Thursday, November 26, 2009

Busy? Yes, exactly!

Bella making a snow angel.

Merry Christmas!


We went to see Sue the T-Rex!


Jason and Bella headed off to a disco party!



Wonderful to see Rich and Jaedyn !


Here I am again shamed that its been months since my last blog post. Life in the Bartell household has been busy. Jason and I both traveled for work in November and December and the normal festivities around the holiday season didn't give us much breathing room. I managed to get everything x-mas ready in the nick of time. Our holidays were wonderful, full of family and fun. Christmas was quickly packed away at our house, decorations and gifts all found their proper place. As we were packing everything up Bella asked me "Christmas is over?" when I confirmed that Christmas was in fact over she replied "ooh, poor Christmas" she was much relieved when I explained that Christmas would be back next year.

I haven't even really taken notice that we are now in the year 2010. No new resolutions, no list of annual goals, nor to-do lists started...notta! Bella has been keeping us very busy and very entertained during the cold, snowy days of winter. (as you can see from the video) I look at pictures of Bella from the past year and can hardly believe how fast she has grown...clearly no longer an infant or toddler but now a little girl. I sent in her application for preschool this past week...before I know it we'll be deciding on high school activities and which college to attend.

Work continues to be busy for me with some travel planned in the next few months and an announcement this past week that my boss is planning to retire at the end of March. Although it's too soon to say what that might mean for me I'm hopeful that it will be positive. Jason is busy as always and although he will be working one less job soon (as the NFL season wraps up) I have no illusion of him becoming any less busy although we may see him more often on Sunday.


Monday, November 16, 2009

October 2009

Again I find myself trying to catch up on blog posts...seems like we have a trend here. Some highlights from October include a mini-vacation for Jason and I to wine country. We had a fantastic time, tasted some great wine and spent a small fortune on the two cases we had shipped back to MN.

We also took a family trip to Des Moines, IA in October. Jason had a 15-year Iowa State Patrol Academy reunion. Jason enjoyed seeing old friends and reminiscing, Bella and I enjoyed the pool at the hotel and the quality family time together.

Bella was a kitty cat for Halloween this year. We had so much fun with her this year, trick-or-treating was chilly but we enjoyed every moment. Bella is at such a precious age, her imagination is bounding, her vocabulary exploding and her energy is unending. She exhausts me and I wouldn't want it any other way, this parenting gig is truly amazing and so rewarding. I have so much to be thankful for. Enjoy the video from Halloween.