Big Girl

Last week Belle figured out how to pull herself up to standing and Bug taught her how to climb the stairs.  She is feeling pretty big and proud of herself and finding all sorts of new things to get into.

Thanksgiving 2012

A New Decade

 I woke up on my birthday to find out Bond's flight home from Michigan had been cancelled and that he would be arriving home at 9 pm instead of noon.  I got to spend most of the day at home with the kiddos, who were luckily very well behaved. In the afternoon, my mom watched the kids for me so I could go shopping. 

When we were reading scriptures before bed, Belle puked all over Bug, me, and our Book of Mormon.  Bear called downstairs for Gigi's help.  Luckily Bug was able to control his gross-outedness (can I use that as a word?) to only gagging and we got cleaned up and every one into bed.

All in all it made for a memorable day

 When Bond got home we dined at my all time favorite restaurant , with edemame, calamari, and sushi......man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

 Turning 30 feels great! I am excited to see what the next decade has in store.

Belle's Par-TAY!

I love planning and preparing for the first birthday.  I consider it a huge success to have survived the first year with some amount of sanity and turning one just seems like such a big deal.  Of course the babe doesn't care, but celebrating a sweet little one's life makes me happy.

 Getting help from her bros opening presents.

 Her "surprised" face, saying "ooh!"

 I used to have this "Little People" dollhouse when I was a kid (which I played with for hours) and found one on ebay for the birthday girl. 

 Such a sweetheart.

 Since her birthday trumped our annual Halloween Howl, I made our traditional soups for her party dinner instead, chicken tortilla and taco soup, with the fixings, and pink lemonade.

I didn't intend to make two cakes, but I was trying to make a semi-healthy one from scratch with whole wheat flour and coconut oil frosting, but it was looking to be a disaster and not edible so I made the second to make sure we could actually eat cake!  It turned out almost exactly how I wanted it to look, but it did not taste good at all......

 Luckily this one was edible!

"Happy Birthday to you!"

 She mushed her cake around, but didn't eat much.  Then she was ready for bed and skipped out early on her party.

 The rest of the kiddos attacked one another with party balloons and had enough fun to make up for Belle's lack of interest.  :)

JOY

 I think pregnancy and the first year of a child's life are exhausting and an over abundance of work, but Belle has filled the moments with inexpressible joy.  She is a bright spot in all of our lives.  I am so so thankful to have her.

She is a tiny little peanut.  At her one year check-up today she weighed 16.6 pounds.....below the zeroth percentile.  He head and height are both in the 20%.

She still wears 6-9 months cloths and size 2 shoes. 

She nurses about 4 times a day.....not sure quite what to do about that yet.

She loves books, especially reading them upside down, dogs, music and dancing, her dada and her brothers, and throwing her cup off her highchair and her paci out of her crib while saying, "Uh oh!" 

She has no interest in walking.

She has two bottom teeth and beautiful blue eyes.

Happy Birthday our precious girl!

30 Years of Greatness

Happy Birthday to my Bondy!  I have now known you for over half of your life and think you are pretty dang awesome. 

So do these little ones...

Thanks for being you.  We couldn't wish for more. 



Halloween and Homeschool Happenings

After we found one of our pumpkins half eaten, and then watched a squirrel carry this one up our tree, we decided we better bring the remaining ones in and paint them.

(See that pumpkin sitting on the left lower branch? It was quite amusing to watch a squirrel struggle up the tree with it).

 

 Can I just say how much I am LOVING the Homeschool life?  The first two weeks were rough and I was about ready to throw in the towel, but now that we are 55 days into the year, it is great!  I love the flexibility it offers and that I get to keep my boy home with me.  Bug is reading like a champ and seems to have a mind for math.  Today in the car he was figuring out what 20+20 equaled and then 40+40.....must take after his Daddy-0. 

Plus I love the fact that we could join with some other homeschooling friends and have an actual Halloween Party.

 

 We attended the largest Trunk-or-Treat I have ever witnessed.  The boys came home with tons of treats and Belle had her first sucker.  She had her paci in one hand and her lollipop in the other and went back and forth sucking on each.  She smelled of butterscotch the rest of the night. 

 Bear is such a goof ball.  I love his sense of humor.