Seasons Greetings

To say we were busy this Christmas Season is an understatement. With Bella's cleft palate repair surgery on Monday the 22nd, which required one night stay in the hospital, and then a 3 week recovery period...which we are still in, it just didn't seem much like Christmas around here. We did manage to get our Christmas cards out a couple of days ago, so I guess you could say they are more of a New Year's card. We had high hopes of including a letter to talk about all our activities this past year, but we just didn't find the time. So instead we will write our "year in review" here on Bella's website. Followed by her post on the surgery.

January: The month where big goals get set (and hardly ever get met). Let's see, back in January we had a bunch of lofty goals for the year. Finish the landscaping, add a patio, and possibly add a screened in porch. Inside we wanted to finish the bathroom downstairs, update the kitchen counter tops, and possibly add a more efficient fireplace insert. You'll see how many of these goals were accomplished. But then how does anyone get much done with these three always wanting attention!


February: Bella turned 5 months old, we decided that we needed to start her on baby food, being that she needed to master the food and drinking from a cup by the time she had her cleft palate surgery which was scheduled in the end of September. Kristen's work became very hectic this month, as some major restructuring went on. This caused a lot of overtime for her.

March: Easter came and as it seemed to go with all holidays, Bella got a cold. So we dressed her up at home and took some photos, just so she could wear the dress mom bought for her. She seemed to take a liking to the fake Easter grass. Jesse and Kristen were busy studying this month for their structural professional licensing exam, which seemed to take all their time.

April: Jesse and Kristen took their exam, which finally freed up some time to get things done around the house....remember that long list of to-dos!

May: Bella started going to day care full time, as Jesse and Kristen went back to 40 hour/5 day work weeks. It started to get nice outside, so we decided to landscape the front yard....that counts as half of one item off our to-do list.

June: Jesse and Kristen treated themselves to a vacation in the Riveria Maya, Mexico with their good friends Dave and Holly from Phoenix. It was a nice break to get away and enjoy the sun and fun.

July: Here comes another holiday..the 4th of July. We had plans to go up to the Sneller family cabin near North Platte, NE. But again Bella got sick, and this time so did Kristen, so we stayed home and enjoyed the fireworks from our new Patio furniture on our deck.

August: We spent most of this month preparing for September, we also decided to postpone Bella's surgery until December, which would give us more time to get her transitioned to the cup and off a bottle. Bella also had ear tubes put in, to help relieve the fluid and allow her to hear better.

September: We kicked off the month returning to Plattsmouth for Kristen's 10 year high school reunion.

We then celebrated Bella's birthday, it was hard to believe she turned one already. We had a whole turtle theme and lots of friends and family over. For pictures go to: http://thelifeofbellaemerson.blogspot.com/2008/09/its-my-party.html

A couple of weeks later we went to Hawaii for our first family vacation. I can't believe we survived the plane ride...but we did. For pictures go to: http://thelifeofbellaemerson.blogspot.com/2008/10/our-first-family-vacation-hawaii.html

Now we know we can take Bella along with us, although we may not attempt such a long trip for quite awhile.


October: We headed up to Lincoln Nebraska for the Missouri football game and a chance to catch up with old college friends. It was a great time (although not a great game).

November: This whole month was pretty much in preparation for Bella's surgery. We did manage to make it back to Nebraska and see family for Thanksgiving, as we knew we wouldn't be traveling for Christmas.


December: Bella's big surgery. See surgery post for all the information. Oh and about all those to-do's. Well we never really got any of them done, so I guess they will go on next years list again.

We can hardly believe another year is over. We can only hope that next year is bigger and better for Bella. Please keep checking this website, as we try to update monthly on all of Bella's happenings. So goodbye for now....from Bella (a.k.a. crazy hair).