Belle meets Belle

When we were in Ohio about a month ago, we went to Duck Duck Goose, a little children's boutique. They have tons of cute stuff and this visit just happen to be during their birthday celebration. They had Belle from Beauty and the Beast for the kids to meet. Belle was less than interested, but I thought it was neat that Belle got a picture taken with Belle.

I look like I'm striking some sort of model pose. I don't know what happened there.

Fun with the Macbook

Belle wasn't feeling good this morning and all she wanted to do was sit on my lap. Of course my laptop is pretty much attached to me, so it was on the couch with us. We had a little fun with the photo booth program.

Feeling crappy, but amused that she can see herself in the computer.


Look, I can see my hand moving


Giving "the look"


Now this is just weird

Do you think we should trust her on this thing?

Mom and Dad dug out a horse similar to this one and has kept it at their house. Belle LOVES it. My mom rode it, Sara and I rode it, now Belle is?

Well Nic found this horse at a garage sale to have at our house. Its a little different in that it has a frame that comes up around the horse and the springs are looser. The movement of the horse goes a lot farther.

Belle has a blast on it, but you really have to watch her. (ignore Nic in the background, for some reason I couldn't upload the file where I got rid of the sound)

Insurance sucks!

Would Universal Health Insurance be that bad? No, I don't think it is the answer, but I'm infuriated with the issue of health insurance.

Why am I so mad? Nic's employer whom I won't name (though a lot of you guys know) has changed their insurance offerings that will be effective in 09. Now the company is selling it to their employees as the next greatest thing, but I am not buying it. Sure its great if you don't get sick, but with kids it's just not practical.

Right now we've got the normal PPO (co-pays and deductibles). In 2009 we will be forced to go to a Consumer Based plan. Here is how it works. The company pays $300 for preventive care, then we pay a $400 individual / $800 family deductible. Once that is met, the company pays $1000 individual / $2000 family, and then we have ANOTHER deductible. THEN the insurance is 80/20. With a total out of pocket being $3500 individual / $7000. RIDICULOUS.

Why is it that a company making record profits can't take better care of their employees? Why aren't more people mad about this? Is it just me?

I have several other issues that I have with this company and their policies. But I guess in I could look at it another way, atleast we have insurance and atleast Nic has a job.

Its really coming down to companies not appreciating or valuing their employees. Its happening all to much. I've experienced it, Nic's experienced it and so has my dad. Sad but true and there is really nothing we can do about it.

We survived!

Well we did survive camping. We had a good time over all, but I'm not jumping up and down to go again any time soon. Belle really enjoyed the new surroundings. She found the dirt, sticks and rocks much more entertaining than any of the toys we brought.

The weather: It was cold, but not unbearable (except early mornings). Belle didn't seem to notice the weather at all. Her love for her hat and mittens didn't last long though, but she was usually bundled up with 2 or 3 layers of clothes. Early mornings were rough because Belle gets up between 5 & 6 and at that time its down right frigid.

The food: It was fun just sitting around by the fire eating those foods we usually only get when we go camping. Stuff like Pizza Pockets, Sausage & Potatoes, Chili dogs, & Apple Pies.

Feeding Belle was a different story. She would not eat. She usually likes to eat breakfast early so we brought waffles to make her. The only problem is that we forgot the toaster. Her other breakfast option was scrambled eggs, but she wouldn't eat them made in the microwave. And going outside, building a fire, just to cook an egg she probably wouldn't eat, wasn't an option. So what did we do? We fed her Teddy Grahams. Yes I know it wasn't the best idea, but it worked.

Belle's eating problems continued throughout the weekend. She refused her favorite, a grilled cheese sandwich, and anything else we offered her. She'd eat part of any baby food jar we'd offer her, but for the most part she stuck with drinking milk. This morning when we were packing up, Nic was cleaning out the cooler. We had stored a grilled cheese sandwich there.(we had intended on warming it up later). Nic sat it off to the side and went to do something else. Belle found it and started eating this ice cold sandwich. Gross!! Sometimes its hard to understand that girl.

The sleeping arrangments: We slept in Nic's parents pop-up instead of our tent. We slept 3 across on one side. For the most part Belle stayed parrellel with us. She was quite the nice cuddle buddy. It got pretty cold at night (despite the heater we had in the pop-up) so I'm sure she was cuddling up for warmth. The last night we decided to sleep with our heads towards the middle instead of towards the end of the pop-up in an effort to stay warm. It worked, but we woke up to a thud and a scream last night. Belle had scooted her pillow off the end of the bed and fell off. She calmed down with a quick hug and a paci and went back to sleep.

This was quite an experience, but it was fun. I didn't take many pictures because I didn't want to take my hands out of my pockets very often.

Here is a pic of one of Belle's new looks. We're seeing this one a lot.

We're going camping!

Yes, we're going camping in this cold weather. We like going when its cooler, but this will be the first time with Belle. While I enjoy camping and just lounging around the fire, eating and doing nothing, I'm afraid our time will be spent running after Belle and keeping her out of the fire.

I was a little worried that Belle wouldn't like being all bundled up. But we tried her hat and mittens on last night and she looooved it. She screamed when we tried to take them off of her.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories and pictures when we get back. Say a little prayer for us, that we make it through this weekend. Oh and pray that Nic and I get some sleep. We'll be sleeping with Belle in the pop-up along with Nic's parents. Sleeping with Belle is worse than sleeping with our dog, she knows nothing of personal space. =)

Deal or No Deal Tonight!

I'm going to try and go to Ohio early tonight so I can watch Deal or No Deal. The lady who has been cutting my hair for 7 years is on the show. Not as a contestant, but as one of the friends who stand off to the side. It'll be fun to watch someone that I know on a tv show.

So if you watch Deal or No Deal tonight, you can say "Hey, Mandy knows that girl." She's got short hair and is wearing a pink and black shirt, her name is Cindy.

Jump! Jump!

Belle learned two new tricks this weekend. One of which was jumping. It didn't take her long to get the hang of this one. Here's a video.



Her second trick is learning to blow her nose. Which comes in handy now that there seems to be a constant stream coming out of her nose.

Another trip to the zoo

We went to the zoo today with Kelli and Michaela. The weather was perfect, not too cold and certainly not hot. Belle warmed up a little better to the animals this time.

Thanks Kelli and Michaela, we had fun.

As you can see, the girls didn't cooperate well for these photos.

She ate meat!

Belle ate something new again! Granted what she ate wasn't the healthiest, but it was meat and she never eats meat. Nic and I were having sausage biscuits for dinner and I made some sausage links just to see if she'd eat it.

I sat her in her highchair with her sippy and threw a sausage link on her plate fully expecting it to be thrown back at me. Nope she gobbled it all up. Hmmm I wonder if it was just a freak event, cause she's never eaten another PB sandwich since that one time.

Waking for waffles

I'm really missing the days when Belle would sleep in til 7. Here recently she's been getting up in the 5 o'clock hour. I just can't figure it out, but I'm starting to wonder if she's getting up to eat waffles with daddy. Nic eats waffles every morning and when Belle is up she'll help him eat them. Not just your normal waffles either. Nic puts peanut butter along with syrup on his waffles, something I got him hooked on.

And most mornings after she's eaten with Nic, he'll put her back to bed. Which doesn't work with me at all.

A wonderful night of Cheeseburger in Paradise

Kelly and Jamey decided that they would come to Indy this weekend to go to the zoo and we were really excited when they asked if we'd meet them for dinner. We met at Cheeseburgers in Paradise and ate. It was a new restaurant for both of us and it was really good.

Belle must of felt that Jacey wasn't getting enough food because she kept feeding her. Jacey was a good sport and ate whatever it was that Belle kept putting in her mouth. After leaving a huge mess on the floor by our table, we made a run for it and headed to our house.

Once at the house Belle had a good time playing with the girls while we all caught up. We had a good time and it was nice to have someone visit us for a change.

Exploring the bug world

Nic and Belle did some exploring the other night before she went to bed. There seems to be an abundance of crickets in our yard, or maybe we can just see them now that our yard is brown and dead. Belle seemed to have no fear of the bugs until one grabbed hold of her finger, then she was done.

What does the cow say?

Why is it that the sunday school teachers can teach our daughter what a cow says in an hour and a half, but when we've been working on other sounds for months, she's never really picked it up.

On the way home from church Sunday Belle kept moooing. We decided to test her. There was a picture of a cow in her nursery rhyme book and we asked her what a cow said, mooo. There was a cow on a commercial, moo. She certainly knows what a cow says.

Ah look, a baby one!!

I decided to make Belle one of those scarfs. This one was my third attempt and Im still not completely happy with it. I wish it was a little longer and the button was closer to the end. My first one was too long, second too short, this one still not long enough. But Belle kept it on and didn't pull at it so it must not be that bad.

PB and veggie noodles!

I guess its a mom thing, but I got really excited with what Belle ate for dinner tonight. Here recently its been getting harder and harder to feed this girl. Even our standard scrambled eggs and grilled cheese weren't cutting it.

So what did she eat? A peanut butter sandwich (about 1/4 of a sandwich) and about 3/4 cup of veggie noodles with butter and Parmesan cheese. I'm excited about the noodles because she's been a little apprehensive about them, like maybe she knew there were vegetables in them. I love the fact that she likes them with just butter and Parmesan cheese because that means we no longer have to open up a whole jar of Alfredo sauce just to feed Belle.

It's been months since she's eagerly ate something new, so this was very exciting. I'm crazy, I know.

What a cool scarf!

My friend Kelly McQueen sent me a link to a scarf she liked, but the darn thing was $275. I thought it looked really simple to make, so I gave it a shot. This is a picture of the scarf I made for her.

They'll make perfect Christmas presents this year. I'll take orders if anyone wants one. =)

She's a James Blunt fan

Belle was so cute this morning. I was watching Ellen while getting Belle ready to go to Gymboree. She had James Blunt on and as soon as he started singing (his new song 1973), Belle dropped what she was doing and ran to the middle of the room and just started swaying and twirling. It was so cute, any chance to dance and Belle will take it.

My Night in Tech Support Hell!

Well my wonderful Apple Macbook Pro decided to get wacky on me last night. The screen kept blinking. So tonight I called Apple.

So I spent $350 (cause I bought the AppleCare warranty) to fix my computer by deleting one little preference file. Oh but what a trip it was to get there. I spent 1.5hr on the phone with a perfectly nice Indian girl. I could tell we were going round in circles with me constantly having to ask her to repeat herself.

Finally I got an American guy who was a "product specialist" and he knew right away what the problem was. In a matter of 20 minutes my computer was fixed. It was just a matter of deleting a file, but since my screen was blinking, he had to show me how to get to the file in another way.

So Im back to my spot on the couch with my laptop and all is right in the world. =)

Belle's First Trip to the Zoo

We went to the zoo today with Nic's sister Gail, her husband Anthony and her kids Savannah and AJ. We all had a great time.

First off let me say that I was one of those people who looked at those parents who leashed their kids with disgust and said to myself "I'll never put a leash on my kid". And much like my minivan, never say never. This leash was a life saver today. Belle wanted to be out of the wagon and walk just like Savannah and AJ.

Belle only liked to see the animals from afar. First we fed the giraffe. I thought for sure Belle would really enjoy this. But everytime I tried to give her the piece of sweet potato she just wanted to chuck it. She didn't mind getting that close to the giraffe, but I wouldn't say she enjoyed it.

We headed off to the petting zoo where I thought for sure Belle would love to pet the goats. While at the fair this year she was all about petting the goats. But nope, she just clung to Nic and wanted no part of it.

There was a carosel which I looked forward to. Again Belle clung to me for her dear little life, but I think she enjoyed it. After a few trips around I was able to get her to hold the pole.

The zoo had two new exhibits since the last time we went. The dolphin underwater dome, which was really neat. Belle liked looking up and seeing the dolphins swim by. The second exhibit was the Oceans exhibit. There they had dog sharks that you could actually pet. Belle was really interested in getting a look but I don't think it had much to do with the sharks as much as it did the water.

Belle was a trooper all day and didn't get cranky once in spite of the fact that she only had one nap today. We came home ate a grilled cheese, played with AJ and Savannah and was in bed by 6:30. Now lets just hope she sleeps all night and doesn't want to get up at 3:00am like she did this morning.

Tiny Dancer - Part 3

Here is the video as promised. The kids dancing with her thought it would be fun to imitate her and from the looks of it Belle didn't mind.

Help me name this blog

I like my new design, but I don't like the name. If anyone has any clever ideas, please, please share.

A new blog to stalk!!

I finally got Sara to post on the new blog I made her. You'll notice my wonderful design skills. =) Check it out for a suprise! (Well unless you already knew)

Now Im off to redesign my blog, can't have hers looking better than mine.

Embracing my Paleness

I made a realization this weekend, Im really pale. Ok, so I knew that already, but I was really noticing it in pictures this weekend.

Look at the picture of me and Nic. Well he's got a decent tan, something I'll never acquire. But Belle is even darker than me. You can kinda see it in our Colts picture. She got her daddy's complexion, thank God.

I embrace my paleness. Yes, I hate the sun, I admit it. Maybe it's because I just feel my skin frying when it touches it. Maybe it is because I'll never have a tan. Maybe I'll never get skin cancer because I avoid the sun at all costs. Or maybe I'll get it because I'm so pale. Who knows, but I guess being pale is one of those things that makes me different. Cheesy, I know.

GO Colts!!!

Yeah the Colts won!!! Here are some shots of us in our colts gear.

Check out Pulse Creative Partners, Stefan is wearing his jersey everyday until the Colts lose.



Seriously now, I got to stop blogging. I have got to go to bed cause I guarantee Belle is going to wake up anytime. She's sick and hasn't been sleeping well.

Tiny Dancer - Part 2

Well Belle got her chance to dance once again. This time at my cousin Sunie's wedding. It was beautiful, I especially loved the flower arrangement at the altar. Belle and Nic stayed home for the ceremony while Belle took her nap. She was saving up her energy for the dance floor. And she didn't disappoint. VIDEO TO COME!!

(Ok I know this post could be laid out better, but Im tired and don't feel like going back to photoshop and resizing the pics to fit better.)

Belle's first trip to the Indy Children's Museum

We went to the Children's museum on Friday with Kelly and Michaela. We had a great time. Belle loved playing in their playscape area. She especially loved playing in the little house sitting at the table and playing with the fake food.

She endured one bratty little boy when he kept pushing her around the trains. I wanted to just go over and tell that little kid to be nice, but I restrained and just watched. But Belle was so nice she just went back to what she was doing. I wanted so badly to see her just push him to the ground.

She played well with all the kids. For some reason Belle and Micheala just kind ignored each other. There was one incident in the sand area where Belle threw sand in a girls face on accident. I felt really bad, but the girl didn't really mind.

Unfortunately the carosel was down, I was really looking forward to that. I wanted a picture of me and Belle on the Carosel like the picture I have of me, sara and dad when we went so many years ago. Well maybe next time.

*Edited to add* Kelly reminded me of one thing. When going to the museum, remember to take more than one diaper. I had them all sitting in my van, but they never actually made it into the bag. So I changed Belle when we first got to the museum, but during our stay Belle decided to leave me a nice steamy pile. Thank you Kelly for coming to the rescue. I'm forever grateful. Otherwise we would've had a stinky ride home and a nasty rash to deal with.

Bout time!

Im sure Jessica is crazy busy, but that didn't help us from dying of anticipation.

Belle's pics are up. Check them out.

Sara's wedding video!

Ok so we don't have any pictures of Belle yet, but Sara just showed me a little clip of her wedding video. Its really good. Sara thought there were a lot of unflattering shots of her, but all I saw was my slouching. Can we say saggy boobs? In my defense I wasn't able to wear a bra with that dress. =) Where was mom to yell at me and tell me to "stand up straight" when I need her?

And of course there is some cute shots of Belle. And one of he chewing on her hand which is kinda weird looking. =)

Sara's Wedding Video

We're so proud!

I forgot one thing about yesterday that was really funny. Belle is starting to say a few other words other than mommy, dada and no. First she said dog, which sounded more like "da...oog". Well yesterday on the way to the photoshoot we were driving through a not so nice area. Sara was like "Belle this is what we call a ghetto, can you say ghetto?" Sure enough, Belle was like "ge...o"

Ah, we're so proud, that'll look nice in the baby book. =)

Photoshoot today!

Belle had her photoshoot today with Jessica Strickland. We went to the Indianapolis Art Museum.

Belle had just woken up from her nap and was in a really good mood. She was hamming it up, but as time went on, you could tell she was getting tired. All she wanted to do was go explore. It was starting to get hard to get her to smile so we resorted to dancing around singing patty cake and itsy bitsy spider. Im sure we looked like complete dorks.

It was hard to get any pictures with me or Sara holding her too. It was HOT. Im sure any pictures I end up being in, I'll have sweat pouring down my face.

Belle may even have a spot in a Jon McLaughlin music video. There were some guys there shooting the museum grounds for something and asked if they could include us. They didn't ask us to sign any release or anything so Im not sure any of it will actually be used.

So now we wait and hope to see some pictures on Jessica's blog soon. Jessica said she'd email us when she posted them. I kinda just laughed to myself, does she know we constantly stalk her blog? We'll probably see it before she has time to email us. =)

Belle and her animals!

Belle had a lot of fun this weekend, especially with the animals. The cat showed up at the Freshour's and has to be by far the friendliest cat I've ever met. Belle laid on the cat and tried to pick him up and the cat didn't seem to mind. Then she went on to kiss Sam and lay with Jesse. You'll notice that Sadie isn't in any of these pictures because she won't get close enough to Belle to even get a picture.

Photo editing

Here are a couple photos from last weekend.

I never really edit photos, but Rhaya gave me some suggestions and I thought I'd try them out.

Thanks Rhaya!

Bustin a move!

We Met Michaela and Kelli at the Mall

We met Michaela and Kelli at the mall again. The girls are getting so big. Both are walking and running so it was hard for Kelli and I to talk while the girls were playing. But we stuck them in the strollers later and walked around the mall.

Here we are about October 2006


And today


Michaela & Belle (with Michaela's sippy)

The Many Faces of Belle

We had a little photoshoot today. Its funny to see all the faces Belle made.



And she must of thought Sadie's spot looked comfortable.

Toddler + Ice Cream = Sitting Still (priceless!)

We went to Ritters today after Belle's second nap. While we were there, Belle would not be held, would not hold your hand, and wanted nothing more than to run out into the middle of the parking lot (its all outdoor seating). But as soon as we got our ice cream she sat still and waited for each bite.

She had probably the most ice cream she's ever had in her life, which still wasn't a lot. She shared Nic's Peanut Butter Cup sundae with peanut butter sauce and my carmel sundae with nuts. Belle didn't have a preference as long as it was ice cream.

Don't worry, she came home and still ate dinner. She had scrambled eggs, a jar of veggies and played with a banana.

We're in so much trouble

God certainly thought it would be funny to give us quite the handful in Belle. Her newest thing is when we tell her no, she'll look you straight in the eye and say no and shack her finger at you. We don't even shake our finger, where did she get this?

Tubes in and back to normal!

Belle got her tubes today. We went in at 7:00. Belle wasn't aloud to eat so we kept her out of the living room and kitchen so she wouldn't think about asking for anything. Once at the hospital they got us back pretty quickly.

Belle put her gown on, which was way too small in my opinion, and watched Higgly Town Heroes on Disney. She really hated to have her blood pressure taken. But she was given a bear that had the hospital logo on it and that made things a little better.

Once it was time for surgery we walked her to the surgery doors and had to give her over to the nurse. Belle went right into her arms, but had second thoughts when she say that we weren't coming with her. She never cried though.

After about 10 minutes the surgery was done and they kept her for another 15 minutes waiting for the anesthesia to wear off. We heard her crying at that point, but from what we hear she jumped right into the nurses arms and was ready to come back to us. After some hugs from Nic (all she wanted was him) and some apple juice she was ready to go home.

Got Milk!

Just like her mommy, Belle loooves her milk. She was full of tantrums yesterday and I was trying to get by with just giving her water since I give her a ton of milk. Nope Belle really had to have her milk.

Here she is with her milk mustache.

The Pictures are Up!

The pictures are up and of course they are great. Check them out!