Bella's Third Birthday

Yesterday was Bella's third birthday and her first BIG birthday celebration. Bella talked about her birthday all week - wanting to know everyday who was coming to her party and then swearing up and down, that no, Cole (a friend from school) was coming. "Yes he is mommy. He told me he was coming." Cole's mommy never RSVP'ed and did not show up. :( But lots of other friends did. We had 18 kiddos, friends from school and church. We had the party at ASI gym, and the girls, Bridgette and Sam, who helped with party, were great. Todd made the cakes, one Diego and one Dora. He baked the cakes early in the week, made the frosting and decorated the cake.  I helped this time, but in the whole grand scheme of things my contribution was minimal. I dyed the frosting and did some decorating on Diego, but the victory goes to Todd.  Bella never stopped smiling at her party, and the only whining I remember hearing was when we got to the party room. She didn't care much for the nuggets. All she cared about was the cake; the cake that she had already sampled prior to the party, so I guess she knew it was good. Thanks again to Todd for "fixing" the cake.  And while she is not one for sharing with her sister, she was concerned about her sister not having any presents or not being able to wear a tutu or crown. However, it didn't take long and it wasn't a hard concept for Bella to get that the day was all about her. 

Christmas time was here

At Willowbrook Mall in line to see Santa. They do a Polar Express themed display.

Christmas eve before we went to Grammy and Popo's party with all the family. 

Christmas time with the girls was a lot of fun.  We did breakfast with Santa, pancakes with Santa, and pictures with Santa. We went to Christmas parties; We went looking at lights at night; We went to Christmas Eve service (all of us in one pew); We went to the Nutcracker. I drank A LOT of hot chocolate; Bella & Becca ate A LOT of little chocolates with the advent calendar. Heck, we even had a white Christmas. We had Todd's work party at our house, but this year the girls were at the party. It was nice of his co-workers that they didn't mind, and they certainly tried to charm everyone.  And this year we learned about all the houses in the metroplex that have light shows in their front yards. It got to be an evening ritual as we tried to hit several of them up, and with the girls bedtime being 8:00, we would only wind up seeing one of them a night. The Christmas eve service was the first time that either girl had been in the sanctuary. I wound up taking Becca out because she has a problem with being confined. She is at that stage where she thinks she can go and do and doesn't want to be directed or corralled or held. It would sometimes cause a problem when we would go looking at lights, too, because we would get out of our cars, but we could not just let her wonder into the street. 

Princesses

Last night my mom and I took Bella to the Nutcracker. We made it through the whole show, but she was awfully wiggly. What captured her attention the most were the scenes where it was just the prima ballerina dancing. After the first act someone asked her if she was liking it, and she said yes and that she also wanted to be a snow princess. 

Tonight I singing Deck the Halls as we were driving home from Taco Bueno, and the girls were chiming in with variations of "fa la la la la". And then Bella said she wanted to sing her princess's song. There were several verses of "Pink is my favorite." And the song ended with, "I'm still a princess even if I don't have my beautiful crown".  Todd and I both laughed until we cried. 

We try to keep Becca from taking ornaments off the tree and keeping the wrapping paper on the presents. So the other day when I was putting an ornament back on the tree Becca came running from the front of the house to tell me, "No, no, no!" while she was shaking her little finger at me. So cute. She really has been cute lately. So playful. She tries to turn everything into a game from getting changed to eating her breakfast. 

Christmas Cookies

We have recently engaged in a new Christmas tradition. Santa has sent us a Elf, who we named Polo, that reports to him whether Bella and Becca have been naughty or nice.  Of course Becca is too young to understand, but Bella has caught on, and her behavior is much improved since Polo came to visit us, all we need to do is remind Bella that Polo is watching. I just wish Polo would stick around all year long. However, Polo's magic does have its limits. Last night Bella was tired and not feeling well, a dreadful combination. Bella told me that she didn't want Polo to watch her and could I send him home. I decided to drop the conversation at that point. Clearly, she wasn't even capable of being a good girl. I can understand that. 

Thanksgiving Turkeys

We had Thanksgiving at my house this year. It was just the cousins and Popo and Grammy. I have to say the food this year was not all that tasty. I made the corn casserol and the mashed potatoes, and they weren't that great. Oh well, there's always next year.  This year Bella ate absolutely nothing. She has become REALLY picky. I'm afraid she is going to waste away to nothing. And unfortunately Becca was suffering from a stomach bug, so we tried to hold her back. I just hope she is still an eater next year, so that she can enjoy the food, and then hopefully next year the food will be better.

The girls made the head dresses at school.

Bella the Biker Chic, Spider and Princess

This was an interesting Halloween. Initially, Bella did not express a desire to be anything in particular for Halloween. I mean, I'd ask and she'd want to be everything from Dora to "The Map" to a spider to a bunny. So, since my mom's Halloween party this year had a 50's theme, I decided, after seeing a cute jacket, that Bella would go as a Biker Chic from the 50's. There - done. Only not done. As they started talking more and more about Halloween at school, Bella consistently and adamantly started saying she was going to be a spider. So, not wanting to spend too much on another costume but wanting to be the indulgent mother, I decided to make her a spider costume. Well, she loved it. She wanted to wear her spider shirt immediately. What a happy little spider she was. There. Done! Only not done. She was a spider for the two festivals we had on the Sunday before Halloween and for Friday at school. But as soon as she walked into her room, I suspected her spider days were over. She went dancing into school, so proud of her outfit. And then she walked into her classroom. Once she saw the other little girls dressed as fairies and princesses, her face drop. She even walked over to a little girl and petted her shinny cape. So, when I picked her up on Friday guess what - she was no longer wearing her spider outfit, and she did not want to talk about it.  So on Saturday when it was time to go to her school festival, she said she wanted to be a princess and refused to but the spider shirt on. Ok, so we put a tutu on her, one of my necklaces and a crown that she made at school earlier in the year. There. Done. She was a princess and loved it! (On Monday I sent Bella's teacher a note asking if something had happened with the spider outfit. She said that perhaps it was the fact that all the little boys were telling the girls how pretty they were in their princess dresses. And that one little boy wanted to hold one of the princess's hand. Ah well, and so it begins).