It's been a whole year!!!

Yesterday was our one-year wedding anniversary!! We had a doctor's appointment, then Greg took me out to a wonderful restaurant, Truluck's. We splurged and got the Stone Crab legs with all the fixings and ate to our heart's content. Our favorite things were the Cream of Poblano Pepper soup, the crabcake we got as an appetizer and their mashed potatoes....yes, we liked the mashed potatoes better than the crab!!!

Greg got me a really sweet card and one red rose for our one year of marriage. He's such a wonderful man and I'm truly blessed to have him as my husband. He is my best friend and I love laughing with him, talking with him and making plans for our future together. He will be such a wonderful Dad!!!


Since last year was so crazy with the wedding and honeymoon right after Thanksgiving, we never set up a Christmas tree. So here is officially our first Christmas tree

If you look closely past all the snowman ornaments, you'll see a couple Aggie ornaments (last year's present from Erin :) the Longhorn), a couple Reindeer feed bag ornaments that I made and sold as part of a 2nd grade school project, and of course the Luke Skywalker and X-wing ornaments.

Ouw Willow Tree nativity set on the china hutch...the wisemen are coming from afar, from our flatware holder :)

Some of my old Christmas Village houses. These have been used for probably 16 Christmases so far (and I've only broken a few of the people's legs and arms off).

The Ebeneezer Scrooge and Tiny Tim display. This is what started the whole collection; I won the Tiny Tim figurines at the Christmas Store's Christmas party when I was a kid. Mom then added to my collection every year which is why I have the huge collection I do.

I've enjoyed getting the house decorated for Christmas this week (even though Thanksgiving isn't even here yet). Since I have off all week and we aren't going to Tyler until Wednesday, it's something to do to fill my free time for a couple days. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of the Bell family Thanksgiving and post them later. I'm off to go bake pies :)

Baby Shower last Saturday

I couldn't resist this picture...The diapers were really full of melted chocolate candies and we all had to guess what kind they were (Megan, mother of two, won the game...). And only one person was brave enough to actually sample the chocolate, the rest of us relied on sight and smell...

Playing around with Hannah-she's so adorable!! She loved learning how the night-light works and how to turn it on and off....We're going to have a little girl of our own pretty soon (a little more than 5 weeks!!!).

Making bibs for Allison. Dad made a cute one that says "Pappy Loves Me" :)

The "after" picture of the beautiful cake Jaimie got. It was wonderful!!

Diaper cakes are the neatest thing ever!!! Thanks Mike and Jess :)

Our "Mega-huge Aggie basket" from Mom and Dad...We have more Aggie baby stuff now than we know what to do with :) Mom knows where our hearts lie

Reading the funny card and opening the gift from Shara. She got Allison some onsies from around the world (Ireland and Hawaii to be exact). Our baby is going to be international :)

The baby monitor from new parents Matt and Gina. They say it's more useful to talk to each other across the house than it is to listen to the baby :)

The cutest little-girl bathrobe (with octupus slippers and an octopus hoodie) and Aggie blanket from Jim and Amanda. Jim picked them out himself :)

From Grandma Petty: the Bumbo seat (that I've heard all kinds of wonderful things about) and tray attachment, lots of cute ribbons and bows (made by Jess's sister), and you can't be a member of the Bell family without some kind of pumpkin paraphanelia. Grandma found this pumpkin outfit and got it big enough for Allison to wear as she's working at Pappy's Pumpkin Patch next fall (she'll have some kind of job assignment even though she'll probably still be crawling; we all do!!!)

My Einstein holding a Baby Einstein play mat from Brant and Paige. To brag on Hannah for a bit: she knew what all the animals are, even the octopus and whale, and she just turned 2!! She's such a bright little girl!!

From the Dominys: A set of tiny adorable hangers, a baby swaddler (that I need to learn how to use), and the cutest night-light to match our lady bug nursery set. Hannah and I had fun playing with the night-light...

Greg's parents weren't able to make it to the shower because they already left for their Thanksgiving vacation to go visit Erin, but they did give us a wonderful glider chair for our nursery. It's a beautiful white Dutalier glider and footstool that will be very useful with a new baby around. I'll have to post pictures of that later...

We want to thank Jaimie (and Daniel, though he couldn't make it back from Canada for the shower) for having such a wonderful baby shower for us. She worked so hard to get everything organized, and even found the cutest invitations!! We're truly blessed to have such wonderful friends :) We love you guys!!

Another update

We actually had a little time the other day to start getting the nursery set up. Since we only have 2 bedrooms, Allison is going to have to share a room with our guest bed (and all my clothes that are in the closet). My belly is starting to get bigger and bigger each day!! Allison sure is active too!! She rolls around and kicks a lot!! I'm going to the doctor every 2 weeks now, and everything seems to be going well. I've always been really healthy, so I hope Allison gets that from me. Only 7 more weeks to go :) Greg and I are both really excited!!Our first really cold spell hit in Houston today. It's beautiful and sunny outside, but it was still in the low 50s this afternoon, so winter is starting to hit us here. I love that we don't have to bundle up too much; a nice sweater or jacket is all you need. It's the perfect hot cocoa weather too...that's been my latest indulgence. I have at least a cup or two each day.

On a more somber note, my Mom was diagnosed with cancer this week. She has adenocarcinoma of the uterus, which is really rare for someone of her age (it's usually really, really old women that get it). She has a very positive outlook about it all; even joking with Dad about how now they won't be having any more kids :) She's set for surgery in a couple weeks, and they're hoping they caught it early. The timing couldn't have been more of a miracle though. Everything with the doctors has worked out well so far and we're all praying it continues to go smoothly. She's still living her life as normal though; going to Dallas for Caleb's 3rd birthday today and coming down here next weekend for our baby shower. We're still planning a big Thanksgiving too.

My brother Russ is getting some leave from the Army, so we'll get to see him this Thanksgiving too. He's back from his second Afghanistan tour and has been at his post in Italy for a couple weeks. He's now going to be stationed in North Carolina, so he bought a house there (sight unseen) and will be back right around Thanksgiving time. He's still a bachelor and he says the house has enough room for all his toys, bikes and stuff...I guess boys never grow up :) His tentative plan is to be in NC for at least 6 months, but he mentioned having to do a tour in Iraq starting some time next summer. With a new Commander in Chief in charge by then, who knows it he'll still be shipped off or not.

That's pretty much the synopsis of what's been going on around here. I'm still working hard, Greg is still working hard, and now that Aggie football home games are over, we have our weekends back. I'm so ready for the holidays to be here; I LOVE Christmastime!!

That's about all for now...