Early out! Today it snowed, and snowed, and then snowed some more. I got out of school early and Bella wanted to play basketball outside when we got home. Instead she settled for posing for a few shots. The wind is suppose to pick up tonight and I already for the 2 hours late start phone call. So if there is no school tomorrow I think we will get some Robin Egg blue up on the walls. YEAH!

I purposely didn't adjust the color or tone in this picture because I wanted everyone to see just how hideous the orange in that room is. It left this awful orange glow on everything. I don't know why this color would ever be considered for a bedroom. (Sorry if you have a bedroom or any room painted this color....just not my style). So we have the room primed and the trims all primed. I can't wait to see the color go up on the wall. I went with a color called Robin Egg. It will look great with punches of pink. I'm excited!

This is one of Bella's better bed heads. Her hair is getting longer so she wakes up with some really funny hair-do's. Just a lazy Saturday morning here. Waiting for John to get home from work and hang out with us. I love the weekends!

Picking out colors for the baby's room. Yes, you read correctly before....we are having a girl. But I am thinking about painting the room a blue shade. Possibly more aqua or turquoise. Still deciding. I thought it was funny that the color on the top was called mo better blue. Reminded me of Memphis, a combination of the rap and blues.

Here is the barn of the week. I even included some cows today! It was a gorgeous today....my car said is was 26 degrees out when I took this picture. It felt like spring! But the deep freeze is coming back this weekend. So I was glad the lighting was wonderful for a barn picture on my way home from work. I didn't even have a coat on when I took the picture. I love the black and white of the cows, the great barn red color, and the silo. A perfect farm scene!

Bella has a new obsession.....water. (Don't worry she still loves Tink!) She likes to pull her footstool up to any sink she can and turn the water on. Today I caught her in the bathroom washing her hands. While I watched her I think she may have washed her hands close to ten times. Our bottle of hand soap is suddenly empty. I love her curious mind but she is keeping me on her toes! She is feeling better today too! I think one more day away from daycare and we will be on our way to a full recovery!

Waiting for someone to play with him. Bella is still sick. She gets Grandma Julie tomorrow! Hopefully she doesn't catch on to this sick thing and that she gets to hang out with all the people she loves. On a positive note....it was a little warmer today! We reached the 20's and the kids at school actually got to go out for recess. I think a heat wave is going to hit us the rest of this week and we might reach the 30's by Friday! Oh, the little joys in life! Have a happy Wednesday!

This is what I want to do a lot lately (a combination of screaming and laughing at the same time) but then I look at everything I have and am thankful. Little B is still sick and got a Mommy day today. Tomorrow she will get to stay home with John and hopefully be ready to go back to daycare on Wednesday. We'll see....

Here is the mostly finished bed tent. We have gotten two successful night sleep in it too but since Bella has gotten a cold we have gone back to the crib until she feels better. I think overall it turned out great. I need to have John shorten the cross bars on the top just a little because I sewed the fabric too tight. I didn't put fabric all the way down the back either which I originally had thought about doing. Bella thinks it's cool and I think it gives her a little bit of a more secure feeling when she goes to sleep in the big bed. Hopefully after she gets over her cold, she will give up her crib for good to her little sister. Have a great week!

Our sweet lady is sick.....she has a cold. I hate colds because there is nothing you can do. Just wait and deal with all the junk that comes with it. Her lips are chapped so Grandma gave her some chapstick. She is in zombie mode and looks paler than her normal pale. Hope it passes soon.

Tinkerbella....When she wears these wings she likes to pretend she can fly! I think we may be on the edge of being obsessed with Tinkerbell. She wants to name the new baby Tinkerbell. Paint the baby's room with Tinkerbell. And thinks the new baby might like some new Tinkerbell toys. The other day we went to Taco Bell to eat and she thought we were going to Tinkerbell to eat. Oh well! I think it is cute and someday I will wish it was Tinkerbell she was thinking about all the time.

Here is my barn picture for the week. I have had my eye on this barn and I don't think this picture does it justice. The color of the barn is this blue jean color and it's really unique. I was in a hurry to get a shot because I was running late and it was cold. So when if warms up I might try to get a little closer and focus more on the blue barn. Have a great Friday tomorrow!

Don't know if I have mentioned it but.....IT'S FREEZING HERE! This really was the temperature this morning....not the wind chill. I grew up in Iowa. Lived here for 23 years then got treated to Memphis weather for four years. Now I can't stand how cold it is here....I'm ready for spring but that won't be for a few more months. I ask my husband when we are moving back. I didn't have many heavy sweaters moving back here and now I really don't have many warm clothes that are fit over my growing tummy. But I will keep thinking of the summers here. The heat and humidity doesn't even come close to Memphis. So I will be thankful for the wonderful weather than. Until then I will snuggle under a blanket until May!

I imagined this picture to be a lot cuter but someone was not being very cooperative. Bella is hold a ultrasound of her new baby sister! We found out today that we are having another girl. Bella wanted a girl from the beginning and she will be a great big sister. I'm a little in shock that I will have two little girls. I always thought I would have boys but bring on more pink!

So this is the most boring 365 pictures I hope that I take this year. I wanted to show the frame for the bed tent we are making for Bella and then I left my camera up in her room. I wasn't going to risk waking her so this is my picture for the day. But this is the frame that my husband made for the tent. We are hoping it makes her like her big girl bed a little bit more and we can pass the crib on to the new baby. I started sewing the fabric last night, so hopefully this weekend I will have an after picture of it!

This is the face I get often lately. Bella thinks she is good at faking her sad face and it even comes with a great fake cry. She is pushing her boundaries lately and we are trying to be a little more strict with her. She doesn't like it one bit and as a result this is the face we get. Life with a two year old!

Why is this tree still up? I have been waiting for it to take its self down but it doesn't seem to be working. About three weeks ago I took all the decorations off and then it just sat for two weeks. This weekend I took the netting/ribbon off it. Maybe next weekend I will get the lights off and then by Valentine's Day it could be completely down!

This is my first child...Rocco. Rocco has been with us since we got married. He will be five years old in May. He is a great dog and is really good with Bella. We couldn't ask for a better dog!

"I wear my sunglasses at night...." We were getting ready to leave to go out to eat and Bella insisted that she wear her sunglasses....even after we told her it was night. I think she just likes wearing glasses!

My dad loves to take pictures of barns, so I am going to try and take at least one picture of a barn a week. What I love about this barn is the bright red color and the weather vane. I wish that we could have a weather vane at our house but it just wouldn't look right without the barn or the cows. So instead I will just search the countryside for them and take pictures of them. This was a quick shot today because it continues to be very cold here. The windchill is in the -20's and I wasn't going to stand outside for too long. There was some awesome sun dogs in the sky today but I couldn't quite get them on my camera....it was too bright. So here is my barn of the week!

Another snow day! We went to the doctor this morning for a check-up and everything looks good. Heard the baby's heart beat and scheduled an ultrasound for next Tuesday. We will find out if it will be more pink or if we get to add a little blue and green to our household! It finally stopped snowing but now we have very cold temps. Tonight the wind chill is -24 degrees! FREEZING! This is a picture of the frost on one of our windows. It was kind-of hard to take because my camera wouldn't focus on the frost itself. So I would have to focus on something off to the side and readjust my shot. I didn't know if I liked it at first but after adding a little bit more blue and cropping it in Photoshop, I think it looks pretty cool. Hope everyone else is staying warm and surviving all the snow!

Happy Birthday Great Grandma Doris! Today John's grandma turned 86! It's great to be back in town so Bella can spend time with her great grandma. We ventured out in the snow and had supper with her tonight. Bella was entertaining as always. I was able to stay home with her today because of the snow. Tomorrow looks like it may be another snow day too.

It's a lazy day around our house today. Bella loves to watch Elmo videos on YouTube with John. Although it looks like John is really into them too, he is actually watching his favorite football team, the Eagles, play the Packers. Right now the outcome isn't looking very good for the Eagles but you can't count them out until the game is over! We are expected to get snow all night, so I have my fingers crossed we have a snow day tomorrow. Missing a professional development day wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. :) Enjoy what little is left of the weekend!

Bella found my glasses in the bedroom and came out wearing them. She looked very intelligent! She wouldn't sit still long enough for me to get a great shot but that's the way it is with most two year olds.

Very cold and windy day here...didn't give me much of a chance to get outside and take any shots. So I took a shot of one of my favorite goldfish. We have six goldfish in a tank and they are fun to watch. This one is the most colorful fish that we have. Hopefully this weekend I will get a chance to get outside and take some pictures if the wind settles down a bit.

Tonight we had some playtime with Bella in the basement. She loves to go down there because she has room to run, and gets Mommy and Daddy's attention. My husband, John, is tickling her in this picture. We love spending time with Bella and seeing her laugh like she is in this picture.

Bath time! Bella loves to take a bath. Her favorite part is to fill up little containers and dump them into something else. She also likes to swim "like a walleye" in the water.

Day 4

I tried to leave a few minutes earlier but it was too dark this morning to take any pictures! Go figure...but the lighting was great tonight on the drive home. I did some gravel traveling and found this cool set of barns with the old tractor. I love the color of the barn on the left. It looked great with the sun setting on it. I also found some other great areas for pictures on my drive back into town...so I will put those in the back of my mind for another day. Hope you had a great day!

Day 3

Well, it was back to work after Christmas break today (I'm a teacher). I brought my camera with me to work and left it in the car thinking I could try and take a picture after work on the drive home. I learned two things today:

1. The cold weather will zap my camera battery very quickly.

2. It is almost too dark to take pictures at 4:00.

So, plan is to try and leave a few minutes earlier in the morning and take some pictures in the then. But I snapped a picture of my daughter, Bella, helping me make supper tonight. She is wearing an adorable apron that her Aunt Kay made her for Christmas. I have a matching apron that is great....I don't know if I look as cute as Bella does in it though. Bella loves to sit up on the counter while I cook and "help" me. Tonight I tried to teach her how to roll the crescent rolls, but she would rather just line them up when I was done. Oh well! Maybe someday she will get it!

Day 2

Today I thought that there might be a good sunset so I waited to take my picture. I was a little late and should have left earlier but I like the shot I got. I drove down the road that I take to work and there is a great weather vane in a open field. I didn't get a great shot of it and am going to try again in better light but I did get a great shot of an open field. I like how the sunset is right above two hay bales. Look in future post for the weather vane!

Day 1

Day 1- Here is my first picture of the new year. It is FREEZING here. The wind chills are 20 to 30 below zero. I have stayed inside the comfort of my home all day, nice and warm. My picture is from one of the kitchen windows. I thought it was neat how the frost was creating a frame around the edge of the windows. I am hoping to get a macro lenses in the future and would love to use it for shots like this where I could get in close and see the details. Have a Happy New Year!