New Pictures

Hi, Everyone! I just wanted to share some new pictures of Stella that we had taken a little over a month ago...for her first birthday. We finally got them back and I thought you'd like to see some of them...these are all of the ones of her by herself (all the rest have us in them too). There are a few more too that are really cute - but I'll have to send them in a later post because the blogger site is down right now and won't let me upload any more pictures...So - stay tuned! :)

She's doing great, by the way...walking like crazy and talking a lot too. She's such a special little girl. We feel so blessed to have her in our lives. We hope you are all doing well.

13 and 14 Months!

Stella has had a great summer. She is growing and learning new things every day, it seems. She is just the cutest little thing we've ever seen.
No - she's still not quite walking efficiently yet - but she is taking a few steps at a time and while a bit wobbly, she is finally starting to get it! More than walking, though, she is really starting to talk. It's the cutest thing. She can now mimick just about anything you say to her and is saying a lot of things on her own too. Her favorite being "What's That?" or "Who's that?". She calls our dog by name now and can say Elmo! She loves her grandma and grandpa and says their names quite often! She is also saying the names of her cousins and can identify them by name in pictures.

She loves to swim and is learning to 'blow bubbles' in the water and kick her legs. I think by next summer she'll be really ready to learn to swim!

We went on two vacations this summer - one to Lake Tahoe, California and one to Seal Beach, California where we stayed in a beach house. She had a great time with her cousins on the beach and is finally old enough to actually play and dig in the sand...and boy, did she ever! :) There are some pictures below of the vacations and just some other random ones that have been taken over the past couple months.

She is, as always, still small for her age. But, she is starting to fit into some of her 12 - 18 month size clothes and is wearing some of her size 3 shoes! So - she is growing - if slowly! We love that she is petite - it's so cute.

We hope you all are doing well and are staying cooler than we are! :) Now that we're done with our summer vacations - we are looking forward to the fall!

Stella with mom and dad in Lake Tahoe.

Stella at Seal Beach the first night we were there. She was still becoming accustomed to the sand!

After a few days on the beach she was having a ball rolling in the sand and digging away...not to mention trying to eat the sand!

Stella playing with her cousins Grace and Hannah. She thinks she is a big-girl when she plays with them.

Getting brave down by the waves!

Reading her favorite book at the dinner table in California! She was much more interested in that than in her food.

We thought this was such a funny picture of her. We all had a good laugh when we saw it! Happy little baby!

So dirty! A bath was definitely in order after this particular afternoon on the beach!

Cameron with all his ladies! This is Stella, Hannah and Grace, our nieces.

This picture is a funny one - Stella with her little cousin (the only one younger than her right now). She is always messing with him and trying to give him his binky, etc. Here I caught her in action poking him right in the eye! Silly girl.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LITTLE MISS STELLA!

Stella's birthday was a lot of fun. I have to admit, though, that the whole day, I was a little weepy...I don't know if that is something that is going to happen to me every time she has a birthday or if it's just because it was her first one! I just could not believe all day that it had been one year since her birth. It seems like no time at all has gone by - and on the other hand, it sort-of seems like we've known her and loved her forever!

The day of her actual birthday, Cameron and I took her out to have waffles at our favorite little breakfast place. She loves waffles. Then we met her cousins for lunch and just had a relaxing day. Her actual party was the next day, Saturday, which was a Luau party (sort-of a Hawaiian theme since it was a pool party!). We had Hawaiian food, lots of fruit, hawaiian punch, popcicles, pink and green hawaiian / flower decorations and I made her cake with Hawaiian flowers all over it (above! Sorry - for some reason, on my new computer I have no control over which pictures end up where on the page. They just go where they want and I can't move them!).

She got lots of cute little gifts and all her cousins and a few little friends came to the party.

It was a great day!

Eleven Months - Pool Days!

Hello there! Well - it's been a little over a month since I posted. Stella has continued to grow and become more and more beautiful and funny and her latest craze is going to the pool. She loves the water and loves hanging out with her little cousins who join us there on many days. She especially loves her younger cousin (who is three months old). She won't stop trying to see in his carrier and trying to give him his binky. (Usually she ends up sticking it in his eye or something - but she really makes an effort!).

Let's see - what else is new with her...she now has four molars which she just cut this week. She - as you know - is turning one at the end of this week. We are having a pool party for her with all her little cousins and a couple little neighborhood friends. We have mixed feelings about her turning a year old!...it's so fun to see her grow - but we are sad that she is passing such a big milestone already! We have just truly enjoyed each and every day we've had with her over the past year.

Here are a few recent pool pictures of her! :)

Nine and Ten Months...

Hi, There! I haven't blogged in a while because my old computer was literally getting so slow that it would hardly even allow me to upload pictures, etc. Poor old thing - it's been a good friend! We've spent many hours together. :)

Anyway - I finally broke down and bought a new computer. I bought a Mac Book which so far has caused me nothing but confusion and frustration! But, hopefully I'll get it all figured out soon. In fact, as we speak, right now it's not allowing me to get rid of the underlining here and the formatting on this post is all crazy...I hope it is okay once it actually posts!

I'm pasting a bunch of pics below...just some that we've taken over the past couple months of the baby, etc. She's such an adorable little girl! Every day is a new adventure with her in our lives and in our home. We sure do love her.

Here are a few updates about her:

She has six teeth! Four on top and two on bottom. She can say several words - although not always on command - mama, dada, bye-bye and no-no. It's so cute. She has been crawling everywhere for a while and now she is standing up to furniture, etc. She is eating more and more real food and many days now can eat tiny bits of our regular meals. She likes to feed herself. She had the stomach flu so bad two weeks ago that I took her to the ER in the middle of the night. I was afraid that she was dehydrated. As it turned out she was fine - they gave her some fluids and nausea medication and she started doing a lot better. (I probably over-reacted!...first-time mom and all...but better safe-than-sorry, right?!). She waves and claps and her new favorite thing to do is point. She points at everyone and everything!



All the baldies in our family. Sorry Stella - you're the only girl in the bunch - you're also the 'bald-est' of any of them! :)


Cameron and Stella in our Hotel room in Newport. We drove over for a weekend in March just to get away. It was so cute - those two in their matching hoodies!

Silly girl! Pulling dad's hood down over his eyes and laughing like crazy!


Stella and Me outside the Crab Cooker in Newport. The waitresses in there thought Stella was so cute they were literally standing in a circle around her and all screaming and laughing. The whole restaurant was looking...it was pretty funny. I have to admit - she did look pretty cute that day! :)
I turned 29 this month...Stella got to go over and play with her cousins while Cameron and I went out that evening. This is Stella and me on my Bday before we left.

Stella zonked out in her stroller as we walked up and down the beach in Newport.

Stella in her favorite spot - in front of the DVDs. She would work all day to get those doors open and pull out all the DVD's if I would let her! Yes - every once in a while I open up the doors and let her yank them all out!...and believe me, she does not rest until all 100+ DVDs are strewn around the room.


Stella got sick two weeks ago with the stomach flu. This was right after - so she was looking even more lean than usual...I seriously think she lost weight with her flu if that's possible. In the ER, they weighed her in at 15.6 pounds, which is pretty tiny for a 10 month old! Poor little thing! She's feeling much better now and is back to loving food!


Stella and Cameron on Easter Sunday...My mom made this dress and flowers for her. It was so adorable.


Stella splashing around in our hottub. She LOVES it in there.

Eight Months...

This past month was a special one for us, as you know. We were able to be sealed to Stella in the Mesa, Arizona Temple and bless her in our ward. The sealing went really well. The weather was beautiful and the day went really smoothly. We had never been to a sealing of a child to parents before (we had only been to marriages), so it was a neat and new experience. Our friends and family were there and my mom got to be Stella's escort in the temple. It was so amazing when my mom brought her into the sealing room and we were already there. She just looked like a little angel. She was very well behaved the whole time and was just smiling at everyone around the room. It was so cute. The spirit in the room there was so strong and it was a real manifestation to us what a blessing it is to have her in our lives, as our baby.

The next day was the blessing and it went well also. Cameron gave Stella a really beautiful blessing that she would be, among other things, a strong, virtuous woman and that she would always know how many lives she has touched and how many people love her.
It was a great weekend and one we had been anxiously awaiting.

Some of her other recent accomplishments - she now crawls like crazy. She is really fast! She never stops moving and getting into mischief! LOL! She now has not only the two bottom teeth, but also one of her top teeth and the other is coming in as we speak...making her very cranky! She waves 'bye-bye' and claps (sometimes - we're still working on the clapping thing). She can say 'mama', 'dada', 'ba-ba' (bottle), and 'bye-bye' (but bottle and bye-bye sound pretty much the same!). She's finally wearing her 6-12 month clothes!..so she is growing, but is still a petite little thing.
Here are a few pictures that I have taken recently - some of which are from that weekend. I took some cute pictures of her in her 'Steelers' jersey that Spencer gave her. But, they are on my small camera and for the life of me I can not find the cord that allows me to download pictures from that camera to my computer. So, I'm going to have to go buy a new cord in order to get those pictures downloaded! Sorry! Hopefully I'll get that done soon! :)

Do you think they were copying each other on purpose?? :)

With her cousins at the temple on her sealing day.

With my family on the day of the sealing.

With some of Cameron's family on the day of the sealing.

Just after the sealing on the stairs of the temple.