I'm Domestically Challenged!

So now that Belle's one, I'm trying to transition her into eating only table food.  She's been trying different things for a while now, but I'm suddenly overwhlemed with trying to come up with a balanced diet for a one-year old!  Now, for a normal woman my age with any amount of culinary skills this would not be a challenge at all!  I mean come on, we're not talking about preparing an elaborate meal to feed a large dinner party, we're talking about feeding a one-year old here!  How hard can it be?!  If only I was that woman...nope we're talking about the girl who for the past decade, eats out or throws together something either microvavable or with a prep time of 5 mins or less.  I have zero domestic skills (poor Brian), he actually teaches me how to cook basic, everyday dinner type meals.  So now I feel completely unqualified for coming up with healthy meals for my child.  I'm the girl who still gets a "smoothie" (code word for sugar-filled chocolate blended drink) everyday for lunch!  I'm  so wishing I would have taken Home Ec :)  So here's to some online research on things like steaming veggies, and appropriate meals for developing kiddos, you know Cooking for Dummies types stuff.  Oh, there's an idea, maybe I should buy that book!  Jeez...wish me luck!  Someday I will look back at this and laugh...I hope ;)

Recap of Belle's 1st year!

Since I was so bad last year about keeping up-to-date with Belle's 1st year, I'm going to try and do a mini-highlight reel :) Hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed her first year...it' been an amazing ride!

Family pictures at Tempe Town Lake
5 months old

Belle went swimming for the first time! 5.5 months

Belle didn't like getting dunked very much! :)

4th of July Summer vacation to Ventura! 6.5 months

Belle with her Aunt Cheri and Uncle Rick

Belle started crawling!! 7 months old

Hanging out with Grandma!

GO Cards!! Belle's 1st Cards outfit...they won! 8.5 months old

Happy Halloween!! 10 months old!

Belle's fav part of the costume!

I LIKE Halloween!

O.k. so I got tired of posting pics...I'll post X-mas and birthday stuff next time. I'll end with these AMAZING pics taken by my incredibly talented best friend Krissi Kai! This was over X-mas time, so Belle was one year old! :)

A Kiss from Belle!

On Sunday night (01/03/10) while I was trying to hug on Belle and snuggle with her before bed,(She's normally very anti-cuddle) she gave me her first kiss! It totally melted my heart! In true brute Belle style, she preceded the kiss with a slap in the face...I like to think it was her trying to figure out how to grab my face and pull it to her! haha...but the second time she got it right...of course I thought she was going to try and hit me again (and then laugh.) But instead she grabbed both sides of my face with her hands, pulled it towards hers, and kissed me on the lips! It was seriously the most precious thing ever...and yet to be repeated! But hey it's a start! :)

Belle's Vocabulary

I was going over the words Belle know...it seems like she's constantly adding another one...so I thought I'd start to jot them down. i think it will be fun to look back this time next year and see where she was...

Belle's Vocabulary:

• Daddy (was her fan favorite for quite awhile)
• Mum (haha...she uses the British pronunciation) or Mama
• Uh-oh (another fan favorite)
• Doggie
• Light (new one this week, she says as pointing to a light or ceiling fan)
• NO! (and she only yells this word...it's hilarious. Well for now...)
• Snack (sounds more like 'ack!')
• All done (This one's debatable, but I could have swore I heard her say it tonight after I did.)
• oh, and her absoulte #1 most used word....'Hi!' She says it all the time to anyone who can hear her, while waving "hi" with her hand as well. It's adorable.

Belle at 1 year

And we're back! Merry Christmas!

O.k. so my early New Year's resolution is to try my darnedest to keep up with this blog! I'd really like to do a better job of documenting Belle's growth and activities!! This first year has absolutely FLOWN by...everyone said it would, but I didn't really grasp it until times like this when I find myself sitting at the computer wondering how to sum up Belle's first YEAR of life! And realizing I haven't been on here in 8 months!

One year ago today we came home from the hospital to celebrate Christmas with our family. It was amazing...God has so throughly to completely blessed our lives. And it all comes back to today...Jesus' birthday. When he began his life, that he ultimately sacrificed for us, so we could live. So as today comes to a close...I got a weird burst of energy at about 1130pm after passing out on the couch at about 830pm, haha. Anyway, as Jesus' birthday is ending I'm taking a moment to say a prayer of thanks and praise for EVERYTHING. Everything we have is because of Him!

And in the upcoming year, I'm REALLY going to try to document all our memories better, so I can show Belle (and her future brothers/sisters :)) someday!! Merry Christmas everyone!! I will post current pics soon!

2-4 months!

I was looking back at Belle's 2-month checkup compared to this one...in 2 months she's gained almost 4 and a half pounds and and grown 3.5 inches!! She went from being in the 50-70 percentile, to 90-99th! Holy growth spurt! She's like me when I was pregnant...at least with the weight gain :) haha

Trip to San Diego!

[Belle 4 months]

Well, Belle is continuing to grow by the minute, or so it seems...we just got back from her 4-month check-up and she's 15 pounds 15 ounces and 26 inches long! She's almost doubled her weight since she was born! She's in the 90th percentile for weight and 99th for height. She's pretty close to rolling over from back to front now too...she's almost did it at the doc's this morning :) She's becoming more and more aware and interactive now, and her new favorite things are singing in her crib when she wakes up in the morning, playing in her bouncer, and intently watching the dogs as they walk around the room.

Last week we took Belle on her first road trip to San Diego, and this week Belle got her first cold as a result of said road trip! Haha...we happened to pick a time to go to San Diego when it was FREEZING and SUPER windy. It was so windy we couldn't go to the beach with her :( We only took her outside for a walk once in our time there, and it was so windy were had to walk one block east of the boardwalk so the buildings would help shield the wind! It was still a nice trip though...we had a beachfront view, so at least we could see the ocean :)

San Diego Trip!

Bath time!

Playing with Daddy! :)

All bundled up in style!

Bouncing is fun!

...and TIRING! :)