Life and Times of Derek, Lindsey, Isabella & Grace De Haan

Grace- 5 Months Old!

2012-02-08T14:59:00.001-06:00

So hard to believe that our little Grace is nearly 5 months old already! Time goes by fast with one baby, but it definitely goes by even faster with two. Our little lady keeps growing and growing and is still just as sweet as can be. :) She is definitely adored by our family!

This is the most often seen pose for Grace throughout the day. She rarely stays on her back and flips to her belly constantly. She still gets mad if on her belly for too long, mainly because she refuses to lay her down and rest! She always does the "airplane" pose with her arms and legs up.

She is rolling from her belly to her back more often now, though she still doesn't do it a lot. She typically does it more in her crib for some reason- we often see her rolling all over in there! Grace has also started scooting herself around- also a lot in her crib! She is often facing the opposite direction and is at the opposite side of the bed from where we laid her in the morning. She also likes to scoot herself around in a circle on her playmat to get what she wants.

Miss Nakey. :) She loves to be naked and kick all over! I'm sure she will love being in summer attire so she doesn't need to be in so many clothes.

Grace on her 4 month birthday! She had her 4 month check-up this month as well, which was another delightful experience. She weighed in at 14 lbs 13 oz and was 25" long, both of which are in the 75th percentile. She is almost now exactly the same as Bella was at 4 months- Bella was just 5 oz more! So Grace has now caught up to her, despite being such a tiny peanut in the beginning. She does have a smaller head though- 16" which is only the 30th percentile! Definitely not a small brain though. :)

Gracie still loves talking and being talked to. She is getting quite loud in her verbalizations as well! She has started doing some high pitched squeals, which Bella thinks is hilarious. She also has started making a growling noise, along with her ahhhs and keeees.

Such a pretty little girl. :)

Grace got to see her buddy Luke again! He is my friend Lia's baby, and they are only 3 weeks apart. It was amusing to watch them laying by each other and kicking around. I think they may be holding hands here- sure to be good friends. :)

Grace has started to play with her toys a lot more. She is now grabbing and reaching for them and shows a definite interest in getting what is around her. This will start to get scary for Bella- she may not love her little sister so much when she starts to get in her stuff!

Grace has been starting to sit up pretty well on her own and with support. She can actually sit on her own for a good amount of time if she wants to.

"Flying" is one of Grace's favorite games to play. :) She loves to be tossed up into the air!

Had to capture this as it so rarely happens. Even when laying on her belly on somebody, she never lays her head down. So it was very unusual that she actually was here!

Such a happy little girl! She continues to be such an easy baby. Grace is very content to watch what is going on around her. However, she does have quite the little temper yet. If she is hungry or tired, watch out!

I hate to make generalizations about Grace's sleeping habits because the second I do, she changes... but she has been sleeping much much better this month. She is sleeping through the night, generally 10-12 hours before waking up to eat. She typically naps 2-3 times a day. She still occasionally wakes up after a short cat nap, but she has learned to put herself back to sleep without being rocked.

My mommy likes to dress me up in frilly little dresses. :) So nice having a cooperative subject to take pictures of! Gotta love those chubby legs.

She enjoyed eating this dress. :)

This picture is such a Grace expression- she often raises her eyebrows in expectation, like she is saying what are you going to talk to me about? :)

Grace is still nursing every 3-4 hours in the day. She's a super eater, as evidenced by her 3 pound weight gain in the past 2 months. :) I intended to have Grace be able to take a bottle, just so that she wouldn't be totally reliant on me. However, laziness has got the best of me, so Grace has had very few bottles in her life. Not a problem since I'm with her basically all the time. However, when I took Bella to Beauty & the Beast, Grace needed a bottle when I was gone. That didn't so much happen for Daddy. :) Apparently she wasn't starving enough to agree to drinking a bottle! Oh well, it won't be an issue often!

It is still so weird for me to have a baby girl with such blue blue eyes! It'll be interesting to see if they change or if they'll stay blue. My eyes didn't turn green until after I was 2, so we'll see what happens with Gracie. Maybe I'll have a green eyed girl in her!

We introduced Gracie to some rice cereal at the end of the month. As you can see, she absolutely loved it. :) These expressions were hilarious! We've continued to give it to her, and while she is not making these faces anymore, she still is not too interested in it. I think more usually ends up spit out than in her belly.

Grace has also got to enjoy some outside time with our beautiful weather! She laid out on the deck one afternoon while Mommy read. She loves taking in the outside world!

The Little Ladies :)

2012-02-07T23:28:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of our sweet little girls together. :) They love each other so much!

This is an often seen position in her house- cuddle time on the couch! Gracie on Mommy's lap and Bella curled up beside.

When Grace was practicing her sitting skills, Bella decided to join her in the Bumbo. :)

Then she decided to sit with her and give her snuggles!

Grace gets lots and lots of hugs!

I have a feeling I will see this pose many many more times... :)

And the best picture of our little ladies to date! Both actually looking with sweet expressions!

Cuddling in their jammies one night. :)

Taking a stroller ride to enjoy the 60 degree weather! I could actually get Bella to sit in the stroller since Grace was sitting beside her. Maybe I'll be able to convince her to take more walks this spring now that she has a buddy. :)

Bella Bella Bella!

2012-02-07T23:23:00.000-06:00

Our little Bella, whose 3 year old birthday seems to be rapidly approaching (eek!), is becoming more of a little girl everyday. We often say Bella Bella Bella throughout the day because of the crazy and silly things she does and says. The girl definitely has some personality. :)

Bella has been on a Tommy obsession again lately. She loves to give him hugs throughout the day, which he begrudgingly tolerates. I actually got her to agree to let me take some pictures of her sinceTommy was with her!

She's actually been on an all around kitty obsession. With our crazy January weather, we made several trips down to the barn to see the kittens. There were little baby ones born this fall, and Bella LOVES them. She now just picks them up on her won without any hesitation or fear and carries them all over. It is adorable! Whenever Tommy meets his end, I think Bella will definitely be wanting a little kitty in the house. :) She's a kitty lover like her mommy!

We had one last family Christmas in January, which was a very fun one for Bella. My Huyser family has LOTS of little girl grandchildren, so Bella had a blast playing with all the little girls. They were dancing, playing ring around the rosy... she loves little girls!

Bella has been very into drawing again. And she continues to progress with her drawing skills! She is starting to make "people-" which actually look somewhat like people! She draws a circle for the head, little circles for the eyes, a line for the mouth, a dot for the nose, and then squiggly lines for the crown. Because after all, all people wear crowns. :)

She LOVES dressing up dolls and Barbies.

Wooden paper dolls are another opportunity to dress up girls- and thankfully that's something she can do on her own! This picture also shows a little bit of Bella's OCD tendencies- she laid out all the dresses like this. I'm afraid Mommy's craziness may be running off on her...

Bella has also been slightly obsessed with playing games on my Iphone and Daddy's Ipad. She would play on there for hours if we would let her! I don't mind it though as I only have educational games for her. So she thinks she is getting to do something special when I know it's actually teaching her. :) Works great! She does have some Dora and Princess dress up games though... as I said, she loves to play dress up!

(Yes, these pictures were actually taken outside in January in Iowa. It looks like it could be October!)

I have been working on letters with Bella this year as well. She knows quite a few random ones, but I decided to talk about one letter each week so she gets a good understanding of them. She occasionally gets annoyed when I start bugging her too much about them... :) but she generally does a great job! She's a smart little cookie.

Working on her jumps. :) She actually gets some air time now!

Bella is going to fit perfectly into her role as big sister. Lately, when playing, she has been "directing" us in what to do and say. For example, she will tell Derek or I, "Have the Mommy say get out of bed babies!" She wants us to be involved with her play, but she has to determine what is going on. :) Mommy does get to do some improvisation with the play, but Daddy however must stick to her script or there's trouble! So poor little Grace may be bossed around in play by Miss Bella someday. :)

Another way Bella is a very typical oldest child is her EXTREME snoopiness. She wants to know what is going on at all times! If Derek and I are talking about something and she is in the room, she says, "What are you talking about? What'd you say to Daddy?" It doesn't matter that it is nothing of interest to her; she just has to be in the know. Needless to say, we don't have many conversations without Bella being a part of them. :) That's okay though; it's just her little personality!

I think I mentioned that Bella has been extremely attached to her Mommy in recent months. We have been working on that, and getting involved in some new activities is helping her with that. But we learned some important info about Miss Bella and why she was so attached. She is not a child who likes change- she wants things to be the same, and if they are different, she wants to be prepared for them. She gets soooo nervous in new situations, which is why she attaches herself to Mommy. She also tells me "I love you Mommy" constantly when she is nervous, which is her way of reassuring herself when she's out of her comfort zone. This has been a good realization for Derek and I. We try not to just throw her into something new, but prep her for it and gradually ease into it. We still haven't gotten her to nursery on Sunday mornings, but maybe it'll happen again. :)

Mommy and Bella shared a very special first this month- Bella's first movie! I took her to see Beauty and the Beast when it was in the theaters, which was perfect for Bella's first movie experience. She already knows the movie by heart, so it wasn't an issue for her to sit still. She had sooo much fun too- she was quoting all the lines and singing all the songs! I had to keep reminding her to use her quiet voice, even though it was pretty sweet. She got popcorn, pop, and M&M's to eat during the movie, so it was definitely a special treat for her!

Bella also got to go to her first dance class this month with her friend Ella! Ella and Bella had their first playdate just a few weeks ago, and they hit it off. Bella talks about her new friend all the time, so she was extremely excited to go to dance class with her. I love how they are sitting alike in this picture. :) During the class, they would often be off doing their own thing- looks like I may have the naughty child that doesn't listen!

Doing a little jig in the line. We had planned on enrolling in Bella into dance after she turned 3, and this little class was definitely validation that she will LOVE it. She had a smile on her face the entire time!

December Happenings!

2012-01-13T23:59:00.002-06:00

We had a pretty busy month in December with all of the Christmas gatherings and happenings! Hard to believe that it is already a new year, and our little baby is now 4 months old. Here's what happened during our past month...

It appears that we may have not one but two finger sucking lovers in our family. Grace has discovered a great love of her hands and fingers. She chews on them throughout the day and sometimes sucks on them to help her sleep as well. She still takes her binky, but we'll see if the fingers become her favorite thing like big sister!

We visited Santa at the beginning of the month and had a much better experience than last year (which was when Bella clung to me and screamed terrified of him). This time, she was very excited and was somewhat starstruck when sitting on his lap! (Hence the solemn expression on her face.) But she did whisper ever so quietly what she wanted for Christmas to him: "Princesses."

This picture is not good, but I took it quick at Dylann's birthday party and didn't get my settings fixed in time. Great-Grandpa Zeke with little missy. :)

In pictures where Grace's eyes don't show up blue, these two look soooooo much alike! It continues to be so much fun to see how Grace is her own person, but yet bears such a resemblance to her sister.

Just as sweet as ever. :)

Bella was pretending to be Jasmine while eating her lunch one day- the blanket over her head is a cape I think. We went through a week or two of major Aladdin obsession! I think she has now rotated a love through all the Disney Princesses- but Cinderella remains her first love.

Grace even got to hold on to Raja for her. :)

Grace has been learning some new tricks this month! In addition to chewing on her hands constantly, she has now started to grasp and suck on toys. Bella enjoys giving her new toys every few minutes and rotating them for use.

Grace also perfected the art of rolling from her back to her belly. That brought about some sleeping issues as she did not remain sleeping at first when she rolled over! Thankfully, she has now become a belly sleeper and moved past that little stage. You could definitely say this past month had extreme highs and lows in terms of her sleeping. She would have days where she would sleep great at night, take good naps, but then the next day she'd wake up the second we laid her down and not go to bed until 1 am. Yikes. Thankfully, this past week has been great so I'm hoping we are now on a good trend. Typically, on the "good" days, she's sleeping between 6-8 hours before waking up to eat at night, and taking 3 naps a day- 2 longer ones and a catnap in the evening.

We started doing several Christmas traditions with Bella this year, one of which was building a gingerbread house! This was not the easiest task as we had a mishap with our frosting tube. But Bella had fun decorating and eating her little house. :)

Bella got to play hair salon with Mommy this month and had her first experience with a curling iron! She actually cooperated very well and informed me how beautiful she looked afterwards. Easy to curl hair with natural curl in it, and it looked adorable!

Even posing like a little model. :)

Gracie is a very happy little lady! Unless tired or hungry- then she can exhibit a ferocious temper! And once she is worked up, it is a task to get her calmed back down.

On her three month birthday! Getting ever so big.

Grace loves to interact with people- being talked to and "talking" back! She discovered how to make a lovely growling noise this month- so lovely.

How sweet- sucking on thumbie. :)

Tummy time has been going better. She still gets mightily ticked if left on her belly too long, but she tolerates it for at least 10 minutes. Her main problem is that she never puts her head down to rest, so it obviously gets tired! She did roll over from her belly to her back this month as well, but hasn't figured out how to do it more. Once she does, she will be a happy camper rolling along the floor!

Again- sucking on that little thumb!

Grace has been working on her sitting up skills and does quite well if she wants to- here she is zoned out watching the tv with Daddy, so she was cool with sitting!

Grace is now wearing 6 month clothes, which means she got to start wearing Bella's old clothes. (All of Bella's 3 month clothes were summer stuff, so we couldn't use any of that). It has been fun to take out all our old outfits again and see Grace in them! This Princess outfit was a little favorite, so I had to try it on her. She is a princess as well after all!

Grace also loves to be held and carried around- she has a pretty laidback personality so far, unless that temper comes out. She is pretty content to just watch what is happening around her though!

Big sister sometimes cooperates and lets me take pictures of them together! More often than not though, she runs and hides when I get the camera out. Naturally, now that it is easier to take pictures of them both!

Hee hee. :) I adore this. Bella is about a month older than Grace here though.

Our littlest gal in her festive Christmas dress!

And some semi decent pictures of them together. :) I don't dress my girls in red often, so they look different when they are in it!

Bella cheesing it up of course. :)

But we did coax a natural smile out of her eventually.

Christmas!

2012-01-07T16:21:00.002-06:00

We had many Christmas celebrations again this year! And I was lazy, so I lumped all the pictures together in one post. :) Our first Christmas was with my Zylstra extended family the weekend before Christmas.

When Bella and Hayden were told it was picture time, they promptly went to Grandpa and Grandma's laps. :)

However, there were quite a few other great-grandchildren who had to join in! There was definitely a lot of little children running around that evening!

All of the Zylstra grandchildren and spouses- only a couple were missing.

Bella was very excited to open her first presents of Christmas and definitely got the hang of it this year. Here she is with some pretty princess dolls from one of her cousins!

We had our family Christmas the Friday night before Christmas. Actually got a successful family picture with a timer, pretty impressive!

Our sweet little girls- definitely our favorite present. :)

Bella was loving on Grace during these pictures!

This year, we gave Bella a Calico Critters dollhouse with furniture and a kitty family. Those sets were around when I was a little girl and were one of my favorite toys, so I knew I wanted to get Bella one when she was old enough. She didn't quite get it when she was opening them as they were all in individual boxes!

Bella also got to open some presents for little sister- we got her a few things just so Bella wouldn't think she was the only one getting presents. :)

And this is how Miss Grace enjoyed the evening!

Mommy had lots of fun putting together the little dollhouse that night. And Bella has had hours of fun playing with it since then! I don't think she moved from it for about 2 hours- she loves playing with little tiny toys, especially if the family is little kittens. :)

On Christmas Eve day, we headed over to Grandma Sheri's and Grandpa Doug's to assist with cooking the meal. Bella had lots of fun playing at Grandma's house for a whole day, especially when trying on the Santa hat. :) She also got to take a nap in Mommy's old bed, which was very exciting for her! Now everytime we go over there, Bella wants to go read books in "Mommy's old bed."

Our annual family photo- took a little photoshop work to get a good one courtesy of Derek, but the finished product was successful!

Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri with all of their grandchildren!

Our little family. :) It was surprising how many good smiles we got out of Bella that night!

And then it was time to open presents! Bella was quite funny opening presents- she got a little Sleeping Beauty doll and only wanted to play with that, rather than open any of her other presents. "You do it Mommy" and "I'm still playing!" were heard when we told her it was time to open another one. I guess that's a good way to have it!

Daddy cuddling a sleeping Gracie on the couch. :)

Bella opening her stocking presents from Santa on Christmas morning. I'm not sure if she got the Santa concept or not, but it was fun for her to leave out cookies and milk and see that they were gone in the morning! Next year I'm sure she'll definitely understand it.

Santa brought her some new princess board books, and I'm pretty sure we read those about every day for the next week.

The day after Christmas is when we celebrated with the De Haan family. It was decently nice outside, so we took the picture outside- such a change from Christmas' in the past!

Bella had a slight obsession with this Elmo doll everytime we were over there- which is silly because she doesn't even watch Elmo anymore.

Bella opening her presents!

I think she wanted Elmo to open a present here. Oh Bella. :)

Playing with her new vet kit from Aunt Anna.

Mommy had cuddle duty with sleeping Grace on this day. All of the Christmas stuff was getting tough for Grace- she wasn't her normal happy self since we were out and about so much!

Watching Cayden play on his Leap Pad. :)

Grace- 3 Month Pictures!

2012-01-05T09:05:00.000-06:00

Our little Miss Grace has already turned 3 months old! Well, she's actually about 4 months already. :) But we took her 3 month pictures right after Christmas. Rather than have somebody take them, we decided (or rather my husband persuaded:)) to have me to take them this time around. And it actually worked out okay because we got to capture her in her happy moods rather than at a set time where she may have been grumpy! Here is a sampling of the many cute pictures we took. We still think Grace looks a lot like her big sister, but I don't think Miss Blue Eyes is going to get Bella's dark brown eye color- the girl has some very blue eyes!

Our Sweet Girls

2011-12-06T14:02:00.006-06:00

Here is some pictures of our two little ladies- their little relationship is growing and is so precious to see. Every morning when Bella wakes up, she asks, "Is Grace up?" And if not, she wants to go and wake her up. And often does since she is not exactly quiet! But Bella just loves her little sister soooooo much, and Grace is starting to adore her big sister as well! One morning, Grace just watched Bella and kept smiling at her- it melts my heart. :) Bella also loves that Grace is responding to her- we hear this frequently throughout the day: "She's looking at me Mommy! She's smiling! She likes me! Awww, do you love your big sister?" It's pretty cute to hear!

Bella loves to lay by her and give hugs. :) Thankfully, her two year old attitude is never given to Grace!
Wherever Bella is sitting, she wants Grace to be by her as well. I'm sure that will change once Grace starts getting into her stuff! For now, we'll enjoy the love. :)
However, Bella has been giving one of her precious blankets to Grace to hold- so maybe there will be hope for sharing. :)
Grace also gets lot of sweet kisses!
Mommy and Daddy's bed is a favorite place to hang out- good place for snuggling. :)
These are some excerpts from our Christmas card photos- this really should have been the picture we sent out as it more accurately reflects how the pictures went. Bella was unhappy and wanted to be done, and Grace just laid there and chilled. :)
We'll pretend that all of the pictures looked like this though. :)
Bella reading Grace some books- another favorite thing to do!
And laying with her under her playmat! Such sisterly love.

Grace- Month Two!

2011-12-06T13:20:00.006-06:00

So our little baby is nearly 3 months old- can't hardly believe it! Grace really started to develop her little personality this month, which has been so fun. She really interacts and responds with us, and is such a happy content little girl!

Grace has started to give us big giant smiles, especially after she's just woken up or eaten. She has also started to giggle a little bit when her neck is tickled.
Grace is not a fan of being on her belly (to put it lightly.) However, in the past week, she has started to lift up her head easier and doesn't get so mad anymore. Still not her favorite position by any means though!
Two month picture. :) Looking a little dazed! She had her two month check-up, and everything looked great! Her first set of shots was awful, of course. I think the 2 month shots are the worse- she was laying on the table so happy and then she gets jabbed in the leg with a needle! Poor baby. :( Little Miss weighed 11 lbs 12 oz, which is the 65th percentile, and was 22 1/2" long, which is 40th percentile. So she has gained 5 pounds and grown 3 inches since she was born. She's also the same length as Bella was at her 2 month check-up. However, chubby big sister weighed a pound more. :) Derek and I chalk that up to Grace sleeping the first week of her life away!
She started to roll over this month as well, from her back to her belly. I'm surprised she hasn't figured out from her belly to her back, particularly since she hates being on her belly so much!

Grace adores being talked to, and "talking" back. She makes an ooooo sound and started keeeeing. She can also blow bubbles!
She discovered her hands and loves to chew and suck on her fingers. She has tried sucking on her fingers when sleeping, but hasn't completely figured it out. Grace may be another finger sucker as well. :) Which would be okay as she doesn't always like her binky!
Here she is watching Baby Einstein for the very first time! She has enjoyed watching that occasionally, especially since she is much more alert but can't grasp any toys on her own yet.
Grace is still eating great. She typically eats every 3 hours in the day, and usually goes 5-6 a night. She has slept 7-8 hours several times, but not consistently yet. However, she goes right back to sleep after eating, so I don't really mind. I'll sleep all night someday. :)
She's been spending more time in her Bumbo and is getting pretty good at holding her head up all the time! Still wobbles around a bit like a bobblehead at times. :)
Little miss's naps have been slightly erratic during her second month. At the beginning of the month, they were great. She was falling into a 3 a day schedule- typically sleeping for 2 hours in the morning, 2 hours in the afternoon, and around 1 hour in the evening. Then all of a sudden, she decided to start taking 20 minute cat naps- or waking up immediately after I laid her down! Thankfully, that phase seems to have ended again- she still wakes up but usually goes back to sleep. Grace seems to follow her big sister in regards to napping- doesn't like to nap and only sleeps in the swing. Oh well, night sleep is more important anyway!

Bella in November!

2011-12-05T22:23:00.006-06:00

So I decided to start splitting up my posts about the girls so I don't get picture overloaded. :) Here is my monthly update on big sister along with some sweet pictures!

At the beginning of November, we still had really nice weather! Kind of hard to believe now since it's absolutely freezing!
We went outside to play on all the nice days that we could!
Bella is still loving to paint! She has also reintroduced coloring back into her world, and is getting good at that as well. Rather than scribbling everywhere, she scribbles inside the actual pictures. :)
She learned how to blow her own bubbles as well. :) Sometimes she spits more than she blows air, but she got the hang of it eventually!
And she was very proud of herself for it!
Bella's Spanish vocabulary also continues to expand, thanks to our friend Dora the Explorer. She knows how to count to 10 in Spanish, knows Spanish colors, and randomly interjects Spanish phrases into her speech. "Vamanos!" is a frequently used one. :) (which means let's go for all you non-Spanish speakers!)
I have been working with Bella on learning the alphabet as well. She is sometimes interested in it, sometimes not. She consistently knows A, B, C, D, G, and M. Only 20 more to go as Derek says. :) But she can actually point to more than that when asked where they are; she just isn't always able to recall their name.
Bella still has a very impressive memory as well, particularly for books and songs. One example: we were the parents for nursery a few weeks ago. They do a song and storytime for the 2 year olds, and Bella knew the words and actions to all the songs. Most of the other kids were just sitting there listening, and there she was singing and acting it out. What made this particularly unusual is that she has been to nursery for about 2 times in the last 4 months. (Still experiencing a little separation anxiety from Mommy.... trying to work on that!) But apparently the songs stuck with her!

Some funny sayings:

"It's a perfect night." Said when playing with her dollhouse- not sure what made it perfect!

"Maybe not." Her absolute favorite way to say no. Used very frequently. :)

"I'm just going to be a little bit scared/shy/sad." Said before going to new places or situations. Yes, she apparently plans out her emotions and discusses them before actually experiencing them! OH Bella. :)

Bella has shown a little more of a 2 year old attitude this month- she is definitely learning the art of expressing her emotions fully and exerting her independence, to put it nicely. :) But generally, she is such a good girl for the majority of the time, so we can't really complain about the occasional temper tantrums and crying fits. Comes with the territory! Now we'll just hope that she grows out of the stage of complete attachment to Mommy!

Miss Grace's Baptism!

2011-12-05T21:32:00.008-06:00

This past month, we celebrated a very important occasion- our little Grace's baptism. :) Exactly two years ago, Bella was baptized as well. It's so crazy that we now have another beautiful baby- and a 2 1/2 year old!

Our two little princesses before heading to church in the morning- both looking so pretty! This is my best picture of the two of them thus far! It's getting much easier now that Grace can hold her head up on her own.

Grace did well during the baptism, despite having water poured all over her head. :) She was sleeping, but obviously that woke her right up! It apparently didn't bother her too much though as she didn't even cry.
After church, we had all of our family over for a brunch. We then attempted some family pictures after little missy had a semi-nap. I think this is actually our first family photo since Grace was 5 days old! My my how she's changed. :) Our active two year old was apparently not too interested in this picture.
A four generation picture of moms and their daughters!
Derek with his family and little ladies. :) Again, Bella was just LOVING taking pictures!
And my parents with all six of their grandchildren- complete with two new little girls. I still can't believe that we have this many little girls now- what drama the teenage years will bring. :)
Bella and her "favorite" uncle. :) These two have a very special relationship... One loves the other very much, and one loves to be sassy and hide from the other. Obviously it's not apparent who is who.
I forgot to take a picture of Grace's cake prior to eating it. :) Ooops! It was cute though! And tasted yummy. Bella and I enjoyed eating the leftovers for the next week.
After all our family left, both the girls were wiped out and slept the afternoon away. So I didn't get any pictures taken of them except the few I took of them both before church. And this one of miss wide eyes after she woke up. :)
So I decided to dress them up later in the week so I could get some pictures of them in their pretty dresses.
Grace was a perfect little model for mommy.
Bella... not so much. :) She's not easy to take pictures of right now!
A sweet little smile from Gracie. :)
Big sister loves little sister soooo much!
So very pretty in her white ruffly dress!
It was wonderful to share that special day! We are so very thankful for the blessing of our little girls.

October!

2011-11-07T23:25:00.013-06:00

Wow- another month has passed, and our newest little girl is almost 2 months old already! Time is definitely flying by, even more so than it did with Bella. Life is definitely a lot busier with two little girls in our household!

Miss Grace has continued to be a very easy baby. She was still pretty sleepy at the beginning of the month...

Sleeping wherever Mommy lays me!
But she definitely started to become more awake after she turned 1 month. With that awake time brought about some major crabbiness, and Derek and I were a little scared that we weren't going to have another easy baby. There was about a week where Grace would scream bloody murder every night, and there was nothing we could do to calm her down. However, we figured out that she was just getting overtired (she would be awake for 3 or 4 hours!) and she was just exhausted. Now we don't let her stay awake more than 2 hours, which has worked perfectly. Once we figured that out, Grace became a very happy girl once again. :)

She loves bathtime, just like her big sister!

Grace loves to lay on the floor or our bed and just wiggle all over! However, when she's sleeping, she likes to be snuggled up close and tight.

Such a pretty little girl. :)

Getting her very first bottle from Daddy. That one didn't go super well, but she's had a couple since then and she has taken them fine. Since I'm not working anymore, it's not a big deal if she doesn't drink from a bottle, but it would obviously be nice if she did. So we try to give Grace a bottle about once a week. Naturally, since she doesn't NEED to take one, she drinks it much better than her big sister did!

Her one month picture! And already, Grace looks so much bigger!
Grace has been a big fan of her binky, which is different for us. Bella never would take a pacifier, so it's nice that Grace actually likes it! She has also discovered sucking on her fingers, so it's possible that we could have another thumb or finger sucker. :)
And such a sweet little sister she is. :)

Grace started to smile a lot this past month, and we even caught quite a few of those smiles on camera!Grace looks more and more like her big sister the older she gets, especially when she's smiling.

This is a picture of Bella around the same age- can't tell these two are sisters at all, can you. :) The biggest difference between them is that Grace's eyes are not as dark as a blue as Bella's were. We'll see what color they end up as!

Grace also started "talking" some this month. She makes lots of cooing noises and some occasional loud squawks, particularly in the morning after she wakes up! She also has lifted her head all the way up while doing tummy time- the girl has a strong little neck!

I love having two little girls to dress up in pretty dresses. :)

Bella continues to love her little sister more and more every day, particularly since Grace has become more interactive. Here they are cheering on the Hawkeyes! Although I believe they actually lost that day....

Our favorite picture taking pose. :) Anytime I take pictures of Grace, Bella likes to come lay by her so she can be in the picture as well.

I adore watching Bella interact with Grace. She talks in this little singsong voice, and anytime Grace makes a noise or smiles at her, Bella is SOOO excited! "She's talking to me Mommy! She likes me!" It is pretty much the sweetest thing ever. :)

Can't wait to see these little sisters become best friends. :)

And this big girl continues to be as crazy and silly as ever! Although other people wouldn't know it as she has entered an extreme shyness phase when we are around other people. She clings to Mommy like a leech and buries her head in my shoulder. You would never know how crazy she acts at home!

Bella sings and dances every day, both in her normal clothes-

and wearing her princess attire. :)

She still loves to play with her kitties, dolls, and baby Bella. A favorite activity this month was changing baby Bella's diaper with Grace's diaper. She mastered the art of putting on a real diaper, which was promptly taken off as it was "poopy." A new one was then placed immediately on, which also became poopy. I think I picked up about 15 "dirty" diapers daily for awhile. :)
Bella also still loooooves to read her books- sometimes she won't even let Daddy or I read to her at night because she's going to "do it myself."
One of her Halloween presents from Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri was a watercolor paint Dora book, which resumed her love of painting again! I think we have painted about 30 pictures painted in the last week and half. Bella's getting very good with painting however. Instead of just putting the paint all over the page, she is starting to color in the actual pictures.

And here are some new Bella sayings that I want to remember. :)

-Tells us I love you without being prompted. She's actually done that for a few months, but I don't remember when she first started.

-Told me "You're a good mommy" when I was nursing Grace and she was reading a book beside me on the couch. Yes, I almost cried. However, it was followed by this line a few days later:

-"I don't like you mommy." This was stated when she was refusing to eat something. Ah yes, let the mother-daughter love-hate relationship begin. :)

-"That's a good deal." Said when she wants to do something, and is trying to persuade us into it.

-"It's very comfortable." Spoken about sitting in the boppy pillow. :) Don't know where she came up with that word!

-"I don't know." We hear that a lot, and she says it in the funniest voice as well!

-"You're stressing me out." Said to Daddy when he was trying to get her to go to bed. I about died of laughter. :)

That also reminds me- I think Bella may be an actress when she gets older as she can pull out the waterworks like it's nobody's business. An example: I have said before that Bella is quite a Mommy's girl. Well, that has particularly intensified this past month. She refuses to let anybody but Mommy do anything, and she also gets quite sassy with Daddy if he doesn't abide by her only mommy rules. We're hoping it's just a little phase... but in the meantime we are now experiencing this. Derek and I have always taken turns putting Bella down for the night. And every night before bedtime, Bella always says "It's Mommy's turn," even if it isn't. In the past, she usually would accept us telling her it's Daddy's turn without a fight. Well recently, Bella has started BAWLING before Mommy leaves the room. She will be perfectly happy and then she pulls out the tears! And it's not because she's really sad either. We know she's planning it out beforehand because she tells us after we say it's Daddy's turn, "I'm going to cry." Ohhhh, what a little stinker she is. Daddy's hoping Miss Grace will be on his side. :)

Fall Activities!

2011-11-07T20:19:00.013-06:00

We did several "fall" activities with the girls again this year. At the beginning of October, we went to Center Grove Orchard again. Bella had a blast there last year, and she did again this year! Plus it was perfect fall weather.

Feeding the goats- Bella is still a little unsure of them eating out of her hand, but she gets a little braver each time!
Checking out the chickens!
And the ducks!
Visiting the three little pigs houses. Bella loved this as she has this story in one of our books, and it is also a favorite game to play at home! Of course Mommy had to visit all of the little houses as well, even though I'm a little too big!
Posing with one of the little pigs. :)
Bella enjoyed sticking her head in all of these!
I believe she kept singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" while standing by this picture. :)
Naturally, posing as Alice in Wonderland was another favorite as that is one of Bella's favorite movies!
Enjoying a tea party with the Mad Hatter! :)
Riding on the tractors with Daddy! Bella is still a little too short to push the wheels on her own.
Jumping on the giant pillow! Bella LOVED it this year. She wiped out about every 2 seconds but had so much fun. :)
And there goes one wipe out. :)
Going through the corn maze with Mommy. And there is Miss Grace! She slept the morning away in the sling. :) Apparently not too impressed with the orchard.
Bella all excited to go on a little train ride... However, this did not end well. This was not a smooth train ride by any means. It was VERY bumpy, and this poor girl kept falling out of her seat right away. And one fall resulted in her cutting her lip, crying loudly, which had to end the train ride. :( Bella was a little distraught after that experience.
Thankfully she did have the giant slide to go down afterwards to cheer her up!
Always a favorite. :)
Checking out the GIANT corn pit with Daddy. Bella wasn't a big fan of this- she's kinda girly and doesn't like to get too dirty. :)
Visiting the jumping pillow with Mommy again!
Daddy and Bella posing as farmers.
And here we all are at the end of the day- tuckered out and ready for naps!
Bella had to investigate some apples from the orchard before we left however. :)
Our next fall outing took place at the Fall Fest in Pella in mid October. Another beautiful day! We started out by painting some pumpkins.
Then we got to pet some baby kitties- naturally Bella loved this. :)
Posing with Mommy for a picture while waiting in line....
To ride on a horse! She upgraded from her last ride on a pony. Bella didn't love this horse ride quite as much as last time. Since this horse was much bigger than the pony, it was also quite a bit bumpier. Thankfully, I walked around with her so she didn't freak out and feel like she was going to fall off.
Riding on some tricycles with Daddy. Poor Daddy always gets stuck with the yucky jobs of pushing her around. :)
And here we tried out another train ride. At first, I was going to have her go by herself...
But, as I remembered our last disastrous train ride, I then pulled out my over protective mommy hat and decided to ride with her. It was a good decision as well, as this train ride was ALSO a little bumpy and Bella was panicking about falling again.
Being pushed by Daddy in a wheelbarrow!
Posing as a scarecrow!
We went on a hayride out into the cornfields. Bella enjoyed this, although she started to freak out any time we hit a bump. She really was scarred by her bumpy train ride experience!
And Bella's favorite thing of the day- going down the hay pile slide! She did this a couple times with Mommy...
And a couple times with Grandma Sheri! I've just noticed that Miss Grace is missing in all these pictures. Again, she wasn't thrilled with our fall activity and chose to sleep through it all- this time in Grandma Sheri's arms. :) Bella had lots of fun though!

Halloween!

2011-11-07T13:22:00.009-06:00

We did several different Halloween activities this year with Bella as she definitely understood the whole concept much more than last year.

Our first activity was decorating a pumpkin with stickers! Mommy may have helped guide this a little bit as a pumpkin face designed by Bella would probably not look as "correct." :) She had fun nonetheless!
We also carved a pumpkin kitty this year. We carved pumpkins with Bella last year as well, but she was totally freaked out by the ickiness inside the pumpkin and wasn't impressed at all. This time, however, she was very eager to help! Still not a big fan of the slime, but she was very excited to help carve. Although she did get a little mad when we wouldn't let her have the knife. "I wanna do it!" Ahh, how we love two year old independence. :)
Thankfully we appeased her with pulling the pieces out after Daddy cut them.
Posing with our beautiful kitty Jack-O-Lantern! We chose to carve a kitty face this year since both our girls were dressed up as- what else!- kitties! We let Bella decide what she wanted to be this year. She had considered being a princess, but ultimately decided on being a kitty. She then chose between two costumes- a black kitty and a white Marie kitty costume, from the movie the Aristocats. It took much agonizing for her to decide, but she chose the Marie costume in the end. :) So Miss Bella has now been a kitty for 2 out of her 3 Halloweens!
On the Saturday before Halloween, we took Bella to her first trick or treat outing at Night Eyes at the Zoo. She got to pose with some favorite characters- although she doesn't seem to be too thrilled about it!
With Clifford the Big Red Dog!
And Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and Glenda the Good Witch. Again, we were having a little difficulty getting her to look at the camera... :)
We took a "haunted" train ride at the zoo. Here is our miniature Marie kitty with Daddy!
And the big kitty with Mommy!
This was the best we could get Bella to smile for us. :) She's not too into picture taking right now! However, she did have a very fun time trick or treating at Night Eyes and loved getting so much candy.
We went trick or treating to Sully on the day before Halloween, and Bella and Grace got some presents from Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri! Part of Bella's present was a princess doll set- and her comment about it was "this is a really good present!" It was sweet. :) Miss Bella loves her princesses right now!
Opening her present from Mommy and Daddy on Halloween- and yes, that is a little stuffed Marie Kitty. Bella really does love that movie!
We couldn't get Bella to sit with Grace to take a picture, so Mommy had to jump in. Black kitty shirts with Chester the kitty! Wow, we might have had kitty overkill this Halloween. :) Poor Daddy; he'll have no choice but to be a cat lover with all of his cat loving girls!
And here are the white Marie kitty's- again with Chester the cat. :) I'm surprised she didn't want to take him along trick or treating!
We stopped at Grandpa Ralph and Grandma LuAnn's house before heading out, where Bella received another present!
Our whole family!
We went to trunk or treat again this year, which worked out very well. However, every time Bella got a piece of candy, she wanted to open it and eat it, which of course doesn't work there since we are in a big long line. I think we managed to hold her off by giving her a sucker. :)
She loved picking out what she wanted from the baskets!
We went to a a few of our neighbor's houses as well, and then headed home! Bella definitely likes candy more than she did last year, but thankfully she still doesn't eat very much of it. In fact, what she usually does is takes one bite of it and then gives it to me, saying "you can have it mommy." Thanks Bella. :)
This little miss slept through her first trick or treating experience in a sling on Mommy!
Grace looked quite adorable in her mini costume. :) When we first ordered the costume, it looked so huge to both Derek and I. But she actually fit in it perfectly! She is getting so big!
Enjoying one of her favorites- a sucker. :) Give Bella some suckers and M&M's and she'll be set!

A Few of Our Many Visitors!

2011-10-05T23:21:00.009-05:00

We obviously have had a variety of visitors since Grace was born, and I decided to just post all the pictures together. :)

Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri were the first visitors (after Bella of course) to meet Miss Grace.
Grandma Sheri with both the little ladies!
And Grandpa Doug with the youngest.
Grandpa Ralph and Grandma LuAnn were next to meet Gracie!
Great-Grandma Carla and Great-Grandpa Zeke visited the hospital later in the afternoon.
Along with Great-Grandma Bernice!
Great-Grandma Lucy and Great-Grandpa Vernon also visited that night!
Shawn, ChyAnne, and the kids also came to the hospital, but the kids weren't allowed in our room to hold Grace- only siblings are allowed into the OB. So they came to our house after we came home to see her again! Here is Dylann with her newest little girl to take care of. :)
And Tatum!
Aunt ChyAnne snuggling with Grace-
And Uncle Shawn sleeping like Grace. :)

We've had other visitors as well, but I didn't get pictures of everybody- oops!

Miss Bella's Month

2011-10-05T13:20:00.015-05:00

Here are some pictures and updates of what has been happening in our oldest daughter's life- some before becoming a big sister and some of what she's been up to after!

First- some funny sayings she's had that I want to remember:

-"Okay? Okay!" used when asking us a question about something she wants to do. Like, "can I have a cookie? Okay? Okay!"

-"Try it, it's good. It tastes like a Dora snack!" used when trying to get Mommy to eat pretend broccoli. (She's silly:))

-"I gotta go do something." spoken when she wonders away from whatever she is playing and we ask her where she's going.

-"I wanna go home." used when she gets mad or upset about something, even if in fact she is already home. :) Pretty funny!

-"What's dat?" Oohhhh this one almost makes me cringe. Bella seriously asks me this question like 50 times a day. Miss Inquisitive wants to know everything that's going on. And I typically have no idea what she is even referring to. She also likes to ask 100 questions when watching movies- like where'd that person go? What are they doing?

Bella has quite the little imagination for a 2 year old and loves doing any type of pretend play. When playing outside, we often pretend to go to the zoo, library, or park- and she talks about everything she sees there. She also likes to pretend to be different kinds of animals- kitties, snakes, frogs, etc!
Bella also has loooooved playing with her dollhouse this past month, probably because she has been so big into pretend play. I love listening to her act out what is happening with the dollhouse family- she carries on little conversations with all the dolls, often surrounding what Derek and I talk to her about. The dollhouse has been a problem for going to bed on time, however. It is in her bedroom, and she often plays with it before she goes to sleep. But we can never get Miss Procrastination to stop playing and to come into bed. Every person has to be tucked into bed properly before Bella will agree to come!
We were actually quite thankful that Grace decided to make a late entrance into the world. When I was 39 weeks along, Bella came down with her first major sickness. She has had minor sicknesses, but nothing that lasted more than a day or two. This time, she became sick on a Sunday night and didn't fully recover until Saturday. It was just some type of viral bug, so we couldn't give her any meds other than Tyelnol. It was a very long week for all us- so hard seeing our little girl so out of it! She would try to play at times, but would just come lay back on the couch again after a few minutes.
Pre Grace's birth, we continued to make many visits to the barn down by our house to visit the kittens. It used to be Bella's highpoint to visit the horses, but once baby kittens arrived, those quickly became the favorite! We even got to name all the kittens- Here Bella is holding Misty.
And this is Cream Puff, her favorite! There is also a little black one we decided to call Smoky. We haven't been down to the barn as much since Grace came along. Bella often wants to be held on the walk down there for fear that Zoey the dog may came out, and I try to avoid carrying two children at a time. :)
The day before Grace was born, we took our official last family of 3 outing and brought Bella to the zoo! I wasn't expecting to be having a baby the next day, but who knows? Maybe walking around all morning with a 2 year old is what sent me into labor. :)
Our last trip to the zoo was with my family in July on an incredibly hot day, and this weather was much more pleasant! 80 and no humidity made for a perfect morning.
Bella of course had a blast seeing all the various animals. She continues to be such a little animal lover!
Feeding the goats with Mommy.
Checking out all the hungry fish!
Naturally, when Bella spotted the playground, she had to go down the slide a few times. :)
Looking at the prairie dogs- little did I know that you had to CRAWL to get into this section. Yes, at nearly 41 weeks pregnant, I was down on my hands and knees.
Bella's favorite exhibits were of course the big cats!
Riding a giant caterpillar with Mommy- which Bella pointed out was like the one in Alice in Wonderland. :)
We happened to go by the giraffe exhibit at the time they were feeding them, and Bella got to feed the giraffe some lettuce as well! This was fortunate as she had been sad that she couldn't reach the giraffes to pet them.
Daddy and a big giraffe- Bella was apparently distracted by something else!
We also took a ride on the train, which Bella definitely enjoyed. It was a very fun morning enjoying our oldest girl before the little one came into the world!
Along with receiving her baby Bella doll, Bella got a variety of big sister presents when people brought over gifts for Grace. Here Bella is opening her gift from Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri- some more accessories and a changing table for her baby Bella doll!
Bella had quite the little set-up for her baby! But I was very thankful that we decided to get her that baby- anytime I was busy with Grace, Bella would act out the same acts with her baby. It's pretty funny how much she copied what we did. Even if I kissed Grace on the head, Bella would kiss baby Bella on the head as well. :) Monkey see monkey do!
A few weeks before Grace was born, we introduced Bella to playing games on Mommy's iphone. Obviously, she quickly caught on. :) She had a definite obsession with playing puzzles on it for awhile, but that has subsided now.
Bella is developing a major love for all things princess, especially since we have been watching princess movies recently. This has led into some major dress up play lately! About every night, she wants to wear her princess dress up clothes and sing and dance to princess music. And each princess outfit Bella wears has to correspond with the correct princess music, or the clothes will need to be changed! It's amazing how quickly she caught on to the names of all the characters and even the music that goes along with it.
Here Bella is dancing with Chester the cat. :) (Bella also has a slight obsession with names! All of her kitties and dolls have names, and she wants to know the name of everything- perhaps why she knows all the characters in the various princess movies.)
Obviously she continues to love all her stuffed kitties- in this picture, she is cuddling Snow. :)
We had wonderful cooler weather throughout the end of September- perfect for playing outside! Bella continues to love having "picnics" out on our deck.
Silly girl. :)
All summer long, we have experienced a frog infestation on our deck. Every night, frogs come out and stick on our sliding deck door, and then they hide behind Bella's playhouse during the day. I, a hater of frogs, decided to shoosh them all of the deck one day, and Bella wanted to help me. :)

One other thing I want to note about Bella- she is becoming a huge drama queen (typical little girl, right?). She really is a a very good girl and doesn't have too many fits or temper tantrums. But when she does, oh my! I know my own dramatic and stubborn tendencies from when I was little are giving me payback with my drama filled little girl. Thankfully, it doesn't really happen often.

First Weeks as a Family of Four!

2011-10-04T22:58:00.010-05:00

Our first weeks at home have flown by! Life is definitely much busier with a new baby in the house, especially when taking care of a 2 year old. But it has been quite easy, and our family seems to be adjusting wonderfully to our new addition. Granted, Grace has been a very easy baby, and Bella has been an awesome big sister. :)

The day we arrived home from the hospital- the first of many many pictures of our two girls! Bella was feeding her baby of course. :) That baby was an excellent gift choice- it has been well loved and gives Bella something to do when Mommy is busy with Grace!
We gave Grace her first bath the night we arrived home from the hospital- obviously it didn't go over well. :) But we tried again a couple days later, and she was fine then! Same with Bella- hated the first bath, loved the rest!
Chilling on her boppy with a very sleepy look.
One of my favorite pictures thus far! Bella has so much love for her little sister, especially when she's awake! She is not as interested in her when she's sleeping- apparently that's boring. But the second she is awake, Bella is laying by her and talking to her in this little sing-song voice- "Hi baby Grace!" We love it. :)
Mommy taking a few pictures of Miss Grace when she is awake- her first week, I swear she slept about 95% of the day. She was such a sleepy baby! The hardest thing about taking care of her was waking her up every 2-3 hours to eat. Who knows how long she would've slept otherwise!
Bella often thinks that Grace needs to have a bottle in her mouth. :) The poor girl used to have that bottle near her mouth about 10 times a day! I am nursing Grace, which was interesting to have Bella witness. We had read about in books how babies eat bottles, but I definitely didn't want to explain how Grace would be eating. The first time she saw us, she was a little freaked out and confused. But we explained that babies eat from Mommy when they are little, and she was fine with it. It doesn't faze her anymore, and she refers to it in quite a precious way- "eating from Mommy's belly." :) And yes, Bella has fed her baby Bella from her belly as well. Just as I thought she would!
Bella giving Grace some love again-
Grace showing her big pretty eyes! We of course get asked a lot if Grace looks like Bella- and they definitely do. Their head shape is different, but their facial features and eyes look so much alike. Derek and I think the older Grace gets, the more she looks like Bella.
One week old! Obviously Grace was quite sleepy here. :)
My parents gave us a new bouncy seat as part of her present, and it has been very loved thus far! Grace spends much of the daytime sleeping there.
I caught a sweet little smile on camera when she was sleeping- happy dreams apparently!
She was actually laying on our hardwood floor on a blanket when I took these pictures. Proof that this girl can sleep through anything! She was OUT.
Our two pretty girls in their first color coordinating outfits. :) I had fun buying for ONE girl, and it's been even better buying for two!
Oh so sleepy....
My little pumpkins sporting their pumpkin shirts on a day we went to get pumpkins. Bella wanted to hold Grace's hand. :)
Mommy snuggled up with my two little girls- and baby Bella of course.
Daddy with his two ladies on his birthday! And Henry the Horse had to be in this picture. I was glad that Grace was born in September- she gets to share her birthday month with Daddy, just like Bella does with Mommy!
As I said, Bella has been such a great big sister. She adapted without any issues at all, despite being super attached to her mommy- no regression, no jealousy- just lots of love for Grace! We have been so proud of how she has handled this change. Can't wait to watch these two grow in love for each other and become friends as they get older- and of course have occasional battles along the way. :)And we can't wait to continue to watch this little lady grow and develop! Grace has been a very easy baby so far. Obviously, she sleeps like a champ, and she's also eating awesome. I weighed her at home when she was around 3 weeks old, and I think she is a little over 9 lbs now. She was down to 6 lb 13 oz when we left the hospital, so she is definitely gaining weight well! She is such a blessing to us. :)

Introducing Grace Elizabeth De Haan!

2011-10-04T22:14:00.012-05:00

Our second little girl- Grace Elizabeth- was welcomed into the world on September 11, 2011 at 6:32 AM! (Yes, nearly a month ago, but I am slightly behind. :) Two kids has been busy!)

She was nearly a week late, but she did actually arrive on her own- the day before I was scheduled to be induced, so just in time.

Her birth story: I started having some contractions in the morning on September 10, but they went away in the afternoon, so I wasn't too concerned. I was pretty positive that this little girl was going to be like her big sister and wasn't going to come on her own. However, I started having contractions again around 9 or 10 that night, and around midnight I was pretty sure I was in labor. I tried to sleep until about 2:30, but that wasn't really happening due to the contractions and excitement, so I got up and showered.

After I showered, my contractions started becoming a little closer together, maybe 7 minutes apart. However, I didn't call the OB until about 4 am as I was taking my sweet time getting ready and getting the house all organized. They said we could come in at anytime, so we called my parents to have them stay with Bella. I was still doing my hair when my parents arrived (although my dad was trying to kick me out of the house!) so we didn't actually leave for the hospital until a little before 5. I was hoping that I would be dilated to like a 4 or a 5. I wasn't in a ton of pain, so I didn't think it would be further than that. However, once we got to the hospital and the nurse checked me, I was already dilated to an 8. Ooops- guess I should've listened to my dad! :)

Things moved very quickly from then out! I couldn't have an epidural as there wouldn't have been enough time for it to take effect, but my nurse said I could have an intrathecal, which is something that the Pella Hospital does that provides pain relief but doesn't numb everything. My nurse called the anesthesiologist and my doctor and then got my IV started. My contractions were very intense at this point, so I was praying for them to quickly arrive. My nurse checked me again around 5:30, and she then informed me I may be doing this naturally as I was about fully dilated. I was freaking out slightly as I was in quite a lot of pain by that pointand definitely wasn't planning on a natural childbirth! Thankfully, both the doctors then arrived, and my doctor said as long as I wasn't feeling a lot of pressure, I could have the intrathecal to have relief for pushing. I was feeling some pressure, but I was willing to wait. :)

After the intrathecal was given, probably around 6 AM, I was MUCH more comfortable. My doctor checked me, and her head was already coming down, but he wanted to wait for me to push so that she would just come out easily. And that definitely worked! A little before 6:30, I started to push, and with about 2 contractions in 8 minutes she was out. Our next beautiful little girl!

In the waiting period before the doctors arrived- obviously I wasn't having a contraction at this point since I was still smiling. :)
Mommy holding our sweet little Grace for the first time! So very glad to finally meet her, even though she took her sweet little time coming into the world.
She weighed in at 7 lbs 3.8 oz and was 19 1/2" long. Just a little smaller than Bella, and looking quite a bit like her!
Getting all checked out!
A very proud mommy with our newest little girl.
So pretty and tiny!
Daddy is already in love!
Our first visitor was big sister Bella. I wanted to make sure that Bella was first to meet Miss Grace, so my parents brought her over after she got up in the morning and had breakfast. Bella was a little in awe of meeting her sister for the first time! We had talked about it a lot, but that didn't fully prepare her for actually meeting whatever was in Mommy's belly. She wasn't too interested in Grace at first as it was a little overwhelming for her. She was much more excited about receiving her "big sister" present from Grace- her own baby doll to take care of!

Baby Bella (as the baby doll was named) visited all the places that Grace did in the hospital. Bella also enjoyed performing all the acts to baby Bella that the nurses did to Mommy and Grace. She kept quite busy in the hospital room with all the new stuff to play with! We may have used about 10 pairs of gloves... and a stethoscope might have been played with as well.
I think she is cutting the baby's fingernails in this picture?
After a little bit, Bella became much more interested in Grace. Apparently, her baby doll's bottles needed to be fed to Grace!
Giving the first of MANY kisses!
Still Mommy's girl- snuggling and taking care of her baby. :) I was worried that seeing Mommy in a different environment would freak her out, but Bella took it with no problem at all. She had lots of fun playing in the hospital room and was even fine leaving with Grandpa and Grandma. This was the first time we have been away from her overnight, so it was hard for Mommy to be gone. :)
Big yawn after a big morning!
Grace had quite the little head of hair! Unfortunately, it is already going away.... :(
When Bella came back in the afternoon, she was much more interested in seeing Grace. Here she is holding her for the first time- giving kisses again. :)
Our first family of 4 picture!
We had quite possibly one of the shortest hospital stays for a childbirth. I was anxious to get home (again, didn't like being gone from Bella!), and my doctor said that since both Grace and I were doing well on Monday we could go home that afternoon. So we were only there for about 32 hours!
Taking some pictures of our sweet girl before we were discharged- we love those chubby cheeks!
Taking a little snooze on Mommy.
And all dressed up to go home! We are sooo thankful to God for blessing us with another beautiful little girl. Grace has definitely lived up to the meaning of her name. She is the perfect addition to our family and has been a wonderful baby so far!

State Fair Fun!

2011-08-30T22:21:00.010-05:00

This month we had a family day at the Iowa State Fair! This was not Bella's first fair outing as she went with Mommy, Grandpa Doug, and Grandma Sheri last year. However, this was Daddy's first trip to the fair in many years. He has managed to avoid it during all our years of dating and marriage, even though I typically go every year! But I wasn't going to let him out of it again since I knew Bella would love it. And even if he won't admit it, we had a very fun day. :) Plus, the weather was absolutely perfect- upper 70's and low 80's. That doesn't often happen in Iowa in the middle of August!

One of our first stops was the animal learning center to see all the baby animals. Naturally, this was probably Bella's favorite place of the day since she is such a little animal lover. She is watching all the baby ducks in this picture.
We got to pet a baby pig- however, one of the pigs let out a loud squeal before it was our turn to touch them, so Bella wasn't the biggest fan of them after that.
Petting a baby lamb- awww. :)
Again watching the baby ducks- they were definitely her favorite!
Taking a ride on a little cow- pretty sure Miss Bella sat on quite a few of these throughout the day!
We also visited the Little Hands on the Farm exhibit, where Bella got to test out her gardening skills...
Apple picking....
Tractor riding (and waving at Daddy without looking!)...
Cow milking...
And grocery shopping! Bella had lots of fun doing all the little farm activities.
We also visited the Butterfly House. Bella loved seeing the butterflies when we were at the St. Louis Zoo, so I wanted to take her to this exhibit. This was even cooler as you could actually hold all the butterflies! However, Bella, as shown by the interesting look on her face, wasn't too sure about having them so close to her! She liked them flying around and watching them, but she was a little nervous about touching them.
Unfortunately for Miss Bella, Mommy wasn't going to let her leave until she held one on her finger, even though it took awhile to catch one and get it transposed on Bella's hand without her freaking out! Here is the process in photo- she's not liking this very much yet...
Oh, I'm actually holding it!
Not sure what to think yet....
And it's not so bad after all!
Taking a ride on one of Bella's favorite things- the carousel!
Bella and Daddy also got to go on a few giant slides! Mommy decided to stay away from those this particular year. :)
Naturally, Bella loved it! Apparently though, we were later told by the workers she was not tall enough to go on this one- oops!
Visiting the Clifford the Big Red Dog- Bella has barely even heard of that show, but apparently she wanted to give him some love with a big hug. :)
We couldn't get her to look at the camera though- she was too busy hugging him!
We also looked at all of the animal barns- and surprise, surprise- the horse barn was definitely a favorite. Bella did NOT like the chicken barn however as it was quite loud. Even now, she continues to say, "I don't like chickens. They're noisy!"
Daddy and Bella heading up the REALLY giant slide!
She definitely loved this one and probably would've gone on it many many times!
And at the end of the day, Bella was quite wiped out. :) She had so much fun, as did Mommy and even Daddy, and it was likely our last big outing as a family of 3!

August Updates!

2011-08-30T22:01:00.007-05:00

We had beautiful weather this past month, and Bella and I definitely took advantage of it. It was nice to finally be outside without dying of heat! We spent lots of time playing in her sandbox as Bella discovered the joy of making things with wet sand.
She also particularly enjoyed smashing her creations afterwords. :)
She also spends lots of time running around on our driveway like a little crazy lady, dancing, singing, and chasing bubbles! I also bought Bella a favorite pair of footwear this month- her pretty pink rainboots. It was actually rainy this particular day, but she likes wearing them everyday. :) I like to rub that in to Derek, who said they would never be worn!
This perfectly captures our silly girl's personality. :)
It started sprinkling on this afternoon, so Bella played in the rain for a little bit with her umbrella and rainboots.
We visited lots of different parks this month as well, pretty much on a daily basis! Mommy and Bella have definitely had some good bonding time in before baby sister makes her entrance.

We also started going back to the barn that is near our house to visit the animals. Bella has not wanted to go there in several months because the owners of the barn got a new dog that was a little too friendly for Miss Bella's liking. She is a German Shepard named Zoey, so she is obviously quite big as well! Zoey jumping all over Mommy and Daddy freaked Bella out a little bit, so she didn't ever want to go back down there. Well, last week we decided to try it out again. Thankfully, Zoey was inside, so we were able to visit the horses in peace. :) And we discovered that baby kittens had been born in our absence! So now Bella has wanted to go back down to visit the kittens every single day, despite her slight fear of Zoey. Zoey has calmed down slightly since we last saw her, but she is still quite big, which definitely makes Bella a little nervous. Before we make the walk down there, she tries to reassure herself, "Zoey not outside. Zoey inside the house with her owner." :)

Painting some beautiful works of art on the driveway! She always manages to get more chalk on her clothes than on the actual cement... :)
A picture showing another current obsession of Bella's- lollipops! For some reason, anytime she is outside now, she wants to have a dum dum lollipop. And she barely eats any of it; Mommy usually ends up holding it the entire time. But for some reason it is a new tradition!
Inside, Bella has been into watching movies! I started renting some Disney Princess movies from the library, and that turned Bella into a movie loving girl for some reason. The past few weeks, we have hardly even watched Dora! Our viewings have included The Wizard of Oz, Charlotte's Web, and the princess movies (although she tends to call every princess Cinderella). Then her ABSOLUTE favorites are Alice in Wonderland (particularly for the Cheshire Cat) and the Aristocats (which is referred to as the kitty movie). Those two have been watched A LOT. Obviously Bella has a slight obsession with cats- no clue where that came from! :)
We also started some new little traditions of evening games with Bella, Mommy, and Daddy. Hide and seek, playing instruments in a marching band, Daddy chasing Bella around downstairs, Daddy or Mommy pretending to be a snake/lion/giant/other scary creature, and "baseball" (which is actually soccer) are all among our nightly rituals that Bella wants to play. After her bath each night, she has soooo much energy! Mommy and Daddy definitely do not, but we make it happen for her! Bella also plays her own little game of hide and seek on a frequent basis, which is when she puts her hands over her eyes and asks "Where'd Bella go?" This happens about 20 times a day. :)
We started some fingerpainting and paint with water activities this month as well, which Bella absolutely loved. We have about 10 painted Dora pictures scattered around our house currently!
Riding on her "neigh-" whose name is interchanged between Henry the Horse and Pinto the Pony. Mommy came up with Henry, and Pinto naturally came from Dora.
Bella still has an immense love for Tommy- and he continues to tolerate and maybe even like her! Bella has named several of her kittens after Tommy in fact, so we have quite a few Tommy's in our household.

As far as baby news, we continue to wait for our next little girl's arrival. Less than a week to go until the official due date, but I'm thinking she plans to hang out until then and beyond. :) Apparently our daughters like their little home inside of Mommy's belly! I have had some days of feeling pretty uncomfortable due to my extremely large belly size and contractions, but generally I am feeling pretty good for being 9 months pregnant. We are ready whenever she is, even big sister! Bella talks about baby sister a LOT, so I think she knows it's coming. We will definitely have a good little helper in her, maybe more than we need! :)

Two Year Pictures!

2011-08-06T14:47:00.011-05:00

Back in June, we had Bella's two year pictures taken- and they turned out sooooo good! Bella is not always the most cooperative when taking pictures as she has her own 2 year old agenda to accomplish. However, she was in performance mode when her pictures were done, acting and smiling like a little princess. So we got lots of good shots!

One of our favorite pictures- we don't often see a relaxed smile from Bella as she likes to cheese it up for the camera. :)
Being a little princess and showing off her pretty painted fingernails!
Our favorite- so sweet. :)
Instead of doing family pictures, we decided to just have some pictures with Mommy and Bella for a maternity type session as well. Derek got out of it since our family will be expanding in just a short time!
It was pretty nice the day we took pictures, but slightly muggy, so Bella's curls were in full force! That actually worked out very well though.
My sweet little girl. :)
Also love this one- shows off those big eyes!
Here she is dancing and twirling on top of a hill- as I have said, she is ALL girl.
Both Bella and I like to wear "princess shoes," as Bella refers to them.
Somebody loves getting tickled!
Playing ring around the rosy, one of her favorite games! It made for a very cute picture I must say. :)
Both Bella's and my hair were really feeling the effects of the humidity by this point! I don't always love my natural curls, but I definitely love them on her!
Hugging a leaf. :)
Another fav- definitely her natural little smile!
Mommy with her two little girls- we hope that this second one is just as much fun as her big sister!

Weekend in Des Moines!

2011-08-06T00:00:00.010-05:00

At the beginning of July, we had our annual weekend trip with the Huyser family. However, since I have been quite pregnant throughout the majority of this summer, we didn't travel far. Instead, we stayed in Des Moines for the weekend and went to Adventureland and the zoo. So it was a mini trip, but we had lots of fun spending time with everyone!

On Saturday, we went to Adventureland. This was Bella's first trip to Adventureland, and she loved it! We started off the day riding on the neighs, which remains a favorite for Miss Bella. I think she is waving wildly at Daddy in this picture!
There are lots of kiddie rides, and Bella even got to ride on some of them by herself! I can hardly believe she is old enough to sit on a ride by herself and not try to take off. Here she is zooming on some motorcycles with Tatum!
Peering through the train car. :)
Riding in the airplane- thankfully Bella did not know how to make the airplane go up and down as she was all by herself on this ride, and that may have caused her to freak out!
This ladybug ride was a favorite for Bella! She also LOVED the teapots, but both Derek and I rode with her, so we didn't get a picture. That was very fun for her though as she always loves to spin around and "get dizzy!"
Riding on the dragon with Daddy, with a grumpy look. :)
Uncle Shawn coaxed her to ride on the chuckwagons with him. :) She even sat on his shoulders for some of the day! (Bella likes to tease all the men in her world and not give them any love or attention- except for Daddy.)
Riding on the boats with Dylann! We also went to the water park at Adventureland in the afternoon. However, Bella was too short to go on any of the slides (bummer!) so there wasn't a lot she could do. She was also getting pretty wiped out at that point, so we left earlier so she could take a nap.
All of the kids thought it would be fun to ride on the luggage cart when checking out on Sunday morning. :)
On Sunday, we went to the zoo. Bella was again super excited to go to the zoo and see all the different animals! She was chattering away about everything she was going to see, which is what she always does when she's excited about something. However, Bella apparently did not want to take a picture with Mommy and Daddy, as illustrated by the lovely look on her face!
Sitting on a froggie!
Feeding the hungry llama some food- Bella enjoyed seeing him as she loves her llama llama books! However, she wasn't too thrilled with how fast he ate the food out of her hand- can't blame her, it was a little scary!
Hee hee, I didn't know Derek had taken this picture, and when I first saw it, it made me laugh. And it still does. :) Up close and personal!
Petting the donkey!
And feeding the starving fish.
Looking at the dinosaur exhibit with Grandpa- the exhibit was pretty lame, but Bella did like seeing all the dinosaurs.

We actually had perfect weather the day we went to Adventureland, which was pretty remarkable considering how hot and muggy the weather had been. However, the day at the zoo.... not so much. It was sooo muggy and hot! Thus, we busted through many of the zoo exhibits and didn't take a lot of pictures. Pregnant Mommy and hot blooded Bella were dying of heat! However, it was still a fun day and a very fun weekend spent with family!

July Activities!

2011-08-05T20:09:00.016-05:00

It is so hard to believe that July has already flown by, and it is now August! Quite depressing how the summer flies by, but yet winter trudges by oh so slowly... :) Anyways, we had a very busy but fun month, starting off of course with the Fourth of July! It was Bella's first Fourth with nice weather, which was great as well.

We made our annual trip to Sully in the morning to watch the parade and spend time with my family. This year was definitely the most successful year of getting a picture of all the Huyser cousins- complete with a cheesy smile from Miss Bella of course. Might be a little difficult again next year, since there will be two new little ladies present! Poor poor Jager... :)
Getting ready for the parade to start in her Dora chair! Bella was very excited to watch a parade as she still remembers watching the Tulip Time parade. The Sully parade might not be QUITE as big as that, but she still had a good time!
Naturally, a favorite activity was picking up the candy that was thrown! Bella quickly caught on to that, even though she's not a huge candy fan.
But she did find a blue lollipop, which was perfect as she has had a lollipop obsession lately!

Bella's favorite parts of the parade (other than the candy) were the fire trucks and horses. She also liked the cannon that went off at the beginning, and still talks about how "I wasn't scared!"
Grandpa Doug with the two youngest ladies.
Wondering the streets looking for more candy... :)
After the parade, we went back to my parents house for lunch and playtime! Bella got to take a spin on the gator again with Dylann.
She even tested out driving on her own, but didn't quite grasp the concept of keeping her foot on the pedal the entire time. Plus little shorty couldn't reach the pedals very well. :)
Bella also took a spin with Tatum!
We also hit up the pool to enjoy the beautiful weather. Bella loves playing in the pool with all her cousins and gets pretty crazy with them!
This is an awful picture because she wasn't standing still, but it is too funny. :) Bella thought she needed to wear some goggles too!
At night, we went to Derek's parents to eat supper and watch the fireworks in Pella. Bella had her first encounter with sparklers, but she wasn't too sure what she thought about them! Actually, her major intent of the evening was to go inside and play with Aunt Anna's old dollhouse. :) However, she did love watching the fireworks this year, even though it was way past her bedtime! We heard lots of "that one was pretty!" Typical girl. :)
Unfortunately, with this ridiculously hot weather, we didn't play outside a ton this past month. Unless we were in the water, you could only really be out for half hour at a time. Not very fun, especially for a little girl that loves to play outside. But we did take advantage of the better days! Bella has a new love with swinging, so I tried to take pictures of her swining. But she didn't like that idea, as she likes me to swing beside her. :) Then we sing songs!
We also sing songs up on her playset, also known as the "pirate ship." That's courtesy of the episode Dora's Pirate Adventure! She likes to be a pirate and look for the treasure in her telescope!
Singing a song from the pirate adventure I'm sure. :)
Our dark eyed little beauty!
In July, Derek's brother and his family came to Iowa for a long weekend visit, so Bella also got to enjoy some family time with them! One afternoon, the kids played on the slip n slide. Bella wasn't too sure about going on it by herself, but she was good going on Aunt Anna's lap. Lucky Anna got to travel down that slide many times!
Even with both kids!
Bella found a little pool to play in at the bottom. :)
Bella got to meet her newest cousin Nolan for the first time! With the business of the weekend though, she was not in her normal baby loving mood. She also did NOT like her mommy holding Nolan. In fact, whenever I held him, she burst into devastated tears. It was pretty strange, especially considering I have held babies recently and she's been fine. It did make us a little nervous, considering Mommy would be holding our own baby in just a few weeks. But we visited a friend's baby like a week after this, and she was perfectly fine with me holding her. So I think her sadness over Mommy with Nolan was just a fluke. :) Plus, Bella does have an obsession with little girls. She very much identifies with being a girl and doesn't always like playing with boys, even her boy cousins. So I think it will help that baby is a girl- God knew that Bella would be more excited about a baby sister. :)
We hit up the pool another afternoon with everybody, and naturally Bella had a blast! The "slide pool," as she refers to it as, is one of Bella's favorite places to go. Since Daddy was with us, I actually could take some pictures of the crazy girl in the water!
She has absolutely NO FEAR in the water, which is both good and bad! Good because she's definitely super comfortable swimming, but bad because she thinks she can swim and she most definitely cannot yet. :)
It took her several trips to the pool to get warmed up to the fountains- Bella's not always a big fan of water splashing in her face! But she is now a pro and runs in and out without problem.
Hard to get a picture of these two active kiddos together! This is the only one I think I got!
Enjoying another hot day outside... note the rosiness of her cheeks! Bella inherited Mommy's gene of getting extremely red and sweaty faced while outside. Her little curls go crazy and her face turns so red when she gets hot!
Helping Mommy water the flowers. She also likes pouring the water on the driveway and pretending that it is a pool! Yes, the imagination of a 2 year old. She even lays in it and pretends to swim.
Bella's hair is getting closer and closer to where I can put it in pigtails or ponytails. We tested out the pigtails one day, and they actually stayed in quite well! She looks so grown-up with longer hair!
Awww. :)
We had a mini photo shoot after church one day.
Such a sweet innocent face... :) Usually anyway!
This photo session ended with Bella sitting in her pool in her dress, even though I told her not to sit on her bottom. :) Oh well, she was hot!
Bella had a couple of new firsts this month as well. About a week ago, we also moved Bella from eating in her high chair to eating in her booster seat at the table! We had tried doing this several months ago, but Bella didn't really reach over the table since she is pretty short. However, she fits pretty well now and loves eating with Mommy and Daddy at the big table! It definitely creates more of a mess to clean up, but thankfully she's a pretty neat eater.
Another first for Bella was licking brownie batter! Not that I haven't tried to give it to her before, but Bella has never had much of a sweet tooth. However, she has in recent months developed a love for chocolate- and this sweet tooth Mommy is very happy! I finally have somebody to help me eat all the chocolate things I make, since Derek won't touch anything with a bit of chocolate. :)
She was all about this batter- "yummy yummy yum!"

Bella also had her first ride on a horse! One of the Thursdays in Pella event had pony rides, so I knew that was a necessity for Bella to attend. She loved it of course, since she has an obsession with "neighs." She knew exactly what to do on the horse too!
Our final new first for Bella is that Mommy is now staying home all the time! I resigned from dialysis back in mid-June and had my last day of work on July 29. I wanted to take a few weeks off before baby #2 arrives so that Bella and I could have some quality time and to get everything baby ready again. It was a bittersweet decision for me as I really did love my job and what I do- but I knew that leaving two little girls, even for just 16 hours a week would be too hard. It was tough enough with just Bella! I am still staying PRN at the hospital, so I will still be working on an occasional basis. But thus far, I am loving my new role as stay-at-home mommy! And there is only 4 more weeks until the newest member makes her entrance!

St. Louis Weekend!

2011-07-11T23:24:00.012-05:00

At the end of June, we went on our annual weekend trip back to St. Louis. This was now Bella's third trip there, and every year it definitely gets a little more fun! We left on Friday morning and arrived in St. Louis in the late afternoon. Bella was awesome in the car for both trips, which was such a relief. That is another thing that has gotten easier with each trip! She had new Dora videos to watch, read books, and slept some (albeit a very short while- she is for some reason unable to sleep longer than 40 minutes in the car).

We took Bella to Forest Park when we got there on Friday to let her run around for awhile and burn off some energy. We lucked out in terms of the weather for the weekend- it actually wasn't blazing hot, which is so unusual for a St. Louis summer. This pregnant lady was VERY thankful for that!

We went to the Friday night game all decked out in our gear. It's so funny seeing Bella wearing red. :) Not a color I typically have her in!
I was a little leery about how the game would go. I thought we might be walking up and down stairs all night, or a certain little girl would have a freak out session about staying seated... but my fears were wrong. Bella was great during the game, although we didn't stay for the whole thing since we wanted her to go to bed at a semi normal time.
Doing a very silly smile with Mommy. :)
Bella wasn't too interested in actually watching the game of course. She did love to join in on the clapping and danced to the music that played!This is how Bella spent her time at the game- playing with a Fancy Nancy sticker book!One of Derek's favorite sights. :)
On Saturday morning, we went to the Magic House, which is a HUGE children's museum. Bella had so much fun there last year, so we knew this year would be even better for her since she is older. And she definitely had a blast! She played in the pretend house, feeding food to the stuffed kitty...
Drove in cars and trucks...
Worked as a librarian at the library checking out books...
And played nurse to babies. This was probably Bella's favorite thing to do! She loved rocking the babies, putting their diapers and clothes on, feeding them, listening to their heartbeat... We are hoping that means she will be a good helper to baby sister in a few months. :)
Weighing her baby.
Bella also had lots of fun "getting groceries" and checking out all her items.
And naturally slide loving Bella found all the various slides to go down. To her dismay, she found that she couldn't go very fast on this one since it was a plastic material. But laying her full body down let her go much faster!
Building up a big tower with Daddy, which was promptly knocked down.
Naturally we had to visit the water room! Surprisingly Bella wasn't as crazy in there as she usually is. She must already be getting her fair share of water play this summer.
Having a tea party with Mommy, Raggedy Ann, and Raggedy Andy in the little attic room.
And here was a highlight of our trip to the Magic House- a visit to the static electricity ball! Bella actually enjoyed this quite a bit and wanted to do it two times- I think she liked seeing Mommy's crazy hair.
Crazy how it traveled through her so much onto me! We looked pretty silly! It's also funny seeing how long Bella's hair actually is since it's not all curly.
Picture with Daddy after our busy morning!
And then a picture with Mommy. After the Magic House, we headed to our old favorite pizza place- Dewey's!
Bella then took a nap in the afternoon, and when she woke up, we headed to the zoo! Again, we were very excited to take Bella to the zoo as she is such an animal nut and we haven't been to the zoo yet this year. And she didn't disappoint us with her excitement! I'm pretty sure she was chattering non-stop about the animals throughout the whole afternoon.
We obviously couldn't get her to look at Daddy for a picture as she was much too busy investigating other things. :)
Unless Mommy yells Bella, so she turns to look at me.!
Checking out the "big kitties" with Daddy- definitely a favorite for kitty loving Bella.
In particular, she was quite obsessed with seeing a baby Jaguar- which comes from her Dora and Diego love. Diego has a baby jaguar, so she was pretty intent on seeing one at the zoo. Unfortunately, no jaguar or baby jaguar was to be found... but we told her that a leopard was a jaguar instead, and she accepted that well. Bella still talks about how he was licking himself, even a month later!
Peering down at the tigers.
We took a ride on the carousel (on the jaguar of course!) which Miss Bella loved.
Waving at Daddy!
The penguin exhibit was another favorite for Bella (And us, since it's nice and cool inside!) Again, she still talks about how the penguins were splashing and how it was cold inside the building. She does not forget her favorite things! Here she is hugging a penguin statue outside. :) So loving!
Taking a picture with Mommy and the penguin!

On Sunday, we then headed back to Iowa! It was a very fun weekend trip for our whole family, and our last trip as a family of 3- eek! Definitely a little crazy to think that next year we'll be carting around a THREE year old and a baby again.

First Month as a 2 Year Old!

2011-07-08T23:33:00.011-05:00

We have now experienced our first month with a 2 year old. And it has been terrible! :) No, Bella doesn't have too many "terrible two" days, although she can definitely be a little naughty at times- mainly due to the fact that she is so stubborn and strong-willed! But overall, Bella is such a good little girl, and she continues to just grow up more and more each day. Particularly with her vocabulary! She seriously talks non-stop and has such long sentences. Plus, she is very articulate when talking, so she is easy to understand. Bella also has started coming up with some funny phrases, which we kept track of through the month.

Bella Sayings

-"That's okay, that's okay"- used when anything goes awry or she does something naughty. Such a little manipulator already. :)

-"I still sleeping" or "I still crying"- used when she is mad about something or doesn't want to do what we want!

-"I go do something" or "I go get something"

-"We're having fun out here!"

-"I love you so much!"

"Awww, they love each other!" These two lines are used frequently in her play. There's lots of love in Bella's world!

-"They're friends!" or "They're family!"

-"They're nice!" or "They're friendly!"- used when talking about something that is actually not that nice, like witches or scary animals. Apparently it makes her not scared of something if she says that it is "nice." Whatever works!

-"I snuggle on the couch with mommy." One of my personal favorites for obvious reasons. :)

-"I gonna jump on you!" We have no idea how this started, but at bedtime if Bella is in a silly mood, she tells us this with a mischievous look on her face. And then proceeds to jump on us. It's now become a fun little game for us all!

-Answers "nope" or "yep" to questions

-"It's Mommy's turn!" Also a bedtime saying, although not Daddy's favorite one. Derek and I take turns putting Bella to bed, and every night without fail, shortly before it is bedtime Bella pipes up "It's Mommy's turn!" And then proceeds to have a royal flip-out session if she is informed it's Daddy's turn. Poor Daddy!

-Uses he, she, I, and you all in the correct ways

Miss Bella has been having lots of fun with bubbles lately, particularly since she knows a Dora song about popping bubbles!
She can somewhat blow bubbles on her own, but prefers for Mommy or Daddy to do it so that she can go chasing them around. :)
Dancing on the driveway and singing some song... We hear lots of music being sung in our house on a daily basis! Children's songs, Dora songs.... some more Dora songs... :) Bella has a pretty little voice though and carries a tune very well!
We tested out some sprinkler play with Bella on a particularly hot day. She was not too sure about water splashing in her face at first!
It's funny how Bella is so fearless when she is in an actual pool, but splashing water makes her duck away!
We had a picnic at her favorite park one Saturday evening. Bella enjoyed the second Happy Meal of her life. :) The fries are her favorite, and of course the toy!
She then got to have play time. Naturally, the slide was the main order of business!
Being her craaaazy silly self. :)
We have also been busy with making beautiful drawings on the driveway. Swinging has been another favorite outdoor activity. Bella will seriously want to swing for like 15-20 minutes straight, which is a long time for our busy girl! And she likes to go HIGH. And Mommy or Daddy have to swing beside her, despite our protests that we are much too big. :)
Here Bella is demonstrating the "I'm still sleeping" pose. Mad about something apparently. :) It's hard not to crack up when she is doing that!
We had a wedding this month for one of Derek's co-workers. Bella was sooo funny at the wedding and reception. First, she chattered throughout the service about seeing the girls in their "princess dresses" and how the bride was "Snow White." She then sang along with the music, quite enthusiastically. It was hard to tell her to sing softer since it was so sweet! Then at the reception, Bella had so much fun twirling around on the dance floor- even before the actual dance started! She is all about being a little princess.
Daddy with one of his little ladies on Father's Day. She wasn't too interested in having her picture taken obviously... :) Though Bella is definitely a little Mommy's girl, she still loves her Daddy very very much! Daddy is hopeful that baby girl #2 will be Daddy's girl as I don't think Miss Bella is going to be switching her allegiance even after baby comes around.
And here is Princess Bella modeling some of her own princess outfits, complete with beautiful jewelry....
And high heel shoes. :) She's got to learn young, right?
Bella's hair continues to grow and grow and grow- and remains very very curly! It is hard to get hair ties in it because it gets so curly, but I can occasionally get a ponytail or pigtail to work. :) She looks so grown up with her hair pulled back! Bella also had a fun little girl outing for the first time this month- she got her first "pedicure" with Mommy and Grandma Sheri. (Or rather, we got pedicures, and she got her nails and toes painted). Bella showed that she is definitely all girl as she loved the whole experience! She chattered non-stop about what they were doing, dangled her feet in the water, watched the girls paint our toes... I have a feeling she'll enjoy more of those visits in the future!
Bella has been swimming at Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri's pool a few times this summer. She continues to be a little water rat and still practices her swimming skills! And of course loves doing big jumps into the pool. I'm pretty sure she would jump in without me even catching her- she has NO fear. Which makes Mommy very fearful. :)
After swimming time, Bella likes to go drag out allllll of Grandma Sheri's toys. There is quite a collection, so she keeps very busy! Playing with my old Fisher-Price dollhouse from when I was little is a favorite. She has been playing with dolls and dollhouses a ton lately- very much into the imaginative play. Bella also likes to play mommy with her baby dolls. It's funny to listen to her because she tells them what we always tell her- like go to time out when they're being naughty... :) A lot of her babies are naughty it seems! Much of our day is spent doing very girly activities to Daddy's dismay. However, he can occasionally get her interested in playing soccer or basketball when she has a burst of energy and wants to run around for awhile!

9 Weeks to Go!

2011-07-04T23:22:00.006-05:00

We are now down to a single digit countdown until our second little girl arrives! It is crazy how fast this pregnancy has gone by, and I know the end part will also fly by since it is throughout the summer. I am definitely excited to meet our new baby, but I am praying that she is content in Mommy's belly for the whole 40 weeks. Funny how that changes with a second one. :) I have been feeling awesome as well. My belly definitely gets in the way more when taking care of an active 2 year old, but I really have been feeling great otherwise.

We did 4D ultrasound pictures again this past weekend, which was very fun! Bella looked so much like her 4D pictures, so it'll be interesting to see if this baby girl does as well. This little lady is apparently quite the snuggle bug, so we didn't get many full frontal pictures of her face. Plus, she is breech right now, and her head is practically laying under my rib cage. But there are still some very cute ones!

Showing off a sweet little smile! The blob to the right of her face is the placenta, which is what she kept burrowing her head into. Lovely, huh. :)

Just like her big sister, baby girl had her hands and feet up by her face throughout the entire time. Yes, that is a leg by her face.
Showing off her chubby little arm. She was estimated 3 lbs and 7 oz, and a normal weight for this age is 3 lbs, so she is just ahead of schedule. The tech thought she would likely be between 7 1/2 to 8 lbs when she is born.
We watched her have a very biiiig yawn!

This was the best picture we got of her face. Still a little burrowed, but able to see her sweet little face and chubby cheeks. :)

And here is another one... oh wait, that's Bella! Yes, baby girl seems to be looking quite a bit like her big sister. Bella cooperated a little more in letting us see her whole face, but they seem to be pretty identical to one another. Same nose, same mouth, same cheeks... :)

And here are some new belly pictures from the last few weeks. I am about 26 weeks in this picture.

And here is 28 weeks- where I popped out substantially more! I seem to grow very big bellies with my pregnancies because I carry them so much in the front. A lady in church the other day even asked me, "Maybe this weekend?" And I had to reply, "Nope, about 9 more weeks actually." :)
Nearly 29 weeks with my two girls before a wedding- The oldest one wasn't wanting her picture taken obviously. :)

Bella is 2!

2011-06-04T00:18:00.013-05:00

Miss Isabella Lynn turned 2 on June 2- golden birthday already! Our little baby is now officially no longer a baby- not that she has been for quite some time, but still. :) We celebrated her birthday with most of our family members the Sunday before her birthday. And of course, it was a Dora themed extravaganza for our Dora-obsessed girl.

I had this made on Shutterfly- hee hee, couldn't resist! Bella didn't even notice her face for awhile. Apparently she already thinks of herself as part of Dora's gang.
There was lots of "Big Dora" balloons around the house, which of course Bella adored. These two balloons and another one are still present in our house as well. I don't think they are ever going to lose the helium! Dora plates, napkins, and cups- how lucky were we all. :)
And these are the cupcakes that I ordered for Bella. If you look closely, you can see a somewhat brown haired girl on the cupcake. Is that girl Dora? I sure didn't think so. I was quite disappointed in how they turned out. It was the same lady that did Bella's cake last year, which I loved. This time, however, I didn't specify exactly how I wanted it, and my vision did not exactly mesh up with these. They tasted wonderful, but I didn't think Bella would even be able to identify them as being Dora. Soooooo the day before her party, I decided to embark on my own Dora cake making project. Specifically, I started to make the cake at 11 pm that night! :)
I was up until 2 that morning, but it was well worth it. :) I was quite pleased with how my Dora head turned out! It definitely wasn't big enough for everybody at the party, but Bella got her own personal Dora cake- one that actually looked like Dora!
Bella got many many fun new presents at her party, all centering around princesses, Dora, and all things girly.

Big cousin Dylann was an excellent helper. :)

Apparently presents are good for standing on as well!

Bella's final present was found out on the deck- a new playhouse from Mommy and Daddy!

The house has been a very loved toy outside ever since. Lucky Mommy and Daddy get to cart her play food back and forth from her kitchen inside the house to her playhouse outside.

Bella, Tatum, Jager, and Dylann all managed to fit in the house together.

And here are all the Huyser cousins eating supper. Poor Jager, he is surrounded by girls!

After we ate, Bella got to see her Dora cake for the first time and blow out her two candles! She loved having everybody sing Happy Birthday to her, one of her own favorite songs to sing!

Apparently the tongue sticking out signifies that she thought it looked yummy. :)

Bella started digging in before I even gave her a fork. This year's cake reception was much more enthusiastic than last years- I can tell she has developed more of a sweet tooth!

It definitely made me cringe a little to see my hard work be malled... but Bella loved it, so that was the most important thing. :)

And here is our little princess on her actual birthday day, taking a very important phone call.

It took some work to get her to stand still enough to take some pictures. She's a busy gal when outside!

Can't believe that our little girl is 2 already!

I had planned fun activities to do on Bella's birthday since it was a day that I didn't work. Unfortunately, it rained that morning, just as the day she was born, so that ruined many of my plans. Thankfully it cleared up that evening, so we were able to take Bella to one of her favorite places- the park!

We are both so thankful that she goes on this big slide by herself now- it is a real pain to get up, but she now does it like a champ!

Bella enjoyed more of her Dora cake throughout the day of course. :)

And she enjoyed another rendition of singing happy birthday!

Blowing out her candles was a little more difficult when her cousins weren't there to assist. :)

We also gave Bella several small little presents throughout the day to open. A Dora birthday book when she woke up, a Dora snow princess figurine later in the morning...

Some Dora bouncy balls... (noticing any particular theme here?)

And the final present, a little treehouse complete with a Dora and Boots! All her little Dora people are one of her favorite things to play with, and now they have a house to live in. :)

It's crazy to think that two years have gone by since our little girl was born, but they have been an awesome two years! We are so blessed to have such a loving, sweet, crazy, silly girl as our daughter. Can't wait to see what the next year will bring!

May Pictures!

2011-06-03T14:16:00.010-05:00

Another month has came and went, which brought about a very special occasion for Bella. Before her big birthday posting though, here are some pictures from May!

One big event in May was that Bella was moved to her "big girl" room! We have had the furniture in there for a couple months, so she has known that she was going to start sleeping in her big girl bed soon. Having everything set up prior to her actual move was nice because she was able to play in the room and get used to the whole idea.

We were both a little nervous to have her switch rooms, both for the bed freedom and the fact that this bedroom is in our basement.

But being the little rockstar that she is, Bella transitioned to her bed without a single problem. :) In fact, we heard her tell us many times "I love this bed! It's comfy!" :)

I would like this room too though; I think it looks pretty cute!

Mommy and Miss Bella on Mother's Day- I was treated quite nicely by my little lady on that day! She told me "Happy Mother's Day Mommy!" many times with big hugs and kisses, and has even continued to randomly tell me that since. Daddy is hoping for the same kind of treatment.... but I don't know if he'll be so lucky. :)

Bella is definitely a little Mommy's girl!

We enjoyed lots of time outside this month, especially since we had some very hot days! We have a kids picnic table for our deck, so we had lots of picnics there.

Bella also needed to wear her shades to keep the sun out. :) Pretty stylin!

Striking a little model pose- Bella is very much a performer!

Daddy tries every chance he can get to get Bella interested in playing ball with him. On this particular evening, she was all about it as she was HYPER and running around like a crazy lady!

Making a basket! In a hoop that was obviously lowered. :) The hoop has since gone back up as Bella remains more interested in playing other things outside. Sorry Daddy!

A very pensive look- perhaps debating whether she should be crazy again?

And it was decided that yes, she definitely should! Bella next decided to start dancing around and singing!

As I said, she likes to perform. :)

And she has excellent dance moves!

A fun outing we took in May was going to see Sesame Street Live in Des Moines! Bella used to be an Elmo fanatic, but now of course her love has switched to all things Dora. However, she still likes Elmo, and we thought she would have fun watching all the characters sing and dance- two of her own favorite activities!

She was quite enamored to see all the characters onstage. She wanted to go "touch" them all, but thankfully didn't freak out when we said that we could only watch them.

The Elmo's World segment was obviously a favorite. :)

Bella would also become very alarmed whenever a character left the stage at any point. "Where'd Elmo go? Where'd Abby go? Where'd Cookie go?"

Bella and her baby Emma, one of her favorite little outside activities. Poor Emma is an outside only baby and has been carried all over, so she is not the prettiest baby anymore. She gets to go on stroller rides, down the slide, have picnics...

And Bella likes to sit and sing to her of course.

She discovered how to go down the slide on her belly- obviously it was enjoyed!

I even broke out her little pool during some especially hot days! I'm on a mission to find a bigger plastic pool, but this little baby one suited her just fine.

Miss Bella loves the water no matter what!

Plus she has fun princesses and animals to play with!

Bella also got a new water table for her birthday, so she has even more water choices now!

Our Little Dutch Girl

2011-05-16T23:50:00.008-05:00

We decided to take pictures of Miss Bella in her Dutch costume early again this year to avoid having random strangers take pictures. :) It was a good thing that we did since we had absolutely perfect weather this year, and it was sooooo busy! Bella wore the same dress from last year as the lady who sewed it made it so that I could let out seams and it would fit for another year. It fit perfectly, and I think she looked even cuter! :)

Bella was quite cooperative with our photo shoot as she enjoyed seeing (and smelling) all the pretty tulips!
Many many tulips might have been picked and prodded at a little bit... But none were yanked out of the ground!
Our beautiful girl. :) There's actually some hair peeking out from under her hat this year!
Bella also liked wearing her dress as she now refers to any dress as a "princess dress." (Yes, we're moving into the princess love stage). So she was quite eager to look like a little princess!
Our winning smile shot of the day. :)
Yes, she is giving this tulip a hug. Bella has a new obsession with giving everything and everybody a hug, kiss, and high five- in that order. And that includes inanimate objects, such as tulips.
What fun it will be next year when we have TWO little princesses to dress up!

Tulip Time 2011!

2011-05-16T00:04:00.009-05:00

Bella's second Tulip Time proved to be much much better than her first as we had perfect weather rather than windy and cold. She had lots of fun going uptown to play, eating poffertjies, dancing along with the Dutchesses, and petting every puppy she spied. Seeing Bella dance like the Dutch dancers was quite amusing, especially since she wanted to get out in the middle and perform for the crowd. I think she'll be a good little dancer! However, the petting puppies obsession was not nearly as cute as Mommy and Daddy had the pleasure of asking a ton of random people if our daughter could pet their dog. :) Oh well, she loves her animals!

We walked in the baby parade just one afternoon this year. It falls right during her nap time, so we only wanted to move around her normal nap time one day. Plus, pregnant Mommy didn't want to wear the lovely dress more than once. :)
We were a little nervous about walking in the parade since A) Bella is not a fan of strollers and we figured we would be carrying around a 2 year old the whole time and B) Bella likes to help push the stroller and often throws a fit if she doesn't get to do it. Both of our assumptions proved true. :) However, she still had fun for a good part of the parade. She perfected the art of waving at everybody and blowing kisses! Here she is waving at Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri.
Watching the afternoon parade. She wasn't too interested in sitting and watching the parade as she had too many other things to do, like running around like a crazy lady.
Another reason I was very thankful we took pictures of Bella pre-Tulip Time is that she was absolutely not interested in taking pictures the actual day. We attempted to take a picture before the parade with Derek's parents, but she wasn't a big fan of that idea as she just wanted to go walk and run. Hence the mad expression on her face. :)
Bella did like standing in the big wooden shoes, however, so her picture with Great-Grandma Vermeer was much more successful!
She decided to even take a rest in them. :)
Bella's picture with my mom and dad worked out a little better since she had gotten a chance to burn off some energy by this point. :)

Our whole little Dutch family!

A picture of Mommy and Bella back at home! Daddy had ditched the costume already for some reason. :)

There was a Kids Corner uptown that we took Bella to each day. She had sooo much fun playing with everything. Bella even got to make her first crafts- sand art and painting a rock (with Mommy's assistance so she didn't paint herself). Naturally, one of Bella's favorite things was going down all the various slides!

There was also a little jumping house which she loved as well!

Bella particularly liked being in there when other little girls were present. She is definitely identifying with girls and always wants to play with them.

Jumping in the ball pit! She also found a fun activity by laying in there and swimming in the balls.

Cooking for Mommy in the playhouse. We were hoping she would like this as she is getting an outdoor playhouse for her birthday this year!

We also took Bella to her first night parade this year on Saturday night. Last year, we attempted to bring her, but were unsuccessful. Derek didn't think this year would be successful either since our little lady likes to be on the go. However, I thought she would be interested enough in the parade to want to sit and watch it. Well, without saying who was right, Bella loved watching the parade. :) Seeing the horses, a float that was an ice cream truck, the fire trucks, and the bands were all among her very favorites. We still discuss watching the parade and everything that she saw. All in all, it was a very fun Tulip Time for us!

23 Months Old!

2011-05-15T23:30:00.010-05:00

I have had these pictures uploaded for awhile now, but hadn't wrote anything! Oops! So these pictures and updates are from April; figured I better catch up since the big birthday is this week already!

-Bella continues to talk more and more in full sentences. I think she's probably had some sentences up to 6 or 7 words. And she has had some funny ones that amused us! "I sit here all day" (in reference to not wanting to get out of her bathtub), "Whoa, Bella dizzy!" (after twirling around in circles), "Yes I can!" (when we tell her that she can't do something), "My friends are all here!" (lining all her kitties and dolls up on her bed), and the most frequently said, "I love _____ so very much!" (insert Mommy, Daddy, kitty, nigh-nigh, anything and everything:)).

-Bella also sings songs constantly. She looooves her music! She knows all the words to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, I Love You from Barney, This Little Light of Mine, Mary Had a Little Lamb, and most of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Those are among the favs. :)

-She also loves to recite nursery rhymes! She has a big book with a bunch of nursery rhymes in it, and she can recite every rhyme by herself going through the book. It's pretty impressive!

-Bella has learned the majority of her colors now as well. She counts from 1 to 10, although she frequently likes to start at 2 rather than 1. Who needs 1 anyway? :) This month, she also amazed us by counting from 1 to 10 in Spanish. Thanks Dora!

-Bella has an awesome awesome memory, as evidenced by her memorization of books and nursery rhymes. She also remembers funny things that happened to her, and she continues to talk about them for weeks on end. In April, I took her to see baby chicks at Theisens, but they were all gone. So for weeks after, she talked about "Baby chicks all gone" complete with a sad face. We also had a dead mouse on our driveway one day and a moth in our house. So she talked lots about those and how "Daddy got them."

-Bella is such a loving little girl. She started a new routine in April of giving everybody and everything a hug, then a kiss, then a high five. Not a step can be skipped in this routine, nor a person! Even at Easter, she gave almost my entire Zylstra family her hug/kiss/five routine. I think baby sister will be very loved. :)

Dancing around on the driveway.

As Bella's hair continues to grow, Mommy does new hairstyles. :) Not quite long enough for a ponytail, but getting there!
She thinks she's big stuff.
The pigtail experiment worked a little better, until she yanked them out!
Bella got to participate in several Easter egg hunts this year. Her first one was a De Haan egg hunt the week before Easter, featuring her and her alone. :) It was the first one, so she didn't totally get the hang of it. She was more interested in playing with the toys she found around the house!
Bella did enjoy unwrapping presents though!
We next had a Huyser Easter egg hunt that evening since my brother and his family were going to be gone on Easter Sunday. Here is Bella looking through her Easter basket!
She started to get the hang of looking for eggs a little more this time, particularly since her cousins were around to help her.
There's an egg!
We decided to take pictures of Bella in her pretty Easter dress the day before Easter as we figured the actual day would get too busy. That worked out much better!
Bella cooperated with us to let us get some cute pictures of her! Unfortunately it was pretty chilly outside that weekend, so we had to stay indoors.
She's pretty silly. :)

Great-Grandma Vermeer gave her a little bunny on a motorcycle, and Bella enjoyed having that fly around on the floor all morning!

We let her open her Easter basket the day before as well so that she would have more time to play with her toys.
A Dora bracelet!
Giving her new bunny, which was named Floppy, a big hug. :)
And of course we gave her some books and a Dora paint book. Bella loooooooves her books!
At Grandpa Doug and Grandma Sheri's house on Easter day- Bella was obviously thrilled to take a picture!
We had lunch at my grandparents house and then the rest of our day was free. So we had a final Easter egg hunt for Miss Bella in our backyard. She fully mastered it by this point. :)
Bella is not a huge candy fan, but she did enjoy eating her M&M's! Even her love of "m's" has gone away. Thank goodness she's already potty trained, or we wouldn't have any bribery tools!
Helping Mommy water the flowers with her very own watering can. Or perhaps it was the rocks...
As I have mentioned before, one of Bella's favorite activities is to go see the animals at the horse ranch close to our house. I took my camera one day to capture Bella with her "neighs." However, they were off in a far away field, so we didn't get to see them. But she did get to see one of her favorite kitties- "orange kitty!" She likes to run and have the kitty run with her. If kitty doesn't cooperate, Bella gets upset. :)
Prancing through a field of dandelions. :)