A VERY Busy Weekend

We had a very busy fall weekend here. A use the word "fall" very loosely....it was like 90 degrees and super hot in the sun but hey, we can pretend with the best of them. We started on Friday taking some family pictures with the fabulous Jenny Spires, we don't have the pictures to post yet, but trust me, they will be awesome! On Saturday, we got up bright and early and headed to the zoo. We knew we wanted to get there early since we figured it would be busy and hot. We were right on both accounts and so glad we got there when it opened. They had decorated for fall and were feeding different animals pumpkins at scheduled times of the day. They had lots of stuff for kids and a petting zoo. I think we were more worn out than Bella at the end of it all but we had tons of fun!! Then, on Sunday, we met up with our good friends The Spires (aka....the aforementioned Jenny Spires, her husband Derrick and their adorable daughter Maya who is also Bella's bestie since birth). We got up early, got the girls all set in the car with snacks and Mickey Mouse on the dvd player and headed up to Prescott. We wanted to check out the recently reopened Youngs Farm....now called Mortimer Farm. Let's just say....Youngs Farm it was not. We definitely still had fun and the girls were none the wiser but it was a lot smaller and had a lot less of the fun fall stuff that Youngs Farm used to have. We had some fun, rode a little train, picked out our pumpkins and headed into downtown Prescott. We picked up some lunch and spread out our picnic blanket in the park and enjoyed some fallish weather. We all agreed we could have enjoyed a bit cooler temperature but there were huge trees that were turning color and leaves falling all over the ground and it was absolutely beautiful. The girls loved running around the park and it was a great end to the day. We packed back up and headed home. I'm sort of lacking in pictures of the pumpkin patch because I let Jenny take most of the pictures with her camera so I will have some more pictures to add when I get them from her. All in all, it was an incredibly busy weekend (Bella didn't even nap on Sunday....and was totally fine!) but we had such a fun weekend filled with lots of great memories.

My Dad and Bella checking out the ducks that were not at all shy. Bella was shy. She kept backing into my Dad and basically sat on his knee the whole time. She loves birds and was fascinated, but not at all interested in touching them :-)

"Petting" the goats.....or, as you can see, clinging to my Dad with all her strength!

Trying to get a picture in front of the giraffes

Fall 2011

Sweet girl modeling mom's sunglasses (this is how she wears sunglasses....goofball)

Such a cutie

We rode in the tiny train. I didn't really think Bella would be very into it but as soon as we got close she kept pointing to the train and saying "sit here, sit here, sit here!" We rode the VERY bumpy ride and she giggled the whole time and tried very hard to steer the train, it was adorable!

Eating a waffle with some peanut butter and a scrambled egg for dinner, she stole the spoon full of peanut butter and LOVED it! She kept asking for more!

And just because this picture makes me laugh out loud. I hate to even compare my sweet beautiful girl but....she sort of looks like she has a Hitler mustache made of peanut butter. Good thing she is so cute......and NOTHING like the above referenced dictator......we will just pretend I didn't make the above reference, ok thanks :-)

Yeah.......Our kid is CUTE!

Sometimes you just have to call it like it is, and our kid is just CUTE! Don't get me wrong, there are some not so cute things she does (i.e. chucking my phone at the floor as hard as possible when I ask her to give it to me) but for the most part, she is just one big ball of CUTE! Some of her new cute phrases? "Bless you" (yes she says this when you sneeze, and yes, she is catching on to my fake sneezes), "Sit here" (she is a tiny dictator, she will tell you where to sit) Here are some pictures of recent adorableness overloads.....

I got out some fabric to make a skirt and she thought she was hilarious running around the house with it on her head

Doing a little art project for the play room, she loves to paint

Yes, all of her stuffed animals are wearing her shirts, yes, they all have specifically picked out socks by her (aka....I picked some for her dog and she rejected my suggestion in favor of the pink socks.....and yes, if you look near her dog, that is a real dog treat, because she needed to feed her "woof woof" (that's the dogs name) a treat.....adorable

My little maid....if we keep up with this training this is really going to pay off well for me in the near future.... ;-)

Oh so cute, I just want to squeeze her

This is her "more" face, accompanied by her saying more and signing it at the same time....she was asking for more flowers, which she loves to pick from our plants in our yard.....seriously, could do it for hours

On her way to pick some flowers......

Just a girl and her dog.....

Her face just cracks me up here, I'm pretty sure she was mad at the dog for trying to steal her raisins

Cutie patootie

Silly girl

I just love her smile, she is so adorable and such a sweet girl. What an amazing blessing she is to our lives!

End of Summer Antics

We have been busy busy busy lately and Bella is a big reason for that! She is on the go and wants to be doing fun things all the time. We have been doing a lot of: cuddling with out favorite stuffed animals (white fluffy dog, teddy bear, Minnie Mouse), cuddling while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse....a favorite), playing with friends, splashing with water in the kitchen, playing outside whenever possible....it's still pretty hot, mall play areas, splash pads, and having a great time doing all of these things! Bella has also entered a very picky eating stage which can be a little frustrating....especially when you try 5 different things in one meal just to hopefully get her to eat something. Not my favorite, but hopefully if we keep offering good foods to her she will start happily eating her meals again. We are having so much fun with her, she is just adorable, saying a lot of words now. Bella being able to communicate some of her basic wants and needs now is really nice. However, any time she sees any kind of sweet, a cake, a cookie, anything like that, she is constantly signing "more" (the only sign language she learned). Some of her words right now: Hi, flower, doggie, pretty, that, this, shoe, please, bow, eye, nose, more, water, fall, Minnie, water, bye, bottle (baba), bowl, hot, sock, potty, dada, mama. She has really taken off with learning words lately which has been really fun. She is a great blessing to our lives!!

My sweet girl cuddling with her favorite, Minnie Mouse

Sometimes on hot sweaty days Bella just passes out in the car

Such a cute little face to see when I turn around in the car! She is obsessed with Mickey Mouse right now!

Our adorable little artist

Our friend Jenny put together a little craft for the kids to do together, they painted little figures of people and then we glued their faces on, they loved it, it was so cute!

Mischievous little smile, I have been occassionally letting Bella play with water in different bowls, containers, spoons, measuring cups, etc. in the kitchen on a bunch of towels. She seriously loves it, she moves the water from one container to another, overflows containers (which can be seen in the pictures above....lots of overflows) but she is pretty good about keeping it contained to our little area and she loves it and I can usually get some cooking done while she does it! Win/win!

Hard at work pouring water!

Look at those eyes, holy cow, those are the eyes that say "seriously, no more pictures mom!"

"Here mom, want some of my water I'm drinking with a measuring cup??!"

Watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with all her friends, her favorite white doggie (yes....wearing her socks....Bella has been insisting that her stuffed animals wear socks every day....and yes, she has specific color requests, I cannot put white socks on the white dog, apparently that is just not ok)

Putting mom's old glasses on her teddy bear

More cuddle time with Minnie Mouse

Snuggling with stuffed friends

Helping mom keep the house clean :-)

I just want to squeeze her in this little dress...she looks like a little prairie girl! It's basically a miracle any time I get a picture of her looking at the camera and sort of smiling!! Most of the time the second I take out the camera she begs to have it so she can play with it.

She loves the play area at the mall and loves these little flower cushion things on the ground, she quickly moves from one to the next to sit on them all, she seriously loves them...she tries to kiss them, we aren't sure why, it makes me gag, the whole place smells like feet.....oh kids!

She was helping fill up the water for everyone at the splash pad by dumping out her cup into the fountains....thanks Bella :-)

Splish splash

Playing at the neighborhood park, Dad helping Bella climb the stairs

Riding the slide

Just my two favorite people walking at the park and having a chat....so cute

Bella loves playing on the little slides at church, that's where she was heading after church nursery....Happy Sunday Everyone!

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!