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! :)

Happy Halloween'07

Here is Bella with her Friends, The jedi Master, Yoda (Francis) and the adorable love bug (Miss Lily) And of course the cute girl on the end is the adorable Witch Miss Bella!! Here she is before her guests arrived, she was nibbling on a light snack, gearing up for Trick Or Treating!!

We were trying to get her to pose, of course easier said than done, I was trying to get a good view of her so cute tights!!

Running towards dad, her Hero!

Having a serious conversation with Miss Lily about something that appears to be quite important to Isabella.

After their chat, they just sat and thought about how heavy the conversation was, and what the next topic would be.

Here I am trying to get Miss Bella to wear her hat...thank goodness it was on sale, she absolutly would not under any circumstances wear that hat, not even for a moment to snap a picture.

Here is the crew gathering for a "group picture."

Vicki was entertaining the kids (can you believe she thinks she would be a bad mom?) she was blowing bubbles for them, I'm getting dizzy just looking at the picture, she blew bubbles for a good 20 minutes till I showed up with the automatic bubble dispenser. As you can tell Francis was having a great time! Lily isn't quite sure what the fuss is all about.

Bella checking out her loot from the few moments we trick or treated. We hit maybe 6 houses on our cul-de-sac...the first house she was quite timid, but by the end she was thanking the people (in sign language) and saying "Bye..." and waving...it was so so cute. She and Francis had a great time! Francis was trying to give the candy back, thinking it was a trade sort of thing, I give you this snickers back for a dum dum...he'll learn. It was their first crack at it, next year I'm sure we'll be the ones being taken around the neighborhood.

Can I eat this? Yes, after mommy inspects it for drugs, needles and razor blades. Some traditions never change...I must admit it was a lot of fun for me too! I loved Halloween so much I trick or treated till I was 19...I'm short, I got away with looking cute and small, and very young.