My "Baby" Girl is 2!!

What is Bella most excited about for her birthday?  CAKE...it is all she talks about when I tell her she is turning 2!  Since Bella's birthday is so close to Christmas, every year we plan to do a family birthday on the actual day and then a party with friends after the new year.  So Karen, Alli and McKenzie came to spend the day with us.  The girls had a great time playing and it was perfectly low key. David had to work but once he got home we opened presents and of course had lots of cake!

It is truly a miracle to me in which the way this little human being can develop and change so much in just two short years.  She is now very big into imaginative play and loves having tea parties, "going shopping", and pretending she is all sorts of animals. She still loves to read and will sit for a good 30 minutes at a time with me reading stories (and hence has most of her books memorized and will "read" to me). She is also starting to be really funny and will talk in a silly voice or make up silly words and then say "I'm so funny"!  She knows all her colors, can say and identify all the letters of the alphabet (and is starting to say things like "O" is for "octopus"), can count to 20, knows all her shapes, and since there were no more body parts to learn we have taught her most of the medical terms for them!  She still cracks us up with the pronunciation of a few quirky works such as "onjen" for "orange", "pinow" for "pillow", and "blankwee" for "blanket". 

She continues to amaze us and we fall in love her more each day.  Happy Birthday my sweet Isabella Rose.

Never to young too start house work!

 Sweet cousins!

 My how she has changed.  Newborn: Dec 2009

First birthday: Dec 2010!

Festive Fun

Bella and I have been able to escape the craziness in the house (all the remodeling) and enjoy some seasonal fun.  We have been to see Christmas lights, to see Santa (whom she was not a fan of as most toddlers are not!), to build gingerbread houses, and to a Christmas book exchange.  I think Bella's favorite part of this holiday season is all the treats she is getting to eat. 

Christmas craft Bella made in the nursery.  I will treasure it forever

Who knew tinsel could be so much fun!

Intensely focusing on decorating her gingerbread house!

The Unpacking Never Ends!

Yay....we are officially moved into our new house.  Thank you to my wonderful parents and brother who helped us!  We are still living out of boxes and a guest bedroom but at least it's HOME!  The paint is done and carpet installed and now we are waiting on the new windows to arrive.  It is so beautiful out here...so quiet...and so dark at night (I am so used to all the city lights).  We see deer running across the yard daily which is so exciting to Bella. 

Between unpacking I have managed to get our Christmas cards in the mail.  Here are a few pictures we didn't use for our cards.

 This wasn't a Christmas card picture-it was the sunset in our backyard last night....spectacular!

The "Lake House" and Christmas Fun

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!  We closed on a home here in Belton.  Bella refers to it as our "lake house", appropriately so since it is right on the lake! David is in heaven-he is just beside himself that he can fish anytime he wants!  We are very excited about having so much space and a place to call our own.  We have a lot of ideas for upgrades and remodeling but are starting with window and carpet replacement and some paint.  So we haven't officially moved in yet but we did go ahead and put up a Christmas tree.  I probably wouldn't have bothered but since Bella is a Christmas baby I want it to be special.  At this time last year Bella wasn't even walking so it was so much fun that she could actually decorate the tree with us this year.  And of course, she was jabbering away about it!  She loves pressing the button to turn the lights on and off and loves taking off and putting back the ornaments at her level.  I told her how to do it so now each time she tells herself "open the string and pull it off gently.  Good job"!  I love how she always coaches herself!

Our backyard

 Climbing a tree in the front yard

 "Helping" clean!

 I have an almost identical picture of when I was a little girl decorating the tree just like this, with the same expression!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is usually pretty predictable in our house.  We spend the Thursday at my parents house in Conroe all in anticipation for some crazy Black Friday shopping.  Then we head to David's mom's house in Austin for the rest of the weekend.  This year my parents went on a Hawaiian cruise so we spent the whole time at David's mom's. Bella and her cousin McKenzie had a blast playing together and David and I even got to sneak away for a date night to go see Breaking Dawn!  I did do some shopping, on Gray Thursday, as David calls it!  I got a Cricut scrapbooking machine for dirt cheap, something I had been wanting for years.  The girls played in the box for hours!  We also scored some cheap movies and video games.  Yeah!  Karen and I took the girls to the mall over the weekend to ride the carousel and train....the loved it.

This season we are so grateful for being back in TX and close to family.