A monkey and a princess

I had to start this post by putting pictures of Bella in her FANTASTIC dress! A friend at church made it. If you want one too, let me know.  I can hook a sista' up!

I am in LOVE with this dress. I now have two of them. ha!

Ok, back to the title of this post. This year for Halloween Bella got a princess outfit from Grammy.  It came with a crown, earrings, a necklace, bracelet-lace-things, and shoes.  Her daddy and I weren't sure about those high heels. ha!

When it came time to go out to trick-or-treat, she wanted to wear her dress...and her sneakers.  At'a girl. A princess who can run! 

See our little monkey? I think the banana on his head is so funny. We went to the fall festival at our church where Mike became semi-in-charge of the kiddos in the bounce house. He wrangled kids for a long time and held JT during that entire time.  It was LOUD and crazy.  But JT was so warm in his costume he fell asleep with no problems. Crazy what kids can sleep through!

"Laugh, Jonben"

"Wanna hug Jonben?"

And here's a real-life picture of the Smith kiddos. Too many pictures mom!

The "big" present

Our little gal loves to cook. She likes to cook with me. She likes to cook at school. She likes to cook at church. So we bought her a little play kitchen for her birthday. We got in from the mountains at around 6pm on Saturday and her daddy went promptly to work putting it together - I think the manufacturers called Ikea because it had a TON of parts.

I think I was more excited than she was.  After she went to bed, we decorated the living room with her presents and a banner.  I think I slept a little bit but I was definitely awake making sure she didn't get up through the night.  Here she is after coming down the stairs!

Little man had to get in on the action too.

We then had birthday breakfast complete with party hats.  She tried to put one on JT but I was afraid it would pop him. So he didn't join in!

Then we got ready for church.  Look at my 7 year old - I mean 6 month old!  He's so handsome!

And brother-sister love. My new favorite thing is to take their picture together. MOST of the time they are ok with letting me do this.

After church and naps, we played the rest of the day - complete with aprons.  We now spend a LOT of time playing in this kitchen.

"Hey mom. I want to play!"

Happy birthday sweet girl! We love you!

Bella turned 3!

We took our little family of four to the mountains in Boone, North Carolina to celebrate Bella's birthday. We waited until we got home to give her the "big" present but we gave her a little present to prepare for the big one. Don't you love this face?!?

It was COOOLLLDDDD in the mountains. We wanted to take her to the Tweetsie Railroad but we had to wait until later in the day to go visit. And then we had to put lots of clothes on!

Bella was not quite sure what to think of the railroad the entire time...she hadn't really seen a gun before and they had a pretend indian-cowboy fight throughout the ride.  Our little lady may be a pacifist. =)

She wanted to ride the horse but did NOT want to smile. So daddy jumped in and she immediately smiled - little stinker!

JT was so warm and bundled up the whole time that he slept and looked around most of the day.

I went to go nurse JT and while I was out Bella and daddy went into the store.  Guess what she wanted? Yep, a pink cowgirl hat - so daddy obliged!

Our little adventurer wanted to go on the make-you-dizzy ride.  I love how you can barely see her face.

I love this picture.  Notice Mike hanging onto her and she is nearly in his lap!

Then we went on the boats. I was nervous she was going to jump in the water. =)

This cracks me up. She's sitting up so straight.

Mike took Bella with him and I took JT with me up this thing. It was HIGH. I think we both were hanging onto the kiddos extra tight.  I had JT strapped onto me but I still think I was squeezing the pieces out of him - poor kiddo.

I took both kids on the carousel. Bella loved it. JT just looked around. That was the theme of the day.

She now wears this hat around the house. She'll jump on her pet cheetah and say 'Yeehaw'. Hysterical!

That night we had birthday dinner and a birthday cake.  She wanted a dinosaur cake!  We talked about what type of cake she wanted for weeks before her birthday.  I gave her the option of princesses, fairies, Elmo, Winnie the Pooh, amongst others. And she chose dinosaurs!  At'a girl!  It was pink inside though so we added a little girly-element to it.

Here she is spitting all over the cake - I mean blowing out her candles.

Our little model. Once again. We are in trouble!

The rest of the weekend she wore the hat everywhere!

On our way back home, we took the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway for a scenic drive.  The many years we lived in South Carolina we never made it to see the leaves. We finally did this year and they did not disappoint!

I think Mike pulled over at nearly every stop!  "OOOh, look at that one"...they all looked the same but they were all beautiful. So I had to look at them!

The birthday gal and her daddy. I love these pictures!

And cute JT.  "JT, smile buddy!"

One more time. "Smile buddy"...oh well.

And that wraps up this post.  I think she had a great time.  I'll be posting another blog with her "big" present!