Happy 1st Birthday, Bella Grace!!!

Bella,

Today is your first birthday. Daddy, Luke, Josh and I sang the Happy Birthday song to you this morning. You looked at us like we were from another planet. Yes, I know we don't sing very well... but thanks for clapping for us at the end!

This is what you are like today at one-year-old:

You LOVE music. Any time you hear any type of little song or rhythm, you stop what you are doing and do your little wiggle dance.

You could swing in the backyard all day long. You are so smart. The way you tell us you want to go swing is you either put your right hand in the air and move it back and forth, or you hum the song I sing to you when we swing. We can't believe that you can remember the notes to hum all by yourself.

Your first word was "bye-bye", followed by "mama", "bear" and "baby", but for "baby" you say, "boo boo".

Your personality is pure sweetness. There is no "spicy" in you at all. You smile and wave at everyone and love to be the center of attention. That's when you really like to show off. You are easy-going, enthusiastic and up for anything.

You are super, duper ticklish. You belly laugh when your brothers tickle you under your neck, tummy or arm pits. It's makes us ALL laugh!

Well, Isabella, I'm off to go set up a few more things for your birthday party. We are so proud of you and love you SO MUCH! You are our SUNSHINE and JOY!

Birthday B & B Pictures

Here's a picture of our room (Parlor Room). We brought Isabella's little pink travel bed with us.

Is it normal for a baby to be able to do the full center splits??? She can do the front splits, too! Maybe she'll be a cheerleader some day... or a circus star?


Front gardens
Front porch... Our room was the one with the bay window to the right



Ahhh! Blue skies and palm trees... I'm pretty sure heaven will have these two things!

Back lawn

Daddy gettin' some sugar
Look, Bella's hair is getting longer. Yea!

I was so bummed when I picked her up from her orphanage and noticed that they cut her hair. They cut off her curls in the back and gave her TWO inch bangs. Oh, the horror!

Thankfully it's just hair and it'll grow... BUT STILL... come on people! It doesn't matter what country you live in... Who wears two inch bangs???

Our three course breakfast was delivered to our room. This was the BEST part!

Just waking up and getting dressed

Just walking around the gardens made us want to go home and plant tons of flowers... NAW, never mind!



We had a great time. I give it 5 out of 5 stars for a comfortable bed, beautiful location and awesome food. However, we were the youngest couple by far. I get the feeling that the B & B crowd may be older because it's stinkin' expensive (Yea for our gift card)! I think that couples our age tend to go the resort route when getting away. We definitely got the "look" for having a baby with us, but Bella won them over. We had her wave bye-bye and do "big girl" and all the ladies were mush. Ha! Ha!... our secret weapon!

We came back into town the next evening and stopped at my parents' house for a little birthday dinner. The boys got me a shirt and, by the looks on their faces, I think they were pretty proud of themselves. Thanks, guys!

Oh, Isabella surprised us and decided to crawl for the first time. Go, Bellagirl!

Miss June

It's just a few more weeks until "Miss June's" birthday. Here's a sneak peak at one of her outfits. The birthday princess needs her options, you know!

In other news, Kirk took me to a bed and breakfast in Santa Barbara(http://www.simpsonhouseinn.com/) for my birthday. One word... GORGEOUS! My parents gave us a gift card for this B & B for Christmas 2006, and we still hadn't used it! Ya, I guess you could say we don't get away very much. We need to change that! I loved using the gift card... it felt like getting a mini vacation for FREE- which makes it feel even MORE fun! We took Isabella with us and the boys stayed with Grami and Grandpa. I'll post pictures later. I'm off to bed... nighty night!!!

Welcome Home Baby Shower

Some of my dearest friends hosted a party for Isabella. About 30 girlfriends came and we had so much fun! These women were my main prayer support during our four year journey to adopt. We just laughed, ate and everyone got to meet Isabella. Her little life is such an answer to our prayers!

Here is a photo mosiac from Saturday afternoon. You can click on the collage or any photo to enlarge.

I framed a couple of my favorite pictures below:

To see more showers, visit... Kelly's Corner.