Bella's 11th Birthday Celebration

I'm backtracking a little bit here as I never put up photos from Bella's birthday.

We had our first celebration when some of the Benetti family was down after Thanksgiving. We had birthday pumpkin bars.




On her actual birthday, Andy made her some eggs and she enjoyed breakfast by the fire.


And a foot rub!


She had basketball practice that evening, but we went out to eat afterward at Max & Erma's. Dinner was then followed by homemade ice cream cake.


The Saturday evening after her birthday, she invited a few friends over to celebrate. We started the evening off with bowling.






The boys had their own lane.






When we got back to our house, we tie dyed some shirts in the basement.


The girls made a fort to sleep in.


And just like that, we have an ELEVEN-year-old!

O Christmas Tree!

We ventured out to our favorite local Christmas tree farm on the day before Thanksgiving. It was raining, but that didn't stop us!

The kids got measured.






Off to find the perfect tree.


We looked high and low but ended up back at one of the earlier trees we saw.


It's perfect!


Time to make her officially ours.




We started decorating just as soon as we could that evening.






This might just be my favorite of all our Christmas trees!

November

These first few pics were actually from October. These are from Red Ribbon Week. Curtis and his best bud wore matching clothes for "Twin Day".


Bella was a 'twin' with her basketball team.


Bella and our principal on "Mismatch Day".


Graydon reading a story to Mabel. She seemed pretty interested!


Lots of leaves in our yard.












Basketball started up again for the boys.


Mimi Jane came out for a visit.




Graydon left school early because he wasn't feeling well. He fell asleep at the doctor's office. Poor guy.


A member of our church caught wind of Graydon's interest in junk and tinkering with things, so he brought over a broken lawn mower for Graydon to play around with. (If you look closely at his face, you will see a bunch of scratches he received from falling off the monkey bars. It was a rough week for this kid).


Graydon and Curtis started taking karate lessons.


Bella loves any chance she can get to drive the gator.


Curtis visited with Santa at Christmas of Yesteryear.


Papa and Gaga came down for a visit.


We also got our tree and then had a few Benetti's visit as well. More photos to come. November just zoomed by!

Bella is ELEVEN!

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012 

2013

2014

2015

Our firstborn is eleven-years-old!

Isabella is such a fun girl who is oh so sweet and also really silly. She is growing and, although they're still a little too big, she is starting to get in to my clothes and shoes. It won't be long before we can start sharing!

I feel like our relationship turned a little corner this year. I am definitely still mom and she is still daughter, but I have really noticed our friendship starting to grow. We sing along to the same music (Mandisa, For King and Country, Toby Mac, Francesca Battistelli, etc.) and enjoy some of the same TV shows (HGTV and Packer games). And we just enjoy spending time together. I pray that this trend continues because I am loving it!

She still keeps herself pretty busy with basketball and gymnastics. She's a pretty good runner and wants to do Track and Cross Country, but she'll have to wait until 6th grade to do that.

I am so thankful for Bella, for who she is and that God chose her for our family.

Happy Birthday, Isabella! We love you!