Scrapbook Expo

Yesterday I drove 2.5 hrs to San Jose for a Scrapbook Expo. If you are not a scrapbooker you might think I'm crazy, but it's my hobby and I'm so glad I did. I was able to take 2 classes and walk around looking at all the booths and shopping. So this is what I bought...

Cricut Design Studio, New Cricut cartridge Storybook, TT stamps and chipboard, Cosmo Cricket blackboard, chipboard alphabets, Thickers, rub-ons.Clear pails, brads, ribbon, flowers, more brads, more ribbon, more flowers... :)
Melissa Frances albums(large & small), chipboard stickers, another alterable album, and more rub-ons!! :)
Piggy Tales & Scenic Route Paper paper kits, PT chipboard alphas, Melissa Frances kit with album, MF baby stickers
5 FREE kits from StoryTellers Club.
Lots and lots of paper!!! Basic Grey & Rusty Pickle
BoBunny - very cool paper!
Best Creation Inc - beautiful paper. lots of glitter and some are double pages! :)

Happy 14th Month Birthday Bella!! :)

Today's Bella's 14-month birthday! And the best thing that has happened so far is that she's sleeping through the night! YAY!! We are partying like crazy!!! :) ok, more pictures of the cutie! Enjoy!!

She's learned to climb and boy! she loves it!! Who can resist that gorgeous face?!!
And she totally knows how to work it! ;)
And her goofy face... that she learned from Daddy! :)
And her best friend and favorite "toy" - Mocha "wow wow" Those are her FAVORITE words - "wow wow"

Pictures Galore!!

ok, brace yourselves cause I'm bombarding my blog with pictures from the last month!! :) Enjoy!!

Here's Bella with her favorite "toy" - Mocha! And you notice her Sabbath dress? Yes! I know! All dressed up and cute and she goes sit on the floor next to the dog!! :oAt church with Daddy - both in pretty pink! :)
Sending kisses to mommy! XOXO
Looking at someone so intensely... or maybe it was the dogs...
Look at those "wings"!! Is she adorable, or what?!!Cute face :)
And look at those cheeks!! She's so stinking cute!! I just love those little toes!! She got my toes!! YAY!! :) This is her goofy smile! :)I adore those curls. I just can't believe she has curly hair! Didn't see THAT ONE coming!! :) Of course, Billy keeps reminding me that they won't last forever... SSHHHH!!! Let me enjoy them while they last!! :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMITA!!!

Cumpleanos feliz, Cumpleanos feliz, Cumpleanos Mamita, cumpleanos feliz!! :) It's my mom's birthday today - 51 if I'm not wrong... *gulp*

Long time no see...

WOW! It's been so long since I posted and so many things have happened around here. Let's try to recap:

*Bella's walking FULL TIME! and she's had a couple of accidents already - today included. Poor baby! I've even considered getting her a helmet!!
*We went to campmeeting and had a good time. We borrowed an RV from a church family and besides not having hot water for showers, everything was perfect! :) Bella slept really good and we got to see a lot of "old" friends.
*The day after campmeeting was over we went to the beach in Capitola and Bella had a grand time playing in the sand and water. She loved it so much she was eating the sand! ;) Of course I took hundreds of pictures!! :)
*I went to an allergist to get tested and got poked over 100 times in my back and arms. It hurt like He!!. In conclusion, I'm allergic to TWENTY ONE things including every kind of grass imaginable (no picnics in the future), feathers (no dress up for me), cats and dogs (bye-bye Mocha?? no way!!), some weeds and molds (no smoking), and some trees (olive, cottonwood, ponderosa pine, privet, and tree of heaven - is that last one a sign, Lord??). So I was given the option of pills or shots. Arrg... guess what? I'm taking pills for now cause getting a shot once a week is not my idea of fun...
*Good news: I'm getting ready to go to the Scrapbook Expo in San Jose/Santa Clara this coming Friday. I'm so excited I feel like it's Christmas!! :) I'm hoping to take some classes and do lots of shopping!!
*I'm sure there was more but it's late. I promise to update more often this month and post pictures! Billy's turning 30! :0 (and he's traumatized! LOL)

Her first Boo Boo

Well, it's not her first one but it certainly is the hardest she's hit herself... We went to eat at a friend's house and she was walking, but then tried to run/sprint and BANG! She hit the leg of the couch with her forehead... poor thing... she cried and cried and cried and wanted me or Billy to hold her the rest of the time... We put ice and, thankfully, it didn't swelled too much.

On some better news, she's been sleeping through the night for the last 5 days!! Woo Hoo!!!
:) Please keep praying that she'll continue like this for a long long time! Mommy and Daddy need their rest! :)

And we are getting ready for campmeeting so I don't know how much I'll be able to post. But here's a picture of Bella from a day or two ago. Is she cute or what?!!

She's 13 months!!

WOW! Last month flew by us! Bella's already 13 months and she's just absolutely positively loving walking! LOL We went to the outlets mall in Tulare and she wanted to walk around every store we went in. I think now she hates the stroller! She discovered she has legs and "why not use them? Right?!" :) By the end of the day, she was exhausted and fell asleep as soon as we started driving back home. It was pretty amazing!

Our house is also getting more organized. Slowly. We still have to put frames, curtains and decorations up, but it's mostly organized. I'll post pictures as soon as it's presentable! :)

Happy 4th of July!!

In the afternoon we went to some church member's home to eat and celebrate their boy's birthday. Good Filipino's food!! :) And tonight our neighbors invited us to join them light their $10 worth of fireworks! LOL So we went outside to see them and then went down the street to see some more fireworks by other people in the neighborhood. Pretty exciting! LOL And Bella was sleeping inside the house the whole time!!

I've also been working on my CJ (circle journal) layouts for Sandy and I'll post them tomorrow.

More vacation pictures

I'll try to post a few pictures every day so you all can enjoy Bella :) These are from a trip to 2 Aquariums - one in Houston and the other one in Galveston.





Some pictures at the Moody Gardens' Rainforest exhibition.

And some more pictures at the beach in Galveston.

Some vacation pictures...

Some pictures from our trip to the Houston Zoo!

Looking at the elephants and giraffes :)

So excited to have seen a tiger in real life!!
Kissing grandpa...Enjoying all the animals despite the heat!
Talking to a sea turtle :)

We are back!!

And into our new house! Last Sunday, about 20 members from our church came and helped us move to our new house - 2 houses down! Unfortunately our landlord had to foreclose on his house. But God blessed us with a beautiful house owned by our previous landlord's sister. So, I've been organizing as much as possible! Of course my scrap room is almost done! :) LOL Bella has a bigger room and even has her own bathroom AND a walk-in closet! Little brat! We already painted it the same as her old room but havent put the border yet. We'll have to do that sometime this week.

Bella is walking every where and she loves when we pretend to chase her. She laughs to hard!!! And last friday she started clapping. So now she walks and claps at the same time. She looks like the energizer bunny walking everywhere and clapping! LOL

Pictures coming...

Vacation Vacation Vacation!

It's been a busy 2 weeks of vacations. We flew to Louisiana and stayed there for 5 days visiting Billy's family and had a birthday party for Bella. She got to see cows and horses in real life, which she LOVED!!! She also got in the pool for the first time at my MIL's house and she loved it. We got in every day!! :)
Then we drove to Houston to visit my parents and brother. We went to a lake on Friday and Bella is definitely a water baby! On Saturday afternoon we went to the zoo and she was beyond herself looking at all the animals. She would get so excited and "talk" to the animals. It was so cute! :)
We'll be flying back this coming Tuesday and then the joy of moving begins - NOT!!

Here are some pictures of Bella's birthday party in California. I'll post some from her party in Louisiana and the pool later.

Before getting dirty...

Eating the cake I made her...

Showing mom her dirty hands (although she was a VERY neat cake eater!)...

And she's walking!!!!!!!

We've been "encouraging" Bella to walk on her own, but every time we let go of her hand she'd sit down. She's been cruising since she was about 7 months and loves pushing her walker around the house. But today while we were playing, walking back and forth between Billy and I, I let go of her hand and she kept walking on her own. Only 3 or 4 steps. But I just started crying. I felt so overwhelmed with joy to see her grow and take her first steps. We already talked to her grandparents and they are all excited about seeing her walk next week when we go for a visit/vacation to Louisiana and Texas.

We also went to her "well check" appointment with the pediatrician this morning. She weights 20 lbs 12 oz and she's 27 and 1/2 in. She's in the 30th and 20th percentile respectively. She's gonna be petite! :) She also got 2 shots and poor baby cried and cried and then snuggled with Daddy. She's definitely a Daddy's girl :)

I'll post some pictures tomorrow so y'all can see my little angel :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BELLA!!!

A year ago, Bella arrived to our world and changed our lives forever. I can't believe she's ONE!!! She's so adorable and cute and I love her beyond words. We built her a little swing/slide playground set yesterday and she was so happy swinging in it.
She's also getting more and more expressive every day. We went to Lowes to buy some paint and other stuff for the new house and she was waving "bye-bye" to a lady that picked up her ducky. It was so cute :love: She used to give me kisses (aka open mouth pecks) but I dont know why she's not doing it anymore :( I just keep telling her to kiss me and since she doesn't I just kiss her all over her face and she laughs.

Change we can believe in!

Some of you don't know that I can't vote because I'm not a citizen, but I've been following the Primary elections. And yesterday was indeed a historic day when Senator Barack Obama won the most delegate votes and became the first African-American Democratic Presidential Nominee for the November presidential elections. So, while I can't vote, I think every person that can should participate in this historic event that could become even more formidable if (and when) Sen. Obama gets elected as the first African-American president of the United States.

Billy and I watched his winning speech last night and he's an amazing speaker. So inspiring, graceful, and hopeful. We are praying for his safety and may God give him wisdom to lead this country to a better future!

ok, I'm off to scrap! :)