First Haircut

Bella got her first haircut today. I am really bummed that I didn't get any pictures! It wasn't very much, just a little off the back to try and even up the layers. I did save some of the hair so I at least have that. She sat in my lap and did such a good job! She hardly squirmed at all.

Grandpa's Birthday

Today was Grandpa's birthday and we got to celebrate with him! I wish I could say that I made this delicious cherry pie, but I bought it at Central Market. I highly recomend it!

 Bella helped Grandpa blow out his candle, but...

 I didn't get a very good picture so here is the retake.:)

Happy birthday, Daddy/Grandpa! So glad we got to spend it with you! Love you!

Halloween 2011

Halloween was a really fun time for us this year. Our friends the Thomases came to celebrate with us and Bella was old enough to actually trick-or-treat. That was so cute to watch, but first she had to fight Daddy for her costume!

 I couldn't believe I got Bella to actually wear the hood to her costume. She did start taking it off about half way through the trick-or-treating, but every time I told her she had to put it back on to go to a door and she would.

 In her defense the hood was a little big. Where's Bella?

 There she is!

 Sorry for the butt shot, but here is Bella at one of the first houses. She never actually said "Trick-or-Treat", but she did hoot like and owl and say "Thank you".

 Bella has never really had candy before so she was fascinated by it. She knew exactly what to do with the lollipops though.

 Bella loved these little pumpkins. She kept moving them around one by one. I think we have four of them.

 We did actually let her open one of the lollipops to eat, boy what a mess. I'm sure you experienced parents are laughing right now knowing exactly what I'm talking about. I couldn't get her costume off of her fast enough to save it from the sticky saliva. Poor thing that ended up being all the candy she had because we ran out of candy and had to use hers to supplement. Before you start feeling sorry for her and think we are horrible parents let me just say that she hasn't even missed it and Daddy and I probably would have eaten most of it anyway!:)

Pumpkin Patch

We made our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday and had all kinds of fun! First we had to measure how much Bella had grown from last year. Wow, doesn't she look different!

 Then she had to take pictures too!

And then we needed to meet the scarecrow!

 Daddy and Bella needed to be pumpkins, after all we are at a pumpkin patch!

 Picking pumpkins with Strawberry Shortcake. Little does Bella know that she was one of her mother's favorite characters growing up.

 Then there was the straw maze. Good thing it was open on top since Daddy had to go too. You can see a little bit of his green shirt in the top right corner of the picture.

 Bella has just started being interested in trains. Here she really is saying "All Aboard!"

 Bella's first experience in a bounce house. I think you can tell from these pictures how much she liked it. We had to drag her out.

 Finally, we have found our perfect pumpkin friend to take home!

Water Bug

Gran put in a pool this summer. We got to enjoy it this weekend even though it was pretty cold. Bella all of a sudden just decided she didn't want Daddy's help and struck out on her own. Here is a video of her be-bopping along. She did actually move around the pool although you can't really tell from the video. She liked to go over to the side so she could play in the waterfalls. We got her out and put her in the warm hot tub periodically to warm her up. We're not really sure what gave her the desire for independence in the water, but we hope it's still there next summer!

Physical Therapy

When we met with the speech therapist she noticed Bella being physically unstable and out of balance so she recommended that we get a PT evaluation done. During her evaluation I thought we were going to here the same thing that we heard during her speech evaluation that everything was fine, she was just a little delayed, but catching up nicely. That was not the case. The therapist had many things that she was concerned about and after scoring Bella's diagnostic test found her to be at the level of a 16-18 month old. So we are going going to therapy once a week and getting some orthodic braces to correct her flat footedness and the turning in of her feet which should turn her knees out to their correct position. A lot of the exercises the therapist is having us do at home can be done on the playground so we are going almost every night much to Bella's delight. We are also making tunnels out of boxes for her to crawl through and what kid doesn't like to play in boxes?! :) Bella absolutely loves therapy! I'm going to have to get creative in finding a way to get her to leave without pitching a fit. She doesn't want to leave when it is time to go. I'm taking that as a good sign.

Catching Up

It's been so long since I blogged I've got several cute pictures to talk about. This first one is of Bella sitting in a rocker that my dad made in shop class in high school! It has survived all of my siblings and me using it all through our childhood. The  other great thing about this picture is her choice of reading material. Bella is reading one of my scrapbooking magazines instead of watching TV!

 Bella has a fascination with my shoes and on this day with my hat as well. Any time I take off my shoes I have to immediately put them away if I don't want Bella to put them on. She's getting pretty good at walking around in them. Of course she has the ever present bunny with her.

 Grandpa took Bella to the playground today and sent me this picture of Bella "Taming the Bronc". She learned this trick from a four year old friend of ours who went with us to the playground this weekend. He's been to a lot of Rodeos!