Swimming in January?

We needed to get out and burn some energy last week, so Val invited us up to the Liberty community center. Before we had kids a swim outing was relaxing and pretty easy to get ready for. We had a few "situations" leading up to swimming that were pretty typical for any mother. Many of you can probably relate to the following!

After lunch we were all getting changed and Sophie was very excited to wear her new cloth swim diaper! She was so excited that she had a blowout in it! Totally ruined for the day she had to wear one of our extra disposable swim diapers! We did get to see Valerie use her new hand held sprayer that is attached to the toilet to clean the swim diaper. This is a tool for cloth diapers that works very well at spraying off the poo in diapers! While we were all watching that, my mom is holding Sophie and then Sophie pees everywhere! Huge puddle on the floor, my mom and Val hit heads trying to get Sohpie to the toliet, Sophie spits up somewhere in the midst of all of that and then my mom realizes she only has the top half of her suit! Haha, wow, it was a miracle we made it there before dinner time!



The girls love their swim toys!


We loved the warm baby/therapeutic pool. We were all worn out after an afternoon filled with a yummy lunch at Auntie V's, preparing to go swimming, and a good swim in the pool. It was a good tease for summer time. We still need to get Bella a new suit for this summer. She's sporting a cute Little Mermaid swim diaper!

Doctor's Appointments

Our little Bella has come a long way in just one year! She had two check ups this month. One was for her hip click that she was born with. The x-ray looked great and her hip hasn't slowed her down one bit! I can vouch for that! We have to go back in 1 year just to continue follow up and make sure she continues to develop on target. This was a picture of the last day she had to wear her brace! She was so excited to get it off! I think it built resilience in her.

At her one year check up Bella weighed in at 18 lbs and 6 oz which is at the top of the 10th percentile. Her doctor was so proud of her development and growth! At 13 months now she learned how to do so many things! Her latest activities include taking up to 7 or 8 steps on her own, crawling up and down stairs, going up and down her slide by herself, plunging into her ball pit, "talking" on anything that she imagines to be a cell phone. We are all finished with bottles, yeah! She has adjusted so smoothly to each new transition! Bella loves to eat just about anything we are eating! She is saying momma, dadda, hi, all done, ruff ruff, moo, this, mmmm (while eating), pointing, clapping, stomping her foot, she also likes to pick out her clothes, read books in her chair, wear her squeaky shoes, play with her friends, and snuggle with daddy! She is amazing! Brandon and I are so thankful each night for such a beautiful, healthy, funny little girl!

Celine

Okay, this post is long over due. But, Valerie and I had "the time of our lives" a few weeks ago at our 3rd Celine concert! We were originally supposed to go in November with my mom, but Celine canceled the concert due to a vocal cord situation. We had amazing seats! So close we could see the sweat! haha Before the concert we indulged ourselves at Gordon Biersch. We had to make friends with two older couples in the open seating bar to get a seat, but the gentlemen were glad to give us their table at last! We enjoyed their famous garlic fries, BBQ pizza, and sangria. The diet starts tomorrow! :)

We go way back with Celine. My mom has been taking us to see her every time she's been to KC. Each concert has been very memorable and always filled with some kind of drama! The first time we went to see her our mini van broke down and we had to wait to get jump started by someone out in the dark parking lot. Cell phones were nonexistent at that time. I think that was also the year it was pouring down rain and we were at Sandstone! The next year my sister was on crutches trying to navigate through Kemper, I believe, and this year my mom had to miss out bc of the rescheduling!

What we will do to see Celine! Nothing stops us! Valerie and I had a great time and amazing seats! We decided that if she's still touring and Bella and Sophie are old enough to go, we will continue the tradition of the Guier Girls! You know, Celine never seems to age at all, so I won't be surprised if our girls get some Celine memories too!

Random Pics

Earlier this month we had our good friends, the Kennedys, in town. Selah and True keep Bella on the move! We had a great visit with them and love their sweet family!

Last week we took Bella to her first Parents as Teachers event for the Grain Valley School District. It was a Winter Wonderland theme. We were a little disappointed because they forgot all of the activities for babies! Oops! But Bella still enjoyed trying to eat the toys there were in ice and watching the kids do a parachute with cotton balls!


Have you seen how she can twirl her tongue? haha, she get's that from her momma!

Brandon's First Ski Trip

A couple of weeks ago some guys from church organized a last minute ski trip. It was too good for Brandon to pass up and he was excited to get his first ski experience under his belt so he can take our family! :) He's a great athlete so I don't think he had too much trouble picking it up right away.

Here are a couple of the guys he was with, Rusty and Matt. This looks like trouble to me!

Brandon is relaxing in the snow after a long first day.

I was so jealous of the scenery. I love the mountains!

Here's to a great guys trip!

Our Princess turns 1!

This year has been amazing! It's crazy how fast it went by. I can still remember so clearly the first time Bella was put in my arms and she gazed up at me. We got to celebrate her 1st year of life with our families and lots of our friends! We had a Princess Party of course! :) The kids loved swords and tiaras!

I had Izze drinks of course! :)

Aunt Val made the cutest little crown cookies for our guests to take home! They are always a huge crowd pleaser!


I attempted to make Bella's cake this year. It was a lot of hard work but I think the more I try it the faster it might go.

We set Bella's one year portrait out with some other pictures from the past year.

Bella enjoyed sitting on her "throne" to eat her cake!

She even shared some with Nana!

Mmm mmm good!

Still more Christmas

We enjoyed Christmas Eve in Kansas City this year. We had a wonderful church service and then had dinner with my family.

Bella is one step away from being able to do Rock Band on the Wii. She loved the mic and kept "adjusting" it to talk into it! haha

This was the highlight of the Johnson Christmas. Bob, Christie and Barry came up the day after Christmas to celebrate Bella's birthday. Christie and Barry got this little giraffe for Bella. Little did we know how much she would really love it! This cracks me up!

It's like she was saying this is what I wanted all along! She cuddled and kissed it the rest of the morning!

And she already knows her manners! Bella was saying "Thank you soo soo much!


On the 20th we had our extended Guier family Christmas and one more shot at Santa. Well, I guess we know how she feels about that! Bella got her matching Guier stocking that my Grandma has made for all 56 Guiers! That is another one of my favorite traditions and a fun thing about having a big family. This was been our most special Christmas!