We sat Bella in the rocking chair in her room, next to her pillow so you could see how little she is even though she has grown so much. Look how big her cheeks have gotten.



Look at her hands, shes italian! She's always doing something with her hands. I'm sure when she starts talking her hands will move right along just like her mom.

1 month

Our little girl is a month old already. I can't believe it. Everyone told me that it would fly by but I didn't actually believe them. They were all right though. It feels like just yesterday we were in the hospital.

I have decided that every month I will take this photo so we can compare how much she has grown each month and in her first year.

She is posing in this photo :)


This is the best shot I got of her whole body. She was not very cooperative :)

Burr!

So it was pretty cold out today so we bundled Bella up in her pink blanket Auntie Maria gave her and snuggled with her. She looked so cute I had to snap some pics.

This one is Joe's favorite

Happy Birthday to Me

The best gift I got was my beautiful baby girl. Here she is all dressed up before we went to dinner for my birthday.

Baldwin Park

This past weekend my parents came up to celebrate my 27th birthday and to spend time with Bella of course. Saturday we spent the afternoon walking around the beautiful Baldwin Park before going to dinner.

Cruisin down the strip


An italian joint on the strip


Gorgeous isn't it?

Our little family :)

Happy New Year

Now that everyone should have received their birth announcements, here are some of the outtakes from our little photo shoot.

We quickly changed props because she did NOT like this one at all


Hats off to you


This was the runner-up


She's actually yawning, not screaming (I promise)

Doing what she does best

SLEEPING

Swinging

We finally got around to buying batteries for Bella's swing. We put her in it on Friday and she loved it. Its her new favorite place to hang out. She looks so tiny sitting in it though. See for yourself.

My friend Nicole came to visit us on Thursday with her son Drew (my godson). We are hoping since Nicole and I are best friends our children will be too. This was the first time Drew met Bella and he seemed to really like her.

Olive Garden

We took Bella out for her first real outing besides the doctors on Thursday. We went to lunch at the Olive Garden with Grandma Janis and Great Grandma Grace. She was a very good girl and only fussed when she was ready to eat.

Early Visitors

Bella has had alot of visitors in her first 2 weeks. Thank you to all of you who came to the hospital or house to visit us. Here are some pictures of Bella with her first visitors. Sorry because the pictures are a little out of order.

Bella and Papa


Bella and her Aunt "T"


Bella and Grandpa


Bella with her Aunt Linda and Uncle Ed

Bella and Grandma

Bella and Nana

Bella and her Great Grandma Grace (look closely, they are both smiling)

Bella and Nicole

Bella and Jenny

Bella and cousin Mikey

A quick cute one

Bella's 1st Week Birthday

Bella is a week old today!!! Her Nana and Aunt T bought her a little birthday cake to celebrate with. We even sang Happy Birthday to her.

First Bath

Bella had her first bath today. She did very well but she did not like being cold and cried just a little bit. I think its the most I have heard her cry since she has been home. Here are a few pics.

Coming home

After about a week in the hospital I was discharged Sunday 1/3/10 but Bella had to stay behind in the NICU. It was very hard to leave her there. We went to visit her yesterday 1/4/10 and when we arrived to our surprise the nurse said Bella was doing so well that she was being discharged. We were so happy. It was very cold out so she didn't get to wear the outfit we had planned for her to wear, not to mention she probably couldn't fit into it anyway. All her clothes are so big on her. She did get to wear some very special booties home however. The blue, bunny booties she is wearing were knitting by one of my father's relatives and he wore them home from the hospital 56 years ago when he was born. I wore them home from the hospital as well almost 27 years ago and so did my sister almost 25 years ago. It was very special for Bella to be able to wear them home as well.

The car ride home

laying in her crib

Elizabella Grace

Our little angel, "Bella" has arrived. She wasn't due to make her appearance until Feb. 8th but she decided to come alittle early. She's kind of like her mom, she doesn't do things the traditional way. She was born 12/31/2009 weighing 4.6 pounds and 17 inches long. Its funny because I kept saying that I though she would come little early, like the last week of January, and everyone thought I was crazy and would say if anything she would be late. Look what happened she was born in december and in a whole other year :) Since she is premature she has to spend some time in the NICU but we hope not to long. Here are a few pics of our angel.