Terrible Twos..

It's official. The terrible twos have arrived!

 Here are some common things we hear around the house:

- I don't want to listen (who does??)
- If I ask her to do something she will say, "why don't you do it?" (fair question, right?)
- I want to be a big girl! 

Yesterday I caught her in the kitchen with a sippy cup, milk and strawberry milk mix. She had already poured her milk and was in the process of mixing in the strawberry mix. Seriously? When did she get so big??


But while we have an independent, self-defiant, strong willed little turkey at times.. we also have a sweet, well-mannered and kind child.

She throws compliments to her mama all day long and is the sweetest little girl you have ever seen with animals. She loves her family and friends. She loves to play and loves to visit grandma's house.

She says "thank you" and "please". She says "Yes, ma'am" to daddy (ha!).


Tonight I commented to Justin just how well she fits into the family. She always has.

The Circus!

Last weekend we took Bella to the circus. Our little family plus grandma, Tazy and Ty came along. Grandpa was supposed to go but he was sick so Tayzhia got to take his place. It was fun!

Sorry these pictures aren't the best. It was hard to get good pictures during the show.

Tigers

Elephants

We had a great time. Bella was a little too young and didn't really get into it. She was ready for it to end about half way through. Her dad was ready for it to end before we even got there. Such a grinch sometimes but we love him anyway. Plus it was his birthday so he can cry if he wants to. Ha ha!

Union Station Museums

After pictures we decided to go through some of the museums at the Union Station. It's kind of fun being a tourist in your own city.

The Golden Spike

The Stanley Steamer.. is it sad I had no idea there was a car called this?

Morse code

Gandy Dancer

So some of these pictures are funny. I finally got the Camera lens I've been wanting but it doesn't zoom out so it doesn't work great for museums. It's great for portraits and macro though! I'm doing a photography workshop online in October and I can't wait!

Bella's Fall Portraits

I am so happy my girl is finally getting to the age where she will sit still for some pictures. She was SO excited to get ready to go take pictures are the train station.

I got TONS of great pictures. Here are some of my favorite ones..

 I love her cheesy grin!

This one is funny because Justin was holding a dollar bill over my head trying to get her attention. She LOVES money! LOL!

She is such a pretty girl. I love her so much!

Park City

Saturday we packed our bags and headed to grandma's house. Bella was SO excited. It was her first sleepover ever! I was not so excited. I didn't want to leave my cute girl.

Bella was even more excited when we got to grandma and grandpa's house. She acted like she hadn't seen grandpa in years.

Bella headed right off in the backyard to play. She barely noticed when we left. I was happy that she was in such good hands. I love that I can leave her with people who I know love her (almost) as much as I do.

We headed straight to Park City and checked in at our hotel. It has been about 7 or 8 years since I've been there and I immediately was ready to move. It's soooo beautiful and clean there. I love it. Summer is the best time to go as it's not crowded at all. We headed straight to Main St.

And I fell in love with..

The post office! Who would have thought that it would be so adorable! I imagined taking my packages there to drop off every day. Justin thinks I'm crazy.

We had to take a break from walking and rest a bit.. Justin is quite the bear but I love him anyway.

We ended up eating at a little restaurant right on Main called The Eating Establishment. It was surprisingly good. We made two trips that night to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Ha!

The next morning I couldn't wait to see Bella! We had breakfast at Squatters and then headed straight home. Bella did really good at grandma's and only at bedtime did she start missing her mom and wanted to go home. She packed herself a bag of chocolate covered raisins, a dish cloth and a box of pop tarts and announced she was ready to go home! They watched a move and she fell asleep. She was so excited to see us when we got back.




 I really wanted to go to the outlets but they didn't open until 11 and there was no way I was waiting any longer to get home so we will have to go again soon. We had a great time and I can't wait to take Bella!

Our 5 year anniversary

Yesterday was our 5 year anniversary. It was nice and rainy just like our wedding day. We planned on getting married outside but it was freezing cold! So we decided to move the wedding indoors and I'm happy that we did. It was very beautiful.

We went as a family to Roosters for lunch yesterday. It was fun. Later on Bella and I ran to the Vintage Cupcake Co and bought some cupcakes. They were pretty good. Justin said they were the best cupcakes he has ever had. Bella really liked the pink ones. They were cotton candy flavored.

Tonight we are headed to Park City and I'm excited! It's the first time that we have left Bella overnight and it makes me nervous! But she is really excited for her sleepover and I'm sure she will have a great time. Guess I better go get ready since it's one o'clock and I haven't even started packing!

My little ballerina

Dance has started back up and this little one could not be happier. Dance has been a really good thing for Bella. She is super duper shy and where she isn't in day care, I feel that it's good for her to socialize and be around other kids. It's also a great confidence builder plus I want her to grow up healthy and active.

She is still in Mommy & Me this year but it's the step 2 class so it's a little bit more advanced. This years class is a little crazy as there are about 8 girls all with different personalities. Last year was a lot more mellow with 5 girls who were all rather quiet. It's going to be a fun year!

Bella actually likes taking pictures lately (for the first time in her whole life!) so I feel like I actually got some decent shots!

A perfect 2 year old arabesque.

Cheese!

I love the picture above. She makes the silliest faces while trying to take pictures. Adorable! I'm going to take her to the train station in the next couple of days to do some portraits of her. I can't wait!

Home {Pre} School

 A couple of days ago, Bella got herself dressed, packed her backpack and politely asked me to drop her off at school. Cutest thing ever! But I don't think the school would appreciate me dropping my two and half year old at kindergarten. I've been considering doing a preschool routine at home and decided that now is a good time to start.

Today we stopped at Office Max and picked her up some school supplies. I bought her a binder to hold her papers, a white board to put her letter, number, shape or color of the week on and a calender. We are really excited to start on Monday.

I also found a great online curriculum to follow. You can view it here.

P.S. I've decided to wait on putting the blog on private, that is if I ever decide to do it at all. I hid that post just because it showed everyones email addresses. I still have them though if I need them. :)