SO OVER me taking pictures of her walking.....we just need to get this girl to let go of daddy's fingers!

She loves the fountains! (sometimes she doesn't love them when they give her a big splash right in the eye ball!)

She was giggling at the fountains, silly girl!

"Hey! Where did the water go?!"

She just looks like a little groundhog here, cracks me up!

Playing with daddy in the water

Pointing at mommy once she discovered me, caught taking more pictures!

I see a lot of splash pads in our future for the summer!

Work It Girl!

Bella has been going to baby gym for about 2 months. I was lucky enough to find a local gymnastics club that offers free baby gym every Wednesday morning (woohoo for free) so we definitely took advantage of that! It's been great to expand Bella's horizons a little since she is usually just with me! At first she was not so sure about it but she definitely has her favorite activities now. It takes a break for the summer (bummer) but comes back in August so we are looking forward to that! A warning....you will see lots of dark spots all over Bella's pants, some genius mom let her have a squeezy pack of strawberries on the way to gym in the car and when we got there she had squeezed it all over herself instead of eating it, what kind of mom would let their child do that....not me for sure! :-) Rowdy has been asking to see pictures of it so here is a little view into baby gym.

I just thought she was making the funniest/oddest face so I had to put this one first. She is doing one of her favorite things to do at baby gym, climb the big wedges, she loves them!

A mini trampoline. She gets a little nervous on the big trampoline sometimes but she likes the little ones and likes when we stand on it and bounce together.

The big "C" shaped wedge. It's fun because you can rock it back and forth....another one that Bella only likes sometimes, sometimes it freaks her out a little :-) Oh my sweet, scaredy cat little girl!

Parallel bars for walking in between

Back to her favorite, the wedge, she would happily do this the whole time we are there. They set up a bunch together and connect them to some flat/higher up surfaces in between to give them lots of things to climb up and down on, her favorite for sure.

More wedges....

A baby version of a rock wall (and for Bella, just another version of the wedge so, of course, it appealed to her)

It's more steep than it looks in the pictures, I was amazed she climbed it so well and so quickly!

More climbing up and down things....

This is the "blueberry pit." A big pit filled with foam wedges. It's really deep (like I would guess between 6-10 feet) and at the bottom is a trampoline. I'm not going to lie, it is a workout just to get in and out of this thing! And it is never graceful! This is another one that Bella sometimes loves and sometimes hates. It's so funny! There are two of them and she actually seems to prefer one over the other, even though they are identical. Silly girl!

I will have to do an updated post in the fall when we go back to baby gym and (hopefully) Bella is walking!

I Want My Baby Back, Baby Back, Baby Back....

Chili's....baby back ribs.....Ok no, this post is not about ribs. It's about Bella's obsession with Chili's chips and salsa. A post that is sure to make her Auntie Ashley very proud! We just happened to have some Chili's chips and salsa at our house one night and Bella saw me eating them and wanted to try one, I thought surely the salsa would be too hot and the chips to sharp and crunchy for her. Nope....she LOVED it! She would pick out the perfect chip from the bag and then dip it in the salsa excitedly. It was hilarious, more evidence she is my child :-)

"Ooooo....this is sooooo good!"

Checking out which chip she would like to dip


Distracted by my pretty flowers (well, what's left of them) from Mother's Day

And then she did a "cheers" with our chips and tapped them together, love her!

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a lovely day celebrating all the great momma's out there and especially, my mom and Rowdy's mom! Two great moms and wonderful grandma's! We went to church in the morning and then to brunch and then we walked around and took Bella to the splash pad. It was such a fun day and we all even took a nap in the afternoon! What more could you ask for?! I loved spending my second mother's day with Bella, she is the most perfect gift from God, I am beyond blessed to be her mother.

Me and my sweet baby girl, love her so much!

Oh the joys of trying to get a good picture with a squirmy 15mo old!

All the moms! Love all the ladies in this family!

Rockin her sunglasses from Grandma Valley, so cute!

She was so excited to play in the water!

She couldn't get enough of watching the kids play and splashing with them!

She was fascinated by the fountains

She loved when the kids would run by and splash her. She was so excited she would wave her hands in the air and squeel! She was too cute! Love my little sweet girl!