Disneyland, Christmas and a new sister...

Hi, Everyone! Happy New Year to each of you. We also hope you had a nice Christmas. We wanted to thank you all (both the Simons and the Rodebacks) so much for the gifts for Stella. They were all just perfect! She is such a girly-girl and loves princesses, dress-up, dolls, Barbies, stuffed animals, etc. It's so fun. So, thank you again. We truly appreciate your thoughtfulness.

As you now know, we have had a new addition to our family - baby Scarlett. We picked her up over Christmas there in Utah - Brigham City is where she was born. It was quite the experience...different than our experience with all of you, and yet also very special. She's a good little baby and we are so grateful to have gotten her. Stella has been having a lot of fun with her. We feared she may be a little jealous - but so far she has been a little angel about everything, even sharing her toys and blankets with Scarlett! :) She tries to be a lot of help and wants to fetch diapers, wipes, blankets, etc, for me when I need them. It's so cute. I can't wait for them to be best little friends and hope that they will be (since they are only 2.5 years apart!).

Stella decided last week that she was ready to be potty-trained. She had resisted it for a couple months and I had decided to put it on the back-burner while we adjusted to having the new baby home. So, I hadn't even mentioned it to Stella in a week or two when all the sudden she said "Mommy, I'm going to go to the potty." I said okay, not really thinking she would go, but taking her anyway. She went and has not had an accident since. Ha, ha! She really is growing up now.

In December we took her to Disneyland and while we were there she was playing around with her cousins in the bathroom at the hotel and fell on the tile, right on her front tooth. It didn't bleed, but she cried pretty hard and I could tell right away that the tooth looked like it had been 'moved' a little bit. We called our brother-in-law who is a dentist and he said just to watch it, that there was basically nothing to be done right then. So, we watched it for the next couple weeks as it darkened and eventually proved to be dead. So, you'll notice in some of her pictures that she has one dark front tooth. It's so sad - it breaks my heart. We are, however, going in to have a root-canal done and a cap put on here in about a month. So, while that may not be a very fun dentist's visit, her tooth should look back to normal afterword.

Overall, Stella is doing so well. She is smart as a whip and such a clever, funny little kid. We just adore her every minute of every day. She is still going to play-school (preschool) and loving it. Last week they learned about Polar Bears which she loves. So, that was fun. She loves nursery and her play-group. She's so social and says the cutest things to people - always introducing herself and her parents by name to everyone we every talk to, including strangers in the store, mall, etc. She knows her birthday and both mine and Cameron's birthdays as well. She's still going to tumbling and a tap/ballet class, which she also loves. We keep her busy - and she needs it! She's extremely active and bores easily! :)

Anyway, again, we hope you're all doing well. Talk to you soon!