1st Day of Preschool

Bella

Bella started her 1st day of preschool today at Stringfellow Preschool. Her teacher is Ms. Monica. She has been excited to start preschool for over 6 months now so it has been a long time coming for her. She didn't even shed a tear or even look up to say goodbye (which was a little hard on mom). Her preschool lasts from 9 am to 2 pm. This seemed a little long for me, but now that it is almost over for the day it has gone really fast. It was such a rainy day today when we dropped her off and of course our umbrellas have been lost somewhere in the move. I am now watching the news and it looks like there is some severe flooding going on her in Dallas which I can understand because there was some torrential rain going on. Bella was sad because she knew with the rain that she could not play on the outside preschool playground.

Lola

Lola is such a happy baby. She always greets you with a smile and likes to babble a lot. She is such a good baby. Bella was such a serious baby and so it is definitely different to have a baby that always has a smiley face for you. She had her 4 month check up yesterday. We were expecting her to be off the charts in height because she felt so long to us, but she was not as tall as we were thinking. Her are her stats:

Weight: 14 lbs 3.4 oz Percentile: 60%

Height: 25 1/4 inches Percentile: 80%

Head: 42 cm Percentile: 75%

Dr. Steve put up Lola's statistics next to Bella's at that age and Bella definitely trumped her. It is amazing what a $40 a can formula will do for weight growth. Lola's weight growth is definitely slow, but she is starting to eat better.

Hope everyone is well!

Lola and Bella

We had Lola's newborn pictures and Bella's 3 year old pictures done by a wonderful photographer Suzanne Plant at Lookie Loo Photography. She did such a great job and I am so happy with all of the great pictures.

I love Lola's birthmark. It is literally a cross over her heart. I think that it is pretty special!

These were from Bella's 3 year old photo shoot. She loves the camera and surprisingly it was a fairly easy shoot.

Tiny Dancer

Bella had her dance recital on May 22. She has really loved dance and her teacher Ms. Cheryl. She made a lot of friends throughout the dance year and we are really sad that dance is over for the summer. Her performance was to Zippity Do Dah and it was at Cottonwood High School. Bella loves performing on stages. She thinks that it is so cool. She always has to end any dance that she does with a bow (as you can see from the video). She did such a good job and we are so proud of her.

Bella is the brunette in the red shirt in the middle.

Lola

Lola Leigh Larson was born on May 2, 2010 at 7:40 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 11 oz and was 22 inches long. She was born with a little brown hair and it is curly on top. She looks a lot like Bella did when Bella was born. She was such a good baby at the hospital and we were thinking for sure that she was going to be an easy baby and so far...she really has. She does get a little fussy at night, but nothing like Bella. We will see once we hit the two week mark. That is when the protein allergy usually manifests itself. We will keep our fingers crossed.

Bella has been really good with Lola. I think that she was a little disappointed that Lola couldn't come out and play with her (even after much discussion of how Lola was just a baby and wouldn't be able to do much). She loves to tickle Lola's toes and play peek-a-boo with her. She does not like it when Lola cries and tells me continuously "stop her crying". Other than that she is somewhat disinterested and only checks in on her every once in awhile.

My mom was here to help and she was awesome. She took the night shift so that I could recover and get some rest before she left. She was so great to have here. She left today and I am somewhat sad to see my helper go. Thanks mom for all of your help!

I am doing pretty well and am definitely much less anxious with this one. I remember with Bella being extremely anxious and nervous. I am grateful that it is not that way with this one. Rick has been doing well too and has already gone into protective dad mode :). These two girls definitely have him wrapped around their little fingers.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Easter and Birthday Fun

The Easter Egg Hunt. Bella loved to look for the eggs.



Bella's best bud Brynn (her cousin that came up from St. George for the party)



Bella and her favorite princess Cinderella. She was so excited to have her at her party.



The party crew!



Getting help opening her presents.



Bella and her first time bowling! She did awesome.



Yes the score doesn't lie. Bella beat me 115 to 80. I am a horrible bowler. If you look closely you can see that she had 3 strikes and a spare. She is a natural :)


It has been a fun April!! We were able to celebrate Easter and then the next weekend celebrate Bella's birthday. Easter was a cold day and so we had to hold our annual picnic inside the house, but the Easter bunny did still show up in SLC. Bella loved looking for the Easter eggs and could careless about the presents that the bunny brought.

For Bella's birthday party I decided that I didn't have the energy to host a party and so I hired Cinderella to come and host Bella's party. That was the best idea. Being nine months prego and exhausted, it was great to sit on the couch and watch the festivities. Cinderella is Bella's favorite princess and she was so excited when she showed up at our door. The party consisted of a story, dancing, learning how to be a princess, crown making, and balloon twisting. The girls all seemed to love Cinderella and it was fun watching them be totally engrossed into what she was saying.
It was a great party and Bella really enjoyed having all of her friends over. We were also very excited that Bella's cousin Brynn and her grandma Ellen came up for her birthday party. Bella and Brynn had a sleepover and Rick and I woke up at 4:10 a.m. to Bella and Brynn giggling and laughing hysterically. It is hard to be mad when they were having so much fun. Needless to say, after the party Brynn and Bella took a 3 hour nap. They were exhausted.

Bella's birthday was a week long event. On Tuesday, both sets of grandparents and us went to Pizza Factory and then bowling. Bella had seen her Grandpa Rock and Grandma Linda bowl so she wanted to bowl for her birthday. She loved it and would pick up the 8 pound ball by herself and take it over to the rails. Sometimes she would push it down with her head and other times she would just throw it. She was so funny and she had such a great time. She beat me easily and was pretty close to her dad's score.

On that same day, April 13, 2010, it was Rick and I 8th anniversary. I can't believe that it has already been eight years that we have been together. How lucky am I to have married such a great guy. As you all know, I am not mushy or cheesy, but I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is the greatest. Sure do love you Ricky Lee!

On Wednesday, April 14, Bella officially turned three. Rick, Bella, and I just had her favorite meal and then had fruit pizza for dessert. She is such a special girl and I just love her. She has became my little buddy and even though sometimes she makes me want to pull out my hair, I couldn't have asked for a better daughter. Her are some of her favorites:

Favorite toys: Definitely princesses and dress up.
Favorite foods: Mac and Cheese, spaghetti, applesauce, Honey Nut Cheerios, and chocolate.
Favorite TV shows: Dora and Explorer, Sesame Street, and Word World.
Favorite Movies: Cinderella, Princess and the Frog, Up, and Little Mermaid.
Favorite Songs: Part of your world, Madagascar songs, Sing Sweet Nightingale, and really
any princess songs.
Favorite Activities: Dance and Gymnastics. She loves to go to bounce houses too.

Catch Up

Bella in our backyard. It has been so great having a yard. Bye bye apartment living!!!

Going back to her roots :)!

Dance Performance

Getting her hair done for the Princess Ball with dad.

Getting her nails done.

All dressed up!

Daddy/Daughter Valentines Date.

Bella with Ariel and Tinkerbell.

Bella with Snow White.

Tea Party with her dance friends.

I have become super bad at updating this blog. I didn't even do Christmas. Shame on me :)! Everything is going really well with us. I am now 30 weeks and I wish that I was 39 weeks. It is taking forever! Bella is excited about her new baby sister that is on the way. She wants to name her "Bella Larson's Baby". She has been carrying a baby in her tummy too and tells me how big her tummy is getting. I am happy that she is getting a sister, especially since I love my sister so much.

Rick is keeping busy with work. He works at Brighton Dental in Cottonwood Heights 3 days a week and then is at Canyon River Dental in Provo for two days. He is liking dentistry, which is good because there is no turning back now. He also is really happy because our ward has ward basketball and ward football. He is in heaven. That boy does love sports as you are all aware.

Bella has been enjoying making new friends and playing with her old friends. She had a tea party with her dance friends at our house and she loved being the hostess. She is getting so tall and we now had to buy her 5T clothes. I think this is crazy since she doesn't even turn three until April. She definitely gets the tall genes from her daddy. She is still involved in dance and gymnastics. I posted some of her dance performance pics and then a video from their practice. I cannot figure out how to transfer the video from our camera to our computer yet. That will be a project for this weekend. For Valentines Day Rick took Bella to a daddy/daughter princess ball at our gym. Bella got her hair and nails done at the spa there and then got to dress up like a princess. All of the Disney princesses were there and she couldn't wait to meet Cinderella (unfortunately dad forgot to take a picture of them together). Rick says that she had a great time and that she just danced and danced.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Bella's dance that she performed at Christmas. She is the one in the center with the brown hair and pig tails.

So Much News

So a lot has been happening in the Larson Family. We bought our first house in Draper and we are loving it. It is just our size and we love the area. It is a 4 bedroom 3 bath house with a great backyard that Bella can actually play in. It has a great playset and unfortunately we have not been able to use it much because of the snow that we have had. We are so glad that we found it.

We are expecting our 2nd child. I am due the first of May and so far the pregnancy has been fine. I am hoping that since Bella came four weeks early that maybe I will be lucky enough to go early with this one as well :). Bella was due on May 5th so their due dates are only a couple days apart.

Some more news is that it is a girl. Bella got her wish and is getting a baby sister. Rick and I thought for sure that we were having a boy, mostly because at our 12 week ultrasound the doctor said that she thought she saw something between the legs and Rick thought he did too. Obviously it was way too early to tell since it is for sure a girl. This is definitely our last child and we are both fine having two girls. I just had to promise Rick no more pink poodles for this baby.

We are still very much considering going back to Dallas. Even though we have a new house and a new baby on the way, Rick has been offered a job there that is very hard to refuse. We are constantly going through the pros and cons of moving back. One HUGE con would be leaving our families. We have really enjoyed being so close to them and that will be hard to lose, especially if I have another Bella. But the pro would be the stability of the economy and a bigger patient base (oh and I cant forget better winter weather). I hate being an adult and having to make such big decisions. Why don't you all just make them for me...

I will post some pictures of our new house and of Bella's 1st dance performance. She did great and loved being on a stage. As soon as I get our other computer up and running I will post them.

I hope that all of you are well!