Discovery Gateway

In one day Bella was a frog, a news anchor, a cowgirl, she rode a horse, drove a car and went grocery shopping.. and she had a blast! Last weekend we took Bella to Discovery Gateway. She is so curious lately so she just loved it. It's fun having a little one and having an excuse to go play.

Easter

Yay! I finally have a new computer so I can actually keep up with blogging. Although I got a lot more done around the house, it drove me insane not having a laptop.

Easter was a lot of fun. Bella sort of looked for eggs and she was really excited about her Easter basket. She looked so beautiful in her Easter dress. We had Easter dinner at my parent's house.

Bella Roo and Springtime Too!

We are SO excited for spring. I've been pretty sick the last couple of days but I had to take Bella out today to enjoy the warm(er) weather the other day. It was good for both of us. Justin's dad has been really sick too lately. He's been in the hospital the last couple of weeks and then they just moved him to a nursing home for rehabilitation. He should be able to go home after a few more weeks.

I don't post as much anymore because my laptop is reaching the end of it's long and fruitful life. It will just randomly shut off... and it's really annoying. Hopefully I'll be able to get a new one when we get our tax return back. We wouldn't have bought one sooner but I wanted to wait until we could get the one that I wanted.

Bella is growing up so fast. She's really interdependent lately and plays by herself for hours. The Dr said that she is on a 14-15 month level, which didn't really surprise me. She's always been a little bit ahead of the game. Here are Bella's 12 month tidbits...

• She's really good at screaming.. this is when I wish I would have stuck to the baby sign language thing better. It's her little way of telling me she wants something.
• She likes songs with motions.. Itsy Bitsy Spider, Patty Cake..etc. I need more songs! She does the Itsy Bitsy spider part with me.
• She tries to jump. She saw me do it and she tries but doesn't get any air. I'll have to record it. It's sooo funny.
• She likes Nick Jr. and discovered Blue's Clues this morning.
  
• She still LOVES to dance.

I'm sure there is more but I'm not good about writing things down (or taking pictures!) like I used to be.. I'll make a goal to be better at those two things.

Peanut Butter Bars

{Click the picture to enjoy these delicious morsels in all their glory}

My boss Dawnell makes the best peanut butter bars EVER! I decided to make them even though I was worried they wouldn't turn out as good as hers and I'd be disappointed. Let me tell you, they were so easy and turned out so good. Here is the recipe I used:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup oatmeal
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
chocolate frosting (I just used chocolate fudge frosting for cakes and it worked out perfect!)

Cream butter and sugars, add egg, peanut butter and vanilla, add dry ingredients then add oatmeal. Press in bottom of 13x9 pan
Bake 350 for 15-20 min until very lightly brown around the edges. Be careful not to over bake!
Remove from oven, spread peanut butter while warm let cool then frost with chocolate frosting.

When I took mine out of the oven, they were golden brown around the edges but really gooey in the middle. Once they cooled down they were perfect!

Isabella's 1st Birthday Party!

Yesterday we had Bella's 1st birthday party. We just had a little get together at my mom's with the family. We ate spaghetti, opened presents and had cake. Isabella got soooo many presents. We got her a kitchen, bathtub toys, and clothes. Grandma, grandpa and Ty got her a toy puppy, clothes, Sweetie Belle My Little Pony, a My Little Pony Baby, and a kitty keyboard. Skye and AJ got her pans for her kitchen, play food and a tea set. She got a few other little things as well. Here are the pictures from her party.

Party Time!

I had a really hard time deciding on a cake theme. Bella really likes to watch Sponge Bob with Justin but the Care Bear cake was sooo cute. I showed them to her and let her pick.. and guess who won?

So many changes in a year..

Countless nights of interrupted sleep. Watching Ellen at 3 am. Calling mom with questions. Trips to the doctor. Tiny socks and little blankets. Sticky fingers. Spongebob Squarepants. The Alphabet song and Little Bunny Foo Foo. Dr. Suess. Peek-a-boo. Winnie the Pooh stories. Outlet covers. The bottom half of the fridge being covered with alphabet magnets. Packing a diaper bag. Washing tiny plates and tiny spoons. Toys scattered across the floor. Seeing everything through the eyes of a child; the zoo, Christmas, different foods, snow, windshield wipers, the stars.

This has been the most amazing year of my life. I can't even describe how much I love this little girl. I'm overwhelmed today with how grateful I am for the gift we were given one year ago.

Happy Birthday Isabella!

Busy Bees

We've been busy busy busy! I've been busy working, working, cleaning, working.. oh yeah and planning for Isabella's birthday party! Bella turns 1 this Friday. I seriously can't wait!

And Bella has been busy getting into everything. She is walking and she is definitely my tiny lil' explorer. I like looking at this milestone chart and seeing what she should be doing. Most of the time she has hit the advanced skills before the end of the month. Such a little smarty pants!
Be prepared for lots of pictures in the next couple of weeks!

Zumba!

My sister and I started doing a fitness routine called Zumba at Studio 48. The first class was yesterday and it is such a blast! I've been wanting a good workout lately but I'm not really into running or weight training. The hour flew by even though we had no idea what we are doing. Zumba is a Latin rhythms dance class and apparently it's the new hottest thing. I hadn't even heard about it until my sister asked me if I wanted to start going to this class with her.

I have a funny story about this.. my 8 year old niece is in the competition dance classes at Studio 48. When she heard that me and Skye were going to start doing the Zumba class at her dance studio she asked if we were going to be in the recital. Ha ha I can't even imagine having to dance in the recital at this age!

{grateful}

I've been kind of down lately and I'm not really sure why. Stress most likely.. trying to keep up with working full time, vinyl orders, keeping the house together and wanting to spend every second with my little cupcake. I guess it's not hard to figure out why I'm overwhelmed.

But today has just been one of those when I realize how lucky I am. And I am SO thankful. I can't imagine my life any different (besides the working so much part ;). I have a wonderful husband who works his tail off to take care of us. And I have the most beautiful, loving, sweet little girl. So today I just wanted to say, be thankful of every second and every bit of you life. No matter where it takes you, because it is yours and only yours.

"Promise me you'll always remember:
You're braver than you believe,
and stronger than you seem,
and smarter than you think."
-Christopher Robin