February Fun... Weekends of visitors

Stella was so spoiled in the month of February with company every weekend!  It started with a visit from her BFF Lucy... Their favorite thing to do was to play at the big window and look outside.... in their jammy's of course. Annnnnnnnd they took an AMAZING nap so Meaghan and I could catch up for more than 10 minutes!

Loved reading all about Elmo!

She also had a brunch date with Tommy Durkin at our favorite little restaurant, Good Day Cafe.

And for her first Valentine's day... she got a special visit from Benjamin!  We were lucky enough to have Erica and Ben visit us for a few days during the week so they got to spend their first romantic holiday together.  We had such visions of a cute photo shot session... well, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Maybe the couch will work better??

TOTAL MELTDOWN

But, they sure did love bath time!

What a ham!  Ben you are smart to cover your eyes!

"Stell give Ben kisses"

And to cap off such a fun few weekends of visitors, Stelly was lucky enough to have some more friends visit for a little early birthday celebration!  Auntie Tammi flew all the way from San Francisco, Auntie T + Uncle Scott came up from Madison and a few more friends from Minnie stopped by!

Practicing walking with Auntie Erica

Entranced with Elmo, Tera and Scott

So for her practice session for her family birthday we tried out a cupcake... it was a hit!

Merry Christmas.... Love, Stelly

10 Months + Snow + Santa + A New House

Man we are late on this one... I blame it on the new house, but Happy 10 Month Birthday Stella Susan!

So many fun things happened this month::
- Crawling everywhere and putting everything in our mouth
- Pulling herself up onto everything
- Babbling just like mom did when she was little when she ate.
- Saw not one, but two Santa's 
- Watched her first snowfall with Dad
- Moved to 100% "human" food at daycare - although she still isn't so sure about that Tater Tot hot dish.  She loves her avocados though!
- Went sledding
- Made her first Christmas ornament at daycare
- Celebrated her first Christmas three times... and what she loved the most was the bows and wrapping paper {and great grandma Olson's sled!}.
- Celebrated her first new year with her boyfriend Benjamin.  They had their first sleepover!
- Lowered our crib to the lowest level because she is getting so tall!
- Painted her first "art" project at daycare... most went all over her face
- Saying Jackie and getting SO EXCITED every time she sees her furry brother, especially in the morning

Slideshow to come of all the fun pictures of December!  

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Stella + Santa had a stare down with the Santa at the Mall... 

then, she saw Santa again at school, this time with his lovely wife Mrs. Claus, and she was still incredibly amused.

9 Months, a speedy crawl + mischief!

Somehow, our little Stel, the tiny baby that used to hiccup all the time after she ate, would flail her arms uncontrollably, loved to snuggle on mommy and daddy, has turned into this beautiful, giggly, curious little girl.  When did this happen?

In her ninth month, those cheeks have gotten bigger, her crawling has gotten faster and her curiosity has increased 1000%.  Out with the days of staying in one place, or crawling within one room and in are the days of crawling immediately to Jackie's doggie bowl in the morning to splash her hands in the water and grab a few of his dog food bites.  She loves to clap for herself constantly, babble and has started to enunciate "da da da", hit the doorstoppers, play with all of her toys, especially her new Elmo from Grandma Lien + remote from Grandpa Jolly, she excels at facetiming and drooling through multiple shirts in one day!

Here are some of the fun things we did this month!

Laughing with Grandma Jolly!

Loves crawling to the door and staring outside 

Playing is tough work!

Uncle Chad came to visit!

My new favorite thing.

Stella's new house!

Loves playing with Auntie Heidi!

All smiles with her crazy aunties.

modeling for Sunday's Best.

She's in the 56 percentile for weight (19lbs 4 oz) + 71 percentile for height (28 1/4 inches).

And to end with the best sound in the world.

XOXO.