Stella's 3 Weeks!!

How is our little miss Stella three weeks old already? Time has flown by {well, minus a few nights}. It's amazing to see how much more she is discovering each and every day. Eric and I joke that she is our little mozart because she is always flailing her arms like she is conducting music and moving her legs. She never sits still - the sign for sure of a very athletic lady {lien genes}. On top of her ever moving legs and arms, she is always, ALWAYS making funny faces. I think I have successfully discovered which one is her poop face as well!

A few highlights from the first three weeks::

1. BATH TIME::

It seems like we always have an "incident" to trigger Stella's bath. The first one is seen here where both sides of the family were over and we were all laughing at Stella's toots... not laughing so much when we opened up our little surprise on the changing table to learn it had made its way all the way up to her neck almost. First bath time! This picture is hilarious and absolutely captures the moment!

This next round of pictures happened for Daddy's birthday gift from Stella... another blowout + a naked little Stella crying = Daddy cuddling and Stella reciprocating with a nice warm pee on his dress shirt!

Happy 31st birthday Eric!

2. Her amazing faces + discoveries. Eric and I still just stare at her in awe, she is perfect in every way. Seeing her look into our eyes, recognize our voices, make her million faces when she is sleeping, fills our hearts with such love that we didn't even think was possible {sorry for the sappy comment}. She's got quite the grasp on those little fingers. She's already successfully grabbed and tugged at my hair, loves to hold on to your pinkies and march on my stomach with her strong legs. Here are a few good "Stella face pictures" from my iPhone:

3. Lastly, our amazing weather = lots of walks for Stella. She loves getting outside and taking a walk with Jack. I've found its MUCH easier to do when I have more than just myself. Getting her situated plus paying attention to Jack is harder than I thought. Thankfully Grandma and Grandpa Jolly were here for the week of amazing weather and were able to help out! Here are a few pictures of our walks. The first picture is the only one I attempted solo!

80 degrees in March = Grandpa Jolly's shirt off during Lake Calhoun walk!

We've got so many more pictures of all the people that have visited and of course of Stella that I will upload as a part of her Month 1 montage... let's hope I can figure that out!

Lots of love,

Eric, Katie, Stella + Jack

Stella's Newborn Pictures - 7 Days Old

Miss Stella had her first experience with a professional photographer when she was just 7 days old. Mom and Dad had their first experience with a temper tantrum when she was just 7 days old. Needless to say, this was quite the stressful experience as she did NOT like the camera for her shoot, but our photographer was amazingly able to capture some beautiful photographs.

Here is the link to her newborn photos:

http://www.brandisalvesphotography.com/2012/03/minneapolis-newborn-photographer-stella/

Stella Susan Lien - 2/27/12

Our beautiful little Stella decided to grace us with her presence on February 27th at 10:18 AM. My water broke at close to 4AM and 6 hours later we were blessed with the most amazing thing and indescribable love with Stella. She weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 21 inches long and stole our hearts.

We can't decide who she looks like yet - sometimes we think its a spitting image of Eric when he was an infant, and other times we feel she looks like me. We do know she has one major feature of the Jolly's - our incredibly long toes!

Here are a few pictures of her first two days in the hospital.