Bring on the cake!

December will always be an exciting month for our family. It is filled with lots of birthdays, lots of family, and Christmas (lights, food, baked goods, music, etc) - what more could you ask for?

We started the month of celebrating 2 birthdays on the same day. Natan (my brother) and his wife, my beautiful sister-in-law Larel, were both born on the 7th of December, so we enjoyed a Sunday dinner at my parent's house and celebrated the day they were born.






Three days later, Quincy officially became a "toddler." It's hard to believe that we have a one-year-old! His actual birthday was a little low-key, because he had TWO birthday parties scheduled for that following weekend.

Friday night, my dear friend Nova and her boyfriend Danny came over for dinner while they were in town visiting from NYC. Nova has been like a big sister to me since high school, and there just never seems to be enough time when we are together. We could have hung out all night, but she had so many people to visit in such a short amount of time, and Quincy wakes us up at 6am anyway. =)





On Saturday we celebrated with some friends...





















(Sorry Eric & Kaream - I can't believe I didn't get a picture of you guys!)

On Sunday we celebrated with some family...








It was an AWESOME weekend. We are so grateful for all the people in our life. Thank you for loving our little boy so much.

Our "toddler"


In other news, last Thursday, Forrest hurt his leg while he & Solon were out on a walk. He had been limping on and off since October, but every time we took him to the vet, they could never figure out what was wrong. And it always healed after a couple days. Well, this time, he was fully limping, and it didn't get better over the weekend. So we took him in on Monday, and after more x-rays, and sedation, they found out he had torn his ACL. Well, with dogs it has a different name, but I will just refer to it as that. He had surgery yesterday morning, so they could repair it, and he had to stay overnight with the vet. We were able to pick him up today, and have been trying to make him as comfortable as possible. Hopefully he will be back to good real soon.

Here's a picture of him with his incision


We are looking forward to a visit from Alynsia, Lisa & Tony, and celebrating Christmas will all of our local family.

Happy Holidays!
xoxo

365 days since our life changed

HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUINCY BELL!!!!

It was one year ago today that you came into our lives, and we have loved every minute.

Here's a look back at how your BIRTH day started:

Getting ready to leave the house for the induction


Solon records a message for QB before my c-section


Look how tiny he was!


Day One


3 months


6 months


9 months


ONE YEAR OLD!!!



At 1-year-old:
LOVES: dancing, singing "na na na", any type of ball, taking everything out of the recycle bin and putting it in the trash
DOESN'T LIKE: anything green to eat, or currently any vegetable for that matter.
LAUGHS: Loudly - when we laugh, when we get from his crib, whenever... he thinks he is so funny.
CRIES: Whenever I try to give him food he doesn't want, OR if I don't give him the food he wants, when he wants it.
SLEEPS: from 7pm to 6:30am, naps from 9am - 10:30am, and again from 2pm - 4pm
EATS: 3 sippy cups of 7 oz.of whole milk ; for breakfast he likes chunks of banana or pears and his dry cereal, anything he can feed himself, and that has a crunch to it (Kix, Rice Chex, Cheerios); for lunch, he still loves yogurt, and grilled cheese mini sandwiches; for dinner he either has baby cereal with fruit, or whatever Gerber meat & fruit jar I feed him. He is still pretty picky, but is getting better.
TEETH TO DATE: Four (two on top, two on bottom), and four more about to break through the gums
FIRSTS: He took his first steps about a month ago, and didn't take anymore until about a week ago. He will take 2 steps or so at a time, and that's it; he taught himself how to go feet first, backwards off the couch and stairs; he tries to snap along with music; he loves imitating everything we do.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET QUINCY DRAKE BELL!!!!
We love you so much!!!

Thankful for so many things...

Well November went by faster than you could finish a Thanksgiving dinner.

Here's the recap:

We started the month with a playdate with the Reese family.

Quincy and Tyler had so much fun on the swings together!







Natan & Kellan met up with us at the park!


Quincy & I had lunch with my friend Christy at Pita Jungle. We became friends while we were Chemistry lab partners at ASU West, and I was so glad to spend some time with her - it had been too long!



Quincy's 1st Thanksgiving was a wonderful, sunny day, filled with family, friends, and a lot of delicious food. Lisa & Tony came in town for the week, and Quincy was happy to spend so much time with his Grandma!






By the time we got to my parent's house for the 2nd half of Thanksgiving, Quincy was so tired (as you can see below with his red eyes), but he was such a trooper. And when we got there, we realized that he & Kellan were wearing matching sweater vests - so cute!



Two days later, we helped my Tió Raul celebrate his 80th birthday!





Raul insisted on 80 candles for his cake, but we could only fit 51 - we would have burned the house down!


VIDEO: Up in smoke


VIDEO: The funnest part of the night was watching the excitement and anticipation Kellan had when playing with this toy motorcycle. Every time it lit up, he called it "lightning".


On Lisa & Tony's last night, we went out to eat with the whole family.






I remember this time last year, I was huge and pregnant, and could barely eat one Thanksgiving dinner, let alone 2! I was also convinced that Quincy would come early, but we all know that didn't happen. And now, here we are getting ready for his 1st birthday, and his 2nd Christmas!

This time of year we put a lot of emphasis on what we are thankful for (although I think we should do so more often), so I just want to take the time to thank you for your friendship, and allowing me to share our family adventures with you through our blog. We are so grateful for the relationships we have with all our family & friends!

xoxo