Christmas Part 1

So we have been incredibly busy these past couple weeks with all of the holiday gatherings! I decided to break up our various outings into different posts, or otherwise I would have uploaded a ton of pictures and written a book. :) So here is the first part! On the Friday n ight before Christmas, we went with my family to Build-a-Bear in Des Moines as that was part of my mom and dad's Christmas present to the grandkids.
Miss Bella is watching all of the action!Since Bella is obviously too young to pick out her animal and clothing, I got the pleasure of doing so. :) And naturally, I picked an adorable kitty. What will I do if this girl doesn't like cats.... Here is her kitty getting filled up with stuffing! Bella with her new kitty- named Sophia the Ballerina! She actually was all excited about it when we showed it to her the morning after we went- she had a big smile!
The next day, we celebrated our little family's first Christmas with Bella! This picture actually turned out really well, especially considering we just stuck the camera on a table. As to be figured, Bella was more interested in the bows than the actual presents. :) Particularly the red shiny bows for some reason! Looking at her new activity table! She doesn't look too excited here, but she actually does like it a lot.
Bella with her new ball bouncer! This one is still a little scary to her- she likes to play with the balls, but when we turn it on it kind of freaks her out. Maybe when she's a little older! We also gave Bella a little tea set, a picnic basket with food, and some little things in her stocking. I am so glad to have new toys for her- I was getting bored with her old!Bella is all Christmased out. :)
On that following Sunday, we went on another road trip with Bella to see some of our friends in Cedar Falls. My friend Cassy and her husband Justin were back in Iowa from Colorado, so we spent an afternoon with them, along with our friends Jameson and Lisa and their baby Alice, Jake and Gwyn, and Loren. It was fun to be with my old college group again, even though it's now a little different with two babies! I forgot to take pictures though, oops!
On December 23, we celebrated Christmas with part of Derek's family. Derek's dad and sister were leaving for a Kenyan mission trip on Christmas day, so we did a small part of Christmas with them before they left. Derek and I also had our FIRST date night since Bella's birth before Christmas! We had tickets to go to see Transiberian Orchestra, which Bella could obviously not attend. So my mom came over to babysit her, and we went out to eat and saw the show (which was awesome). I was a little sad to leave her, but it was nice to have an alone night together again. But I don't need to do it again anytime soon. :) More Christmas to follow!