Fun with Daddy!

Getting ready for the pool with her dad!
Can you say swimsuit model?? What a poser!
Bella and Lilly playing with bubbles.
Horns on the head...so fitting!

So it has been so great having Rick home! He is now officially a fourth year dental student and I can't believe he will be done in one year! He has been so great at finding a balance with family and school and boy does Bella love it when he is home! Since Rick has been out of school we have been swimming and going to the park a lot! Bella loves to swim and put her face in the water. Bella had a very fun pool day with her friend Lilly today. She also ran into her friends Asher, Caleb, and Jacob at the pool as well. Also, her new favorite word to say is Asher. To be honest Bella has a huge crush on him and constantly wants to go and play with him.

Life is going good out here. We have decided to stay at our current apartment to finish out the school year. We have really enjoyed Lewisville and all of the parks. It really has been a great place to live. We do miss Utah a lot though and are hoping that we can end up back there to set up practice.

Bella is growing so fast and has developed quite the personality. She likes to talk on the phone, vacuum with me with her push popper, and beat up on little kids ( I am so proud :) )! We love her to death, but she sure is a handful.

Oh and on that video with her trying on the swimsuit as a cape... I am sure some of you ladies can relate to the stuffing. Hopefully Bella will get blessed with a little bit more than her mom has :)!

Just a Little Somethin'

Eating soy mac & cheese after a long and wild hair nap!
Playing in some flowers after church!

Just Chillin' in her chair.

So life out here in Texas is just movin' along. Rick is almost done with his third year of dental school and then we have one year left. It will be interesting to see where we end up a year from now. Rick is in finals now and it will be so nice to have him done for a couple of weeks until they start into their fourth year.

Bella is just as crazy as ever and we love it! She can find her bellybutton as well as finding my bellybutton in the most inopportune times (church, grocery stores, etc.). She is now saying two, mamma, dadda, and kitty. At one point I thought she was saying a bad word, but luckily if it was a bad word it wasn't used again. I don't know why she decided to start saying two other than she loves when we go up the stairs and we count. She will say two for the first step and I just pretend that she is right :)! She is getting her first molar in and she has been miserable. I thought it was because of her 1st year shots, but now I know what the real cause was for her moodiness. Her 1st birthday check up was quite hilarious. All of the nurses just thought she was so cute as she was walking back to the exam room and was babbling to all of them, but right when we entered into the exam room she through a fit and started crying hysterically! She definitely knew where she was. The nurses than proceeded to do rock, paper, scissors to see who would be the lucky one to give Bellazilla her shots. The poor sucker who lost had a tough time restraining Bellazilla, but luckily it was over pretty quickly. The conclusion after the exam was that Bella is a BIG BABY! She was in the 90th percentile for height, weight, and noggin! We were reassured that this Neocate was not going to make her a sumo wrestler so we are holding the doctors to that :)!

I am doing great too! I have decided to start finding things to do for myself and have started running in the mornings with Bella in a jogging stroller and with some friends and am starting tennis lessons tonight. I am way excited and Megan I am ready for a rematch when we get together again and hopefully I won't nail you in the head again when we play :)! Work is good too. I have just enough that I can get it done during Bella's naps.

Well that is it on the Larson Front... I hope everyone is doing great! The video is of some things that Bella has learned and of course of her just being Bella!

A Texas Tradition

Well Megan and I thought we would be daring and take Bella and McKenzie to have their picture taken with the Bluebonnets, which is a Texas tradition. It was so much fun and Bella loved picking up the flowers,playing with them, and also hanging out with her friend. She has really become a lot of fun over the past few months and I have loved her walking! She definitely is a big girl now! She has always had just one speed and that is fast. She is loving to run (yes not walk anymore) and chase the kitties as well as keeping up with her bigger friends. Also, we have some good news on the food front, Bella has had no reaction to soy foods! Can we yell out a big YIPPEE!! We are so happy that she is doing well with it and we now get to start her on Soy milk. Hopefully this food allergy is going to be very short lived! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the spring weather!

1st Birthday...Party All Weekend!

Little Devil!

Little Angel!

Bella's Poodle Cake

Fun times with Daddy

Party Animal!

Opening gifts at family party

Fun pink chair that Grandma gave her!

Well the Pink Poodle Birthday Party was a success! Other than high winds, Bella practically getting a concussion, and then taking a nap for about 45 minutes at her own party, the party actually turned out to be quite nice! We have been so lucky to have made so many good friends out here! We truly have been blessed and we are so grateful for having such good people to be around when we are so far from our families. Bella's Grandma Ellen was able to come and we were so glad to have at least one of our family members here for such a wonderful occasion :)!

Bella was spoiled by receiving so many great gifts from family and friends! I have a video attached of her with her new steed! She will make her Papa Warren so proud with how comfortable she is with riding it. Now all she needs is a cowgirl hat and she will be all Texan! It is amazing how fast this year has flown by. I remember like it was only yesterday of me and Rick heading to the hospital through a few tornado's just to get there after the hospital had been evacuated. Oh the memories... Bella came in with the tornado's and she is still running like a tornado, how ironic! She is definitely a lot of fun, especially now since I have taught her how to give kisses and when I am mad at her she will lean forward and give me a kiss to stop me from being mad (how manipulative -huh-, but how smart because it works). She is so good at giving high fives and we have attached another video of her walking and giving high fives. Jackie asked me to send a video of Bella to her and I thought that I would share it with all of you since I thought it was so cute.

Sorry for the long post! I hope you all are doing well!

Short Birthday video!

Bella with her brand new steed!

Walking video

You're Invited...

Just thought I would invite all of you to Bella's 1st birthday party. So if you all are in the Dallas area stop on by!

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!