De Haan Christmas

We celebrated the De Haan Christmas a few days after Christmas as Derek's brother and his family didn't get to Iowa until the 28th. It was actually nice to have our Christmas stuff all spread out so we weren't so busy! As part of the get-together, we went to the Ramada Inn in Des Moines one night to let the kids go swimming at the waterpark. Both of the little kiddos had lots of fun playing in the water!

This is Bella's expression and gesture when she really really wants someone to "walk" with her. Apparently she didn't want to model her little swimsuit!
Mommy and Daddy took turns taking Bella down the slide a few time. We held her up at the end so she didn't get drenched in water. :) She's not a fan of that yet!
But she does LOVE to splash!
And kick!
Bella is definitely a fan of swimming!
Afterwards the little lady was pretty wiped out from swimming so she had to rest on the chair with nigh-nigh to watch Elmo. She was also tired because we had a rough night in the hotel- our first bad sleeping night with Bella at another place. She is usually a great sleeper, but we forgot our sound machine that plays in her room, so we don't think she slept as well without that.

That night, we opened presents with the whole family. Bella got lots of other cool toys! Great-Grandma Vermeer gave her a Elmo juke box/karaoke machine. She was a big fan!

Giving a nice hug. :)
She also got a new coloring books and colors, which was also a big hit with Bella.
Matt, Melissa, and Cayden got Bella a doodle pro and a book. The doodle pro has also been very loved as she can color to her heart's desire and erase it all.
Apparently this was Bella's year for big presents! That evening, it was a new desk for Bella to color at from Grandpa and Grandma DeHaan. Obviously she didn't really get what it was until it was put together, but she has had lots of fun sitting at her desk and coloring since then, even though she's a little short for it yet.
The annual family photo, which was taken on a stack of books. :)
Grandpa and Grandma with the two grandchildren. Bella needed nigh-nigh at this point. She was still pretty wiped out from the night at the hotel, so she wasn't in the best of moods unfortunately.
But we managed to get a smile out of her later!

Our Family Christmas

We did our family Christmas on Christmas day morning. We actually didn't have a family get together at that time, so we thought it would be nice to be able to stay home and open presents on Christmas day rather than some other random day.

When we got home on Christmas eve, we set out cookies and a glass of milk for Santa. Bella remembered in the morning to go check if Santa ate and drank them! Magically, he did. :)
We let Bella do her stocking right when she got up. She got a new little doll, a little puppy, a stuffed "neigh," Sesame Street figurines, and ABC magnets for the fridge. The Sesame Street figurines have been a big hit. :)
Obviously however, the big present was Bella's new kitchen, with play food and dishes. We hid it in the laundry room, and then Derek brought it out when she wasn't looking. Bella was very excited to have her own kitchen. When she went over to look at it, she gave me the sweetest little smile. :)
Bella then kept very busy the rest of the morning playing with her new toys. She hopped back and forth between her kitchen and her new dollhouse, since she hadn't gotten to play with it. The Sesame Street characters were welcomed into the dollhouse with love!
Our pretty little girl.
One other picture of our family on Christmas Day!

Huyser Family Christmas

We had my family Christmas on Christmas Eve. However, due to the lovely snowstorm that came our way, Bella and I went to my parents house the night before and spent the night so I wouldn't have to drive in the snow. So Bella and I had a girls sleepover in my old room. :)

Bella had lots of fun exploring Grandpa and Grandma's house. She's usually only there for short periods of time, so it was good for her to get to go check out all areas of the home. Playing on this little piano was a favorite!
Here she is "eating" cookies in her booster seat. She kept wanting to sit in that for fun!
Looking at photo albums is ALWAYS a favorite activity. Bella usually heads to look at these first or goes to find the colors and books.
Bella found some little ornament balls that she had fun placing into a basket. She transferred them all over, one by one!
And then we carried the basket in to show Grandma Sheri!
Snuggling with Grandma to watch Elmo while Mommy did some cooking.
Bella also checked out Grandpa and Grandma's bath. She hasn't been in there since she was just a little baby!
Princess was all dolled up for the evening. :) However, she hates the sparkly tights and freaks out whenever she wears them!
Our family picture actually turned out quite well, considering Bella wasn't wanting to sit down!
Our little family. :)
Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri with the four grandchildren.
To begin the present evening, the kids went on a scavenger hunt around the house. The end surprise was pillow pets for them all! They all plopped down to pose for a picture. Bella got a bee, which we had been building up for awhile. We weren't sure whether to have her get a bee or a puppy, since she's been so puppy obsessed, but we decided on the bee. Then every time the commercial came on TV, we would talk about the bee with her. So she was good with it. :)
Opening her first present of the night, which was a Little People Fairy Treehouse set from Uncle Shawn, Aunt ChyAnne, and the kids. Bella loves her Little People!
Uncle Jer got her a play car, which was to go with a later gift.
Grandpa and Grandma got Bella a lovely talking doll. Granted, we did request it for her... but the doll is a little annoying. She talks constantly and says the same things over and over again. But Bella has lots of fun with her, so it is worth it! Bella saw the bag the doll was in earlier in the day, and she touched it, which made it start talking. Then she wanted the "baby" out. It took some distraction to keep her away from the bag!
Looking at the big and final present for the night.
A new dollhouse! Bella had a little dollhouse that we got her when she turned 1, but this is a BIG one that she will be able to keep growing into. Obviously, she didn't get what it was that night since it was in the package. But now she has lots of fun playing with it. And I might have some fun with it too. :)

Extended Family Christmas Time

We had one Christmas gathering the week before Christmas with my Zylstra family. It was at noon, and Bella usually takes a nap at 1 so I was a little worried that she would get pretty cranky from being tired. However, she was very good and didn't get too wiped out until later in the afternoon.

All of the Zylstra grandchildren and great-grandchildren- not a fantastic picture, but it was the best one I had! Definitely hard to get that many little kids to sit still.
Bella received a new vacuum from Tatum, who had her for the name exchange. She likes to help use that around the house, although she still pushes around my mop and broom. :) Go figure.
Testing it out!
Peering into her next present- she quickly figured out how to open presents and learned that there is something good inside!
My grandparents got Bella a little doll that has clothes to snap on, so she can actually do it herself, along with a place to store the clothes. We got Bella another doll in her stocking, and that has definitely been a favorite item to play with! She puts the clothes on... then off.. then on again...
I think she was having her doll take a ride in Jager's new tractor. :)
We had our final Christmas gathering the first Sunday in January with my whole Huyser family. That side has even more great-grandkids, so there were lots of little people running around! Here are all the little girls sitting together for a picture. I think Bella is trying to escape at this point.
And here are most of the little girls playing ring around the rosy, led by preschool teacher Grandma Sheri. :) She's always on teaching duty!
Bella made a new best friend- my cousin Erica's little girl Avery, who is 2 months younger than Bella. They were quite obsessed with each other, and Bella kept calling out "Ava! Ava!" It was actually the most interested Bella has ever been with someone her own age. She usually likes older girls to play with!
And here is my Grandpa and Grandma Huyser with all the great-grandkids- an even harder picture to take considering there are at least 5 kids who are 2 and under. It was amusing! Bella had lots of fun playing with all the little girls at this gathering though. It's nice that there are so many who are close together in age.

19 Months!

So I'm a little slow on getting a blog done for this past month. I'll blame it on the business of Christmas. Here is Bella's monthly update- Christmas pictures will be following!

Bella remains very much in love with her Elmo. A favorite activity this month was watching Elmo's Christmas Special on DVR over.... and over... and over again. I kid you not, she probably watched bits and pieces of that 75 times. "Elmo Santa" is how it was lovingly referred to.
At the beginning of December, we took Bella to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops in Des Moines. We had a suspicion that seeing Santa wouldn't go so well, but we knew Bella would enjoy seeing all the fish and stuffed animals at Bass Pro. And she definitely did! Here she is checking out the "shish."
Trying to take a dip in the water...
Petting a lovely looking puppy, one of her personal faves.
And touching the big "kitty." Bella also was a big fan of the big moose head! Couldn't touch that one though, it was too high.
And just as we thought, meeting Santa went ever so successfully. We tried pumping Bella up the whole day telling her she was going to meet Santa, and that got her quite excited. In fact, when we first got there and she saw Santa, she wanted to "touch" him. But when the actual moment came, Bella froze. Or maybe a better way of putting it would be freaked out.
Note the look of terror on her face. And he was even a nice looking Santa!
And this is likely our best picture- Bella eyeing him with a weary suspicion. Oh well, it was an enjoyable experience- for us anyway. :)
Bella modeling her new cookie monster slippers, one of her other favorite Sesame Street characters.
We had our niece Dylann's 8th birthday party this month, and Bella enjoyed playing with her cousins like always. Dylann got a new karaoke machine, and Bella thought she needed to plop in on the action by sitting on Dylann's lap. :)
This is where the love for her "cooking" all began. :)
Bella was quite into doing some dance moves this month as well. We had dance parties down in the basement to Christmas music, that often led into Bella being chased. Here she is showing off some of her good moves. :)
We have started introducing Bella to the big girl potty ever so slowly. She knows when she is going and often tells us, but she is definitely not having the motivation to go on the potty yet! Not something we're pushing, but we always ask and have her sit there occasionally. She does like wearing her big girl panties, especially since they have Elmo on them. :)
Since we are stuck inside so much more now, I have tried to think of different fun activities for Bella to do. Finger painting is one that she likes, and she creates beautiful pieces of art!
Color wonder paint is a wonderful wonderful invention. I definitely am not brave enough to let her try real paint yet!
As I said, Cookie Monster is another beloved Sesame Street character. Here Bella is demonstrating how Cookie Monster eats his cookies!
Bella has started using some short (2-3 word) sentences this month. Some of our personal favorites are "happy birthday (some name)!" and "Told ya." (I think I use told you quite frequently with her because she says it now all the time.) Bella also likes to sing happy birthday (which she does quite well!), Twinkle Twinkle, and the I Love You song from Barney. I am not a fan of Barney, but I like singing that song with her because she always gives hugs and kisses during it. :)
Grumpy face:)
And surprised face!
Bella likes to "help" me with chores around the house, like unloading the dishwasher, putting clothes in the laundry, wiping off the floor. She discovered a fun use for the dryer on this day-
Apparently it was a nice little home for her dolls!
Cooking on her OWN kitchen- more pictures to follow of that!
One of the days after Christmas, it wasn't too cold, so we decided to take Bella out to encounter her first experience with the snow. We plopped her in the snow last year, but of course she had no conception of it then. This year she was much more excited! At first, she was a little unsure about it, but then she plowed right into it and fell in love. She especially liked walking through the snow and leaving a path!
We of course had to go visit the farm to see the neighs, Barney the puppy, and the kitty. And they usually follow us home after our visit, so I decided to capture Bella's favorite puppy on camera. :)
We were outside for nearly an hour that day, which is way longer than we planned on doing, but we could not get her to come inside! Note the rosy cheeks...
We set up a few lawn decorations this year for Christmas and picked out penguins particularly for Bella, knowing that she would like them. And she didn't disappoint- everytime she saw them she wanted to go "touch" them. Here she is giving them a kiss!
Coloring remains a much loved activity, and now Bella has her own desk to color at! She is still a little short for it, but she loves to sit there and scribble away.