Summer 2010 review

The leaves are slowly starting to change and our wedding anniversary is right around the corner.. that means that summer is almost over! We had such a fun summer. It was nice to be able to spend it home with my daughter and not worry about a 9-5 job. I'm one happy mama. Here is what we were up to this summer.

• Camping at Skye & AJ's property
• Bedroom redecoration
• Swimming
• Dinosaur museum
• Splash pad
• Playing outside
• Going to the park
• Carver's Cove
• Relaxing at home
• The Children's Museum
• Jaden's baseball games
• Hanging out at grandma & grandpa's house

That's all I can think of for now! I love love love taking Bella and doing new things. Everything looks so different through her eyes. I'm excited for all of the holidays to finish out 2010. Lovin' life!

Airplanes & Birds!

Bella loves airplanes and birds right now. She loves to sit outside and watch them. And she waves to them. It's so sweet!

Dance!

Bella all dressed up & ready for dance

 I took Bella to her first dance class yesterday. She is at a really shy stage right now and she wasn't to sure of it yet. Luckily it's a Mommy & Me class so I get to stay with her the whole time and help her. They learned how to stand on their tippy toes and learned to do toe jumps. They also got to practice somersaults. Her teacher is super cute and gave the girls stickers and let them play with princess wands. Bella is definitely the youngest dancer in her class (the age group is 18 months to 3 years).

Tiny little ballet shoes

She looks so pretty in her dance outfit and loves to dance at home. I'm sure she will warm up soon and have fun dancing with her new friends!

Happy Birthday Ty & AJ!

Yesterday was Ty's birthday, the big 14! He is the best little brother a girl could ever hope for!

Today is AJ's (my sister's husband) birthday. He is the big 21 (ha ha ha). Happy Birthday boys!

Yesterday we went to Boondocks to celebrate and the to our favorite restaurant Lorena's. Boondocks was a blast, wish we had the camera. Lorena's was a nightmare. They ran out of beans (what Mexican restaurant runs out of beans?!) and they didn't tell us until after they brought out our "burritos". They also ran out of their homemade tortillas so they used different ones and it was not a good thing. Our waitress was rude about it and so was the owner. Sad. Lorena's smothered burritos are AMAZING but their service has always been terrible. It's sad that not all business owner's care about their customers the way they should. Oh well we still had fun!

3 years

Today it has been 3 years since my dad died. 3 years. I wish I could say it's easier now but it's really not. This past year I've missed him so much. I want him to know Bella. I want him to see where I'm at in my life and be proud of me, because he always was and he always told me he was. I need that right now.

I know I haven't really talked a lot about my dad's death on my blog because it's hard to talk about. I had a lot of regrets when my dad died. Month before he died I had a feeling that I needed to fix things, to say the things that I've always wanted to say but of course I didn't. I feel like I've moved past that now and I have told him the things I needed to say. I know he understands. I believe that he can still see us and he's always watching over us. And I know that I'll see him again and it will be at a time and place where the unsaid doesn't need to be said. Today though, my heart is heavy with sadness.. but also with love and I'm grateful for all the beautiful memories I have of him.

This is the headstone that my sister and I got for him. It's beautiful and so perfect. It stands out so much at the Ogden City Cemetery. It makes me happy when I see it.

The front of his headstone is created from a painting he painted me when I was a little girl.

His favorite song. The guitar is a Fender, just like his.

18 Months

I can't believe that it's almost time to start planning another birthday party. I've been meaning to a do an 18 month photo shoot with Bella but haven't done it yet. I'm such a slacker lately when it comes to taking pictures!

Bella loves:
-Airplanes. She gets so excited when she sees them.
-Dogs, especially our dogs. One of my dogs can jump over the baby gate and the other can't. Bella will stand at the baby gate and scream until I let the dog in that can't jump over it. They are so patient with her climbing on them and poking them in the eyes. Luckily.
-Her newly decorated room. It's so pretty and definitely my favorite room in the house now.
-Chinese food. She is getting so picky and I was worried when we went out for chinese food the other day. But she loved everything, especially the fortune cookie.
-Her binky. I'm in so much trouble. The goal was to have her broken from it by 18 months but that obviously didn't happen. For sure by 2.
-Purses and shoes. She likes to carry around my purses on her shoulder and loves putting everyone's shoes on & trying to walk around in them. It's so cute.
-She likes pushing cars around on the floor and even makes car sounds.
-She LOVES collecting rocks. And eating them. Ahh!
-Macaroni & Cheese!

Bella does NOT like loud sounds lately including the lawn mower, vacuum, & hair dryer. She also hates getting her diaper changed and getting her face washed.

It's almost time to start thinking about potty training. Anybody have any tips?

Random Bella pictures..

She was NOT impressed with the riding lawn mower.

The Zoo!

We love the zoo. We really do. A couple of weekends ago we all went to the zoo and it was a blast! The weather was perfect. Bella is really into animals right now and loves making the animal sounds. Baby Zuri (the elephant) is getting bigger & not as much fun as last year. She is still cute though! It has been such a fun summer, I'm really sad that it's almost over. But on to my favorite season.. FALL!

Drinking out of the iconic lion fountain for the first time!

Jaden, Ty, Emma, Tayzhia, Bella & Gretchen

Toby Toby Toby..

That's ALL I ever hear from my mama. She looovvveeessss him so much. So when she won another meet & greet through her fan club (that she totally deserved after being in the fan club for 10 years!) we were totally excited for her. This time she had to meet him all alone but she was happy because she was the only one who got to be in the picture with him. :)


Above is the picture from when they got to meet him in 2008. Read that post here. She had just finished her cancer treatments & her hair was just starting to grow back. I'm so glad she got to meet him again now that she feels better. Yay mom!

365 to Greatness Project

Those who know me, know that I AM a positive person. I look for the bright side in things, always & everywhere. If something bad happens it only affects me for awhile and then I know that it will pass. I've always been this way. But in the last couple of years I have changed. I'm not as happy go lucky as I used to be. I let things worry me and I worry until I make myself sick. I had a rough couple of years. My life started in a downward spiral, from having a miscarriage, working & going to school full time, my dad passing away, my mom being diagnosed with cancer.. The rain was pouring and pouring hard. I think during those years, I changed.

Things started to turn around when I had Bella. I stressed so much during my pregnancy that something would go wrong and when it didn't I was SO grateful. I needed that. But I know that I'm not the same that I used to be and I miss that. Since I've been working from home I have really been trying to turn things around so when I saw this project called 365 To Greatness, I knew that I had to do it. All that you need to do, is try something new everyday for a year. And the beauty of it all is that you don't need to do something fancy every day. How about trying out that restaurant that you've always wanted to or taking your kids to that new park? I started a new tab along the top of my blog. I will post in this tab everyday with what I did that day.

I'm so excited about this and I hope some of you will join too!

We love summertime!