The 4th!!!

The Fourth of July is my favorite holiday...next to Christmas of course.   Quite a few people wonder why that is.  Well, there are quite a few reasons.  I grew up in a small town where everybody seems to know what everybody else is up to.  Now as a kid I definitely did not appreciate the small town feel of Claremont, probably because I would get in trouble because somebody else would call my mom and say, "Do you know where Lauren is?" or "Do you know what Lauren did?"  Gotta love the gossip of small towns.  But now I appreciate the sense of community and people watching out for your family (still don't like the gossiping though).  The sense of community you feel in Claremont on July 4th is heartwarming.  My family could go down to the beach and watch fireworks over the ocean or go to the river and relax on the water, but instead we choose to spend the 4th in Claremont...and I couldn't imagine not being in Claremont for the 4th...EVER.  Everyone is so friendly and you can't pass a stranger without them wishing you a Happy 4th of July.  There is a fun day at the park for all of the kids with games, bouncers, face painting, wading pool, music and so much more.  Then there is a parade where the kids decorate their bikes or wagons and kick off the parade, Bella has been in this parade every year and gets so excited to decorate her bike each year.  There is a house decorating contest, because yes people in Claremont decorate for the 4th like it is Christmas.  And why shouldn't they...we live in such a great country and I for one am so proud to be an American!  After the parade it seems as though the whole town heads down to the colleges for a night of dancing to classic rock music and fireworks.  So that is why I love the 4th....because my hometown celebrates the 4th of July to the fullest in an old fashioned kind of way and what a great way to celebrate our wonderful country...with a community that is just as proud of their country as I am.

Here are some pictures of our Amazing 4th.  It seems to get better as Bella gets older.

 She is such a ham.

Every 4th she just HAS to have a snow cone...and she takes about two bites of the ice sucks out all the juice and then she is OVER it!

 She loves the wading pool, however this year it took her a god 30 minutes to get it...she had a slight attitude because she was tired.

 But after a few minutes in the pool she was just fine.

 I absolutely love this shot I took of my sister and Bella goofing around.

 Waiting for the parade to begin...notice the decorated bike.

 She was sooo excited to hear us call her name from the street.  We were surprised she didn't crash since she was riding without training wheels.  She rode the whole parade route and back without 1 crash.

 Sooo proud.

 My patriotic girl.

 Watching the parade.

 Waiting for fireworks after eating our traditional KFC Fourth of July chicken dinner.

I love my girl, I love my family and I love the Fourth of July!

Boating, Barbies, and Take Your Breath Away Moments!!!

I have so much to share about Fourth of July and so many fabulous pictures...but I have to upload them and will do so tomorrow, so stay tuned for tomorrow's blog about our fantastic 4th!!! So until then I will fill you all in about this weekend :).  Mike and I cannot remember the last time Bella went away for a night.  But on Saturday night Granny (my mom) took Bella for the night and Mike and I enjoyed a Saturday down in the Dana Point Harbor on the Janda boat.  Holly and Todd were such gracious hosts and we spent all day sitting on the boat listening to music, floating in the COLD ocean water, and enjoying adult time!  I love doing this at the river, but was a little unsure about floating around in the ocean and I must have asked Todd and Holly a million times about sharks and whether or not they are in the harbor.  When I felt safe I finally took the plunge...literally!  I was slowly getting out of the boat and thought it was a lot more shallow than it actually was and before I knew it my head was under the water.  Ocean water is a lot colder than river water and by a lot colder I mean take your breath away, feet are going numb...COLD and when you aren't prepared for it (which I wasn't) you literally feel like your toes might just fall off.  But once we got used to it, it was all good and nothing but fun.  

  

 So much fun on the boat...these were taken after a day in the sun and a boat ride in the ocean...once the sun starts to go down it gets really cold on the boat.

While mommy and daddy were having fun, so was Bella.  She had such a fun time at Granny's house.  She played games, tea party, read books, and ran through the sprinklers and played with the hose...making sure to water and clean everything in Granny's backyard. She even played with trolls...yes I said trolls.  My sister had a troll collection when she was younger and pulled them out for Bella.  Let me tell you how Bella giggled and then giggled some more when she saw the little naked troll butt. I think she thought it was the funniest thing she ever saw.  And of course she had to show everybody the naked troll or as Bella said the nudy bom boody troll and as she showed us all she giggled even more.

Oh trolls...

  When we picked Bella up we had a BBQ and watching Bella run around the backyard with arms up like she was an airplane was absolutely priceless.  Bella running around laughing and soaking up every minute of summer daylight is take your breath away amazing to watch.  Earlier I said I had a take your breath away moment with the cold harbor water, but watching my amazing daughter run around and just be happy is a  "I hope she enjoys life like this forever" kind of take your breath away moment.

Did I mention she also played Barbies??? My little girl loves Barbies and I have tried to introduce my old Barbies to Bella in the past but she just wasn't ready...tonight she was.  When we were leaving Granny's house she gave me another case of my old Barbies and Bella could not wait to see mommy's Barbies...what a difference a year makes.  When we got home I had my Barbie moment with my daughter.  I know it sounds silly but I have been waiting for this for a long time.  I didn't care that it was almost an hour past her bedtime, we sat and dressed my old Barbies and played.  Talk about a full circle take your breath away moment.  Sitting on the floor playing Barbies with my beautiful girl is a great place to be.  I can only hope that she wants to sit on the floor and play Barbies with me for many years to come.

We have a Swimmer!!!

Ladies and gentlemen we have a swimmer.  Yes it is official, before her swim lessons are set to begin on Tuesday, Bella is already swimming.  I told you she was an athlete.  It seems that Bella tries things one time and just knows how to do it after that.  Again, should I be scared? Unfortunately, we do not have a pool in our backyard, so Bella is stuck with the Kiddie pool. Although, she doesn't treat it like a kiddie pool.  When we want to go swimming in a "BIG" pool as Bella calls it we either go to our friend Tiffany's house or we visit our brand new community pool which is absolutely gorgeous and our homeowner's association did a great job designing it.  It is like a waterpark, complete with a splash zone and a wading pool for small kids.  And the best part is that we don't have to pay for the upkeep of the pool (besides our HOA dues of course).  So how did Bella learn how to swim so quickly?  I really don't know.  We were going to our friend Tiffany's house for a swim day and I could only find one arm floaty so I just had her try without them and she DID IT!!! 

Bella and Lauren taking a break...this is a rare moment because they are both fish.

 This is Bella's dive :)...She doesn't understand that it's really a belly flop.

 This is how she gets warm...I guess towels just don't work!

 So proud...

here we go...

And she is off...

 Swimming!!!

So between her kiddie pool, swimming at our friends, and our new community pool, it is safe to say Bella is a FISH! Here are some kiddie pool pictures that I just had to add because it shows her absolute joy and it is priceless!

Yeah it's blurry, but she's so happy!!

Splashing never gets old.

I think this picture is AMAZING!!!

 And there it is everybody, in case you don't know what it looks like, this is...absolute happiness!

 And now she is a prune...this is after 5 hours in and out of the pool!

Of course Scooby had to join her.

Mid air and yes she does this in the kiddie pool...because Bella is FEARLESS!

She loves to water the roses we planted in honor of her sister Madeline!

 And then she waters the dogs :)

So as you can see Bella is a beautiful and blissfully happy four year old and Mike and I are absolutely in love with her.

P.S.  Here is a picture from the chin dive the other night...told you I'd get one!  She stopped crying after about 1 minute and now it's already healing and she is back on her bike!

Here We Go!!!

So I decided to start this blog because there is not a day that goes by that I want to forget, but I know that someday I will.  That is just what happens...although you want to remember every little thing that happens in your day to day routine with your family, new memories often replace the old.  I take a ton of pictures but I want to remember what I was thinking, or what Bella was saying in each picture. So I am going to blog it.  Years later I can look back on this, Bella can look back on this, and any family member or friend who wants to remember what Bella was like at 4, 5, 6, etc. can look back on this and reminisce about life in the Anderson house :). I am not going to go backwards and talk about what happened 4 years ago...I am going to start fresh.  What is Bella doing now? What is going on with Anderson clan now? Well here we go...

Bella is growing up way to fast and it is actually breaking my heart. What happened to my baby? She is such a free spirit and lives life to the fullest as every child should.  Her days are filled with love, lots of laughter, and of course a little bit of sass, because let's face it that is Bella.  Her day would not be complete without a little bit of sass.  As of right now I have an athlete on my hands.  We took off her training wheels on her bike and she learned how to ride her bike training wheel free the same day we took them off.  Mike held on to her for three attempts and after that she said, "I can do it by myself daddy!" and she did...all by herself (insert tear)!

Getting ready for the big ride! (don't mind the undies shot)

 And away we go!!

 So very proud of herself

 She is a speed racer :)

 And there she goes zooming by...I feel like she is growing just as fast.

Not only is she a pro at the bike riding but she is absolutely in LOVE with the beach and wants to learn how to surf. We told her it would probably be a good idea if she new how to swim on her own first.  So we compromised and my best friend Holly took her stand up paddle boarding in Dana Point and of course Bella loved it and actually told Holly to get off because she wanted to do it by herself...fortunately Holly said, "I don't think so!"  My sweet, adorable Bella is not only an athlete but a fearless one at that.  Should I be scared???

So here it is our day at the beach in Dana Point that had no waves and when we left Bella said..."Mommy, I don't want to go back to this beach, I want to go to the wave beach." Oh my fearless child!  And we go to the wave beach every Monday...It's our summer ritual.

 Holly getting ready to take Bella stand up paddle boarding...Bella thinks it's an intro to surfing!

 And she's up...

 Had to take a break to clean out the ocean

 And have a conversation with Elisha's son Kaleb

 And here we go again...

So as you can see the Anderson clan is definitely enjoying summer so far.  This is by far my favorite time of the year. Sitting in our backyard watching Bella swim, BBQ'ing, and listening to some Jack Johnson or sitting on our front porch sipping a nice cold drink and watching Bella ride her bike (without training wheels I must add).  What could be better? This is the time in my life that I will treasure and remember...sweet sounds of Bella laughing without a care in the world...as it should be!

P.S.  As I was typing this blog I heard a crash...guess what my pro bike rider just took her first chin dive...So it's safe to say she is semi-pro.  And me being the scrapbooker I am, I tried to get a picture to add but then I kind of felt bad so my words will have to do :)