Sporty Boom

So part of the fun of having a kid is you can dress them up in your favorite sports apparel. I was thoroughly excited to put Bella in her recently acquired Jayhawks jersey for the game. I was so excited to watch the game but when 5:00 came around I discovered they were only showing it on ESPN U.......stupid U. So I took cute pictures instead. Thanks Tracy and Keegan for giving us the jersey, maybe I'll put it on her tonight.

So now the question is how far is too far. Eric and I are excited to buy Bella a toddler chair since she showed us her interest in one by actively climbing in and out of her new car seat on Sunday. I found this adorable pink dotted one from pottery barn

Eric found a Royals one.

Let's put it to a vote. Pink dots ( much more feminine) Or to hell with gender roles, go with the Royals. Vote above.

~Trish

Phone manners...

S0 we've had a few milestones lately, the most exciting of which is that Bella is talking! She has several words in her vocabulary now, and she is also using them in the proper context. Just a minute ago, we three were working on her latest trick, saying "hi" when answering the phone. I just took a pretend phone call, and handed it to Bella to talk. I was trying to get her to say "hi," and she refused - instead she paused, opened my phone, and then said "hi." That's right, my daughter just basically told me she already knows more about electronics than I do, as in "silly dad, you have to open the phone first before saying 'hi!'"

Goodness she's a smart one! She also is learning "Booo!," and said "cracker" at daycare today, while pointing to some on the counter. Hopefully "Go royals" is next up...

Teeth, Ahhhh!!!

Bella is working on 3 teeth at once at the moment, two of which I think are molars. It's been some crabby and sleepless nights! They are beautiful teeth though, I can't wait until they fully bust through.

Bella also no longer crawls, It's walking or nothing for our girl. She has also discovered and conquered stairs, She can get up them wicked fast, we're still figuring out how to come back down.

This really is incredible, I'm amazed by something new every single day. I LOVE being a mom.

~Trish

Brief Update

Sorry for the delay, as stated above we've been pretty crazy around here. Plus Eric blocked me out of the account by changing the password ( accidentally he says.....hmmmm.......)

Anyway, Isabella is doing fantastic. She's full on walking, can do a variety of party tricks (some might call those skills or milestones. I like party tricks) such as : Touchdown ( hands full up above head) Ear muffs ( hands over ears), Waving, shaking her head no and Cheers ( she'll cheers you with her sippy cup, thanks Evey Jones for inspiring that one) I think there are more but I can't remember them off the top of my head. Eric is now trying to teach her to nod her head yes while I'm still working on getting her NOT to throw food on the floor. She talks up a storm too, most of it is Bella language but every once in a while she'll mimic a sound or a word. She's starting to say milk and ball and of course has mastered Dada and Mama. All around, we have the wouldn't cutest and smartest baby! Our only concern at the moment is a persistent cough, it's been around for about 3 1/2 months now. We're working with the Doc to figure out the cause but it's pretty frustrating to watch your baby deal with it. Luckily, it doesn't bother her much, sometimes wakes her up at night but on the whole she is happy and healthy. Please don't comment with any possibilities on what it could be, I'm kind of a hypocondryact( a word I'm having no luck spelling!) and would totally overreact to it.

Eric is doing fantastic. He is now working at Light Bulbs Etc. with our close friends Sean and Clint, both of whom are the head honchos over there. He's really loving it and excited about what he's going to be able to bring to the company. We both love that it's a local family business and although they are located in Lenexa, he'll get to work around Lawrence and Topeka as well. J.P. has started calling him an illumination specialist, I like it and will proceed to call him that as well.

I'm doing well also, Winter break is over and I'm back at school. I also have semester classes so I have a whole new crop of students to get to know. I'm really excited about our spring production that starts up this week. We are doing two Hamlet One Acts and one is Hamlet written as a soap opera, which we are actually filming to make it a multi-media presentation. It goes up April 7th and 9th and is going to be a hoot.

Overall we're doing great, We're looking forward to seeing Eric's folks out here in February and will start taking some pictures and such of Bella. One of my New Years resolutions is to get more video up on the blog. We took some great video just the other night of B's tricks. I'll try to get it up soon.

That's all for now!

Trish

Sorry for the delay

Eric accidentally changed the password on me. Plus back at work. I'll post an update within the week so come back and see us again real soon!

Kansas Blizzard!

Yep. We got one. Not sure what the total inch count was but there was A LOT of snow over Christmas. So much that we didn't make it in to Topeka to see the extended family. Luckily we've got plans to head in on New Years Day so we can see everyone. Even with that disappointment it was an incredible storm. It was also the first real snow fall that Bella could enjoy so we bundled up and took advantage of the weather. It was a true joy to watch Bella play in the snow.

Hope all the rest of you Lawrencians enjoyed the weather!

~Trish

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