365 days with BellaRose

Her life in numbers~

365 days, 12 months, 52 weeks, 8,760 hours, 4,868 pictures taken, 3 photo albums filled, 1 baby book, 3 outfits handmade by JT, 1 outfit, 1 banner (see below, amazing right), 1 pair of mittens handmade by KatieKate, 2 rose bushes, 1 swing, 1 sandbox, 2 car seats, countless wipes and diapers, 3 beach trips, 1 early morning fleeing Atlanta, 2 colds, 1 fever, 2 dogs, and 2 parents!

There is much more to her life then these and numbers! Odd that one so mathematically challenged as myself would even begin the number game. I am more inclined to chart my life by what month she currently is or that the rose bushes all over are blooming so appropriately on her birthday! It is interesting, those numbers. I mean seriously we did take four thousand eight hundred sixty-eight pictures of this little girl who has so completely changed out lives and all for the better. I mean what did we do before her? I know we had a life, but one that I cannot imagine without her now. We went into her room this morning and got her before Family Fun Time and I just thought "Oh my goodness, I only have 17 more years with this person". 17 more and that is it! If 17 goes as fast as 1 I think I might tell her that college does not start until she is 21!
While I was at the wedding from this past weekend, the dad gave a speech and I was crying and I don't even know them! And while I was tearing up I thought about Worth one day having to do this for our little girl and it made the tears well all the more. That will be one of the hardest days of our lives besides when she leaves for college. How is it that such a small little girl has brought out so many emotions in us that I never knew existed? I never thought I would love so much staying home with BellaRose, but I could not imagine it any other way. By God's Grace He has allowed us this time to raise her, and I pray so often that we do right by Him! So on this most glorious of days I wish my baby a very Happy Birthday, and I thank her so much for making our family so much better!

Don't you love this banner that I asked Katie to make for her birthday? This is our present to our Sweet BellaRose. We know she won't really remember this day and this is way more for us then for her, so I thought why not get her something that she will have for the rest of her life. It is such a blessing that such a dear friend was able to make such a lasting gift for BellaRose!

We went to WNC Nature Center with Annie, Will, Lydia, Claire, John Isaac, Susan, and Linda to help celebrate the big birthday. We are having a party on Saturday, but of course we had to do something for today. Sweet Girl missed her nap this morning, and by missed I mean: refused to take! She managed pretty well though and some serious petting zoo and fun had by all!

So there is no danger of BellaRose NOT loving some sugar. She killed her cupcake ice cream cone. Of course I had to make her a "cake" for her actual birthday. I appreciate Niki being brave enough to hold her while she ate the cake, it was everywhere. I can also tell you most assuredly that there was in fact a sugar crash as well!

BellaRose we love you so deeply! You are our heart, soul, and sunshine!

white wedding

Not a whole lot to share this post, but pictures. Worth and I went to a wedding of a friend of his (and now a friend of ours of course) at Lake Lure, and it was beautiful. BellaRose spent the night out with Aunt Jennifer and did wonderful. There is so much going on in that house and that she did not even have time to think about us not being there. This was the first time that Worth and I together left her for a night. It was a nice break, but of course we talked about her most of the time :). I am eagerly preparing for her birthday this week. Can you believe it?! This week my baby girl will be a one year old. Oh my how it went by so fast! I will save the long post for Thursday May 22nd, the most wonderful day of the year!

A little photo session with Little Bean for Mom and Dad hit the town, well the lake, but you know what I mean!

T-love and her boys, and Big Poppa trying to find some reprieve from the sun.

At the reception with Ben (who was in the wedding) and Worth.

Times like these

It seems lately that we all have just wanted to put our heads in the coffee mug. Sleep has been a scarce thing for us the past few days. I feel as if we are on the up and up though. We are still recovering from that horrendous fever BellaRose had the other day. Worth took her to the doctor yesterday morning just make sure everything was okay, and it was (hey we are first time parents over here). Doc just said she is probably still sore from the fever and that is why she is not sleeping, also I just know she is getting some molars, she has not stopped grinding on her hands.
Every morning we have "family fun time", Worth goes and gets Sweet Girl and makes coffee. We have coffee in bed while we all hang out. This is what BellaRose does EVERY TIME she sees the coffee mug. I guess this is what she thinks we do, which is almost pretty accurate. She sits there and sloppers all over the mug breathing heavy. It is a sight to behold!



Little Bean got her big girl car seat the other day, a gift from Big Poppa and T-love for her birthday. Although she is far from being a big girl as she only weighs 16 lbs "something" ounces (Worth went to the doc not me, so that is the weight you will get). I could not believe she has only gained a few ounces in the past couple of months. I am not sure if you have seen this baby eat, but she can chow. She is just getting taller and and taller, but gaining no weight (I might just be a little jealous). So we got the big girl car seat b/c she is just way too tall for the baby one now. Oh this just makes a mother want to cry!
We went to the lake at camp yesterday to take the dogs and Worth for a swim, and let Rainy jump off the diving board. I just had to put BellaRose in her bathing suit and cover up even though there was no way she was getting in that cold water. Come on, how cute is my little baby!

We had horrible wind the other day. It was almost apocalyptic. I was terrified and Worth who would probably be a hurricane chaser thought the wind was "a bit much". We woke up the next morning and fared pretty well compared to most people around. Enormous trees were down all over Black Mountain. Hundred year old trees just gave up the fight. I often wonder about that, why a tree just comes down one day after battling so many storms. I guess they just got tired, sometimes I think I understand.

Got to go on a bike ride yesterday. BellaRose was screaming not wanting to go to sleep as it has been the past couple of days and I just had to get out! Worth suggested I ride my bike, and that I did. It has been awhile, and I only rode to the bank, but it was still glorious. I hope to get out on the ole cruiser a little bit more now. Look how beautiful she is, cleans right up.

Oh Mother

Today is Mother's day and I feel the blog community is about to be inundated with post about Mothers, as well it should be! This day marks my first mother's day. Last year I just almost made it, as BellaRose was due on the 14th and Mother's day last year was the 13th, but she did not come until the 22nd and that is a whole other story. Sorry, back to the point at hand, mommas! I was reading a forward from a friend about Mother's and one of the quotes said, "Before I was a Mom -I didn't know the feeling of having my heart outside my body". For me that pretty much sums it up. BellaRose is my heart. As we approach her 1st birthday the magical question begins to be asked "when are you having another". I know we will....eventually, but right now I just could not imagine sharing this love I have for this baby with anyone else. I am just going to say it, she is my favorite! There it is, call me a bad mom, but BellaRose, hands down is my most favorite baby, she is my heart.
This past Friday she felt very warm to me, but I thought it was because it was so warm outside. I came home and took her temperature and it was 103! My poor sweet little girl. This was her first fever. That fever lead to a very long night with Sweetie Baby waking up every hour on the hour. At one point it felt like her temp was well passed 103 but I just almost could not even bare to take it. I find it interesting that this happened on Mother's day weekend (we can make it a weekend right?). I would have done anything in the whole world to take on that fever for her, but I could not. I just held her, and loved her, and told her it would get better, and it did, Praise the Lord, get better! I might not have said these same things last year while I was sitting there staring at my big ole belly waiting for this baby to come. I might not have said I would take on a 104 degree fever. I would have liked to hope I would but I could not promise you I would. Something changes the minute you have your baby and you are holding them in your arms. Nothing matters, not the pregnancy nor the pain of labor. My life feels complete right now, I am married to the man of my dreams who took my breath away the first time I met him and I have the most delightful wonderful baby in the world. I know when we have another baby I will have all those same feelings, but right now life is pretty much perfect!
I want to tell Worth's mom, Harriet (aka-T-love) and my mom (AKA-OG) Happy Mother's day. Thank you for everything and allowing your hearts to live on the outside in your 3 children, we could not have this family without you!
I also want to thank Worth for making this first Mother's day for me so special. What a wonderful man I am married to, I know I have mentioned that a time or two to you!

Airing the dirty laundry

BellaRose is in love with her bubble machine that OG (old granny) got her. She has not quite figured it out though and keeps sticking her hand in the machine. She also still adores her Radio Flyer push wagon. She just recently learned how to get into it. This is how I found her the other day while I was ironing. She just sat there talking to Rainy eating her rice cake!

We have all talked before how blogs are like our own little "bragging arena". We can talk about all the wonderful things we do and none of the bad. I feel convicted, especially since my last post where I got so much praise. I need to "air the dirty laundry". I am sure most of you know my dirty laundry, but now I need to just put it out there, acknowledge that I really am not great :)! Oh, and by the way, this garden is really Worth's baby. He is the one that loves on it and nurtures it. I do my part, but it is really his garden, I am all about my potted plants, like the ones you see from my kitchen window. Our own little oasis. Okay so here goes, the dirt~

~I hate shorts!

~I probably make people uncomfortable with how much I am trying to make them comfortable in my home.

~I am way to clean and I make Worth crazy. He sometimes ask me if he should move out b/c I am always moving his things.

~You must have a proper place setting if you come to my house for dinner or any meal really: cloth napkin, place mat, fork, knife, spoon, whether the meal warrants all of them or not

~If we argue it takes me a long time to cool off even if we have said our apologies, sometimes even days.

~I can get very grumpy if I am tired or hungry, VERY GRUMPY!

~I don't drink enough water

~I hate to dust

~Can't leave my house without making the bed.

~I get very upset at Chick-fil-a when they don't give me the right amount of Honey Roasted BBQ sauce, even after I have asked for a specific number (right Annie).

~I can get very annoyed very easily.

I know there are more, but those are the top ones right now. Feel free to tell me more if you would like, but just be for warned I probably won't tell you until a couple of years later that you really hurt my feelings!

Okay, go love on those Mom's and I will talk to you later (hopefully :))

Try again!

I have been wanting to update the blog for quite sometime now. There has been so much I wanted to tell you, and to fill you in on all my adventures in Chicago. But as the weather warms I am constantly drawn outside and away from the confines of these walls and this computer. I want to be outside with my sweet baby in our garden. I feel so alive, my skin is getting tanned and I feel renewed, but I also want to keep you, my reader, up to date. I will try to balance this life of being outside and blogging. Please forgive me though if I do miss a post here and there.

So let me tell you about Chicago. In one word, AMAZING! Newell was such a fabulous host and tour guide. It seemed not one part of the city got UN-touched by our walking feet. I arrived to gorgeous 70 degree weather and by the time I left it was in the 40's with snow in the forecast. I think I left at a good time. I also had the wonderful chance to actually relax on this trip as well. As you all know I left my sweet Baby Girl for the 1st time, and all things considering it went very well. Newell and I lounged around in the morning watching some ANTM and drinking coffee and then we got our walking shoes on and enjoyed the sights of Chicago such as the crazy thing they call a lake but I believe it is really and ocean, Lake Michigan, we went to the top of the Hancock building, walked through Lincoln Park, strolled the grounds of the spectacular conservatory and all the animals of the zoo (which by the way is free, amazing). On my final night we went to see The Second City, and if you ever get a chance to see this, please go. It was hysterical! It is hard for me to believe a week as already passed since my trip when I think about all the planning and talking that went into it! Thanks again Newell. It was fabulous!

Worth and I had such a wonderful weekend here on The Front Porch of Western North Carolina. We finally worked on our real garden. Worth did all the very hard labor of plowing the garden and making it THREE TIMES as big as last year! We may have gotten a little over zealous, but at least we will have a lot of produce. We have 17 tomato plants! Good grief what were we thinking? You know we really love salsa so I guess we will be making a lot of that this summer. We also have corn, which is one of the things that I am most excited about as well as the pumpkins. We are trying out luck with some watermelon, cantaloupe, and carrots. We also will have a ton of peppers of every variety. I am serious when I tell you this, PLEASE COME GET SOME! Also the sunflower house garden is in and pictures of that to come soon!

We also set up the pool for BellaRose. She loves splashing in the water so much, but is not quite in love with how chilly it was. She would much rather sit on the sidelines and splash around, and Rainy would much rather her throw the tennis ball. There is a lot of learner to be done!

On the cake front, since you were wondering, I have decided on a cake for BellaRose's first birthday. I had seen it in a magazine last year and forgot about it. So here it is, the trial run. I thought it would be a good weekend for a trial run because our good friends Annie and Adam came up for a last hurrah in Black Mountain, since they are moving to Boston (we will miss you so deeply our dear friends, we love you), and I knew this cake would surely get eaten, and it did. It is a ice cream cone cake. Each cone is a like a little cupcake. I am going to go with a different frosting which hopefully won't come out so yellow, and I am going to make some of the cones frosting pink, because come on it just needs to be girlier. The cake got a great response except from Worth, but he hates cake so I am sort of taking that one with a grain of salt.

What a bummer!

OH YOU GUYS!!!! I can't tell you how frustrated I am. I had written this long post full of pictures from Chicago and stupid blogger would not save it and it is ALL erased!!! I am so mad about this. I will have to do it another day b/c it has already taken up way too much time. I will tell you Chicago was amazing. Thank you so much Newell for such a wonderful time and such good hospitality. Just what this momma needed, some good R&R and maybe just a little ANTM marathon. I promise to post pictures from the trip on my next posting.

What would a post be without a semi picture of my sweet BallaRose. Annie and I took our usual trip to Target which is NEVER dull for us and on our way home I turn around and see this! How cute is that!!?? They are holding hands. Will was ready to have his hand back, but BellaRose held on tight. That's my girl.

I would also like to "blog introduce" two of my friends. JT meet Katie, Katie meet JT. There is no way you could not be friends. You sew, your creative, you talk about cakes and cookies made at fairs! I mean seriously you two it is just amazing.

Well I will be back with more pictures, gotta run as the baby is crying!

11 months

Apparently my posts are "likeable" as are most of your's according to some brazilian person. I guess that is good, sort of, if they weren't trying to sell something off of my blog. I guess we will get to that later.

Well yesterday we reached our 11 month birthday. No huge events happend this month unlike other months, where she sat up, got teeth, or learned to crawl. She did however learn to get out of her bumbo that is in the wagon. I guess that is a big event. We also went to Hendersonville to meet OG (my mom) for lunch and for her to buy BellaRose some birthday gifts. Thank you so much Mom, we love them all. I have also weaned Sweet Girl. I was only on one feeding in the morning, and today we cut that out and gave her cows milk. I am sure this might be controversial to some people. This whole weaning thing can be complicated, but I went with my pediatrician, and she loves the milk so I guess we are all good. We will see if I am "all good" in a couple of days.

I will be leaving my sweet little baby on Friday for a long weekend to Chicago. I am so thrilled to go to Chicago and hang with one of my good friends Newell, but I am also very nervous to leave BellaRose. I have only left her once before for a real quick trip to Atl. I know she will be in good hands with Worth, T-love, and Big Poppa, but oh how this Mother's heart might ache! Speaking of a Mother's heart I went back and read some of my hormone fueled old posts of when we first brought BellaRose home and I was so concerned about time passing and me not embracing every moment. I have learned that I do cherish every moment and each day has gotten better and better. As BellaRose interacts with me more and her personality keeps coming out, it Just Gets Better! It is so hard for me to believe that a year as almost past (and you better believe I have already starting thinking about that posting). One year of being a parent to Sweetie Baby. What an honor. This little girl is SO COOL!

Just to show you how cool she is, click on this picture to the right and make it larger. Look at her face. How funny is that?! I believe she is really learning to ham it up for the camera now. Of course a camera has been in her face for the last 11 months. I am pretty sure she thinks it just might be a family member!

Well I will be back next week, hopefully with lots of pictures to show you of Chi-town (as some people call it).

Would you mind helping me with one question though, is today Wednesday or Thursday? If it is Thursday then boy do I have some laundry to do for my trip!

If you build it they will come....

The last time we talked with "Big Daddy" we left him on Wilson Creek boating, so lets get you to present day and find out what Worth has been up to! I was wanting, I mean BellaRose was wanting a sandbox in our backyard, and we begged Worth to build us one. One of the MANY beautiful things about being married to Worth is he is an amazing carpenter. I have an idea of something I want and he just runs with it and makes something so much better and more beautiful then I could have ever imagined. As you all know we have had some really gorgeous days here in the Blue Ridge Mountains which sometimes make it hard for Worth to work and I am not exactly pressing him to work either. It feels like College when I would skip class because the weather was just too pretty (you know Mom and Dad I still graduated, and in 4 years so it is all okay). So what do you do on a gorgeous day in the mountains? You build a sandbox!

It took 2 days to build, 700 lbs of sand (that I lifted, thank you very much), and a lot of sunscreen for BellaRose.

Where the hinges are is a toy box, the back of the sandbox closest to the ugly fence is a planter!

To inaugurate the sandbox we had an impromtu playgroup friday morning and I do believe the sandbox was a hit. Susan brought bubbles and this was the first time that Bellaose has ever seen bubbles. I think she loved them, but had no idea what they were.

Worth is at the beach right now (too bad he did not just "steal" the 700 lbs of sand) and is wanting pictures up here on the blog so he can show his buddies and Big Poppa and T-love! I hope you do enjoy and please come play. There is room and enough seats for all.

Lush

As promised here is a picture of BellaRose, Will, and Rylie in her wagon heading over to Becky's house. I would almost do anything to claim that I took this picture, but I did not, and I probably would not do anything to have taken this, but it is pretty awesome. Melissa took this image, dang it! Come on, how cute are these babies!
Speaking of babies, we have recently added to this baby clan (as you may have heard) with Ellen's arrival. I could not be more excited for Becky and Jeremiah. It really takes me back to that time when we first brought BellaRose home and how hard, and wonderful that was all at the same time. It goes so quickly and now here Sweetie Baby is almost a year old! She gets cooler and cooler everyday. I feel so honored to be her mother and to see her grow and change daily.













You want to know what else will be growing soon? Our garden! I have a feeling this last cold will be the end, but I am not willing to risk it just yet. Worth heads to the beach this weekend and then I go to Chicago (yeah Newell!!) the next, so after that the garden goes in! We are talking, corn, pumpkins, soy beans, tomatoes, basil, squash, a summer cornicopia of goodness if you will. But first let me tell you about my phlox. I just love this stuff. In the summer it is not as pretty, but come March when you are just so stinking over the cold, her comes these little buds of purple peaking through all the brown and it just makes me want to go put on a sundress!
Please go find some phlox and roll around in it because it is just so lucsious.