~Miss Bella's 2nd birthday!!~

Ah...to be 2...looking at things in awe and wonder...with scratch and sniff stickers on your face...and not a care in the world...how I long for carefree whimisical days...however, being the partent to such a wonderful and adored child such as Bella, allows Jeremy and I to glimpse inside the world of a 2 year old, and we blessed to be able to be her parents. She is pure love and joy...100%! With a spike of sassy cause she is 2 after all... :) There was no shortage of gifts for our ever busy child...and if I haven't said it to each of you who attended her birthday, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR GENEROSITY!! Bella is loved not only by us, but her family and our friends...we thank you all again!! You were all too kind!

One of the 3 dolls she got, this one makes cooing and sucking sounds, as well as laughes...she is practicing to be a good momma to her soon to be arriving sibling...I will need all the help I can get! Even from the 2 year old!!

(be a good big sister and take this diaper to the garbage can please....)

Just being silly Bella, and we wouldn't have it any other way!! Her laugher is music to our ears.

Jeremy and Bella...she must be telling him something important...as it required a finger wagging!

Francis's shirt says "Lock up your daughters!!!" If he wasn't my good friends son, I might...however I actually might let Bella date him if they want when they are older...I approve of this one! *wink wink*

There was no shortage of balloons...a good staple for toddlers birthday parties!!

Hello, and thanks for waiting!!!

While you were waiting for us to update the blog, we, or rather I (Celeste) have been busy growing a baby...below it's waiving to us...to which we say "hello baby, we can't wait to meet you!" Here you can see the whole body...at this point it is about 3 inches long, from head to toes...we don't know the sex yet....still too early to tell. However this ultra sound was for a couple of different reasons. First they can tell the gestational age of the baby and our due date, which is August 24th...and secondly, they can detect birth defects early on, such as down syndrom...which they said "All is well, and baby is healthy!" If the test would have said something different, it still would not have changed our minds, but we could have prepared for the extra care it would take to raise a child with disabilities.

Isn't the baby too cute!! Look at those kick boxing legs!!

Christmas Morning...!

As you can see, Bella really enjoyed Christmas morning. Jeremy and I enjoyed seeing the sparkle in Bella's eyes as she looked around at all the presents, and how she savored each gift she opened...Christmas's in our house will never be dull or boring, especially with 2 kids next year opening gifts!! Santa left this for me? Seemed a little daunting at first but she got the hang of opening gifts. We'll get more practice for our birthday too!

Grandma Palmer got me my very own fuzzy warm blanket, I wore it through the rest of my present openings...

Ripping the paper was the best part of opening gifts!!

What do you mean I'm supposed to take the paper off, these are great for climbing up on to reach things I'm not supposed to touch!

Isabella's first bike, from her Zia and Zio Sarria...She can't reach the peddles, but she loves us to push her around on it while she sits and giggles!

~Merry Christmas~

Merry Christmas everyone!! Here is Isabella in her beautiful Christmas dress...being such a good girl...holding still while dad snaps a picture for our album. Here she is giving "loves" to Mr. Nutcracker...since we've brought him out she hasn't been able to leave his side...

I adore the little smirk on her face...looking like she is getting ready to rip into gifts and cause mayhem!

**Can you believe Jeremy set up the camera, took these beautiful pictures of Isabella and edited them in under 30 minutes!!? He is getting very good at this photography thing...I'm inpressed, much better and calmer than any Sears or JCPenney's photo place...and if there was one we didn't like, we didn't have to buy it, or pick just one photo...and we dont' have to wait weeks to get our prints back...Costco will have them done for us by noon the next day!

Just being Bella...

Bella loves wearing her hat and mittens around the house...not sure why, but we think it's really cute! Almost as cute as Isabella her self...!!

Looking like we are up to no good...maybe we are!!

Wearing her stunna shades!

And she loves wearing mommy's shoes around the house too...she comes by her love of shoes quite honestly...I admit I have a bit of a shoe fetish myself! Which started at a very young age as well..!

~Here comes Santa Claus~

Here is Isabella with Santa Claus...as you can see there are no tears! We are as shocked by this as you are reading it. Santa was visiting all the children and my mom's holiday party, and many children went to sit on his lap to tell them their wishes and hearts desires for Christmas. As Bella sat silently awaiting her turn, she noticed that no other children were scared...see Isabella, Santa is real, and is full of magic! No tears, no screams...just joy and delight!

Visions coming to life!!

When we bought this house...I had a vision when I walked in the kitchen...there stood an island...with room enough to sit and eat. My vision was, seeing my future children (at the time we had no kids) sitting at the counter, eating meals with Jeremy and I. And of me standing in the kitchen cooking for them...as they eargerly gathered around the kitchen island to see what mom was cooking.

Since the purchase of our home, many things have changed...but one thing hasn't, my vision! As you can see, Bella is sitting next to me, eating her yogurt, and engaging us in morning coversations...we are savoring these conversations...as we know soon enough she will be a teenager and much to cool to have breakfast with mom and dad...

I'm so lucky to have been able to see my vision (while small I know) come to fruition. I can't wait to add one more guest to our morning breakfast conversations...soon we hope!

Lily came to visit at our cookie party!

Lily came to visit, and so did the green eyed monster! As soon as I was holding Lily, Bella had to come over too...there is enough of me to go around, but apparently, Isabella didn't think so. Good thing grammy (my mom) was there to help share the love~! Lily with her new jacket, she didn't want to take it off...!!

Isabella and Lily engaging in conversation!

25,000 Christmas lights!!

There is a house here in Vancouver, where the owners really go all out! They put 25,000 lights out, which takes 200 to 300 man hours to put up...as you can see behind me, there was no shortgage of holiday flair! And as you can tell, Bella did not want to be held! Notice all the lights in the back ground....I should have taken a picture of the entire house...next year I will...

Bella was in awe of all the lights, and all the animatronics...this person had ice skaters, angles that moved, music playing...then he came out and gave us candy canes...

That is an actual live tree in their yard....beautiful! This house was unbelieveable! What a wonderful way to spread Christmas joy...it was free to us to view...and Isabella was really excited!

Traditions...finding the right tree...

Here is Bella checking out the ground below her...as we know she is a lover of nature...and very intersted in sticks, pine cones, leaves...so she is surveying the ground to see if she can find anything to take home, as we are trying to find our perfect Christmas Tree!

Bella and Dad off to find the right Christmas tree...

Ta-Dah! Here it is, how splendid it will look in our house all decorated, awaiting Santa's gifts below it...!

~RUH ROH~ Scooby's Doo's voice...

At first, I was having a great time climbing inside of the bar stools...laughing, giggling, showing off my climbing skills.... Then I started to panic!

And then I started to cry....

Help...I can't figure out how to get out of here!

Of course my parents helped me out...I haven't climbed back inside since...!

Random acts of cute-ness part 2

Here is Bella with Vicki's squirt gun, which was meant for the kitten that is living at Vicki's house...Bella thought this was a great toy, since we don't have any squirt guns at our house. (being partial...she is quite cute!) Climbing under the bar stools...as these days we are quite interested in climbing "up," "down," and "side," which is to say inside things...bar stools make for great forts!

Look at how adorable this picture is...~~!

The most beautiful brown eyes I've ever seen!!

Pretty in Pink, with a pine cone!

Here is Bella in her pretty pink coat, and her pink leapord print hat and mittens. With her most prized posession, a pine cone. A while back her and I were taking a walk, when she spied a pine cone on the ground...in her best speaking voice she said "please..." so I stopped and picked it up...mind you this was back in September, so she's been holding onto this "find" for sometime. We have a special bowl in the living room that I've added a few more pine cones too...she loves to pack them around the house...it's really cute! Much more exciting than her toys!

Pictures of dental appointment

Here is the dental assistant cleaning and polishing Bella's teeth, notice, NO TEARS! They were fantastic, and Bella actually had a great time...getting her teeth cleaned!

Here is Isabella with the dental assitant. She is showing Bella how the polisher tickles her hand, which in turn will tickle her teeth. Notice the very large tooth brush in Bella's hand? She was brushing Squirt's teeth...read blog below.

Isabella's 1st dentist appointment

Just a quick little blerb!! (pictures to follow soon)

Isabella went to the dentist today, for her first time! She was nervous and not sure what to expect. I must admit I was too. What exactly are they going to do to my baby?

Well, she was greeted by the assistant who was dressed like one of Santa's elves! She was very patient and excited with Isabella. Which is so nice since she has "stranger danger.." She showed Isabella how to brush Squirts teeth. Their stuffed animal with human looking teeth. She had a huge tooth brush for his teeth, and was showing Bella how to brush the back teeth as well as Squirts tongue. Then she showed Bella the water squirter, and the sucker...she loved that, she got to suck water out of a cup, and then they put water in her mouth, and they sucked that out, she giggled!

Then they showed her the yummy smelling teeth cleaning polish, and how the polisher worked, and she sat there and let the lady clean all her teeth! I was amazed.

They took such good care of her, and were so relaxed and calm with Bella. Her first experiance was not fearful or teary eyed...it was fun! Bella now thinks going to the dentist is going to be fun!! Which is so awesome!!

And the best part, no cavaties!! YEAH!! She got her picture put up with the rest of the kids who have no cavaties...the "no sugar bugs club."

I will post the 2 pictures I was able to take...they didn't want mom to interrupt Bella's concentration of scare her. Stay tuned! :)