Exciting News!

Blake and I are excited to announce that in February (maybe sooner:) Belle will have a new baby brother or sister! I had my first doctors appointment yesterday and everything went really well. She said I am about 8 weeks along and everything looks great so far. Belle is already starting to get the idea and several times has come up and patted or kissed my tummy and says "hi baby". She is so sweet and will be a great big sister:) Sorry for those of you who read this and find out the news this way but this is the fastest way to get the word out:)
Please pray for mine and the babies health in the months to come and that we don't fight too much as space gets tighter;)

Belle absolutely loves the water, bath or swimming pool. I took some sweet pics last night that I wanted to share. I just love it when she has water on her cute little eye lashes!

And nothing is cuter than a wet baby wrapped in a towel:)

I am so proud of myself for FINALLY decorating Belle's room. I am far from being done but it is amazing what a little paint can do:)

She actually POSED for this pic!!

I just love her new dresser! Thanks Gran and Grandad!! (and Ikea:)

These sweet little pieces of art were made by Kristin and they look perfect right above her closet door:)

She now has her own little reading "nook".

More house updates...

Here are some more pics of the updates we have done to the house so far:) The bench turned out EXACTLY how I pictured it and I am so happy to finally be able to sit on it:)

Okay, sadly this is probably my favorite things in my kitchen and maybe even the whole house! Not your typical "wooden spoon"... ouch!

My lovely and bright kitchen... I LOVE IT!!!!

I have been eyeing this tree from Canton for months and finally have a place for it! I used glass jars and hung them with wire with little tealights in them:)

We haven't had to do too much out here but will be doing some minor landscaping projects in the next few months.

Here is Belle enjoying the free spray park here in town...

Didn't take long for her to get right in and play!

Ok, So I Lied!

I know I was supposed to have the internet right away, but it just didn't work the way it was supposed to (nothing ever does really:). But here I am today, finally posting pictures of our new beautiful home! We are pretty much settled and thanks to Kristin and Kevin we are well on our way to being "cute and decorated" as well. This past weekend we decided to paint the kitchen and the guys also built a massive corner bench with storage to go under my windows in the dining room. It is absolutely perfect but we are still working on sanding and painting it (yuck). I will post pics of it very soon!

Anyway, take a look at what we have done so far:)

Isn't it amazing what a little (or a whole lot) of paint can do??!!

Here is my dream bed. I painted it white and got all new bedding (including 8 pillows!)... who needs a hotel bed??

Here are the guys working on my huge bench... they did such an awesome job!

Here is Belles room:) I absolutely love the windows!

Here is the hallway leading from the front door into the living area (and just for your information I hung every one of those frames in about 20 minutes with nothing but a hammer and nails... and one or two extra holes in the walls:)


Here is my massive shower!


And my bathroom


And my monster closet (I may give it to Belle and take her room as an office/closet...)


Here is the living room and you can see the kitchen behind it BEFORE we painted...


And here it is now!


Here is sweet little Chloe (we had a mini photo shoot before they left:)


Georgia knows how to pose, the camera loves her!


Here's Belle and Georgia watching "Narneena" (Narnia)

IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!

Moving day is finally upon us and I don't think that we could spend one more day in this cluttered room! I have boxes packed to the ceiling and everything that was put into "hiding" the last nine months is out and in the way. I am amazed at how much junk we had out here that we didn't use for 9 months and yet I still can't seem to throw much away:) We are closing sometime this afternoon (of course we don't have a time yet! Why would we?), and I am dying to get situated in our new home and start fresh! Unpacking will be like Christmas since we have had so many boxes and furniture in storage that we haven't seen in months.
I plan on being very busy this afternoon and well into the night doing anything and everything I can to make the new house more "homey". My goal is to have Belle's room set up completely (not decorated though:), the kitchen completely moved in and dishes, pots/pans, etc all put in place, the bathrooms completely unpacked and our bedroom should be somewhat liveable. You may think that sound like a lot but I am so not the type of person who can sleep at night knowing there is a box full of things that need to be put away! If something stays in a box too long it is likely to stay there in my house:)
Anyway, I will be sure to update tomorrow and let you know if my goals have been accomplished! And, yes I will have the internet waiting as soon as we open the door and the computer will probably be the first and most important thing to be set up:)

I Know I Don't Take Enough Pictures of Her...

So I realized it had been a while since we had taken some pictures of Belle (wink) and so we spent the evening at the park admiring all the pretty wild flowers and adding to our massive collection of Belle art. Here are some of my favorites.

10 Things I Love About Belle

1. She is ALWAYS excited to see Daddy and I when we have been gone (even if only for 20 minutes)

2. She absolutely LOVES Bible Class and is learning all the songs and stories so quickly!

3. She is perfect when we lay her down at night ... as long as she has her pink blankie, her green blankie, her little blankie, her other pink blankie, her quilt, her berr (bear), her elmo, and her baby (no way, my child is not picky at all!)

4. She can fall down a flight of stairs and maybe let out a little whimper and then run straight into a pole and get back up and play!

5. Shes tough but she is all girl! She loves to have her little finger nails painted cause they are "soooo petty".

6. Whenever I want a kiss she gives it!

7. She reminds us to pray before we eat... and after our first bite... and our second, etc:)

8. Everything that she is thankful for apparently comes from me because every time we tell her to say thank you to someone she says "yan you mama" (thank you mama:)

9. She knows how to put the dog in his place - "NO NO SISEY NO!"

10. She is persistant when she wants something - "wawa wawa wawa wawa wawa wawa wawa WAWA WAWA WAWA WAWA WAWA.................."

11. (I get to add an 11th thing because its my blog!) She is the sweetest, cutest, funniest, most energetic, smartest little 1 year old I know and as much trouble as she is there is no one that loves her as much as her Daddy and I and we LOVE every little quirk she has:)

So we finally took Belle to the zoo and she absolutely loved it. We decided that we better do it now and not wait till its 800 degrees outside. Belle was so smart and recognized almost every animal! She was a bit shocked at how much bigger they are in real life (as opposed to her little books). She was especially afraid of the gigantor gorilla! I was pretty afraid of him too though. He was pretty far from us and you can still see how massive he is.
She is clinging to me pretty good in the pic!

Sweet Little Easter Egg

This Easter was so much fun because Belle really had fun and understood the concept of hunting eggs. She even found a few that weren't ours, lol! She got so excited with each one she found and had a blast opening each one. I think we may have found a new way to get her to sit still during church... fill plastic eggs with cereal!Easter Morning was lots of fun and the Easter Bunny brought Belle lots of goodies!

The cutest Easter Bunny ever!

And the hunt begins...

Found one!

She had a pretty good eye for those little eggs.

Time to open each and every one

Daddy, hurry up and gimme that candy!

Look what I got!

Stopping to smell the flowers (for about a millisecond:)

Lookin' at the fishies!