Bella's First Fishing Trip!

The Roberts invited us to go fishing with them last weekend and it was so fun. I was worried that Bella would get bored and I'd end up chasing her everywhere but she sat, relaxed, and just enjoyed the whole fishing experience. We didnt get her her own pole yet but with time we will eventually get her own. I'm super excited for the many many more fishing trips we'll take:)

Mccrae just hanging out and relaxing:)

Doug caught a tiny fish but he let Bella real it in so she could feel what  its like. She really liked fishing with her daddy.

Bella cracked me up. She wore her swim suit underneath her clothes and she saw Maday's Dad AJ go into the water so when she saw that she took her clothes off and ran to the water. There was no stopping her! She saw he was fishing and she WAS going in that water. I've never seen her move so fast and have her mind set like this. There wasn't any asking us so Doug being the awesome dad he is jumped i with her and that made her VERY happy!

SPLASH PAD take 1

I am fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom and since i get to stay home with Bella i have been really trying to do fun activities with her during the day so were not just home all day. Also since we are in Texas its already warm so we where able to go to the splash pad with our friends Madaya and Mccrae and their mom Kendra. The kids had a BLAST and we all got a little tan:)

After we let the kids "cool down" by taking them to the jungle gym across the park. It was sooo much fun! The kids really did have a lot of fun and Bella took a great nap after! Successful day to me!

Here are some fun pictures of our day:)

Happy Easter!

This Easter was by far the best Easter Ive ever had! I was actually prepared and got Bella's Easter basket ahead of time (phew!) She woke up a little grumpy and when we showed her what the Easter bunny brought her she went straight to her new princess doll and was VERY happy after that. she didn't even really notice anything else in her basket until later that day.

Anyway, we got ready for church and we actually had to be there early because i was asked to give a talk on the atonement. I was VERY nervous. I don't remember the last time i gave a talk at church but it was great! i learned so much when i prepared for my talk and i think it made Easter so much better. It helped remind me how The savior atoned for our sins and how truly blessed i am and my family is for him.

Later that evening we went to our new and very good friends house (Kendra and AJ Robert) for a fun Easter BBQ. Kendra and i went shopping the day before for food and it turned out to be so much fun! There was about 5 different families who came so it was a full house! The kids had their own egg hunt after dinner and they just had a blast! All of our lovely husband even had fun on their trampoline. They all got on there to play crack the egg and i was so scared they where going to break the trampoline the whole time! It was a really fun evening and I'm so glad we have been able to meet so many lovely friends.

We ended the night with some pretty nails. Doug is truly the sweetest dad ever. He really doesn't care what is going on around him, or people think he's weird because he is playing with his little girl and that's all to matters to him:)

Bella and her best friend Madaya. They are the cutest together and hold hand everywhere they go and when they go more than a day apart they are both asking to play together. So now bella has two best friends, Olivia and madaya:)

They both even got princess dolls for easter. Madaya got the repunzel princess and Bella got cinderella.



Doug and Bella. So cute <3



We Did a few pre-Easter celebrations as well which where lots of fun!

Bella and Madaya before the Easter egg hunt in our church playgroup.

The kiddos going threw their Easter eggs. They where super excited!

The Girls at BLORA for their Flash light Easter egg hunt.

Hunting some eggs and using their flashlights.

We where also fortunate enough to watch "baby buddy." ( Bella nick named Carter and it stuck) he had lots of fun at the hunt just people watching:)


We had a super fun Easter! Its def one of my favorite holidays now. Its a great day that reminds us how lucky and blessed we are for being able to ask for forgiveness and how fortunate we are to forgive. I also love all the fun activities we can do with Bella and all the family time we get:)
I hope everyone had a great Easter too!



Mini-Vacation!

Doug and I planned a last min trip during his spring break to Dallas. Its only 2 hours away and we thought, why not? We planned some super fun activities and now Bella is old enough to really enjoy the activities as much as we do. We left Wednesday mid morning (no rush) and got to Dallas around one in the afternoon and headed straight to Ripley's museum. Bella was so cute when we got there. She was dying to go inside the "castle." and kept saying "i wanna go in the castle!" "come on!" how cute is she!?

We went inside and it was a lot bigger than we thought. They had a mirror maze, a wax museum of famous people, a laser game and a Ripley's museum history section. Bella really enjoyed all of it. we let her walk with us and she was amazingly good until the end only because she was so tired. We left and headed to our hotel. After we settled in we decided to get freshened up and go out to dinner. we looked up some places to eat from the show dinners, diners, and dives and OMG best idea ever! we went to a Hamburger place named Twisted Root Burger (the best hamburger place in Texas.) and it sure was good! Doug was very happy with me for picking such a Delicious place to eat lol.

On Thursday we planned to go to the zoo and the aquarium. However the Dallas zoo was way bigger than we expected and we didn't make it to the aquarium that day. But the zoo was every ones favorite part of the trip hands down! Bella is still talking about seeing all the animals:) we saw i think 10 giraffe's, 4 elephants, 2 gorillas, a couple rhino's and those where just my favorite! Bella's favorite part was the kids zoo. It had tons of rocks to climb, a horse and camel to ride and her absolutely favorite part was the water area. we didn't plan on her getting wet but we did bring extra clothes for her in case of accident so that worked out perfectly because she went from getting her legs wet to sitting in the water and getting soaked!

We also got to feed some birds. It was really neat! you pay for bird good extend your arms and they land on your arms and you can feed them. I was okay with one but then 3 landed on my arm and i started getting nervous so Doug took a turn. Bella really loved them but one bird tried to peck her so she didn't want to pet anymore after that just watch. It was really fun!

Our last and final day was loads of fun too! we went to Lego land! we stood in line for about an hour but luckily it was kinda early so Bella just wanted to sit in her stroller and watch a movie while we waited (phew!) and we got pretzels while we waited so it really wasn't bad at all and time went by fast. We got inside and rode on a cool game ( a lot like the toy story game in Disney world) and well...Bella like it and Doug LOVED it! he totally beat our score and was proud. We saw a cute 10 min 4D movie inside and played with LOTS of Lego's and I'm pretty sure Doug won the best dad award ever. Bella and Doug played together the  ENTIRE time! He even helped her sing a little karaoke because she was nervous. We left there after about 2 hours and had all the intentions in the world of going back since we could come in and out as we pleased without having to stand in line anymore but we ended up walking threw the whole mall that Lego land was in and we went to the aquarium (that was also in this mall) but it was a bit of a bust. super tiny and very crowded. I think we where in it for maybe 20 minutes. but by that time we where tired and ready to head home.

we really had such an amazing time together! and every night we where all exhausted! Bella is still chatting about the animals and today asked if we could go to "eggo land.'' i love memories like these and cant wait for many many many more! especially since we know Doug isn't going anywhere far any time soon for any other holidays, birthdays, etc. life is good!

Happy Valentines Day!!

This year was THE BEST valentines day EVER! Doug and I spent three different days to celebrate. First we went on a date a week before to buy new running shoes. We both needed and wanted new running shoes and what better way to get motivated then to get matching cute shoes!? It was so fun and just nice going out just the two of us. Then on actual valentines day Bella and I both got flowers and Balloons and i really did LOVE my flowers but what i loved more than that was Bellas face when she realized that she got her own flowers from daddy! Her face was just amazed, and happy. She really did feel special and it was so adorable to see her face light up. I had also made doug a cute picture frame that says "i love you because..." and you write on the oustide what you love about them. Its such a cute and fun idea to make eachother feel loved and luckily fo rme my husband likes that kind of stuff so he was happy:). We ordered heart shape pizza, drank some sparkling cider and enjoyed valentines day as a family loving eachother! It truly was a FUN and perfect Valentines day. And thirdly Doug and i went on an official v-day date the next saturday. We swapped kids with some friends so they could go out friday and we would go out the next day. Doug and i went to Olive garden one of our fav restaurants and then watched "The Vow." I was super excited because doug and i have been talking about watching it since we saw the first preview. We had such a good time and i really appreciate the little and much needed one on one time we have. I couldnt have asked for a better husband and valentine<3

Happy New Year!

This year I finally cracked down and gave myself some much needed goals! Every year im too scared to set goals for myself but i finally did. These are a few of my goals in no paticular order.

1. Be patient with Bella ALWAYS! i know this is not possible but ive gotten so much better at not being angry and just calmly talking to her when shes in trouble. Im still stern but patient and again calm and she listens so much better. I feel like a btter mother already.

2. Be a more loving and thoughtful wife. I have been blessed with a very adoring husband. He is always bringing home cute suprises, sending me sweet text messages and just overal very loving. I am not as awesome as him and for a while i struggled with making my marriage as big of a priority as being a mother but now i realized its just as important! so watch out doug cute notes and thoughts are going your way! haha

3. cooking dinner more often. And i have! ive learned so many recipies off pinterest and cooking has been a lot more fun. I have been very proud of myself and i feel like my family is eating better because we dont go out to eat junk as often.

4. Be more organized and clean. So far so good. ive been pretty proud of myself. my biggest struggle is still laundry but were getting better and so far its only february so i have 10 more months to master it.

5. Pray with my husband every night.

6. Go to Church every sunday.

7. Workout out 5 days a week and eat more veggies.

8. Go back to School.

9. Make Family Home Evening a priority.

Trampoline Time!

We Just moved to Texas again and the weather is usually nice but every now and then a cold day or two. We havent been here during the summer yet but we hear its super hot and i believe them. Doug and I have been talking about getting our gymnastic loving princess a trampoline when we moved here and im happy to say we finally did! Im happy to report Bella loved it as much as we thought! We have a hard time getting her off and we couldnt be happier. Doug and I both grew up with amazing trampoline memories and we cant wait for it to get super hot outside so we can put a sprinkler underneath and and just have a blast! Bella's new favorite sentence, "Wanna jump with me!?"