Taking after Daddy

Bella has most of my personality (independent and stubborn - I guess that's Joel too), but picking up things she definitely didn't get from me. She has started to empty out her drawers of pjs and pants and then puts them all back. It's pretty funny to watch. She does it with my purse and her diaper bag too, now if she would put the rest of her toys away we'd have a half way clean house.

I got great pictures of her smiling this week and a video of daddy making her laugh in the bathtub last night. She has most of her teeth now just need two more on the bottom. Nothing much else exciting happened this week, except for my 16 week check up. The baby is doing great but moves a lot, so it was hard to get the heartbeat at first (which threw me into a panic), but they found it after a few minutes and it was strong. I have been feeling he/she move every once in awhile and it reminds me of what a miracle God has given us (for a second time). I have my ultrasound Wednesday so hopefully we'll know if Bella is having a brother or sister! We are also gearing up for the big game tomorrow night and Bella has her 15 month check up tomorrow too! It's exciting to see how much she's grown.

Happy New Year

We spent New Year's Morning having a tea party (however I can get the pictures off my new camera) and New Year's Day celebrating Bella's Uncle Ryan's birthday. We had a great time eating hamburgers and watching football. She also decided it was a great day to learn to pick her nose (but I won't embarrass her with posting the pictures we took).

Here is Bella snuggling with mommy and Nemo. I love her pumas.
Helping Uncle Ryan open his presents.
Grilling out with daddy and Papa T
Lounging in her chair outside.
Playing with uncle chad.

Christmas 2007

Bella and her zebra from Santa this video is a little out of order, but didn't want you to miss it.


We hope everyone had a great Christmas! It was wonderful having Bella's 2nd Christmas, she still wasn't sure what was going on most of the time, but she loved the tissue paper and we can't wait for next year when there will be 4 of us and Bella will understand a little more. A lot happened since the last post, so I'll start from the beginning. We started our week off learning how to open the doors, yes Bella is tall enough to reach the knobs hard to believe she's grown that much in 14 months. We also learned how to unscrew caps off of lotion, which was really exciting for mommy considering there was lotion, then sunscreen and then liquid conditioner everywhere.
She had her holiday party at school and came home with her first art project...her hand print in plaster...plus frosting from the cookies they made! She also went down the big slide by herself at school. She is too funny...she now knows the sign for "milk" and "more" so it has helped knowing what she wants. We are so glad she has great teachers. Next was onto Nana's house after the party so I could pick up some pictures for the scrapbook I made my grandparents. She got so excited with the tree and then decided it was time to play the piano...she looks so grown up sitting there.
On Sunday we went to my aunt's house for all of us to eat homemade Mexican food (our long lasting tradition)....yummy! While I was finishing up the scrapbook...daddy thought Bella should wear her Santa hat.
She wasn't sure about the presents, but loved taking the tissue paper out of the bags, so we just kept filling an empty bag with more paper and it kept her busy for awhile.
She LOVED Abby, my aunt's lab...I'm not sure Abby felt the same way since Bella wouldn't leave her alone and kept snuggling and laying all over her.
Christmas Eve we went to church and Bella went to the nursery
Christmas Day, Bella woke up and was so excited to see her zebra, so she hopped on and played for awhile. Then we had breakfast and opened the rest of her presents...her pooh bear car and her shapes cookie jar
She also helped dad empty his stocking and then she stole his york candies.
Later we went to my parent's house and had Tur-Duck-in (Yes that would be a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey). Bella got a giant monkey chair, although she wasn't very interested in opening presents by that point she did have fun with her dishes. Hope everyone had a great holiday and a safe new year.

crazy week

What a week...I got the camera out and of course had a great week of pictures. Since I took off Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to study (and relax), I had a great time with Bella before and after school. Here are pictures to document our week...

On Wednesday, she insisted on wearing her bear backpack all morning, while playing peek-a-boo behind her door. Closing and opening her door is a big thing right now.Friday night, we figured it was a great time for christmas pjs and hat! Okay, she wasn't too thrilled with the hat, but I thought it was too cute, so I distracted her and let her play with the tree and ornaments.

Today the three of us headed to the mall...best time to christmas shop - 9 am on a Sunday morning - it was completely empty. We saw Santa...no smiles in the picture, but no screaming either! I thought this was adorable, Joel and Bella holding hands going into the mall...so of course I had to take a picture.

Tonight we finally got to hang out with the Oestreichs! Bella hadn't seen Logan since his birthday in September, so it was so much fun watching them play together. Here is Logan and Bella this year in their pjs...

...and this was Bella and Logan last year in their pjs. How much they've grown in a year.
Sharing toys and holding hands...ahhh...well it was a lucky shot because most of the time they didn't want to share.

It's so hard to believe how much they've grown and aren't babies anymore :( This is playtime before they got into pjs.

PJs & Great-grandparents 68th Anniversary

Well I started the week playing in a suitcase with mom's shoes. This replaced the entertainment of going through mom and dad's bathroom drawers while mom got ready for work. It was followed up by eating my first Christmas cookie in my "I Love Santa" PJs. Then last night after I took a second nap and woke up at 5 (I'm usually in bed by 5:30 or 6) I was ready to run around and watch the Polar Express (well about 15 minutes of it) then I ran around some more.

I love mommy's shoes...and sitting in the suitcase.

Eating my Christmas cookie

Watching the Polar Express Today was exciting because we celebrate my great-grandpa and great-grandma Shotton's 68th wedding anniversary. I got to wear my pretty red Christmas dress and walked around meeting a lot of people...I was of course the hit of the party :). Here are a few pictures of the event...

My party dressMaking faces with Uncle Ryan
Hanging out with Steph, while Uncle Chad made me laugh

Great-grandpa & Great-grandma Shotton...smooching after all these years!

3 months and counting

As time is flying by so is my pregnancy. I had my 12 week check up today (I know I'm a week off and will be 13 weeks tomorrow), but everything went well and the baby had a strong heart beat.

13 weeks - Fingerprints have formed on the baby's fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. The baby is almost 3 inches long and weighs nearly an ounce.

Getting in the holiday spirit

It's hard to believe it's december and christmas is around the corner. Joel got the tree up and was too cute trying to decorate it with Bella. I was studying and they knocked to see if I wanted to help decorate. Joel and the holiday station on and decorations everywhere. Bella of course helped empty the boxes and found some beads which were the most fun...the actually entertained her for almost an hour. She wasn't too excited that the tree was in the "kennel" and she couldn't take the ornament off, but we figured it was safer for everyone in the house. Papa and Nana stopped by before heading to the office christmas party to bring Bella presents from New York. Bella loved the paper in the bag and her new snowman slippers, but the fur on the dress and the hat she didn't know to fight with it or eat it.

Since we didn't know what blogging was until earlier this year, I though I would put up pictures from last year. Bella is so tiny.

Why is the tree inside the kennel?

Beads are lots of fun!!!
"helping" decorate the tree
Oh my pretty dress and slippers (no they were not bought to go together)