4 months old!!

Our little sweet girl turned four months old! And, she is as precious as can be with cute rolls everywhere! Lately, when we get her up and let her look at herself in the mirror she'll laugh and throw her head in our necks. And, then look at herself again and do it all over. It's like she plays pick-a-boo with herself. As you can tell by the picture with the giraffe, she didn't need the pillow today because I could sit her up. We go to the doctor on Friday for her 4 month checkup and shots and I'll be interested to see her height/weight measurements. Bath time continues to be one of our best times and of course there is the magical changing table where she is continuously happy. Now, she throws her feet out and kicks away...usually kicking everything off the changing table. And, then she laughs and sucks on her hand or her dress or her shirt or us. Here are some fun pictures of lunch time during the week with all three of us. We got her a cute mobile too to go over her bed. It's a hot-air balloon with little animals looking down at her and she loves it! She's been talking more in her crib before she goes to sleep today...so maybe she's talking to her new friends. We, or I should say my savvy hubby, put up the cute bookshelf for her books and animals. Our great friends, Sara and Jake, from South Carolina are here the rest of the week and we are super excited to see them again!

I want my hand not a picture mommy!



Cute Bella face!

Soothing songs

This week Bella has been a little fussier than normal. Maybe it's teething or just one of those "weeks". Some of the times she has been persistent in not going to sleep in her crib. After 15-20 minutes we'll usually go get her and comfort and then put her back down, which hasn't worked all the time over the past couple of days. The thing that seems to calm her down (along with bouncing up and down) is her daddy singing hymns. He would sing during pregnancy and she would seem to respond to that by kicking. Or one night she was particularly active and it was hard for me to sleep. He started singing and it put us both sound to sleep. Then, three months later when I woke up at 2am with full-blown contractions he came over to me in the hospital bed when I didn't want to do it anymore (can't stop labor though, can you!) and started singing hymns and rubbing my hand. He sang for four hours straight until I could get an epidural! Four hours - 2-6am! It was fantastic and so calming to me as I was having a not so pleasant experience. So, our sweet Bella heard daddy's voice for four hours during that time. It's not surprising to me that she really calms down when he sings to her now. The other night I was cleaning the kitchen while Bella was having one of her fussy times. After lots of singing from Mike here is the end result. So sweet!




Miss Bella this week has:
-Started finding her feet. She just stares at them and has started grabbing them! So sweet.
-Started putting everything in her mouth. She loves to lift up her dress or shirt and stick them in her mouth. Or go for our clothes or fingers or hands or anything else she can grab.
-Started laying on her side. Last week she could get her legs flipped over but was having a hard bringing her torso over. Now, she can get completely on her side but still can't figure out how to really roll over...unless we give her a gentle nudge and then she laughs.
-Laughs and laughs when we change her clothes. She thinks it's a game in the morning to get her arms out of her nightgown. She laughs with cute spurts throughout the process.
-Wiggled and wiggled while we put lotion on her after her bath. She LOVES to kick and fling her arms out. We are going to have our hands full.
-Found herself and us in the mirror. We put her in her nightgown and dry her off after her bath in our bathroom which has a huge mirror. She can see us in it upside down (wonder what she's thinking). So, we'll play with her in the mirror and she loves it!!

Valentine's Day 2009

I thought I would follow suit with the last posted blog and have another nostalgia moment. One year ago on Valentine's Day, I was preparing Mike's V-Day gift...which was two little onesies that said "Butterfly kisses" and "Things I love...daddy, hugs, and kisses" and a Valentine's Day outfit. Of course, he had no idea. I was laughing this year because last year I was pretty moody to him, trying to not let him know how excited I was. Then, i'd have to go in the other room and smile and laugh! I had kept it a secret for two days so I was about to explode! Now, this year we put that outfit on Bella and enjoyed our special "Valentine"! Again, what a difference a year makes. This year, we went to Austin again to a fantastic conference with Peter Rollins. (Thanks Grammy and PawPaw for babysitting.) Then, we spent the weekend together watching movies, hanging out with Aunt Alli, and simply being with eachother. And, the necklace i'm wearing in the pictures is my valentine's day present from my stellar hubby. Yes, they are real brown pearls. Fantabulous! The other pictures are playtime with daddy or lunchtime with mommy! Look at those expressions!

1 year ago today!

Around this time (it's lunchtime here in Texas) last year, I was getting ready to eat a sandwich. I kept thinking about being pregnant so I decided to take a test to get my mind off of it, fully expecting it to be negative. I went and took one to not think about it anymore. I still remember that shock feeling when "Pregnant" came up on the screen and running around the house laughing, crying, laughing, looking at the test again, laughing, crying, praying...needless to say, I didn't eat lunch that day from pure excitement and unbelief. I even put the test in a ziploc baggie to carry around and look at it throughout the day, "just in case" it was an error and would flash "Not Pregnant" on the screen. Of course it didn't and I giggled every time I looked at it. It's amazing I even got any work done that day. A year ago tomorrow, I "snuck" away to get a real pregnancy test at S&W and "lied" to my hubby about being pregnant. I wanted to keep it a surprise for his valentine's day present. Sorry hun! Now, a year later here's what I go home to at lunch time. woohoo!!! (Thanks mom for the great pictures!)




















Some updates for this week in Bella's life:
She's teething! She's sucking on her hands, clothes, our hands or clothes, and anything else she can get in her mouth.
She's starting to laugh more. Instead of just opening her mouth really wide and smiling, little laugh sounds are coming out more and more.
She wants to sit up! She wants to see the world around her now.
She is still trying to roll over and will get their soon.

Bella's special dedication day!

The past few days have been a special weekend in the Smith household. We had Bella's dedication service at our church, First Baptist Church Belton. All of our family came in (except for Uncle Joey...good luck on those tests and we missed you!) and we had a great time with them all, as i'm sure you can tell by the pictures. Granddad and Nana read books. PawPaw works on her exercises. I think she gets stronger every time after hanging out with PawPaw. And, Grammy and the aunts just cooed and played and laughed. Bella is becoming more and more talkative. Last night she talked with about 30 minutes straight in her daddy's lap. Precious! And, I actually made Bella a bow for Sunday to match her dress...and I liked it!! Mike and I are liking the cute bows now! I know, I know, some of ya'll are saying, "I told you so". And, yes you were right. But, how could Bella not look sooo cute in them! It certainly was a precious day with our family and church family and a neat experience for our pastor to pray over Bella and us as parents. I know I end a lot of these blogs with "thank you Lord" but i'll definitely have to do it again on this one. This blog truly is a "Thank you, Thank you Lord" kindof post.



















Bella loves her Mr. Charlie! And so do we!













Such a neat moment of prayer for our little girl!













We are really thankful for our Pastor Andy!

At the end of the day, Miss B was pooped! And, of course it made her daddy's day that she placed her little head down and went sound asleep on his shoulder.

It's official....

Mike accepted a pastor position! We went yesterday to a small community church in Milano, Texas. It was in a beautiful part of Central Texas with lots of trees and rolling hills! The church was so cute too and we were greeted with lots of friendly smiles and hugs and welcomes. And, of course they just loved Miss Bella! She looked so cute in her little dress and cardigan! (We went shopping on Saturday for her!) She did great in church too and just watched her daddy as he led the singing (he's doing music too) and then ate while he was preaching. At the end of his sermon, she was getting a little fussy so I was playing with her and put her up on my shoulder. Like her usual self, she looked at the people sitting across from us with those huge eyes and started smiling. So, more people were looking at her than at Mike. It was funny to see them all look at her and smile and play back. Mike did a great job preaching, and people commented on how they enjoyed his sermon, and then they voted him in unanimously. They were such a sweet congregation too so we look forward to being involved and seeing what God does in us and through us there. Mike preaches every other Sunday at Liberty Community Church which allows us to stay connected with our FBC family! On our way home, we were talking about how great God has been to take care of us like He has. We truly are thankful. We went to eat with Auntie Alli who captured these great pictures of us. Thanks sis! This coming week is Bella's dedication at FBC Belton so we'll keep you posted about that.