The United States of "Camerica"

During the Olympics, Bella loved running her OSU flag around the house and yelling, "THE UNITED STATES OF CAMERICA!"

On the opening night, we made cupcakes with red, white & blue sprinkles, and watched the ceremony on TV. Bella thought that we were going to go to the ceremony and take all of those people our cupcakes!

Her favorites were any gymnast that was wearing pink..."I want the pink one to win," and Michael Phelps. She kept seeing Michael Phelps on TV, in the newspaper, and then she would hear his name on the radio, and say in amazement, "MOMMY! They are talking about MICHAEL PHELPS!" It was as if he was her new best friend.

Bella being a gymnast:

Goodbye House!

We just moved! We are so excited about our new house, but we'll be sad to leave this house full of memories.

We built it...

And almost 5 years ago to the day, we moved in!

Then, a little over a year later, we brought our first baby girl home to it...

In amazement, we watched as she walked all the way across the living room from Daddy to Mommy at 10 months old...

For that baby girl's first birthday, her Daddy lovingly built a HUGE playset for her in the backyard... (we'll really miss this!!!)


Just a little before Bella's second birthday, we found out she would be a big sister. We were thrilled when we found out it was another sweet girl!

And before we knew it, we were bringing her home...

And here we are just a little over a year after that, saying goodbye to our home that holds such special memories. Goodbye sweet home!

Bella and Lucy's final"stage" performance:
Bella insisted that since she was going to miss the house so much, she should give it a kiss:
We are loving our new house, and since we think we'll be here "forever," we're sure to have lots of great memories here too!

They are so sweet to each other...

...especially when one of them is holding a bag of goldfish.

All Better

Bella's ear tube surgery went very well. She did seem to be in more pain immediately after the surgery this time. She was crying and crying saying her ears hurt. Finally, they gave her some stronger pain medication, but it wasn't until we got home that she stopped crying. She was begging us to put in her ear drops. She normally hates them, but she must have thought they would help her pain (even though they aren't for pain). So we finally did the ear drops, and that seemed to do the trick. Actually, she never cried or complained once the whole day after that. Lucy came over and gave her a hug, or "guck" as she calls it, and that helped cheer Bella up too.

Seems Like Yesterday...

Since Bella wasn't blogged about until she was 2, I thought it would be fun to look back at her when she was Lucy's age (14 months). She had more teeth and more, darker hair, and she was a little bit shorter than Lucy. Our pediatrician joked that Lucy is WNBA height. Where she gets her height is a bit of a mystery! I do see a resemblance in the two girls, but I'm surprised when people think they look "exactly" alike.

In the last picture she was smelling the flowers my mom brought her after she got her first set of ear tubes. Tomorrow, she goes in for set number THREE! Please keep her in your prayers, as we think it will be a little harder on her this time. She will know what is going on a lot more than she did the previous two times since she is older.

Splash Park Fun

Sleeping Beauty

There is something so beautiful about kids when they are sleeping. Of course, as a mother, it usually means a bit of a break, but I'm not even talking about that aspect of it. I went in to Bella's room to wake her up from a nap. She is in the in-between stages of needing a nap and not needing one. On the days she does take one, it is late, and we usually have to wake her up so bedtime isn't entirely ruined. I just couldn't help but take her picture because she looked so sweet.