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!

Backyard Fun!

It's starting to get pretty hot here and we knew we would need something to help beat the heat once it gets to those dreaded 100's. We got a little pool for Bella....well, perhaps our eyes were a little bigger than our lungs, because, the pool we bought is actually pretty big and getting it blown up was pretty exhausting. We decided to just blow up the first ring for now since we don't need it very deep and it's perfect for Bella. We decided to have some fun the other night when Rowdy got home from work and Bella got to go for her first swim of the season. The water was a bit cold though, and it didn't last long. It will be nice when we get the water a little warmer....but I know that is coming very soon. Here are some pictures from the fun we have already had with the pool.....

Bella was fascinated by the hose

And she loved the little watering bucket I got her, I see lots of entertainment with that to come


Today we let Bella play in it with no water in it and just made it a ball pit....she loved that. I know she is going to love this with water too. Oh that face of hers.....I love it so much!

Having lots of fun!

She loves to dunk the balls in the basketball hoop in her bathtub but now any time we say "dunk it" she just throws the ball at the ground, a new favorite game.

Sweet girl!

I love how she looks when she is laughing....

Silly big smile....love that she smiles so big her eyes close....goof ball

It's been a month!!

Well, it's been a whole month since I last updated, and we have been busy busy busy! Also, Bella won't really sit still or look at the camera for pictures any more so it's been slim pickings in the picture department! We have been having a lot of fun playing with friends, celebrating Rowdy's birthday, changing the office to a playroom and enjoying this age so much! Bella is so incredibly entertaining. Here are some updates on Bella since it has been so long:

• 
  
  Bella says: hi, Daddy, uh oh, thank you (tata), very rarely mama, if you leave the room she will yell "da"...not really sure what that means. Those are her main words right now but she understands so much and follows a lot of commands. If I ask "are you hungry?" she will crawl to her high chair, she still combs her hair and brushes her teeth on command (and frequently without the command!).



• 
  
  She is not walking yet, she is following in her dear old dad's footsteps. She loves to use her push toys around the house but is still not showing major signs of walking in the very near future....but hopefully soon!



• 
  
  She is obsessed with being outside, she will (literally) play outside for hours on the patio, inspecting rocks and playing with the dog door. She absolutely loves it! And she will point at the stroller and whine until we go for a walk. She can't get enough of being outdoors. It's going to be such a bummer when it gets really hot, but at least we have a kiddie pool and grandparent's pool to swim in.



• 
  
  She has 6 teeth now and I think she is working on some more, who knows, next week she may have 12 at the rate her teeth are coming in!



• 
  
  She loves big girl food and eating off of mom and dad's plate. She likes it when it's made for her, but she loves it if she feels like she is sharing with the grown ups.



• 
  
  She loves to give kisses (usually) if you ask for a kiss. She gives the best big sloppy wet kisses, I can't get enough of it, and my favorite is when she gives me one unprompted! Got a big one today, made my day!



• 
  
  She is so entertaining and fun at this age, she keeps me laughing all day long!
  

Here is she showing her bestie Maya her crayons, they had a whole conversation about the crayons, its a long video but I will have to post it, it's pretty cute. It's so fun now that they are interacting more!

At dad's birthday dinner, she got to have her very own kids meal. It was peanut butter and jelly "sushi", it came with fries and fruit. Bella loved the ketchup and was dipping her fingers in and licking it off.....yummy. Then, Grandma Owens showed her how to dip her fries in the ketchup and she loved doing that and after being showed once could dip her fries all by herself! Genius! You can see she was covered in ketchup!


Little troublemaker getting the tv remote, which she loves. She is pushing the buttons and showing me how it works.

Look ma, no hands! Sometimes she forgets herself and lets go of what she is holding onto, one day this little scaredy cat might actually let go and walk a little....we'll see ;-)

Walking around the house with her toy, she loves to go back and forth and gets thoroughly irritated if I am not watching, she loves to make me laugh with her silly faces and sounds she makes while walking.

Ok I know her eyes are closed, but she is too cute, I love that little smile! Our friends, the Does, gave us this play house before they moved and Bella has just discovered the joys of it now that we have set it up in the newly established playroom.

Having a tea party with her dolly in her house, might be the cutest thing in the world!

Yummy tea! She is so silly!

She loves putting things away in the play clothes washer, she was thoroughly amusing herself and cracking herself up!

Sweet girl in her house, I see lots of fun in the future in her special little hiding place!

A Million Cute Pictures, Bella's Crazy Tongue, and Snacktime Obsessions

Bella and I had some fun with taking pictures the other day. It was such a lovely, sunny day and she just looked too cute, so yes, there are about a million pictures in this post. Also, Bella has discovered sticking out her tongue, she does it constantly, and makes hilarious faces while doing it, and its adorable. And lastly, Bella is obsessed with these Gerber Snack Puff things, they basically look like cheetohs, but they are for kids, and they are veggie flavored, so they are totally healthy ;-).......She is so obsessed that she can easily spot the can from a distance and then gets very frustrated if I don't give them to her. Ok, those are the notes that will help preface all these pictures, enjoy.....

Pretty girl, goofy tongue!

Enjoying her snack puffs while watching Backyardigans on a nice, breezy and sunny afternoon with the windows open, what could be better?

"Oh man, all this snacking and watching tv makes me tired....."

Sweet girl resting her head on her most favorite chair in the world. Every day she gets so excited to crawl over and climb up into her special big girl chair from Grandma and Grandpa Julia.

"Oh no! I'm out of snack puffs!"

So we decided to go play outside in the yard. And guess what....Bella started sticking her tongue out again....

Isn't she lovely? Gosh her beauty just blows me away sometimes!

Sweet, shy smile

Being entertained by Oreo playing in the yard

Sweet smile

She also loves pointing at me when I am taking pictures, here she is working the ultra special double point!

More crazy tongue....

Stinker face because she didn't want to take any more pictures!

So we went and played in the rocks....which Bella proceeded to try to eat....and give me a heart attack....

Oh Bella's many expressions, I love them all

Oh, and more crazy tongue! Silly girl!

Zoo Day!

It was somebody's very first trip to the Phoenix Zoo!!! No not Bella's.....Rowdy's! Ha! We finally went as a family of 3 to the zoo. Bella and I had been before together but we went with Rowdy and, somehow, he had never been before! We had fun wandering around together and checking out the animals. Bella's favorites were some of the less "exciting" animals: cows and flamingos. I think she would have liked the koalas but they were sleeping so, while cute, they weren't exactly eye catching for a 13 month old. I know she also enjoyed all the people watching as she always does. It was a great family day.

Bella and I in front of the pond

Her favorite, the flamingos, after this she was clinging to the fence trying to get closer.

Love my girl

I really don't even know what they are looking at here....some sort of deer?? Bella loved it when Rowdy would carry her around nice and tall so she could see everything, it was pretty adorable.

Bella is "riding" an elephant!

Bella and Maya's Fun Day

I've written about Maya many times, she is Bella's 1 month older bestie. We got to spend the day with Maya recently and it was like good old times. Bella loved having her buddy around again and showed her all her new toys and areas she likes to venture to and all the trouble she likes to make. And Maya can walk now so basically, Bella was very impressed and was fascinated by her super cool and talented friend. It was cute, every time Maya would stand up and wander away Bella would try to keep up crawling after her andyou could see her frustration that she couldn't just waddle along with Maya....don't worry Bella, your time is coming soon. Watching them play together was pretty adorable. Here is a recap of how our day went....

Here they are practicing their flash cards, well, just examining them and trading them back and forth....

Then they decided they wanted to pet and play with Oreo so they both came over to take advantage of Oreo sitting still for 2 seconds which is rare

Then Bella had to show Maya her super fun new toy....Oreo's dog door. Oh boy, we are really going to need to find a way to distract Bella from this because she is trying to crawl through it, aka, trouble in the making. Maya was very fascinated with it also.

Oops! Caught in the act! Ha! Bella with her hand through the dog door! Oh man, if this is any indication, when these two are 16 they are going to be Trouble together!

Finally after a long and exhausting day of lots of playing and having fun, Rowdy came home and we took the girls for a walk in the neighborhood. They love strolling alongside each other and babbling and pointing at the trees or the people. They are best friends. They are adorable.