New Photo Shoot with Bella

I haven't done a photo shoot with Bella for awhile, and although we will be having family pictures taken in about 3 weeks, I wanted some with her with all of our leaves in our backyard. She's so adorable and easy to get pictures with. So, here's what she gave me..

She was loving all the birds and dogs that were out. Her facial expressions say it all! She wasn't so sure about sitting with the leaves at first, but then she liked playing with them. My favorite is posted to the side. Her daddy is smitten with her and swears she could/should be a baby model.

Funny Lit'l Bella!

Isn't she precious?

Bella just loves brushing her teeth. She loves it even more when we give her the toothbrush so she can do it herself.

I think she loves the way it feels against her gums and teeth that are coming in.
However, don't take the toothbrush away until she is ready or this is what you get...

Some more pics I just thought were adorable

Here's some more cute pics, all of them of Bella with everyone. I will NOT be posting any pics with me, simply 'cause I look horrid and don't want them on here. Although, my lovely cuz decided to post them on facebook for all to see. Let's just say-Shamoo anyone? Anywho, this one you can totally tell Bella was LOOVIN' Christina and vice versa. Aren't they just sooo caaute, to boot!Bella always happy when she was with Christina, as long as she didn't see me, then not so much.
Loved, loved, loved the cell phones. She even has a "new" one that was sent home with us. It's her new toy-and yes it really is an old one with the battery taken out.
I love that this face was finally caught in a pic. She does this ALL the time and it is the funniest thing ever. She puckers and brings her bottom lip over the top one. She was havin' a good ole time crawling discovering new and fun things.

Isn't this just precious? She really did enjoy everyone she met, well maybe not Micah that much. She had a hard time warming up to the guys, except Dan. She really liked him. Funny that he doesn't like holding babies, but looked like he was in love with Bella while holding her. She has that affect on people. My cute lit'l babe with her cell phone and her kitty. The real, black one scared her to death when he jumped up on this chair on the arm and hopped up onto the back of it. She learned how to say "moew," now we need to teach her it's "meow." Cute baby, cute aunt, and VERY fun trip. Will remember it ALWAYS!

Washington Trip

Bella and I had a blast on our trip to Washington. I went for my cousin, Christina's, graduation. I couldn't be there for the actual graduation-this Friday, but I went for her family party and to visit them all. I last saw my cousins when Eric and I got married 12 1/2 years ago. I saw my aunt 5 years ago at Christian's funeral, so it's been a long, long, long time. My cousins were little kids and now they are all grown up. Man, time flies when you're having fun. Funny story about the pic below. This is my cousin Dan. He's 21 and refuses to hold babies. He scared to DEATH that he'll drop them. He loved Bella, and as you can see, he held her. Awww, so cute.This is my aunt Sue-Sue. That's what I called her when I was little. Now, it's just auntie Sue. She was smitten with Bella, but then who wouldn't be with this adorable, beautiful girl. She pulls everyone in her who comes across her.
Eventhough it rained, a lot, it was beautiful in Renton. It stopped raining just in time for Christina's party, which was good, cause it was outside. I'm in love with their house, because the backyard is actually a forest. LOVE IT!!! It has a grass area, but then behind it are huge, big, trees and into the forest you go.
Here's all three of my cousins. Christina, Dan-holding Bella again, and Micah-the oldest and he's married now to a cutie-potootie gal, Becca.

Christina cutting her grad cake from Costco. Bella was in pure heaven because she just loves, loves, LOVES cake.

Bella, just lovin' finding new "toys" to play with. She also loved their cat, Cole, unless he came right up to her face, then, not so much.

This is what I woke up to one morning. Yep, those are deer in the backyard. Right smack out the door. My aunt sent me out to scare them off, because they were eating her flowers, but they WERE NOT scared of me. They just stood there starring at me. I have never seen deer in a backyard before. Bella loved them and crawled right up to the door talking away at them. She had a blast. I was so sure she would be scared because it's a new place and a whole lot of new people, but she loved them all. My family loved her to death and were sad to see her, I mean us, go.

We went to the locks in Seattle, the neatest thing ever. I have never seen this before, but they lower and raise water so the boats can pass through. This was one of the big fishing boats that they raised the water for. So cool! Bella just loved trying to climb over the fence, and Christina, well, she just loved holding Bella. They were best buds the whole trip. It's funny, Christina's baby pic looks just like Bella. Cutie Patootie girls.

And here's the cutie patootie newlywed couple. I call them that, because they are only reaching their 3rd Anniversary this summer. That's Becca, Micah's wife. She's real nice and sweet. Good match for my cuz. They've been together since 8th grade, WOW!!

The boat as the water raises up. Very cool to see and watch the boat raise up over you. Big fishing boat. Oh yeah, side note, I saw one of the Deadliest Catch boats docked in Seattle. Those are some big boats, whoa! The Time Bandit apparently comes into Seattle quite a bit.

A trip into Seattle wouldn't be complete without a pic of the space needle. It was a rainy day so we just drove by, but man, the city is an awesome place. Loved it and we had a blast. I can't wait to go back in a year or two with my whole clan. My aunt is gonna put us up and probably go a little crazy with my wild bunch, but it will be a fun time to let them all see all the kids.

Sweet Bella all tuckered out by the crazy, fast trip. She was so good and was an excellent little flyer. On the way there she played with the window, ate a snack and had some juice. She didn't squawk at all. On the way back, as soon as the plane took off she fell asleep and didn't wake up until we touched down in SLC. Good times and I was very glad she was so good and proud too cause there were 3 other babes on our plane that didn't do as well as her. Quick trip, but had tons and tons of fun. Hope to go back soon!

Oh for the love of STRAWBERRIES!

Being that it was Bella's actual birthday yesterday, I just HAD to make her a birthday treat. Eventhough I was way behind on packing and the many other items on my list that needed to be done before this afternoon's flight, I decided to make this glorious beast of strawberry heaven. Ain't she a beaut!Bella just loves, loves, loves strawberries! If I would let her, I think she would eat a whole 4 pound container of Costco strawberries, if I would let her. I don't think so. I like to keep the diaper changes to a minumum thank you very much. Anywho, I thought what not better treat than a homemade strawberry pie. It turned out so good that I can give Marie Callendar's Fresh Strawberry pie a run for its money. I like this one way better and our crazy, sweet-loving bunch finished an entire pie. Good thing I made two, the rest of the clan can have some more tonight when Bella and I are in Washington.

Here's what the yumminess looked like all sliced up and undressed in all her glory. YUMMY! Makes me want another piece right now!
And here she is all dressed in her white, creamy goodness. Best pie ever and very easy. I made my own pie crust then baked it. Then I filled it with a ton of fresh, washed, Costco strawberries, and then I made my own glaze. Now, you can buy the glaze at the grocery store, but I personally think it is nasty. So I made my own with jell-o! Super easy...
1 c sugar
1c water
3 T cornstarch
3 T strawberry jell-o(I personally didn't have any so I used raspberry instead, still sooo good)
Bring to a boil in a saucepan and boil for 1 minute. Take off heat and and 1 teaspoon of lemon juice.
Pour over strawberries in the pie crust and let set up for at least 2 hours in the fridge. Eat and Enjoy, we sure did!

Bella is 1!!!

It's official... Bella Georgia is ONE today! This little gal cracks me up everyday. I was trying to get cute pics of her in her birthday tutu I made, but she SO was NOT havin' it. I got this adorable pic of her while holding her. She finds the camera fascinating, in fact she finds all electronic gadgets and gizmos simply amazing. Forget toys, this one finds pure joy in our T.V. remote. She's definitely ours, all our babes have preferred non-toys as their play things.I love her sweet face.
This is the pink tutu I made. I can't believe how simple it was to make and now my other two "girly" girls are demanding I make them some too. Fine by me, my craftin and bakin keep this momma from the looney bin!
I just had to include this one. I SO don't blame the gal. Tulle is certainly not the most comfy of things to be wearing. Bella hates it on, but loves to play with it when it is sitting on the floor. Oh well, I made it a little bigger so she can wear it into her toddler years as well. She just looks SO cute in it, I couldn't resist "torturing" her again to get some pics.

Bella's Party Part 2

Again, thank you to our friend Jeremy and his pics. He even got some cute ones of Laney and Kaleigh at the party.Laney just loved having all the dum dums she could get her hands on.
I love this pic of Kaleigh. Look at all those freckles. Oh man, does Eric have his work cut out for him with these two girlie girls and fightin' off all them boys!

More of Bella eating her cake.

She loved eating her cake at her own pace. She also loved wearing it. I just love this baby. So cute and adorable, I could just eat her up.

I made my own banner for her birthday with some scrapbook paper I had, ribbon, and pictures on each letter marking her first year. This was my favorite craft I did for her party. I also made her cute little outfit, but forgot to get a pic of it, so I'll have to get one later and post it. The banner started with her birth and ended at 11 months with a place for a pic from her birthday.




Blessing Day

Love, love, love this one. Caught her mid-giggle.


Gotta love a baby dressed as a flower.

The pic I used for her invitations.

Last one ready for her 1st birthday picture to go on.


This is what it looked like hanging up.


I loved doing the decorations all by myself. I had most of the supplies on hand already and they meant a little more to us than just buying the decorations at a party store. I got to fill my crafting bug and show my love for my little girl. We had a blast throwing her bash and I am thankful to the hubs for helping me with the kids so I could get it all done. Love to him always 'cause he helps out so much and never grumbles at me. The other kids have already ordered their birthday wishes at me for their own decorations as well. Looks like I'll be a busy craftin' bee over the next few months, but that's fine by me. I just love to craft and the older kids can help out too. I just love parties!

Bella's 1st Birthday Party and mommy's crafting bug satisfied

Our little munchkin is turning one this week, but we needed to celebrate early due to my little trip to Washington this week and my dad being out of town, so we partied into the night last night for our cute Bella. I wanted to do something special, being it her first birthday and all so I dreamed up Bella's Sweet Shoppe. We had family and family friends over with lots of kids of all ages, so I wanted to keep the kiddos entertained. Enter mounds and mounds of candy and a big backyard to run out all the sugar energy. This is the breakdown of the party...Her cute birthday invite that I hand drew(I really dream and long for a cricut machine, but alas, the moola is just not there for the crafting tool love of my life). I think it's pretty good for hand drawing it.=)
Our candy jars for the shoppe

Bella's cute sign for her shop. Again, I hand drew the cupcake to go along with the theme. The dum dum suckers were a HUGE hit!

Bella needed a entry sign for her party, so enter another craft for me, this cute balloon wreath. I can change out the card for everyone else's birthdays too. Love that I can use it all year long. It's way easy to make and was way cute. It was the kids' favorite decoration that I did.

This is the set up for Bella's Sweet Shoppe. We had suckers, taffy, rainbow licorice, pink whoppers(strawberry flavored), mini brownie bites, and mini baby rattle cupcakes.

Bella loved, loved, loved her cake. She started out being very dainty, but when she realized I wasn't going to take it away, she dove right in. She got it all over her and loved eating big chunks of it. She was by far our messiest cake eater out of all the kids. I wanted just one kid to finally dive into their cake and she certainly didn't dissappoint. I loved it and we had a family friend who took pictures for us and got some amazing pics for us. I am so jealous of his camera and want one badly. This pic above is from my little one and so did not do Bella's cake eating justice, but Jeremy's pics sure did. Thank you Jeremy for all the pics.

One of the big cakes, it was chocolate with chocolate raspberry frosting in the middle.

This was another one of the cakes, a pair of pink booties. It was an orange white cake and YUMMY! Bella had an exact one for her dig in cake.

Bella smashing her cake in her mouth. She just couldn't get it in fast enough. This is one of the pics Jeremy took. I love that we got lots of clear, cute pics.

Bella got her cake everywhere. This one just shows how much she got in her hair. She loved rubbing it in everywhere. Silly girl, she must have heard Eric say I get the honor of the birthday bath. She loves to get extra messy when I have the bath honor.

I love, love, love this one. She even has frosting caked in her eyelashes. So cute looking up though. I just love this little angel. She melts my heart each and everyday. We enjoyed having everyone share Bella's special day with us. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us, for the presents-she loves them all, and for always taking time for us and our family. It's sad to think she will be one on Wednesday, it went by so fast. But we look forward to all the fun of the many special moments in her life. We love you Bella and are very happy to have you in our family. You light up our lives and your brothers and sisters love you tons. Many joys and happiness we wish you as you grow up. Beautiful Bella, we love you tons and Happy Birthday sweet girl!