Mom had no idea

Bella got this toy last year for Christmas, and we have set her under it for the past year now. She will occasionally play with it and bat at it, but all of the sudden today, she decided it was great. I placed her under it as normal, and she scooted herself around. I figured she was actually trying to get out from under it because she didn't want to play with it. But then she got to the right position for her, and started making noises like mad and hitting all the keys like a crazy person, just having a great time. So I guess I didn't realize I hadn't been putting it at her optimum position, and now that she can move more, she has figured out how to do it for herself. Oh and the one sock off, it's just how she rolls!

White Christmas

Bella attempted to open her present.....but in reality....Colby opened all of them for her. I think it might turn into a fight when Bella actually learns to open presents herself, as it's one of Colby favorite activities.

We headed up to Nebraska for Christmas this year. We left earlier than planned to miss the Christmas blizzard that was headed our way. We made it with no problems and even got to enjoy an extra night out with old friends from Plattsmouth. Then the snow hit, and the winds hit, and they kept coming. Christmas Eve was cancelled as most of our extended family was traveling from another town. And then on Saturday when we were supposed to make our way towards Columbus to spend time with the Kuhlen side, some of the roads/highways were closed because of the still blizzard conditions. So we waited it out until Sunday and then decided to head back to KC. We will celebrate with the Kuhlens once we can enjoy more time spent with them, and a lot less snow!!

And no we did not take any pictures of the snow. It's hard to tell how much there is from pictures anyways. But Jesse can account for how much we even got in Kansas City just by how long it took him to scoop our very long driveway, needless to say all the snow blowers were sold out by the time we got back into town. Let's just hope we have one before the next snow storm hits, oh wait that's supposed to be in two days. Let's just hope it's a small storm.

Santa - Take Two

Or maybe this one should be called, Mrs. Claus Take One. We had a big day planned to head to Crown Center and Union Station. Bella did great and enjoyed being out, although I'm not sure how much she was actually able to take in. But we have lots of pictures to share of the morning. Of course the big moment with Mrs. Claus didn't turn out so well, only because Bella didn't raise her head, but that's what Christmas pictures are all about....screaming children frightened of Santa.....or in our case.....a little girl who can't always pick her head up. Enjoy.The Christmas Train was located outside Union Station. We waited probably close to an hour to board, but luckily the line was indoors, and you only had to go outside right as you were boarding the train.Union Station has a very large set up of model trains. It's quite a sight to see.This was at the Westin where they had a beautiful tree decorated. Many people were having professional photographs taken in front of this tree. We got in for a quick snap shot.And lastly we saw frosty the snowman and Garfield at Crown Center.....I can't explain Garfield either. Frosty walked away from us when we were going to take a picture with him, so we caught Garfield instead.

Santa - Take One

Santa came to the preschool on Thursday. Bella did not sleep well on Wednesday night. In fact she was up from 2am until 5am, and then I had to wake her at 7am, so we could head off to preschool. So what little reaction we might have gotten from her in seeing Santa was completely replaced by a child who wanted to do nothing but fall asleep, granted she did at least keep her eyes open for the pictures. And of course in normal Bella fashion, did not actually nap that day, even though she desperately needed to.

But have no fear, we are heading out tomorrow morning to see the Christmas displays and activities in Crown Center and Union Station, where I'm sure we might see another Santa or two. Let's just hope tonight goes better, and we have better luck tomorrow.

The Snowman Song

Bella had her Christmas program last night at her preschool. We were a little worried how it would go since it started at 6:30pm and was all the way downtown. Bella's bedtime is 7pm, and you don't mess with that unless you want trouble. Bella fell asleep while eating dinner at 5:15pm. Luckily I was able to get her to finish before she was fully sleeping. We packed her in the car...still sleeping and off we headed to the preschool. She woke up once we got there at 6:15pm and we handed her off to her teachers to get her dressed for their song. I have pictures attached, but you can tell I don't know how to run our camera very well, as the zoomed in ones didn't turn out very well, so I had to enhance them in our software. Which now makes them seem grainy, but at least you can see everyone.

Bella was very quite during her song and just sat in her teachers lap. All the way home she was very talkative...where was that during the song?? And we didn't make it home until 7:30pm, and she wasn't in bed till after 8pm. Needless to say she didn't go to sleep, and finally at 10pm, she came into bed with me, and Jesse had to move to the guest bed. Well at some point she finally did go to sleep, and is still sleeping peacefully in our bed. I guess she knows how to get what she wants :-)

Enjoy the pictures........I also did an update to our home improvement blog with the Christmas party pictures from our house.

Rolly Polly

An exciting update for Bella. She has now begun to roll all the way across rooms. She started out on her blanket in this picture, and is almost out of the room. She even switches the direction of the rolls, although she hasn't mastered switching which way she rolls. Meaning if she is rolling from her right side, she continues to roll from her right side. But she can pivot her body, so that she is rolling in different directions. Some day we will take a video, but for now she isn't very fast, we would have to figure out how to speed it up :-)

A nice warm bath after a full days work of rolling!!

The Power of a Tree

This past weekend we got our Christmas decorations up, which included 1 big tree, 1 medium tree, and 3 little trees. Bella still loves all the lights, and I figured we might as well use that towards our advantage. Last night we worked on rolling towards an object that we want...i.e. the brightly light tree. And we continue to work on sitting and head control while gazing at the trees. We will have to continue to work on our two goals while the newness of the Christmas lights is still in affect.

I took this picture tonight, as Jesse was working with Bella. She had just taken a bath, notice how long and curly her hair is getting. Normally she lays on it, so it gets all tangled and frizzy, I wish I knew how to keep that from happening. We try pig tails, but again since she lays on them, she normally can work them out pretty easily. I hate to have to cut her hair, but the 30 minute de-tangling sessions twice a day, aren't fun either.