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!

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!