Park

Can you believe it I'm posting twice in the same month... lol. So, today we went to the park with some new friends from church. We had a really good time. It was nice to get out of the apartment and spend time with others. Bella made a couple of new friends.

This is Preston and Paisley Lineberry.

As most of you know Bella is pretty shy and doesn't normally play with others. I'm very proud to say that she played very well with Preston and Paisley! Paisley is in Bella's class at church and they will both move up to the Sunbeams class in January. Here are a few other pictures from today.

Paisley and Bella posing for the camera Bella smiling for daddy.

Preston, Paisley and Bella running on Mt. Trashmore.
Kate Lineberry with all the kids.

Fall

  We are in Virginia Beach and have been for about 3 weeks. It is a BIG change weather wise from Southern California.  I haven't seen this much rain since I lived in Ohio last fall. It is nice to be back east for the changing of the leaves.  This is one of my favorite times of year. 

Playing at the playground

   We found a place to live when we came to drop Mark off.  It wasn't exactly what we wanted but everything we had written down to look at was rented when we call to see it.  We found a nice apartment (a little small but nice).  We figured we can make anything work for a year.  I am going to start looking and asking about areas so if we decided we don't want to be hear after our year lease we have an idea where to go. 

  We are in a nice ward.  The people seem to be very nice and accepting.  My ward in San Diego was great but it was probably 3 to 4 months before anyone spoke it to me.  Bella gets to go to her first playgroup tomorrow.  She is pretty excited to get to play with other people besides mommy. 



Playing with leaves when we did family pictures when I was in Ohio



Bella watching the ducks at the pond



Blowing a leaf

Busy Summer

I guess I'm not that great at keeping up with this blog.  I keep saying I'm going to better but that never happens.  A lot has happened in our lives since April.  Mark and I both received callings in our ward in San Diego.  He was second counselor in the Young Men's Presidency and I was second counselor in the Young Women's Presidency.  We both LOVED those callings.  There weren't a lot of young men and women in the ward but the ones we had were great!  Our families both came to visit in July and August.  Mark FINALLY finished his schooling for the military. Bella got accepted into preschool in September and LOVED it.  In the middle of September Mark received orders to move to Norfolk, VA.  He received his orders and in 2 weeks we were moving.  Let me tell you that was a little fast!!!!  That about somes up our summer.

Spring is here!

It has been a good Spring so far here in San Diego. The weather is always nice here but it has been going between cool and warm. A few weeks ago it was 80 this week its been in the lower 60's. It is normally sunny all the time. I think the having the sun out really makes a difference in how my day feels.

Mission Beach

Bella is growing like a weed and becoming a big girl! It is hard for me to think that she is 3 years old already. I don't know where the time has gone. She is my mini adult. :) She talks very well and is recently potty trained!!!!

This is a little potty at one of the malls in SD

We had been trying potty training off and on for a few months but she never really had an interest in going all the time. So, about a month ago we really started working on it. I would set a timer and every half an hour we would venture to the potty. Sometimes she would scream for 15 minutes before she would just give up and go potty. I did not use the pull ups. I think those are a waste of time. My mom sent me some training pants and plastic to put over them. That way if she pees on herself she really knows it. So, when we would get up in the mornings we would go potty and not put a diaper on until nap time or bedtime. After about a week of doing this one night she wouldn't let us put a diaper on her anymore. So we have been diaper free for about a month now and it is FANTASTIC!!!!! As much as I don't like potty training I'm hoping with future kids it will be this easy.

Bella really likes to dance and sing and when she does it is very loud. Her two song she sings are Twinkle Twinkle little star, and Itsy bitsy spider. Now, she does not know the whole song so she only sings the parts she knows and I think that makes it more hilarious. Dancing in her Tinkerbell costume

Bella singing The Itsy Bitsy Spider

We have made friends with one couple and they are great! They have 3 little girls. A set of twins that are a little younger than Bella and a 7 month old. We are with them a couple days a week. Mark and I babysat for them last night. It was fun to see how well the girls liked Mark. They were all just laying with him watching their movie. However, I think I will be lucky if I get more than 2 kids.

Kadence, Journey, Georgia and Bella

Mark starts back up with school at the end of the month and that will be about 4 or 5 months long. When he is finished with that we will know whether we are staying here or being moved somewhere else. I wouldn't mind staying here because of the weather but part of me would like to come back east just to be closer to family. But I guess whatever the military tells us to do we will do.

We are finally starting to do food storage. We go with our ward tomorrow night to the Cannery. It is a new thing for us and hopefully we will be able to start and keep it going.

Here are a few more pictures of Bella.

San Diego......finally

Well it is official we are in San Diego! Okay so it like a week late but better late than not at all. We left Ohio on the 14th of January. We left at 6am on that Friday and didn't stop until we were in Texarkana, Texas. It made for a long day but we made it a little farther than we had hoped. The next morning we woke up and left about 6am again. Can I tell everyone that I HATE Texas! We drove all day and finally made it to Las Cruses, New Mexico. The next morning we got up and left the hotel and got about a mile down the highway when we run over something and get a flat tire. It's a good thing that my dad told me how to change a tire. After driving for an hour on our dummy tire we made it to the next town so I could buy a new tire. 2 hours later we finally get the tire on and are ready to leave. We arrived in San Diego on the 16th.
My Mom and Grandma came with me and helped me get everything unpacked and settled. It took a few days but everything is set and ready to be used. :). Sad part is Mom and Grandma had to leave this morning to go home. At least we will have lots of company over the next six months.
I will post some photo's and video's of Bella soon.