My favorite Bella pics

I'm taking myself down a trip through memory lane.

Call it sentimental (or lack of sleep and insomnia

as I laid awake last night watching Bella and Cristiano

sleep). I had to go through and post my favorite

pictures of my Isabella Grace. She's come into

her own over the last year and has grown over an

inch in the last month. It all happens so fast, sometimes

I wish you could just bottle up the

'littleness' of our kids.

Bella's 2nd halloween - 'mini-pocahontas'

At DisneyWorld waiting for the High School
Musical parade


Catching leaves with daddy outside our house


Her favorite summer outfit from Tita Abbie

Swimming lessons with Coach Sellers

Cheesy Bella

Where's the catwalk? And the pool..??

My parents let me run around the front

yard and play in the sprinklers.

I attended my first professional footbal

game - RAIDERS
(and slept almost the whole time)

Carving pumpkins with daddy

She still plays with this dollhouse on a

daily basis... one of santa's best

gifts

Our favorite FURRRRY Family Member

We can't leave out our favorite furry family member

from our updates. Kobe LOVES the outfits Shawn

gets from him (as you can see from the very

disgruntled look on his face). He's one of the most

loving cats in the world!!! You can't love him

enough. We lovingly tell everyone that he has a

'frontal butt' - as he graciously shows everyone

his royal 'fatness'...

'Wendy's anyone'?? Or maybe he's going for

the Little Bo Peep look.

Christmas Break Activities...

A wedding dress for Tita Abbie designed

by Bella

Playdough beach scene complete with palm trees,
people laying out and swimming, and beach toys

I love my Ate

Best gift ever! Empty Box 3000... provides

countless hours of spontaneous and

creative fun

Bella the baker - I'm teaching her to work

with icing and make flowers

Cristiano watching his Ate Bella

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas spending time with

our family and best friends. In case you're

wondering... we are on the verge of sending out

our holiday cards :)

Bella is enjoying her new kitchen set and
American Girl doll. Her kitchen is well
stocked and organized (my kind of girl!)

Daddy giving baby kisses...

Thank you Santa!!!!

My 2 favorite 'new' presents this year

Cristiano and a set of All Clad pans ... both

from Shawn

We're thawing out...

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers over the

last few days... after losing our electricity around 3am

on Monday - we stuck it out home till late-

morning and decided that being cold under

our parkas was about all we could handle.. so off

to find somewhere warm with our munchkins in tow.

Dad's house lost power by noon and off hotel

hunting we went. Shawn and I felt like Joseph and Mary

looking for an inn. All the hotels within 45 miles were

booked and had waiting lists of over 100 people already.

After 2 hours on the phone with hotels and and hour

at the Double Tree lobby area we were able to get

a room for the night. Apparently Double Tree had

a computer freeze and lost some reservations.

We lost about 6 trees (nothing compared to our

neighbors though) altogether... Power was

restored around 5ish on Tuesday

THANK YOU PSO!!!! We were so excited

to have power back I think we jumped and

danced for a good 15 minutes

There were lines of people everywhere - even

McDonalds was running out of food. You know

it's bad when you have to wait over an hour for

fast food. We'll be better prepared next time...

I sign off with a pic of my happy baby sleeping

soundly in front of a nice cozy fire...

Happy Birthday Bella

Bella is celebrating her 6th birthday this year and in true

'Bella Style' it was a princess party. For the first time

I ordered a cake - Barbie Island Princess. It was

delicious!!! Chocolate with Raspberry filling - YUM

Molly, Skylar, Madison, Meredith & Addison

came to help celebrate princess Bella's birthday

These are her best friends in Kindergarten

The girls giggled and screamed as they chased

each other around -- as if they don't get

enough time together during the week. Ahhh.

Cristiano was a trooper and slept through

most of the excitement.

JULIA!!! Bella's friend from pre-school

arrived and joined in on the fun.

B-day card from Molly

The girls making princess headbands - bedecked with

butterfly and flower jewels, rhinestones and

flowers. They also made bracelets with glass beads

"It was a lot of fun" -- bella

That night we decorated our gingerbread house complete

with tootsie roll logs.

Welcome to the family Kelsey!!!!

Brandon and Kelsey...

We are so happy for you guys!!!

Bella has been anxiously awaiting for this day all week.

LESLIE - thank you for saying 'yes', you are

an incredible and beautiful person and we are

so happy to have you as part of our family.

We LOVE and MISS you guys very much!