Bella turns 10

Ten years ago, January 4, 1998, Isabella Irene Pressey was born @ 12:48 p.m. She weighed in at 5 pounds and 5 ounces, measuring 19 inches long!
Here is a look back at the past 10 years!

10 years ago the sonogram technology wasn't quite what it is today but we were still thrilled to see our little girl!

The picture above and the picture below are both of Bella @ 2 days old!

Bella @ 6 weeks!

Bella @ 3 months

Bella on the 4th of July (6 months)

Bella @ 9 months

Bella's 1st birthday party @ grandma & grandpa's house

(above & below) Bella's 2nd birthday @ grandma & grandpa's house

Bella & Jackson @ Bella's 3rd birthday party @ the Lura Hoit pool

Bella @ 4 in the dress great gram & grampie got her!

A sideways picture of Bella & Erin @ Bella's 5th birthday party @ grandma's yet again!

Bella's 6th birthday party @ the Lura Hoit pool

Bella's 7th birthday @ our favorite hotel in Portland!

Bella's 8th birthday @ our favorite hotel in Portland! We've made a yearly tradition of going to the hotel for Bella & Lexie's birthdays!

Bella turns 9!

Bella this morning on her 10th birthday!

It has been an exciting 10 years! We cannot wait to see what changes the next 10 years bring!

Happy 10th Birthday Isabella!

Thanksgiving

Yesterday we traveled to Portland to go to Joan & Scott's house for Thanksgiving. The head gasket went on our car so we didn't think we were going to be able to make it. After a conversation with Joan on the phone and a discussion with our friend Ken it became clear that we were going to make it to Portland after all! Bella & Lexie went down to Portland with Laura, Travis & Lauren on Wednesday night. The girls were happy to get to spend time with their cousins and we were happy to have a quieter house. Thursday morning Sam, Otto and I began to make our way to Portland. We stopped in Freeport to exchange Sam's jacket at L.L. Bean. I actually got to go shopping on Thanksgiving!! We exchanged Sam's jacket, picked me up a sweatshirt (a very warm one), Otto got a hat and we got some small Christmas items.

Once we arrived at Joan's house Sam got to spend some time with his brother-in-law's down in what I will call the man cave (women need not enter!) I also was able to spend some time with my sisters, it isn't often that all 4 of us are together.



The kids/teenagers all played together upstairs. I think they spent most of the time playing Wii sports.

Dinner was awesome! Thank you Joan and Scott for providing such a wonderful meal for us.







After we ate Scott cleaned up all of the dishes while Becca, Susan, Joan, Laura & I went for a walk. I think Susan & Joan were preparing for a marathon because man do they walk fast! With the dishes cleaned we were ready for dessert! Joan even got a box of cella milk chocolate covered cherries because she knew they were my favorite (I got to bring the leftovers home with me...they are gone now!) Shortly after Sam, Otto & I had to head home so that Ken would be able to have his car back for work. Bella and Lexie stayed another night at Aunt Joan's and grandma and grandpa brought them home today.

Getting ready for Halloween

It is hard to believe that Halloween is only a couple of weeks away! We went and picked pumpkins at a new place this year. Pumpkins were only $1 a piece there! We usually go to Treworgy's but we couldn't pass up the $1 pumpkins this year. We actually bought 15 pumpkins! We will probably still go do the corn maze at our usual place.



Yesterday, Otto and I made some bat cupcakes! Here is how they came out:



Sam started working at the L.L. Bean call center in September. Sam, Otto, Ken and I took a trip down to the employee store in Freeport. Sam is the only one that can go in the employee store (I will be able to if he becomes full time) so Ken, Otto and I went to the L.L. Bean flagship store. Sam gets a good discount at all the stores so I got a bunch of stuff for the kids for school and Christmas. Our car is currently not inspected so we thought it would be safer to rent a car. Sam went in to rent a family sedan that would fit us all and they gave him the keys to a car and sent him out to the parking lot...he was very surprised when he saw this....

Is summer really almost over?

I would like to begin by saying....if there is actually anyone out there that reads our blog please leave us a comment so that we know people are actually reading it! Thanks!

There has been a lot of rain over the past month so we have been trying to fit in outdoors stuff whenever we happen to get a rain free day. The first weekend in August Otto and I went with Josie and Susan to A Day Out With Thomas for Josie's birthday.



They called for a little rain that day but fortunately we didn't get any! Josie and Otto had a blast. They were both a little scared of Sir Topham Hatt...Otto managed to get over his fear long enough to get a picture with him!



The next day Sam, Lexie, Otto, Ken and I went to the Volkswagen show in Windsor.



Bella was in Parsonsfield with my parents for the weekend. So when we left for the show it wasn't raining at all but the weather was calling for rain. Right when we got to the show it started to rain. The rain picked up very quickly and we had a severe thunder and lightening shower. We were stuck outside with nowhere to go. We all got in the car soaking wet...it was a long wet ride home. I think we got 5 pictures of the whole VW show.

The fair had $1 day the day of the Volkswagen show so we waited for the rain to stop and headed to the fair. Bella and Lexie decided they needed to go on all the "big kid" rides. So they tried out the cliffhanger



and the zipper..



and the cobra...Bella did the remix but Lexie wasn't tall enough. I went on the cobra and that was enough of those kind of rides for me. I remember when I was young and I could go on the Gravatron, Zipper and Sky Master all day long. Those were the days!

Last weekend we worked around the house...so no pictures.

Saturday (2 days ago) we climbed Chick Hill.



At the top we ate lunch and picked blueberries.



Once we got home it started to rain. Rain had been in the forecast all day but we don't wait around for rain! The sky turned this creepy color after the rain.



...and there was a rainbow.



Yesterday the girls went over to Laura's house to play with Lauren. Otto, Sam, Ken and I went to Swan Lake.

Sam cooked us hot dogs for lunch. There are a million picnic tables there but they were all taken. There was a huge birthday party that took up 5 of the tables! So we just found a bench to cook on.



After we ate we went swimming...



saw some ducks...



swam with the ducks...



played in the sand...



tanned...



and just had a good time!