fish & friends

today our friends mary & will met us at the ga aquarium. we had such a fun time! there are tons of amazing exhibits that are very kid-friendly. bella thoroughly enjoyed watching all the fish, along with all the other children~ some of whom were throwing some pretty crazy fits~ lord, help us if/when bella gets to that stage!! : ) we enjoyed walking around for a while and then headed to lunch. unfortunately sweet will and mary had to leave early, as will got sick while eating~ poor thing~ hopefully he will be feeling better soon!

our sweet friend, will
the aquarium done wore us out!! :-)

bella's buddy

yesterday bella's buddy, dylan, along with his mom, karen, came over to play for a bit. we all had such a fun time. since dylan is only one day younger than bella they are very close in age and enjoy lots of the same things!

a few of my (bella's) favorite things

i am constantly amazed at how quickly bella is growing... and just recently i have felt that way even more so... 

the other morning we were playing and she worked really hard to pull her phone out of a toy basket- the cord and all was a bit stuck/tangled... upon getting it out, she put it up to her ear and then handed the receiver to me... we played for a while and she was quite entertained with all the phone calls she was getting from her grandparents, daddy, etc... in addition, she is loving to try and brush her own hair after her bath (a girl after her mom's own heart~ given that i went to cosmetology school : ) and put her bows in when we get dressed in the morning.

another recent favorite is eating animal crackers~ she is just starting to eat a lot more "table food" as opposed to jarred baby food. she only likes to feed the crackers to herself... and along with them she loves her elmo chair (thank you aunt staci!!)... so today after nap, she had her own personal bowl of animal crackers while sitting with elmo~ and she seemed to thoroughly enjoy every minute.

oh how i love her!! and i can't believe that i am addressing invitations for her first birthday party! where has time gone?!?!

biking baby

just recently we have started going for family bike rides. at the end of 2008 jason & i had agreed it would be a fun way to spend time together and get exercise all at once. jason had a bike that he had bought years ago so he put new tires on it, changed the hand grips and a few other things and it is good as new. then for christmas he got a bike seat to put on the back for bella to ride with him. lastly, we found a great deal on a bike for me that we bought. in addition, we bought some helmets and padded biking shorts... we are looking forward to many more bike rides this spring & summer! 

so without further ado~ the next ms. armstrong~