Pictures are here!!!

I've only scanned 2 of the pictures we got from JC Penney's but just wanted to share them with you so you can see how big Bella's growing and how cute she is! :) Do you think I'm biased? hehe

Follow up

Today, Bella woke up at 6 am and took a nap at 8:30. So, Billy and I took a nap also. She didn't sleep too good last night but has been doing ok today. We've been taking her temperature every hour just to make sure it doesn't go up again. And we are giving her Tylenol every 4 hrs plus her antibiotics every 12 hrs.

Since we didn't make it to church, some friends came over and brought us lunch. After eating we went for a walk around the neighborhood because it was a gorgeous day outside and their kids played with Bella. Hopefully she'll sleep better tonight!

Thanks again for all your prayers!

First trip to the ER

Well, yesterday she had a fever of 103F so we called the pediatrician and they said to give her Motrin. It helped and we gave her another dose at night. Today she was doing ok, kinda her usual cranky self, but because she still had a fever we called the pediatrician again and they told us to give her Tylenol if her fever was below 103F. So we gave her some Tylenol around 10:30 am. And again it helped. At around 2:30 pm, Billy was going to put her down for her nap and asked me to give her another dose of Tylenol because she felt warm and it had been 4 hrs. But as soon as I gave it to her, she went on a daze. Her eyes went up to the side, kind of like she was looking up to the ceiling. Not responding when Billy and I were calling her. And her tongue looked kinda purple and swollen. I freaked out and told Billy to call the pediatrician. I was crying hysterically and since the secretary was asking me all kind of random questions I just hanged up and told Billy to call her cellphone. When he was finally able to talk to her, she told him to take Bella to the Children's Hospital in Madera. We were already driving and so we made the 1 hr trip there.

While we were driving I was praying that they would see us fast. I've been to the ER and sometimes they take forever to see you. So when we got there, I was first in line and they saw us right away. They took our information, took Bella's signs (temperature, weight) and then told us to wait outside. Her temperature at that point was 103.1*F. She said if we had to wait for more than an hour to tell her so she could take Bella's temperature again. So I kinda got discouraged because I didnt want to wait for an hour for a room. But thankfully we only waited about 5 minutes and then they called us to put us in a room. The nurses and the doctors came in right away and examined her. The doctor said they were going to run some tests - blood test, urine exam, x-ray - to find where the infection was. Poor Bella was so tired she felt asleep, but only for 5-10 minutes because then the nurse came to take her blood.

That's when the next torture session began. A first nurse came and tried for 5-10 minutes to draw blood from Bella's arm. That's was terrible. We had to hold her down and the nurse poked both her arms and wiggled the needle inside her arm trying to find the vein. Nothing. She went out and brought another nurse who did the same, but thankfully she got it and was able to draw her blood pretty fast. Not without Bella screaming her head out and making me cry too. *sigh* That was painful. Then, another set of nurses came and had to do a catheter to draw urine. More pain and crying. But that went a lot faster and I just didn't look so I wouldn't be traumatized. Finally, they took us to the x-ray room for a chest x-ray. And even though it wasn't painful, she had to be strapped down so she wouldn't move. After that we went back to the room and waited for the results. She was too cranky after all the exams to take a nap, so we just played on her bed. The good thing is that her fever had broken after her earlier nap.

Anyways, after some time the doctor came back and told us that she had some pneumonia and prescribed some antibiotics for her to take. Every 12 hrs for 10 days. And watch her fever closely! We left the hospital around 7:30 pm and she felt asleep as soon as Billy started the car. We got her prescription filled when we got to Merced and hopefully she'll get better soon!

Thank you for all your prayers and support! We really appreciate it!

I WON!!! I WON!!!!

I have been posting for the Prima giveaways for a while and I finally won! This is their original post ---> Digital Portraits Giveaway. And this is the post that says I WON!!! :)

There's also an Inside Scoop explaining the steps for the Digital Painting Portrait process. Pretty cool, ah?!

Anyways, I have to submit a picture and will post again once I get it back! Thanks again Prima!!! :)

Doctor's visit and every day activities!

We went to the doctor for Bella's routine visit and everything is good! So I'm very thankful for that!! She did get a shot and poor thing was crying sad. :( They also checked her iron and it's a little low so we have to run some tests but I'm not too concerned. She's growing good - 70 percentile of weight and 25 percentile for height. She's a shorty liker her parents! ;) And she's almost 20 pounds!! Chunky girl!! :)

Also, I unlocked the wheels of Bella’s walker yesterday and she loved it. She was pushing that thing around the living room, back and forth. She'll be running before we know it! :)

Here she's crawling towards me cause she's fascinated by the camera and the flash. Such a cutie! :)

Here she's playing with her exersaucer on Stage 3 - opened up and no more sitting down. She likes walking all around it and crawling underneath it to go to Mocha's bed.

Here she's eating cheerios for the 2nd time. She's learning to "pinch" her fingers and grab things that way.

Here she's on her Sabbath dress - Pretty in Pink! :)

Talent Show at Church

Tonight we went to the talent show our church organizes every year. Billy had told them he would do a number but 30 seconds before he was supposed to go up, he still had not decided what he was going to do! *sigh* I think I was more stressed out and nervous than he was! But once he got up, it was awesome! Just see for yourself! :)

Growing up!

Isabella turned 9 months yesterday and she's cuter than ever! She's crawling everywhere and taking little steps while holding onto things. I've already cleared the coffee table and her toys have taken over - just like everywhere else in the living room. Because of her new discovered talents, she doesn't like to sit down for more than 10 seconds!

She's also fascinated by Mocha and wants to play with her and touch her - even though Mocha doesn't seem to be too excited about tiny fingers poking her eyes! LOL :) It's funny to see her crawl across the living room to get to Mocha again and again after we pick her up and put her back with her toys. Every time we put her back, we joke we are pressing the "reset" button.

She still loves to take baths with Daddy, eat lots of fruits and veggies, and go for walks with Mom and Mocha. And her new love is a little Winnie the Pooh that our friend Crystal sent her. She just adores that little bear! :)

And here she is crawling to hug Winnie the Pooh and standing up while holding onto the table.





She loves her books! She'll be a good student! ;)


Standing up holding onto the coffee table!

SheetLoad's of Cards Celebration

Check out this blog ----> SheetLoad's of Cards. They are celebrating 15,000 hits and giving away lots of "candy"! :) Awesome giveaways!!!

Who said guys can't be creative?!

Bella is crawling and talking!!

After much practice Bella has finally started crawling. She's been standing holding onto things (exersaucer, walker, couch, table, etc) for almost 2 months. But after reading and hearing from some people how important crawling is for babies we decided to encourage her to crawl. So, she's been spending more time on her tummy and learning to move her knees, instead of just lifting her butt in the air! ;) hehe

Here's a video of her standing holding onto her exersaucer and talking. Her favorite "word" is "Dada" :) I'll have to catch her crawling so I can post a video soon. Enjoy!

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

And then she was 8... months, that is!

Bella has turned 8 months and she's growing fast! She loves to stand, she's learning to crawl and takes little steps while holding onto things. And once in a while she'll let go of both hands and try to balance for as long as she can before falling on her butt. She's too cute!!! She's still not sleeping through the night and is driving us batty... :(

Here she is showing off her balancing act!

I'm a MAC girl! :)

I've been converted into the mac cult! ;) LOL... Between Billy and Sandy telling me how wonderful Macs are and how I can do a lot of things for scrapbooking and picture editing, well I finally "gave in" *wink wink* and ordered one! YAY!! It's a White Macbook and it just arrived on Friday. So, I've been playing with it trying to get the hang of things and get used to the differences between my old PC and my new MAC! Plus, Apple had a deal for a $200 rebate on some printers and I got one that can print 12x12 sheets! I'm in heaven!!! :)


And talking about cults, this is an excerpt from Stephen Colbert's book I'm America (and so can you!), under the subtitle All Other Crazy Cults (with an Apple symbol next to it) -- "The problem with cults is that they don't have the brass to be honest from the get-go. They hide behind pharases like "self-improvement wrokshop" or "human potential coach" or "improv class," then they slowly sneak in the crazy stuff so that you don't notice. If they had any guts, in the very first cult meeting they'd say, "You all need to wear yellow bedsheets and have sex with me twice a day until we get beamed up to a comet in twelve years. Also, give me all your money." Then we wouldn't have a problem - the wacky people can still join, and the people who are just suggestible can go, "Oh, this is a cult" and get out of there. I'm not trying to take away anyone's right to get poisoned in order to send their spirit to Pluto, I'm just saying they should know what they are getting ahead of time. Here's an easy way to figure out if you're in a cult: If you are wonderging whether you're in a cult, the answer is YES!"

Road Trip Adventures and Sleepless in Seattle

Well, we are back!! :) Two weeks ago Sunday, we drove to Leoni Meadows for our annual Central California Conference Ministerial Retreat. It was supposed to be a 3 hour trip. But after getting lost and driving through snow and closed roads (yes, you read it right *Closed Roads*), we made it in SIX HOURS!!! ... sigh ... It was pretty scary driving, especially at night and with a 7 month old baby! At some point I was actually making a mental list of the things we had in the car that would help us survive through the night in the car in the middle of the mountains - water, food, electric blanket, flashlight, and raisinets! :) LOL

But thank God we made it out of those "valley of the shadow of death" type roads into the campground. Late and hungry. But we made it! (And I love my car more and more everyday!)

We spent 3 days there with all the pastors from our conference and their families. It snowed almost every day and it was coooold. brrrr... It was Isabella's first time in the snow and she enjoyed looking at all the kids running around and playing in the snow.

On Wednesday, we drove to Sacramento and took a flight to Seattle, Washington. Sandy, a friend I met on 2Peas, picked us up from airport. On Thursday, we went to the Space Needle and enjoyed a gorgeous view of Seattle in 360 degrees! We also rode the monorail into downtown and walked down to Pike Market Place, where we enjoyed a wonderful variety of little shops ranging from crafts to fresh fruits and vegetables to fresh salmon!

On Friday, we went to the Snoqualmie Falls and ate lunch in a little restaurant in town. We also found a cute scrapbooking store! What are the odds?!! hehe :) In the afternoon, we drove to Bellevue Mall and walked around.

Saturday afternoon, Sandy and I spent time stamping and she showed me some different techniques like embossing and stamping on flowers. It was so much fun!!! :) Billy was so sweet and watched Bella while I had some girl time with Sandy. Ciara, Sandy's Golden Retriever, also had fun licking Bella's face and getting pet by her.

On Sunday, we went with Sandy to her church - Four Square Pentecostal Church. It was a wonderful worship service. And the facilities are gorgeous! And the mother's room was a dream!!! It was my first time at a Pentecostal Church and it was really different than what I'd expected or heard from other people. After church, we went shopping to Ben Franklin, Paper Zone, Impress, JoAnn, and Michaels!

Monday was a yuky day. It was raining/snowing most of the day, so we decided to stay in the hotel and relax. Plus we needed to pack and get ready to fly out Tuesday morning. Overall it was a wonderful trip and I was so glad I could meet a "Pea" in Real Life! :)

Well, back to reality in Merced... Bella did pretty good waking up once to eat and going right back to sleep in Seattle. But Tuesday night she went back to her old self, waking up twice and staying up for about an hour at 2 or 3 am crawling and crying... so we might be moving to a hotel room soon! ;)

Road Trip Coming!

In a couple of days, Billy, Bella and I are going to the Leoni Meadows Campground for our Ministerial Retreat. All the pastors from our conference and their wives will be there. The last couple of years it has snowed, so hopefully this year it won't be too bad. Just because we got used to the snow in Michigan doesn't mean we like it (too much at least!) hehe. And it'll be Bella's first time in snow, so that'll be really cute!! :)

Also, right after the retreat is over, we are flying to Seattle, WA. It'll be our mini anniversary vacation. Since our anniversary is on Dec. 29th, right between the holidays, we never get to do anything. So, this year we decided to go to the North West. We have never been up there and we've heard is beautiful. The coolest part is that I'll get to meet a Pea-friend (*waving at Sandy*) and I'll also see my friend April who was my roommate at Southern. She had a baby boy 3 weeks after I had Bella. So, it'll be really fun and I'm really looking forward to it!

I've also been busy finishing things for some swaps I've joined - Valentine's, Color Me Happy, Recipes, Circle Journal... oh my! I'll post some pictures later. Gotta run... the little one is calling!