18 - 20 months

Hello, Everyone! I just realized that I hadn't posted any Christmas Day pictures for you of Stella and that it had been a while since I updated this blog. So, I thought I'd post a few. This picture (above), as you can see is at the end of Christmas Day! Poor little Santa's Helper had a big and fun day that day, but she had 'had it' by about 5 pm that night after all the festivities at our families houses! :) (See she's cute even when she cries!).

Stella is doing great and is maturing every day. She is a great talker and can say just about anything now. Almost every day she surprises me by saying a word that I didn't even know she knew! She's now speaking in 2 and 3 word sentences which is really good for her age.

She is about 33 inches tall and about 21 - 22 pounds. She still doesn't have a lot of hair, but it is growing (slowly but surely!). It's cute and curly.

She loves to play in her 'kitchen' that she got for Christmas, she loves to read books (that's probably her very favorite activity, which we're glad for!), and she likes to watch Elmo, Curious George and Tinkerbell. She also likes to play outside and is just getting brave enough to go down the slide at the park.

For Christmas, my parents gave all the grandkids tickets to Disneyland. So, we used them a couple weeks ago. Stella loved it! (I wasn't sure if she really would yet or not...). She had a great time looking at everything, riding the little kid rides and just running around with her cousins.

She is taking a little tumbling / dance class (it's a mommy and me class, so really she runs around like crazy and I chase her around and try to help her do summersaults, hang on the bars, jump on the trampoline, etc.). It's great fun and she likes it.

She is also beginning to love nursery. At first, it was like torture for both her and me, leaving her in there! But, now when we ask her if she wants to go to church, she says 'Toys? Bubbles? Fun?" It's cute. It's also nice that I can attend Sunday School again instead of roaming the halls. (My Young Women are sad, though, that she never comes there anymore to entertain them!).

Anyway, here are a few pictures. Some are of Christmas Day and then it pretty much skips to our trip to Disneyland. Apparently we didn't have much going on in January, because I didn't take any pictures!

We hope everyone is doing well.

Stella at our family Christmas party a few days before Christmas.

Christmas Morning!

Dad showing her how her new toy worked on Christmas morning.

Opening a present. She really had the 'hang of it' by the time she was done that day!

Cooking something in her new kitchen, wearing her apron over her pjs!

More cooking...

Stella in California, walking in to Disney Land!

Stella and Dad on the tea cups!

Stella and mom on the tea cups...

More tea cups

Running to the next ride with her cousins close behind!

It got pretty chilly by the evening...but Stella was prepared with her hat!

Toward the end of the night in Disneyland.

November and December...

Hello, Everyone! We hope that this season finds you all happy, healthy and warm! :) I had some good pictures to share with you, so I thought I'd send a few on through. These are from Thanksgiving Day (the ones where Stella is wearing the brown shirt and orange skirt), a few from decorating our house for Christmas and then there are some we took today with her in her Christmas Dress.

Stella continues to grow and amaze us every day. She is so funny and has her own little personality. She is officially approaching the 'terrible twos' we've decided. She is determined to have things 'her way'!..and if she doesn't get that, then beware, a 'fit' may ensue! :) The bad news for us is that she is so dang cute, even when throwing a fit, that we can't help but just laugh and give her kisses!

She is talking a lot now - she can pretty much say anything you ask her to. She is learning her letters and numbers and is loving all the books that the Simons sent her! She is 32 inches tall and 20 pounds now (at her 18 month well-check).

She has been loving all the Christmas decorations, lights, etc. She knows that Santa says 'Ho, ho, ho' and although I don't think she really understands the present concept yet, she is definitely having fun with the whole season!

She is so beautiful and such a blessing. We are amazed by her every day - in so many ways.

Enjoy the pictures and we wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween happy fall, from Stella! Stella has been loving the fall season. She is obsessed with pumpkins which she pronounces 'kinkins'. She sees them everywhere and points each one out to me all day! It's so cute. So, you can imagine she loved pumpkin carving with some of her cousins. For Halloween she was Tinkerbell. It was such a cute little outfit on her although she didn't really like wearing it! She kept pulling on it and saying 'oss'? 'oss?' (off). But she did have fun seeing the other kids at our neighborhood Halloween party and trick-or-treating! Most of all, as you can see below - she loved the candy!

She is doing great, by the way. She weighs 19.5 pounds and is about 29 inches long. She had an ear infection last month, but other than that has been very healthy even through the fall season so far. She loves to play outside and is looking and acting older every day! She's talking really well for her age and can even sing little bits of the Alphabet song.

Enjoy the pics!

More one-year-old pictures...

Hi, Everyone! I thought I'd send a few more pictures of Stella from the family pics we had taken in July. I've had such a difficult time getting these pictures to post because of the high resolution or something! I eventually had to load these pictures one at a time!

Anyway - obviously, she is now a couple months older than this. She is doing great. She is walking everywhere - and even running! She can say all kinds of things and can repeat just about anything you say to her in one or two word segments.

We've been getting out all our Halloween decorations and she is loving them! So - it's been fun to let her see them all and play with them. This is the first holiday yet where she has actually been a little bit aware of it. We are excited for Halloween. She is going to be Tinkerbell!

She loves playing with her cousins and thinking that she is one of the 'big kids' even though she is just a little tiny thing next to most of them! She also loves all her aunts and uncles and grandparents. She is not, however, very fond of being babysat by anyone but those specific people! So - thank goodness our family lives near by!

Talk to you soon!