Have a Very Merry Christmas!!!!

A Few of My Favorite Things About Christmas/Winter

in random order:
* Flannel sheets
*Flannel pajamas
*Hot water that stays hot in my insulated carafe all day long
*Hot tea any time of the day
*Hot coffee in the morning
* Hot chocolate (with just a tiny dash of chocolate for me since I don't like chocolate) after playing outside in the snow
*Playing in the snow with Bella and David
*Pulling Bella on her sled in the snow
*Christmas decor and lights
*Christmas music
*Christmas movies
*Homemade soup, any kind
*Bella in her fleece footed sleeper, Sooo snugly
*Cuddling up with my honey on the couch under a blanket and watching t.v.
*Bella in her long underwear that she wears under her snowsuit (we called them Long Johns and Bella asked who John was and if he was coming to our house:)
*Watching the snow fall
*Crisp fresh snow all across our yard with nothing but a few rabbit footprints scattered across it
*Wrapping presents
*Looking forward to Bella's reaction when she gets the one gift she's been asking for for a long time
*Baking cookies and sweet breads
*Feeling the warmth of our cozy home when it's in the single digits outside
*Warm, sheepskin boots
*My new scarf
*Layers of clothes
*Hearing Bella recite the names of Santa's reindeer
*Listening to Bella when she tells us she does not want Santa to come to our house when we started singing, "Santa Claus is Coming To Town"
*Telling Bella that Santa is just a character like Frosty the Snowman and that he will not come to our house, but you will get presents
*The fact that Bella loves to read books about Santa, sing songs, but does not want anything to do with him
*Seeing Bella with her reindeer antler headband on
*Making Christmas crafts with Bella (although I'm running out of craft ideas)
*Waking up in the morning to 8 inches of snow
*Not having to drive in the snow/icy roads
*Teaching Bella how to make and throw snowballs
*Building snowmen with Bella
*Going Christmas shopping with Bella to get Daddy something, then when we get home she tells him what we got him
* Pot Roast cooking in the crockpot all day
* Hearing Bella tell people, "Merry Christmas"
* Bella seeing something she wants at Target or WalMart and saying, "Let's put it on my Christmas list"
* Our Christmas Tree scented candle (we have an artificial tree)
* Being with our little family
*Getting this beautiful shot of Bella during our 5-minute photo shoot in the snow:


Hope you're all enjoying this Christmas Season!

Absent

I'm sorry I have been absent from my Blog for a couple weeks now, I have lots to blame it on, but I mainly blame it on Facebook, my new addiction. Really, A LOT has been going on in our lives and I have a back log of Blog posts brewing in my head right now. I promise to get a post up soon, but for now I'll leave you with this one adorable pic of our sweet angel, Isabella.

Good Cheer!

This is how I was awoken just the other morning:

Heard over the baby monitor: "Mommy!" "Good Morning Mommy!" "It's a bright, sunny day!"

I woke up with a smile on my face and went to hug my bundle of joy!

Crackin' Me Up!

Tonight while Bella and I were dining on Del Taco's finest chicken tacos, in walked a group of some rather clean-cut punk rock type teenagers. Bella, being the observer she always is, checks them out, watches their every move while sipping on her milk. Then she leans over to me and in a hushed voice says, "Mommy, those boys look like Doodlebops." If I hadn't have put my napkin up to my mouth, my bite of taco would have flown out onto the tabletop. I was also trying not to choke as I laughed. Bella was so serious about her observation, yet she knew she was making me laugh, so then she says, "Mommy, I'm cracking you up". Then the boys made eye contact with Bella and she waved her parade wave, said "Hello", and they waved back and smiled, seemingly impressed with Bella's outgoing personality and overall cuteness. Yes, Bella, you crack me up!

Here's a picture of the Doodlebops: I think Bella was referring to the different fashion of dress (funky hat, hair-dos, piercings, etc.) that these boys were styling in because none of them had blue or purple hair, they just looked silly:)

The Things We Do

There are soooo many things that I would do for Isabella, including dressing up for a tea party!

I couldn't pass up this Cinderella costume on the clearance rack. It will be
put to use for several tea parties and perhaps a birthday party or two!

Little Princess Mommy.

More tea please.

And I'm not the only one who plays princess with Bella . . .

David makes a great prince in his red cape (really, it's a blanket) putting pretend nail polish on Bella's nails! It is very true when Bella tells people, "My mommy and daddy love me sooooo much!"

Scrub A Dub Dub

My camera happened to be nearby upstairs when Bella was taking a bath tonight, so I got a couple of cute shots. Isabella loves bath time and would stay in there all night if I let her:)

One happy bathing beauty.

Bella washing her bath baby doll.

Cleaning bath baby's face.

Bella feeding "Bath Baby" some bubbles.

My little fish.

Halloween

Bella had a lot of fun on halloween. I am not into the scary, demonic aspect of halloween, but I am all for the fun part of dressing up and going trick-or-treating. Isabella really enjoyed dressing up as a kangaroo and saying, "trick-or-treat". We started off in the late afternoon at Trick-or-Treat Street downtown where each store handed out treats to the kiddos. Bella really got into and even hopped up to the people giving out the candy, it was hilarious. So many people commented on how adorable she was in her costume. Isabella also loved seeing the other kids in costume out on the street. After a quick dinner, I took her around our neighborhood. I had originally planned to just go to a couple houses, but after every house Bella asked in her polite, sweet voice, "One more house, please mommy". So we stayed out a little longer, there were so many kids out in our neighborhood. When we got home, Bella loved running to answer the door and seeing the other kids' costumes and even gave her own commentary that went something like this: "She's cute" or "He's scary looking" or "That's a funny costume" or "I'm a princess too" (she had put on her princess dress at this point). It was a fun night! And without further ado, here's The Cutest Kangaroo Ever!!

Bella and her own little pumpkin.

I love this side view so you can see her tail!

OK, so I had to wear my kitty ears and put wiskers on to convince Bella to
let me put make-up on her. It was fun, though:)

Me and my girl!

Our little Roo!

Notice her little joey in her pouch!

Luke and Bella!

Bella and her close friend, Sara.

A Breakthrough Day

I haven't done an update on the potty-training going on in our household lately, but there has been progress. Today was a breakthrough day with Bella going not only onesies on the potty, but twosies as well. . . . 2 times!! Go Bella!! She really wants a princess castle to play with with her little princess figurines so I've been telling her that when she doesn't wear diapers anymore, she'll get the Special Princess Castle. I've really been playing that up and that has given her the incentive she needed! I also found the castle for only $15 today, so it's in the closet ready for her!

Here's Bella on her potty with her books, of course! Notice how she neatly lines up the books against the wall after she finishes each book.

Some more pics, just because she's so cute:

Reading a library book. I love how she uses her outstretched leg to hold the big book up to read!

Reading and sportin' her new flannel Big Girl pj's:)

More reading. . . She's my little Belle, just like Belle from "Beauty and The Beast", she ALWAYS has her nose in a book:)

Puzzle Master Pup!

**Side note: Bella got the nickname, Lil' Pup, when she started crawling as a baby. She'd crawl around the house and we could hear her panting like a little puppy:)

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Michelle to list 7 random things about myself:

1.) I am the youngest of 6 girls in my family, my oldest sister is 18 years older than me.

2.) I applied to medical school after graduating from college with a biology degree and I didn't get in, but God had a better plan for me. After my grieving was over, I got a science-related sales job and met my wonderful husband, David.

3.) When I drive on the longer stretches of highway here in Colorado I listen to country music. It just seems so fitting when I'm driving by the farms, horses, and cows, and every other radio station here is a country station, but that's the only time I listen to it. This is the first time I've admitted this:)

4.) I love coffee, anything coffee flavored, but I really really DISLIKE chocolate.

5.) My best friend, Lisa, and I have been best friends since we were 5 years old, that's now 26 years of solid friendship.

6.) My first job in high school when I was 16 years old was selling fish tacos at the first Rubio's in Orange County. I worked with my friend, Shelly, and we had a lot of fun and crazy times there!

7.) I got a tattoo of a sun on my shoulder when I was young and naive and went through the painful (and expensive) process to have it removed before our wedding so it wouldn't show when I wore my strapless wedding gown.

Now I am tagging Stefany, Heather, Anna, Vanessa, and Cindy.

Big Girl Bella

That's right, she is really becoming a big girl more and more everyday! It's seems like just yesterday that I was holding my tiny little 6 lb. newborn daughter, even though that was 2.5 years ago. She now weighs in at 24.5 lbs. Go Bella! You read right, 24.5lbs! That Carnation Instant Breakfast we've been adding to her whole milk per doctor's instructions must be working. I'm not sure if that will bring her above the 2-percentile that's she's been stuck in for weight, but we're happy to see her growing big and strong:) Also, she recently discovered that she does like to eat her vegetables including peas, broccoli, and cauliflower, all with real butter on them of course.


Isabella 2.5 years ago:



Isabella 2 days ago:

Fall Leaves

Experiencing fall in Colorado is much different from the many falls we've had in California. We've already had our first snow, some 30 degree days, and lots and lots of leaves.

My little sweetie!

Helping daddy rake the leaves in the front yard.

Taking a break to catch some rays.
Leaves, leaves, and more leaves.

Raining leaves.

Bella and Daddy all tuckered out from raking all of the leaves!

Bella on her castle slide with her Strawberry Shortcake doll, of course.

Flu Shot

One week ago today we went for our flu shots. David and I got the shot. Bella got the nasal mist, that's what they recommended for her age. She was such a trooper! I didn't know the nasal mist was an option, so I had her pumped up for a shot with the idea that she'd get an ice cream from Chick-Fil-A afterwards. Of course I had to follow through with my promise, even though she got the flu vaccination in a different form. I, on the other hand, still have the mark on my arm to show my shot from last week:


I don't think this is normal, do you? And no, I didn't fall down the stairs again!

How did you wake up this morning?

I've mentioned before that Bella has really began to express her feelings to us. Well this morning Bella woke me up with a kiss on my forehead at 7am (she came into bed with us around 5am, she's teething). Then as we were headed towards the stairs to go make pancakes she said, "I feel bumpy". Translation: "I feel grumpy". I know I don't always wake up in a cheerful mood and Bella doesn't always either, especially today with cutting 2 molers and a runny nose:( At least she was able to warn me!

Ari, Uzi, and Bella

As I've mentioned before, Isabella is pretty much obsessed with Strawberry Shortcake. She is already planning and talking about her next birthday party and how it will be a Strawberry Shortcake themed party. She got that idea from a little booklet that came with a Strawberry Shortcake DVD. I think she likes the booklet more than the movie itself! She treats this little brochure like a book and studies it very carefully. I've even thought about laminating it so it will last. Anyway, there's a page in the booklet that shows the various party supplies to outfit a Strawberry Shortcake party and Isabella has that page memorized. Isabella has a couple of Shortcake dolls of her own, but she also plays with some dolls that were mine when I was just a little girl, crazy huh:) Yes, I saved some of my more sentimental dolls/toys and I'm so glad I had these still.

I've never been a big fan of character clothing for babies and kids. You know what I'm talking about, the shirts with a big Elmo or Dora on the front. I also never thought I'd ever purchase any character clothing for Isabella, until I found this:




When I showed this outfit to Isabella this morning, it was like Christmas morning! She was so excited to wear a Strawberry Shortcake outfit. Of course, being the little shopper that she is, she asked me where I bought it. I couldn't pass this jogging outfit up, it looks so cute on her. If you don't know who Ari and Uzi are, you need to watch The Royal Tenebaums sometime.

This past week. . .

has been fun-filled.

We visited a nearby "pumpkin patch", it was really a little farmstand, but it was a good spot for pics and for Bella to have some fun of course.









Yesterday was a free day at the Denver Natural Science and History Museum, so we decided to check it out with our friends, Stefany and Luke. Isabella kept asking to see more animals, I think she thought they were living (she's a bit young to understand taxidermy). Today she asked if we can go back to the museum next week, then when she was playing with her doll she told me she was going to a pretend museum.








Isabella loves to bake with me. We made banana bread and blueberry muffins together. If you ask her how to make one of these things, she'll tell you, "wear an apron, put in eggs and flour, you stir it, and put it in the oven".