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!

Bella's 2nd Birthday Party

We had such a wonderful time celebrating Bella's 2nd year of life with our family and friends. It is such a joy to celebrate such a sweet and wonderful litte girl who brings so much happiness to everyone. We had mini cheeseburgers, mini hot dogs, mac and cheese and a dessert bar. We tried to keep it small, mostly just inviting Bella's little friends (and their families of course) and our family, but we have a big family, and so, no party is ever very "small." As I mentioned in my last post, Bella's Uncle Matt came into town for her party (such a good Uncle/Godfather!) and that was pretty much the highlight of Bella's life! Bella definitely can take her time to warm up to a party, being the center of attention tends to make her a bit nervous. But, she loved showing her friends her new toys (her play kitchen and her sandbox) and running around the yard so she definitely had fun at her party! And, as usual, our regular photographer, the wodnerful Jenny Spires, took pictures of Bella's party for us, because she is just seriously that awesome of a friend. And, as usual, she captures Bella so perfectly in her beautiful pictures! We just love our friends and family, it's so nice to celebrate with people we love so much and who take the time to come to a party for our little girl. I still just can't believe this was party #2, it's going so so so fast! There will only be more wonderful celebrations for our little girl....and we can't wait!

Bella's 2nd birthday cake, I was pretty happy with how it turned out!

Our fun little dessert bar, we had people fill a bag as a favor

All our food, it was delicious thanks to lots of help from my mom!

Playing with her kitchen, she just LOVES cooking all sorts of things for us in it!

Bella is probably telling Jenny what she is cooking in her microwave

Bella playing with her bestie Maya, cute little munchkins!

Silly girl!

Oh my goodness, can she get ANY CUTER??!

Cutie Pie

Singing Happy Birthday to Bella, as you can see, she is a little apprehensive about all this attention

Helping our girl blow out her candle

The girl loves her sweets! (No shock there, she is my child after all!)

Yum! I think she approves!

Chowing down!

Opening presents.... Jenny's mom drew this incredible picture of Bella, it is just so special to me, I love it so much!!

Quite possibly Bella's favorite girl, a little puppy that barks when you pet it and it came with a tiny bottle to feed it, she was immediately in love!!

Oh I just love her so much! God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams with Bella!!

Happy birthday sweet girl!