The Makings of a snow day

When the snow started on Friday, BellaRose requested that Worth make her Frosty. Worth was hunting at the time so hearing her request upon his return he began plotting the perfect snowman. He had to call for backup. Apparently it takes a village to build Frosty. BellaRose wanted to be warm for some of the building so she went and got her blanket, her doll, and her thumb and watched from inside.

The building crew!

The fun does not stop with Frosty, Becky called us over from across the street to go sledding. Being 30 weeks pregnant with Hollings I decided to just be the photographer, my most comfortable role. Everyone else went down on the sled. Even BellaRose by herself. I was not the biggest supporter of that, but she laughed the whole way down and the whole way up as Uncle Ben carried, saying "again". I guess sometimes Moms can be fun haters.

Worth had one final mission on his snow day and that was to build an igloo. I am pretty sure that this igloo will still be on our porch come summertime. This bad boy is not going to be melting anytime soon, especially b/c our deck gets no winter sun. Him and Trent spent a cool 2 hours constructing and shaping this thing. Again, BellaRose watched from inside while we made Cowboy cookies.

So this concludes the loads of snow day pictures and posts. Until next time when we get another snow like this in about 10 years.

Oh goodness!! We have been waiting a long time for a snow like this. We got a foot of snow yesterday and it was wonderful. We still have power, Praise the Lord! Some of my friends weren't so lucky on that front. We have baked goods and warm soup. Our tree is lit and the heat is on. We are SO fortunate. BellaRose liked the snow until she fell and her hands got cold because she did not keep her mittens. She requested that Worth build her Frosty the Snowman so her Uncles Ben and Noah came and helped build her Frosty. I will show you those pictures next, until then enjoy this Winter Wonderland of pictures!

My favorites!

A name revealed

Tomorrow I will 30 weeks pregnant! I am not sure what sort of produce Baby Girl #2 will be, but I do know that we have a name for her now. It is the name that we were tossing around for quite some time and even had mentioned to each other before we were ever pregnant. Baby Girl #2 will be named.......

Hollings Domenica Grant.

This name is all family. Worth's mother's maiden name is Hollingsworth. That is where Worth comes from, so we are sort of naming her for Worth, and of course T-love. Well you should know where Domenica comes from, but if you don't my real name is Domenica, it means Sunday in Italian. I just adore that name and would hate for it to go away, so it is not. I don't have a middle name, well at least I did not before I got married, now my middle name is my maiden name. I love that idea of the maiden name becoming the middle name after marriage. I guess Hollings will just have to decide what she wants to do at that time.

So if you love the name you can tell me, if you don't then please don't tell me or say anything about it. Of course then I will get nervous about your silence, but no matter what this is her name!

I took this one picture of BellaRose at her Christmas program and it just reminded me SO much of Hollings' ultrasound picture, don't you think?!

The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever!

As I mentioned last week BellaRose had her 1st Christmas Program on Friday. I was wondering what in the world she would wear and I looked through her closet and discovered this dress. Angela had passed it on to me from Taylor. I just LOVE it, I think that it is gorgeous only made more gorgeous by putting a BellaRose in it. Worth and I were wondering if she would actually go on stage and sing her songs, she can get pretty shy, but she did wonderful! We were VERY proud parents all day on Friday, with sleeping in the big girl bed to this! I know that there are a lot of pictures here, but I just could not decide on which ones to share.

Playing "Jingle Bells". She took the "Heys!" very seriously.

Will and Ryland were next on stage and BellaRose had to take some pictures of her boys!

They ended the Christmas program singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". This was BellaRose's interpretive version. I LOVE it. It just screams 2.5 year old!

FRIDAY!!!!

In the years to come when we talk about BellaRose, and we are asked to describe her as a child, we will talk about her determination. We will ALWAYS reference this December 11, 2009 when she said she would sleep in her big girl bed and she actually did it! She said Friday and my goodness she meant it. We laid her down for her nap in there and it took a little bit but she finally fell asleep and stayed asleep. We actually had to wake her up. It was a bit of a rude awakening too as I was taking pictures of her with the flash in her pitch black room. She even slept in there last night! Needless to say we are SO proud of her!

She had such a big day yesterday too, she was in her first Christmas Program at her school. It was so sweet. I actually got a little teared up as I watched her "sing" jingle bells. There was just too much to blog about so I am going to go one post at a time. For the time being we will embrace this determined little girl!

Friday?

Ok so I know a lot of you have already seen this, but this is BellaRose's Big Girl bedding! I am totally in love. This won't be her bedside table, but I just had to share a sneak peak. BellaRose is now saying that she will sleep in there on Friday. The date has moved up so that is good!

Big Time

I am pretty sure we like to subject BellaRose to extreme weather conditions to see how she handles it. I know you people up North and out West would not think that 30 degree weather is extreme, but for us here, it is COLD! Our little towns Christmas parade is a highlight for me this time of year. I am not sure why I love it, because there is nothing amazing happening and the "floats" are just people throwing candy at us, which is mainly peppermints, but it just feels so small town and cozy. I kept asking BellaRose if she wanted to leave and she kept telling me no, even though she was literally shaking. Girlfriend likes the small town too I guess. I think that her hand was frozen to her mouth with her lollipop. I so wish we had a picture of that, but we don't. We also don't have a picture of our Annual Christmas Vacation Christmas party either. My house looked so cute too! We did not watch the movie on the side of the house this year for many reasons, one being IT WAS SO COLD! The party was low key this year and a blast. Thank you all!!

Our cute little town and our Big Time Christmas Parade.

Fa la la la

I present to you the Grant Family Christmas tree (I am pretty sure I used that line last year, but it is SO fitting).

Here is the big guy himself.

I love him, not more then Worth or BellaRose or #2 or all the important things, but I really LOVE him.

He is perfect.

The Great Christmas Tree Search

Don't let this picture fool you. BellaRose was a champ when we went to look for a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. Who wouldn't be happy to be out following their mom while she looks for the perfect Christmas tree in 37 degree weather with 50 mph wind gusts!? Poor girl had tears rolling down her face from the wind, but she never once cried or complained. Because she was SO good she even got her own 2 foot Christmas tree. He is like a mini version of the fat guy I got. You will be happy to know he is perfect! I will show you pictures once he is properly decorated. I just needed to brag on BR for a minute.

#2 is still just kicking. She is now 2lbs according to Baby Center and is the size of a head of cauliflower. They always make her into some vegetable or fruit. I would much prefer examples such as a cheeseburger, fries, spaghetti, sushi, cupcakes, you know things I can relate to. I told Worth she was a cauliflower head, and he said "I like cauliflower". I am 27 1/2 weeks, I had a picture for you, but my belly button looks weird so maybe later on that one too. I can't believe that I am almost (or am I in it, I still don't know) in my third trimester! WOW!

All the boxes of Christmas decorations to sort through. This really is one of the most wonderful times of the year!

Coming along!

This issue of my blog will be about flooring!  It is complete in BellaRose's big girl room as is the paint.  We are getting closer and closer to having BellaRose's big girl room all done.  We decided that we are going to get rid of the current double bed and opt for a twin.  There will be a sweet little table and chairs under the window.  Of course molding needs to go up and replacing the cracked window is in the future, but we are on our way.  Worth asked BellaRose when she would sleep in her big girl bed and she told him in 40 days.  So there you have it!

It is funny I am pregnant with Baby Girl #2 but it is still all about getting BellaRose's room ready like with the first pregnancy.  

I am not sure how well Sweetie Baby is going to do in transferring to her big girl  bed.  She LOVES the crib and has no desire to move out of there.  She is not one for change, just like the momma!  She is, however, excited about her "new room" and I let her pick out the paint color (sort of).  

While Worth laid down the hardwood floor BellaRose pretty much watched from the hallway in her rocking chair.  She really wanted to be in on the action and actually helping, but we deemed a 2 year old and flooring nailer a bad idea!  Aren't we good parents!

Proof that BellaRose is going to be a good big sister to #2!