Celebrating one year

It has officially been a year since Bella joined our family and I still can't believe it. It has been so much fun (and a lot of work), but I wouldn't have it any other way. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to be her mother and I love every minute of it.

Bella is the cutest little girl and she still amazes me daily. She is walking like a pro now. Usually she prefers not to crawl. She loves to laugh and even when she's not in the best mood you can still get her to smile if you're goofy enough. She loves to eat and likes to eat whatever anyone else is eating. She is still fairly small (we'll have an official update on that later in the week) for her age, but it just makes her all the more cute. She loves playing outside especially with her friends. Today she got to have a party with a bunch of her friends and Grandma Sue, Papa and Aunt Kellie. Then got to go out to dinner with Grandma Rogerson and Papi. She had a lot of fun being the center of attention (she usually is the center of attention, but today it was over the top). She had a special #1 cake decorated by Aunt Kellie of which she promptly ate all the frosting off. Surprisingly she still had a pretty good nap and then got to play with her buddy Maddy. All in all it was a pretty fun day.

Bella is our little present.

We got to see Bella's buddy Tucker today. He's about 6 months YOUNGER than Bella.

Bella had so much fun with her cake. Thanks Aunt Kellie for making it look good.

She LOVED the frosting.

The kids had fun at their own table. And here's Isaac, just one of the kids... he also provided some slapstick comedy for us.

So nice to see all our friends.

Here's a little video of Bella being silly while I was trying to take her picture. Aunt Kellie was being silly so Bella followed suit.

Bella is our little sugar-britches and we are so lucky to have her in our family. We love you, Bella.

sun shiny day

We went to the fountain downtown with a bunch of friends on Monday. Bella had fun in her new bathing suit, water socks and cover up. She didn't really like the splashing water, but it was nice to get out and enjoy the sun.Here's one of Bella's favorite friends, Lizzy. I'm not exactly sure what she's pointing to...?

The kids all had so much fun.

playing peek-a-boo

Bella loves to play peek-a-boo with me while I'm doing homework. It's not very convenient for me, but she thinks it's great. She loves to see what I'm doing on the lap top. She's figured out that the best way to get a look at the screen is by pulling the screen straight backward. You can see her little fingers on the top of the screen getting ready to pull it.

To the zoo...

Bella, Kellie and I went up to Portland on Saturday and went to the zoo with the Rubys and the Taylors. It was so much fun. We even got a year pass so we can go back whenever we want once we move up there. Here are some of the highlights...

Bella had fun checking out this log. It's actually a slide, but Bella didn't go through it. This is one of the things that makes this zoo so much fun, they have all these neat little fun things for kids to discover.

Here's Aunt Kellie and Bella getting wet by the waterfall. If you look closely you can see a fish "swimming" by Bella's head... it's a fake fish...

The bears were pacing back and forth in front of the window. Bella watched them until we finally pulled her away.

She's amazed.

Brindy told us that we HAD to have a picture of Bella on this tractor. Who am I to argue, here it is.

Whoa boy... get along little doggies...

This sheep was cracking us up. We thought it was funny that he was napping ON the barrel.

As soon as we walked up to this window the Polar Bear came right over to greet us. He showed us some of his tricks and then swam away. It was very cute.

"Look, Aunt Kellie, this bear is sooo tall."

This picture cracks me up. She's got a great look on her face. And I still love these shoes. Thanks Jen and Anton!

The giraffe wasn't very entertaining, all he did was eat. Can't he do some tricks for us?

Bella just liked the bars on the giraffe surround. I think she also liked the taste of the bars. That's right, she licked the bars... nasty!

After tasting the bars she didn't want to get back into her stroller. We figured that if she's not going to ride in it, then she has to push it.

We stopped by to see the meerkats. Here's the lookout. Keeping an eye on things.

I swear this one is NOT dead. It sure looked like it though. We just had to stay and watch it until it moved, just to be on the safe side.

Don't worry Bella, sit back, relax, put your feet up. I'll get you where you need to go.

We had to walk a long way to see the elephants, but seeing the new baby elephant was worth it. It was pretty cute and was licking the pole. He and Bella should hang out, they have a lot in common.

At the end of the day Bells was pretty tired. Here she is hanging with her squirrel buddy.

All in all it was a really good day. I'm glad we'll be able to go back when ever we want. Bella was so tuckered out she fell asleep as soon as we pulled out of the parking lot.

What a great day!

Today was a pretty great day. It was my first official Mother's Day. I was excited to spend the day with my little girl. It has been a great year getting to know her. She certainly makes all the hard work worth it. The cherry on the top of today was that Bella decided it was time to start walking. It seems that she likes to wait until Sunday to get moving. She started crawling on a Sunday and then she did this today. For the last week or so she's been taking sporadic steps here and there, but never walked with the purpose to get somewhere. Today in Sacrament, she decided that she wanted to get going and she took off. It was pretty funny to watch her. She was a little amazed at what she was doing (and what can I say, so was I). One of our friends was sitting behind us and she ask 'when did this happen?' concerning Bella's new ability. And I was like 'right now, this is a first.' We were in awe. Here she is in the hallway.

Another pretty great thing we got to do today was to talk with my brother, Elder Horrocks. It was so neat to hear him in person, even though we get e-mails every week. I realized that when I read his e-mails I hear his voice reading them. But even so, it's just not the same. We got to talk to him for quite a long time (his companion wasn't competing for phone time because he's serving in his home town and often runs into people that he knows and it's his last month on his mission so he let Grant have his time). I think it was one of Dusty's gifts to me for Mother's Day that he let me talk on the phone so long without having to worry about Bella.

It was fun to hear about the little things that he hadn't told us yet. One of those things was that he got very sick his third day in the Dominican Republic and actually had to go to the hospital. He didn't want my Mom to worry, so he didn't tell us. But I guess enough time has passed that it's a funny story now. That and I think he learned his lesson (don't eat food from street vendors) so he's betting that he won't get the same thing again. It was also fun to hear him interact with the guys that he lives with. There are four of them in the house, two from Utah and then Grant and his Dominican companion. They even sang a song in Spanish for us. Most of the time Grant was being his goofy self, so I guess even though he's a missionary now, he's still the same ol' Grant.

After talking for so long, it was hard to say good bye and get off the phone. But I know that he's having a great time over there and doing the work that he needs to be doing, so it's all worth it. We are so proud of him the the choices that he's made to lead him to where he is today. I know he's making a real difference in the lives of the people in the DR. 5 months down, 19 months to go!

Moving Day is coming...

We finally heard that we got our new apartment in Portland. We will be moving into some apartments that some of our friends live in. And we are excited to live near them again. We are not, however, remotely happy to be having to pack up all of our crap (trust me, we have a lot of it) or to be leaving all the friends we've made here. We'll be in Corvallis until after graduation and then we're out of here! I'll be sending out our new address soon, but if you don't hear from us and you need it just get me an e-mail.

Baby Steps

Bella is now a speed crawler. Fast as fast can be, we are having a hard time catching her. One good thing is that when we call her she actually comes to you... if she wants to. The last week or so, she's been taking itty bitty steps one at a time before falling down. Today she made it up to 3 steps. I figure by next week she'll be running around the house. We'll keep you posted.