A New Year, A New List...

As the new year approaches I start to think of what resolutions I am going to TRY and accomplish this year. Here's my list:

1. Complete a Project 365. I really enjoyed the start that I got last year and would like to try again this year. I don't use my camera as much as I should and by completing this project I hope to try some new types of photography and capture the little moments of everyday life.

2. Spend more time if my wonderful craft room. One of first rooms that was redone in our new house was my craft room. I love it but have spend very little time in there. It is more a storage room for all my stuff than a work space right now. So this coming year I hope to work on little projects that I like to do and create some wonderful new things.

3. Do a load of laundry at least every other day. This one is boring but I feel like we spend so much time cleaning and doing laundry on the weekends. I hope by doing a little everyday I can buy myself some more time on the weekends.

4. Lastly, what would a New Year's Resolution list be without an exercise goal. I would like to run a 5K by next summer (2012). This one continues to show up on the list but I know I can do it. I get the extension into next summer because of our new arrival in the beginning of June and I think by the time I might be ready to run a 5K the cold weather may not be allowing any 5K races in the area....but I will look!

Well that's my 2011 New Year's Resolution List. I'll keep you updated on how things are going. Look for my daily picture posts starting on Saturday!

Day 73

Meet our niece Ava. She is just over six months old.
This Micah...she is three years old. Bella and Micah have a great time playing together.
And this is the only boy, Mac. This was our first time meeting him. He is adorable and so tiny. I forgot how little they can be. We are in Arizona, visiting John's mom and John's sister and brother both came down with their families. FUN!!!

Day 72

Packing for Arizona. Do you think that Bella and I have enough shoes for three days?

Day 71

Bella strutting her stuff.

Day 70

Another day I forgot all about my camera....Project 365 is now Project 363.

Day 69

I HATE laundry! It is never ending. I need a maid.

Day 68

Oh, how we love the warmer weather! Rocco loves to roll in the grass. The only problem with that though is that the grass ends up all over the house. Bella is loving the weather too. I caught her reading books in her tent. I see a lot of fresh air in our future.

Day 67

Better late than never....I hope to be up-to-date soon.

This is Rocco's favorite spot on a nice day. Sitting on the ledge to the side yard. He's able to enjoy some fresh air but also keep an eye on what's going on in the house.

Day 66

Bella has been giving us some really funny faces lately. This is just one of the many. She will even try and copy the face you are making. Hilarious!

Day 65

Just waiting for Mommy to get our stuff together and head to work!

Day 64

Bella is becoming such a little lady....where did my baby go? She is growing up way too fast!

Day 63

My little reader telling us a story.

Day 62

My heart was broken when I realized that I forgot to take a picture for Day 62...Project 365 is now Project 364.

Day 61

Bedtime stories....I love them! Bella loves to listen to books and reading books before bed is a routine in our house since Bella was 4 months old. I think it has made all the difference when it comes to bedtime. Bella has always laid down while still awake and not cried about it. She knows the routine and knows it is time for bed.

I thought Bella's little feet next to Daddy's were too cute to not post!

Day 60

I'M STILL HERE!!!! Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Life it getting busy and now I"m over two weeks behind in post processing and blogging. I'm going to make every attempt to catch up this week.

Day 60- This day we went down to South Main Street in Memphis and took some pictures. The weather was warm and it felt good to get out. I've been struggling with working in daylight and my new camera so I thought some extra practice would be great. This is one of my favorite shots of Bella.

Day 59

It is slowly getting warmer. We went to the little playground by our house and Bella played around. She is now big enough to run around and actually enjoy it. Hopefully we will start getting out more and I can practice taking picture outside. It is a lot harder with so much variation in lighting.

Day 58

Still waiting for Daddy to come home.....

Day 57

Bella's new activity is to color. She likes me to write her name on the pages of the coloring book and will say "A", "E", "B". So she has some of the letters down but never the "L". She colors at her little drawing table. It can keep her busy for a long time. I think we have a little artist on our hands.

Day 56

Yes, he really is that beautiful! I love Rocco's coloring. I wanted a dog that was either red colored or white colored and I think Rocco is a perfect mix of both.

Day 55

Little Miss Independent! Bella loves to feed herself yogurt these days. It gets a little messy! But she has to learn some how.

Day 54

My solution to making supper without Bella crying for me to pick her up- bring her kitchen out next to me! She acts like she is cooking too!

Day 53

My little Tinkerbell. Bella got new pajamas and I think she looks so grown up in them. My baby is becoming a little girl. I also love them because I think she is a little Tinkerbell with her blond hair....now if only we could pull it into a pretty little ponytail.

Day 52

Today was Bella's first birthday party. It was of course her bf, Eli's 3rd birthday. He had a joint party with his soon-to-be Grandma. I had to put two pictures because I think the picture of Eli is adorable and the picture of the two of them together was really cute too. Have you ever seen a Transformer's cake with candles for a 56 year-old? We had a great time! Happy Birthday Eli!

Day 51

Today it actually got into the 50's! We went for a walk after school and played a little in the grass. It was great to get some fresh air!

Day 50

A random picture, I know. But I saw this one the fence this morning before I left for work. The sun was actually shining and creating these circles on the fence. I thought it was kind of unique!

Day 49

Meet Michael Michael Monkey. That is what Bella likes to call him. We originally named him Dangles (it was the name on the tag) but Bella renamed him and likes to say it really fast. We have three of him. One stays at the babysitter's house, one at our house, and one for in the car. John's sister gave us the tip of having more than one. It works out great because I can wash him and there is always another one around to take his place while he gets his bath.

Day 48

Just some flowers I bought this weekend....hopefully I can keep them alive.

Day 47

Happy President's Day! John and I both had the day off. It is fun to have a day to hang out around the house and play with Bella.

Day 46

Big girl undies! We are starting the potty training process. We have been wearing pull-ups all weekend and thought we would try some Elmo undies for motivation. So far we had one great day and one not so great day. We will keep trying. Bella looks so cute in them and she is very excited about having Elmo on!

Day 45

Another Valentine's Day present from the Bartels. These blocks are great. They are very heavy cardboard and all fit inside of each other. Bella loves all the animals on them. Her favorite is the cow (as almost every animal is called right now). Thanks Aunt Christie and Uncle Greg! Rocco is also going to dig his new frisbee. Thanks cousin Micah!

Day 44

Today is Bella's half birthday! We went to the doctor's office for 18 month shots and check-up. I think she knows as soon as we enter that place that it isn't going to be good. There is one nurse that just looks at Bella and she starts crying. After the office visit we went to get groceries and there were Valentine's Day balloons everywhere. I couldn't say no and Bella loves balloons.

Day 43

Zombie girl!!! This is Bella's sleepy, had a long day look. She just gets in a daze and her eyes get red.

I'm a little behind on my processing. I've been taking my pictures everyday, just a little behind on running them through Photoshop. I'm hoping to get caught up this week.

Day 42

Bella got a Valentine's Day present today! Thanks Grandma Julie and Grandpa Bill! She got some puzzles and stickers. The stickers ended up all over her potty and the puzzle pieces ended up all in the gift bag they came in. She was most excited about the gift bag! She did attempt to do one of the puzzles though. I just love her little hands!

Day 41

What little hair Bella does have, I'm completely loving! Here is my second attempt at doing Bella's hair, a little bitty clip. It's growing slowly but surely!

Day 40

Snow Day #5! I can't believe it! NO MORE SNOW DAYS!!! I don't want to have to suffer through any of the Memphis heat or humidity this year. The snow was beautiful today. Big flakes that stuck to everything for a few minutes.

Day 39

Snow Day #4. Today the snow was wet enough to build a snowman. Bella is still not impressed by the snow. She just gets outside and says "cold" and "Buhhhhhh." (That's burrrr minus the r for those of you who don't speak Bella language yet.) She is going to be in for a rude awakening when we move back to Iowa next year and are made to suffer through freezing temperatures and a lot more snow. I don't even know if I am going to survive. I do love the weather in the South!

Day 38

Another lazy day....I love weekends!

Day 37

Today was a lazy day around our house. John had to work in the morning so I was home with Bella and Rocco. I found Rocco in our bedroom sleeping behind the curtain. I guess he was trying to find a quiet and dark place. The quiet place is a little hard to find when Bella is home.

Day 36

Guess who??? I think he might tell me I have too many pictures of him this week. Here is a shot of my wonderful hubby. I think that look is "get that camera out of my face." I might need to find a new subject for next week. Rocco might be the lucky one!

Day 35

Happy Birthday John! You are a wonderful husband and daddy. I am so proud of all that you have accomplished. Can't wait until April when you officially becoming Dr. John. I love you!

We went out to eat for John's birthday tonight. I took at few pictures of John and Bella. Going out to eat is becoming more difficult these days with Bella. She wants to walk around. She wants to sit by me or on my lap. She isn't content with sitting in the highchair and looking at a book anymore. I think we are going to have to start bring the portable DVD player in with us again. It is a lifesaver! Bella enjoyed going out to eat tonight and danced to the Spanish music that was playing...too cute! Doesn't Bella look so much like her daddy?

Day 34

John acted as the photographer tonight. I made Bella this tent and she loves to read books in it. We have to of course put a pillow (her new word this week "pill") and a blanket in it. Her newest thing is to come pull your hand to where she wants you to go. She often pulls me into her room to set up her tent for her. We were reading one of her many books here. Daddy caught us and took a quick snapshot.

Day 33

John told me that I posted too many pictures of Bella last week....he might regret saying that to me. She is just any easy subject to take pictures of and just so adorable. Here is John with his birthday present. His birthday isn't for a few more days but we are horrible about keeping secrets from each other. I hid these decoys from him for a total of three hours. John is a hunter and made the suggestion that he wouldn't mind some new decoys. So being the wonderful wife I am, I went down to the Avery Store in Memphis and got him some. I'm pretty proud of myself for picking out some awesome decoys with little description from him. Thanks to the great help at the store I got John a present I think he is pleasantly "surprised" with.

Day 32

ANOTHER SNOW DAY!!!! (Snow Day #3 if you are counting) I decided to work on something I do have control over, like getting our house ready to be put on the market. I thought tackling the bathroom would be a great idea. Although we like the color of the bathroom, it doesn't exactly go with the master bedroom and isn't very neutral. So here is the last picture of the bluish gray bathroom. Hopefully in the not too distant future I'll post the after pic!

Day 31

Wedding dress shopping today! My wonderful friend, Amy (Eli's mommy), is getting married in June and today was shopping day. This isn't the dress she picked, I couldn't spoil the surprise! She looked great in every dress but I really love the one she got. She will look beautiful in it on her wedding day. Don't worry, I will be sure to post a picture of her that day so you can see the dress.

It is also the last day in January. I officially made it an entire month taking a picture every day...no cheating! I'm loving it so far. In just a month I have learned a lot of new things on Photoshop and am loving my new camera and starting to learn how to do more things with it. The end of January is also a little bit scary because that means John will be graduating in exactly three months and we will be moving in less than four! No job yet, no house, and a lot of unanswered questions....but I've got to continue to be patient. Not my strongest quality (just ask John). So I hope at the end of February I will have more answers than questions and more wonderful pictures to share.

Day 30

Everything is covered in ice! It is beautiful and of course I wait until the sun goes down to take a picture of it. We have lived in Memphis for four years now and we have never had this much winter weather. Compared to Iowa this is nothing but when you don't have the equipment to handle weather like this it is a pretty big deal. Love the days off!

Day 29

Snow Day! Today we had another snow day so I was able to take Bella's Valentine's Day/ 18 month pictures. I am really happy with how they turned out. This one was my favorite!

Day 28

I actually got little bitty pigtails in Bella's hair today. They didn't even last the car ride over to the babysitter though. They were too tiny and fell out when she moved her head in the car seat. At least I snapped a few shots before we left. Gives me hope that some day I will be able to play with Bella's hair!

Day 27

Princess Bella- Bella got this tiara from Eli for her birthday back in August. She just recently started wearing it but she has to sit very still. She doesn't have any hair to hold it on her head with.