Fourth Of July

Since the fourth fell in the middle of the week we were actually home this year for the holiday.  For Belton/Temple being such a small town I was quite impressed with all the fun festivities going on.  The night of the 3rd one of the country clubs puts on a huge firework display so we went and sat in an open field behind their golf course and watched them with some friends.  Bella immediately remembered the fireworks we saw at Disney in January and was very excited to be seeing fireworks again.  For some reason she was calling them "commotions"!!

Waiting for the fireworks to start

The morning of the 4th was the annual Belton parade.  We tailgated in a friends truck and despite our umbrellas we only made in 30 minutes before getting too hot.  Afterwards we went to a little festival where the kids got ice cream, there was a petting zoo, and a few craft booths.  That evening was the highlight of the day as we took Bella and her friend, Ainsley, to the carnival.  You know my little girl and rides....she was ecstatic!!!  She felt like such a big girl getting to ride a few things all by herself.

Watching the parade

Ice cream with Ainsley

Petting zoo

At the carnival

That weekend we headed up to one of David's buddy's parent's lake house where we had a relaxing time hanging out, swimming, fishing, and even jet skiing.  What a great holiday week!

Happy Half Birthday To My 2 1/2 Year Old!

I am constantly amazed at how much Bella's personality evolves in just a few short months.   She is everything I would expect a 2 year old to be...funny, energetic, creative, intelligent, and DEMANDING!!  Being such a good talker she can reason and manipulate to the point that it makes me mentally exhausted having to always be on my toes.  If I say do you want choice 'A' or 'B', she wants 'C' and by golly if something is blue and I tell her it is blue she will say it's red just to defy me.  But oh how I love my little strong willed girl. 

At 2 1/2 we are finally really flexible with our schedule.  She goes to bed between 8 and 9 and wakes up around 7:30 and 8 and naps about 1.5 hours. We made the transition to a queen size bed (since we will be needing the crib shortly) and she did wonderfully.  She still isn't potty trained and daily will tell me, "mommy, I don't want to wear panties.  I still just want to wear diapers".   In the mornings she and I try to get out of the house for fun with friends or else she loves to play in her playroom, and evening consist of a lot of wrestling and jumping on the bed with daddy!  She is a much more picky eater but cheese and peanut butter and crackers will always suffice if she doesn't like what I've cooked.  Her world is ALL about dressing up like a princess.  We have 5 costumes that we wear every waking moment we are at home and getting out of the house has become a serious battle because she simply doesn't want to take them off.  She insists I refer to her as the princess she is dressed as and goes around the house twirling and accessorizing. 

Other Milestones:
-She loves to sing and knows all the nursery rhymes and hams it up by making up her own songs.  Her first original was one called "One More Bite" and it simply is sung "One more bite, one more bite.....that's all"!! 
-She knows her alphabet and colors in Spanish. She loves to play "I Spy" using colors.
-She goes around naming objects and then telling me what letter they start with.  Or will say "G, what starts with G?" and then will name the things she can think of.  I think she will be reading at an early age!
-She can spell her name, count backward from 20, knows her days of the week/months of the year, all the shapes, and her left vs. right.
-It breaks my heart but she pronounces almost everything perfectly now, except fiddle which she refers to as "fibble".  (The last of her mispronounced words included blanqwee (blankie), pinow (pillow), cuner (color), and basagna (lasagna))
-It happened a few months ago but she voluntarily said grace before dinner.  She said, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for this food...um, um....thank you for our blessings....um, um, um.....thank you for daddy....um, um, um, um....in Jesus' name, Amen"!!!

TEN Blessed Years With My Honey

A decade....wow, I CANNOT believe David and I have been married that long.  It is crazy to think we met in college, got married right out of college, endured medical/PA school, residency, and fellowship and now with one toddler and a baby on the way I could not be more blessed!  It's funny how anniversary celebrations change once you have kids....in the past we have always spent a weekend in San Antonio but haven't done that since being pregnant with Bella.  This year my family all got together at my parents for Memorial Day in Conroe so David enlisted my parents to be babysitters for the night.

David has always been so good at surprising me and making things really special....and thus our evening began.  We got in the car and headed to none other than College Station...the town we met and got engaged in.  David's plan was to replay our entire engagement evening.  Our first stop was at Christopher's...an amazing restaurant with food on the menu I can't even pronounce but just as good as 10 years ago!  Next we were off to the Texas A&M campus. On campus there are a few traditional spots where couples typically get engaged so David, being the jokester, took me to all of them the night we got engaged but presented me with other gag gifts until I finally got my ring at our final stop which is where we had our very first date-the Memorial Student Center.  So for our anniversary we rewalked our steps.  First we went to the systems building and I was presented with a Browning t-shirt (a hunting t-shirt for all you non-texans!).

Next we were off to the century tree where I got a big fat ring pop!

Our final stop was the student center where David had arranged to have flower petals, candles, and music playing (just like 10 years ago). He read the same passage of scripture from Genesis about God providing a help mate for man and he even gave me a new diamond ring!!!!  It was as special as the first time around and I am truly blessed to have a partner in life who fills my days with laughter and love.  Here's to the next 10 years!

It's a.....BOY!!!!

I had gone in to see the OB when I was about 14 weeks pregnant because I was having some pain and at the time my doctor did an ultrasound and said he thought we were having a girl.  He told us it really was early and not to hold him to his gender prediction but my heart kind of got stuck on it.  It was nice to think about being able to do dresses and bows all over again and how fun for Bella to have a sister. 

I went in for my 18 week ultrasound and guess what?  NOT a girl!!!!  David was at a conference in Dallas and when I called to tell him the news he was literally speechless.  He had really wanted a boy so he was just beside himself!  It's nice that we will have one of each and with my pregnancies being so difficult I feel more at peace about this possibly being our last one.  What will I do with a little boy?!! I really am getting excited and even Bella is starting to get used to the idea of adding to our family.  We will induce October 12th (due to David's vacation/paternity leave issues) and look very forward to meeting little Jacob Stephen.

San Diego

During our year in California we made some really great friends and one couple in particular we agreed to do an annual reunion vacation with.  So this year we headed up to San Diego and met John & Heather and their kids, Caleb and Hayden.  Bella was so excited about the airplane ride to get there that I had to make a countdown chain just so she could visualize how many more days we had until we could go!

The day we arrived we checked into our hotel, napped, and enjoyed the heated pool.  Wednesday morning we headed to La Jolla beach where Bella played in the sand while David climbed on rocks looking for sea life.  The place we hung out is where the sea lions are so it was neat to be surrounded by them while we played.  We walked the shops in the town and also explored "the Cave" where you walk down 165 steps under rock until you reach an opening into the ocean. Pretty cool.  Our friends arrived that night so we spent the evening catching up.

Chasing the birds

 Enjoying the sand

 Me and my boo

 Sea Lions

 The Cave

Thursday we spent the day at the San Diego zoo.  I remember it being big but walking it pregnant, in the heat, was a little more tiring than I anticipated.   Because of the zoo's size it also requires a lot of walking/time to get from one exhibit to the next and by the end of the day the kids were over it.  They did thoroughly enjoy the cable car ride and ice cream to finish the day!

Enjoying the petting zoo

 Best buds-Caleb and Bella

 Hello monkey!

 Giraffe's

 Happy girl!

Friday we went to Legoland.  Bella is a ride junkie like her mama so this was right up her alley.  She did pretty well waiting in line and had an absolute blast on each ride.  She rode a safari jeep, helicopter, two airplanes, a boat, a train, and played in the splash pad.  She LOVED the helicopter and talks about it daily.  After the rides we headed over to the aquarium and the kids really enjoyed the fish and touch tanks.

Safari car ride

 Riding the train with Caleb

 Building Lego towers

 Her favorite helicopter ride

 Boat ride with Caleb and Heather

 Splash pad fun

Getting to touch a starfish 

Alas, all good trips must come to an end and we were headed out Saturday morning.  We found a cute little restaurant on the beach for breakfast and the kids got to play in the sand for a little while before we headed to the airport. What a great trip!  And so wonderful to be with old friends....Until next year!

Princess

Oh my.....I have created a monster.  Bella has always loved Wednesday mornings-it means getting to wear a leotard, tutu, ballet slippers, and have a smoothie and egg for breakfast on our way to dance.  Well I had bought a treasure box full of Disney princess costumes about a year ago and was holding onto them until I thought Bella was ready to play dress up.  Talk about the best (or sometimes I think worst!) money ever spent.  It has been weeks since I finally gave them to her and EVERY waking minute we are home she has to be dressed like a princess.  My greeting every morning is "Mommy, may I dress like Snow White?".  Cute until we try to leave the house, eat a meal, or go to sleep....then the crying begins.  She would rather stay at home, starve, and never sleep just so she could keep the silly costume on!

Time for ballet

 Princess Snow White

Praying it's all just a phase!

Easter 2012

Easter was really special this year because Bella is really interested in bible stories and has a good grasp of basic concepts.  She also had a whole lot of fun dying eggs at Grandma's house and getting to take part in 3 Easter egg hunts!

Excited about our first hunt at First Baptist, Belton

 Our dear friends, Christina & Noah

 Easter morning in Conroe, TX

 Easter fun in my parents neighborhood: pony rides

Riding the train all by herself!

 Easter bunny love

 Egg hunt #3, Dickinson TX