Winna Winna Chicken Dinna

Stella and I had an awesome day together today. We did a lil shopping and ate at the most delicious restaurant ever. I have a new fave - bye, bye Charanda's - HELLO DON PEDRO'S!!! Seriously it was so delicious I almost licked my plate but I saw the look in Stella's eyes saying "Mom, DON'T embarrass me!!" So I refrained...however, I will be back...SOON!!!

Stella is taking a MUCH needed nap {since she missed her afternoon nap} and dinner is in the oven. A very delicious dinner, I might add, that we haven't had in a while but is always a favorite. So, I thought I'd share this awesome recipe with my blogging friends and family. Ours looks prettier than this, but this is something similar.

CHICKEN & SPINACH PASTA BAKE

Ingredients

• 8 ounces uncooked rigatoni
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 medium)
• 1 (10-oz.) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed
• 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts
• 1 (14.5-oz.) can Italian-style diced tomatoes
• 1 (8-oz.) container chive-and-onion cream cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 1/2 cups (6 oz.) shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. Prepare rigatoni according to package directions.

2. Meanwhile, spread oil on bottom of an 11- x 7-inch baking dish; add onion in a single layer.

3. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or just until tender. Transfer onion to a large bowl, and set aside.

4. Drain chopped spinach well, pressing between layers of paper towels.

5. Stir rigatoni, spinach, chicken, and next 4 ingredients into onion in bowl. Spoon mixture into baking dish, and sprinkle evenly with shredded mozzarella cheese.

6. Bake, covered, at 375° for 30 minutes; uncover and bake 15 more minutes or until bubbly.

Sausage 'n' Spinach Pasta Bake: Substitute 3 cups cooked, crumbled hot Italian sausage for 3 cups cubed cooked chicken breasts. Reduce salt to 1/4 tsp., and omit 1/2 tsp. pepper. Proceed with recipe as directed.

My hubby just said "It's a little time-consuming to make, but I LOVE it!" So that sums it up!

Tomorrow we're heading to Riverbanks Zoo in Colatown. Stella's first trip to the zoo - so exciting! I'll be sure to post pics! Have a great weekend!

Movin' and Groovin'

The day has come....Stella is crawling!!! I seriously can't believe our baby girl is finally crawling. I thought this day would never come, but then at the same time I feel like she is still a tiny baby and we should be holding her 24/7. However, our doc told us it was time for her to start exploring on her own so we've been leaving her on the floor and letting her play all the time. Sure enough, she started crawling (well, kinda "inching") on Thursday, July 1st and then Saturday, July 3rd - this happened....

We are so proud of our big girl!

Our First Family Vaca

This past weekend, we went on our first family vacation with some great friends, The Lackores. After hours of organizing and packing, we loaded up the Envoy and realized we pretty much packed our entire house for three (that's right, I said 3!!) days!

After loading the car we began our trek to Folly Beach, but first we had to drop Bella off at Grandma and Grandpa Stromans. We were sad to leave our sweet lil Boo but luckily it was only for a short weekend getaway.

I was a little nervous about this trip as this was Stella's first overnight visit away from home. However, she did great! She's getting to be such a big girl!! She did great sleeping {and playing} in her pack n' play. [Don't mind the scratch on her face...I did that. :( Bella and I were playing and she was getting too close to Stella. So I went to grab Bella and ended up scratching Stella's sweet lil face. Needless to say we both cried!!]

The beach was so much fun though and Stella really loved it.

She even had watermelon on the beach in her new teethie snack thing - greatest invention ever!

My friend, Duncan made the girls adorable sand buckets to play with. Chappell + Stella = BFF's!

Stella loved playing in the sand, but didn't like it so much when she was ready to suck her thumb. She LOVED playing in the water and was soakin' up the rays!

{not sure why, but I can't delete the duplicate pic below - sorry!}

Anywho, we had an awesome first family vacation with our friends and are looking forward to many summer vaca's to come!

Nine Months Already?!

Seriously, where has the time gone?! I can't believe that our sweet Princess Stella is already nine months old. Seems like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital and introduced her to Bella. Now she and Bella are playmates and BF's. ;)

What sweet, precious girls we are blessed with. Stella's sweet all the time and well, Bella, she tries to be sweet but I think she really enjoys playing with (and taking!!) her sisters toys to get our attention. I can only imagine how fat Bella's going to be (our vet said she's already overweight!!) when Stella starts dropping food from her high chair!! Guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there! Which, is actually going to be any day now because at her 9-month well check up today, the doc mentioned that we can start giving her finger foods. What?...Finger Foods?...At first I didn't think I heard her right but in fact, she mentioned we definitely need to get started on that right away in order to transition her by the time she turns 1. I can't believe we're going to start giving her REAL food - like, big people food! My sweet baby girl is growing up too fast!

They did all of her measurements and the princess weighs 16 lbs. 3 oz., is 26 inches tall and her head circumference is 43.1 cm. She is about in the 10th percentile for her weight, 5th percentile for her height (guess she's not going to be a model on the catwalk! lol) and 10th percentile for her noggin'. So overall she's very proportionate - and very petite! I've always said she's "tiny but mighty" and I guess I'll be saying that for a long time unless she has a major growth spurt.

She never ceases to amaze me though. Each day she learns something new or explores a toy a different way. It's truly amazing to watch her progress and grow - she's so smart - guess she gets that from her daddy! ;) She's definitely a daddy's girl...look at them snuggling together...simply precious!

Speaking of "daddy", she is constantly saying "da da da da" and it's the cutest thing ever. She's been doing that for a little while now and saying "ba ba ba ba". I'm waiting for the day that she says "ma ma ma ma"...hopefully that day will be soon!!

If you ask her where the light is she will look up at the ceiling and look at the light. Sometimes she'll even point to it! Uncle John thought this was SO awesome! ;)

Stella can also play peek-a-boo. If you put a burp cloth on her face and say "Where's Stella?!" she'll pull it off by herself and giggle.

She can go from sitting to gracefully laying down on her belly and then can scoot back up to the sitting position. And she LOVES to stand up!! That's all she wants to do is stand up. She's so proud of herself after she's up and it's so cute to watch...and of course clap for her and scream with excitement when she does it! :)

So as you can see, Stella is exploring, moving and groovin' and getting to be a big girl!! We're so proud of her and can't wait to see all the new things she'll learn each day.

This weekend we're going on our first vaca as a family and Stella's first trip away from home. We're heading to Folly Beach with our friends, Ashely, Brian and Chappell Lackore and we can't wait! Stay tuned for pics and an update from our trip!

Buy Me Some Peanuts and Crackerjacks

On Friday, May 28th, Kyle coached his last game of college baseball.

What an amazing journey this has been...and a wild and crazy (but fun) ride to say the least! ;) When Kyle and I met in 2003, he had just moved to Rock Hill to begin coaching at Winthrop University. Baseball season begins in February and goes until the end of May (unless you're lucky enough to make it to the College World Series), then recruiting begins immediately after the season and usually goes until October/November. But don't think that's when they'd have "down time" because then "fall practice" starts. We're lucky to have the Christmas Holidays together. It's a constant job and you definitely have to love doing it...and Kyle certainly did! He quickly moved up the "coaching ladder" at WU and went from "Volunteer Assistant Coach" to "Assistant Coach" to "Pitching Coach". He really is a determined and hard worker and his hard work paid off. They sure will miss him after he's gone. Don't know if they'll know what to do w/out him to be honest. ;)

Baseball has been a part of our life since the day we met. We even had baseball accents in our wedding for goodness sakes. ;) I thought our whole lives would revolve around baseball and it has until something else came into our lives...

...our precious Stella Lou! She certainly has her daddy (and everyone else!!) wrapped around her little finger.

Kyle has decided to switch career paths and become a financial advisor with Edward Jones. This is an awesome opportunity for him and will allow him to use his talents and love for finances, stocks, etc. on a daily basis and make a living out of it. AND this will allow him to be home on the weekends and not have to travel! YAY! We're SO excited about this opportunity and I just know that Kyle will be very successful! He is so driven and so dedicated that I know nothing but success is in his future!

Excellent Eight Months!

This weekend was super exciting and busy for us. Sandra came in town to watch a Winthrop Baseball game - and to see her favorite niece and great niece of course too! ;) Saturday my mom came up to join us at the game. This was Kyle's last regular season baseball game and we wanted to show our support and cheer on the Eagles. After battling for 9 innings the Eagles pulled out a WIN!!! Go Eagles!

Saturday was also Stella's 8 month birthday! Can you believe our sweet Stella is already 8 months old!?! Where does the time go?! I don't know but it really needs to s..l..o..w d..o..w..n!! She is such an amazing little girl and absolutely the apple of our eye! Watching her grow and learn new things every day is truly rewarding and incredibly awesome.

I've always said our lil princess is "Tiny but mighty" and her "motto" still applies to this day. She weighs 15 lbs. 10 oz. and is in the 10th percentile for girls her age. But don't let that fool you because she is sitting on her own now like such a big girl. She reaches for her toys while playing on the floor but she has yet to crawl. I have a feeling that might be coming soon - or either she'll completely skip that step and go straight to walking because she LOVES to stand in your lap. She's definitely fearless when she's in the comfort of your arms! She has two bottom teeth that are coming in at the same time - what a rock star!!!

Some of my favorite things about my 8 month old princess:

• She is learning how to turn the light switch on and off - thanks to Mimi teaching her on Tuesdays
• She is learning to wave "hey" and "bye" - thanks to Grandpa "D" teaching her on Mondays
• She still rubs her head over and over and over while she's eating her bottle. Sometimes it looks like it hurts but I guess it must soothe her.
• She still sucks both thumbs. Not at the same time but she switches to whichever one tastes good at the moment. Grandpa "D" named them "chocolate" and "vanilla".
• Any time I sing "Hey Peanut" she lights up with the biggest grin. In fact, I could sing any song and do a silly dance and she always laughs at her silly mommy! It makes my day and makes my heart melt every time! :)
• She reaches for her mommy and daddy {to hold her} now! I never thought I'd be so lucky and blessed to be the one a child reached for. This is truly amazing to me and shows me that Stella knows how much we love her. Our love overflows for her and we are blessed beyond words to have such a sweet, beautiful, smart daughter.

Here are a few pics from Saturday of our precious Stella...

Stella loves her sister, Bella. They're really starting to notice each other a lot more now and I have a feeling they're really going to love each other once Stella gets moving around the house on her own.

Before we headed to the ballpark, Stella took a quick lil nap. Is she not the most precious thing you've ever seen?! My goodness I could just kiss those lil cheeks right off. And see, sucking that thumb - simply precious!

Mimi and Stella were playing in Kyle's office while the Eagles were scorin' runs!

The D's after Kyle's last regular season Winthrop baseball game.

What a great weekend!!!

The Past 8 Months

WOW - where do I begin?? SO much has happened in the last 8 months since our sweet Stella has joined our family. We have been super busy so I have not had time to blog but I've decided I want to start blogging again and if that means I have to stay up late to do it, then that's what I'll do. We'll see how long this lasts! ;) LOL

Anywho, this post will be just an update so no pics but lots to catch everyone up on...

STELLA ~

Stella has been growing and enriching our lives every single day. She's seriously the happiest baby in the whole wide world and we are truly blessed to be her parents.

When Stella was 4 weeks old, she stopped breathing for what felt like an eternity, while I was feeding her. I had to give her "a breath" and then immediately called 911. After a long day in the ER, we headed to the Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte. The nurses and docs there were amazing and took such good care of us. After two days and no more "incidents" we were sent home. Prayer does work and God is truly amazing. I think him every day for wrapping our sweet Stella in his arms that day and for her being a healthy and happy baby.

We were asked to light the advent candle at our church in December. What a special moment to share as a family. Christmas is such a special time of year and to be able to participate in lighting the advent candle is definitely an honor.

On February 14th, Stella was baptized at our church, Westminster Presbyterian. What a very special day for many reasons...we were so excited to baptize our daughter in the church we were married in and symbolize our love for her and for God and that we will raise her in a Christian home and teach her all about God's amazing love for her and our family. This date is also special as my Grandma and Granddaddy McMichael were married on this day many years ago. Since Stella was named after my grandmother I thought it was super neat that her baptism fell on this date.

Stella has had MANY milestones already...she has rolled over from front to back and back to front, she's sitting up on her own now AND she has two bottom teeth! I still have yet to capture her pearly whites in a pic but I hope to do that soon. What a big, beautiful girl she's growing up to be. We are SO excited about watching her learn, grow and explore.

Baseball started in February causing Kyle to travel. Not sure Stella liked having her daddy gone these past few months but I think she'll be excited to know what lies ahead....

KYLE ~

Kyle has officially resigned from coaching baseball...forever! Well, for now! He was recently hired by Edward Jones and will be a Financial Advisor beginning July 6th. How exciting! Stella and I are so proud and excited that Kyle will be home more. It will definitely be an awesome adjustment for our family and we'll finally be able to do things on the weekends with our friends and family, plan summer vacas and not live at the baseball field 24/7. While we have enjoyed being a part of the Winthrop Baseball family for the past 8 years, we're excited to watch the 2011 season from the stands. We will always be a part of the WU athletic family and baseball will ALWAYS be a part of our lives.

MICHELLE ~

Since Stella's arrival, I have gone back to work part time and I LOVE IT!!! Of course I would love to be able to stay home with my sweet Stella Lou every day but at least I'm able to do it part time. It also allows me a chance to interact with adults and use my brain {or what little brain I have left :/}! LOL

Again, I'm going to do my best to update the blog as often as possible. If you haven't seen a post from me in a while, give me a lil nudge. ;)