O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Christmas tree hunting season was on last weekend.

 We found a swing in the middle of the forest - we were mildly distracted from our mission.

Found it!

Boring Post....

Before the month of October slips away for another year, I thought I would share what we Bells have been up to lately.
We started off the month by spending a week with Steve at home for fall break. We played a little and worked a lot. Our focus was the nursery for the babe coming in January. We had to turn a functional room (our office) into a nursery, so finding a place for everything was a little hard with our small house, but we got it done. Now I know why my parent's room always seemed so cluttered growing up - our room has become our office slash bedroom slash homework room slash a mess. 
I will do a reveal post of the nursery once all the pictures are hung and every stitch is in place....which will be pretty soon because I have TIME. Another exciting thing that happened in October was I officially stopped working from home. Yeah! Although I usually only worked 2-3 hours per day (during nap times),it seemed like that was all I did. Now that I can dedicate that time to projects, it has been amazing to me how much I can get done. I am just whipping through my to-do list, its pretty great. 
Steve is still working on his master's degree for school administration. He's a champ. He works all day teaching snot nosed kids, goes to class a couple nights a week, does homework, is an amazing help to me with Avery, makes me feel pretty and loved, and looks incredibly handsome while doing all of said things. Like I said, a champ.
I am still pregnant. Go me. 27 weeks now and feeling pretty good.  This isn't exciting probably to anyone but me, but the wee one's head is DOWN which means I will most likely be able to do a VBAC this time around...which frightens me a little, but I am trying to avoid having to have all of my kids via c-section. Crossing my fingers.
Avery is finally walking! 16 months old and just starting to realize she is a biped. I was so impatient; she literally wouldn't even try to walk for a long time, but she finally came around, just in time for trick or treating. Good girl. She is also starting to say words that we haven't taught her, which means this mama needs to start cleaning up her language. Hey, we all have our weaknesses, alright?
Kind of a boring post, sorry. Hopefully some cute pictures will make up for it?

                                                       Learning to smile for the camera....

                                                        She usually makes this happy face.

                                         Had to capture this cute moment at the Dewitt Farm hay maze

       She still has this weird infatuation with running around with something bigger than her head in her mouth.

                                       Avery LOVES belly buttons, and Braxton LOVES Steve. Perfect.

I got her hair in pigtails, she was killing me with her cuteness!

When Daddy Comes Home

Can you tell she likes to wrestle with her daddy? She is turning into a daddy's girl, big time, and who can blame her, she has a way awesome dad. 

I'll Have Another, Please.

I always feel a little redundant when I post the same thing to facebook as I post to my blog - but double dipping is better than no dipping, I say. This news is a little delayed due to the fact that I have had zero motivation to blog - but we are having another baby! And not just any baby, another little girl!  I was seriously in shock for about three days after we found out it is a girl, I really, really, really thought there was a little man in there, but not, not so. So naturally Steve and I already named him, and have been referring to "him" by this very manly name for about two months now. Sorry darling baby, we will name you something super girly and adorable to make up for my bad motherly intuition. 
I have bad motherly intuition, and Steve has bad wife intuition. He thought since we are having another girl, I wouldn't have much to prepare/buy/paint/sew/etc. Wrong. Way wrong. Apparently I am crazy, but I am totally decorating another nursery. Goodbye office, hello adorable nursery, inspiration courtesy of the one and only pinterest. I can't wait until I am all done with this room. I have already bought the perfect fabric that I am itching to create a quilt, cribskirt, and changing pad cover with. See said fabric. 
(don't see poor picture quality)

Girls are so much fun. I was getting excited thinking about doing a boy nursery - but once I found this fabric all those boy nursery fantasies swiftly took flight out of my brain. I even bought a chair to reupholster at goodwill last week for $10 smackaroos. I feel great, our baby girl is healthy and lively (I might add), our little girl Avery brings tremendous joy to our lives,  and I have lots of ambition, what more can a pregnant woman ask for?

And the Helmet Comes Off!

We made it! Avery is officially and DOC Band graduate -  we are such proud parents. Actually she has been officially done with her helmet treatments for about two weeks, and unofficially done for about a month.   She learned how to take off her helmet two weeks before the 15 weeks of treatment were up. I'd put the helmet on her, she would promptly unvelcro the side and weasle it off her head in about 5 seconds. So I would put it back on, and she would do it again. I really tried to be diligent, but when you are so close to the end anyway, we figured "what the heck, we'll just be done two weeks early."
We are really glad we decided to put the money and time into this helmet ordeal; although we don't have dramatic results, it definitely helped. We even got a cool souvenir - I mean who has a bust of their child's head when they were 9 months old? Its actually kind of creepy, it looks like we have her head on a stick.

This next one is looking at it from the top down. You can really see how much her head has grown from this picture, her real head fills in those gaps you see.

And the little graduate herself....

I can finally do little pony tails! And her head doesn't smell like a sweaty foot anymore. Good things are happening over here.

In other news, little missy is still not walking - which is actually just fine with me. She crawls everywhere, and usually with something in her mouth...

We sure love our goofball daughter.

4th of July Travelog

This year for the 4th of July Steve and I drove all over Utah, Idaho, and part of Wyoming. I was not too excited to drive that much with a baby who really doesn't love the car, but she actually did great. Good girl, Avery. We spent the 4th in North Ogden, UT (where Steve's parents live), and watched fireworks shows all across the Utah Valley from this awesome park with a huge hill. 

It was super relaxing, and COOL. Avery loved the fireworks too, which was fun. I love watching her discover things.
Then on the 5th, we drove up to Idaho Fall, ID to visit Steve's Grandma & Grandpa Thomas.

Steve's grandpa is one of the jolliest people I have ever met, I have a sneaking suspicion Steve is going to be just like him when we are old. Its a nice preview. Avery looks really happy to be on her Great Grandma's lap, doesn't she?

The next day, Steve and I broke off from the rest of his family and took a detour up to Star Valley, WY.  Does anyone else's husband's have an addiction to Google Earth? Steve definitely does and has been infatuated with Star Valley and wanted to see its beauty beyond the computer screen. So away we went, and it was seriously gorgeous. 

This picture was taken in Idaho, near Idaho Falls. It kind of looks like I am standing in front of a pond, nope, those are millions of tiny purple flowers. Steve saw that field and almost killed us as he squealed to a stop to snap some pictures.

This was just outside of Star Valley. Can you hear the Dixie Chicks singing "Wide Open Spaces" like I can?
Basically we fell in love with the place and want to move here, tomorrow. Granted, we visited this place in peak season, if we visited in the winter, we might have had a different take away.
Then we drove to Grace, ID to celebrate Steve's other Grandma's 95th birthday. It was an eventful trip, filled with lots of nasty fast food, but lots of wonderful family. I declare it a successful trip.

Avery's 1st Birthday!

You know how after high school (or Junior High for you fast maturers) your birthday's just aren't quite the same? The magic is sort of gone? Well having children (or child in my case) brings back all that once lost magic tenfold. Yesterday was Avery's 1st birthday and it was so fun! I know she had no idea it was her birthday, but the whole experience was so fun for Steve and I.
I spent all morning getting ready for the party last night. Here are the final results.

It wasn't quite as festive as the pictures I had in my head, okay, not in my head, on my pinterest board....those people must hire party planners. Who actually makes cake pops, I mean, come on.
I did make Avery her own little cake, which turned out really cute.

The big cake was kind of a mess, but it was delicious, so who cares!

Then the real fun started....

She started off really timid, and as you can see it just progressed from there. She started just tearing the cake apart, not really eating it, just totally destroying it. I loved it! Steve was having an anxiety attack just watching the mess she was making. THIS is what I always want babies to do with their 1st bday cakes, Avery made my dreams come true.
Then she got showered with gifts from Steve and I, cousins, and friends. We had a houseful, it was so fun.

It really was a great day, I love being a mom to my little one year old. Just look at this face....

that is a party face.

Fat Little Toes

Yesterday I decided to paint Avery's toenails for the first time. Her little fat toes look so darn cute in hot pink. Why haven't I done this before? 

 Yesterday she also learned how to close her eyes on purpose, and boy does she close them tight! 

I get the feeling she thinks she disappears when she closes them mostly because she closes them when I am trying to feed her vegetables.

I survived stripes!

I recently took on my first reupholstery project for someone. It was family so it wasn't as daunting, but even so, she chose the much feared "striped pattern". Aacck! I've never done stripes before, and on purpose. They have to line up perfectly through multiple cuts of fabric, and its scary. 

But I survived and learned that I actually can do striped patterns and live to tell the tale.

 Thing I also learned  this go around (yesterday actually) is "wear thick soled shoes in outside work area". Yesterday I was wearing shoes, but you know the kind with styrofoam for the soles? Those kind, and I accidentally stepped on one of these bad boys called a metal tack strip. 

Trying to remember the last time I had a tetanus shot......on the bright side, if I do get lockjaw, I will probably lose a few pounds, right?