Happy Birthday Bella!

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Isabella! You are such a wonderful little girl and I absolutely love being your mom! I am so lucky that I get to spend everyday with you watching you learn and grow. Some things that I love about you are how smart you are. You love to learn about everything around you. You are also very kind. You are always helping me, and you are so sweet with Calder. I also love how much fun you have. You are always asking us to come dance with you or go on an adventure with you.

You love to play photoshoot, so we took some pictures of you on your birthday. You were so cute! I think my favorite is the one on the bottom left. You were getting a little tired of smiling pretty for me. You called it your "Scary Bella" pose.

For your birthday we did tons of fun activities! Your dad made you a number 3 pancake for breakfst. Then you, Calder and I went to storytime at the library which is one of your favorite things to do. Then we went to Chick-fil-a for lunch, and then you got your nails done at a nail salon. You picked hot pink nail polish with green sparkles. That night we did cake and presents. We had such a fun day hanging out. Happy Birthday Bella!

My baby

I had to take this picture. It is Bella's last day as a 2 year old. It made me think even though she is getting older, she is still my baby girl. She fell asleep coloring (I don't have to worry about her ruining her bed thanks to color wonder markers!). I love being her mom. It is amazing how fast time goes.

Scary

So we are working on potty training with Bella. She came running into my room this morning so excited because she had stayed dry all night! I couldn't share in her enthusiasm becuase I was so freaked out by all the blood on her face! We figured out that it was becuase she had picked a scab on her nose. Not a very fun sight to see your child covered in blood. After I got her all cleaned up, I was able to be excited with her!

Tea Party

I love the stage that Bella is in.  She is really starting to use her imagination.  She pulled me in to her room the other day and said "C'mon Mommy!" Then we had a Tea Party in her room.  It was so cute! She made me corn in her kitchen and kept getting me juice from toy kitchen sink. Why she chose corn I have no idea, especially because we had it for dinner later that day and she refused to eat it! I never went hungry, she was a very good hostess.  She kept saying, "More juice Mommy? More corn? Is it yummy?" It was so cute and I had a blast hanging out with her.

She has been saying some other fun things lately-
1."Bye home! See you later.  I have to go to church, okay?"
2. Bella: The trees are cold
    Me: How do you know the trees are cold Bella?
    Bella: They're wavin' their arms.  They're shakin'!
3. The other day she told me she needed a "nose squeeze" I finally figured out that meant she needed to blow her nose.

No, I do it!

Bella is very independent. Everyday I hear "No, I do it!". She gets in the carseat by herelf, tucks herself into bed, and my favorite-she dresses herself. These pictures are some of my favorite outfits that she has come up with. I love the middle picture, for one reason because she wanted to wear her "I love Calder" shirt, but also because she wanted two mismatched bows in her hair. It is so fun to see her creativity.

Isabella Bella

I was working with Bella today trying to teach her her name.  She was being so funny I had to come write it down.  She was looking in the mirror and saying "Hello, I'm Bella.  What's your name? Name is Isabella Bella Scout Allen (she said A-wen)."

Ragnar

This weekend, Bret, Jeff, my Mom and her siblings ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay. The race is from Logan to Park City and I think it was 171 miles. There team name was the Killer Bees, after my grandpa who owned tons of beehives. They did amazing! The race took them 31 hours to complete and they got barely any sleep. Most of them said that it was harder than running a marathon. Melissa and I were groupies and followed behind to try and cheer them on. We had a lot of fun!

One of the team vans

Calder and I cheering on Bret

Bret running one of his legs. What a beautiful view!