Bella's Favorite Songs

If you know me, you know I love music. I have my iPod or iPhone going on shuffle pretty much all the time in the kitchen or car or whatever, so Isabella hears it a lot. And I have to say she has pretty good taste! In the last few months she has come up with what her favorite songs are and she will request them all the time in the car. Every year since I started this blog I have put out my top ten songs of the year list. So before I put that list out this year, I thought I would share with you Isabella's top songs. Most of them were either on my list last year, or are this year, so again, I am proud to say she has good taste. =)

5. - Little Red Riding Hood by Sam the Sham and the Pharoah - She is obsessed with the story of Little Red Riding Hood right now, so when she heard this song, she literally gasped out loud. Of course, when we tell her the story we tell her how the wolf was really just misunderstood and was a nice wolf.
4. - Children of God by Third Day - This one has posed some interesting questions. When she hears it she tells me she wants to see God and Jesus and I don't really know how to answer that. I tell her they live up in heaven and she looks at the sky and says she can see them. I just say ohhh really? Oookkk...
3. - Shot in the Dark by Augustana - This is her current fave.
2. - The Cave by Mumford and Sons - She loves how they hold the notes at the start of the sentences in the chorus and she will belt it out and shake her head. So cute.
1. - Pumped Up Kicks by Foster the People - This is by far the biggest request I get. I sing along and change the words gun and bullet, to gum and belly. I would rather her not sing gangster type lyrics, especially at school or something.

As you can see, she has no country songs that she has taken a liking to, and she also begs me to turn off Adele's 'Set Fire to the Rain'. So I obviously still have some work to do in our musical education, but I love that she is so in to it!

First Trip to the Aquarium

Isabella had never been to the Aquarium in Downtown Dallas before, and I had never been except for an event one time. So we planned a play date with our friends Kyli and Caroline to go last weekend. It was a blast and I was amazed at the array of animals they have! I figured it was just fish, but no. There are penguins, snakes, a jaguar, monkeys and a sloth! I don't think I had ever seen a sloth before but they are CUTE. Apparently they don't come down from their tree but like once a month to use the restroom. Guess that is where the name comes from.

Here is Caroline with the flamingos - her favorite!


Isabella had a blast. She loved looking at the sharks and she has been standing on one leg like a flamingo ever since. It is also funny how people are just innately scared of snakes. I have always tried to act like they are no big deal. Like when we see pictures and we have seen them at the zoo. But we got up to the python cage and I said 'Bella look at the snake!', and before she saw it in the cage she immediately gasps, jumps towards me and searches the ground for a snake. Ok, the child has never seen a snake on the ground in her entire life. Isn't it just weird how kids know things? She wasn't crazy about looking at it in the cage either.

Here they are with the Jaguar. Sorry for the crummy iPhone pictures once again! I hear the new iPhone takes great pics, so hopefully one day soon my blog will look a little better. =)


Her absolute favorite part, though, was when randomly these Aboriginal dancers came out and did some tribal dance with incense and such. She still talks about it and shows me how the dance goes. Not sure if you can even see it, but up on that balcony is one of the dancers.

Christmas 2011

We had another wonderful Christmas this year. We started it out taking some pictures on our front porch for our Christmas card. This one is my favorite, although not the one we used.


The week before Christmas, we celebrated with the Trents. We had Christmas dinner at Perry's (SO good if you haven't eaten there) and opened gifts the next morning. Here is Bella opening her new pink Uggs from her Grammy and Poppy.


Here she is in her new apron.


The next week we went to see Santa, and she didn't cry this year! She had been practicing what to ask him for and it took a little prompting once she got up on his lap, but she smiled for the picture! Afterward we went to Starbucks and took some pictures of Bella in front of the huge Christmas tree at the Galleria.


We ended up having 'Christmas morning' on December 23rd so that we could head to Tyler that night. Bella got an OU hat. I wouldn't have mentioned it, but she does look pretty cute in it. =)


The thing she had been asking for the entire month before was a Cinderella doll.


She also loves high heels. I think she now has like seven pairs or something.


We headed to Tyler the Friday night before and Bella immediately got sick. She had the most horrible cough and Christmas Eve she just felt awful. All she wanted to do was snuggle and watch TV. I honestly kind of love those times, although I hate that she feels so bad. Here is a cute one of her laying on Bopaw.


By Christmas morning she felt a lot better, thank goodness. The last present my parents brought out for her was this dollhouse. She LOVED it.


Jason got a helmet so he can go race his car on the race track. He is so cool. =)