In a galaxy far far away . . .

Bella was . . . dum da da dum . . . Princess Leia for Halloween :) This was her first and she was ADORABLE, really the pictures do not do her justice. She wasn't very cooperative when we were trying to take them. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to dress her up and visit family and friends.

Our little duck fan

It took us a while to find Bella a duck outfit that was girlie and that would fit her. Yes, it is duck garb, see the big O? Anyway, she is adorable :) The ducks have also been undefeated since she has been born when she has been wearing duck garb, hopefully it will work this weekend against USC! We sure do love our little Bella! SO CUTE!

Frogger

So for the last few weeks we've been hearing a 'ribbit' sound outside our fireplace. The fireplace's vent goes directly outside and has a finely knit screen so we figured the froggy was just by the vent somewhere. Upon inspection at one point I couldn't find anything outside, nothing around the vent or area. Granted we do have a lot of little froggies around our home, usually there are at least three in the upper window above our front door, but we thought this noise was kind of weird and eventually annoying. The other night Bono started growling at the fireplace, we got mad at him because Bella was asleep and we thought he was nuts. But when we looked closer we found . . .

Dave safely removed the amphibian from the fireplace, which then jumped onto the carpet and freaked Bono out, just Bono mind you ;). Dave retrieved the froggy and placed him outside in our garden so he could eat some bugs, he was really skinny.

Have a nice life little froggy and please don't make any more noise in our fireplace!

Watch and see :)

So here is a video of our sweet Baby Bella :) We sure do LOVE her! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as6JjPJcKA8

La Vida es Buena

Dave and I went floating down the Willamette River with his Uncle Bobby and my brother Mark and his three daughters. Two of the girls freaked out over the "rapids" - so called and looked bored or upset half the time. They wouldn't admit at the time, but we all had a GREAT time!

Bella woke up one morning with the craziest hair on the planet, I just had to take a picture, isn't she SO DARN CUTE?!!

We went to the park to see the duckies and the gees (there was lots of poop), but it was fun, I think Bella thought they were all Bonos, lol.

SUCH a cutie!!

Bella has cut her fourth tooth now. She has also now had her first fever and diaper rash. Needless to say those were sleepless nights of worry for her mommy and daddy! Bella is a crawling crazy baby and climbs on just about everything. She can climb the stairs and we are working on teaching her to go down them on her tummy. She is in the 0 % of weight for her age so our Dr. told us to try to fatten her up (she was in the 8%). Bella recognizes Bono's name and will go after him when I tell her to, it is pretty funny. She is scared of her bathtub for whatever reason however we tried our big bath last night and bathing went fine, so I don't know what that is about. Bella LOVES music and being chased. She loves it best when daddy plays with her or her cousins hang out with her.

So we also have this adorable video of Bella saying uh-oh. We tried posting it however apparently our digital video camera isn't the correct format for Blogger or even You Tube, so BLAH! You will all just have to hear or see her do it in person! :)

As for what else we have been up to . . . Dave has gone to a couple of Duck games, we've been to weddings, played with Bella, had lots of people come visit us, gone on lots of walks, I am sure there has been more, I just can't think of them all. Anyway as some good friends of mine say, la vida es buena (english translation, life is good)!

Not usually me

Let it be known that I am not usually one to post opionions regarding politics. I don't pretend to know everything or be educated enough regarding political people or political activities/agendas or whatever you'd like to call it. I use this blog to let people know how my family is doing and what we are up to, it is a fun thing and I love sharing pictures and our adventures. However, there is something that is currently eating at me and I just have the need to get this out there.

I love my family. It should also be known that I am extremely protective of my family. ESPECIALLY of my baby Bella. If anyone were to cause her serious harm, I would personally DESTROY them in any legal capacity and avenue available.

Ted Kennedy just died. I don't know a lot about the Kennedys, I don't really care to be honest. However with all the specials on television, even on PBS, I cannot escape it. I also don't know much about Teddy, just that he was a very, very vocal senator and extremely liberal. I also knew he worked hard for the causes he believed in and has been apart of some good changes in America such as ADA and special olympics. And apparently I have escaped hearing of Chappaquiddick until now. After reading all I can about this "incident", I am shocked and incredibly bothered by it.

A young woman died, Mary Jo Kopechne. A young woman who was a beloved only daughter. A young woman who had a promising future. There are MANY unanswered questions regarding this incident and it is crazy to me the investigation, or lack there of, that took place. You will have to do your own research on this "incident" to form your own opinion. Mine is that he did it. Ted Kennedy killed and possibly did other things with this young lady. What makes me sick is that she was someone's daughter. Someone's baby. And because a prominent political figure killed her she was denied justice as were her parents. Her parents never got full answers from the investigation or from Ted Kennedy. Her parents at least deserved the truth and justice as ANY parents should receive from a untimely death of a child. This sickens me. This makes me terribly sad. Ted Kennedy was only charged with leaving the scene of a accident and convicted however didn't even end up serving time for that. A murderer of someone's child was elected and re-elected and re-elected several times. I don't get it. I don't get it at all. Are we all so blind that we will support someone just because of their name and forget/forgive the harm they cause? If his last name was not Kennedy and his brothers had not been assasinated, if he were just some guy and the same "incident" took place, there would've been a more in depth investigation, there would have been more answers and there most definately would have been justice for Mary and her parents.

Baby Bella Dancerella

Over the last couple of months Bella has made a few hefty milestones :) She has been army crawling for a very long time but she has now mastered regular crawling. She then started pulling herself up on things and stands. Bella has also learned the benefits of sitting! Finally! She did all that and NOW she sits, silly girl. She has also discovered the stairs and has climbed the whole staircase on her own. Now we have to teach her how to go down so she doesn't hurt herself! We are also introducing more "regular" foods to her such as breads and meats rather than just baby food. She doesn't really know what to think yet, with every bite there comes a funny face :) She is super fun and loves to have daddy chase her or find mommy or daddy around the corner. She chases poor Bono and follows him everywhere. Bono is a good sport about it.

Bella is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! She makes us smile every day and just can't wait for her to talk!!

We randomly went to a co-worker's alpaca farm. They are SUPER soft, I guess they are the equivalent to cashmere. They have the biggest eyes and longest eye lashes. They are much more mild mannered than camels. There was the main stud alpaca and boy he knew he was #1. When we got there he was literaly strutting his stuff, it was super funny! The littlist guy in the picture was super curious, it was fun. Alpacas also make a chirping sort of noise and they didn't smell bad either, I was very surprised! Oh and they only spit if they get really mad. Bella thought they were funny.

I love being Mommy!

Kirk got married! :)

Kirk and Heather got married on August 1st at the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple. It was a beautiful wedding and now they are together forever! We are so happy for Kirk and Heather and excited for their future together! Aren't they just beautiful?!
Bella was absolutely amazing during the 13 + hour drive to Utah and back. She did so well being carted around all over the state, we are blessed with a super happy baby!

Well, we tried to do some family photos . . . in each one, there is one of us not smiling!

Kirk and Heather just before leaving to go to the temple to be married for eternity! (Thank you to Lisa's parents the Loveless' who let us use their house as the Melton basecamp! It was just down the street from the temple!)

Can't forget the sister picture! Of course Debra and I cried during the ceremony, we blame our dad, he is a crier :)

And boy was it hot during all these pictures! YUK! But the wedding couple still looked fantastic! You couldn't wipe off their smiles :)

Thanks to all those who helped with Kirk and Heather's wedding! We are all just so happy for them!

Friends!

Two of my best friends, Shanell and Mary, from my home town of good ol' Richland Washington came to visit! Both Shanell and Mary have three children each and the 2nd and 3rd children for the both of them are twins . . . I think it is because of the nuclear reactor near Richland ;) but they came without kiddos and hubbies. We had a blast with the short amount of time they were here. We went out for breakfast at my FAVORITE place, The Original Pancake House which is right by the U of O. We all forgot that the national track meet finals were going on that day so we got to see a lot of athletes there too.
We then went to the Saturday Market. There are all sorts of fun booths to purchase things from as well as a farmers market. But the most fun is all of the transient hippies that either try to sell their own stuff (bongs included) or make music as seen above. Seriously, I would say about 90% of these people are completely baked. One of my favorites is the old dude playing one of the bongo drums with the hat and fake dreds. Mary and Shanell got a kick out of this, as you can see ;). Peace out Shanaynay.

There was also this guy . . . what's with the cat?

If you have seen the best of Will Farrell SNL you will get a kick out of this guy! See the big lady on the big drum? We seriously watched he down a gallon (from a milk jug) of water in one sitting.

Mmmmm, Sweet Life Patiseree. Of course we had to make a stop there! Such yummy deserts!

And they're off! Thanks for the visit girls, it was a lot of fun and full of laughter and hope you all come again soon!

Didn't realize so much was going on!

I'm domestic! I made my first batch ever of homemade strawberry jam! My friend Annie and I went and picked the strawberries and came home and made the jam. It was a lot of fun and the jam is DELICIOUS! I did burn myself in the process however :(.

Our little angel has teeth! She has actually had them for a few weeks now, but has not been very cooperative to get a picture of them, but we finally got one to show them off! Our little baby girl is growing up so fast!

Bella is now "army" crawling. She uses her elbows and arms to pull herself where she wants to go. She has started to get up on her hands and knees and has taken a few crawls that way, but still prefers the army style.

So, teething sucks. I love my baby, but this teething thing wicked stinks. Bella is now 7 months old and has not slept through the night since she was 4 months old, it is really killing me and Dave. We were really blessed in having her sleep through the night for about two months (when she was 2-4 months old), but then she stopped. She gets up several times too, we only feed her once though, but it is really getting to us. Any suggestions with the whole teething thing and not sleeping well thing would be GREAT!

Bella had some cousins come and visit, she LOVED all of the kids to play with and watch. Bobby and Dalin were really great at playing with her and keeping her entertained. Bobby and Ashley were great helpers with her too! When my sister,Debra, and her kids left, I followed them home and went to the Scholastic Book Fair in Portland! IT WAS AWESOME! It was a whole warehouse of books that were mostly 50% off! I totally scored and got quite a few children's book and even a cookbook - of which we have already used.

Happy Fathers Day to my Sweetie. It took a lot of planning and organizing, it wasn't a large production, but there was a lot to it. The main event was this. The inconspicuous gift bag that I played off as "no big deal". Dave started rummaging through it to find the gift he probably figured was another tie or some other small trinket...

Surprise! Not just a trinket here! It is an ipod touch! Just for my Sweetie! Dave's first father's day was pretty much a Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary and Happy Father's day as we didn't exchange gift for any of those events due to the building and purchase of our home. :) WE LOVE YOU DAVE!! (he really enjoys his new toy)