THANKS isn't enough!!!!

As I mentioned in the previous post I have been working a lot lately and that means we have had to find someone to watch Bella on the weekends when Tim and I worked and until Tim can get home from work during the week.

We have been truly blessed between family and friends since I have gone back to work I have always been able to leave Bella Raye in loving arms! That means the world to me and makes going to work a little easier!

She usually is on a weekend (when we work) rotation between Lebanon and my parents! Last weekend she spent Friday and Saturday day with Aunt Suzi, Uncle Ernie and Wyatt where she is constantly entertained and then as Suzi puts it Grandma kidnapped her for the night and they brought her home after church on Sunday! Monday she spent the night with Grammy J and Papaw and then spent Tuesday with Aunt Rachel who usually every weeks spends one of her days off with Bella! I know this is special time for both of them! Grammy J had her this afternoon for us. As you can tell sometimes we need a guide to keep us straight where and when she is going.

My moms work schedule in the summer has been willing to work around my work schedule which has been a HUGE help! When we return from MI I am back to a search each week as to where Bella will go when we work.

During the school year I had much help from friends: Sara Landis, Sarah Gray, Cathy and the kids, Molli, and Ann. Thank you to all of you who have offered I am sure that if the schedule works I will ask!

We are also looking into a Mother's Day Out Programs and or a Butler Student coming over a couple days a week for the Fall!

Again Tim and I can't tell how lucky we are that each of you are in our lives and want to help and spend time with Bella!!!

THANK YOU!!!!!

All By Myself

"Look mom, I don't need no stinkin' help!!!"

Bella and I are in desperate need of some mommy and Bella time! I have had to work the last 5 of 6 days but it will be worth the next 12 days I have off! YIPEE!!!! She has her 3rd bottom tooth breaking through and has been really clingy. When I was putting my make-up on today she was using me as a jungle gym. Thank goodness Grammy J got there and scooped her up and she just watched me finish getting ready!

Anyways she has become a Little Miss Independent Girl and wants to do EVERYTHING on her own!

I thought baby food was sloppy but she about needs a bath after every meal now! Which I guess is partly my fault because I do let her do it own her own most of the time!

Showered with Love

Alli, Alex Marie and Sarah

Saturday I went to a shower for Sarah. It was a lovely gathering of her family and close family girlfriends! I was glad that I was included in the celebration! I guess all my shopping for Bella has paid off b.c I won the Baby Shower Price Is Right game, although the other winner was a 22 year old with no kids so I am not sure that says much! It was lots of fun though and lots of yummy food!

I can't believe Little Libby will be here in a few shorts weeks! We are getting very excited to meet her!!!!

HAPPY 8th BIRTHDAY, Jackson!!!!

We hope you had a wonderful birthday! We hope you got to play lots and have everything you wanted! We hope to celebrate with you soon!

I can't believe the little man is 8...since I nannied for him since he came home from the hospital! He was the size that Bella is in this picture.

I do miss spending my days with the Kirk kids...they were like my 2nd family and trained me well for mommyhood!!!

Never-the-less HAPPY BIRTHDAY,Buddy!!!

PS Sorry I am a little late posting I am way behind on my post!!!! I am glad I did get to wish you a Happy Birthday on the 18th!

Stealing Kisses....

Bella has started giving these big "soap opera" kisses! It is soo sweet yet she has already learned to be stingy with giving them away, although the baby in the mirror always seems to get one!

I finally got a picture of her doing it! Too cute if I do say so myself!

Date Night

We have been so lucky when we work that we have many friends and family more than willing to help with Bella! I can't thank all of you enough and we know how lucky we are !

Yesterday I had a eye Dr appt in the afternoon so my mom met us for lunch after music gymboree and then took Bella home with her to spend the night!

SOO, Tim and I got a date out!!! We used a very generous gift card to the Melting Pot that tim had got for his birthday and found a free Chocolate fondue on-line so we had a wonderful dinner on a very low budget! ( pinching pennies these days due to stupid property taxes) Always makes the date a little better when you get a good deal!!! We enjoyed talking and laughing with NO interruptions over dinner which took more than2 hours but we were in no hurry so it was perfect! It was a super yummy dinner and a our ying yang dessert fondue was to die for!!!

We love spending time with Izabella but it was very nice to have Tim and Alli time too! We are going to try and make more of a habit of having dates!!!

THANKS mom and dad for watching Bella for us, we know she had tons of fun!!!

Nothing is safe....

Bella is into EVERYTHING!!!!

Checking out my bathing suits that I won't be seen in anytime soon!
Trash can junkie..
Needed a laugh...checking out how the funnies taste!!!

As you can tell she is keeping us on our toes...no stopping Bella and she knows how to get mad when you take it away from her!

Look At Me.....

Look at me...I pulled myself up!

We dropped her mattress weeks ago and it is about touching the floor now. Thank goodness!

" Is that you mom?"

Each day Bella has a new trick up her sleeve! She makes Tim and I laugh all the time! She has learned my "bird call" ( when I roll my tongue to try and get her attention) that is what Tim calls it. Poor baby I have been doing it to her every time I want her to look at the camera, which is a lot!!!

It is so funny to hear her mimic us!

Today I took her to a preview class at Gymboree. She had a lot of fun and was keeping up with the big kids as old as 16 months. Wednesday we are going to preview the music class and see which one we like best to sign her up for in the fall.

Bella in a Box

Yes, even 10months old love boxes more than toys!

Yesterday we met daddy for lunch and then got to see and visit with many of daddy's friends at work! ( Jennifer sorry we missed you...we will make sure we are back again soon) Last night Bella went to Auntie Sara's to have some girl time and chase Sox their cat around when Tim and I went to Mudsocks Grill with Sarah and Jason. Mudsocks is a new restaurant opening in the Carmel/Noblesville area, we sat on the patio and it was a beautiful evening for a good visit with friends and good food too!

Today we played with Bella all morning and afternoon...we are having so much fun watch her just absorb everything around right now! We also bought Bella a big girl car seat today...we will keep you posted on her new ride! Then we went to the Boyett's for a cookout. Ernie's mom and niece Courtney were visiting from Fl!

Play Date...

Mommies and Babies...how much fun!
Fallyn...the leader of the pack...showing off her new tricks!

Amy, Emily and Claire hosted another fun play date on Thursday! Bella was worn out after 2 hours of playing and crawling all over the place including all over mommy! She was sound asleep by the time we got out of the subdivision!
When we got home I headed to work and Bella had fun with Grammy J until daddy got home!

Nothing....

Most of the time our family is full of numerous plans around our crazy work schedules! Which is just fine because we like to be busy and social, although we love doing nothing too! Anyways...after working 3 days in a row and one of those days being a 16 hour day I was ready to do NOTHING! That is exactly what we did yesterday and today! We had lazy mornings of playing, keeping Bella out of things, laughing and staying in our pj's! Yesterday we were bumming around the house all day until we got to go to Grammy J and Papaw Stafford's to celebrate Papaw's birthday! Grammy J cooked a yummy meal with Papaw's favorite Flank Steak and this delicious brownie and fruit dessert! It was a great celebrations for a wonderful Dad and Papaw!!!

This morning we were lazy again until we decided to hit the Y around noon and then Olivia and her cousin met us there to play with Bella! We had lots of fun on a not-so- crowded day! We came home Bella napped and I worked on my forever to-do list! When daddy got home we went on the monon for a nice walk on a perfect evening! We stopped at the Canterbury park along the way. From the pictures below you can tell we all had lots of fun!

Home for a good and healthy dinner where we all sat around the dinner table together. Bath, Stories and Bed!
My perfect days...enjoying time with my family!!!!

Family Fun at the Park!!!

Double Digits!!!

Bella Raye is 10 months old today!!!!

She has learned to make messes

and bigger messes!!! She pulls her baskets of toys out by herself!

No matter what it is she loves to dump everything out and explore it all!!!
She loves her books!


She is pulling herself on everything she can!
Crawling here and there

and EVERYWHERE!

As you can tell Peyton is trying to help me keep an eye on her!!!

HOLY COW!!!! Where is the time going?

This has been quite a busy month for all us and speaking of busy that is exactly what Bella Raye is these days! She is making it very hard to get anything else done but be with her because she is on the go and into everything! I have had lots of fun just sitting back and watching her explore and discover new things! She is having lots of fun too! Right after she turned 9 months old she started crawling backwards and would get stuck and frustrated that she couldn't figure out how to move forward. Then she got it a couple weeks ago but didn't start the crawling where ever she wanted until last weekend! We really need to get our house baby proof...it is a daily chore right now! She loves all the trash cans so they are on top of things right now.

She says mama, dada and baba.

She still is a great sleeper goes down around 9pm and isn't up until 9am. Still takes 2 - 2 hour naps a day but I am thinking about trying to combine that into one big afternoon nap soon!

Eating is becoming more of a chore for us. I can't get her to eat baby food but she isn't picking on the people food we give her just wants to be Miss Independent so it is hard to measure how much she is getting! Down to taking 3 bottles a day and drinks juice from her cup with her meals. We do enjoy taking her out to eat and ordering things off the menu for her. Last weekend we did pancakes from Bob Evans without butter or syrup and at Qdoba she had a little cheese quesadilla with guacamole and black beans.

As always we are having tons of fun and loving every minute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Papaw Stafford!!!!!

We can't wait to celebrate with you tonight!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday!!!

Love,

Tim, Allison & Izabella Raye

Playing....

Bella and Beckett

played for hours togethereven took a bath before they both crashed hard!

JR and Tim got to play golf too!

Thursday afternoon the Mize family were in town all the way from Charlotte, NC. We were thrilled to get to spend the day together! We all just played all day and night!!! The boys had a tee-time that they were off to and Gretchen and I played mommy catch-up over a few Gin Slushies! It was amazing to watch Bella and Beckett interact. Too cute!

The Fedor family joined us for a great cookout, smores and fireworks in the evening. We had so much fun catching up and visiting...just like old times! We wish that Mize family lived closer!!!

Zoshia....

Thursday night Joe and Carrie brought over their new little one, Zo. She is beautiful and has her daddy's nice dark complexion and a perfect little button nose. She too slept most of their visit except when she was hungry.

Joe and Carrie are doing wonderful with little Zo. We are so glad we finally go to meet her and have a nice visit with Joe and Carrie!

Gavin....

Last Tuesday Tim and I took dinner to the McCall family so we could meet their new little man, Gavin! I planned on holding him the whole time we were there so they could enjoy dinner but he slept! So I insisted before we left to get my little baby fix out of the way and get my hands on him! He is just perfect! You forget how little the start out and in a blink of an eye they are 10 months!

4th Celebrations....

Bella's First 4th of July

(as you can tell she has already learned to point with the "right" finger...such a smart girl!)
Bella sitting with Wyatt watching the parade and wanting some of those chips!

Anyone recognize that smooth old Pontiac?
Hint....our wedding

Aren't they cute!?!
The girls cooling off after a HOT parade!
Aunt Rachel, Aunt Suzi, Bella Raye and Mommy

Tim and I beat Suzi and Ernie to move onto the finals in the corn hole tournament!

Grammy J and Papaw came to celebrate too...Yeah!

Playing in the pool with cousin Wyatt and Konlie.

I couldn't resist taking this picture of Bella through the window just thought she looked too cute!

As you can see we had a very busy 4th of July! Tim's family always has a big family and friends reunion in Lebanon on the 4th! We start out with many yummy appetizers before the parade. Then we walk to the Killin's house ( hot spot to watch the parade, they even paint the fire hydrant outside their house patriotic in honor of the 4th) where we get to visit and see many family friends and see how much all the kids have grown. There is always a good showing in the parade although Tim was disappointed in the LHS band size...guess they have all caught to the Band Geek. Bella loved watching everything at the parade she was a little startled by the sirens but with someone holding her did just fine!

Then back to the house for huge spread ... I mean huge spread through 3 rooms of the house, family meeting, 50/50 drawing and added new this year a family corn hole tournament! Where Tim and I came in runners up to Austin and Jessie!

We then headed to some high school friends of Tim's house to watch the beautiful display of fireworks. Bella was not bothered by them at all in fact was so worn out from the day she fell asleep half way through them!

It was a day full of lots of fun!

Our Little American Beauty...

HAPPY 4th Of JULY!!!!

What a wonderful 4th of July we shared with family and friends all day!

We hope that you were all able to celebrate and appreciate all the wonderful freedoms we have as American's with your friends and family too!

We are so thankful to all the men and women who are currently and have served in to protect our country! THANK YOU!

More pictures of our days events to come!

All Aboard the Zoo Train...

We had lots of fun on the zoo train too!

Bella's favorite thing was to stand up and watch the tracks go by!
Choo Choooooo.......

The Chair...

Isn't Nate just great!?!

We went over to his sisters for a play date and lunch last Tuesday and it was so much fun watching her twins, Emerson and Campbell, Nate's daughter, Elin and Bella interact! Even though Bella was quite fussy and ended up with a temperature. ( just a 24 hour bug or teeth, because I took her to the Dr Wednesday and she was fine)
They had just bought this fun chair for some photo shoots! Nate threw this chair in the back yard minutes before a storm rolled in and these were a few of the shots.

Emerson and Campbell will be one on the 7th....aren't they the cutest!!!!