Parent's Night for Bella

Brian got to spend his birthday at parent's night at the studio for Bella's class...ha! We watched their new tap dance for this year, I feel good. It is hilarious (as always with little dancers). I can't wait for this year's recital to see how she does again!

Bella, the princess of it all!

While we were at Julianne's house for New Year's, I'd seen a picture hanging in her room where she was dressed in several princess dresses...and I'd fallen in LOVE with it! Since Bella had gotten an Ariel dress for Christmas, and I knew we had a Tinkerbell and a few others, I thought this would be a perfect idea for her! Laura let us borrow a few of Julianne's dresses to complete the picture. So...here it is! I think it is absolutely ADORABLE!!!



My favorite...Tinkerbell! Bella was truly upset with me for putting her hair up on top of her head (even though that was how Tink's hair was). I love it!

First winter storm of the year!

Monday, Jan. 3rd, we got our first winter storm. Olivia was out of school for staff development anyway, but Bella and Brian were both out due to the weather. I had a work day planned at school, but we had a two hour delay. The roads weren't bad at all, but the tiny bit of snow and ice looked pretty anyway.





And look at the weather forecast on my phone...have you ever seen such cold temperatures for Arkansas? Holy Cow!! SIX??

New Year's Day...

We went back to the Fletcher's for lunch, football, and potluck around 11 or so. We had a blast! The girls played dress up (with fashion shows between commercials) and guys watched ball..., and to be honest, we watched some too. Between games, we even hooked up our Super Mario Bros. to the Wii and had Tony, Tiffany, Brian, and Scott playing against each other. It was crazy! We stayed till early evening and headed home. It was probably the most fun I've ever had on New Year's!

New Years Eve Plans

Olivia was invited to spend the night with Julianne Fletcher on New Year's Eve. Laura asked if we'd like to go to the movie, Princess and the Frog earlier in the evening and then have dinner. So we did. The Lee's (Kelly, Tony, and Tiffany) met us at Izzy's after the movie. Then we went back to the Fletcher's house for a little bit while the girls all played. Bella did NOT want to leave, but since we plan to go back tomorrow for football and a potluck, she wasn't too hard to convince to leave.

Third Annual Trolley Ride

Our annual trolley ride almost didn't happen this year because we could barely find time that all of us could go! We ended up going on Tuesday evening after mom and Livie took Mamaw back to Louisiana. All of us met up at the park and ride in the Argenta area, and took the 4:25 trolley to downtown. We got off and ate at the Flying Burrito. It was pretty cold and windy when the sun went down, so the wait for the trolley to go back across the river was a cold one!

Merry Christmas, Love, Bella!

4 Generations

Before Mamaw left, we made sure to get a 4 generation picture with her. We took several, and this was the best of them. With little ones, we had to take what we could get... Ha!

Then, the guys got in the picture with her. She loves them so much...and they are pretty fond of her too.

Christmas 09

We started off on Christmas Eve with cleaning. Ha. I had wanted to get IN Olivia's room and clean OUT stuff (by myself...you know why). So, Brian took the kids out to the stores while I stayed to clean. It worked out great...but I didn't want to stop when it was time. I cleaned out everything I could think of: behind the dresser, in the closet, under her bed, all of her drawers and shelves... I thought it looked SO good.

Then, we went to my mom's house for our Christmas Eve gathering. We started off with finger foods as we opened gifts. This Christmas was special because my Mamaw was in town for it.







After we opened gifts, we ate our ham dinner and watched the Christmas Story on TV.

When we got home, the kids put on their pajamas and we started opening our gifts. Liv was SO excited about her Justice perfume, and Bella was THRILLED to get the camera she'd been asking for.









Here's a pic of an earring holder I made for Bella. I was quite proud of it.



The girls got Santa's cookies and milk together before going outside and putting out the reindeer food on the lawn.

While little dreamers slept, Santa came! Olivia got a Nintendo DS with some games and accessories, and Bella got a scooter with a Barbie helmet/knee and elbow pad set.







Then we went to my mom's house for our traditional cheese biscuits. Later in the afternoon, we met my mom and Mamaw for Chinese. Then Brian and I took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, the Squeakquel. It was actually pretty cute. Bella even sat through the whole movie--surprise, surprise!


I love this picture of Bella and Cooper playing Christmas Day. It reminds me of a picture of Emily with our cousin Stephen when they were young...dressing up as the Rich Lady.