High chair

Belle's Gigi and Pap gave her a beautiful high chair for Christmas...since she has been a little small for her age we have kept her in the bumbo to eat her meals.  But, with her friend Elsa here this weekend we needed two places to feed the girls.  Elsa was able to sit in Belle's high chair very well.  This evening Belle enjoyed her first dinner in her high chair.  Thanks Gigi and Pap!

Sweet girl

Belle is such a sweet happy girl! She babbles and smiles all the time!  We are thinking that teeth are right around the corner as she is chewing and drooling everywhere.  This weekend she starting to get a little more fussy than usual.  The bottom teeth are starting to show through and her gums are really swollen.  We hope they break soon.

Weekend with Friends

Our good friends, Linda, Luke and Elsa came for a visit this weekend.  It was the first time that Bri and Luke have gotten to hang out in a long time.  I think they really enjoyed their "man" time playing golf.  The girls headed to Greensboro to have lunch with our sorority sister, Kelly Ryan!  We had such a wonderful time catching up with her!  She is such a sweety and wished we were able to see her more.  Belle and Elsa loved meeting her!

After we had lunch we headed back to have dinner with the guys! We had a yummy cook out and enjoyed some smores for dessert. The girls loved playing together and sharing toys.  Linda and Elsa will be heading to Sweden soon, we are so excited for them to visit all of Linda's family, but will miss seeing them over the next month and half!  But, we are counting down until our joint family beach trip in July!

Congrats Jeremy!

On Saturday evening we heading over to one of my dear sorority sister's house, Ashley to celebrate her husband's graduation.  We loved seeing their house and catching up.  They live in Winston and we don't get to see them too much--but hope to MUCH more!  Belle loved seeing everyone and enjoyed crawling all over Ashley's bedroom.  We waited too late to snap a picture of Belle and Ashley, but next time;)  It was almost passed Belle's bedtime and she was a little fussy for picture time!

Five year anniversary

Last Friday, May 14th was Brian and I's five year wedding annivesary!  So surreal that we were married 5 years ago!  So much in our lives has changed since then.  First jobs, first home, second jobs and second home-some great trips, times with friends and family-two dogs and now our sweet little Belle!  Bri got me a massage and I can't wait to use it!  We also booked a little family beach trip in June to Tybee Island--our favorite beach!  We can't wait to take Belle!  Lennette our dear babysitter came over to watch Belle for us on Friday.  Bri and I went out to eat at a yummy gourmet southern cuisine restaurant in downtown Winston called Mozelle's.  We had such a great time catching up on "our" time.  On the way home we decided to pick up a bottle of champagne--we planned on toasting a glass and looking at our beautiful wedding album together.  We got home poured a glass of bubbles and opened the book.  The next thing we knew it was 6:30am--Belle was waking up!  So yeah, we are an old married couple now!  But, we def. enjoyed looking at our wedding album on Saturday!  Happy Annivesary sweetheart!

HAPPY 8 MONTHS TO BELLE

Belle decided to give herself a little b-day present this month--sitting up all by herself!  She is so funny--just scoots that little behind really high in the air and pulls her feet under her.  It seriously looks like she is getting ready to stand up and walk!  The next day Belle started crawling!  We knew it was going to just be a matter of time.  We love putting objects out of her reach and making her crawl to them.  She is still a little awkard but I have a feeling she will be speeding around in no time!  Baby proofing is a MUST!

Mother's Day

I had the BEST Mother's Day. Motherhood is seriously the most wonderful experience.  I am so fortunate to have such a sweet little girl.  I can only imagine the amazing times that we will have together over the years. We had gorgeous weather in North Carolina today.  My wonderful husband cooked lunch for me, my mom and my mother-in-law.  Belle and Daddy also picked out some pretty flowers and a willow tree to add to my collection.

Visit with Aunt Kim

We have been trying to schedule dinner or lunch with my good friend Kim for the last few months.  Kim and her boyfriend Brad were gracious enough to drive from Raleigh to have dinner with us on Saturday night.  Belle had gone to bed early, but I had to wake her up to hang out with Aunt Kim for a couple hours.  Belle showed Kim all her new tricks and loved some girl time.  We had such a great visit and LOVED catching up.  Bri and I always say that it is hard to find couples that you click with--Kim and Brad are def.  one of those couples we love hanging out with.  Can't wait to get together again soon.

Pulliams

(Daddy and Belle before he headed into work on Sat.)

Bri had to work AGAIN this Saturday.  But, at least we enjoyed sometime with him in the morning before he headed in to work.  Belle and I joined Grams and Umpa G for some awesome hotdogs at this hole in the wall called Pulliams.  We noticed that they have been opened for 100 years!  I love going there because they have Cheerwine in a glass bottle.  I only like Cheerwine in glass bottle, weird uh? They seriously have the best hotdogs.  Belle just played with her catepillar while we enjoyed our "dogs"  Too fun!

Exploring with Elsa

On Friday my dear friend Linda visited with her little girl Elsa.  She is about a month and a half older than Belle.  We enjoyed some fun play time and lunch.  The girls loved exploring each other.  A pinch, hand in the mouth, rolling on each other and lots of babbles.  Too cute!  It is so fun to watch them interact.  Linda and I can't wait to show them all the pictures of their playdates someday.  Belle also let Elsa try out her swing.  It was so awesome watching her swing.  Belle def. took tips on how to wave from Elsa. We can't wait to see them again soon.

3 weeks of updates

I know many of you have wonder where updates on little Belle have been the last 3 weeks...being a working mom sometimes something has to give!  Unfort. the last few weeks it has been the blog ;(.  We have had a few exciting firsts these last few weeks!  Belle has sat up by herself with no help from Mommy and has officially started to crawl!  Life is soon to change as we know it.  Baby proofing the house is the one of the top priorities this next week.  It's Sunday night-cloth diapers washed and ready for the week, Belle's homemade baby food done(we are excited to try apricots, peaches, puffs and baby yogurt in the next couple of weeks!-Belle's BFF Elsa loves baby yogurt and we are hoping she will as well! Esp. for bathroom purposes), laundry done and clothes put away, house cleaned, food made for the week and work plan done for next week-whew this mommy is tired!  Enjoy Belle's adventures and I hope to start updating on a weekly basis again!

Her feet almost touch the ground!

Brian and I bought Belle a jumperoo for Christmas.  She can almost touch the ground on the lowest setting.  We put a book under the toy for her to be able to play.  We had a great Sunday afternoon.  Belle even had her first stay in the church nursery during Sunday School.  So high-tech--with the pagers and bracelets, who knew?  I think she did pretty good even though she was a little upset when we went to pick her up.  I attribute it to an overdue nap!

Favorite Food

We introduced mango to Belle this past week for the second time.  She LOVES them.  Every time she ate them this week, she cried for more!  Too cute!!

Sippy Cup

I always feel like I am a somewhat behind on introducing certain things to Belle.  We tried a sippy cup with water this week.  Belle def. enjoyed playing with the cup and maybe had a swallow of water.  I am thankful that at least she likes her little cup so hopefully when it is time to transition it will go smoothly.

Race for the Cure

It was my goal on New Year's Eve to run in my first 5k after having Belle.  Obviously that did not happen!  With the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure being in May and a few friends from work and church running it seemed to be the perfect race to be my first.  My mom who amazes me ran with Belle and I.  Why does she amaze me?  She works full time and is WAY better shape than her daughter!  We have so many people in our lives that are breast cancer survivors and/or victims.  It was an honor to run for them.  Esp. Angie and my grandmother, Belle's namesake.  For many years, my sorority didn't have a national philantrophy and our local choice was Susan G. Komen.  For that reason it is also near and dear to my heart.  There were over 10,000 participants!  We enjoyed this 3 generation race and hope to run every year.  Belle loved the music, watching all the runners and enjoyed a nap on the ride.

Belle's first outfit

The first week in May 2009, Bri and I waited in anticipation for our anatomy scan.  What would we have a boy or a girl?  My husband still reminds me that he was correct and I was wrong!  He knew that he was having Daddy's little girl from day one.  For some reason I truly thought my little girl was a boy....too funny!  I really did not have a preference either way of course!  Just a healthy little baby is what I wanted.  When we went to see Dr. Reynolds, Ms. Belle was being modest, which Bri hopes continues WAY into her 30's, and it took a while.  When she finally said "she" I could just feel my heart swell with love.  That seems so long ago.  After our appointment I went and bought Belle this adorable pink and white little kimono dress.  It seemed that it would be forever before my little girl could wear it, but this week was the week.



This picture was taken after we spent time at the doctors earlier in the day for some treatment with constipation. It never ceases to amaze me how much of your life revolves around the the bowel movements of your baby.  Belle is doing much better and tried her first bite of prunes ;)