Bella's first Thanksgiving, Christmas and More!

November and December 2008 were very busy and very exciting. So far 2009 has treated us well! We found out that we have two more little nieces/nephews on the way! Congratulations to Scott and Emily who are due July 4th and Ali and Andrew who are due August 5th (or earlier if Ali get’s her way.) We also have 2 weddings coming up! As you already know, Kaitlin and Zane will be getting married June 20th of this year. We are all very excited for the festivities. We Early’s love weddings! That gives me another brother but now I am only up to six! On the other hand I will be getting my 12th sister. I have Amanda, Allison, Lissy, Kaitlin E., Caroline, Molly, Autumn, Kristian, Kaitlin S., Emily, Kelly and now Danielle! Rob and Danielle recently got engaged and are now in the hustle and bustle of the beginning stages of planning. Looks like the sisters are winning. Two babies and two weddings… does it get any better!

By the way, you don’t have to tell me how efficient I am about all of this blogging stuff. The next one might be when Bella is 1! As I tell all my friends, go look at the Farwell, Bobzien and Early Blog’s because they are updated quite often and have all of the family going-on’s. Plus- they are all really cute! As far as our little family, well we have pretty much given up any social life because we love our lazy times at home with Bella so much. She really is all of the entertainment either of us need. Since Ryan and I are at work a majority of the time, we don’t want to miss out on any more Bella time when we are off. We have just been discussing how we really need to try and see other people occasionally so we don’t completely shut ourselves off from the world.


We spent Thanksgiving with Ryan’s family. We had a wonderful time hanging out with family and eating ourselves silly. Aunt Mary and Uncle Ed came over along with their kids and grandkids. Bella got to hang out with Henry and Louis. They are such cute little boys. Henry is not quite 3 and Louis is just about a month younger than Bella. It was wonderful getting to see everyone and then we all got together again a week before Christmas to celebrate. It is always fun seeing all of the Auer family. We got together with the Sedlak family after the New Year to celebrate the holidays. Grandma Sedlak came along with most of the family that lives in town including some of Ryan’s dad’s cousins and their families. Ryan’s Aunt Kathy and Uncle Ken also came from Connecticut. Three of the kids, Kevin, Brian and Katie, came from all over to surprise their Grandma. It was good getting to hang out with them and put some more faces with names. Father Wilke, the priest who married Ryan and I, Scott and Emily and Tim and Kelly also joined us. He is always so sweet and he really enjoyed the whole thing. He was surprised at how big Bella had gotten, along with many other people. We also got to meet the newest member of the family. Jacob, Greg and Casey’s little one. What a sweetie! He has so much hair and beautiful bright blue eyes. They had the great grandchildren put on the Christmas Pageant (Bella and little Jacob were too little to play) and it was adorable. They read a child-version of the nativity story and sang some Christmas songs as Uncle Bill played the piano. The little ones ranged from playing their part to the T and spinning in circles and running away to look at the Christmas tree. I can describe it in 2 words. Too Cute! We also played Rob your Neighbor. It is a game you play with dice and often strange presents people wrap up from their house. You roll doubles you get a present and when they are gone, you steal them from other people. It was an entertaining game and I got a leg massager.


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Bella and I took a little road trip to Kirksville the first weekend in December. Ryan didn’t join us because all of the Sedlak boys including Ted met up in Philidelphia for te Army/Navy game. Sadly, Army did not win but I am pretty sure fun times were had by all. Bella and I got to celebrate Papa’s birthday and give Ellie a belated birthday gift which she really enjoyed. She watches her mom bake lots of cupcakes and we gave her a pretend cupcake kit. You can tell children learn by watching us because she knew how to frost her cupcakes. She was even kind enough to let Bella borrow the pretend stick of butter to chew on. While we were there, Bella got to open her first 2 Christmas presents. She got her stocking just in time for Christmas. Grandma made it to match Mommy and Daddy’s with a little girl twist – it is adorable ! She also got her first ornament which is so sweet. It is bright pink with a pink and green polka dot stocking on it and a big bow complete with pom-poms! Bella really enjoyed our old Santa doll and a Santa doorknob hanger that sings and jiggles. It probably helps that it plays her favorite song, Jingle Bells. She also had a very good time with her Grandma and Papa and cousins Jackson and Ellie. I love watching my parents with the grandkids. They just do one crazy thing after another to see what kind of reaction they will get!


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A few weeks after that, my folks and Molly and Caroline came to town for a Christmas house tour in Lafayette Square. This is the area of town where the movie Meet me in St. Louis was based (that home is no longer standing though) and the homes are amazing. My folks, Bella and I, Lissy, Caroline, Molly and Bev all went on the tour and it was so much fun. We have all wanted to do this forever and we finally pulled it off. The profits go to help restore the neighborhood which is always nice. We saw homes of all shapes and sizes and they were all decked out for the holidays. It was so neat to hear all of their history. I actually learned that it was where you built if you had any money at the time but once the area was all built up, they came out with furnaces and people moved out to the Central West End to build larger homes because they were easier to heat and didn’t need all of the fireplaces. Don’t get me wrong. The homes in the Central West End are gorgeous but who doesn’t want lots of beautiful fireplaces? The weekend was a great time. Friday night was very entertaining as we drove around forever looking for a decent place that had space for us all and ended up at a restaurant that was probably a little uppity for our baby and fleece jackets. From there we were going to go on a lights tour but decided to go down town and check out Macy’s windows instead. Once we found a spot and all got out of the car we realized it was freezing and we didn’t even have our stroller anyways. We decided it was time to call it a night!

We went back to Kirksville for Christmas this year and it truly was PERFECT! My parents enjoy almost anything you can celebrate and made a point as we were growing up to make celebrations fun. I think Christmas is their favorite though (I personally believe it is because they got engaged on Christmas Eve!) As long as I can remember, they have done everything in their power to make Christmas a magical and memorable time for all of us. Seriously, I think they start planning in January. This year might have topped them all because I had so much to be thankful for. My baby girl celebrated her first Christmas and had a blast doing it – or should I say we had a blast. I love our little family and the whole thing was PRECIOUS! After the scare with my Dad’s stroke, he is doing so well and working hard to stay healthy and let other people help him for a change. My parents seem so happy and in-love! My whole family was back for Christmas and we always have fun together whether it is playing games, watching movies, but mostly just chit-chatting and watching the little guy’s play. The grandbabies are all so adorable and hilarious. I love seeing all of their little personalities develop (all though these personalities are actually pretty big) and seeing them starting to form bonds that will last a lifetime. It was great to be home. I love our house. It is always so warm and welcoming and makes me feel like a kid again. The decorations were beautiful and since Bella has a fondness for Christmas trees, Grandma and Papa’s tree was like a dream come true. Everything was like a dream. We ate till we were ready to pop each day three plus times a day. Everyone stayed healthy and had fun! Midnight Mass was as wonderful as always (even if they didn’t sing my song “Light in the Stable”) Christmas day was the best. We slept in a bit and then woke up and waited on the Farwell’s and Andy, Autumn and Briley to show up. Bella loved the first 20 minutes of presents and then took a nap on Daddy for a bit. Christmas morning was great with the child-like joy and chaos of opening the presents followed by breakfast casserole, hot chocolate and Sunny-D in champagne flutes (we are classy). Next up was a lazy day of sitting around in our “Christmas Pajamas” (yep, Mom and Dad still give everyone Christmas Pajamas which we all make fun of but secretly really love.) We still play with all of the new toys like the W-ii and ladder ball, nap, watch Christmas movies, eat and talk. The evening was capped off with a very yummy Christmas dinner and all that goes with that. We traded our gifts for our family gift exchange which is always entertaining. I don’t think Andrew agree’s but I feel that Andy purchased one of the most unexpected yet funny gifts for him. I door mat for his home or office that say’s “Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, look who’s here!” I loved it but Andrew might have been more happy with socks. After all was said and done, Ali gave my parents their last gift. She had been working so hard on a DVD she compiled with pictures of Christmas’ gone by clear from when my parents were babies. She had some of our what Ryan likes to call “Crappy Christmas songs” on there which brought back wonderful memories and then ended the whole the thing with “Thank God for Kids”, one of my absolute favorites and had pictures of Christmas’s with all of the grandkids. Ali even worked through Christmas day to include pictures from this year so Carson and Bella could make the cut. This was my favorite Christmas yet. Mom and Dad – Thanks for making everything so special and building all those memories over the years.


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After Christmas we went to Columbia for my cousin Abby’s wedding. Her new husband is named Justin and I am happy for both of them. They were pretty sweet and both of them really seemed to enjoy their special day. Also, it gave us a chance to see some of my Dad’s family around the holidays. We saw our cousins and got to talk a little bit. Bella had a date with her boyfriend, Chase. They got all dressed up for each other. Bella was a little rowdy and sassy in her red dress and had fun playing on the floor with all of the big kids. I always say that I think she probably should have been number three. She is such an easy baby, goes with the flow and loves being in the mist of lots of kids. She always thouroughly enjoys being at Julie’s house on Tuesday and Wednesday because she loves seeing Lea, Kyla and her little buddy Claire. She also likes it when cousin Liv comes to Mama and Papa’s on her days there because she gets to follow her around and learn all sorts of cool things. When she is with her Early cousins, she doesn’t even know who to follow around. Jackson, Ellie and Briley stop and tell her she’s cute or “no, no Bella” and Carson and her just sit in the mist of it all enjoying the action.

Ryan and I both took most of the two weeks off between Christmas and New Years. It was AMAZING!!!! I am thankful that we both have jobs right now with the way the economy is and all but neither of us wanted to go back to work. We really need to win the lottery. It was wonderful being able to be together with the three of us so much. Bella loved it too! Her “happy time” is in the afternoon and we normally miss it but not for these two weeks. During our days we all goofed around and at night we typically ate great and watched a couple of movies. We were very exciting for the New Year. We felt like being lazy and that is just what we did. Bella tried to stay up but was in bed by about 10:45. Ryan fell asleep on the couch around 10:30 because Kaitlin and I decided to ring in the New Year watching Enchanted. Next Year we will be more festive!

Bella is now 8 months old and changing everyday in every way. I don’t even know where to begin. She spent almost all of November and December “trying” to crawl. Everyone that saw her said “She is almost there, she’ll be crawling any day now!” and we waited. Finally a little before break she started to make some progress. By the end of the break she was all over the house. She likes to adventure into new areas and play with all of the cool new things she has found like outlets, cords, the carbon monoxide detector, trash cans of all shapes and sizes, the salad spinner, remotes, empty boxes, her desitin, my makeup and vents and grates are a favorite. Wait till she starts dropping things down them. Her favorite spots to relax are the dirty rugs in front of the doors, bathrooms, the kitchen floor, the fridge and under our feet. Safety is obviously a big concern for her. She is really enjoying her Christmas presents. She thinks her Raggedy Ann doll’s are hilarious and some of her other favorites are a singing purse (we have memorized the song) and the top of her leapfrog table. All of the other toys she experiments with for awhile and comes back later and they are all new! She still likes her exercauser but not when we leave the room. She feels too confined I guess. She is enjoying bath time and is now sitting in the tub like a big girl. She likes to pull up and eat the side of the tub as well. Not very safe considering it is cast-iron. Tim, Kelly and Olivia gave her a boat with some toys and she likes it. I also give her some bubbles to play with and she finds those very interesting. Today she got a ride in her shopping cart because she was too little to reach the handles to push it. She was smiling and giggeling as she flew around the room, with the help of Daddy, like Cole Trickle. Ryan loves Days of Thunder.

Just in the past day or two she has figured out how to pull up to her feet on the couch and shelves. She even tried to use Mama and Papa’s DVD stand (didn’t work out very well). She typically ends up falling on her head and screaming but she just keeps on going. She must get that from her daddy!

While watching movies over our break, we happened upon a funny little discovery. Bella likes opera. I don’t know where this sophistication comes from. Ryan and I were watching the Will Ferrell movie Step Brothers as she was starting to wind down for the night. At the end, Will Ferrell sings a song by Andrea Bocelli (I think that is right) called “Time to Say Goodbye” and out of no where Bella stops wrestling with me on the couch and turns and looks at the tv in a trance. As soon as there is a break in the movie, she starts to play again and once the singing starts she is back in a trance. We went back and she did it again. Of course we downloaded the song and she sort of went into her trance. The next day, Scott came over to help Ryan in the basement and he got to see it. The funniest part is that her and Jake Utterback have a uniting tie because their birthdays are on the same day. When we were at their house for the annual Thanksgiving party Jake started to play that song. I asked Amy what it was and she said that it was some opera song that Jake loves and he plays it all of the time. I remembered that when we heard it in the movie so Ryan called Jake. Just the other day Jake sent Ryan an email with a link to this guy singing this song to Elmo only he sang “Time to say Goodnight” to Elmo as he put him to bed. We showed it to Bella and it happened again. When the man would sing, Bella would stop and stare and then would Elmo would sing she would giggle. Really, who doesn’t love Elmo? He is adorable. You have to check it out because it is pretty cute. She also loves the song Jingle Bell’s (I think because it has one of her nicknames in it “Bell’s” or “Jingle Bell’s” for Christmas). Everytime you sing it, she smiles when you get to the word “bell’s”. Her other nickname is “Hell’s Bell’s”. This is when she is being wild and rowdy.

Oh yes - Congratulations to the newest home owners, Andy and Autumn! I can’t imagine how excited you two are considering how long you all have been waiting to have a house. Viva and Briley are going to love the space. So long to “festivals” Andy – you have work to do! I think we will be visiting you in May for a wedding so do you think you can have all your projects wrapped up by then because we wouldn’t want to stay anywhere that wasn’t completely finished! Just kidding!!! But really, have fun with your new home. You all deserve it.

As far as our house, Ryan has been working sooooo hard. He likes his projects (not really but if it needs to be done, he does it and does it right.) At this point, he has torn most of the walls out of the basement and we will have Helitech out this month to install drain tiles and a sump-pump system. Once that is done, we will get to finish the basement out again. Ryan is really making sure it is done right this time. I have included some pictures so you can see the change. If you thought it was a dungeon before with the very dark gray paint, it really is a dungeon right now. The finished product will be much better than before though. We also have someone coming out to fix some of our upstairs windows. Whoever gets this house next should be very thankful to Ryan. He will make sure everything is right. As far as us, our next house will probably be almost new. As much as I love the charm of older homes, I don’t think it is worth Ryan’s headaches.
Well, I know there is more but since I just wrote a novel, I will let you go this time. Hopefully I will talk to you sooner rather than later. I have to go and get ready so Mommy and Daddy can go out tonight. Aunt Lissy has volunteered to come over and watch our little munchkin tonight as she does laundry so we can go meet up with some old friends. We will see how long we last out on the town. Who knows what those two will be up to? Probably a photo shoot and prank phone calls because that is what they do best. Whatever they do, I know they will have fun!

Six months and counting!

Our little Bella isn't so little anymore. She recently celebrated her 6 month birthday and is growing like a weed. We went to the doctor today for her check up and found out she has bumped herself up to the 82% for weight. Dr. Matt said I must be reading her cues really well because she is growing at such a healthy rate. She isn't too difficult to figure out though - every three hours to the dot she gets fussy and is ready to eat. She is starting to rock in the crawling position so she should be scooting around the house in no time. I guess we better go get some gates. We also got her an exersaucer that is really bouncy and she loves to get in there and go nuts! She bounces and screams (happy screams) so hard I can't believe she doesn't give herself shaken baby syndrome. She is a mover and a shaker these days and changing her diaper is like wrestling a monkey!

We have had another eventful month a half. Some fun and some not so fun. Tim and Kelly had a Halloween party and we have some funny pictures from that. It was a great time but I now know how old I am. I will have to attach the pictures Lissy took of Bella in our wigs. They are hilarious! We got to go back to Kirksville twice. First was for Halloween. Bella spent her first Halloween as an elephant. Actually, she didn't dress up on Halloween because we drove to Kirksville after work and by the time we got there it had gotten pretty late. We had a sweet little engagement party for Kaitlin and Zane. It was pretty cute. They had the decorations and treats all ready down in the basement along with some presents. As Kaitlin and Zane sat in the family room and played with all of the little ones, people were running up and down the stairs carrying up everything for the party trying to hide from them. It was a success and I think they were surprised. The next day we got to hang out and relax with all of the family. Ryan, Bella and I went over to the Markeson house to see Tracy, Devin and Delaney Daniels. Devin is getting so big and Delaney is a doll! That night we had the hot dog roast. It was a year ago that day that we told my family we were expecting. No announcements this year from anyone! The hot dog roast was entertaining. Allison must have baked for a month to get together all of her sweet treats and Mom had some really neat dips and breads. I think everyone had more to eat than they were wanting to eat! The best part is seeing all of the kids in their costumes. You will have to check out the pictures. After that we went to Dukum Inn for Caroline's 21st. It was pretty entertaining and we were home in less that an hour! Good timing.

After that weekend, we went home and went back to work. On Tuesday I got a call that my Dad had suffered a stroke. He was in the hospital and they were keeping an eye on his blood pressure. It was a shocker but he is okay. Even though he didn't want us to, we all came back home for a bit. We tried to stay away from the hospital and get a lot of Dad's jobs done around the house. Everyone pitched in and got some of the fall jobs done. I know we probably didn't do it just the way Dad would but we gave it a shot. The guys had to do most of the heavy lifting but I think everyone was a little sore afterwards. I'm thinking these might be some good jobs to tack on to the end of the Halloween weekend from here on out so Dad doesn't try and do them all on his own again. Dad is doing really well and actually started back to work this week. I think he is just sick of people checking on him but what are daughters for!

Even though the circumstances weren't the best, it was still great to get to see everyone and I think Mom and Dad enjoyed a little taste of what retirement would be like.

Little clips of Bella

I thought I would post some cute little clips we have of Bella.

Hi everyone!

I know it has been forever since I updated our blog. It's been a little busy around here. Most of my spare time is going to little Miss Bella right now, although she isn't so "little" anymore. You will see! We have had so much going on. I started back to school (main reason for not updating our blog lately), we have had lots of family and friends in town to visit and we have been going on lot's of outings.

While I am at work, Bella is making some new buddies. She goes with Mama Bev on Monday, Thursday and Friday. Her cousin Olivia is with her a lot of those days. One Tuesday and Wednesday she goes to Ryan's cousin, Julie's house. She has three little girls Lea (5), Kyla (4) and Clare (about 15 months). Bella loves being around all of these girls. She get's bored with Mommy and Daddy now. The funniest part is how exhausted she is by Wednesday night. Between Olivia on Monday and Lea, Kyla and Clare (aka Big Momma because she likes to play Mommy to Bella :) she comes home and passes out. Even though I would love to be home with Bella, I am glad that she gets some time with other kiddo's. Since she is the oldest, she isn't going to have her own older siblings to push her around a little bit so she can take a little bossing from cousins! She loves it right now though! Let's see how she feels when she is 2!

We have had some family and friends in town to visit. It has been awhile since our last post :) so I am not going to go through all of our visitors but I will put it this way. I love having people come to see us for many reasons. I love seeing everyone! Bella gets to spend more time with my family! Dad always sneaks off to get doughnuts (that's why I quit "trying" to make muffins)! I love having a house full of kiddo's and we always have fun!

Bella is getting so big! If you remember when she was born, her weight was a little bit of a concern. She was having trouble gaining weight. That is not a problem anymore. She was in the 16% for her weight and now she is in the 60%. She also went from the 70% for her height to the 52% so to put it shortly she got a lot wider and not so much longer! She loves her food and is a good eater. I don't know who she got that from?

She is now rolling both ways and scooting on her belly. You can't leave her on the floor by herself for too long because she ends up under the loveseat or the coffee table. We are working on sitting and she likes it so far because she folds in half and can eat her toes (one her most intriguing toys!) She loves the exersaucers at Mama and Papa's house and at Julie's so we are going to get her one this weekend. If you have been to our house lately, you might wonder where we are going to put this. I'm thinking we might just have to put on an addition.

One of her favorite things to do right now is "chit-chat"! She loves the sound of her voice and she likes to change it up. Sometimes she sings with soft little coos. Sometimes she vents by grumbling and throwing her fists. She also likes to squeal and see how loud she can be. Her smiles are contagious and she is such a happy baby. When she gets her toes in her mouth, she is an ecstatic baby!

If you are a fan of chubby squishy baby thighs, Bella is your girl. Sometimes when you try to change her diaper, she likes to squeeze her thighs together and tease you so you can't get her diaper off. She gets this big cheesy grin and her thighs look so chubby - I love it! She also gets a kick when Ryan sets her up on his knees and says "Who is the biggest baby in the room?" If you have seen Lissy's pictures, there is one where she is doing that. Her chin's are in full effect and she is looking down towards him. I told Ryan that he will have to change "biggest" to "tallest" because being the "biggest" isn't really something that girls like!

Another funny Bella bit is her bath time fun! When Bella was first born, she looked like she might float right off the sling in her little baby tub. She has always been a fan of bath time and unlike most babies, it is a time for her to relax and talk, not splash and play. She loves relaxing in her little "hammock" as warm water trickles over her toes. The problem is that she outgrew her little "hammock" about a month ago but she will not sit in her tub the right way. You have to have a hand on her the whole time because she wants to lay down. We discovered this when she pooped in the tub and we had to take her out of the sling. She looks like a toddler in a baby doll tub right now. Since Ryan is handy we are thinking he will have to rig a larger hammock that fits across the whole tub.

I will try to be more on time with my updates but enjoy the pictures from the last 2 months. You can actually watch her grow in the slideshow!

August has been quite a month. We went to a BBQ at Tim and Kelly's, I had my wisdom teeth pulled, Bella was baptized, Ryan went to Table Rock Lake for a weekend and Bella and I went back to Kirksville for a few days. A hectic month but a fun one. Now I am trying to get the most out of my last couple of days at home with Bella. I'm not crazy about going back to work but I am pretty lucky. I had extra time off because they are doing construction on my school, Bella is going to be with her Mama Bev and Ryan's cousin Julie and her 3 little girls, and I am off fairly early, I enjoy my job and I work with a great group of teachers.

We started the month off by going over the Tim and Kelly's for a BBQ. It was a nice day and the food was great. Bella got to play with Olivia (which means she watches Olivia play!) and we got to hang out with the Sedlak family. To top it off, Tim and Kelly got to use all of their new serving dishes they got from the wedding. It is always fun to get to use them for the first time.

Ryan had his hands full when I got my teeth pulled but he was wonderful. He took care of Bella and I and kept up on all of the household chores for the week. I think I finally got caught up on rest which I had been missing out on since Bella was born! He also juggeled both of us during the procedure. It seemed like 5 minutes to me but I'm sure it was a little longer for him. She decided to make a present for Daddy and he always enjoys those types of presents. My parents were in town for a game so that was also helpful. I think Bella really enjoyed the extra time with her Daddy. I know he enjoyed the extra time with her. He missed her more than usual when he had to go back to work on Monday.

The next week Bella had her Baptism. It was a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful day... perfect for our beautiful Bella's baptism. Ryan and I had fun getting everything ready for her big day. Grandma Sedlak told us that she has always heard babies are better after they are baptized but she was already a pretty good baby. We are lucky! We decorated the house in lots of pink and green (I already have a lot of it) and besides the bugs, it was a great day to be outside.

The baptism was really sweet. She was baptized at St. Michaels the Archangel and they do them as part of the mass which is what I am used to. Bella loves her baths but this water was a little chilly. She stirred a little bit but she was pretty good. She is extra holy too because she was doused in the oil! She still smells like it everyday because it got on the head rest in her carseat so everytime she goes for a ride she smells like a "church pew" as Grandma Early puts it. She looked so precious in her christening gown. It was beautiful. Thank you Grandma and Papa. After the dress was ordered, Ryan said that he wasn't crazy about the long dresses but I think he might have changed his mind after he saw Bella in her gown. She looked like a victorian babydoll.

It was nice to get our families together and we appreciate everyone making the trek to St. Louis yet again. We really are blessed to have such wonderful families.

Last Wednesday Bella and I went back to Kirksville to see everyone and hang out with my family. It worked out well because it gave Ryan a good excuse to go to Table Rock Lake with the boys. He had a good time but I don't think his stories are blog appropriate. Bella and I, on the other hand, had a very nice and relaxing rest of the week. We hung out on the patio, went swimming, got some sun (Bella didn't do this), went to Ali and Andrews for dinner and sat on their new (and beautiful) patio, I got to see Momma Mia and we all went to see Papa dance in the local "Dancing with the Stars". He was great and although he got eliminated, he ended up winning the People's Choice Award! Some of his daughters really thought he deserved it! It was pretty funny because Jackson truly thought HE won the trophy and kept saying "Look! We won!" We also got to go out on the dance floor and dance with Papa, the family and the Powells while they were figuring the scores.

It was fun seeing Bella play with Jackson and Ellie. I think those two are ready for a little one whenever their Mommy is ready. They are so good with Bella and she loves watching them. They both got lots of smiles out of Bella and Myself. They don't realize how funny they are. Ellie is like an adorable walking cartoon character and Jackson says some of the funniest stuff. At the "Dancing with the Stars" event he told Grandma "I hear there is going to be a slideshow. Do you think they will let me slide on that wood floor?" Don't you love 4 year olds!

The cutest part happened when we got home. Bella's face lit up when she saw Ryan and he was pretty happy to see her also. Five days may be a little too long for those two to be apart. I guess that is a good thing!

A Playdate!

Bella and I had our first playdate! Really it was a playdate for Mom and Niki but Bella and Chase got to spend some quality time with one another. Niki and Chase came over around noon. It was so nice to get to sit and chat. Chase is getting so big and it is fun to see their little personalities start coming through. We ventured out and grabbed some lunch at Bread Co. and the little ones did great! Next time I think we will try a walk! Time flew but it was great getting to talk and we have some cute pictures of the two of them!

Surprise!!!

We have had a busy but fun couple of weeks. A few weekends ago Andy, Autumn and Briley were in town for a wedding. We got to spend Friday night relaxing on the deck eatting Mexican, sipping margaritas, chatting and of course, playing with the babies. It was nice because they come to town often but typically it is for Card's games and we are rushed or it is with the rest of the family and it is a full house.

The next weekend was the 4th and we celebrated by going to the Cards-Cubs game with most of the family. Everyone was in town except Amanda, Todd and Carson. The most fun part was taking Bella to her first Cardinals game. She did so well and loved looking around. I carried her in the Baby Bjorn part of the time and she did very well. Ryan thinks I look rediculous using it but she loved looking out and I loved having two hands! The game was a great time. My parents tickets are in the Casino Queen Party porch which worked out perfect. They have a great covered area with lots of space to sit and tables, a bar, food and best of all, clean and unoccupied restrooms. Since some of us had standing room only tickets, we just hung out back there and took turns going up to my parents seats. Mark and Cheryl were also there and that was great! Jackson is quickly becoming a baseball fan (which we all know makes Papa very happy) and he really seems to enjoy the games and going to the stadium. Ellie, Briley and Bella all looked sooooo cute in their red, white and blue attire. Briley had the sweetest dress and Ellie and Bella matched (sort of). Ellie also had firecracker piggy tails. You'll have to check them out.

That Saturday my family all took off in their black suv's for Florida. They really looked like the presidents motorcade. Well a motorcade with a hitchhauls full of beach bikes, luggage carriers and a kayak strapped to the top. I was sad to see them go but Ryan, Bella and I weren't able to go this year. Since Bella was born on a Sunday, Ryan used a lot of his vacation time to stay home her first week which was wonderful. Florida is great but Bella is just a little bit better!:) When Ryan found out that he might have a few vacation days to use, we tried to come up with a plan to go but he had a pretty important meeting which fell on Thursday, right in the middle of the trip. So after all of that we decided to wait till next year.

Since we were going to be in town Ryan and I had some friends over for a BBQ on Saturday. It was great having people over instead of having to meet everyone out. I feel like you can relax and actually hear one another at home. Ryan did a great job with his chicken kabobs, party potatoes and buffalo chicken dip. I made some pasta salad and margaritas. The only alcohol I really missed when I was pregnant was margaritas. Priyal, Bhavik, Justin, Shanika, Ryan, Megan, Brett, Scott, Emily, Tim, Kelly and Olivia all came over. It was pretty fun and I even got a little sun. I was the palest I have ever been during the summer this year. Bella and I don't get to lay out much! That Monday as I was folding laundry Bella decided to put a show on for me. Check out her silly faces and precious smiles!

On Monday I was feeling a little lazy but I got myself going and in between feeding, playing and putting Bella to sleep, I cleaned the house, did dishes and did all of our laundry. When Ryan came home at 5pm he said "You're not going to believe this but, my Thursday meeting got cancelled." I was thinking are you kidding me. We dropped a vacation with my whole family (we hardly ever get the whole family together at once) because of that meeting. Just as I was starting to get upset, Ryan said "so, I looked into flying and we could leave tomorrow and it will be quite a bit or we can wait till she wakes up to eat in the middle of the night and head out." I think I started packing immediately. Bella started fussing a little so I threw her in the Baby Bjorn and we went on packing. We told Ryan's family we were going and they were great enough to get our mail and even water my flowers. (THANK YOU!) I cancelled all of my plans for the next week and by 2:30am, we were on the road. Ryan was a champ and drove the whole way there and back. Bella was such a good little traveler. We got a little confused on our directions as we got there but we found the house pretty quickly.

It was so much fun getting to surprise everyone. We really threw Todd off when we walked through the door. We walked right past Molly and Kaitlin before they noticed. Next we found Mom upstairs. She was getting ready to go down to the beach. My Dad heard my voice and came out of the bedroom. My Mom and Dad were so excited. After we surprised them, we headed down to the beach to see everyone else. Most everyone ran and gave Bella smooches and then they told us hi! We all know who is the most important between the three of us! Just as we thought we were done surprising people, Andrew came out of the bedroom after taking a nap and was a little confused. It was pretty funny.

The rest of the trip was wonderful. How could it not be. My whole family was together and we were at the beach. Bella instantly relaxed with the breeze and the sound of the waves. She got to dip her toes in the ocean for the first time ever. She also had a bottle in the pool. It was the baby version of the "swim-up bar". She was on vacation too! The rest of the grandkids were so much fun to watch. They really know how to enjoy the beach. We also learned that not all jellyfish are poisonous. Caroline found one that was though. Ouch! There were too many things to write about but you can see some of the events in the pictures!