Miss Bella's Baptism

Yes, it's quite amazing- we're actually posting another update within a week rather than the normal 3 or 4. But that is only because we had a very special day today- Miss Bella's baptism!
Here is our sweet little princess all decked out in her fancy attire. She rather enjoyed playing with the tulle on her dress.
This is quite possibly my new favorite picture of her! If that isn't an angelic expression, I don't know what is.
We were told that Bella was acting pretty cute during the baptism! She just STARED up at Pastor Kevin when he was speaking. After Pastor Kevin was done, we went and prayed with some of the elders. At our church, they pick out a Bible verse for each child based on what their name means. Isabella means "consecrated to God," so her verse was something in Isaiah 60... but neither of us remembers which one- oops! We get a video of the service, so hopefully they will maybe include the verse with that.
After the service, we had over some of our family members for lunch. Here is Bella's pretty cake- which was quite delicious! Bella took a nice nap throughout the whole lunch though.
But after she woke up, she was the focus of many many pictures! Here is our little family on Bella's special day!
Miss Bella with her cousins- Jager, Dylann, and Tatum. This picture turned out a little better than the last one we took as I believe Bella started bawling during it.
We FINALLY took a 4 generation picture with all the ladies in my family- my Grandma Zylstra, my mom, myself, and Bella. We almost had 5 generations of straight girls, but my Great-Grandma Kooistra passed away just a couple of weeks before Bella was born. Four generations of all girls is still pretty neat though.
My parents and us!
Hmmm, do these three all look alike? Hee hee, just kidding Derek- she looks like you too! That has been quite a debatable subject- one person will say oh she looks exactly like her mom and then the next will say oh she's her daddy! So we have concluded that Bella is a perfect combination of both Mommy and Daddy. Bella's eyes are currently a brownish olive color, and her hair is coming in brown. (And she is finally getting some hair!)
Here is the 4 generations picture for Derek's family!
Derek's parents and us!
Overall, it was definitely a great day. We were glad that so many of our friends and family were able to come to the service to celebrate with us. We feel so incredibly blessed that God chose us to be the parents of such a special little lady. She is definitely the light of our lives, and we are so thankful for her!
Here is a couple add-on pictures, obviously not baptism related! This sling has been a new favorite of Bella and Mommy's lately- Bella because she gets to be carried around and Mommy's because her hands remain free!
Bye until next time!

Thoughts from the Male of the House

Lindsey requested that I make an appearance on the blog again, so here I am. She does a great job keeping you all up to date, but I said that I would take over the duties for this round. We have some new images of Bella ready to go for your viewing pleasure. She's getting bigger and bigger each and every day. Here are some new "FIRSTS" again for Bella, along with some other pictures that we wanted to share.
Here is Bella's five month picture. A nice big smile for the camera.
Another big smile from Bella during some photography time in her chair.
Here is Bella's cheesy smile. She does this funny smile quite often, especially when she's in a really excited and hyper mood.
Another cute picture of Bella smiling in her chair.
How sweet!

Another cheesy smile from Bella. She is quite the little smiler!
Here's Bella's first time in our swing. This past weekend it was really nice, so we decided to take advantage of one of the last remaining nice days of the year. I think she liked the swing quite a bit. However, the weather proof rope did break later and she just about had a big fall.
Bella has also started eating some very yummy foods. We have her eating carrots, sweet potatoes and squash. Here she is getting nice and messy during her dinner before bed time.
Here's chubby Bella, getting ready for bath time.
This was Bella's first bath with bubbles. She seemed to enjoy them quite a bit.
Bella also began sitting up on her own this past week. She has done it before, but not nearly as well as she is doing it now. We still have to watch and make sure she doesn't tumble over, but she's getting quite good at sitting up all by herself.
This was Bella sitting on our bed. She sat in this position for a good 15 minutes.
Bella in her Iowa gear and a new bow that somehow clips onto her very thin hair.
Just a cute side shot of Bella and her new bow.
Here's Bella and I trying to fake a smile after the disappointing loss on Saturday. There's always next year, I guess.
Here's Bella sleeping. Her mouth is hanging open and that's when you really know she's out cold!
Here's Bella after church on Sunday morning. I believe this is one of her outfits for her six month pictures as well.
Sitting up and smiling! If you look closely, you can see her two bottom teeth. We believe that she is working on some more teeth as well as her extreme drooling has resumed.
Looking very cute and snoopy as well!