My favorite picture...

Isabella watching a couple little girls during dress rehearsal night for her dance recital. Too cute.

Making the eggs pretty.

The easter bunny was awesome enough to balance an egg on this random pipe thingy we have.

Where's her easter basket and gift???

Peeling the eggs to make deviled eggs.

You can't see it but she's using her knife from Pampered Chef that I got from Amber to cut the eggs in half.

Putting the deviled egg filling back into the eggs.

Sprinkling paprika on the deviled eggs.

Isabella's awesome deviled eggs. She tasted the filling and refused to eat them after that. She enjoyed making them, but thought they were gross. Oh well, more for me and Doug.

Putting some strawberry sauce on her Angel Food cake. Long story short, I had to make the strawberry sauce from scratch. In the end I realized that making it from scratch is WAY better than the pre-made stuff. I guess it's like most things made from scatch. It always tastes better. The cake itself, however, was a box recipe. Making angel food cake from scratch is still too scary for me. Maybe next year I'll try it.

She makes me laugh...

Isabella and I had lunch from the Pretzelmaker before her manicure/pedicure on Saturday. Luckily, they had samples because she originally wanted McDonald's and I soooo did not. I was able to convince her to have a plain pretzel with pizza sauce. The following is a conversation we had during lunch.

Isabella: "I think auntie Kayla should give me her baby."

Me: "I think auntie Kayla wants to keep her baby."

Isabella: "Maybe she could give me her next baby."

Me: "You can ask her, but I think she'll want to keep that one too."

Isabella: "I don't want a baby in my tummy."

Me: "That's good because you are too little to have a baby in your tummy."

Isabella: (after much thought and with an extremely serious look on her face) "I'm not gonna think about it. I don't have anything to worry about right now."

Me: hysterical mom laughter in the middle of the mall next to the Pretzelmaker.

Princess dance pictures...

Isabella picked out everything she is wearing for the princess dance. She picked out a bright pink headband with a giant flower, hello kitty necklace, the dress, pink ring, pink bracelet, lace tights, and sparkly shoes. Although its not what I would've picked out for her to wear I think she looked beautiful as always.

Her new heart shaped sunglasses. They remind me of Elton John.

Isabella and daddy before the dance.

Showing her ring and manicure. I took her to get a manicure and pedicure earlier in the morning. She picked pink sparkly polish for her nails and red sparkly polish for her toes.

Checking out her giftbag she got at the dance.

Crazy upside down glasses.

Funniest picture ever! Doug got her in mid jump and she looks like she had one too many tator tots at dinner. I laugh every time I look at it. Too funny!

Big surprise she would rather draw at time than dance. She got a little sketch pad and pen in her giftbag so that obviously was a big distraction for her.

Sounds like her and Doug had lots of fun and Isabella is excited for next years dance.

St. Patricks day shirt...

I couldn't find a St. Patricks Day shirt for Isabella that wasn't retarded looking, so we did puffy paint. Doug drew the clovers and Isabella traced them with green puffy paint. She was very excited to wear it the next day.

My body hates me but I can't sleep....here's some pictures..

Not a great picture, but there is all her hair.

After the haircut. I about cried, but in the end it was worth it. Isabella loves it and I love the fact that it doesn't take us 15 minutes just to brush it.

My favorite bowling pic.

Kind of hard to see, but Isabella drew a bunch of snowmen on the side of her dresser one day. I have no idea what day because I just recently discovered these drawing and Bellbell explained that it basically had happened awhile ago. Part of me wanted to take Mr. Eraser to her dresser, but at the same time I love the drawings. I think we'll leave them. I did explain to her that we shouldn't draw on furniture and then she showed me the sun she drew on the other side. I'm pretty sure I didn't get through to her at all.

Bellbell's Valentine's gift. You shake some maracas. It's like Guitar hero for kids. That's what Doug said. I haven't tried it yet, but she seems to enjoy it.

Christmas in Mayville...

Isabella being odd.

No that's not bellbell's beer.

Kacey excited about getting Guitar Hero.

Daddy trying to teach Isabella how to bowl.

Bellbell's new Carebear from Santa. Last Christmas we were planning to get this same one for her, but somehow forgot all about it. I didn't remember anything until Bailey's birthday this year when she got one. I'm glad I finally remembered, I mean Santa remembered.

Playing darts and daddy cuddling with Isabella's new Carebear.

Santa's Village...

As you can see there wasn't too much picture taking.

Making spritz cookies...

This was the first year we tried making spritz cookies. They are one of my favorite christmas cookies. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out well.

Making the colored sugar.

Daddy trying to get the dough to come out of the damn cookie press. We were probably able to get about 8 cookies that looked good. Then the dough, or the gun, decided it hated us and there was absolutely no dough coming out. I made Doug try cuz' I figured since I'm a girl I must not be strong enough. We found that either Doug is also a big girl, or there was something wrong. Therefore we decided to just roll the dough into balls and then flatten them. We carved our own little designs into them with a knife. They didn't look like I had hoped, but they still tasted yummy.

Bellbell squishing down the balls to make our own version of spritz cookies.

A couple pictures...

She asked me to do this to her hair. After seeing it in the mirror she loved it. I don't know. She's Doug's daughter.

Sleeping Bellbell.

Christmas at home...

We did Christmas at our house a few days early since we'd be in Mayville and then Devils Lake later.
Drinking some sparkling white grape juice and refusing to eat her lasagna. Pretend the lasagna looks better than it does. When I dished it up it fell apart so it doesn't neccessarily look as good as it tasted. After we ate we went to look at the Christmas light displays in Lincoln Park. Just like last year Bellbell was upset when we were all done looking at them. We decided to drive around town a little to look at lights on houses so she would get to see more lights, but about 2 minutes after we left the park she was asleep anyways.

Very excited about her Sleeping Beauty movie.

Her new pencil sharpener so daddy doesn't have to sharpen her colored pencils every single day for her.

She loved the Etch-a-Sketch. She's still trying to figure out the concept of using both dials at once. She makes awesome squares though. ;)

Doug reading the directions on how to blow up Isabella's hopperball (a ball she can sit on and bounce around the house). It amazes me what things he'll choose to read directions for and what things he just wings it.

Bellbell's dance recitals...

Excited for her first dance recital which was at a nursing home in town.

Walking into the room to dance. Bellbell's easy to find. She's the smallest one.

Time for the BIG recital at The Empire. She's adjusting her headband so it goes as freaking low on her forehead as she can get it. She reminded me of someone going to aerobics class back in the 80's.

Pic by one of the trees on stage.

Waiting patiently to dance.

Beautiful Bellbell.

Walking onto the stage. She was suuuuppppeeeerrrr excited.

Dancing. She did really well, and was sad when it was all over. I'm excited for her next recital in May.

Waiting in line to see Santa after the recital was over (She's the one with the pink boots on). Santa surprised the kids at the end.