Anna's 1st Christmas

Anna turned 5 months old on Christmas Eve, and what an AMAZING 5 months it has been!!! She is rolling over, saying Mama, laughing like crazy and just being an all around fun baby! We were so excited for her 1st Christmas. We did a LOT of shopping for her (maybe too much??) and couldn't wait to let her use all of her new stuff.

We stayed home all day Christmas Eve packing for our upcoming trip, wrapping some last minute presents for everyone, and visiting with our across the street neighbors - Bob and Jo Ann. We toasted her first Christmas with a glass of Champagne and ate a fabulous hamburger helper dinner (ok, not fabulous, but quick and easy - we had stuff to get done!) I even ate my very first bite of fruit cake... I mean, it wasn't bad... but I probably wont make a yearly tradition of eating it...

Anna went to sleep at her normal 9ish bedtime and Chris and I stayed up to watch A Christmas Story and finish doing some packing. I also had to make some "cookies" and Reindeer food for Santa. I put cookies in quotes because we didn't have any cookie mix like I thought we did, so I had to get creative. I didn't want to pull out all the ingredients for home made cookies, so I made blueberry muffins and cut off the tops. Hey, Santa may have appreciated something different and healthier!! And the Reindeer food was roasted almonds, mini marshmallows and dried cranberries topped with powdered sugar. Oh, and of course a glass of milk.

Santa came some time around 11pm and laid out an amazing spread of toys and clothes for Anna!!! And he must have liked the blueberry muffin-cookies because they were all gone!

Her big presents were a little activity table that she can stand at and play with and a crawl through activity wall. Both light up and have stuff that move - just like she requested from Santa! She also got a bunch of other smaller toys that move, light up and make noise - Santa REALLY listened to her request!! Anna also received a bunch of new outfits - mostly pink ones. I guess Santa really likes her in pink ;)

Lots of toys that light up, make noise and move

Santa must like seeing her in pink ;)

Presents from Mommy and Daddy for ourselves and Anna!

The next morning Anna woke us up around 7:30am so Chris got the video camera and we videoed Anna getting up and coming down the stairs to see her Christmas spread! She had so much fun checking out all her new toys (we opened and played with all of them!).

See how surprised she was!!

Checking out her presents to her left...

Checking out presents to her right...

I'd say she was pleased! ;)

The Cats and Piper even got some toys and treats! Chris got a bunch of fly fishing stuff from me and Anna including a new rod, reel, and fly fishing vest. I got a new camera lens, filter, and memory card. Chris surprised us with Windows 7 for all 3 of our computers!! Woo Hoo!!

While we were opening presents - Anna had a little surprise for Chris... she said DADA!!! I dont know if we got it on tape or not - I'll have to go back and watch to see, but she said it, clear as day. My parents were on the phone with us later that day and she kept saying it. He LOVED it!!! What a great Christmas present. Mama AND Dada all within the span of 2 weeks - and she is just barely 5 months old!!!

After we were done opening presents we had a big breakfast and then started packing. We had a LOT to do. Hours later (many, many hours according to Caron and Michael) we left Newnan and headed to Loganville to see my parents. We were greeted by Mom, Dad, Tim, Caron, Michael, Allie and Wyatt. We opened presents as soon as we got there. I got a NAIL GUN!!!! If you know me you know how excited I am about this.... Like seriously - all I could think about was my 1st project. And I also got a bunch of accessories for it, new Willow Tree Angels (I collect these) and a UGA sun shade for Anna's window in the car (Chris hates it haha). Chris got a reciprocating saw, some golf balls ... and some other stuff I can't remember. Anna got a tea set, my first purse, a teddy bear, and two American Girl miniature dolls. I feel like I'm leaving stuff out.... Oh well.

We all hung out and got to visit for a long time. Mom made an awesome dinner - Honey Baked Ham (my fav), mac and cheese, sweet potato casserole.... you can tell these are Bell Family staples. Caron even made egg nog pound cake - YUM.

Chris, Anna, Piper and I all spent the night and woke up with some delicious ham biscuits for breakfast. Chris helped dad a little with the room they are finishing upstairs while mom and I made lunch and then we headed out about 3pm to go to Tryon, NC to see Chris's parents.

After a brief (haha - not really) stop in Commerce to find me a new pair of black shoes (with great success!) we were in Tryon by about 7pm and had Phil and Marcia here to welcome us. They had decorated cedar tree shining with ornaments and lights and pretty decorative presents - right outside the picture window of the cottage house. Anna had just woken up from a car-nap and she was as happy as can be talking up a storm. We headed up to the big house about 7:30 for a DELICIOUS "roast beast" dinner.

Anna sat in her bumbo chair on the table (as she does at home) and watched us eat. She has been following our spoon and fork movements for a while now, so I took my spoon and held it up to her mouth. She paused for a moment and then opened wide!! I have been kinda teasing her with a spoon for a while now, but I think she may be ready for solids. Marcia suggested I put a little water (and it was a TINY bit) in the spoon and you would thought I was giving HER a steak dinner! She LOVED it. She got to a point where when I would get close with the spoon she would grab my hand and shove the spoon in her mouth. I think we are going to go out tomorrow and maybe get a little rice cereal. I was planning to wait till she was 6 months old to feed her solids, but our pediatrician told us to just watch for signs that she is ready. She has been satisfied with nursing so far - but I think she is just curious, so I want to see how she does. If we can find some we will feed her a little tomorrow night.

Anna also got to unwrap two gifts from Nana and Papa - a new soft little bear blanket which she is very excited about because she is DEFINITELY a blanket girl... and a deposit to her 529 college plan!!!! Mommy and Daddy are REALLY excited about that!!!

Even Piper got gifts from Nana and Papa!

I think that is a summary of the details. I have a TON more pics - but they are on the "big camera" so I'll have to get them off later. I'm sure I left some stuff out, so if I remember, I'll come back and edit. Signing off for now! Merry Christmas to All!!!

Lights at Callaway and Santa

Chris and I took Anna to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain to see the lights and to see Santa. We got down there about 5pm hoping to beat the crowds - and we definitely beat them, but apparently you need to pre-buy your tickets because the next available time to view the lights was 9pm!!

That was ok though because Anna got to see Santa - with NO WAIT... just walked right up to him. She had just woken up so she was doing the typical "Anna Claire Stare" (we just coined that phrase) but at least she wasnt screaming. He was a GREAT Santa!



After that we walked around and looked at all the Christmas stuff and even got our pic taken with a Gingerbread man and a Nutcracker.









We decided to go to dinner at the Country Store because we have never been since we always have Piper with us when we come down to hike. We feasted on fried food... fried green tomatoes, fried okra, chicken fried chicken, and fried catfish. Anna squealed, talked, laughed and said Mama the whole time - have to admit - it was pretty funny, and at least she was happy and not screaming haha. The food was decent... but probably wont come back :) The lady messed up our ticket and we got free fudge - can't beat that!

After dinner we stopped by the Callaway airstrip where Chris and I got engaged!!! Brought back memories :) There was a house along the way that had this cute little tractor all lit up - couldn't help but to snap a pic.



And then we headed back to the Christmas Village for some hot chocolate and hot cider while we were waiting for our time slot. I just loved the way these little food stands looked - so colorful!







And my favorite - COTTON CANDY!!



They had a lights display on the lawn. One was the Christmas story and the other was The Night Before Christmas. Each one would light up different scenes as the story went on. This is the Christmas story.



And this is it in white



And the Night Before Christmas





I didnt take many pics on the actual tour because I was videoing the whole thing with our NEW VIDEO CAMERA from the Burrus's!!! This is one of the butterflies, a pretty tree and a pic of the winter wonderland. It was pretty cool... I kept waiting for it to get bigger, but it stayed consistent throughout. The Winter Wonderland was by far the BEST. Tons of lights. Chris and I went to Lake Lanier about 5 years ago and it seemed like they had more lights, but it was so stinkin crowded.







Here are some videos of my favorite scenes. I didn't get the swans and stuff at the end because the battery was dying... but they were pretty :)

(coming soon)

On a side note, Anna is back to sucking her thumb. She only did it at night for about 2 weeks, then stopped. She didn't do it at all for a while and today it was back in her mouth during the DAY! And when I say it was in her mouth - I mean she was sucking it like she had been doing it for years... Ugh. Oh well.

Christmas with the (extended) fam

Every year my Mom's side of the family gets together for a big family Christmas. This year was sad because my sweet Granny wasn't there. I know we all missed her so bad - and although it was different, it was great to have everyone there (well almost everyone - we were missing Chris, my cousin Mary Elizabeth, cousin Amy and her husband Bruce and their two kids Ben and Luke).

We had a big feast of Honey Baked Ham, mac and cheese, corn, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, yams, cranberry salad, dinner rolls, deviled eggs... what am I forgetting??? Desserts, Crabby Aunt Bev's Crab Dip.... well, you get the point. It was a lot of yummy food.

After lunch I attempted to keep a tradition alive. Every year when Granny was here she would give her 3 kids and all the grand kids $50. It used to be in a santa envelope - then she started getting creative. She put them in little felt Christmas sleeves one year, hand made stockings another year, and hand made felt photo albums last year.

Well, last year I found these cute little glasses cases made out of men's neck ties. I got her one and said "this year for Christmas instead of getting you something that will sit around your house, I got you a project. You can make these to put our $50's in - and smiled jokingly". She looked at me and said "I'll do it". Unfortunately she passed away before she could make them, but I decided to step up and make them for everyone for her. I couldn't put a $50 in each one, but I did put little slips of paper in each one. Some were blank and some had stuff on it. We were all in a circle and starting with my Uncle Jim (who is now officially the oldest there) we each went around and grabbed our favorite from the center. The next could either take from the center or steal a case from someone else. There was one case that was pretty popular - it was stolen twice until it was locked out!

For the slips of paper: One had a tree - and that person got a rosemary tree. Another had pecans on it and they got a bag of pecans. Another had a light switch - and they could switch neck tie cases with anyone if they wanted. And the last had a robber - and he could seal any gift or case (Robin stole the rosemary tree - I'm sure it was for Nancy haha). Oh - and then there was the Santa Dollar. I put a Santa Dollar in one case - and that person is in charge of getting the cases for next year and keeping the tradition alive. They can be anything from plain envelopes to something hand made... they just had to be creative. Well - my brother was the lucky devil who got it - so there is no telling what he will come up with!!!

Once all that was over with - we pulled out all the gifts we got for the families we were sponsoring. The families were victims of domestic violence and we wanted to help them have a Merry Christmas. As I mentioned before it was 2 families. A mom and her son and daughter, and a Dad with 2 girls and a boy. All kids were ages 2-5 so it was fun to shop for them. We got them clothes, pajamas, barbies, barbie laptops, dora stuff, transformers, books, stuffed animals, stockings filled to the brim, and the list continues!! We even got stuff for the parents.

I came home with 3 black garbage bags of wrapped toys, 2 comforter cases full of presents, and a big box that had stockings and presents for the parents. My car was PACKED!!!! I had stuff piled up in the front seat, on the floor boards and shoved in every corner of the car.

I think this will be a new family tradition for us - to help a family in need. I just wish we could see their faces as they opened the presents on Christmas Day!

So blessed to have such a wonderful loving family.

MAMA - Mamama

Anna started saying Mama about a week ago and she says it non stop... but I have to admit - I LOVE IT!!! I know she doesn't make the connection yet, but when she wakes up in the morning she says MAMAMA and when I walk away she says it... but then again she says it to her toys and to other people. I started playing with her and just mouthing the word 'mama' and the funny little booger would mouth it back to me!

Here is a video of her saying.... well grunting Mama. I can't seem to get a good video of her saying it... She will say it perfectly when the camera is not around - like now... oh well.



And this is a video where I'm mouthing the word mama and she is mouthing it back. She cracks me up.

Random pics

I'm switching memory cards for my camera and found a few pics on here that don't really have enough "story" behind them to blog about, so I figured I'd lump them all in one blog post :)

We spent the night last weekend at my parent's house and Allie and Wyatt were there. They just LOVE Anna. Wyatt says "I wanna hold Baby Anna" (which sounds more like "Ina hold baby Eena" haha gotta love it) And Allie says "She's so cute. Why do I wish she was mine?" hahhaha Allie told my sister that she wants a baby sister... hmmm...


This is Anna's exersaucer that we call "Sing it Baby" because the little microphone that she is slobbering all over sings "Sing it Baby" when you touch it.


Anna and Piper chillin on their tummy.


Anna wanted some of our Thanksgiving champagne... don't worry - we didn't let her drive.


Allie and Anna at Thanksgiving. I know Anna looks like an elf, but I took her dress off so she wouldn't drool all over it haha.


Anna after a walk at Summergrove with Staci and Anna Kay. MooMoo made this sweater for Allie when she was little.

Holiday Update

Well, we didn't get a chance to go see Santa at Bass Pro Shop - unfortunately I forgot I had to be in court for my speeding ticket... I even had to cancel my hair appointment... HOWEVER
My fabulous hair dresser moved a client so she could squeeze me in on Thurs morn AND the court issued me a WARNING for my ticket!!! So my $115 fine and 2 points on my license turned out to only be a $30 court fee and the ticket was FORGIVEN!!! Thank you Lord for a 1st time warning in Newnan :)

So - Thurs morning I drove the Butterbean and Piper out to my parent's house and got my hair done. 4" shorter and blonder - and it feels SO much better!! When I got back mom and I made our grocery list for the Christmas party on Sunday and went shopping - Anna slept pretty much the whole trip - and the time she was awake she was a gem :) Love my little girl!

Mom and I also worked on our little "surprise" for the fam Christmas... almost done with those. Mom, Dad and I also tried to help Tim make eggnog... Anna helped too.





Something is always more interesting on the side of the Bumbo....


In Anna development news - Anna is saying "MaMa"... well kinda. She definitely says Mama - but I dont think she knows what Mama is ... either way - I don't care - I just love hearing her say it over, and over, and over again!!! :) The other morning I woke up to her saying "MAMA... MaMaMa...." over the monitor - normally I'd let her babble and roll for a bit, but as soon as she said that of course I had to go get her and love on her :) I keep trying to take a video of her saying it, but as soon as she sees the camera she wants to stop talking and just stare at it. I'll try to sneak a video this week.

Veggies taste better with...

Well - we haven't started solid foods YET, but when we do they will be SO much more fun to eat now that we have the coolest bib and spoon in the world!!! Chris's friend Tina (also his flight instructor when he was learning to fly) gave Anna this awesome light up runway bib and light up jet spoon. Anna was excited to eat and there wasn't even anything in the spoon!

Now we just need Chris to do his whole landing spiel while he's feeding her and she will have the full flying experience - dining in 1st class all the way ;)

Thanks Tina!!

Catching Up - Again

Checking back in - it gets a little crazy around Christmas time, so sorry for the delay....

Chris and I have been ordering Christmas presents for each other the past few weeks... We kinda picked our our own gifts because they were hobby specific. I wanted a bunch of camera stuff and Chris wanted fly fishing stuff... but we both agreed that when it came in I had to wrap his and he had to wrap mine and we COULDN'T LOOK or open till Christmas!! We have also ordered a few gifts for family members... I love online shopping.... especially when I don't want to get my little one out in the nastiness with all the flu stuff still going around. Chris has been great about watching Anna so I can get out and shop a little in REAL stores :)

This weekend Katie, Kristina and I hosted a bridal tool shower for our friends Lynzee and Michael (aka Swifty). It was a Christmas themed tool shower and it was fun! I LOVE shower finger foods!!! mmmmmmm.... I'll have to post pics later, they are on the big camera and I don't feel like getting it right now haha.

It was great because I got to spend the whole weekend at mom and dad's house. Anna had so much fun seeing MooMoo, D-Daddy and Uncle Tim... AND as an added bonus, she got to see Aunt Caron, Allie and Wyatt!!!

Friday night we all went to this house about 10 minutes away that has this CRAZY AWESOME lights display. Well... it's not lights as much as a wonderland of animated things.... I can't even describe it... just watch the video (at the bottom of this post). I have still pics too - but they dont do it justice.. you really need to see it in person. This is the 3rd or 4th year he's done it and it gets bigger every year.

On Sunday Mom and I started a very special project for our big extended family Christmas party. A little surprise for everyone - so I can't say it yet... but I CAN tell you what we are doing different this year. My Aunt Bev suggested instead of exchanging gifts with each other, we should "adopt" a family in need and buy THEM gifts. I asked a friend who runs a safe house for domestic violence victims if she knew of anyone. She wrote back with 2 families and asked which one we wanted.... well after asking everyone - everyone wrote back saying LETS TAKE THEM BOTH!!!

The first family is a dad and 3 kids and the second is a mom and 2 kids. Their Christmas wish list was so simple... just one or two small toys (transformers, wrestlers, barbie stuff....) and then pajamas and clothes. Well... Mom, Dad and Caron went WAY overboard (as us Bell's typically do) and they LOADED up on LOTS of stuff for them!!! This is going to be a GREAT Christmas for them. Everyone else is bring gifts (we assigned kids and the parents to family members) and we are going to wrap them together at the family Christmas party. I'll post pictures of all the stuff we got before it gets wrapped. I just wish we could see their little faces when they open everything!

Chris is off for 3 days this week, then back for his last 4 day trip before a big break.... 11 days off!!!!! He will have from the 21st - 31st off of work so we will have a FANTASTIC first Christmas with Anna Claire!!! We are heading up to get our hair cut on Wed and then to take Anna to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop (really it's for Chris, but we will pretend it's for Anna haha). Chris is going to his brother's Christmas party that night and I'm heading BACK to Loganville to spend 5 days with the fam. Our fam Christmas is on Sunday so hopefully I can help mom get the house picked up and a few dishes made... and then just relax the rest of the time.

Anyway - all that to let you know if you don't hear back for a week - that's why. I'll pop back in and post some pictures from the shower. I also have other random pictures that I've taken that just haven't made it to the blog yet.... I'll get on that too :)

I leave you with the Christmas display video...

4 month checkup

Anna went to Dr. Carter today for her 4 month check up. As always, she did FANTASTIC. She was happy going in and even fell asleep in the waiting room! They took her measurements...

Height: 26" - 95th percentile (when the nurse that was measuring her called out the measurement, the nurse who was typing them in said "WHAT?" haha - she's a tall baby)

Weight: 14lb 9oz - 75-90th percentile (this was the first time they gave a range of percentile...)

Head: 41cm - 50th percentile

He asked if she's hitting all of her milestones: cooing, tracking with her eyes, reaching for stuff, putting stuff to her mouth (yes, this is a milestone apparently), rolling over, pushing up etc - and of course she's doing all that! I asked if it was ok that she hasn't rolled from stomach to back that much (she has done it twice, but I think it was a fluke) and he said it was perfectly normal. I also asked if it was ok for her to be standing as much as she is.... ever since she was 3 months old she has been standing (with our assistance) and seems to love it more than laying down. He said it was actually good to help get their hips aligned! Yay for Anna!

He said overall she looks great! We are so happy to have a very healthy, smart and beautiful little girl!

She had her pneumonia shot and rotavirus oral vaccine and she did FANTASTIC! She literally didn't cry at all!! She made one little wimper - but it was AFTER she was finished, and I put the paci in and she was perfectly fine!! What a great little bean!!! I think she was supposed to have her polio vaccine - but the computers went down so we will have to call back to make sure. Either way it's no big deal - we will get it.

We can't believe how much she has grown and changed. We just are so in love with her sometimes we can't believe we actually get to keep her forever!

I started taking pics of her in the carseat before every doctor visit, so I figured I'd keep up the tradition...

It's been a while...

Haven't posted in a while. We've been busy here decorating for Christmas! We have the lights up on the outside of our house, mechanical light up deer are placed, mantle decorated and stockings hung, other miscellaneous greenery up... AND - we got our Christmas tree today!!!

It's probably about a 9-footer, plus with the stand it's probably close to 10feet!! It's HUGE. Well, the biggest one we've ever had anyway. We went through a few of the 7-8 footers but they just seemed small, so we started checking out the 8-9 foot trees. Chris grabbed one and it was pretty, but REALLY full. So full that we didn't know where we would put ornaments! Then he grabbed this one tree.... it was PERFECT! A perfect shape and full, but still plenty of room for ornaments!!

We are checking all the lights right now (well Chris is) and then its DECORATING TIME!!

Anna is helping with the lights too. And don't worry - I didn't let her eat them. I pulled them away when I saw she was putting them in her mouth ;)







Other than that... not much else has gone on. We went to a play group at Stacey and Makenna's house. Loads of fun! Met some mommies and even saw someone we knew!! We have also taken a few pictures hoping to get a good one for the Christmas card. I think we have a winner... I'll post some of the others later. They are too cute not to post, but the color was just too 'off' to make them into a Christmas card.

Tomorrow we have Cookies with Santa at Kristal's parents house! We can't wait!!!

Just wanted to check in and let everyone know I have not abandoned the blog!!

It's beginning to look a lot like....

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!! Man, I love this time of year. And this year feels SO different with Anna - it's like a thousand times... no maybe a million times better! Anna woke me up at 4:30 to eat on Black Friday morning, so after her feeding I got dressed and went shopping!! Kohls opened at 4am so I was technically late, but I got all of the things I was going for and then some!! I picked Anna up some outfits and toys, Chris some shirts and a mat for the back of our car, and a few other things. I even ran into my friend Robin and her daughter who live WAY over in PTC (inside joke hehe). After Kohls I went to Office Depot trying to snag my mom a computer (which my dad ended up getting for her after going to 5 stores!) then to Michaels then to Wolf Camera who was out of my compact flash card - but had the tripod I wanted. After that I got some Chick fil A and brought it home to Chris.

After a leisurely breakfast I convinced Chris to come shopping with me. We got Anna all bundled up and headed to Michaels for some Christmas decorations. I think almost everything was 40-50% off and then we got an ADDITIONAL 20% off!!! Boy do I love a bargain!

At this point we were all psyched to get our old decorations out and start decorating. Chris headed up to the attic and handed a big box down... then another.... then another... then another... and about 15 boxes and 3 garbage bags later we had almost COMPLETELY emptied our attic - and it was ALL CHRISTMAS STUFF. Um, oops! Didn't realize we had that much stuff.... and now we have even more hehe. At least our attic is clean now so we can organize it better when the stuff goes back up!

And this is just what I could fit in a picture...




Chris hooked our 3 animated deer up in the yard, and started on the lights for the house. We had to stop though because we needed our neighbors ladder and he was out of town... speaking of which... Bob, can we borrow your ladder? Meanwhile, I was inside assembling our white Christmas tree that we bought 2 years ago with the intentions of making Anna her very own tree! I went with a green and purple theme to match her room. I was going to do a bright colorful tree, but just thought a matchy-matchy tree would be fun.

Here are a couple of pictures of the tree. I also added some poinsetta garland to the bookcase and some sparkly stuff on top of the mirror. Wish you could see all the ornaments - they are SO PRETTY but they didn't photograph well.. the tree is actually pretty full, but you can only see the big ornaments.

In this pic you can see a little sleeping Anna - I was trying to sneak and take pictures while she was napping....