Do not disturb!!

The pediatrician has told us several times, "You just have to realize that you have a VERY spirited child", which in laymen's terms means "Good luck on trying to control her". Bella has kept us on our toes since she arrived in our home. She never ceases to amaze me with her determination and physical strength. As she gets older it is more difficult to coerce her into doing what I want her to do :). I know all you moms are saying "welcome to my world". I thought I had enough biceps strength to man handle a 21 month old, but that thought is dwindling.

She is getting cuter and bigger everyday and sometimes it is hard to remember what she was like as a baby...then we were quickly reminded by the three hour awakenings happening again!!

Bella found a new sense of freedom when she started crawling out of her crib and pack n' play in Utah. It continued on when we got back to Dallas and so we decided it was time to convert her crib to a bed. Nobody ever told me how difficult that transition could be. Bella decided that she could get up whenever she wanted whether it be at midnight, 2 a.m., 3 a.m., 4:30 a.m., and finally the real wake up at 5:30 a.m. She was literally getting out of her bed 4 times a night and then would do the toddler run to our bedroom (loud enough to get the cops and apartment management called on us).

So we decided to try a new game plan. There was a "fairy" toddler bed at Babies 'R Us that she really liked so we thought we'd give it a try. She was very excited as we assembled it, which was entertainment in itself. I'm happy to report that she is mostly just waking up at the 5:30 am time. Though she wakes at 5:30 we are often able to get her to sleep another hour or two by walking her back to her room. She definitely loves her "big girl bed"!

I have attached some pictures from our family photo shoot. I think the pictures really capture the essence of Bella :). There is also a video of Bella singing some of her favorite songs. She has fallen in love with the video and song "Frosty the Snowman". I know that we will be watching this video all year round. I hope all is well with all of you!

Christmas Vacation

We had a great Christmas vacation! It started out with my brother and dad flying out to see the Cowboy's beat up on the Giants (unfortunately the Eagles did the same to us a couple of weeks later). It's always more gratifying, especially for my family members that travel from afar, when they pull out the "W". Since it was the second to last game at Texas Stadium tickets were not cheap. Before leaving Dallas we found out Santa was getting some Reindeer hunting material at Cabelas so we snuck over to get Bella's picture with him.

We headed to Utah for a two week trip. First we went to Salt Lake where we got reacquainted with the freezing cold and big snow storms. Ahhhh, that is exactly what I do NOT miss about living in Salt Lake, especially when we left mid 70's weather in Dallas. However, it was fun to see the temple lights in the snow and it was also a blast to go sledding with Bella. She was obsessed with the snow and had a great time making "Frosty the Snowman". The house we stayed at was loaded with built in fun. We had a steam room shower, sledding hill in the back yard, ATV to ride up and down the drive way and 9000 empty sq feet for Bella to run loose in.

Down in St. George we enjoyed our time with family. Bella loved being with her cousins and went crazy every time she played with them. Sledding was also on the agenda in St. George (ok really it was Cedar City since there was no snow in St. George when we got there). Luckily there were no casualties to report. I got to enjoy the finer things in St. George, like Pasta Factory, Paulas (to Ricks dismay), Charlies shakes and Cafe Rio. Christmas was good to us and Santa was very good to Bella. We had to ship most of her stuff home because it wouldn't fit in the suitcases. Rick spent a significant time studying while in St. George and he took his National Boards right before we left to return home. Bella and I had a lot of bonding time!

It was a great trip and we thank all of our family for the accommodations along the way. As fun as it is to go on these trips it's always nice to get back to a normal schedule too.

A day after being home Rick took off again for New Orleans. He was fortunate enough to see one of the most renowned games in University of Utah football history. It was probably the highlight of his year hands down.