HAPPY EASTER!

Bella got to lazy to walk so daddy put her on the ice cooler.

Bella trying to keep up with the rest and racing to get the eggs.

Bella and her many friends! They had such a great time!!

We had such a fun Easter with Bella this year. We went for our usual Easter picnic and then we had a fun time with our friends on Sunday for a yummy Easter dinner. The kids had an Easter egg hunt and then we just sat and visited, which is always fun:)! Bella unfortunately could not have any of the Easter candy, so we had to fill her eggs with soy free, dairy free, and gluten free snacks. Sounds delicious doesn't it??!! Bella was spoiled by her grandparents who gave her some fun books, clothes, bibs, and money! We are very fortunate to have family like we do. We sure do miss them during the holidays. We hope that all of you had a Happy Easter.

Bella is now walking more and more and our goal for having her walk by this weekend might come true! She has really become a spitfire and she lets us know when she is not happy. Her favorite thing to do is dance and she now has mastered the New Kids On The Block move from the Hanging Tough video (any of you who were NKOTB fans know what move I am talking about :)). Hopefully I can capture this on video so that you all can see it.

By the way this video is very long and do not feel bad if you do not watch it. It is intended for the family, but if all of you friends want to watch it, then knock yourselves out.

Bella at 11 months

For all of you who get motion sickness...Caution while watching :)!

Bella at her lookout post! She loves this slide and so does mom!

One of her many adventures in the Dryer.

Bella and her friend Lilly at the park.

So Bella is finally taking some steps and is getting a little better at not looking like she is trying to walk the white line after having too much to drink :)! I am really looking forward to her walking! I know all of you mothers are saying "Oh you have no idea what you are asking for", but it would be so nice to get her off the ground. She is now throwing tantrums, which I think is sometimes hysterical! She will bounce up and down and then throw herself back onto the ground and proceed to cry out loud. I didn't think that they started this young, but hopefully it is not a sign as to what I am in for as she grows older.

Rick has been working super hard these last few weeks with all of his dental requirements and I think he is ready for this year to be over. I can't believe that we have already been out here for almost three years and only have one year left. Time is flying by so fast and Bella will be turning one next month. I am still working away and am glad that I have the opportunity to be at home with Bella. We are excited for Easter and can't wait for our annual picnic.

We went to Bella's GI Specialist and we are going to be able to start her on some soy foods. If any of you know any foods that contain soy for toddler's I would so much appreciate it. We get to try her on a next step soy formula at 13 months and am so looking forward to not having to buy the pure gold formula "Neocate". So everyone keep your fingers crossed that she can handle the soy. I hope that all of you are doing well!

Snow Day

This week has been a very long week. Bella became very ill on Tuesday and had to be taken to the hospital. It was awful not only for her, but for me keeping her entertained for three hours. She is doing so much better now, and is finally sleeping a little. This week has also been a strange week out here in Dallas. We have had two snow days. This never happens here and yesterday we decided to take advantage of it and take Bella sledding. Well she hated every moment of it, which really disappointed her dad. But it was fun to get dressed up in snow gear and it reminded us of our many years in Salt Lake.

Bella is as crazy as ever. She really is a climber and likes to be adventurous. Yesterday, I always know that she is into trouble when she is silent. The first incident happened in the morning when I hadn't heard much from her and went to go check on her. Well she was sitting up on her toy box just chillin'. Are you wondering how she got up there?? Well she pushed the glider ottoman over to the toy box and then climbed upon that to get up there. The next incident was only about an hour later. Again there was silence and so I went to check on her. Well this time she had opened up the dryer door and had climbed into the dryer and was just sitting in there in her clothes and throwing them out. She is quite the "Curious George". She does make me laugh and never ceases to amaze me with her creativity.

Bella raiding the fridge.

Her infamous bed head after naps.

Fun Day at the Park

We sure have been loving the temp out here in Dallas. These last few days have been in the 70's, which is the perfect park weather. The area that we live in has the best parks. The particular one that we go to has two big ponds, a 2 mile walking course around the ponds, bridges to go over, and a huge playground. Bella loves to look at the ducks and feed them. She will bark (not quack) at the ducks to let them know that she speaks their kind of language. She loves to go swinging and look at all of the big kids. I love that it is getting warmer because being trapped in a small two bedroom apartment with Bellazilla can make for a very long day. She definitely has her fathers "can't sit still" behavior.

She is getting ready to walk. She will step one step before figuring out that she feels a lot more stable on her knees. Yesterday she thought that she would climb into the shower with me by pushing the trash can to the shower/bath tub and then stepping onto it to get into the shower. I did not know that she had done this until I heard her land into the shower. She always has to be climbing. To make it even better, I thought "well she is already wet and she likes water" so I decided to get her naked and realized that she had pooped and it fell into the bath tub with us. If any of you know me, you know how easily I get grossed out (as you can imagine I had to wash multiple times to feel like I was clean after that). It made for quite the predicament and needless to say it was not a relaxing shower. This girl needs to be tied down :). She is always getting into trouble. She definitely is more than I thought that I could handle, but luckily my prayers are being answered and I am becoming more and more patient with her (which is another trait as you all know that I am not blessed with). She does make life interesting and can always make me laugh with her curious behavior. I sure do love her and am so glad that she is a part of our family.

I know this is shocking, but I have done two posts in one day. The next one is a tag that I was tagged to do. So if anyone would like to be tagged, please feel free to do so.

My Man

What is his name? Ricky Lee Larson (Yes that is his real name :) )

How long have you been together? 7 Years

How did you meet? Our friend Brian set us up when I saw him on the soccer field with Brian. I
thought he was very cute and athletic.

How long have you been married? 6 years on April 13.

Kids? Isabella

How old is he? The big 30 and still going strong.

Who eats more? It honestly could be a toss up... I really do love to eat, but he does have me beat on most things except for chips!

Who eats more sweets? Definitely Rick. He loves his chocolate. If you ever saw that SNL with Mike Myers when he was pretending to be a kid at the park while having one of those leashes on him tied to a jungle jim (that spelling is for you Amy) with chocolate all over his face. That is what I picture Rick like with chocolate as a child.

Who said I love you first? Ricky over the phone while I was working at Special Olympics.

Who is taller? Rick He's 6'2" and I'm 5'5"

Who is smarter? Rick is smarter at sciences and politics while I am smarter at social sciences and history.

Who sings better? We pretty much both stink at singing.

Who does the laundry? We both put laundry in the washer, but somehow I am always the one that ends up folding it!

Who pays the bills? We both do and we both hate it!

Who sleeps on the right side? Me.

Who mows the lawn? Ha Ha that is comical, a lawn...What is that??!! Apartment living now going on 9 years. Love it!

Who cooks dinner? Me, Rick doesn't even know how to boil water... but Linda tells me that she taught Rick how to cook before his mission. Hmm, playing dumb are we :).

Who kissed who first? The Rickster!!

Who proposed? Rick at 1 am in the morning on the top of the Eiffel Tower (okay so it was the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower).

Who has more friends? Probably me, but he still has a lot.

Who is more sensitive? Definitely me, Rick is not a sensitive person. I can cry over those stupid Onstar commercials. Babies really do wreck your hormones.

Who has more siblings? I do 1 brother and 1 sister. Rick is an only child.

Who wears the pants in the family? We are equal :) Yeah right, it's me.

I tag Amy, Millie, Melissa, Megan, Katie, Liana, Karisti, Annilee, and Holly and anyone else who would like to do this.

HELP!!

Okay so I love my daughter a lot, but recently she has become a real pill (my mom's saying)!! I need help from all of you experienced mothers. So here is my problem. Bella is now 10 months old and has become very clingy and whiney as well as disinterested in food. I can hardly put her down lately to play on the floor and when I do she will just cry hysterically until I pick her up. Like yesterday for example, she has never been afraid of the vacuum, but when I brought it out she started crying and shaking. Is this normal?? Also with the eating thing, she used to love eating (as you can tell) and just recently she will spit out her food and close her mouth real tight so that nothing can get in. She does this with her fruits as well and she used to eat those within seconds. Now it literally takes over an hour to feed her which I don't like to do. Have any of you gone through this? Can you tell me what is going on or some advice on how to handle it? I am already not a patient person and she was so good with entertaining herself before that it is driving me crazy! HELP! Can I really have more than one child??!!

On another fun note, Valentines was a bust. I spent it alone with my cats (totally sound like an old cat lady don't I). Rick said he was at the library studying for a big test he had today, but it sounds kind of fishy to me :)! So I watched deal or no deal and ate the desert that I made (pretty much half of the cake). He did get the usual flowers and I really nice card so I did forgive him. I hope that all of you had a Happy Valentine's Day! Bella thanks the grandparents for the great Valentine's.

Sharing

So I know that Bella is only 10 months (in a few days), but I sometimes feel like she might be the baby that no mother is going to want their child to play with. She is not called Bellazilla for nothing. We had a Super Bowl party with our friends the Kraus's and their little girl Lilly. Lilly and Bella were playing on the ground together with some toys. Well Bella had a toy that Lilly wanted and Bella looked like she was going to be nice and share it with her. No such luck. Lilly grabbed onto the toy as Bella was handing it to her and then with all of her strength she snatched it right out of Lilly's hands. It was almost like she was taunting her. I am going to have a bully as a child :)!

She is getting to be so much fun and I can't believe how fast time is going by. She is now getting ready to walk and can take one step before she falls to the ground. She loves to drive around on her car and when the music comes on she starts to bounce up and down. I really feel like I have been slacking on picture taking and I know that I should be taking more. I will try to get better about putting more pics up here for you all (mostly speaking to my family who have been asking me where the pics are).

Also, I don't know if any of you are looking for some cute artwork for your kids room, but I love this website called farmhousefive.com . I have pretty much decorated all of Bella's room in it. I have put up some pics of her room.