At last

We have been so super busy! I can't even remember everything we have done these past two months! For starters, my Cantico concert was Friday night and it was awesome! My solo went well, someone told my conductor that it was their favorite part of the program. (I think she was thinking of something else!)

We got our Christmas tree at Thornton's treeland right after Thanksgiving and it's all pretty and decorated in silver and teal shatter-proof ornaments, thank you Wal-Mart! It's so fun to have a house to decorate all cute for Christmas. Sadly, our house doesn't have single outdoor outlet! No idea how that happened. We can't put lights up outside. Bella loves all the decorations. We have cute decals on our windows and everyday we have to got to each window so she can touch each one.

Speaking of miss Bella, she is getting so big!!! She'll be 14 months at the end of the month! She's as tall as my friends 2 year old!!!! She is growing and learning so fast. She's getting a wide vocab.

So far she knows: Momma, Da-da,Papa, wasat (what's that?) I see?,baba (grandma),nana, bye-bye, bis (bisous french for kiss) kitkat (cat) meow,no-no, yeah.

She loves to sit and "read" books to herself. By read I mean talks in gibberish. I'm positive that she knows exactly what she's saying.

This girl loves to take baths! Yesterday, I decided I wold take a nice relaxing bath. As soon as she heard the water she was pulling off all her clothes and crying to come in. So, I shared mt bath with her. Not even 5 minutes into it I smelled something rather stinky and I looked down and yep, you guessed it, she POOPED all over me!!!!! I almost threw up!!!!!

Joe has one more week of school!!! Whoo-hoo! I can't wait! I can once again have a social life and my husband back! I've felt like a single parent these days.

Well, that's all I can think of for now.

You don't want to miss this concert!

Hi friends! My chmaber choir, Cantico, will be performing our annual Christmas benefit concert Friday Dec. 11th at 8pm at the Old Church downtown Portland. It's a beautiful venue. It's on the corner of 11th and Clay by PSU. I am very pleased to be a part of this group. There are many wonderful and talented people. A large majority of us hold at least a Bachelors in Music. While there are a few Masters as well. It's going to be fabulous! I'm even singing a solo, in French of course! You can get tickets online at www.canticosingers.org. If you enter my friend code: 212094403 you get an additional 20% off the $2 discount if you bring a can of food. If you don't want to go online just let me know. I have tickets on hand!

I hope to see you there!

My Baby is One!

It happened! My baby finally turned 1!!!! We had a great party. It was themed "Pink in Paris" Bella had a really great time and we were surrounded by wonderful friends and family!

Here's a few pictures:

What's a Pink in Paris party without a pink cake with an Eiffel Tower?

Ain't she sweet!?

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we went to Bi-Zi farms pumpkin patch with my sister's family and Joe's mom. We had such a good time! Joe even won a Scarecrow in the pumpkin launch. It's a really fun place. If you've never been there it's on 119th ave in between hazel dell and battle ground. We pet the animals, went through hay bale mazes, sipped yummy cider and went on a search for the "perfect" pumpkin according to my nephew RJ. It was a good time had by all!

Here's to being 26!

Today was my birthday and it was pretty dang good. My little sister Ali, threw me a party and got me a cake with an Eiffel tower on it! It was good to spend time with family. Joe decorated the entire house in streamers and signs. He's such a sweetheart! He got me a really pretty white gold chain. I have an Eiffel tower pendant but the chain broke last year. I couldn't fine a chain to wear it in and he remembered that I really wanted one! Tomorrow we're going to spend the day in Portland. We're going to have a picnic in the Rose Gardens and then just toole around town. I just might have to swing by Urban Outfitters and spend some of my birthday dough!

The sign Joe made me!

The Eiffel Tower from my cake

My first attempt to show off my Eiffel Tower

She's just too cute to not post a picture!

I guess I should post something since it's been awhile. We've been SOOOOO busy! Joe has lots of homework and tests. I recently joined a chamber choir called "Cantico". It's a great group. I love being able to challenge myself. I am in Lake Oswego every other week rehearsing for 3 hours. I joined a bookclub w/ some ladies i my ward we're reading "The Hunger Games" crazy stuff!

Bella is doing fabulous! Funny story:

Last week I was changing Bella's diaper and noticed some cottage cheesy looking stuff all over and her little girly parts were all red. I called her Doc. because she ad bee running a low grade fever and was obviously not feeling well. They had me bring her in immediately in case she had a severe infection. So, we get to the Dr's and they do a swab and send it off for a culture. 30 mins. later her doctor calls me back and she says in a very grave voice " Um, well I'm not quite sure how to tell you this...." (my heart started pounding...what in the world could be wrong?) "...Well Bella does not have a kidney infection...it's much more serious...she has DESITIN!" She then proceeded to laugh! It took me a few to catch on and then I laughed so hard I was crying! Note to self: ask Joe if he put Desitin on Bella before bed before I even call the Dr.'s office!

Anyway, life is good...tomorrow is my birthday! The big 2-6! I told someone last week that I was 23 on accident! Weird! So, here are the expected pictures of our weeks musings:

Some house pictures

Here's a few pictures of the "clean" part of our house! We still have lots of work to do! I'll post some pictures of our bedroom and office when they're clean! Our bonus room needs to be painted and carpeted! We're debating on making our covered patio a sunroom. Anywho here you go!

This is the Living Room

Kitchen-We're getting a stainless fridge and new countertops and we put ceramic tile on the floor

Dining Room. We put Wainscot all around it

Bella's room

As you can see she pulled the knobs off her hutch!

This is definitely blog worthy!

I just wanted to anounce that I just bought my tickets to the midnight showing of New Moon!!! We're going to Cinetopia in the grand theater if you want to come along. Hurry and get tickets, the living room theater already sold out! I even bought my "Team Edward" shirt! Gotta represent!

A Few More Pictures

These are from the hospital

This was sooo precious
After she pulled out the IV in her foot. They put like 6 layers of corban on her arm!

Definitely not feeling good :(

Isn't she just the cutest!

Grandma Leslie always makes things better!

Bella Update

This was going to be a post about our house (sorry Rachel) but now that I've consumed the entire bag of Riesens for breakfast, I'm feeling way to sluggish to clean and therefore take pictures. Tomorrow. Plus, I feel like white trash because the old dryer is STILL on our patio along with some nasty baseboards and the even nastier pink felt vertical blinds (seriously people...pink felt???)

Anywho...we got a call from Bella's urologist. They finally got the result back from her MRI. Kind of funny...they couldn't really see very well because the poor thing had too much POOP in her intestines! (The reason for our last infection) From what they could see her kidneys had actually improved from her last hospital stay. We are no longer doing the surgery in Dec. Her bladder will be too small and they would most likely need to do a repeat surgery around April anyway. We're looking at springApril for her reconstructive surgery. Since they will be removing part of her kidney she will be hospitalized for a bit longer. As long as bambina can stay out of the hospital (fingers crossed) we're good. That was definitely good news. For now we're working on the poop siuation. She has to take Miralax everyday. Today is the first day. I just hope it's not going to give her masive diarrhea! I really like her new clothes

So that's the news for now. Hopefully tomorrow you can see pics of my house. It's still "under construction"Our family room still needs lots of love! The nasty shower doors are coming off today! Did I mention that there are wads of someone else's pubic hair stuck in the tracks! Just dicovered that. NASTY!!!!! We're going to remove the entire thing!

This is a picture of Bella's latest fashion find. I LOVE Janie and jack. Just wish I could afford them. Bella's first b-day (Halloween) is going to be themed "Pink in Paris" I've found some good finds for her. Anyone have any ideas for an eiffel tower cake?