18 Months

Somehow I blinked and my baby turned 1 1/2. Life seems to be moving in hyper speed right now. I SO LOVE this phase right now with Bella. She is just so much fun and I love spending my days with her, but at the same time, I see her and she looks SO OLD to me, and I just want to freeze time and not let her age any more since it is all going a little too fast. In the week leading up to her 18 month birthday Bella started to get more adventurous with her walking and, just shy of 18 months, began walking independently! WALKING! It just blows my mind, there were many days when I thought I might not see it happen, even though everyone assured me it would. I love seeing my little girl waddling around the house, it's the best. We continue on with physical therapy to try to correct her ankle a little more, but it is mostly something that will just correct itself with time, and muscle strengthening through use. At her 18 month appointment Bella weighed in at 19lbs 7oz (11%) and 31.5'' (42%). She makes me laugh so much every day and brings Rowdy and I so much joy. She has such a sweet, sensitive heart and I can't wait to see the way the Lord uses that as she grows.

Holding her most prized possessions.....her bracelets. She loves jewelery, she doesn't like to wear her bracelets yet, she just wants to carry them around with her. Through her entire 18 month doctors appointment she held her bracelets (yes....through the weigh in, and the shots, little cutie!)

Playing in her crib. She LOVES to play in her crib. She likes to turn her music on, get a book, play with her blankies and her doggie stuffed animal.

I just love her little face

Oh her smile, it melts my heart!

Pointing to her tongue, a favorite trick (although she, of course, gets stage fright very often!)

Such a goofball!

Carrying around her sippy, I just loved how silly she was being!

My beautiful baby girl (SO cute in her little pigtails!)

Happy 18 month birthday Bella buns!

More Walking!!

Here is a video from today. She is loving chasing around her purple ball. She thinks its hilarious, and she loves that Oreo sort of plays with her too. Sorry the video is a little shaky and crazy at parts, I will work on getting a better video, but for now, I am chasing around my new walker who wants to explore the world!

Bella is ****WALKING**** !!!!!

We have been on a long road to walking in the Owens house. Bella has had to overcome some small obstacles (that at times felt big, to both Bella and myself). We have been working hard to strengthen her muscles in her core and ankles and *just shy* of her 18 month birthday, she has taken off. It makes me so happy to be able to see that because, like so many things in the process of being pregnant and raising a baby, it felt like it may never come. And then, one day, it just clicked. It makes me so proud to see Bella persevere, work hard, and overcome obstacles already in her life, at such a young age. Here is one of her first brave walking ventures, she has had many since and we will have more videos to come!

California Vacation 2011

We had the very fun opportunity to take a vacation with my parents to Coronado Island and also get a chance to visit my brother who thought it would be cool to move to the beach....I mean.....who would want to do that?!?! ;-) It was a MUCH needed vacation for everyone and it was definitely easier traveling with Bella at this age and with the help of family. Bella and I went a day early with my parents and Rowdy joined us the next day in the evening since he needed to finish up some work. Bella and I drove out with Grandma and Grandpa and Grandpa had the dvd player all set up for Bella, I supplied the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and we were on our way. Bella LOVED having the dvd player in the car, she may have loved it a little too much. I hate to break it to her that it will not be a regular occurence for driving around town. I think we all have the "hot dog dance" song permanently stuck in our heads! Bella did great on the road and we got settled in at the hotel. It was the perfect hotel for kids! They babyproofed both rooms for us, supplied pack n plays to both rooms and also a little gift for Bella. What more could you ask for from a hotel?! Bella did so great being flexible on nap times, or lack thereof and really was an easy travel companion. The only thing she struggled with was the amount of eating out....every meal. She is really working hard on walking and she just DID NOT want to sit in a high chair at a restaurant. Our former perfect restaurant baby is no more, or at least, has temporarily left us. We had to take turns getting up and walking with her and she just didn't want to eat the food. Normally she isn't too picky and is a fairly good eater but she just wasn't having it on the trip. The kid pretty much survived on nutrigrain bars, cereal, yogurt, chips (shhh don't tell) and teddy grahams (again, shhh don't tell). Not the healthiest, as soon as we got home she started chowing down again though, so that is good! All in all we had a great time and I included about a million pictures below to document Bella's first trip to the beach. Let me just say, the beach air served Bella well, she may just be a little beach bunny in the making.

Walking the long hallway to the lobby/restaurant area. She did this most of the trip. She is still too nervous to let go but she walked SO MUCH on this trip! We would just be sitting in Grandma and Grandpa's hotel room and she would get Grandma's hand, whine for Grandpa's and then immediately start walking for the door, she had an agenda and we were all pretty much subject to her will. She knew where she wanted to go and she wasn't waiting.

Bella loves her Grandpa a lot. But on this trip Grandpa was pretty much the coolest. Everything he did was HILARIOUS. It was pretty cute to watch.

Bella could get used to this pampered life in a hotel, eating snacks on the big bed and watching cartoons.

Getting snuggled by Grandma after a long day out at the beach and then the pool, there was definitely no shortage of people who wanted to snuggle her on this trip!

Swimming with mama in the pool, we had so much fun!

Oh Bella, can't be bothered to look at the camera during a family picture of course!

Swimming with Grandma's help, she loved playing on the steps

Everyone enjoyed relaxing at the pool, including daddy!

Bella picking out lunch on the pool menu, silly girl

Seriously, the girl didn't take long to adapt to the vacation lifestyle. She felt right at home!

And then of course some morning yoga on the bed......

"Oh mom, that was exhausting!"

First time seeing the ocean, this girl LOVED watching the waves, and I'll take a good Bella snuggled any day of the week.

First trip to the ocean, July 2011

Feeling the beach sand for the first time, wasn't sure what she would think since she doesn't always like being messy

Turns out, at the ocean, it's ok to be messy....

Fascinated by the beach sand

Only Bella would be fed yogurt at the ocean. Anything to get a meal in her!

Eating a pringle by the sea, living the life....

Rinsing her hands in the water, still a girly girl

Playing in the sand with Grandma

Getting those hands dirty

More play time

Giggling at something silly daddy was doing, probably a goofy dance on the beach or something...

Mesmerized by the ocean

Wrapped up all snug like a bug

Beautiful, exhausted girl

Mama snuggles on the beach, eating teddy grahams and making a stinker face of course, this munchkin is not into the camera right now.

Love my girl

Bella with Mama and Grandma, good day had by all

Love seeing how much these two love to be together. Cozy with dad on the beach, what could be better?

Exploring the ocean with her dad

Love them

Love our little family of 3

Happy Family

Our Prim and Proper Little Girl

Sometimes Bella is a total girly girl and sometimes she is.....wild! We love it when she is a little nutty, it makes us laugh like we have never laughed! There is plenty of time for being proper and well behaved....right now, it's time to have a little fun!

Splashing in the tub!

SOOOOO excited about splashing! She was screaming at the top of her lungs from the pure joy of splashing, love her!

Good girl, Daddy would be so proud! Keeping it censored!

And Bella's newest trick! We say, "Bella, where is your tongue?!" and she sticks out her tongue (see above) and says, "Ahhhh!" Pretty dang cute!

More sticking out the tongue, I may or may not ask her to show me her tongue a lot during the day because I just think it's so cute and she thinks its so fun!

And my favorite, working the tongue out pose like a pro! And yes, she was also working the just a diaper and tennies look and pulling it off if I do say so myself!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day! I have been lucky enough to have an awesome father in my life, and a wonderful example of what a father should be! And now, I get to watch my husband be an amazing father to our daughter. What a perfect day to celebrate these awesome men in our lives! Our pastor Matt spoke today about how God has irresponsible grace and unconditional love. What an amazing model to men and I think these two men live that out beautifully! Bella loves her Grandpa so much! And Bella's love for her Dad....wow! She lights up when he gets home each day and one of her favorite things is to SCREAM (in a happy way) dada! She could play with him all day long! Happy Father's Day 2011!

This is from Father's Day 2010, Rowdy's first Father's Day. Bella always loved to snuggle with her Dad and fall asleep in his arms.......

Father's Day 2011.....as you can see, Bella is bigger, but not much else has changed. Still a total Daddy's girl!

Love them!

Oh Bella....such a beautiful face ;-) She kept making this stinker face and her little teeth would stick out. Adorable now....but hopefully not something she does in her wedding pictures one day!

Grandpa and Bella at lunch sharing water.....so cute!

She loves him so much!

Grandpa/Dad and his girls!

Our crazy child at lunch! Our once perfectly well behaved restaurant child is now a force to be reckoned with! She is busy taking out all the sugar packets and playing with them, throwing puffs on the ground, smiling and saying hi to passers by, eating food, refusing food. Needless to say....she keeps us on our toes in restuarants now!

Goofball face!

She loves to dip, food and her fingers! Today she had ranch with her veggies and she would dip her bread in the ranch, take a bite and say "Mmmmmm!"

We have fun!

Love our little family!

Bella with her Dad and Grandpa!

Happy Father's Day 2011 to the best Father's in the world!