Storybook Character Day

For St. Rose's storybook character dress up day Belle went as Fancy Nancy and boy was she ever "Fancy Nancy!"  She looked adorable! 

Father/Daughter Ball 2011

This year marked the first year Andy took Belle to the Father/Daughter Ball and Belle couldn't have been a better date!  She was ecstatic to say the least.  She & I spent the day getting her "all dolled up!"  We made a big day of it starting in the morning with a fresh shower and on to nail painting.  Not only did we paint them, but we put glitter in the paint and added glitter polish on top! 

The next couple hours we watched Cake Boss while I spiral curled her hair.  Her hair usually doesn't keep curls very well, but all the hair spray that we never use must've paid off because these curls lasted for days!

She picked out a beautiful brown dress Auntie Andrea had gotten for her for Christmas a year or so ago.  She added patten leather brown shoes to match.  To top it all off she put on her fancy wool coat that we never really get a chance to wear because our church is so casual and she's go entirely too many coats to choose from.  Abby always needed something different than what she had for some reason or another, so we often have duplicates of things like that.  I guess it's one of the benefits of having Abby as a big sister.  Some of her hand-me-downs are unworn.  

At around 3:00 we headed to our friend's house for pictures and to ride together in their bus for the big event!    They were all dressed up so cute and were positively glowing!  Our friends have five of their girls who go, so they also take grandpas and a couple good friends so each of the girls got to have their own date and didn't have to sit out or dance alone when it wasn't their turn to dance with Dad.  It just added to the fun for Belle as she loves "the friends." 

At the dance they met up with our good friend, Dan along with his beautiful daughter Kate and their foreign exchange student Pompoii (sp?).  The girls are in high school and took Belle under their wing and showed her how it was done.  Belle is often a bit shy when it comes to stuff like, but this night she go into it quite quickly and had a "Ball" (pun fully intended).  I still need to get more pics from Mr. Dan because he seemed to take more than Andy.  Don't they know that Mom wants to see it all? 

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To top it all off Belle won a door prize... a huge bear!  She was beside herself with excitement! 

Belle and her buddy Hosanna posing pretties!

Christmas 2010

I had to post most of our Christmas fun on Belle's sight becuase she still enjoys it all the most!  MaryAlice is starting to get into the idea, but at two she's pretty oblivious outside of her awe of all the decorations.  She loves the decorations!  Belle still takes the cake in overall enjoyment of... everything!  She loves it all from the visits to Bentlyville to all the parties and playing in the snow!  I love doing life with this angel!  She lifts my spirits and just loves being with us.  She likes us as much as we like us!  She's so me!  So utterly easily amused.  So here's the Christmas roll...

We started they holidays with a visit to Bentlyville with the Tanners.  Some of the highlights were the bundled up Moores vs. the barely clothed Tanners.  Nearly all of them lacked coverings for hands or head and jackets were optional.  Needless to say, we rushed through it which suited us perfectly with a two year old in tow.  They were all just as happy to get to the pizza place for dinner!  What a fun night!

Belle & I sported our beautiful matching fur hats that Ethel had made for us last year

maryalice was just along for the ride

Ian, Graham & Belle sipping their hot cocoa or "chocolate water" as Belle calls it!

 Belle did a great job with her classmates and the rest of the school at their Christmas concert!  She looked an awful lot like her Auntie from afar :)

Belle eating up her time with Grandma and Grandpa who enjoyed the concert with us

Christmas morning was just fun and relaxing!

Belle would play outside for hours!  This day we played together!





Grandma makes the girls amazing matching doll clothes each year!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was great again this year!  I decided it deserved to be on Belle's blog because she's the one who enjoys all the get-togethers the most.  MaryAlice  too loves the friends, but Belle is the one who truly  loves all the events.  She'd be at one daily if it was up to her :)

We enjoyed a completely gluten/dairy free meal and it was delicious!  Dad and Ben were even with us.  They're usually hunting over Thanksgiving, so it was a rare treat.  Dad even added pheasant to our traditional turkey meal. 

We made family history with a family picture.  It wasn't great or even really good, but it was us...
all of us in one picture.

Uncle Ben spent the night with us & the girls loved it!

Grandpa & Grandma with grandkids... Abby goes for the hair!

The girlfriends!

Happy Abby loving Grandpa & everyone

this was a better representation of our pic event!

family pic too! 

The whole family!

out of school

My poor Belle was out of school almost a whole week with a fever over 102 degrees and a dreadfully sore mouth.  The first couple of days she simply seemed to have a bug where she seemed fine during the day, but suffered from a high fever in the evenings.  A few days later the fever persisted throughout the day and sore gums accompanied the fever leaving us to assume her molars were coming in as two were just appearing and the other two well swollen.  A day later I begged her dentist to take a look as he determined an infection from the molars emerging.  He gave her antibiotics and prescribed a peroxide/water mouthwash a few times a day (it seemed simple, but was pure torture to her).  A couple days later her entire mouth seemed red and swollen without improvement, so we went to the pediatrician who said it was a viral infection that would go away in five to eight days.  As we were on the 7th day and seemingly improving, albeit slightly, this all made sense.  She was pitiful uncomfortable for the better part of a week, but on the bright side I so enjoyed having her around with me and MaryAlice!  I send her to school for her benefit alone right now.  If she didn't love it so much, it would be an easy decision to keep her home with us. 

Look at the honey.  I had to take some pics, so we could document our tough girl.  She's such a lightweight when it comes to injuries, but crazy tough when it comes to any sicknesses.  She has been known to wake up  in the middle of the night, go to the toilet to vomit and then come tell me.  She was no less amazing during this sickness.  What  a trooper!

7th Birthday party!

butterfly party...

Belle had her first girlfriend birthday party this past weekend.  We had so much fun with ten girls here!  Thanks to Grandma Mary, Auntie Andrea and Danielle it went smoothly.  The girls did some crafts first as they came in.  They made tissue flowers and wrapped them around their wrists as bracelets.  Then they decorated their bags for their stuff and took turns putting tatoos on. 

I missed getting pictures of Daddy giving rides on the go-kart we borrowed from a friend.  We thought a few would like a ride, but they soon all lined up for a turn!  Wish I had some pics of this.  Next we divided into two groups and along with Grandma and Auntie the groups had to perform ten stunts and take a pic of each.  The goofy group photos are those stunts.  It was my creative way of getting pics of all the friends posing.  They got into new groups and ran around for about half an hour looking for items in a scavenger hunt.  They are all such nice girls.  It was very cute how they were able to make friends with each other in such a short time.  I was really proud of them.  They were also very conscience of the younger girls and made a point to help them out whenever they could. 

back: Therese; Middle row:  Belle, Chloe, Anjolie, Tirzah, Natty & Isabel; front row:  Jaana, Jane & Audrey

Stunt game:  lie on the ground like sardines

act like an animal?

Dance

sitting on top of something

underneath something

sitting in a row with someone lying across the laps



in a vehicle making funny faces... Belle isn't doing it, I guess



Next we made homemade pretzels.  This was a shot in the dark since I'd never done it before, but if you know me I like new things so we went for it.  They turned out awesome!  The girls enjoyed them along with red chili (per Belle's request) on a blanket outside which was enough to call it a picnic.  Grandma became the waitress and "waited" on the girls.  We finished the party with cupcakes and outside to collect wood for a bonfire.  We invited the girls' families and our family over for a bonfire as they came to pick up their girls.  There's nothing quite like a bonfire and the weather cooperated fully!  We ended up roasting marshmallows and hanging out with friends until after 11 pm. 

Belle was in her element with a housefull of friends, but MaryAlice and Abby's reactions to all the friends in the house when they woke up from their marathon naps was priceless.  MaryAlice couldn't smile big enough and Abby wasn't too far off.  Abby usually hates all the noise and new commotion of a party, but she recognized the girls and was really happy to see them too!  The party was for our Belle, but it makes it so much nicer to have her sisters having fun too!

Apple utopia

Belle is happiest when we are out and about doing something... anything.  This is where she's like her daddy... and mama, I guess.  We went to Bayfield with the Tanners and she had a ball!  Her and Graham always have a great time together. 

Could you two stop long enough to pose?

always time to pose for the camera... I love this girl!

she's a pro

Mama's buddy

Daddy's girl

climbing a tree for the apples

by the water

Belle finally smiles for the camera!