I'm A Big Girl!

Well, we are approaching March 16, which means my baby girl is almost two years old. This past weekend we took a big step. We moved in the big girl bed and moved out the crib. Bella has done great! The first night was a bit rough, but she hasn't cried once since that first night. We added some extra decorations in her room to make her bed area more special for her. I am so proud of her. She is also making some progress in the potty training area. For example today is Saturday and she has gone twice in her big girl potty and has not had a diaper on. We use M&Ms as motivation.

Cousin Martin's First Birthday

Martin & Bella

Martin, Bella, Bradon, & Dawson

Micah, Martin & Jennifer

My Silly Girl

Bella just gets bigger and bigger every day. She loves to color, write, and play with stickers. She generally wants you to write her name and Dawson's name and then she tries to identify which is hers. The Fisher Price TV in the picture above is a favorite toy at Granny's house. I think this is neat because it's been played with by me, Laura, and Abbi.

The babies tend to find interesting things to play with at Granny's house. Momma picked up the giraffe costume and the babies found it in the back room. Bella demanded to wear it around for awhile. She ran around saying monster noises. What a silly girl!

Christmas Time

Bella and Meredith hanging out Christmas Eve.

The very special Cubby! Among the many gifts that Bella received, one was rather special. Miller went to Build A Bear and made a special Bear for Bella named Cubby. The bear is pink and adorable and when you squeeze Cubby's hand she says I love you.

Grandma Harke's New Years Visit

We had so much fun with Grandma Harke here. The babies quickly adjusted and became obsessed with Grampy Harke as they called her. This is Grandma and Bella hanging out New Year's Eve. We were a pretty boring group, but we still had fun.

Scenes from our life!

Dawson with his favorite doll.

My mom (Coca as Bella calls her) with Bella

Bella and Dawson taking a drive

Dawson

Bella enjoying the changing weather

Bella playing in her first good snow! She was so bundled up and she just kept falling over. She loved to eat the snow.

Beautiful Bella playing in the leaves at Thanksgiving!

Laura's Birthday Party

Beautiful Bella!

Ring A Round The Rosie. The babies love to go round and round and sing!

Happy Halloween

Abbi, looking beautiful as always. Some of you might recognize the skirt. Laura wore that very skirt not that long ago.

Look at the two pumpkins. Dawson on the left, Abbi in the middle, and Bella on the right.

Bella, Nate, and Dawson all playing together!

Laura with Bella and Dawson at the Halloween Parade. The babies did pretty good. The day care took all of the kids through the grade school parade. It was a lot of fun.

The Little Pumpkin!

We took Bella to a pumpkin patch in Bartlesville. She looked so cute. We picked out some pumpkins to bring home. Bella found little pumpkins just for her. We tried to go to the Pumpkin patch with Abbi and Dawson, but that adventure didn't really work out. We all loaded up in three cars and headed to find the pumpkin patch. After getting lost multiple times we finally found the right place. Unfortunatley the pumpkin patch is not open on Sundays, so Miller and I had to take Bella another day by ourselves.

A Slumber Party

Dawson came over to stay the night with us. He and Bella had a blast playing together. They especially enjoyed eating together at their big kid table!

THE BALLOON

The other day Bella and I went to Granny's house to visit for a bit. We all went outside so that Chloe (the new puppy) could go potty. Bella and Chloe chased each other round and round the yard. Granny and I were watching from the steps. Bella ran over to the fence and was rustling through the leaves and dirt. She reached down picked something up and then came racing toward Granny and I. She looked so very pleased with herself. She was waving something in the air. As she approached we realized the had a leaf still attached to the stem. She was waving it in the air and saying baoon, baoon. It took me a moment to realize that she was saying balloon.

She was so excited about her new found toy. She would wave it up in the air then wave it down by her feet. In fact she waved it so proudly by her feet, that the leaf fell off the stem. She looked up at us with such horror in her eyes that it nearly broke my heart. She carefully picked up the leaf handed it to granny and gave her a look that begged that she fix it. We told her that it was broken and she looked sad for a moment then she walked off carrying what was left of her baoon.

It reminded me of the Winnie The Pooh story where they had the deflated balloon. I walked out and found another leaf attached to its stem and carefully handed it to Bella. Her eyes shined and her grin was so big it took over her pretty little face. She looked at me as though I had given her the most amazing thing she had ever seen.


Things get busy sometimes and I get a little tired, a little crabby (imagine that), and sometimes a little down. But then I get a pleasant reminder of the good in our life. Those everyday baoons appear to remind me!

The Window

I bet you can't find me Mommy!

Keep looking Mommy!

I am gonna get you Mommy

Peek-A-Boo Mommy!

Bella enjoys playing in the window. She will play peek a boo with us. She also talks to birds, bugs, and people that she sees. She will take her baby doll and a book, sit back there and read away. Sometimes she will even sing behind the blinds. Who could have imagined such a fun play spot!

Dawson's First Birthday!

Little Miss Personality

Bella knows exactly what she wants and when she wants it. She and I have so much fun together. It makes us all smile at Bella's fun little girl ways. She is most definitely all girl. She loves to wrap fabric around her, put necklaces on and pick out her own shoes. I will have her completely ready to go and we will be at the front door to leave when she throws a tantrum, runs into her room and puts a necklace on. She comes back to the door smiles and everything is all better. In the mornings she sits on the bathroom sink and brushes her teeth while I fix her hair. She is getting enough so that I can do fun things! She smiles and makes faces at herself. What a fun time we have!