Christmas 2010

This year for Christmas we had Christmas Eve at our house,with my family and Cory's family over for breakfast on Christmas morning. Except my mom has to come to everything, because I love her.
Bella had a Barbie Christmas and loves the magical things that Santa picked for her. And yes even the dogs get their own stockings.











Christmas day afternoon we all went to moms house where opened presents and ate even more. My mom made amazing quilts for the grandkids. What a great new snuggle!

Family pictures

This year for family picture we went to Memory Grove Park where Cory and I got married. It was a cold day and we were trying to beat the rain but Janelle did a great job and there were a lot of wonderful pictures to choose from. I can't believe how much Bella has changed over the year.

Halloween 2010

This year for Halloween Bella was a 50's girl. Yes, this is a costume that I spent weeks talking her into. We did the ARUP parade for the last time this year, which I still can't believe. She ended up loving her costume, and even the rain didn't stop us.





School friends.





She loves to strike a pose

Visiting the witches

Bella, mom and I went to Gardner Village to see their Halloween decorations and check out the different witches.

Each witch was different and it was fun to search for each one.

Bella got her face painted, a butterfly of course.

Kim , Simon and Harper joined us. Bella dragged (litteraly) Simon from witch to witch and showed him all the highlights.

It was a fun day filled with cookies and witches. I was hoping after Bella saw all of the different costumes she would be closer to choosing what she wants to be for Halloween , but we still have too many choices. Oh well-

Crafting, cleaning and a hole

Now that I am done with school I have time to craft again. The world of craft blogs is amazing! I am loving all of the ideas out there and want to try them all. Right now I am addicted to making flowers. Most of them are for your hair but you can put them on clothes or anything else. If anybody wants some let me know- I have lots to give away.







The only way Bella would let me take her picture is if she could put the bow and flowers in. Oh well.

A couple of weeks ago Bella showed us her wiggly tooth. She was so excited but I was nervous - wasn't it too early?! My great friend Chelsea is a hygentist and I had already talked to her about Bella coming in for a cleaning. The wiggiler made it a great time to go get thigs checked out.

Bella was a little nervous since this was her first time going to the dentist (yeah Im like 2 years behind, better late than never right ?!?), but she was brave and did a great job of letting Chelseas clean all of her teeth.The dentist said it was a little early for a loose tooth but that is how some kids are - and its nothing to worry about. There is a spot on her front teeth that we will be getting a consult with a pediatric dentist about, but the rest was great!

I guess it did the trick- the next day when I picked her up from school she ran to me with a hole in her mouth. She was so excited to have lost a tooth. Her wonderful teacher made a special envelope for her tooth and to date the occassion.

The tooth fairy did visit and Bella woke us at 1:00am with that news. She keeps looking in the mirror to make sure that she still has a lost tooth. I wonder if she'll be sad when the new tooth finally comes in?

One Year Ago

One year ago we were here

To see these amazing people.

Since I didn't blog last year I am going to write about it this year. This is Arters Farms in Medina Ohio where my mom was born and raised. Most of her family is still in the area so we planned a family reunion there. Mom flew with Cory, Bella and I, and my sister Traci drove cross country with her family to be there. It was a fast and amazing trip. It was so great to spend time with the Arters and for Bella (and Cory) to meet most of the family.

Bella thought it was great that her cousins came to her vacation.

Bella and her "new grandmas"

There were so many things that I learned on the trip. For example you can never pack too many activities for a 3 year old to do on an airplane, NEVER fly through Chicago (the worlds worst airport for on time arrivals and take off). But the most important is that any time spent with family is all that really matters.

Swimming Lessons

Bella is taking swimming lessons for the 1st time (better late than never) and is loving every minute of it. At first she was nervous to put her head under water but now she acts like a pro. I'm so glad she loves it and I'm sure there will be more years of lessons.