Last month, our own little lady (she’s the only niece on the Poulsen side) lost her first little tooth. We were so proud to hear that Katelyn (who is usually full of fear) rose to the occasion and yanked that little puppy out.
I later heard that the tooth fairy stopped by Katie-poo’s house, picked up her tooth, and left a little surprise.
The best part? Is the gummy grin this first loose tooth left behind. Our little girl is growing up!
We love you Katelyn!
~~~Grandma, Mom and Aunties~~~
I was going through some of my old photos on the computer this morning, and I found some classic “tooth-less” pictures of me. Since we’ve been celebrating National Tooth Fairy Day, I thought it was only appropriate that I share.
Here’s me and Debcakes. Not sure how old I am here, but I’m pretty sure I don’t have any teeth. Therefore, this picture qualifies as a “tooth-less” adventure. Please note Deb’s hot nightgown {this is the real reason I threw this picture in here…. shhhhh…. don’t tell).
The following picture was taken of me before I had any teeth. Why did I throw this picture in here? Because it is flipping cute! Who doesn’t love looking at a baby surrounded by cabbage patch kids.
This next picture of me was taken when I was 8-years old. My mouth is riddled with empty Chiclets. Plus, I love the crimp with the fluffy bangs {Debs lived vicariously through our bangs. She was so proud.}.
It appears that I lost a bunch of teeth around 6-10 years old and, then, IT STOPPED. Unfortunately, I didn’t start loosing teeth again until my teenage years. What the “H”! Here I am in junior high with gapping holes in my mouth (Late bloomer?). Back in the day, I thought I looked so cute in this picture.
I hope you enjoyed this adventure down memory lane as much as I did.
~~~Camberley~~~
Readers? Are you out there?
Wait. Yes… Yes, you are.
How do I know this? Google Analytics my friends. You better believe that us “Bella Girls” stay up until 12:01 am, just so we can sneak a peek at the prior day’s website traffic. We’re kind of OCD like that (Thanks Debs!).
With that said, this leads me to the following question…
98% of the time. We {Keighley, Kiersten, Jamie and I} have to comment on each other’s blog posts just so we can reassure one another that:
{Queue teeny bopper talk} “OMG! Your post was hilar! Where do you come up with this stuff.”
or
{Queue Southern twang} “Girl, I am seriously having thrift store envy right now. You snag them ‘finds’.”
and
“You are my inspiration, truly. You’re my reason for living, for being. {Now, this is where you come in with a strong KC and JOJO singing voice} You are close to me like my mother, close to my like my father, close to me like my sister, close to me like my brother. You are the only one my everything and for you this song I sing. All my life, I pray for someone like you….”
Are you catching my drift yet? Would you like more examples, or shall I go on?
Let’s proceed.
Today, we sat around pondering the lack of comments we receive.
And… we pondered. {Please note the packaging still on the legs of our office chair. We’re kind of classy like that.}
Here’s what we came up with:
Please. Help us. Help you.
What could we do to get you to comment?
—Camberley—
It is my last semester at ASU. Ever. (well until a Masters Program…. Debs stop shaking your head)
I thought it would be only fitting that I document these last few precious months via my cell phone and post it for all the Internet to see.
August 23 Campus Happenings
Currently sitting in the Language Lit building reading Utopia- well trying to read Utopia. This is the book I bought out in California and I have to say it is gorgeous. It almost makes everything Thomas More is writing make sense. Almost.
I am also itching my legs like CRAZY! My mosquito bites are driving me mad. This picture only shows 3 out of the 10.
Dear Jamie,
I want to write this short blog letter to express my sympathy. I am SO sorry you have 30 + insect bites on your legs and are pregnant and have two cute monsters to chase around all day and have weird bruises and have to do it all in this weather.
Love, Keighley
I just got last semesters final paper back and my professor wrote LOL as a remark. (laugh out loud) I don’t know whether to be mortified or proud. On the back page she left this remark:
“interesting approach and very unique”
Finally, I am contemplating. I am contemplating whether I want to get myself an unhealthy snack from the vending machine or punch the annoying girl on the phone in the face. She is driving me mad. Honestly she is worse than my mosquito bites! I had no idea you could have a 15 minutes phone conversation in baby-talk.
For now I am trying to stay calm and breath….
Keighley
Thanks for putting up with our rotating blog themes. It is going to be a few more weeks before we launch our blog re-design and re-name. Until then, I’m trying to find something plain/basic that works for all of us.
Cheerio,
Camberley
Today was all about this girl (and the pea in her pod).
Earlier today, random family members met Jamie down at her…… ultrasound!
We all waited anxiously to see the little bean. My only complaint, “popcorn would have been nice”.
Grady thinks the gender announcement in a “thumbs up”!
So, what do you think it is? Boy or Girl?
~~Camberley~~
I’m getting ready to pack my bags and travel to parts of the world that are still unknown to our Bella readers. And here’s the places I’ll be visiting:
4 nights here-where my favorite movie was filmed
2 days and 1 night here-in a city named after my favorite nurse
1 night here
hopefully with this handsome man
2 nights here-going out on the town in my best evening wear
4 nights and 5 days here-staring at broken body parts
(Here’s a hint…)
Where in the world do you think I’m going?
Any guesses?
Deb
P.S. Be the first to name all the places I’m going (in order) and moi’ will personally bring you back a hand-picked souvenir.
This past weekend was marvelous. I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday up at my Dad’s cabin (which is more of a cottage) - surrounded by some of our best friends (We missed those who couldn’t make it!). Our days were spent eating, watching movies, playing skip-bo, laughing a babies and taking trips into town.
On Friday, we stopped by my favorite store in Flagstaff – Winter Sun Trading Co. The skin care line that I use is from Winter Sun and… I LOVE IT. The ingredients in their products are aromatic and natural. For example, my face cream is made of: purified mountain rain water, jojoba oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil, orange water, et cetera. Mmmmmmm. Smells good enough to eat.
At Winter Sun, I snuck away and purchased Chris and Monabeth’s little lady (Magdalene) some natural skin care products as well. Her new lotion is scented with lavendar and camomile. As soon as you open the bottle, lavendar feels the room. I may have to buy some for myself.
On Saturday, we visited the Ruins at Walnut Canyon National Monument. Luckily for us, it ended up being a “no fee” day (chaaaa-ching)! These ruins are jaw dropping. The homes these people made are built on the sides of cliffs. It baffles me that children walked and played on the sides of these mountains. Those mothers were brave.
After our morning stroll through Walnut Canyon, we drove back in to town for lunch. As we walked up and down the streets of Flagstaff, we took time to stop and look at flowers, sit in the shade on cool blades of grass and snap pictures of smiling babies (the one pictured below is Sam and Amy’s little girl, Miamoa).
I heart Flagstaff,
Camberley
Earlier this week, our “blog journey” hit a bump in the road. After stepping away from our log/website design meeting last week, we (Debs, Ky and Cam) started developing doubts.
You know when you’ve envisioned something for so long, see the final product and think – “That looks nothing like it did in my head”? Well, that’s what happened to us. (Special shout out to Blender Creative for being so flexible with us! I know this new logo/blog design direction isn’t easy. My excuse? We’re designers!)
Here we are. Take 2! Yesterday, we showed up to our logo/design meeting with our ideas. Here is a sneak peek.
The moral of this post: our big blog reveal may not happen next week. Sorry! We want perfection!
~~~Camberley~~~
According to my calendar, today is the start of “Smile Week”. A smile can be defined as:
1. A facial expression characterized by an upward curving of the corners of the mouth and indicating pleasure, amusement, or derision.
In honor of “Smile Week”, the Girls will be: posting pictures of their smiles, sharing smile beauty tips, et cetera!
Let’s get ready to smile!
Can you guess who it is?
If I had money to spend (For those of you who are new readers to the blog, I recently started my own company. Starting my own company = I won’t see money coming in for 45 days or so. You may read about it here & here & here & here) I would do the following things this weekend:
To start, I would paint my guest bedroom and my office. Here are the colors I’m considering…
A form of sea-foam green for the guest room.
A pale pink on the ceiling in the office. Similar to the Martha Stewart paint color below. (my walls are golden/brown/tan color)
After painting, I would swing by my favorite local antique stores and peruse their loot. I’m in dire need of decor. In all actuality, my house if pretty bare. {sigh}
Moral of this post, money should grow on trees.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Camberley
As of today our blog is just over 1 year old.
We have written 1,228 posts. (some ridiculously good content, some…. well {ahem}… ridiculously bad)
Our next journey includes:
Today we selected our new logo and blog design. They are spectacular (at least we think so). Keighley expected to be disappointed walking into the meeting, but she was instantly won over.
Keep checking back…
Who knows when we will flip the switch (are you anxious with anticipation). I know we are!
Thoughts? Feelings? Comments?
Image by Electron Cloud
- The Girls
Yes, I was on vacation last week with some of the Bella girls. And while they were busy documenting our fun trip I took a vacay from everything-including the blog.
But it never fails to happen. Now that I’m back to living in the real world I’ve come down with a serious case of what I call:
{Definition: Describes a mind that jumps from thought to thought like a monkey jumps from tree to tree.}
I catch it every time I go on a vacation. And I come down with it the first Monday I’m back. It infects my brain just like the common cold infects a head. With a brain full of symptoms: like an overwhelming mental list of things to do, things I want to do and ideas I want to try {Monkey #1= multiple racing thoughts}. Then there’s the things I want to accomplish and the extensive “to-do” lists I want to compose{Monkey #2=ideas of grandeur}. And finally my brain starts trying to fool me into thinking that I can conquer the entire “to-do” list within a 24 hour period {including sleep time}. {Monkey #3=supernatural powers of accomplishment}.
So here’s what my Monkey Mind thinks I can do in 24 hours:
{Monday}
Now here’s the reality.
{Tuesday}
Partial items I can mark off my “Monkey Mind” List=2.75
And I’m exhausted.
So I guess I will do the wise thing and throw the list out so I can take a nap and put those monkeys to bed.
Nightie Night!
Debs
Dear Ashley-
I was going through old pictures on my computer tonight and I found pictures from the cruise we took together 4 years ago. We had such a blast that trip.
Remember how you and mom kept knocking on our {our = Keighley, Kiersten and moi} door and calling us around 3 am in the morning. You woke us from a deep sleep {I’m talking REM sleep}. Our hearts leapt out of our chest. We were too scared to move. You always hear about those people who get raped on cruises. We thought we were victims. OO Ooooooooooooooo!
I wish you were here so I could seek revenge! MUAHAHAHAHA! Just kidding – I love you boo!
P.S. We bought you and Jamie some AMAZING surprises. I can’t wait to see your reactions!
Loves,
Camberley
When I quit my job, one of the first thoughts that ran through my mind was… “I’m going to have so much extra time to work on the BLOG!” I’m on week #2 and…
I have only been able to write 2 posts this week. Those posts were quotes. {Please note: I have been doing some “behind the scenes” blog stuff. If that makes a difference.}
I’m exhausted. Life is moving too quickly. I feel like a major Bella Life failure.
Is there any way I could survive off 3 hours of sleep a night?
Camberley
In one of my first semesters of college I was assigned to do a research paper on childhood obesity in the United States. The entire semester revolved around this one paper so I spent countless hours reading about eating habits, exercise habits, public school lunch programs, fast food chains and type II diabetes. Sadly, my lack of knowledge concerning research paper formatting and my “living the college life” affected my paper.
It. Was. Terrible.
( Being the positive person that I am however I would like to note that I learned some informative facts about the United States and obesity in children ages 3- 12. )
While many of you worry (or should be worrying) about childhood obesity because you’re parents I get to kick back and relax. I realize one day that your concerns will be my concerns, but for now I get to ponder unimportant things. I don’t have to worry about what the nutrition of the schools lunch program… I don’t have to stress about my child watching too much TV and not getting enough exercise… I don’t have to worry about diseases that could be linked to the food my child intakes… you get the point. When it comes to “parental issues” my life is a breeze! (and honestly the thought of all those stresses make my stomach ulcers burn.)
<Anyvaayz…..> Recently I have been experiencing something similar to parental concerns and I’ll tell ya, it’s exhausting.
I never thought I would have to say this BUT, I am dealing with doggie hood obesity. Right now my household is stressing about the size of our Schnauzer. We are walking on eggshells over here! It’s a constant game of trying to manage our pooches “pooch” without giving Piper a major weight complex: “Michael don’t call her pony-keg!” and “Keighley that is too much food! Stop making her fat.”
Our realization that Piper had a -cough- weight issue began when we started noting an alarming number of people making the same comment. The first thing people started saying when they saw our Piper is, “Whoaaaa is that Piper? She is HUGE! I mean she doesn’t look young anymore… err.” While some people tried to pull the wool over my eyes with their “she’s definitely no longer a puppy” comments my attention was pulled to her expanding waist. Seriously when your dog is only 15 inches tall the usage of the word “huge” can only be in regards to the waistline. So here are some photos of my Piper.
(I would have taken more recent picture to show you if my camera wasn’t stll broken.)
(now her hair is really long here so take this into account.)
(Wait! Am I saying that because I’m a parent in denial??? I am so confused.)
Pray for us. Pray that we won’t damage our sweet daughter in the process of trying to make her healthier. Pray that Piper won’t get type II Doggie Diabetes! Pray that we can learn to say “NO” to Pipers food requests.
keighley
Health and Fitness, Keighley, Pets, Real Life | 
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Stumbled upon MyShabbyStreamsideStudio.blogspot.com awhile back and forgot about it until I read a New York Times article today. Anyways… now that I have remembered this story/blog please enjoy and get “cottage envy”. It’s my personal belief that ever girl/woman needs one of these for herself.
Sandra Foster turned a Catskills hunting cabin into a Victorian cottage/hideaway. Using vintage columns, flooring and wavy glass windows, and her own carpentry skills Sandra Foster was able to make a lifelong dream a reality. Before the renovation, the cabin was originally a 9-by-10-foot box, with a porch roof supported by white willow tree trunks. The shabby-chic retreat doesn’t have a bathroom or a kitchen, but it is a dream of Victoriana!
Isn’t this picture perfect?
To see her step by step journey visit her blog HERE.
Images Via ShabbyStreamsideBlogspot, Information Via NYT
Inspirations, Keighley, Real Life, Thrift Store Find, beauty, outdoor living, porch | No Comments »
I was down for the count this weekend. Luckily, I persevered because of these helpful indulgences….
-Camberley
We did it! We finally picked a name! Which we will reveal in a couple of weeks. I know, we are so evil. We want to drag this baby out as long as we can. MUAHAHAHA!
Now, we are working on our logo and blog redesign. Until then, you will have to put up with this older blog template {if you’re reading this from your RSS feed, then it probably looks the same 
}.
Thanks for your patience!
The {soon to not be} Bella Girls
Chit Chat