My baby turned 6 years old today!

I saw it coming when Nick turned 9 this year, but now my baby girl is 6 years old, and that means I really don't have any babies left. Crazy! It's all gone by so fast. Here are some pics of Bella's first 6 years....

Bella helped continue the line of women in my family, becoming the fourth generation of Gifford ladies in this picture. Here is my Grandma Beth, Mom Nancy, me, (Nick, but lets not count him in with the ladies, huh?)...and Bella.

Baby Bella...yep, that's her own foot she's chewing on. I promise I fed her well...

Bella loved and still loves to play in the sand. She loves to dig, bury, hide and find anything she can get her hands on. She also loves to help grandma in the garden. Her favorite thing to do is pick strawberries.

Me and my little baby girl in Denver. This is before she had her front four teeth capped. I love that smile!!!

Grandpa made Bella a special elephant cake. Elephants are her favorite animal, of course. She also loves the color purple. But when asked what color she wanted grandpa to make the elephant, she replied with a very simple "Gray, of course". What other color would an elephant be???

Here is mom and the birthday girl at her special birthday lunch at Olive Garden. She picked out that sash from the party store and insisted on wearing it to school. Fine with me. It went great with the giant crown they gave her in class. And of course, she would need to wear it to lunch and everywhere else that day, too. Diva.

Dad and the birthday girl.

She got a special birthday sundae and they even sang to her! She was so excited :-)

Bella's list of birthday wishes included going to Kangaroo Zoo, which she did later that evening with a few friends and Nick, have a cake with animals on it (because she's going to be a vet someday)...check--see below--, and she wanted a red wagon (which grandpa got her) and a Barbie bike (which she is both on and hugging, shown above). Lucky girl, she got all of the above. Because no one can say no to HRH Isabella...

Here is the "zoo" cake we got for her. It had to be green "so it looks like the animals are playing in the jungle".

And here is the crew for the evening. We sent out the invites a little late, but she still had four friends able to come to the party (one isn't pictured because she met us at Kangaroo Zoo and we had to do cake and presents first at home). And that's plenty when it comes to six-year-olds.

Happy Birthday, Bella. We all love you so much!