Life Gets Busy...Trying to Enjoy Every Minute!

I know it's been forever since I posted anything. Life has been very busy. Every day that passes I cannot believe how much Bella is growing. She is now 17 months she surprises us every day with the things she is doing. She is still a big "climber". She scares Daniel and I to death, especially when she stands up on the dining room table more and more.
She also is still putting everything in her mouth. A couple of weeks ago she ate Desitin (diaper rash cream) and I had to call Poison Control for the first time. That was great. They said that she would be fine. THANK GOODNESS! Also last week she walks up to me one morning eating something. I panicked because there wasn't anything out that she should be eating. I tried to get it out of her mouth and it was chocolate. I couldn't think of where she would have found chocolate but then I remembered that I had left a chocolate kiss on the end table in the den. I walked into the den and the foil and little strip of paper from the kiss was laying on the ottoman. Bella had opened it up perfectly and eaten the whole thing. I couldn't help but laugh....with relief that it was only chocolate!!! :)
She also is talking our ears off now. She babbles and tries so hard to tell us stuff. She knows what she is saying it's just we don't understand everything. She is so expressive with her words too. She gets so excited to tell us everything. She is saying so many words and adding more to her vocabulary everyday. Our favorite thing is she says "luv chuu" (love you). She tells Daniel and I that every night before she goes to bed! That just melts your heart as a parent! There is nothing better in the world!
We are also having to watch her more now than we ever have had to. She can now open the front door by herself. Last week she got her juice, walked over to Daniel and gave him a kiss, then walked to me and gave me a kiss and said "bye bye". She walked to the door and opened it like she was ready to leave. She is the funniest little girl I have ever seen. There is definitely never a dull moment with her. Her personality is unbelievable!
Also, I know it is a little late but Mother's Day was amazing again! I can't believe it was already my 2nd mother's day. My husband earned some major points this year! He surprised me with a wonderful gift (that I have been throwing hints out for). He got me 3 hours at the spa which includes, a full body exfolliation, 60 min. massage, facial, pedicure, and make up touch up! Can I just say I have the best husband in the world!!! Any mom out there knows that we don't get much "me" time. Anything we can get is wonderful and much needed! I know I can't wait to enjoy my present sometime soon!
Will try to do better with posting things more often. Working a full time job, being a mom, and a wife keeps me very busy but I like to share some of my experiences! They may not be much to everyone else but they are the world to me! I love my life and I have been so blessed!

BELLA & TWILIGHT!

So I am still on the Twilight kick and I have been listening to the soundtrack for the 1st Twilight non stop. It hasn't come out of my CD player in 2-3 weeks now. The first song on the CD is a faster upbeat song (Supermassive Black Hole). Every single time this song comes on, no matter where we are, Bella starts dancing immediately! If we are in the car she does funny arm dancing, but if we are not in the car she starts dancing like this video. She makes us laugh so hard! Our child is hilarious! {By the way, just finished the Twilight New Moon movie the other night and it was beyond words. I loved the ending and I cannot wait until Eclipse comes out on June 30th! The official trailer came out today and it looks wonderful!}

Back to our little girl! I don't think I have ever seen a child with so much personality. She is so funny all the time. She is talking non stop now! She will babble on and on and I would give anything to be able to understand everything she is saying. She will start a long "speech" and then just cackle like she had just told a joke or something. She laughs at herself all the time. She definitely knows what she is talking about and tries so hard to tell us. Her new favorite word is please or "pees". She thinks that every time she says that word now that she is suppose to get what she wants. It is so hard to say no to her when she looks so sweet at us and says "pees'.

Another new thing she loves to do now is climb. She will try to climb anything and everything, and it just about gives me a heart attack! The other morning we were about to leave the house and I look over and she has climbed up on a dining room chair, then onto the dining room table, and looks at me and laughs! I could have fainted. I can't take my eyes off of her at all or she will be on who knows what!

Even though most times she is the best little girl in the world, sometimes at night it is not always true. This week has been a rough week because she has not been sleeping good at night. It is easy to get frustrated because she can't tell me what is wrong. Its hard to feel helpless! All I can do is pray and try to soothe her. It is so hard to be up all night and then have to go to work the next day. I used to wonder how I could make it on such little sleep but I have to say that the Lord definitely gives a working mom the strength the make it through the day even without sleep. I know it won't be like this for long so I try to enjoy every moment even those when my eyes are about to fall shut in the middle of the night!

Just waned to share a few things that Bella is going through right now! She is the best gift that Daniel and I have ever received! It is a blessing to us to watch her grow up, even though it is going by way too fast!

Time Flies!

This week has been a big week! First of all, I turned 25 on Tuesday. I can't believe I am already a quarter century old. Also this week has been 2 years since we found out that we were going to be parents! I think back to how fast time flies. I always think back to when I was in high school. It doesn't seem that long ago but I graduated almost 7 years ago! HOLY COW! If I could go back in high school and look into the future I wonder what I would have seen. I wonder if I would have seen that in September of 2003, a Freshman in college, I would meet the man of my dreams and know within the first month that I would marry him! I wonder if I would have seen that we would fall so in love and have so much fun getting to know everything about each other. That Daniel would be by best friend! I wonder if I would have seen that on June 23, 2005 Daniel would suprise me and come down to the beach to stay with me and my family on vacation. I wonder if I would have seen that then on Friday, June 24, 2005 that he would then surprise me even more and propose on the middle of the beach! It was amazing! Then we would get married on May 20, 2006. I wonder if I would look even further in the future and see that we would find out on April 8, 2008 that we were going to become parents! That was the most UNBELIEVABLE feeling in the world! Then have so much fun being pregnant and on December 12, 2008 I would have Bella after 19 hours of labor! (I'm glad I couldn't look into the future to see that because it would have scared me to death!) And then I wonder if I would have seen how amazing, scary, unpredictable, etc... it would be rasing a baby girl, but at the same time the most rewarding thing I could ever imagine. I would have then seen that now, Bella is almost 16 months old and becoming more independent every minute. I see Daniel and myself in things she does and her personality. I don't think I could have ever looked into the future and seen all of the wonderful experiences that the Lord has blessed me with! I am so glad that we can't look into the future because there are many times where we may have taken a different path if we knew what was going to happen. I know that every path I have taken has been planned for me, even if they were't easy. The Lord has directed my steps and gives me the faith to trust him and be certain that He has the best plans for me. After reminiscing this week, I just can't believe how fast time flies! I just have to be careful and not blink! :) I don't want to miss anything!

BEACH BUMS!

I know it's a few days late but I just now have had time to share about our Spring Break beach trip. We had such an amazing, relaxing week. Our little girl does such a good job riding in the car. We are so blessed that she doesn't go crazy on a semi-long trip. The weather started off kind of chilly but then it definitely warmed up after a couple of days. We enjoyed going out on the beach and playing in the sand (and water) with Bella. She was adorable in her little striped bikini. What can I say, I have to brag about how beautiful my little girl is. Daniel and I loved spending a whole week with Bella and not having to worry about work. (If you are a parent, you know how wonderful that is). Here are some things that we really enjoyed doing during the week:


Bella played in the sand & ate the sand (even though we tried to stop her)

She tried to get the water and eventually did because her Papa let her. That made it worse because after that we had to chase her the whole week :)






Ate at some delicious restaurants: PF Changs, Yamato (Japanese Steakhouse), Carabas, Liberty. Bella is hilarious because she likes to take her pieces of food and dip them in ranch dressing (or some kind of sauce) and then makes the biggest mess you have ever seen. She is also trying to feed herself now (Independence is a difficult thing sometimes) :)

We had our 2nd annual tradition of taking Bella to Build-a-Bear to make a stuffed animal. Last year we made Gracie (the cat), which is in Bella's crib every night. This year we let her make a white bear which we named "Tinkerbear". Mrs. Independence wanted to do everything herself.







We just had so much fun spending time together with each other and my parents (Nana and Papa). Bella loves spending time with them and we love it too because Mommy and Daddy got to go on a date! (Japanese was wonderful!) I guess the biggest thing that I realized on this trip is how important my family is to me. I have the best husband and daughter in the world. They make me smile everyday. I also have the best parents ever. I really enjoyed having a great week at the beach! I am so blessed and I thank God every day for the wonderful people in my life!

I am officially a Twilight fan!!!

Ok, so my little girl's name is Bella and so many people ask me if I named her that after Bella in the Twilight series. I didn't by the way, but I had never read the books or watch the movies. Saturday I finally watched the 1st Twilight movie. Let me just say, UNBELIEVABLE!!! I am now a Twilight fan. That movie was amazing! Now I definitely have to read the books and watch the 2nd movie. Have to put that one on my "To Do..." list! Just had to tell someone because I was so in love with this movie!

Our Fearless Little Girl

Well here lately our little girl has been a mess! She is just hilarious and makes us laugh so hard. She has been growing so fast lately and thinks she can do everything by herself. (Needless to say it takes a lot of praying and patience)! She is climbing on everything and scaring me to death. She loves to climb on our ottoman and jump up and down! Can we say "Terrified Mommy"? She climbed up on a dining room chair the other day and just looked at me and smiled. She is also getting smarter every day. She understands what we tell her to do more and more everyday. I will ask her to get things and she goes and gets what I say. The other day we were in the den and I asked her to go get me a diaper and she walked all the way in her room and got a diaper out of the diaper holder on her door and brought it back to me. I guess I didn't realize how smart a 15 1/2 month old could be. She amazes me everyday. The Lord has definitely blessed us with a beautiful, smart, hilarous little girl and I love being her Mom more and more every day!

God Definitely Gave Us Children Because He Knew they Could Always Make us Smile!

This week has not been easy because I have been trying to get over being sick, while working, and being super busy! Some days it is easy to get down and out. God definitely gave me Bella because he knew she would make me smile. Children are such an amazing blessing from God and they make you appreciate so much being a parent. Bella is growing so fast now. I know she is only 15 months but she is 15 months going on 5. She thinks she is a "big girl" now. She is doing so many things now that I can't even believe. First of all she is talking our ears off and I love it. Daniel and I just laugh at her because she is so funny. She is full of personality! The other day we were eating and Daniel started asking her to say certain words. She would say them right after him: Momma, Daddy, Nana, Papa, please, thank you, bye bye, Love you, ball, and many more. It is so hard to believe that she says so many words. Throughout the day it seems like she is constantly learning to say new things. I know there are more things she says, but can't remember them all. The thing that is amazing me the most right now is that she knows what we mean when we tell her to do things. For example, if Daniel is at work and I ask her if she wants to see her Daddy, she will walk to the front door and reach up and try to grab the door handle. She knows that is where Daniel comes in every day. Another example is that the other day I was giving her a snack in the den and I asked her if she wanted some cheese (Bella loves cheese!). She walked into the kitchen and reached up to the refrigerator handle to try to open it. She made me laugh so hard. Also today Daniel said he was going to take a bath and a few minutes later I walked into the bathroom and there was Bella standing at the bathtub trying to get in. She puts a smile on our faces! It's so hard to believe that a person that tiny can understand so many things. I sit and wonder sometimes if she is "on track" developmentally and if I am teaching her all the things I should ( I guess that's the teacher in me:) ) but I know that she is exactly where God wants her to be. I am so blessed to be a mom and I am so glad that the Lord gave Bella to Daniel and I especially on those days when we need some extra laughs!

My First Blog

I have been wanting to start a blog for a long time now, but sometimes life gets so busy and it goes way faster than you expect it to. I go back and forth wondering if I am a good mom because I haven't written (or typed) about everything that has happened since having our baby girl. I guess it is never too late to start getting better.
The last 15 months of my life have been so lifechanging to say the least. I have become a mom since then and it is the most rewarding, but not always easy, job in the world. I absolutely love being a mom. My baby girl, Bella, is a blessing from the Lord. She has definitely taught me so many things. She has taught me that I have to rely on the Lord for everything. That is not always an easy thing to do. I know that as a semi-OCD person, that I definitely love to take things into my own hands a lot of the time. Being a mom has shown me that I no longer have control [not like I had control before, but I thought I did:) ]! I have had to learn to just accept change and go day by day. Recently I was reading a devotional and it talked about a phrase, "Gracious Uncertainty". I had never heard of that before but this is the explanation it gave, "we are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God. We can be certain of God's grace while being graciously uncertain of the future details of our lives." I am learning daily that I have to live this way every day. I have to trust that God is in control even though I don't know what he has planned for me and my family in the future.
Another thing that Bella has taught me is that being a mom is very bittersweet. I love seeing her growing every day but at the same time it makes me so sad because she is growing so fast! Like this week for example, she started saying "I love you". Of course it sounds a little different but I can tell it's what she is saying. She is starting to say so many words now it amazes me. She says something new every day. Also, this afternoon me and her were in her room and I was putting her clothes up. She pulled all of her dirty clothes out of the hamper. Once I finished with putting her clean clothes up, I started to put the pile of books up that she had pulled out. I asked her to put her dirty clothes back in her hamper and she stood there and picked every single piece up and put it away like a "big girl". I almost cried! My baby girl is growing up! I was so proud and so sad at the same time. When they are small you want them to get bigger and then when they start getting bigger then you want them to slow down!
Well I made it through my first blog and have already shedded some tears. Since I have started now, I will try to be a better mom and keep it up! Just some thoughts from a mom who is blessed beyond measure!