The Zastrow's

Family Picture

2010-11-11T19:32:00.000-08:00

Our wonderful sister-in-law is a photographer. And not just any photographer. A fantastic, super amazing, 9 months pregnant photographer! She captured this beautiful photo of our family. I love it and can't wait for more. Thanks so much Laura, you rock.

Summer Time

2010-06-04T08:37:00.001-07:00

Here's a few pictures of the girls and some of the fun summer time things that we've been doing:

Some big news is that Adam got a job with a charter school here in Milwaukee! We are so excited, it seems to be a great fit. He will be teaching Phy. Ed., 8th grade boys health, and some coaching! :)

Guess who needs glasses...

2010-05-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

Little Miss Bella! :)

There's also some pictures of my 'not so little anymore' Cadence for you to enjoy!

M & M's

2010-04-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

Cadence is army crawling all over the place!
Cade poked 2 teeth! She got the first one the day she turned 6 months old, and then the next one came about a week later. She's going to be so cute!
Staying up late to read, thinking that the girls would sleep until their usual 6ish...they woke up at 4:45. Why does this happen when I choose to stay up late?! I can't be mad though because the girls are so happy...I need to learn to enjoy moments like these rather than being annoyed. (not easy to do most days though)
Daddy combed Bella's hair one night before bed and sang the 'ABC's' so that she would hold still. Then Bella got to come Daddy's hair and sing. This is what she said, "ABCDEFG...YOU'RE HAIR IS ALL GONE!!!!"
Bella had been blinking her eyes lots and occasionally complaining that they hurt, so I made an eye doctor appointment and took her in thinking that she had something stuck in there or something. But instead I found out that she needs glasses!! I wasn't expecting that, the doctor said that she is blinking like that because she is trying to focus on things and she can't. So, if glasses help her to see then that is what we will do! She'll look cute!

Getting to take Bella for a little ice cream cone at McDonald's because she successfully filled up her potty chart (only for going #2). She was so excited!
Seeing how much Cadence loves her big sister is so wonderful! Anytime she sees Bella she gets a HUGE smile and giggles at the goofy things Bella does, it's great.
A conversation Bella and I had in the car on the way to the eye doctor: Bella: 'I'm blowing my nose Mom', Me: 'oh, do you have buggers?', Bella: 'yes, they are really tiny', Me: 'oh, okay', ...pause..., Bella: 'do you want to smell them?', Me: 'no, that's kind of gross honey', Bella: 'okay, I'll just put them back', Me: 'we don't put buggers back into our noses, we put them into a kleenex and throw them away.'

2010-04-05T13:04:00.000-07:00

Easter at Grandma Kathy's house was AWESOME!!! :) The girls had a blast and did lots of fun stuff! Here are some of the pictures from Mom's camera. I'll make another post of different pictures from our camera too!

Our little baseball star! It was really windy on Easter day but we thought we'd go outside and try out the T-Ball stand anyway. The ball blew off alot and then when the ball didn't blow off, Bella didn't want to hit the ball with the big end of the bat. :( We'll have to work on her knowledge of the sport I think!

Our very first whole family picture! :)

Grandma Kathy and the girls!

Cadence just loves her exersaucer at Grandma's house!

The baskets that the girls got had hats around them, so we took Bella's off so she could wear it! So darn cute! Thanks Mom!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter too and more pictures to come soon!

M & M's

2010-03-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

My Mom Moments from the day:

Hearing Cadence's sweet precious giggles.
Listening to Adam sing one of the songs that he wrote.
Watching Bella play with her Uncle Ethan and seeing how much she is blessed to have amazing family!
Having a "girls night" with Bella and Cadence while Daddy was away. There were toys everywhere as we ate chocolate cake and watched 'Madagascar'! And it all ended with Cadence napping and me getting to snuggle with Bella in the chair...what a great night!
As I tuck Bella into bed at night I always say, "Night night Bella, sleep good, you're beautiful, and I love you." And tonight as I walked out I heard her say, "Mommy, you're beautiful too." I am so very blessed!

Fun with Dick & Jane...

2010-03-19T10:06:00.000-07:00

...and by 'Dick & Jane', I mean 'Bella & Cadence'!

These are just some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

Grandpa Z has a rocking horse at his house that we call 'Charlie Horse'. Bella and Cadence love to ride it together!

Grandpa Z had a booth for their business (Phantom Creek Builders) at the Waterford Home & Commerce show so we decided to go check it out and visit Grandpa on one of the first nice days outside since winter. They had a children's area that Bella loved playing in. She went right into this firetruck, put on the hat, and said "I'm a firefighter, just like Uncle Jon"! She loves her Uncle Jon and the fact that he's a firefighter!

There was a boy there giving out free tattoos and Bella got to pick her own tattoo out. We were elated by her pick, a little girl playing baseball! Adam and I have a LOVE for baseball and all things that go with it. So, we were so proud when she chose this one, maybe Bella will have the same love of the game that her Mom and Dad do. We could only hope!

I curled Bella's hair one morning before going to church. I not only had to bribe her to stay still with a pack of fruit snacks, but then she didn't even want me to take a picture. As you can tell by her face, she was less than pleased that I snapped a picture anyway. Oh well, at least it looked cute!

This is when we picked up the girls after our night in Milwaukee for our anniversary. They had a BLAST playing at Grandma Kathy's!

"Party at Grandma's.....stomp our feet!!!"

I'm sure there will be lots more pictures of us playing outside soon! :)

4 wonderful years

2010-03-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

Adam and I just celebrated our 4 year anniversary. We can't believe that it's been that long already! We've never really done anything too special for our anniversaries, so this year when Kathy volunteered to have the girls for a slumber party at Grandma's house we couldn't pass it up! (thanks so much Mom!)

So, the planning began and we had a wonderful overnight at and Irish Pub & Inn called County Clare in Milwaukee. We had such a wonderful time and were able to walk around the city and take in all the sites. Here are some pictures of all the things that we were able to do.

Adam driving us out of Mukwonago (I didn't mean to take it right in from of the "H1N1 shots available" sign, but it happened, so don't forget to get yours!) .

Arriving at our destination.

That night we found out that the art museum was hosting an event called "After Dark" and they had lots of fun things going on at the museum. They had food, drinks, photo booth, art students doing hands-on projects, art students there working on their pieces, a DJ, and galleries open.

The only bummer of the night was that we had to pay for parking and the machine gave us back $14 in dollar coins. We were bummed, as you can see! Kind of funny! :)

The rest of our time there, I didn't really take pictures. There was live music in the pub when we got back that night, so we went to listen to that. The guy playing was really good so that was fun.

Then the next morning the served us breakfast in the pub and then we went on to the St. Patrick's Day parade, which we saw only a little bit of because it was pretty cold. We then go to go and see the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Milwaukee Public Museum. That was an amazing experience, to be in the same room as 2000 year old pieces of paper that ancient scribes transcribed. And on them were written different things about our faith; Christianity, and about the books of the Bible. It was amazing. After that we thought we'd walk around the Historic Third Ward of Milwaukee and get some lunch before we went back home to pick up the girls.

We had such a wonderful time, thanks so much Mom for allowing us to do all that fun stuff knowing that our girls were having so much fun at Grandma's! :)

M & M's

2010-03-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

M & M's are something that I was thinking about last night while holding Cadence on the couch as she fell asleep; and no, not the chocolate kind. They are the Mom Moments throughout the day that make me smile. I was thinking that I no longer wanted to let the days slip by without remember the beautiful moments of being a lover of Jesus, a wife, and of course a Mom. I'm going to go get myself a notebook and begin to write down all the wonderful things that happen in my life on a daily basis. I've never been good at journaling (I usually start and then stop about a week into it), but this will be different. So, whether I journal these moments or blog about them, it will be something because I don't ever want to forget these things, I always want to remember.

So, here are my M & M's from the day yesterday:

Waking up at 6am to hear Cadence giggling in her crib and then looking at her and seeing this HUGE smile.

Going to get Bella up from her nap and the first thing she says to me is, "Mom, I think you're silly...and awesome"!

Seeing Adam come home from a day of subbing filled with joy because he just had the best day of subbing yet!

Watching my amazing husband take our daughters for a walk around the block. (he is such a great dad)

While we were eating dinner we hear a knock on the door, Adam went to see who it was and I hear these two sweet little voices saying, "Can Bella come out and play?". When Bella heard the voices of the little girls she got so excited and said, "My friends are here to play!". That was the first 'knock on the door' to see if Bella could come out and play, first of many I'm sure!

So, these M & M posts are more for me than anyone else, so thanks for reading if you are! :)

Oh my, it's been TOO long

2010-03-01T12:16:00.001-08:00

It has been way too long since I've done any blogging! We have had tons of things change, but for now I'm just going to update with pictures. It's been 4 months since you've seen any pictures from our family and I thought I'd catch you all up! (be prepared for lots of them)

Cadence is now almost 5 months old! She is a wonderful baby girl. She is rolling over, 'talking', and interacting like crazy. I can see so many things that are similar between Cadence and Bella, but one thing that is not is that Cadence is so much bigger than Bella ever was at her age! Cade is in the 90th percentile and Bella's always been around the 10-15th! So different and yet so much the same.

One snowy day Daddy and Bella went outside to play and Bella wanted to help Daddy shovel the driveway; they had fun! :)

Bella loves putting on Mommy's hat and scarf and also loving on her sister! She is an awesome big sister!

Cadence and I went to my Mom's for a night after we moved and we celebrated her birthday. We went out to dinner at a restaurant in La Crosse. Everybody got a chance to hold Cadence (she was being so good), Uncle Jon really likes her!

Bella had developed into quite the little 'ham'. She loves getting her picture taken, any time I have my camera out she wants me to take her picture and then she wants to see it!

We got to go to Grandpa McLean's 74th birthday! It was so much fun because we got to see so much of the family! Bella and Cadence loved being around all the cousins and Aunt's and Uncle's! Both the girls loved our cousin Anna :)

Bella hung out with Steph quite a bit too!

Cadence hanging out with Aunt Nancy, she's so cool!

Grandma Bobbie loves getting to see her great granddaughters :)

Aunt Nancy and Holly took us to the Children's Museum here in Milwaukee one day. We had so much fun and Bella loved getting to play with Holly and all the cool things there!

Not only does Bella love taking baths herself, she is so willing to help whenever I need it with Cadence too. Whether it be throwing away dirty diapers or helping out with a bath, she's always there to help out her little sister!

Cadence is learning how to sit up on her own, she hasn't mastered it yet, but it's coming along!

Bella always like to hold Cadence too, she'll hold her and feed her for us sometimes. Also, as you can see in this picture Bella has learned how to 'fake' smile for the camera after she says 'CHEESE'!!!! So beautiful!

Every year about 15 of my girl friends from college get together for a girls weekend and this year it was last weekend. I always have such a blast getting to be together again and catch up and I'm so blessed by all my friends, we ended the weekend praying for each other and encouraging each other! I have such amazing friends! This year, my friend Katie and I found the biggest Rice Krispie treat EVER at a gas station that we stopped at, so we had to take a picture!

Bella has loved playing in her tutu that Grandma Peggy got her for Christmas. She will bring it to me and ask me to put it on and then sing and dance around in circles. Thanks Grandma Peggy!

I've been letting her pick out her own clothes in the morning and this is what she chose to wear one day! And then when I asked her if she'd like me to do her hair with clips or ponies, she said ponies and she'd like one right on top of her head! So, that's what we did! Then we were on our way over to Grandma Kathy's for Monday night dinner, she found her doggy at Grandma's and loved playing with it! She was such a little Funky Monkey that day! :)

This is about a week after Cadence learned how to roll over! She loves having this new ability and is always on her tummy now 'talking' away!

We had a bag of apples left over from my girls weekend and I didn't want them to go to waste so Bella and I made apple pie. It turned out so delicious, "probably the best I've ever had", said Adam!

While Bella and I were making the pie, Daddy and Cadence were playing on the floor. They had such a great time and got some awesome pictures!

Next time I post I'll update everyone on what we are up to now and how we are all doing! Hope you are all well and we'd love to hear how you're doing, so leave us a message or send us an email: nell_3@hotmail.com .

our new arrival...

2009-10-19T20:18:00.000-07:00

She's here!!!

At 1:04 am on Wednesday, October 14th, Cadence Lesia Zastrow was born.

She weighed 7 lbs. 12.5 oz. and was 20 1/2 in. long.

The above pictures are from Sami (I know I've linked to her before but this is an awesome new website...check it out!). She wanted to get some good pictures before we went off to the hospital! So, the above pictures were right at the beginning of labor. Everything went really well and was pretty quick. We got to the hospital around 10:30 Tuesday night and she was born two and a half hours later. After she was born Sami came to the hospital to get some brand-newborn pictures. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful photographer as a best friend!!

Later that day our friend Michelle stopped by to visit and meet Cadence. She took these awesome pictures for us. It was so fun to see that she had captured Cadence with her eyes open. I think she'll have big eyes just like her sister! :)

We are so lucky to live in community! My labor had started just after I layed Bella down for bed on Tuesday night, and we were able to go to the hospital and not worry at all about Bella and having to take her somewhere because the family we live with were able to be there with her! So, the next morning after Cadence was born Sami got Bella all ready to come and meet her little sister. She took a few pictures of Bella waiting for Daddy to come and get her. When I saw Bella walk into our hospital room looking like this it made my day! :) Thanks SO much Sami!

Now we have two beautiful girls and couldn't be happier! Cadence is a great newborn and we are all doing wonderful!

The New Phase

2009-08-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

It's been quite a while since I've made a blog post, and by request of Tony, I thought it was time to do another one! Tony has been in Colorado at medical school for about a month now and he called the other day missing family and his niece, so I promised I'd get some pictures of Bella up for him to see!

Life here at our house has been so great lately. Lots of things changing and so many blessings coming from being obedient to the Lord in the things that He's called us to do. If you would like to know more about all that's going on at our house, you can email me (nell_3@hotmail.com) and I would love to share with you. But for now, I just want to keep this post short with some pictures of Bella for Uncle Tony (love you and miss you brother)! :)

The first pictures are pictures that Sami has taken of Bella...okay, they're all pictures Sami has taken of Bella because she is an amazing photographer and our camera is broken! I ran to the store one evening when we realized we had more people coming for dinner than we planned to get some extra noodles and stuff. While I ran to the store quick, Bella stayed with Sami and she wanted to play dress up! So stinkin' cute! I pulled up to the house to Bella outside playing in Sailor's pretty dress and these wonderful pictures that Sami took.

(this one makes me smile!)

These last two pictures were taken three or four weeks ago when we were at Riverside Park with some friends as they were getting engaged! :) We had a picnic and at the end of it our friend Joe proposed to his girlfriend! It was a great time, but Bella displayed her newfound attitude. She will be turning 2 years old this coming Wednesday and she is for sure beginning to go through the phase of turning two. She has been the queen of throwing fits and being sassy lately but it is pure joy being able to parent and learn through all of these wonderful things that come along.

The next time I post might be with pictures of Cadence! She is due in a little over 3 weeks and we can't wait to hold her in our arms.

We're going to the Zoo, zoo, Zoo...

2009-07-27T19:52:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we got to take a week and go to Mukwonago to visit Adam's family. We had such a great time. One day we traveled to Madison with Grandma and met up with Laura, Oliver, and Eliot to go to the zoo. The zoo was the perfect size, we were able to see almost everything in two hours and still get the kiddos home for lunch and a nap! They had so much fun and I got to borrow Mom's camera for the trip to take pictures.

The first two pictures are ones that Sami has taken of us this summer. And the rest are from the zoo.

One Sunday after church we all packed up in our 15 passenger van and went to the beach at Ft. McCoy. The kids has such a great time and Bella really loved playing on the water toys that were there!

Sami got this hat from etsy.com and both Bella and Sailor look adorable in it! I love this picture, thanks Sami :)

And now on to the zoo. The giraffe was so pretty, my favorite by far!

Bella was so excited to walk that she kept pulling Grandma's hand all around!

Adam, Oliver, Bella, and Grandma

Oliver liked the jumping off and pushing the rocks almost as much as he liked the animals!

This was by the pot-bellied pig and I caught Bella trying to "oink" and get his attention.

As we were walking away from the bear exhibit, Bella wanted to say goodbye.

For the most part Laura and I were talking the whole time so, this is one of the few pictures that I got of her and Eliot with Oliver.

As you can tell by this picture, Adam really enjoyed the zoo! :)

Checking out the Prairie Dogs.

We had just gotten done with our snack break and decided that it was time to go home, so the Grandkids grabbed Grandma's hand and off they went.

First Haircut

2009-07-26T11:35:00.001-07:00

Bella got her very first hair cut on Monday last week. Her bangs were just too long and hanging down into her eyes, so I decided that it was time to get them chopped off. We live right around the corner from a salon, so we took a walk over there one morning. Sami came with us and took some pictures for us, so here they are. The first picture is of her long hair before, and then some from during and after the cut. Bella did really well, she just didn't want to wear the apron that they put on to keep the hair off of you. After they let her take it off she was just fine!

Fun pictures

2009-07-01T19:05:00.001-07:00

I found some fun pictures (all courtesy of Sami) of Bella on facebook that I haven't posted on the blog yet, so here you go!

This was one of our favorite shirts that Bella had! She still has it, but she has outgrown it. Had to get a picture while we still could (barely).

Here are some shots of Bella playing in a nice spring rain just outside our house.

Her first bath in our new bathtub was a great success. She had lots of fun!

Playing in our new yard is one of the kids favorite things to do.

This picture is of Sailor and Bella before we moved. Two beautiful little girls!

Summer Fun

2009-06-24T11:38:00.001-07:00

Okay, finally time to update about our move and how things are going this summer. The last month and a half have been a busy time with moving and getting settled into our new house. Our house is great, we are all loving what God is doing with it and with us. Not to say that it's always easy, but it's always worth it.

I am done with childcare for awhile, at least for the summer and next year. We'll have to see after that. It was such a joy to be able to watch my friends children for them, but I am also now enjoying the freedom of just having Bella. She is so much fun this summer because she can run around and talk, she is saying quite a few words. She is also coming into the stage where she is testing all that we do and the boundaries that we have given her. She has some pretty intense fits sometimes, but to me they are more funny than anything!

Adam is keeping busy with school things. He is diving head first into the new job as Athletic Director, and is ending his second week of Coulee's first ever summer sports camps. This month was two weeks of basketball and in August will be two weeks of soccer camps for the students. He is also busy planning the sporting schedules for the next school year, writing some new class curriculum's for the PE program, and moving his office into a better location.

Our camera broke before we moved, so I haven't been able to take many pictures. But our friend Sami , is an amazing photographer and we are so blessed to be living with her in our house! So, most of these pictures are ones that she has taken since being at the house. The first two I took (you can probably tell), but the rest are hers!

Once a month we do a worship night at a local youth center and in May Adam and his brother Ben got to lead together, so Mom and Dad came up to see their two oldest sons lead worship. it was a great night and so much fun! It was also Mother's day, so Grandma Kathy got to see her grand kids on that special day! This is a picture of here with the granddaughters. Oliver was playing around too!

Although it's dark, here's a picture of Ben and Adam leading together.

Now, these are the pictures that Sami took. The big girls were riding bikes outside one evening and Bella really wanted a try, so Adam went up and down the sidewalk with her. She was so proud of herself for 'riding a bike'.

It has been so stinking hot here, that we got some sprinklers and pools for the kids to play in during the day while Sami and I are home with them. These pictures are from the first day they played in

Guess Who?!

2009-04-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

Guess who...

is the cutest little girl I've ever seen ......... Bella of course!

gets to move into our new house in June ........ we do!

is going to medical school in Denver next year.........my little brother, we're so proud of him!

is LOVING the beautiful weather..........everyone!

has a birthday tomorrow..........our friends Jeff & Dorian!

is the new Athletic Director at CRCS..................ADAM, woohoo!!!!!

I was trying to find a picture of him from recently, and all I could find was this one from I don't even know how long ago...but here he is! He got offered the position on Wednesday of this past week and then he accepted on Thursday! We are both very excited, he has tons of new plans that he would love to see happen with the athletics at school and I love to organize and type things up and that will be a big part of his job too, so I'll get to help out a lot with the things I love to do! We feel so blessed that he got the position because there were other people much more qualified on paper than Adam, but because of his heart and his desire to make a difference at the school the principle and board decided he was the man for the job! This job will officially start with the new school year, but Adam will be doing a lot of planning and organizing this summer, maybe even organizing some sweet summer camps at the school!

Here is another picture that my friend Sami took of Bella and I. We were just playing around, but it's one of my favorite pictures!

And now on to some Easter pictures. We spent the weekend in Mukwonago with the Zastrow's and then traveled to Tomah on Sunday to visit my Mom and family. Unfortunently I didn't take any pictures at my Moms, but you can see all that we did at the Zastrow's!

Here's Grandma Kathy with the grandkids. I know we took a picture of Grandpa Tom too, but I don't know where that one is.

Bella, Oliver and Adam had so much fun playing. Adam would chase them around the living room and they would just laugh and laugh!

Bella loves babies, and this is her cousing Eliot. She loved getting to say hi, she's going to be such a great big sister!

Oliver and Bella had a blast together.

Uncle Ethan with his neices and nephew!

This is Bella and I on Easter morning. She kept making goofy faces for the camera!

Bella in her pretty Easter dress.

And all the kids and their kids together.

We had such a good time! Love you all and hope you are getting to enjoy the weather that we're having!

Big News!

2009-04-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

We have some big news to share with everybody! But first I'll update everyone on our life, since it's been awhile.

Life is going so well here in La Crosse. Bella is a year and a half already and so fun. So is starting to say tons of words and just recently started to put two words together. I'm still doing childcare during the days and Bella is loving that too, because she has friends come to play every day. She was sick a couple of days this past week and I could really tell that she missed having her friends over.

Adam is teaching at CRCS and still liking it there. He just interviewed for another position there for next year to make him full-time. We will find out later this week if he got the job or not. We're all praying that he does, it would be such a blessing.

And now, on to our big news! We have two things to share with everyone. We just bought a house (picture below) and new baby Z is coming in October! We bought this huge home near downtown La Crosse with some of our close friends and we are going to live there together. Our dream is to live there and to be a light to our neighborhood, which is not in the greatest condition. We are going to live together as families and share everything, then out of our home we will feed/clothe/help anyone who needs it. By sharing the mortgage on this beautiful home, we will be able to save money and do these things that we want to in our community. We are really excited about our new adventure in life, but please pray for us as we have BIG dreams and cannot accomplish them on our own strength.

Just this morning we got to hear the heartbeat of our new little baby. It was strong and healthy. I remember getting to hear Isabella's heartbeat for the first time and today was just as exciting! Our due date is October 15th, only 2 days away from Adam's birthday. We think this is so fun, because Bella was born one day before my birthday, so this new baby might be right near Daddy's birthday!

Now onto some fun pictures from the last month or so.

Our friend Sami, the family we will be living with, has been taking wonderful pictures of Bella and their children and here are some of my favorites! She is so talented!

Here's Bella trying out her first popsicle! She loved it, but didn't eat it quite fast enough and it melted all over the table.

Grandma Peggy found the cutest Brewer's jersey for Bella and it is one of my favorite things to put her in. She is going to be such a little baseball fan. I can just see the games of catch that we'll pay together, I can't wait!

We got to go play with Austin at the McDonald's playland a couple of weeks ago. Bella and Austin had so much fun together.

I feel like I should have more pictures, but I think we've been so busy working on the house in our free time that I haven't taken many pictures lately. Hope you are all doing well and have a wonderful Easter!

It's been too long

2009-03-01T14:04:00.000-08:00

So it's been way too long since the last post and I don't have a lot of time right now, but I thought I'd get a few pictures up! Later this week I will try to post all the new pictures that I have, but for now this is all. Hope you all are doing well!

Bella's Dancing

2009-01-05T16:31:00.000-08:00

Here's a cute video of Bella and Daddy dancing. She loves to dance and I caught it on video for you all to see! Enjoy! :)

The Christmas Season - Part 2

2009-01-05T16:23:00.001-08:00

Here are some extra pictures from my camera over our Christmas holiday! And a couple at the end from a day spent at the Children's Museum.

Bella and I with Grandma Peggy.

Grandma Kathy and Bella.

It's kind of dark but the next few pictures are Bella and her cousin Eliot. She loved giving her kisses on the head!

Bella playing with Oliver.

The boxes were the most fun!

Here's some pictures from our time at the museum.

The Christmas Season - Part 1

2009-01-05T15:58:00.001-08:00

We had such a nice Christmas vacation. We were able to spend lots of time at Grandma's and Grandpa's houses and had so much fun. We are truly blessed by all our family, thanks so much!

On the night we got to Grandma Peggy's house we made cutout cookies and then we decorated them the next day. As you can see, Bella really loved decorating the cookies. She got to have so much frosting! Uncle Jon helped her out, by putting the plate up to her face so all she had to do was lick it!

After dinner that night we all opened gifts and we had so much fun!

Whenever Grandma had the camera out, Bella wanted to go right up to it and see what she was doing.

Then we traveled to Mukwonago and visited Adam's family. It was such a great time. Here's Bella opening some gifts from Grandma so she would have toys to play with! Grandma's are always good about that! :)

And Bella got to play guitar with Daddy a few times. She really likes doing that now.

Playing with toys at Grandpa's house. Uncle Ben and Oliver were so much fun!

Boxes make the best toys.

Can't keep this one away from the camera!

Bella with Grandpa, she wouldn't keep her eyes open though...silly girl!

Opening some great gifts!

Playing with the toys from Grandpa! What a great gift!

A little bit of man time!

Uncle Adam teaching Oliver how to strum the guitar.

Just playing around!

Bella loved her cousin Eliot.

Every Christmas the boys take a picture together, this year they went crazy and took quite a few...here's just a selection of the charming photographs that were taken! :)

We hope you all had a great Christmas too and are doing well!

Our Christmas Tree Hunt

2009-01-05T15:47:00.000-08:00

So, as promised, and only a little late, here are the pictures of us hunting down our beautiful Christmas tree from this year. I forget if I said that we got to cut our trees down in the State Forest this year because my Mom got permits and it was cheap and fun! But, it was in the middle of deer hunting season, so there were hunters hunting on state land. Luckily my older brother, Jon, is a hunter and had plenty of blaze orange for us to wear so we wouldn't get mistaken for a herd of deer walking through the forest. We looked so funny, but it was truly a tree cutting experience that we won't forget!

Here we all are by a pretty stream.

We had a couple of blaze orange neck warmers, perfect size for Bella waist, so she had to have some blaze orange too. (Purely for safety reasons of course, not because I thought its was funny and cute!)

Mom and Bella out in the cold hunting our Christmas tree. If I remember right, I think this little thing is the one that we cut down to bring home!

I know they're hard to see, but there are actually 5 trees here and these are the ones that made the cut for us to take home! (how sad it that!)

Here we are with all the trees in the back of the truck. We thought it was pretty funny that there are 5 trees back there and we didn't even have to tie anything down because they're all so small!

Hope you all enjoyed it!

Snow Day!!

2008-12-10T10:02:00.001-08:00

We had a snow day yesterday and we had so much fun! All of the kids that I watch have parents that are teachers, so they all were home and Adam got to be home with us too. So, here's all the stuff we did on our family fun snow day!

We started off our morning by coloring at the kitchen table. We all made some pretty cool pictures!

Then after Bella's nap we went outside an played in the snow. Here she is before I put all her snow gear on.

And then after. She's ready to go!

It was her first time playing in the snow and she loved it!

Of course she had to get a taste of it...

and another!

Then we came in and played a game that Adam's Mom got me for my birthday. It's called "In A Pickle" and it was a lot of fun! Thanks again Mom, I loved it!

We got out some educational toys for Bella to play with (as you can see on the floor) and all she wanted to do was lean on her toy box and chew on her baseball.

We got some junk mail with a fake credit card in it and we gave it to Bella to play with. Good thing she doesn't know what to do with it!

While Bella was taking her second nap, Adam and I played Yahtzee. He knows how I love playing games and he was so gracious to play two in one day with me!! After this game we watched "The Dark Night". Adam had seen it before and I really liked it too.

So that's our family fun snow day! We really enjoyed ourselves and it was a great day to be home.

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Here's some other random pictures from the last week:

Bella looking like she's ready to go to school, not yet babe!

Fun window time with Daddy!

And as promised, here's our sad little Christmas tree. We love it though!!

A Little Bit of Everything!

2008-11-30T11:46:00.000-08:00

It has been over a month since I have posted anything, so I have a lot of pictures to share! So I'm going to keep the updating short. We had a visit from Ben, Laura, Oliver, and Eliot; it was so great to finally get to meet our new little niece, she's already a month old. It's also always nice when Bella gets to see Oliver because they have fun together too!

Bella is walking now. Still not confidently, but I'm sure by Christmas she'll be a pro-walker! It is still so different for us to see her walking across the house. It's crazy how quickly things change. She is also talking a little bit. She says, "Ma Ma" and "Daddy", "hi" and "bye bye", and she is beginning to copy us when we say things. A few words that we think she has tried to say are "red" and "sit". Probably a few others too, but that's what I can think of for now! She's getting so big.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. We spent the morning volunteering at our local community dinner and then we drove to Tomah for the next few days. We had a nice relaxing time with LOTS of great food!! On Friday we went out and cut some Christmas trees and it was so fun! My mom had gotten permits so we could go to the Black River State Forest and cut down our own tree, so that's what we did. Little did we know that the trees would be so "Charlie Brown" looking! So, we all have our Charlie Brown Christmas trees this year. We have decided that this year, we did it for the experience and not for the perfect tree! When we got home yesterday we put ours up, and it's great! When I get those pictures I'll make another post about our tree cutting extravaganza!

On to all the pictures:

It's been so darn cold, that Bella has to get all bundled up everywhere we go. Luckily she has this great snow suit!

One morning I gave Bella her snack and sippy on the floor and a water drop landed on her leg and made the perfect shape of a heart. I thought it was a great little reminder of how much God loves us!

Bella and Eli are best friends and they just love each other. One morning when he came over to play (Mom was subbing), Bella just felt the need to hug and kiss him, she must have really missed him!

Bella loves to play and crawl into Joy's carseat when she's here. It's a great toy to keep her entertained!

When it was still pretty nice out, I let Bella go outside and play in the leaves. She really liked it.

Here's our little climber. She was trying to get to the ball on the other side of the toy box, but then I think she got distracted when she realized she could see out the window!

Rocking in the recliner, so proud of herself!

Here's my little Italian girl. She loves her pasta!

Mostly I took this picture because of the 80's outfit she has on. Tights and a long sweatshirt, so stylin'!

A couple of weeks ago after the kiddos left for the day, Adam and I took Bella to the Children's Museum downtown. It was so fun and we had a great time. We got a membership so that we can go any time we want all year long! It was a great deal! Here's all the things she got to do:

(this picture is a bit fuzzy, but I had to keep it because she looks so much like Adam when he was little)

And before we left we played with the board of pins that you can push and the shape shows up on the other side. My sweet husband went on the other side and the next thing I knew I saw the sign for "I love you", so I had to take a picture!

And here is when Ben, Laura, Oliver, and Eliot came to visit. We were so busy playing and visiting that we didn't take many pictures and the ones I did get aren't so great. The little ones move so fast now that it's hard to get a good picture of them playing together! Here's Oliver standing up in the tunnel and Bella looking on and laughing!

And then Bella discovered that I had the camera out and crawled right at it to grab it, so I had to put it away!

Here's our little peanut coloring. Sometimes we do this in the morning for a fun little activity! I still have to watch though, because sometimes they go in the mouth!

Bella loves to play peek-a-boo and she's so cute when she does it. This picture captures everything. She covers her face, but her fingers are wide open and she's looking at us with big eyes. Then if we say, "Where's Bella?" she'll take her fingers down and then we say, "There she is!!". Then she'll do it again! It's so cute!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas season!

New Family Member (and other stuff)

2008-10-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch of pictures that we got from Adam's Mom from when we visited and of our brand new little neice!!! She is absolutely beautiful and we are so excited to get to meet her! So, here are the pictures:

Bella and I right when we got to Grandma's house on Thursday night. She was just so happy to be out of the car!

Playing with the wrapping paper with Uncle Ethan. Bella loved playing and walking with Uncle Ethan the whole time that we were there!

She would crawl right up to him and either want him to hold her or walk around with her. In this case, she wanted a bite of his apple!

Uncle Ethan's so nice sharing his apple with Bella!

Then she found some empty bottles in the kitchen and had fun playing in Grandma cupboards.

Here's Adam getting his birthday gifts. He is reading the book with all the notes from the people that contributed to the guitar. He was so thankful and surprised!

And this is the painting that I painted him. It portrays one of our favorite scenes from the book The Shack (see link in previous post).

And this is our beautiful little neice, Eliot Meer Zastrow!! Adam's brother Ben and his wife Laura now have Oliver and Eliot. So, here are some pictures that Grandma Kathy sent for us to see! We can't wait until we can get to Madison and visit her for ourselves!

And yesterday, Bella and I spent the day with Grandma Peggy and went to the Dells. We had a great time and had to get a picture of this cute sleeper/snowsuit that Grandma got her! Thanks again Grandma Peggy!

Bella's Song

2008-10-24T08:25:00.000-07:00

I know that it's been almost a month since Bella's birthday (actually, it has been a month), but I really wanted to share her birthday song with you all! We had a little celebration with friends and cupcakes the night of her birthday. I recorded us singing her happy birthday. It's a little dark because we had the lights off for the candle on the cupcake, but hopefully you'll all enjoy it as much as we did!

Adam's Birthday Weekend

2008-10-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

Adam's birthday was on October 17th and we had a great time. For the first time in a long time (5 years) he got to spend his birthday with his family in Mukwonago. It worked out well that we could go and we had a lot of fun!

Thank you so much to all of you who contributed to Adam's guitar!! I was so excited to give it to him and he loved it too. Lots of people have asked if he was able to get a new guitar yet, and he hasn't yet. I was able to present him with a lot of money, but still not enough to get the guitar that he would like to have. So, we are putting it in a fund and hopefully it will happen sometime soon!! Thanks again everyone, I am so appreciative. I couldn't have done it without all of you!

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I now have another little girl that is starting daycare with me on Nov. 3rd. I'm really excited about it, Bella and this new little one are going to be great friends. They are really close in age and play together really well! I think it's going to be good for both of them and a fun little addition to our house during the days.

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Now on to the fun pictures! Enjoy.

Adam and I just got finished reading a book that was recommended to us by Kathy (Adam's mom) and it was amazing. It is called The Shack (www.theshackbook.com). You should really check it out, I highly recommend it! So, as Adam was reading one day Bella was on the couch reading and equally amazing book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and it was a great picture!

I realized we haven't taken any bath pictures in a while, so here is a cute one!

Now on to pictures from the weekend with the family! We went to cheer on Ethan at his cross country meet that Saturday and it was a lot of fun. It was Bella and I's first time at a meet, she had a lot of fun being outside. There were lots of other kids and dogs there to play with. While Adam and Tom ran around to the different check points to cheer Ethan on, Kathy, Bella, and I went straight to the finish line and found a table to sit on. Bella enjoyed playing with the rope that marked where the course was and even got to walk out on the course with Grandma Kathy. As you can see by the big smile on her face, she loved it!

By the time the runners were making it to the finish line, there was quite a crowd. We were standing up on top of the picnic table so we could see Ethan as he came in. He did so awesome and it was great to get to see him run!

After the race, Bella got in on a picture with the men!

Riding home from the race was fun too!

Later that afternoon we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa McLean. We had such a nice time. Bella slept for the first hour and a half that we were there, but when she woke up she was ready to play! She especially liked Tuffy (their cat) and her toys!

Here's Tuffy with Bella. Tuffy didn't want to get too close, but she at least wanted to check her out!

Great Grandma Bobbi got out some great books and read to Bella on the floor. They had so much fun. Grandma even sent a book home with Bella, which she now loves (thanks so much Grandma)!

What a great picture with Dad, Great Grandpa George, and Great Grandma Bobbi.

On Sunday we were able to go and spend some time in Madison with Ben, Laura, and Oliver. We went to church with them in the morning and then spent the afternoon back at their house. Since we didn't get to see them on all of our birthdays, we had birthday brownies! They were so good, thanks guys!

After brownies, Aunt Laura read some books to Bella on the couch. And then we hit the road to come home for Bella's nap and Adam's surprise party!!

Before we left I had given our spare key to some friends, so they were there when we got home and surprised Adam with some pizza and cake. We had a nice night!

We took two pictures to get everyone in, so here's who was at our house!

Later that night after Bella got her pj's on she was being such a ham. She was pulling her socks off and smiling so big for the camera! We love her so much!

And here is Bella and Joy playing around the house one day. The two of them love to play in this drawer together!

Ooops...forgot some pictures!!

2008-10-09T19:17:00.001-07:00

I don't know what I was thinking, but I completely forgot to put some pictures on that last blog (thanks for reminding me Adam). I talked about how Bella had 3 parties and cakes, well here's the third cake and some other things too!!!

Grandma Peggy and Bella with cake #3!! This was for the birthday part with friends and my side of the family.

She didn't get nearly as messy with this one because Grandpa Steve fed her the cake off of a spoon. She gets so spoiled when Grandma and Grandpa's are around!!!

Not only did Bella get some fun bedding and curtains for her room, but Grandma also got her this toy. She really seems to like it! She opened it all by herself too.

Daddy and Bella built a fort in the living room one afternoon while I was gone. It looks like they had a lot of fun playing around!

Now, we've always known that our daughter will probably grow up to enjoy a good cup of coffee every once in a while. The only thing is that we NEVER thought it would be this early in life!!! :)

Last Friday night we walked downtown to go to City Prayz. It was pretty cool so we bundled Bella up and she was so cute! We stopped at the farmer's market on the way downtown which was really nice (I think it was the last one for the season). And when we got home Bella looked so cute I couldn't help but take a picture:

Yesterday I got to watch our best friend's little boy, Eli. Eli and Bella had a wonderful day getting to play with each other. Sometimes it's so hard to get a good picture of Bella because when she sees the camera all she wants to do is grab it! This is the best I could do that day!

Bella has a drawer all to herself in the kitchen so she can play with stuff while I'm cooking or doing the dishes. She loves playing with big people things. Within the last 2 weeks she has started to take everything out of the drawer and then crawl into it and play. Now, this would just be a cute thing she does...

except for the fact that I did the SAME thing when I was a little girl! It must run in the family!!

Happy Birthday to Bella (and Mommy)!

2008-10-09T07:19:00.000-07:00

Bella celebrated her 1st birthday a couple of weeks ago on September 23rd. She is now officially a toddler! And then the next day was my birthday. It was fun remembering back to what we were doing a year ago and being able to remember so specifically everything that happened on my birthday a year ago. I've never been able to remember exactly what I was doing on my birthday the last year, but now I think it will be much easier!

Bella got to have 3 parties, which means 3 cakes!! She loved every minute of it. And for my birthday Adam found a babysitter and took me to dinner and then on a horse and carriage ride around downtown and riverside park. It was wonderful!

These first few pictures are from when Bella and I visited Adam at the retreat he went on (with his school). She loved being able to play around in the grass and on all the fun equiptment!

This is Bella's first birthday party!! We spent the weekend before her birthday in Mukwonago with Adam's family to celebrate birthday's and also for a Zastrow family reunion (pictures from that at the end). Bella had fun playing at Grandma Kathy's house with fun toys!

She also loved trying to pick up this 5 pound excersize ball. She actually was able to pick it up, but the face and noises she made while doing it were priceless!

She's opening her present from Great Grandma & Great Grandpa McLean. She loved taking the paper off. After she opened this present it was nap time, which was perfect because she got some CD's with lullaby music on them!! Thanks so much Great Grandma & Great Grandpa McLean!

After nap and dinner she got to open some more presents. This one is a fun ball toy she got from Grandma Kathy!

We put it together and Oliver and Bella had so much fun playing with it!

Now it's time for cake #1.

She LOVED it!

This picture is from the morning of her birthday. I made her a special birthday shirt to wear. I don't think she understood that it was her birthday, but then when I told her...

she was SO excited!!!

Bella and Joy had fun playing all day and making a big mess with the magazine!!

We had some friends over for dinner and cake on her actual birthday. So here's celebration and cake #2!

Milk break!!

On our way up to take a bath before opening her present. What a mess!

Here's her present from Michelle, Jeff, & Eli. I think she has more fun with the bag and tissue paper!

Then the next day (my birthday) Eli and Joy came to play and all the babies were wonderful. They had so much fun playing together around the music table...

And having a teether party!!!

These are some pictures from the Zastrow family reunion. It was such a wonderful day and it was great to see all the family again!

Adam, Ben, Dad, and Ethan

Family picture outiside, Bella was kind of squirmy!

And Grandpa Tom with the grandchildren! How cute is this!!

New Things!!

2008-09-13T09:23:00.001-07:00

I am now updating from our new apartment! We had a successful move (thank you so much to everyone who helped out, we couldn't have done it without you all) and are now almost all settled in.

I have started watching Joy (a friend of ours) part-time during the week and it is going so well. It's a little bit more challenging with two babies, but I feel like it's preparing me for when we have another little one. Also, I'm learning that I'm not ready to have another little one of our own quite yet! I'm enjoying too much getting to be with Isabella all the time!! I am also realizing that when we do have another child, Bella is going to have a hard time not being the baby anymore. All things I'm not ready to get into yet!

Adam has started his new job teaching at the local christian school in West Salem and he absolutely loves it. This job is satisfying and fun all at the same time. He just found at that next week he gets to take Monday-Thursday and be a chaperone for the high school retreat at Living Waters Bible Camp (near Westby). What a perfect job, we couldn't have asked for anything better!
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And now on to the light of our lives...Bella!! This beautiful little girl is going to be 1 year old in less than 2 weeks. I can't quite believe where all the time has gone, and yet it feels like I've known her forever. All of the things that she has learned and is continually learning never ceases to amaze me. She has gone from sleeping and pooping to saying, "Da Da", "Ma Ma" and almost walking. It is almost unbelievable!! She is such a bundle of energy and joy and we love it so much.

We are going to be heading to Mukwonago this coming weekend for a family picnic and also a birthday celebration! We are really looking forward to getting to see everyone again. So, if you're around that area we would love to see you! Or, if you are around the La Crosse area: we are going to have cake and ice cream after church on Sunday the 27th. So...if you are around this area please come and hangout with us to celebrate the birthday and play (the more kids the better for Bella!!). Just give me a call/email/comment and let me know if you're planning on coming and then we'll have enough cake and ice cream! We really hope we can see you all sometime soon!

Okay, on to the lovely pictures. There's quite a few, so be prepared!

This was Bella's last bath in our first house together as a family. I had to get a picture of that hair!

This picture is for a couple of reasons: playing in our new house, and a new clip in her hair. Her hair is finally long enough to put a clip in and I think it's the cutest thing ever! But...what makes this picture great is the face that I caught her making, she is becoming quite the little ham!!

Crawling around on the stairs at the new place (she loves going up and down them).

Bella's first lunch at our new apartment. Also, she got to eat out of a bowl. I've been trying to teach her how to eat out of a bowl, but usually I end up cleaning up more of a mess than it's worth!

This is Joy (the little one I watch) and Bella playing. Bella loves to be all over Joy, she thinks it's great having friends over to play all the time!

Last Sunday we went with some friends of ours for a drive to a little town on the river called Nelson. They have an amazing creamery/ice cream shop there. It was really fun (the car ride was long and loud), but so much fun! The lady scooping up the ice cream gave Bella her own mini chocolate cone...although it was cold (picture #1) she loved it!

These were the beautiful flowers around the creamery and I wanted to get some pictures of Bella, but she did not cooperate as you can see. These were the best I got! Here she is with Kalista, our friends daughter.

In this picture Kali was trying to help her pose, but it didn't work. Oh, well...I'm learning that some battles are better left unfought.

Chillin' on the couch one afternoon!! (cute pose and outfit)

Walking around the living room with one of her awesome walker toys!!

And now pictures of the houses! This is a tribute to our first apartment together. Adam and I lived here for over 2 years. We had the top level and our landlord lived on the bottom. We loved it, but it was time to move on now that we have a little one!

And now here's pictures of our new place! We love it so much and Bella seems much happier because we can put things away (we didn't have closets in our first apartment) and we don't have to tell her "no" as often! This may be a lot of pictures, but I wanted to show everyone what it looks like.

This picture is looking into the kitchen from the back door.

This is the kitchen from the other side.

Here I'm standing by the stairs in the living room (also by the front door).

Standing by the kitchen looking into the living room.

Adam took this lovely picture of the stairs!

A couple of pictures of Bella's room. She has found out how to open the draws and pull everything out, she thinks it's great fun. (she doesn't have to clean up the mess!)

Our bathroom. So much bigger than at our old apartment!

And our bedroom. I haven't gotten around to putting pictures on the walls upstairs yet, so it's kind of boring. Hopefully it won't take me too much longer!

And this is our basement. We use it for an office/guest room. and then I'm going to make a little curtain that seperates the room from the storage/laundry area in the back. I'm really excited to finish up this space!

So...that's it. We love it, and couldn't have asked for better! Hope you are all well and hopefully we'll get to see you all sometime soon!

2008-08-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that summer is almost over already. Where does the time go? And Bella is 3 1/2 weeks away from being 1 year old!! I can't even believe it. She's getting so big.

Although summer is drawing to a close, we still have been enjoying the outside and keeping ourselves busy. We will be moving in a couple of days (officially on Saturday) and Adam has been spending lots of time at school getting ready. He has a lot to keep him busy with K-12 PE and also a worship class. And I have now started to watch some children at home! I am still searching for 2 more full-time kids, but I have a couple of maybes that I am talking to. I hope that at least one of them works out. That would be so nice

I am really enjoying the weather on the days that it's just cool enough to wear jeans and a sweatshirt. This is my favorite time of year, I like it for about a month and then I'm ready for the warm weather to come back!

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks. I posted them goofy this time, the most recent are first and the older pictures are at the bottom!

We were just hanging around the house a couple days ago and I wanted to try to get a picture of Bella where you could see her teeth (she now has 8). But, it is so hard to get one. The next few picture are my attempt at showing you all her little teeth! (two on the bottom and six on top)

This picture was not because of her teeth! We dog-sat for my Mom while she was out of town and Bella loved playing with Skeeter and crawling into his bed!

Another tooth picture (kind of).

Last week we went to the pool a couple of times before it closed for the summer and Bella had a blast! She loved the water, but she also loved waving and "talking" to all the other kids that were there. The pool here is so nice because it graduallly gets deeper so Bella could play and splash around in the shallow part and we didn't have to worry about her going too deep.

Every few hours there is a little break from swimming (15 min.) so this was during one of the breaks. I think Bella was pretty bored, since she resorted to "eating" Daddy's sandle.

My two favorite people playing in the water!

I love this picture because Bella's a pretty small baby, but sometimes her belly looks so big! It does in this picture especially.

The next few are Bella splashing around and having fun. I just couldn't stop taking pictures of her, she was so cute!

These last pictures were from a day that Bella and I went with Adam into school. We went into the fitness center and Bella had a great time working out with Daddy!

We hope that everyone is doing great and enjoying their last little bit of summer.

Fun At The Mall

2008-08-06T07:25:00.000-07:00

So...I know I just posted a couple of days ago, but Bella and I took a little trip with Grandma Peggy up to The Twin Cities. We spent one day at IKEA (I had never been) and then we went to the Mall of America the next day! We had a great time both days. Bella especially like the mall because we did so much more than just shopping! So...here's some great pictures of all the fun things we did at the mall.

The theme park in the mall was built on the site of the old Twins stadium and they kept home plate. So because of our love for baseball, here's Bella and I at home plate!

Grandma and Bella walking through the theme park. She had such a good time looking and waving at all the other kids there!

Bella got to ride the Carousel. Grandma thought she would really like it. We were one of the first ones on the ride so she got to sit on her animal for a while before the ride started and she LOVED it! But then when the ride started to move and the animal went up and down she started to cling to me and wouldn't let go! So, I was bending up and down as the animal was moving up and down. Finally I decided to unbuckle her and sit down in the chair behind us, then she liked it a little bit better again! I should have found an animal that didn't move up and down!

So...here's the progression of pictures that Grandma got!

Before:

During:

After:
After the Carousel incident, we went to eat at the Rainforest Cafe. Bella really liked that because there was so much stuff for her to look at! Every 30 minutes they had thunder and lightening, so this is Grandma and Bella during the thunder and lightening!

After lunch we went to the Underground Aquarium. That was a lot of fun. We got to see so many animals!

Here's Bella with the turtles (she loved looking at the animals through the glass).

The next pictures are of the underwater aquarium. We walked through a tube and the fish swam above and around us.

Bella looking at a shark:

This shark looked like it was thinking, "that looks like a nice little bite-sized treat!".

Here's a big sting ray that swam right by Bella a lot.

A sword fish:

In this display there is a green snake wrapped around the branch. It was moving it's head and Bella liked looking at it!

I told Adam that I wanted to get a picture of a shark 'biting Bella's head off' so here it is! How cute is she?! She looks genuinely concerned!

We had a lot of fun on our little vacation, but are so happy to be home with Daddy and sleeping in our own beds! Thanks for the fun vacation Grandma!

Summer Fun

2008-08-03T12:54:00.001-07:00

I don't really have any new news to talk about...but, I do have some really great pictures from the past few weeks!

Bella and I spent a day in Rochester with some girl friends from college and we just hungout by the pool and talked, it was so good to see everyone again and it was really fun! Bella really loved this beach ball.

We went to a wedding yesterday of one on my college friends and we had a great time! Here is Daddy and Bella dancing to a "daddy daughter" song. We didn't stay too long for the dance because it was bedtime for Bella, but we had fun!

My Uncle Bob made this rocking horse for Bella and this was her first time on it! She got to ride it as we were getting ready for bed last night. She really liked it, thanks again Uncle Bob!! :)

Grandma Peggy gave us some boxes to help with the move coming up, but we have been letting Bella play with them until we really need to start packing! She is getting so daring, climbing all over.

She also likes to play inside the boxes. Here she is watching Sesame Street while in the box! Adam took this picture and I love it because of the face Bella's making!

Bella and I went outside to play one morning this past week because it was beautiful! I brought bubbles and these flowers, these pictures turned out so good! I especially love the second one.

This is the face that Bella makes when we tell her 'no'. I think she was trying to eat something from the floor so I told her no and she looked at me as if to say, "What Mom, I didn't do anything!".

Here are some pictures from when Eli came over to play! I got a little splash pool from Kmart (on sale for $4.99) so we had Eli over to play. They really enjoyed it, except for the fact that the seam of the pool broke and it doesn't squirt water up anymore like it's supposed to! Good thing I only payed $4.99! Although the pool broke, we did get some really great pictures!

Looks like Bella's going to be a drummer, just like Mommy!

We went in to CRCS (Adam's new school) to help him clean/decorate his office and Bella loved crawling all over the gym and playing basketball with her Uncle Ethan!

We hope you are all having a great summer!

Life in La Crosse

2008-07-22T07:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a couple of weeks and I feel like so much has happened. All of the things that we were uncertain about have now worked out and we are all set for the fall! I know I mentioned in the last update that we had gotten a townhouse, but now we have signed the papers and it is final. We will be moving in September 1st (hopefully a little earlier if we can). Our new place is closer to downtown, a little bigger, and also safer for Isabella as she will soon be walking around! We are both really thankful and excited to move!

I think I've said this before too, but Adam will be teaching PE at a school in the area starting this year. It will be a perfect fit for him. Sometime this week we are going to go into the school and start to get his office ready. I get to help him decorate and make it look nice, so that will be fun! I suggested painting the walls pink, but I don't think that will happen!! :)

And the last thing that has happened is Ihave finally decided that I will for sure be watching some other children in the fall. This will be nice for me (I won't have to work at Grizzly's anymore) and also for Bella because she LOVES having friends over to play with. She is entertained for hours by other kids. She loves giving other kids hugs, we're still working on learning to be gentle, but that will come!

So...right now for us it's the calm before the storm of everything happening at the end of August. All of these changes will be in one week, so we'll be preparing as best we can, but it will for sure be a busy week!

Adam's brother Ethan is coming to stay with us this weekend and we're both really excited about that, so the next post will have some great pictures of Bella and her Uncle Ethan!

Okay...enough of all this...on to the pictures!

Like I said, Bella loves hugging other kids. We watched Eli for a little while one day and Bella loved giving him hugs! (sometimes she'll even give Eli kisses or just eat his nose)

We had a rummage sale two weeks ago and it was such a great day. It was overcast and not too hot, so Bella got to be outside with us all morning! She had a blast playing with all the stuff we were selling and seeing all the people. These baskets were from when I was a little girl. My brother Jon used to always put me in them and leave me there. I hated it, but Bella seemed to enjoy playing in them!

I was eating brocolli one afternoon and Bella wanted a piece so I gave her a small one to try and she did pretty well. She would crawl around with it sticking out of her mouth, she kind of looked like a little dog with a bone in it's mouth! I just thought this picture was funny!

She is completely into pulling her books off her shelf and opening and closing them. She also loves turning the pages, we don't really get to read her stories anymore because all she wants to do is turn the pages!

This picture is mostly for Grandma Peggy!! I just thought this was a cute picture of her feet!

Bella also has become very daring. She crawls and climbs anywhere she can. This picture is her playing in the living room. And the next one is her 'perched' on the foot stool in her room! When she was crawling on the stool, she even got herself down no problem. She's getting to be such a big girl!

I don't know how it happened, but sooner than I think this little one will be a year old! We'll keep you all posted on plans for a little party/get together! Hope all is well with everyone and we love you all!

So Big

2008-07-10T11:38:00.001-07:00

It's been almost a month since I last made a post...so I've got lots of pictures and a new video that I just took today.

We are all doing well. Adam got a job teaching PE at Coulee Region Christian School in West Salem. He is very excited for it, and I am so happy for him to. So, that means we will be staying in La Crosse! We are going to be moving into a different apartment though. We want to find one on a lower level and also one that's a little safer for Bella once she starts walking. (which we think might be sooner than later!) Actually, as I'm typing we just found out that we were approved for a townhouse closer to downtown! Exciting!!!

Since I already get to stay home with Bella, I am going to start watching a couple of other kids during the day too. Bella would LOVE it, and it would be nice for me too! If I do this I wouldn't even have to work at Grizzly's anymore. I do like it there, but it would be nice to get to stay home too!

So, here are all the pictures!

These pictures are from two weekends ago. We went to Madison to visit our nephew for his 1st birthday and also got to see the rest of the family! We had such a great time. This is Bella and Oliver trying to get the camera.

Grandma Kathy has the grandkids totally into the book she's reading! Nice work grandma!

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that when entertaining babies nothing holds their attention for very long!

This is Grandma helping Bella clap her hands. Since this photo she has gotten so good at clapping and even loves to clap our hands for us!

Bella got to spend some quality time with all four of the Zastrow men!! Here's Uncle Ethan.

Some time with Grandpa!!

Of course Daddy! (she was making such silly faces for the camera that day!)

And Uncle Ben too!

Here's one of those silly faces I was talking about.

At home in the morning while I get ready, I either put Bella in her exersaucer or I get out her bathtub and she loves to play around in it! This morning she was all about sitting in her bathtub.

Here is a sample of what our house looks like at any given time during the day. Bella has taken to making huge messes on the floor of every room that she enters into. I think I pick up after her at least 5 times a day!

Too bad we didn't find this bandana until after the 4th of July!! I put it on her head anyway and we just had to take a picture! I'm not sure what this says more..."Happy 4th of July" or "Where's my Harley?"!!

Bella has also PERFECTED her sad pouty face.

Exhibit A:

There has been lots of playing around in a diaper for Bella this week because it's been pretty hot. Here's the little lady helping me out with the dishes. It's about time she started doing some chores around the house!!! :)

She still loves playing with all the mirrors in the house. Now she not only likes to look at herself in them, she also likes to open and close the doors that the mirrors are attached to. Really any door in the house she likes to do that with (no fun, but we've already had some pinched fingers).

I took this picture this morning after I followed her around with the camera for awhile. Her face looks like she is thinking "not another picture mom"!!

And she was, so she crawled right for the camera and tried to grab it. This is what most of my pictures are like lately. Good thing it's digital so I can just delete and try again!

And last but not least. A movie that I also recorded today. This is Bella's music table and she loves playing with it. She has begun to figure out the cause and effect of the different parts, so it's fun to watch her play. I couldn't have asked for her to be in a better mood while I was recording this video. She stopped to wave at the camera and talk a few times, it's so perfect!! Hope you all enjoy!

June Dairy Days

2008-06-13T08:09:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday Bella and I went home to Tomah for my little sister's graduation party and also June Dairy Days. For June Dairy Days every county in Wisconsin has a dairy breakfast which is hosted by a local farmer. This year, the one in our county was hosted at a farm right down the road from my Mom's house. So...we went and had a great time! It was Bella's first time getting to see all the farm animals and she loved it! Jon (my brother) was volunteering with the rest of his fire department to help cook the food for the breakfast, so not only did we get to see all the animals we got to spend time with Grandma, Jon and his girlfriend Lynn.

Here are the pictures that Grandma took for us that morning.

Before Jon went to the breakfast he came out to the house to run some errands for Mom and also to say hi and see Bella.

When we got to the breakfast there were tons of people there and the line for food was pretty long so we started out by walking around the farm. We stopped to get some ice cream cones and then went into the barn. Here's Bella, Lynn, and I with the cows.

We got to get really close and Bella even got to touch one of the cows ears!

Then we went on a hay ride around the field. Here's a couple of pictures of us in the wagon!

Then we got to stand in front of the wagon and look at the horses! They were really big and pretty.

Next to the hay rides they had a little petting zoo, so we went to do that. Here's Bella and I looking at the miniture horse named Cricket.

And she got to pet the llamas fur, it was very soft.

They also had little baby birds. There were geese, ducks, mallards, and baby chicks. This is one of the baby mallards. They were so cute and soft!

Bella almost grabbed the little bird. I don't think it would have been good if she had actually gotten a hold of it though!

Here's Mom with the baby pigs. They were taking a nap together and she can't ever pass up a picture with some cute little pigs!

Here we are petting the goats.

Then on the walk back to the breakfast there was a tractor sign that we just had to have a picture by!

Uncle Jon held Bella while the girls ate breakfast. The had a great time playing together.

And right before we left we went to see the big tractors. I really wanted a picture of Bella on one! She did okay, but I'm not sure she really liked being up so high without being able to see me.

So, needless to say, we had a great time. It was fun for Bella (and all of us) to get to see all the animals and the breakfast tasted SO good.

2008-06-10T07:17:00.000-07:00

Tony's graduated!!! We had such a nice time watching Tony graduate! It was a great day, and then after his ceremony we all came back to our house and had a little dinner together. It is such an accomplishment. We are SO proud of you Tony!

Here's a picture outside of the ceremony before we came back home.

Jon is really proud of Tony too...but he will never let Tony forget that he's bigger than him! :)

Proud Mama with her college grad!

Back at our house, here I am with Tony.

One day our friends The Tillema's were watching Bella for a little bit, and she was playing with ALL of Eli's (their son) toys! I think she was having fun.

This picture was on a rainy spring day. We had to play inside because it was pretty chilly out. I let Bella play on the floor in the kitchen with my cookie sheet and her magnet letters (the letters stick to the cookie sheet) and she had a good time. She kept banging the cookie sheet on the floor so it was pretty loud!

I got a bike trailer for my bike to run errands with Bella and to just get out a little bit. She doesn't really like it yet, but I'm hoping that she'll get used to it before the summer is over. Also, (I don't think this helps the situation) I got her a helmet because it said the children should wear helmets. She really doesn't like this, but I thought the helmet was so cute. Once again, I hope she grows to like it!

Here's our girl styling for the summer. (not so happy though) I would love her to wear her glasses, but clearly she doesn't like them. So she has a sun hat instead. Maybe she'll grow into liking these as well.

Bella has been pulling up on all the things around the house lately. The funny thing is that she gets up just fine, but then can't figure out how to get back down. Most of the time she'll either whine until we come to get her or just let go and fall to the ground. She has had many bumps to the head due to this new phase. So, here are a few pictures of her standing up.

Sprawled out taking a nap. It's been so hot and humid that this is how she takes naps. I just thought it was cute!

Bella's idea of helping Mommy read the newspaper on Sunday afternoon. :)

It was SO nice out that we finally got to put the pool outside and let her take a swim. She had such a good time splashing away. Thanks again Uncle Paul and Aunt Debbie! Here are some great pictures.

Hanging Around

2008-05-22T09:03:00.000-07:00

A few pictures of life over the past few weeks:

Bella has been pulling herself up in her crib when she's done with her nap and she'll stand there and whine for us to come and get her. This day, we just had to take a picture.

Then she got kind of mad! (she's probably thinking "put the camera down and pick me up!!")

We were rearranging the living room one morning and took the drawers out of the desk to move it. Well, Bella found my paint supplies and pulled all of my brushes out of the case! She had a blast playing with them.

Here she is chewing on her own foot! She likes to do this when she gets her diaper changed.

She loves eatting Gerber Puffs for her snacks during the day. And she just learned how to put them into her mouth by herself so that's nice. This day, daddy thought he'd put one on her nose. It just stuck there, we're not quite sure how, but it made for a funny picture!

Daddy and Bella playing around! She's like a mini-me!

One night this week we went to dinner at our friends house (Jeff & Michelle). I took lots of pictures of her and playing with her friend Eli (their baby boy). He is about 3 months old and Bella loves to play, but she'll have to wait a little bit before they can really play together! Right now she just grabs at him.

Bella fell asleep on me yesterday. I wanted to get up so I tried to move her to wake her up, but she just kept sleeping while she was sitting up, she must have been really tired. So I was stuck there (I loved it though!)

Here is Bella in her new pool for the summer! She got a gift from my Uncle Paul and Aunt Debbie in the mail, so I got to pick out some fun new things for her. She got some cute new onesies, diapers, and this great pool! I blew it up yesterday and she got to play with it in the house because it's still just a little bit too cold to go outside in her bikini yet! Thanks SO much Uncle Paul & Aunt Debbie for the great gifts! They are wonderful!

Weekend Festivities

2008-05-13T06:32:00.000-07:00

We got to visit lots of family these past two weekends. Two weekends ago we went to Madison after church on Sunday to visit Adam's family; for a late birthday party for Uncle Ben and an early Mother's Day for Grandma Kathy! We didn't stay long, it's alway too short, but we did have a great time seeing everyone again. Bella really enjoyed seeing her cousin Oliver too, she was trying to keep up with all the moving he's doing! Bella got to play with Grandma Kathy a lot too, but we didn't get any pictures of that, so next time we'll have to take lots of pictures with Bella and Grandma Kathy!! :)

Here are some pictures from that visit:

Bella and Grandpa playing with a soccer ball. I'm sure there will be many times that Grandpa teaches Bella how to play soccer, basketball, baseball, and many other things!

Bella and Oliver playing. Bella couldn't quite get the hang of crawling on the slippery wood floors so she just pushed herself backwards the whole time!

Uncle Ben and Aunt Laura are playing with the babies!

Bella kept dropping the rattle so Uncle Ethan would have to pick it up for her!

Just this past weekend on Saturday I took Bella to see Great Grandma Katie. We gave her a fun picture of Bella for her to have and got to visit for a while for Mother's Day. She always loves when we come to visit! Bella has a lot of fun exploring all the new things at her apartment too.

Then that night (Saturday) we had some friends over for dinner. They have a little girl named Elianna, she is 16 months. Bella absolutely loves playing with her. She was a little fussy before Elianna came, but when she got there they both played and talked with each other all night long!

On Sunday after church we went to Grandma Peggy's house to spend the afternoon there for Mother's Day. We had such a nice time getting to visit with my mom and brother (Jon).

Here's some pictures from that day:

Uncle Jon's dog, Digger, just loved Bella and Bella loved him too! He would lay down right next to Bella and cuddle with her. This time he laid his big head right in her lap and almost tipped her right over, she loved it and was giggling the whole time!

Mom was really hungry for KFC for dinner, so that's what we had. Bella got to play with some mashed potatoes. At first she didn't know what to do with them, but once she got used to it, there were potatoes everywhere!

When she was done Uncle Jon was cleaning her off, but then Digger came over and starting licking up the rest of the potatoes on her tray and then cleaned off her hands too. Bella was all smiles!

Playing on the floor with Grandma.

Before we left I wanted to get a picture of just the girls! So here it is; I think we know what Bella will look like when she grows up!

She's Crawling!!

2008-05-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

It has been too long since I last updated! So, I have lots of pictures and catching up to do for everyone.

Bella is doing so well: she is finally crawling, babbling all the time, screaming when she's excited, and getting more teeth (and along with that comes all the drool and fussy times). It has been a little over a week since she started crawling and it still seems so funny to see her moving around on her own! It's still pretty new for her, so she's not too fast and she hasn't gotten away from us yet. We have had to start closing the doors and putting up the baby gate. Within the past few days she has also started to pull herself up to kneel and stand. I can't tell you how weird it is for me to walk into her room to get her after a nap and see her little head poking up over her crib!

Adam and I are doing well also. We are still in the process of looking and hoping for something different. A new job for Adam and also either a different apartment to rent or a house to buy. So, we'll see...whatever God has in store for us. It's definetly a test of trust and patience.

Okay, now for some pictures. Enjoy!

Bella got a pink baseball and glove from Grandma Kathy before she was born and she finally got to play with it! All she really wanted to do though was chew on it. I don't think she understands the concept of 'baseball' yet! :)

For a few weeks when she was excited she would make this face, rock back and forth, and breath really heavy. It was funny because it looked like she was so mad but really she was just excited about something. I was glad I caught it on camera!

Next to Bella's high chair in the kitchen is a wooden rack that we store some kitchen things on. On the top of it is a little TV for the kitchen so we keep some movies there too. Needless to say Bella can reach them and she loves to play with the movies! Here she is with our favorite TV show. We are convinced that she really loves it too because she started to crawl on a Thursday night while we were watching 'The Office' together!

Here's our little munchkin crawling away!! She seems so much happier now that she can move.

Along with crawling all over comes all sorts of new things to explore. So, Bella now likes to crawl under the toys that she can fit under. The funny thing is though that she will crawl under, play for a little bit, and then cry because she can't figure out how to get back out! That will come, but until it does we think it's pretty funny!

When dad plays his guitar Bella wants to play it too! This was on Thursday this past week. Then on Friday Bella and I went out to garage sales in the morning and luckily I found Bella a toy guitar of her own!

This is another great toy that I found at a garage sale! It's a 'learning table' and it plays music, says the alphabet, numbers 1-10, colors and so much more!! It's great what you can find for cheap at garage sales! This is a toy that she pulls herself up and stands next to in order to play with it. Although she can pull herself up, she doesn't always get her feet all the way under her as you can see!

She really enjoys this toy!

Similarities

2008-04-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

Bella has been playing with bowls for the past few days, (who needs toys when you have fun bowls?) and I took this picture because I used to do this when I was a little girl. So, here's Bella.

And here's me!

I thought I would put in a couple of baby pictures of mom and dad too. I think she looks a little like both of us!

Bella got to wear her first baseball hat on Tuesday and also got to go to her first softball game. What a big day!

More pictures to come soon!

Picture Mania

2008-04-10T09:10:00.001-07:00

Here are some great pictures from the past week. Enjoy!

Bella had just woke up from a nap and her hair was sticking straight up. You can see it a little bit in the pictures but mostly her faces are great!

Rudy's is open!!! We decided to take Bella to her first rootbeer stand this past Saturday (when the weather was still beautiful). She had fun watching the girls skate back and forth and also eating the menu! We decided that next time we go we'll have to get her a grilled cheese or bring something for her to munch on!

Bella got to play with Eli a few times this week! She really loves looking at other kids and babies! She's wearing her new dress that she got from Grandma Kathy too, she looked so cute!

We can't leave Bella too close to Eli yet though, because all she wants to do is grab his face!

I have rediscovered some settings on my camera (sepia and black & white) and I have been taking pictures like crazy because they turn out so good! Either I should have been a photographer or we have a very photogenic little girl...I think it's the later! Here are some pictures of Daddy and Bella playing.

She's always so happy after bath time! Squeaky clean!

Here's another time I took a lot of pictures! She's wearing a new dress that she got from Aunt Nancy and just playing on the floor.

What a trip!

2008-04-04T07:36:00.001-07:00

We just took a big trip down to see Adam's family! We got to see so many people and had so much fun. Also, since the Crusade job in the Cities was not for us, we are looking into moving to either Milwaukee or Madison. So, this trip was a nice time to check it out and see what's there! At Grandma Kathy's house Bella LOVED playing with this mirror. She would just sit in front of it and smile and talk to herself! We're going to have to get her one for our house I think!

We also got to visit Uncle Ben and Aunt Laura in Madison on our way home. This was so great to see them and the cousins got to play together too. We got some great pictures of Bella and Oliver playing! We're so excited for them to grow up together!

Easter, Teething, & Crawling!

2008-03-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a bunch of pictures of Bella over the past few weeks! There is a little bit of everything here; Easter, trying to crawl, eating, and just hanging out.

Bella just got these new p.j.'s from Grandma Peggy and she loves them!

Reading the bible with daddy!

One day a few weeks ago we did lots of laundry all at once and before we folded it Bella got to play in the big pile. It might not look like she's having fun in this picture, but she really did like it!

I caught her winking, purely by chance!

Here's another sort of wink, but this picture is mostly for her Easter dress! She looked so cute.

Playing on the floor Easter morning before we left for church.

Here she is in a high chair at Grandma Peggy's house! You may not be able to see it, but it's an old high chair that doesn't have a strap or a tray, so she's tied in with a dish towel!!

Bella loved Uncle Jon's dog, Digger. She was giggling at him the whole time we were there!

Here's Bella opening her Easter present from Grandma. She did a great job and pulled all the paper off by herself! Lynn (Uncle Jon's girlfriend) helped start it though! She got a great book for Easter! Thanks Grandma!

Here's Bella playing on the floor with Digger.

She's still working on the crawling thing, we think she's getting close!

Hanging out with Grandma on Easter.

She really loved playing on the floor at Grandma's house!

Here she is eating her sweet potatoes! She loves them!

Reading the paper with Mommy!

After a bath one night, I gave her a mohawk with the little hair that she has. We think it might be growing a little bit!! WooHoo!!

We just got back from a walk here, and Bella was so smiley and happy!

The Freeze Dance

2008-03-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

This is Bella dancing to her favorite song. It's called 'The Freeze Dance', and she actually freezes when the music stops. It's so cute!! This little one loves to sing and dance! Enjoy!!

2 Great Years!

2008-03-12T17:39:00.000-07:00

We can't believe it, but it's already been two wonderful year of marriage for Adam and I! It seems like just yesterday that we had our wedding day. As we talked about it, we both said that we hope it always feels like just yesterday and that it never gets old! We had a busy few days over our anniversary and we didn't get much time to really celebrate, but we've come to realize that's the way it is when you have kids, and we wouldn't trade it for the world. I joked with Adam that on our 10th anniversary, we'll be out to dinner and have to say "table for 5 please!!". Our first two years of married life are so different and yet so wonderful!! On our first anniversary I remember staying home, making dinner and watching a movie with just the two of us. And on our second anniversary we were buying "little swimmer" diapers and a swim suit for Bella so that we could take her in the pool at the hotel!! Oh how life changes!

The reason we had a busy few days was because we went to The Cities to meet with the team from Campus Crusade to see if it would be a good fit for us, and also if we would fit into their team. We left on Monday and spent the afternoon and evening with the Ellenwood's at their house. It was so wonderful to get to see them! They took us to an amazing restaraunt called "Chino Latino's" in Uptown; it was so good. Thanks guys! The next morning (our anniversary) we got up early to drive into Minneapolis and spend the day at the Crusade office with the team. We sat in on a staff meeting in the morning, at lunch with the director and his family, and then had a chance to individually talk to the team members in the afternoon to get a feel for what they do everyday! The team is fantastic and they are wonderful people, but in meeting them Adam and I both realized that this job wouldn't be a good fit for us. It was some what bitter sweet, because the people are so great, but this job just isn't meant for us. Now it is back to where we started from in trying to figure out what to do next! We really feel like we need something new and different, now we just have to ask God to show us what he has for us! We would love to have you all praying for us in this area!!

Before we went to The Cities we decided we would take an extra day and get a hotel to celebrate our anniversary. So, when we left the office we went to our hotel and spent the evening there. As I said before, we decided we wanted to go swimming so we went to Target and got suits for the family!! It was so much fun, we got a baby bikini for Bella, and she looked so cute in it!! On our way to Target we walked outside, but on the way back to the hotel we took the skywalks, it was so fun to be in a city for a few days! Then on Wednesday afternoon we drove back home. Bella slept the whole way and was so happy to be home.

Now we are home and back to life as usual! These are some pictures from the past few weeks, and also of Bella swimming in the pool! It was her first time in a pool and she really liked it! We think she's going to be a little water bug because she loves taking baths and really liked the pool!!

I can't remember if I talked about Bella's teething or not, but we think she is. She has been waking up at night and pulling at her gums during the day. So we've been getting lots of use out of the teethers!!

Here she is playing on the floor. The minute you set her down now she rolls over, she really liked being on her tummy!

This is Bella just vegging out on daddy! Adam had her on his lap and we were talking with some friends that were over and she just started to zone out! Her belly's sticking out and we thought it was so funny!

When I was at work one night Adam gave Bella a bath and took these pictures. She loves playing in her towel after bath time!

I love this picture because she looks so much like her Uncle Tony when he was little!! What a little Furlano!!

Adam and I think she's going to be crawling soon! She is starting to scoot a little bit (mostly backwards) and she can't turn herself in a circle. She's starting to pull her legs up underneath her too. She's gotten up on all fours twice but can't stay there for very long yet. I don't think it will be long and I'll have to baby proof the house!

Our friends told us about these wonderful mesh bags that you can get for babies to help with their teething. So I got some and they work great, Bella loves it! I cut up little pieces of fruits and veggies and freeze them, then put them into the little bag. Bella chews on them until there is practically nothing left! (She's also wearing her 'I love Apt. 3' bib!) I got the bags at 'Babies R' Us'.

Okay...here come the cutest baby pictures!!! Here she is in her baby bikini and in the pool!!! I think mom might have liked it more than Bella did! :)

Hope you are all doing great! Send us an email or leave a message so we can hear how you are doing also! Love you all!

5 months already!!

2008-02-28T07:20:00.000-08:00

Well...it's been quite a while since I've found the time to do this. So, that means that there's lots of pictures to see! Bella is just over 5 months now, I can't believe that it's been that long already. It has all gone by so quickly! She continues to be cuter than ever, and is a pretty happy baby. She loves being on her tummy for 'tummy time' and she rolls all the time on her own now too! I think I'm going to have to 'baby proof' our house soon; she's not crawling yet, but she rolls and scoots herself around. Just this morning I went to check on her while I was getting ready and she had her diapers all over the floor and she was eating one of them! :) This past week Bella had a goofy sleep schedule. She would roll herself onto her tummy at about 2 in the morning and not be able to get back, so she would just whine until I went to get her, feed her and put her back to sleep. Luckily that only lasted about 3 nights and now she is used to sleeping on her tummy and I think she prefers it, right when we lay her down she rolls over now! She is starting to squeal and she LOVES to sing with Mom and Dad at church and when there's music on. Anytime there is loud music Bella will start to yell and kick her legs around, it's really cute!

Adam and I are in the process of applying for a staff position with Campus Crusade for Christ. We were offered and internship, but through talking with the staff people they recommened that we look into just coming on staff. So, we have been doing that. The position would be based in the Twin Cities and we would work at the regional office planning all the conferences for the Midwest Region. We thought that this would be a great opportunity for us to work and do ministry together. We are going to go to the Cities on March 11th and meet the team to see if the position would be something that we would enjoy and also if we would be a good addition to the team that they have already created. We will keep everyone posted as to what is going on and any new news we get!

Okay, here are lots of pictures from the last few weeks!

Bella playing in her exersaucer (she looks mischievous).

Here she is standing with momma (she loves doing this).

Baby T. is here!!!! Welcome to the world Elijah Jefferey!

Here's little Eli! So handsome!

Here's our little channel flipper! :)

This is the first time we tried food with Bella. She is really interested in the food that we eat and always wants to have it so we thought we'd try some baby food. I made up some broccoli for her and she did okay with the first few bites, she was pretty interested. But then the last bite she made this face. So I think we'll wait for a while to try the veggies again! :)

After a long day, she is out cold in her car seat.

Bella got a bunch of new books and stuffed animals from Grandma Kathy. She loves them!

Here we are reading 'Horton Hatches the Egg' (one of mommy's favorites).

Grandpa was in town and came to visit yesterday. Bella had a great time!

She loves playing on the floor naked after bath time. So, here's a naked baby picture! :)

Just chillin' on the couch with her toys!

Here she is playing on the floor again! What a happy girl!

She is grabbing at everything now and here she is going for the camera!

Dr. Seuss

2008-01-29T11:29:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, so we've got some new pictures for everyone! The past week and a half feel like they have flown by. We haven't done anything out of the ordinary but life just gets busy sometimes! Isabella is growing and learning new things everyday. She is smiling and giggling all the time now, but it is such a challenge to catch that smile in a picture! When we get out the camera to take a picture of her she gets so distracted by the camera and the little red light on the front of it that she just stops smiling and gets this concerned look on her face. So, hopefully she'll get over that and start to like the camera soon! She continues to observe all the things around her and is rolling over with ease. She also babbles all the time now too, it's very cute!

Here are some pictures from our last couple of weeks:

It has been so cold here in Wisconsin that whenever we go out we need to bundle Bella up really warm. This past week she has gotten lots of use out of this snow suit that she has. She does not like being in it though because she can't really move! We had to take a picture though because we thought she looks so funny and it reminds us of the boy in th movie "The Christmas Story".

This is one of Bella's favorite books. Mom and Dad both read it to her, but Dad uses funny voices as he reads it! She loves it and giggles when he talks in the funny voices. We had just gotten done reading it one day and I gave it to her to hold on to. It was so great that I just had to take a picture, it looks like she's already starting to read! :)

Then she dropped the book, so I gave it back to her and she started chewing on it! Perhaps she's not the early reader that I thought she was! ;)

Here's an example of Bella being so concerned with the camera! She was just laughing and giggling at daddy reading the story, and then I got the camera out and she couldn't stop staring at the camera.

Bella just got this exersaucer from one of our friends and she loves it! She loves playing in it and it fits her so well! (Thanks Kim!)

My best friend Michelle is having a baby soon too (she's due Feb. 19th), and we just had a baby shower for her. It was so much fun, not only to see her blessed by all the wonderful gifts and friends that were there but also to be able to hang out with a group of girls for the afternoon! That doesn't happen too much anymore, so I had a blast! This is a picture of all the girls that were there (Amy Soblick had to leave a little early though).

And here is me with Michelle! Can't wait for that Baby T. to come!

Giggle Giggle

2008-01-17T08:13:00.000-08:00

We recorded this video on our camera a couple of days ago. Bella is giggling all the time now! I couldn't figure out how to rotate the video so it's on it's side, but you can still see Isabella and hear her giggle! Sorry about the background noise, but we were listening to a sermon on the computer at the same time, and I forgot to turn it off. After I recorded this video, we turned the computer off and tried to get her to giggle again (without the noise) but she was done giggling, so this is the best one we got! Adam is playing with her to get her to giggle!

Pictures Galore!!

2008-01-10T08:46:00.000-08:00

There hasn't been too much going on with us since we got home from our Christmas travels. So I thought I would just share some pictures with everyone! There are a few from Christmas and some of us just playing around the house!

Isabella's playing on the floor, she's really enjoying tummy time now!

Nap time! She's out cold!

Even though I cut off Adam's head, I still think this is a great picture.

Just this week Bella is starting to reach out and grab onto things around her. Here she is playing with one of her favorite toys to grab onto!

While mom was at work, dad and Bella had fun playing with some toys!! (I think dad might have had more fun than Bella!)

Here's Bella in her new jumper. I put it together, put her in it, and then realized that she might be a little bit too small for it still!! We'll have to try it again in a few months!

What a face, I don't think she really likes her jumper yet!

Bella's smiling and giggling for the camera on New Year's eve!

Here's our smiley girl!! :)

This is a cute dress that we got from a friend, she wore it to church on Sunday!

Mom and Bella playing on the floor.

Grandpa Tom and Bella at Christmas. Bella loves to stare at faces!

Here's Bella and Grandma Peggy! Just hanging out after a nap.

This time Grandma Kathy's got Bella and cousin Oliver too , so cute!

Daddy's kissing Bella by the Christmas tree.

Nap time for daddy and Bella!!

Christmas Travels

2007-12-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

We have had a wonderful Christmas week, we just got home from visiting family! It was a great vacation, but now it's back to work for Adam and I tomorrow. We spent the first part of our vacation in Mukwonago with Adam's family and then drove through the snow storm on Saturday night to get to Claire's family. We were going to come back home for church on Sunday morning, but we were snowed in and we couldn't make it to La Crosse. Everything turned out fine and it was nice just to relax and not have to drive again! We were so blessed by everyone for Christmas; thank you again, we love you all!

Bella did wonderful on our big trip. She sleeps most of the time in the car which is great, easy on mom and dad! She has always been a thumb sucker, but is just now starting to discover both of her hands. If she's awake, they're usually in her mouth! It's so much fun watching her grow. She is starting to giggle when we tickle her tummy and is smiling more than every. She is such a happy baby! She is also getting used to playing on the floor, she really likes to wiggle around. She's getting used to being on her tummy, she used to only lay there for a few minutes, but now she'll smile and stay there for a while. Every now and again she is rolling over too, she hasn't quite got it down yet, but it won't be long!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas!

One of Grandma Kathy's friends gave Bella this great bouncy chair. It bounces and vibrates, she really likes it.

Here's our smiley girl in her new chair!

Aunt Laura's making me giggle!

This is us with the Adam's brothers and sister. (Laura, Ben, their son Oliver, Ethan, Claire, Bella, and Adam)

Here's a nice family picture from Christmas.

And here is Bella with me, Aunt Laura, and cousin Oliver!

We had such a wonderful time and hopefully we'll get some pictures of time spent with Claire's family soon too!

Merry Christmas

2007-12-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

This is Isabella Marie! She is three months old now and is a joy to have for a daughter! It is amazing to see her grow every day. She loves looking at mom and dad's faces, playing on the floor, watching TV, taking baths and dancing; she's not so fond of tummy time though! She has also become an expert at pooping right through her clothes (usually at church on Sunday mornings)! Bella got a Christmas gift from one of our friends and we thought she would look cute in the bag. So here she is, the perfect present! She's wearing daddy's hat too! I am looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone and sharing pictures of our family with you. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!