Bella 11/12

Handmade Minnie Mouse Bow

I'm am so excited! My friend Denise, makes these incredible hair bows for little girls!!!

She made my little Bella one for her birthday party! Take a look...

Look at how clever this bow is. Its a two in one!

She does an amazing job at designing new styles and will even do custom work! The one here was a custom bow! Her prices are crazy reasonable!!

designsbydeniseb.com

Follow her on Facebook!

My little Minnie

This is my favorite time of year with all the holiday's back to back, starting with Halloween and finishing with New Year's.


I missed Halloween this year. I missed pumpkin farms, pumpkin carving, trick or treating and all the cute costume ideas. There was even a few projects I wanted to accomplish that never got started. I was really looking forward to it this year, but I am still in the hospital. No signs of labor. We (the baby and I ) are still on bed rest. I made it to 31 weeks! My water broke three weeks ago.

I just hope I am out of here by Thanksgiving.
Here is what I missed.....

Bella's First Hair Cut



Halloween

Isn't she cute!



Bella's aDORAble 2nd Birthday!

It's been very busy this past month and this is a little delayed. When I went to download the pictures, I realized I didn't have very many and the ones I did have came out blurry. Bummer, but the children had a wonderful time, and that was my goal.

The theme was Princess Dora!

I got her cake from Target. They were the only one's I could find that had Dora Princess.

I also made Dora the Explorer cupcakes! I found the idea and dora template at Nickjr.com. They are not as easy as the tutorial make it out to be.

I got the Dora Picture here. 

The royal invitation I got here! I used photoshop to resize and insert party information.

Bella awaiting the opening of her presents! I made her birthday dress!

Each child got to bring home their own Dora Backpack filled with a crayon roll up, princess wand, and a maraca. I printed some Dora coloring pages and rolled them up like the map!

For the party snacks a served a Taco Bread Casserole with all the toppings, as well as some queso and a taco dip. The theme was fiesta in honor of Dora!

She was so excited for all her gifts!

She enjoyed eating her cake and ice cream while playing tea party in the "Explorer Room". The Explorer Room was suppose to be an obstacle course set up for the little ones. We started with Puzzle Bridge. I used her bridge slide and decorated it with cut out felt puzzle pieces. They really enjoyed that. Next was Butterfly Forest. I used a inflatable ball pit and covered it with a green felt sheet. I attached butterflies to the sheet. Finally, there was the Castle, which I used her doll house. The enjoyed the Puzzle Bridge the most!

It was so much fun!

Kidney Stones are like being in labor!

My daughters birthday was on Saturday! It was so great and everyone had such a good time and when I get around to it I will post all about it with pictures. On Saturday evening, around 7:30, I started getting these sharp burning pains in my right lower back. It was excruciating!! One of the worst pains I ever felt. We decided to let Bella stay with her Grandparents that evening because I wasn't feeling so well. The pains continued and I'm not sure why I did wait so long but finally at 10:45 we went to the hospital. I hate going to the ER. I always feel like its filled with people who were just to lazy to pick up the phone and make an appointment. The pain had slowly gotten worse through out this time. I could barely give the triage nurse my information without moaning and grinding my teeth! As they put an IV in me and I laid down on the bed the pain went away. I felt real silly because I hadn't even seen the doc yet.

"This is why I didn't want to come, I knew the pain would go away." I whispered to my husband. (Looking back at how much pain I was in and for how long, I no longer think it was silly.)

The doc came in and said they think its kidney stones and they were going to do a CT of my belly.

I went to give them a urine sample and sure enough there was the stone at the bottom of the cup. I had passed it. It was a huge sucker! The CT was clear of any more stones and I was able to go home. I was hoping that would be the end of it, right? NOPE!

Monday, I woke up feeling awful with aches and pains, chills and a fever of 102.7. I took some mortin and laid in bed all day. Yesterday, I got a call from the hospital saying I have an infection. Not good.

Today, the aches, pains and fever are still here! Ugh even after 24 hours of antibiotics. If this doesn't get better by tomorrow I am going back to the ER.

The worst part of all this is not the excruciating pain, although it was like being in labor or worse, I miss my Bella. She has been at her grandparents all week!

I really hope I feel better soon and this is not something more serious!

On the bright side, at least I made it through Bella's Second Birthday Party.

Just when you feel like you got this mommy thing down

I'm waiting for the ball to drop. Do you ever have those moments when you think "I'm a good Mom, I've got this down!"? Many of us have felt that proud moment when you don't feel like you are doing everything wrong for once. Just as you start to feel amazing something happens, an accident, a massive tantrum that can't be controlled, a mommy monster moment...

Well, lately I feel on top of it. My Bella and I have been getting along very nicely. Although, she doesn't always listen we seem to have a better understanding of one another. My patience really hasn't been tested in a couple of days. Usually she is doing everything in her power to destroy the house. Rarely does she listen at all, and finds joy in doing the exact opposite of what I ask, typical toddler.
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I'm waiting for it. That moment that is going to break this great winning streak...

She has been such a sweatheart!

My little Rock Star!

I found these picture taken not that long ago. They make me laugh!

Party favors!

I started planning Bella's second birthday party early this year... real really, like 4 months. I had a lot of ideas and didn't want to be overwhelmed at the last minute.

In preparation for the party, I created these aDORAble explorer backpacks! They fit on my daughter perfectly! I created one for every child attending as a party favor goody bag.

I created the whole thing with felt. I used the Backpack and Map Template to create the facial details. I designed the shape and straps myself on a piece of paper.

I hope the kids get a kick out of them!

Sticky suckers and Mickey Ears!

It's been a while since I have posted and that is partially due to our family vacation. Last week we went to Walt Disney World!! It was so much fun, and thanks to my wonderful parents who are part of the Disney Vacation Club, our stay was free! We stayed at the tree house villas in the Disney's Saratoga Springs resort. They were beautiful! Nestled in a private forest setting far from any other vacationer we enjoyed our own tree bedroom retreat. Dinning, living and full stock kitchen included. Even the deck we walked out to had a nice patio set and grill!

Bella did pretty good on the plane ride there. She fussed a bit, she hates being in one place for too long. When we landed we took the Magical express provided by Disney when you stay in any of there resorts. We settled in and that evening we went to Downtown Disney to take care of some shopping! Bella fell in love with this Minnie Mouse purse and she couldn't put it down. Of course she got it! We enjoyed some live entertainment while the girls, Bella and her cousin Olivia showed off their moves!

Magic Kingdom...

Bella didn't enjoy the rides as much as I though she would. In fact, she was anxious with most of them. It was a long day and we started out late so there wasn't enough time to come back to the tree house to squeeze in a nap so we had to stick it out like a marathon to make in to the Electrical parade. It was difficult but the entire day was worth it when we say the excitement on Bella's face during the electrical parade!! It was so joyous I nearly cried.

Animal Kingdom!

This was Bella's favorite park, and I think the most appropriate considering her age. She loves animals and this was the place to see them. The Kilimanjaro's Safari Expedition was awesome. We say a giraffe up close just chillin on the side of the rode.. so cool! The adults (Luis, my Dad and I) got to ride the new Mt. Everest ride that was pretty intense! We also enjoyed a african dance... that's the video. Luis, Bella and I went back later on in the week and also enjoyed The Festival of the Lion King which Bella also enjoyed.!

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Epcot

Bella did not join Luis and I at Epcot. She stayed back with her grandparents. We enjoyed Mission Space and Test Track and traveled around the world in the World Showcase.. my favorite! We wanted to have dinner somewhere different... say Morocco but in the end we settled for American food. We also got the opportunity to enjoy the night time show... Illuminations!

By the pool

One of Bella's favorite parts of the vacation was the pool and sprinkle park at each of the resorts we stayed at( Saratoga Springs and Animal Kingdom Lodge in Kidani Village) The Kidani village pool and sprinkle park was amazing!!