Loving on my Sweet Valentine!

2 Years ago Wes asked the question" Why do men have to plan for all the big occasions... Anniversaries and Valentines Day?". I responded by saying" I don't know, but since you do a good job loving me through the year how about you be in charge of our Anniversary every year and I will be in charge of Valentines Day?" Needless to say he did not argue.

This year was extra special for me to plan. 1. We have a very loving babysitter that is willing to watch Our lil Man any day, which is Wes' Mother. 2.It has been a busy last couple of months. To purposely take a whole day to love on one another was talked about for weeks.

Wes and I love taking advantage of celebrating our love and marriage to each other. When we got married one of our goals was to never loose the fire and excitement for each other through years, kids, and life.

I decided to start the celebrations early, one day early on Sunday the 13th. I told Wes to pack an overnight bag because we were not coming back until the next day. We then said our goodbyes to our loving Son JJ and his wonderful Grandparents.

The Day and Night that I planned for my Sweet and Wonderful Hubby:
1.We went to Church and heard a wonderful message on going deeper with God and recognizing the things that may be hindering you. Right after and before lunch we exchanged our love letter and notes to eachother by reading them out loud to eachother....this is when I explained to Wes the plans for the day!
2. We took a beautiful road trip across the Golden Gate Bridge and we stopped in Santa Rosa,Ca. This is the city where Wes grew up the first 10 years of his life. I let Wes show me the neighborhood and house he grew up in as a little boy. He enjoyed seeing this town because he had not been back since he moved, when he was 10 years old. I enjoyed hearing his stories of growing up and riding his bike down the streets that we were driving down.


3. We then went to Guy's famous Restruant in Windsor, Ca. The appetizers and bread was very good. Wes was able to have one of his favorites.....Ribs and I was able to have one of mine...French Fries! They were DELICIOUS:)
4. We then went to go see the movie The Eagle. Wes had been wanting to see this movie since he seen the previews. We both gave it a solid A. Very good and suspenseful for me.
5. After the movie we spent the night in one of Wes' parents timeshares in Windsor, Ca.
6. We woke up the next morning talking about how great our Valentines getaway was for both of us. He said I did a good job of planning. We wished each other Happy Valentines Day over pancakes at a cute Diner in town. We then got back on the road in excitement to give JJ a hug when we returned home.
7. JJ was excited to see us and we were smiling from ear to ear when we walked in the door. Oh yeah, can't leave JoElle out, it seemed like she was grew on Valentines Day!

Transitions in Life...5 things I truly miss about San Diego

1. My Wonderful Friends
It takes time building and keeping relationships. Over the last 10 years in San Diego I have tried my best to stay close and in touch with amazing woman. I miss seeing there wonderful faces, receiving their face to face encouragement, and enjoying their company. I am praying that God will place women of the same standards, character, and love that I had in San Diego in the Bay Area...soon.
2. My Awesome Co-Workers. I really can say that I loved my job in San Diego and the reason I loved it so much is because I love what I do and I was in love with the my fellow nurses that I worked with. 4 years is a nice amount of time to really get to know a group in and outside of work. I am currently the new girl at UCSF. Still learning the ropes and getting to know the nurses up here. They have welcomed me really well but I have such high standards after leaving UCSD medical center.

3. Our Church-The Church that we were attending before we left was just Great in so many ways. Wes and I look for 4 things in a church. 1. Good Word Preached 2. Good Worship 3. Excellent Children's church for JJ 4. Diversity. The Rock had all 4 of these and is a church that serves San Diego in so many ways. We felt very proud to be apart. We have been looking for a church with these qualities since we moved up to the bay area. We think that we might be pretty close to all 4 of our goals in a church but prayerfully waiting on complete confirmation.
4. The Weather- San Diego weather is just perfect. My definitions of perfect weather: Consistancy in its pattern, not to cold, not to hot, sunny, and just beautiful. So far the weather in the Bay Area has been very wet, very cold, and sometimes nice.
5. The City- The city of San Diego is just a melting pot of ethnicity and culture. Everything seems so conviently located in San Diego. It is not real hard to find something adventurous, fun, and entertaining to do in close driving distance. Even though I grew up in the bay area it feels as if I am I still have some figuring out about the different cities within the Bay Area.

2 Things I love about the Bay Area

1.Our Families! Wes and I have both of our families living in the Bay Area. It has been so nice to visit with them everyweek, go to the movies, catch dinner, have superbowl parties, birthday gatherings, and see JJ recieve so much love from them.

2. Making our Marriage Stronger:)Transition in life can be real rough. It is real rough and tough finding new friends, new church, starting and looking for new jobs, Wes beginning his Master's Journey, and coping with all this change at once. Through it all Wes and I have learned how to lean on God 1st and each other 2nd. We have been each-others supporters', encouragers', and it has just been beautiful to see how God has used this transition to bring us closer as BEST FRIENDs. Even when we thought marriage and our friendship was going great it just got greater.

After writing all this I will try to focus on these 2 lovely and wonderful things that the Lord has done through our transition and not focus so much on the other 5 that I miss so much. Who knows maybe in 6-12 months from now my likings of the Bay Area will out number my missed longings of San Diego!?

Our growing Boy and our Baby Girl has a name at 25 wks of pregnancy!

I am officially 25wks pregnant. My belly has grown so much over the last couple of weeks. Not only have I grown but JJ has grown too. He is learning new things and seeming more and more like a Big Brother in training. He is currently communicating with us by grabbing our hands and walking us to what he wants. For example, he will grab our hands and take us to his high chair when he is ready to eat, he will take our hand and take us to the door when he wants to go outside and play, and he will grab our hands and take us to something he can't reach, like his ball. JJ also is enjoying putting on his Daddy's, Mommy's, and whoever else shoes he see's in sight. JJ is also loving all his books that he owns(his Grandma D has established quite a library for him). He does not read them but enjoys looking at all the pictures and at times he thinks its fun to throw them all over his room. He is using the word "Baba" whenever he wants anything to eat besides milk, it's quite cute! He is distinctly calling me Mom, Wes Dad, the Fan fan(one his favorite objects), he is also saying "oh yeah", and saying "up" when wants to be picked up.

With our first Son Wes had the pleasure and full desire to name him and I love my JJ(Joshua James Bell). With our 2nd and because it's a girl I have the pleasure of the final 1st name. Wes picked the middle name. Her name will be Joelle Tiana Bell !


[ 2 syll. joe-(l)le, jo-e-lle ] The girl name Joelle is pronounced JHowEHL †. Joelle is of Hebrew origin. It is used mainly in English, French, and German. The meaning of Joelle is Jehovah is the Lord and The Lord is Willing'. The generic name has been used in the Old Testament of the Bible. Joelle is the feminine equivalent of the English and German Joel.

Wes and I both know that it was the Lords will for us to get pregnant again. I do not take it lightly, the miracle of life. I see and know women who have the desire to get pregnant and can't, I work with women who get pregnant and can't carry the baby to a viable age, I see babies delivered too early at a state where their little lungs and bodies are not compatible with life. I will take the time again to praise the Lord and say thank you God in advance for giving us another baby, on loan from you!


The Middle name will be Tiana: Our meaning = Our mothers names put together: Teri+ Donna= Tiana. We love both of our wonderful mothers so much and don't know if the Lord will bless us with another girl. We wanted to make sure Joelle would carry both of their names. Just a little history on the name Tiana, it is also the first Black Disney Princess from Princess and the Frog (2009). And last but not least, JoJo was also my nickname that my UCSD medical center Nurses use to call me when we lived in San Diego.

Her nickname will be JoJo to flow with JJ.

We are excited to meet Joelle Tiana Bell in 3.5 months. We are looking forward to see JJ interact with his little sister Jojo!

Christmas Cards!

I love Christmas cards. I have been doing them strong for 4 years now. I love them because they show how much you and your family grow from one year to the next. It has been a fun tradition for me. The day after Thanksgiving we get together to take photo to place on our Christmas Card. My goal is always to have them delivered the 1st or 2nd week of December. This way your family and friends get to enjoy them longer, they have a return address to send us one, and I think we get our money's worth! This year ,2010 we showed off JJ's adorable expressions and announced the sex of Baby #2 on our christmas card.....It's a Girl! Found out last week. On one of my last days at work one of the residents at my job snuck me in a an empty room and she performed an ultrasound on my growing belly. The resident cried towards the end when she said "Jonnique, I can't see a sack(growing testicles) and it definately looks like a girl!" I looked at the ultrasound and it looked like a hamburger. JJ's ultrasound at the same stage looked like a turtle:) I surprised Wes the next morning with a card that said "It's a Girl" and pictures verifying her potty view. We hugged and constantly told JJ he was going to be a big brother to a little Sister. We then called on voicemail all of our parents. They were thrilled and shared in on our joy. We are very excited to experience the opposite sex and think she will have a little less energy than JJ. We shall see!? I can't wait to dress her in purple EVERYTHING(my favorite color) and do her hair. Name to be announced soon...
Married almost 3 years and we had our first child in our arms on his 1st Christmas season! It was so fun dressing him up and sending this Christmas card out.
This Christmas picture was taken 4months shy of being married for 2 year. We just found out we were pregnant with our lst baby! We announced on the Christmas card that we were expecting our 1st. We were so excited and did not even know the sex yet.
This was our very lst official Christmas card! We were newly weds and were just having fun enjoying and growing together:)

The Verdict has come in......

I Got The Job!

Had an interview with a Hospital in the Bay Area last week. This job would provide a great opportunity for my career as a Nurse, a great opportunity for our family to move to the bay area to be closer to both of our families, and this will also be a great opportunity for Wes to achieve his goal of returning back to school.
Just got off the phone with the Manger that interviewed me last week. After the interview and speaking with my references they offered me the job! I accepted on the spot.
After getting off the phone Wes and I took some time to Thank God. We know that he truly has our steps ordered. It has been a road of patience and faith. We have been trying to move to the Bay Area for the last 7 months. Now we have about 4 more weeks left in San Diego.

This is bitter but very sweet to us. San Diego is the place where I began my Christian life, began my Nursing Career, I began my marriage, I began my journey of Motherhood, and last but not least learned what true friendships really means from all of my great relationships.

Thank you God for our past in San Diego with Friends and our Future in the Bay Area with Family!

Pregnant with Baby Bell #2!

The results were in a couple weeks ago.....were pregnant with Baby #2!
He does not know that next year his world be so different!
8 weeks exactly today and strong heart rate already! For those that were wondering, its only 1 Baby. We know that twins run in the family, but not this time:)
1st doctor appointment, just seen our 2nd little blessing for the 1st time!(Thank you Ute, for babysitting JJ. It was a great blessing to experience this together.)
We are excited for the future! Even if we will have our hands full, with 2 kids under the age 2 next May!




It's official like a Ref(Referee) with a whistle(saying from our good friend Irvin)! Wes and I our going to be parents to another miracle, due May 17th 2011! JJ will be a big brother at the age of 1!
This pregnancy was definitely planned by God!
The story: On September 7th Wes brought home a pregnancy test after getting off work. He thought that he should do this because I was being very emotional the week before, eating a whole lot, and burping(As Wes calls them "pregnancy burps).We both knew that there was just 1 slight possibility that it could be true, that we were pregnant again but was not at all 100% sure. There it was a positive sign, on our $2.99 Walmart brand pregnancy test. I announced to Wes "Babe, Yep its true were pregnant and another baby is on the way". Wes was very excited, I then immediately dialed my Mothers phone number with tears of joy and shock. After getting off the phone with her I calmed down and we preceded to call Wes's parents, my Dad, and my Stepmother. They were all thrilled and a little surprised that they were going to be grandparents again....so soon! The person that we got to tell face to face lst was our dear friend Ladonna. JJ, her, and I had scheduled to have breakfast that morning. As you can read and see, it was a very memorable morning. Since then, we have told the majority of our close friends and family members. We could not wait that long this time around, for some reason. Today we got to see the beautiful heart rate and thought it would be a great time to make our announcement official to the rest of the world.

I write this as we are awaiting on a phone call. The phone call is in regards to a great job opportunity that I interviewed for a couple of weeks ago. A job that will place us closer to both of our wonderful families. It is such an emotional roller coaster when you are waiting for something so big to happen. You go through the emotions of being excited because it feels so close at times, then being down when you doubt that it can really happen, and you even start thinking about plan B. As I write this am not 10o% that I will receive this job. In my head I am replaying every word that was said by the manager that interviewed me and analyzing it. What did she really mean when she said that? Was she inferring that the job was mine?Did she not want to be honest with me and tell me she is no longer interested?
Then I hear the great and ultimate voice of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: Daughter, Know that no matter what happens with this specific job opportunity I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future(Jer 29:11).So seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well(Matt6:33). I the LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged(Deut 31:8). I repeat myself do not be afraid or discouraged ..... for the battle is not yours, but mines(2Chron 20:15). Continue to delight yourself in me and I will give you the desires of your heart(psalm 37:4).I will meet all your needs according to my glorious riches in Christ Jesus(Phil 4:19).

My response after hearing the Lord's voice: Lord, I apologize for any doubt or disbelief that has lead me astray from standing on your great and sovereign word. Your hand is totally on my life and my families'. You are the one that is in control and you only have the best in store for me. Though I may plan my ways you ultimately order my steps. I do not know what tomorrow brings but I know that you will be there and that is all that matters. You love me so much, I thank you today for you love. I also thank you in advance for opening this door or I thank you in advance for closing it. I praise you because you are much wiser, smarter, and divine than I will ever understand. There is one thing I totally understand at this exact moment, it is that you are in complete control. There is no one more awesome, magnificent, and perfect than you. I thank and praise you for leading my life in the right direction and I choose to believe that your timing is also so excellent.I love you. Amen