Look Ma! No Hands!

So in the last few days Bella has gotten much better at sitting up. In the past if we would just kind of barely support her she would sit, but now without holding her at all she can sit up! If she starts moving around much or goes to grab something she usually topples over, but if she is just sitting there not doing much she is completely self sufficient! Here are a couple pics of her new achievement. She looks a little shocked. =)

I don't heart gardening

I really don't like to garden. I would think, being a woman, it would be ingrained in my DNA somewhere to love to plant things and watch them grow, but no. I am missing that gene. And I am really not sure why I don't like it. I love doing things outdoors. I actually am fond of manual labor. I know that sounds weird, but I worked at Bath and Body Works for seven years and my favorite part was doing stock in the back room. I love putting together furniture from Ikea and Target. I even like cleaning, doing laundry and I love cooking. So I am not sure why gardening seems such an awful task to me. Maybe it stems from the times when my dad used to make me pick up sticks in the yard as a kid. On those rare occasions I truly felt as if life was beyond unfair and my dad was trying to torture me.

I have not done anything with our flower beds in a year. Last fall I was in my first trimester so I was either too tired or feeling too sick to do it and then this spring I had something else that needed nourishing. =) So the gardening has taken a back seat. A few weeks ago I bought some pretty flowers with every intention of planting them, but then it rained for the next three weekends. So today I was all geared up and ready to go on the gardening front. It was nice weather, so I got out there and fertilized our yard. Ran out of fertilizer, but so far so good. Then I raked out all the leaves and old mulch from the beds. Not too bad. Then I have to get down on my hands and knees and pull up weeds. Ugh. They are so hard to get out. And I am pretty sure most of it is actually grass that somehow didn't get fully dug up when we created these flower beds. It is a pain in my, well, knees and back mostly. I swear it was in the 70s this morning, but I was sweating profusely. I was also trying to hurry because I was trying to get this all done before Bella woke up, since Jason wasn't home.

I finally get all the weeds up and then I sort of hoed up the dirt and then mixed in some new soil. About this time Bella wakes up so I didn't get to actually plant the flowers, but that part will be easy. Anyway, this is only the first flower bed. My next task is to plant my tomatoes that Jason got me and then I have to dig up a rose bush so I can turn our back yard garden in to an herb garden. I am actually excited about that part. I would love to have fresh herbs to cook with!

Anyway, if you have any ideas how to make gardening more enjoyable, please send them my way! =)

Mark 10:13-16

This weekend we baptized Isabella Jane. It was a big weekend for her and all her grandparents and her aunt and uncle came in to be a part of it. She did pretty good. She didn't cry or anything when they sprinkled water on her head or held her up to be showed off to the congregation. But then she cried when he started baptizing the other babies. Guess she still wanted to be the center of attention. =) Our good friends Gabby, Jessica, Jarrett and Chris also came to see as well as Gabby's sweet parents who I have known for many years. Here are some pics from my little angels special day!

Bella with the whole fam...


Our friends the Reeds and Jordans


Bella with her Aunt Amanda...


The girls...


Bella with Grammy and Poppy...


Bella with Grampa and Nana...


Bella with Grampa...


It was a great weekend. We went to Breadwinners afterward to celebrate with some tasty food. Thanks to everyone for coming to visit! I love you guys.

Happiness is a Beatles Top 10 List

Recently Rock Band released a version of their game entirely dedicated to the Beatles. Because of this, Entertainment Weekly - my favorite magazine - dedicated last weeks issue entirely to the Beatles. One of the articles they published was what they considered to be the Top 50 Beatles songs and they also did a Top 5 Worst songs. I am a Beatles fan. My dad had the Abbey Road record when I was little and we would listen to it, but I really got in to them a lot more in college. I don't have all their albums, but I do have quite a few. The White Album is probably my fave. After reading EW last week I went through a few days of listening to nothing but The Beatles. I have told you all before how much I love to make lists for everything, so I thought I needed my own list of best Beatles songs. I don't have the time or erudition to make a Top 50, so mine will just be a Top 10. But here are my favorite Beatles songs and a quick blurb as to why. Enjoy!

10. Maxwell Silver Hammer - This is the song my dad and I would listen to when I was little. Why did I love a song about a serial killer at such a young age? Who knows. I guess I just liked that it was creepy.

9. Helter Skelter - Is it weird that my first two songs are related to serial killers? I am just now noticing this relation. Anyway, Charles Manson loved it and so do I. It rocks.

8. Michelle - I feel this song doesn't get the credit it deserves. You never hear it on the radio and no one really talks about it, but I just love it. Maybe because I like to sing in French that I don't understand.

7. Let It Be - What if we all just 'let it be'? Wouldn't the world be a better place?

6. Here Comes the Sun - This song was on my wedding video. It is just such a happy, pretty song.

5. Strawberry Fields Forever - This is the first song that I really latched on to when I started listening in college. 'Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see'. Great line.

4. Yesterday - Who hasn't felt what this song says? When I hear it my heart hurts.

3. Rocky Racoon - I have no idea what this song means, but I just love it. 'Her name was McGill, and she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy'. What?

2. A Day in the Life - I really have no comment about this song other than I just really like it. I never get tired of it.

1. While My Guitar Gently Weeps - This song is just plain beautiful. I mean just the title alone paints such a lovely yet aching picture of someone just letting their instrument share their emotions for them. Gets me every time.

Ok that's it. What do you think? If you are reading this list thinking 'how could you forget...' then let me know what your favorite Beatles song is.

A weekend of firsts

Well this weekend Isabella went to her friend Madison's first birthday party. Her mom and my friend Jennifer had it at Gymboree in Plano. We had never been to Gymboree so I wasn't too sure what to expect, but the lady running it made sure that she gave Isabella activities to do since all the other kids were much older.

Here is Bella in a little rocking chair of sorts...


And here she is getting some tummy time on a ball...


Here we were supposed to hold on to a big round parachute thing, but Bella decided she would rather eat it...


Here Bella was having fun with Dad bouncing her around...


And here is Jen and the birthday girl...



The rest of the weekend I spent cleaning. I had actually bought all these flowers to plant and had grand ideas of doing some major gardening this weekend. However if you live around Dallas you know that it has been acting like a minor hurricane around here the last few days. I can hear someone mowing their yard right now and I am imagining them ankle deep in mud! So no gardening got done, but I did get the house nice and clean.

I am sort of a nerd and make lists for EVERYTHING. So I have a clean the house list on my fridge on a dry erase board. I basically try to clean a little every day and once I have finished a room on my list I check it off and move to the next room. That way I make sure I know every room has been cleaned in at least the recent past. Also, every iteration of this list I have one room that gets a 'deep clean', meaning I do fan blades, baseboards, move everything out of the way instead of vacuuming around it, etc. This weekend I did the kitchen and talk about gross! I got Jason to move the refrigerator this time. I literally have not moved it since we moved in to this house. I am guessing (hoping?) this is normal, but I am going to start cleaning back there more often. There was so much dust it was just disgusting. Anyway, my kitchen is spotless now and I am pretty sure you could eat off the floor, but I will just leave that up to the dogs. =)

Today we are starting to try to get Bella on more of a schedule. I have been obsessed with reading about how her sleep habits should be forming and the book I am reading now says at this age (she is 5 months today!!) she should be able to be on more of a schedule and probably start taking only two naps a day. So this morning we started the day a little after 7 and then I put her down for a nap at 9. She was really tired and went to sleep pretty quick. She only slept for about 50 minutes though, so we will see if she can make it to her next nap time, which is supposed to be around 1. She usually gets tired within a couple of hours of her last nap, so should be interesting!

Little Monkey

Here are a couple of pics I snapped of Bella while I was making my breakfast this morning. She is so darn cute I can't help myself!

How am I ever going to say no to this sweet little smile?


Her Nonna got her this little monkey (a little monkey for my little monkey!). I am not sure if she is giving him a kiss or trying to eat him. My money is on the latter.


Here is another picture from Destin, but I just uploaded it today. She was just too cool for riding in her car seat this day...

Crisis of Faith

I don't usually write about this kind of stuff, but I really liked this blog that my preacher from my church in Tyler wrote. I have a feeling that every single Christian in the world has had doubts about God and wondering if everything that we believe is real. I mean you can't see any of it and the bible was written a very long time ago. So as much as I really do believe it, I definitely have times when I wish there was more actual PROOF. So I subscribe to my preacher's blog and he wrote one yesterday sort of on this topic and I just thought I would share the link for anyone who is interested.

http://fromthepasture.blogspot.com/2009/09/is-faith-blind-or-is-it-unbelief-that.html

Sleepy Little Princess

So Bella has started sleeping a LOT more lately. We always put her to bed around 7pm and since last Thursday she has slept until 7am - and sometimes 7:15! - every night but one. Sunday we had her out all day at the mall after church and so she missed some nap time and then ended up going to bed late so she woke up at around 2:30 am and was up forever and then got up for good around 6:30. And yesterday, now this is definitely not the norm, but she slept for 6 hours during the day and still slept until 7:15 this morning. She never takes that long of naps during the day, but I guess yesterday she was just tired!

It is so true what I have been reading about the more they sleep, the more they will sleep. When we put her to bed late she almost always wakes up early or in the middle of the night, compared to when we put her down early.

Anyway, as you can imagine, I am ecstatic! I still have a lot of sleep to catch up on from the last 4 and 1/2 months, but we are getting closer.

Here are a few more pictures that Jason took in Destin. I am so happy he has developed this hobby of his. He has such a talent for it I think!

Out on the patio...



I love this picture. She looks so mischievous!