A Little Bit of Everything!

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!