Merry Christmas!

We sure had one. In fact I am posting right now from my awesome new netbook that my husband gave me for Christmas. He sure does spoil me! Christmas really felt like it snuck up on me this year. It just didn't really feel like it until Christmas Eve with the snow coming down and looking at all the wonderful presents all over the living room. The Christmas excitement was so strong one of our family members woke up at 4 am ready to celebrate.....Me! Everyone else slept great but I never do sleep well Christmas Eve. Once everyone finally got out of bed we opened our presents here at the house. Bella got a lot of adorable clothes, including the world's cutest outfit from Aunt Nancy. I got this awesome Netbook and I gave Eric a throwback orange Elway Broncos Jersey. Much like the Bosworth Jersey of his youth, I don't think he's going to ever take it off. After relaxing around the house we decided to brave the blizzard and head over to my parents. Since it kept snowing we ended up spending the night there as well. When we got there Bella was asleep so once she woke up we opened stockings and then tons of presents.
Bella got her first Reeses peanut butter cup in her stocking, she loved it!
Handsome Daddy and Beautiful Bella opening gifts. Even with all the wonderful presents, the baby spoon took top billing as Bella's favorite toy. Beautiful Nana is thrilled to have a new homemade rice bag. I'm not much of a seamstress but I can at least turn these puppies out for great holiday gifts.
After presents we played games, had naps and watched Nana play in the snow. Then Dad and I cooked up a great dinner and we played games until bedtime. It was certainly one of our top 5 Christmas Days. I can't wait to do another small celebration when my Brother gets here.

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

~Trish

Bella's First Birthday!

Much in the Averill/Neuteboom tradition, Bella didn't just have A birthday, She had a birthday weekend full of presents, fun and activities. Since we've got a lot of pictures, let's get started!

We started the celebrating with opening presents that had been mailed from Uncle Will and Aunt Lucy which included an adorable Bear that Bella loves. We also got a great outfit from the Studzinsky's. Here's Bella playing with Daddy and the Bear while wearing her highly fashionable new clothes. We had Bella's first birthday party on Sunday and were so lucky to celebrate with many great friends and family. Since our house is a little small for such an event we had the party at the Averill's. It was the perfect setting for the event with lots of room to play. My mom even pulled out my old toys and stuffed animals so it was kind of nostalgic for me. I sadly didn't have any Barbies pulled out since they all seemed to have disappeared......hmmm.....I wonder where ALL my Barbies went? Oh wait, my brother took them to use and abuse them in the name of sh***y puppetry. Note to Will: You owe Bella a crap ton of Barbies, I'd get started on that if I were you!

But I digress. Back to the party, Connie is notorious for brilliant cake designs and she lived up to the hype with this beautiful princess cake for Isabella. It turned out perfect!
Opening presents is of course one of the highlights of a good birthday party. It always cracks me up how the older kids tend to take over the opening of presents, we had a blast with help from Megan, Grey, Evey, Jake and of course Mommy. Thanks to all for spoiling Bella with the great toys, books and clothes. Not sure what Clint was doing with that clapper....... Jake gave Bella a basketball that matched his outfit, He was a big fan of that Toy and Grandpa Ric had a blast playing catch with Jake and Keegan.

A House full of people, We are so lucky to have so many wonderful friends!! It was fun to watch Evey help with presents since we've been to all of her birthday parties so far. She was also a HUGE fan of Grandpa Ric. When he disappeared into his office for 10 minutes or so she kept asking "where did that tall boy go?" They all loved the duck voice. Two of Bella's Fairy Godmothers, Tracy and LauraThe second highlight of any good party is the cake. Bella got her own personal birthday cake to demolish and she was hysterical. I'll take you step by step.Upon presentation, Bella wasn't quite sure what to make of it. "Is this ALL for me?" "Okay, if you say so I'll eat it""Whoa, SUGAR!"And then she went for it!
She wanted to share too, here's some for Nana, Grandpa Boom, and Mimi. "Mmmmmmm.......Cake........"All done After cake the party wined down and we had fun playing with the Jones/Romero family. Evey and Bella played with Bella's new Pony but I think Evey enjoyed the Bow most. Three hot ladies! After everyone left the Neutebooms and Averills enjoyed dinner and football and Bella fell asleep to Poppie playing the piano and Nana rocking her while Mimi, Eric and I cleaned up. It was a perfect party.

Monday was Bella's actual birthday and the kids sang to her at daycare. We also got great news Eric got a job!!!!! I'm sure he'll want to fill you in on details soon enough. But to celebrate we all went out to dinner at Longhorn. We told the waiter it was Bella's birthday and Eric and I enjoyed her free ice cream sundae! We felt a little guilty eating all her birthday sundae but not enough to stop! Bella got a couple of bites too. Overall, it was a great birthday weekend. I can't believe my baby is already 1. Every time someone said it goes so fast I didn't quite believe them, well, I do now. Time has flown by. I love every moment of it though with an incredible husband and a beautiful and brilliant daughter. I can't wait to share these pictures and memories with Bella when she's older. Thanks for being a part of them.

~Trish

Our little girl is one!

My goodness, how the time has flown. We celebrated Bella's first birthday yesterday (many thanks to our friends and family who came to help us celebrate - we'll get those photos up soon) and had just a great time.

Anyway, here's a few random thoughts about her first year, fatherhood, and being the luckiest man in the world...

- I am constantly amazed at how smart Bella is. Her problem solving skills are off the charts (like moving my hand out of the way so she can eat her own Cheerios) and she gets smarter every day. I always thought we'd have a really smart child, but damn, she's fast approaching genius territory.

- She's so good and calm in groups of people, even strangers. She'll get a bit quiet, but she's never intimidated, she just likes to watch and see what's going on.

- Jesus Christ, she bites like a Terminator! I swear I thought she bit my finger off the other day.

- If this child isn't a singer, then I'll be totally shocked. Besides the obvious bloodlines (Trish, bless her, sings like an angel, as do her parents) Bella just seems to have a musical lean. We were going to another birthday party for her last week, and while crossing the street, she made a noise, just a little "coo." Upon hearing her echo, she really reached back and belted a few notes to hear the echo again. It was beautiful. Reminded me of one of our Uncle Tom's stories in his book, Ordinary Genius, about a little girl finding her voice. I've also noticed how much louder Bella can be than other kids (seriously, she's got some pipes!). Her shrieks and yells carry a hint of musicianship that makes me think her love of the arts and music is genuine and true, and not just her dad hoping all of these things for her (in addition to hoping she gets her mom's voice, and not mine!).

- I love cooking new things for her, and hoping she likes them. She is my truest food critic!

- It's amazing how much strength I gather from her. It's been no secret that it's been a hard year for our family, full of loss and sorrow. But somehow, when all feels lost, and I worry that our world is crumbling around us, she'll do something so amazing, so loving, that I just know it's going to be alright (and it has). I worry what would have happened had I lost my job and not had her to ground and focus me, in addition to the never-ending love and patience Trish gave me. She can't yet know what she's done to make me a better person, but I hope to have the chance to show her for the rest of my life.

- I dare anyone to find anything cuter than a one year old starting to dance. You won't!

- It's also been a truly fantastic experience to watch Trish become a mother. My God, that woman is a saint, and is such an amazing mother to Bella, and wife to me. Through thick-and-thin, for better and for worse, I know that I can count on her to be the rock that we (Bella and me) need to lean on from time to time. I know I'm terribly spoiled to have such a fantastic, beautiful and talented wife and such an amazing baby girl. My life truly is happiness defined.

- To my wife and daughter, I love you more than anything and live each day for you. You are my all, and I can't wait for everything that is to come in our lives. I love you both so much.

Thanksgiving Break: Part 1

We had a wonderful trip out to Colorado to visit the Neuteboom/Wells clan. Sadly my camera ran out of batteries so we only got about half the trip photographed. Connie has the rest of the pictures on her camera which I'm hoping to steal when they are in town next week for Bella's Birthday. ( that's right folks, only a little over a week until our baby turns 1!!!!)


So here are some preview pictures of our trip with a promise of more to follow.
Thanksgiving day we got some Shots of Bella with very large Turkey. Since the Broncos played that evening, Bells spent a large part of her day in her Broncos outfit.

Feed the Mama. mmmm.....Turkey
With the Beautiful Auntie HeidiPlaying in the Pit (Gabe and Bella both enjoyed some Pit playing during the weekend) Here's Bella planning to bang some plastic measuring cups on Mimi's coffee table, you can imagine how much Mimi enjoyed that. We also made it to a Mall in Colorado Springs and got a shot with Santa, I'll post that picture with the story about what a *** that particular Santa was, He was so not there for the kids! However, this large fake snowman was. Here's Mimi, Bella and I posing by the Snowman. We also had a professional photo shoot with cousin Gabe. Here are some of the getting ready and playing with Leggos shots. Doesn't she look amazing! She's so cute! Big guy in a little chair..... We had a blast and took way more pictures than this, so in Part 2 you'll get pictures of the park, Gabe, and a variety of other adventures. Stay tuned!

~Trish

Hey Kids it's time for "Reading with Auntie Jaq!"