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!