We love naptime...

I never did finish up...

...those last few days in Utah and the trip home. It is now almost 3AM and its one of those nights I just can't sleep. So, you'll have to bear with me through this long travel log, but I've included many fine photos of the bambina to help it pass quickly...

Lets start off with our last days in Utah...my cousin brought over some dress up clothes and I just couldn't resist. I know...its the kind of thing you promise yourself you'll never do to your own child, but seriously...isn't she just the cutest fairy/angel...







That wouldn't stop eating the flowers?



And the most happy...



er...grumpy princess?



After we left Utah we went back to Las Vegas and stayed with my friend Ilaria...I won't post pictures of her and her family because I don't know how they feel about that, but her daughter was so intrigued by Bella. She saw Bella gumming my finger and asked what it felt like. I had her wash her hands so she could try it. Bella started to suck on her little finger then promptly burped on her hand. It was quite amusing.

We ended up in Tucson the next day at the hotel with Mr. Chucklehead.



It was so good to be almost home and especially good to be with him. He and Bella bonded over bathtime...



And tv time...



And a walk around town...



And a sushi dinner...



And while mama colored her hair...



Before we headed back we all had to go see the "coolest plane ever" on the Airforce base.



And finally, at 6AM I headed out with this glorious sunrise to greet me...



And TAAAAAADUM! I'm done! No more travel log...I'm back to the day to day grind now...

Bella passed a major milestone...

For some reason when I look at the title it reads like, "Bella passed a kidney stone!" but, I promise that what happened last night was much more exciting and much less painful than that!

While playing with daddy last night...or should I say while daddy was practicing his fine art of torture training on our little squeaker...



He plopped her down on the ground and watched her get into what he called "roll-over" position. She scootched her body forward and tucked her arm under her and of course she was whining the whole time as she isn't a big fan of tummy time...and then this happened...



He was too excited about what was happening and didn't stop to think about what a milestone this is or that I should drop what I'm doing and come rushing immediately so at the end you hear me coming out from finishing the dishes up asking, "What's she doing?" And then of course I had to just shed a tear or two at my little girl passing this milestone. And I'm so lucky its all on video.

Yeah Bella Bambina!

My Spy School Graduate

Well! He's done! He's actually been done since Monday, but I just got around to finding the attachment for the camera that would allow me to download the photos. Mr. C has made it through spy school. I'm so proud of him.

Bella and I went to see him graduate. We wondered if we'd be the only ones there, but luckily our friend came with her little 9 month old too. So, two mamas with two babies were the graduating class sendoff.

And since I can't really tell you what actually happened in spy school...oh yes...not even I got to know all the top secret stuff...or if I did...I'd never admit it...I decided I'd commemorate this momentous graduation with a bunch of photos.

And on we go with the next steps in this Army career...

Its official...

...we're off to Germany. John has to report by April 13th. I am SO EXCITED.

So, here'is a little bit of information about our new home...

Vilseck, a major training center, has been described as the "school house" for the US Army, Europe. Transition training and fielding of new equipment is its most visible mission. It is located about 30 miles west of the Czech Republic border.

Vilseck is located in the state of Bavaria (Bayern) approximately 60 miles from Nuernberg. Vilseck is one of the most charming military installations in Germany.
Families assigned to Vilseck enjoy this peaceful, rural farming community of gently sloping hills and meadows, surrounded by 35 small villages/hamlets built on lands cleared hundreds of years ago. The area abounds with many lakes suitable for great fishing.

Vilseck derived its name from the once alone standing fortress (Burg) Dagestein on the Vils river. This castle is probably one of the oldest in the whole Oberpfalz.

Quick tidbits...
1. Population is about 6,500.
2. Population of Army base is 10,000
3. 4,500 of Army population live in Vilseck villages, but aren't counted in the population so actual size of city is about 10,000.
3. There is a train station and bus station
4. I found a list of restaurants - 1 Chinese, 3 Greek, 3 Italian and 15 German eating establishments
5. I also found a list of amenities in the city - 3 grocery stores, 3 bakeries, 5 butcher, 1 hardware store, 2 flower stores, an office supply store, 2 souvenir shops with household ware, 3 shoe stores, 3 beauty/barber shops and 2 cosmotolegists, a German post office, 4 banks and two night clubs
6. You can find out more and meet the 1st mayor of Viseck here... http://www.vilseck.de/english/index1.htm

Don't waste a minute.

I drove for a long time yesterday to make it all the way to Tucson where Mr. Chucklehead is at. We missed our 3-year anniversary on Wednesday together and I just couldn't wait one more day in Phoenix being only 90 miles away from him and not try and just make the drive... So we drove and drove and drove and drove...it was a 10 hour day in the car (and please knock me over the head with a 2X4 if I ever think doing that again with an infant is a good idea.)

However, the tradeoff was that of seeing Mr. C and I think I can safely say that both Bella and I were unbelievably tearfully happy to be back in his arms.

So this morning when he heads out the door of the hotel room to get his Army work done for the day I had grand plans to take a walk around Tucson, go see some of the city, maybe do a little shopping...visit a friend or two if they are around...and then it happened...

Bella fell asleep. She went down at 10AM. Its now 3:48PM and she is still sleeping. The poor little girl must be absolutely exhausted. At first I was antsy...TV was on, TV was off, I pulled out my crafts, I put them away, I played on the computer, I cleaned up my clothes, I sorted the dirty ones for laundry, I debated on the ethics of leaving a baby in a hotel room to get a load of wash done (I decided that was a bad idea) and I was actually feeling irritated that I had to be cooped up all day in this hotel room with "nothing" to do. Not irritated with Bella...just irritated at the situation. So I sat down and started to think...then I started daydreaming a little...and I started remembering...

I remember being 10 and dressed up in leotards with my sisters and doing gymnastics in our living room. We had so much fun together with the music blasting and all of us in tights with giant runs up the legs, but we thought we were beautiful and talented. We have a great photograph of all of us lined up. Even my brother is there in his manly shorts and t-shirt set...oh yes, the great Ray loved doing gymnastics with his sisters.

I remember being 12 and sitting on the front of the riding lawnmower with the little red wagon tied to the back and my dad driving us around the neighborhood...me on the hood of it and my little sisters or neighbor kids in the back of the wagon. We loved that riding lawnmower...and as funny as we eastern Oregon hicks must have looked to the sophisticated city folk we sure did laugh a lot...We have a photo of this too...I can't believe I wore those shorts and thought it was a good idea to pair them with tube socks.

I remembered canoe trips down the clackamas river with my family and Christmas pixieing at the Harris', and girls camp, and playing the guess the song game in the middle of the night with Sarah while we'd pluck out the tune on the elastic waistband of our undies. I remember wearing pink curlers in my hair so it would be curly before church on Sunday and the big pillows we'd call "Place Back Period" for when we had to get up and do something so noone could take our spot on the them. I remember car trips to my grandparents and whoever saw their house first was the "weiner" and picking asparagus along the ditchbanks and skating on the frozen ditch with my siblings and...and...and...

BAM! **Ton of brick falling on my head at this moment**

I had to go pick up Bella and just hold her in her deep sleep and I vowed not to waste a minute more being irritated...I held my little girl in my arms and promised that I would not waste any more of this day worrying about things I couldn't do...this day was mine to just hold her, rub her back, touch each of those little tiny fingers and toes, memorize that cute little button nose and the way her hair curls away from her face...I didn't have to worry about anything. I had food, clothing and shelter. I was safe and warm. I had no work to do or chores to finish or house to clean. If I wanted I could just hold her in my arms all day long and not feel bad one bit. So I sat there with her in my arms and I've been trying so hard to memorize what my baby girl looks like at 3 months old because she won't stay this way for long. She'll grow up and get bigger and yes, we'll make many new memories that someday she'll smile about as I did today.

But we won't ever have today back again.

Don't waste another minute.

Blessings...

While here at my mom's house she pulled out the dress that I was blessed in as a baby. Not only me, but my sister's Sarah, Becca, Eliza and Emma...and my nieces, Margie and Alana. We are going to use it for Bella when she gets blessed one of these next Sundays by my brother, Ray.

Mom wanted photos of her in it...She was just too beautiful in this simple little dress...the bonnett was what I wore. We made the headband with the centerpiece (the green stone) that was a button from my Great Grandma Dot.

I love my family...So many blessings...

Happy Valentine's Day

It's Snookum's day...

Roses are red, Violets are blue
Tu-lips are for kissing...
Woooooohoooooo!



Happy Valentine's Day!

Bella and her "biggest fan" - cousin Ammon.


Thanks to daddy for the kissing bandit bear. We LOVED it and it was such a nice surprise!

Celebrations everywhere!

Today, Friday, February 13th is...

**Alana's 7th Birthday
**Grandma Annie's 1/2 birthday
**Grandma Annie and Pagah's 1/2 Anniversary
**Bella's 3 month birthday

What a great time we had!

Alana's big party!


Bella and Pagah just hangin' out...


Birda telling Bella happy 3 months today!


Hello! I'm 3 months old today!

As smart as I consider myself...

I sure am dumb.

I've been agonizing over this dumb universal charger I purchased for use in the car during my travels and for the past 24 hours I've been trying to get my battery charged...but I couldn't figure out the way it was supposed to go.

I was just about to take it back to Target and give them a talking to and rail on the company and the broken charger when I realized...duh, Anna...TURN THE BATTERY OVER to match the positive/negative icons on the charger...

I know this doesn't make sense to most readers out there, but I was just supremely humbled by the nitwit fairies.

Doh!

In Utah...days four, five and six!

We've had so much fun so far in Utah. Mom and Marlowe have been rockstar hosts and gave us lots of room, warm blankets, our own bathroom, a playpen for the baby and basically the run of the house. :)

Its snowed almost every day and is really cold outside, but its still been nice to just get away.



That first night Eliza and Alana came to visit us. Ammon was home with daddy and Marrick...poor little Marrick is sick so he can't come play with Baby Bella.



Alana fell in love with her new little cousin. Eliza said it was the first time she'd seen her "play" with a baby...





Ammon came over the next day in his very cool superman outfit. He had to show us how he could fly. Grandma Annie looks like she is getting the fright of her life. Ha ha ha...





And, as for him and Bella...while he was shy with her he told his mom, "Hey mom, I think *Abella* is cute." He eventually warmed up to her from just touching her toe, to a hug on day two and an actual KISS today. Its adorable to watch him...and now he just doesn't want to leave her side.





Auntie Eliza brought over her crafty stuff and we made about 15 new headbands for Bella. They are sooooo cute and are big enough to grow with her little head.



So far...even though we really miss Daddy...as if you can't tell...we're having a GREAT time.

Day Three - Las Vegas to Orem!

Today was an incredible day of driving. We headed out at around 11AM - as soon as Bellina was asleep. I had a feeling it wouldn't last very long since she hadn't nursed for awhile so I knew we'd have to stop for a snackity snack pack.

Look how beautiful the road out of Las Vegas is...


We hit the winding roads when Bella woke up and got REALLY MAD REALLY QUICK.



Luckily we were only about 15 miles from Mesquite and stopped at Quiznos for a little soup in a bread bowl and a bum change and snack time.

Shortly after leaving Bella fell asleep and soon we found ourselves in Utah! Hoorah for driving really fast. We hit snow fairly quickly, but the roads were clear...



...then about an hour out I got the phone call from mom..."There is a whiteout here in Orem...you'll be hitting terrible weather really soon." I didn't really believe her as what I saw was some dark clouds on a sunny day...



Sure enough...by 30 minutes to Orem and still no snow I knew I was in the clear. I also knew I was going to give mom a really hard time about that "whiteout." I looked down and noticed the car's gas light was on...only 15 miles? I can make it! Bella was starting to snuffle around in the back...she'd slept for a full 4 hours. What a blessing. I figured I'd run out of gas and she'd wake up just as we pulled into mom's.

2.5 miles before the exit the car started sputtering and lurching. OH CRAP...I'm running out of gas. At the EXACT same moment Bella let out a wail. Gaaaaaaaaaah!

I put on my hazards and sputtered my way .5 miles to the University exit and coasted into the gas station right off the exit. Bella settled down and I breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn't stalled on the side of the road. What a nightmare.

We pulled into Grandma Annie and Pagahs right on time. Hoorah! We're here!