Santa Take 2 & Cook Children's Tree Lighting

We got up this AM and went to the little scrapbook store in Weatherford to see Santa for the second time. We were hoping to get a picture where Bella isn't screaming. This is about as close as we got.

This is one of the ladies from the store holding Bella trying to get her closer to Santa.

We even brought in familiar things to try and take the edge off.

Oh well, at least she would look at Santa without screaming! :)

Tonight we went to Cook Children's Hospital (who Grant works for) to watch their tree lighting and fireworks show. They really know how to put on a good show. Grant kept saying that he thought the fireworks rivaled that of one for the 4th of July.

This is picture is taken in the front atrium.

Standing outside waiting for the show to start.

Grant and Bella watching the fireworks. Funny, the loud fireworks don't bother Bella, but a quiet, old Santa scares her to death!

Jingle Bell Run

Last night we all WALKED the Jingle Bell Run with family and friends and had a great time! Bella was so bundled up she could hardly move or see, but Mama didn't want her to get cold. Having great conversation with Grandpa. Matt Ford and Grant with their babes."Hey little guy, where'd you go?!"

Christmas Tree

After Bella went to bed tonight Grant and I decorated the Christmas tree. Isn't it pretty! Now I can start wrapping presents.

Christmas Tree Hunt

Well, we went back to the place in Flower Mound that had the cool pumpkin patch for a Christmas tree, but we were very disappointed! I guess we went too early. Last weekend was the first weekend and we went on a Wednesday, but most of the decorations that they showed on the website weren't up yet and their trees were really expensive. So after about 15 min. of walking around and getting these few cute photos we piled back in the car and headed to good ole' Home Depot for our tree. It's going to work just fine and for much less. We are going to decorate it tonight so I'll put pictures up tomorrow.

Cheerleader In The Making

Two of Bella's older cousins went to cheerleading camp this summer and one of them has been cheering for a peewee football team this fall. They were showing us their cheers and decided Bella needed to learn as well (with her Aunt's help of course).

Grandparents

Bella had so much fun with PaPa, Gran and Grandpa at Thanksgiving!

Bundling Up

Grant, Bella and I went to the Ranch for Thanksgiving and we convinced my dad to come with us. We had a great time! One of our favorite things to do at the ranch is to go walk around, but as you know Thanksgiving was a little nippy, for Texas, so we had to bundle Bella up. She didn't like it too much. We finally got her to keep the hat on once we started our walk and she was distracted, but the mittens never made it.

Motorin' Machine

Bella is a Motorin' Machine. She isn't walking on her own quite yet, but it won't be long. She is pulling herself up and very steady walking when she has someone helping her. Yesterday she almost stood up without holding on to anything. She had her bottom up in the air ready to go. All she needed to do was stand up. To be honest, it scared me, I think she would have toppled right over if she had even gotten up. She's not THAT steady yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if she's walking by Christmas!

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Bella was traumatized by Santa today. Poor baby! Mommy is so mean!
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Lone Curl

Seemed like Bella's hair would never grow. Now it's evidently long enough to curl. This one just happened on it's own.

Dr. Report

Bella saw her pediatrician yesterday and he said everything looked great! She's 23 pounds and 31.5 inches long. That makes her in the 50% for weight and 70% for height. He wasn't as concerned about her crawling and walking as the Child Study Center. He kept saying we have to remember that she was 3 months premature and she is going to be delayed for a little while. Same thing for her speech. He was pleased that she is starting to pull herself up to things and said she may not crawl, but go straight to walking.

She is scooting very efficiently now and is almost faster than I can keep up with. She is pulling herself up to the couch and in her crib. When I went in to get her from her nap today I found teeth marks on the railing. Ouch!

Our Little Ladybug

Child Study Center & New Skirt

Well, we were all excited because we thought Bella had started crawling, but she has only crawled two times for a few "steps" and continues to scoot the rest of the time. On Friday we went to the Child Study Center for Bella's 15 month NIGrads evaluation. She got high scores on everything but her crawling and walking, which we expected. They are suggesting physical therapy. So when we see her pediatrician next week we are supposed to talk about it with him. Grant and I have decided that if this is all we have to worry about with the way she started out we are very lucky!

Our friend Cari learned to sew this summer and we are benefiting from her expertise! She made this cute skirt for Bella. Still lugging Bunny around with us!

Farmin' In My Overalls

Grandpa Garvin just got back from a month or more in Illinois harvesting corn with a childhood friend. In many of his pictures he is wearing his overalls. I thought it was cute that Bella was playing with her farm today in her overalls.

Pumpkin Patch

The three of us went to a neat pumpkin patch in Flower Mound to get our pumpkins and gourds. This place is so cool! They have hay rides, mazes, face painting and lots of other things for kids to do in addition to a HUGE selection of pumpkins of any size or shape you could possibly want. Of course Bella is still too young to do very much of it, but it's still a great place to go. Thank you to my friend Cari for telling us about it. Anyway here are some pictures from our fun visit.

"Do I want to drive the tractor or do I want you to?"

"Mom, look how big I am!"

"Smile and say cheese!" Bella didn't want to do her cheesy smile on this day.
"I think I'll take that one!"Playing in the straw

Throwing the straw

"Okay, one last picture."

Football

Our friend Carlin played on the Glen Rose JV football team this week so we all went to cheer him on. Bella had quite the time playing musical laps. Bella & Grant
Bella & Katy

Scooting

We finally have scooting! Bella scooted across the floor on her bottom today to get to my recycled paper basket! Then later she was on the rug in the living room trying to get up on her knees to push forward and get her bunny. She might actually crawl!
AND
She also stopped crying before I left the nursery this morning at church! Yippee! What a day!

Family Farm, Toys and Dress Up

This is Bella playing with a Fisher Price farm set that I had has a child. She loved it! Bella rearranging her toy box.
We went to our friends Bart and Cari's house last night and their little girl, Lauren, dressed up Bella with some hats and things that were being handed down to her. Bella was a great sport... even had a good time...

Until now!