Happy Birthday Bellah & Daddy

Well, it's been a really long time since I update this thing - sorry about that! In case you didn't know - David and I are expecting baby #2 (Jan 28) and I've been bed ridden - again - with morning sickness. :o( I took most of June and July off of work and have recently starting going back to work - wahooo!

So, July is a busy birthday month for us! David's mom's b-day is the 9th, David's is the 17th and Bellah's is the 24th! :o)

We celebrated David's Birthday on the 17th, unfortunately I was too sick to be of any help so he had to go get his cake and ice cream all by himself. :o( I wasn't even able to get him a birthday card. :o( But it was probably his favorite birthday since he doesn't like all that stuff anyways! :)

Here's Bellah and daddy - Bellah was so excited about the birthday cake! I wasn't able to get a candle "9", so we used 9 candles we had laying around the house..... much better effect! :)

Daddy blew out ALL the candles! Yay daddy! Yes, he picked out the pink cake... I think the choices were slim and so we have a pink cake. It was a strawberry cake and was really yummy! :o)

Next, onto the big 3-year-old! Bellah is officially 3 years old, which I have been reminded, makes her a Sunbeam in church next year! YIKES! I didn't realize that was so close! :*/

Bellah's favorite color is either pink or purple, depending on the day. :o) For whatever reason, after daddy's birthday, Bellah kept talking about a blue cake. Sooooo.... when mommy went to the store to get her cake... I got a .......

BLUE CAKE!

She LOVED it, of course and we finally got to use that fancy Scooby Doo hat I bought for her 1st birthday party back in Atlanta-but forgot to bring! DOH!

She LOVES to pose for the camera and have her picture taken. Be advised that she is NOT naked, but does have panties on.... I am no longer it complete control over what she wears and this day was half-naked day - apparently.... :o)

One of her signature poses. :o)

Blowing out the candles.... (daddy had to help because with each "blow" she started spitting a little more and we wanted to eat the cake too!) :o)

When I was looking for some cake decorations, I actually found some really cute Disney Princess stuff for $1! Yay!

She loves opening her presents too!

This is her new Princess crayons and notebook with pink pen set. :o) She LOVED it!
Go mommy!

Opening Papa's birthday card.... daddy had to help her read it. :o)

And still more Princess stuff for $1! Wahoo!

This was her "big" present....... soooo exciting! I wonder what it is!?!?!??!

A bubble gun! Yay for bubbles!

She loves playing with bubbles outside and this gun makes it easier for her to make the bubbles. She likes to chase the bubbles around too which is too cute to watch! :o) So, another low-key birthday this year... next year, when I'm better, I think we'll try to get some of her church friends together and have a friends party! yay!! Then Jojo can come over and help me actually make the cake for the party instead of always buying it (though I do love some store bought cakes)

So, life is good. David is officially out of the military and has been for almost a month and a half! Still no job, but he's going to school for an MBA and started classes a few weeks ago. He's just concentrating on that for a few months and then we'll see if we have a better idea of where we can go or what we can do.

I'm almost done with 2 out of the 3 classes I need to sit for the CPA exam. Yay! Hopefully by next summer, I'll start taking some exams and by next December I'll be a CPA.... wish me luck!

Hopefully I'll be better at monthly updates, though not much is happening these days!

Love ya!

DB, JB & BB

Disney Cruise! :o)

Finally, finally, finally! Our Disney Cruise has come and gone and so did our money. :*( As you may know, David, Bellah and I went on a 7 night western Caribbean cruise with Disney. I know... sounds greater than it was. :o(



Here's us Saturday morning, May 2nd, watching some T.V. before we head down to Port Canaveral. We got this great hotel with a kitchen and everything (not that we were there long enough to use it.)!

This is a view from our room - the Disney employees had giant Mickey hands and they were waving us a bon voyage. They did the wave and everything - it was a great start. :o)

We went and checked out the kids area for Bellah and they had a really cool tree slide.... Bellah didn't go down it exactly the way she wanted. It was a really cool place. :)





Our first night we had dinner in Animator's Palate - it's this kinda cool room that's black and white and turns colors. There are black and white pictures everywhere that turn to color pictures at different parts of the meal. It sounds neater than it was... the food wasn't very good. :o(

This is Bellah eating her Mikey Ice Cream bar... mmmmmm

When we came back to our room the first night, we had our first towel animal... I think it's a swan. :)

On Sunday morning, day 2, we had a character breakfast which was really cool. The food was old and not so good, but there were Disney characters out the wazoo! The went rotating to each table to take pictures and sign autographs. It would have been much more fun if Bellah wouldn't have been afraid of the characters. :o/

Even Mikey's own puppy Pluto was a scary sight!

When the characters weren't around, she was as happy as could be with her Mikey shaped pancakes.

Daddy wanted to take a picture with Minnie Mouse - his dream girl. ;o)

This was our waiter trying to put a napkin hat on Bellah... yeah... she wasn't having that. (I don't blame her.)

So, we put it on daddy to show Bellah how cool it was!

Not a happy cruiser - unfortunately - this was her face during most of the cruise.....

This was a weird, freaky statue at the Port in Key West, Florida. David was going to look up it's skirt, but he thought better of it.

This is my hott Latino hubby.... mmmmm so sexy in that ascot!

And here's me in my bikini and maracas.... ahhhh yeah....

Another towel animal.... freaky lizard! Hey Lizard - where'd you get those cool sunglasses? :o)

A picture of Bellah's bed all made up by our room guy.

Breakfast at the Topsider Buffet.... again... food was not good at all. But, Bellah found other ways to entertain herself. She put this cup over her mouth and then laugh... it sounded like she was in the next room - but it was sooooo funny. :D

Sexy studd muffing with a blue shirt babe! :o)

A picture of the boat as we head into Grand Caymen... pretty big boat. :o)

Headed to the turtle farm in a taxi. Bellah's very happy.

On of the big turtles at the turtle farm - it was HUGE!! They had a couple dozen of these huge turtles in this pool area by a little beach for them to lay their eggs. CRAZY!!! But very cool tourist attraction. :o)

Bellah posing by the breeding pond. She didn't want to leave this area because the turtles were that cool!

Daddy holding one of the turtles from another take at the farm. Bellah was very gentle when she touch that turtle.

Me by the turtle tank. I didn't care too much for holding those turtles.

Eating at a local restaurant. Best food the whole week long!

A view of the boats from our table.

Back on the boat - exploring this huge ship! Beat Street was the place that had all the adult entertainment at night. We didn't get to enjoy this because the child car on the boat didn't have a bed time and we didn't want Bellah to stay up all night since we would still have to deal with her.

Mommy and Bellah hanging out on Beat Street. Too bad Bellah didn't enjoy the child care more - maybe we could have see some really cool shows. :o( Next time, we bring night sitters. :o)

Hanging out in one of the port holes.

Another towel animal.

Bellah and daddy playing in the pool while mommy reads her Nicholas Sparks book... :o)

Another towel animal - really don't know what this one is... a monkey on my husband's back?

Outside the Hard Rock in Nassau - we waiting for this place to open for lunch - they said 11am... but 11am came and went, then around 11:15am when we asked how much longer - they said about 10-15 minutes. I had island time! We ended up going to Sbarro's down the street - YUMMY! :o)

Walking to the beach in Nassau - daddy took the stroller out of the trunk before we left Texas, so he became the stroller.

Gorgeous Nassau, Bahamas beach! We were supposed to go to Mexico, but with the swine flu, our itinerary was changed to Nassau. I'm not complaining!

Taking a horse and buggy ride in Nassau. Poor horse looked totally abused.... where are the animal rights activists when you need 'em!?!?

Our $20 horse and buggy ride lasted 20 minutes - then the driver's buddy got out and took our picture and asked for a tip! They try to get everything they can out of you at these ports. Not cool!

Taking pictures before we head onto the boat at the end of the day.

More pictures! Daddy had Bellah hold out her arm for the pose - so Bellah was doing that for every photo from then on! (As you'll see later)

The moon was gorgeous as the sun was setting in Nassau. I had Bellah pose and this her her signature look. :o)

Her new signature pose!

Welcome to Castaway Cay (pronounce "key"), Disney's private island. This place was nice! The beach was nice, the food was ok but the view was stunning! Yes, that is the very same Flying Dutchman from Pirates of the Caribbean. :o)

A picture as we head to the beach!

There were lots of cool places to take pictures on the beach.

More towel animals and my new DSL bag! :0) ($10!)

And so, the cruise is finally over and we head back home! Definitely not what we thought it would be. It's actually better if you take family and want to lounge around during the day. Which was not fun for us, because David and I wanted to do things. We did see Bolt in 3-D - which was really cool. :o) Unfortunately, Bellah didn't enjoy the children's activities until Thursday and Friday. Next time David and I cruise alone! Now need a vacation from our vacation!

Love y'all!

DB, JB & BB