10 Months Old!

Yep, it's already been a month and Bella has hit the 10 month mark. She actually turned 10 months old on the 26th but we haven't had time to post yet! Here are her 10 month milestones..

• She can shake her head yes and no.
  
• She can say "oh wow, "nom nom" (yum yum), da da, & ma ma.
• She waves to everyone and everything.
• She LOVES dancing. She can dance standing up without holding onto anything.
  
• She can stand up really well.
  
• She is learning to play peekaboo.
• She learned how to feed the dogs. She isn't too sure about sharing :)
• She will hand something she is holding to you when asked.
• Her favorite songs are Cowboy Casanova (still), Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus (I even caught Justin playing it for her the other day), the Spongebob Theme song, and the Ellen Show Theme song.
  

I'm sure there are more things but this is all I can think of right now. She is learning new things everyday! She is so much fun and I can't believe how fast her first birthday is approaching.

Christmas 2009

This Christmas was seriously the best EVER! On Christmas Eve we went to my Aunt Carlene's for dinner. The picture above is Bella with her great great grandparents. How special is that? We cherish every moment that we have both of them here with us.

Christmas day was so much fun. Bella helped open all of her presents and played for about a hour before she ate breakfast. As we were opening presents, she said "oh wow!". I was saying it as I helped her unwrap her presents and I couldn't believe it when she copied me. We are definitely to the point where we have to watch what we say :)

Later we went to my mom's to exchange presents and to eat dinner. By then Bella was too excited and there was too much going on for her to be interested in opening gifts. She had lots of fun trying to keep up with her cousins and Uncle Ty.

This Christmas was simply amazing. It wasn't about the gifts or the food, it was about seeing Christmas through a child's eyes. It's about cherishing the special bond between family and friends. It's about the gift Heavenly Father sent to the world so long ago.. and so much more. And I am more and more grateful each day that I have Justin and Bella in my life. They are the only gift I needed (although I'm not about to give up the remote start I got for my car, getting Justin to install it will be next year's Christmas gift..ha ha ha).

Happy Birthday Mom!! Sorry about the cake..

Last Saturday was my mom's birthday. We went to Lorena's and then went home for cake & ice cream. Bella taste tested the cake to make sure it was good. I'm pretty sure it got her seal of approval. Happy Birthday Mom!! Love you!

Secret Santa

A lot of you know my friend Sierra and her wonderful family so you might have heard about this already. I wanted to share it here also because I think it is a really special story.

I'm a really huge fan of the Morning Zoo on 97.1 ZHT. I've listened since high school and every year they help out a Utah family that has had a rough year. I submitted Sierra's story on their website and prayed that they would get picked. I got a call from the radio station several weeks later saying that they were chosen! I was so excited! We had to find a way to keep Sierra home the morning that they were going to surprise her so her boss told her they had an emergency meeting at 4 pm and that she need to come into work late. I recruited my buddy Steph who also happens to have lots of ties with Sierra's family. We worked out the details with the radio station and everything was set! The morning of, the radio station had me go to the studio so that I could read the story that I submitted. I was so nervous to have to talk on the radio and I was nervous that somehow something wouldn't turn out right. I got to the radio station and DB came to waiting room to escort us back to the studio. They got me headphones and handed me a printed out copy of the story to read on the air. You can listen to the whole thing below.. just a warning.. you may need tissues! It was so awesome! They provided her family with an entire Christmas.

This Christmas has been really special for me anyway because of Bella but this really reminded me what the true meaning of Christmas is. It had nothing to do with all the gifts that they were given but it was so nice to relieve some stress and bring joy and happiness to a family who has been through such a rough year. It was unbelievable to me how many people were involved in this to make it happen. It just goes to show how wonderful Sierra and Bob are. They are so very loved! Lots of thanks to everyone who helped me, including Steph and Kim (Sierra's boss). And of course a HUGE thank you to everyone at 97.1 ZHT, especially Stacy (the promotions director) and Frankie, DB, and Jessica. Read the story and listen to what was played on the radio here..http://www.971zht.com/pages/secretsanta/ It's the one listed as Jaxon, Ashton, Alexia. Merry Christmas everyone!