Three Lovely Ladies and One Handsome Man

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Lily's 5th Birthday



My baby girl has turned 5! And for her birthday this year she requested a Fairy themed Surprise Party. That's right she knew all about the party, who was coming, when it was, etc etc but she wanted everyone to jump out and say SURPRISE as she made her grand entrance. So she spent the morning at Grandma Mamma's who is always good for helping out with all her granddaughter's wishes while we prepped the party. We decorated the yard, Daddy mowed the lawn into perfect stripes, fairy decor was spread far and wide, the guest's arrived and then the call was put in that we were ready for the guest of honor. She arrived in a puffy sparkly pink tutu courtesy of Aunti B' and her tie-died summer camp shirt (which was not part of the plan but she could NOT be convinced otherwise) and walked into the backyard ready to be bathed with attention, which she received ten-fold. All eyes were focused on the birthday girl as everyone jumped from there hiding places (excluding Grandma Nedra who's failed attempt to hide behind a shrub facing toward Lily will never be lived down) and yelled SURPRISE just as Lily wished.
The party begins...



Monday, June 14, 2010

Home from Mexico

Two days after we got home Lily and Eva were taking a bath together and Lily announces loudly "Mommy Eva's getting the white's again!!!" when I inquired as to what she was referring to, she explained that she saw that the brown on her skin going away...her tan fading.

Viva la Mexico








The trip was not all about scuba diving we also had adventures above the water with our two little monkey children. The girls had a wonderful time playing on the beach, swimming in the pool, eating all sorts of adventurous foods and most of all chasing the many iguanas that lived on the resort. There were four that were close to our room so of course we named them: Biggie (or Grande as I liked to call him), Molly Smally, Edwardo, and Spikey. Every morning the girls would burst out of the room (usually around 7am which I'm sure our neighbors loved) and began the search for our iguana friends. Yelling at the top of their lungs, "Biggie, Smally where are you, we love you" then trying to touch them. They tried many different tactics, walking slowly, or just full on running towards them, sure enough the iguana's always evaded them but they were not turned off, they still loved their iguana friends and were very sure to search them out at every occasion.

The Resort had a kids pool with water slides and all sorts of water games which was awesome. Our first day we took the kids out to discover our own personal water park, there weren't very many kids there. We were having a great time until the horn sounded and a torrent of water came crashing down on top of our heads. Eva and I took the brunt of it, water crashing down on our heads, she sucked up a lot of water and from then on every time the horn sounded, no matter where we were in the resort Eva would cling to me in terror. We tried to play on the water slides multiple times after that but the kids were very frightened of being washed away in the waterfall. When we finally were able to coax them on, which took a lot of begging, I went down the water slide with Eva on my lap, her daddy followed us down, a little too closely and while I was trying to exit the slide at the end he came down like a bat out of hell, took out my legs and once again Eva and I were under the water. I'm pretty sure it will be a few years before Eva will be braving the water slides again.
We had a lot of beach time which Eva spent eating the sand and an occasional cigarette butt. It's always great when you look away for a minute then look back to find your child sucking away on an old cigarette butt she dug out of the sand, awesome! There were lots of seashell discoveries, fish to look at and Frisbee! We found a frisbee and Lily really wanted to learn how to throw it, so Daddy started the lessons. Turns out she's pretty good and the two coordinated Bells set off playing a wild game of frisbee. As you can see from this action shot below, Lily has a pretty good stance. It has to be said she can throw it straighter than her mother...and she's four.

We wanted to cement ourselves as tourists so we had braids put in the kids hair, and I got a Henna tattoo. Very exciting.

Scuba Diving








Cozumel Mexico was our first super-fun trip of the summer. We went for 10 days of fun filled adventure with our little family and Shane's dad and his wife. The goal of the trip was for me to learn how to scuba dive, which I did, and it was awesome! For all of you out there that don't know how to scuba dive it is time to learn. If you want to feel the sensation of flying, but don't want that pesky free-fall rush then scuba diving is for you. It was the most peaceful, quiet, yet adventurous sensation ever. It is my current happy place (a place where I go in my mind when the phone is ringing, kids screaming, dinner burning, etc, etc) bringing back the memory helps me feel sane. We made many ocean dwelling friends, namely turtles, which we saw a ton of. I also spotted a 5 foot long Nurse Shark, which was awesome because it was my first real dive after being certified, and I was with Shane who prides himself in spotting wildlife anywhere and everywhere we go above and below water, so me spotting the shark gave me bragging rights for the rest of the trip. It was a wonderful adventure. We will be going back, and very soon.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Playhouse, part 2





So I finally have time to update my blog, and post pictures of the playhouse which has been officially finished for some time now, played in, and has never looked as clean as these pictures show again but hey thats what a playhouse is for right? Next on the agenda is "Fairyland" the secret garden behind the playhouse, so stay tuned for photos of that. We're waiting for the good weather to start planting, hopefully that will be soon.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

5 Year Anniversary!

Shane and I celebrated our 5th wedding Anniversary on Friday March 5th. We celebrated by going out to Dinner at Duke's Steak House. It was to be a quiet affair, but little did we know that we were to be hand picked to become the token couple of the Casino Fandango's, Duke's Steak House, Website. That's right your very own Shane and Jessica Bell were the VIP's of the Casino Fandango for about 30 minutes. Free drinks, a bottle of wine, two appetizers and a photo shoot later and wah-lah we are to featured on their website, maybe. It was very fun, and we got a lot of free stuff, which made it even better.

All in all we've been a couple for 11 years, dating + marriage. That's a pretty dang long time and I feel pretty dang lucky to have found a man who still makes me laugh, loves me and spoils me and my kids, and is an all around great man. We do a lot together, including running a business, a family and a pretty amazing life. I feel very blessed to be where I am today, especially now that we will be featured on the Casino Fandango website, I hope, I have a feeling we are a little too excited about it and so it won't happen, but we'll always have the memories.
Oh yea we went to breakfast the next morning in Truckee at the Squeeze In, had some awesome omlets and I purchased some bitchen dansko's for my anniversary treat, that's right it's all about romance!

The Beautiful Lily Kate






Lily is my princess. Always beautiful, always fluttering, always a princess. Just recently she developed some invisible wings which help her get up on to high places and increase her ballet dancing abilities. Her dream of transforming into a fairy is almost complete!