From One Holiday To Another

Life is staying busy,of course, this time of year!

Sister bonding time

Our little Minnie Mice

Lazy Sunday afternoons...and Anna's permanent position for the past two months(Mommy gets her time too)...Noel only stays for 5-10 minutes.

Halloween with the cousins.

My favorite picture of Bella jetting across the grass as we were trick-or-treating beating all the boys to the door.

Sweet picture with Great Grandma De Long..she joined us for all the fun on Halloween.

Anna eating rice cereal for the first time. Bella being the sweet big sister that she is.

Anna learning how to sit up...maybe she will master it by 12/08 when she will be 6 months old!

11/13 Anna swinging for the first time. Fun day at the park with the girls, my mom, and my grandmother.

Grandmomma(my mom)pushed on throughout the day even though she has been in much pain needing a hip replacement.

We are thankful now that she has had the surgery and is recovering well.

After the park we went and rode the train at Northlake mall.

Weekend cabin trip 11/14. We had fun with uncle Jeremy , aunt Nichole, Jordan, and Jax.

Vogal State Park

Bella trying to squat just like daddy.

11/22
Thanksgiving with the De Long clan...the kids had fun with the tradional decorating the tree. It was fun to see Bella participate this year.(The girls outfits were planned. Jason and I did not realize we dressed alike...guess we are growing into "that old married couple")


Bella and I making Thanksgiving Day cookies.

11/28 Riding the train with Daddy at the Mall of GA.

Daddy with extra hands this year to put up the outside lights.

Look Who's Two

Bella celebrated her second birthday. We had a party at the house and Dora dropped by for some music and dance. Bella's favorite character lately is Dora the Explorer so we thought (hence thought) she would love it if she came to her party. We knew it could go either way...like it or scream. She did the latter, crying for most of the 30 minute time block Dora was at the party. She did manage to give Dora a high 5 as she said goodbye.

(at least cousin Jordan liked Dora)

Once Dora left...the party fun could get started according to Bella. She did have fun opening all the nice gifts, blowing out her 2 candle, and playing on her new outdoor play set.

Anna had fun too with Baby Henry.

The slide was a big hit. Thanks Grandmomma and Papa Joe.

Everywhere we go now Bella asks to find a slide. Even at the doctor office at her 2 year well check she was asking to "go find slide".

Bella tells Anna to slide all the time. We look forward to the days when they can both run and play together.

Beach September 19th -26th

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5 Years and Counting

Jason and I celebrated our 5Th wedding anniversary this weekend.

Here we are 5 years ago...how time flies by and WOW how our lives have changed.

1 year Anniversary at 57Th Fighter Group

2ND Anniversary: On a cruise...our favorite vacation second to Maui.

3rd Anniversary: Celebrating Jason's birthday too. We went to the GA Aquarium for the 1st time then to Aqua Terra for dinner. http://www.aquaterrabistro.com/

I was about to pop with Bella!

4Th Anniversary: Good Ole Jillian's and ice cream for dinner at Discover Mills. Bella was sick with a high fever....what was the start of many fevers to come. We made the best of it.

5Th Anniversary: Enjoyed Aqua Terra again and the peace and quiet.

Another Day at the Park

We are finding ourselves more and more at the park with Bella. However, we love going to the park just the same so it is a good excuse. We stopped to feed the ducks with hamburger buns one evening (we were cooking hamburgers for dinner) and Bella got excited when she saw the bread saying "Yum bread" and ate a bun herself.

Bella Praying

I have recently enjoyed taking video footage of the girls with my camera. I have to watch myself or I will have as many videos as I do pictures soon. Here is a cute moment I captured with Bella. She has been interested in holding hands and blessing our food at meal times.

Growing Anna Banana

Anna turned 2 months old and now weighs 9lbs-4oz. She is growing, although I thought she would hit the 10 lb mark sooner. She still struggles with reflux and can be a hand full at times but we are seeing improvements. Time goes by so fast, so we know she will be sitting up, eating solid food, feeling better, and sleeping through the night(hopefully sooner than later) in no time!

Bella and her baby.

Nephews turn 4 and 6

Jordan and Jonathan both have August birthdays. They are 2 of our 5 nephews and only one of the 5 have a name that does not begin with the letter J. So, when talking about Jason's family it usually involves a J named person. Jason, his sister Jennifer, brother Jeremy and their children Jonathan, Jordan, Jaxon...you can add a second cousin at holidays...Josef. Then there is Jackson on my side of the family too and not to mention my dad Joe. We broke the family tradition with our children. Jason specifically said NO J's for our kids. Although Bella's middle name is Jill.

We had fun at Jordan's 4Th birthday party at Bogan park. Bella played for 2 straight hours on the playground. There was a time when she tried to stray off. We watched to see how far she would go. Jason said there was no way she could make it up the hill. She proved him wrong quickly. It is amazing to see her little mind of her own at work.

Jonathan had his 6Th birthday party and started to Kindergarten. We had a great time especially when it came time to do the pinata.

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July Times

Our tired Big girl after her July 4th fun.


Anna's boyfriend Henry. Henry and his mom Jessica have come to visit every week since Anna was born. We look forward to their visits.

Growing baby Anna

Sweet girls. Bella does really well with Anna. She is mostly gentle and kind...but you can tell she is ready for Anna to play with her.

Bella enjoyed 2 pieces of Papa Johns pizza. It is one of the few foods she will eat.

Park Fun: We enjoyed a Saturday evening at a local new park. The playground is great for Bella's age. We look forward to going back and checking out the walking trails.

Bella sporting her GA hat backwards.

First time liking the swings.

Can't stop to pose with mommy.

Can't wear enough beads...at least when I'm in my PJs

Crib time


Our good friends and convienently neighbors too, Chad and Christina, came over last Friday night. Jason cooked some great ribs and the guys played pool until Bella joined in on the fun. Playing with the pool balls is now her favorite activity. It takes a good distraction to get her away from them....although, it is nice to clean the whole kitchen(yes! the pool table is in the kitchen) and have her be entertained.




She has now added the word "step" to her vocabulary. She is putting her princess step stool to use...grandma bought it to use in the bathroom for washing hands and brushing teeth...we are getting early extra use out of it. She pushes the stool from corner to corner and plays with the balls.

Anna attending her first birthday party. Another neighbor, Jeslyn Thomas turned one. She had a cute outdoor water party. There were three small pools and some slip-n-slides set up. There are no pictures of Bella at the party because she was all in the action and keeping us too busy to take pictures.

Fun party favors.

Daddy and his girls

Bella had her first trip to Build-A-Bear. Grandmomma and Granny(great grandmother) joined us. The idea, of course, came from Grandmomma. It was a fun time.

Anna in the swing for the first time. I'm sure she is liking a change from the bouncy seat.

One of the few quick snapshots of Bella with a hairbow in her hair. She pulled it out 2 seconds later. We had just bought new Dora ones. Guess you have to pick your battles. At least the GA hat is pink.

So far Anna likes tummy time.




One of Bella's many faces.


Got to take snooze breaks when you can around here!

July times have been good times. It is definitely a challenge having 2 kids under the age of 2 but it is a challenge we wanted and prayed for. The days are full of changing diapers, coloring, nursing, playing with pool balls, dancing, disciplining, and the list goes on. I would not change a thing. We go to bed singing the Barney song and I wake up at 4 am with it in my head. You just laugh and live in the moment, knowing we never get these moments back. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!